Iron man 3 [MCU x OC] [Book 3 of the Stephanie Stark Series]

Chapter 1

"Are you excited for Christmas?" 

Stephanie looked over to Pepper who smiled at her from across the kitchen island. "I guess." They were having dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, and Christmas was right around the corner. 

"You guess?" Pepper chuckled and sat down beside the younger girl. It was Stephanie's third Christmas with the Starks, third Christmas ever really, and she didn't necessarily see the point of it. She shrugged her shoulders and stuffed her face with another forkful of noodles. "Do you want anything for Christmas, maybe a pretty dress, a specific toy?" Pepper brushed some of Stephanie's hair out of her face. 

"We're rich, I could have an island if I asked," Stephanie said, she looked at Pepper and smiled, a little red stain around her mouth from the pasta sauce. 

Pepper sighed and picked up a napkin to clean off Stephanie's face. "What? Do you want an island?" Pepper intended it to be a joke but Stephanie seemed to actually think about it. "That's a joke, you're 11, you don't need an island." Pepper got up and went to get a glass of water from the fridge.

"I can go on vacation there!" Stephanie hopped down from her stool and grabbed her now empty bowl to place in the sink.

"We can go on vacation any time" Pepper leaned against a counter 

"No we can't," Stephanie started to leave the kitchen and headed to the living room, "You're always working, and Tony is going crazy." 

Pepper followed her, "He is not going crazy." 

Stephanie, instead of jumping onto the couch, sat down on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. "Yeah, he is," She grabbed an empty piece of paper and some colorful crayons and started to draw. "He's in his workshop way more now." Pepper sat down next to her and grabbed her tablet to try and get some work done. 

"That doesn't mean he's crazy, it means he's working on more stupid suits."

"I like the suits." 

"Really? I couldn't tell." All Stephanie talked about were the Iron Man suits, and the majority of her drawings consisted of all the different versions. "Which one are you drawing now?" 

"It's more of a scene." 

"Of what?" Pepper leaned over the younger blonde's shoulder but Stephanie hid her paper.

"You don't need to know." There was a pause. "I want my own Iron Man suit."

Pepper chuckled and stopped leaning over the girl. "You are definitely not getting a suit." 

"What if that's what I want for Christmas?" Pepper gave her "the look". Stephanie shook her head and went back to drawing. The two of them sat in the main living room in silence for a while. Pepper working and Stephanie drawing, it was a rehearsed ritual; one that happened almost every night. 

Stephanie picked up her red crayon and started to color in her scribbled version of Iron Man. Her drawing shows a messy version of what happened in New York all that time ago. 

When the attack on New York happened Stephanie was napping on a plane traveling with Pepper. She hadn't even realized anything was going on until they had to do an emergency landing, and that was after the attack was over. She didn't find out about the aliens until they had finally reunited with Tony and ever since she's been fascinated with the whole event. Whenever she was alone she would watch interviews with survivors and rewatch the news videos from the day it happened. 

She stopped after seeing a shaky video of Iron Man falling from the sky. 

She tried to talk to Tony about it. She wanted to know what it was like fighting actual aliens and all about the other heroes, but he shut down any and every conversation. 

"Is Tony okay?" Pepper froze before setting her laptop down. 

"Tony," She looked to find the right words. "Tony has a lot on his mind. But he will be once he gets some stuff figured out." Pepper smiled at her but Stephanie stared back. 

Stephanie looked between Pepper and her drawing, Tony did seem to have a lot on his mind, but, none of it was related to her. okay. "I'm going to my room." She collected her art supplies and got up from the floor, using Peppers' knee to support herself. She walked off without saying another word.

Pepper watched her leave with a frown but didn't stop her. Most times it's best to let people think through things, Pepper just hoped she didn't say anything wrong.

_____________

Once in her room Stephanie was able to sit at her desk to finish her art in private, drawing out her thoughts instead of speaking about them to Pepper. She wasn't even in New York and yet she felt as though she had seen it all, watching the clip of Tony falling fast through the air made her heart drop to her stomach and every time she thought about it she was reminded of Tony being abducted. 

She never really thought about how scary things affected adults. Even before she had moved in with them she was taught that fear is irrational and she had only just gotten comfortable showing her fear because she had thought the adults around her were invincible. They had told her that emotions make you human and that embracing them can only make you stronger. But now? After seeing the different events in Tony's life and his recent behavior she realized that just isn't true. 

She wasn't stupid. Tony was throwing himself into work to hide his emotions. 

Stephanie added the final detail to her drawing and tapped it up with the rest of her art on the wall behind her desk.

What a hypocrite. 

##############-

For those that have stuck around since the first book... hey... been awhile.

It is now the summer before my freshman year at college so I'm using this time to restart my writing/fanfic journey lmao. 

I'm also trying out a different publishing schedule whereas instead of writing and then publishing each chapter individually, I'm going to write EVERYTHING and then publish all at once. I'm doing this because I realized I go through bursts of motivation to write and long periods of laziness and I feel bad about leaving people hanging. This also means there won't be author notes at the end of every chapter. Maybe every once in a while but not as often. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of the book. Remember to eat/drink and stay healthy 

luv ya

-P