Protector (EN)

Chapter 13

It was already late and Dad was still sitting in his workshop since this morning. He tried to find out from there what the Haker was looking for. I made some pancakes for Dad so he could take a break. When I was down in his workshop, I was amazed again.

Back then
When Tony just took me in, I tried to explore the house like any little kid going on adventures. Actually, the house was normal like many other houses. Well, like any other house it wasn't. It was much bigger and Tony had things that other people didn't have. One day Mr. Stark ordered a nanny for me because he had an important meeting. I didn't mind that so much. The woman didn't know me and I didn't know her.

I was sitting in front of the TV when I first saw her. She turned off the television.

"Little one. Don't you want to go play instead?" She asked me. I didn't say anything. I just sat silently looking at her.

"My name is Marry. What's your name?" She asked me kindly.

"Juli," I returned emotionlessly.

"Well, Juli. You better go play, because you can sit in front of the TV every day, but you can only be a little kid today. You don't know how you can be tomorrow" she smiled at me. I didn't know what kind of speech that was supposed to be, but fine. I then went to play while she went to cook.

I ran all around the house, fantasizing so much, until I leaned against the wall to take a short breather. Something on the floor moved. I opened my eyes wide when suddenly there was a hole in the floor. At first I thought I broke something and Tony was going to kill me, but since when did holes have stairs? I looked around briefly to see if Marry had noticed anything. Didn't seem to be the case, though, because she kept singing songs in the kitchen.

I gathered my courage and went down the stairs. I was so amazed when I saw so many things. There had been such a red metal suit. I didn't know what it was for, but I couldn't get out of my amazement. There were also some kind of hologram screens. I ran my hand over it once and something happened. The screen in front of the suit disappeared. There was nothing between me and the suit. I reached out my hand and almost touched the suit ....

"Stop! What are you doing?" I heard an angry voice behind me. Startled, I turned around and saw an angry Tony Stark. Not an uncommon sight to see.

"N-nothing." I stammered. "There was this hole. At first I thought I broke something, but there were steps leading down here .... Is all this yours?"

"Little one. You're lucky the nanny didn't find out about it." He grabbed my hand and tugged me away from the suit. He pressed again on the hologram and the disc was back.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the red suit.

"Nothing that could possibly interest you. By the way, Marry is calling you to dinner" he said in a calm voice.

"But I wouldn't ask if I didn't care." I pecked further. He sighed and took a deep breath.

"Fine, but not a word to anyone. This is a secret between you and me." He warned me, to which I just nodded.

"This is Iron Man. The best superhero you'll see." He answered me.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked a little suspiciously.

"Don't you trust me?"

"Yes, but aren't there other superheroes?"

"As far as I know.... No."

Today
"Dad I made you some pancakes." I said to my dad who was still staring at the screens.

"Thanks, that's very sweet. Put that on the table." And still didn't take his eyes off the screen.

"Dad. I think you should take a break." He sighed and finally looked at me.

"I can't. It's my fault it got to this point in the first place, so I have to make it right."

"You can't blame yourself for this."

"Juli I should have come up with it earlier. It's my fault."

"It's not your fault. You've been trying to stop this all along, haven't you?"

He took a deep breath and finally smiled at me.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but you are such a sweetheart" he smiled at me.

"Now that no one is here, you can say anything" I smiled back. Now he looked at me cheekily.

"Really anything? You are my Hasi Pupsi."

"Hasi Pupsi? Really? You couldn't think of anything original?" I joked.

"Hasi Pupsi is good" he winked at me while taking a pancake. I just smiled to myself

"July?"

"Hmm"

"You're the best. I mean who else is going to bring me pancakes at this hour?" I laughed out and he joined in my laughter.

"Me, dad. I'll do it." I said a little proudly.

"Hmmm" he agreed with me. "You how's it going with Loki?" He then asked.

"Last time I saw him was a few days ago. But he's pretty sassy like that." I replied.

"Sassy? I thought naughty."

"He can be as angry as he wants but he's in a cell. It doesn't do him much good there either."

"Unless he's mean to you and makes you cry. Then I'll kill him myself. No one should make my sunshine cry. Unless it's me" he joked of the latter.

"You? You wouldn't even make me cry" I countered. He looked at me. And I was right about that. He might shush me, but he doesn't want to see me cry.

"You're right" he said softly and pulled me into a hug. He kissed me on my forehead and held me like that for a while.

"Dad I think you should go to sleep too" I told him when he finally let go of me.

He nodded at me and actually left his workshop.