Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The day Tony found out he was going to be a father was the day he woke up with the worst hangover he’d ever experienced. Yesterday he had pushed it way too far before and was now dealing with the consequences.
Before he could even begin to recover from it he got informed that a young woman wanted to see him with claims that would knock him over the head, again.
Said woman was, Johanna Michelle (L/n), a lawyer and your mother, which Tony had slept with around five months ago. Currently she stood before him with a noticeable pregnancy belly, telling him that you were his.
She had agreed to let him take a DNA test once you were born, still she was certain that you were Anthony Edward Starks son.

Your mother went back to her home after delivering the news and a few ultrasound pictures to go with it. She didn’t seem cold or like she just wanted his money in child support, but this wasn’t the first time a woman had claimed to carry his child. This WAS however the first one where Tony actually wondered if you were in fact his son. After a bit of research he found that Johanna wasn’t known to sleep around with every handsome guy she met. And upon doing further digging, it really seemed as if she was right. Which made Tony anxious.
He didn’t have the best fatherly figure in his life. So what if you are his son and he becomes a father to you like Howard was to him.

During the months leading up to your birth Tony read about parenting, children, child development, and so on, he wanted to be prepared.
Keeping in contact with her the whole time only proved your mother to be a genuinely sweet lady. Not once setting off any alarm bells.
No one of Tony’s inner circle knew what to expect. It will all rely on the tests outcome.

And then in June you were finally ready to move out of the womb. Sending your mother to the hospital at 4am. When Tony got the news that Johanna was in labor he knew just what to do. He had planned it all out. He’d go to the hospital and after you were born, take a DNA sample and check whether you are his son.
Thankfully Tony had made his own DNA lab where he would test to see if you two were related. It would only take a day instead of the usual 4 to 5. No, Stark was way too impatient to wait that long for the results.
He went to the hospital after you’d already been born not being able to be there before because of a meeting Obidiah made him attend. Your mother was just finished with her shower as Tony walked into the hospital room. You weren’t there yet. Still being cleaned and examined by the doctors to make sure you’re healthy. So Tony talked with your mother about her well being. During the last months something like a friendship had formed between the two.

The conversation was interrupted when a Nurse pushed that tiny baby tub with you in it into the room. You were crying loudly. A protective urge overcame him and he stayed a bit longer. The nurse showed them how to change your diaper properly before handing you to Johanna to show her how to feed you.
After you were fed and burped you were handed to him. He stiffened as the nurse adjusted his grip. Slowly he started to sway softly whilst you drifted away into sleep. Tony spend 30 minutes just holding you while whispering to your mother about you. He looked at you lovingly all the parental instincts already kicking in.

Tony wanted to get the test over with as fast as possible so that he could finally know for sure.
While blood would be better he didn’t want to cause you any harm or wake you. So he did the cotton swap method which you slept through.
He packed the cotton swap away, lingering a bit before leaving.
At home Tony took his old DNA data on himself. No offense but this wasn’t the first time he was presented with a child which could be his. He worked quickly and efficiently but it still took him a few hours to complete it.

And as Tony had suspected you were his son. There was only a 0.001% chance that he wasn’t. He already kind of knew that though so it didn’t came too much of a surprise for him or Johanna. He’d go to the hospital tomorrow morning to see how they’d arrange themselves in raising you. Tony didn’t want to just be the one to pay child-support and never show his face. He at least wanted to take an active role in your life and an active role he’d get.
He wouldn’t admit it but he would’ve been extremely disappointed if he wasn’t your father.

He told Happy first and Obie second and couldn’t reach Rhodey. Happy was stoked, he liked kids, but he was also worried about his role as your “uncle”. What if he let something happen to you? What if he drops and kills you? Oh god there was so much he could do wrong.
Obadiah was less happy, he mostly thought of it as another way people could try and harm the company or Tony’s image. So he’d rather keep it secret that Anthony Edward Stark now has a son.

Tony was on his way to see you and fill out the birth certificate to make it official. He couldn’t help but smile a bit at the thought of seeing his son again.
It was his first official visit as your father. He was way happier than he ever thought he could be. While there was still a lingering anxiety his giggly mood overshadowed his anxiousness.
Soon he pulled into the parking lot he was still in his head that he almost forgot to take his seat belt off before trying to exit.

With a small smile on his face, and a gift under his arm, he made his way to the room you and your mother were staying. He knocked before entering. Johanna seemed to already be awake as she wasn’t in the room when he came in. Only you were there, in the small plastic crib. You were sleeping peacefully and Tony couldn’t resist on taking a picture. God he was already in complete father mode. He never thought he’d be one but, now he is and he already read a lot about what that entails, yet nothing could prepare him for the warmth he felt now that this was real.

Tony continued to watch you sleep before the birth certificate came to mind. He had to get that over with soon. In all honesty he was totally clueless as to how they work until Johanna told him about it yesterday.
The certificate is either somewhere in the room or maybe at the nurses? Who knew? Tony would have to ask Johanna where it is.
He really couldn’t be bothered about it right now. Soon enough a nurse came into the room to probably check up on Johanna and you. All the nurses working with you and your mother knew about him being the potential father but were reliable enough so that no one who shouldn’t know would find out.
“Excuse me, I was just coming to check on Ms. (l/n).” She looked shortly around the room before asking. “Would you know where she is?”
“No, she wasn’t here when I came in. Maybe she’s gone to get some food?” The nurse frowned.

“No, no I don’t think so, all the new mothers get food brought to their room every day. Are you sure you haven’t seen her?”

“Yes, she wasn’t in here when I came in.” Unease began to build up in Tony’s stomach.

The Nurse checked the bathroom and it was empty. Now looking around. All the cabinets seemed empty. The clothes and the bag they were in was gone.
Did she run away? What happened?
The Nurse, after telling Tony what she was going to do and went to tell hospital security to search for her. The door was shut rather loudly, effectively waking you up.
Tony carefully picked you up and cradled you. Calming your cries fast.
You looked up at him with curiosity. Tony had read a lot about infant development so he chuckled at the thought that you saw him upside down and probably not that well either.

“Hi, little guy. What’re you looking at huh?” Tony talked to you as he sat back down on the bed. “What did you do while I was gone? Were you nice to all the people here?” You just continued to stare at him. Tony continued to talk to you, even showing you the present he got you, until you started to get antsy moving your legs and arms.

“What is it? Did you use your diaper? Need a change?” Your face twisted into a frown before you began to cry.

“Hey, shhhhh it’s okay big boy, it’s alright. That’s no big deal. I’ll make it better.”

He slowly moved with you to the changing table. And searched for all the supplies the nurse showed him he needed. Diaper, wet wipes, babypowder.
“Alright, let’s get you changed, little guy.” he placed you on the soft mat and fiddled a bit with your jumper before being able to open it. When he did the same with the diaper the smell of baby poop hit him full force.
“Oh my god. Jeez kid.” He proceeded while holding his breath and doing his best not to breathe through his nose if he did need air. The diaper was changed at the pace of someone who had never changed a diaper before.
Tony was a bit awkward with it but ultimately changed you into a new one and quickly discarded the old one.
“So there you go, all cleaned up.” He said and put you back into your hospital baby bed.

“You wait here while I wash my hands.” He said and went to the bathroom leaving the door open just in case you would cry.
You immediately started crying once he was out of sight so Tony hurried. As soon as he picked you up again you were quiet.
“Oh wow, that was quick.” Tony quickly got uncomfortable just sitting on the bed so he laid down. You slowly drifted off in his arms while he was looking around the room wondering how you’d grow up. A knock sounded from the door interrupting his train of thought. In came the doctor which was hired to supervise your and Johannas hospital stay.

“Sir, I have to inform you that we couldn’t locate Ms. (l/n). We’ll have to discuss further steps either now or later. Since she and (y/n) were supposed to be released today.” She told him, Tony’s stomach dropped. What is he gonna do now?

The two discussed the options and, there weren’t many. They could inform police and try to search for her or not do that. Either way since Tony is your father he’d have to figure out what to do with you on his own. Hire a Nanny? Give you up for adoption? Raise you himself?
It was pretty clear what to do after getting over the initial shock. He was gonna leave police out of it, as there was nothing indicating that she left against her will, and he was going to play single dad for the rest of his life.

He gave one of the nurses responsible your filled out birth certificate while you were being looked after by another. Contacting Happy to ask if he could get him some of the mandatory baby stuff, formula, bottles, a crib, a car seat, that kinda stuff. He’d explain back home.
Obie wasn’t thrilled by his situation. It would be hard to handle both the company and a Baby. There wasn’t anything he could do though.
And Rhodey was last to be called. To finally be informed that his nephew was not only born but would also to be raised solely by his best friend.

Tony wasn’t able to leave the hospital since he didn’t want to be away incase something happens to you.
Happy came after having got everything that Tony wanted. You had just woken up demanding food when he came in.
“Oh thank god you’re here. Can hand me that baby bottle?” He asked bouncing you a bit as you screamed his ear off.
Happy obligated and handed him the warm bottle full of milk Tony had already prepared.
Once the object was placed in your mouth you were silent and chowed down.

“You already have baby bottles?”

“Some nurses gave me the stuff you need to feed him and told me how to use it.”

“So, he’s coming home with you?” Happy asked as he hesitantly sat down next to Tony.

“Yep. You wanna hold him?” Tony asked. Happy didn’t respond for a few seconds before nodding. Tony passed you over together with the bottle. Happy looked at you fondly as you continued to drink while flailing your arms.

“You seem to be a natural, keep it up I’m in the bathroom if you need me.” Tony said and disappeared.

In the afternoon Tony was given the okay to take you home.
Happy drove as Tony sat next to you in the back incase you needed something during the drive.
At his house he built your furniture and put it in his bedroom. With that his life as a single dad began.

You barely gave him any trouble the next day. You just didn’t want to fall asleep in your bed, everytime he laid you down you would start to scream your lungs out. Tony went for the next best option of putting you in a baby carrier on his chest and just carrying you around until you were fast asleep.

A week later you were still a model baby. Only crying every few hours and being easy to sooth. Tony thought he had it down by now but was still anxious of what’s to come in the future. There was so much he would experience because of the little bundle of baby currently sleeping in his arms.

Chapter Text

The first month with you was more draining than Tony had expected. He not only had to be there for you 24/7 but also needed to work, work on his projects, go to meetings, run stark industries simultaneously. He had a lot on his back. He had already made a small baby play pen in his office, though you didn’t interact with much yet.
But you smiled on a regular basis now and held your head up for longer and longer periods of time whenever you were rolled onto your stomach. You also stared at him whenever he fed, held or was close to you. Before now he did not realize that baby’s can hold such intense eye contact.

Today Uncle Rhodey finally had time to come over and actually meet his nephew. Up until now he had only seen pictures of you that Tony had sent him.
You had just woken up from one of your many naps as Rhodey walked in.
“Look who decided to visit (y/n).” Tony said as he turned you into the direction Rhodey was coming from.

“Oh my god, he’s so small!” Rhodes exclaimed as he put the bags in his hands down before coming over. He took one of your small hands and shook it gently.

“Hi, nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you!” Rhodey gushed in a high pitched voice as you gave him your intense eye contact.

“You’re turning into a softie, huh?” Tony joked and handed you to Rhodey who carefully took hold of your tiny body.
“Do you wanna feed him?” Tony asked as he tested the temperature of the bottle.

“Yes!”

They walked over to the couch and Tony showed him how to properly support you while you got your milk.
“He really likes staring at people.” Rhodey chuckled as you continued to stare holes in his head.

Tony nodded.

“Apparently that’s what one month olds do. They stare at faces.”

Rhodey stayed for a while and before he left, he handed Tony the bags full of gifts for you. He was determined to become your favourite from early on.

Shortly after you turned two months the media had finally found out about you. Tony didn’t know who gave it away but wasn’t pleased with the situation either way.
But the good thing was that he didn’t need to be too cautious with you anymore. He could just take you outside like a normal parent.
Obie organized a press conference where your dad could clear things up. You were in a side room with Obie and Happy while the conference was being held. Tony didn’t trust a lot of people with you.

You gurred at Happy as he held your favourite plushie in front of your face. It was a small stingray Rhodey had gifted you on his first visit. You tried to grab it but your coordination wasn’t the best. Happy played with you until the conference was over while Obie stood next to him watching you. He also seemed to have a weak spot for you. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t. You’re a cute baby that makes gurgling noises at everyone he sees. You were bound to melt some hearts.
After your existence has been made public Tony agreed, after a lot of debate, to one photoshoot for the public to use. He didn’t want you to grow up in the public eye.

At three months you started to interact more with your surroundings. You especially liked to get excited whenever your dad would look into your crib in the early mornings after you woke up.
You smiled and even sometimes laughed at people’s antics when they saw you. You also grew more “Talk active” making sounds every chance you got. You really lit up Tonys face even after an exhausting day.

At four months you were starting to try very hard to get from one place to another, you tried pushing yourself up with your arms while kicking with your legs. You were also very close to rolling over on your own.
Tony was very anxious that you’d start crawling soon so he made sure to get ahead of you and baby proof every nook and cranny in the house. He also decided which room should become yours and converted it into your playroom.

At five months you started to play on your own. “Play” meaning sticking your feet or hand into your mouth and giggling about it. Tony found that amusing as well and had Jarvis record every second of it. As if he wasn’t recording you since your first day home. You had also started to accidentally hit yourself with things you held. Much to Tony’s dismay. But hey, as long as you kept smiling at his antics he knew everything was alright with you.

At six months Tony was tempted to throw a giant party but he doubted that you’d appreciate that. You were beginning to love attention, and started eating solid food. You also rolled over like a champion.

“Hey (Y/n) guess what day it is.” Tony asked before sitting down next to the spot you were laying at.

“That’s right it’s Christmas! You’re so smart. Merry Christmas sweetheart. I hope you will forget this one because as you can see I have done zero decorating.” He said before handing you a small Robot stuffie which you eagerly took and placed into your mouth. As you do when you’re a baby.
He propped you up between his legs before continuing to open up presents, other people had sent for you and for him. But mostly for you.

“Look its one of those things you can chew on. And you can cool it. This’ll come in handy since you already started with your teeth.” Tony said and poked your cheek. He handed you the ring with a fluid inside but you didn’t want it.

“Well thanks anyway Uncle Happy.” Tony said as he grabbed the next one.

“This one’s from Obie.” He stated before ripping the paper and opening the box.

“Ohhhhh, that’s a little Jumper for you! You see this? Here it says "Little mechanic”. We don’t know about that yet do we?“ Tony said talking to you as if you were able to answer. He kissed the top of your head and put the jumper aside.

"And last but not least uncle Rhodeys gift. Let’s see what it is.” You helped pulling out the paper from the bag but stuck it in your mouth straight after getting your tiny hands on it.

“Oh my god. Look at this. It’s a little military uniform. You can be just like your uncle.” Tony chuckled. “God this is adorable.”

After taking some pictures with the gifts and sending them to each person your first Christmas was over. It wasn’t anything too special but Tony would carry it in his heart forever.
And honestly you were adorable in the small military uniform that matched Rhodeys

With seven months you started to “Talk” with Tony whenever he would say something you’d babble back and that’s how Tony started to regularly make smalltalk with a baby.

“What do you wanna do today? Wanna go see uncle Happy?”

“Argh pfffb mampa”

“Oh really? I always thought he likes you better but when you say it like that.”

“OuuuOhh!”

“Oh now don’t get sassy with me young man. You said it yourself. He likes me better.”

“Ampammam mam.”

“Nope no take backs. You said what you said.”

Things like these were becoming regular these days. But you had a surprise up your sleeve.

“Dahnda”

“Did you just say Dada? Come on say it again say: Dada.”

“Dahdah.” You spat out with great effort.

“oh my goodness, you said your first word! And it was Dada! Your such a smart boy! So smart!” While Tony was fawning over your first word. You were kicking your legs with happiness at his tone of voice.

There were tears forming in the corner of Tony’s eyes. “I love you so much, little bug!”

The next month’s leading up to your first birthday you were getting increasingly more mobile. In only two months you had learned how to crawl like a child athlete. You had also started to pull yourself up on furniture making your dad put everything a few shelves higher.
Once you were old enough you even helped him clean up your toys. You grew excited whenever people came into your house and greeted them yourself by clawing yourself up on their legs to stand beside them.

You also started trying to say their names. Rhodey became “RrOoh” with a gurrgled R and occasionally “Oohdi”, Obadiah became “Oohppa” and Happy was by far the closest to getting called by his name, his was “Apy”.

At 11 months you were finally able to stand alone for a few seconds and walked as long as you were holding onto something. Much to the delight of everyone. You also started to connect words with things more and more, showed your needs more openly and started to play better with other people. You also liked ripping papers apart as Tony had to find out after leaving important documents unattended within your reach.

You explored more too. Every time you were at your dad’s office you’d crawl into the smallest spots and looked into any hole or drawer you could open.

And at your first birthday? There was a small party in Stark industries since your birthday corresponded with the opening of the internal daycare for the children of employees. Tony had thought of it ever since he had to take you with him into his office or lab and work while also keeping an eye on you.

You loved to play with all the toys and the different kids.

Tony was pleased with the job he had done so far. You didn’t get injured or sick often, had age appropriate social skills and developed at a normal if not higher rate than any other baby. A few selected reporters were also there as it was good publicity.

Tony was just showing them the napping room for the smaller children when a cry interrupted his speech. It was obvious that it was you who was crying.

“Would you excuse me for a second.” Tony said to the reporters as he left to get you. You were laying in the middle of the playroom crying. “DADAAAAA!” You were calling out. Tony swooped you up and bounced you on his hip.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart? You were fine a second ago.”

You just placed your arms around his neck and slowly let that stifle your sobs.

“Was it too much? I’m sorry I won’t leave without telling you again.”

Once you were calmed he wiped your tears and gave your cheek a kiss.

“You wanna help Dada show these people around? You wanna come with me?”

He asked and you just hugged him again. Tony continued the tour through the daycare with you on his hip.

“Sorry about that, he just got a bit overwhelmed with all these new people here and me out of sight. (Y/n) can you wave at them? Wave hello.” You shyly obligated and a few reporters waved back.

“Anyway, as I was saying before. With this we hope to…” And with that Tony was back in business mode.

You on the other hand were bored just being carried. You took his sunglasses and fiddled with them until you grew bored and put them in your mouth. Your father never once broke his speech.

You fiddled with his clothes after discarding of the glasses. The buttons under his tie interested you most. You were trying to get them off to put them in your mouth and when that didn’t work you brought your mouth to them. Tony once again softly pushed you away and pulled out the ring to bite on that Happy had gotten you for Christmas, from his chest pocket. You happily nibbled on that for the rest of the tour.

One reporter even asked you a question shortly before they were about to leave.

“Can you say Dada?” the man had asked.

“Dada.” you answered. You were officially a pro. This would go down as your first interview.

After everything was over, you waved everyone goodbye, and went home. Happy brought all your birthday gifts along.

You had gotten a ton of gifts from the other parents attending. It was only small gifts but they did stack up.

After you had fallen asleep on the couch Tony couldn’t help but get nostalgic. It’s already been a year since you came into his life and so much had changed because of you. Meetings in other states or countries had to be planned out completely before he could go, he had barely attended any parties since your birth and hooking up? With a little one around? Impossible. He had so much less time to work, you needed so much care and attention, he slept more than ever, and ate more regularly too. Drinking? That happened less now too. You were truly a gift, you helped him realize how much he didn’t like to feel anything but pure bliss. But with you around he needed to make himself emotionally available if he wanted to be a good father.

You were tiny a year ago but from day one you left a huge impact in Tony’s heart and that would only continue to grow with time.

Not that he’ll ever admit it but ever since you came into his life, he became the happiest he was in a long time. He cried so many times the past year. Out of joy, sadness and being overwhelmed with so many different emotions for you. All your firsts were forever remembered even if all the videos and pictures would disappear. Because they were forever burned into his memories.

