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Sharon wasn’t quite sure how she got there… but she was there in his office waiting for him to come out of his meeting. She was crying, the fifteen-year-old was crying. She was crying for a reason she didn’t really know at the time, life just got to her, the tragedy in it all. Her father was dead, her mother truly didn’t support her, and sometimes her aunt, the only person she really had in her life, didn’t remember her. The only stable person she had in her life was herself. Her cousin Tony had a business to take care of, he didn’t have time to help a fifteen-year-old girl, he had to figure out how to take care of himself, and a business… He didn’t have time for her… But here she was in his office crying, wanting something stable in her life, wanting support, wanting someone in her life for a change.
She was not sure how she was able to pass so many people who worked for him without a single question, but she did. Here she was now sitting in his office, tears falling down her face. She wanted to be alone but at the same time, she wanted someone there, someone who understood. Tony would understand. At least she thought he would, but what he would understand, she couldn’t really figure out… but there was a connection between them, not by blood, he would know, he always knew… Tony understood her at times, and she understood him, they were family, they were close, despite the difference in age, and lack of blood relation.
It felt like she had been waiting there for hours before the slightly taller brunette man walked into the office. Tony had frozen as he saw the back of a blonde’s head sitting in one of his office chairs. He didn’t know what to think or do, he didn’t know who she was at the moment or how to react; so he didn’t, he waited for the woman to turn around, waited for her to do something before he reacted before he did anything he might regret later. The blonde had slowly turned around, her brown eyes swollen for tears stained red skin, her face blotchy, mixes of red and pink; a mess, but a mess he recognized.
“Sharon?” He said breaking the silence as he walked over to her, he bent down in front of her and the chair she was sitting with. He made himself eye level with her. His voice and expressions were soft, he was only focused on her at the moment, nothing else mattered but his little cousin. “Hey, what’s going on?” He asked quietly. He had stuff he needed to do, things to worry about, people to negotiate with, and blueprints and models to look over, but all that could wait, it all could be put on hold and paused because she needed him, she needed someone, and he’s gonna be there for her because when he needed someone he knew she would’ve been there for him if she could’ve.
Tony waited for some sort of response. He waited for her to do or say anything, she wasn’t one to be quiet and not state the problem or what was wrong, she was someone who said what was wrong, someone who stated what was wrong, and if she didn’t do that, she wouldn’t have made it so obvious that it was a problem, or she would’ve at least shrugged the problem at hand off by now. It was pretty clear to Tony that she had been crying for a while now. He knew her, the thirty-four-year-old had known the fifteen-year-old since she was little, and she was someone he had tried to be there for her when others couldn’t, he knew her, and he knew that she would’ve done something by now. Whatever was wrong, whatever was going on, it was something serious.
“Hey, Sharon, if you don’t want to talk about what’s wrong that’s okay, we-we can go out for burgers? Or do whatever you want. Okay? All I want is for you to be okay Shar, just tell me what you want me to do.” He asked the young blonde, his brown eyes pleading for her to answer him.
It took a minute at most for Sharon to give him an answer. Her voice was soft, it was quiet, fragile, and broken, something very different from the teenager’s personality, usual behavior, and way of speaking. “Burgers sounds amazing…” She spoke the words slowly, lingering a bit as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to have her favorite food as if she wasn’t sure what would make whatever was wrong better. Her voice was almost unrecognizable as her own.
Tony smiled a soft sad smile. “Okay, burgers it is then.” He stood up and waited for Sharon to stand up out of the chair, he grabbed his keys once Sharon stood up he left his office with Sharon behind him. “Give me a minute to settle a few more things with the business. He said leaving the teenager standing right outside his office as he walked over to find Ms. Potts, his personal secretary. “Potts, there you are,” he said with a smirk looking up to the redhead. “ I need you to cancel all meetings, and anything I have scheduled for the rest of the day, push them to the next available dates, some family matters came up that I have to handle.”
“What family matters could have possibly-” Pepper started before than man interrupted her.
He pointed over to the direction of Sharon. “You see that pretty little blonde girl standing over by my office? She claims to be my kid and her mother had just recently died. Leading me to be her new guardian.” Tony says sarcastically.
“Please tell me you are joking,” Pepper muttered. “The press would eat that up and it is nothing but damaging PR.”
“First off, I am very offended you believed that. Do you think that that would actually happen? We should get you some sarcasm lessons you clearly can’t detect sarcasm. The pretty little blonde girl happens to be my cousin… She’s pretty upset about something, which she won’t tell me, so I’m taking her out for burgers to try to cheer her up.”
“Oh look, who knew you, Tony Stark had it in him to be nice and generous, that’s something the industry could handle on headlines.” Pepper teased jokingly. “I’ll find a way to make this all work, you are gonna upset some investors, but you might have done that in the meeting anyway.”
“Thank you, Peps I owe you one,” Tony said with a small smile as he started to walk back over to Sharon. “ Okay, I got that taken care of, now we can go get some burgers and do whatever you want. That sounds good right Shar?” He asked her.
