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

restart my heart

the mechanic

time frame: three months after the blimp

august

midtown school of science

Breaking News

Stark Industries is back. But without our beloved hero & philanthropist: Tony Stark. Pepper Potts-Stark has taken over the company until her step child, 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 of science innovation & 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.

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 started off her new school year without a bodyguard to follow her to every class. Morgan being an unfortunate casualty in the battle. But Sophia did what she must to be able to have just an hour without Happy's smothering presence.

Shockingly, but not really, Sophia and her best friend managed to find their way to their first class of the day with minimal damage despite Happy's warning about how much of a beast High School can be. Determined to get through to the young Stark's head that new and unknown threats will definitely emerge after the blimp and society rebuilding.

She partly blames the knowing stares and whispers surrounding the topic of her and her family for why Happy was so worried about her first day. The display of "earth's mightiest heroes" displayed at the entrance. Memorial photos of Natasha & Tony in every hallway. She grabs the silver band on her wrist for comfort. Using her nails to flick at the grooves that make out the engraved arc reactor in the center.

Every photo, poster, and voice reminding her of a battle she wished she had no part in. School announcements for the first day bouncing off the lockers and walls. Repeating their condolences over and over.

It would have been too overwhelming if Sophia hadn't been made aware before today by her sandy haired friend. Having him here thankfully kept the other students from approaching her to have the questions they desperately want answered.

Despite how uncomfortable the stares from the students and staff are, Sophia feels the majority of Happys incessant need to attend school with her lies on Peter. Peter Parker getting constantly bullied here is definitely a major factor for the overprotective 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 technical babysitter (really it was only a handful of times), could be down the hall or share a lunch with her, makes her want to drag her feet or switch schools.

Knowing her sort-a ex-babysitter is now only half a year older than her and most likely will attend classes with her from now on makes her feel slightly queasy. It would be like attending school with her father. A painful reminder at her side everyday. Hovering over her and watching her. Putting his own guilt into her well being.

It is mortifying.

She had a hard enough time making friends and venturing out. She can't imagine she would be able to actually talk to someone other than Harley who was bad enough on his own. The only conversation he was ever willing to have was about super suits and advancement in science. While Peter dotes on her as if she's a toddler. Or an endangered species.

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 not come back. To resort back to home schooling with mom. Who needs to learn how to socialize anyway? You don't need friends when you have robots like DUM-E and U.

They don't ask to speak feelings or spill her secrets. No hovering and no shared tears. A quiet comfort. Like letting a favorite show play on repeat in the background. Unlike Peter whose presence demands to be front and center.

The constant calls, texts, and check-ins to ensure her safety quickly became overwhelming when he left the cabin after their shared cry over the loss of her dad, his mentor. Sophia has even caught the web slinger on the roof of buildings and soaring through the air when she walks along the streets. Surveying her every move.

Constantly fussing over her whereabouts and even things such as small as a scratch from her family dog became too much. She didn't need another friend nor a surveillance team watching and dictating what she does or who she sees and when. Especially when that surveillance team consisted of a mini Tony Stark. The reason her dad wasn't the one to offer to take her to school.

After a month of not actually mandatory but definitely felt like it was mandatory check-ins with Peter Parker, she did everything in her power to avoid him. Sophia could definitely feel his suffocating guilt being pushed onto her, even through the phone, and Sophia had enough of her own survivor's guilt- she didn't need his as well.

She made it a month and a half 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. It was like throwing out her thoughts and emotions into a void. Never to return.

Almost therapeutic in a way. To talk to him and reminisce about dad in a way that wasn't painful. Until it was. Soon the texts and inflections in voice became all too familiar. Too similar. Peter's personality came through. It became too deep. Too real of a connection with someone who wanted the same heroic lifestyle as her father.

The lifestyle that got him killed.

At first she thought she might be the issue. She couldn't be friends because of how warm and familiar Peter is. A face that was so painstakingly and hauntingly familiar. Not in features per se but in the way he smirks or smiles or even the affliction in his voice while talking about science and super powered suits. The way his brown eyes, that are the exact shade of her dad's, would brighten talking about his nightly patrols and who he met or saved. The worst of it is when he recently picked up on unfinished projects her father has left behind that her mom passed down to Peter. She just desperately wanted it out of the house but he was honored nonetheless.

Peter has that 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 led to the same close calls & missing persons reports during Christmas. The same obsession with the same projects that lead to death.

Suits and mechanical projects that were the exact ones she helped her dad work on. The ones she refuses to pick back up. The ones she was in the process of tossing in the trash when Pepper caught her and stopped her. Her mom claimed she would have a lifetime of regret but regret is easier to deal with than the painful reminders.

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 should let me help you continue your self defense sessions. You need to stay safe. It's what you dad would have wanted."

