I guess I don't know how to live with a good thing and not break it into nothing.
II.
Madelyn awoke the next morning around seven and dragged herself out of bed to get ready for her first day of work. After a quick shower, she did her hair and make up before getting dressed. She pushed the button that opened her massive closet that took up her entire west wall. The glass sliding doors peeled back as Madelyn stepped in, trying to find something fitting. She settled on high-waisted black dress pants over a white bodysuit with a lade bodice and nude wedges. She was out her bedroom door by half past eight and made her way to the lab where she knew her dad would be.
"Morning, honey. Think fast." Elly looked up just in time catch the car keys her dad threw at her. "Nice reflexes, kiddo."
"You're actually letting me take my car? What's the occasion?" She asked suspiciously.
"I mean, it is your car." Elly rolled her eyes at her dad's sarcasm before he continued. "Your project, remember? Parker's suit?"
"What, you're not having Happy go get him?" Tony shook his head before looking away. For a very brief moment, there was a pained look on his face before a clearly fake smile took over.
"No, I gave him some time off. So you're picking him up; I sent you the location to your phone. Be polite to his aunt May, and drive carefully please!" Before Elly could get a word in, Tony was rushing her out of the lab. The elevator opened to Pepper getting out just as Elly was going in. They greeted each other in passing, Pepper kissing her daughter goodbye and safe travels. She waited until the elevator doors shut before turning her attention to Tony.
"You know you can't avoid this conversation by hiding in the lab." Tony refused to look at her as he continued to work on his own project.
"I'm not avoiding anything, dear." Pepper let out a slight hiss in frustration before she stood next to him.
"Tony." She grabbed his shoulders, making sure he was paying attention. "This is not the way we agreed to raise Elly. We agreed on a normal life for her—I came back so we could be a family with you and you don't seem to want that."
"Of course I want that!" He yelled, his temper getting the better of him. "Why do you think think I'm doing this?! I need this place to be safer for you two, that's why I signed the accord!"
"You signed it for yourself, Tony!" Pepper screamed back, unable to hold back any longer. Tears were streaming down her face. "You signed it to ease your guilt, it's all about you."
"You don't get it, Pepp. That guilt? It's all because I can't protect my own fucking family!" She couldn't stop the tears that were flowing from her light blue eyes.
"All we need is for you to be here, Tony. Let me know when you're done playing Iron Man and actually want to be a family." She turned to walk away from him, until he grabbed her arm.
"What about Madelyn's internship?" Pepper grit her teeth before ripping her arm away.
"She will continue it only because that is what she wants. The minute summer is over, she is coming home with me." Without another word, Pepper grabbed the elevator and exited the lab. Out of anger, Tony threw the flash drive he was working on at a window.
Madelyn arrived in Queens around ten after dealing with the pain of New York traffic. She entered the apartment building and hit the buzzer with a little tag that read 'Parker' in an elegant script next to it. After being let in, Elly made her way down the hall and found a petite woman sticking her head out of the door. "Can I help you?" She asked.
"Hi, are you May Parker?" When she nodded, Elly held her hand out to shake, hoping her politeness was charming enough. "Hi, I'm Madelyn Stark. I'm here to pick up Peter for his internship." At the mention of her nephew's job, May's face lit up before opening the door further and allowed Elly to step in.
"Oh, come in come in! I'll go get him, please make yourself at home!" A small bashful smile was on Elly's face as she entered, quietly looking around Peter's apartment. It was quaint and home; entirely the opposite of her home at the Avengers Tower. After a couple of minutes, May returned with Peter, who looked like he had just woken up. Despite his sleepy eyes, he was at least dressed in a white muscle shirt and black joggers with a backpack slung over his shoulders.
"Morning, sleepy head. Ready to go?" Elly asked politely with a lingering teasing tone.
"Y-yeah, I'm good." He mumbled, only half awake.
"Come on Peter, wake up! How about some coffee? Would you like some coffee, Madelyn?"
"N-no, really it's okay aunt May." Peter attempted to protest. On top of being tired, he looked incredibly uncomfortable for reasons unknown.
"I would love a cup, thank you!" Madelyn replied. She took a seat the dining room table placed between the kitchen and living room, Peter taking a seat from across from her.
"So, Madelyn Stark, you said? Are you Mr. Stark's niece or…?" May asked as she turned on the coffee maker before grabbing the seat next to Peter.
"Actually, I'm his daughter." May looked taken aback.
"O-oh! I had no idea he even had a daughter." Elly let out a semi-bitter laugh.
