Disclaimer: I own NOTHING
A/N: Short chapter, I'm sorry. I am halfway through the next chapter so hopefully I can get it out today.
Chapter thirty-five
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
Since Norah has been with Tony he has tried his damndest to protect her from everything and anything that he could; from the media, paparazzi that seem to follow him like a shark to blood, he's tried to protect her from guys that he didn't think were worthy of her or only wanted her for…sex, not that he liked to think about Norah and that word in the same sentence. But Tony had done his best to act like a father to Norah, to act like a father was supposed to act towards their daughter, and he did his damndest to not act like the man he used to be before he had shrapnel imbedded in his chest and before Pepper and Norah had come into his life. Tony knew he was an all-around horrible guy and an asshole, he was an asshole now but at least he was a decent asshole who did care about people for the most part.
What Tony wished he could protect Norah from the most was emotional pain and suffering, he wished that he could take all the bad feelings and all the bad memories that she has had in her life and lock them away so that she never had to suffer from them again. He wished that he could take all of the memories of her father away so that she never had to recall them and remember what a horrible and neglectful father he was, he wished he could take the memories of her fearing about her family finding out about her being a Mutant and then he wished he could take the memory of her mother reacting to finding out that she was a Mutant, and he wished he could take away the memories of all the Mutant hate groups she's had to encounter just because she was Mutant and different than other people. He couldn't though, no matter how much of a genius he was and no matter how determined Tony was there wasn't anything he could do to take the emotional pain of memories away from a person.
Contrary to popular belief Tony didn't hate Pietro, or at least not anymore after watching him with Norah. Tony could see that Pietro genuinely cared for Norah and worried for her and wanted to do whatever he could to help her and make sure she healed up without any complications, he may act like he still disliked the kid and was unusually more sarcastic and snide to the kid at times than to other people but it was his fatherly instincts kicking in – instincts he was still getting used to having – he did so to protect Norah and to make sure that Pietro wouldn't get scared off easily. After the fight Pietro and Norah had Tony wanted to hate the kid, he wanted to hurt the kid for hurting his daughter and making her so angry that she left without a word to anyone and he wanted to blame Pietro but he couldn't. He knew Pietro and Wanda's story, he knew about what happened to their parents in Sokovia (something he will always feel guilty about) and no matter how much he wanted to be angry at the speedster he understood why Pietro was trying to get Norah to talk to her father. Sadly Pietro didn't understand that his and Norah's situations were different and that they had father's that were very different from one and another and as far as Tony was concerned no amount of time will ever be enough for Tom to change from the person he was when Norah was growing up to a better person…a better father.
In time Pietro would be able to see and understand that, he hoped.