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"Did you say something to my dad?" Maria asked, her arms were crossed and her eyes were watching her feet as they walked. Her face was scrunched in confusion and a hint of irritation was heard in her voice. Maria loved her father, and her father was many things but sneaky was not one of them. He had come right out and asked who Maria was seeing.
Maria almost choked on her food and gave him a threatening look. At first she thought that her father had been snooping, but quickly remembered he wasn't smart enough to look for something he didn't know about and she was sure her father didn't know about her boyfriend. Someone had snitched and there could only be two people in existence who could have said something, her mother and her boyfriend.
She hadn't had time yet to ask her mother because Pepper took a quick trip to Paris, so the next best thing was her boyfriend. Nervous that she brought up her father, Steve pulled at the neck of his shirt. Maria watched him curiously, he always pulled at his shirt when she brought up her father and she couldn't blame him. Her father would kill the both of them if he found out his daughter was dating Steve Rogers. Out of all the men she could have picked, she picked Captain America. The two boys seemed to hate each other, and couldn't sit in a room together without bickering, even after New York.
"No, I didn't…but maybe we should tell him about us." Maria suddenly gave Steve the stink eye. She was well aware of how her father got with her boyfriends, he would purposely try to scare them away. Normally he would stalk abound the house, and show up at places in his suit. So boys normally didn't stay around Maria long and Maria wanted this one to stay around for a very long time.
"Why? So he can beat you up?" she asked, she had stopped their walk and moved off to the side of the grass allowing the joggers to walk by. Steve always asked Maria if they could tell her father about them, but she was adamant that they wait a while. But in Maria's opinion Steve worried about it too much.
First it was there age difference, which Maria assured him wasn't a big deal. He was only seven years older than her, and if it made him more comfortable they wouldn't do anything until she turned 18. Then he worried about how to act around her, and what forms of affection were okay. Maria had almost been stunned when he asked her if it was okay to hold her hand. Maria still teased him about it, and often would ask him if he wanted to hold her hand. He always went red.
"Look don't worry about it, I'll tell him about it eventually." This wasn't the answer Steve wanted to hear, and the frustration was evident on his face. He would much rather just get everything over with sooner than later. That way there was a lot less reasons for Tony to kill him. Maria had planned on telling her father days ago, but he suddenly went into this crazy behavior of not sleeping for days.
Maybe she would just tell Mom. Mom always made it better.
"Look, I'll talk to Mom tonight. We will make plans for dinner on Saturday, we can tell him then. He should be done his crazy, manic, whatever by then." She sighed rolling her eyes, and signing something. He had picked up a lot of words from her, but every now and then she would sign something without thinking, and he had no idea what it was.
It was also a surprise to him that Maria didn't really yell. He would much rather her yell, so much emotion was put into signing that it looked a lot scarier.
Steve was distracted by Maria, and not really thinking he ran his hand along her jaw. She didn't seem to mind, and watched him curiously. She would have wanted nothing more than to kiss him, but Steve always panicked over things like that.
"Excuse me, are you Maria Stark?" A woman appeared from nowhere, interrupting the moment. Maria hated having a famous father, because it was moments like this that annoyed her. Steve jerked his hand away from her face and quickly placed it in his pocket.
"Yeah, can I help you?" The woman smiled tilting her head, she was older her skin wrinkled and worn. She looked tired, and her clothing was ruffled. Maria had seen all sorts of people, and a lot of the time they all mashed together. So it was strange to her that she felt like she knew the woman.
"Can I get a picture with you?" She asked, holding up a small camera that looked as if it had been through a lot. Maria suddenly felt uncomfortable, and without thinking she said yes. Within a few seconds a bright flash burned her eyes, and the strange woman thanked her before quickly wandering off.
Maria's brain seemed to wander off with the woman, because when Steve attempted to say something to her she didn't respond. Gently placing his hand on her shoulder he stirred her from her concentration. Maria didn't have anything to say about what had just happened, and nodded her head assuring him that she was okay.
"Can we talk?" Maria slid into her mother's office, shutting the large doors behind her. Pepper looked up from her desk a surprised look on her face. Maria hardly showed up at her work, she would normally just call her. So Pepper knew it was something very important.
