❦𝓕𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓒𝓻𝓲𝓶𝓮❦ - 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓬𝔂 𝓙𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓼𝓸𝓷

𝒫𝓇𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝓊𝑒

𝓙𝓾𝓵𝔂 21st was the day Tony Stark's life changed. He had never had a normal life, being a legacy of Hephaestus plus the son of the world renowned Howard Stark (who was a son of Hephaestus), but he managed. A few weeks before, at one of his usual massive parties, he got drunk and slept with someone. The next morning he had a killer headache but still managed to learn her name was Danielle. Except her name wasn't Danielle, and she wasn't normal. Or mortal. She was the goddess Aphrodite. That became clear on July 21st when a floating golden cradle was on his front step with only a baby girl and a wooden mobile with spinning doves, roses, apples, and geese.

Tony had groaned and smacked his head against the door frame but brought the baby inside. He spent the next half hour staring at the sleeping little girl, not quite comprehending that this was his kid. His daughter.

After another hour, his best friend James Rhodes had walked in the front door only to stop dead in his tracks at Tony sitting on the couch and a golden cradle on the coffee table in front of him.

"Tones?" Rhody had asked, taking slow steps forward. No response.

"Tony?" Still nothing.

"Anthony." Not a question this time, just a command. James got a hum of acknowledgement.

"Tony, what happened?"

"I can't believe I didn't see it."

"Didn't see what?" James asked hesitantly.

"Aphrodite," he hesitated, "I didn't see I had a kid with Aphrodite." His voice relayed his shock and disbelief.

"Like... the Greek goddess?"

"Yeah exactly like that dipshit."

Rhody raised his eyebrows.

"Um.. Tony, child."

No more words were said until five minutes later, when the baby girl slowly started to open her chocolate brown eyes and stared up at her father for the first time. He eased off the couch and kneeled in front of the cradle, reaching gently to finally hold his daughter. As he picked her up, a piece of paper fluttered from her blanket. Securing her in his arms, he reached back into the cradle to pick up the note.

𝒯𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒽𝑒𝓇, 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝒾𝑔 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝒶𝒷𝓎.

𝐻𝑒𝓇 𝓃𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒵𝑜𝑒 𝒩𝒾𝒸𝑜𝓁𝑒, 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝒾𝓂𝓅𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓋𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒.

𝒦𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝒶𝒻𝑒,

𝐿𝑜𝓋𝑒, 𝒜𝓅𝒽𝓇𝑜𝒹𝒾𝓉𝑒

Her name was Zoe Nicole. Tony would later find out that Zoe ment life and Nicole ment people of victory in ancient greek. When he did find out, he felt it was fitting.

"Zoe" came out in a hushed whisper, and almost as if she knew that was her name, she smiled and reached towards him. He smiled down at her, and for the first time in a long time, he felt a little calmer, a little more grounded. James Rhodes smiled at the two, none of them knew about the chaos to come.

A/N: I know that there's Zoe Nightshade but my name is Zoe and it's Greek and I just love how it means life. I'm mostly writing this for me, so if you don't like that I named my character after me... well, then just don't read this book.
-IDK003