st_arkravinghazelnut | Reassurance

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Reassurance

It had been a few days since Tony's littler ones (as he casually called them in his head) had coalesced. He'd have been lying if he said the next steps approach hadn't been all he'd thought of since then. It was enough to completely side track him from his all-encompassing research, and 'Thanos' had barely featured in his brain. If he'd actually stopped to ponder it, he may not have believed it himself.

'Fixating is what creates all your interpersonal issues to begin with, Stark.' He rolled his eyes at himself as his knuckles gently rapped on Annie's door. He'd made a point of checking in on her every day. Some days she'd been there, some she hadn't.

"Knock knock."

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"What kind of math do you like?" Annie asked as she started to gather a few. "Daddy's really smart with it and I want to be like him. I want to be able to build stuff like he does and help people, you know?"

"Hey, no hard questions right out the gate." Tony ran his fingers over the deck in his hand, swaying his head this way and that as he considered her question.

"I like differential equations. I use them a lot for making my armor." Tony tapped the broad side of the card against his thigh. "Reality, nature, it's always changing. Differential equations help you break mother nature's laws into a language we can understand. And when we understand it, we can adapt."

Annie stared at him. That was a really good answer

"I don't think I thought about math than much," She admitted. "But I like the way you talk about it. It's like it's your friend."

“Math is everyone’s friend.” Tony winked. “How do you feel about it?”

"Sometimes it's hard," She admitted. "But when I solve a hard problem, I feel really proud. So, I don't mind... most of the time."

"Fortune rewards those who put in the effort." Tony reached out, patting her head. "All the best superheroes are good at math. Math is training your brain to think logically. Saved my butt more than once."

She thought about his statement for a moment. Bruce Banner was smart. He was smart. Spider-Man was smart.

"What about Thor?" She asked. "Does he use math?"

Tony's lips tightened. "...If I ask."

She smiled.

"He's nice." She said. "And funny. And he braids my hair really pretty all the time."

Annie liked Thor.

"Did you know he knows Santa?" She asked.

"Does he." Tony kept himself from rolling his eyes at Thor's eternal mischief. First his lieutenant, now Annie. "Well he's never introduced me."

"Did you ask him?" She suggested. "Most grown ups don't seem very excited about Santa."

"Most grownups...we forget our sense of wonder." Tony raised a finger, pressing it to her nose in a 'boop' gesture. "Hold onto that as you get older, Hon. Life will be kinder with it."

She giggled when Tony 'booped' her and smiled. Mr. Stark is cute.

"Sometimes I want to grow up really fast," She said. "And then sometimes I don't. But I hope I grow up to be more like you and Thor and Dad... except maybe the corny jokes you guys all make."

"No, you'll grow to like those." Obviously by virtue of simply saying that, it was even less likely she ever would.

"Speaking of Annie...how you doing?" He ran a few fingers down the length of her hair. The entire reason for his visit was hinged around this question, but her apparent cheer had been reassuring--and he'd hoped it was genuine.

Annie knew the question meant more than just 'right now' because she had been asked this sort of question before.

"I'm okay," She said honestly. "It's... still taking some time to get used to, but... I can't really change things, can I?"

She kicked gently as her feet hung off the bed.

"I'm calling him PB now." She explained.

Tony's lips quirked upwards at that. He'd known they talked--seeing they were muddling their way through was a reassuring start. It wouldn't be the relationship they had, but it would be stable. That was his hope.

"Any doubts you're feeling?"

"Sometimes I think he won't like me as much as before," She supplied easily. "I don't... want things to change a lot."

If there was one thing he appreciated about the girl, it was her absolute willingness to be truthful--even brutally so. Her mother had taught her right. Speaking what was on your mind was had to ingrain later in life.

"They won't change in any of the ways that matter. Like how we love you."

She smiled to Tony. She liked that he included himself. It felt like they had a family here which was nice.

"Some of it's a bit easier," she said, glancing to her hands. "Like how... Back home, most of the Avengers aren't around anymore."

Tony's eyes dropped briefly before he was setting a hand on Annie's back. No part of him could change that for her--as much as he wished he could. The least he could do is make her feel heard.

"I'm sorry."

She shook her head.

"It's okay..." She said. "I'm just glad to be able to meet you all here. You're all really nice."

