my endgame : stony

8: bonding

[flashback]

maria walks into HQ after getting dropped off my by the school bus. she walks pass her dads in the kitchen,

"how was school honey?" tony puts away a dish

maria opens the fridge and grabs a juice box, closed it and then opens it again to grab five more,
"good"

"you okay?" steve questions as he cuts off maria from grabbing more juices,

"100% pops"

maria walks up to her room with her juices and slams her door. steve turns around to look at tony and tony just taps at his watch and he leaves. steve sighs, puts his coffee cup in the sink and walks up to maria's room.

steve knocks, and he opens the door. he sees maria lying in her bed in a fetus position.

"maria?"

she doesn't shift but a soft sniffle is heard from her. steve goes to sit next to her, he places a hand on her back and starts to rub her back.

"..maria, you're clearly not okay"
"you grabbed five too many juices"

maria stops sniffing, she wipes her nose with her sleeve.

"what's wrong maria?"

...
...
"brian said no"
"...he said he didn't like me"

steve frowns at maria,
"boys are stupid"
"and life is stupid also"

maria turns around with puffy eyes and a slight smile on her face,
"but you and dad-"

"your dad is an idiot, i had to ask him five times to go out with me.. and he was still late"
"the other day he asked when your birthday was"

"i cant forgive him for that" maria makes a face at steve

steve shrugs his shoulders. maria smiles a little bit more, steve smiles back at her and pulls her into a big hug.

"how bout we have some ice cream?"

"papa, i'm not five"

"we've got sprinkles this time"

"why didn't you lead with that?"
-
steve heads down to the kitchen first as he is met with a giggling maria sliding down the stair railing. maria then runs into the kitchen and sits down on a stool. steve walks into the kitchen and opens the freezer to pull out a tub of vanilla ice cream, he then goes to open the cabinet to pull out the sprinkles,

"papa.. really?"

"what? i thought they were cool"

the sprinkles are red, white and blue stars, steve pulls out two bowls and two spoons. he continues to scoop ice cream for the both of them. maria grabs the sprinkles and shakes them on top of her ice cream. she digs into her bowl. steve looks at his happy daughter and takes in the bonding moment.

"how's bout we go scare your dad in the lab?"

maria sets down her spoon,
"yes!"
-
maria and steve are now walking down to the lab and they peak into the lab door to see tony working on one of his suits. steve walks in as a diversion. tony pulls him into a kiss and maria gags at the sight. she then sneaks into the lab and into one of tony's suits.

tony walks over to his suit gallery, checking his collection out... like the person he is. he then goes to look at the suit maria is in and looks closely. maria then jumps out with the suit causing tony to scream like a child.

"BOO!"

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

maria then hunches over, laughing. she gets out of the suit and then starts to laugh on the floor. she gets up, still laughing to hug tony and say sorry. steve then pulls them both into a family hug while him and maria are still laughing, tony starts to smile.