In what would be the first of many near expulsions, Davina Maddox almost got herself expelled on the last day before summer break.
It had been a long time coming to say the least. She'd been branded "the troublemaker" within a week of stepping through the halls of Brightfield Elementary School, which the shameless seven year old wore like a badge of honour. She distracted the other kids, embarrassed teachers, caused all sorts of trouble and got caught up in so many bizarre scenarios that they'd started a file on her. She'd had more detentions than most high schoolers, the local middle school had been forewarned of her and she made a point of pulling at least one major prank a month.
But this time around, she'd really hit the motherload. Davina had known she was in trouble the instant she'd been found on the school roof blasting Peter Parker with a water gun, who was down below and completely soaked. The whole thing had been pretty funny, especially when she ended up being yelled at by at least five different adults at once while the janitor went to go get the ladder to bring her down. Once Davina was back on solid ground, the Principal had turned about five different shades of red, and as he'd marched her down to his office Davina had been cheered on by her classmates. All in all it had been a pretty great day!
Currently, she was sat across from Principal Greene (Greene with an E, as he always liked to insist), with the offending water gun placed between them on his desk.
Davina's mom Madison was seated to her right, with her arms crossed over her chest. Her face was completely impassive as the man spoke, though the corner of her lips quirked occasionally in the familiar way that always told Davina she was trying not to laugh. She listened intently as the man talked about how much of a menace she was, how Peter had had to go home on account of being completely soaked (lucky twerp), how Mrs Harris was still struggling to get glitter out of her hair and if she didn't shape up soon she'd turn out to be quite the little delinquent when she grew up. Davina didn't know what that meant, but her Mom had had to fake a coughing fit to hide the laugh that had escaped her momentarily.
Davina had smiled politely throughout the whole thing, but that only seemed to make it worse. At the end of his speech Principal Greene had pointed a stern finger at her, his face etched with deep loathing and exclaimed: "One wrong move Miss Maddox and you're out! You hear me?"
Davina made an attempt at a serious nod, though this only seemed to anger him even more. Madison wisely chose that moment to begin herding her daughter towards the door, Principal Greene's face growing ever more red with each passing second.
Madison let out a deep sigh as she shut the door behind them, merely shaking her head at an innocently smiling Davina. "I wanna say I'm surprised you somehow found a way to get on the roof, but I'm not."
"They've got a ton of pigeons up there." Davina remarked as they walked down the hall, chatting away without a care in the world. "Really big ones too, I think there's a whole family of 'em!"
"Davina."
Guilt formed on the little girl's face as her mother stared down at her, arching an unimpressed eyebrow. "I'm sorry." She sighed, eyes trailing downward as she spoke. "It's just that it was the last round of Water Wars and I thought the roof would be a good vantage point!" It'd all been going so well! But in all her excitement the thought of keeping an eye out for teachers had slipped her mind, which of course had landed in her hot water.
"And "Water Wars" was worth almost getting expelled over why exactly?"
Davina gaped at her, eyes wide with incredulity. "I couldn't let Parker win! My domain over the sandpit was at stake!" She exclaimed, her hands stretching wide with passion.
Madison couldn't help but marvel at times at Davina's incredibly unique Davina-ness. She would take very minor things seriously and anything with a hint of importance like a joke, a quirk of hers that made up only one part of the loveable goofball that was her kid. Madison loved that she was so unapologetically herself, she only wished it involved a few less angry phone calls from her school.
Madison merely sighed, shaking her head to herself before taking Davina's hand into hers and leading her out of the building. "Come my little delinquent," she teased, ruffling Davina's hair, "we've got somewhere to be."
As they stepped through the doors of the coffee house, Davina headed off to her and her mom's usual table as Madison went to order. The booth itself was on the far left of the entrance and was right in front of a giant window, an ideal spot for people watching. As she made her way over to the table she noticed at once that the table was already occupied by a familiar face.
James, one of her many imaginary friends was sat at the table. As Davina slipped into the seat across from him and dumped her backpack underneath the table, she soon took note that he was already deeply engrossed with people watching, his eyes peeled to the many people passing by the window. He didn't make much of an effort to acknowledge Davina, merely offering her a half-hearted wave as he continued to stare. "Anything interesting?" She whispered, keeping her voice low. Though the small hideaway coffee house wasn't too busy, a couple of people were still scattered about the place.
"That woman-" He pointed a monochrome finger towards a cherry haired woman in her twenties, who was playing the guitar outside. "-is playing in the wrong key."
James also happened to be completely in black and white.
