Tony smiled as he watched Arina take a large engine apart. She carefully put the pieces in different places, before starting to put it back together. He saw her hands shake slightly, and realized she knew he was watching. He gently lay his hand atop hers and helped her hold steady, making her calm down some so she could carefully put the engine back together with his help. "Easier than I thought it would be papa."
"You're a natural engineer! Now lets try something harder."
{Sir I'm not so sure that's a good idea.}
"Relax JARVIS I got this."
Arina watched her dad pick up a bit of a mechanic suit and put it on the table by the engine. "This?"
"Yup. Now, take it apart." Tony took a step back and watched her examine it. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but it was a damn brief one before she dived headlong into the task. He felt a grin spread on his face as she dismantled the piece, doing it with such ease that he had no qualms about telling her to reassemble it. Now that was more of a challenge, with so many pieces and moving parts, but she succeeded. Arina turned to watch her father try to manipulate it, pleased when he was able to.
"Good job Arina! You'll be building these yourself before you know it!" He patted her head. "Are you sure we're not related?"
"I'm sure papa." She smiled and knocked his hand away as Pepper walked in. The woman seemed a little worried, wringing a magazine in her hands. "Pepper?"
Tony turned to her. "Something wrong?"
The redhead held out the magazine. On the cover was a clear picture of Tony carrying poor Arina into the house, under the caption "Stark welcomes limbless orphan". "The press is all over this."
The man took the magazine, growling as he looked at it. "Damn..."
Arina tilted her head. "Papa?"
"Pepper take Arina to her room and pick out some nice clothes for her. I need to do something real quick and then we're heading out for dinner."
"Uh okay..."
Tony watched the two women leave before walking over to a shelf. He pulled down a few small tools and went back to the piece of the suit Arina had re-assembled. He set to dismantling it and rebuilding to finish up a set of thinner prosthetic arms he had been working on since he had brought Arina home. Now that they were finally done he went upstairs to where the girls were waiting. Arina looked over at him, then the arms with curiosity shining in her eyes. Tony smiled and walked over, eyeing the iron orange blouse and designer jeans the girl wore. "Arina can you take your shirt off for a moment? I don't want to mess it up."
The girl nodded and removed the unwanted cloth, leaving her sitting there in her bra with the arc reactor shining brightly in her chest. Her father carefully removed the prosthetics connected to her, leaving her confused when she looked at what was left of her right arm and saw a metal disc left there. He didn't her give a long time to think about it before he connected the new arms, making her grunt from the pain that came with her nerves connecting with the wires. She looked down at the new prosthetics for a moment before starting to move them. They weren't nearly as heavy as the ones she had previously had. "Is this what you were doing papa?"
"Yep. Arms up!" He watched her lift her arms before helping her back into the blouse. "Now let's go get dinner!"
The girls smiled and stood, each taking an arm. They followed him out to his favorite car and got in, leaving him to hop behind the wheel. In a flash they were racing down the highway toward town. Not long after were they pulling up to a jam packed restaurant, paparazzi crowding the path leading in. Pepper gave her boyfriend a bewildered look as he got out to help Arina out of the backseat. Cameras flashed as the trio walked up to the door, Tony's arm protectively around his daughter's shoulders. Reporters flung questions their way, but only one made Tony pause.
"Mr Stark is it true you've welcomed an orphan into your home?"
Tony turned to the reporter, gently turning Arina to face them as well. "This lovely young girl is my daughter Arina. And yes, she has been very warmly welcomed into the Stark family."
More questions came at them as he turned and lead them inside. Arina giggled quietly and poked her father's side. "Papa~"
"Hush." He smiled and rubbed her head as they were quickly lead to a private table. "No need to be shy."
"Alright."
