You're whole life, it'd always been you and your mom against the world. She raised you all on her own, young and working multiple jobs to get by and support the both of you. That aside, she'd always been there. The best mom ever. From school talent shows to the science fair to everything; your mom always has your back. She was all you really knew, as it was hard to make friends. Most kids found you odd for being the smartest in the class, which resulted in a lack of friends as no one ever wanted to hang out with the weird girl.
You didn't mind though because you always had your best friend, your mom; until you didn't.
You always thought she'd live a longer life than five more years after being diagnosed with cancer.
You were five when you mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite the pain she'd felt as the days went on, as much as she didn't want you to ever see her the way she was after months would go by, she was always there for you.
But, once you'd reached the age of ten, you watched your mother die right in front of you; surrounded by white walls that seemed blinding at the time. Your mother's best friend had stood by your side that day, sobbing as the woman who was once practically her sister laid limp on the hospital bed. You stayed silent for the longest time, shedding no tears. You hoped that it'd been one big sick joke. You hoped that any minute then, the monitor would start back up again and her heart would beat once more; it didn't.
You thought you'd stay with the only other person you'd known; your mother's best friend and your godmother. However, due to the lack of income, and legal rights, she couldn't.
Legal rights caught you both off guard.
As it turns out, your father was out there. You always thought he'd passed or something, due to the fact that your mother always brushed off the subject; but that was just naivety, you should've known better.
As it turns out, your father was the infamous Tony Stark; Iron Man as most now knew him.
You were sent to live with your father, despite pleading and begging with your godmother to do something, anything, for you to stay with her. All she could do was promise you that everything would be okay, and that you were strong and your father would love you all the same as your mother did.
A month after your mother passed, two weeks after her funeral, you had officially moved to New York to your father's home. Well, home as in tower, it took getting used to. You reminded yourself countless times that day that that was your new home.
You'd spent the first year sulking, unbeknownst to your father of course, who was always busy. The resentment towards him was huge and you felt as though you could never forgive him for leaving you and your mother like that. For never even being there or attempting to help. You reminded yourself day after day that he hadn't known of your existence 'till the passing of your mother but anger kept you drowning in a dark hole.
You'd spent the second year actually attempting to get to know him. You came to terms that this was the way it was going to be. You tried for hours a day to spend time with him, but you'd only ever been brushed off because of his busy schedule. However, as your mind opened up to the idea of getting to know your father that year, you'd become great friends with Pepper Potts. She'd given you advice over the years and acted as the parent Tony should've been when she was around. You were glad that you had someone to keep you company in the cold tower once and awhile.
Due to the fact that you couldn't get your father's attention, you began to attempt to earn it. During the beginning of the third year, he'd complimented your intelligence briefly over one of the empty dinners you both shared after he'd gotten word from your in home teacher about how well you were doing. You found your heart swell at the comment; from then on you found yourself chasing after his approval. You began working on different projects; even attempting to replicate his suit and an artificial intelligence, one much like J.A.R.V.I.S. and F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Your relationship with your father had grown since you'd first arrived, he cared tremendously about you; and your lack of interaction with kids your own age. He just never had acknowledged your attempts at proving yourself. When you'd show him something new you'd been working on, he'd say, "That's cool, Y/N, but I have to get to working now."
But during your fourth year there, your father never ceased to remind you about how Peter Parker, A.K.A. Spider-Boy, was doing so great and was so smart and a good kid with a good heart; especially after the boy put away The Vulture only two weeks ago.
You found yourself jealous of the kid you'd never even met but only heard of. He'd managed to earn all the affections you ran after from your father in three months. Where as you spent over three years; and probably more to come.
Today, though, was the first day you were going to meet him.
Your father had claimed that you needed friends your own age, and who better than his old golden boy, Peter Parker.
You begrudgingly stood next to your father, waiting at the front doors of the tower for Happy to bring in Peter.
