Chapter 4
Stark - "oh my God, no, do not keep calling me Mr. Stark when you're going to be living with me, just Tony's fine" - has a strange expression on his face as he watches Parker quickly pack her duffel bag. She only has a few shirts, a sweatshirt, and three pairs of jeans, so it takes her a grand total of five minutes to fold all of her clothes neatly and put them inside the duffel bag before adding the jewelry box containing the necklace Phil had given her for her birthday and an old, frayed stuffed bear she's had for as long as she can remember. Everything else is in her backpack, which is still on the floor of Tony's lab back at the mansion.
"Where'd you get that?" Tony asks, startling her since he's been so quiet ever since they had come up to her room.
"My bear? I've always had him." She shrugs a little, her grip on the teddy bear tightening protectively as she carefully tucks it inside the duffel bag. "Phil says he came with me from the hospital when I was put into the system."
"Well, he definitely looks his age." Tony eyes the bear critically, lingering on the space where one of its button eyes had fallen out over the years and the torn seam in its left shoulder. Parker frowns and zips the bag up so that the bear's hidden from view before slipping the strap onto her shoulder.
"Okay, I'm ready."
"That's it?" Tony raises his eyebrows and she chews her lip as she runs through a mental list of all her things, glancing around the room to make sure she hasn't forgotten anything.
"Um, yeah, that's it. I told you I didn't have a lot of stuff."
His mouth presses into a thin line. Excuse me for not being a billionaire, she thinks dryly, but doesn't say it in case it might offend him. "Okay, we're going to have to fix that. I'll have Pepper take you out shopping soon for some new clothes and things for your room."
"She's probably busy with work, I don't want to bother her-" Parker tries to insist, but Tony shakes his head.
"Her job's whatever I say it is." He gives her a small grin. "Besides, she likes shopping. You'll have fun with her." He ushers her out to the car and she's glad the nuns had already gotten the call that she's moving out. Phil really hadn't been kidding about expediting the adoption paperwork.
As she climbs into the backseat of the car and buckles her belt before setting her duffel bag at her feet, she asks, "What do you mean, things for my room?"
"Y'know, decorations. Posters and stuff. Kids like posters, right?" Tony looks bewildered, as if he had never considered how a kid might decorate a bedroom.
"What did you have in your room growing up?" she asks and he wrinkles his nose.
"If I remember right, blueprints for inventions I was working on." He gives her a wry smile. "You could try that."
She huffs a small chuckle as she shakes her head. "I don't think I'm nearly smart enough for that, but I appreciate the offer."
Tony frowns at that, but doesn't respond.
Pepper seems delighted to take Parker to the nearby mall to get her new clothes and decorations for her room, which is far more excited than Parker is as she tries on several pairs of jeans and T-shirts in the changing room of the department store.
"We should get you to the tailor for some formal dresses soon, too," Pepper muses as Parker piles together the jeans and shirts she likes most out of the ones she's tried.
"Formal dresses? Why?" Parker asks. She doesn't think she's ever worn a dress before, having opted to wear nicer jeans and T-shirts whenever someone came to the children's home looking for children to adopt.
"For events, galas. Anything where you might have to make a public appearance," Pepper answers as she helps Parker pile everything into a shopping cart and wheel it to the front of the store to pay. "Kind of a pain, but you get used to it," she adds as she pulls out a black credit card and passes it over to the sales clerk.
"I didn't know I'd have to go to those," Parker says, frowning as she chews her lip. She's not sure how exactly she'd pull off a public appearance when she's never even worn a dress before, much less been in the public eye. "Am I gonna be in tabloids and stuff?"
Pepper sighs as she grabs the shopping bags from the counter, leading Parker out of the store. "Probably. I'm going to try and filter out the negative media as much as possible, it's part of my job. I have a feeling you'll make it easier for me than Tony does, in any case. Not like you'll end up in any scandals." Parker must clearly not look relieved enough, because Pepper quickly changes the subject. "How about we get ice cream before we go to the home decor store?" Parker's only had ice cream a handful of times in her life when Phil had taken her out as a treat, so she nods in agreement as Pepper steers her over to Baskin Robbins.
