And three hours was all it took.
The looks from people were inevitable. You still weren't comfortable with the name – almost felt like it didn't fit or something. Y/n Stark. Weird. And yeah, maybe you've been spending too much time with Bishop because you never in a million years thought you'd drop your last name. To anyone. You kept it hidden, on all official, required databases the government issued, your last name was Hunter.
And it worked.
You knew this news would get out in a matter of hours, whether someone in the parlor tipped the press off or not – a Stark can't hide in plain sight, and you knew you came from the exact thing you were taught to hate.
Tony Stark ruined your mother's life.
He slept with her, a mutual one-night stand sort of situation – neither of them were looking for anything more when he lived in Los Angeles, and she told you how she went to him after she found out about you. But he sent her away, not wanting anything to do with you or her, and threatening to pummel her in the press if it ever got out. He threatened her, you, and the little family she had at the time with the money and power he held, knowing he was untouchable, so, with that anger still simmering inside her, she raised you to essentially eat the rich whenever the time struck. Kate Bishop might've made you soft to it all, temporarily, when she explained her reinventing the company her mother was using to launder money, along with other criminal activities, but you were still you. You were still a Hunter.
That last name wasn't an accident either. Your grandmother's surname, she never married, was self-chosen as Hunter, and she grew up in Wakanda. She was the now king, T'Challa's grandfather's good friend. She kept to herself for the most part, whispering advice into the then king and former Black Panther, Azzuri the Wise's ear now and then, and helped to raise the next leader, T'Chaka, before she passed soon after he inherited both titles. But she had kept your mother's birth a secret because she wasn't a descendant of the Wakanda people, they had taken her in when she was young and lost her parents in collateral damage in one of the wars involving them, and she was afraid of the impact of having a child out of wedlock. It wasn't only the fact that she wasn't married, which, at the time, was easily frowned upon in the world, but the fact that she had stepped out to have the baby fathered by someone who wasn't on the right side at the time.
She was also a warrior that didn't take kindly to rules and used aggressive tactics to get what she wanted instead of trying to come to compromises or negotiating with the enemy. She was the definition of 'shoot first, ask questions later' if you turned it into something more on the lines of kill first, don't ask questions, and eventually, forgo asking for forgiveness. It's what made her an enemy, not to Wakanda per se, but to the outside world, and when she went out to find your mother many years after she had given her up in the states, hoping for a better life for the child, she was killed before she could cross state lines into California.
And you grew up idolizing her, for the wrong reasons, but soon, it was for the right ones as you entered adolescence.
Anyone could see why this might fuck with someone's childhood and beyond.
But she was fearless up until her last breath and you've always wanted to be that way – hiding half your family tree in the shadows for nearly two decades wasn't one of the ways you were doing so, though.
But now, you were sat inside your apartment, gazing out the one window in the entire place as you leaned back against your headboard, sipping tea with your laptop up and running off to the side, as you watched the press and curious people of New York swarm around the building.
Peter was still at work, and it was nearing ten at night, but you were thankful he wasn't back yet and hoped he wouldn't be until these people finally gave up and went home.
You were texting Kate about it, and she kept offering to come over, but you knew if they saw the daughter, and now owner, of Bishop Security outside of Tony Stark's eldest daughter's apartment they would maul her with questions and never let her inside anyway.
So, you kept running your next program, deciding whether you should have the now stale doughnuts from the bakery yesterday or the sad looking frozen personal pizza that was only a dollar because ordering in or going out for a quick snack run was definitely out of the question. But so was sleeping since they were pretty loud and distracting outside – you're just praying your landlord didn't find out it's for you and evicts your ass.
You got up with a small groan to retrieve the doughnuts when a knock at your door caught your attention. You stared at it for a whole three seconds before creeping over silently on the heels of your feet to check who it was. You carefully flicked the peephole cover open and let out a sigh of relief when you saw who it was, opening the door immediately after.
"I told you not to come!" You scolded, smiling in such a happy relief to see your friend because while you wanted to be a little mad she went against your wishes, you couldn't deny it was nice to see a familiar face – especially one so cute.
She didn't say anything at first, dressed in her purple Robin Hood suit, but she seemed upset and immediately grabbed you in a bone crushing hug, so you hugged her back just as tightly as you walked backwards into the apartment.
"I never thought this would happen," She mumbled into your neck, and you shivered when she placed the lightest kiss against the spot where her face was buried – she probably didn't think you felt it, "And I'm so sorry about everything, are you okay?" With that, she pulled back, her cheeks and nose tinted with red from the cold and her dark hair was down in loose waves behind her as she scanned your face to see if you've been crying or if you were holding up, "Nobody saw me, I swear."
She was still holding you, just pulled back enough to dig into your eyes with her gorgeous blue ones that held so much protective reassurance and you felt your breath hitch in your throat when the same eyes flicked down to your lips for not even a second before they went back to yours questioningly.
"I'm okay," You unintentionally whispered, and she had the smallest apologetic smile cross her lips, trying to gauge if you truly meant it, "And I'm happy you're here."
"You are?" Her voice dropped as well, but it still held hope, and that made you melt a little.
"Yeah," You smiled cheekily to ease the tension, "Much less pathetic to binge on doughnuts and crappy pizza with a fr – someone you care about."
Her lips slowly curved into a bright smile, reaching her eyes, and she only let you go so you could lock the door when you gestured to it before you both made your way over to the bed with the box of doughnuts. You sat down and she hesitated, assuming she was supposed to sit on the sofa, but then you put the box on the bed and patted the spot on the other side of it, so she'd sit across from you. She hummed happily before coming over after giving a few strokes to Powder's nose in greeting and you might've fell for her a little right there.
"Where's Lucky?" You asked a while later when the tension dissipated and the crowd outside did the same.
"Before I came over, I dropped him off with my friend, Grills," She told you around a bite and you frowned after quickly texting a reply to Peter saying he didn't have to come over because Kate was here – surely about to get a cheeky one from him any second, "I met him when I was working with Clint Barton."
You narrowed your eyes with the corner of your top lip raising up a little, your nose slightly scrunched, and you didn't even notice you were making the expression until she was snorting a laugh.
"What?" You furrowed your eyebrows.
"He's too old for me and not my type," She laughed on her words, "I could tell you were all..." She gestured to your face with the tip of her finger in a circular motion, "Thinking things."
"Normal, curious, friend things." You lied lightly, both of you knowing it was bullshit, and she nodded with a smile that she hid behind the rest of her doughnut.
"Of course."
