It was well-known to the employees of Stark Industries that the CEO was a little eccentric. It was also known throughout the world that he was lady's man.

"Put me down!"

"You go too slow. Stop hitting me!"

That was why when he came full tilt through the lobby with a little girl thrown over his shoulder, they didn't even bat an eye, assuming it was his child.

"No biting!"

Tony ran to the elevator and dropped Anna and pushed the button repeatedly, muttering under his breath. She crossed her arms and glared at him. He glanced at her, catching her look.

"What?"

"I wanted to press it."

"What?"

"Did I stutter?"

Tony floundered a moment, just staring at the kid.

"You're rude."

"You're an idiot."

The door slid open, and she stepped in, effectively getting the last word. Not if he had anything to say about it. He followed her in.

"You're a brat."

"Doofus."

"Hit twenty-one. You're a jerk."

She hit the button, and as the doors slid shut, she smirked at him.

"You're gonna die."

Apparently, she'd been listening to the mantra he'd started in the car.

"I know," he hung his head. "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but before my time. She'll probably get away with it too."

"You think so?"

"Pepper pretty much controls my business and social life. The official version, anyway. She could kill me, get rid of my body, and cover my disappearance for a month. Then call the police about her missing boss."

"Maybe if you tell her you love her, she won't kill you," Anna suggested.

He seemed to really think about it for a while.

"Nah."

Anna heaved a sigh.

"If you ever do ask her to marry you, I wanna come to the weddin'. I've never been to one."

Tony snorted.

"What a shock," he muttered under his breath, but the look Anna shot him indicated that she'd heard him. "If she says yes, you can be the flower girl."

"I wanna be the ring bearer."

He shrugged, not thinking that he was going to live long enough for all that anyway.

"Why not?"

The doors opened, and Tony zoomed out. Anna practically had to run to keep up. She would have told him to slow down, but the last time she'd said that he'd thrown her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She might need him to carry her though. He was going too fast. She almost lost him on the last corner. A group of people came out of a room to the left, flooding the hall. They parted like the Red Sea for Tony, but when she tried to get through, they formed a wall. She pushed and excused her way through, Tony was nowhere in sight.

Anna stood in place, scrubbed a hand down her face, and heaved a sigh, unknowingly imitating her father.

"He. Left. Me."

She stalked back the way she'd come. Fine. See if she cared. She would leave him, too.

"Excuse me, little girl. Are you lost?" a young woman stopped to ask her.

Anna stopped only long enough to give her the up-down look and glare.

"You just mind your business, and I'll mind mine."

And continued on her way. She usually wasn't so mean. But when she'd had the rude awakening she'd had this morning, got carried around like a baby when she could walk –thank you very much!-, got left behind in a stupid big building, and hadn't had breakfast. If that weren't bad enough, she didn't even know where her daddy was. He probably wasn't going to come back, like Mama. At least not for a very long time.

Anna shuffled along now, feeling more sorry for herself than angry. It was either cry or rage. She snorted, wiping furiously at her watery eyes. Anna Marie Howlett did not cry. That was completely not an option. Some people were coming out of the elevator as she went in.

"Hold the door!" someone called.

She rolled her eyes, hit the button to close the doors and the other for the first floor, and pulled a key ring out of her pocket.

"Your offer is very tempting, Mr. Stark. I will speak to my client and will let you know tomorrow of our decision."

"Yes, that's very nice, but I need to know today. You see, Mr. Akito, there are several other companies available for this deal. Even a day's delay is not acceptable for this project. Now either get your client's approval for this deal before the day's over, or Stark Industries will take their business elsewhere," Tony delivered these lines with a charming grin and an air of nonchalance that one would associate with a conversation about the weather rather than a multi-million dollar deal.

Mr. Akito blinked, thinking quickly, and rose to his feet. Tony did the same and bowed at the waist when he did. They rose and shook hands.

"I will take what you have said into consideration and speak with my client and let you know her decision before the three o'clock. Is that acceptable, Mr. Stark?"

"Perfectly fine."

Mr. Akito nodded to him and Pepper as he went passed but stopped at the door when Tony called to him.

"Give Lalandra my love, will you?"

"Of course."

He turned to Pepper.

"I think that went well."

"Hmm," she continued type away on her laptop, barely glancing at him.

"Are you mad? You're mad. How can you be mad? I wasn't late. I got here just in time."

She still didn't say anything.

"I mean, it's not my fault. Anna wanted to – " a look of horror seized his features, and Pepper looked at him when he stopped talking.

"Tony, what's wrong?" she moved the laptop aside and went to his side as he sank back into his chair.

"Anna," he whispered.

"What about her? You –" realization dawned, and Pepper's eyes grew wide. " Tony."

"Yes?" the wince was audible in his voice.

"Where is Anna?"

"She was right behind me."

"You lost her!"

"Don't scream, Pep, it's okay," he stood up, headed for the door," She's probably still on the floor so it'll be fine. No worries," he said this mostly to himself as he went through the door, Pepper hot on his heels.

"I don't understand how you lost her in the first place."

"Uh, I was kinda concerned with getting to the meeting on time so you wouldn't kill me. And then you were wearing that," he waved at her outfit.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" (could there have been more 'w's in that sentence?)

Tony stopped abruptly and looked her in the eye.

"Absolutely nothing."

"Tony," she breathed.

"Hmm," his gaze drifted to her mouth.

"Missing child. Focus."

"Right," he snapped himself out of it, giving himself a shake. "Focusing."

"Hey, Tony."

"Not now, Rhodey. I'm focusing," he went right by him, clapping him on the shoulder as he passed.