Nodding her head, Pepper placed her pen on the desk and motioned for Maria to sit across from her. Maria quickly walked across her mother's office and sat down on the edge of the chair. Crossing her arms, and tilting her head, Maria thought about what she was going to say. It was a sight that Pepper was use to seeing, she was thinking of the best way to say something. She didn't want to upset her, and this worried Pepper.
"You have to promise you won't freak out, and that you won't let Dad freak out." Maria demanded, the expression changing on her face to one of irritation. If there was anyone she worried about, it was how her father would over react.
"I promise." Pepper smiled, which they both knew was half-truth. Pepper could keep herself from freaking out, but it would be impossible to keep Tony contained.
"The boyfriend wants to come over for Saturday dinner." Maria rolled her eyes, she already knew it was a bad idea but Steve was adamant about it. She kept telling herself that Steve could handle anything her father could throw at her, he was a superhero after all.
"Maria, Sweetie that's great!" Pepper excitedly clapped her hands together, she had been waiting a long time to figure out who this man was, and now she got to know without snooping around. She had started to get worried when Maria wouldn't talk about him, even though it was obvious that Maria was head over heels for someone. Pepper had almost started to go on a rant of excitement when Maria put her hands up to silence her.
"You have to keep Dad under control, he's going to lose his mind when he finds out who it is." This was very alarming to Pepper, sure Tony would never be happy about someone dating his girl, but what would it matter who she was dating. Unless it was someone that wasn't right for Maria, or Maria knew the relationship itself was bad.
Pepper wanted to push Maria for more information, but stopped herself. If she ever wanted Maria to be open with her like this again, she had to pick her battles. She would find out on Saturday who this mysteries man was, and then she was sure they would know everything.
Pepper placed a small smile on her face, nodding her head. She would try her hardest.
Maria had made sure everything about the dinner was perfect and if you were to ask anyone the dinner was way too much for a dinner date. Pepper actually had to pull Maria aside and assure her that everything would be okay. Maria like her father worked herself into a coma when something was bothering her, and it just so happened that the dinner was her focus.
Tony had been oddly silent about meeting the boy, and everyone in the house hold knew he was slowly calculating all the horrible legal things he could do to the boy, while at the same time trying to keep his promise to Pepper.
He had told her that he would try not to freak out and that they both really knew what kind of man he was. Pepper had to remind him that if this didn't go well, that Maria might not ever talk to them again. Which would be quite difficult on their parenting. Pepper was not impressed at all when he assured her they could always make her talk.
Maria had just finished changing her outfit for the third time when the doorbell rang. She tried to ignore her father as he clenched his jaw, and went to stand up. In a split second of panic Maria yelled that she would get the door and ran off.
The door felt like 100 pounds in her hands. Her face was flushed red with stress and her heart was pounding madly. There was no turning back now, and the reality was slowly sinking in.
"Hey." Maria forced a smile on her face, she could easily ignore how well dressed Steve was. Not that he was ever not, but today he had dressed up a little more than usual. Steve seemed to be thinking along the same things as Maria because his face was also void any joy. His face was stern, and underneath Maria could tell that he was terrified.
Silently Maria closed the door behind him, and before he could make his way to the living room stopped him to fix a few wrinkles in his shirt. Her hands were almost a comfort, and as quickly as they appeared they were gone.
The living room was silent when the two entered. Maria didn't dare look at her father and could only look at her mother whose face seemed to radiate relief after Steve entered in behind Maria. If anyone was looking they would have seen the relief that crossed Tony's face but for a different reason.
Somewhere deep down in his brain he had yet to process what he was seeing. To Tony at that moment there was no way that his daughter, and Captain America would be sneaking around madly in love. Because of this Tony spit out something that stunned the small gathering.
"Steve! Oh good! Just in time, Maria is about to show us her new boy toy, so I need backup." Maria's face twisted into one of anger, and she quickly bit the inside of her lip. Steve's face went even a deeper red, because he was afraid that he would have to explain what was going on.
"Tony, that's Maria's boyfriend." Pepper said through clenched teeth. The look of joy seemed to drop from Tony's face, and the same awkwardness that was floating in the air before was back, and stronger than ever.
