Chapter 4:

Later that same day…

Dani POV-

Ghost yipped happily in his sleep from his doggie chair, his paws twitching as he dream, I smiled to myself. I was currently finishing up the homework that I hadn't done Friday night seeing as today was Sunday and I would have to turn it in tomorrow.

"I like what you've done with the place," I heard a voice, I looked up to see Tony casually leaning in the doorframe.

"Thanks," I replied, spinning my black leather desk chair around to face him.

"Listen…" he said, walking in and talking a seat in my hammock chair, "I think you and I kind of got off to the wrong foot this morning, and, because Pepper won't get off my case, I decided to come in here and see if as she puts it 'get to know you better,'" he said.

"Okay," I crossed my legs underneath me, "What do you want to know?"

Tony, who had been momentarily distracted by the Rubik's cube on a table looked up at me.

"Um…" he thought, "How old are you?"

"Twelve," I replied, feeling déjà vu considering that Pepper had asked me the exact same question yesterday.

"So you're a millennium baby. When is your birthday?" he asked. I had been called a millennium baby before, which I later found out that meant that you were born in the year 2000, but in actuality, I was not even alive until a few years ago. Also, I didn't technically have a 'birthday' because I'm a clone and I wasn't technically 'born' so I gave him the date I was created.

"April 7th," I told him. He nodded.

"So a little over a month after mine," he mused, "What about your parents?" he asked.

"Don't have any," I retorted, maybe a little sharper than I had intended. Tony raised an eyebrow in my direction and I sighed, "Alright, fine. I guess I have parents okay? But they might as well not exist."

"Care to elaborate?" he asked, a light smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.

"Not really," I muttered quietly, Tony chuckled, so I sighed again and told him the incredibly edited story. "I never knew my mother, so I grew up with my dad."

"Soo…?" he prodded.

"Let's just say my father was not a nice man, well, to me at least. To everyone else he is this great guy but nobody knows him like I did," I explained.

"What did he do?" Tony asked.

'Seriously?' I wondered, 'does he not get that I really don't want to talk about my entire backstory.' Instead of saying this, I continued.

"He thought I was a mistake, an imperfection, because he really wanted a son. Of course I didn't know this for a long time and I thought that he loved me. But he would always send me to do his dirty work. When I overheard him talking about me, I refused to continue doing his dirty work, but then he just started abusing me," I told him, cringing as the painful memories flooded back to me.

"Oh," was all he was able to say.

"Now what about you? Do I get to play twenty questions now?" I asked, smirking at him, lightening the mood.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, you know my backstory, now I want to know yours," I told him.

"Um…Okay," he started, "Born in 1972, I had a relatively good childhood, my relationship with my dad was always strained, although whatever problems I had with my father are nothing compared to yours. Anyway, parents sent me to boarding school, I entered college at the age of fifteen, graduated with two Master's degrees by the time I was nineteen. When I was twenty-one both of my parents were killed in a car crash and I inherited Stark Industries, and well, that's pretty much where I still am now…" he told me. I could tell by the look on his face that he was leaving something out but I didn't ask.

"Well, in that case Mr. Genius," I smirked, "Could you help me with my calculus homework?" I asked.

"Calculus? Shouldn't you be learning like pre-algebra or something?" he asked in surprise.

"You're not the only smart person," I replied, pretending to be offended. He chuckled at this and leaned over to help me. At this point, Ghost chose to wake up. He excitedly barked, jumping up on Tony's pant leg. Tony glared at the puppy, stepping aside so that Ghost could jump up into the seat with me.

"You know," Tony said, scratching Ghost under the chin, "I never did ask you what his name is."

"Ghost," I replied.

"Ghost?" he wondered, "What kind of a name is that?"

"It's a long story," I said. Tony arched an eyebrow but I wasn't about to tell him my secret. He sighed when he realized I would not disclose any information and went back to checking over my math homework.

After we had finished, I followed Tony out into the living room. We were currently involved in a discussion about classic cars (and I was begging for Tony to show me his collection) when he suggested that we invite Pepper over and order Chinese. I immediately agreed, I love Chinese food.

An hour later, we were all seated in the kitchen, and I was happily slurping up chow mein noodles, while dumping rice in my mouth. Tony was stunned at the amount of food I was able to eat, in fact, at one point we were even having an eating contest, which, I must proudly say, I won.

"Well, I see you two are getting along well," she said with a smirk.

I grinned, taking a sip from my Coca Cola.

'For the first time in my life,' I thought happily, 'Life is good.'