Looking for a beta.
"Isn't she just darling?" An old woman said, approaching Tony who was holding his daughter. He had dressed her in a pink dress with red flowers, and a red bow in her raven hair.
The woman attempted to pinch Maria's cheeks but she turned her head away quickly, burying her face into her father's neck to escape the attack. The woman chucked, talking to Maria who simply ignored the woman. As quick as she came, she left.
"You are getting a lot of attention today aren't you Pumpkin!" Tony said, as his daughter stirred away from his neck, her blue eyes, watching his face. Tony kissed her forehead quickly. Then took off looking for Pepper, he managed to find her talking to another woman who was holding a boy around Maria's age.
"Oh, Tony!" Pepper said, loudly with a wide smile on her face. Pepper was wearing an off pink dress, in an attempt to match Maria, and not look childish. Tony couldn't help but keep his eyes on Pepper, because no matter what Pepper wore she was amazingly beautiful.
"This is Miss. Worthington, and her son Warren!" She said, holding her hand out in introduction. Miss. Worthington was quite tall and had a dark sandy blond hair that was tied back in a bun. While her son, had light blond hair, that curled tightly on top of his head.
Tony knew who the Worthington's were, he had done business with Miss. Worthington's husband quite a few times, but he had never met his wife, and was unaware that they had a son.
"It's nice to meet you!" Miss. Worthington said, sticking her free hand out to shake Tony's, which he gladly accepted. Maria started to stir turning around so she could see Warren.
"Mrs. Potts here was telling me, your daughter is nineteen months old!" Miss. Worthington said, holding her son who started to struggle. She made a strange face and tightened her grip on her wiggling son, so she wouldn't drop him.
"Are you alright?" Pepper asked, watching Miss. Worthington get control over the situation. The woman shot Pepper a sympatric look, finally getting control over her son's movements.
"Sorry about that, sometimes he gets squirmy." Miss. Worthington said, running her hand threw her sons curly locks. Pepper nodded her head understandingly; Maria would sometimes do the same.
"As I was saying!" Miss. Worthington stated loudly, running her hand over her hip flattening the wrinkles out on her dress, her face twisted in annoyance.
"Warren is twenty-two months old, and as I was saying to Mrs. Pots here. Warren gets lonely sometimes, and that I was looking for a playmate for him." She said, shifting Warren's weight around. There was no doubt in Tony's mind that Warren was a heavy child. He could tell by the way, Miss. Worthington sloped her body under his weight.
"I was hoping that you would be willing, to set up a play date between my son and your daughter." Miss. Worthington said, watching Tony carefully considering the idea. Maria rarely played with other children, and when she did she played with others quite well for a short period of time, before she would wonder off by her self again. Tony thought that maybe having a playmate would be beneficial to her.
"I don't see a problem, so I'll leave it up to Miss. Potts to set up a date!" Tony said, watching the smile grow wider on Miss. Worthington's face.
"Where is Maria?" Pepper asked, approaching Tony. He was standing beside a white clothed table that had different foods on top of it. It was very unlikely for Tony to eat anything that had sat out in the open for so long, so it was very strange that he was standing close to a table.
Tony held his finger to his lips, pointing under the table. Pepper raised her eye-brows in amusement. Hide and seek wasn't a new game, but doing it at an M.I.T party, was very new and possibly embarrassing.
Maria was the kind of child who would squeal when Tony found her, wiggling until she was set free so she could go hide again.
"Tony I don't think playing that here is a good…" Pepper said, placing her hand on her forehead as Tony reached under the table grabbing his daughter's sides, pulling her out into the open. She squealed in delight as Tony lifted her above his head, laughing at his daughter who continued to squeal and laugh. When he was done he placed Maria back on the ground and watched her crawl under another table.
By now every single person in the room was watching Tony quite intently. While muttering to each other, no one had seen such actions from Tony. Holding his daughter yes, but playing with her.
"Ah Tony, as much as you love playing with Maria, I don't think now is the time!" Pepper said, removing her hand from her forehead. His actions were not the least bit professional, and she had to work with some of these people.
"Why's that Pepper?" he asked, watching her looking around sharply. A few people were still looking, but most had stopped and continued their conversations.
"We work with these people Tony!" She snapped, Tony simply ignored her and lifted up the table cloth to peek under it. Maria was not to be found. Tony gently put the table cloth down and moved to the next one, peaking under it once again, to find Maria.
"So? Maria's bored!" Tony said innocently, reaching under and grabbing his newly found daughter. She squealed and wiggled away, not allowing Tony the chance to pull her out. A soft chuckle was heard from Tony as he released the tablecloth and continued the game to the next table.
"I don't' think its Maria who's bored!" Pepper snapped, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at Tony. Tony's eyes moved to Peppers stiff figure, as she towered over him. Sighing, he released his grip on the white cloth and stood up.
"What?" He asked watching Pepper fume. When she first started working for him her face would match the color of her hair, because she would be so irritated with him. But now her face would just twist in frustration, and she would just glare at him. He liked pushing her buttons, because it meant he got to see the 'face' and he thought it was irresistibly cute.
"You promised me you wouldn't do this if I let you bring Maria!" She said, crossing her arms. Tony shrugged his shoulders, she knew him well enough by now, to know that he never really listened to any one and that he really didn't care what other people thought. He was just trying to have fun with his daughter.
"If Maria is so bored, she can go play with Warren, I'm sure he's bored too!" Pepper said, nudging Tony out of the way to pull Maria out from under the table. She squirmed and squealed as Pepper pulled her out, and placed her on her hip.