He'd came around a few months back when she and her Mom had spent Christmas with Augusta, the quirky lady who lived alone below them and regularly babysat Davina. Augusta was always fun to hang around and always let her play with her pet rabbit, but that particular Christmas she'd insisted on them watching her favourite old movies on her equally ancient TV. She'd wanted to "introduce Vee-Vee to the classics"; though Davina herself had mostly wished someone would introduce the overly chatty woman to a tranquiliser dart after her non-stop commentary during It's a Wonderful Life. It was later, as her Mom and Augusta had filed outside into the cold to go listen to carol singers and Davina had opted to stay indoors and continue watching The Wizard of Oz, that she'd felt someone sit down next to her on the couch.
Without thinking, she'd absentmindedly assumed it was her Mom and she simply hadn't heard the door open. But as she glanced to the side of her, she'd found that it hadn't been her Mom at all, but an old fashioned looking detective in black and white.
He had on what she assumed if he was in colour would have been a white shirt and a dark tie and pants, all while wearing an equally dark trench coat and hat. He was twirling a smoking pipe between his fingers as he stared intently at the screen, eyes widening in bewilderment as Dorothy opened the door and stepped into a world of colour. He looked like a cross between the guy from The Maltese Falcon and Sherlock Holmes, though his face kept shifting like one of those pictures whenever you moved your eyes slightly to the side. The guy looked just like what she pictured an old-timey detective to look like. But what was he doing here?
Davina tilted her head in amazement, still unable to comprehend how he was suddenly there. "Hello." She greeted, hesitant but curious none the less.
The man finally acknowledged her, using a gloved hand to point to the TV screen. "Say kid," he began, with the funny accent all the people in old movies had, "why's that picture suddenly in colour?" His face was set in a deep frown, as though it was a math equation he couldn't wrap his head around.
"You mean the movie?"
He nodded.
Davina shrugged in response. "I don't know, it just is."
"It's odd."
"It's pretty!" Davina beamed, finding the movie so cheerful and nice to look at. After a second she narrowed her eyes, reaching out to poke him in the shoulder.
"What'd you do that for?" He'd frowned, staring down at the spot she'd poked.
"Just checking you were like the others." She explained, swinging her legs back and forth. "So do you have a name Black and White Guy? It can't be that. That's dumb and would take forever to say."
"No." He shook his head. "I'm brand new. You've gotta give me one."
"Hmph." Davina's expression morphed into one of careful thought, as she went through a mental list of names. He didn't look like a Simon, or an Alfie or a Mark or anything else that immediately sprang to mind. It needed to be something cool and badass, not too long, not too short and something that sounded old fashioned just like the way he looked. "What about James?"
"James what?" He asked. "A fella needs a last name too." He teased, one side of his mouth quirking upwards.
"Booker." Davina decided, settling on the last name of a great aunt.
"James Booker." James tested, his head raised as he greeted her with a tip of his hat. The pair smiled conspiratorially, Davina giggling at the old fashioned gesture. "I like it."
"Cool." Davina beamed. "So are you here to be friends like the others?"
"I guess I am." James agreed, settling back into the couch with her to continue watching the movie.
And that was how they had met.
A small smile creased the edges of James's lips, as though he too was reminiscing alongside her. "That was a real doozy you pulled back there kid." He complimented, reaching forward to briefly ruffle her hair. "Make sure to get that cash from Parker." She'd bet him five bucks she could get on to the roof without any teachers seeing.
"Oh I will." Davina vowed, eyes roaming through the crowds of people walking past the window. "He can't escape me!"
The pair spent several moments people watching, before James finally spoke once more. "You get any more weird dreams?"
Davina shook her head, her head setting in her hand as she swung her legs back and forth in her chair. "Not for a while."
"Good, good." James nodded to himself.
"James?"
"Yeah?" The detective swung his head around. She had his full and undivided attention. It was one of the things she loved most about all of her friends. Whenever she wanted to talk about something, they never looked away, acted distracted or looked bored. They always had time for her. Always.
Davina's eyes furrowed deeply in concentration as she considered how best to explain her thoughts. James was the most serious person out of all of her of friends, so she figured he was the best person to talk to about it all. "Do you think I'm weird?"
"Is this about the Lola Jones thing?" he queried, folding his arms.
Davina nodded. "Lola Jones says I'm weird because I still have imaginary friends." The words began to pour out, and as they did so Davina struggled to keep her tone hushed. "Grandpa thinks it too. I heard him and Mom arguing on the phone a while ago, 'cause he said I need something called a "shrink" which made Mom really mad and now she won't talk to him and it's all my fault! Plus Mom always looks at me funny whenever I talk to any of you guys in front of her and-"
James held a finger up to his lips, silencing Davina just in the nick of time as Madison came to the table with their orders. Davina spied her soda and her cookie, her mom's coffee and muffin as well as an extra coffee cup on the tray.
Davina reached across the table and placed a hand on top of her mother's, eyes wide with faux concern. "Do we need to talk about your coffee addiction Mom?"
Madison merely rolled her eyes, booping Davina on the nose. "Don't be cute." she snorted. "Someone else is joining us."
