Phantom | S. Rogers

-𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐘-

august twenty sixth, 1998
stark mansion, manhattan, new york;
and mit, cambridge, massachusetts

When Brooke was fourteen, she was accepted to MIT: the same school both Howard and Tony attended. Tony was skeptical about letting her go because she's never been that far away from him since he was awarded custody after Howard and Maria died; but after some persuasion from Rhodey, Pepper, and Peggy (and a lot of begging from Brooke), Tony finally caved. He claimed it was because he wanted her to have the best education possible, but both Brooke and Rhodey agreed that it was because he could really never say no to her.

Now it was a year later and Brooke was getting ready to start her second year at MIT. Like he did the year prior, Tony rented a penthouse for Brooke to live in, but this time it had two bedrooms: one for Brooke and one for Darlene Thompson: the small town country girl from South Carolina that Brooke befriended.

While Pepper tried to get some last minute details in order with Tony downstairs, Brooke was upstairs, blasting Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me while getting dressed. "So let's talk about visitation—" Pepper started before Brooke's loud singing cut her off, making her sigh with closed eyes. "Can you go ask her to turn it down?"

"Okay, let's me and you get some things straight right now, okay?" Tony said as he gestured between him and Pepper, the blonde rolling her eyes. "First: let's not talk visitation because I'm gonna go visit my baby as often as I want, okay?—and secondly: I can't go ask her to turn it down. That would be an insult to Joe Elliot, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen, and Vivian Campbell."

"Tony, you try too hard to be her friend." Pepper said gently. "Sometimes you have to be her parent, too."

"Fine. Fine." Tony said with a shake of his head as he stood up. "You want me to go yell at the kid? I'll go yell at the kid, but I'm gonna blame it on you." Tony pointed at Pepper before he headed upstairs.

"You always do."

As a huffing Tony headed upstairs, the chorus of the song started, making him hum along before he burst in as the second verse began to play. "Red light, yellow light, green light, go!"

Meanwhile downstairs, Rhodey and Pepper let out sighs as they looked at each other, giving matching bored looks. With a huff of his own, a mumbling Rhodey made his way upstairs to Brooke's room, where the two Stark children were singing and dancing along to their favorite song. As the chorus began to play for the second time, Rhodey turned the stereo off, making the siblings look at him with betrayal. "What the hell?"

"You are historically incapable of being responsible." Rhodey stated as he looked at his best friend. "You know that, right?"

"I am responsible! I'm sending her to school." Tony said before he looked at his sister. "Are you sure you wanna go? You can stay home if you want."

"You literally just paid my tuition." Brooke reminded after she stared at her brother blankly. "I have to go."

"It was only a couple dollars." Tony said with a scoff.

"$85,000?"

"We have to leave in twenty minutes." Rhodey said before he looked at Brooke. "You ready, kid?"

"Mmhmm." Brooke hummed, her letting out a gasp of realization before a bickering Rhodey and Tony could leave her room. "Wait!"

Both Rhodey and Tony turned around, looks of confusion on their faces. "What?"

"Take these." Brooke ordered as she gave them each two boxes. "Oh, and this, too!"

Rhodey stared blankly at Tony, watching as Brooke handed the billionaire a smaller box. "You're such a pushover, man."

"I know what you're thinking!" Present day Brooke said as she turned around to look at the camera. "Who at Marvel did you have to sleep with to get your very own movie after all this time? I can't tell you his name, but it rhymes with Bris Bevens."

Steve, eating dinner with Brooke and Tony after a mission: you two really remind me of your dad sometimes.

Tony, looking up from his pasta: that's just an awful thing to say to two people who saved your ass today.

Brooke, taking another bite of her food: you're totally not getting laid tonight.