Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Penny was feeling pretty nervous, but honestly what else was new?

She’d been looking at herself in the mirror in her room for far too long already and what was the point? She wasn’t magically going to look how she wanted to. Logically, she knew it was a process and it was going to take a while for her outside body to match her inside body.

But emotionally, that’s just bullshit. It was absolute garbage and she was mad about it.

She reached up and tugged at her hair, as if pulling on it would make it grow faster. It was actually the longest it has ever been, coming down to just past her ears, but it still wasn’t long enough to do anything with and she wouldn’t know how to style it even if it was. Her hair liked to curl at the ends but it was frizzy all over and every morning she woke up with a rats nest on her head that she had to spend an increasing amount of time brushing out.

Then, of course, there was her clothes.

Her entire wardrobe was just boy clothes. She didn’t hate them! She really loved her science pun t-shirts and her jeans were just baggy and worn enough to be comfortable. She didn’t to get rid of them, she just wished she also had… other things.

Nice things.

… pretty things.

But she didn’t have any money to buy new clothes and she didn’t feel comfortable asking Tony for new clothes because she already had plenty to wear. Right?

What difference would it really make anyway.

It didn’t matter right now though because right now, in this moment, there was nothing she could do about how she looked, no matter how much she wished there was. Right now, she had bigger problems.

Ned was coming over.

To the tower.

Penny was going to tell him about her. That she was now a she and not a he.

She knew Ned was a good guy but they had never specifically talked about this subject and so she didn’t know, with complete certainty, that he would be cool about it.

She was about 95% sure he would be, and yes, some might say that percentage was high, but that last 5% really fucked her up in the past every chance it got. Who’s to say it wouldn’t do so again?

Ned was her best friend. They’d known each other since the second grade. They shared everything and he’d been there for her through all of it: her uncle dying, the spider bite, all the injuries she got while learning how to fight, May... She couldn’t lose him. She didn’t even know what she would do without him. They were about to start high school together. They had managed to get into the same advanced STEM school and they were going to be locker neighbors!

She anxiously tugged at her shirt, tucked her hair behind her ears, hated it, untucked it, still hate it. Ugh!

“Hey, FRI?”

“Yes, Penny?”

“When Ned gets here, can you go back to using my old name and pronouns? Just until I tell him, I mean.”

“Of course, little Miss.”

Penny rolled her eyes at the nickname. “Did Tony tell you to call me that?” she muttered.

“I’ve been asked not to reveal my sources.” If an AI could sound smug, FRIDAY had it down to an art. Not exactly surprising considering who her creator was.

She sighed but inside she knew it was futile and simply accepted her fate.

She cast one last glance in the mirror before deciding this was as good as it was going to get for the time being and turned on her heel, walking out of the room and just about stomping her way into the living room. She threw herself down onto the couch with a huff and crossed her arms.

There was no reason for her to be so nervous, right? It was Ned!

It was hard telling Tony that first time. Almost sent her into a full blown panic attack, but he was wonderful.

It was difficult telling Pepper, no matter that she did it in a more indirect way, but Pepper was also wonderful. In the two weeks since she came out the second time, both of them had been so supportive.

And as it turns out, it was actually easier to come out the second time. Not by much, but still.

Ned would be good about it, too… right? There was no real reason to think he wouldn’t be except for her stupid anxious brain.

“Penny, Ned Leeds is in the elevator and will be here in approximately one minute and thirteen seconds.”

“Thanks FRI.”

Oh god, it was happening. He was here. She’s gonna be sick.

“Ned’s good. He’s my guy in the chair. He won’t care about this. He’s a good boy.” She said quietly to herself, repeating it over and over as many times as she could before the elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

She stood and turned around, looking down the long hallway that lead into the foyer where the elevator opened up and waited for Ned to come out.

And waited.

And waited…

What the hell?

It was just as she started making her way to the lift when a wide eyed, open mouthed, shocked into silence head poked itself out of the doors.

“Oh. My. God.” Ned breathed out, cautiously taking a few careful steps out onto the floor and turning in a slow circle where he stood. “Oh my god, dude!” Ned looked around the floor in wide eyed wonder, turning in circles every few steps as if he might see something new on the next spin.

Penny tried to hold back a grin but really, why bother. This was so Ned and she was so glad that Tony and Pepper weren’t here to see it so she could just appreciate being in the same room as her best friend for the first time in months.

She didn’t even realize how much she missed him. She’d been so caught up in her own grief and then in the fear and uncertainty of coming out to the adults who wanted to adopt her, that the bone deep ache and loneliness of not seeing Ned for so long was just put on the back burner.

Now though, it was front and center, and as Ned was looking in every corner and giving a running commentary on how awesome it was, she felt her eyes start to sting a little because wow, she really missed this.

“Peter, this is so cool, dude! I can’t believe Mister Stark lets you hang out here alone! Do you have your own lab too?! Is that an X-box?! Oh my god please can we play IronMan’s X-box?!! I would literally die!” when he didn’t hear a reply after a few seconds, Ned turned away from the gaming set up and finally took a good look at his friend. It was a testament to their friendship that he didn’t even hesitate to walk over and wrap his arms around her, patting her strongly on the back a few times before leading them both over to sit on the couch.

“Hey, I’m sorry man, I got a little caught up - ”

“No! No Ned, it’s fine, it’s not that…” she said as she swiped a finger under her eyes to catch the stray moister there. “I just missed you.”

Ned smiled, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “Aw, I missed you too, Peter.”

Penny was surprised when she had to hold back a wince. For the last two weeks, she’d been called ‘Penny’. She’d gotten so use to it that hearing her old name, her dead name, was kind of jarring. In a shocking turn of events, hearing Ned use her old name actually made her more determined and slightly less nervous about telling him that she’s trans.

“Does mister Stark let you hang out here a lot? You never told me where you went after… after May. Are you okay? Like, are your fosters treating you okay?” Ned leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together. Penny could tell by his furrowed brow and the way he was biting his lip that this had been weighing on him and she felt like a trash friend for not keeping him more in the loop.

“Actually,” she began, slowly. “Umm, I’m – this is my foster home… Mister Stark and Miss Pepper decided to foster me.”

Ned’s eyes just about bulged out of his head. “You-,” he started, stopped to pull in a gasping breath, looked around the room one more time and Penny could imagine he was checking for the cameras (which, there were plenty, but not as part of a joke) before his wide eyes landed back on Penny. “… You lie.”

“Swear to god.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Uh-huh.”

“No way.”

“Yes way. Very much way.”

For a second Penny thought Ned might be about to hyperventilate. She made the executive decision to not tell him about the adoption just yet.

“Oh. My. GOOOD!! Peter!! How are you not screaming right now?!!”

Penny laughed and sat back on the couch. “I already got all my screaming out, but you feel free.” And scream he did. He even jumped up and started bouncing around in excitement and what kind of friend would Penny be if she didn’t join him?

They jumped and yelled and ran around in circles like a couple of two year olds and it was the best Penny had felt in a long time. Eventually, they ended up back on the couch, out of breath and enjoying a moment of peace.

Penny looked over at her friend, and felt her stomach tie itself up in knots again but at least it didn’t feel as tight as they did earlier.

It was time. She had to tell him if for no other reason than he deserved to know.

“Ned?”

The boy looked over at her from his slouched position, a bit of a dopey smile on his face.

For a second, her voice failed her. The knot in her stomach became a lump in her throat that was almost impossible to talk around.

“I… I’m trans.” She whispered it, in the end.

Ned started at her, face frozen first in confusion, then in surprise.

He was quiet for a while and Penny gave him the time to process, even if it was killing her on the inside.

Already this wasn’t as bad as it could have been but it also wasn’t as good, either. She didn’t think she had ever seen Ned be this quiet. She kinda wished he would just say something whether it was good or bad.