Davina flashed her a mega-watt smile, the picture of innocence as she settled back into her seat. She glanced to the side of her Mom for a second, noting that James had gone. Oh well. They could talk again later. "Who?"
"It's a surprise." Madison returned her mega-watt smile.
Davina's face went white with despair. "You're not back together with Salmon Man are you?" Salmon Man aka Kenny had been her Mom's most recent boyfriend. They'd been together for over a year, and he was singlehandedly the biggest bore she'd ever met. Do you know how many species of fish there are? Davina did, thanks to Kenny and his weirdo kids insisting on trips to the aquarium every single weekend, where she'd been forced to sit stone-faced as she fenced off questions from the terror twins about her dad all while her Mom and Kenny acted all gooey-eyed with each other.
Luckily all of that hadn't lasted too long. A while ago they'd gone especially to see the new sea lions, but Thing 1 and Thing 2 had started throwing the mother of all tantrums when the poor things didn't seem to want to come up to the top of the tank. Luckily Davina had been all to happy to accommodate their wishes to see them. Apparently the aquarium frowned upon their guests shoving people into the animal tanks, which had led to her getting banned for life and Kenny and her Mom breaking up.
It had so been worth the three months with no TV.
"Of course not." Madison assured her, a pained smile forming on her lips as she recalled the rather unique memories Davina had curated for said Salmon Man and his kids. "I think you successfully traumatised both him and the twins for life."
"Oh good." Davina relaxed. A quizzical look came upon her face as she realised her mom still hadn't answered her question. "Then who's coming?"
"Weeeell..."
A million red alert alarms went off at once in Davina's head. She sat up straight, her face alight with alarm. "Come on Mom! I hate surprises. Who?"
"Your Dad." Madison attempted a happy smile, waving her hands excitedly to no avail. Davina's face slumped at her words, an angry scowl etching itself on to her face as she slumped back into her seat once more. She crossed her arms, refusing to look her mom in the eye. "Davina!"
"I would've preferred Salmon Man." She grumbled under her breath.
"His name is Kenny." Madison tried, sighing sadly at her expression.
"He'll always be Salmon Man in here." She replied melodramatically, pressing a hand to her heart.
"Davina."
"Mom."
Madison reached her hand across the table, signalling for Davina to follow suit. Spotting the gesture, Davina blew out a heavy, drawn out breath, before finally relenting and placing her hand in her mother's. Madison gave her daughter's hand a gentle squeeze. "I know he's disappointed you-"
"HA! THAT'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT!"
Davina did her best not to react, just barely keeping the sides of her mouth from twitching upwards. Another one of her friends had appeared, the outspoken and rowdy Joey the clown. He was always in his makeup and bright yellow clown suit whenever she saw him, but whatever creepiness she usually associated with clowns was offset by how mouthy he was. He was totally hilarious to her, but he had a bad habit of popping up whenever she needed to be serious.
"-and he's the biggest flake to ever live-"
"She's really singing his praises here. What a douchebag!"
Davina shook her head to herself, her mouth forming into an angry line. "I don't wanna talk to hm."
"You haven't seen him in months." Madison pointed out.
"So?" Davina stared at her in disbelief. "He never wants to see me. Even when I go stay with him I see way more of Pepper."
Pepper was her Dad's assistant and was one of the few things she liked about having to go stay at his place. Whenever her Dad made some dumb excuse to avoid her and disappeared for the rest of her visit, Pepper always spent time with her. They'd play Scrabble together, watch movies and she always paid attention whenever Davina showed her a drawing or told her a long-winded story. She was the best! Even her Mom liked her, so much so that they always made sure to get her a really nice Christmas present every year.
Madison opened her mouth to say something, but after a moment stopped herself, shaking her head. She loved Tony. She truly did. But she also hated him with every fibre of her soul for what he'd done to their daughter. They'd both been trainwrecks before Davina, her so much so that she'd made her ex look like a saint in comparison. But Madison had managed to pull herself together during her pregnancy, and had carved out a pretty great life for the two of them together. But Tony had ran as fast as he could. She'd kept the door open of course, with some visits and phone calls here and there, but Madison didn't need to have his level of intelligence to see that for the seven wonderful years they'd had Davina he was completely emotionally checked out. The broken promises and missed important days spoke for themselves. He loved her of course, but deep down Madison knew that he didn't really know her. How could you, when you were passing her off to your assistant, your driver or your British A.I that one time any chance you got?
Madison had long since resigned herself to being Davina's only active parent, that is until a phone call about a month prior from a newly rescued Tony.
His line of work had finally landed him in some shit he couldn't buy his way out of. She'd found out with the rest of the world that Tony Stark had gone missing in Afghanistan, eventually opting to keep it from Davina. She'd thankfully been grounded at the time, so she'd had no problem hiding the news from from her. If they came across a news stand Madison walked them across the street, and everyone they knew who knew who her father was had been under firm orders to keep their lips sealed to preserve her happiness. But for all that time Madison had been an anxious mess. As often as she had the urge to wring Tony's neck, he was her oldest friend and the father of her child. If he died... Well it didn't bare thinking about.
