Chapter Text
I don’t remember the accident.
Apparently, you’re supposed to remember childhood trauma, but my first memory of my dad is waking up in the hospital with him sitting beside me. I didn’t know who he was, of course, being five years old, but all my dad has told me about that part is that the first thing I did when I woke up was cry. I remember a nice doctor giving me some fruit punch, and that's about it.
My dad says that he didn’t exactly know why he decided to stay with me in the hospital, it was just a “gut feeling.” Based on the videos I’ve seen of him in those years, I think it was a bit more than that.
Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.
Emphasis on playboy back then.
My accident left me scarred in more ways than meet the eye. It gave me the power to control water due to some weird shit in my blood combined with whatever hit me. Even after our numerous tests, we still aren’t sure what exactly happened to make me like this.
From what Pepper has described, my dad was not who he is today back then. My best guess is that he thought I might get murdered by the government or he wanted to see how my powers worked, not a “gut feeling.”
Don’t get me wrong. I love my dad. So so so so much. And he loves me too. He’s the most amazing father I could ever ask for and he’s taught me everything I know about technology and robots. About being good and kind, and overcoming anything. But I think he may gloss over why exactly he decided to adopt me.
I was jerked out of my daydreaming when I heard a voice call, “Y/N! Dinner in 30!”
“Got it!” I called, shutting off the treadmill and my music. I took a shower and then headed down for dinner.
***
Most of my family was at dinner. Nat, Steve, Pepper, Wanda, and my dad. Pepper and my dad together at dinner? That never happened unless it was a holiday. Normally at least one of them was swamped with work for either Stark Industries or the Avengers. That was my first sign that something was off.
“What’s wrong?” I blurted as I sat down. “What happened?”
My dad twitched in surprise.”Nothing wrong! Why would you think that?”
I gestured to everyone seated at the table. “Since when do we have full family dinners at any time other than holidays or emergencies?”
My dad laughed. “Good point, Starkette.We’ve been thinking about moving you to a different school. Here, in New York.” He paused to check my reaction. So many emotions were moving through my head, relief, joy, curiosity. I decided to fulfill the latter first.
“Why? You’ve always said the boarding school was for my safety, why now when New York is being attacked left and right?”
My dad looked at Pepper for support, and she answered me. “Because,” she rolled her eyes at my dad, “your father is a neurotic helicopter parent, and he thinks you’ll be safest with the Avengers around. And, he misses you.”
I smiled at my dad. “I always miss you too. Where will I go to school?”
He smiled back. “You’ll go to the Midtown School of Science and Technology in Queens, under your usual alias of Y/N Waters.”
“I still think making my last name Waters may be the dumbest joke you’ve ever thought of.”
Pepper sighed, “Unfortunately, it's not.”
“I still can’t believe you’re sending her to a school in Queens. Brooklyn would have been just as suitable.” Steve muttered under his breath.
“I would never send my daughter to the place where a war criminal grew up.” My dad teased.
“It was one time!”
“Boys.”
Everyone straightened at Nat’s words. It didn’t matter if you had crazy witch superpowers or nanotechnology, everyone was afraid of Nat. I’ve never forgotten the time she made me run ten extra laps because I was one minute late to training.
My dad cleared his throat. “Anyways. There’s a superhero in Queens too, Spider-Man.”
I shot him a glare. “The mysterious member of Team Iron Man who I’ve yet to meet outside of a battle and has crazy videos on Youtube like some sort of idiot?”
“That's the one!” My father said cheerfully. “If not for those idiotic Youtube videos, I wouldn’t have been able to hack into his account and find his information!”
“My point exactly. When do I start?”
“January 8th. Aren’t you mad about this? You normally would be. Are you feeling okay?” he joked as he put his hand on my forehead.
I swatted his hand away and continued to dig into my food. “It’s a fresh start. New friends, new school. I assume I don’t have to wear a uniform this time?”
My dad groaned. “No, but you will obey the dress code. No shorts showing your ass--”
“Language!” Steve interrupted.
He ignored him. “No cleavage showing, no crazy makeup. Just don’t look like a prostitute please.”
I gave Wanda a look, trying to tell her that she better give me some of her clothes or I’d murder her. She's a mind reader. She should know what I’m thinking.
I looked back at my dad and sighed. “Our definitions of a prostitute are very different.”
