It took a while for Penny to realize her family was out of the ordinary.
She was eight years old, and she was visiting her first real friend. Watching Ned's family interact was interesting, to put it someway. And that night, after her nanny put her to sleep, Penny really understood how different her family was.
Because it was not normal for your mother to leave you at your father's front porch, it was not normal meeting your father until you were five, just as it wasn't normal to only see said father once a week, if you were lucky. Not seeing your mother in years. Also, not normal. In fact, it would be easier to list the things that were normal in Penny's family.
With time, Penny came to accept the fact that she wasn't normal. Once, she asked her father, on the rare occasion Tony had the chance to put her to bed, why she couldn't be like other kids.
"We are Starks, Pen." He spoke softly. "We are just special."
Penny sometimes wondered if part of being a Stark was to have a fuck-up relationship with your father. She knew that her father didn't have a good relationship with her grandfather, and considering the little time Tony spent with her, Penny didn't think she could claim to be different.
Penny recognized that she might be a little unfair, she knew her father loved her, he just didn't show it like a regular father. With time, Penny learned how to cherish the moments he was available for her and go on with her life when he practically forgot he had a daughter, she adapted.
When she got bitten by a spider in a field trip to Oscorp, her father was away dealing with Avenger stuff. Friday took care of her, as much as an AI could, and after a couple of days, she woke up feeling better than ever. Now, Penny had these super-powers, but she was scared. Of the hatred towards mutants, of so she went on with her life like nothing happened. Everything was all right.
Until it wasn't.
It was dark, her father was again on a trip to God knows where. She thought about asking FRIDAY, but first Penny had to take care of something else, someone else.
Ben was her childhood friend, along with Ned. Both of their relationship was totally platonic, so her dad never said anything about most of her friends being male.
Not that her father could notice if she felt and died.
The thing is, Penny was mad with Ben. Thinking back now, she couldn't remember what the whole problem was about. She had run out of his house when, out of nowhere, the feeling at the back of her neck that had been going off since the bite made its appearance again. As she promised herself, she ignored it, even when everything in her body told her not to. Even if this was the strongest, she had ever felt it.
By the time Penny saw the gun, it was too late.
Penny knew she must have looked bad since she remembers her father staying with her for a week, the longest since she was eight, but she didn't care. The guilt was eating her alive. Thousands of scenarios where running through her head. If only she hadn't been mad at him. If only she hadn't stormed off. If only she had listened to that stupid feeling.
If only.
It was too late. Penny couldn't bring Ben back nor could someone else, but she could help other people. She could stop ignoring the abilities the spider gave her. Penny could do something.
And thus, Spidergirl was born.
Penny remembers feeling the Tower shake when her father found out she was Spidergirl. She had hoped to keep the secret for a while longer, but a very snitchy AI made that impossible. Tony shouted, Penny shouted, and, at one point, Pepper tried talking, but it was to no avail. Penny wouldn't butch. Sadly, for her, Tony wouldn't either.
"This is my house, Penelope Stark." He finally said. "I won't have my daughter running around in some onesie."
Penny would have liked to say that she could barely be called his daughter as she would run out of fingers trying to count the birthdays he had missed. To remind him of the time she asked for a bike when Penny was 7 and he just gave her his credit card and told her to talk to the nanny that was taking care of her 24/7, but her father didn't let her talk. Stubbornly, he took the suit and prohibited her from being Spidergirl.
What he didn't know was that Penny was as stubborn as he was. She found another suit and he took it after a week, and again, and again. Unfortunately for Tony, he spent more time looking for her new suit to confiscate it than the time Penny took to find another one.
Penny can say this was the longest amount of time she had spent with her father, despite the fact that after so many years, she went to live with her mother.
It wasn't an impulsive decision, it was calculated. If there was one thing her father had always agreed on, was the fact that Penny had complete control on who she wanted to live with.
Her decision wasn't on who was better, it was on who was less worse. Until now her father has always won, the bar was just so low. Tony leaves her alone most of the time and although he didn't
meet her until she was fucking five, he never left her in front of her mother's door just because of a job. He at least hired a nanny.
She wanted to lie to herself. That this was for her. For Penny to be Spidergirl freely, but the truth was, she wanted to hurt him, and she knew he would be hurt if she left to live with her mother without a definitive day to come back.
Finally, her mother again lost in the game "who is the least worse", and Penny went back to the Tower. Finally, both sat down to talk. Penny explained her guilt, and Tony his fears. They came up with an arrangement, a curfew, and her dad helped her build her own suit that would tell him if she was hurt.
And life went on.
Penny thought her relationship with her father hadn't been better. So, of course Rogers had to go and ruin everything.