Thankfully he had been found, with Rhodey calling to give her a heads up. She'd hugged Davina a little tighter that following day, and that had been the last she'd expected to hear of it. Until a week later, when Tony had called her out of the blue.
Davina had long since gone to bed and she'd been mid-way through a movie when he called, his name popping up on her phone screen a welcome sight to see.
"Hi Maddy."
"Hi Anthony."
"Long time no see!" he drawled, as carefree and laidback as ever.
"I'll say. Where are you?"
"Hauled up in my workshop, keeping busy." He paused as though he was about to say something, but then thought better of it.
Madison hesitated momentarily, wondering how best to broach it. "How- How are you?"
"Good! Feeling the three months without half decent food though, as soon as we landed I had Happy drive me to the nearest unhealthy joint and went to town on a burger. How's the marine biologist?"
"History." Madison retorted, her nose crinkling in embarrassment as she recalled the incident that had incited their breakup.
"Really? You two were nauseatingly cutesy last time I saw you." Tony remarked, earning himself an eyeroll. "Finally got sick of 'Ten Fun Fish Facts?'"
"Well he didn't take too kindly to Davina shoving his kids into an aquarium tank."
Tony must have been sipping something as she spoke, as the next thing she heard was him loudly coughing and someone that sounded a lot like Rhodey grumbling furiously at him.
"What?" He laughed, completely incredulous.
"Yeah, turns out I need to take her seriously when she says she doesn't like someone. She's now banned from every aquarium in the state." Madison sighed, rubbing her temples as she tried to dismiss the thought. "She gets it from you."
"You know, I don't think it's physically possible to hear a frown, but I think I just did."
"Tony."
"Madison."
"You good?"
"Super."
"Then why are you calling?" Madison wondered, her brows furrowing. "I'm neither a medical team nor a therapist. Oh god you got the card right? I thought about sending flowers, but then I remembered you hate flowers and would throw them away the second you got them anyway. So I settled on the card."
"Oh no the card got here safe and sound, I do appreciate a good love letter."
"Hold on, I'm looking up how to mail someone a middle finger."
"Haha." Tony rolled his eyes. "I'm-" He blew out a breath, uncomfortably working up the way he always did to saying something sincere. "I- How's the kid? She's the reason I called."
"Slowly working her way up to giving me a stoke, tormenting all of the teachers at her school, oh she's great." Madison laughed fondly, an overflow of words about her pouring forth at his prompting. "She and this boy she's friends with have started a water pistol tournament, so she comes home everyday soaking wet and with a series of angry notes from the Principal and janitorial staff. And after a long deliberation process, she's decided not to be a rockstar astronaut but instead an artist, because and I quote: "Math sucks and I don't wanna get eaten by aliens."
"How the hell did you and I spawn an artist? I know I do a mean stick figure but I still remember your sculpture days." Tony snickered, his amusement increasing tenfold at Madison's annoyed huffing.
"Hey they were artistic!"
"Didn't Davina's first steps involve her screaming in terror as she ran from one of them?" He asked, his tone the picture of faux innocence.
"Tony!" She protested, burying her face in her hands in embarrassment.
"Was it the bird that looked like Harrison Ford or the bear that fell and broke your dad's leg? I can never remember."
"It was the bear. It did something right at least." Madison quipped.
The pair broke into childish giggles at that. The one unifying thing that had brought them together; before sex, or parties, or even drinking, had been their shared hobby of tormenting Madison's forever a stick up his ass father Thaddeus Ross. "Awww how is Sunshine Bear? I haven't seen him since I got back."
"On my shit list." She grumbled, an angry sneer on her lips.
"What's he done now?" Tony inquired, a knowing tone in his voice. It wasn't truly a day ending in y without Madison Maddox and Thaddeus Ross at odds with each other over something, be it major or small.
Madison chewed on her lip for a moment, hesitating. Should she share this with him? It wasn't as though she could talk about this with anyone else. Deciding to give Tony a little credit, Madison plunged forth. "He said Davina needs to see a psychiatrist."
"What? Why?"
Madison pursed her lips, her body rigid as she recalled her father's words. "My Dad came by the apartment a few months ago for another round of please get Betty to talk to me. I ended up burning myself while I was cooking, so Kenny had to take me to the emergency room-"
"Someone would take that as a bad omen about their cooking."
"Not the point of the story."
"Sorry, go on."
"-and my Dad offered to watch her while we went." Madison blew out a breath, willing herself not to fall into angry rant mode. "He said he caught her talking to her imaginary friends whilst she was in her room, and that he thinks it means she's got issues or something. He started shoving advice and doctors numbers down my throat and I just snapped. I told him that he didn't know the first thing about raising kids, considering he dumped me and Betty at the nearest boarding school after our Mom died. So she's a little weird, it's not the end of the world."
