I tweaked the timeline for this prompt a little to make it a bit more realistic. I hope you enjoy, and that you all are having a nice holiday season (despite the 2020 craziness)!
Penny had been in one foster home before coming to live with Mr. Stark and his girlfriend, Miss Potts. Her parents had died when she was nine, leaving her in the care of her aunt and uncle. After the death of May and Ben less than two years ago, right before her thirteenth birthday, she'd been placed in the care of Jacob and Susan McCoy. The McCoy's had been nice and she had been on her absolute best behavior for the full thirteen months that she'd lived with them. She didn't remember her first night with the couple that had lived in the suburbs, only that they'd agreed to allow her to continue going to Midtown after a couple of days off. They'd helped her get her things from her apartment, or as much as she could fit into the three garbage bags they'd brought, and they had even gotten her a gift for her birthday: a gift card to a fast food place close to her school.
For Christmas, she'd gotten some new clothes, including a sweater with a kitten on it that she wore several times when they took her out so that they wouldn't think she was ungrateful.
They'd made sure to have dinner on the table for her every night, and left plenty of options for her to eat when they weren't home. She'd had a TV in her room and had been given an allowance every week so that she could do things like hang out with Ned and eat at Delmar's. Still, despite their kindness, she felt like something was missing. Some...connection. They rarely talked to her when they weren't having dinner, and then it was only to ask how school had been. When they went to dinner with friends or family, Penny stayed home. And there were no pictures of her anywhere in the house...none of her report cards or tests pinned up on the refrigerator.
And so Penny spent as much of her time out of the house as possible. She studied with Ned or alone at the library after school, or she picked up a sandwich at Delmar's and wandered around her old neighborhood until it was nearly her curfew. She did her homework in cafes or fast food places or went to MJ's to hang out. And when she was home, she stayed in her room, learning early that neither Jacob nor Susan had much interest in a relationship with her. And that was okay, she told herself when the thought would hit her during the day.
At night, she cried, face pressed into her pillow lest she make any noise. She cried because her parents were gone and because she'd been made an orphan twice and because it didn't seem like anyone would ever love her, truly love her, again.
After the incident at Oscorp, Susan had sat at her side, her hand on Penny's as she'd felt her miraculous recovery, Susan had come in to check on her, a hand pressed to her forehead. herself burn with fever that had, after 24 hours, abruptly disappeared. Then, a few hours after "I'm glad to see you up. I was afraid we'd have to take you to the hospital."
Penny, who had just discovered her newfound strength when she'd nearly broken the doorknob, had given a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry I don't know what happened."
She did know, of course. She knew that a spider had escaped its cage in the room marked 'Employees Only' that had been left ajar, and that, although she'd killed the spider, she hadn't been able to do so before it had bitten her. But she hadn't dared tell any of that to Susan, especially after the next words had come out of the woman's mouth. "Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about." Penny had looked at the woman from her desk where she'd been googling "radioactive spiders", and had placed the phone down, a little worried at the woman's tone. "While you were sick, I think you might have called me 'mom.'"
"Oh…" Penny had flushed, about to assure her foster parent that she hadn't known what she was saying, when the woman had gone on.
"I know you had a fever, but I just wanted to let you know that I don't really think that's appropriate. Jacob and I are happy to give you a home for the time being, but you are available for adoption. We're not looking to add permanently to our family right now."
The words had hid Penny hard, right in her stomach, and she'd been forced to blink away the tears of humiliation. She hadn't even wanted to join their family! Her social worker had put her with these people! Susan acted like she was a dog! 'Available for adoption?'
She'd developed her web fluid formula not too long after that, and then she'd started going on patrols after school, dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants. And after the first day she was late for curfew, her social worker had picked her up from school, letting her know that the McCoy's were sending her back.
Penny didn't cry. Not there. Not as she was packing her things into new trash bags, and not as she left the McCoy's house without saying goodbye to the people who had been her guardians for over a year. Not as she sat in her social worker's car, driving her to a charity group home run by catholic nuns. Not as she ate a dinner that tasted like sawdust. It wasn't until after she texted Ned that she wasn't living with the McCoy's home anymore and curled up in the bottom bunk in a room she shared with a four-year-old girl that she cried, face shoved into a pillow, shoulders shaking, fingers clutching the too-thin blanket.
She remembered being cold. Ever since the bite and the fever, she'd been cold almost constantly. And hungry. She'd done her best not to eat more, not wanting the McCoy's to get upset with her and kick her out. But a few days shy of her fourteenth birthday, she had spent the night in a Catholic group home.
And that's where Tony Stark had come to find her.