Chapter Text

You were now two years old. And you were starting to create a bit of a mess around the house. Tony has recently been busy with a project so you spend most of your time downstairs in the lab with him. The small kitchen like part of the lab was now fenced in to keep you away from potentially dangerous things. Dum-E was also fenced in with you to keep you company.

Currently you were entertaining yourself with a recorder, it had a story cassette inside which wasn’t playing since you used the microphone as you attempted sing along with ACDC. Which was played on a much lower volume than if you weren’t in the lab.
Your dad was nodding his head along too.
You were having the time of your life performing Back in Black with lyrics that consisted of mumbling and dance moves that were basically just jumps.
Tony chuckled when he saw that. He was close to finishing the prototype he worked on, he already had a plan on what to do for the rest of the day.

And just as he put the last part into place his plan arrived.

“Uncle Rhodey!!!” you screamed as said man walked into the lab. You walked over and made grabby hands at him. He picked you up with one swift motion and began to tickle you.

“How’s my favourite Stark? Still a little brat?” you screamed with laughter as he continued to tickle you before walking over to Tony.

“Are you two ready to go somewhere with me?” Rhodey asked as he hugged Tony.

“Mmmmh I don’t know, I’m a bit busy at the moment… What do you think, Bug? You think we can go with him?”

“YES!” you shouted and threw your little fist up.

“Alright but only cause you said so, Bug. Go upstairs, get dressed with Uncle Rhodey I just have to clean some things up down here. See you in a minute.”

Rhodey walked with you on his hip out of the lab and to your room to get you dressed for your adventure.

“Where do you think we’re going?” He asked as he sat you down to rummage through your closet.

“… Park?”

“Close but not right. Try again.”

“Woods?”

“No.”

“Playground!?”

“There is a playground nearby but that’s not where we’re going.”

“I don know.” You said in your cute pouty ‘pwease get me what I want. I’m just a helpless little baby’-voice

“Well I guess you’ll just have to wait and see. Which one do you like better this one or this one?” Rhodey said and asked about the two sweaters he was holding.

One was a green one without anything on it and the other was your Mickey mouse sweater so obviously you had to go with that one. He wasn’t even slightly fazed by your cutesy tone.

“Mickey!”

“The rodent it is!”

Rhodey put the entire outfit on your bed and helped you change into it.

“Okay now, who do you like better? Uncle Rhodey or Daddy?”

“Daddy and uncle Rhodey!”

“Oh? It’s a tie? Don’t tell daddy but I like you better than him.”

He was finished with dressing you and picked you up again. You could walk just fine but he liked to carry you and you liked to be carried.

“Daddy come quick!” You shouted as Rhodey walked into the lab.

Rhodey put you down so you could run over to your dad.

“Look! Is Micky!”

“Woah that’s so cool! Are you ready to go out with Daddy and Uncle Rhodey?”

“Yes Yes Yes! Let’s gooooo!”

They put you into your car seat and got into the car themselves. Tony had already put everything you needed into the trunk.

On the ride to your destination you were once again performing your little heart out this time in the confinement of your car seat.

After a handful of songs you pulled up at your destination.

“So last guess, where are we?” Rhodey asked. You looked out the window but didn’t see anything that gave little young you any clue as to where you were.

You shrugged.

“Then you’ll have to wait until we’re inside.” Tony sing songed and both of them got out of the car.

You were released from your seat and put on your coat before climbing out of the car. Your dad was getting the stroller and a bag out of the trunk.

“Okay, one thing before we go. You have to stay close, no running off. No screaming, and you politely ask for something you want. Understood?” Tony was serious while he would love to spoil you rotten he didn’t want to turn you in one of those unbearable brats.
You nodded and held onto the stroller while following Rhodey.

As you finally left the car park you rounded the corner and were struck with the realization on where you are.

“THE ZOO!” You screeched and jumped up and down. You had heard about zoos in the stories that were read to you. And Tony had given you a picture book full of pictures of actual zoos. This was one of them.

“Exactly! What do you wanna see inside?” Rhodey asked cheerfully.

“ arks!”

“Sharks, Sh-arks. They’re cool right?”

And with that your first adventure began. Once inside you were quieter, Rhodey had said how animals don’t like screaming so you were nice and quiet.

You walked around and looked at all the different animals going about their day. Flamingos were one of your favorites.

“What color are they (y/n)?”

“Red!”

“No, they’re pink!”

“Pink!”

“Yes, you’re so smart!”

You answered a lot of questions that day from colors to noises to what that animal actually is. You really couldn’t figure out what the hell a king penguin was. Up until then you had no concept of size variations within a species. You really thought all penguins were small and cuddly. But they aren’t. These penguins were your size. Maybe even bigger. It was sort of a scary experience.

Last stop was the aquarium. You walked past the different tanks mimicking some fish and laughing at others.

“Look, that looks like nemo! Remember when we watched that movie?” Tony pointed out. You were lifted by Rhodey to get a better view. And there he was. A clownfish! A real life Nemo!

“Why Nemo here? Nemos not in ocean?” You asked as you intensely stared at the fish.

“Thats not actually Nemo. That’s uhm, Max his uncle. He likes it here better than in the ocean so he moved here with his girlfriend.” Rhodey explained. “Nemo and his friends are still in the ocean don’t worry.”

You nodded it made sense to you that it was his uncle that lived here.

You moved on.

“Dad Dad look look! Shhharks!” you said trying to pronounce it right.

“Wow they’re soooo big! How long do you think they are?”

“This long!” you said spreading out your small arms as far as possible.

“Look! That Magic!” You said pointing to the stingray in the same tank and holding your stuffed one you named Magic against the glass.

“Wow no way!” Rhodey said. You were smiling very brightly and didn’t notice the clicks of your fathers camera going off behind you as you stared at the sharks and stingrays swimming past.

At the end of your trip you were all tuckered out only the trip to the gift shop woke you up for a short time again.

“You can have one thing.” Tony said and send you off. You decided to make this one count and tried to lift a giant shark plushie that was conveniently placed at your level.

“This one this one this one Dada!”

“Okay but that’s the only thing you’re getting.” He said picking it up and going to pay for it. At that moment you heard a child that was about your age cry. Having been told what you were you went over to her and told her.
“Shhhh. You cannot be loud in zoo!” You said and gave her a hug. In her hands she was holding a relatively life sized stuffed lion cub.

“You want that?” You asked her after letting her out of the hug.

She nodded.

“Did you ask nice?” She nodded again. Meanwhile her parents were beside the two of you looking at you sadly.

“(y/n)! Good god there you are! Tony he’s here. (y/n) you can’t just walk away without telling us!” Rhodey suddenly grabbed you interrupting your train of thought.

“Jeez bug you almost gave me a heart attack. Mind telling why you ran off?”

“She is sad. I’m helping.” You explained yourself in an insistent tone.

Both of the girls parents were suddenly frozen.
The parents stammered to explain that they couldn’t afford what she wanted after promising her to get her a stuffed lion. They could barely afford the trip to the zoo altogether.

“Well it’s rude to break a promise right?” you nodded at your father’s statement. “Let me pay for it. How much is it?”

“Yes! My daddy can buy it!”

Both parents tried to refuse but your dad insisted and even asked if she was sure she wanted this one and not another one. But she was sure and the 25 dollar lion was paid for.

You waved at her while walking away she had the biggest smile on her face.

“You know what (y/n)? You’re a really nice kid. I bet you’ll grow into a good man.” Rhodey praised as you crawled into your car seat close to falling asleep. Rhodey took your coat off and handed you your shark before strapping you in and closing the door.

On the drive back the music was quiet as you fell asleep in the back. Probably dreaming about all the different animals you saw today.

At home you were brought to your bed that you only used for naps as you slept in Tony’s at night.

Rhodes and Tony skipped through the pictures on the camera. Your first time at the zoo was a success. And now you had a shark and a bunch of pictures to remember that day as you will forget it once you’re older.

Chapter Text

Your dad had some business trip to attend to where he couldn’t take you with him. So instead of being quiet and polite with a bunch of strangers, you were loud and polite with Rhodey.

You had stayed over at Rhodeys several times with Tony but never alone. So both men were anxious to see how you’d manage.

It’s only been two hours since Tony had dropped you off and you had been greatly entertained by your uncle the whole time. Playing with toys and building blocks. He even told you a funny story about your dad getting his head stuck somewhere while they were in college together. There really wasn’t anything funnier than that story and the pictures to go along with it in your 3 and a half year old mind.

Rhodey looked up at the clock on the wall before turning back to you.

“Let’s stop playing.” He said standing up. “We need to buy some groceries before we get hungry,”

You, although reluctantly, began to put your toys away. You had brought all your favourite toys with you so you wouldn’t get bored while staying over. Though Rhodey would never let that happen. Within a few minutes you were dressed and strapped into the car seat in Rhodeys pretty little vehicle.

It wasn’t really what you were used to. Your father had either really well maintained old cars or rather new high tech expensive cars. So sitting in a well aged small car that isnt extremely uncommon to see driving around town was different but not at all in a bad way.

Rhodey threw a big shopping bag in the back and started the car up. Pulling out of his driveway for the short trip down to the nearby supermarket.

You were more interested in the scenery you passed than talking so Rhodey put on some music and strummed along to the beat on his steering wheel. You started listening to the quieter tunes that you’re used to. Your dad had a slightly different taste in music than the songs that were playing.

“So, what do you wanna eat?” Rhodey asked driving around a corner.

“I’m not hungry.” You turned to him a slightly confused look on your face. Rhodey chuckled.

“I mean when you’re hungry, buddy. What would you like to eat then,” he clarified.

You thought for a moment. “Pizza! I want pizza,”

“What kind?” He asked pulling into the parking lot.

“The one I always eat.” You pulled at your seat straps still not fully knowing how to unclasp them on your own. Rhodey reached over and opened them for you.

You jumped out the car, with a lot of effort, before he could stop you. “I can show you!”

Rhodey just nodded and followed you out.

You tried to pull out the cart yourself but it was still connected to the other one with those little seatbelt like clips. You took the coin your uncle was holding out and put it in the thing that let’s the cart go from the other one. Once the cart was out you were placed in the seat and your store adventure could begin.

You kicked your legs about and looked in every direction as you were pushed through the store. As you were passing the candy isle you looked long at a bag of gummy worms. They were one of the few candies you had been allowed to get and your absolute favourite.

“Uncle Rhodey I want gummy worms.” You said pointing at the colourful bag of artificial worms.

“I don’t know sweetie. I don’t think you asked all that nicely for them.” Rhodey replied to your plea. Scratching his chin like he was deep in thought.

“Can I pweeeease have gummy worms?” You tried again drawing out the please and using your “I am a cute and innocent child which only desire in this cold cruel world is this small cheap bag of precious gummy worms”-voice.

Rhodey chuckled and handed you the bag with an “Alright alright”.

You didn’t go to stores a lot so everything was very fascinating. And needed to be explored and asked about.

“What’s that?” You asked now pointing at a big display of raw meat.

“That’s meat,” Rhodey answered “We actually need some.” He reached in and grabbed a big piece of meat indistinguishable from the other meats to your young eyes.

“For what?”

“Dinner tommorow.”

You nodded and moved on to ask another question about another thing.

Everything went smoothly from then on out. You showed him which of the pizza’s you liked the most and answered whether or not you wanted some apples. All was well until you passed a big tank of lobsters.

You let out a big gasp as you saw the both big and small animals sitting together in the bare tank.

“Look uncle Rhodey! Crabs!”

“Those are Lobsters. They’re really big arent they?”

“Yes! Can I have one?” You asked without looking away from the tank. Rhodey frowned.

“Since when do you eat lobster?” Your head snapped back in Rhodeys direction at the speed of light.

“NO not for eating! It’s for pets!”

“You want to pet a lobster?”

“Yes! And keep it!”

Rhodey was stunned silent for a moment.

“Y/n, you can’t have a pet lobster. They’re sold here for people to buy and eat them.”

Not even a few seconds later after Rhodey had said those words he regretted them. Your eyes first grew big and then your lower lip started to quiver. And that was when Rhodey knew he fucked up big time.

Within a second you were crying loudly about how people can’t eat the lobsters because you love them while Rhodey was desperately trying to calm you down. People were starting to stare and Rhodey could feel every single gaze on him.

He then suggested something he would have to thoroughly explain to your father later.

“Y/n, kid, listen. I need you to calm down. I promise you that none of there lobsters will be eaten okay? I’ll talk to your dad about getting you one of them. But you have to behave,” he explained having placed his hands on your much smaller shoulders. Without much fuss you stopped crying. It made sense to you that your dad would save the lobsters. He is a great person after all.

You were okay with that and even helped your uncle place the items on the conveyor belt and back into the cart once you were done shopping.

With a sweet smile you handed the nice cashier lady the money and she gave you a piece of her chocolate.

You thanked her and waved her goodbye as you left the store.

All the way back to Rhodeys house you were in a happy mood thinking about how you’ll soon get a pet lobster if you behave. Oh and you’ll behave. You’ll behave so good that no one will think that you were even capable of misbehaving. As least until you had your lobster.

On the drive home Rhodey made a call to a very confused Tony Stark about the possibility of getting Stark Jr. a pet Lobster.

Later around the same time as you were helping Rhodey unpack the groceries your dad was frantically researching on how to care for a lobster and how long they lived the same with how much space they need and more. He even called a zoo and a lobster farm.

He’d organize the build of a tank for a crayfish, a big one. You won’t be able to tell the difference until you were much older and did some research yourself.

But you’ll never eat a lobster, or any crustacean for that matter, until your eventual demise.

The rest of the day went by without a problem. You helped your uncle with everything you could, cooking, cleaning, washing dishes and doing the bed were all completed with the clumsy help of a 3 year old.

You crawled under the covers next to Rhodey, insisting on sleeping in the same bed. During the night you kicked him several times and somehow ended up with your feet on the pillow while the rest of your body was hidden beneath the covers.

The second day of your week long vacation was not all that different than the first. You played together inside and outside, cooked, ate and then sat down to watch some DvDs before your afternoon nap. A mistake as the series Rhodey turned on hyped you up incredibly. It was the first episode of “The Incredible Adventures of Captain Magic”. You had never before watched this series but your young mind was hooked in an instant.

The episode was all about how she became a super hero, introducing herself and her friends. Your mouth couldn’t have hung open any wider. The second the episode was over you started jumping around in excitement. Holy heck that was too cool for your young mind to comprehend. You started fighting villains no one could see and Rhodey couldn’t get you to fall asleep for another hour. He himself was incredibly tired at that point.

The next two days you wouldn’t shut up about how cool and strong Captain Magic is. Rhodey didn’t say anything discouraging about it. Though it was clear to him that the hero was obviously heavily leaned on Captain America. Not that you’d know who that was.

Friday, Rhodey suggested a trip to get you off your Captain Magic high.

“Where are we going?” You asked kicking your legs and clutching the tiny backpack you had taken with you.

“Its a surprise. But you’ll like it I promise,”

You nodded and turned back to look out the window.

“Look look a puppy!” You excitedly pointed out a few minutes later.

As Rhodeys car pulled to a stop you looked around with squinted eyes having almost fallen asleep.

“We’ve arrived.”

“I know this?” You mumbled a bit dissapointed. You had visited Rhodey while he was working numerous times in the past. This wasn’t anything exciting.

“Yeah you do, but I bet you’ve never sat in a jet before!”

“What!” You screeched and jumped around happily in your seat waiting on your restraints to be opened.

Rhodey greeted a few people on your way to the hanger. Some people seemed surprised while others knew about his plans.

The hanger was empty of any people but stored several huuuuge jets. You shouted “Hello!” and “AAAAH” Into the hall to hear it echo back.

“Is this cool or what?!” Rhodey said marching towards one of the planes which had a staircase ladder thing next to it.

“SO COOL!” you screeched running around and under the planes. Rhodey called you over and threw you on his shoulder while he carried you up to the now opened jet and place you inside. It was like sitting in the driver seat of a parked car, just ten times cooler.

You asked a thousand questions about the planes and Rhodey was happy to answer all of them.

“What’s that?” You said pointing at another switch over your head.

“Uhh it’s,” Rhodey leaned closer to get a better look at what you’re pointing, “it’s switches all the communication on an-”

“And that?” You said pointing at another thing not letting him finish.

This went on like that for about 10 minutes before you started your fake flight. Even getting to wear the headset which was a few numbers to big for you. Your uncle took a few pictures while you were playing which he’d later send to Tony.

You didn’t get bored for a full hour, you were so enthralled with making little noises and flicking on and off switches (which all did nothing) that you didnt even notice that Rhodey got himself a cup of coffee and was talking with some strangers now instead of standing on the rolling staircase next to you.

The rest of the trip you got shown around by Rhodey and introduced to a few of his colleagues.

You tired fast and fell asleep a few minutes into the drive back. You woke up later on the couch with Rhodey cooking in the kitchen. The nice smell of something tasty that you couldn’t quite place wafting through the air into your nostrils.

On your last day in Rhodeys pretty house you helped him pack some of your stuff up and just generally did stuff together. Like having a water pistol fight, playing super heroes, and watching Captain Magic and whatever else was on TV. It was a laid back Saturday which was only laid back because you didn’t run around the house screeching while you played with your toys.

That evening you fell asleep on the couch next to Rhodey, sort of clinging onto his clothes while your breath evened out and the soft strokes over your little head of hair gave you a deep sense of security.

You woke up later at night while being carried by a tired looking Rhodey.

“Go back to sleep, sweetpea.” He whispered as he placed you inside your car seat. You nodded slightly and said with your voice barely above a whisper.

“Okay, love you.”

“Love you too.” You faintly heard before falling back asleep after the car door shut.

You woke up the next day in your fathers bed next to his snoring form. Very confused on how you got there. But very glad that he was back.

Chapter Text

Now that you were five and a half, you knew how to write both your ABC’s and numbers up to 47 flawlessly. You knew how to write your name and could solve some simple math. You could also write every word as long as someone spelled it for you and you were getting the grip of reading too.

Your dad and uncles are proud, Mr Krabs the crayfish lobster was healthy, and now? You had a new aunt! Her name is Pepper and you love her! She was so nice to you. The first time you met her she had brought ice cream. So lil young you loved her the moment you ate that delicious treat.

Currently you were drawing your family at the daycare part of the company. You were trying really hard to get each one right. With shaky writing and the spelling help of one of the teachers you completed your piece. Without telling anyone you slipped out of the room with your drawing in hand off to find your dad. You knew the route so you thought it was okay to go alone.

Walking past labs into the elevator and then up to the floor your father worked at. Pepper was sitting at her desk typing on the computer. She didn’t notice you at first.

“Aunt Pepper look what I just made!” you said holding your drawing in front of you over the desk. She jumped when she heard your voice.

“Oh my god (y/n)! What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to show you and daddy my drawing! Do you like it?”

“Oh I love it. Explain it to me!” she encouraged.

“Alright! So this is Daddy, he has a screwdriver cause he’s always making things. This is you, you’re holding some papers. This is Happy he’s grumpy because I ate all his chocolates. This here is Obi. He is on the phone talking about work. And that’s Dum-E and Jarvis. Oh and this is Rhodey he’s flying a plane!” you explained pointing to each shaky character who vaguely looked different from the next.

“That’s so good, let’s show it to your dad and then get you back to your friends shall we?”

You nodded and followed her into your dad’s office.

“Look what I drew dad!” you ran over to him while he was at the phone.

“One moment.” he said and pressed a button on the thing the phone was connected to. “Hey bug, what are you doing here? You drew something? Let me see.”

“I came here to show you my drawing.”

“Yes he came here, all on his own.” Pepper said putting weight on her last words. Tony’s eyebrows shot up but he was drawn back to you quickly as you crawled into his lap and explained your picture all over again. Gaining praise and a hug from your dad who kept the drawing.

Pepper brought you back into the daycare afterward and had a talk with your teacher. You didn’t know what they were talking about too busy going back to playing with your friends. You only noticed later that she was gone and that the door got a new handle that was really high up a few days later.

Back home you were still full of energy since you had a nice long nap at daycare.

You were walking around the house with your lightsaber pretending to be a Jedi. You fought your way past your imaginary enemies and used the force to throw things at them like you had seen in the movies your dad watched with you.

