A Late Birthday
It was June 1st, the first day of summer vacation, when Penny opened her eyes and realized with a jolt that three days ago, the day of her last final, had been Mr. Stark's birthday. Mr. Stark, who had taken Tish in when she'd asked him to put her somewhere safe and who had then taken her in because he thought she deserved to be safe too. Mr. Stark who had made her a new suit and who had given her a home and who, the night before, had wrapped his arm around her so slowly and carefully while she'd cried, letting go the second she had needed him to. She hadn't meant to cry…hadn't meant to break down. But her whole life was in someone else's hands and the last time that had happened, it had been Skip. Now, though, it was two people who actually tried to keep her safe and who were taking her on a family vacation and who seemed to care about her…who had both told her that she deserved to be safe.
Still…she hadn't quite gotten it. Not until he'd talked about his father. Because that's when she'd understood…he'd been hurt too. She'd been able to see it in his eyes…the way he'd stood, struggling to look her in the eye, his tone soft and vulnerable, as if admitting some great failure. The three biographies of him that she'd read had mentioned his brilliant father…of course everyone knew who Howard Stark was and what he'd done…the great inventions and his friendship with Captain America and the work he'd done to fight the Nazis in World War II. But none of those books had talked much about their relationship. And Mr. Stark had never really said much about his father as he'd risen to fame in his own right, other than the occasional generic, obviously PR approved quote when asked about him.
So, she knew now, their relationship hadn't been a good one. But he wanted to do better than his father had…and he'd said that he knew he wasn't their father. And she got that. He'd never wanted to have kids…hadn't wanted to be a bad father. Still…he wanted to be something to them. He wanted to take care of them and he was so good with Tish…every few days, Penny could check in with her sister, although she felt the need to do so less and less, just to make sure she was okay. She kept a close eye on her and listened to her senses and she'd made Tish promise, multiple times, that no one was hurting her and that everything really was okay and that she liked living at the Tower.
And the thing was…she did. Penny's senses were always quiet around Mr. Stark and Pepper and the night before, when all she'd wanted was for someone to hold her the way her aunt and uncle had back when she had been a kid, Mr. Stark had done just that. He'd held her. He'd comforted her. And the second she'd felt a flash of fear…a wave of dread at the feeling of someone's arms around her, he'd let go, never making a big deal of it or even asking her what was wrong. He'd just gone back to making her a cup of hot chocolate, letting her stand right beside him as though he could chase away the memories that plagued her.
Mr. Stark had done so much for her. She'd read all three of his (unauthorized) biographies and she knew that everything inside them might not be 100% accurate but she also knew that every one of them had listed his birthday as May 29th, 1970, as had every single website she'd checked, including the Stark Industries FAQ. But she hadn't done any of that lately because she'd been too focused on finals and keeping an eye on Tish and patrolling and checking in on Tish some more and talking to Ned about life at the Tower. And she'd missed his birthday. She hadn't even said anything to him! Hadn't even gotten him a card!
Jumping out of her hammock and landing in a crouch on the ground, Penny hurried to get dressed after triple checking that her door was locked, then grabbed her phone, the new one that Mr. Stark had gotten her still in a box on her desk. He hadn't said anything about it yet, so she continued to use the old one May and Ben had given her for Christmas, the burner phone going into her pocket as always, even if it didn't feel as important anymore. She knew that Tish still kept it charged at all times, but she also knew that her sister thought it was kind of silly to carry around two phones. She always did, though.
She texted Tish with their regular phones since it wasn't an emergency. According to her screen, it was only 8:23 in the morning, and her sister usually slept later than that, especially when she didn't have school, but Penny was vibrating with nervous energy and she could only wait for a few minutes before finally giving in and slipping out of her room, looking around to make sure no one was in the hallway, then tapping on her sister's door. When she didn't answer, Penny knocked a little louder.
"Tish? Are you awake?" she called softly.
"No," her sister snapped, and Penny eased into the bedroom, giving the girl in pink pajamas and a matching pink bonnet a sheepish smile. "It's our first day of summer vacation!" she groaned, rolling over and pulling her pink comforter over her head.
