Stark's Kid - Tony Stark's Daughter

41; What's a Gauntlet?

I peeked around the curtain, searching the crowd of parents and relatives but failing to pot the one person I had invited; my father, Tony Stark.

I don't know why I was surprised, I should have expected he wouldn't show up. He's the owner of a multi-billion dollar company... and, well, he's Iron Man. He doesn't have time to go to some stupid play. I sighed and turned back around to continue getting ready to perform.

Performing in front of an audience for the first time was nerve-wracking at first, but once I got through the first song, I was so pumped up that I didn't even think about Tony. The entire play went perfectly, more than I would have expected. We were doing the curtain call and I was last to come out, meeting Carlos halfway across the stage and taking his hand as we walked to the front of the stage and took a bow.

When I looked up, I saw a familiar man standing across the auditorium leaning against the doorframe. My smile faded for a moment as we made eye contact, and he looked at me sadly, then I shook it off and continued waving to the crowd as they clapped for us.

As soon as the curtain lowered in front of us, my happy expression turned sour and I immediately headed for the dressing rooms. I grabbed my duffle bag on the way, which actually belonged to Tony, and began trying to open each door, twisting the doorknobs vigorously. I reached the last one with no success, they were all locked. I sighed frustratingly and kicked the last door.

"What happened?" Someone appeared at my side. I looked up to see Carlos still dressed as a prince.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"Victoria, you just dented the door."

I looked down and realized he was right, backing up slowly, embarrassed of my anger issues. "My dad didn't show up... I mean, he did, but not until the curtain call."

"I'm sorry. But hey, he can still come to tomorrow's show."

"That's not the point!" I sat down in a chair, putting my face in my hands. "He was supposed to come tonight, I asked him to come tonight. And he just didn't even bother to show up."

Carlos didn't answer so I looked up and noticed him looking at something, or someone, behind me. I spun around in my seat and saw Tony standing with his hands in his pockets.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Carlos smiled at me, and I grinned slightly in response.

As soon as he was out of sight, I stood up and began walking away from where Tony was standing.

"Victoria!" He yelled after me, but I just walked faster. "Victoria, wait!"

"Why should I?" I spun around, crossing my arms. He came to a holt and sighed.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't forget—"

"Well it sure seems like you did, seeing as you weren't here." By this point there were people staring at us, but I didn't care.

"Peter got hurt."

"What?" My heart sunk.

"We had a sudden mission that we had to attend to, and Peter got hurt."

"W-well is he okay? Is he—"

"He's alright, he's at the hospital. But I didn't want to leave him." I nodded with tears in my eyes. "Do you want to go see him?" I nodded again.

I quickly took off my dress and hung it in the closet for tomorrow night, then quickly headed out with Tony. He'd flown here in his suit but didn't have mine. He stepped into it and retracted his mask to look at me.

"I forgot your suit." He sounded frustrated with himself.

"S'okay." I said and jumped up to wrap my arms and legs around him tightly. He put one arm around my torso and lowered his mask again, powering up the jets and taking off.

The wind hurt my face so I nuzzled further into Tony's shoulder until we landed. Tony didn't bother taking off his suit and instead just retracted his helmet as we both ran into the hospital. The nurse told us where to go and we wasted no time sprinting down the hall to Peter's room.

"Peter?" I said as I walked inside to see him laying in a bed with scratches and bruises all over his face and arms, along with a bandage around his head and one of his biceps. "Oh my God, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." He smiled weakly at me. I placed my hand on his.

"What happened?" I turned to Tony.

He told me to sit down and that he would explain everything to me. Soon enough, Steve, Bruce, Clint, Thor and Nat showed up as well and all stood and sat around the room as well. Everyone looked tired, shaken up and beaten up, just not as badly at Peter.

"There's a villain, his name is Thanos. He has a gauntlet—"

"What's a gauntlet?"

"Like a big metal glove."

"Oh."

"Anyway, the gauntlet holds 6 stones called Infinity Stones which are distributed all over the universe. If he gets his hands on all 6 of them..." Tony looked around to everyone hesitantly.

"What?"

Steve nodded at him. "He'll wipe out half of the population."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "But you're going to stop him right?" There was a moment of silence as they all looked around at each other, then at their hands or feet. "Right? You're the Avengers, you always do! You always save the world!"

"Of course we're going to stop him." Tony smiled uneasily at me and Steve gave him a look, I could tell he knew Tony was sugar-coating things.

That night, surprisingly, Tony allowed me to spend the night with Peter. He also promised to attend my play the next night, even though I told him I understood if he had bigger things to worry about. The nurses gave me some blankets and a pillow to make a bed for myself on the small couch next to Peter's bed and it didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

I didn't stay asleep long though, as I continued to have nightmares throughout the dark hours of the night. Nightmares of Thanos, though I didn't know what he looked like. Of him using his big metal glove to wipe out half the world, and the most scary thing of all, losing Tony like I did my mother. I woke up in a cold sweat with hot tears streaming down my face and sat up. I looked over to Peter, who was laying on his back sleeping peacefully. Before I could think, I hopped up and wrapped one of my blankets around myself, walking over to Peter's bedside and climbing up next to him. I laid by his side and cuddled into him.