"Uh-huh. Well, you might want to focus on the fact that there is a little girl in your car."

He froze in his tracks, patted down his pockets, and slowly turned his head.

"Green Corvette?"

"License plate MY31ST."

"Aaugh!" he sprinted for the elevator.

"What is going on?" Rhodey asked Pepper as she followed Tony at a normal pace.

"Tony is babysitting."

He gave her a look.

"That's what I said."

"Must have been desperate."

"Come on, come on, come on," Tony leaned on the wall pushing the button to summon the elevator.

"Miss Potts!" he yelled.

"Yes, Mr. Stark," she responded serenely in the face of her employer's near hysteria.

"Fire whoever made these elevators and get one of the departments on making better ones."

"Better how?"

"Faster," he stepped into the elevator when it finally opened. Pepper and Rhodey boarded as well. Tony paced the length of the elevator, his left eye twitching.

"Dude, calm down."

He rounded on him.

"I can't calm down, Dude. She's in my car! Why don't we toss her in your jet, and I'll tell you to calm down? How about that?"

Rhodey held up in his hands in surrender.

"All right. Freak out then."

"I will."

The elevator doors opened on the tenth floor, and two employees were about to step in when Tony growled, giving them death glares. They glanced at each other nervously.

"You will wait for the next one," he told them, Pepper sighed and hit the button for the first floor.

"Sorry," she told them.

They made it to the bottom with no more interruptions, and Tony ran out of the elevator to the front doors. He burst through and looked to his car. Well… where he had parked the car.

"Oh, that's great. Yeah. 'Where's my kid, Bub?' 'Gee, Logan, after she stole my car, I kind of lost track of her. Maybe she –' 'What's that you said, Tony? I can't hear you over the sound of me strangling you.'"

"Why are you talkin' to yourself?"

He spun around and saw Anna with a hand on her hip.

"Anna!"

He scooped her up and hugged her.

"What are you doing? Ew, get off!" he planted kisses on her face despite her protests, well, because of her protests.

"Your beard is scratchy! Stop it!"

"You're alright?"

He leaned her back, checking for any scratches, bruises, or any reason for Logan to kill him.

"I'm fine. Drop me," she ordered. He did so, satisfied she was okay.

"Where's my car?"

Anna looked down and started playing with her hair.

"You left me."

Tony knelt down so that he was eye-level with her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"I was mad at you," she still didn't look him in the eye.

"You should have been," he nodded his head, understanding. "Will you forgive me?"

"Only if you'll forgive me," she was going to rip her hair off with the way she was twisting it. "And you promise not to get mad."

He blinked.

"Why would I be mad? Just tell me where my car is?"

"You have to promise."

"I promise."

She took a deep breath.

"I gave it away," she told him in a small voice.

Tony didn't say anything for a moment. Pepper and Rhodey exchanged glances.

"I'm sorry…WHAT!"

"You said you wouldn't get mad!"

"Mad? Oh, I'm not mad. No, no, no. I'm full blown –" he cut himself off when he saw tears pooling in her gray eyes.

"What are you doing?" he really sounded bewildered.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. But I was mad at you, and I'm hungry, and I want my daddy, and I gotta go to the bathroom," she half sobbed, half whined and the tears fell.

"Whoa, hey, don't do that," he turned to Pepper for help. She gave him a 'You're hopeless' look and knelt down next to Tony in front of Anna, smiling.

"Hey, it's okay, sweetie. No need for tears," she smoothed Anna's hair behind her ears. "Your daddy will be back to get you soon. Don't worry," Anna quieted, hiccupping occasionally as she stared at Pepper, the pretty lady with red hair. You have to forgive Tony, he doesn't have experience with kids."

"Do you have kids?" she sniffed and wiped her face with the palm of her hand.

"No, I don't. Now, how about we go find the bathroom and then all go out to eat, hm?" she stood and held her hand out to Anna. Anna slipped her hand in hers and the two headed back into the building.

"We'll be back soon," Pepper stopped at the door, "The police will be here soon about your car, Tony."

Tony stared at the door long after they'd disappeared from view. Rhodey let him think through whatever he was thinking through. Then a police cruiser parked in front of them and Tony stood from his crouched position, straightening his jacket.

"You need to ask that girl to marry you," Rhodey told him matter of factly.

"You can be the flower boy."

A/N: So a couple people asked me where Wade was. Logan went to go 'help' him out of a 'situation'. Savvy? Naturally, you couldn't take lil' Anna on such a venture. How does he know about the 'situation'? Colonel Nick Fury. It wouldn't be good for them either if Wade got brainwashed or whatever it is they're doin'. It's so top secret, I don't even know…COUGHand i don't want to come up with anythingCOUGH

:D Anything else?

What? She's under a lot of stress what with her daddy being gone. That's really hard on a daddy's girl, you know? It's been a hard day. And she's still a kid. They're prone to fits. Heck, I'm liable to throw a fit if someone eats my cookies.

But don't worry. They're gonna bond and get along and all that. Oh and ya know how I said this would be 5 chapters? I have no idea how long this story arc will end up bein'. It's takin' over.

Does she seem OC to y'all? Not that matters since she's eight at the moment. Or mary-suish? Like too smart for her age? I don't think so 'cuz my little seven year young cousin(no relation) acts like a freakin' adult at times when she's not laughin' at air. Seriously, she just has mad, random laughing fits over nothin'. SIGH I love kids but I wouldn't want any of my own.

Review, let me know things. The beginning of the chapter was better to me.

Also, does anyone else with long profiles have trouble editing it?