"I know. I'm sorry," Penny all but whispered, moving to sit on the bed beside her, sure that she could do it. They were safe and they were so far from the door and no one in this penthouse wanted to hurt her…her senses were sure of it. But in the end, the best she could do was sit on the floor beside Tish's bed, hands shaking so hard for a second that she had to take deep breaths and close her eyes to make it stop. Her sister sighed, then rolled over, lifting an eyebrow.
"What?"
"I forgot about Mr. Stark's birthday."
Penny had known that this information would wake Tish right up, and she wasn't disappointed. The girl's eyes went wide and she pushed herself up on one elbow. "What?"
"His birthday was three days ago and I totally forgot, and I feel really bad." That in itself seemed to tell Tish all she needed to know. For as long as Tish had known her, Penny had cared about three people…Tish, Ned, and MJ. And that was it. But now Mr. Stark was on the list…for both of them.
"But…but you read all of those books about him! How did you forget?"
"I had my history final that day! And I didn't even realize what day it was and…"
"Do you think he's mad?"
Penny shook her head. She could barely remember that particular day, other than her history final and patrolling…they'd all had dinner and neither Mr. Stark nor Pepper had said a word about his birthday. They hadn't even gone out! And Penny had been avoiding social media after what had happened at Coney Island…bad enough that her classmates had probably all seen it. She didn't need to know what everyone was saying about her. So she'd logged off of social media and had done her best not to get on her phone except to text with Ned and MJ.
"What do we do?" Tish finally asked.
"I was thinking…maybe we could make him a cake? And…like…maybe get him a card?" She shrugged. Despite knowing almost everything there was to learn about the public persona of Tony Stark, she still wasn't sure what kind of gift she could possibly get him, especially considering the only money she had was what little she'd managed to save up before coming to live with him and what was left over from the lunch money Pepper gave her every week.
While Tish got dressed and fixed her hair, Penny went back to her own room and, feeling kind of silly, whispered at the ceiling. "Friday?"
"Yes, Miss Parker?" the AI responded, matching her tone.
"Where is Mr. Stark?"
"He is currently down in his lab, working on a project, but has been alerted that both you and Letitia are awake."
"And where's Pepper?"
"She is in her bedroom, getting ready."
"Can you ask her if I can talk to her really quick? Without Mr. Stark there?"
"Of course, Penny."
Not five minutes later, there was a quiet knock on her door, and Penny jumped up from where she'd been sitting at her desk, hands clasped. "Come in," she called, hoping Mr. Stark wouldn't come upstairs anytime soon and overhear.
Pepper stepped into her bedroom, looking concerned as her eyes swept the room. "Penny? Friday said you wanted to talk to me?"
Penny nodded, watching as she shut the door and reminding herself that it was necessary and that Pepper was safe and that her senses were telling her that everything was okay so she needed to take deep breaths and stay calm. But as she struggled to breathe correctly, eyes darting to the closed door, Pepper hesitated.
"Honey, are you okay?"
She nodded again. "Yeah…yeah I…" Normal, she reminded herself. She just needed to act normal. Pepper wasn't going to hurt her and she needed to talk to her about something important!
Pepper looked around the room once more, then sat on the edge of the bed, keeping her distance. "Okay. What did you need to talk to me about?"
"I…it's June 1st."
"Yes?"
"We forgot about Mr. Stark's birthday," she all but whispered, knowing that he wasn't nearby to hear but still feeling a flush of shame at the thought. After everything he'd done for Tish and for her…how could she have forgotten? "I…I didn't mean to. I promise…I knew his birthday was May 29th…all the books and his website say it's May 29th but I had my history final and I just totally forgot what day it was…"
"Sweetheart, he wasn't upset…" Pepper assured her softly. "I thought we could celebrate on vacation anyway. He doesn't really care about his birthday."
"I know he wasn't but…we…Tish and I still wanted to do something for him. Like…can we make him a cake?"