"I don't get why I have to do this." You grumbled and crossed your arms over your chest, back hunched.
"Have to do this? Y/N," Tony placed a hand on your back, "This isn't some project at school that sucks, this is a friend," He gave you a stern look, "A friend only."
You rolled your eyes and sneered, "Well what if I don't want a friend?" You turned your head back to the doors, mumbling, "I've always been fine that way."
Tony sighed, "You haven't even met the kid yet, give him a shot."
You let out a growl at the back of your throat, only to get a look from your father to calm down.
Soon, you both saw two figures walking through the glass doors, one you recognized as Happy, and the other you assumed, Peter.
Tony was quick to tell you, "Be nice.", before leading you to Peter.
You had to admit, the boy was attractive. His brown hair was slightly gelled and to the side; you could tell he had curls. He had warm brown eyes, and couldn't be over 5'9. His shirt had a nerdy science pun on it, that was covered by a jacket and paired with simple dark blue jeans.
You both stared until your father said something about having to talk to Happy about an infamous Tony Stark party. He pushed you forward before he left, only for you to trip on your own two feet and land into the hero's arms.
He stared at you wide eyed before clearing his throat and smiling nervously, "S-Sorry. I'm-I'm Peter," he let you go and held out his hand, "Parker Peter - Wait, no, I mean Peter Parker."
You only stared at his outstretched hand. 'What kind of teenagers even shake hands?' You thought, 'Although, I can't be one to judge. I don't even have any teenage friends.'
You nodded your head, giving a tight smile, and nodded, "Okay."
Peter's smile fell a bit as he retracted his hand and shoved it into his jacket pocket, "S-So, I've heard a lot-a lot about you. 'Cause, ya know, being the daughter of Stark and stuff."
You continued to stare him down as he squirmed slightly in discomfort, before you said, "I'm gonna go upstairs."
His eyes widened, "Oh, co-cool. Could-could I maybe come? Mr. Stark said he wanted us to get to maybe-maybe know each other."
You rolled your eyes. As cute as you thought he was, you didn't want him to come with you. You didn't even want to meet him five minutes ago! You knew your father was only concerned about the fact that you didn't have any teenage friends; maybe that's why he thought you spent so much time in your room when in actuality you were finding different ways to impress him. But bringing in his 'teen protegé' was not the best way to make a normal teen friend. Especially when your father couldn't see the burning jealousy you had.
You sighed and shook your head, "Well, maybe you could go find Tony and Happy and tell them that you'd like to go home or something," you turned on your heel and began walking, "Oh, and don't seem too nervous, I'll never hear the end of the inability to make friends my age."
With that you left Peter with standing alone in the huge entrance, eyebrows furrowed and face dumbstruck.
'What could her problem be?' He thought to himself. It was obvious you had a problem; that or you were just incredibly rude. Tony had reassured him, though, that you were really, really sweet girl with insane ambition.
It was no lie when once Peter walked into Stark Tower he'd been met with the sight of a very beautiful girl, who he assumed had a very beautiful personality, especially from the way Tony would make it seem. However, he was met with an unexplainable rudeness.
For now, Peter brushed it off as a bad day.
After three weeks though, Peter had had enough of it. He had also had enough with falling for you despite your rude behaviour towards him. He knew that wasn't really you, but he also knew that he didn't do anything wrong. He was going to get to the bottom of it.
After the same three weeks, you had finally been able to finish the design on the A.I. you'd been working on.
Now, you really hoped this would make your father proud.
Grinning, you rushed down to the lab, excited to show your father and see his reaction. He'd have to be impressed by this.
You ran to the lab, only to be met with Peter working on new designs with your dad for a new Iron suit through the glass doors.
'Not even his own Spider-Boy suit,' You thought, 'How come Tony never asked me to help?'
You didn't let that falter your mood completely though, as you walked, and saw Peter give you a small smile and wave. Your glared back which caused his smile to fall and for him to roll his eyes.
