'Protect Her' ✘ Peter Parker || EN

- O N E -

Tony // 12.28 am

'Of course, that's what she wants. Personally, I think she's kept her calm very well, these past few years.' Pepper admitted. Currently, it was past midnight and we were in bed, talking about our daughter and her wish of going to school... and what we could do for her, to realize it.

'Every time this gets brought up, I can't help but feel like we've been locking our daughter up in her own room...' I said, my gaze wandering across the sheets that were covering our legs. 'I know. Me too.' Pepper comforted me, turning her head to look at me. 'But, we didn't have any other option. Too much has happened for us not to.'

I thought about every single time we nearly lost our daughter at the hands of criminals. It hurt me that she was the objective for anyone who wanted to get to me... And I had many enemies. Leading the worlds' most dangerous team of superheroes will give you that. It would destroy me if anything happened to her, because of me. And, despite having her in self-defense classes many times a week, you couldn't expect her, on her own, to take down a group of people who were at least three times bigger than her.

'We can't keep her in this house forever. So, we have to make this work. For her.' I said, placing my hands over those of my wife, and taking them into mine. I looked her in the eyes. 'For her.' She repeated, smiling back at me.

We remained in comfortable silence for some time, both of us thinking up any approaches we could take, to start with. I still had the idea of Peter, floating in my mind. Although, before I could mention it, Pepper spoke up.

'Tony, you know the suit that comes out of the Arc reactor you wear on your chest, every now and then?' She asked me out of the blue. I nodded my head. 'Yes? The Mark L.' I responded while I kept my eyes fixed on her, slightly confused.

'What if you built something like that, for her?' She proposed. 'Something that she can always carry with her, but where it's appearance doesn't give away it's function.' I blinked at her, then glanced over at my Arc reactor, which was laying on my nightstand. The world had converted it into the general symbol for Iron Man. An actual Arc reactor for Jade wouldn't be slick, but perhaps I could work something else out... I knew I could.

'I suppose... that's a great idea.' I admitted. 'I think, it's time for her to have her own suit.' Pepper said to me. 'You know she already has her own suit.' I responded, thinking about all the suits I built for her, stored in the basement, alongside Pepper's and my own suits... Although Jade's had never been used. Pepper rolled her eyes at me.

'I mean, one that she can take with her, wherever she goes. Like you do.'

I took a deep breath in, waited, and exhaled. My mind was overflowing with ideas and concepts, but something was preventing me from developing and letting any of them grow... And I knew it was me. It was like I was reading a book, and I didn't want to start the next chapter, knowing it would change everything. A big part of me didn't want to let go of our little girl... This was new to us. Our whole lives, we'd been forced to be so protective over Jade. Not necessarily because we wanted to, but... like Pepper said, because we had no other option. When the whole world is after you, from the moment you are born, extreme measures have to be taken.

But we had to accept that Jade was growing up. We couldn't keep her under our wing forever. Of course, I knew that she was smart enough to make the right decisions and fend for herself... After all, she was our daughter. So, we had to think of something.

For her.

'Maybe you could construct something similar to the Mark L, where you tap the thing twice and the suit comes out, like with your Arc reactor.' She proposed.