***
I spent the rest of winter break reading, working on a new invention, and training with Nat and Wanda. Since I was going to be so close to my dad, it was even more important that I could keep my powers hidden.
“Y/N!” Wanda called after a particularly awful day, “You can't let your emotions guide your powers. That's how you lose control and hurt someone. If you ever have to fight someone with your gifts, you will be terrified, which will show. You have great control when you’re calm, but the second you get angry or scared, it goes out the window. Again.”
I took my droplet of water and expanded it into a sword, hardening the water so it wouldn’t break. It wasn’t ice exactly, but it didn’t feel like water normally did.
“Faster. Your enemies won’t wait for you to get your sword ready.”
I nodded, getting ready to expand my water again and hit her, but she started taunting me. I knew what she would say. I knew she never meant it, she just needed me to control my powers, no matter the circumstances. But hearing her say my inventions were worthless still wasn’t my favorite pastime. I used one of Nat’s moves to get a running start and flip over her to hit her with my sword. She then tried to aim one of her red blasts at me, but I absorbed it with a quick shield of water. We continued our spar, and I nearly had her down until she said the words.
“You aren’t even really Tony’s daughter.”
That's what set me off. Our water bottles exploded. I heard a splash in the next room, likely the fountain, and I heard my dad swear, probably due to my spilling water on one of his projects. I immediately dropped my sword, and my head fell into my hands. I sniffed.
No. Starks don’t cry when things get hard. They stand up again and make it work.
I felt Wanda’s careful hand on my back and her murmurs of trying again tomorrow. It made me want to sob more. Why couldn't I just get this? I can make a fucking perfectly balanced sword out of a drop of water, and yet I can’t control my own emotions.
She knelt down next to me and took my hand. In her beautiful Sokovian accent, she said, “Come on Y/N. You are going to take a shower, and then we are going to have popcorn and sitcom night.”
I tried to protest, to say that we should try again, but one look from Wanda and I was silenced. Wanda wasn’t terrifying like Nat, but she was scary in her own way.
We watched The Office, ate popcorn, and had a sleepover that night. She wouldn’t let me work on my inventions or do anything productive, and I loved her for it.
***
The night before school started, I was panicking. Clothes were strewn about my room, I had about 50 tabs open on my PC and my tablet, full of guides of what to wear on your first day of school and how to find a lunch table and such.
My backpack was packed. My fake pepper spray full of water to manipulate, my lunch, and my real pepper spray that Nat and my dad insisted I bring.
“Alice, what should I wear on the first day of school?” I asked, searching through my closet for the millionth time.
“According to my social media scans, current trends include cropped tops, ripped jeans, white sneakers, and wrap dresses.” My A.I. reported.
“I can’t wear a dress on the first day of school! That would be overdressing and I would look like a moron Alice!”
“You wouldn’t look like a moron. You would be following current trends.”
I groaned and looked at my closet again. “Ripped jeans and crop tops. I can do this. Just dress normally, Y/N.”
I set out my outfit and slipped into my pajamas. I laid in my bed and pulled my blankets up to my chest, but sleep evaded me for a long time.
***
When the morning arrived, I threw on the ripped jeans and cropped top that I laid out the night before and brushed my hair all the way through. During breakfast, my dad kept asking questions left and right.
“You know how to use the subway right? And you have your pepper spray?”
“Dad.” He looked at me. “Chill. I’m going to be fine. It’s just like my boarding school, except closer to you.”
“Peter will be there, she’ll be fine,” he muttered.
“What did you say?” I asked.
He looked at me again, seeming distracted. “Nothing, Starkette. And shouldn’t you be leaving? You know how NYC traffic is. You’ll never get to Queens on time if you keep dawdling.”
“Right.” I said, “Love you, Dad!”
“Love you too, Y/N!”
I hurried to our private elevator and made my way to Happy’s car. Neither of us said anything on our way to Midtown, and my legs were bouncing with anxiety. Who would I meet? Who would I sit with? Would I fall in love with my lab partner, like in every single high school movie ever?
Far too soon, Happy pulled the car up to my new school. Students were everywhere, colorful backpacks flashing around the brick building. I hurried out of the car and waved goodbye before people noticed one of Tony Stark’s cars parked near the school.
And there I was. On the pavement of a non-boarding school in NYC. A sophomore in high school. And about to enter a school that would change my life forever.