Once again people in the room turned to see what the commotion was about. Pepper turned on her heel, marching over to Warren who was playing by him self against a wall with a few colored blocks someone had given to him.
He looked up as Pepper placed a very confused Maria in front of him, his blue eyes wide and curious.
"Ma-ma!" Maria said when Pepper placed a loving hand on her head. Maria had no interest in playing with Warren, Pepper knew she would rather be playing with Tony. But today, at this moment, it wasn't a good idea.
"Play nice!" Pepper said, poking Maria's nose gently and walking back over to Tony who was making pouted faces at her. The sight kind of made Pepper feel like the bad guy, but she knew it was for the better good.
"Now Mr. Stark!" Pepper said, placing a hand on her hip. Tony stopped making his faces and watched her.
"If you would follow me, there are a few people you need to talk to!" She said, twisting her body around to find them. Tony was far from happy, he hated talking to people at M.I.T parties, they only talked about two things, business and a great new idea they wanted Tony to invest in. He never did because most of the ideas were well…stupid.
Maria watched as Pepper walked away, confused and frustrated that Mommy wouldn't let her play with Daddy. Maybe Daddy had done something bad and gotten a time out? Maria didn't know, but she did know that Mommy had placed her beside the boy she had seen earlier.
He was watching her intently, holding a yellow block in his hand. Daddy wouldn't let Maria bring her rabbit, even when she fought with him in the car to take it with her. He didn't want her to lose the animal at the party, which was more then likely to happen. Maria would forget her rabbit almost everywhere, and losing it around the house was one thing, (JARVIS always knew where it was) but taking it out in public was another. Maria would surely throw a fit if she could never find her precious stuffed friend.
"You take!" Warren said, handing her the yellow block he was holding. It was quite large in his little hand, and Maria looked at him strangely before accepting the block from Warren's hands.
Satisfied that Maria had accepted her gift, he handed her a red block. Which Maria accepted swiftly, this process continued a few more times until Maria was holding five blocks, each a different color. Warren then waited patiently on the floor for Maria to hand him the blocks back, a game he and his mother played quite frequently.
Maria's eyes fluttered down to the blocks, she thought for a moment, and then dropped all the blocks on the floor walking to the nearest table and crawling under it. If she hid, Daddy would have to come and find her. It was the rules.
Warren watched Maria curiously, before pushing him self up off of the ground and following. He had never been under the table before, and he was curious to see why Maria liked it so much.
Struggling to crawl under the covers of the table, Warren grunted when he had finally escaped the clutches of the evil white cloth. It wasn't hard to find Maria, she was after all laying on the ground her thumb in her mouth as she lazily waited for something.
That's when Warren noticed the pretty red bow hanging off her head. He decided at that moment, he wanted it. Quietly making his way to Maria he grabbed the end of the ribbon and tugged it away from her hair. Maria instantly, sat up grabbing for her ribbon her small hand missing her target. Frustrated, she chased after Warren who was making his way out of her hide out.
"Mine!" Maria yelled grabbing the ribbon on the ground sharply pulling as she ran. Maria was completely oblivious to the ribbon that had been snagged on Warrens pants, had started to unravel, and soon had left her with nothing but a bundle of little strings. Confused, she dropped the stings in her hand on the floor and turned back to Warren. He had found something much more entertaining then Maria's ribbon, and quietly played with the table cloth, placing the white fabric over his head.
Angry Maria ran over to Warren pulling the table cloth away from him. He retaliated by pushing Maria harshly in the stomach, she landed on her bottom. Looking at him shocked, tears building up in her eyes. She suddenly let out a soft wail.
"Sorry, Sorry!" Warren said, crawling over to Maria and hugging her, then quickly pulled away. His mother had taught him that when your hurt someone, you say your sorry and hug them.
"Tony, I think its time to go!" Pepper said, placing her small hand on his shoulder. He turned around to look at Pepper who looked extremely tired; it was a regular occurrence for her, parties always made her tired.
"What time is it?" Tony asked, flicking his wrist and studying the face of his watch, it was ten o'clock. Maria suddenly flashed threw his mind, it was way past her bed time, and he could only imagine what she would be like in the morning.
"Can you get Maria? I'm afraid I'll drop her!" Pepper said, watching Tony rub his face absent mindedly. The last time he saw Maria was twenty minutes ago, she was playing with Warren, who was tugging her around by the hand. She didn't seem to mind as Warren showed her all types of things, one of them being what's under a dress. The woman had screeched thinking it was some wild man who pulled up her dress, but was greeted by Maria and Warren who curiously held up the ends of her dress.
"Where is she?" Tony asked Pepper watching her turn her body and pointing out two small bodies curled up on a large chair against the wall. Tony's heart started to swell at the sight, Maria was curled up fast asleep with her fingers in her mouth and her head placed on Warren's stomach. Warren, who was in an even more awkward position slept with his head partly on the back of the chair and his legs dangling off the front of the chair.
Silently Tony walked over to his daughter gently pulling her warm body to his chest. She stirred for a moment opening her eyes, wide enough to understand who was picking her up.
"Time to go pumpkin." Tony softly said, to his daughter as he gently pressed his lips to her forehead, she yawned and placed her head in the crook of his neck, falling asleep almost instantly. Tony chucked as he made sure he had a secure grip on his daughter, and followed a very impatient Pepper out the door.