"Just another product of today / Rather be the hunter than the prey
And you're standing on the edge, face up 'cause you're a
Natural / A beating heart of stone
You gotta be so cold / To make it in this world"
- Imagine Dragons
A/N: I haven't updated this in SO LONG. School stuff and then this whole pandemic thing happened, so there's my excuse lol. This is a kind of filler chapter between the Iron Man post-credit scene and Christmas, inspired by the companion comics that Marvel published.
I'm also not gonna lie, this chapter took me a few days to even finish because I wasn't feeling it but knew I had to get it out. Sorry if it sounds a little clunky. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!
The cat was out of the bag. He was Iron Man, and the world knew it now. Oh, wow, the world knew it now. It had been a long day and at this point, Tony just wanted to sleep.
The security alarm to the main floor had been tripped, the mansion otherwise quiet. Tony undid his tie as he climbed up the stairs from the garage, a little tired but also… uneasy. He called out, "Danny? JARVIS?"
The AI had responded but seemed to lose power as it spoke: "Ẅ̴ͅe̵͇͂l̷͕̋̕c̵̡̯̮̃͂̋o̵̢̦͋m̵̢̏e̷̦̽͂ ̷͓͚̈́̚͠ȟ̴̘ö̶̢̭́͆m̶̙͋͒̈́e̷͚̮̿,̶͖̃̋̇ ̵̣̹̐s̷͔̈́̚i̴̟̖̣̋r̴͔̍…"
His immediate thought zeroed in on the girl, making the decision to check on her. Tony turned to continue up the stairs before catching a shadow from the corner of his eye; he tried to ignore the rapid beating of his heart. There was a figure standing against the living room window, staring out into the ocean-side. Tony straightened forward, eyes narrowing at the man wearing a leather trench coat.
"'I am Iron Man'," the mysterious man repeated mockingly, forgoing an introduction. He shook his head, turning on his heel. "You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become a part of a bigger universe; you just don't know it yet."
"Who the hell are you?" Tony asked.
"Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD." The man stepped out from the shadows. He was dark-skinned, broad-shouldered, and donned a comically accurate eye-patch. Tony scoffed out a soft "Oh," as if his answer had provided any form of clarity. "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative," Fury finished.
Tony glanced back up to the stairs, frowning slightly. He inquired instead, "What did you do to the kid?"
"Ms. Barton is fast asleep in her room." Fury blinked at him with the one eye, shifting to link his fingers together in front of him. "She's fine, if that's what you're worried about."
The brunet watched Fury from the corner of his eyes as he stalked over to the side table, grabbing the glass bottle of scotch and pouring out a finger. "I don't care who you are," he said frankly. "You want to talk to me about anything, you make an appointment. I think the twelfth of never is open."
"Look, Stark –"
Tony brought the glass up, raising his brows. "You want an initiative? Fine. Take the initiative and leave before I call in my security guard to escort you." The threat was clean on his lips as he said, "You may have read about him. Big guy. Repulsor rays. You'd like him."
Fury frowned, moving forward. "Mr. Stark, I came here to offer you an opportunity –"
"Opportunities aren't offered, they're taken. If there's one out there, I'll find it myself." Tony had to hold back a cynical laugh as he continued, "I don't need government intruders in my house dangling them."
The two of them held each other's gaze. Tony gave the SHIELD Director one of his signature smirks as he said with finality, "You know the way out, Mr. Furry."
"Fury," the man corrected. "And I'll be keeping an eye on you, Stark."
"Well, you've just got the one, so try not to trip over anything," Tony snarked back.
The Director disappeared through the front door, his back stiff as he threw one last look over his shoulder. Tony swung back the remainder of his scotch before heading up to the second floor, taking the stairs two at a time. He found Danny in her room, just like Fury said.
