Archive of Our Own

It's been weird being home. Weird and nice at the same time. Darcy likes the new tower, and she likes the suite Pepper designed for her (and thank goodness Pepper designed it, not her dad, because the room she used to stay over in, the now-destroyed Malibu house, had ten foot snakes and ladders on the wall and that stuff was traumatic to a ten year old, even one with as much sass as her) and she especially likes that Thor is down from Asguard, because it's meant she can hang out with Jane and not have to do those stupid science stuff.

Well, there's still a little bit of the science stuff. It is Jane Foster Darcy's thinking about.

Anyway, nearly all the Avengers are milling around. Natasha's even promised to give Darcy a knife lesson in the morning. Bruce keeps cooking her nice things. Clint's hilarious. She likes to tease Steve, and from the sound of things, that's a preferred hobby of her dad's too. And she liked to compare tasers with the apparently-once-dead-and-now-not Agent Coulson.

With all the things to do and people to talk to, and her dad's work, she's barely had any time to catch up with him. It's maybe the third day into Spring break when she finds him on the balcony, looking over some paperwork on a tablet and scowling.

"Hey," she says, and he shuffles over without a word to let him squeeze in next to him. She leans in, and confirms a few orders for him without even really glancing at them.

"That's what you think, huh?" A smile widens Tony Stark's face pleasantly, and he taps through the next few screens, apparently just as contrarily as Darcy had, but when the summary comes up, the company's next directions look cohesive and sensible. "Good plans, Miss. Lewis."

Darcy smiles, and ruffles his hair. Her dad glances around, and he doesn't react when there isn't anyone there to see them, but she knows it affects him.

This talk usually ends up happening for all of the vacations she stays with her dad. She loves him, and she loves her mom, and she's never really regretted choosing to live with her mom and step-dad in the quiet suburbs and not in the crazy hectic Stark lifestyle, but she's never regretted spending as many vacations as possible with her real dad, either.

He's been getting better over the last few years, too. Not so focussed and over-attentive. Not working so hard to compensate for the attention he couldn't give her through the year.

"Are you disappointed?" Darcy asks. She side-eyes him, and then looks away, out to the city milling below them. The bashfulness is out of character for her usual day-to-day self, but then this talk is about emotions, and no Stark has ever managed that well.

"I could never be disappointed in you," Tony tells her, without even needing clarification.

"I mean," and yes, she's a Lewis by law, but a Stark by blood, and clarification is what they do, "that I don't broadcast that you're my pops."

"It saves a fortune on bodyguards," Tony quips. She shoulder shoves him. "Naw," he says, after a long minute. "The Stark name comes with a burden. Expectations. I want you free from them. Children aren't there just to follow in their father's footsteps. I like that you have free chance to go where you want to go."

"You followed in your father's footsteps," Darcy presses.

Tony pulls the usual face at that reminder. "Works for me," he says, after a pause, and then looks at her, more seriously now. "As long as you go for what feels right for you, I'll be proud whatever, kiddo."

"Yeah?" Darcy squints at him, and smiles, seeing the truth in it. "Thanks, dad."

"One thing though," Tony says. "Can we at least out you as my daughter to the other Avengers? If I keep getting those Darcy's jailbait and don't cheat on Pepper lectures from the others, I'm going to scream."

"Seriously?" Darcy tilts her head. "Huh. I guess that explains why Jane keeps telling me to be careful. But I thought that was because Barton kept flirting with me."

"Barton kept what?" Tony demands, and pretends like he's instantly flinging himself to his feet to go beat Clint up.

Laughing, Darcy tugs at him, keeps him down. "Relax," Darcy says, "Captain America's more my type."

"The only reason I am not gargling incoherent syllables and throwing up onto the poor citizens on the streets below is because I'm 99.9% sure you're joking," Tony says.

"I'll keep rocking that 0.1%," Darcy tells him. "Y'know. You missed a lot of my teenage years. I gotta compensate."

"Grargh," Tony tells her, eloquently.

They banter for a little while more, and it starts to get cold - Tony proclaims he's cold, but Darcy knows it's for her benefit, because she's the one shivering. The other Avengers are milling around the common room, and more than one of them is looking at them, curious.

"By the way," Darcy says, loudly, "I never told you how I met Thor, did I?"

"No," Tony says, shutting the door behind them. "You didn't."

"I was a physics intern last summer," Darcy says. "Jane took me on for the last credits I needed."

"Physics," Tony repeats.

She shrugs. "Thought it wouldn't hurt to walk my father's footsteps for a spell."

Tony smiles, slow and steady. "And what did you find?"

"You walk funny," Darcy says, pats his cheek, and turns and runs to join Thor and Bruce at a game of Mario Kart. She catches a few shocked expressions, smiles happily, and settles in with one of the spare controllers. She is not saying wii-mote, not ever in this century or the next, no way.

Behind her, she hears Tony approach Clint, saying, "So what's this I hear about you flirting with my daughter?"

"What?" Clint says, sounding genuinely panicked. "Coulson's a girl?"

Darcy splutters over her controller, as Clint starts back-pedalling hard, but it's too late. That secret's out, as well as hers.

It's not a secret she's ashamed of. She just wanted to see how far she could make it under her own name, without the name Stark opening a thousand doors for her. One day she'll take it back. And maybe she'll be following in her dad's footsteps (her modules were all way less dull than the summer internship spent repeatedly tazing a Norse god) and maybe she'll be making her own, but whatever she ends up doing, it's going to be amazing.

Darcy settles back, enjoys being in the here and now, and wonders how amenable Tony would be to making her an Iron Man suit for her 21st birthday. She could probably sell it right. She's a Lewis by name and Stark by blood, after all, and it's pretty much the best combination any girl could be.