Hey everyone!
So here is the first chapter, introducing Bryanna to you guys. She's been a interesting character to write these first chapters for since at the back of my mind I'm always thinking about my plans for her and how her personality will change and develop over the course of the story. I have grand plans for where I'm going to take this, and I'd love to hear what you all think of this intro chapter.
I know it's moving a tad slow, and the next couple chapter will as well, but I promise things will pick up soon!
Enjoy the chapter!
Ice Cream!
Several Days Earlier:
Loud music blared from speakers in a massive garage as the owner of said garage lay beneath a car tinkering and humming along to the AC•DC song blasting from his speakers, enjoying the cool breeze that blew in from the open door.
However the somewhat lazy atmosphere of the garage was abruptly broken by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway and a car door slamming.
"Toooooonnyyy!"
At the sound of the voice Tony Stark gave a push and slid easily out from under the car, sitting up and turning to the eight year old girl that was running towards him with a grin.
"Hey Bryanna, have a good time on the girls trip with mom?"
The brown haired, brown eyed girl beamed at Tony, rushing up to him and wrapping small arms around his neck, hugging him tightly and ignored the grease she was getting on her clothes.
Tony laughed and wrapped his arms around her back, standing to his feet and smirking as she squawked in indignation at not being able to stand on her own two feet.
"Tony! Not fair!"
"Now why on earth would I be fair when I can tease my darling little sister?"
Bryanna pushed her lower lip out in a adorable pout and Tony laughed again before playfully spinning around and then setting her on her feet.
When she stepped back the front of her clothes had black streaks on them.
"Bryanna Stark! Just wait until your mother sees what you've done to your clothes." Her nanny gasped, bustling over and brushing fussily at the girls clothes.
"Stop that! I'm not a little kid anymore!"
Bryanna shoved the nanny away, glaring at the woman for a moment before turning back to her brother eagerly.
"You told me you had a surprise for me when I got back, can I see it now?"
"So impatient." Tony mock tutted.
"Tony!"
He laughed and shook his head.
"I need to change into clean clothes and wash off the grease on my face and hands, and you should change as well. Then we can go."
His little sister let out a cheer before bolting into the house, harried nanny calling after her as she chased the energetic eight year old.
Tony watched after with a affectionate grin and shake of his head before he turned to see his mother enter the garage calmly, glancing around before turning to look at Tony.
"Did her report card come in while we were gone?" She questioned, voice soft.
Tony sighed and nodded, going over to the sink to wash his hands before walking over to a shelf filled with books and pulling a brown envelope off the top.
"I managed to grab it before dad could see it. I'll be taking Bryanna out to get some ice cream and pick out a new doll outfit while you show dad and calm him down from nuclear level explosion."
His mother winced as she accepted the offered envelope and opened it up to withdraw the paper inside.
"That bad huh?"
Tony sighed and shook his head, leaning back against the counter as he watched her hesitantly look down at the paper.
"Not at all, in fact compared to every other normal kid in the system she's a stellar student. Only one B and the rest A's. She's actually a couple of concepts ahead of the rest of the class."
His mothers shoulders slumped.
"But Howard will not accept anything less then perfect. You graduated MIT at seventeen and showed absolute brilliance in all of your subjects, following in your father's footsteps with your aptitude for building, one day I believe you will surpass him even, and yet he was still not satisfied. Bryanna is very smart, but her IQ and intelligence is average and your father just cannot except that Bryanna will never be like him or you."
Tony sighed again and nodded before looking over at the clock.
"I should go rinse off and change so that by the time she's finished I'll be ready as well."
His mother nodded distractedly, still looking over the report card as Tony left the room.
Bryanna, now dressed in unstained clothes, was busily doing up her shoes when she heard the front door open downstairs and her eyes lit up as she hurriedly finished before bursting out of her room and running down the stairs into the kitchen to see her father placing his briefcase down on the counter.
"Dad!"
She ran over and bounced around him eagerly, her hair swinging in every which direction.
"Hello Bryanna, did you enjoy your trip?" Her father asked, his tone cool as he opened his briefcase and pulled a stapled together stack of paper out.
"Yeah! I got to go swimming with the dolphins in the ocean, one even let me pet it!"
"That's nice."
Bryanna stopped bouncing around as she looked up at her father, her excited and hopeful expression fading as she realized that she hadn't heard a word she had said.
As usual.
"Well...I'm going to go find Tony." She mumbled turning away back towards the stairs.