Finally, after several very long minutes, Ned adjusted himself where he sat and settled a little deeper into the cushions. “In what direction?”

Penny could only stare. What?

“… What?”

“Well, like,” He raised his hand and gestured to all of her. “Is this your final form or are you like a baby Pokémon and you still have to evolve?”

That was probably the funniest thing that Ned had ever said to her and she was dying. Dying.

She could not breath, she was laughing so hard. Her stomach hurt for a whole other reason now. She laughed until she cried and very nearly fell off the couch. The relief from his reaction was so strong, she could have kissed him.

Of course he didn’t care. Of course his first instinct was to compare her to a Pokémon.

When she could finally open her eyes wide enough to see again, she saw his happy little smirk and knew instantly that he was teasing her. She kicked him in the side, making him double over and sending them both into another giggle fit.

“I’m a girl you dumbass! Not a Pokémon!” she yelled as she wiped down her face with her shirt.

“Okay! But for the sake of the argument, if you were a Pokémon, which would you be? Dibs on Magikarp!”

“Magikarp?! Why?”

“Because it might be useless at first but when it evolves, it turns into what is basically a water dragon and you know how much I like those.”

“Fair. Okay, uh, I guess I would be an Eevee, because then I could evolve into whatever I wanted.”

She finished much quieter than she started, suddenly feeling shy and she couldn’t really say why. Ned was being just as great as Tony and Pepper, and this time it was a whole lot easier to say it but it still felt so personal. It still kind of felt like something she should hide.

Ned just smiled, though. “So, are you still Peter?”

“Penelope… or Penny, if you want.” She shrugged, trying to come off as nonchalant but knowing instantly that she missed the mark and landed closer to timid instead.

“She/her?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool… so can we play with the X-box?” and that was that.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games and Penny gave Ned a tour of the place and showed him all her favorite spots. He asked if they could swim next week when she showed him the rooftop pool and she of course said yes, not thinking until much later that maybe she should have asked permission first.

Ned left before the Starks got back from work and on his way out, he gave her an extra long hug. They didn’t have to say anything else.

Chapter Text

The drive felt like it was taking forever. How far was the courthouse anyway? Were they crossing state lines or something?

She was dressed in a nice button down and her best pair of jeans, her hair as tamed as they could get it but that wasn’t really saying much. It was taking everything in her not to run her fingers through it and ruin it.

A strong arm landed on her shoulders and she looked up into mister Starks grinning face. She smiled shyly back at him but her stomach was still twisting itself around in circles. It felt like there was a lead weight in her gut.

She was going to be adopted today.

Today! In a few hours she would be adopted. By Mister Stark and Miss Pepper.

What if they regreted it? She’d always felt like she was so much trouble. She’d always had that terrible ‘Parker’ luck. What if she was actually cursed and that bad luck bled over into this new life she was about to have and Tony and Pepper ended up dying too?

Statistically speaking, she had lost every single parental figure she had ever had, seemingly one right after the other. What if that ugly trend continued? Tony and Pepper could die and it could be her fault.

She wanted them to adopt her. God, she wanted it so bad, but maybe it would have been better if they had sent her away. Somewhere that she couldn’t hurt anyone else.

It would be so much worse if they adopted her and then realized later that it was a mistake.

Would her bioparents even be okay with this? What if they would have hated that she was on her way to tell a judge that she wanted these people to be her parents? They probably would have already hated her just for being her. They had been devout Catholics, just like uncle Ben had been, so, logically, they would probably have had the same reaction to her coming out that Ben and May had.

Would May have been okay with this? She didn’t like Tony in the beginning but they seemed to get along a lot better near the end there…

“Hey.”

Penny jumped a little in her seat, realizing she had been biting her cheek almost bloody, and looked up at Tony by her side.

“I can hear you thinking over there. Are you okay, kiddo?” he whispered.

“Uh huh.” She mumbled, going back to biting her lip and thinking about all the questions she would never have answers to and all the things that could go wrong after this.

Tony and Pepper shared a concerned look over the top of her head. Pepper unbuckled her seat belt and scooted closer so that they were each at one side of her.

Pepper started running her fingers through Penny’s hair, obviously not caring one bit how much time it took to make it look semi decent and right that second Penny didn’t really care either. “Honey, is something on your mind? Anything you want to talk about?”

Penny looked down at her shaky hands and considered telling them.

With May and Ben, she had always had to think about whether or not what she had to say would make them angry. Ever since that day when she was six, she mostly tried to keep things to herself because she never knew if the wrong thought or action or word might make them hate her again like they did then.

But, with Tony and Pepper, it had been just the opposite. She was starting to understand what ‘unconditional love’ felt like. Maybe it would be okay to ask…

She swallowed down the lump in her throat and leaned her head onto Pepper’s shoulder. “… Do you think May would be mad? About the adoption?” she asked, quietly.

She didn’t know if she was really expecting an answer, but she certainly wasn’t expecting such a firm one.

“No.” Tony said with finality. Penny looked at him out of the corner of her eye, and a scrunched brow. He just smiled and continued. “Two things. One,” he held up one finger. “May would have wanted you to be happy and two.” Another finger. “When she called me to yell at me about giving you a suit and helping you be Spider-man, she made me promise to look out for you, but more than that.” At this, he cupped her face in his hands and made sure she was looking in his eyes. “A couple of weeks before she passed, we were talking and she said that if anything ever happened to her that she expected me to step up. Do you know what I said?”

Penny’s eyes were glued to his, wide and heartbreaking. “What?”

“I said that you already have a room in our home and that would never change.” He brushed his thumb gently across her cheek before pulling her into his arms and dropping a light kiss into her hair.

They pulled apart but both adults kept one arm slung around her, effectively sandwiching her between them. She felt warm and safe and even though she had so many questions that she would never get answers to, she wanted this.

She wanted to have this forever.

It took less than an hour to finalize the adoption. Tony (her dad) was able to get them in to see the judge before the courthouse officially opened. They all snuck in through the back, met in a private room, and all Penny had to say was why she wanted to be adopted by Mister Stark and Miss Pepper.

“Because… they make me feel safe. And, sometimes, everywhere else, it’s kinda hard for me to, to talk, and they always listen to me.” She remembered looking back and forth between all the adults in the room, nervously biting her lip and worrying that she wasn’t saying the right things. It wasn’t lost on her how important this moment was and she was so scared of messing up. Of saying the wrong thing ruining it. “And I want… I want them to be my parents… please?”

The judge was an older man with gray hair and a thick mustache. He looked at her with kind eyes, and smiled when she said please.

“Well, I can’t think of a better reason than that.” He said, and signed the paper work with a flourish. They filled in her new name, Penelope May Stark, everyone took turns signing and it was done.

It was done. They got it notarized right then and there.

The paperwork was filed (under a false name, for privacy) and that was that. They were walking out the back door before the guards even unlocked the front.

She had both her arms wrapped around one of Tony’s (her dad!) in the back of the car. She almost couldn’t believe it. It happened so fast. She was adopted. She had parents. She had the name she always wanted. She was finally allowed to be herself with people who loved her. It felt like a dream.

Tony and Pepper were talking softly over her head. Every once in a while, she would feel Peppers fingers gently comb threw her hair, and Tony’s thumb rub little circles on the back of her hand. She didn’t even notice they weren’t heading back to the tower until they pulled into an unfamiliar parking garage.

“Where are we?” she asked, looking around as she was led over to the elevator.

“It’s a surprise, Honey.” Pepper said gently.

It took thirty seconds for the elevator doors to open again and Penny couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping open in shock.

Tony stepped up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I just thought, you’re starting high school in a few months and maybe you would like a new wardrobe. You don’t have to get rid of what you already have, of course! But, it’s nice to have some variety, right?”