"Yes, he keeps me hidden for my safety, or so he says. When I was still in school, he had me enrolled as Madelyn Joyce." Peter got up and grabbed mugs out of the cupboard to pour the coffee.
"Elly, do you take any cream or sugar?" He asked.
"Both, please." She said very sweetly in reply. May's eyes flickered back and forth between the two of them, observing the teenagers—the use of a nickname did not go amiss.
"Where did you go to school, Madelyn?"
"Please, you can call me Elly as well. And I actually just graduated from Midtown Teach."
"Oh, so you and Peter known each other!" Peter set down the coffee mugs, trembling ever so slightly from carrying all three. As soon as he sat, he began slurping at his back coffee. He was so tense that Elly could feel it from across the table.
"Actually, we only just met on my last day of school after his friend so graciously ruined my portfolio for my internship; I think Peter here was out to sabotage me." Elly joked, throwing a wink to the fifteen year-old. May let out a boisterous laughter, loving the wit that the Stark daughter was equipped with.
"Are you ready to go, Elly?" Peter asked, done with the comedy at his expense, also slightly confused to this sassy, playful side of the girl he had met just a couple weeks prior. Elly nodded before gulping down her last drink of coffee.
"Yeah, we should get going. Thank you so much for the coffee, Mrs. Parker."
"Oh, just call me May, honey." She walked the two teens to the door. She gave Peter a hug and a kiss before sending them off. "Have a good time at your internship, you two!" After she shut the door, May let out a small sigh of relief. Internally, she was laughing. From miles away, she could tell her nephew was developing a crush.
Elly and Peter opened their respective doors to her car. After turning the engine on, she plugged her phone into a USB port on the center console and pulled up an app. A soothing, male British voice came over the car speakers. "Welcome back, Ms. Stark."
"Woah, what was that?!" Peter asked excitedly.
"A.A.R.O.N., I would like you to meet Peter Parker, he's one of dad's newest recruits. Introduce yourself."
"Hello, Mr. Parker. I am Artificial Assistance Ready On Notice, or A.A.R.O.N." The robot said.
"That is so cool! Did your dad design him? Can I get one of these things? What else can he do?" Peter was firing a million questions at once, a nervous habit he had. Elly just laughed before pulling into the road, heading back to the Avengers Tower.
"A.A.R.O.N, Please turn on EDEN's Vertigo album." Elly said. The radio switched on soothing music for the ride to serve as background noise. "And actually, A.A.R.O.N. is my creation modeled after J.A.R.V.I.S. And I'm sure I could figure out a way to make something similar for you, maybe I can install it into your suit."
"M-my suit?"
"Yes. Your first day is actually going to be with me for a little bit. I'm designing your Spider-Man suit." Peter was at it again, launching question after question. "I've got a couple of ideas on what I want to do, but you aren't going to see anything but the finished project. I just need to get your measurements today. After that, your agenda is entirely up to my dad." Peter couldn't stop himself from asking so many inquiries—he fired them off as they came to mind. He couldn't even explain why he was so nervous. Maybe it was because it was first time actually going to the Avengers Tower. Or maybe it was because after sitting with Elly for more than ten minutes, he saw how much more put together she was for her internship in comparison to himself. Or maybe it was just because he was alone with his boss' daughter.
Peter and Elly arrived safe and sound to the tower after about forty five minutes. She parked her car in the garage, grabbing her phone immediately to take the incoming call from her father. "What up, pops?" She could hear Tony's eyes roll.
"Nothing, squirt. You got the kid?"
"Yeah."
"Hey, she's a kid too!" Peter tried to interject in the background. He could hear both of the Starks' eyes roll.
"Great. Go on and take him into the office on our floor, then send him to the training room when you're done."
"10-4." Elly said before hanging up the phone, picking up her pace ever so slightly. She held open the door for Peter before clicking the elevator button to go up to the fourth floor. They walked down the hallway in silence until Elly saw her mom.
"Oh, honey. I'm glad I got you." Pepper said, stopping the two teens in their tracks. "I need to talk to you really quick." At that, Elly directed Peter to take the hall all the way down to the third door on the right to get to the office, and that she would meet him there. It was obvious that this conversation was meant to be private.
"What's up, mom?" Pepper looked at her daughter with hard, pained eyes.
"I um..." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I have to go overseas for a while to do some work for your dad. I don't know how long I'll be gone."
"Oh, are you helping dad try to get more signatures for the Sokovia Accord?" Elly asked, having no idea how much her mother's heart was breaking with every word.
"Y-yeah. I have to travel to a whole bunch of different continents, and I don't know if these people are even going to sign." Pepper was trying to laugh it off.