Pepper's eyes softened, her smile blooming over her face as she nodded. "Of course you can. I think he'd really love that."
"I know how to bake…we'll be really careful."
"I know you will. We should have all the ingredients you need in the pantry."
"But we were supposed to go shopping today…I don't want to mess up your plans."
"That's okay. We can go tomorrow. I'll get him out of the house for a while…I'm sure I can come up with something. How about you text me when you're ready for us to come back?"
Penny nodded, releasing a breath and smiling in relief. "Okay. Thank you."
The two of them found Mr. Stark and Tish in the kitchen a few minutes later, Tish flipping an egg with all of her concentration as Mr. Stark supervised. But when Penny and Pepper entered the room, Tish glanced back and gave her a questioning look and Penny nodded.
"Good morning," Mr. Stark told them, holding an arm out to Pepper who kissed his cheek.
"Good morning. Bad news," Pepper told him without missing a beat, and he glanced over at Penny, concerned.
"What's going on?"
"We have a meeting right after breakfast."
Mr. Stark gave Pepper a strange look. "We have a meeting…today?" He started to pull out his phone but Pepper put a hand on his arm, stopping him. "It's not on the calendar, is it? Friday didn't say anything…"
"It was a last minute thing. Rhodey needs to talk to you and he said it can't wait."
"Okay…" He glanced over at Penny and Tish who stood together at the sofa, pointedly not looking at him, and Penny was glad he couldn't see Tish's face because she was about three seconds away from giggling.
"And we need to finalize some things for our vacation."
"Such as…"
"We'll go over everything as soon as we leave."
Penny very carefully avoided his eyes as she held out a plate, letting Tish slide the omelet onto it before cracking three more eggs.
"Pepper, do you want peppers in your omelet?" Tish asked with a grin, and Penny huffed out a laugh, rolling her eyes as she sat the table. Mr. Stark moved to help her, trying to meet her eyes, and when she looked up at him with what she hoped was innocence, he lifted an eyebrow.
"Everything okay?" he asked softly, and she nodded.
"Yep. Everything's great."
He hummed to himself, not seeming to buy it for a second, but then Penny busied herself with pulling out fruit to cut up for everyone and Pepper asked him to make smoothies and he was sufficiently distracted. The four of them ate their breakfast and it felt perfectly normal, Penny realized, to sit in the kitchen with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts and eat with them and her sister…almost as though this had been her life for longer than just shy of a month. It was her first day of summer vacation and no, she couldn't sit on a bed or be in a room with Pepper when the door was shut without breaking out into a cold sweat, but she was excited about making Mr. Stark a birthday cake and she was…happy?
Was this happy? How had she forgotten what happy felt like?
The second Mr. Stark was finished eating, Pepper swallowed the last of her smoothie and jumped up. He watched her with some bemusement, then turned back to Penny and Tish. "Do you two want to come? I'm sure Rhodey would be glad to see you."
"Not today. We'll be talking Avengers business," Pepper told him simply, winking at Penny behind his back before he could turn around and stare at her.
"Who exactly are they going to tell about Avengers business?" he asked with a laugh.
"Sorry, Mr. Stark. We're going to…meet up with Ned," Tish told him, the lie so obvious that Penny had to drop her eyes to fight the smile as he turned around to stare at them.
"I thought you were going shopping with Pepper today?"
"We had to reschedule. We'll go tomorrow," Pepper told him simply, tugging on his arm until he was on his feet, practically dragging him out of the kitchen. "We have to hurry. Rhodey needs to talk to us immediately, and we may have to attend a board meeting too."
"A board meeting about what? We just had one six days ago," Mr. Stark told her with an incredulous laugh. "What's going on?"
"Have fun!" Tish called, finally giggling as Pepper all but shoved Mr. Stark out the door, and Penny couldn't help giving into her own laughter as he continued to protest all the way to the elevator.
"Pep, what's going on?"
"I told you, we have a meeting."
"We didn't have a meeting three hours ago."
"Just go with it, okay?"
Then, in a softer voice, "Are the girls okay?"