You reached out your hand at a cup standing on the table and made a motion toward the enemy. The cup was sitting on the edge of the table and when you completed your motion you watched in slow motion as the cup slowly fell toward the ground a few feet away from the table. The crash of the shattered cup could be heard throughout the room. Out of shock you let your lights aber fall and your hands covered your mouth.

Did you really just use the force? You were happy thinking that you might have special powers, and yet you were also absolutely terrified. What had you done? What could you do? What was even going on? Was that actually you that broke the cup?

The crash brought your father into the room.

“Woah Bug, seems like your fight is pretty intense. Let’s clean it up come on.” Tony said once he realized that you are okay. You followed him to the kitchen not saying a word.

“You okay? It’s fine. Don’t worry, not a big deal.” He said reassuring you. You however were just coming back out of your trance. You looked around the kitchen and then at your dad.

“Dad,” you said seriously. “I’m a Jedi.”

Your father chuckled and ruffled your hair.

“Of course you are my little padawan.” he continued to chuckle and moved to clean up your mess. But you weren’t having it. He needed to belive you. You grabbed his hand with both of yours and stared intently into his eyes.

“No daddy, I used the force. I didn’t hit the cup, I used the force!” Tony was a bit confused as to why you insisted on having used the force.

“Okay Bug, lets first clean up the cup pieces and then you can show me how you did it alright?”

You nodded reluctantly and let go of his hand. While he was sweeping up the mess you got a plastic cup from the kitchen and placed it on the coffee table in front of the couch.

Before you could attempt to use the force again Jarvis interfered.

“Sir, it might be of more help to just show him the surveillance footage.” he said and pulled up the footage on the screen. There you were, breaking the cup without touching it. Woah.

“Thank you Jarvis!” you said and went to drag your dad in front of the screen.

“Look! Here I told you I used the force! Jarvis play it please.”

Tony looked at the screen just in time to see you throw the cup while standing a few feet away.

Once the initial shock blew over he grinned and said.

“Well I guess I’m now living under the same roof as a Jedi.” he said hiding the fact that he had no idea how to deal with that situation. Or how you could even do that.

The next day the two of you talked about your “force” a bit more deeply. He told you all about why you had these powers and why you can’t tell anyone that you had them. As he put it, the dark side would try and recruit you. And neither of you would want that. You barely noticed that the circles around his eyes were a bit deeper than usual.

You practiced with your force daily. It was an amazing experience for you but really tiring. Much less scared than before you were extremely happy with being able to do these cool things. Soon you would find out that it wasn’t actually the force but a gene within you that gave you powers but you wouldn’t stop calling it the force until you were about 10 and that was long ways away for you.

Not to mention all the attempts that would follow to build a real life lightsaber until your dad banned you from trying after you almost cut your whole arm off. 8 year old you would be left with a pretty cool scar though. And who could say they had gotten a scar from a real lightsaber.

“What are you doing?” An amused voice came from behind you.

You spun around and saw your father with an amused look on his face. There was nothing funny about the situation in your book.

You had been trying, and failing, to accurately use your force to make yourself some cereal. And by the looks of scattered cereal and your soaking wet figure, it wasn’t going well at all. This was your 14th attempt and you were still messing it up. It was extremely demotivating to repeatedly fail.

“Making cereal,” you said in a dissapointed tone.

“Are you part of it? Or did you just want to take a milk shower?” He chuckled and went his way to grab some paper towels. You didnt find that funny at all. With the most hate a five year old can muster to show on his face you glared at the mess infront of you. And left. Not caring about the trail of milk you left as you walked into your room and struggled to take off you wet shirt. You really hated, absolutely despised failing or losing as any child your age.

You gave up taking off your shirt and just plopped down onto the ground with your arms crossed.

A minute into your moping session a knock sounded from the door. You didn’t answer still too frustrated in your inability to make breakfast. Another knock sounded followed by your dads voice.

“Hey Bug, can I come in?” You croaked out a small yes and drew your knees to your chest.

The door opened and your father walked in concern written all over his face.

“What’s wrong bug? You wanna talk about it, maybe?” He sounded unsure as he said that.

“Or we can just, sit here, if you want.” He continued sitting down next to you.

Your scowl slowly transformed itself into a frown and then morphed it’s way into a face of an incredibly sad and frustrated young boy.

“I hate it.” You mumbled shakingly burrowing your head in your arms.

“What? Do you hate I mean.” Tony despite having dealt with your emotions for five+ years now was still unsure if what he said each time was right.

“I, I hate that. I dont know how to say,” You said truthfully. It was hard to articulate your emotions.

“That’s okay. Do you want me to guess?” He asked and you just nodded.

“Is it about, not being able to pour cereal with your, force?”

You bit your lower lip and nodded, tears forming in your eyes.

“Can I tell you something?” He asked waiting for confirmation before continuing. “I don’t think your all that bad at it. And I dont think you should give up just yet. Look sometimes when you try something new, you’ll fail. You’ll make mistakes and maybe even break stuff. But you know what will happen after you’ve failed and failed and broken stuff? You will end up winning. Because you learned while you were making mistakes,” he pause to look at your reaction. You hadn’t moved. He sighed.

“Maybe, let me just say it like this. How long did it take you to make an object float for more than a few seconds? Because I know that you didn’t just do it on the first try. It took you about a week to just make an empty cup float mid air for more than 10 seconds. And then you learned how to move it and that took you long as well. And you just now started trying to make cereal. And it wasn’t even that bad. A few weeks ago you couldn’t even lift the milk jug and now you’re moving it too? That’s a lot of progress and you’ll continue to make progress and failing, that’s just part of it. God knows how often I failed to make Dum-E work.” He had rambled along as he was trying to encourage you but that was okay. Because despite the amount of words he said the message was clear to you.

Within a week you could make yourself cereal with both eyes closed.

Chapter Text

As any 6 year old you were currently groggy because you just woke up. Your mood worsened by the fact that your dad would leave for a business trip today.

“Somebody woke up on the wrong foot.” Said man commented as you dragged your feet towards the table. You filled your bowl with cereal and chose to ignore his comment. You were rather mean spirited when you woke up.

“Oh using the force first thing in the morning I see.” He said as he observed. “You really have a grip on it now, don’t you? The first time you tried that, you were fully awake and still managed to cause a milk flood.” He chuckled. You cracked a smile remembering the scene. Especially the part where at attempt nr. 18, he slipped in the milk and crashed onto his behind breaking out in a full of string of bad words.

“Looks like you’re coming back to me now.” He joked and continued with telling you the funny things you clearly remembered that we’re caused because you didn’t have full control over the force.

You still don’t completely but you just repeat whatever you want to learn until you could do it half asleep and moved on to the next thing.

Once the cereal was down you were almost completely awake and ready to face the day.

“You ready to brush those pearly whites?” Tony asked

“Yes! Can I use my new toothbrush?” you asked following him into your bathroom.

“Yes, that’s why you have it.”

He handed you your toothbrush and toothpaste from the sink and took his own.

You two brushed while you pulled faces at each other in the mirror. Giggling over the weird face he pulled you almost chocked on foam.

He helped you wash your face which had a milk and toothpaste beard before he washed his own.

“Alright, are we done here? Or did we forget something?” He asked you scratching his chin, pretending to think.

“We have to shave!” you said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and got your “razor" from the sink.

"Yeah next thing you know you’ll be looking like Santa if you don’t shave!”

You two went to his bathroom to “shave” since he is a responsible father who doesn’t keep sharp razors in his son’s bathroom.

Recently you had insisted on doing it with him just like you brushed your teeth and washed your face together it was just the next logical step for you. So instead of watching him do it, you now joined in.

He applied some shaving cream to your face, then to his own. You were mimicking his movements to the best of your abilities as he was doing it. And because you’re so good at copying you always ended up with a shaving cream beard that resembled your fathers. Tony dies a little at the cuteness everytime he sees it.

Your clothes today were picked out by you. It was a cute starwars t-shirt, bright green pants and your Captain Magic jacket. The most stylish outfit you have in your humble 6 year old opinion.

You came out of your bedroom with your backpack on your back.

“I’m ready daddy!” you shouted walking toward the stairs to the lab/garage as every day before..

“Are you sure? I think you forgot something.” he said walking down the stairs with you.

You thought for a moment.

“What? I didn’t forget anything.” At that he placed a pair of sunglasses onto your head.

“There now you look like me!” he said giving your head a kiss, “You also forgot your homework.”

“I didn’t have homework.?” You said absentmindedly as you examined your new sunglasses that matched the ones your dad was always wearing.

“Really? Because I remember clearly that you asked me to hand you some pictures of you for your class project.” he said holding an envelope toward you.

“That’s not until tomorrow.”

“But you could already take it with you so you don’t forget it when I’m not here to remember it.” you took the envelope. And climbed inside one of the cars. This one only had two seats and one of which had a booster on it.

Your name was written on the envelope in your fathers handwriting, and when you peaked inside you saw all the pictures you had selected with him yesterday. You put them in your lap as you buckled up.

Bobbing your head along with the music during the drive to school and singing along to a few lyrics you knew, the day seemed to start out okay. Just as any other day but a lingering sadness sat deep within your stomach.

As your dad stopped the car infront of your school, it hit you. This was the last time you’d see him for the next few days. While you were used to him having to take trips without you, they usually were only a day long. And the last trip that was longer you didn’t even remember. This would be the first time where he wouldn’t be back the next day since you were 3. It made your stomach sink and throat close a but, especially since you’d be staying in your home rather than spending the night at your uncle’s or aunts house.

“Ready for a fun d– Hey what’s wrong?” Tony asked seeing the tears build up in your eyes.

“I don’t want you to leave.” once admitted you started to bawl your eyes out.

Your fathers eyebrows shot up in worry. He quickly got out of the car walking around it to pull you into his arms.

“Aw, Bug. It’s only a few days. I’ll be back before you know it. It’s alright, I’ll miss you too. You still have Happy, and Obie, and Pepper.” He soothed gently swaying back and forth.

“I don’t want them… I want my daddy.” You choked out between sobs. A sound that made Tony’s heart wrench.

“I know but, how about I’ll tell them to take you to that cool park you want to go to? You’re going to have so much fun you won’t even realize I’m gone.”

“I don’t want to go there with them, I want to go there with you.” You cried out sniveling and wiping at your face.

Tony sighed as he rubbed your back soothingly.

“Bug, I already moved the date last time. Uncle Rhodey said he’ll drag me there if I don’t go. I promised him, and you know that we can’t break promises, right?” He tried to reason, you nodded through your tears.

“How about we go somewhere when I’m back. Where would you like to go with me, hm?” He asked soothingly petting your head still swaying.

You sniffled as you calmed down. “I, I wanna go to the park with you.”

“The amusement park?”

You nodded.

“Alright, as soon as I’m back we two go to the park and have some fun. Does that sound good?”

“You Promise?”

“I Promise. Do you want me to bring you to your classroom?”

“Carry me.” you said laying your head back on his shoulder.

Tony chuckled, grabbed your stuff and carried you into the school. He was slightly concerned considering that you usually weren’t this clingy when it came to his trips. It was probably because of how long it was. He reassured himself.

He got looks from other parents left and right, most parents at this school didn’t really seem to like clingy or even just emotional children, he found that odd but ignored their looks. You reached your classroom way too soon in your opinion. He put you down and crouched in front of you.

“So, are you feeling better now?”

You nodded.

“Alright, here’s your stuff. Uncle Happy will pick you up and bring you to the Daycare since he still has work to do. If you get homework take care of it there, then you don’t have to lose so much free time? Don’t do anything I would do. I love you Bug. I’ll be back in about 76 hours. Have some fun while I’m gone.” he told you softly not wanting to leave just yet after such an emotional outburst.

“I will. Love you too, daddy."He sighed, gave you a hug and stood up. Slowly you went into the classroom not wanting to worry him any further. But still extremely welled up with emotions you couldn’t describe properly.

After taking off your jacket and putting it away together with your other things you sat down on your table next to your friend Jason.

Together you waited for the bell to ring and school to begin.

Lessons became boring quickly and you passed most of them daydreaming about things while completing your work.

In the breaks you played with Jason, Sam and Ryan, your usual friend group. You had forgotten all about your little breakdown this morning by then.

You were picked up by Happy as told, together with a bunch of other kids since he apparently took over "bus duty” from the daycare for the next three days. Ryan also needed to come to daycare so you sat together.

At Stark Industries you completed your homework and told Ryan the answers so the two of you could play together.

Too soon you were brought home by Happy and spend the rest of your almost uneventful day eating fast food and watching a bunch of Disney movies. You drifted off in front of the TV without even changing into your pj’s.

You were unaware that while you had your much needed sleep your father was currently living through some events that would change the course of both of your lifes forever.

Your sleep was uneasy almost as if knowing that something wasn’t right.

Chapter Text

You woke up the next day more groggy then usual, maybe it was the taste of unbrushed teeth in your mouth or the uncomfortable position you had managed to put yourself in after being put to bed by Happy. But you weren’t in a good mood.

You went about your day as you did every other day. There was no reason to belive something was wrong. Uncle Happy acted like always, and even when you got to school there was no one acting any different, so when you were taken to your father’s office by a visibly shaken Pepper after school, you grew concerned.

Uncle Obie was in the Office and calmly explained to you where your father had been and what had happened to him. With every word more colour drained from your face. He didn’t tell you the details but you figured it out yourself, you had watched the news from time to time. You weren’t stupid.

Yet, despite what the people you love had just told you, you remained eerily quiet. Shock blocking any emotions that would normally set in, in such situations.

“I want to go home.” Is all you said. Flat and emotionless.

“Alright.” Obidiah taking your hand, but you didn’t move. He just picked you up and stroked your back while bringing you to the car and buckling you in.

You noticed all the sorry glances thrown your way as you passed people in your uncle-grandpas arms. Your brain was still processing the information not ready to believe it. You hid your face in his neck.

Happy drove you home and kept an eye on you on behalf of the others since they still had to work.

The true force hit you unhindered the next day when you stayed home from school and the news came on a couple of minutes after you had turned on the TV.

Happy was still watching after you but wasn’t in the room.

“In further news, Tony Stark, billionaire and owner of Stark industries, went missing after an attack on the cars escorting him to another demonstration of his newest weapon in Afghanistan. Here’s Jennifer Hendersonwith the story.”

“Tony Stark went missing yesterday as he was escorted to another base where he would demonstrate his newest weapon. On a barren strip of land the caravan was said to have been attacked and completely destroyed. Stark was said to have been the only one missing from the site of the attack which proved fatal to all accompanying soldiers. The chances of his survival are therefore suspected to be slim. Officials however will not give up the search either way.” She paused and a video of your Uncle played as she voiced the news over it.

“The official statement issued by Lieutenant James Rhodes yesterday leaves a lot of questions unanswered by the public. Though he assured the press that he will not give up the search until he finds Mr. Stark. Be it alive or dead.” The video stopped and a picture of you and him was on screen.

“Its a truly horrifying thing to happen especially since he is the single father of a 6 year old boy. (full/n)-Stark, last in the public eye 2 years ago when attended a press conference with his father. Is holding up as well as you’d expect him to. He was told the news yesterday after school. According to Obidiah Stane the boy is heartbroken and was taken out of school to digest the news.” The report ended and they cut back into the studio.

“Poor boy.” And with that they moved on. A report on something else followed but you didn’t listen. You were frozen. Staring at the television like it personally had taken him away from you.

Your throat was closing up and your vision blurred while you digested the fact all over again. You didn’t want it to be real. It shouldn’t be real. He was supposed to come home in a few hours. He was supposed to give you one of those bear hugs and take you to the amusement park on Saturday. He was supposed to- he wasn’t coming back. Not today, and not for a long time. Maybe not ever.

You sniffed as you hurried into your room, tears finding their way over their face while your stomach was having it’s fun twisting itself. You crashed onto your bed and curled yourself into the big shark laying next to you.

You cried out to your dad wanting him to just come to you and take you in his arms and just keep telling you that it was all a dream, a horrible horrible dream. You cried until you fell asleep again after just waking up, you had barely noticed Happy come into your room and hold you close as you wailed, until you fell asleep in his arms. Neither did you see his sad face, you weren’t the only one devastated by the news. Though you felt very alone.

The week home passed agonizingly slow. It was all just a blur of sadness, anger, hugs, emotion filled talks and tears. You had some times were you felt happy but then you immediately felt guilty for feeling happy. Your dad was probably not happy right now, how could you be if he wasn’t?

You weren’t used to so many negative emotions swirling in your mind. It was stressful and tiring, you barely had the energy to get through the day without needing a nap every few hours. These negative emotions made you physically tired more than you were ever tired. But they also made you lash out at Happy and Pepper for the first time in your life. These weren’t nice emotions and you didn’t want to feel them. You’d rather feel nothing than this.

The first day back at school you were welcomed by the smiling faces of your friends. They didn’t ask where you were and just talked to you like you never really left.

You liked that, the adults and older kids would always send you sorry glances but your friends were the same as always.

With school, the next week became easier to bear, it took your mind off of things. At night the sadness crept in but it wasn’t a constant state of mind. Pepper had suggested writing down everything you did and felt every day so that your dad could read it when he came back and catch up on all he had missed.

You barely saw or heard from anyone besides Happy. They all seemed extremely busy, Rhodes was searching for your dad, Pepper had to deal with canceling and scheduling meetings and interviews and such, and Obie just said he was busy you didn’t know with what.

You busied yourself when you were home carefully avoiding not doing anything. You crafted and invented both useful and useless things. Like a “Rain maker” for some of the plants that you had around the house, or modifying your remote controlled car to drive around the house with an alarm clock on it every day at 5 am. Why? Because it annoyed Happy and amused you. It was very funny and you recorded it for your father to see once he was back. And you strongly held onto that belief.

You also learned how to cook simple things together with Happy as you were getting sick of fast food. You ultimately both learned that you should keep the fire extinguisher closer to the oven, and how to make some good spaghetti with meatballs. At least as good as they get when an unskilled body guard and a 6 year old first time cooker make them together. It was also around that time that Happy and Pepper found out about your ability to use the force. And they seemed really happy for you. Maybe a bit shocked but happy nonetheless.

Things calmed down after a month passed and Pepper visited more frequently, Obie still seemed to be busy though.

You talked with Pepper, which you stopped calling aunt since you didn’t feel like it fitted her anymore, about all kinds of different things. Stories about you and your family, how you scared her so much once she almost fell down the stairs, and how you both went shopping together to get your dad a birthday present without him finding out.

Pepper might have spent the least amount of time in your life than any other member of your family but she was one of the most important people in your life. A sort of mother figure from the start your older self would later realize, but for now she was just Pepper. The best person to talk about your feelings with. And the one seemingly understanding you the most. She knew just how to make you feel less alone.

Chapter Text

Easter was this weekend. You never celebrated in a religious sense but liked the preparation for it in school, like the crafting of egg baskets or drawing on eggshells. Still, you didn’t like the thought of it passing without your dad by your side. The thought of him not hiding a few sweets around the house was saddening.

It’s been almost three months without him, and while you weren’t losing hope, clinging to the thought of him being alive, you really wanted him to be home for Easter so you could give him the egg you had colored in art class. It had the easter bunny on it. Or rather your best impression of it. You really didn’t know what a humanoid rabbit had to do with jesus coming back from the dead, but you liked to think it had some connection. And now you had no smart ass dad who would answer your question with an outrageous and funny story exactly why the Easter-bunny and Jesus were connected before telling you the real truth an hour or so later. It bummed you out. And researching it yourself didn’t have the same feeling to it.

Tuesday evening you were unaware what was just happening on a continent miles and miles from home. While you were falling asleep in his bed that was barely holding his scent anymore, a certain someone had just escaped his captors. Miles and miles away from home. And was now lost in a seemingly endless desert.

So you fell asleep feeling secure surrounded by the faint smell of your father still lingering deep within his unchanged sheets.

The dream you were having was hectic. It had slides, fireworks, a gameshow with ghosts and much more seemingly senseless themes that made complete sense within the dream.

