Life as Maya Stark • Iron Man's Daughter [ 1 ]

4

"Pepper, I'm home!" Maya exclaimed as she walked through the door after a long day at school. It was already her second year of college and Maya was just wanting it to end. "Two more years," Maya muttered to herself. "Two more years."

"Good afternoon, Miss Maya. Miss Potts is currently down in the lab with your father," J.A.R.V.I.S. told her. Maya smiled and said, "Thanks, J." She then put her backpack on the couch before heading down to the lab.

"I'm here. Your lives just got more interesting," Maya greeted as she walked through the door of the lab. Her father looked over from where he was standing on top of the counter. Why he was standing on the counter, Maya didn't know and she didn't want to ask.

"Hey, kid," Tony greeted as Pepper glared at him. "Um. . .why is Pepper glaring at you?" Maya asked. Tony glanced over at Pepper before turning back towards the wall. "I donated some art to some Boy Scouts and she's mad," Tony replied.

Maya raised an eyebrow and looked over at Pepper. She frowned and crossed her arms as she looked at Tony. "That is not all," Pepper started, but Tony cut her off. He finished putting up an Iron Man picture before looking over at Pepper.

"I don't care about the liberal agenda anymore. It's boring. Boring. I'm giving you a boring alert," Tony told her before jumping off the counter. He stood up and then looked over at Pepper and simply said, "You do it."

"I do what?" Pepper asked. "Excellent idea. I just figured this out. You run the company," Tony said making both Maya and Pepper's eyes widen. Maya smiled over at Pepper and was about to congratulate her when she saw Pepper sigh.

"Yeah, I'm trying to run the company," Pepper told him, still not fully getting what he was saying. "Pepper, I need you to run the company. Well, stop trying to do it and do it," Tony said over her.

"You will not give me the information..." Pepper started. "I'm not asking you to try. . ." Tony told her. "...in order to..." Pepper continued until Tony finally shut her up. "I'm asking you to physically do it. I need you to do it," Tony said. "I am trying to do it," Pepper told him.

"Pepper, you're not listening to me!" Tony exclaimed. "No, you are not listening to me," Pepper argued making Maya roll her eyes. "Pep?" Maya asked and Pepper looked over at her. "He's trying to make you CEO," Maya told her making Pepper look at her like she was crazy.

Pepper looked back over at Tony who nodded his head slightly. "Why won't you let me?" Tony asked. Pepper shook her head, "Have you been drinking?" "Chlorophyll," Tony muttered before walking forward and placing his hands on the sides of Pepper's arms.

"I hereby irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately. Yeah, done deal. Okay?" Tony asked as he started walking away. Pepper was still staring at Tony in shock as he walked over to one of his robots that was carrying a plate that had two glasses, a bottle of wine, and a small juice box on it.

"I've actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not," Tony muttered. "Doing a bit of headhunting, so to speak, trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be."

He glanced over at Maya and pointed towards her. "I thought about Maya, but she's going to be my partner when working on all of my inventions, so she won't have time for that. And then I realised it's you. It's always been you."

Tony then poured some of the wine into the two glasses before handing one to Pepper as she sat down, shocked and confused.