Penny didn’t know if she could even speak. They were standing in the biggest department store she had ever seen! Rows and rows of clothes and it was completely empty of other people.

“We thought we would take you on a little shopping spree and I know the owner and she agreed to let us have a few hours to ourselves to look around. What do you think, honey?” Pepper was at her side, leaning down to see her face more clearly so she saw the very moment a giant smile broke out over Penny’s face.

She turned around, jumping and practically vibrating with excitement and joy, throwing her arms around both Pepper and Tony and hugging them tight.

“Thank you thank you thank you!!!”

They laughed, hugging her back just as tightly, even jumping with her in delight.

“Come on!” Pepper took her hand and Penny followed her eagerly as she pulled her farther into the store. “Lets find you some new clothes!”

Tony hung back and watched them go, smiling and following behind at a more sedate pace.

Pepper and Penny flowed through the store, going from rack to rack and pulling everything that looked even remotely interesting. Penny laughed the first time Pepper turned around and practically threw a dress at Tony for him to carry, but the man simply grabbed it out of the air and draped it over his arm, seamlessly accepting his roll as valet for their use.

From there it was hilarious chaos. Penny was a little hesitant at first, not fully comfortable with the prices she was seeing, but both Tony and Pepper seemed so happy to be helping her pick out a new wardrobe that it was impossible not to get just as into it as they were.

Penny picked her way through blouses and skirts and dresses and all the clothes she thought she might never get to wear, it was overwhelming but in a good way. In the way that made her cheeks hurt from smiling and her stomach twist with enthusiastic butterflies.

It was almost an hour before they felt like they had enough for her to try on. Tony had his arms pilled so high with clothes that he could barely see over the mountain he was carrying.

They all made their way to the dressing rooms and hung up all the dozens of options on the hooks on the walls. Penny hurriedly started pushing the adults out so she could start trying stuff on, rolling her eyes good naturedly when Pepper said to call her if she needed help.

She closed the door and turned around, leaning her back against the door frame.

The room was packed. The room was huge, first of all. This dressing room was about the same size as her bedroom growing up. The walls were covered with all their selections and she couldn’t wait to try them on!

She didn’t really know where to start. It was almost like a kid in a candy store situation.

Undress first, obviously.

She had tried to dress nice for the meeting with the judge but the nicest things she owned were still not that great and all the clothes she had were very decidedly on the masculine side. What she ended up where was a clean, dark red button down shirt and some black jeans that were the only pair of jeans she had that didn’t have tears in them, making them her nicest pair of jeans.

She threw them down in the corner without a care, standing in nothing but some boxer briefs and her socks.

The first thing she reached for was a pink halter top blouse that was ruffled at the neck, and this bright flowy skirt with large multicolored sequins that came down to her calves.

She already knew she wasn’t going to get the skirt. It wasn’t exactly her style but it was so bright and so eye catching and she just thought it would be fun to twirl around in so she had to try it on!

Looking in the mirror, she was a little disappointed about the blouse. She really did like it on the hanger but on her it just didn’t sit right and the neck was a little too high and the way her shoulders stuck out just made her feel too bulky.

The skirt was very fun to twirl around in though and she did several spins in the center of the room, amusing herself with the little clinking sound the big sequins made as they knocked against each other and the how swishy the material felt on her skin.

Well, okay. They can’t all be winners. These two were definitely going in the ‘no’ pile. She didn’t even want to go out and show Tony and Pepper the look. There was no point.

She hung them back up and put them on the hook on the back of the door so they would be out of the way.

She reached for a few more things, this time grabbing a light blue and white striped polo shirt and a light blue pencil skirt. It seemed like such a cute outfit when Pepper helped her pick it out and she was really excited to try it on, but…

It didn’t, quite, look right…

The polo was… fine. There was nothing really wrong with it, it was just a little bit low cut and the buttons were, apparently, fake for some reason so she couldn’t even button it up and all she could see was how flat her chest was and she really didn’t want to draw attention to that.

The skirt though…

There was… a bulge… if she turned sideways it just –

It wasn’t very big but it was obvious, even from the front, what it was and she felt her heart sink.

She hated it. It looked awful.

“Honey?” Pepper knocked on the door, making her jump. “How you doing in there?”

“Fine!” she said quickly, not sure why exactly she felt so panicked, she wasn’t doing anything wrong. “I – I’m fine, I’m just trying stuff on.”

There was a pause. “Okay. Well, when you find something you like come out and show us okay?”

“Uh, uh huh. I will.”

She waited for the sound of Pepper walking away before turning and taking in the room again. Suddenly, it didn’t seem so great a thing.

Suddenly, all the piles of clothes they picked out seemed much more intimidating then they did ten minutes ago.

She pulled off the outfit quickly and threw both things in the corner, not even bothering with the hangars. Maybe a dress? She’d always wanted to try a dress, ever since she was little. She had even thought about sneaking into Mays room once or twice when she wasn’t home to try on one of hers but she always lost her nerve at the last second

There was this one dress she saw, this soft yellow, maybe a little frilly, but it looked so comfortable, and the material was so soft on her fingers when she touched it that she immediately added it to the pile.

It was hanging up on a hook near the back of the room and she turned her back on the mirror while she put it on.

The top part was tight and the bottom was a bit too loose and even before she turned around she felt her eyes start to sting.

It didn’t fit right.

She didn’t even need to see it, she could feel it.

Penny turned around slowly, keeping her eyes squeezed closed tight. She had to count to five in her head before she was brave enough to open them.

When she did, she wished she hadn’t.

The sleeves were short, just ruffled cap sleeves and it wasn’t exactly a halter but it was close enough. The chest was obviously designed for someone who had something to give to it, but on her it just made it clear how much she lacked. the waist was shapeless, just a straight line on each side and the worst part was that, even though it was relatively loose, she could still see the ugly bulge.

It was probably one of her biggest fears come true.

She looked like a boy in a dress.

She hated it but she couldn’t take her eyes off herself in the mirror. She looked awful, like some freaky monster.

Penny didn’t know how long she stood there before her legs collapsed under her and she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. Her chest felt tight and her her head hurt and she hated it.

She couldn’t stop the tears at that point if she tried so she didn’t even bother.

It felt like forever and at the same time, no time at all, but eventually she felt a warm body sit next to her on the floor and a strong arm drape over her shoulders to pull her closer.

“Oh, sweetheart…” Tony’s deep voice rumbled over her head. “What happened?” he said softly.

God, she felt pathetic. She just got adopted. Her new parents took her here to celebrate, and she was crying like a baby because her dress doesn’t fit right because her stupid body is all stupid and wrong and she was ruining everything.

“I j-just… n-nothing looks right.” She mumbled into her knees. “I – I don’t look right.” She sobbed, hating how her voice was going all squeaky. “I… I look like a boy in a dress.” Her shoulders shook as she fought to get the words out.

Tony pulled her closer, just like he did in the car earlier that morning, and heaved a great sigh, speaking softly.

“Honey, this is important so I need you to listen, okay?”

Penny nodded, sniffling and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“There is nothing wrong with your body. If the clothes don’t fit right, that’s a problem with the clothes, not with you.”

He paused, and Penny looked up at him through teary lashes.

“You are not the problem. You’re body is not the problem.”

“B-but I hate it.” Penny whispered, fresh tears falling down her cheeks.

Tony furrowed his brow. “Your body?” he asked, a deep sadness in his eyes when all she did was nod miserably.

Tony sighed, “I wish I could snap my fingers and give you the body you always should have had. I can’t do that, but I can tell you that you are not the first girl to hate her own body. But baby, I need you to give yourself some grace, okay?” Tony reached out and held her chin in his hand. “I need you to show yourself some more love and respect because this part? This is the hard part. The part where the inside of your head and the outside of your body don’t match up. It’s called a transition for a reason and it’s going to take time but you’re going to get there. And me and Pepper are going to be there for you every step of the way.”