Around 3am, maybe later, you were woken up by your uncle. He was shaking you a bit. Gently whispering for you to wake up, that he had good news and such.

You, half asleep, sat up yawning and were handed a phone by an ecstatic looking uncle Happy.

“Hello?” You mumbled as you rubbed the sleep out of your eyes. Still exhausted from the early wake up.

“Hey, Stark Jr. Good morning. I have someone here who desperately wants to talk to you. He said it can’t wait. Should I let him?” Rhodey’s voice came through the speaker sounding as if he was speaking through a smile.

In your tired confusion you just said “Yeah?” not really thinking about anything but how tired you were.

“Hey Bug. How are you?” The tired familiar voice sounded through the phone and awoke you suddenly.

You paused for a second, your still half sleeping brain processing the voice that was ringing through the phones speaker. Your stomach had reacted before you and was giving you a ton of happy little kicks.

“Daddy?” You asked in a shushed tone almost afraid it wasn’t true. That your mind was just playing a cruel trick on you. But smiling nonetheless.

“Yeah Bug, how’ve you been?” A voice that clearly belonged to your father said softly with a smile you wouldn’t be able to see.

“Daddy!” you said as your grin grew.

“Yeah I think we went over that.”

“I’m great! Are you okay? When are you coming home?” you said basically bouncing up and down in his bed.

“I’m fine now. We’re boarding the plane in a few minutes so about, a handful of hours? I’ll be home soon don’t worry. What’s the time over there? Did Happy wake you up?”

“I don’t know, yes. Come home soon daddy. Can I pick you up at the airport?”

“Of course, you and Pepper and Happy will all come to the airport later okay?”

“Okay!”

There was a short pause.

“I have to hang up now sweetie, see you soon. I love you.”

“I love you too daddy. See you later.”

And with that the call ended and your cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so brightly, happy tears were rolling down your cheeks. You sniffles as you said the next words.

“Uncle Happy, Daddy’s coming home!” You jumped around the bed full of energy you didn’t know what to do with before engulfing you uncle in a hug. Happy smiled and returned the bear hug.

“I have to show daddy what I’ve done while he was gone! Where is my diary? I need to check it.” Happy handed you your diary together with your pen knowing full well you wouldn’t go back to sleep now. You began flipping through it perfecting everything so your dad would know in full detail what you did the last three months. Happy left you to it and began making breakfast. Really early breakfast.

You ate and went to school like normal but today you were telling everyone about why you were so happy. The fatigue from being woken up so late hadn’t set in at all.

Back home you prepared your diary some more and put the timeline you had crafted in school with your pictures in the back.

“Daddy will like this.” you said to yourself and put it in your backpack ready to go pick him up. Though you were gonna have to wait one more hour for that.

You just bounced around the mansion making sure all your craftsmanship was still intact so your dad would be able to see them and be proud. Knowing that if you sit down for too long you’ll fall asleep.

You also couldn’t wait to show him the egg you had painted in school. You couldn’t wait for all the things you had planned with him to happen.

When Happy had called you to get going you basically sprinted into the car. Your legs where bouncing up and down so fast that your didn’t see them clearly.

On your way to pick up your dad you picked up Pepper too. She seemed like she had been crying so you gave her a hug, hers always made you feel better. So you returned the favour basically.

You talked the whole drive there about all the things you were going to do together. The amusement park being highest on your list, followed by going camping, and the zoo and playing together. And not to forget showing him all the progress you had made with the force.

As soon as the car was parked you jumped out and looked around yourself only to see nobody. That was a bit of a downer but you could live through a few more minutes of wait. You passed your time by talking to the strangers present at the site. Some paramedics gave you a lollipop. So you stuck with them for almost 20 minutes just talking about everything and nothing.

A plane soon landed and rolled up to you all. When the ramp opened you were basically vibrating with excitement. As soon as it touched the ground you said screw waiting and ran up to your dad. The impact of your hug almost sending him backwards if Rhodes hadn’t been there to grab onto his arm.

“Good to see you again Bug. I hope you didn’t miss me too much.” You just held onto him for a few minutes until you were certain that this was your father and that he was actually back. When you looked up at him you were crying.

“Come here buddy.” Rhodey said and stretched out his arms. As you went to him he picked you up and carried you down the ramp.

“I missed you too, you know? It’s not like I have seen you either in the past months.” Rhodey commented and tickled you.

“Where’s my hug huh? Where’s my hug?” He said grinning as you squirmed and laughed from being tickled.

Rhodey sat you down while your dad was talking to Pepper. You gave him a quick hug and ran away, not wanting to get tickled again.

Once you all were in the car Pepper was in the front seat first making phone calls, after bickering with your dad, while you were ranting to your dad about all the things you had done and learned while he was away.

“I can crush a spoon now!”

“Oh really? Show me .”

“But I dont have one.”

“You can show me once we’re home alright?”

You nodded and continued your rambling and how you had some gifts for him so he would know what you did while he was away.

When you stopped at Burger king you got some chicken nuggets from them, then it was off to the press conference Pepper had organized short term. She seemed really stressed.

You walked into the building walking next to your father, still eating your nuggets while the press people took pictures. You smiled and waved at some of them but didn’t answer them as your mouth was full. It was bad to talk with your mouth full, you could choke and it was rude.

Inside a man named AGENT Coulson grabbed your attention and you decided to stick with Pepper and him instead of your dad and Obie. You still had a clear view of your father so all was fine.

“Is your name really Agent?” You asked him before he could even say hello.

“…No, uh my name is Phil Coulson, agent is like a title. Cool shirt by the way.” he answered pointing at your Captain Magic shirt.

“That’s sad, agent would be a cool name. And thank you Daddy bought it.” You said, Phil just nodded.

You were about to ask another question when your father started talking. You listened a bit but decided to just look at the agent instead trying to figure him out. That seemed much more interesting.

You stayed standing since you weren’t paying attention and a few people chuckled when your father was telling you directly to sit down. Embarrassed you did as told.

Once your dad was done with his announcement all hell broke lose, people were taking pictures and asking questions but your dad just went off the stage and out of the room with Obie.

You were confused about the ruckus so you stayed with Phil, he seemed nice and Pepper and Rhodes were close by so you felt safe. Also it looked like they were going to argue and you really didn’t like it when they did.

“So, are you like a spy?” You asked him picking the crumbs out of you chicken nuggets box.

“No, I mean kind of? I’m an Agent, I’m working with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.”

“Thats a long name. What are you doing here? Spying?”

“No,” he chuckled “We need to ask your father about the circumstances of his escape. I already made out a date with miss Potts. So I think I will see you again soon,” Escape? So he was kidnapped? You shrugged off the thought.

“Cool… So do you have a gun then, like in the movies?”

“I do have a gun from time to time but not currently.”

“What do you do with it? Kill people?”

“I try not to.”

You were stunned, there was a person who claimed that he was an agent for a Division you had never heard of and he was telling you how he had probably killed a few people. Your mouth was hanging open.

Before you could ask any other questions he was gone and so was everybody else besides Pepper who was waiting for you.

At home, once you two were alone, you told Tony all about what you’ve been up to while he read your diary. You talked and talked and talked until you were finally tired. You fell asleep on the couch with a piece of Pizza still in your hand.

Tony smiled down fondly at you, despite you being torn away from him for almost three months you didn’t treat him much differently than before.

You were still the rambling mess of a little boy he remembered. And very inquisitive about the arc reactor in his chest.

He put down your diary, took the pizza piece, and covered your body with a blanket.

Well you might have become a bit more clingy. He thought while stroking your hair softly. He had been so afraid of what might happen to you if he doesn’t come back. He didn’t want you to end up like him. He wants you to grow up knowing that you can rely on him, that you always have his support. And he cant do that when he’s dead.

He shuddered out a sigh and put you to bed.

Chapter Text

The first week home was spent doing whatever you wanted to do. Clinging to your fathers side as much as you could. Literally only giving him privacy when he went to the toilet or to shower. And even then you asked where he was going. You had an urge to know where he was and what he was doing at all timea. He also showed you the cool mini arc reactor in his chest. It made for a nice nightlight.

You went “Hiking” when he was in a bit of a better physical form. There you found several cool sticks to fight monsters with and some neat rocks you took home with you and put on your windowsill.

You went to the amusement park and rode a Rollercoaster for the first time in your life, it was NOT as much fun as you had imagined. It was terrifying.

The both of you visited so many places in a spawn of almost two weeks that you felt a bit overwhelmed.

Today was Friday and with that the last day you were excused from school.

“Where are we going?” You asked bouncing around your dad who was currently getting dressed all fancy.

“Lets visit your favorite uncle shall we?” he said and you cheered. You were going to visit Rhodey!

“Can I wear my uniform?” You asked already on your way to the dresser. Rhodey regularly provided you with uniforms for you to play dress up in. Some in the standard military camo style, some the same as his. Your dad agreed and let you change.

You walked into the hanger and spotted Rhodey immediately. He was wearing the same uniform you were.

You ran over only shouting a his name for a short warning and jumped into his arms.

Your dad was better with entrances than you.

“Uncle Rhodey! Look what I’m wearing!” You said as he sat you down.

“Whoa we’re twins!” You giggled.

“We can’t be twins! You’re my uncle.” you said as if Rhodey didn’t know that already.

You were introduced to the cadets and your dad said something that they found funny. You didn’t get it.

While your dad was talking you were looking around at the planes. Walking around and touching the exterior.

Immersed in them you didn’t notice that Rhodey had left.

“Uncle Rhodey can I- Where’d he go?” you asked looking around. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“I think I made him a bit mad.” Tony said truthfully.

“Did you make fun of him? Cause that’s not nice.” you said as you took his hand and wandered back out towards your car.

“No it’s more complicated than that.” He said not explaining any further.

“Because of the weapons?” you asked making him stop for a second before continuing.

“Yes, yes it’s because of the weapons.” you just nodded. You might be young and often times oblivious but you weren’t stupid. That’s what Tony realized today. He couldn’t really shelter you of those topics.

And you never really didn’t listen.

While you were dozing off on your own workbench your dad was in full work mode back home. You only stayed awake as far as to grasp the extend of what he was doing. An Armour of some sort which was cool in your opinion. But not cool enough to keep your tired mind awake.

You woke up early the next day in your bed. You made your way into the kitchen and ate the first tasty thing you saw in the fridge. Jarvis told you that your dad was still in the lab.

You finished eating, grabbed some leftovers and made your way down the stairs the door opening automatically for you without the need of a password.

“Good morning dad.” you said and put the box of leftovers and a fork down beside him.

“Good morning Bug, thank you.” he said putting his tools down and kissing the top of your head.

“Go change. You don’t have any shoes on.” he said and you left him to his food.

Your father didn’t want you to help with the armor so you started your own project. A little robot. Your dad would help you with the hard stuff so you were starting with the easy one which was basically just sketching how you wanted it to look and putting the pre prepared pieces together.

You both worked in relative silence, there was music playing in the background. You disassembled one of your remote controlled cars for its wheels and motor, and worked from then on out.

“Hey, (y/n). Wanna see me fly?” Tony asked holding up his boots.

“I can make you fly without the boosters.” you chuckled at the thought but came over to watch anyway.

“I’d rather not be force choked by my personal mini Darth Vader.”

You took a seat beside Dum-E and watched intently.

“Alright. We’ll start of easy with 10% thrust capacity." he explained got into position and, threw himself right into the ceiling ledge. You couldn’t hold in your giggles, especially when he got sprayed with the fire extinguisher. God Dum-E was the BEST.

Your dad glared at you once he had wiped his eyes free.

Quickly you used the force to pick up some of the fire extinguisher stuff and flung it back into his face like a snowball. Then you ran away knowing full well that he was about to do the same to you.

For lunch you dragged your dad upstairs to cook you some food. You didn’t like living off leftovers.

He made you spaghetti with tomatosauce. You couldn’t decide whether it tasted good or horrible. It was some weird mix inbetween.

Back downstairs your dad was working on a flight stabilizer. You got bored with your robot so keept yourself busy with multiple tasks. Like drawing, singing, dancing, playing with your dolls and action figures, and stuff like that. You didn’t want to go upstairs since you’d be all alone up there and that’s boring and lonely. You don’t like being alone.

Pepper came, hours later when it was already dark outside. And she had a present! It was for your dad but it was still a very exciting moment for you.

"I thought you were done making weapons.” She said and he explained that it wasn’t a weapon but a flight stabilizer and after he said it was safe flung himself backwards with it, he fell over with a thud. You giggled. Your dad getting slightly hurt was really funny.

You followed your mom Pepper and your dad upstairs and started inhaling the pizza as soon as you saw it.

You stopped listening in on the conversation Obie and Tony were having, it seemed tense, and decided to look at the screen of the laptop Pepper was holding. She was writing emails which seemed to be a very boring task. You tried to read what she was writing but she turned the screen away as soon as you did. You held out a pizza piece for her but she refused. Shrugging you ate it yourself. Your dad went back into the lab. You would’ve followed but you like to eat some more pizza. And you weren’t alone up here now.

“What is he doing down there (y/n)?” Obie asked leaning over you a bit. It made you feel really small so you looked away.

“Dad says it’s a secret. I can’t tell anyone not even you. But I can tell you what I’M doing there!” you said looking at everything but him. You weren’t actually told to keep it secret but you didn’t like your uncle-grampas tone. He was being, weird.

“What are you doing down there?”

“I made a drawing. And I play pretend and I’m making a robot from my toy car.” you said willing to share your projects.

“Thats nice.” he said in a monotone voice and ruffled your hair. It didn’t feel like the Obie you know.

Chapter Text

A bit over a week later your dad was ready to fly again. And you were as tired as ever. It was late at night and you had woken up really early that day, but still wanted to see how it would go. So you forced yourself to stay awake.

Your dad started with 1% thrust capacity and hovered more than he flew. It made the room warmer with a slight breeze.

You were waiting for a crash but it didn’t come. It was exciting that he could do it but a crash would’ve been funny, maybe woken you up a little bit. Now with the warmth you were actually more tired than before.

He increased to 2.5% and hovered really closely over the cars. Your eyes were trying to close at this point.

Tony suited up and flew away with a wave.

You fell asleep the second it was quiet in the lab. Fast enough that your anxiety about being alone couldn’t kick in.

You were startled awake by a loud crash and the car alarms blaring.

Had your powers not caught you, you would’ve fallen off the chair you had been sleeping on.

Now you were just floating mid air trying to figure out what had happen with your heart beating loudly. Once your eyes adjusted you saw your dads armor laying on top of a car. There was a big hole in the roof. You smiled, too tired to laugh and sat yourself back down.

Your dad brought you into your room once the armor was off and went to sleep himself. It had been quite a long day for the both of you.

After school you went straight to the lab. Most of your time was spent there currently. Though you are bored out of your mind there most times. Your homework was as easy as ever and there was nothing to do. Smart-I was also done. She was a cute little robot and with your dad’s help was fully functioning. She mostly just rolled around making little chirping noises like R2D2. They didn’t have any particular meaning, they were just there to be cute.

Tony noticed your bored figure and decided that you could help him with something.

“Come here Bug, I need your help.” he said and you practically sprinted over.

“Look, don’t you think the suit looks a bit bland? Could you give me an idea for the colors?” he pointed at the suit on the screen. He smiled at you.

Thinking for a moment and you went away.

“one second.” you said as you moved to your workbench grabbed your pens and paper and went to work. You tried your best to draw the outline of the suit and decided on colors you likes best together.

“I’m done. Here.” you handed your dad the red and yellow drawing of his armour back with the blue spot in the middle.

“That looks great, thank you bug.”

He told Jarvis to paint the new suit the way you had drawn it. Your older AI brother made a snarky remark about it being very subtle. But before your dad could respond some reporter lady caught his eye. She was talking about a party for your dad.

“Jarvis did we get an invite for that?” he asked and Jarvis said that he didn’t.

Your dad decided to go there and crash his own party.

“Can I come?” you asked walking after him. You’ve never been to one of those parties.

He thought for a second. What was more irresponsible, leaving a six year old alone in a mansion with robots but also dangerous tools and sort of weapon, or taking him to one of the rather tame business parties/galas full of strangers and only a little bit of alcohol.

Both were pretty irresponsible but he really didn’t want to leave you home alone since you asked to go with him.

“Alright put your best suit on! We’re leaving in 10 minutes.”

You did as told and put on your good suit you had only worn a few times before.

Tony helped you with the tie and buttons and off you went speeding down the streets. You liked to drive fast. Well you liked when your dad drove fast, you had no idea how to drive. Yet.

Before arriving your dad handed you your sunglasses knowing that camera flashes would blinding as soon as he steps out of his car.

He helped you out of the car and as predicted the media went nuts. You waved at the reporters as Tony guided you along into the building.

Inside you walked past a load of people swaying to and talking over the music.

“Stay close.” Your dad said not letting go of your hand.

You weren’t planning on leaving anyway to be honest you kind of wish right about now that you hadn’t told him that you didn’t want to be carried.

At the bar you saw a familiar face. Coulson was talking to your father before said man left without you noticing. You had been too busy staring at the Spy-Agent to pay attention to your father.

But your father didn’t notice either.

“Hi again.” you said smiling up at the man.

“Hello, (y/n) right? What are you doing here?” He asked while you climbed up the barstool. He helped you a bit.

“Thank you, daddy took me with him. And you?” You asked right back. You were confident in your conversation skills.

“I was invited.” He stated.

“For the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division?” You asked turning the glass of juice the bartender gave you.

“Yes. You memorized that?” he asked a bit stunned. You could only nod. It was rather easy for you to keep stuff in your head. Memorizing is one of your talents.

“Do you have your gun now?” You questioned remembering the last time you talked.

“No. And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” He said winking. You nodded once again and let your eyes wander through the crowd of people dancing. You couldn’t see your father anymore. Just as you were about to panic he came back. But then Phil was gone. Today is strange. Maybe Phil could teleport, who knows.

“Hey Bug, sorry I left you. I was just on the balcony with Pepper for a bit.” He explained taking the question out of your mouth and ordered two drinks. He told you that one is for Pepper before he could take them and walk with you to the roof he was interrupted by a reporter lady. A different one, one that wasn’t in the TV before. You had never seen her before.

She gave him some pictures and asked him questions in a rude tone. Before you could react they were gone. Tony had an energy about him that didn’t make you want to be involved with whatever was going on. He’d come back. He will. Most likely. Hopefully.

You grabbed your and Peppers drink without the bartender noticing and made your way onto the Balcony which you searched for for about three minutes. Pepper was standing there with her hair open, you almost didn’t recognize her.

“Here! Daddy got it for you but went outside after a reporter gave him some pictures of a war zone and the weapons of the bad guys.” you said handing her the glass in your left hand. The one that smells bad but looks nice.

Pepper took it and looked at you a bit.

“The bartender just let you take the drink?” she asked concern in clear on her face.

“He wasn’t looking.” you said and took a sip of your juice. Pepper nodded and did the same.

“You look nice.”

“Why thank you sir. That’s so kind of you. You look great as well.”

“Thank you!”

After a bit of a pause Pepper spoke up again.

“You want me to bring you home?” She asked. You thought about it and nodded. It’s a bit too much here for you and your dad would be fine with Pepper taking you home.

Maybe he went to the city on the pictures to help. Or maybe he went home to do some research. Who knows? You wanted to know. Pepper took your hand and you left being driven home by a driver you didn’t recognise. But it didn’t matter to you since he was kind enough.

You hadn’t even realised Uncle Obie was there until the car drove off.

Chapter Text

You arrived at your home about an hour later. Traffic had been bad on the direct way so your driver took a detour. The house was empty so Pepper stayed for the night not wanting to leave you alone. You were glad about that.

The next day you woke up with your alarm, ate and brought some food downstairs as usual. But it was still empty. Pepper had left after breakfast telling you to call her if Tony wasn’t back when it’s time to go to school.

You got dressed, brushed your teeth and did your hair before waiting in the lab, what was left of it at least. Good thing you had shoes on. Your legs were bouncing in anticipation and anxiety. But to your relief Tony came back about 30 minutes later in the newly painted, and damaged suit.