The wheels in Tony's head turned for a few moments, then he tilted his head with a fake smile on his face. At this moment he was thinking about two things, the first being how there was no way the Captain would get away with dating his daughter, and the second was how he was not going to freak out in the middle of the living room.
"I think dinner is ready." Tony grimaced, he didn't wait for anyone to argue, he just walked away. Pepper and Maria both knew that dinner wouldn't be for another fifteen minutes. Tony really needed the time to think, so they would take as much time as possible to walk to the dining room.
When Tony was out of earshot, a large smile spread across Pepper's face and without warning she grabbed Steve in a hug. The confusion was evident on his face, and he held his arms away from Pepper, unfamiliar with this form of touch.
"I was so worried that Maria was going to bring home some bum! But I'm so happy to see it was you!" Pepper was indeed happy. Pepper had always liked Steve, he was a kind, caring, gentle man and she knew that he had more respect for her daughter then any man on the planet. She knew that Steve truly cared for her daughter.
She couldn't even be bothered by his age. He was older then Tony, which in any other circumstance would be completely vile, if the man hadn't been frozen for so many years. Steve, much like Maria was just starting their journey. In reality he was only a few years older than Maria.
The three of them slowly made their way to the dining room, and found Tony fiddling with a fork on the table. One of the waitresses had brought him a glass of scotch and he had already taken a large mouthful. Pepper silently showed Steve where he was going to sit, before taking her spot at the opposite head of the table. Maria sat across from Steve, and both were diagonal from her father.
The next few moments were the most painfully silently for the family, and the only source of relief for the group was when the waitress walked into the room with a small trolley. She began handing out plates to everyone, and they all continued to eat in silence. When they all finished their first course, Tony leaned back in his chair holding the cold glass to his lips. He was in deep thought, and the anger was hard to miss on his face.
"Just say it, don't just sit there and brood." Maria's spoon scraped on her bowl drawing everyone's eyes. Tony clenched his jaw tightly, and then placed his now empty glass on the table. The ice made a soft sound as it clinked against the glass.
"Well, I had no idea that you were sneaking around with the captain…of all people." He said, Tony didn't even look at Steve. The only one who saw the look of anger in his face was Pepper who knew what was going to unfold in the next few minutes.
Maria too angry to speak signed her father, "We are not sneaking around!"
"Meeting in the park without your father knowing, is sneaking around." Tony easily formed the words with his hands, and much better then Pepper ever could because Tony had a skill for this kind of thing. Pepper had remembered once when Maria laughed at her around the age of three for signing a word to her wrong, then helped her correct it.
"Maybe I would have brought him around if you didn't freak out over every single boy I brought to the house!"
"I don't freak out about every single boy." Tony scooted himself to the end of his chair, bringing himself closer to Maria. Two sets of eyes watched as she did the same, ready for the face off. Steve had no idea what was happening and he was terrified. He had never seen so much emotion put into body language before, and he had no idea this is what an argument in ASL looked like.
Steve had picked up a few words from Maria, which was funny because sometimes she had no idea she was even using ASL. So a large majority of words he knew by mistake, she had only taught him a few words.
"Yeah, and you didn't burn the eyebrows off the last boy?" Maria's anger seemed to explode at this moment, her face was a little red and she was breathing harshly as she tried to calm herself down. Tony paused for a second thinking about what his daughter had said to him before he continued.
"He asked for it." The clam look on his face was enough to make Maria explode. She slammed her hands on the table; she could feel the burn from the blunt force. She ignored it, she was too angry to care. With care and shaking hands Maria signed a word to Tony that made everyone at the table choke. She then walked away from the table quickly.
The once calm face of Tony went red, his daughter would not get away with talking to him like that, and slipping from the table he followed after her. Steve was sure that they continued their argument somewhere else in the house, but he didn't bother asking or going after them.
"How is the chicken?" Pepper asked, sliding another piece in her mouth. Steve swallowed the food he had been chewing for a while now. The previous discussion didn't seem to faze her, so it must have been a regular occurrence in the house.
"Fantastic." He replied, following Pepper's lead. He might as well stay and eat, and let the two Starks blow off some steam.
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