Parker peers at the flavors of ice cream as Pepper orders an iced coffee and a scoop of cookie dough ice cream for herself before glancing at Parker for her choice. Parker chews her lip before deciding on mint chocolate chip, which Pepper relays to the college-aged girl behind the counter. Once they get their ice cream, they take a seat at a small white table near the doorway.
"It's a good thing you didn't get strawberry," Pepper admits as she sips her iced coffee. "I'm allergic."
Parker grimaces in sympathy, swallowing a spoonful of ice cream. She decides that she likes mint chocolate chip a lot. "That sucks. I'm sorry."
Pepper grins wryly. "Well, it is what it is. As long as I avoid them when I get fruit baskets or something, I'm fine. You don't have any allergies, do you?"
"Peanuts, I think," Parker answers. "I've never been officially tested for allergies, though."
Pepper nods thoughtfully, pulling her phone out to make a note on it. "We'll have to get you a full medical exam soon, anyway. I'm sure your last one is in your file, but I doubt that's been updated in a while."
Parker frowns. "Do you have to?" She doesn't meant to sound as nervous as she does, but it makes Pepper laugh a little.
"Relax. It's not like we're sending you to a torture chamber. I promise I'll find you a nice doctor," she reassures the teenage girl. Parker's not convinced, but decides not to complain.
After they finish their ice cream, they head to a home decor store where Parker picks out a few posters of landscapes that she thinks are pretty to make Pepper happy. As Pepper pays and passes the bag for Parker to hold onto, Parker decides to voice a question that's been on her mind for some time.
"Why does Tony have metal shrapnel in his chest?" Pepper stops in her tracks and Parker nearly collides into her. She's alarmed to see that Pepper looks almost like she's about to cry. "You don't have to tell me," she says quickly, not wanting to upset Pepper. "I just wanted to know since he mentioned it."
"No, no, it's okay," Pepper insists, giving Parker a reassuring smile even as she rearranges her expression quickly into a calm one. "I just didn't know whether you'd want to hear it from me or from Tony himself." She ushers Parker outside the mall with her to wait on the sidewalk for Happy to pick them up as she adds, "Tony's been through a lot in the past few months. He just got back from Afghanistan a few weeks ago, where, um...where he was held prisoner for three months."
"Three months?" Parker echoes, stunned.
Pepper nods. "A bomb went off near him when he was doing a sales pitch for the U.S. troops and the shrapnel was embedded in his chest. He invented the arc reactor in the cave they were holding him prisoner to keep the shrapnel out of his heart." She looks increasingly more upset, so Parker decides not to ask her any further questions, even though she has several.
"Okay. That's...wow." She runs a hand through her hair, chewing her lip. "Is he gonna be okay?"
Pepper gives her a small, sad smile. "Well, not overnight, he isn't. But we have to give him time, okay? And don't push him to talk about it." Parker nods as Happy pulls up with the car.
Once Parker and Pepper arrive back at the mansion, JARVIS directs them upstairs to a bedroom that he informs Parker is across the hall from Tony's. She pushes open the door and her mouth falls open at the sight of the bedroom.
It's far larger than any bedroom she's ever seen. An entire wall is made of tinted glass and the other walls are painted dark gray, like steel. There's a mahogany desk set up in the corner with Parker's backpack draped over the back of the chair. The duffel bag she had brought from the children's home is sitting in the middle of a large soft-looking bed with dark blue covers.
She sets the bags she's carrying down on the floor as she makes her way to the window slowly. The moment her fingertips make contact with the dark glass, the tint dissolves away to reveal the pristine beach and ocean beyond the house. Late afternoon sunlight filters into the room, illuminating the room and making it glow.
"Wow," she breathes and Pepper chuckles behind her as she sets the bags she's carrying down as well.
