Tony (we'd decided to start with first names and let the whole 'dad' thing come naturally later) had taken me out to dinner at some fancy upscale place. Luckily, I'd dressed nicely to go and meet him, so I didn't feel terribly underdressed. We sat at a table covered in a red tablecloth, next to a window with a view of the city.

Tony raised his hands questioningly, "So, how do we want to do this?"

"Ummmm, that depends on what exactly it is we want to do?"

"I want to get to know you. You're my kid and I missed your entire life. Everyone knows my story—"

"Actually, I don't."

He looked genuinely confused. And possibly a little offended. "What?"

I shrugged, "I'm a teenager. I don't exactly read the newspaper. And science never really interested me—sorry— so I didn't even know who you were when I first read your name in the journal. It took a google search for me to realize you were connected to Stark Industries… and that you were a billionaire. Which I mean, I was kind of grateful for because it meant I had a decent lead on where to go to find you…so that's basically where the research ended."

He blinked at me. "Wow. I don't know if this is refreshing or disturbing. How do you live in New York city and not know who I am?"

"I don't live in New York city…"

He stared at me again. "Then what are you doing here?"

I gestured at him, "I came to find you, thought that much was obvious?"

He rubbed his fingers together on his forehead, looking very frustrated. "But how did you get here? Where are you staying"

"I took a bus, and I found a hostel in Queens."

"My daughter is staying in a HOSTEL!?"

I bit back a smile, "It's a perfectly fine establishment, Tony." I saw no need to tell him that I'd also found it dubiously safe, that it was far from clean, and that frankly I wasn't looking too forward to spending my second night there.

He huffed, and leaned back in his chair with his head on his forehead, "What am I going to do with you?"

I grinned, "How about Twenty Questions?"

He straightened up and squinted at me, "What?"

"You know, twenty questions. We take turns asking each other questions, one at a time. So that we can get to know each other?"

He thought for a moment, "You know what, sure. Ladies first."

I smiled at him, thinking for a moment, then hesitantly asked, "Do you have any other kids?"

"No," he gave a half-laugh, "at least none that I know of." He composed himself, "But I think it's a pretty low chance that there are more out there. 'Playboy' may one of my defining characteristics, but I'm pretty good at being saf—"

He cut himself off, realizing he was talking to his daughter, and for my part, I could feel a dark red blush on my cheeks as I looked anywhere but at him. My father was a play boy? That sent a confusing rough of thoughts through my head.

He cleared his throat, and in my peripheral vision I could see him looking awkwardly around. Thankfully, at that moment, the waiter arrived to take our orders. We both ordered steak, grinning at each other over the small similarity. Once the waiter had whisked himself off again, Tony asked where I'd grown up.

"A small town in western Maryland. Spent my whole life in the same house. A house that's going to be in my name once I turn eighteen, until then it's in trust to my uncle—he's not really my uncle, just a close family friend," I looked down at my hands for a moment, my voice quiet, "I don't have any other family members left— anyway I'll probably try to live there for as long as I can, at least until CPS realizes I have no legal guardian."

It was an offhand comment, I hadn't thought much of it. But Tony's face looked like someone had forced him to suck a lemon and he was REALLY mad about it. His voice came out low, "What do you mean, you have no legal guardian?"

I debated pointing out that it was technically my turn to ask a question, but decided it was probably safer to just answer.

"I mean exactly that. My mom was my last living relative, at least as far as my documentation shows, and she never made arrangements for who was supposed to take over my guardianship," I shrugged, "So, no legal guardian."

He pursed his lips, "What about me?"

I stared at him, my mind blank.

He looked down, but I saw a quick glimpse of hurt in his eyes before they went out of view, "Unless you'd rather not—"

My brain kicked back into gear, "No! No, Tony, it's nothing against you! I just…it never occurred to me that…that you'd want to?"

He met my gaze, his eyes now lit with something I couldn't identify. "Of course I want to, kid. Sure, there'll be a few things to figure out, but you're my child. I'm not going to let you go into child services. I've already missed your entire life up until now, and now I have the chance to actually be there for you. I'm not going to let that go."

I stared at him, my eyes filling with tears. I tried to blink them away, but a few spilled over as I smiled at him, my voice came out soft, "Thank you, Tony."

He gave me a soft smile in return, then seemed to remember we were in public, and cleared his throat as he leaned back in his chair, doing a bit of extra blinking of his own as he waved nonchalantly at me. "So, your turn now."

We spend the next few hours going back and forth, staying long enough to finish our meal and get dessert, and sit there afterwards just sipping on coffee. We covered all sorts of things from our favourite colours to our relationships (I was very single and he apparently had some on-again-off-again thing with his business partner Pepper Potts, which was currently on). We'd also discussed some of the arrangements going forwards. Tony insisted on paying for a fancy hotel room for me (after I'd refused to move in with him right away—wanting to get to know him a bit better first), and he was going to start the paperwork tomorrow to gain custody of me. I'd be moving into the city to live with him, and he was going to get my school records transferred to a local high school called Midtown Tech. It seemed a bit too science-y for me, but Tony apparently had some genius-kid intern that attended there, and he wanted me to go somewhere where I could know at least one person. I also sort of got the feeling that he felt this kid could keep an eye on me. It gave me a soft glow inside how protective Tony was being, but I also had a feeling it was going to get annoying fast.

It was my turn again, and my face scrunched as I tried to think of something we hadn't covered yet, "Who do you spend most of your time with?"

He leaned back, tipping his chair as he did, with an oh-so-casual smile and an air of feigned annoyance, "Mostly the rest of the Avengers… seems I can never get a damn day where at least one of them doesn't show up at the tower."

My mind blanked out again, "You know the Avengers!?"

His chair tipped forwards with a startling crash as he stared at me in shocked confusion.