Avengers Oneshots Series

Run<<Child Character × Tony>>!platonic (Part 1)

Character : Penny Parker. 15 year old orphan. Stays at an orphanage. Tony's personal intern

Warnings : Mention of Sexual Assault

It was a normal day for Penny. Her day was planned out as usual. First school till 2pm and then directly to the Avengers Tower for her internship with Mr.Stark. Ever since a year and a half back she has gotten her internship through the exams Penny came to the Industries everyday after school before heading to her orphanage. And even though she will never say this to anyone but in this one year Mr.Stark had become the closest person she had to her father. But she was too afraid to tell that to him...he won't want her. She was no one special to him. He was THE Iron Man..An Avenger... THE Tony Stark. He won't want some nobody girl from Queens. But she was wrong. If she saw him as a father then even Tony didn't see her any less than a daughter. And there wasn't a day which went by without him wanting to adopt Penny....to officially have her as his daughter but he was too afraid. Too afraid to put her in danger. Too afraid that he would turn out like his own father and out of everyone this little, sweet and the most intelligent kid he had ever met didn't deserve that treatment. So he suppressed this feeling. Not letting it come out... until one day he realised this girl named Penny who had crawled her way into his heart had a secret he didn't even imagine in a million years...and at that moment both Penny and Tony had realised exactly how important both of them were to each other.

Penny didn't let anyone know her darkest secret... something she told no one...not even Mr.Stark whom she told everything to. She doesn't think she has the guts to say this to anyone...so she buried this information deep inside her, locked in a cage and never let out. But this cage soon opened when she entered her classroom that morning only to see HIM.....the man who had... Penny was often the first one to arrive in school and most days she enjoyed getting to choose where she would sit before anyone else but she regretted it this time... regretted being in the same room alone with that man. She barely registered the man walking up to her. She was frozen at her place.... she didn't move when he placed a hand on her shoulder and slowly brought it up to her neck.....she didn't move when she saw him smirking down at her....she didn't move when he brought his lips near her ears and whispered, "You remember me Pennie pie ??", and then she was broken out of her trance....and Penny had ran. She had run the fastest she ever had in her entire life. She didn't know where she was going and as if her body was working on autopilot it took her to the one place....to the one person she felt the safest with...to the one person who had never ever made her feel anything except comfort and love....to the one and only person she could stand being in the same room with right now....to Mr. Stark. And she had run all the way from Queens. She could have taken the metro but she could not be in a closed metal tube with so many people. It felt like everyone was staring at her....like everyone knew what happened to her...like she was a victim of everyone. Penny couldn't think straight...it was as if everything inside her had a shut down and now only her reflexes work and so she ran ...all the way from her school to the Avengers Tower....she had run all the way to Mr.Stark cause he was Mr. Stark and he would make everything ok. With shaky hands, sharp breaths and tears streaming down her eyes Penny had run.

The first day Tony had met Penny, he knew something was wrong. Or maybe he was overthinking but he remembered the first day when Penny had come to the lab she had glances everywhere...and that was normal cause his lab was impressive but Penny....her first glances weren't at his artifacts but instead at the number of exits in the room. And he hadn't thought about it much back then....he knew what some inhuman beings did to little kids or even any other person in general. So it was justified of her to be wary of someone she met for the first time. But he still noticed how Penny was...always on the edge...always had her guards up. She had asked him if it was ok to keep the door of the lab slightly open and was rushing to give a reason but Tony had said it was fine and if she wants it open it will always remain open and that she didn't have to give him an explanation. And he had felt Penny ease down just a bit since that day. He never placed himself between the door and her and always made sure to keep his body language free, friendly and to let Penny or any other woman he ever was with in a room know that they were free to walk out at any moment. Tony was especially careful about touching after he had once put a hand on Penny's shoulders as an instinct to call her and she had almost jumped out of her skin. He made sure the touch was always initiated by Penny . He had seen Penny slowly let her guard down day by day. And then one day Penny had hugged him in excitement after they completed a difficult project and he had hugged back after a few seconds to make sure she was ok with it (and if his heart did a tiny dance and he had a grin on his face all day long knowing the kid trusted him which got him raised eyebrows and confused looks from the other Avengers no one had to know). But the cautiousness was still somewhere there. And he wished it was just him overthinking and Penny had no such trauma but he was wrong..and he realised that the hard way.

Tony was in a meeting with some board directors and generals. There were about 15 people in the room including Natasha. The meeting was in the Tower and he was getting bored out of his mind. He didn't know why he allowed this meeting shit to take place in his home. Both he and Nat shared glances, rolled their eyes and let out a sigh when some man in the room would stand up and give some unwanted opinion no one asked them for. The meeting had been going on in one of his conference rooms for about an hour now and he was just about to fall asleep resting his head on his hands when suddenly he heard a loud bang. Everyone turned their head to the door. And that's where Tony saw Penny standing with red eyes, breathing heavily and tears running down her face.