Part One
A high, loud noise jolted Catherine out of her dreamless sleep, causing her to sit straight up in bed with a gasp. She had never actually heard the noise in real life before, but it was very recognizable from movies she had seen.
The fire alarm! The woman jumped out of bed, grabbing her phone from the nightstand. She put on her bathrobe, fluffing her dark brown hair out and dropping the phone in the pocket as she also shoved her size seven feet into her slippers. What do I need? She grabbed her car keys, a coat and ran. Joining the small crowd of men and woman, she flowed with them down the stairs and out of the building. It wasn't until she was outside that Catherine saw the bright orange flames leaping from several windows in apartments below hers. It was only a two story building, so she didn't expect her own home to survive the rapidly growing flames.
"Has someone called the fire department?" she shouting towards the crowd, looking around until she saw heads nodding and voices affirming. Then all I can do is wait.
Two hours later, the fire had finally gone down to just a simmer, but it had devoured most of the building. Most of Catherine's things had likely gone up in the blaze. Her puppy-dog-brown eyes glistened at the thought of what she had lost, what everyone had lost. No lives were taken, thankfully, but many possessions had been eaten up by the fire, some irreplaceable.
It hadn't been far into the inferno that the woman realized she now had no place to stay, no clothes to wear and no food to eat. She still had her car keys and her phone, but it would take a while to replace everything.
A thought had been nagging her for a while, something she would never have done under normal circumstances. Just find a hotel, she told herself, pulling out her phone to find the nearest one. But instead she stared at the screen, that one thought still bugging her. She realized that with no cash or credit card there was no way she was getting into a hotel. With a groan, she finally dialed a number and waited.
"Catherine?" There was a familiar voice at the other end. She wanted to both cry from relief and hang up. "Hello?"
"Tony..." she said faintly. She hadn't talked to him in years. Every time something about him happened on the TV, she switched it off. It was hard, but she did her best to avoid anything involving him, conversations, new reports, tech with his name on it, she never wanted anything to do with him again. Tony Stark. Her brother.
"Catherine! You called. That's a surprise. Are you pregnant?"
She rolled her eyes. "No. My... apartment just burned down."
Silence on the other end. "That was my second guess," he said. "Need a place to stay?"
"Yes. Please." The tears started to thicken in her eyes. She never wanted to beg from him, it was something she promised herself long ago, but now she had no choice.
"Need a ride?"
"No. I have a car, I'll drive myself."
"You know where to find me." He ended the call, and Catherine slid her phone back into her pocket, still trying not to cry. Her apartment had just burned to the ground and she had broken a promise to herself, plus, she had to go see the most obnoxious man on the planet. This was surely not her night.
Tony was still staying at his egotistical tower, so that's where Catherine drove. He opened the underground garage for her, and even met her at the elevator.
"Your hair is longer," he said as she approached him. He was wearing a loose t-shirt and sweatpants and his hair was rumpled, so he had probably either been sleeping when she called or inventing, not that she looked much better in her pajamas, slippers and bathrobe with her hair in a messy braid.
Catherine bit back an angry comment. "Hi, Tony," she said quietly, joining him outside the elevator.
He pushed a button and the door immediately opened. He walked in. "Don't be a stranger, sis." It took all her willpower to get into the small box with someone she so hated and loved. They stood in silence for several moments as the elevator traveled up. "So," he finally said. "Apartment burned down. How'd that happen?"
"I don't know," she rejoined. "I heard that most of the time you never find out."
"Hm. If you had a house, this probably wouldn't have happened."
Catherine shifted her jaw, determined not to snap back at that remark. It's just for a little while. Stay calm. The elevator opened into what she figured was the penthouse. It had a very open plan, bar and living room barely separated by a small step. Tony led her to a hall in the back that had several doors on each side. He wordlessly opened the first one on the right and gestured for her to go first.
When Catherine stepped in, she bit back a gasp. It had been a long time since she had been in quarters like this. Everything about the room was large, the bed, the dresser, the rug, the bookshelf, and yet everything was in proportion to the magnitude of the room. It wasn't the largest room she had ever been in, but it was still much bigger than the one in her apartment.
"So, is that why you left?" Tony asked, leaning against the doorframe. "Jealousy?"
That was the last straw. She whirled on him. "I left because you're the same Tony you've always been, you'll never change! You only ever cared about yourself and making money. You didn't care about me! You didn't even care about Dad! When our parents died, who did you mourn for? Mom. Not Mom and Dad, just Mom. Who did you comfort in their grief? No one! You forgot about me because you were only concerned with yourself. You are just an egotistical, greedy man! An even worse brother. And that's all you'll ever be!" Tears began forming in her eyes as she ranted at him, hating herself for giving into anger, but hating him even more for giving into apathy.
"Oh, you think that's all I'll ever be?" Tony replied, his own temper clearly flaring. "So says the girl who lived in a crummy apartment for more than ten years! The same girl who left her family almost as soon as she could with barely a goodbye! At least I've made something of myself. I am known around the world, while you are still just another common person that you don't give a second look! You think I wanted Dad to die? You think I wanted you to leave? I didn't ask for any of this! But everything's always got to be about you, doesn't it?"
"About me!?" Catherine interjected incredulously the tears dried up and replace by a fire in her eyes to match her brother's. "Even when you try to make it look like its all about me, it's still about you! Tony's feeling are hurt; Tony needs more money; Tony's the only Stark anyone ever cared about. Well I cut my world off from you so at least I can say the entire galaxy does not revolve around you!"
His nostrils flared. "You asked to stay here! You said you needed a place to stay and I let you come in and this is what I get?"
"What, you looking for some more praise, Tony? As if you need something else to stoke your ego! I didn't want to come here! It was the last thing I wanted to do! But I literally had nowhere else to go!" A thought struck her. "You know what? I can't do this. I'm leaving."
"What are you going to do?" angrily questioned Tony, blocking the door. "Spend the night in your car?"
"If I have to, yes," Catherine snapped back.
"You're not leaving."
"Yes I am! Move Tony."
"You're not leaving!" he shouted a second time with more force. "Stay here and get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning." He bolted out of the room and pulled the door shut in his sister's face when she tried to follow him. She grabbed the handle and gave it a jerk, but he was either holding it tightly, or he had a lock on the outside.
She kicked the door furiously. "You don't control the world, Tony!" she screamed. Receding footsteps could be heard in the hall and another door slammed a moment later. Catherine tried the handle again, but it was still locked, so she gave it a small sound between a shriek and a groan before leaving it alone. She sat on the bed, then cringed as the entirety of her emotions hit her and tipped over sideways to lay on the soft covers.
Then she began to cry.
She cried for her parents, so long lost. She cried for the lonely years spent without a family. She cried for all the anger pent up inside herself against her brother and circumstances. She even cried for all the things that had been burned down in the fire, all her books, pictures, clothes, blankets, little treasures.
Eventually, she slipped under the blanket, rested her head on a pillow and closed her eyes. All she could see was her apartment burning, and the fire in Tony's eyes when he argued with her.
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