Important note: Before the snap Peter would have been 15 & is 15 now. My OC was 10 and is now 15 years old. Morgan will be 4 years old & Ned will be 15. MJ is 20.

restart my heart

the mechanic

Breaking News

Stark Industries is back. But without our beloved hero & philanthropist: Tony Stark. Pepper Potts-Stark has taken over the company until her oldest, Sophia Maria Stark, is ready to take over.

In the meantime, Sophia Stark will be attending our school: Midtown School of Science. She's definitely following in her father's footsteps & we look forward to seeing where she takes the company.

If you're watching Sophia Stark, we thank your dad for his brave service.

This is Betty Brant with all your latest school news.

2 months after the snap

Despite Happy's best efforts, Sophia Maria Stark walked into Midtown Science and Tech without him. Picked up her new school schedule without him. Found her best friend wandering the halls without him. And the two teens made it to their first class together without Happy escorting them down the halls to ensure no one "roughens up his favorite Stark".

She blames Peter getting constantly bullied here for the over protective honorary Uncle side of Happy to come back out for the new but old school year. Just the thought of repeating a portion of her Junior year due to the snap while Peter, who is or was supposed to be her babysitter, could be down the hall or share a lunch with her, makes her want to drag her feet or switch schools.

It is mortifying.

Just thinking about starting almost an entire year of physics all over again while evading Peter's dad-like-over-the-top parent-esq like style of friendship made her want to crawl into bed and try again another day.

She made it two months avoiding and deflecting any contact with the web slinger but she has a feeling her luck will be running out now that they attend the same school. Sophia can ignore his texts & calls easily but avoiding him in person...well, it definitely won't be as easy.

She's pretty sure she has at the bare minimum 20 unopened voicemails from him and she doesn't want to think about how high the number could go for unanswered texts. She would respond for the first month post "blimp". It was easier to talk to him when there wasn't a face to put to words. A face that was so painstakingly familiar. Not in features per se but in the way he smirks or smiles when talking about some project. The way his brown eyes, that are the exact shade of her dad's, would brighten talking about his suit.

Suits and mechanical projects that were the exact ones her dad worked on. With the same tilted smirk. The same love and passion and vibrancy. A tiny Tony in the making. But also the same lows, weighted shoulders, and heavy bags under the eyes. The same motivation that leads to death.

Then it dawned on her. Every call, conversation, facetime, and email was about her. Her mental, emotional, and physical health. How she was healing. Is she keeping a balanced diet or getting enough sleep? "Sophia, you need to let me show you self defense. You need to stay safe. It's what your dad would have wanted."

"Hey Sophia, I called Happy. He said you snuck out! You know how dangerous that is right now? Tony would have-"

That last call is what opened her eyes. Peter wasn't talking to her for her. For friendship or creating new ties. He was trying to fill Tony's shoes out of survivor guilt.

It was too much for her. Soon the calls and texts and emails blurred and she didn't know her left from right or up and downs. The guilt weighed her that she and Peter were the reason Morgan's time with their father was cut too short. Dad never would have risked our family if Peter hadn't snapped. If Peter hadn't existed. If Peter wasn't so much like him.

That's when resentment started to kick in. When self loathing and hate began to creep in. Towards him and herself.

Sophia let out a long and low exasperated sigh. Ignoring the look of her best friend who is thankfully patient enough to sort out her own thoughts, and pulled the classroom door open. Barely noticing the few people in the room, Sophia made a new line for an empty lab table.

Sliding into her stool in the empty lab room, Sophia set her backpack onto the black table top fit for two, and let her face fall forward with a groan. She may have inherited her dad's brain cells but she definitely did not inherit the love for all things science and nerdy.

A stool screeched across the floor next to her.

"Do you think this year, they will dive deeper into plasma waves and instabilities? I am working on the Mark 46, well, trying to bring it back to life and make it just as good as the nano tech suit."

Harley, somehow, did share the same love her father did for science and all things nerdy. But not in a painful way like Peter. More as if he was trying way too hard to become Tony while Peter was effortlessly and naturally there.

Sophia turns her head slightly, looking at her best friend through the corner of her eye. "When will you stop tinkering with his old suits? You're awful at physical engineering and I can barely use a screwdriver. We make a horrible team."

He yanks some hair out her ponytail. Not enough to hurt but enough to annoy the brunette. "Thanks for the vote in confidence."

Sophia let out a snort and brought her face up from her backpack to look at her curly haired friend with a small smile playing at her lips. Despite the hole in her chest slowly healing. Always aching and never forgotten.

"I'll give you one when you're actually doing something important."

He jabbed his shoulder into hers as retaliation and she could feel her smile had almost become a full blown one. His childhood insult for her, Strat, was mumbled under his breath.

"I've missed you." Her brown eyes met his green and the hole in her chest seemed to ache a little bit less. The weight on her shoulders lessened just a smidge. The loneliness slowly disappears. Finally feeling a little bit warm.

She could practically hear her dad's disapproval in her head with his repulsors ready to fire.

"Don't get sappy on me, Stark. We've made it too far for that." He gave her shoulder a light squeeze. Chin up, being the hidden message.

The smile he gives her almost turns her into a pile of goo on the floor. If her dad was here, she was certain he would be struggling with himself to not blast her friend into dust.

Harley let go of her shoulder and reached over to unzip her bag to steal a pen. He never brings his own supplies, always digging through Sophia's own backpack for papers or pens.

"One day we won't have a class together or near each other and then what are you going to do?" Sophia reaches into a front pocket to grab a black gel pen to hand over with a small smirk.

"Sophia!"

She shut her eyes with a groan and let her head flop into her pink backpack while trying to tune out Harley's muffled laughs.

Harley does a short wave of his hand. "Hey, Peter."

"Is...is she okay? Do you have a headache? I think I have some Advil in my bag. Just - just give me a second and…"

Peter began to rummage through his backpack. Placing various pain pill bottles by Sophia's head. Careful to avoid setting anything down on her hair that's currently spilling onto the table.

"Do you need Tylenol? I have some of your favorite snacks so you don't take it on an empty stomach. Still, uh, I still keep them on me as a habit." Sophia stiffens and can feel Peter pause in his movements as Harley tries to stifle his laughs. "Like, you know from before! Not that I'm trying to be creepy, it's just when you were younger you always…"

Sophia lifted her face from the pink backpack with a slight glare. "Peter, really it's —"

"Come on, Peter. Let's go find our seats before you embarrass Sophia even more. I mean even I'm getting second hand embarrassment from this dude." Ned clasps Peter on his shoulder, giving the young Stark and thumbs up before shoving a resisting Peter to the desk behind them.

"Really cool meeting you by the way. Big fan." Ned threw in, words rushed together before disappearing behind them.

Sophia promptly throws her face right back into her backpack.

.

.

.

.

"So…What is it like having a babysitter at sixteen?"

"Shut up, Harley."

Hollywood Gossip Live!

Sophia Maria Stark Already Has A HS Boyfriend?!

Sophia Stark has been seen being escorted around school & to all of her classes by none other than her ex babysitter. You read that right. Her ex babysitter, Peter Parker is escorting the young heiress around. Photos from anonymous classmates at their school have been submitted. It seems like two teens even had a "private" early morning date outside. So cheesy and cute I almost gagged.

Turns out he did not "blimp" & has stayed the same age making the two teens closer in age than ever before.

Love is already blooming for the young Stark but let's see how long it lasts. No offense to Parker, but Stark is way out of his league. I don't know about you guys, but I'm rooting for a Wayne - Stark ship.

End of

the mechanic

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