Tony stepped over to her bed lithely, reaching to turn off the bedside lamp. Danny was asleep, sprawled across the mattress. The man thought to leave her be until the hallway light reflected off of something; he cursed under his breath after pulling a tranquilizer dart from her neck. Tony, very briefly, wondered if Danny had given Director Fury a hard time. Looking at the sheer size of the dart, he concluded that she must have.
The back of his hand hovered over her mouth, and he sighed in relief when he felt her breathe. It was shallow, but there, nonetheless.
After pulling the covers over Danny, Tony decided to come down to the workshop in order to survey his security. He hopped onto his computer terminal, placing the dart on his desk. Tony glanced over his security protocols, noticing some unrecognizable coding.
"JARVIS?"
"Ȉ̸̪'̴̫͉͗̓̏m̴̛͔̑ ̶̬̈́h̵̻͖̼̍ȩ̵͊r̷̥̐͆̏e̴͖̓,̷̱͔̊͊ ̷̱͛͒̅͜ș̷̞̘̆̀̊i̷̖͔̮̽̒̉r̸̖̼̋̒͋ͅ." The AI's voice still sounded garbled, overladen with static. At least he was operational. Tony was going to give Fury an earful the next time they met, mark his words.
Upon typing out a few commands, he ordered, "Prepare for manual reboot to the whole house." Tony worried his bottom lip between his teeth, in thought. "Debug and scan the back-up servers once we're up, too; let me see the cracks in our firewall."
"R̵͓͙̍̿̾i̶͈̔̕g̷̹̫̻͐h̵͓̮̍́ţ̶̠͛͛̽ ̵̧̺͕̀̃͆a̴̲͒ŵ̸̟̣̏́ā̵̮͝y̵̡͈̺͐."
It started slow: The rest of the house was cutting power before it hit the garage. First, it was the lights along the ramp entrance shutting off one by one. Next was the low hum of the appliances in the workshop going quiet. Tony watched the shut-down processing on his terminal screen, and then he was left in pitch blackness, the only source of light emitting from the Arc Reactor in his chest.
The dark had been a blackhole devoid of sound – but for only a moment. As the air conditioner reactivated and computers booted, the rest of the house came alive again. "We are back to full operations," JARVIS announced, voice returning to normal. "Debug and scan complete."
"How are we looking, JARVIS?" Tony inquired as the server specs appeared on his screen.
"Sir, there appeared to be a Trojan program which caused the ease of access. I'll try tracing its origins, but I have taken liberty with removing it during the reboot."
Tony frowned, pulling up his system settings and looking through the coding himself. "Another fight for another day," he muttered under his breath, setting a goal to update his security in the future. His eyes then zeroed in on the dart sitting on his desk, concern filling his mind once again. "JARVIS, would you say the sedatives in this tranquilizer are capable of overdosing a girl that's of average height and weight?"
Blue holographic lights scanned the dart as JARVIS Vac-U-Formed the vial. "If a surgical anesthetic and some form of benzodiazepine were to be used in a syringe of that size, it can likely affect even a small elephant, sir."
Tony's brow furrowed in frustration, and he pulled himself forward to activate his search engine. He began researching effects of sedatives and dosage in relation to Danny, who was still knocked the hell out upstairs. The only thing he told JARVIS to do was monitor her overnight, in hopes that they didn't need to get paramedics involved.
Fury's the head of a government spy organization; he would've known how much he was dosing Danny, right? Right?
In the midst of Tony's slight panic, he noticed a new email notification appear at the bottom corner of one of his monitors. It was from an old flame, Lina Esco.
Danny woke up in the early morning feeling slightly groggy, with only a quickly fading dream of a figure coming into her room. Tony was in his workshop when she found him, as per usual, but he was wearing his dress shirt and pants from the previous afternoon. Danny didn't want to point it out; it wasn't her business, and after all, he was a grown man with no obligation to her.
The most awkward chance-meeting happened to Danny the following week. She and Happy Hogan were bringing in bags full of groceries; be it genius or pride, they attempted to gather all the bags in their hands so that they could carry everything in one go.