He tried to let it be taken off but it stuck to him making you giggle which in turn made your presence known to him.

“Oh, hey Bug. What time is it?”

“7.06am.” you told him and watched with amusement as he scolded Jarvis for not being able to take off his suit.

Pepper came in a few moments later. She didn’t laugh.

“Are those bullet holes?” You frowned, are they?

Your day at school was uneventful and the classes were boring. At least your friends were there to entertain you during breaks.

You were picked up by Happy and brought home. Your dad was working in the lab and you did your homework and then spent your time playing with your Action figures and dolls upstairs, you didn’t know the difference but apparently there was one. Jarvis kept you updated on your dads progress as well. It made you feel more secure knowing what he was doing and where he was.

“Captain Magic, save us!!!” you half shouted in a high pitch moving your civilians who were stuck in a ‘burning building’. Swiftly your Captain Magic figure entered the scene. “Oh thank god, it’s Captain magic!” the civilians cheered. But what’s this? Captain Magic began blowing on the fire to increase it? Oh no!

“What are you doing Captain Magic? We’re gonna die if you continue!” said one of your dolls stuck in the building.

“*gasp* That’s not Captain Magic at all!” said another.

Your second Captain Magic action figure then made her entrance.

“She’s not the real Captain Magic! I am!” She said floating in front of the building. The crowd both in and around the building gasped.

“An imposter??”

“But how? They look exactly the same!” you voiced the peoples distraught. “How will we know the difference!?”

There come the firefighters starting to spray the building down as the REAL Captain Magic carried the people from the building to the ground. Then suddenly the imposter attacked. “Ugh! Why are you doing this?” the real one asked as the imposter continued to attack. Throwing punches and kicks with skill. You made fighting noises as the fight continued.

“You could be good! We could help the people together!” Plead the real one as she kept the fake one down.

“I’d rather die than help you!” She said in a rough voice. Captain Magic punched her.

“Who send you?” She asked. But before she could get her answer a giant robot swooped into the scene.

“Oh no it’s Megarobot! What will we do now?”

You couldn’t continue your scene as Pepper interrupted it as she walked past. Making you stop and watch her.

“What are you playing?” She asked.

“Captain Magic appeared next to a burning building but instead of saving people she made the fire bigger. But it wasn’t actually Captain Magic it was an imposter. The real one came and they fought and then Megarobot came, and that’s where we are now.”

“That sounds intense. I’ll leave you to it then. Is Tony in the lab?” You nodded and waited til she was gone to continue your story.

The characters floated back into position and you continued.

You couldn’t for long though since Pepper came back soon, she looked like she was in a hurry.

“Where are you going?” you asked sitting up straighter.

“To your dad office.”

“Can I come?” You stood up before she could answer. She thought for a moment.

“I’m sorry sweety, but I can’t take you with me today. Next time okay?” Defeated you sat yourself back down. And continued playing, this time more half heartily. You had really wanted to go with her.

Well your moping didn’t last too long. Only a few minutes later the fight continued this time they defeated Megarobot together.

And yet Imposter Captain Magic attacked the real one again as soon as he was taken care of.

“Stop with this! You can still become good.” Captain Magic said with desperation in her voice.

“Don’t you get it? This isn’t about being the bad guy. This is about you! You ruined my life! This is the day I can finally get revenge!” The imposter said and tore Captain Magics hands off the roof without further elaboration. Captain Magic fell, her Cape which made her fly was gone so she had no chance of survival. And all the while the imposter laughed like a maniac.

And with that the story ended and the real hero, died.

Or did she?

“You’re just gonna kill her like that?” Tony commented as your imposter figure flew away.

“Yeah, but it’s not over yet.” you smiled at him.

“I see Pepper and Rhodes same gift mishap was actually a win. Huh?”

You nodded full of enthusiasm. There was so much potential in having the same figure twice.

“Alright but it’s time to clean up here. It’s late. It’s way past bed time for you.” He said pointing to the darkness that was visible through the window. Woah, when did that happen?

Reluctantly you grabbed your figures and trotted off into your room to put them away, floating some back to your room. While you did that you found your old headphones. You had gotten them together with a cheap mp3 player in a kids magazine. Intrigued and totally having forgotten about the plan of cleaning up. You plopped down on your bed and went through the saved music. They were mostly songs your dad liked with some more modern songs inbetween, like lady gaga. You smiled as you mouthed the words nodding your head along. Silently you put on a show to Rihannas Umbrella. It was such a great song. If you knew the word iconic you would’ve used it to describe the song.

Remembering your actual task at hand you stood up after a deep breath, put the mp3 player in your pocket and walked out.

As you rounded the corner to the living room still feeling great about the songs playing, your stomach dropped.

Obidiah was leaning over your father with a weird device in his hand. The air was caught in your throat as you heard his voice over your music. You quickly, and silently paused the music just as he said something about. “-killing the golden goose.”

You watched in horror as he placed the device on the arc reactor in your fathers chest. Your dad didn’t move.

“But, you see, it was just, fate you survived that” your father let out a grunt as the device clicked and Obie started turning it. Your breath shuddered and hand started shaking. You wanted to scream and hit him as he pulled out the arc reactor but you were rooted in place by a primal fear that took over. With a voice that would haunt you he said.

“You just had one last golden egg to give.” You felt dizzy. You weren’t known for nightmares but you were sure that this was one.

As tears started rolling down your cheeks as you heard the arc reactor being pulled completely from your fathers chest. The sound it made was sickening.

And why wasn’t your dad moving? Why was he just laying there, letting him do all of these things. Stealing the thing that kept him alive.

Obie was making himself comfortable next to Tony, holding the reactor infront of him as if he enjoyed seeing him struggle. Drawing out his words in a low growl. Like he knew you could spot them. Like he knew he had to be quiet.

As he calmly put the reactor in a suitcase you hid back into the shadows.

“It’ll be such a shame when little Y/n finds you after he wakes up. He’s gonna be heartbroken and I will have to raise him. Just like I raised you.”

Holding both hands over your mouth as he walked down another path to get out you let out a small shuddered breath.

As soon as you couldn’t hear him anymore you rushed to your fathers side.

“Daddy! Daddy are you okay? Daddy say something!” You shouted in your panic, shaking him a bit and sobbing every time you took a breath.

“lab” He struggled to say, you knew what he meant. You stayed beside him helping him up and towards the elevator. Still having to sob with every few breaths.

“You’re gonna be okay daddy, I’ll help you daddy.” You repeated often reaching the elevator you barely used. Tony had to lean against the side of it, breathing heavily. The shock still running through you, you felt like the word fuck. Fuck what are you gonna do? Fuck what is happening? Fuck is your dad gonna die?

The elevator stopped and you jumped out as soon as you could leaving your father to search for the gift Pepper had given him a few days ago.

“Jarvis where is it!?” You asked the AI but before he could answer Dum-E whirred into action picking the glass box up and holding it out for you to take.

“Thank you!” You sobbed and tried to pry off the gass from the bottom but it wouldn’t budge. With a short look at your father a few feet away laying on the ground you smashed the box and broke off the reactor.

You almost tripped over your own feet trying to get to him. Dropping down on your knees beside him he took the reactor from you and with as much finesse as he could muster connected it back into the hole in his chest.

When the reactor started to glow a soft blue shade you breathed a sigh of relief and started wiping the tears from your cheeks but they didn’t stop running.

Your father laid there catching his own breath gently having placed his right hand on your arm as a soothing gesture.

A few moments later Rhodey came rushing in shouting both your names.

“Tony!” He gasped as he saw the scene before him. You sitting next to Tony on your lower legs, wiping your face every few seconds. And Tony laying there almost motionless.

Rhodey dropped to his knees beside his best friend.

Tony grabbed onto Rhodey and started talking. Where was Pepper, that they had to find Obidiah and so on.

Your dad with the help of Rhodey stood up and started to get suited up.

In a flash he was gone and Rhodey was left alone with a small traumatised boy by his side.

With a deep breath he picked you up. He couldn’t leave you here especially in your state.

“Let’s go buddy. Wanna help me help your dad?” He asked placing you in the back of the nearest car. You just nodded and buckled up. Rhodey wiped your tears away and closed the door.

The car ride had a soothing effect. Within the short time you calmed down tremendously. You almost fell asleep, these few minutes had drained your very being of all the energy it had left. You woke right back up as soon as the car stopped moving.

“Hey bud, you wanna be carried?” Rhodey asked getting out of the car in a hurry and opening your door.

You nodded and let yourself be pulled up by the man. Wrapping your arms around his neck and laying your face on his shoulder as he walked into the base.

Rhodey just continuously talked to you. That you were brave and a strong little boy. That your father was fine now. There is nothing to worry about any longer. You were save and so was everyone else. And so on.

In a sort of control room there were people loudly speaking to each other. Rhodey walked in with you and straight to one of the men who was holding a phone.

He said something about it being just a training exercise.

The people there fell silent. You were still in Rhodeys arms when he sat down. And fell asleep holding onto your uncle.

You didn’t know how long you were asleep. All you knew was that you were suddenly back home next to your dad.

He was bruised and battered but looked like he was happy to see you. And you were happy to see him.

You slept in your dad’s bed that night, cuddled deep into his side. He didn’t die tonight. Partially thanks to you.

The next day was rather hectic, you woke up got done with your morning routine and then you all went to a press conference regarding the happenings of yesterday night. You even got to dress in a suit again, and you had placed your Captain Magic action figure in your breast pocket. Why? Because it looks cool.

Phil gave your dad some cards with his statement and turned to you before he left.

“Here I got you something.” He said and pulled out a small package and handed it to you.

“What is it?” you asked not wanting to rip the gift paper immediately. He smiled down at you softly. With a sort of sorry look in his eyes.

“A little gift from me from one superhero loving kid to another.” He ruffled your hair and said his goodbye. Phil knew what had transpired yesterday and just wanted to cheer you up a bit.

He left after you thanked him again. While Pepper and Tony were talking you ripped open the paper and found an action figure inside. “Captain America" was written in bold letters over the blue dressed figure.

"Whatcha got there?” Tony asked as he saw you staring at your gift reading what was written on the packaging.

“Coulson gave me a doll named Captain America!?” you said and showed him the little man and his gadgets.

Your dad smiled, a bit forced but mostly a real one. He may not like the captain usa but he certainly liked you being happy.

“Well do you know him?” He asked and you shook your head. Who the frick was this guy? You didn’t like not knowing much about the action figure if you were going to play with it. So you made a mental note to do a bit of research on the man. Was he from the comics? You didn’t read those often. And when then never something new.

Tony left after Pepper told him to go out.

Your attention was now focused on the screen instead of the doll. He made a joke and the reporters chuckled but then your dad got sidetracked after a question, he was never a good liar.

“The truth is, I am Iron man.” He said and you grinned. You were now officially the son of Iron man. Not that being the son of Tony Stark isn’t cool but Iron man sounded better. Also can Tony Stark shoot lasers just like that? You rest your case.

Rhodes scolded him for saying that but what was he gonna do? Say it’s a joke? You were happy to now finally announce that Iron man is your favorite superhero so you did. It was no longer a secret!

“You wanna know who my favourite hero is?” You asked your dad hugging him.

“Yeah! Who is it?”

“You!!” You said and Tony’s heart melted a bit.

It was late when you were finally back home, you were tired and dragged your steps while holding onto your father’s hand.

You jumped when you heard a strangers voice. It was the Private boss (Captain?) of shield, as he had introduced himself as.

He was here to talk about some avengers initiative but you were too tired to listen properly. He and your father sat down to talk properly while you let your head rest on your fathers lab slowly drifting off to sleepy town. Still holding the doll. Well, action figure. But that’s basically the same thing.

Chapter Text

It was dark. Late at night you assumed as you looked around your room. Trying to find out what woke you up. Just as you were about to move to turn your bedside lamp on there was a thump that shook the walls. Your breath stilled as cold shivers ran down your spine, pooling in your stomach. What is happening? Frozen to your bed you started at your door. Knowing whatever it was making these sounds is getting closer, but was not yet near your room. That’s when you heard it. Grunts and groans of pain leaving someones mouth. They were nearing your door together with the heavy thuds of steps.

Your eyes widened and your body shrunk together as your door was slowly opened. You were shaking as you saw silver metal plated legs stand before your too small door.

With a loud crash the thing came crashing through your doorway. Throwing dust and bricks about. A softer thud was heard, it was similar to when a sack of flour falls down. You shuddered as you heard the man groan again. He had been dropped and the soft blue light was missing from his chest. Your eyes widened as you realized who was just dropped on your floor. But you couldn’t stay focused on the man because the movement of the big silver suit caught your eye.

With two other thuds it charged towards you and everything around you clattered as you screamed.

The noises around you couldn’t pull you out of your panicked state however. You heaved a breath and continued in your terror. Repeating the word “no” over and over after your scream.

Tony had burst through the door at this point. No time to take in the mess around him he stepped over the thrown about things on your floor to get to your bed. Where you sat. Having screamed bloody murder while covering your ears and tightly clenching your eyes shut now murmuring something.

Tony plopped down infront of you which you didn’t register at all.

“Y/n, hey.” He said softly placing his hands on your shoulders. Wrong move. You flinched away quickly with a yelp and scrambled to the top of your bed where you pressed yourself tightly into the corner. Still refusing to look nor hear anything around you. You continued to mumble-chant a mixture of “no no no no no no no no” and “leave me alone”’s.

“Bug. It’s me. No ones gonna hurt you. You’re fine.” Tony said slowly creeping towards you as to not scare you any further.

“It’s fine.” He reached out his hand cautiously this time. Slowly advancing it further as if you were a small frightened animal. Only touching your arm with one finger before advancing to two and finally his whole hand. Your chanting quieted when you realised you were not in any danger.

“Open your eyes, Bug. It was just a dream. You’re save.” He said cautiously pealing your hands from your ears. Scared you peaked with one eye, your heart still beating violently. You let your eyes wander over the dimly lit room. It was a big ol mess but there was nothing scary about it anymore.

No dead father and no Iron monger. You let yourself be pulled into a hug and cuddled further into your fathers side when he tried to move back a bit to get more comfortable. After a while he spoke up.

“You want to talk about it?” He cautiously asked looking down at your shaken form.

You shook your head.

“How about cheering you up then? Distract you from the dream?”

That didn’t sound too bad. Tony could be a real clown when he wanted to. So you nodded.

“Alright then. Do you want a funny story of funny videos?”

“Story.” For those you wouldn’t have to move.

“Okay, let me think. How about I tell you the story of how your, dearest uncle got his head stuck in a fence?”

“Uncle Rhodey?”

“The very same.” He said and started explaining. “Rhodey and I met in college. He was in the same classes as I, we were both studying the same thing. And our dorms were next to each other. So we became quick friends.

The second semester we were at a party, we drank some drinks you’re not allowed to try until you’re 18.” He paused pushing into your side with his finger to get his point across. You smiled.

“And then we started to walk back to our dorms. Completely drunk. We were tripping over each other, chuckling at nothing and slurring out songs more than we sang them.” Tony chuckled remembering.

After the party to Tony’s best recollection

Rhodey doubled over laughing at Tony’s bad rendition of killer queen. The boy held no tune while drunk.

He leaned on a fence nearby, gripping onto its metal bars to steady his drunken swaying. That when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. There, in the middle of the yard at night sat a small German Shepherd puppy staring at him.

Rhodeys face lit up at the sight.

“Puppy! Come here puppy!” He said pushing his arms through the bars to get the dog to come closer. But it didn’t move. Just looking.

Tony, meanwhile had noticed his friend’s baby talk and came over to see for himself. He, also delighted at the sight, copied Rhodey in motion and called out as well.

Again the dog was unmoving. So Tony made a connection.

“Oh no, it’s cold!” He said almost appalled at his discovery. Clearly the dog didn’t move because it’s cold out. It was the middle of the night after all.

At that Rhodeys face fell. Why would someone leave their dog outside on such a cold night? His mind was set. He was gonna have to save the dog. Bring it home and take care of it. So it would never be lonely in the cold again. What bad owners would keep their dog outside in such a cold winter night? A puppy at that!

Rhodey tried to climb the fence, but he was too drunk and the fence was too high to accomplish just that.

Then he got a brilliant idea. The bars looked wide enough apart to fit through. So he squeezed his head through them and tried to go further but couldn’t no matter how much he pressed, twisted or turned.

The bars wouldn’t let him stick more than his head through to the other side. With a sigh he pulled back. There must be another way in.

He pulled back further. And. Oh no.

Back to Bug’s bed

Tony grinned. “I turned away for a second there he was. His head stuck between the bars. I don’t even know how he managed to do that! The bars had maybe this much space inbetween them.” He held out his hands infront of him. Showing a small space between them. Definetly not enough space for Rhodeys, or anyone’s head to fit through.

“So there he was crying for my help, while trying to pull his head out like a cartoon character,”

You looked at him in wonder. Smiling at the picture you had conjured up in your mind.

“What did you do?”

“I had to drunkenly break into our workshop and steal the bolt cutters. The one that firemen use. I carried them back, cut the fence and you know what Rhodey does?” He paused dramatically.

“He climbed through the fence since he apparently fit through it now. So I… he went in and I go after him, trying to get him to get out. But he was just like ‘I’m gonna get the puppy’ and when we got there? You know what the dog was?” He looked down to his side.

“It was fake! It wasnt even a real dog! I got my head stuck in the fence for a bunch of porcelain.”

You squinted. “You got your head stuck in the fence?”

“What? Np. I never got my head stuck in anything.” Tony said rather quickly caught in a lie.

You giggle at the thought of your father being the one stuck in the fence.

“Stop it,” He said defensively.

You laughed harder.

“I said stop it you little rascal,” He said now smiling himself poking his fingers into your sides, making you double over.

A week later everyone you met knew about that story. Especially the part where he had tried to frame it as Rhodey being the one stuck in the fence.

Chapter Text

The times were nearing Christmas. While your nightmares continued at irregular intervals you pretended that everything was fine once you woke up and were distracted by your father telling stories. Or showing funny videos of you as a baby. Everything was okay once you were awake.

In one of the videos you had slapped your sleeping father so hard across his face that it echoed. He had been sleeping next to you as you played on the living room floor. You were one. You had doubled over laughing.

Anyway.

You had written a list for all the people you wanted to give something and what that something was, as you did every year since you could write. On the list were your friends, family and 2 shield agents you had come to like. Phil and Fury. While you had only “met” Fury once you liked him a lot and he looked cool so you thought that he should become your friend. You had also accidentally written Obie on the list but you were a little better in dealing with your feelings about him while awake, so it didn’t make you feel too bad.

You showed the list to your father who chuckled at some of the things you wanted to give the people on your list. He agreed in helping you get the things you wanted to give out and joked about whether or not he would get a gift.

“No” you deadpanned and walked away leaving him wondering whether or not you were joking.

Sometimes he really couldn’t tell.

You went to work.

The gifts you wanted to give were all in need of a self made card. And so you put all your school learned skills in card making to good use crafting 8 Christmas cards for all the people on, and off your list.

The first one was a bright blue one with a little captain America cut out that held a present instead of a shield, for Coulson. It wasnt the best cut out but you are only 7.

Fury’s had a Christmas tree with glitter. You didn’t know him that well yet so you had to play it save. The card dripped with glitter as you put it to the side.

Your 3 friends all liked iron man so you put one on on each of their cards. Two wearing a different Christmas hats and one saying happy hanukkah instead of Christmas. Sammy had explained what hanukkah was at school after you asked why she didn’t do Christmas cards for her family. She said they celebrated that instead. But she would still get a gift from you. To you Christmas was no religious holiday. And she did say she still got gifts because her family would all get together so what is one more.

Peppers card was purple, one of your favourite colours, with a fat reindeer in the middle. It looked more like a round dog with twigs on its head then a reindeer but you still liked it. And she would too. She likes almost everything you do.

Rhodeys was in your opinion the best piece of artwork that ever came out of your little hands. It was a plane, one like in the place where he worked, with him inside it wearing a Santa hat and the plane spilling out presents and decorations in a stream of yellow light.