"Mhmm."
Bryanna's head drooped and she walked away, the bounciness in her step gone.
"Looks like you beat me down." Came the teasing voice from above her.
Bryanna looked up in surprise to see Tony grinning down at her as he took the steps down two at a time before reaching the bottom next to her. She smiled up at him half heartedly and a slight look of concern washed over his face before he glanced up at the sound of shuffling papers and noticed their father.
Then he sighed before ruffling her hair.
"C'mon Bri, let's get going."
"Your going somewhere?"
Both Bryanna and Tony turned at the sound of their father's voice. He had for once turned away from his work to look over at his children and his gaze was piercing.
"I'm taking Bryanna out for a little bit. We'll be back soon." Tony said, his voice tense.
"And where do you get the idea that you can just waltz out of here with your little sister without making sure she is allowed to leave?"
"I cleared this with mom before she and Bryanna left for the girls thing. Permission has already granted. Mom needs to talk to you anyway, so we'll just head out."
Before their father could say anything Tony rushed Bryanna out if the kitchen and down into the garage, passing their mother with nothing more then a called goodbye before they reached Tony's car.
He reached behind and opened the back passenger door, bowing with a goofy grin.
"Your carriage awaits milady."
Bryanna couldn't help but giggle and she made sure to curtsy low.
"Why thank you kind sir."
Then she hopped into the fancy car, reaching down and petting the leather seats with glee as he closed the door and moved to hop into the drivers seat. Bryanna did up her seatbelt as he started the car and did up his own seatbelt.
Bryanna wiggled impatiently in her seat as her older brother moved the car out of the garage and started down the driveway before pulling through the gates to their mansion and onto the main road.
"So where do you want to go for ice cream?" Tony inquired as he navigated traffic.
"I wanna go to Misty's Diner! She has the best ice cream in the world! And we haven't gone in two whole weeks!"
"Misty's it is then! And that's perfect cause we're only a block over from the sky train which I know you love to ride, and we can take the sky train to the malls."
Bryanna nodded eagerly and they chatted about random topics such as the older woman they had seen at the red light with the really fat chinchilla and the funny prank call he had pulled with his friends.
"Here we are!" He finally said as they pulled into the parking lot.
They got out of the cars before heading into the diner where a kind looking older woman was busy wiping tables. At the sound of the bells over the door ringing she looked up only to smile at the sight of the two siblings.
"Hello Bryanna, Tony. Have a seat anywhere you like."
"Thanks Misty." Tony said warmly.
This was their sibling hangout, with a ice cream parlour a few streets away being their other stop so they knew the women who owned the diner really well.
Bryanna grabbed Tony's arm and dragged him over to a booth, dropping down onto the red seats with a grin.
"What can I get you darlins?"
"Ice cream!" Bryanna cheered loudly, making both Tony and Misty laugh.
"And don't forget the extra large order of fries." Tony added.
"Oh yeah, that to!"
Misty smiled and hurried off to the kitchen.
"Comin' right up!"
Bryanna grinned wider before turning back to Tony who was watching her in amusement.
"So what sort of things did you do on the trip?"
Bryanna's face lit up as she thought about everything she had done with her mom."
"Well we got to the hotel and went up to our room to see that we had a ocean view room, and the sheets and blankets were really soft! They were made out of special silk that's native to the area! Then once we were unpacked we went downstairs to try this really neat pomegranate/mango smoothie that actually tasted good even though I didn't think it would. Ooh! And we explored, finding the neatest little hidden pool cove in a area of the group with less traffic and there were a couple of other girls in there that played a bit with me when we went down to swim for a little bit!"
Tony nodded, bracing his arms on the table as he listened intently to her story.
"Was there a second pool?"
"Yeah! It was huge! It had a upper level and then the only way to get down to the second one was by this really neat glowing slide that had a clear bottom that would glow and have colour shoot through it!"
"A glowing slide? Nice!"
Bryanna nodded eagerly.
"So when did you go swimming with the dolphins?" He enquired, making Bryanna blink.
"I never told you about that."
He grinned.
"No, but you told dad and I overheard."
Bryanna's face brightened at the genuine curiosity in his voice.
"It was amazing! We went out on this boat into the ocean and mom and I went swimming with a couple of other people on the boat and as we were swimming a pod of dolphins noticed us and came over to us. They kind of swam around us and splashed us sometimes as they chattered. Then when I swam a few feet away from the others to look at a sparking fish I felt a nudge and I looked over to see one of the dolphins had come over! It even let me reach up and pet it before it swam away!"