"The view's pretty nice from here, isn't it?" Parker nods speechlessly, stunned as she presses her hand to the glass. "You can go down to the beach and explore it, if you want. It's private. Just be careful not to get your shoes into the water or track sand back into the house."
"I won't," Parker promises as she hurries out of the room and rushes downstairs and out the front door to the beach. She takes off her shoes before she reaches the sand and leaves them on the wooden boardwalk that separates the house from the beach. The sand is incredibly soft under her feet as she moves to the edge of the water to let the waves wash over her toes.
She's not sure how long she stands there, breathing in the salty ocean breeze and watching the sun drift slowly lower towards the horizon until Tony's voice behind her startles her.
"You ever tried bending on purpose?"
She turns to see him coming down to stand beside her, the legs of his jeans rolled up just enough that the water doesn't touch them and his shoes abandoned beside hers on the small boardwalk.
"No, I haven't," she admits. "Always been too nervous to try. Besides, I couldn't control it even if I did."
"Hm." Tony studies her for a moment before looking around with a small shrug. "Well, it's just us here. Go for it."
"I literally just said I can't control it," Parker points out. "And I don't wanna hurt you."
Something in Tony's expression softens slightly even as he cracks a smile. "You won't, relax. Just try it. You're gonna have to get used to it sooner or later." He nods to the water lapping against the edge of the beach. "Have at it."
Parker hesitates, turning back to the water and silently willing it to come to her as it often does without her knowledge. It doesn't do more than splash halfheartedly in her direction and she turns back to Tony plaintively. "See? I can't do it," she says, frowning as she crosses her arms. "And why do you wanna see me bend so badly, anyway?"
Tony raises an eyebrow at her. "You can't blame me for being curious about how it works. Besides, you'll learn, that's what the training at SHIELD will be for." He pats her shoulder lightly. "Relax. You're not gonna hurt anybody."
She bites her lip, wanting to argue that he doesn't know that, he hasn't seen what she can do, before deciding not to bother. It doesn't seem like he would believe her unless he saw exactly how destructive she could be. "Thanks for the room," she changes the subject instead. "It's really nice."
Tony grins a little. "I thought you'd like it. Happy said he'd seen you admiring the ocean view on the way to the house. Pepper's arranging a windowseat to be installed in your room so you can sit by the window if you want."
"That'd be great." Parker can't help a small smile at the thought of being able to sit and read by the window with the ocean in sight. "I'd like that a lot."
"Come on, let's get back inside. I think Pepper's ordering pizza in for dinner." Tony's already turning back towards the house and Parker hurries to follow him, grabbing her shoes to tug them on once she shakes the sand from her feet.
The rest of the evening passes quickly enough; Parker eats pizza with Pepper and Tony, content to listen as they bicker back and forth goodnaturedly almost like a married couple before they all part ways, Tony retreating down to the lab to tinker with his suit while Pepper returns to her own apartment. Pepper gets a call from Phil on the way out the door and tells Parker that she'll have to report to SHIELD headquarters the next morning. Parker's nervous, but decides not to think about it as she makes her way up to her room again to change into the new pajamas Pepper had bought her.
As she climbs into the bed and settles under the covers, marveling at how soft they are, JARVIS pipes up, "Would you like me to raise the tint from the window, Miss Parker?"
"Yes, please." As the words leave her mouth, she watches the tint dissolve away from the window as moonlight streams into the room, glinting off the ocean in the distance. "Thanks, JARVIS," Parker says as she lays down, watching the waves wash over the rocky shore.
"You're welcome, Miss Parker. Sleep well." The lights dim in the room and JARVIS falls silent, allowing Parker to watch the ocean until she slowly drifts into sleep, feeling truly content for the first time in her life. Whatever awaits her at SHIELD the next morning can wait.
lol the writer's block is too real but I got this up just in time for Independence Day :D I'm also working on the first chapter of my Avatar sequel, promise! Teaching my summer class has just been really stressful lately.
Hope you enjoyed it and I'll work on getting the next chapter up ASAP!