Work Text:
"I don't like this." Tony said for the fifth time in the last hour. He leaned against the wall by the window, glancing over at Pepper where she'd settled on the couch.
"Honey," Pepper sighed, looking up from her book, "she's sixteen. She has her first boyfriend. You're going to have to learn to let her grow up. That includes her going on dates with boys."
Tony huffed, shifting his gaze back out the window. His arms crossed, he watched for Abby's car, occasionally checking his watch as time slowly ticked toward her ten o'clock curfew. Eight year old Morgan was already asleep upstairs, and if this was what it was going to be like when she started dating too, then Tony wasn't sure he was going to survive it.
"We haven't even met this kid yet."
"It's their third date. I'm sure we'll meet him eventually." Pepper replied, flipping a page. "You've seen pictures of him."
Yeah, he had, and something about that kid had his instincts screaming. Clint and Scott both said it was just being a Dad who wants to protect his little girl. They'd both gone through (and were still going through) the dating thing with Lila and Cassie, so Tony should believe them, and he did think that was a reason. It still felt like just yesterday when he could carry her around on his shoulders and be the best dad ever.
But there was something wrong. He could feel it.
Finally, a few minutes before ten, the headlights of Abby's car came up the driveway. It was a light pink custom car, exactly what she wanted, with every safety feature on the market as well as several that Tony had added to all of his driving children's vehicles (including FRIDAY as a driving assist). Tony went to his armchair and grabbed his phone to flip through it, trying to pretend like he hadn't been waiting at the window. He ignored Pepper's amused smile.
It wasn't long before Abby entered the house. "Hey Dad, hey Mom," she greeted, smiling as she hung up her jacket.
"Hey munchkin." Tony answered at the same time Pepper asked, "Hi honey, how was the date? Was Braden a gentleman?"
'Braden is such a stupid name,' Tony thought, forcing himself to smile as Abby gushed about her boyfriend. She sat beside Pepper, talking a mile a minute while Tony just listened. It was something Tony had become accustomed to. Abby would talk to Pepper about the guy while Tony choked back every bad word he had to say.
'You're being overprotective,' he tried to tell himself, echoing what all his friends had to say. 'It's a learning curve. When you get used to it and meet the kid, everything will be fine.'
____
Everything wasn't fine.
It was Thanksgiving break. Peter and Harley were home from MIT and Nebula was back from a long mission. He'd planned to spend the entire week catching up with his kids and having fun with them - except it was finally decided that the Saturday before Thanksgiving was the perfect time for them all to meet Braden, with Rosa coming over for the occasion.
Honestly, he'd hoped that meeting the teen would calm his nerves. He'd shake his hand, do all the Dad Intimidation stuff, and that would satisfy whatever kept poking at his mind that something was wrong. It had done the exact opposite.
Braden seemed like a decent enough kid - neat black hair, the ability to crack a joke, good grades, was on the baseball team - but there was something about him that made Tony not trust him one bit. It felt like he was going insane with how everyone else seemed to liked him.
When dinner finished, he volunteered to clean up purely so he could organize his thoughts. As he gathered the emptied plates, he glanced up to find not everyone had gone to the living room. Harley raised a brow, picking up his and Peter's plates, and nodded toward the kitchen.
When they got to the sink, Harley muttered, "I don't like that guy."
Tony took a deep breath. "You and me both."
"Me three." Both Tony and Harley jumped, turning to find Peter behind them, holding a few more plates. His middle son cracked a smile. "Sorry."
"Hard to believe you've gotten stealthy, kiddo." Tony ruffled his hair. Despite being twenty, he reacted the same as he had during his teen years, laughing and trying to duck away from Tony's hand.
"Yet still the same guy who got jump scared by his own shadow last week," Harley joked.
Peter gave him a look of utter betrayal. "Dude, you weren't supposed to say anything about that."
"Sorry bro." He chuckled. The smile quickly faded to something more serious. "But about this dude-"
"Don't like him." Peter stated, which, for Peter, was the equivalent of cursing someone's name to heck and back.
"Nope. I don't know why. I just don't."
Tony sighed, turning on the water to the sink. Distantly, he heard the laughter of those in the living room, aside from Nebula who hadn't spoken much all evening. He'd have to check on her later. "I don't know why either. Just keep an eye on him, alright? And I'll talk to Abby later on."
Peter frowned, sliding his dishes into the sink with the rest. "She really likes him, Dad."
"I know." She wouldn't take it well. One didn't have to be a genius to know that. "But she needs a warning. If she takes it or not is up to her." Either way, he would continue to keep watch.
He was not going to allow any boy to hurt his little girl.
_____
As far back as his memory would go, Tony couldn't ever remember fighting with Abigail.
That all changed when he decided to try and talk to her about her boyfriend. It was a few days after Thanksgiving - Peter and Harley had returned to school, Nebula (who he'd later found also did not like Braden) had been called out to space by the Guardians, Rosa was back at her home, and Pepper had taken Morgan shopping with her. It felt like the perfect time to broach the subject of Braden.
