Leah Stark - The Unknown Child

1.08.0

Leah's POV
When I woke up, the smell of burning bacon wafted through the air along with the sounds of Tony screaming to Steve about how "You aren't supposed to put it in the fire! That's why we have a pan!", I later learnt that Steve was doing this to trick Tony into thinking that the didn't have pans in the 40's. I changed into a flowing yellow top and some leggings with a pair of black converse I'd found and put my chocolate brown hair into a ponytail before walking into the living room to find the avengers freaking out over Steve being unable to cook like a normal person. I heard snickering from somewhere in the vents and I think then Natasha noticed me standing in the living room while Tony and Steve were screwing about.
"Don't worry about the laughing in the vents, it's Clint. Again." Natasha said, annoyed, sipping her coffee while scrolling through her phone.
To me the sound of anything being kicked open is a bad one, so upon hearing the vent near my head being kicked open, I instantly flinched and jumped almost to the other side of the room.
"Was-sup kid!" The man bounced, with a childlike wonder gleaming in his grey eyes.
"I really don't get how you can be this excited and awake at this hour in the morning." I laugh walking into the kitchen, putting two slices of bread in the toaster. The scraping of a stool moving backwards drew everyone's attention. Tony stood up and marched into his lab. He seemed stressed or upset. I understood. I was acting as though yesterday hadn't happened. As well as that he was related to a miserable failure like me, who couldn't fight off their own problems and had leached onto him and caused all of this in the first place.
My smiles dropped a bit, but when Natasha gave me a weak smile, I had to at least give her a smile back. When my toast popped out of the toaster, I spread some chocolate spread on it and ate it quickly before marching into my room, to 'study' and by that I mean I'm going to watch Netflix and try not to think about Tony.

Natasha's POV

Tony had been eating god knows what when Leah walked in. Instantly the air became 10 times thicker with awkwardness and embarrassment, and I don't even think I could have cut it with a knife.
What's worse than that was the two didn't even talk to each other, they kind of just stared and did their own thing. When Leah started talking to Clint, Tony got agitated and left, and soon after so did Leah.
"That was weird." Steve said, peaking up from a magazine I had handed to him when Leah walked into the room.
"Yeah, like weirder than Thor when he first tried Pop tarts weird" Clint whispered, gaining a snicker from me.
"You know what's going on with them then, Nat?" Steve questioned.
"No. I know Leah was crying last night, but she never told me why, and I didn't want to pry. Something must have happened between them last night." I stated, staring into the air. They had been getting on like they had known each other for their whole lives until yesterday. What the hell happened?

Tony's POV

I had marched into the lab when Leah and Clint started acting like a daddy daughter team. I was her dad for God's sake! I'd only known for a day, but I'd left her alone for so long and i felt terrible for it.
I wanted to apologise. I wanted to make up for lost time. But I had no idea how. My dad never treated me with an ounce of respect and I had no idea how to be a decent dad to her. I really didn't want to f*ck her up like I was.
I sat there for almost an hour, just thinking about all I'd missed. Her first words. Her first steps. Her first day at school. Her first visit from the tooth fairy. Even her first birthday and 14 more.
I had to apologise. I stood up from my desk before the tapping of a small hand that could only have been Leah's rapped on the door.
"Come in" my voice cracked. The door slid open as Leah walked in.
"Hi"
"Hi" I replied. It was very awkward. "So... er.... you wanna help me with that project we were working on yesterday?"
She nodded, and so we got to work. We worked mostly in silence except for some stray words like a tool we needed or if something needed to be redone.
Suddenly Leah stopped.
"Hey kid what's up?" I asked, trying not to be awkward.
"Tony, we really need to talk about the elephant in the room."
I sighed. I really didn't want to. It was weird and trippy thinking about how I had a daughter for all these years and had never known about her.
"Yeah, I guess. I'm sorry. This is just really weird."
"I know. God it's not like I haven't spent my whole life having a male 'father' figure that hated my guts, only to find out my real dad is actually a pretty cool dude."
"You think I'm cool!" I shouted, making Leah smile. She had cute little dimples that came out. How did I not notice that before.
"But seriously Tony, you already promised a press conference to announce me to that reporter. I'm like the unknown daughter of the Stark family."
"Leah." I said, a twinge if sadness in my voice. "Leah, I don't care what people think about you being the next Stark. I'm proud of you, your intelligent, beautiful and strong and I have no idea what I was doing before you showed up."
She smiled, however it soon disappeared.
"W-what about the press conference?"
"We're gonna wait for Pepper to get back before we organise it. She's my personal assistant. I think you'll like her."
"O-okay" she stuttered nervously.
"It's okay, you'll be great no matter what you do." I whispered to her, making her smile slightly. "Now you wanna continue with the robot?"
A nod was all I needed before we both continued working on the robot.