"Well-"
"You can kindly retract that forthcoming joke about my side of the family."
"Sorry. You want me to say something?" Tony offered, his tone so sincere that it made Madison freeze. People didn't hear that often. Though not entirely certain as to what it was he would say, Tony didn't like the thought of Ross wading into their lives and trying to take over.
"No, you've got enough going on. This is a me thing." Madison replied.
"I- I don't want it to just be a you thing anymore."
"What are you getting at?"
Tony had considered it a lot, what he'd say when he got to speak to Madison about Davina again. He'd already wasted so much time with her. His track record was in the gutter, and if he was being truly honest with himself, he knew that the kid didn't like him very much. Why would she? He'd let her down in every way a person could, so much so that it wouldn't have surprised him if one day he turned around to find her looking at him the way he used to look at his Dad.
He had to fix it with her. It was now or never.
"I want a relationship with her. A real one." He let a beat pass before adding a quiet: "Please."
Madison's brain took a second to register what she had just heard. "You're serious."
"As a hernia. I mean it, really. I- I had a lot of time to think over there, when I was ah-" Tony trailed off, willing himself to keep going. "Almost dying kind of made me realise everything I've been doing wrong. And one of the many, many things at the top of that list is her. I wanna do the whole Dad thing, no half-assing it anymore. I-" He felt himself reach the prickly edges of vulnerability once more. "I don't want her to hate me. She's the only family I've got."
Madison sighed stressfully, tapping out an erratic rhythm on the couch chair arm. "You've hurt her Tony. Really, really hurt her. This isn't just a case of waltzing in and buying something she wants in the hope that it'll smooth things over. You don't keep your promises and you don't show up when you say you will and I've had to make excuses for you over and over again. She's not stupid. She's getting older and she's not buying it anymore. You-" Madison's voice caught. There was that urge to throttle him again. If he was a worse person she would have long since put her black belt to good use. "You've made her feel like she's not enough for you." Madison could feel seven years worth of repressed words pouring out of her all at once. "It's shitty. You owe her. Big time."
"I know."
After a few seconds that stretched into a lifetime for Tony, Madison found herself speaking once more. "You stopped weapons manufacturing."
"You saw that?"
"Yeah that's-" Madison found herself smiling. "Good for you. So are you all in?"
"Huh?"
"Are you all in?" Madison repeated. "Cause if you are, then great! Come out here and see her. But if you are there's no backing out if you change your mind. You show up when she needs you, and you put her happiness and well being before anything else." Tony spared a glance down at the wiring he was working on for the arm of his suit, but immediately shook off the uncomfortable thought that had arisen away. "She's not always going to be your buddy or agree with you and one day she's going to turn into a surly teenager. If you can handle all of that and not run at the first sign of trouble... Well the door's still open."
Tony sat upright, certain he hadn't heard her right. "I can see her?"
"Yes." Madison confirmed, causing Tony to let out an audible noise of shock, "but you've got your work cut out for you."
"Eh. Story of my life." He waved her off. "I'll wear her down."
"She'll be a worthy opponent."
"Of that I'm sure."
Madison shook herself out of her recollection, Davina's questioning eyes still on hers. What exactly was the child friendly way to explain that her father had had a near death experience and was now rethinking his old ways? Madison desperately wracked her brain, but found herself coming up short. So she did the best she could. "He's clued on as to what a huge jerk he's been."
"A big one." Davina added under her breath.
"A huge one!" Madison agreed.
Just then the door to the coffee house opened once more, the bell dinging to announce someone's arrival. Both Madison and Davina turned to look as they heard a number of gasps and cries of surprise, flip phones aplenty being pulled out to capture an image of the man that had just walked into the building.
Davina scoffed as Tony was practically glided through the room, with Happy his driver keeping overly excited people at bay with a heavy and no nonsense: "BACK OFF LADY!"
It was so typical of him. Davina could tell even at her young age that her Dad loved being famous, and soaked up the attention all too happily. Every morsel of time she'd been able to claw away from him, she had been forced to share with other people. She could remember when he'd visited her for her fifth birthday and had offered to take her out for the day. She'd been so happy at the prospect and had made all sorts of plans about where they could go, and all the things they could talk about and see. Only to find they couldn't so much as enter a store or a park without people lining up in droves to ask him to sign something, or people gawking, or him getting distracted by something shiny, or someone calling him and making him stay on the phone for so long that Davina had given up and had sulked for the rest of the day. He'd bought her an adjustable Wonder Woman watch at the end of the day which had been cool, but it hadn't been what she'd really wanted.
Now he suddenly wanted to talk to her? She didn't believe it for one second.