The conversation had started off fine, with Tony stopping by her bedroom door and Abby pausing her guitar playing to talk to him, a smile on her face.
It didn't take long for the whole thing to derail off a cliff the second he said he wasn't sure about the boy.
"You don't have the right to judge Braden!" She snapped, standing with her arms crossed, her guitar thrown on her bed.
"Munchkin, I'm just worried-"
"You haven't even tried to get along with him! How can you say anything bad? All he did was try to get you to like him!"
True, it wasn't like the kid had been blatantly disrespectful. He'd tried to talk to Tony and Pepper more than he expected to the point where it seemed like he was almost ignoring Rosa, but maybe that had been his imagination. Braden just had this look in his eye that Tony couldn't shake. "Abby-" He wasn't sure what he was going to say. He didn't get a chance to figure it out as she stormed up to him, all the Stark and Keener fury in her eyes. It forced him to take a step back.
"I'm going to keep seeing Braden and you're just going to have to figure out how to deal with it." Her voice had dropped to a controlled level of anger that was so unlike her it made Tony's brain glitch. "I can make my own choices."
With that, she slammed the door in his face.
_____
Tony didn't know how to fix the situation.
No one needed to yell again for the house to be tense. For days, Abby hadn't spoken to him unless she had to. Every time Tony tried to talk to her, the words would freeze on his tongue. Pepper wasn't too happy with him either, though she understood his concern.
Three days after the argument, Tony was the only one home when Abby's car pulled up in the driveway after school, Pepper having gone to pick up Morgan from school and take her on a mini shopping trip for art supplies. The message was clear - he was supposed to talk to Abby.
Communication had never been one of his strengths. Charming business people? Sure. Actually communicating with family and friends? Near impossible. He'd gotten better over the years, especially since he got kids, but he wasn't close to typical human levels of communication.
But he'd do his best. Things couldn't go on like this.
He'd tried to make his mother's famous chocolate chip cookies recipe to apologize. He'd been successful several times previously, but his anxiety had him burning them a little bit. He was pulling them out of the oven when the front door opened. "Hey, munchkin!" He called, forcing a smile as he tossed the pan on the stove and took off his mitts. "I made cookies! They're a little burnt, but it adds character." He turned to face the door, smile slipping when he found she'd put her back to him to hang her jacket.
He cleared his throat, taking a few steps toward her. "I think we need to talk." Still, she didn't face him, hand lightly gripping the sleeve of her coat. "I'm, uh... I'm sorry, about what I said, y'know. About Braden." He paused, waiting for her to say something. She didn't. "You're growing up and maybe that scares me, but you need to be able to make your own choices. I won't stand in your way. If you like this boy, I can try to get along with him."
Silence fell. He waited for her response, trying to be patient even though that had never been one of his strengths. When too many heartbeats had passed, he spoke tentatively, "Abby-"
A sound stopped him. A sniff. Abby's shoulders shook, and then she was running to him. She crashed into his chest for a hug that he automatically returned. "I'm sorry, Daddy." She said into his shirt. "I'm sorry."
"Munchkin, it's okay-"
She shook her head. "No, you were right." She stepped back, wiping her tear covered face with her sleep. "You were right about him." She sniffed again, a sob escaping.
"What did he do?" He asked, forcing himself to be calm despite every instinct screaming for him to find Braden and destroy him for breaking his daughter's heart.
"He just..." She took a deep, stuttering breath. "He cheated on me. There were rumors, I didn't want to believe them, but my friend showed me pictures, and when I talked to him about it, he said he never liked me in the first place. He just wanted to see where Ironman lived." She wiped her eyes. "He just liked my last name."
Tony pulled her back into a tight hug. He'd been worried something like this would happen once the kids took his name years ago. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."
"I don't want to date ever again."
"Abby, look at me." He waited until she met his eyes with her tear filled blue ones. As much as he hated the idea of her dating, that was just being a Dad. He didn't want her to hate the idea of romantic love. "Braden didn't deserve you one bit. He's no better than the dirt under your shoes, but you can't let him turn you away from dating forever. You don't let a scumbag win. He didn't deserve you, but one day, you'll meet somebody who will love you for who you are, and when he shows that, he'll be the guy I accept into this family, okay?"
She nodded, a little smile peeking through. "Okay." She replied. "Can we burn Braden's pictures in the meantime?"
"That sounds like an awesome idea. Or I could let you put on a gauntlet and blast them to oblivion. Whichever makes you feel better. Then we'll go get ice cream and celebrate what's-his-face being gone forever. How's that sound?"
"Great." She laughed and hugged him again. He hugged her back, comforting her through the last of her tears.
Later, he knew Pepper would have to stop him from taking a suit and putting the fear of God into that kid (or heck, maybe she would join him), but for right now, he was exactly where he needed to be.