She'd woken up, eyes red and swollen, wrapped in her Midtown sweatshirt, and had refused to go down to breakfast with the other kids. Had refused to answer Ned's texts and phone calls or even get out of bed. Instead, she'd curled up on the bunk bed, wrapping the blanket around herself and resting her head on the wall. The nuns had left her alone for the morning, and when the knock on her door had come, she'd assumed it had been one of the nuns insisting she come to lunch.
Instead, it had been Iron Man.
The man had given her a once over, no doubt taking notice of the bags under her red, swollen eyes and the lack of color in her cheeks, but he hadn't said anything about it. Instead, he'd hovered in her doorway, glancing back at the nun who had apparently escorted him to her room. "Mr. Stark, Penny, I'll be downstairs if you need anything," the woman had murmured, leaving with the door propped open, a silent warning. Penny had watched the woman disappear, and then her eyes had gone back to Tony Stark who had stood in her doorway for a beat before stepping into the room, just one step.
"Penny Parker?" She'd nodded. "I'm Tony. It's nice to meet you."
All of her life, Penny had wanted to meet Tony Stark. She had once, briefly, at a Stark Expo that her aunt and uncle had taken her to, but she didn't really think that counted. And now he was in the room of the orphanage she'd been sent to. Because her foster family didn't want her. Even the people being paid to take care of her didn't want her. Still, as if on autopilot, her mouth had moved. "It's nice to meet you too."
"Do you mind if I come in?"
She'd shaken her head, watching as he'd pulled the chair out from under the desk she shared with the little girl, but which she had no intention of using. Under her bed were the garbage bags holding all of her stuff, and wrapped around her was a blanket that didn't belong to her.
"I heard about your aunt and uncle. I'm so sorry for your loss."
"Thank you." Her voice had been strangely robotic, but his sharp eyes had been sweeping the room.
"So...the reason I'm here." He'd clapped his hands, then rested them on his knees, leaning forward and smiling a little. "I guess I should cut to the chase." He'd shown her the video then, the little hologram projected from his phone, and she'd watched herself, dressed as Spider-Girl, stopping a bus from barreling into traffic. "That's you," he'd said, his smile a little incredulous. She'd shaken her head, the remaining blood draining from her face, lips trembling, and whatever response he'd been about to make had seemed to die on his lips. "You've got skills, kid. Who makes that web fluid."
If her identity got out, no one would want her. It was the thought that had rattled around in her mind, making her chest clench as she'd shaken her head again. "Please…"
The man had put his phone down, lips pressed together as he'd frowned at her. "Penny?"
"Please don't tell."
He'd scooted the chair forward, acting as though he might reach out for her, then pulling his hands back. "I'm not going to tell anyone," he'd assured her. "That's not why I came by." There must have been some other reason then, but Penny never found it out. Instead, Mr. Stark had left her after a moment, excusing himself quietly, and she'd heard his voice from across the building as he'd spoken to one of the nuns. The next thing she'd known, he'd been back in her room, back in that chair, as though he'd never left. "Penny?"
"Hm?"
"Why don't you come with me?"
She'd blinked at him, glancing at the door, then back at the man. "What?" she'd asked, trying to shake herself out of her fog.
"Come with me. If you want. To the tower. To stay. I know that you need a place to stay and you're, well...you're enhanced somehow. So it's going to be hard to find a foster home that understands that. Not that you have to...but...you'll get your own room." He'd smiled, an expression she'd never thought she'd see on Tony Stark's face.
In the end, Penny had nodded. She'd carried her garbage bags full of her stuff with his help, and she'd moved into the Avengers tower.
That had been almost a year ago. Now, as she sat curled up on her own bed in what she'd come to think of as her own room, she thought back on that day...of the long car ride spent in mostly silence. Of the way he'd eyed the garbage bags distastefully, and how she'd cried when, the next day, she'd found two suitcases and a carry on bag in her room after school. Miss Potts, who had insisted she call her Pepper right from the start, had found her there, sitting on her bed, head in her hands, sobbing.
"I don't know what I did," Penny had cried, shaking her head and looking desperately up at Mr. Stark's girlfriend, who she'd met oly the day before.
"What do you mean?" Pepper had asked, a hand on her back. Penny had pointed at the suitcase, and Pepper had rushed to explain. "Oh...sweetheart. We're not sending you away. We just thought you should have real luggage. Just in case we go on a trip."
The first night Penny had been late for her Spider-Girl curfew and Mr. Stark had confiscated her new suit and sent her to her room, she'd started packing with shaking hands, sure that this was it. She'd been nearly finished fitting her clothes, of which there were more now, into her new luggage set, when Mr. Stark had knocked on her door.
"Come in," she'd all but whispered, and he had, freezing when he'd found her on the floor on her knees, next to her empty dresser.
He'd blinked down at her, and had spoken casually. "Are we going on a trip?"
Penny had stared at the suitcase, heart clenching in pain. Was he really going to be mean about it? Was he really going to send her away, then make fun of her for packing? That didn't fit with the image of the man she'd come to know over the past couple of months.
