Chapter Text
At the start, Penny had gotten along well with Tony’s new boyfriend. Jack had been nice, if not a bit awkward. But Tony had told her he was just like that with new people. So Penny hadn’t taken it personally, because Tony was happy. He had had a smile on his face that had been far too absent since Pepper died.
Perhaps that’s why she hadn’t said anything at the start. Or maybe it was for some other reason. She didn’t think she’d ever really know.
It had been a few months since Tony and Jack had started dating. Penny had been sitting at one of the few worktables in the lab that wasn’t covered in a mess. She had been doing calculus when she felt that small tingle at the back of her neck, around the base of her skull. It was only slight though, so she hadn’t really worried about it. The tingle had grown a bit when Jack had entered the lab, but she had chalked it up to her senses acting up. After all, Jack had been nothing but polite to her.
But a dark look had passed over his face when he saw her there, doing her homework. It disappeared as soon as it came, replaced quickly by that friendly smile he always had.
He had called them up for dinner, and the trio had made their way to the penthouse. They had pizza from the local pizzeria, before watching a movie. Tony had chosen Star Wars, knowing it was Penny’s favourite.
And things had been good, conversation was pleasant, and Tony had had the biggest smile on his face the entire night. But then Tony had left for the bathroom, and the friendly smile had slipped right off of Jack’s face, only to be replaced by a scowl. Penny had felt his eyes boring holes into her skull, but had kept her gaze solely fixed on the movie.
“Why are you here?”
The sheer hostility of the tone had made Penny flinch back in surprise, spidey-sense yelling at her as she moved her gaze to Jack’s. “What do you mean? I-I live here.”
Jack rolled his eyes at her, before sighing. “I mean, what are you doing here ? As in, the living room.”
“I-uh, Dad said he wanted to watch a movie with us?” It came out more as a question than anything else.
Jack scoffed, “Tony says a lot of things. He was obviously just trying to spare your feelings. Why don’t you, oh I don’t know , go off to your room. Give the adults a bit of alone time. He obviously doesn’t want you here.”
Penny felt her brow furrow. “No. I know Dad. If he didn’t want me here, he would’ve told me so.” ‘ Right? ’
Jack snorted, eyes glinting with malice as he scooted over on the sofa towards her. “You’re his kid. Who wants their kid to be hanging around them at all times. I mean, Jesus , the man doesn’t have any time for himself, let alone time to spend with me .”
That’s when it clicked. He was jealous of the time Tony and her spent together. Penny let out an involuntary snort at the thought, quickly trying - and failing - to mask it as a cough. Jack’s eyes shone with malevolence, and he reached out to grab her arm, nails digging in, sharp enough to potentially draw blood.
“You listen close, you little brat . You stay the fuck away from me and Tony, got it? Everything’s perfect when you’re over at your Aunt May’s and not here, wrecking date night. Go to your room, and stay there” Penny felt her eyes widen and the blood drain from her face at every word he spat at her. “ Do you understand? ” She nodded her head frantically, just as Friday interrupted.
“Mr Miller, Boss is on his way back.” And, okay, no . Friday didn’t just randomly alert people when someone was coming. Unless it was to Tony, but Tony was an admin on her servers and the only person that was enabled to do that. Hell, even Penny wasn’t allowed access to Friday’s servers. Penny’s eyes widened a bit more as a thought struck her. ‘ Did Dad make Jack admin ? No, he wouldn’t have. They’ve only known each other a few months, and he’s the most paranoid bastard in America.’
Her thoughts were cut off, however, by Tony waltzing back into the room, happy as Larry, completely oblivious to Penny’s discomfort. `He resumed his space in the middle, and Jack’s arm went around his shoulder. Tony smiled at him before focusing on the movie. Jack glared at her, over Tony’s head. Penny swallowed convulsively before nodding.
Penny stood up, attracting the attention of Tony, who looked at her quizzically. She made up a bullshit excuse on the spot. “I still have a crap-ton of homework to get through before school tomorrow.” Tony nodded his head, not questioning her.
“Tell Friday to come get me if you need any help” Penny nodded at him, smiled and quickly fled the room.
It wasn’t completely a bullshit excuse. Penny did have to finish her English essay. So that’s what she did, getting completely lost in the works of Shakespeare until there was a faint knock on the door. She looked up as Tony popped his head in. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Shakespeare”
“Ew” Penny snorted as she watched Tony stroll across her room and plonk his ass down on her bean bag chair.
“Sure Dad. Make yourself comfortable. It’s not like you have your own room or anything like that.”
Tony glared at her, but it had no heat. “You know I don’t feel very invited in here-”
“Whatever gave you that idea?”
“-But anyways, I came for the chair, not the company.”
Okay, rude . “Use the bean bag chair in your room.”
“I don’t have a bean bag chair in my room.”
“You’re a billionaire. Buy one .” Tony shot her a glare at that, and Penny smirked at him.
“You going out tonight?” Tony asked, nodding to the window.
Penny shook her head. “Nah, I’ll leave it until tomorrow. I have to get the stupid paper done.”
Tony snorted. “Goodie-two-shoes”.
Penny glared at him, before reaching behind her, grabbing the pillow from the back of her chair, and chucking it at Tony. It hit him in the face, and Penny laughed as he spluttered, arms flailing.
As her laughter quietened down, Tony’s face grew slightly more serious. “How’re you feeling kid?”
“Good” Penny said, dragging out the ‘o’, “Why?”
Tony shrugged his shoulders. “You looked a little pale, when I came back, I was just wondering. Jack didn’t say anything to you, did he?” The last part was said jokingly, but Penny felt a rush of ice flood her veins as her mind rushed back to earlier, replaying the scene in her head.
‘ I could tell him ’ she thought,even though she knew she wouldn’t. He hadn’t been this happy in a long time, not since Pepper, it wasn’t fair to take that away from him. ‘ Besides ,’ She reasoned, ‘ Jack was probably just having a bad day ’.
So she pasted a smile on her face, and responded. “Of course not. Just lots of homework.” She prayed to every deity she could think of, that he’d believe her. Fortunately, he did, even if he seemed to still be a bit sceptical.
He looked at her for a long moment, before heaving himself off the bean bag chair. He gave her a quick kiss on her forehead goodnight and walked out of her room, with a warning to not stay up too late.
Penny sighed as the door shut behind him, feeling the smile drop off her face as her fingers ghosted over the rapidly healing nail marks left on her skin.