You were really proud of that one.

And your dads had a drawn picture of you, him, Mr. Krabs, Dum-E and what you pictured Jarvis would look like given a physical form. All in a house together next to a small tree that had tools hanging from it instead of decorations. Just like last years tree had looked like.

Tony had forgotten about Christmas decorations despite promising you that there would be some. Because usually you just exchanged gifts over Christmas music and move on. So in a panic he had went out the day before Christmas morning, a Sunday, and bought the last tree the last place that was still open had while you were asleep. He decorated them at first with homemade decorations and then gave up and just hung his tools on the tree. A screwdriver with wings adoring the top of the scrawny disproportionate tree.

Nevertheless you were excited at the sight and begged him for a picture next to it with him.

So this year the tree was bought earlier but the decorations stayed the same.

Now it was time to tell your dad what you wanted for Christmas, and you were ready to tell.

“…a bike! And I want a PSP with three games. Oh oh and I want a fish!”

“A fish? You already have a fish. A Cray-fish.” Your dad said chuckling to himself.

“What.” You said with a fallen face. Realization ran over your fathers face. His eyes widened and mouth opened as to say something but nothing came out.

“Isn’t Mr. Krabs a Lobster.” The flat voice really unsettled him. It was like telling a child Santa wasnt real. Just that you had never once thought that Santa was real. The only thing you thought was real that wasn’t, was that your beloved pet Mr. Krabs was a Lobster. And not a Crayfish.

And now he had to explain himself as to why Mr. Krabs wasnt a lobster all because of some dumb dad joke he was trying to play. Great.

“Y/n, Mr Krabs is a Crayfish. Not a Lobster.”

“Why?” You frowned.

“A lobster needs saltwater, Bug. A crayfish is fine in freshwater. Hes easier to take care of. So, since they’re basically the same thing I got a Crayfish instead.”

You opened and closed your mouth trying to think of something to say and failing. Mr Krabs wasn’t a lobster, you just had to deal with that. On the way back to your room you took a long close look at your pet. He didn’t do anything wrong so you didn’t hate him. And still, you walked past without the usual greeting

The betrayed feeling did not last long. After a day of thinking about it you were over it. He was a crayfish and no one could change that. Not to forget, you wouldn’t want any other crayfish or lobster to replace the beast you could call your own. And the revelation did explain why he was so small. Nowhere near a lobster the same age.

When you went presents shopping a few days later you bought him a new plant for his tank as a gift and an apology for you ignoring him the day you found out.

Your dad was more willing to do stuff with you recently. Always saying yes to things without a second thought. So you had dragged him and Pepper out to get all the presents you had planned on in a nearby mall.

Obviously people looked, but nobody was rude so it’s a win.

Pepper had dragged the two of you into a clothing shop to look for a dress. She showed you a picture of the friend it was for and told you to look for a nice dress that would look good on her.

You, trying to be helpful, pointed out every single dress you could find. Asking whether or not that one would be okay. In the end Pepper held two dresses in each hand and asked. “Green or Blue?”

“Green.” Both you and your father said in union. Pepper nodded, put the bright blue one back and took the dark green one to the register.

You had the time of your life in the toy store. Like a kid in a toy store would, you stopped every few steps to look at something new. Your father had to remind you several times that you werent here to get yourself toys. And that Christmas was soon anyways so there was no need to get toys now.

You reluctantly agreed and left the nerf gun you held on the shelf where you had found it.

Afterwards you got to eat some waffles. You dropped Pepper of at her home and drove back being excited to wrap the presents and send them off to their new owners.

You had really been persistent in getting an address for Phil and Fury’s presents. They were very reluctant to give you any sort of information like that. So you got the address of the Shield facility where they would work and was told to just sent it there with their name on them. And yours too. Something about it possibly being mistaken for a threat if you wouldn’t.

The next day all the gifts you wouldnt personally give away were sent out. Rhodey, Happy and Pepper would come over sometime around lunch on Christmas day to receive theirs and exchange some themselves.

Chapter Text

Christmas Eve rolled around and you were too excited to go to sleep. That and the fear of having a nightmare again is what kept you awake. You hadn’t had a nightmare in a week and 3 days so you assumed that it might happen again soon.

Repeating the same motions with your Captain Magic figure above you while laying on your bed got boring quickly. And the thirst was calling. Begrudgingly you went out to get yourself water or something.

The house was quiet beside your bare feet making noise as they took another step. The floor was cold for your blanket warm feet so you walked on your toes to avoid the feeling and the weird noise as much as possible.

Walking past one of the clocks you noted dully that it was already 11.27pm. Way past your usual dream land time.

You walked into the kitchen not expecting anyone to be in it. You jumped when you saw a man standing in it before realizing that it was your father.

Sharply you breathed out the shock and moved past him to get you a glass.

“What’re you doing awake?” He asked vividly remembering having tucked you in a few hours back. You seemed pretty tuckered out then.

“I’m thirsty.”

He hummed seeming concentrated on the drink he was making in your blender. It looked disgusting.

“What’s that?” You pointed at the blender with the dark green thick liquid in it.

“A little healthy snack.” He grimaced “Wanna try?” Suddenly smirking. He looked exhausted.

You shook your head, downing your tap water in two gulps, placing the glass in the sink after.

Tony followed your example basically inhaling the thing. He didn’t look happy after.

“How is it?”

“Could be better.”

The two of you just stood there in silence for a second. Tony looked you once over.

“You can’t sleep, right?”

You nodded hesitantly. He smiled at that.

“Get dressed in something warm.” He told you immediately turning to walk out of the room.

Confused you did as told and stood in the middle of the living room wearing your winter coat, warm pants and some boots over your Pjs.

Your father carrying several things came, took your hand without a word and started leading you through the house. Up some stairs, all familiar so far. He leads you out onto the highest balcony looking over the rought waves.

“Come on.” He said waving at you to follow him.

At the point where Balcony and roof met was where he stopped.

“We’re gonna climb up here.” He explained hoisting you onto the roof and following soon after.

Climbing onto the highest roof of the mansion all the lights in and around the house turned off at once.

Your eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the newfound darkness only to find an incredible view.

There were thousands of tiny specks of light in an array of colours decorating the sky.

“Whoa,” was the only thing you could muster to get out of your mouth.

“Right?” Tony was spreading out a blanket and pillows on the roof.

You looked back and saw him holding out a big box wrapped in Captain Magic themed wrapping paper. The box was longer than it was tall. Or taller than it was wide depending on how you propped it up.

“This is for you.” Tony said as you just stared at the gift.

“What is it?” You took it and sat down on the blankets ready to tear through the thin paper.

“A gift.” He smirked and told you to open it.

You didn’t have to be told twice. With little effort the paper fell from the box and revealed the picture of a telescope on the side.

“This is so cool!” You jumped up and engulfed your father in the biggest Bear hug your small body could muster.

“Happy birthday Jesus.” He said chuckling a bit at his own joke.

Both of you started to assemble your new telescope. Tony had already taken it out of the box once to get rid of all the unnecessary byproducts of the packaging. He had assembled and taken it apart before as well. Just to get it standing as soon as possible.

Within a minute or two your star looking tool was standing proudly before you already pointing at the sky.

All fatigue was gone as soon as you got a glimpse of the moon through the device. There was so much more detail to the moon than you could’ve ever imagined.

Tony smiled softly as you continued to steer the tube to the next source of light.

“Dad! Come here look it’s a planet!” You waved him over in excitement careful not to move the Telescope.

With a grunt he stood up and waddled over leaning down to observe what you’d found.

“Wow that’s amazing, Bug. That must be super far away.”

Satisfied with his answer you grabbed your telescope again and continued exploring the universe.

In about half an hour you had found so many cool sights that Tony couldn’t keep track of all the wow’s and “look at this” he heard. Each time getting back up and looking at the star you wanted to show him. You were so excited he couldn’t help smiling with you.

But the half hour was enough for now. Fatigue finally catching up to you.

“Let’s go to bed, Bug. You’re tired.” He said softly when you sat down beside him.

“No I’m not! I wanna look at the stars some more!” You protested loudly, laying down on the thick blankets and staring up at the sky to make your point.

With a chuckle your dad copied your movements, laying his head down on his arm using the other to point out various stars.

“Do you know any constellation?” He asked eyes on the sky.

“Only the small dipper and big dipper.”

“And where are they?”

You shrugged.

“I guess we’ll just have to make up our own then.” The next 15 minutes were spend pointing out various star clusters and assigning them a name. Together you named 6 constellations: Hero, Mermaid, dog, lane, spot and circle. Not very fascinating but easy to find.

“You see that star in the middle of nowhere?” He pointed to his right breaking the silence. You followed his finger up to the sky finding the lonely star.

“That’s the one I’m gonna go built my new house on.”

You giggled.

“What?”

“You cant do that! Stars arent made of dirt! It’s like the sun! You can’t build a house there.” You said reciting all the things you had read about the sun and the stars.

“You don’t know that! You were never there.”

“I can check with my Telescope! It’s not a planet!”

“Oh yeah? Then how come we can see other planets as stars?”

“Because….” you thought about it. That’s sort of true. It could just be a planet or sort of moon from far away.

“You can’t build a house there.” You mumbled defeated.

“I can, and I will. Just you see Bug, one morning I’ll be gone and you’ll look through that telescope and see me wandering around on that exact star enjoying my new house. All, by, my,-self.” He teased poking your side with his free arm. You laughed.

Silence settled over the two of you like a comfortable blanket. Tony shifted a little placing both hands beneath his head. You put your head on his arm and continued looking up. The universe seemed so much bigger when you directly looked at it like this. Like a thousand fairy lights strung along on the colourful ceiling of a dark room. Or flicks of white paint as finishing pieces of an amazing painting.

With some sweet thoughts about the universe you drifted off content and warm on the thick blankets and your warm winter clothes.

Tony smiled at the scene. His little boy laying content beside him, scooting closer as the cold seeps through his clothes. He wanted to move, it was way too cold out here for sleeping. But he wasn’t able to. Frozen in place by his latest thoughts.

Carefully he checked if his son was actually asleep. He was, the little guy was in deep sleep his mouth hanging open and little puffs of air escaping it in regular intervals.

It was probably Christmas day already.

With a sigh he laid his head back down and stared up at the seemingly endless sky.

So this was it, this had been his last Christmas eve and will be his last Christmas. If he doesn’t find a cure that is.

Tony was still in denial about the whole thing. He doesn’t fully believe it yet, but he knows it’s there. Just months after almost getting killed, he’s slowly dying. Slowly being poisoned by the very thing meant to keep him alive.

That wasn’t the worst part about it though. The worst part was that his mind was constantly telling him that he’ll be leaving behind his very reason for fighting on. This fragile little boy full of emotions that he readily expresses. Plagued by nightmares about horrible thing he didn’t want to reveal. Who wants to be friends with the world. And who slept in his fathers bed every night for the first 4 years of his life. For over half his life.

He was only 7. And Tony blamed himself for all the shit y/n had to witness in the small amount of time he had spent on earth. Not even a decade old.

With a shuddered sigh he picked up his son and brought him inside, dropping him off in his bed and removing the boy’s warm clothes.

He cleaned off the roof and wandered down into the lab. He hadn’t checked everything yet. There was still hope that he could survive, he had to. If not for himself then for his son.

The only human being that truly relies on his survival.

Bonus because I needed something lighthearted

Nickolas J. Fury had had a long day. Recently his agents were fucking up more than usual and a good chunk were currently on Christmas leave. So many in fact that he had to go out and deal with a bunch of wannabe villains himself. And now he was walking into the shield headquarters to complete a bunch of paperwork. On early Christmas day.

With an annoyed sigh he entered his office and stopped in his tracks at the sight before him. There was a package on his desk. Brown and unsuspecting. He took in his surroundings. Nothing seemed suspicious.

Fury stepped out of his office to look for someone who could maybe tell him about it. But the halls were empty. It was late at night after all.

He sighed and carefully walked closer seeing something written on top.

It was his name and the buildings address. And there was a return address as well.

“What?” He asked himself quietly. Why would Stark of all people send him a package?

The package looked like it had actually been shipped so it probably was from him. And wasn’t just a weird joke.

Fury took his knife and cut through the tape holding it shut. Opening itcwith suspicion.

His face just grew more confused as he found a poorly wrapped box inside, everything was covered in loose silver and gold glitter. He lifted out the gift and found the glitter bomb that was a handmade Christmas card underneath.

When he lifted it wafts of poorly secured glitter fell off the front.

He shook it twice to get as much of that stuff contained in the box as possible.

Fury had a hunch on who sent the gift by the shaky child drawing of a decorated tree on the front.

He decided to sit down and read the card. Wrong move, as soon as he opened the card a spoonful of loosened glitter fell straight into his lap and onto his dark clothing. Fury tried to push the glitter off his lap with his free hand but some still stuck.

A frustrated sigh left his mouth when he gave up and read the card.

Dear Mr. Direk Director Fury,

I want to wish you a good Christmas and a happy new year.

You don’t know me a lot but I would like to be your friend because you look really cool so I got you a gift for Christmas. Because we are not friends yet I got you something I like and hope you like it too. I told Phil and he said it was a good gift.

I hope you like it.

Your new friend, full/n-Stark

Ps I like your eye patch

Fury found himself smiling at the message. It was sweet and came from a place of certain innocence. He could forgive the glitter attack. It wasn’t intentional.

Carefully he removed the wrapping paper from the box and opened the top.

Inside were several things. He took out a drawing first. It was of him and y/n next to a Christmas tree with the words we are friends written beneath with an arrow pointing at the figures.

The second thing that immediately caught his eyes was a stuffed animal. A tiger with a cape and the typical comic book eye mask thingy. The tag said it was from a children’s series. The tiger was named Stripes.

And last but not least was a small, real tiny keychain of a orange tabby also in superhero gear.

Fury wanted to full on laugh while also cursing Coulson internally.

A cat. Of course.

He was gonna have to thank the kid the next time he saw him.

Chapter Text

You are watching Happy and your dad box in the ring as you stood beside it copying their movements and fighting an invisible villain. Lots of stuff had happened recently but now that your dad was back, there was no reason to dwell on the latest happenings. Because: You had your own superhero costume!

It had been a weekend project with your dad after he caught you playing with his helmet on. He came up with the idea and you with some rough drafts of the design, then you worked together to give it the finishing touches. Creating your superhero costume all within a 48 hour time span.

There was a helmet in Iron man style but purple and blue colors which looked similar to Captain Magic’s colour scheme and it was taken off and put on like a motorcycle helmet. There were strong glasses in the holes for your eyes which Jarvis was built into. They could simulate enemy’s. Make them look like they’re really there, so you can fight them.

You had a long Cape with dark purple on the outside and a softer blue on the inside, which was attached to your shoulder plates. They were attached to your chest Armour that reached down to your waist line and was made of a thin, breathable, sturdy fabric. You also had super special gauntlets, and boots that reached your knees. You loved your look and went by the name of “Captain Storm”, after Captain Magic of course.

His superpowers are controlling the wind, time travel, and super strength. Captain Storm also has a super secret super power only to use in dire situations. Nobody knew that he can use the force! But soon he’ll be found out by his arch nemesis Madman!

You had your fun playing pretend as the door opened and Pepper walked in. She was real busy recently so you were excited to see her.

“Pepper!” You shout and run over into her arms.

“What? Who are you?” she gasped.

“Uh? I’m (y/-, I mean, I’m Captain Storm! I was protecting you of the evil lasers of Madman! You can only see them with my super special helmet! Thank me later!” You explained taking a superhero stance. You smiled up at her and went away to “fight” the evil Madman who was now targeting your family!

You didn’t even realize there was a whole stranger in the room smiling at your antics.

As soon as your father left the ring the strange lady got in it and fought Happy while Tony and Pepper talked.

You watched in despair as she took down your uncle without a problem. How dare she? That was your uncle! And an ally of Captain Storm! She must be a villain! In truth you were very impressed though. Well (y/n) might’ve been impressed but Storm saw in her nothing but a potential threat! Maybe she was even a spy sent by Madman! He just couldn’t trust her. Though he tried to copy her moves. They were really cool.

You snuck off into the side room and changes back into your “civilian clothes”.

Walking back into the gym the woman and Happy were both out of the ring.

You wandered over and let yourself fall over your dad’s lap.

“You’re finally back, Bug.” he said ruffling your hair after pulling you up into a sitting position. Instead of being sprawled over his legs like a lazy cat.

“What’re you doing?” you asked both of them, as they seemed to be doing, well, things. You didn’t really know what.

“Nothing big, just some paperwork.” He paused handing back the papers to Pepper. “Bug, What do you think about going with Happy, Pepper and me to Monaco?” He asked after you faced him properly.

“A vacation?” you were confused, you had school. Also where IS Monaco? Your knowledge of European geography didnt go further than knowing a few names of countries and their estimated location.

“Yeah, more or less. I mean going to Monaco to attend the Grand prix? You know, Formula one? Cars racing each other.” He made motions with his hands that were somehow related to race cars.

“Sure.” You shrugged pulling up all the knowledge you possess about formula one. It wasn’t a lot. You knew that your Stark industries was sponsoring or owned one of the teams and that they drove really weird and fast cars, but that was about it.

It was your first vacation in a long time so hopefully it would be fun.

Not long after your father had asked you whether or not you wanted to come you were in Monaco. More specifically in your hotel room.

You jumped around on the furniture in the large living room as your father was taking a shower. He had said to get ready but you could spare a bit of time for playing.

You let Captain Magic fly around the room after the Captain America figure Coulson had gifted you. Magic knew that Captain USA was an imposter since the real one is dead. So now she had to catch him and reveal his true identity. Though playtime was over as soon as the bedroom door opened and both Captains crashed into your father’s chest.

You gasped, and then apologized while giggling.

“Your apology is accepted, now go get dressed you rascal.” He said picking up both captains and shooing you back to the couch where your suit was waiting to be put on.

You were dressed in a few minutes, struggling a bit with the button up.

Your father tied your tie and voila you were all ready to go. Looking all fancy in your dress shirt and vest. A real charmer, as your dad put it.

You put on your sunglasses and left.

Arriving at the race track you were overwhelmed on how big it was. You couldn’t even see it all together. They really had to drive a long way around Monaco. People cheered as your father got out of the car. He did his usual spiel, while you clamored at the track. You also gave a short wave to the people before you followed Pepper and your dad inside, Happy following behind you.

Inside you where slightly overwhelmed so you just stuck to your father’s side. Natalie was also there doing stuff. You actually only found out her name on the flight here when you were back to playing pretend.

Somebody took a quick picture of the three of you while your dad didn’t stop talking. You continued to follow him around like a lost puppy.

There was the Hammer guy that was also at your dads court hearing. You could feel that they hated each other. The four of you shortly sat down on a table before Natalie came and told Tony that the other table he wanted is ready.

Your dad stood up and Pepper took your hand having realized how lost you looked, leading you over. You sat down and fiddled with the middle button of your vest.

“Wheres Tony?” Pepper asked after you were both seated.

“On the Toilet.” you said looking over to the TV where the preparations for the race were broadcasted.

“I think hes off the toilet now.” you said as you saw your dad in full racing get up on the track.

“What? Oh my God.” Pepper said and asked for Natalie to bring Happy.

Meanwhile you were ecstatic at the thought of your him racing.

The race began and you were basically bouncing in your seat. Not knowing whether your father was winning or not you still cheered him on internally.

You looked over at Pepper who still had a “I can’t believe this” expression on her face.

Your attention was drawn a few minutes after the race had begun. There was a man on the track, just casually walking along. You knew something wasn’t right even before he started to turn into a weird very villainy looking dude. You turned to Pepper only to see that she was gone. Now you were panicking. You took deep breaths, trying to calm yourself but nothing was working. Natalie placed her hand on your back comfortingly. It didn’t calm you down at all but grounded you a little. Your father was on the screen getting attacked by some random guy, without his suit, and your main support system was currently gone! You had a feeling that they weren’t away to search for safety either.

Tears were building in your eyes as the situation grew more and more concerning.

