Avengers Oneshots Series

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

Character : Penny Parker, Tony's adopted daughter. 16 year old

It's been around a year since the Accords Settlement has been going on for. The Avengers now are back together but not exactly like the team they were before. Yeah they all agreed the Accords by Secretary Ross were straight up shitty...but it was still difficult to ignore the underlying history that was dug up. Like Barnes being the one to kill Tony's parents. He knew he wasn't in his mind....that he was controlled but it still was unsettling to be in the same room as his parents' killer. And so was the same between Steve and Tony. He knew what Steve did was to protect his best friend. Hell he would have probably done the same if it was Rhodey in place of Barnes but he couldn't help but let the strong feeling of betrayal reside in him. The Accords still weren't in a settlement and Secretary Ross had been tormenting them for the past many months. At least the Avengers more or less were now on one team fighting against the government. Tony, though, still doubted whether he was doing the right thing by going against the government. But this doubt of his soon faded away due to an incident he wished never took place. An incident with his 16 year old previously intern, current daughter, an extremely intelligent and one of a kind kid and the most important person in his life for whom he would die and kill at a heartbeat, a person he loved and held close to his heart, and who was the reason for him to keep going on, to be exact.

It's been a little above two years since Penny had been THE Tony Stark's personal intern. Almost a year since she has been his daughter. It still felt like a dream....still felt like she might sleep and wake up the next day at the city orphanage into her empty room. Penny couldn't believe how the man she idolized as a kid became her personal mentor after she was the only one with a perfect score for the intern program and then her first real friend to her father....HER Dad. Words couldn't express the amount of love she held for the man. But even with the love she hadn't been able to call him Dad yet. It felt like calling anyone else Dad except her blood related dad would mean that she forgot him... that she gave his title to someone else making her forget who he was..and she didn't want that and so Tony still remained Mr.Stark. By no means was he less than her real Dad...but still. She didn't know what made calling him Dad so difficult...until one day.

Penny didn't keep secrets from Mr.Stark. She told him everything. Everything she does the entire day, latest school gossip, how her club activities went..everything between them was shared. Even Tony shared everything with her. From how his day was, how he felt around Mr.Barnes and his mixed feelings for Steve to what was gonna happen with the Sokovian Accords. She knew every single Avenger's details. Even the most vital ones which no one else outside the team knew. It made her heart flutter knowing Tony trusted her. That he thought of her as his family. But this entire "being close to the earth's mightiest" business was the reason she currently found herself cornered in an alleyway by a few men in black along with their leader....none other than the Government Secretary, Ross standing right in front of her. It was their fifth visit to her in the last few months and this time they looked extremely pissed. You see since the last 2 months, Secretary Ross had been paying her.... visits. The first two times it was a friendly one. He had introduced himself to her after she was walking home back from school. She already knew who he was..and she definitely did not feel even a tad bit liking towards the person. On the first day he had tried asking her to follow him to a cafe and sit with him as he had something "important" to discuss. Penny had politely refused him...and she made sure to keep her body language straight forward to let him know she was by no means interested in having a friendly conversation. And then Ross revealed exactly what he wanted. He wanted Penny to tell him everything the Avengers discussed about the Sokovian Accords amongst themselves. And Penny remembered looking at him with a "dude you srsly think you'll ask me to tell and I'll do that". Family wasn't something familiar to Penny for most of her life....but now it was. And she could kill for them...she could die for them and do all that without a second thought. And so Penny had refused to reveal any information. Their third and fourth meet were different. It was evident that she had tested Ross' patience. He still visited her alone but with a scowl on his face and a rough speech. And even then Penny had refused to tell him anything at all. She wasn't gonna let the man break apart her family. Penny hadn't told anyone about this encounter though. And this was the one secret she kept from Tony. She saw how everyday the meetings brought tension and anxiety to everyone in the compound. The Accords were still a very sensitive topic and Penny didn't want to add more onto Mr.Stark's plate on top of these. She was 16, practically an adult. And so she decided against informing him of these incidents. Also a part of her felt like a burden on him. She couldn't even call him Dad after all he had done for her. And so Penny decided to handle the issue by herself. She didn't wanna burden him with more than he already was burdened with. Well until....now.

Cause today marked her and Ross' fifth meet but this time, apart from the hard and irritated demeanour, he was accompanied by bouncers in black uniform. "I told you I am not giving you any information on what is going on inside the tower", Penny said looking him straight in the eye. "You won't?", he questioned with raised eyebrows and then continued, "Maybe after this you will change your mind", he said. And Penny didn't even register the next few seconds of being shoved into a wall and then punched square at her face by one of the men standing in front of her. Damage ? A busted lip, a big thin cut near the forehead as a result of falling face down on some random pieces of glass and a cut on her temple. "Goddamnit", Penny cursed before sitting up, balancing herself on her palms. "I want all the information, everything ready, by tomorrow morning and in my hands.", he said looking down at the girl with a smirk which Penny wished to wipe off at that very moment. But speaking would only make things worse now. So she forced her remarks shut and sat there looking up at Ross. "If you don't...you won't like the consequences", and with one last look, he and his men disappeared out of the alley. Penny slowly stood up on her feet. "Ouch.... that was a bad hit", she muttered to herself. Penny brought her fingers up to her lips which burned, and moving them back to her vision found them coated in a thin layer of blood. Looking around to make sure she wasn't seen by anyone, Penny pulled up her hood and quickly walked past the busy New Yorkers and into the Avengers Tower. Throwing a small "hello" at the receptionist she walked right inside the elevator. "Greetings Penny. I see you have sustained some injuries. Would you like me to contact Mr.Stark ?", came in FRIDAY'S robotic voice. "NO", Penny practically screamed before voicing it down and saying, "Oh...hey FRI. Umm no don't call him. It's not much of an injury really. I'll be fine", she said. One good thing about this entire fiasco is the entire team, including Mr.Stark were out on some important debriefing thing of some sort. They had gone two days back and we're not supposed to arrive before two more days. After using the special medicines by Dr.Cho her wounds would probably heal nicely by then, so at least there wasn't much tension about having to hide her face from Mr.Stark. "I would still advise you to get it treated to avoid infection. The First Aid kid is at the penthouse", said FRIDAY and before Penny could argue, the doors of the elevator opened revealing the Avengers' Penthouse. Well there wasn't anyone in the house right now anyways. So a little bit of first aid won't hurt ?, Penny thought and boy was she wrong...