Tony pulled her into his chest and held her tight, pretending not to notice when she not so subtly wiped her tears on his shirt. They stayed like that for several long minutes, just sitting, breathing, and Penny slowly calmed down and got her tears under control.

“More than that,” Tony said when they pulled apart. “We make the clothes fit us, not the other way around.” He said, much lighter now that the heavy stuff was out of the way. “All this stuff, everything you want to get, is going to be sent to our tailor so it can all be made to fit you, because that’s what clothes are supposed to do.” He bopped her on the nose with his finger and Penny playfully shoved his hand away.

She did feel a little better. She wasn’t crying any more at least.

She still didn’t want to look in the mirror.

Tony saw her hesitation and decided to take a chance.

“Do you mind if I pick something out for you?” he asked, cautiously.

Penny thought about it and shrugged noncommittally. She hadn’t had any luck picking her own stuff anyway.

Tony jumped up, Penny giggled when he groaned and his knees popped but wisely kept her mouth shut when he gave her a look. He shuffled through the piles of clothes still hanging up on the wall and eventually grabbed two things and set them on the bench by the wall.

“Try those on, and then come out and show us, okay?”

Penny stood and walked over, looking at what he picked. She didn’t hate it. But she hadn’t hated the other things before she tried them on either.

She nodded anyway, biting her lip.

Tony gave her a smile, leaning down to kiss her on the head. When he left, she quickly got the yellow dress off and tossed it carelessly on the floor. She didn’t even want to look at it.

Tony had picked out a dress, too. It was on the shorter side, coming down to just above her knees. It was black with little white flowers all over. It flared out at the waist and had spaghetti straps. He paired it with a light blue jean jacket.

Yeah… she didn’t hate it.

She put it on with her back to the mirror again but this time she didn’t even bother turning around and just started towards the door. She liked how it felt on her. The material was light and cool to the touch and she didn’t want to turn around and hate it.

She placed her hand on the door knob and, taking a deep breath, walked out.

Tony and Pepper were standing, both looking a little worried, but as soon as they saw her their faces lit up.

“Oh my gosh, Penny, look at you!” Pepper gushed, rushing over and taking her hand. “Do a spin for me!” she said even as she was already spinning the girl around. “Oh this looks so good on you, sweety!”

Before Penny could stop her, Pepper spun her around to face the big mirrors in the staging area and…

It… didn’t look bad.

Actually, she liked it.

She felt the knots in her stomach settle a bit. This didn’t feel scary.

She didn’t love the way she looked but this, at least, felt more like her.

Maybe she could do what Tony said and give herself some more grace.

They spent almost two more hours in the store and by the end she almost felt like she tried on just about everything they had to offer.

They left having picked out five full new outfits for her, already sent on the way to the tailors, but the dress and the jean jacket, she wore right out of the store.

Chapter Text

Well, she’s only officially been a Stark for three weeks and already she’s resorting to theft. What was wrong with her?

It’s just, its not like she didn’t want her own makeup, she absolutely does, it’s just that Miss Peppers makeup was right there and no one was home and no one would know as long as FRIDAY kept her mouth shut.

And she’d secretly been watching makeup tutorials on YouTube for years so she had a certain amount of confidence that only a thirteen year old with a half-assed plan could have that may or may not be misplaced because its not like she’s ever even touched a makeup brush before.

Not that that’s stopping her.

She waited a full hour after Tony and Pepper left before nervously making her way to their room at the end of the hall. She quickly snuck in, heart beating wildly in her chest, closing the door quietly behind her. Why? Because it seemed like the thing to do when sneaking around, even if no one else was home to appreciate it.

She took a second to look around, wide eyed and opened mouthed, and just appreciate the space. She kind of loved their room. It was huge and spacious but it felt full in that lived in comfortable way. The big bed that was only half made was the center of the room. It looked so big and so fluffy and she never wanted to jump on a bed more in her life.

But, no, some other time. For sure, some other time. Right now, she was on a mission.

However, she noted, there was an incredibly comfy looking hoodie at the foot of the bed that she was definitely going to steal on her way out.

Originally, her plan was just to grab a few things and leave. Run back to her own room where she could lock the door and practice in secret, but no one was going to be home for hours yet and Miss Pepper liked fancy things.

Her vanity was truly something to behold. It was on the wall between the bathroom and the closet, and it was massive. White with gold trim all over. Solid wood, carved in an old fashioned Victorian style. Large mirrors that folded out and bright lights and a matching bench to sit on.

And makeup.

There was so much. Some of it was just sitting out on the countertop which she figured must be the stuff Pepper used most often. When she peaked in the drawers she found stacks of pallets and full bins of individual blushes and bronzers. One drawer was nothing but brushes, sponges and makeup wipes.

She was going to just grab some things and run away, bring them back later, really she was…

Instead, almost without her realizing what she was doing, she was sitting down tentatively on the bench in front of the vanity.

It was almost overwhelming, sitting there with all that makeup just spread out in front of her. Her heart was beating out of her chest and her stomach was tied up in knots. Not just because she knew she wasn’t supposed to be in here messing with Peppers stuff but because, for her whole life, this kind of thing had been forbidden.

Something as simple as wearing blush was something she only ever felt brave enough to dream about and now it was sitting right in front of her, and she could just reach out and touch it.

And touch she did.

At first her fingers just grazed over the tops of the products, almost reverently. Then her hand landed on this beautiful bottle of foundation and she couldn’t stop the wide smile slowly growing across her face if she tried.

She opened the drawer with the brushes again and grabbed a few, some big and puffy, some small and precise, and a couple in the middle. All the beauty gurus on YouTube seemed to use beauty blenders for their foundation so she grabbed one of those too. She picked the one that looked freshly used, not wanting to mess up a new one. Besides, she was going to be using it on the same makeup anyway.

The bottle was very sleek. Glass with a small pump, delicate cursive writing on the side that she couldn’t read. It was maybe French? Biting her lip with a grin, she put a few hearty pumps on the sponge and decided to just go for it.

She was just going to wash it off right away anyway so why not be a little heavy handed?

Blush was very fun, she discovered. At first, she actually tried to make it look nice. Tried to remember all the step-by-step tutorials and make it actually look good, but she got so into it that she just kept adding more for the hell of it. She quickly decided that she wouldn’t be able to make it look good on her first try so might as well just have fun with it.

After blush came eye shadow and with great excitement she found a pallet with bright, bold colors and sparkly shades and she could not stop herself, taking one of the smaller brushes and dipping into a bright gold shade and glimmery dark red.

Iron man colors!

Because why not?

She even decided to draw little swirly patterns around the corners of her eyes with a liquid eye liner she found, giggling to herself the whole time. Her earlier nervousness was all but forgotten. In fact, she almost entirely forgot where she was and whose room she was in in the first place.

Penny found some highlighter on the desktop and made her cheeks glow like a disco ball and then grabbed the mascara for her lashes. She found the little lash clamper thing she’d seen in movies and stuff but she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out what it was for. It looked more like a tiny torture device. She set that aside for the time being.

The last thing was the lipstick, and good god were there options!

There was a whole drawer dedicated just to lipstick and lip liners. It seemed like Pepper had every shade under the sun in both matte and gloss, solid and liquid. She couldn’t decide, there were so many and she just felt like a kid in a candy store. She ended up just closing her eyes and grabbing a dozen or so at random. One of them had to be good, right?

She laid them out in front of her, eager to try them all on. It would be the first time she got to (Chapstick does not count at lipstick). Granted, it was also the first time she got to wear blush and foundation and mascara. It was so much more fun than she thought it would be!

