New York, 2012. It changed everyone somehow.
It changed Steve Rogers. It changed Tony Stark. Most of all though, it changed Aurelia Stark.
When nothing in Aurelia's world is what she thought it was, how will faces from her past change her whirlwind...
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You are my sunshine My only sunshine You make me happy When skies are gray -You Are My Sunshine, Christina Perri
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September 3rd 1994 Stark Manor, Upstate New York
Running his hands through his hair, Tony paces back and forth along the wooden floor of the living room. Little footsteps tap down the grand staircase and he rushes out to see Aria happily skipping down the steps.
Almost-reflective, shiny school shoes are on her tiny feet and she has little, white, frilly socks on. She's wearing her school uniform- a sky-blue pinafore and a white blouse. Her brunette curls are tied up with turquoise bobbles into two buns on top of her head.
She hops down the steps, one at a time, before jumping from the last one to the floor. She looks up and notices Tony standing in front of her. He doesn't say anything, just gawps at her.
"Morning!" she exclaims cheerily.
He shakes his head, snapping out of his trance, "M- Morning."
She furrows her brows at him, before shrugging, "Did you make breakfast?"
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, course I did."
She reaches up and grabs his hand, skipping alongside him, as he walks to the kitchen. They walk in and she clambers up onto one of the stools at the counter. He places a plate with a pancake on it in front of her. The blueberries on the pancake form a smiley face with eyes and little squirts of whipped cream make teeth. Then, he drowns the things in sticky, sweet syrup.
She giggles as he puts it down in front of her, "Thank you!"
He smiles at her and places a kiss on her forehead, "You're very welcome."
She picks up a knife and fork and quickly starts eating her pancake as if it was about to disappear. Heels click toward the kitchen, as Pepper rushes in, already flustered even this early in the morning. She's wearing a tight red dress and the same coloured lipstick, her strawberry blonde hair tied up in a tight ponytail.
"Aria, sweetheart, you left your backpack in your room.", she says, placing said backpack on the floor next to her stool.
"Morning, Miss Potts.", Tony says, pouring himself a glass of scotch. Just as he raises it to his lips, Pepper swoops in and takes it from his hand, "Hey!", he exclaims.
"Tony, it's eight am.", she says disapprovingly.
"Actually, eight thirteen. Plus, it's five o'clock somewhere.", he shrugs.
"Well, not here.", she says, pouring the scotch down the sink.
"You just poured a few grand down the sink." he rolls his eyes, "What's got you in such a bad mood?" he asks, leaning on the counter right next to her.
"I'm not in a-", she notices Aria drip syrup all over her blouse out of the corner of her eye, "Aria! God, now I've got to get you changed into another blouse, and... Tony! Why aren't you changed?"
He stands there in his pyjamas, "Well I thought I'd take the day off."
Pepper rolls her eyes and takes the empty, syrup-covered plate from in front of Aria before the toddler can make even more of a mess. She picks up the girl, trying not to get syrup all over herself from Aria, "You can't just take the day off whenever you feel like it." she calls behind her, as she carries Aria toward the staircase.
Tony huffs and chases after her, "Uh, I think I can. I own the company."
Pepper continues up the stairs, not even turning back to face him, "Well, you have four meetings scheduled today and an interview with Forbes."
"Cancel them then. I'm not going." he declares adamantly.
"I could have postponed them if you'd given me some warning in advance, but an hour and a half before the first meeting is too late."
"Just cancel, they'll get over it." he shrugs.
"No," she says, walking into Aria's room and shutting the door in his face.
"I'm your boss, aren't I supposed to be telling you what to do?" he says, pretty much talking to a closed door.
Nobody replies, but a couple of minutes later, the door opens and Pepper emerges, carrying a syrup-free Aria. Tony holds his arms out to take the child from her, but Pepper pulls her away.
"Ah-ah-ah! No Aria until you get changed," she says, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Ugh, fine." he groans, turning and walking to his room, grumbling the entire way.
"God," she murmurs to herself, "I've got two toddlers in the house."
A few minutes later, he emerges in a suit, looking a lot less dishevelled than he did five minutes ago. Immediately, he takes Aria from Pepper and balances her on his hip. They head downstairs, with Pepper following behind. When they get to the kitchen, she picks up Aria's backpack and hands it to Tony.
"Okay, backpack? Check. I've put her pencil case in there." she turns to Tony, "Have you packed her lunch?"
He grins and grabs a pink, Disney princess lunchbox from the counter, "Of course I did."
"Aurora!" Aria exclaims excitedly, making grabby hands for the lunchbox.
"Actually doing something I ask you to? Where's all this responsibility coming from all of a sudden?" Pepper scoffs.
"Hey! I'm always responsible!" he lies.
"Can we go now?" Aria whines, growing impatient of their shenanigans.
"Okay, fusspot." he puts her down on the ground, "Go get your coat."
She runs off and Pepper looks at the clock, "Aria's right. You two really need to get going. You don't want her being late on her first day of school."
"That's today?" he jokes, "Well, guess we're so late she might as well not go."
"Tony..." Pepper raises an eyebrow, "I know what this is about."
"We're late, it's not worth going now." he declares.
"You don't want her starting school, do you? You're scared of her growing up."
"Not what I said at all!"
"I can read between the lines." she folds her arms over her chest.
"Hm, whatever." he huffs.
She places a gentle hand on his bicep, "She'll be fine, Tony. Trust me. She's got your genes."
"Well I hated school, I don't want her going through that too."
She leads him out toward the grand entranceway "It's a good job she isn't going to boarding school like you then, isn't it?" they watch her as she hops down the stairs with her coat on, "Look at her, she'll be fine. She loves meeting new people, have you seen her every time you take her to a gala? She can talk her face off." Tony smiles at the ground slightly, "She'll be fine."
"Course she will,", he nods, "she's my daughter." He clasps his hands together and walks over to Aria, "Alright, munchkin, let's get going." He grabs her hand and they walk toward the door together.