All you could do was stay there helplessly watching as your father avoided being fried by mere millimeters. You started to grind your teeth together when you saw the car you had come with ram the man into the side barely avoiding your dad. You flinched and bit your lower lip roughly.

There were several heart stopping moments before your dad could finally suit up. You’d like to say that he’d won with ease but it looked like it took a lot of effort to defeat the man.

Ultimately the man was dragged off by officers and the damage was done. You were relived that it was over.

You held onto him tightly as soon as he was within reach.

There was nothing to like about seeing your dad be in immediate danger and fighting for his life. Again.

Chapter Text

After the trip everything, and everyone, was busy. Happy had taken a week long vacation. Pepper and Natalie were having to call and answer calls from all kinds of government people. And Tony was in his lab researching about the dude who attacked him. Ivan something something if you remember correctly.
The news weren't above it either.
What was worse for you though was the stress hanging in the air. It seemed like nobody would be happy about you interrupting their work. But you also didn't know what to do with yourself. So you sat there on the ground looking off into space thinking about anything and nothing at the same time.
Then you decided to just walk around the house for a bit. Maybe you'll find something to do. As you turned the corner you saw a familiar and loved face appear not far away.
"UNCLE RHODEY!" You screeched and jumped into his arms.
"Hey there, champ. What's new?"
"Everybody is suuuuper busy and boring right now," you complained.
"Well, yeah. The attack yesterday was pretty shocking for a lot of people."
You shrugged and were put back onto the ground.
"I guess. What are you doing here?"
"I have to have a word with your dad about what happened."
"Ugh, you too?" You groaned and threw your head back.
"Yeah. Many important people are mad about what happened. They think Tony can't protect them so they want to take the suits away."
"Like the government?"
"Yes and the military and so on."
"But you're in the military?" You questioned as you were walking into the living room.
"Don't worry. I'm trying to protect him." He smiled at you and asked the room where your dad was right now.
You followed behind him but he turned around and stopped you.
"Sorry, bud. But I'm gonna have to talk with him alone, okay?"
"Why!?" You crossed your arms.
"Because I'll say some choice words you aren't allowed to use yet."
You huffed and sat down on the couch still pouting. You were allowed to go anywhere you want! This was your house!
Still angry your stomach growled loudly. So you left for the kitchen, took some food and sulked off into your room.
The next morning you woke up to a quiet and empty house. Which got you into a chipper mood.

For Tony Stark it was time to let off some off that pent up energy from sitting in the lab all day and night since he got back.
But inside the gym awaited a peculiar scene. There were you, pushing weights with all your might onto a mat layed out on the floor.
"Hey Buddy, what are you doing?" He asked both curious and amused.
You turned away from the task at hand to explain.
"I want to test how much I can lift!"
"With your hands or force?"
"The force!"
"Okay. Don't hurt yourself, alright?"
"I won't" and with that you turned back around to the task at hand. Tony watched you after changing into his gym clothes. You were so focused on scribbling into your notebook that you didn't know he was watching.
He looked on as you picked up one after another weight, putting them down inbetween to write something. He cheered you on inwardly as you struggled to lift another one and add it to the ones already floating about in the room. You added some more until it all finally came tumbling down with a loud thud that made the floor vibrate. Quickly moving to your notebook you wrote down the final amount you had lifted.
"Look how much I can lift, daddy!" You ran up to him holding up your little notebook proudly.
Tony grabbed it to stop it from moving and his eyes almost fell out of his head as he read the number with three lines under it.
"212lbs!? Wow, that's a lot," he exclaimed engulfing you in a big hug.
"That's more than 4 times my weight!" You talked on and showed him the math you had done in your book.
"No way. Wow." He paused thinking about all the documentaries on animals he had watched that talked about this kind of thing.
"That's just like an eagle!" He finally said remembering the documentary he watched with you just recently.
You frowned but shrugged. You'll take that.
"I guess your superhero name should be Eagle from now on." He joked but you shook your head.
"There is already someone named Eagle in Captain Magics team. I can't steal his name." You said matter of factly and walked off to begin cleaning up after yourself.
Meanwhile Tony wondered where Happy was for their sparring match today.
He pulled out his phone to call but then something made an elevator sound in his brain. Happy was on vacation for the next two weeks so... yeah.
He totally hadn't forgotten about that at all. Instead of dwelling on it he turned to you and helped to put away the weights.

"Iron man I need your help!" Tony jumped at the sudden appearance of his son Captain Storm behind him.
"What? Oh, what is it Captain Storm?" He asked in a serious tone.
"The evil Madman is trying to take over Brickville and I need your help defeating him and his evil goons!" You explained in a lower voice than usual, which he found adorable.
"Oh no that's terrible! How can I help?"
"We need to find his headquarters and destroy him once and for all!"
"Let's go then. We can't waste any time!" He jumped up and put on his helmet before sneaking away behind his you.
The city was a mess and located in the living room. Brickvilles Bricks were all over the place and half the city had been ravaged. No one who resisted had been left alive. As Captain Storm explained.
Nearing the headquarters Cap instructed Iron man to quieten down so they wouldn't be discovered by the very vigilant guards hired by Madman.
He had the entire city under his brutal paw.
Evading the goons outside both heroes got inside the headquarter undetected.
"We have to find Madmans office. Follow me!" Captain Storm walked forward leading the taller hero through the corridors towards what was discovered to be Madmans office just a few minutes prior.
"Stop," Storm said holding out a hand behind him before turning around. "Look, there's guards."
"That must be it then. How do you propose we get inside?"
"I sneak around to the other side and on three we take them down together."
Iron man nodded in agreement and the plan unfolded as said.
Captain Storm snuck around to the other guard further away from Iron man. He held up three fingers and lowered them one at the time indicating the countdown.
Once the last finger went down both heroes took the guards down quickly  and left their bodies in the same spot they had been standing.
Bursting through the door there he was. Madman. Sitting on his office chair and looking as though he had awaited their arrival.
"Ah. Captain Storm and Iron man what a pleasure," spoke the Bear.
"Shut up stupid! We're not here to talk. Leave the city alone and I wont punch you in the face." The Captain said. Very aggressively. Iron man was sort of taken back.
"Yeah. You heard the man Madman." He supported non the less.
Madman said no and with that Storm tackled him out of his chair and started throwing punches.
"Leave. The. City. Alone."
You really beat the crap out of that Bear.
In the end Iron man dragged Madman out of his hideout and held him in place as Storm told the citizens that they were now safe and left Madman in the hands of the public.
"Good work Stormy. I will go now I hope you can handle the cleaning up?"
Captain Storm nodded dutifully and began cleaning. First dragging the stuffed supervillain by his blanket cape into his room while several Lego houses followed.

Tony Stark always thought of himself as a rather messy and unorganized person. But he didn't think he was this unorganized. After you had nagged him about being hungry he went into the kitchen to see what was available.
Nothing apparently. Nothing for him rather. You had spotted something that peaked your interest. A full bag of frozen peas.
"What about this?" You asked holding out the peas infront of you.
"What about it?"
"Can I have it?"
"The peas?"
You nodded.
Tony frowned. This wasnt what he imagined his son wanted for dinner.
"You want a plate of...peas?"
"Yes."
"With what?"
"Just peas."
"Are you sure?" Again you nodded this time more insistent.
What the hell. What kind of child wants peas for dinner.
"But these won't fill you up."
"Not if I eat lots."
The older Stark sighed and went on to prepare you a plate of pure peas. Just peas and nothing but peas. It felt wrong to put peas in a pot all by themselves. And it felt even worse putting all of them in an empty bowl again all by themselves.
He placed the bowl of peas infront of you and gave you a spoon. You, being the semi independent little man you are, went and got yourself a fork. Meanwhile your poor father didn't understand any of the actions you were currently taking. He wondered if he ever confused his parents like you were currently doing to him.
But you seemed to be delighted by the food. Kicking your legs back and forth while chewing the peas.
Tony opted to bite into his apple and keep his mouth shut.
In the end you ate two and a half bowls of peas and was satisfied with your meal.

Pressing down random keys on the piano you were slowly getting frustrated with the bad tunes that came out of it. Nothing even resembling the melodies your father could produce.
Said man walked in just as you were dragging your fingers over the keys angrily. He was planning on telling you to get ready for bed but seeing you sitting there, trying your darnest to produce music warmed his heart with fondness.
"Playing the piano, Bug? What song?" He teased and sat down next to you.
You glared at him.
"Oh if looks could kill," He chuckled and pressed down on one of the keys.
"Want me to teach you?"
You eyes lit up. "Yes! Can you, please?!"
"Alright, come here!" He patted the spot right next to him and you slid closer. He took your smaller hands and placed them where you should press, adjusting each finger that was needed.
"What song is it?"
"I think you'll know once we play it," you weren't really satisfied with that answer.
He placed his own hands right over yours and pulled you on his lap rather than reaching around you awkwardly.
Tony pressed down and the first two notes rung through the quiet room. You groaned.
"What?"
"Thats a childs song!" You exclaimed offended.
"Yeah and what are you?"
"Too old for Twinkle Twinkle little star."
Tony laughed a little. "Bug. This is one of the easiest things to play as a beginner. You don't start with the hardest thing first," he explained and played on with your hands still being guided along.
"Twinkle twinkle little Star. How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle twinkle little Star. How I wonder what you are." Tony sang along teasingly.
"This song is stupid." You pouted.
"You rather have me sing the ABC's alongside it?" He poked you side and you moved away.
"Come on this was composed by Mozart. So I don't think it's all that stupid. Come on let's play some more,"
"Only if you play the Star Wars song!" You grinned up at him.
"Okay? I'll see what I can do," he said and placed you back onto his lap.
"This time you sing along too. Make sure I'm doing it right," he put your hands back in position and you nodded dutifully.
At first you just mumbled the words but your dad pushed you a slight bit and joined in.
You grinned and sang the last lyrics together. Giggling you pressed the last keys on your own.
"Great!" Tony praised and placed his own hands over different keys.
"What Star Wars song would the gentleman like to hear?"
"The one that goes: dun dun dun duhn dahdan duhn dahdan," you tried to describe it to the best of your abilities.
Tony nodded and thought for a second before pressing down on the first few notes of The Imperial March. You smiled brightly. He missed a few notes but that didn't bother you too much. It was sensational and you liked having your own musician in the house.
You clapped when he finished. "Whoooo. This was great!"
"Well, thank you kindly. But now is really time for bed,"
He shooed you along and into your bathroom and with that your day was over and another would soon arrive.
And then another, and another, and so on.

Chapter Text

Your dad's birthday was coming up. Actually, it was tomorrow, so you were busy with the construction of a paper mache figure of an Iron man suit to really pay attention to the happenings around you.
And you were gonna sleep over at Happys house tommorow because you had missed him and he just came back from vacation. So you had to be finished the day before the birthday, and that day is today so you were working high speed on painting the hardened human figure as accurately as possible. You were looking at 3d models of the suit on the screen in the lab while coloring the tiny figure. You had kicked Tony out since you couldn't work on his present infront of him.

Finished you placed it to dry on the desk in your room and went to go pack a bag for the sleepover.

"Jarvis? What do I need for a sleepover?" you asked pulling your favorite backpack out of your closet.

"I'd say you will need a change of clothing, your Pyjamas, and toiletries, sir. Of course, you can also pack some toys if you want to. And don't forget your school supplies." Jarvis informed and you asked for a list which he gave. Instructing you where to put what before placing it in a convenient order into your bag.

"Thank you, Jarvis!" you said putting your backpack beside your bed so you couldn't miss it as soon as you woke up. Even though Happy would only pick you up in the afternoon.
At bedtime, you were knocked out within a minute. The stress of not being finished with the figure having worn you out pretty good.

"Daddy! Happy Birthday, I have something for you!" you half shouted holding the present behind your back as you ran into the lab.

"Thank you, Bug. What is it?" Your dad said in a tired tone. He had probably been awake all night.

"Which hand?" you made him guess not dulling your great mood.

"Left," he said and you shook your head and showed him the empty hand.

"Ta-da!" you said pulling the figure from behind your back and presented it to your father.

"I've made you an Iron man! Now we can play together!" you said.

"Aw, thank you so much, Bug. I love it. Let's play together before lunch okay?" he suggested and you nodded excitedly.

The day went by slowly but your father did as promised and played with you for a little while.
"I guess now I have to make you an action figure as well, huh?" He joked but your eyes lit up and Tony realised that you were keen on that idea.

"Can you do that!? That would be so cool!"
The day passed by quickly and lunch today was a small birthday cake. It tasted nice and was full of colours on the inside.

Pepper, Natalie, and of course Happy all walked into the living room while you were watching TV not all that long after lunch and a play session with your dad.

"HAPPY!" You screeched in excitement and flung yourself at the man. "I missed you." You hugged him and were put back onto your feet just after.

"Missed you too, you little koala." He ruffled your hair.

"Can we go now?"

"Let me say hello to your dad first," you took his hand and followed him into the kitchen where your dad was more arguing than talking with the two women that had been brought over by Happy.
Happy said his hello, received a hug, and was told to just go already by you. You ran to get dressed and get your backpack while Happy waited in the living room.

"Everything ready?"

"Yep."

"Then go say goodbye to Tony and the others." He said and took your backpack as you skipped over hugging everyone goodbye and told them goodnight in advance. Even Natalie received a hug despite you not knowing her very well. You liked and trusted her to be a nice enough person.

Happy lived in a rather nice apartment close to the city centre. It was well lived in and felt very much like a home. It also had that distinct Happy-smell. Just like when you hugged him real close.
"So any idea what we're gonna do all night?" He asked as you wandered around his living space inspecting everything.

"Ooh can we play with your Playstation?" You asked right after spotting the device.

"Do you know how to play?"

You shook your head. While some of your friends had one you didn't. You did however own a gameboy, the ones you can flip open and shut, with tons of games on it, and a Wii that you barely used. How different can a playstation really be?

"Let's see. What game do you wanna play? I've got tons, come look." Happy said rather cheerfully and pulled out a bunch of what he deemed child friendly enough games for you to look at.

"This one looks cool." You said and grabbed one named 'Portal'. It was still in the plastic wrapping.

"Sure. I guess well have to learn together then." He took off the plastic and read a little bit on the back. "But we can't play it together though."

"That's okay." You said and grabbed the case. While you were opening the case and getting out the disk, your uncle was turning both TV and console on, taking out the game he had left in it.

Both of you played the game taking turns for about two hours. Well, closer to one and a half but who's keeping track. You liked the fact that you were a robot. You didn't like the fact that you and Happy got stuck pretty often. Not quite knowing what to do to finish a level. In the end you didn't get very far. But Happy also had racing games so you played those instead. You were bad with the controls at first, but with a little help and encouragement you actually passed Happy a few times.
The both of you went from one game to another and back. Ultimately ending up in a boxing game. It was technically for older kids but you could deal with it. It wasn't all that bad.
"This is nothing like the real deal." Happy complained a little as you K.O.ed him once more by just spamming random buttons.

"How would you know?" You teased.

"Because I was a boxer once."
Happy was saying this like it was obvious. You on the other hand were shocked.

"What!?" Why didn't anybody ever tell you that? Happy frowned and turned to you after pausing the game.

"You didn't know?"

"No. Since when?"

"Before I worked for your dad. How did you not know? I box with Tony on a regular basis." He was just as flabbergasted as you but for other reasons, obviously.

"I thought you were just playing."

He couldn't say anything to follow that up. Was it really not obvious that he was once a pro?

"Did you win?" You asked now very much intrigued.

"Win what?"

"The matches, did you win in the boxing matches?"

"Yeah. Yeah of course. You wanna see my trophies?"

"You have trophies!?" Your eyes widened as you jumped up in excitement. Hell yeah you wanted to see trophies!
Happy showed you a bunch of golden boxer trophies. Most were of men in boxing gear, other were just boxing gloves, and some didn't have anything statue like at all.
It was rad.

This was just like finding out Happys real name wasn't Happy all over again. You were 5 and almost cried at the revelation. You did cry when Pepper chimed in and said her name wasn't Pepper either.
And the gears in your head started turning. Nickname, boxing, most trophies had his nickname on them but a few very old ones didn't.

"So this is why we call you Happy?" You pointed almost accusingly at the plates on the nearest trophy.

"Yeah."

"Woah."

After cooking and eating and then leaving the dishes in the sink you got yourself ready for bed. You called your dad to wish him goodnight and watched random movies with Happy until you were sound asleep.
The next morning you woke up first. Happy was snoring on the couch as you wandered through his apartment before going to the bathroom to brush your teeth.
After your uncle woke up and you guys had breakfast you made your way to school which is where you told everyone about your uncle being a professional Boxer and having trophies in his house. Your friends were really impressed.
To your surprise it wasn't anyone you expected picking you up. In the usual black car sat Natalie smiling at you. The teacher already knew her so you were allowed to go with her.

"Why are you picking me up?" You asked standing in the legroom in the back and leaning over the seat infront of you.

"Your dad's grounded and everyone else was busy dealing with that."

"Grounded? But he's an adult. Do you mean house arrest? Did he do a crime?"

"Not in particular." She smiled and told you to buckle up. On the ride home you chatted with her about what you found out yesterday. She was smiling and told you that she already knew that.
Nat parked the car in front of the house and you skipped into your home not expecting it to be torn to shreds.
You saw your dad sitting in one of your see through chairs. Next to him was Fury, you hadn't seen him since last year. Ignoring the big shattered window you ran over to him and let yourself fall onto his lap.
"I'm back!"

"Welcome back, bugger." He said and ruffled your hair.

"Hi Mr Fury." You grinned at the man who returned your greeting with a nod.
Two agents carried in a case of something and Fury stood up saying he had "a two o'clock" whatever that is supposed to mean you don't know.
Your dad didn't know what he was supposed to get and argued a bit about it.

"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark industries with her cover intact. And you remember Agent Coulson, right?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, and Tony, I got my eye on you." Fury and your dad looked at each other for a short while before Fury left.
Natasha said there was no communication with the outside world and left. Wait, Natasha? What is going on? Phil said something about Supernanny? What? Was he threatening your dad?
As he also turned away you finally had a chance to speak up.

"What is going on?"

"Long story." Your dad said but that wasn't at all satisfying all the questions you had.

"What happened to the window?"

"Broke it."

"How?"

"With the suit."

"Why?"

"Was an accident."

"Why is Natalie, Natasha now? Is she a spy?"

Your dad paused, "Yes, actually."

"I knew it. And what about Mr Fury? Why was he here? And why are you Grounded? Did you do something bad?"

"Kid, stop asking questions. I don't have all the answers right now." He said in a slightly frustrated but still nice enough tone.
He looked at the box left by the agents.

"H. Stark? Your name doesn't start with H."

"Its my old man's."

"I didn't know you have dad."

"Oh my God," Tony chuckled and grabbed the box's handle, "how else would I be here if I didn't have a dad?"

"....true." you said and tried to help and push the box towards the elevator.

Chapter Text

“Can I help?” You looked over your dads shoulder as he opened the first case and dug through it.

“Don’t you have homework? Do that first and then we’ll see.”

Begrudgingly you sauntered off and got your school stuff. It’s not like it’s that important anyway, at least how you saw it.

You sat down in your room and solved some easy math, wrote a few sentences about an animal that you liked (Mr. Krabs) and you were done.

You took the papers and wandered towards the lab to show your dad your work.

“What’re you doing?”

You almost jumped out of your skin when Phil’s voice suddenly sounded beside you.

You totally forgot that he was even there.

“I’m going to show dad my homework so I can help him!”

You held out the papers for him to see. Phil took them gently and looked over them with interest.

“This is all correct. Did you write about the Spongebob character?”

You chuckled and took your homework back.

“No! Mr. Krabs is my crayfish! Do you wanna see him? He’s an old boy!” You lead the man to one of the lounge rooms off to the side where Krabs’ big tank was housed. The tank had a lot of plants so it was sometimes hard to see him. You looked through the little plants and saw him in one of his big hides, only his head sticking out.

“Look there, that’s Mr Krabs. He’s already two years old! Crayfish don’t live very long in tanks, but when they get treated nicely they can live for up to 8 years! That’s older than I am!”