"Tony!" You came forward, "You won't believe it, I finally finished working on the new A.I. it's design is done and everyth-,"
"That's great honey, but Peter and I are working on something right now, okay?" His head didn't lift from what he was tinkering on, "I'll check it out some other time."
You felt a drop in your stomach and heart sink. 'Some other time.'
"Oh…," you quietly said, "O-Okay. I'll-I'll just be in my room if you need anything."
Tony hummed as you stood for a couple more seconds, opening and closing your mouth and debating whether or not you should say anything else.
Peter's eyes shot between the two of you, "H-Hey, maybe I could check out that design. I'm not too bad with that stuff."
Tony's head lifted at the suggested, "Yanno, that's not such a bad idea kid."
You widened your eyes at your father in disbelief, "But-," you cut yourself off and sent the meanest possible glare Peter's way before stalking off to your room.
Tony furrowed his eyebrows and turned to Peter, "D'you do anything to her? 'Cause I swear, Spiderling, if hurt her in any way, I'll do you just the same but a billion times worse."
Peter's eyes widened, "No, no, Mr. Stark, I would never. Your daughter and I aren't even close, I don't know why she would be mad at me."
Tony raised his eyebrows, making Peter say, "But I'll definitely go check on her. Make sure she's okay, yanno?"
Tony hummed, "And only check on her. None of my interns smooch my daughters."
Peter's eyebrows furrowed, "But-But, Mr. Stark, I'm your only intern. And-And Y/N's your only daughter."
Tony smiled, "Exactly. So no Peters smooch Y/Ns. Got it?"
Peter nodded frantically and turned quickly to get out of the awkward situation.
Once he'd made it to your room, he held his fist over your door, hesitating. Once he'd finally made up his mind, he went to knock the door, only for it to open suddenly and have his fist hit you right in the eye.
"Dude!" You clutched your left eye, he did have super strength after all.
Peter's eyes went wide with panic, "Oh God, I didn't mean to - I'm so sorry! - It was an accident, I promise! - I really didn't mean t-,"
You huffed and moved passed him, bumping your shoulder accidentally into his on the way. Making your way into the kitchen, you grabbed a cloth and put some ice in it, resting it on your eye.
Peter, who'd followed you, asked, "Why did you open the door so suddenly?"
You squinted, "Suddenly? Dude, I got thirsty, opened the door, and got knocked in the head by Spider-Boy. What were you doing at my door anyways?"
Peter mumbled briefly, "It's Spider-Man," before saying aloud, "I came to see if you were okay."
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
"You didn't seem to be back in the lab."
You rolled your eyes at him and began to walk back to your room, stopping when you heard,
"What's your problem anyway? Did I do something to make you hate me?"
You turned and chose your words carefully, "No… I just like keeping my distance," You didn't want to start anything now, although you still mumbled, "from the kid my dad wishes he had instead of me."
Peter must've heard you, because he responded with, "What are you talking about? Mr. Stark would never want to replace you. H-He's never said anything bad about you."
You scoffed, "Yeah, but he's always saying amazing stuff about you," You began to imitate your father, "Oh, Y/N, did I tell you how smart Peter is? Oh, Y/N, Peter's helping out in the lab today, even though I know you've always wanted to do just that." You added on the last part yourself.
Peter squinted his eyes, "So, you're jealous?"
"God, of course I'm jealous!" You threw your hands in the air before walking closer to him with each word you spoke, "I have spent over two years trying to impress my father. I've worked my ass off trying to make that stupid A.I. so he'd be proud of me. I've tried so hard to work in the lab with him. But after only four months of knowing you, not even four, he's always talking about you and how impressed he is! It's not fair! I've worked so hard on trying to gain his approval, and every time he just brushes me off!"
You were now chest to chest with Peter. His gaze softened as he look at you. He didn't think you were jealous of him; there's never been a time where someone was.