Tony grinned at her apparent excitement as she talked about her trip.
"It sounds like you had a amazing time."
"I did!"
An hour later of almost non-stop chatter and eating of food they were finished and with a pleasant farewell to Misty the two of them headed down the street, walking towards the mall district.
As they walked Bryanna thought about the way their dad had behaved with her and then Tony earlier.
"Tony?"
"Hmm?"
"Why doesn't dad act very...dadish with us? He doesn't hug us or come to school events or have nice conversations with us or smile at us or-...well anything really. Except discipline us when we've done something wrong, or when he thinks we have. He does that."
Tony sighed and looked down at Bryanna who's brows were furrowed.
"I don't know Bri. I've never understood. Mom says that what he saw during the war, even though he wasn't on the front lines, the things he did see and the friends he lost, caused him to pull back and he was never really good with kids so he just doesn't know how to treat us."
The corners of her mouth turned downwards and she studied the pavement intently.
"Does he...not love us?"
Tony looked over at her, startled by her vulnerable tone and question. He looked down at her head for a moment before sighing again.
"He does love us, I know he does. Somewhere, somehow, he does love us. I just don't know if he's aware of that. He's not a bad person, just a very cold one."
Bryanna nodded, but no smile returned to her face. Tony watched her for a moment, her smile and bouncy nature not returning before giving a soft shake of his head and reaching down, grabbing her hand and swinging their joint arms between them in a playful manor.
"Now, why are we talking about this stuff? This is our annual "awesome siblings hang out day"! Serious conversation has no place in our day! Don't make me give you the set punishment for those caught breaking the goofy and silly code of "awesome siblings hang out day" and give you a noogie!"
Bryanna's head shot up at the mention of noogie and she shook her head furiously.
"I won't break the code! Just don't give me a noogie!" She gasped in mock horror.
Tony gave his best impression of a regal and stern expression.
"You had better not."
Bryanna broke down into laughter and Tony joined in, a grin on his face. The rest of the walk was cheerful, their arms swinging widely between them as they worked together to count all the awesome cars that passed by.
Once they got to the mall she dragged a mock protesting Tony to the doll section where she picked out a new outfit for her doll. Tony watched as Bryanna hovered over two different outfits, a dark pink evening dress and a black suit for her boy doll, staring in concentration at them.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to decide which doll needs a new outfit more. Tony or Cynthia."
Her brother blinked.
"You named a doll Tony? Why?"
Bryanna glanced up at him.
"Well I only have one boy doll but I have lots of girl dolls and in order for them to all have a date to different functions my boy doll needs to go out with all of him, which would make him a playboy. Your also a playboy and have had lots of girlfriends and your handsome like the boy doll so the doll's name is Tony."
Tony stared at her as she went back to picking which outfit she wanted and he couldn't help but roll his eyes and sigh. She named her playboy doll after him because she thought he was a playboy. Unbelievable.
"Really Bri?"
His sister turned back to him in confusion.
"What?"
Tony gave a exasperated snort.
"Nevermind."
Bryanna nodded and looked over at the clothing for a moment longer before picking up the suit and standing.
"I pick this one! The other one can wait for another day." She proclaimed before turning away and briskly marching down the isle.
Tony glanced down at the dress before smiling and picking it up, concealing it behind his back as he followed his baby sister down the isle towards the till.
They reached the till and Bryanna handed the outfit to the cashier who scanned it before turning expectantly to Tony.
"Is that all?"
He smirked and causally handed the dress box to the lady.
"Nah, add this as well. That'll be it."
While the the cashier scanned and then bagged both doll outfits Bryanna turned to Tony with slightly wide eyes.
"You didn't have to do that! I have lots of girl doll clothes!"
He grinned, that was one of the most special traits of Bryanna. She never asked for stuff from him or their parents. She was always satisfied with what she was given and didn't push for more. That made spoiling her with things like this even more enjoyable.
"Well Tony's new date really should have some new clothes to match Tony." He said with a wink.
Bryanna positively beamed as she reached over and hugged Tony tightly.
"Thank you."
He gave a affectionate smile and returned the hug, ruffling her hair.
"No problem."
So what did you think? Reviews are welcome! Flames shall be laughed at, posted for others to laugh at, and ignored as I continue the story.