The blonde had barely passed the threshold to the mansion when she noticed Tony and a random woman all but swapping spit on the living room couch. Danny muttered under her breath a quiet "Ew" before: "Hi, we're home!" She tried to stifle a snicker when they both jumped apart, their faces going bright red.
"I didn't realize you guys were coming back so early." Tony cleared his throat sheepishly, stealing a glance at the woman beside him. She was pretty, brown eyes and dark hair, but she avoided catching Danny's eyeline like she was Medusa herself.
Happy entered the foyer, unperturbed, greeting them. "Hiya, boss. Don't worry about it, the kid and I got 'em all," he said, referring to the groceries. He turned to usher Danny forward, who adjusted her hold on the bags before making a beeline to the kitchen.
She could still hear them talking with lowered voices from the other room, catching the woman telling Tony, "I didn't realize you had a daughter."
"Daughter? Oh – no, no – she's not mine. She's just my assistant's… uh, foster kid."
"And what, she lives with you?"
"It's complicated."
Danny started to unbag the purchases when Happy appeared beside her. She asked quietly, "Who is she, exactly?"
"Lina something," he said. Happy set the bags on the island counter, and then simply shrugged. "She's floated around in Tony's circles; I think she's an actress." Danny could tell from his passive expression that this wasn't an unusual occurrence. Tony's recovery and Iron Man escapades had likely halted his playboy ways (considering Danny had never seen him with anyone since she's moved in), but it was obvious that Tony wanted to play catch-up.
She considered, "I thought that… you know, that he and Pepper were getting pretty close." Danny grabbed the milk and moved to store it in the refrigerator.
"Trust me, I've been waiting on that for years," Happy revealed, shaking his head in amusement. "I wouldn't hold your breath, frankly."
She and Happy stored away the rest of groceries in a comfortable silence, and it was a short time later when Tony entered the kitchen. He watched them momentarily before he spoke. "Happy, can I have a moment with Danny?"
"Sure, boss." He straightened up but made no indication to leave.
"In private."
Happy's mouth shaped into a small O as it dawned on him. "Oh. Right, right. I am gone."
When Happy disappeared into the front room, Danny's teeth clenched together in anticipation. She fiddled with the soup cans on the counters, spinning them around as a distraction. "So, were you going to introduce us?" Danny muttered, making a direct jab at him.
"Lina actually had to… go somewhere…"
How convenient, the Sharp One said snarkily. Danny scoffed, nodding slightly. "Sure."
Tony pursed his lips, drumming his fingers on the countertop. There was a thick tension lingering in the air, nearly tangible enough to cut with a knife. Somehow, it felt like he was preparing himself for The Talk, and it was uncharacteristically intense coming from him. "Kiddo…"
"Tony, you don't need to explain yourself to me," Danny began, cutting him off before he could make excuses. She plastered a forced smile to her face, hoping it was enough to seem convincing as she started to leave; the look on his face showed that it wasn't. "It's your house, you can see whoever you want."
"No, listen. This is your house too, now, and I don't – You know I'm not consistent with the caring-for-people thing." Tony paused for a breath, almost like he was contemplating something in his head. His brown eyes met her hazel-grey ones, and his shoulders slumped. He finished, "I'm trying here."
Danny was smart enough to understand the meaning behind Tony's words. He'd always had a small circle of people around him, and she'd somehow convinced him to care about her too. (Fuck what the public said, Tony Stark had a heart.) "Promise me," she said, smiling, "that you'll give me a warning next time you have a lady friend over."
"It won't be like that," Tony tried to reassure. "I want to make it serious with Lina. For once."
"I'm serious, too," Danny responded, sticking out her pinky to him. Tony finally conceded, linking his pinky finger with hers and sealing his dumb promise.
