It wasn't the Stark way. More statistically speaking, than anything genetically handed down; his 'party hard' DNA had unquestionably dictated most of Darcy's Friday and Saturday nights for the several months she had been living in the tower. She had his obsessive work ethic too, and like him, was able to pull out of the headspace in favour of a party or three when the weekend came.

So when she was home at ten o'clock on a friday night, having come through the door dressed in a bright blue sequined dress and heels that propelled her to Thor's height, Tony couldn't help wondering why.

"Hey Steve." she said brightly.

"Oh- Uh-" Steve turned around to make his return salutations and promptly developed a speech impediment. Tony couldn't notice how short the skirt was, or how perky her boobs were, until Steve Rogers was ogling them with his mouth open. "-D-Did -? I- Hi, Darcy."

"Anything worth watching?" her hair was all - curly, hanging around her face. Tony realized his chin hurt from frowning, and he was stirring the coffee in his hand hard enough to chip the inside of the mug.

"It's- just Elvis -" he colored, blinking at her. "You look - amazing."

"Shucks, thanks, Cap." she did a little twirl, which is when Tony realized she was stone cold sober, having done it without teetering. "It's a new dress."

"It's a nice dress on you - I mean, it'd be a nice dress off - not - not off you, I mean-"

Darcy just laughed, winked at him, proceeded to ignore Tony and his coffee and went straight to her room. It wasn't that Tony was concerned; he was curious. Having known his biological daughter for several long months before knowing she was his, he had come to know her quite well.

It probably wasn't the best leg to start off a familial relationship, knowing that her ex-boyfriend was a handsy bastard and she wanted to commission a three pronged, six charged, automatic recall taser from him just in case - but it was as good as he was going to get, when she was twenty one and beautiful and didn't need a father any more.

He didn't knock, he announced himself before entering, as was his norm.

"I'm coming in, don't be in any state of undress or sexual intercourse!"

He found her at the desk, heels kicked off at the end of the bed, hands tinkering with something that sprouted wires. She had her hair all piled up in a lazy, lopsided bun, and magnifying goggles on that interfeared with her obscenely false eyelashes.

"So. How was tonight?"

"Fine, Tony."

It used to grate on him, when she knew who he was and that she still called him Tony. The one time he brought it up with Pepper, she asked him to imagine what it would feel like if she had called him 'dad', or 'pops', or anything denoting his real title... and he almost had a panic attack about it.

"Yeah, it's ten o'clock on a friday, I don't believe you. You've been going on about this date thing for like, two weeks, now, and you've never been home from a night out before three. I logged them. JARVIS?"

"Yes, sir, you did." the AI sounded tired, if not bored, like he'd been waiting for the confirmation.

"So, how was tonight?"

"It was fine." she said again, but still didn't bother to look up at him, only adjusting her lamp on a certain angle to better see whatever she was fiddling with. Tony didn't know a lot about people (in comparison to the expansive knowledge he had about machines, having programmed one with an adaptive personality) but he did know that both were prone to failure when not properly fueled.

He made a dissatisfied noise, closed her door behind him, and came back with Pop Tarts and a big glass of milk two minutes later. He set them down on the corner of her desk and folded his arms, one brow cocked, waiting for the inevitable.

He watched two huge doe-eyes flick to the offering, watched usually steady hands tremble on the pliers and bits of scrap, the tightening of her mouth, and the rise of her shoulders. He didn't want to particularly notice that she'd started breathing a little deeper, a little harder, but those boobs in that dress... All paternal instincts wanted to wrap her in a tea-cozy and keep her in his lab, where she would never have to get all glitzy and dolled up, and never make Captain America think about her clothes being anywhere but on her body.

"So." he said again, and leaned his butt on the desk. "How was tonight?"

"Fucking horrible." she flipped the goggles up, threw the tools down, and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him like it was his fault. "I got stood up by that stupid hot guy that spilled coffee on me - the one who has been putting off this 'apology date' for like, four weeks, not two, I waited nearly two hours for him to show up, I got so bored I started counting the floor tiles , I got to five hundred and ninety four before I gave up-"

Because she was resilient, that way, and it made him equal parts proud and disturbed.

"- and when I figured out he was a no-show I thought: 'Hmm, I'll go and blubber it out with my best friend Jane and maybe some margaritas' - but nooo, she's all wrapped up in some super hot alien and his stupid melon-sized bulgy biceps and they're getting really cuddly on the couch and I don't cockblock, so I go home-"

She stuttered, took a sharp breath in, and shook her head.

"- I went to my mother's house, and do you know what I found? She was being interviewed by super-cute-coffee-spilling-asshole, and he was asking a bunch of questions about us, you as a father, and me as an heiress, and what the whole deal was with me moving in with you and how regular we are and- she was an-answering -"

Tony was not good at fixing leaks. Especially people leaks.