“Nothing I said was to make you feel different or any less special to us.” Tony resumed petting her head, unable to keep his fingers from straightening her lovely red hair. “You are. Any Avengers team would be lucky to have an Annie-May Parker.”

She perked up at his words.

"Do you really think I could be on a superhero team one day?" She asked hopefully.

"If there's the will, there's the way." The fatherly instincts in him were still locked in combat with the rest of him, demanding he set her down a different path--though his instincts told him that would cleanse her of nothing.

"But for now? You're already part of a superhero team, Hon."

She reached out to hug Tony.

"Thanks." She said honestly. "And... thank you... I know you're worried about me."

Wrapping up her small body in his arms, Tony slowly patted her back, resting his chin upon her head. "Looking after you and Pete is one of my biggest priorities right now. Liz, too. I know what it's like not to have your folks around when you need 'em."

"Do you miss your mom and dad?" She asked quietly.

She had no concept of Iron Man and the story of his life other than her dad was good friends with him before Iron Man disappeared.

"...Yeah. Every day." Tony's hand stilled on Annie's back, simply holding her. That tension he was carrying with him as the anniversary of their death approached grew heavier in his body.

"I was seventeen. They died the same night." Car accident. Yeah. Fat lot of good that buying the manufacturers out and reworking their break system personally did in the end. "I didn't know what to do with my grief so I...didn't. I hid behind money. I hid behind people. I hid behind my work. I hid behind my fame. I hid from the pain so well I made myself believe I was untouchable, but...all I did was become less human."

Annie listened with a sad expression. She thought it was very brave of Tony to admit what he did. It caused her to want to tell him something of her own.

"I think...my dad might be dead too." She said. "But I've been pretending he's not."

Tony just nodded somberly, parting to sit beside her. He understood that stage of denial. He was nine years older than Annie was when he'd found out, but it was easy to throw himself into a realm where he could pretend that his parents were simply still on vacation--if only for a few days. He'd gotten offers for grief counseling but he violently eschewed them, insisting on cold pragmatism. It's what his father did, after all.

That wasn't what he wanted for Annie.

"Your father sounds like a great man."

Annie leaned against Tony lightly. She nodded and thought about him quietly. She thought Tony would like him a lot like he liked Peter here. She knew that her dad and Iron Man had once been friends.

"Do you think they might show up?" She asked quietly. "Your mom and dad, and mine too?"

"Who knows?" Tony rubbed Annie's back slowly. "Maybe they will. Maybe not. There's just no way to know. Yet."

"I believe in you," She said honestly. "You're really smart and you're really determined. Someone like that can do anything."

Annie was repeating something her mother told her once about her dad, but she thought it applied.

A wisp of a smile touched his face, and he pulled her close to press his nose against the crown her head.

“I don’t want to see you kids give up. So I won’t, either.”

She smiled. She really appreciated that Tony was so nice and protective. She also knew it was hard on adults to protect people all the time.

"Hey, you know..." She said, changing subjects. "Do you think we could build a slide for the pool?"

"It lacking one?" Tony asked, blanking on its features--or lackthereof. He hadn't been much for frolicking in summer, the only time it made sense to visit it.

"Yep." She said. "I think it's a pool made for adults so that's why. But that's okay. Adults like slides too, right?"

"Wanna put one together...together?" Tony tilted his head slightly. "Pete and I are gonna put a car together."

She grinned with teeth showing.

"Okay!" She said. "I've never built something like that before, but I bet it'll be fun!"

Pulling Annie into another side-hug, Tony mirrored her wide grin. "You're old enough to walk, you're old enough to woodwork. You and me, kiddo. We pick the tree, we take it down, we make the slide."

"Deal" she said with a nod. "I'm going to pick the best tree for it too."

Between Bo’s arch, the lignified Plymouth Fury, and now additions to the hardscape, Tony caught himself wondering if he could claim any pedigree in carpentry. His grandparents on his father’s side sold fruit and on his mother’s side there were politicians, but hey...questions for later.

“Just say the word, kiddo.”

"We should probably wait for a little warmer weather." She said sagely with another nod. "let's do it in March!"

[[Fade on Tony's reply??]]

“Nice thing about California—no snow to wait on.” Without divine intervention, obviously. Tony slapped his knee, rising. “Let’s do lunch, kiddo. I’m thinking sundaes again.”

[ooc: sounds good!]

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