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"But, Pepper, the kid. She –"
"Is your responsibility. Really, Tony, I'm impressed that you would be so selfless and culpable. Good luck," and so saying she slammed the door and Happy drove her away.
"Whatever," he turned around and his heart almost stopped at what he saw. Or rather, didn't see. Anna was gone.
"Oh, crap!" he rushed into the house, and his eyes quickly scanned the living room.
"Is there something wrong, sir?" the A.I. asked in his humanized, mechanical voice.
"Where's Anna?" his voice was tinged with a slight amount of panic. Just slight.
"In the kitchen."
"The kitchen," he repeated as he made his way there, but his progress was impeded by several purple travel bags. He met the floor with an undignified oomph.
"Be careful," though he knew it was impossible, Tony could have sworn he heard the A.I. snicker.
"Gee, thanks," he drawled as he lay sprawled out on the floor when two small feet came into his line of vision. He raised his head to look her in the eye, and the two had a short staring contest. Anna won.
"Hello," her staring was starting to freak him out a little. Not that he wasn't used to people staring at him. Whether it was because of who he was, his good looks, or some incredibly stupid stunt, people usually stared. But he knew there reasons. He didn't know Anna's. And it was kinda freaking him out.
"Why are you on the floor?"
"I tripped," he glanced behind him.
"Why does a six year old need three bags?"
"I'm not six, I'm eight!" she narrowed her eyes at him, as if he should have already known that. "And they have important things in them."
"Really?" he sat up and folded his legs Indian stlye. "Like what?"
"None of your business."
He held up his hands in a sign of surrender, not wanting to agitate the kid.
"Got it. Need to know basis," he scratched his head and looked at his watch. "You should probably go to bed. Your bedtime was a couple hours ago."
"I'm not sleepy," she put a fist on her hip.
"You're not? Because I am beat. It's been past my bedtime for hours."
"Nuh-uh. You're a grown up. Grown ups don't have bedtime."
"This grown up does. And Pepper makes sure I stick to it."
Anna pulled her brow together in thought.
"The lady with the pretty red hair?"
"Yeah," Tony sighed with a smile on his face.
"You like her?"
"She's great."
"Hey, look at me," Tony complied with the commanding tone in her voice that he recognized as Logan. "That ain't what I asked you. Do you like her?"
"Well, I - How come I have to answer your questions but you don't have to answer mine?"
She studied him a moment before she came to a brilliant conclusion.
"You're avoidin' the subject. So that means you do like her," she smiled, proud of her deduction.
Tony scoffed, incredulous, and wondered if this kid could see it, how many other people could, too.
"Yeah, well, it doesn't matter. She doesn't like me like that anyway. Even if she did, she wouldn't risk it," he was talking mostly to himself.
Anna sat down in front of him, her legs folded under her.
"Why do you say that?"
"Um," he tried to think of a way to explain this to a child and not get him in trouble with Logan. "I have one girlfriend for a week, and then another next week, and a different after that… you see where I'm going with this?"
"Yeah. You're a man-whore."
Tony gaped at her. Seriously, what was he suppose to say? It was the truth. Just what was that man teaching her?
"I…guess you could say it that way. Anyway, she knows how I am and she wouldn't want to be like," he waved a hand vaguely," that."
"Then don't be like that."
"It's not that easy."
"Do you love her?"
"What is with the questions, kid?"
She smirked at him.
"You're avoidin' the question," she said in a sing-song voice.
"You're being annoying," he mocked her tone.
"You love her."
"I'm not saying yes, and I'm not saying no."
"Just tell her."
"No way."
"Why not?"
"It's bad idea."
"Why?"
"Because it just is! Leave it alone already."
"Ugh!" Anna huffed and dragged a hand down her. "Why are boys so stupid?"
Subject change. Get it, Tony, get it!
"Oh yeah? Do you tell your boyfriend he's stupid?"
"You moron! I don't have a boyfriend. I'm eight! What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing's wrong with me. What's wrong with you?"
Anna clapped her hands over eyes.
"He left me with a idiot," she said in a tone of disbelief.
"Hey! I'm not an idiot. I designed this house, I have a company, made J.A.R.V.I.S, and rebuilt the engine of ten cars so far this month. An idiot couldn't do that could he?"
She peeked through her fingers at him.
"How many cars do you have?"
"How many? Ah, ten, fifte- thirty- one and a half. I think."
She removed her hands.
"I wanna see 'em."
"You have to go to bed," he told her, trying to regain control.
She pouted at him.
"Please? I promise to go to bed right after. Please, please, please?"
"Where did the cute come from?"
He stuggled internally for a moment before he caved.
"All right, sweetheart, but you go to bed as soon as we come back up," he tried to sound stern. If he succeeded, she ignored it.
"Cool! Let's go," she popped up and grabbed his arm, trying to drag him along and he managed to stumble to his feet. She shot off ahead of him and around the corner. He found her in front of the door that led down into the garage.
"How do you know where the garage is?"
"We were waitin' for you to get here for a long time, and I explored, but the computer man wouldn't let me go in," she explained to him excitedly. "Can I stay in the room with the blue bed?"
"Sure," he shrugged and took off his tie, putting it in the front pocket of his suit. "J.A.R.V.I.S."
"Sir?"
"Give Anna access to whatever room she wants and open the door to the garage."
"Yes, sir."
"So I can go anywhere in here?"
"Yep. Except my lab."
"Why?"
"There are things in there that might blow up. So you can't go in unless I say you can."
He nodded to the door.
"Open it."