But Darcy didn't cry, she just charged on.

"-Saying- like, you were only housing me for good PR and it was a mistake to have ever slept with you - I was a mistake - that I was only living with you because I'm like, going no where, I have no direction and he was writing it all down - the letter head was for HammerTech - so fucking horrible was how tonight was, thanks, Tony."

"Did you tase him?"

"My taser is in your lab." she mumbled. "You're upgrading it."

He peered at the thing on her desk.

"Are you making another one?"

"Yes. And if you try and take it off me, you'll be my first victim." she tapped a silver button with implied menace but nothing happened.

"Huh." he took a Pop Tart and munched on it for a second, bending into a bopping crouch that put him on eye-level with the Darcy-taser. With a mouth half full of food he said: "Can I see it?"

Grumpily, she handed it to him. He arched a brow, putting the Pop Tart between his teeth to handle it with two hands. It wasn't half bad, for a bit of metal and a car battery. He twisted something, connected another something, took the lamp apart to add the conductor and clicked the silver button again.

This time, it hummed, buzzing loudly, the tip glowing blue. Instead of being cheered up by the aspect of potential violence, she sagged further in her chair, her mouth in an unhappy line.

"Ah, I get it, you wanted to do it yourself." he eyed the wires that made up the taser, put a half eaten pop tart on the plate. "Well, you weren't far off, it's pretty good for two and a half minutes and a pile of crap for parts... If you come down to the lab you can have whatever you like and make another one -"

"I'm not living with you because I have no direction, Tony." she announced. "I'm living with you because I want to know you and I want to grow up and be like you."

"I don't want you to be like me." was his quick reply. "If you grow up like me, I'm doing this 'responsible adult thing' wrong. Reeeally wrong."

"He didn't even say 'daughter', you know that? That was the worst thing." she was scowling as she accepted the taser back from him, eyes studying what improvements he had so effortlessly made. "You got to be my father. I was the-"

The blue blur of light light up her face with a particularly dark glow.

"'Heiress'."

"It is what it is, kid." he shrugged one shoulder. "You are my heir."

"I don't want to be." she told him flatly, and stood. "I don't want to be the inheritor of the Stark fortune - I can't handle forty dollars without spending it on shoes, let alone forty hundred million or however much you - don't tell me how much you have! I don't want it, I wouldn't ask for twenty bucks for pizza from you!"

There was a long moment of silence, then, with her glaring down in his direction, with him still on the floor. He opened his mouth to speak, but she overrode him.

"I don't want your Stark fortune, I want to inherit the Stark legacy. I want to be smart like you, I want to be funny like you, I want to be your daughter, Tony." And then her bottom lip trembled, and he popped to his feet.

"Kid, take a deep breath."

She shocked him by doing exactly that. He hadn't been expecting obedience.

"O-kay... good. Just, keep doing that."

"Until I what, pass out?" she cocked both brows at him in an expression reminiscent of his own so acutely he couldn't help but grin. "Why is this funny? You can't make all your problems disappear by making them pass out."

"Says taser happy, here." Her mouth twitched into a naughty smirk. "Don't worry about HammerTech. I'll deal with them. They're just pissed off because I put their boss in jail."

"Pepper put their boss in jail." she corrected.

"Exactly."

She smiled, but looked down at her taser, tapping the button and making a stabby gesture with it.

"Are we ever just going to be a family?" she didn't look up, just fiddled with the device. "I mean, am I just wasting my time? Am I a mistake?"

"Excuse me. I'm Tony Stark. I don't make mistakes. I make... Constructive surprises." he put his arm around her shoulders. "Pretend for a second I'm not your dad. You look good tonight, kid, you put a good two and a half hours into that hair and there happens to be a rather attractive member of the upstanding community watching Elvis movies in our lounge room." he raised both brows at her.

"I say you put some sweats on and go and sit with the chump. But seriously, out of that dress, or you're grounded."

"Ha ha." she was beaming though, looking sparkly instead of little-girl-lost. "You wouldn't know how to ground me."

"...I'll have Pepper do it."

"That's really mean."

"Go on, get your comfy jammies. Something with a collar."

She rolled her eyes, turned toward her wardrobe, breaking out from under his arm.

"Tony?" He halted, turned with brows raised. "You can't distract me with Captain America snuggles. What are you planning to do to HammerTech?"

"Nothing they don't have coming, sweetheart." the pet name jut kind of, slipped. He made to back track, to physically leave the room, when she leaned up and kissed his cheek, putting the taser in his hand.

"Thanks." she said warmly, and then promptly shoo'd him out of her room.

Will probably write more in this 'verse. I love daddy Tony.

:)