"Aw, be safe mom. I'll miss you!" Pepper hugged her daughter, fighting back tears.
"Listen to your dad, okay? But if anything happens, you call me and I'll come running back, okay?" Pepper choked out the last sentence, alerting Elly.
"Are you okay, mom?"
"I love you, sweetie." Was all she said before she kissed her daughter goodbye. When Elly could no longer see her mom's face, Pepper broke down and let the tears fall.
After their brief goodbye, Elly made her way to the Stark family office. Peter was looking at all the photographs along the wall; almost all of them were photos of Elly from when she was a baby to present day. One sat framed on the presidential desk in the center of the room—one of the ones Peter had taken at her graduation ceremony. The family was laughing as the wind was blowing, Elly's graduation cap lifting off of her head. "Quite the photographer, you are. That's dad's favorite photo." At the sound of her voice, Peter put the picture he didn't even realize he was even holding back down on the desk.
"W-well, it helps that you're all so photogenic." He said quietly before turning to her fully. "So what are we doing today?" Elly walked to the eastern wall, pushing in one of the panels that seemed to be made of industrial, spring lock cabinets disguised as granite. She pulled out a tape measure from the drawer as well as the sketchbook from her purse that she had been carrying with her.
"A.A.R.O.N, please activate one way security camera from here to the lab." An affirmative beep was heard from her phone. "Cool. Now we can get started. Dad would flip if I didn't turn on the cameras."
"Wait, why?" Peter asked. Elly gently nudged him towards the center of the office and pulled his arms up to rest in a T-shape.
"I'm taking your measurements. He would kill me knowing I had a practically naked boy in here." Completely nonchalant, she pulled his white muscle tee over his head, tossed it to the floor, and began measuring the length of his torso and arms. Peter's face began to burn bright red.
"N-naked?" He tried to gulp back his nervousness. She was measuring the length of each of his arms, then the width around his torso, biceps, and forearms.
"Obviously, I have to fit your suit to you." Peter couldn't figure out she was so utterly calm—he was freaking out! "You can drop your arms now. And your pants. I need to get accurate leg measurements." He felt the hairs on his arm raise, overly aware of her delicate fingers touching his bare legs after he dropped his joggers around his ankles, standing in only his boxers. Before he knew it, she was wrapping the tape measure around each of his thighs, then calves, then ankles. "All done. That wasn't so bad, was it?" She was scribbling away in her sketch pad as he scrambled to put his muscle shirt and sweats back on. After he was dressed, she had finished writing down all of his measurements. "Are there any other requirements of your suit that you need?"
"U-um. I need something to cover my eyes." Elly looked at him with a brow raised, waiting for further explanation. "Ever since I got bit by the spider, it's like all of my senses are at like an eleven. It's kind of hard to focus when I see every color in the spectrum." She made a note of that in her journal, unable to stop her mind from wondering what it would be like to see the world through his eyes. She was also unable to stop herself from leaving a note that read 'bit by a spider' followed by an unnecessary amount of question marks.
"Ooookay, anything else? Dad told me about your web fluid holsters, I'll make sure to add that." He shook his head no, unsure of how to even respond. He had no idea to expect—all he knew is that the image of Spider-Man was at her mercy.
"Okay, cool. Dad said to meet in the training room when you were done up here. Want me to take you there?"
"Uh, yeah, that would be great!" The two exited the office, the sound of Elly's wedges clicking against the tile as she walked. "So when do you think you'll have the suit done?" She shrugged as they rode the elevator down.
"I'm not sure. I wasn't given a deadline, so I'm not going to try to rush it."
"Don't forget, I want one of those A.I. assistants!" The teenagers shared laughter as they walked down the hall. They reached the training room on the first floor, Elly opening the door for Peter and giving a small wave to Natasha.
"Have fun with training, Parker."
"Yeah, will do." Before she shut the door, Peter held it open with a quick smack of his hand. "Hey, uh…d-do you want to get lunch whenever I'm done here?" There was a small pink blush dusting over his cheeks as he avoided eye contact with her. She gave a soft snort in reply without intending to—she wasn't used to shy or bashful men, seeing as she didn't socialize very often with people close to her own age.
"Sure thing, Peter. Communal dining room is on the second floor, I'll meet you there later."
"Y-yeah, cool." He gave an awkward hybrid of a wave and a salute goodbye before Elly headed back to the elevator, the faintest smirk on her face. For an overly awkward, young teenager, Peter was a pretty cute kid.
Author Note: Hiyo~ This story has already been posted to my Tumblr, Tom-Hollandaze but I figured I would share this here.