Madison greeted him with a small wave, merely shaking her head as he joined them at the table. "Hey attention whore." She greeted, before glancing sadly at Davina. Davina was pretending not to notice the whole thing, and was instead busy drawing circles into the condensation that had accumulated on her soda can.
"Nice to see you too Mads." Tony greeted as he slipped into the booth next to her, grinning without a care in the world. He nodded his head towards Happy, who'd assumed position by Tony's side. "You remember Hap, right?"
Madison nodded, giving the other man a brief wave. "Hi Happy."
As Madison exchanged pleasantries with Happy Tony's eyes locked in on Davina, who hadn't looked up for even a second since he'd joined them. Madison was right. He was going to have to go all out on the charm offensive. "Hey kid." Was it just him or was it suddenly really warm in here? And why was his heart pounding so god damn fast?
Davina continued to draw shapes on to her soda.
"Davina." Madison warned.
The little girl looked up and merely blinked, like he was the single most unremarkable thing in the world. "Hi." Joey, who was sat by her side, blew out a long, drawn out raspberry. She bit the side of her mouth, desperate not to laugh. She'd look like a total weirdo if she did. People who looked like they laughed at nothing got stared at and called crazy, and if they saw her do it enough times she knew the label would stick. Davina glared at Joey out from the corner of her eyes, willing him to go away.
"Hey I'm just calling it like it is, he's only here 'cause he feels guilty."
Davina glared again.
"Okay! Okay! I'm going!"
Davina let out a sigh of relief, and within a second she saw Joey disappear in a sprinkle of golden light.
"They finally let you out for school?" Tony tested, trying to keep things light. "What are your plans for the summer, other than being the terror of the neighbourhood?"
Davina shrugged wordlessly, staring at Tony stone-faced. When was he leaving? And why did he keep talking to her? Tony's plastered on smile fell at once as he saw her expression. He already felt as though he'd been thrown face first into the brick wall she'd thrown up at his arrival.
Her sullen expression changed mere seconds later though, as her eyes zeroed in on Tony's glowing chest. She frowned, tilting her head in confusion. "Hey! Why's your chest glowing?"
Tony glanced down, cursing under his breath. He hadn't thought of an explanation for that. "Well ah-"
"It was that operation you had, right?" Madison said, nudging him in the side.
"Yeah." He nodded, his momentary panic subsiding. "Went under and they had to put this special thing in, it's no big deal. Though I have to be careful showering and going incognito is impossible now, but there's an added bonus! It's great for walking around in the dark with, I've saved a ton on batteries."
Though it was only slight, Tony didn't miss the quirk of Davina's mouth moving upwards at his comment. She was trying not to show it, but it was unmistakeable. All hope wasn't entirely lost then, thank god. He could still make her smile if nothing else.
Sensing his need for help, Madison decided to throw him a bone. "Hey sweetie, why don't you tell your Dad about the award you won?" Tony's brows rose.
Davina shook her head. "It's nothing."
"It is not nothing." Madison argued, turning to Tony. "She won a junior award for historical preservation! There was a whole ceremony, and the mayor even shook her hand!"
"Wow!" Tony gaped, rather impressed. "You did? What was it for?" Madison froze in realisation, forcing herself to bite the inside of her cheek in order not to laugh.
Though still hesitant to talk in case he found something more interesting, Davina tentatively began to explain. The subject in question was her idol after all, and she'd take any chance she could to talk about him. "I'm in the Captain America Junior Fanclub, and we went on a tour of all the places in the city linked to him." Her nose crinkled in annoyance as an odd look crossed over her Dad's face. "What's with the face?"
"What face?" Tony denied, wiping it of any expression what so ever. "There was no face."
"Yes there was!" Davina insisted, confused as to why he was lying. "It was like this." Davina imitated his distinct look of distaste with a startling and slightly hilarious accuracy.
Madison's face was turning red from the effort of trying not to let her laughter spill over, her shoulders shaking violently. "She's a Captain America fangirl?" Tony whispered to her under his breath, completely incredulous. Of all the dead guys in all the world to idolise... If there was in fact a higher power, it was pointing and laughing at him at that very moment.
Madison held her hands up in surrender, both corners of her lips turning upwards. "I told her nothing, I swear. She found out about him all on her own."
"What are you guys talking about?" Davina demanded, looking between them. She hated it when grownups talked to each other like she wasn't there.
"Sorry, go on!" Tony urged, immediately returning his attentions back to her at once. Startled by the action, Davina could help but stare in surprise. Usually when she lost him to some other distraction or conversation she had no hope of getting him back. He was being so weird. And he hadn't made any jokes yet! When she still didn't say anything, Tony gave her an encouraging nod, waving his hand along. "Seriously, come on! You were on a tour-"
"And we ended up at his home in Brooklyn. It was where he was born and where he grew up, which was so cool to see in real life, but the building was super old and falling down. I thought that was so sad! But then I remembered when Mom told me about all these places that get-" Davina's brow furrowed, unable to recall the term. "What was it again?"
