A/N: Wrote this during my break from revising for my exams. Thank you for the idea, WhatTheValhalla, and I apologize it didn't become every shop in America ;) Also, Sophie somehow made me think of Agnes from Despicable Me and it might show in my writing. Hope you guys enjoy!
The kids adjusted very easily to their new home. Harley followed Tony almost everywhere to overload him with questions about Jarvis, the robots and the now-gone Iron Man suits, and little Sophie enjoyed dressing up the robots so much they were now all wearing pink tutus. Pepper would watch and laugh and sometimes she, to Tony's frustration, would even join Sophie.
Now and then Sophie would drop everything and start silently crying. At first they thought it was because of the loss of her mother, but soon they found out that it wasn't the only reason. After a long chat which was almost incomprehensible because Sophie kept sobbing while talking, Tony figured she had lost something very precious to her; a limited-edition Dora watch. Tony explained to her that he had borrowed it after his crash landing and that a bad guy broke it. The news that it was broken didn't land very well and Pepper made him promise the girl he was going to get her a new, limited-edition Dora watch.
From then it happened Sophie would keep asking Tony about the watch. In ten minutes, she would ask the questions as many times as possible and Tony kept answering 'No', or 'Not yet', before she left to dress up the robots again.
Then one day, she didn't leave after ten minutes and put up big puppy eyes instead.
Tony looked at her and refused at first, but as she kept standing there he finally agreed to take her shopping for a new watch,
"Well, have fun with the kids, Tony." Pepper gave him a kiss, but Tony was too perplexed to kiss her back.
"What do you mean 'have fun'? You're not coming?"
"Oh, Tony, I can't, remember? Natalie is coming over."
"Natalie?"
"Yeah, you know, the woman who was my personal assistant when you made me CEO of Stark Industries, who later appeared to –"
"be Natasha Romanoff, undercover agent for S.H.I.E.L.D.. I remember her, yeah. We worked together in New York." Tony had almost forgotten his Avengers team member was still a good friend of Pepper. "Are you sure that's today?"
"Yes, Tony." Tony wanted to protest, tell her that he couldn't go shopping with the kids alone and that they would have to postpone the shopping to a day when Pepper would be able to join them, but she stopped him and he knew it was a lost cause. "Just go."
"Okay, fine, you go have fun with Natasha, but don't go pretending it was my fault you had to miss all the fun we are going to have." When she wasn't coming, than why not at least make her feel a bit guilty. "Harley, you coming?"
Harley looked up from the game he was playing. "I'm not coming. You don't know how exhausting shopping with Sophie is."
Tony did have a slight idea how exhausting it was going to be and wanted to say that, but again Pepper stopped him. "It's fine, he can stay. He won't be much of a bother to us, and I believe Nat was taking her boyfriend with her, so…"
Tony would ask her who this guy actually was if it wasn't for Sophie, who really wanted to leave, so he left it with that.
Tony took Sophie to the nearest mall, where the little girl ran around with joy, almost forgetting the reason why they were actually there. Tony asked the cashiers of every jewelry store in the mall about the watch, and he got the same answer every time. "I'm sorry, sir, but it was a limited-edition watch from Christmas. You'll be lucky if you can find one store in America that still has one."
He told Sophie they were most likely not going to find the watch, and she looked at him with big, hopeful eyes. "Can we go to the next mall to see if they have it?"
"No. Didn't you just hear me? They're most likely gone. All of them."
"You said most likely, so there's still a chance someone has one."
"Aren't you clever? Fine, we'll go." Even though Tony was already tired from running after her when she found something else pretty, he had to give it to her; she didn't give up quickly, and it made him sort of proud.
Luckily there are loads of malls in California and the next one was only a forty minute drive away, mostly because they got stuck in traffic for half of the time. In those twenty minutes, Sophie got as far to get Tony singing along with her, so the drive didn't feel that long.
There, Sophie ran from store to store to ask them if they had her Dora watch, but sadly none of the stores in this mall had it either. Sophie was able to persuade Tony to drive to the next mall, where Sophie got distracted after half an hour by a huge, fluffy unicorn.
"Can I keep it?" Sophie asked excitedly.
"No."
"Please?" She put up the puppy eyes that had make her win that morning.
"No. Stop it. That's not going to work."
"But what if we don't find my Dora watch?" She made herself look really sad, but Tony didn't fall for that.
"If we don't find your watch we can always go back to buy you this unicorn."
"But what if he's already gone then, like my watch?"
"Then you'll probably find something else to obsess about."
"But I don't want something else. I want this unicorn."
"The answer is still no. Come on, let's go back to searching for your watch." He walked away and heard a sobbing sound after a couple seconds. He turned back around and saw Sophie sitting on the ground, crying and with the unicorn on her lap.
A couple of passers-by watched the little girl and an older woman walked towards her to ask her what was wrong.
Tony sighed. He now understood more than ever why Harley didn't want to come with them. He also realized how stubborn both kids were and that it was probably going to cause more trouble over the years.
As he walked back to the girl he saw the woman watching him and he knew she was going to start a discussion with him. "Sophie?" he asked carefully when he was close enough.
"Are you this girl's father?" The woman stood up and looked angry. Very angry.
"You could say that, yes."
"This girl here is very miserable because you don't want to give her the toy."
"That's because –"
"Because you're a bad parent."
"Excuse me?"
"Fathers should give their kids a toy once in a while, and you don't even want to give her this little thing? You are –" Tony stopped listening to what the woman had to say to him and realized he was going to have to buy that unicorn sooner or later to get away from her. He preferred sooner.
"Yeah, yeah, okay, fine. Sophie, you can keep the unicorn." He said before turning to the woman. "Now if you please stop lecturing me, ma'am, I can go pay for it and continue shopping with my daughter." He walked away before she could say another word.
Sadly they couldn't find the watch in one of the other stores in that mall. Sophie, still eager to find the thing, tried to make Tony drive to another mall, but Tony'd had enough. As she was about to start crying again, he made a promise he was going to make JARVIS search for it on the internet. She agreed to that and they went driving back home, only stopping once to eat dinner.
It was past Sophie's bedtime when they arrived back home, as dinner had took them longer than expected – Sophie had run off after a balloon she had gotten and it took Tony an hour to find her in the top of a tree trying to get it back – and therefore Sophie had fallen asleep in the car.
When Tony carried the girl, and her unicorn, back inside the house, Pepper came storming towards them. "Where have you been? Don't you know what time it is? What's that?"
"We've been shopping although California, I know what time it is and you have to blame Sophie for it, and that's a unicorn." Tony walked past her and went up the stairs, Pepper following in his trail.
"You gave her a unicorn? And what about the watch?"
"Limited-edition. Almost impossible to find. JARVIS?"
"Yes, sir?" The system asked.
"Make sure to make a full scan on stores that have a limited-edition Dora watch. I want the results first thing tomorrow."
"Will do, sir."
"So you're still going to get her the watch?" Pepper asked. Tony lay the girl in her bed and Pepper helped him tuck her in.
"Of course." Tony walked into the hall, but turned back a second. "Oh, and Pepper, next time you go shopping with her."