Lost Cause (Ironman)

Chapter 1

Word count-1196

"Tony! Put me down!" A shriek came from Tony Stark's mansion in Malibu. Tony had woken up his aunt Cal, who was more like a sister to him, and slung her over his shoulder which had frightened the girl who had been peacefully sleeping. Tony had proceeded to carry the peculiarly light girl down the stairs and had dropped her onto the couch. "Tony!" She whined. "Let me sleep in." She pleaded. He shook his head, a smirk spread across his face.

"Cal, It's 1 in the afternoon! You have slept in." She groaned and covered her face with her hands. Her nose scrunched up in confusion at the smell wafting from the kitchen. She sat up.

"Have you been cooking pancakes?" She squinted her eyes at him whilst waiting for an answer.

"Yup." He simply said. She sprung up from the couch.

"Why didn't you say so!" She darted to the kitchen, her eyes roamed the counter for her breakfast. She spotted the two small piles of pancakes, served just how she liked them, Nutella and her favourite Canadian syrup. The duo sat at the counter and picked up their cutlery. Halfway through the meal, Cal paused and asked her nephew a question. "Why?"

He looked up from his phone in confusion.

"Why what?" His eyes were trained on her face, trying to figure out what she was talking about.

"Why'd you wake me up with my favourite breakfast then stay with me the whole time. Not that I don't appreciate it, I do. I'm just curious." She clarified.

"Well, we haven't spent much time together. I've been too busy with the Jericho missile and the presentation to spend time with you." Cal smiled at him. Despite being around him for most of his life, he never ceased to amaze her.

"When is the presentation anyway?" She asked changing the subject slightly as well as waiting to ask the question that she really wanted the answer to.

"In two days." Tony smirked, looking back towards his phone, he already knew what she was going to ask.

"Cool, cool." She tried to act casually until she couldn't help herself and she burst with excitement. "Can I come?!" All he did was nod at her and she smiled with joy.

Later that day, Tony and Cal were relaxing on the couch after an argument over who was stronger. Tony's argument was that he used the gym and used heavy tools whereas she was really light. Cal's argument was that her jaw was, as far as they knew, unbreakable and her organs were abnormally strong except her lungs which were normal. They were watching the movie Aeroplane, which Cal found hilarious and the two would snicker every now and then until Tony became attracted to his phone once again. Cal heard footsteps approaching. She knew that it wasn't Virginia 'Pepper' Pots (Tony's assistant) because there wasn't the sound of heels, the footsteps were heavier than that. Cal concluded that it was either Obadiah Stane (Her brother's old work partner) or James Rhodey (Tony's friend). Sure enough, Obadiah appeared before the two.

"Hiya, Obie." Cal casually greeted the man, which caused Tony to look up just realizing the extra person in the room.

"Hi, Obie. What brings you here?" He asked looking at the man standing in front of them.

"What? Can I not come and visit my two favourite Starks without a reason?" He ruffled Cal's already messy hair. She was still in her pyjamas and hadn't brushed her hair yet. "You slept in again, Cal?" Obadiah questioned her, although it was more of a statement than a question. She smiled up at him.

"Yep." She said popping the 'p'.

"You ready for that presentation, Tony?" He curiously asked, his attention now away from Cal. She decided to go upstairs to get ready for the rest of the day. Before she went up the stairs she spoke to Obadiah. "Tony said I can go too." She gleefully informed the man. He seemed to genuinely smile largely, but Cal brushed it off as her contagious excitement.

"That's great, Kiddo. You go off and do something fun, I'm just gonna talk to Tony about some adult stuff." Obadiah turned away from her and began to talk to Tony. She glared daggers at his back. She was born in 1919, which meant that she was almost technically 100 years old, She could understand 'adult stuff'. Despite this, she carried on her way to her bedroom.

She took a shower and changed into a light blue tee, black leggings and trainers. She tied her hair into a ponytail and went back downstairs. Obadiah was now gone and Tony wasn't in sight.

"Hey, JARVIS?" She asked the A.I that Tony had created, named after a man that was Howard's friend and Tony grew up with.

"Yes, Miss Stark?" JARVIS' British voice responded.

"Is Tony down in the Lab?" She was too lazy to find the man on her own, so asked JARVIS instead.

"Yes, ma'am. He is." He replied.

"Thanks, J. And please don't call me ma'am, it makes me feel old." She said, skipping down the stairs and typing in the code for the lab.

"You are old." Came Tony's voice from next to a holographic blueprint of the Jericho missile.

"Ouch, Tony. That hurts." She feigned a look of pain and placed a hand over her heart.

"The truth hurts." He smirked, still not looking up at the girl who was sneaking around him. She smacked the back of his head. His head jerked forwards and slightly poked through the hologram. "Ow. Cal, that hurt." He whined at her, rubbing his head, as her hit was quite strong.

"Respect your elders and betters, Tony." She sassed.

"But I don't see anyone better than me here so how can I respect them?" Tony remarked. She ignored him and studied the blueprints.

"It's looking good. You all set for the speech?" She asked, just as she had done several times that day.

"Yes, Cal. I'm ready. Stop freaking out about it, or I'll freak out and then we'll both be a freaked out mess."

"Okay, Alright, I'll stop."

After a few hours of checking over the missile for any flaws. Cal was tinkering with some scrap materials that Tony didn't need. "Sir, ma'am. Pepper Potts has entered the building." JARVIS alerted the two. Sure enough, Pepper came down the stairs and entered the lab.

"Hey, Pep." Cal smiled widely at the woman after grumbling about JARVIS calling her 'ma'am' again. "Evening, Cal. Tony, you have an awards ceremony to attend tomorrow. It's the apogee award." She reminded Tony.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there." Cal lost interest in their business conversation and concentrated on what she was making. She had made a metal glove with a circle in the middle. She had hoped to fire something through it so it was like a gun but wouldn't take up as much space. She had no idea what the power source could be so she decided to ask Tony what he thought but after the presentation, she didn't want to distract him from his work.