Like Father, Like Daughter

Chapter 8: Home

Thalia's POV

It's 2 a.m. and I haven't slept in thirty-seven hours.

Unfortunately, this isn't out of the ordinary for me. When my anxiety acts up, so does my insomnia. With the stress I've been under since I first ran away, I've barely slept more than one or two hours at a time since I got to Stark Tower.

So when a knock sounds at my door, I answer out of curiosity, not an actual desire to see whoever's on the other side. I mean, here I am in the dead of night, trying to keep myself entertained by balance-beaming on the lines on my wood floor, and someone decides it's okay for them to waltz by and disturb my nonexistent slumber. Who else is even awake at this ungodly hour?

I crack open my door and find myself facing Tony.

"Hey," he says. "I hope I'm not disturbing you. I saw that the light in your room was on. You okay?"

"Fine," I say. Can't he just leave me alone??

Tony squints at me. "Are you sure? You look kind of awful."

"Gee, thanks." I roll my eyes.

"That's not what I meant. You look like you haven't slept all week."

I laugh humorlessly. "You're not wrong. I'm a little bit of an insomniac. Caused by anxiety. Sorry if I woke you."

Tony's eyes widen a little in surprise. I kind of like that I've caught him off guard, admitting another thing about me he didn't know. Another reminder that he isn't my father.

"How long were you eavesdropping last night?" Tony asks abruptly.

Damn. Caught again. "Long enough. Natasha's not wrong, you know," I say bitterly. "You're not my dad. You never will be. Maybe I should just leave and save you all the trouble."

I desperately want him to argue. I want him to tell me that Natasha was wrong, that he'll protect me from Darrell forever and find some way to make it all okay. I want him to tell me that he wants to be my father.

I don't get that. Instead, Tony looks at me for much too long a time. Then he says, "I'm hungry. Are you hungry?"

"What?" I ask. How can he be thinking of food at a time like this?

"There's a twenty-four hour diner a few blocks from here. You must be sick of Stark Tower by now. I'll drive, and we'll get a booth in the back. Very incognito. No one will see us."

"You want to go to a diner with your long-lost illegitimate daughter at two in the morning?" I ask snarkily.

"Stranger things have happened."

I catch myself right as I'm about to smile. I know that I shouldn't say yes, because if anyone we meet recognizes me from the papers, my life will go to shit. Then again, I think, my life has already gone to shit. Finding out I'm Tony Stark's daughter, playing Monopoly with the frickin' Avengers, being targeted by some evil voodoo witch for reasons unknown...I need to get out for a while.