 She felt light and giddy as she looked through the colors and put aside the normal ones (The reds and fleshy pinks) for later. Instead, she went straight for the neon green that was sticking out and calling to her. It was hard to stop smiling long enough to put it on, but she managed.

Finally, she sat back and looked at herself in the mirror.

She busted out laughing at the picture she made.

Her hair was a little wild because she hadn’t brushed it yet that day but it was finally long enough to brush the ends of her ears, her curls going off in every direction. The foundation was too light for her, giving her an almost geisha like appearance. The eye shadow was over the top and not exactly blended that well and the blush and highlighter was so bright and pink that she closely resembled a cartoon disco ball. The fun little swirls around her eyes were doing a lot of work to hold the look together but the neon green lipstick was what really completed the look.

She looked like a drawing a five year old might come up with.

Penny could admit, to herself if no one else, that that was where she maybe went a little bit too far, because that was when she saw something sparkly peaking out of the closet door in the reflection in the mirror.

Well, she was curious by nature. What else could she do but check it out?

Penny quietly walked over to the cracked door and pushed it the rest of the way open. It’s not like she thought it would be a small closet. This was a large penthouse with two very wealthy adults that both liked to look good so obviously they would need a lot of room for clothes. It did not occur to her that they would need so much room that they would have separate closets, but this one clearly belonged to Peppers and it was huge.

It was the size of a whole other apartment! There was a second vanity in the closet that was, apparently just for jewelry and perfume. One half of the massive space was obviously just for formal where and special occasions, and the other half was lined with more suits than she could count. The back wall was just shoes.

Just. Shoes.

There had to be hundreds of them.

All of it was color coded.

It was incredible. It took her breath away.

She couldn’t even say how long she stood there, just admitting it with stars in her eyes.

Eventually, she did manage to find what it was that caught her attention in the first place. Off to the side were several coat racks that had various accessories hanging from it from hats, scarves and furs to a dark blue, shimmery feather boa. When she touched it, it was clear that it wasn’t one of those scratchy cheap one’s they sell at party city. They felt like real feathers!

She didn’t even remember making the decision to put it on but from one second to the next, there it was around her neck, and she was spinning in circles in front of the full-length mirror to get a good look. It was so pretty. And so soft. And it wasn’t itchy at all!

Hanging up by the mirror was a about forty different pairs of sunglasses and, well, she was already there.

She tried a couple on before settling on a pair of big, clunky bug-eye glasses. The kind she’d seen on real housewives.

And, honestly, she should have been paying attention. That’s on her.

It’s just that she was having so much fun that she lost track of the time. Spinning in circles, checking herself out and dramatically flinging the feather boa over her shoulders really did take up a lot of her focus and it made her forget that she was, in a way, breaking and entering. She certainly was not supposed to be in there.

She forgot for a second that this was not her room, or her makeup, or her closet, or even her feather boa.

She also forgot that Pepper usually comes home for lunch so they can eat together.

She forgot, that is, until one more spin landed her facing the doorway where Pepper was standing, just a couple feet away, with wide eyes and her mouth open in shock.

Then she remembered.

Then she panicked.

Slamming the door in Peppers face was maybe not the best move.

At first, Pepper thought about taking an early lunch, but then her first meeting of the day was nothing but two hours of mind-numbing, infuriating misogynistic old white men wearing uniforms that they think makes them correct, no matter what her research and R&D comes back with.

It was simply too much. She had one more meeting before lunch that she actually thought about putting off but decided to just get it over with and go home for the day. There was nothing overly important after lunch that she really needed to return for. Nothing that couldn’t wait until tomorrow, anyway, and she was so exhausted and over worked that she didn’t think it was out of place to take the afternoon off. It was barely 11 am and her feet were already killing her.

When she got into the elevator, she briefly considered just stopping at the cafeteria and picking something up for her and Penny, but then she thought it might be nice to take Penny out for lunch. They didn’t always get a lot of alone time to bond, she’s been so busy with three new product launches and dealing with the bureaucracy of it all that the only real time they’ve managed to get together has been over lunch. It’s kind of become their thing.

Which she loves, don’t get her wrong! But maybe today they could carve out some girl time. Maybe lunch and some back to school shopping? Maybe something fun afterwards?

When she got back to the penthouse, she couldn’t go any farther than the living room before kicking off her heels and tossing her briefcase down on the couch.

She made her way to Penny’s room, loosening a few buttons on her collar and unbuckling her belt on the way. She finally felt like she could breathe again. She was just about to knock on her door when she saw it was cracked so she popped her head in. The room was empty and the bathroom was dark.

Maybe Penny went down to the lab? She did that sometimes when she got bored.

Brow furrowed, she backed out of the room and made her way down the hall to her and Tony’s room.

When she first walked in, she didn’t notice anything amiss. It wasn’t until she threw her belt down on the bed and turned around that she noticed her vanity.

It looked like it had been ransacked. There was powder and lipstick laying out. One of her pallets was just left open and several of her brushes had clearly been used and left out as well, leaving smears of product all across the counter. It was an absolute mess.

That was when she heard the giggling coming from her closet. Even before she turned around, she had to fight back the grin creeping onto her face. There was only one person who could have done this and she had a sneaking suspicion that the culprit was about to be caught red handed.

Pepper crept over, footsteps silent on the carpet floor, more glad then ever that she took her shoes off in the living room.

As soon as she reached the doorway, her mouth dropped open in shock.

There was Penny, still in her Betty Boop sleep shorts and a light blue tank top. She was trying on different pairs of Peppers sunglasses, wearing her feather boa from the Halloween party last year. Her face was covered in bright, glittery, mismatched makeup. She was making faces and posing in front of the mirror. She finally settled on a pair of glasses she liked and smiled real big.

It was maybe the most precious thing Pepper had ever seen.

Penny did a couple spins before she finally noticed her but when she did, she paused mid spin.

For several seconds, all they did was stare at each other in silent shock. Then Pepper saw her eyes dart from the door, then back to Pepper, and she realized what Penny was going to do just an instant before the door slammed in her face.

Pepper had to slap a hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing or maybe crying. Maybe both.

It’s just… Penny hadn’t called her mom yet, and that was fine. She wasn’t upset. Things were still new and maybe she would, maybe she wouldn’t ever call her that but regardless, in this moment… she felt like a mom.

Her daughter, because she already saw Penny as her daughter, even if she hadn’t said it yet, was in her closet playing dress up in her clothes and her makeup and it made something warm and bright bloom in her chest.

She didn’t realize how much she wanted that until this very moment.

It was so cute and she was going to request for FRIDAY to make a home movie and a photo album out of the security footage as soon as she could but for now she really had to get ahold of herself because Penny looked half way between scared and embarrassed and that’s not what she wanted.

She had to take a few seconds to laugh quietly in breathy little huffs before she got enough control of herself to approach the closet door.

She raised her hand and knocked softly.

“Honey? Don’t you think hiding in the closet is a little bit on the nose?” she said with a smirk, letting the humor leak into her voice.

There was some shuffling from behind the door, some muttering that Pepper couldn’t quite catch but she waited.

She waited until it got quiet and her laughter started to turn into concern.

Until she finally heard a mumble from the other side of the door.

“… No… I'm not gay…” Penny said, petulantly.

Pepper had to bite her lip to keep quiet at that.

“Nose adjacent, then.” She conceded.

Pepper waited patiently. Tony wasn’t the only one reading the parenting books and one of the most common themes in every single one was to not force your kids to do something you want them to do and to let them come to you. This might not be the exact situation the authors were thinking of when they wrote that but it still seemed like solid advice.

She refused to force her way in. She would wait for Penny to feel safe enough to open the door.