"Landmark status." Madison supplied.
"Yeah that. So I looked up how you do that on the computer at school." Davina opened up her soda and took a sip, grinning as she recalled the process. "Then I looked up the owner online and found his home phone number and email." She giggled, as a hand flew to cover Tony's mouth. James had helped her find the man's home address and social security number too, though they didn't need to know that.
"All without me knowing." Madison added, shaking her head to herself.
"You didn't." Tony snickered, realising where this was going.
"I did." She confirmed between giggles, making Tony smile fondly at the sight. "He didn't want to fill in the form at first, and he tried ignoring me. But I kept calling him a bunch and I sent him emails for months and months! His wife said I made him cry!" She giggled even harder at that.
"First person in the single digits to almost get a restraining order taken out against them." Madison commented.
"Why am I oddly proud right now?" Tony remarked.
"He signed the form, and then I had to wait forever, but then it got approved! But the place was still falling down. So Mom helped me call the old people fan club, and they really liked the idea I had of a fundraiser! They ended up getting all the money and the building's gonna be saved!" Davina bounced happily in her seat, smiling to herself. "I got a piece of paper for it and everything!"
"You're not planning on travelling to the Arctic and digging him up are you?" Tony checked wryly.
"Tony!" Madison hissed, elbowing him in the ribs.
But rather than getting upset like Madison thought she would, Davina simply rolled her eyes at him, as though he was the child and she the adult who was tolerating him. She'd been waiting for one of his dumb jokes to pop up. "No! Unless you want to pay me to go?" Davina perked up, flashing Tony a million-watt shameless grin as he stared at her slack-jawed. "I could totally find him!"
Tony swivelled his head towards a snickering Madison, who merely offered him a shrug in response.
"Well... She's kooky to say the least." Tony commented.
About an hour after their meetup he'd been invited back to Davina and Madison apartment, a place that he would be generous in comparing to a shoebox. He'd been over only a handful of times over the years, and while small Tony couldn't argue that it looked like a home. There was a soft throw on every available piece of seating, wood panelling and floorboards, an armchair with so many cushions piled on top of it that they came to his chest, the fluffiest looking carpet he'd ever seen in his life and a reading nook by the window. Various handprints and drawings of Davina's were on the fridge, a various array of family pictures lined the cream coloured walls, and a box brimming with various toys and dolls was planted in the living room, along with a bright pink plastic table where Davina was currently occupied, furiously scribbling something on to a piece of paper with her crayons all while sticking her tongue out of her mouth. The other three chairs were occupied by what looked like a teddy bear, the world's creepiest looking porcelain doll that seemed to be staring menacingly at him from across the room and Happy, who had been handed some paper and crayons and appeared to be following her lead.
Madison smiled, sparing a glance at Davina from where they were stood in the kitchen. "Parents day is never a dull time, that's for sure."
Tony continued to watch her, nerves still crackling furiously beneath the surface of his bravado. She'd gone quiet once more after their little Captain America talk, but Tony couldn't help but hope that'd he found some kind of common thread with her. Said common thread being the guy his Dad never shut up about, but still, it was something.
As Madison finished setting out everything she needed to make dinner on the kitchen counter, she caught Tony staring wistfully. "Go talk to her!" She urged, nodding to Davina, who was now criticizing Happy on his artistic skills as he showed her his drawing.
"And say what?" He wondered. "She hates me!"
"She doesn't hate you, she just doesn't trust you." Madison argued, "Just talk! Make conversation! What's the worst that could happen?" Madison sighed, as he remained exactly where he was. "You'll never get anywhere with her hiding from her on the sidelines like some blonde final girl in a horror movie. Go!"
Madison began to shove Tony into the living room, ignoring his noises of protest. He came to a sudden halt in front of Davina and Happy, both of whom looked up in surprise at the sudden arrival.
"There you go." Madison patted him patronizingly on the shoulder, before heading back into the kitchen.
Tony rubbed his temples stressfully, turning to Happy. "Hap you mind helping Madison... I don't know look for her olive oil or something while I talk to the kid?"
"You want me to leave you here?" Happy checked.
"Yes."
"On your own?"
"That's what I said."
Happy glanced at Davina, who pulled a face at him. "I hit you with my Barbie one time..." She muttered furiously under her breath.
"You're a security risk." Happy glared.
"YoU'Re a SEcuRiTy rIsK." Davina mocked, smirking at a deeply unimpressed Happy.
"Happy!"
"Alright, alright." Happy rose from his seat, gesturing silently that he had his eye on Davina. "Keep the Barbies where I can see them."
Davina let out an unbothered snort at the threat, returning her attentions at once to her drawing. "Don't mind him," Tony rambled, bending down to sit on the ridiculously small chair. "He's been uber protective since- Well-" He waved a hand, forcing himself to change the subject. He looked at her once more, finding she hadn't even looked up to observe his rambling.