The blonde rubbed a few tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. “Yeah…. That works...” She said with a nod, as she forced a soft smile onto her face. She was happy that her cousin was trying to help her feel better, without pushing her too far, without pushing her at all, giving her the freedom to tell him what was wrong, when she felt it necessary. She needed time to feel out what truly was wrong, what the problem was. He gave her space, something the young teenager needed, space, but he was also there for support, he was present and giving her support, something that was lacking in her life, constant support. Someone, or something to be there for her, to be there to support her when she needed it. She was grateful for it.
It didn’t take too long for them to get to a decent burger place, in one of the many Tony Stark cars. It happened to be their burger place. Ever since Sharon was little and came to New York to spend some more time with Peggy over the summer seasons, they had made it their place. Peggy used to take Tony there when he was in his in his twenties and still getting the hang of the Stark business, and way of life after his parents died in that car crash; and Sharon had gone there with them since she was a little toddler obsessed with the delicious and humongous burgers. Tony even believed at times that it was him and Peggy that had gotten her so into the food. This burger place was their safe place. It made them feel better when they were there, all your troubles went away, and the only thing left was the good in your life.
They hadn’t been there much once Sharon had turned seven and her dad died in service. She spent most of her time with her mom in Virginia, the little blonde had been told that all her goals in life, all she wanted to be, due to her great Aunt Peggy, were unachievable, and too dangerous… She had no support, she had no safe place, no Tony, no Peggy, just her mother, her mother that was too scared to lose her like she had lost Sharon’s father. That was until Sharon was fourteen… Her mother had let go of her tight strings on the blonde and allowed her to go back to New York in the summers, but Peggy was getting sicker, and worse. Sometimes it felt like it wasn’t safe for her to be on her own, or to be near Sharon… and Tony was always busy with work, he didn’t have too much time to give to them, he was oblivious to the situation and all the stress and problems that were than forced onto Sharon, no one knew how bad she had needed some sort of support, and no one was there to give it to her, her safe place was… lost.
It felt good to young blonde to be back in her safe place, it felt good to have it back, to have found it again. However, the safe place wasn’t quite fixed, it wasn’t how it usually is, it was different, a small part of its protection was gone and the bad and the troubles in her life could still sneak in. The walls of the safe place still needed to be built up, the guards and protection were wounded, and some were gone, not there to help her. There was little trust between Sharon and her safe place anymore, despite her happiness of it being back.
Tony and Sharon sat down at one of the red-booted tables and looked at the menu filled with what had seemed like millions of possible combinations of burgers. The many lists of burgers on the menu seemed like heaven to both of them, but to the younger of the two, it felt like so much more. There was just something about burgers that made her so happy, her obsession with them was amazing, there was practically nothing they couldn’t do to make her feel better. With the thought of all the possible delicious burgers, the walls, protection, guards, and the trust in their safe place had seemed to rebuild and were regained.
The tears slowly started to stop their escapement from her eyes, and a small smile formed in the corner of her lips as she started to muse about the burgers she could have. Whatever had made her so sad, the thoughts and wanting of someone to be her stability was gone. All she could think about was the burgers, and how it was so hard to choose just one. The only thought running through her brain was that she couldn’t wait to taste the burger, to have it, and to fully enjoy it.
As Tony saw her start to smile, all felt good in the world. He was still worried about her and upset that there was clearly something very wrong, something that had clearly bothered her, but he was happy. He was happy that she was happy, he was happy that she was starting to feel better, happy that the problem was slowly leaving her thoughts. “I think I will have just a plain old cheeseburger.” He said with a small smile trying to start some conversation. “What do you think you are going to get?”
Sharon shook her head at her older cousin. “I don’t know there are just so many great options…” She muttered still looking over the menu. “I might want to get all of them-”
“Can you even eat all of them?” He asked her raising an eyebrow.
“Do you doubt me? I can eat them all. It’s burgers. Burgers are my life, they are all that matter.”
“You are a high schooler your grades matter…”
“Well besides that… It’s summer anyway I don’t need to worry about grades or school until September….” She said back to him closing the menu. “I’m gonna have one of every burger, except the plain burger, and the regular cheeseburger. If that is okay with you. The plain and regular are just too plain to count as a good burger. ”
“I can afford it, and you can have it if you truly can eat them all,” Tony said with a soft chuckle. “Oh, and at the end I want you to grade each burger the Sharon Carter way.”
“Challenge accepted.” She said with a small smirk as they waited for the waitress to come and take their order.
Tony sat back once they put in their order. When the waitress came back minutes later with the burgers on the tray for Sharon a big grin grew on his face. “Are you sure you can handle eating all that, I don’t know it seems like a lot of food for a little fifteen-year-old?”
Sharon rolled her eyes and chuckled. “I’m gonna eat it all, I am… No, doubt about it.”