It took almost three full minutes of silence before Penny opened the closet door just a crack. Pepper could only see a little sliver of her in the light of the room, one fearful eye and a worry creased brow.

She had taken off the sunglasses and the boa and all that was left was her erratic attempt at a full face of makeup. Pepper was struck for one second by how young she looked.

“… You’re not mad at me?” Penny whispered, so soft Pepper almost missed it.

She just smiled and shook her head.

“No, sweetheart, I’m not mad. Not even a little.”

Penny hesitated for another second before cautiously opening the door and taking one tentative step forward. Pepper didn’t like how timid she was being but she also knew that that was something that could only be fixed with time.

Pepper smiled down at her warmly, setting her hands on each of Penny’s shoulders and giving her a once over.

From the way Penny was biting her lip and fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, she could guess that she had a spectacular blush going on under all of that makeup.

“This is quite a look you’ve got going on. I think maybe the lime green isn’t your color. Or at least not with this eye shadow.”

She counted it as a win when Penny huffed out a small laugh and seemed to be fighting down a smile.

Pepper moved to her side and draped an arm around Penny’s shoulders, steering her back towards the vanity. She wasn’t mad, but that didn’t mean she was going to let the kid get away with murder.

“Now, first things first, I think you have a little cleaning up to do.” She looked at Penny from the side of her and saw her flinch a little upon seeing the state she had left her beautiful vanity in.

“I’m sorry!” she said quickly and immediately rushed forward and started cleaning up the countertop.

“It’s okay. But what do you say, after you finish cleaning this all up, we spend the day together? Have a girls day?”

She tried to keep her tone neutral, not wanting Penny to feel bad if she didn’t want to, but with the way the girl spun around, eyes wide in excitement, she realized she had nothing to worry about.

“Really?!” she said, eager and subconsciously clutching the eye shadow pallet in her arms.

Pepper chuckled and smiled. A new idea forming in her head and she couldn’t believe they hadn’t done this yet.

Pepper leaned down and gave Penny a peck on her forehead before leaning back with a wide grin. “Really really. You know what? You clean up in here, go wash your face, and I’m going to go make some calls.”

“Okay!”

Penny jumped into her task and Pepper was, honestly, just as excited. This day was going to end much better than how it started.

Penny couldn’t believe what was happening. This was one of the best days of her life, for sure!

They ordered lunch in from one of Peppers favorite places, a French restaurant that sounded very expensive and she got to try escargot for the first time and it was awful but Pepper just laughed when she had to spit it out so it was okay.

Then people showed up, wheeling in these big chairs and some utility carts with a bunch of nail polish and stuff and Pepper lead them into her room and then they set up a whole salon!!! Right there in the bedroom!!

They were each given robes and slippers to change into and then, when they got back, there were two people in black scrubs waiting by the chairs with ring lights and face steamers.

She and Pepper sat right next to each other and got facials and it was amazing! Penny had never had a facial before and she didn’t even have to leave the house!

Not too long after, they both heard the ding of the elevator opening and heavy footsteps walking around the kitchen.

“Hellooo? Anybody home?” Tony was yelling through the house.

Pepper just rolled her eyes and yelled back, “We’re in here!” in a singsong voice.

Tony walked in a few seconds later and froze, taking in the sight in front of him.

Pepper gave him a satisfied little look from where she was reclining in her chair. “Hi honey.” She said sweetly.

“Hi dad!” Penny practically yelled in her enthusiasm, smiling wide enough her cheeks hurt.

“Hello.” He laughed. “What's all this?”

Penny jumped in before Pepper could even open her mouth. “We’re having a spa day!” again, almost yelling, but neither adult could even think of telling her to keep it down.

“We each got a facial and then a mud mask,” she indicated both of their faces still covered in a mint green mud mask. “And now we’re getting mani/pedi’s.” she really could not control how smug she sounded.

Tony’s smile grew as he took everything in, peaking over the shoulders of the two nail techs currently painting the girls toes.

He stood back, bringing a hand to his chin in an exaggerated thinking pose. “You know, it just seems like you’re missing something…” finally, he snapped his fingers like he just figured it out and left the room in a hurry.

Penny looked at Pepper in confusion but the woman just chuckled and rolled her eyes.

Tony came back in a few minutes later with champagne flutes filled to the brim. “A couple of mimosas for my two favorite lady’s?”

He walked them over carefully, trying not to spill and handed one to Pepper along with a short peck on the lips.

“Thank you sweety.” She said with a smile and a besotted look.

Then he leaned over to penny and gave her the other champagne flute (With just orange juice) and a smacking kiss on the top of her head. “And here you go, princess.”

“Thanks dad.” She giggled and then thrust out her hand to show him the manicure she just got.

He examined her short, lavender colored nails very seriously, taking her hand and looking at it from every angle.

“Very nice. I love it.”

Penny giggled again. It was like she just couldn’t stop!

Today had been amazing. Pepper actually wanted to spend time with her. Sometimes she worried that Pepper liked her but more or less just put up with her. But today? She hadn’t gotten mad when she found Penny dancing like an idiot in her closet, wearing her makeup and touching her stuff. She even offered to teach her how to do her own makeup whenever she wanted!

Pepper and Tony were talking quietly about work stuff and how their days had been. Dad was sitting to her left on the bed and Pepper was on her right side. They were leaning over her to talk to each other and all at once, it felt so real.

She had parents. Maybe Pepper would even let her call her mom someday. She wasn’t brave enough to ask yet but now the thought wasn’t so scary.

She had parents, and she didn’t get yelled at for touching Peppers stuff. She was allowed to wear makeup and she was allowed to paint her nails.

Dad called her princess.

“Honey? Are you okay?” Peppers worried voice brought her back out of her head. Both of her parents were looking at her in concern.

Dad reached up slowly and brushed his thumb over her cheek, wiping away the tears she didn’t even realize were there.

When had she started crying?

She laughed to herself and wiped her face with a watery smile.

“Mmhmm… I’m just happy.”

Pepper took her hand and held it gently in her own. Dad reached out and squeezed her knee. Both of them were smiling gently at her.

Yeah. She was happy.

Chapter Text

Three weeks before school starts.

Tony sat in his office, the large floor to ceiling windows displaying the New York City skyline behind him. He was wearing one of his favorite suits, a black button up and burgundy tie with a well tailored suit jacket of the same color. Looking at himself in the camera, he knew he cut an imposing figure and he hoped that would serve him well today.

This was an important meeting after all. He wanted to make a good impression.

He watched the clock on his computer screen flip over to 10 am, and the Tony Stark™ approved secure meeting room linked up with the other occupant.

Tony kept his face in a calm neutral as Mr. Morita popped up on screen, and he saw the mans face go from pleasant and curious to wide-eyed shock as he registered who exactly he was meeting with.

“Hello Mr. Morita. Good morning.”

The other man was silent for a few seconds and Tony decided to just let it run. If Penny was going to be attending this Midtown STEM school for the next four years, then they needed to get the star struck behavior out of the way because he planned on being very involved in his daughter's education.

Finally, after a somewhat uncomfortable 37 seconds, the man blinked. “M-Mr. Stark! Hello! Uh, I apologize, I-I didn’t realize who I was meeting with. I was simply told this was a meeting with a parent.” It was said as a statement but it definitely sounded more like a question.

Tony nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what this is. In three weeks, when the term begins, my daughter with be attending your school.”

More wide-eyed, stunned silence.

Not nearly as long this time, though. To his credit, Tony noted, Mr. Morita got himself together pretty quickly and slipped into, what Tony assumed, was his professional principal demeanor.  

“I see.” He reached for something off screen and Tony saw him pull a keyboard towards himself and start typing. “And what is her name so I can pull up her file?”

“Well, that’s the thing, or, one of the things we need to work out. Her name is Penelope May Parker-Stark.”