"Sophia! Hi! Just wanted to know if you needed any help with anything? I was swinging by Saint Mark's street and saw you were out for a jog. If you need a lift home let me know."

"Sophia, don't forget to keep with some light training. I can't have you getting hurt under my watch."

"How is the scratch from Rhode's dog healing? You've been cleaning it and bandaging it right? May says wounds need time to air to heal too."

"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. Not even because he wanted to know her for her. He was trying to fill Tony's shoes out of survivors' 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.

If she hadn't told her father it was okay to save Peter, he would still be here.

That's when she noticed the resentment starting to kick in. When self loathing and hate began to creep in. Towards him and herself. Something she knew wasn't fair. It wasn't something her dad would want or even encourage yet she couldn't help it.

The more Sophia thought about it the more she spiraled. The more her negative emotions began to creep in and overtake her every thought. Controling her actions.

She sent her father off to die to bring back a teenage boy.

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 as they walk down the corridors of the school and pull the classroom door open. Barely noticing the few people in the room, Sophia went straight for the first empty lab table she saw.

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. Between having a life crisis ridden with guilt and surviving high school, who has time for science projects? Especially this early.

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 have time for science projects and did share the same love her father and Peter did for science and all things nerdy. But not in a painful way like Peter. More as if he just happened to have similar interests while having his own distinct personality. His own way of doing things that just happened to be a way her dad most likely would have disapproved of. One that is the complete opposite of her dad's but still aspiring to be a version of Tony. While Harley struggles and stumbles to find that footing, Peter Parker is already effortlessly there.

Sophia turns her head slightly, looking at her best and only 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. He was a nice distraction.

"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 as he pulled her backpack from under her head and crossed arms.

"I've missed you." She says as she sits back in her chair. Her blue 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 hasn't seen her best friend since the funeral and before that it's been years of anything but phone calls and video chats here and there. Is it weird for her to miss someone she's only had a tech relationship with?

She could practically hear her dad's disapproval in her head with his repulsors ready to fire. As much as her dad liked Harley for his intelligence and potential…Tony's opinion on Harley's personality was nowhere near as positive.

"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. Then drag her back down to the workshop and never let her leave.

Harley let go of her shoulder and reached over to unzip her bag to steal a pen. Making it perfectly clear this will be the new routine. He grumbled under his breath in annoyance, ignoring her in favor of moving her binders and journals around.

"What did you do before we had classes together?" Sophia reaches into her front pocket of her bag, taking pity on him, to grab a black gel pen to hand over with a small smirk.

"Sophia!"

She quickly froze before slowly shutting her eyes with a groan and let her head flop back on to her desk 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. Or maybe Tylenol. Just - just give me a second and…"

Peter began to rummage through his backpack. Placing various pain pill bottles and ziplock baggies 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 stifled laughs get louder. "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 black table top 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 to the table behind them.

Sophia promptly yanks her pink backpack from Harley's grasp and throws her face right back into it. The Advil bottle slowly rolling off the tabletop went ignored.

She was really hoping if they had to have a class together it would have been later in the day. Give her time to mentally prepare herself.

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

"Shut up, Harley."

Harley let out an obnoxious snort and reached over to grab the ziplock bag of chex mix. "Well, hopefully your babysitter won't get upset at you for sharing your snacks."

In the background, Sophia can hear Ned trying to calm Peter down about the roll away Advil and stolen snacks paired with what seems to sound like chairs scraping across the floor. The only real sound she can make out is Peter's poor attempt at a stressed whisper.

"But her snacks, Ned!"

After a few more seconds of wrestled clothing and soft arguments from Peter and Ned, Sophia realized more whispers joined them. Each one mentioning her name and Peter's. The gossip mill was already running high before class even began.

Annoyed and uncomfortable, Sophia looked up and saw their classmates looking at the group of four. Unsubtly pointing with confusion to their peers. With a sigh, Sophia yanked back her ziplock bag of Chex mix from Harley. Ignoring his annoyed yelp.

Making sure to have the bag in view to those behind her, she grabbed a small handful before shoving the bag back into her friend's hands. Hoping now that she's eaten some, the not so quiet arguing and gossip would stop and be forgotten. That she could just melt into the background and everyone around will eventually forget that she exists.

This is going to be a long year.

Luxe Leaks Magazine

Sophia Maria Stark & Her Civilian Boyfriend

Sophia Stark has been seen being escorted around school & to all of her classes by none other than her ex babysitter. Her ex babysitter, Peter Parker has been seen escorting the young heiress around. Photos from anonymous classmates at their school have been submitted and attached below.

Peter Parker has been reported to not have "blimped" & 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 this reporter is hoping for a Wayne - Stark ship.

end of: the mechanic

tumblr: reneeturnson

word count: 3.159