Tony laughed as he looked at the six burgers in front of Sharon. “You aren’t gonna make it past the third one Shar. You are gonna make yourself sick.”
“Stop trying to distract me.” She said shaking her head as she picked up one of her burgers. “You have your own burger to eat, don’t distract me from eating mine. It is very important to me that I get to eat these.”
Tony put his hands up. “Okay, have fun eating your burgers then, I won't interrupt you. I’ll just mind my own business and eat my plain cheeseburger in peace…”
Tony sat impressed staring at the younger girl as she finished the last of the six humongous burgers. “Okay, so you actually finished them, impressive… And you don’t look sick, or like you are gonna get sick.” He said to her as she laughed softly.
“I told you I could do it.” She smiled.
“Now, all you have to do is give these burgers a full Sharon Carter rating, and don’t leave out any of your food-nerdy details.”
“Well, then we are gonna be here a while,” Sharon said with a soft smile. “Now, do you want to the list from worst burger to best, or do you want to hear my rankings of best burger to worst? What do you prefer? Cause trust me the way I list it matters.”
“Give me them, worst to best Carter. Something tells me that this is going to be very entertaining.” He said crossing his arms as the teenager started to think.
Sharon smiled putting a bit of thought into telling Tony the burgers rank, she needed to be very careful with how she ranked them. There was an art to burgers and art to burger ranking. Only a person who was truly obsessed with burgers could rank them perfectly… and that was her goal, Well, that’s not including her main goal to find the greatest burger in the world, but it was still a pretty high goal of hers.
“Well, I’ll start off with why I didn’t get the plain burger, the plain cheeseburger, and the little sliders.” She said with a nod. “In order for a burger to count as a full meal, it needs to be more than a pound. A pound is a good-sized burger, that’s the least it can weigh in order to really count on a ranking scale. The sliders aren’t even close to a pound, even when you combine all of them together, so they are immediately out of the picture.” She smiled brightly forgetting why she was upset earlier, it was all gone, no more trouble, pain, or worry as she sat there talking to her cousin about possibly her favorite thing in the world.
“And the plain burger and the plain cheeseburger are out of the picture because there is nothing more to them, they are just plain. They have nothing special to them to make you like them, they are just a part of the burger family, but nothing special to them… So they can’t be included in the ranking. Now the sliders, plain burger, and plain cheeseburger, they are good snacks, and they are good to eat, they taste good… I mean come on their burgers, but if you have a choice to get something better, you chose something better. They are more of a snack than a meal if anything or you know possibly the second choices.”
“Okay, now the worst burger out of the ones I got was the Luther Burger, it’s a burger prepared with one or more glazed doughnuts in place of the bun. In theory, it sounds good but it tastes horrid. Doughnuts and burgers are good separate, but not together.” Sharon said looking at Tony. “Next would be the Slopper. Here is why: a slopper is a burger served open-faced and smothered in red chile. Sloppers include grilled buns and are topped with freshly chopped onions. Eating a slopper is no easy task. The use of a fork or spoon is essential, but a fork & knife, or fork & spoon combination is the best for this sloppy mess. Burgers are supposed to be messy, but not so messy that you need to use silverware.
“The Slugburger would be the one to come after those two. This burger consists of a patty made from a mixture of beef or pork and soybeans, it is deep-fried in oil. It is typically served on a bun with mustard, pickles, and onion. This slugburger was without the mustard, pickles, and onion which is essential to make the soybeans in the patty mix not be so noticeable. If it had the pickles, mustard, and onion it would be better, but no matter what it was still good.
“The burger that was third to best was probably the Jucy Lucy, unlike a cheeseburger, this burger has the cheese inside the meat patty rather than on top. A piece of cheese is surrounded by raw meat and cooked until it melts, resulting in a molten core of cheese within the patty. It’s not as plain because its cheese is somewhere you don’t expect, but it tastes just as great. But overall it’s better. The second-place burger would be the 50/50 burger. It is half-ground bacon, half-ground beef burger patty. The meat in the burger mixes well and distributes a very good taste when you eat.” She smiled.
“So that leaves the last burger, the Barbeque Burger, to be the best out of all the ones in the restaurant. It is generally prepared with ground beef, mixed with onions and barbecue sauce, and then grilled. Once the meat has been turned once, barbecue sauce is spread on top and grilled until the sauce caramelizes. The bread bun is buttered and also spread with a light layer of barbecue sauce, then toasted on the grill. The preparation of the burger itself just makes your mouth water, and think of how good it will taste once you finally can have it, but everything you think it tastes like, it can never measure up to how good it actually tastes.” Sharon said looking at her cousin.
“Okay, so next time I’m here I’ll get the Barbeque Burger.” He said. He had listened to the young girls’ words intently, and had smiled the whole time as he had seen the joy over her face as she talked about something that had really meant a lot to her. It was a good idea for them to come here. They were both happy, and Sharon had completely forgotten about why she was upset earlier, and that she was upset earlier. But in this moment, they were happy and safe.