“I assume she is registered under a different name?”

“We would like her name, on your rosters, to be Penelope May Parker for safety and privacy reasons. In your system, however, she’s currently registered as Peter Parker.” Tony watched Morita very carefully. He knew how much Penny wanted to go to this school (and how scared she was of being outed before she was ready) and as much as he wanted to give her whatever he could, he would not send her somewhere that didn’t respect her.

He was pleasantly surprised to see the man accept the information with minimal reaction beyond a look of dawning understanding coming over his face.

“Ahh, I see. I’m assuming this is a recent development?” he asked gently, with a friendly smile, looking back into the camera.

Tony found himself giving his own wry smirk back. “Very recent, yes. You understand that this is a delicate situation. It was already going to be stressful enough for her, attending school under an alias. The last thing I want is her to be treated poorly on top of that because of who she is.”

Morita was nodding in agreement before Tony even finished. “I understand, sir. We don’t tolerate bullying here. All of our staff are mandatory reporters and truly care about the students who attend Midtown. While we talk, I will take care of everything right now so it’s correct in the system and there wont be any problems.”

Tony let himself lean back in his chair just a bit. Morita seemed like a decent guy at least so that was one concern lifted from his shoulders. Now, on to the next.

“Thank you, I appreciate that. Since I’ve got you here, I wanted to talk to you about your security system and protocols…”

First day of school

Okay. First day of school. She’s ready. They did all her back to school shopping with her mo- with Pepper, she has her notebooks and her new backpack and her and Ned were going to meet outside and they were going to walk in together so there was no reason to be nervous.

At least that’s what she kept telling herself on the ride into Midtown. Uncle Happy was driving her, just like he would every morning, but either Dad or Pepper were going to pick her up most days.

“It’ll be fine.” The gruff voice from the front of the car dragged her back into the present. Uncle Happy (Which he insisted she call him!) was looking at her in the rearview mirror while they sat at the red light. “If anyone gives you trouble, you text me or your dad and we’ll take care of it.” He gave her a hard look, as if daring her to disagree.

She ducked her head and gave him a shy smile.

“Yes, uncle Happy.” She murmured.

A lot happened over the summer. A lot happened over the last five or six months, actually.

Aunt May was gone, which still made her choke up even thinking about it so she tried not to most of the time.

She moved in with the Starks and they adopted her. It still felt like a dream.

She came out to them and so far, everyone she told has accepted and loved her anyway. Something she never thought she would have but was desperate to hold onto no matter what.

She started Hormone therapy! She and dad had to meet with Dr. Cho to figure out how it would work with her special physiology and come up with their own version but she started it just last month. Three pills every morning with her breakfast. She somehow thought it was going to be a lot more difficult but her therapist agreed it was best for her mental health to start HRT before puberty came in swinging and she could not be more grateful. She couldn’t even imagine going through male puberty. It left her sick to her stomach.

Her birthday was last week and she was officially fourteen! It was a small party but it was exactly what she wanted. Dad had rented out a laser tag arena and arcade and she and Ned spent the whole day running around playing every game they could. It was awesome!

(She was calling Mister Stark ‘dad’ all the time now… she has a dad!)

Things had been going really well.

It truly felt like she had been living in a dream and now she had to go back to the real world.

She still didn’t leave the tower very much. Not even to be Spider-man.

She’d seen online, people were asking where Spider-man had gone. Some thought he moved, or got abducted by the government. Others said he must be sick or even dead.

It’s not that Penny didn’t want to go back out and do super hero stuff, keep the city safe, be the friendly neighborhood Spider-man.

She did. She does! It’s just… she hasn’t put the suit on since May passed and she didn’t know if she could. How could she go out and be Spider-man when something as simple as going to school is making her heart race and cold beads of sweat drip down the back of her neck?

How could she go out and save the people of the city when she couldn’t even save her own aunt?

“Hey!”

Penny jumped in her seat, looking up to the front of the car where Happy was half turned to look at her. By the crease in his brow, it hadn’t been the first time he called out to her.

“Get your head out of the clouds and get outta my car.” His tone was curt but Penny could see the hint of a smile playing around in the corner of his mouth so she just grinned and unbuckled her seatbelt.

“See you later Uncle Happy!” she chirped as she grabbed her bag and hopped out of the car, trying to act braver than she felt.

She was wearing her favorite outfit, the same one dad picked out for her the day they adopted her. She found some cute hair clips with little flowers that looked the same as the ones on her dress and she had them in on both sides of her head, keeping her hair out of her face.

It took no time to find Ned, he was waiting outside the entrance like he said he would be and they made their way in together, picked up their schedules and went out in search of their lockers. They were over joyed to find them right next to each other.

“Locker Buddy’s!” they said at the same time, high fiving like a couple of nerds right there in the hall. They were going to a ‘nerd school’, after all, so they figured it was okay.

They also discovered they had three classes together and the same lunch period so Penny was beyond happy with that.

The first bell rang right as they finished stuffing their lockers with the rest of their books. Penny glanced back down to her schedule one more time, making little notes in the margins.

• Chemistry – Mr. Harrington – 8am-9:10am (With Ned!)
• Calculous – Ms. Summers – 9:15am-10:20am (With Ned!)
• History – Mrs. Marshall – 10:25am-11:25am
• Lunch – 11:25am-12:25pm (With Ned!!)
• English – Mr. Chase – 12:30pm-1:30pm
• E. – Mr. Hammer – 1:35pm-2:40pm (With Ned!)
• Spanish – Mrs. Gonzolez – 2:45pm-3:45pm
• Clubs – Mon-Wed-Fri – 4pm-6pm (optional)

Chemistry first. She loved chemistry! And it was with Ned!

She was so lucky that she got to start her day off with a class she loved and her best friend.

They both turned to head down the hallway towards their classroom, but Penny lagged a few paces behind and let out a shaky breath behind Ned’s back. She didn’t want him to know how nervous she actually was. She felt truly blessed that her shorter stature and slim build helped her ‘pass’ better but there was still the fear that someone would know. That someone might be able to just look at her and know and it made her jumpy and maybe a little more paranoid than she needed to be.

She tried to shake off her nerves before catching up to Ned. Her heart was still racing in her chest but she felt braver with her friend by her side.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Her first two periods went by pretty fast. Too fast, if she was honest. Chemistry and calculous would always be her favorites, but now she had history and after the first five minutes, she could already tell this was going to be rough.

Mrs. Marshall was probably nice enough, but her voice was a little grating to listen to. It was high pitched and somehow too loud and yet difficult to hear at the same time. Which, how?

Honestly, the worst part was the kid who sat behind her. He and one of his buddies were whispering the whole class. She tried to focus on the teacher but he was so close that she couldn’t help but to pick up some of their conversations and he was gross.

“I swear, she had the biggest tits I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, right. Stacy did not flash you.”

“She didn’t have to. All I had to do was pull the tie on her bikini!”

They dissolved into childish giggles and Penny had to bite her lip to keep quiet.

“Who else do you have today?”

“I had chemistry first period with Mr. Harrington –”

He did? She didn’t remember seeing this asshole in that class but it’s possible that’s because he kept his stupid mouth shut.

“I’ve got English later and then PE. How about you?”

Penny shook her head and tried to tune back into the lesson. If she had any luck at all, those two wouldn’t share any more classes with her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She was not lucky.

She had no luck. In fact, whatever the opposite of luck was? That’s what she had.

That asshole who sat behind her, who she now knew called himself Flash (which was the dumbest name she had ever heard) happened to share her lunch period and her English class. He was a bit older then the rest of them because apparently he got held back in elementary school, according to Abe who sat with her and Ned at lunch.

