ultra - peter parker (on hiatus)

0.3

Annaleigh sat back in one of the many chairs placed around the table, slouching back nervously into its smooth headrest. Her father walked from the door he had just closed and headed over to her, sitting in the seat across from her own. She braced herself for whatever punishment she was about to be given.

"Dad, I'm really sorry. I swear, I had no idea everyone would be there and I..." Annaleigh started, but her father shushed her by shaking his head and raising one of his pointer fingers, silencing her from telling her story like before. He stared into her green eyes with a not so pleasant look on his face and placed both of his forearms down on the table in front of him.

"You and I both know that you had no reason to be there and that you are definitely smart enough to have gotten yourself out of that situation without being caught. Am I right?" he asked. Annaleigh looked at her lap and nodded shamefully. She had always hated the feeling that rose from within whenever she disappointed her father. It was true, really only psychotic people enjoyed getting in trouble with their parents, but Annaleigh especially feared conflict with her father. Though she'd never admit it to anyone including herself, she knew that deep down, her phobia grew from a place where she still felt like a little girl, helplessly placed into the loving care of Pepper Potts and pushed away from her own father. She was afraid he would leave her again, just like before. Just like her mother. She was terrified he wouldn't love her anymore if she didn't behave and simply pay someone else to look after her.

Tony continued.

"But ... at the end of the day, it is what it is."

Annaleigh looked back up, ripped from her self pity, and gawked at her father in complete shock. She tried to prevent her facial features from morphing, but regardless, her eyes were wide and her pink lips looked as if they were glued shut while they struggled to hold up her jaw that was desperately trying to fall.

"I am disappointed in you. Don't forget that just because in a way I'm pretty much letting you off the hook, which I am still debating by the way. But I think I'm going to go with not punishing you." said Tony in a slightly stern, but reassuring voice. Annaleigh's tight muscles loosened a bit as she settled her shock and leaned back into her chair. She thought for a moment about what had just happened. If only she knew how to travel back in time and inform her earlier self about her father's forgiveness. She was one thousand percent sure even her past self from just an hour ago would have been convinced that she turned into a pathological liar.

"Wait, so you seriously don't care what I was doing and you're not going to give me consequences?" she asked, still in disbelief. Her father shook his head.

"Nope, I'm not. Besides, they were all bound to find you eventually. We all live in the same home." Annaleigh wondered if and when Tony would stop continuing to act as if she hadn't done what he was preventing her from doing for so long.

This calm behavior was so uncharacteristic for Tony when he was disciplining. It left Annaleigh still shocked by her father's acceptance of the situation. She could barely believe what she was hearing. She had just broken his number one and most enforced rule and she wasn't even going to be punished. In the past, if she had so much as suggested revealing herself jokingly, her father would have grounded her for weeks (not that she was allowed to leave the house anyway). Now, she had been revealed to some of the world's most dangerous people and her father was brushing it off like an estranged fleck of lint on one of his crisp suits. Before she had too much time to contemplate the situation however, her father broke her concentration.

"Now can we focus? What I really brought you here for is some, er, news. A sort of mission per say. If you're up for it." Tony challenged, his playful fun dad side coming out. Annaleigh was stunned again, though this time she was able to keep it hidden underneath her excitement. All she ever wanted was to be allowed to go out and help her father. Seeing as he was the person she spoke to most out of the few people who knew of her existence, he knew that more than anyone else. It was almost like he was rewarding her for screwing up. Annaleigh could barely think through the words she was saying before they left her mouth.