“Really? What do they eat?”

“Everything! That’s why he doesn’t have any fish friends, he’d just eat them.”

“I don’t think they eat everything.”

“He does.”

Phil chuckled but didn’t argue further. You talked a little longer until you remembered what you wanted to do before and scarpered off towards the lab.

“Dad I’m done!” You shouted as you pushed the door open. Your dad was sitting in his comfortable chair reading through the books of his dad.

“Great! Show it!”

You handed over your homework and your dad let his eyes wander over it.

“Looks like it’s all okay. Grab yourself a notebook and get to reading.” He praised and pointed to the open case.

You did as told and sat down on your dads lap to read the smelly old book.

There were some really cool drawings in there, and some math you hadn’t seen before. When you showed your dad he said it wasn’t anything important. So you read and you read and you got bored. As seven year olds do when a task isn’t fun anymore.

You put a piece of paper in the notebook and walked back over to the case.

You dug through it til you found something that looked interesting.

A little model airplane. Your dad said you could play with it so you did. Making loud noises and basically setting up a racetrack in the air.

Meanwhile your dad was back to digging through the case. Another handbook for the trash.

He only peaked your interest again when he put up what looked to you like a camera and put in one of those really long tape rolls you had only seen in TV.

“What’re you doing?”

“Setting this up so we can watch what’s on these films.” He said as he put up some speakers.

“But it says it right here on the case,” You said and grabbed the round casing, “these are outtakes! From a commercial? For Stark Expo!”

“Yes yes but we don’t know what’s said on them until we watch.”

You shrugged in agreement and made yourself comfortable in your dads chair.

“Hey! Shoo. That’s my seat.” He chuckled and made a shooing motion with his hand.

You shook your head and crossed your arms in a teasing manner.

“Well, I guess I’m gonna have to sit on you now.” He shrugged and turned around.

“Nooooooo.” You said and pushed him away with your hands and feet laughing. You got off the chair and let your dad sit down just to plop yourself on his lap. Leaning into his chest as the clips started playing.

The man on the screen talked on about stark expo until he messed up, swore, and another clip started. He looked very weird in your opinion, not at all like your dad. So that was your grandpa. A person who swears a lot and has a really weird beard.

You settled further into your dads chest as you continued to be fixated on the screen. You had never taken a good look at the old pictures your dad kept. It hadn’t interested you at all.

You knew he was dead so there was something entirely weird about seeing him so alive on screen talking about things that still exist today. While he doesn’t. And while you knew what death was you couldn’t yet grasp the concept of it entirely.

With these sort of existential questions you fell asleep snuggled against your dads chest facing the screen. It took Tony quite a while to notice you being asleep. Too concentrated on the books and screen to see you half snoring with your mouth squashed open and drooling out of the corner of your mouth.

Carefully he picked you up and brought you to bed without waking you at all.

After having delivered you to the bed he went straight back into the lab. Still continuing to search for…. well something.

Phil was on school bus duty as he put it. He was driving this really big black car with tinted windows. Your dad told him the name of your school and said goodbye to you.

A few minutes into the mostly silent car ride Phil started talking.

“So. How do you like school so far? You’re in second grade, right?”

“It’s okay. I like playing with my friends a lot. But the classes are boring. I already know all of the stuff they talk about.”

“Really? Maybe you’re a little too smart for second grade then? What are your grades like?”

“Good I think. But my dad says that grades don’t actually show how smart someone is.”

“That’s true. But they’re still important.”

“For what? I’m only 7.”

Phil fell silent. That was true. And so he quickly changed the topic until you were dropped off onto school grounds.

School, as always, was pretty boring. At least the classes were. Your friends and you had played hide and seek on break and in the second break you sat around and talked while eating your food. Mostly about videogames. Jason, who had sort of taken up the leader position really liked that topic. And so you stayed on it.

Your homeroom teacher gave you a note to give to your dad and with that the schoolday ended and you got into Phil’s car again.

“How was school today?” He asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“Like normal. Mrs. Foster gave me a note for dad.”

“Really? What about?”

“I don’t know.” You shrugged not having read it at

You and Phil guessed what the teacher could’ve written on the letter all the way until you were home.

Walking into the house you immediately knew something was up as there was a big hole in the floor reaching through to the lab.

You walked down not knowing what to expect, leaving your bag near the hole and Phil to follow in a normal pace.

There definitely was something going on. As there were giant tubes taking up most of the space in the lab.

“What’s this?” You asked excited at the thought of a new project.

“Welcome back. This will help us finish what your grandfather started.” Tony said ominously but completed his statement soon after. “We’re going to create a new element”

You were dumbfounded, you could do that? Just go out there and create a new element? The hell? You knew that people could discover new elements but create them? That’s so cool.

Today was a day you decided that your dad was most definitely the coolest person on earth.

“That’s so cool! You’re the coolest, daddy!” you said and gave him a hug.

Just then Phil entered the lab.

“Can you hand me the spirit level?”

“Yeah!” you said, happily trotting over to the pile of tools laying next to and even under a box. The spirit level was right on top so you didn’t have to pull or wedge it out of that mess. Handing your dad the spirit level he placed it on top of the tubes and sighed. Its uneven.

Just then Phil pulled out what looked like a Captain America shield prototype and asked what it was doing here.

“That is exactly what I need.” Your dad took the shield and Phil lifted the coil so he could wedge the shield under it.

“Perfectly level. What do you want?”

Just then Phil told the news of his reassignment and your face fell. You liked Phil. Despite not knowing him all that well he was fun to be around. So when he turned to say goodbye to you you hugged him.

“Can you tell me what you were doing when we see each other again?” You asked jutting out your lower lip and drawing your eyebrows together.

“Sure thing sport. I’ll send you a postcard.” He smiled and with that you let go and let him leave with a wave.

The new element was created not long after Phil had left. It was a great spectacle to watch. The laser had left its mark on the wall and the element shone brightly as it was created.

Your dad took it for testing to the computer and plugged it in.

“This’ll take a while do you have any idea what we could do while we wait?” he asked turning to you.

You had just the thing.

After several hours of intense playing with your dolls and action figures your father had to go to New York. Stark Expo and all of that. You would have really loved to go but he said no.

So you had your own little concert in the living room. Singing along loudly to all the songs Jarvis played for you. Pretending you were on a big stage being the best singer to ever live on your world tour.

“LET’S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS! TO DEFEAT thE hunnns”

“This ain’t a sCeENe it’s a GOD. DAMN. ARMS-RACE”

and so on.

After your throat started to feel a bit sore you stopped and started doing whatever came to mind.

You had recently gotten a bow and technically you’re not allowed to shoot it inside the house but who is going to catch you? Jarvis never told on you before and everyone who could be is in New York.

You placed some plastic bottles on a table which stood at the opposite side of the room and shot at them.

First without the force but you got frustrated when you didn’t hit anything so you got help in aiming by your little powers and then just shot the arrows without the bow.

All was fun until the doorbell rung. Your stomach dropped. Everyone was in New York. So who was at the door..?

“Who’s there Jarvis?” you basically whispered.

“It’s a pizza delivery, Mr. Stark had told me to order you some food as he won’t be back until late. There is money on the kitchen counter.”

“Oh, okay!” you said and ran into the kitchen relieved that it wasn’t a bad guy coming for you. You were pretty much out of breath when you reached the door, money in hand.

“Hello! Is this my pizza?” you asked right after having opened the door.

“Uh, yeah a Pepperoni one right?” The man looked a bit taken aback, obviously not having expected a child to Open the door in the kind of house you’re in.

“Yes! Thank you!” you took the carton out of his hands after giving him the money.

“You can keep all of it. Have a nice day!” you said and basically slammed the door shut in his face.

You had just given him a hundred dollars for a maybe 15$ pizza. You probably made that guys day and didn’t know it.

You ate the pizza and watched a Disney movie before Jarvis told you to go brush your teeth and go to bed. You ignored him and took a bath too. Spending most of your time playing in the water rather than actually cleaning yourself.

You fell asleep around 11 pm on your father’s bed. And woke up the next day right next to him. And Pepper on your other side. Huh.

Chapter Text

So turns out that letter your teacher gave you to hand your dad was an invitation for a parent teacher conference so now you and your dad were sitting opposite Mrs Foster who was going on over your grades and work. She was saying that she had been giving you more difficult work that was for 4th graders and above to test her theory.

You were extremely under challanged with the second grade material. And understood more advanced materials with ease. Meaning now you should seriously consider what to do now. And there really were just two options. Skip a grade or be given more advanced courses and material while remaining in the same grades as your friends.

And with that you and your dad were left to make that decision.

Your dad wasn't a fan of the idea of skipping a grade. He feared that you might not be able to befriend older kids that would be your classmates. Not that he told you that but he's just worried. About everything to be honest but especially things that concern you.

The day after the talk with the teacher he sat you down and explained to you in detail what either thing would do. And left you to form your own opinion.

It was a lot to take in for an almost 8 year old. So you did what sounded coolest to you and your friends. And all of you thought it would be really cool for you to skip some grades.

So you told your dad that you want to skip instead of getting advanced work. The teachers gave your dad lots of the curricular of the 4th grade for you to test your knowledge with. So on weekends and after school you got different homework then your peers. 4th grade math, English and such. To everyone's surprise it was easy and didn't took longer than your usual homework. So one more grade was put on the skip list.

5th grade work was harder and at least gave you a bit of a challenge but it wasn't impossible so arrangements were made that if your grades held up you would be skipping 3rd and 4th grade.

You found that very exciting and worked hard despite school not being challenging at all. And when summer break arrived you were given the clear to skip the next two grades. The next school year you will be in 5th grade.

You won't be changing schools though as your school was both elementary and middle school in one. It was just different rooms.

But you didn't have to worry about that yet. Because it was finally summer break and you could lounge about at home and do whatever the f you want!

You, your dad, Pepper, and Happy were all spending the break in New York for the most part. Because they were planning on building a tower there which is cool in your opinion. Peppers idea. What wasn't so cool however was that you had to spend a considerable amount of time inside of office buildings or the apartment they had rented, as both of them were busy and neither really wanted to go outside in this city and cause a ruckus. So Happy was basically a godsend whenever he was free.

When he didn't have to drive anyone around he spends time with you. You actually got to explore the city because of him.

Today Happy was taking you around Central Park while your dad were in a meeting room discussing the buying of some property where they want to build that tower.
You were meanwhile making friends in the park. And were all around having a much more pleasant time.
You were climbing up a tree near the playground when a boy approached you.

"Woah you're really high up!" The boy pointed out. And you were. The branches were getting thinner though so you couldn't climb much higher.

"You're really good at climbing." He pointed out and you responded with a polite "Thank you."

Making your way down you jumped off the last branch and landed infront of the kid.

"My name is Y/n, do you wanna play together?"

"Yes! What do you want to play?" The boy responded in high pitched happy tone, not giving you his name.

The two of you wandered back onto the playground and dug as deep a hole into the sand as possible together.

"Its like a tiger trap." The boy mused and your head lit up with an idea.

"We can cover it up like a trap!" You stood up, wiped the sand off your legs and ran off looking for branches and leaves. Just like in TV.

You told the other boy to do the same and put it next to the hole. Together you covered the hole with sticks, then threw on the leaf litter and topped it off with sand.
It was still clearly visible if you looked for it, but from above it just looked like an average little sand mount.

"Now we only have to wait for tigers to smell the meat." The boy said as he placed a rock on top of the mount as a lure.

"We better hide." You pointed out and the two of you ran off the hide behind a tree to wait for the tiger to come.

And the tiger came. But not like you'd have expected. Happy, who had been reading something on his cell phone before looked up and realized you were gone out of his sight.

He jumped to his feet and looked about the playground not noticing the newly covered up hole in his search for you. With one step he broke the twigs and branches and his foot disappeared into the hole.

You bust out giggling as you ran forward to shout about the tiger being captured.

The boy was more shocked, he seemed flustered and apologetic towards your uncle.

"Are you hurt sir?" He asked shyly expecting the worst.

"No kiddo it's fine. That's a nice trap you two build there. Can you fill it back up so nobody else falls in?" He directed the last question at you. You sighed, nodded and got to work. The boy joined you and soon enough the hole was no more. Happy gave you a thumbs up at that and you turned back to your new friend.

"Eugene, it's time to go." It sounded from the benches not even 10 minutes into your new game. A younger looking woman was waiting there looking over the playground.

You turned your head to see which one of the kids were going when your friend started to leave.
Oh, so his name was Eugene.

You followed him to, what you assumed was his mother. Not really ready to have him go yet.
"Do we have to?" Eugene sulked but was beside her non the less.

"Yes, your mother said she'll meet us at the zoo in 15 minutes. So we have to go now."

"You're going to the Zoo?" You chimed in grinning.

"Yes, what's your name?" The lady who was not his mother asked.

"Y/n, and you?"

"Just call me Claudia. Yes, we're going to the zoo. Are you alone here? Where are your parents?"

"My uncle is right there."

She asked you a few more polite questions a person might ask to entertain a strangers child.

"We have to go now. Eugene be nice and say Goodbye to your friend." She finally said and pushed said boy forward a little. He hugged you a bit too tightly and waved to you as he left. Being polite you waved back.
So that's that.

With a sigh you turned to Happy who was now writing something in his phone. How boring. You wished you had your costume so you could play superhero.

Now that Eugene was gone you didn't know what to do with yourself. So you did the next logical thing and plopped yourself down next to Happy and stared off I to the abyss.

"You ready to leave?" Happy asked after putting away his phone.

"Yeah."

And so you both stood up and started walking along a nearby path. As you were walking Happy pulled up his arm to look at the watch on his wrist.

"We still have about an hour to spare. What do you wanna do?"

A lightbulb went off in your head and your whole demeanour changed in an instant.
"Can we go to the zoo?"

"The zoo? Sure." So Happy being the all knowing person he is turned and steered you in the direction of the central park zoo.

After paying you sprinted from exhibit to exhibit looking to spot as many animals as you could and maybe even spot Eugene again.

Happy could barely keep track of you in the crowds of people. It was summer vacation so lots of people were visiting the small zoo.

For the next animals you walked into a building. Happy however walked past it not having seen you enter it. You were oblivious to his absence and stared at the cute lil snake in it's big terrarium.

When you reached the exit you turned to see how far Happy was lagging behind you. When you saw that he wasn't. Now you were small and he could be just behind some tall people so you waited a little thinking he'd come eventually.

But he didn't. So you panicked. Much like Happy who was backtracking to where he last saw you. Just a few seconds after he passed the exit you came out looking like the scared kid you were.

You were already thinking about how you'd get to the apartment on your own. You sort of know the way, but only barely. And the address was out of the question.
You wanted to cry, but you knew that that wouldn't help. And also you didn't like crying in the first place, much less in public. So with a blurred vision you pushed past groups and families in a blind search for your uncle.

Meanwhile he was debating whether calling the police right now was a bit too early. What about your dad? He would have his head if something happens to you.
You passed the seal enclosure and climbed up on a bench trying to see over the crowd, looking for any sign of the one person that could save you in this situation. Your family and teacher had told you what to do in the case you were in but in your panic everything flew out the window. The whole "stay put" "find a family and ask for help" "find an employee/Police officer" wasn't coming to mind right now. All that was on your mind was that you were alone and scared and in a city that you didn't know.

A woman looked in your direction and frowned. She saw the distressed look on your face and came over tugging along a boy not much younger than you. Followed by an adult man.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" She asked prompting you to look to her. She saw the tears building in your eyes and knew what happened.

"I can't find my uncle." You said your voice wavering dangerously, confirming her suspicion.

"Sit down sweetheart. What's your name? Mine's May." She said softly laying her hand on your forearm.

"Y-Y/n."

"Alright Y/n, do you know what your uncles name is? What does he look like?" The man now asked, he was crouching down in front of you.

The boy sat down on the other side of you, obviously concerned.

"His na-me is, is Happy but that's not his real name," you explained as the almost crying hiccups in your breath started, "His real name is, is Harold Hogan. And hes taller- than you and chubby. Wi-th brown hair that is short."

May was taking mental notes, the guy sounded sort of familiar.

"And what's your full name, sweetie?" She asked.

"(Full/n)-Stark." You said as the damm finally broke. You wanted to go home, you wanted your dad, you wanted to not be here right now. It was all to much and you just let it out as the younger boy patted your back.
May had been stunned speechless by your name but called into action as your cries reached her ears.

"Shhh, shhh, baby it's alright, well find him don't worry." As she consoled with words she also pulled you into her arms. This was just supposed to be a nice afternoon with Peter and her Husband and now it turned into a rescue mission for a celebrity's child. But you were a child first, and a very scared one at that.
As your sobs quieted down she had made a decision on how to find the man.

"Y/n, are you alright to stay here for a moment? I'll go look for your uncle and you stay here with Ben and Peter, okay?" She pointed at the two people who had accompanied her respectively to show which ones which.

You nodded reluctantly and leaned against the back of the bench. Now with a red nose and slightly puffy eyes.

"Peter, you look over him okay?"

The boy, Peter nodded dutifully and took your hand and started talking after May had left.
"Are you okay now?" His voice was full of concern.
You nodded.

"Do you want some water?" Ben now asked and held a bottle towards you.

"No, thank you."

It was silent for a moment. None really knowing what to do.

"Okay, let's talk about your day then shall we?" The adult tried again, attempting to keep your mind from worrying thoughts, "What did you do today?"

"I was at the Playground. And I played with a boy named Eugene."

"That's nice, me and Peter made breakfast together today. Right Pete?"

"Yeah! We made bug pancakes to surprise aunt May," the boy beamed, " They were bigger than my face and we put syrup and strawberries and stuff on them! Do you like pancakes?"

"Yeah. But I never eat them with strawberries."

"Why not? They're tasty like that!"

"Because Pepper is allergic and so we can't have them incase the strawberry stuff gets on other stuff. It's called cross contamination and it's dangerous if you're allergic."

"That sucks!"

"Hey!" Ben chimed in at that kind of language.

"Do you at least like Strawberries?"
You shrugged. They weren't your favourite but definetly not the worst.

May looked around herself quickly spotting an employee of the zoo. But before she could approach them for help a better option walked into her vision. The man himself looking around panicked, trying to spot the small lost child in the crowd.

"Excuse me!" She half shouted and jogged over to him.
"Excuse me are you maybe looking for a little lost boy?"

Happy's head turned up with a mixture of relief and confusion.

"Yes! Hes about this big, (colour) hair, wears a Blue T-shirt with a lion on it. His name is Y/n."

"That's him, I found him looking for you over there, follow me."

"Oh my God, thank you so much! I can't tell you how grateful I am that you found him!" Happy followed her to the bench were you were animatedly talking with the young boy over various breakfast foods.

"Y/n!"

You perked up at the familiar voice. Before you could even process that your uncle was there you were already swooped up into a hug. Happy visibly relaxed having you back on his radar. With a sigh he put you back on your feet and took your hand in his.

"I don't know how I can thank you Mrs...."

"Parker, and it's nothing really. I'm sure anyone would have done the same." She waved him off.

Happy contemplated before coming up with a thank you thing to do.

Next thing you know you're holding hands with Peter and eating some ice cream together with the three adults.

Peter had taken your other hand as soon as Happy started to walk towards the ice cream vendor and was now talking about everything and nothing inbetween licks of strawberry flavoured ice cream as you wandered through the zoo together. Closely followed by Happy, May and Ben who you felt very uncomfortable talking to while using their first name.
Half an hour later the ice cream long finished you parted ways with the Parker family having turned the bad thing into something great. You've also learned a lot about Peter. Apparently he really likes both animals and Superheroes and was fumbling with excitement when you told him that not only did you have a pet but you also had a superhero dad.

On the ride home you gushed very excitedly to Happy about the boy and his interests. Your new friend was so cool in your opinion even if he was a year younger.
Peter was doing the same on his ride home. Not being able to comprehend that he just met the kid of Iron Man! Who kept a crayfish as a pet! Who does that? He just met someone who did. And he didn't even know he was gonna meet him again not all that long into the future.