"I-I didn't kn-know. I'm sorry," He shook his head, "You're dad thinks you're amazing, you know. Even if he doesn't acknowledge it, he thinks you're really smart and talented. He's always talking about you too; and not just about how kind."
Your shoulders slumped, "Oh."
Regardless of Peter saying such things, your father had yet to show that interest and approval, in the things you do, to you.
Both of you stood for a couple of moments, you avoiding his gaze as he stared down at you, examining your features.
You took a breath before backing up slightly, "I-I guess I'm sorry for-for blowing up at you like that. That wasn't really cool."
Peter shook his head and gave a small smile, "It happens, don't worry 'bout it."
Before you could leave, Peter spoke up again, "You should talk to your dad," You looked at him with a type of innocent wide eyed look and he suddenly found himself nervous under your gaze, "Mayb-maybe that'll- that'll help."
You gave him a shy smile and murmured for only him to hear, despite being in the kitchen alone, "Yeah, maybe," you sighed lightly, "Thanks, Spider-Man."
With a sudden boost of confidence, Peter found himself pulling you back with a web he'd stuck to the back of your shirt, pulling you into his embrace. The arm that pulled you back came around your waist as the other hand was placed on your side, only a little higher than the other.
Nervousness took over his body again as you stared at him wide eyed in shock, him stupidly saying, "I promised your dad no Peters would smooch any Y/Ns."
It was then Peter's turn for his eyes to widened as yours morphed into an estranged look.
"Smooch?"
Peter still stood frozen in embarrassment, opening and closing his mouth, searching for an answer.
You laughed nervously before stating shyly, "I mean, if you wanted to," you eyebrows furrowed, "smooch; all you have to do is ask."
Peter stood the same wide eyed and frozen.
You rolled your eyes a little before leaning in and pressing a small peck to his lips.
You laughed lightly as he stayed the same, eyes widening even more if possible.
"You should probably get back to my dad, Spider-Man," you back away, "Or else he'll think we've been smooching."
You winked before turning away and walking to your room, a grin forming on your face.
Once you'd left, Peter's face broke out into a huge smile before paling, "Oh God, Mr. Stark's gonna kill me."
You hadn't made it to your room by that point and heard the boy express his concern, shouting at him, "What Mr. Stark doesn't know, won't hurt him!"
It wasn't until the next night, while you were texting Peter, that your dad showed up to your room, knocking lightly on the opened door to grab your attention.
You turned off your phone and sat up, "Hey."
"Hey."
He came over and sat on the edge of your bed, a comfortable silence taking over the room for a few moments.
"I heard about what you said the other day," Tony spoke up, "I would never want to replace you, you know that? I'm so impressed with how talented and amazing you are."
You lowered your head and began to play with the duvet, mumbling, "Then why don't you ever show it?"
"I didn't think you needed my approval," Tony's hand reached over to hold yours, "I've just been focused on other things, I thought you could wait because you handle yourself well, but I'm sorry for making you feel like I prefer the Spiderling over you, and making you feel like you had to prove yourself over the four years you've been here."
You looked up at your dad and gave a small smile, "It's okay. I'm glad that at least now I know," you laughed and attempted to lighten the mood, "Hey, at least now I have an actual teenage friend; Parker's not that bad."
Tony's eyes darkened at the mention of Peter from you, "Speaking of Peter," he stood and made his way to the door, "You're texting him right now, right?"
You furrowed your eyebrows, you knew it wasn't hard to guess 'cause he's the only person you could possibly be texting, but you wondered why it made your father so mad, "I mean, yeah, why?"
"Okay, well, remind him," you pulled out your phone again and began to write up a text, "that none of my interns smooch my daughters, because it seemed to have slipped his mind yesterday."
Your fingers froze over your keyboard and your eyes widened, not daring to look up.
"Anyways, goodnight, honey," just before he left, he leaned back into the room, "Oh, and you're grounded. Tell underoos that, and to watch out."
The moment he left, you type to Peter,
'Swing away, Spider-Boy, swing away.'