Civil War, the media called it. Her father was apprehensive of her participating, but the odds weren't on his side, so he was persuated. None of the Avengers knew she was Spidergirl, hell, none, not even The Black Widow, knew Tony Stark had a daughter, and both of them wanted to keep it that way.
There wasn't really a winning side, just losers, but after that, her father wasn't the same. First of all, he came home with bruises all over him, even when there wasn't supposed to be a fight. No one told her anything to explain why he had to spend a week in the med bay, but a little hacking into FRIDAY told her everything Penny needed to know. That tight wearing asshole. America's ass indeed.
After that everything went back to how it was. Yes, he talked more, but just about Spidergirl, nothing more. At one point he took her suit with no explanation.
They were in the middle, neither there nor here. Then Bruce Banner came.
And everything went to shit.
Being in space was surreal. Her father was mad, and if they made it out of here, he would surely turn her to dust. After taking her suit, because that was his reaction to everything.
When Dr. Strange and her father weren't flirting, he was nice, but he still treated her as a child. And, yes, Penny was a child, but she was also a genius, smarter than Tony Stark, and stronger than Captain America. She could handle herself, thank you very much.
When they landed in Titan, Dr. Strange went and did some weird shit, and after he was finished, Penny saw he had his eyes full of sadness When he told them he looked into the future, Penny knew the doctor knew something.
They had a plan and it failed.
And her father almost died. It was over.
Pennt didn't know how much time they had spent there after Thanos disappeared, she knew it was long, or maybe it wasn't.
The insect girl was first, then Drax. Peter followed soon after, all of them turning into dust, with apparently no pain.
Strange was next, his last words being. "It was the only way."
The only way? Was this planned? Penny had many questions, but she couldn't think about it. Her Spidey sense was going crazy, stronger than when Ben died.
"Dad?" He wasn't looking at her, he was looking at the place where Dr. Strange stood seconds before, but as soon as he heard Penny, he turned to her. His gaze flashed with confusion. The blue girl only took a long breath when she heard how Penny addressed Tony.
"Papa, I don't feel so good." She tried again. It had been years since she had last called him that. It was enough to get Tony out of his mind.
"You're alright." It wasn't a question, but it wasn't true either. A sentence meant to comfort both, a sentence meant to lie to themselves, and they knew it.
"I don't know what's happening, I..." She tried to walk to him, but her legs gave up. In the corner of her eyes, she saw her hands were disintegrating, her legs were probably too, but she couldn't bring herself to look. She was in so much pain, why was she in pain?
"I don't wanna go, please, Papa, I don't wanna go." She was begging like a little girl. Her dad was clinging to her, and both could feel it, how she was falling apart. It hurt so fucking much. The others didn't seem to be in pain, maybe scared, but no pain. She was scared and in pain, how was that fair.
It felt like hours, but years later, when she was a lot older, she would ask her father. Minutes, still too much, but just some minutes. "7 minutes, the longest in my life." Her dad said.
They were the longest for Penny too. And at the moment, the last.
She begged her body to stop fighting, to give up, because it hurt. Penny wanted all of that to stop, she wasn't scared anymore, she just wanted her body to let go. And she finally felt it.
Taking all the strength she had left, she looked at her father and muttered her last words. "I am sorry."
And there was no more.
Penny went in pain, and she came back in pain.
Dr. Strange, bossy as always, ordered her to get it together, that there was a battle and that her father needed help.
It was Thanos again, but this time, he didn't have any stones.
She was ordered to fight so she did. Penny fought hard, but she still felt like they were losing. She saw her father go against Thanos, trying to take the stones that he somehow had gathered, but Tony was unsuccessful.
Or so everyone thought.
Her father snapped his fingers, what an idiot. And everyone was standing there, leaving him to die.
Oh, she saw red.
She took her mask off; she didn't care if everyone saw her red rimmed eyes. "What are you doing, he is dying." She screamed at them. She felt her Uncle Rhodey try to hug her, trying to calm her.
"Penny, baby, calm down there is nothing we can do." She looked at him with disbelief, and broke off his grasp, still careful not to hurt him.
"No, you can't." She felt worse than in Titan, this couldn't be happening. "He is my father, Uncle, I can't leave him here to die." She spoke.
Recognition flashed through some eyes, as if they knew Tony had a daughter, but didn't know her, and confusion in others. Finally, the King of Wakanda was the one to step forward.
"We will take care of your father, Miss Stark." He began ordering around, but she just had eyes for his father.
"It's okay, Papa. You are all right." And this time it was true.
Maybe not now, but a month later, when he woke up all fine, minus an arm, it really was. There was still the big elephant over their relationship, and they needed to talk.
But that was for another time. At that moment, she wanted to spend time with her sister. Her perfect little sister, with the perfect father.
The elephant was about to get bigger