A girl out of time

Ten - First Steps + Words

If you sit on the sand on a clear night the stars are amazing and nice to watch.

- Em out

It was the end of February and everyone had been rushing around preparing for Jaspers first birthday. True to his name Tony had convinced Nat to invite everyone to the party, and I mean everyone. The guardians were coming, Thor and Loki were coming along with the Wakandan roil family as well as everyone who already lived here.

Peter's third birthday had lasted for the whole day and was only slightly bigger than this with his friends from kindy coming as well. That was back in August and I was still helping him put together some of his legos. They were easy considering they were for little kids but still how much lego does a three-year-old need.

I walked into the lounge room setting Stella down on her mat next to Jasper. She called over to the coffee table and pulled herself up. She did this every day determined to try and balance enough to walk. So far she'd only managed to stand up without the table twice.

Jasper had started walking at Christmas time while Stella was too busy climbing the presents. She couldn't walk but she could pull herself into a standing position than climb up onto things. Stella was still determined to walk, I suspected she was going to be a competitive little girl.

I watched for the millionth time as she pushed herself up again after falling. "Stella don't climb on that please," I said sternly. She only smiled at me and looked back down at her feet. Giggling she let go of the table and stepped towards me! I jumped off the couch sitting down a couple of feet in front of her. "TONY!!!" I squealed causing him to come running. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, look," I gestured to our daughter who was slowly and wobbly making her way over to me.

"Come on baby, come to mummy," she kept stumbling forwards giggling the whole way. "Good girl!" I kissed her forehead as he fell into my arms. She clapped still smiling. "Good work little snowflake." Tony sid coming to join us on the ground.

Stella moved out of my arms into her father's, burning her face in his shirt. She was always going to be a daddy's girl and I had accepted that, but not easily. She looked up at him babbling nonsense. "Baba na dan semm." Tony watched her taking it all in.

"Da-" I looked at her and Tony smirked. "Don't you dare." I said looking at her but Tony brushed me off with a "don't listen to mummy." Stella giggled looking up at him. "Daddddd- dada!" Her father's eyes lit up and he planted kissed all over her face making her giggle uncontrollably. "I love you more than the sky, and all the stars," He told her, again.

I huffed "fine love him." I crossed my arms over my chest, completely aware that I looked like a five-year-old. "Oh come on," Tony said putting Stella down on her mat. "Are you jealous?" He asked crawling back over to me. "No!" I said way too quickly. "I think you are," he teased pulling me into his lap. "I'm not. I accepted that she was a daddy's girl months ago." I huffed, he smirked then leaned forwards to kiss me.

"Ewww heheheh," we broke apart when the gound of grossed out giggles filled the room. "What?" I asked innocently as Peter sat down next to his sister. He looked down as she crawled into his lap, "mummy kissed daddy." He whispered making her giggle more.

I laughed too until I realized what he said. I opened my mouth in shock, turning to face Tony who looked just as shocked as me. "He likes you. I have never heard him say that word before once."

*****

That night the four of us went out for dinner at some nice place on the beachfront. "This is nice," I said looking out over the beach bathed in the moonlight after we'd all finished eating. "Do you wanna go for a walk?" Tony asked standing up, I nodded. We grabbed the kids and we all went for a walk along the beach.

After a while we stopped to let Peter and Stella play in the sand, something I would probably regret later but they were having fun. I sat down next to my boyfriend resting my head on his shoulder. We sat in a comfortable silence watching Peter make sandcastles in front of Stella, then she would smash them.

"So" Tony broke the silence laying two objects on the sand in front of me. The first was a black box, the second was the flower jar. "Can you do the same thing for Peter that you did for Stella?" He asked picking up the jar. I grinned taking it from him. closing my eyes I focused on making the flower and on Pete himself.

When I opened my eyes there was a red flower with blue highlights in front of my yellow one. I handed the jar back to Tony, "what do you think?"

"They're his favorite colors" he pointed out. He liked it. He took the black box in his hand and opened it to reveal a sticker that said 'Family' in cursive silver weighting. Then held it out to me again. "Would you be able to make more of these?" I nodded slightly confused by the random question. Seeing the look on my face he explained, "I want the kids to have one too." "Of course," I said leaning back on his shoulder.

"JARVIS? You with me?" Tony whispered, he was wearing his glasses again. "Good" he replied a second later, still talking to the A.I.

"Bambi!" He shouted, "come over here and bring your sister." Pete came over holding Stella's hand they sat in the sand in front of us, looking up at there farther. Well Pete was Stella was trying to eat her hand. "Here bud" Tony put his glasses on Peter. "Now remember what to do?" Pete nodded enthusiastically.

"ребенок паук?" He just shrugged and turned to play with Stella. "Ella no, don't eat the sand!" He told her off and made more castles with her.

"Jazzy, I love you. You know that? I do and I love Stella and Peter. This jar," he held up the object and showed it to me. "This jar is something that shows were a family, the four of us and I'm hoping that this will too." He took another small box out of his blazer, opening it to reveal a beautiful gold band with a small yellow quartz stone in the center and three tiny diamonds on either side. "Jazmine, will you marry me?"

I gaped at him. Here was the one and only Tony Stark, not quite on one knee considering we were sitting, on a beach proposing to me of all people. "Yes!" I squealed he looked like he had just won the lottery. I leaned over to kiss him. It was a sweet kiss that turned into something more passionate until Stella started screaming.

I pulled back rolling my eyes, "figures." He slipped the ring onto my finger before I stood to collect Stella. "Hey, Nala, what's up?"I called her Nala like from the 'lion king' because she too is a stubborn little girl who tries to compete with Jasper, who nat and I call Simba for the same reason. Nat had shown me heaps of Disney movies after she discovered I had never seen one.

"Ella ate the sand then got a- all upset" Pete tried to explain but yawned halfway through. "Alright, I think it's bed-time for both of you." I passed Stella to Tony and grabbed Peter, he nestled his head in my neck. By the time we reached the car, they were both asleep.