To Tony's credit, he did give Danny a head's-up over the next week or so whenever Lina would plan to visit. Which, much to her chagrin, was almost every other day. The woman wasn't like Danny expected at all; in fact, she was nice and sort of funny. Tony seemed to trust Lina a little more and was… less sad whenever Danny would see him.
However, shit really hit the fan halfway through December when Danny and Tony were out. He was alerted to a security breach at the workshop entrance; it was obvious that someone had the idea to break-in for some of the Iron Man tech. The thief had stolen one of Tony's custom cars and escaped before getting locked in. Tony and Danny had rushed back to the house, and he hurried into the Iron Man Mark IV suit before going after the intruder.
Danny watched the chase live on the news, which showed shaky camera footage of Iron Man getting thrown into a shop and the getaway car being flipped. At some point after, Tony had returned to the house before heading out again, and he seemed closed off and angrier than Danny had ever seen him. It wasn't until later on that she found out Lina had been blackmailed by the Ten Rings, to steal blueprints in order to trade for her own son.
After a few days, she figured that he must have felt a whole lot better because a short text was left by Tony on her phone, saying that he went to Europe to attend an event and to check up on some surveillance (whatever that meant). Suffice to say, when all was said and done between Tony and Lina, Danny knew it was smart to avoid him for a couple days.
Danny woke up to the smell of slightly burnt cookie dough and… trees? What the hell? She changed into a sweater and leggings before hustling down the staircase, her curiosity piqued.
Pepper and Tony were loudly bickering in the kitchen, the fire alarm having gone off. Danny stopped short when she caught sight of the large pine tree in the corner of the living room, decorated with ornaments and tinsel and white lights. Stockings were hung up as well, decorated with the names of Tony, Danny, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy in cursive.
"Tony, the cookies!" Pepper sighed in exasperation.
There was a thunk from a tray, followed by a rush of water running in the sink. "I don't know why you let me be in charge of that. I'm an engineer, not a fucking baker."
"I hope you see the irony in that."
"Just shut off the damn alarm – JARVIS!"
Danny slowly walked into the kitchen: Pepper was fanning a dish towel at the oven, and Tony was elbows deep in the sink. The alarm stuttered and shut off eventually. Her eyes widened as she took in the ugly sweaters that they were both wearing. "Uh… good morning?" she said slowly.
Tony snorted a laugh, still scraping off burnt cookies from the tray. "Check again, kiddo. It's almost one in the afternoon."
"Oh, good! You're awake," Pepper said, tossing the towel onto the counter. Her smile was broad as she approached Danny, grabbing her arm and sitting her at the counter. "We were waiting for you before we put the star on the tree," Pepper informed her, placing a plate of food covered in saran wrap in front of her.
It took a few more moments for Danny's brain to process everything happening around her. Tree. Sweaters. Cookies. Upon her revelation, she said, "Holy shit, it's Christmas Eve."
Tony shut off the kitchen sink, turning to grab the dish towel and drying his hands. "To be honest, I never really do the holiday thing. But Pep insisted." He tossed the towel aside, leaning against the counter.
"You're gonna help us finish decorating," Pepper told her.
Danny picked up the fork offered and pulled away the wrap, digging into the slightly cold lunch. Mid-bite, she asked, "Wait. When did you guys set up the… tree and the stockings? The place was empty literally last night."
"I –" Tony started.
"Oh, please, take all the credit," Pepper grumbled.
"We realized that this is your first Christmas with us, so I had Happy pickup a lot of this stuff from storage."
Her heart swelled up, and Danny felt the heaviness in her chest. She fought back the onslaught of tears as she looked at Pepper and Tony, the latter of which made eyes with Danny and noticed the wetness in them.
"Oh, c'mon, kid. Don't with the waterworks."
Danny dabbed at the corners of her eyes, sniffing lightly. "You started it," she laughed.
A/N: Just in case JARVIS's dialogue was too difficult to read -
"Welcome home, sir..."
"I'm here, sir."
"Right away."