He sighed, opting to look at Happy's crayon drawing. He spun it around with his index finger, raising a quizzical eyebrow at it. "What is that a blimp?"
"He said it was a bird." Davina explained, still not looking up.
"It looks like a blimp. A burst one. Anyway-" Tony set aside the drawing, his eyes zeroing in on one of the other occupants at the table. He did a double take, noting the light brown fur, back button eyes and dark brown nose. Now that Tony was closer to it, he realised that he recognised the teddy bear. He picked it up, a small smile of nostalgia slowly creeping on to his face. He'd bought her this very bear from the hospital giftshop on his way to meet her for the first time.
He spun the bear around, waving its paw at Davina. "You've kept him in good shape."
Davina finally looked up, her eyes alight with excitement as she set aside her crayon to talk to him. "Henry doesn't like going anywhere where he could get dirty, he gets super fussy."
"He sounds like your Mom." Tony joked, making Davina smile. Tony's heart gave a small whoop of victory at the sight. He sat Henry back down on his seat, his eyes drifting to his creepy neighbour. "And who is this delightful creature?" He grimaced, pointing to the Victorian looking porcelain doll.
"That's Penny. Creepy isn't she?" Davina pulled a face, a shiver running through her.
Tony frowned in confusion. "If you think she's creepy why'd you even get her?"
"I didn't. My great-aunt Muriel gave her to me for Christmas." Davina glanced briefly behind her, before turning to Tony to whisper to him conspiratorially. "Don't tell mom, but I've tried throwing her away a few times! But she keeps coming back." Davina shook her head at the doll, patting her affectionately on the top of her head. "She's not so bad though."
A long, uncomfortable stretch of silence came about after that, dragging on for so long that Tony found himself desperately wracking his brain for something to talk about.
"You can go. You don't have to talk to me anymore." Davina assured him, picking up her crayon to begin drawing once more.
Tony didn't miss the sad note in her voice. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, earnestness coating his voice as he tried to speak once more. "No. I wanna talk to you."
"No you don't." Davina insisted.
Tony balked at that. "Why wouldn't I wanna talk to you?"
"Because you don't like me." Davina stated, as though it was a fact.
Davina's words hung in the air for a moment, before slicing painfully into Tony's heart. He'd assumed this was just a case of feeling a little alienated. But no. He'd fucked up. He'd so severely fucked up he didn't even know where to begin. Tony opened his mouth, an unfathomable weight suddenly on his chest. Why did it feel like a thousand boulders were being pressed on top of him? "That's ridiculous."
"Whatever." She huffed angrily.
"Hey!" Tony reached forward and gently grabbed her crayon, forcing it still. "Davina look at me." Davina forcefully yanked her crayon back, but met his eyes once more. "I like you. I admit we're not exactly bosom buddies, but we have good times, don't we?"
"Yeah. And then you go away." She reminded him accusingly. "Or you get bored."
"I wanna change that. Start hanging out more." He explained. "No more disappearing acts. No more jerk behaviour."
"You always say that." She pointed out.
"I mean it this time," Tony insisted, keeping his voice as gentle as he could in order to emphasise how much he meant it. "I know I've not been around and I've made you feel like garbage because of it. But I want to be your Dad. I wanna know you and-" He inhaled deeply. "And I want you to know me. You know, I could hang out here, or you could come stay over at the Malibu house for a few weeks. You like it there, right?"
In spite of her anger with him, Davina found herself nodding. She really liked his Malibu house. There was so much room and it was always really sunny. And she loved talking to Jarvis and seeing Pepper and Uncle Rhodey when he came over. She softened as she recalled her visits there.
"So..." Tony did his best to try to not panic, feeling himself fast approaching the end of his pitch. "Will you give your dumb old man a second chance?" He picked up Penny, holding her over his face as he moved her tiny little hands into a prayer motion. "Please Davina!" He pleaded, putting on a matronly British voice. "Have pity!"
A series of short giggles escaped Davina, the sounds soothing Tony's anxiety immeasurably. "That's not what she sounds like!" She laughed, taking Penny from Tony and sitting her in her lap.
"What do you say?" He asked.
A look of deep contemplation crossed over Davina's face. As much as she didn't trust this weird change in behaviour, and as much as she knew he would in fact get bored of her again, there was one simple fact that she couldn't escape. She'd missed him in spite of everything else. She'd take whatever time she could with him, even if she didn't think it was going to last.
"Okay." She finally nodded, with Tony barely hearing her over the sound of his heart re-starting once more. "Can I bring my Barbies?"
"You can throw them at Happy on the plane for all I care."
Davina brightened at that, launching out of her seat to embrace Tony in a hug. "Yay!"
And for the first time since he'd came home, Tony felt himself relax as he shook off the surprise of the action and hugged her back.