"They're fine. I promise. Everything is okay."
Penny stared down at her empty plate, a soft smile on her face at his tone. He cared if they were okay. He was worried about them because they were acting weird. How long since she'd lived with an adult that had cared if she was okay? Who hadn't wanted to actively harm her? How long since she'd felt safe like this?
"Do you think he knows?" Tish asked, and Penny snorted, pulled from her thoughts as she jumped to her feet. It hadn't been easy…especially since what had happened with the press. People at school had been weird, just like she'd expected them to be, and even Ned had seemed kind of nervous around her when it had first happened, like she might fall apart at any second. And sometimes, that felt like a possibility, especially with Flash and his snide little remarks. But Mr. Stark had stood up for her and he cared that she was okay and for the first time since she'd lost her aunt and uncle, she felt like she had a home again.
So she smiled at her sister. "That we're all acting insane? Yeah, I think he knows. Come on. Let's get everything cleaned up, then we can run to the store."
They had everything they needed to make Penny's Uncle Ben's Famous (at least, famous within the family) chocolate cake in the pantry, just as promised, but they still had a few things they needed to get from the store, and Penny was grateful for the extra lunch money Pepper had given her. They didn't go far, just to the closest little grocery store where they could get everything they needed, which included red birthday candles, icing for writing on the cake, an Iron Man balloon that Tish picked out, and the card that they picked out together after plenty of debate.
Penny wondered, as they walked down the street, if they should have asked Happy to take them, but she reasoned it wasn't that far. Besides, no one seemed to pay them any mind, thankfully, and they didn't have any more run-ins with the press even though they were Iron Man's foster children and were carrying an actual Iron Man balloon through the streets of New York. Surely that was some kind of headline, right? People may have taken pictures on their phone, but Penny kept her arm around her sister and hoped for the best.
Back at the penthouse that, at some point over the last month, Penny had started referring to as 'home,' the two got to work, Penny pulling up the recipe on her phone and Tish grabbing bowls and a whisk and everything else they'd need. Penny let Tish mix all of the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients, combining the two and stirring them herself. Checking her phone every few minutes, she put the cake in the oven, set the timer, then climbed the wall to hang the banner while Tish wrote out her message in the card they'd picked out.
She texted Pepper as soon as the banner was hung, letting her know that they'd need at least another hour since the cake had to be refrigerated before they could ice it, then sat down to write her own message in the card. She wasn't exactly sure what to say…what did you say to the man who'd made you feel safe for the first time in so long? To the person who had seen that she couldn't stand sleeping in a bed and who, instead of trying to fix it, had just built her a different place to sleep outside where she could feel safe? And who'd hung a hammock on the ceiling for her for when it rained? Who had taken her in and who acted like her parent, even though she hadn't been part of the deal they'd made?
She'd only had one condition. Save Tish. Not her. But for some reason, he'd saved her too.
As soon as she managed to write something that she hoped straddled the line between heartfelt and a normal thing to say to THE Tony Stark, she and Tish started cleaning up, wiping down the countertops and loading the dishwasher and sweeping up the floor where Penny had dropped half a cup of the fanciest cocoa powder she'd ever seen (it hadn't been her fault…Tish had been sliding across the kitchen in her socks and had nearly made her drop the bowl.)
"Do you think we should have gotten more balloons?" Tish wondered as the two surveyed the newly clean kitchen.
"I think one should be enough," Penny assured her as she got started on making the homemade icing, although she'd wanted to get more…still, the options in her budget had been six generic red and gold balloons or the one Iron Man balloon that Tish had insisted on from the guy selling them on the corner.
"Should we make lunch too?" she wondered, leaning onto the counter and watching Penny mix the butter and cocoa together.
"Maybe we can all go out to lunch. He might have a restaurant he likes to go to for his birthday." She wasn't a terrible cook, but she doubted she could make anything nice enough for Tony Stark's birthday. "Why don't you text Pepper and ask her if she has any ideas?"
Tish nodded, grabbing her phone. "Do you think he suspects anything?"
