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Penny felt a twinge of pain in her chest as soon as it was announced. A father-daughter dance. Why couldn't it have been an aunt-niece dance? She had one of those. Penny could see Ned and MJ glance sympathetically at her out of the corner of her eye. They both knew how hard it was for her when events like this came up. She had May for some of them but it wasn't always the same, and it probably wouldn't work for this one. Her mind wandered briefly to Mr. Stark. Mr. Stark wasn't her dad, she reminded herself, and he would probably be weirded out if she asked him to something like that. Penny had known him for a little over a year at this point and they were pretty close. She went to the tower to work in the lab and often times eat dinner at least once a week, though usually more, and sometimes even slept over. Mr. Stark had a room set up just for her and everything. But still, there was no way he saw her as a daughter, Penny thought.
The rest of the school day was pretty rough, as she couldn't seem to get her dead parents out of her head. Eventually though, it was over and she headed back to the apartment. As soon as she walked in the door May seemed to be able to tell there was something up.
"Hey honey, how was school?" She asked with eyebrows raised.
"Fine, they announced that there's going to be a father-daughter dance on Saturday" Penny answered, trying to sound unbothered. May nodding in understanding and looked sympathetically at her, but her eyes held a mischievous glint.
"Are you going to ask Tony?"
Penny stared at her, aghast.
"Wha- Mr. Stark is not my father!" She replied, her cheeks going red. May raised an eyebrow.
"Asking him would weird him out!" Penny insisted.
"No it would not! You must know by now that Tony sees you as a daughter." Penny's cheeks turned even more red, if at all possible.
"And don't even try to say that you don't see him as a father." May pressed on. "He won't be weirded out, I promise! I think he'll be honored."
Penny huffed in acceptance and began trying to mentally prepare herself for a world of embarrassment.
Just as Parker luck would have it, the next day was a lab day. The final bell rang and Penny walked reluctantly out to the car waiting for her outside the school. Happy seemed to notice her nervousness and glanced back at her worriedly a few times before pulling out of the parking lot.
"So kid... everything ok?" He asked awkwardly.
"Yeah, it's just... there's this father daughter dance thing on Saturday and I'm sorta gonna ask Mr. Stark but I guess I'm worried it's just gonna weird him out. I mean... he's not my dad right?"
Happy's eyes softened a little and a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
"Are you serious kid?"
"What?"
"Honestly I think Tony would be more hurt if you didn't ask him. He loves you like his own kid and I hate to break it to you, but he already knows you see him like a father. He won't be weirded out, I promise" Happy echoed the same words May had said to her earlier and her anxiety eased up slightly. She smiled, a little embarrassed by how bluntly he put it, but mostly grateful.
They arrived at the tower and Penny quickly got out and headed for the elevator. Now that she'd been talked down twice, she was more excited than nervous, though still a little anxious.
"Penthouse please!" Penny said to the ceiling.
"Of course Penny." Replied Friday in her calming robotic voice.
The elevator doors opened to reveal Tony standing at the kitchen counter, chopping up some cheese and summer sausage. Since they started getting closer, it had become routine for Penny to come up to the penthouse and for them to get a snack together as opposed to Penny going strait to the lab.
"Hey Mr. Stark!"
"Hey Kid." Tony looked up from the snack he was preparing to greet her and immediately noticed she looked a bit more anxious than normal. "What's up?"
"Well, um... there's this dance thing on Saturday"
“Oh," he interrupted, "finally gonna ask MJ to something?" He asked with a mischievous glint in his eye. Penny rolled her eyes at him as her face went red once again.
"No! It's actually... a father daughter dance." Penny said nervously. Tony's eyes widened a little as he seemed to grasp the situation
"And?" He pushed, not wanting to assume. What if she was just telling so he'd know she was busy or something?
"Well... I was sorta wondering if you would wanna go with me? I mean, I know you're not my dad and I don't wanna weird you out or something, and you don't have to go if you don't want to! I know you're really busy but I just thought-"
"Kid!" He interrupted again, "Yes, I would love to go." Penny was momentarily shocked by his enthusiastic answer, but soon her face morphed into a relieved smile.
"It's Saturday night at seven" she said, nerves mostly calmed now.
"I'll pick you up at six and we can have dinner before at that sandwich place you like, sound like fun?"
"Yeah!"
And fun it was. Happy drove them to Delmar's while they talked and laughed in the back of the car, they ate really good sandwiches and Penny dripped ketchup on her nice dress. Like professional that he was, Tony had a stain remover pen at the ready and it was good as new in no time. They danced goofily to all the songs and laughed until their stomachs hurt. When they got back to the tower they watched movies until 2:00am when they fell asleep on the couch. It was pretty perfect.