Suiting Up For Fatherhood

Stowaway

Morgan Stark could be found almost every day after school in her backyard tending and caring for Gerald, their faithful family alpaca. She had basically begged her father when she was four years old to get a pet alpaca after seeing one at the fair, and of course, Tony could never say no to his little princess and her puppy dog eyes. Pepper wasn't too keen with the idea of them taking on the responsibility of an alpaca, especially since he's been fond of eating her goji berries; however, as much as she wouldn't like to admit, she has enjoyed having Gerald around.

"Gerald, how's your day going, buddy? Did you miss me?" Morgan asked, as she gently stroked the fleece on his head.

The alpaca simply stuck out his tongue in hopes for another carrot that Morgan had been feeding him.

"Morguna, why don't you come inside sweetie? It looks like it's about to downpour soon." She heard her father call out from the porch.

Looking up at the sky, Morgan noticed that it did indeed look rather dark over the lake and proceeded to coax Gerald inside his stable out of impending rain with the remaining carrots before heading back to the house.

Closing the large wooden door behind her with a creek, she was greeted by both of her parents. They were in the process of making dinner and she seemed to have interrupted an intense discussion of matters concerning Stark Industries, but they had stopped once their daughter had entered the room.

"Hey kiddo, you hungry soon? Dinner will be ready in about an hour. Hope you're feeling like lasagna." Pepper promptly spoke out, as she got a large ceramic bowl from a nearby cabinet.

"Sure, that sounds good." Morgan replied, as she walked up to the kitchen island and sat down next to her father.

Tony was snacking on some blueberries from the plastic carton and nonchalantly passed them closer to his daughter for them to share. Morgan smiled and took a handful of berries and popped them one by one in her mouth.

"Now you two go easy there, I don't want you getting full before dinner." Pepper remarked at the sight of them stuffing their faces.

The father-daughter duo both stopped their hands mid grab of berries, before Tony replied, "You got it boss", and then proceeded to close the carton.

To pass the time, Tony decided to spark up a conversation with Morgan about school. Morgan had been home schooled in order to keep her safe and away from prying eyes. However, Pepper had suggested that she be enrolled in school to socialize and build friendships with kids her age. Morgan was also keen on this idea, and with a two-to-one vote, she started 6th grade in a private middle school. It really was more a two-to-two vote when Happy sided with Tony, but Pepper always won.

"So, Mo, how's school treating you?" Tony inquired, as it had been two months into her middle school experience.

Morgan shifted in her seat slightly before answering, "Well, it's ok. The actual learning part is easy, but the making friends part is sort of hard. I am close to this one girl in my math class, her name is Emily and we sit together. She's like my only friend so far." She confessed to her father.

In truth, Emily was her closest friend and one of her only peers that weren't too shy or scared to talk to her after finding out that she was a Stark. It was cool, yes, but it could be intimidating as well being Iron Man's daughter. Most of the kids that did talk to her weren't looking for friendships, they just wanted to know more about her father and weren't interested in knowing more about her, well except Emily.

"That's okay Honey, give it some more time and I'm sure they will loosen up to you." Tony assured her and reached out to rub her back.

"Emily sounds nice, why don't you invite her over sometime to hang out or do homework together?" Pepper chimed in, as she laid the noodles on top of the base of the lasagna.