She grinned huge and flung the door open. The lights came on automatically, and she dashed in. Tony followed at a slower pace, though that's not to say he wasn't excited. He loved his cars so very, very much. If only the media knew of this love affair…
"Wow," Anna breathed as her gaze flitted from over all the shiny cars.
"Yeah, I know," he cast an appreciative, proud glance over each of his babies.
She took a hesitant step forward then looked over her shoulder at Tony.
"Go ahead."
%She smiled at him and scampered off to a green, gloss finish Corvette.
"Does it have a loud engine?"
"Depends how hard you hit the gas."
"So it goes fast?"
He chuckled.
"Oh, yeah."
"Can we go for a ride?"
"Oh no. You're just supposed to have a quick look then bed. That was the deal."
"How about a new deal?"
"You don't have anything to bring to the table, sweetheart."
She scrunched her brow in thought and played with a strand of her hair. Tony smiled at the adorable sight. Then a slow smile crept across her, and Tony immediately thought 'Cheshire Cat'.
"How's this for a deal? We go for a ride now, or I'll tell Logan how terrible you treated me when he gets back."
Tony stared at her with bugged eyes and jaw dropped. No way he heard what he just heard. No way.
"J.A.R.V.I.S?" he actually squeaked.
"Sir?"
"Did I just get threatened by an eight year old girl?"
"Indeed you did, sir."
"Well. What's it gonna be?"
"You're evil!" he was truly incredulous.
She laughed.
"Thank you. Come on, I don't got all night," she opened the passenger door, climbed in, put on her seat belt, and looked at him expectantly.
"It ain't gonna drive itself, you know."
Tony stared at her in disbelief for a moment. Logan had a temper, sure, but how had his kid gotten so devious? Two different things. Then a though struck him.
"Who's your mom?"
"Her name's Raven."
If possible, his eyes got even bigger. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a strangled sound. He took a few deep breathes then tried again, Anna staring at him curiously the while he had a mini panic attack.
"Blue skin, red hair, yellow eyes, Darkholme, Raven? That Raven?"
He fervently hoped it was a different Raven. He'd met the woman once under…unique circumstances that he did not want to relive. Quite frankly, she was the only woman he'd ever met who he truly and deeply feared, the least reason being the fact that she could kill him. There were many worst things than death, and he had reason to believe that woman could inflict them expertly.
"Uh-huh. That's mama."
He didn't know what the situation was between Logan and that woman, but he was sure that she was still alive. He was also convinced that if he didn't keep her child happy, she'd know, just know, and come after him.
Tony doubted that explanation would fly with Pepper as he zoomed around another corner, Anna giggling with delight next to him. She'd just say that he came up with a terrible excuse to go joyriding and endangering the girl's safety with his reckless driving. He would defend himself saying that it wasn't an excuse, it was the truth, and his driving wasn't reckless, he was completely in control. He glanced at the girl next to him and rolled his eyes. He was in control of the car anyway.
An hour later, Tony parked the car in the garage, shut it off, and glanced at the kid fast asleep in her seat and sighed. He leaned back on the head rest and closed his eyes. He was entirely too comfortable move at the moment, the Corvette had really great seats, so he was just going to rest his eyes a while before he put Anna to bed. He yawned widely and heard his jaw crack.
Only a while…
A while later…
BEEEEP
Tony jerked back from the steering wheel and automatically placed his hands on both sides. He then brought his hands to his neck with a groan at how stiff it was. He glanced around him blearily, taking in his surrounding and smiled a little. Anna was curled up in her seat, still asleep. He got out of the car and stretched, popping the vertebrae in his back and made his way to the passenger door so he could put Anna to bed.
"Good morning, sir," the A.I. greeted him.
Tony froze mid-stride. He shook his head.
"Excuse me?" he drawled.
"Good mor-"
"I heard you, J.A.R.V.I.S. What time is it?"
"Ten o'clock exactly, sir."
Tony let a string of curse words and stalked back to the driver's door.
"Why didn't you wake me?" he raged at the computer.
"You didn't tell me to."
He yanked the door open.
"You're supposed to be intelligent. I shouldn't have to tell you."
He dropped into the seat, slamming the door with more force than necessary, startling Anna awake. She sat up in her seat.
"Is my daddy back?" she asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"No," he answered in a clipped tone as he burnt rubber out of the garage.
She looked at him, frowning.
"Where we goin'?"
"Well, I'm going to my certain death if I don't make it to this meeting in twenty minutes. Otherwise, Pepper is going to kill me."
He drove with one hand and pulled his cell phone out of a pocket. He hit a button, but the screen remained black. The battery was dead. Like he was going to be.
A/N: A.I. =Artificial Intelligence that runs Tony's house, in case someone didn't know. His is also J.A.R.V.I.S but I don't know what that stands for.
What kind of cars are they? Sports cars, old cars, new cars, expensive cars, classic and straight pimped out. Those kinds.
Has anyone ever drank coffee and felt that their heart was going to explode? Seriously, ANSWER THIS QUESTION for my health reasons. I'm slightly worried. I don't know why these people keep letting me have. Do they want me to have to get my ovaries removed?
It's weird how my dialogue comes about. I don't think about what I'm typing. I just type it and that is where the conversation goes. I hadn't intended for the questions to get so personal. Ha, Tony got interrogated by an eight year old girl.
Kids are such moody little things. Especially if sleep or lack thereof is invlolved. That's still true actually. Lol Remember when the highlight of your day was when you got to push the button in an elevator? Wow I miss that kind of simplicity.
What ever happened to Tony the Tiger?
Thank you to everyone who reviewed this and my other stories. Y'all are lovely.