"Or are you running away? Because if you're running away, I should remind you, I own a flying suit, so you won't be able to get rid of me that easily."
A tear had fallen then, and the man had come to kneel beside her, his knees popping. Maybe, she thought, he meant she wasn't allowed to keep the suitcase. But that didn't seem like him either. Surely he wouldn't make her put all of her stuff in garbage bags again.
"Hey. What are you doing?" he finally asked, voice nearly a whisper.
"Packing."
"Why?"
The honest confusion had, in turn, confused her, and she'd looked back up at him, shaking her head. "I...I thought you were sending me away."
His eyebrows had shot up, eyes darting to the doorway as though answers could be found there. "Because...because you were late?" She'd refused to meet his eyes and he'd reached out, a hand resting on her back. "Penny...kiddo. I'm not sending you away. Not ever. When I invited you to stay with me, that wasn't conditional, okay? I mean, you going out on patrols, yeah. That's conditional on you following the rules I gave you to make sure you stay safe. But you living here? That's for keeps."
She'd hugged him then, the first time she'd dared initiate any contact. And he'd hugged her back, arms tight around her, his cheek on hers.
Now, the day after Christmas, nearly a year and a half after coming to live with him, Penny stared at that luggage set and wondered if she should start packing now, or if she could bear to wait until she was told to leave. It would hurt less if she did it now, but some small part of her, deep in her chest, had hope that she wouldn't need to. Tony, as he'd finally convinced her to call him, and Pepper weren't the McCoy's. They were kind, and they had even told her that they loved her. She shifted her arm, flinching at the residual pain in her wrist. She hadn't meant to get hurt on Christmas...but she hadn't been able to ignore the cries for help as she'd been on her way home from visiting Ned's the evening before.
The bullet had gone into her upper arm, hitting bone and making her scream in pain. Tony had found her not minutes later, no doubt thanks to the frantic pulsing of her new watch, and he'd scooped her up, easing her into the backseat of his car before jumping back into the driver's seat and racing toward home.
That's when she'd called out, the pain of the bullet and her jostling arm forcing the words out. "Oh god...it hurts...Dad!"
"It's okay, kiddo. We're going to get you some of the good drugs, okay?"
She'd been silent though, realizing immediately what she'd done and pressing her lips together as tightly as she could, lest more words escape. She'd called him 'Dad.'
The knock on her door startled her out of her thoughts, and she looked from the clock, which told her it was nearly ten am, to the door. "Come in," she called, voice weak.
Tony came in, moving immediately to her bed and pressing the back of his hand against her forehead, a move so parental that it made her eyes sting with tears. How could she have been so dumb? "Hey, kiddo. How do you feel? You think you're up for some breakfast?"
"I'm fine," she whispered, refusing to meet his eyes.
"You need some more pain pills?"
She shook her head and he dropped the hand from her forehead to her good shoulder. "Pen, honey, if you don't tell me…"
"I'm sorry." She blurted it out, the words leaving her in a rush, and he frowned at her.
"For what? It's not like you meant to get shot. And I can't exactly ask you to ignore someone calling for help."
"For what I said," Penny choked out, praying he wouldn't make her say it. That they could just skim over this and pretend it never happened.
No such luck.
He softened, his fingers pressing gently into her shoulder. "Are you talking about when you called me 'Dad' in the car?"
She nodded, lips pressed together so tightly she felt the blood leave them, her eyes growing too hot as a tear escaped, and then she rushed to try and explain. "I didn't mean to. I promise, I won't do it again."
"Penny," he interrupted, his voice still so soft. It amazed her that Iron Man could also be this man...the man that sat beside her, arm wrapping around her to hold her close, his voice so gentle it could have eased the nerves of a wild animal. "I'm not mad, kiddo. You can call me 'Dad' if you want. I mean...I know it's kind of strange at first but...I mean, I am your dad. Your foster dad, anyway. And...well, my old man was shit, but I'd like to think I'm getting the hang of this whole parent thing."
"She...Susan...my last foster parent, said that it was inappropriate. I was sick and...and I don't remember doing it but I called her mom and…"
Tony pulled her closer, his cheek on her hair, and she wrapped her arms around him, so delirious grateful for the comfort. "Well," he murmured, pressing his lips quickly to her hair. "She sounds like a real asshole."
The statement shocked a laugh out of her, and she looked up at him with wide, incredulous eyes. He just grinned, eyes twinkling a little before clapping his hands.
"Now, stop eyeing your suitcase and come eat breakfast. And then, we can get some work done downstairs...maybe play with that car that's been sitting around in my lab forever. I'll teach you how to build an engine. It'll be great. What do you say?"
And reaching out and taking the hand up he offered her, Penny nodding, pausing only to put her luggage back into her closet.