Penny snorted, mixing up the icing. "I think he suspects we've all gone crazy."
That made Tish laugh again, and she grinned over at her sister, holding out the spoon she'd used to mix the icing and letting her lick it before dropping it into the sink to be washed. Happy, she thought again with a little smile. This was happy.
Icing the cake was another painstaking process that Tish watched with baited breath. First the crumb coat. Then the refrigerator. Then another coat that she smoothed as best she could with an offset spatula she'd found in a drawer. And then Tish snipped the top off of the writing icing and, as slowly and carefully as she could, Penny wrote out the message.
They texted Pepper as soon as the cake was on the table, the two of them vibrating with nervous energy as they waited for them to come back. Thankfully, they didn't have to wait too long for Friday to inform them that Pepper and Mr. Stark had entered the building.
"Rhodey really needs to learn the meaning of 'emergency,'" Mr. Stark grumbled as they stepped off the elevator and into the hallway outside, and Penny pointed at the lighter.
"Hurry!" she hissed, and Tish raced for it, throwing it to Penny who caught it and quickly began lighting the candles while her sister turned off the lights.
"Friday, turn the lights on as soon as he comes into the kitchen, okay?" she whispered.
"Understood," the AI assured her.
"He insisted we had to talk it over before we left for vacation," Pepper was saying as they approached.
"We're only going for a week! And I told him he was welcome to come too!"
"You know how these things are," Pepper told him, placating, and Penny grinned, clutching her hands together as Tish giggled softly beside her.
"Do you think the girls are still…"
And then they appeared in the doorway, the lights in the kitchen turning on right on cue thanks to Friday.
Mr. Stark stopped short as he stepped into the kitchen, exasperation dropping the second he started to take it in. The Happy Birthday banner hanging from the ceiling over the kitchen doorway. The Iron Man balloon tied to his usual chair. The cake in the center of the table, complete with five lit candles and the words 'Happy Birthday Mr. Stark,' with his name sloping slightly downward from where she'd run out of room. And finally, the two of them standing behind the table, Tish bouncing on the balls of her feet, Penny dropping her eyes sheepishly now that he was in the room, her homemade cake feeling a little silly considering what he was probably used to.
"Happy birthday, Mr. Stark!" Tish cried, grinning and sounding so happy that Penny suddenly wanted to cry as it hit her again. This was happiness. She was happy! They were both safe and happy! How had that happened? How had she missed it?
Mr. Stark glanced back at Pepper who smiled mischievously, pressing a kiss to his temple before moving to stand with Penny and Tish. "Happy birthday, Tony."
"So that's why we had a three hour meeting with Rhodey about nothing," he joked, making Tish giggle, and Penny watched his face go soft…watched him give a smile that she'd never seen before coming to live in the tower, despite the fact that she'd watched nearly every interview he'd ever given. "So he was in on this too?"
"Of course," Pepper told him with a laugh. "He wanted to be here…I made sure Friday took some pictures to send him."
When he approached the table, Penny forced herself to meet his eyes. "Happy birthday," she told him softly, and he put a careful hand on her shoulder, and she let him because she wasn't afraid. Her senses were quiet and he'd saved her and she was happy here.
"Thank you. Both of you," he added, putting his other hand on Tish's shoulder as Pepper stepped over to the cabinet, pulling out plates.
"We're sorry it's late," Tish told him, dropping her eyes, but he shook his head.
"Don't be sorry. I love it."
And he did. Penny could tell as he chuckled at the Iron Man balloon that had garnered its fair share of raised eyebrows as they'd carried it back to the tower, and as he opened the card with Iron Man on the front that they'd both written in, looking away for a long time and finally bringing a hand up to wipe nonchalantly at his eyes, Pepper's hand coming up to grip his on top of the table. And then as he praised the cake, insisting that it was the best cake he'd ever had and listening indulgently as Tish told him all about how it was Penny's Uncle Ben's recipe and that it was world famous, laughing along with Pepper when Penny shook her head behind her sister's back.
He truly did love it.
Mr. Stark was happy too.