Honestly, it was fine. They didn’t even interact and then it was PE with Ned (and somehow also flash) and all they did was do laps around the track so it was fine. At the end of the day, her Spanish teacher, Mrs. Gonzolez, handed out stacks of papers with all the information about the school clubs they offered and she eagerly took all of them.

She was determined to make high school better than middle school had been. She wanted to join clubs. She wanted to make friends. She wanted to be known as Penny and not Peter. She was still terrified of people finding out she was trans but so far, today had been fine and that’s exactly what she told her dad when he picked her up after school.

Three months later

Looking back, Penny really didn’t know how it got as bad as it did. There wasn’t any one huge turning point where the bullying went from just casually annoying to downright criminal. As with most things, it was a slow progression downward until all at once she was standing at the edge of a cliff with no idea how she got there.

It started small.

One day she was sitting in history class and her Spidey sense went off a little. Just a small nudge, and then she felt something hit her in the back of the head, followed by immature giggling behind her and she sighed in annoyance but let it go. It was just a balled-up bit of paper.

Until it wasn’t.

The story they used for her background was as close to true as it could be. She was known to everyone as Penny Parker, a scholarship student who got in on good grades and lived with foster parents.

All, technically true to an extent. Regardless, word still got around that she didn’t live with her bio-parents and there were a few rumors floating around about why, but she didn’t talk about it beyond saying simply that they passed away. After all, she had no reason to lie about that.

One person though, made it his mission to come up with as many nonsensical theories as possible and for some reason he felt the need to pester her about them in class.

“Hey orphan Annie,” Flash whispered from behind her in English in the second week of school. “Did your parents just dump you on the church doorstep or do you think they just tossed you right into the dumpster?”

She flinched away, his hot breath on her ear making her shiver unpleasantly, but still ignored him and kept her eyes focused forward.

A few weeks later a rumor started going around that she spent ‘a lot of time on her knees’ in order to afford food for lunch because even her foster parents didn’t like her. She didn’t have any proof but it wasn’t hard to guess who started that one.

Ned thought she should tell her parents but it didn’t seem that serious. It was annoying, and embarrassing, and the other kids were starting to look at her a bit funny but it was fine.

It was just words.

So what if she kinda started to dread going to school in the morning. As long as she stayed in a group and never got caught alone and as long as she sat in the very back of class so no one could sit behind her and whisper awful things into her ears, it was fine.

Besides, dad seemed stressed enough as it is. He’d been so distracted lately and he wasn’t picking her up from school as often anymore, sending Happy in his place. She could tell there was something big happening at work that he didn’t want to talk about and she didn’t want to pile on. Pepper was pretty tense too.

She didn’t want to make it worse. She could deal with this on her own.

It was just words.

… Until it wasn’t.

One day, in PE, they were running laps again and Penny always liked to stay with Ned (It’s not like she could run all out anyway) so they were going at a somewhat leisurely pace. Flash was about to pass them when he reached out and pulled on her ponytail.

It wasn’t that hard but it still shocked her and made her trip. Ned didn’t see the first time it happened.

The second time he went to pass them, she felt that familiar tingle in the back of her head and knew what was coming before it happened. This time, it wasn’t a light tug, it was a hard yank that tore strand of hair from her head and dragged her to the ground. She landed hard on her knees and Flash took off laughing.

“What where you're going, Oliver Twist!” he cackled.

Ned helped her up, looking furious.

“Penny, you’ve got to tell someone.” He said, frown in full force.

“Ned, it’s fine.”

“Stop saying it’s fine! It’s not fine! He just pulled you to the ground!”

Penny sighed, dusting herself off to buy some time.

“Penny, I’m worried.” Ned continued softly. They started walking again, Penny biting her lip. She didn’t want Ned to worry.

“Okay, I’ll, I’ll think about telling a teacher, okay?”

Ned had a pinched look on his face, like he wanted to say something more, but after a few seconds he nodded, accepting what he could get.

Penny Mentally added him to the list of people she wasn’t trying to disappoint and silently decided she would try to hide it better.

After that day, it was like a flood gate was opened. Suddenly, Flash was everywhere. They already shared most of their classes together, even more than she shared with Ned which never failed to piss her off whenever she thought about it.

Now, though, there was touching.

Again, it started small. He would poke her in the back or the sides when she walked by, pull on her hair when the teachers had their backs turned. One day during lunch he dropped a cup full of ice down the back of her shirt and laughed with his annoying friends when she jumped up and screamed.

Her Spidey sense was going off constantly now, from the second she set foot in the building, it was like a low hum in the back of her mind that only got louder the closer Flash and his little buddies were to her.

Last week, it got worse.

It was after gym and she had stayed behind in the girls locker room to change, taking her time, trying to give all the boys (Flash) more time to leave. She didn’t even care that she was going to be late for Spanish. Ned wasn’t there that day and they had played dodge ball and Flash was making a personal challenge to hit, not just her, but as many other kids as possible in the face and the back of the head as he could.

Worse still, the PE coach saw this and all he did was tell him to cut it out. They let him keep playing though. Penny spent the whole period jumping in front of other kids so no one walked away with a broken nose.

When she thought she had waited long enough, she peaked out of the door and checked if the coast was clear. There was still a low hum in the back of her head but she’s gotten so used to it that she practically ignored it by this point.

She should have known better.

The second she stepped out of the locker room and into the empty courtyard, there was a loud resounding SMACK quickly followed by a sharp pain on her backside. She yelped and whipped around fast, her hands covering her butt as she backed up.

There was Flash, with his hand raised and a dirty smirk on his face.

“Lookin’ pretty thick there, Annie. All that time on your knees paying off?” he crowed.

He spanked her. He actually fucking spanked her.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed. All he did was grin maliciously and skip away. She felt tears of humiliation gathering in her eyes but she refused to cry at school. Not because of him.

She was at least grateful that no one else was around to see what had just happened.

She was glad it was Wednesday and there was only two days left to make it through but that didn’t stop the rest of the week from being awful. They had assigned seating in history which meant she couldn’t hide in the back of the class room like she could in her other classes so Flash was still sat right behind her. He kept his foot on the back of her seat, nudging her butt with his toes and no matter how far forward she tried to move, it wasn’t far enough.

She couldn’t even go to the bathroom in between classes anymore without him following her, knocking into her ‘accidentally’, crowding her into the wall and all the while he kept up with that stupid smarmy grin on his face.

She couldn’t wait for the weekend but it went by so fast and now it was Monday again and Happy was driving her to school and she didn’t want to go. She almost asked her dad if she could just stay home today but he looked so stressed out and his hands were all jittery like they get when he’s anxious and had too much coffee and, well, complaining would just make it worse, wouldn’t it?

It was just a little bullying. Kids get bullied sometimes. That’s what the PE coach said when Flash started bullying other kids too. They went to Mr. Hammer about it and he brushed it off and told them to get tougher skin. She wasn’t a cry baby and she wasn’t a wimp. She could deal with it. It was fine.

Yet still, the closer she got to school, the faster her heart was beating. She had to sit on her hands to stop them from shaking. She couldn’t help jiggling her leg nervously the whole way there, not even when Happy gave her a look when they were a few blocks away.

Walking into school felt like walking into a pit of snakes. Her Spidey sense was cranked up to high gear before she even got out of the car. It felt like every corner was hiding her own personal monster.

Ned was still out sick with a nasty flu so she was on her own but she was careful. She walked fast and hid behind groups. She didn’t even try to go to lunch. Her stomach was tied up in so many knots she doubted she’d be able to eat anything anyway. Instead she just walked around the far end of the field, as far from everyone else as she could get while still being on school grounds.

It was halfway through English class that she was really regretting that choice.

Lunch would have been a good time to go to the bathroom.

Actually, during class wouldn’t be bad either. There was a better then average chance that Mr. Chase would only let one student go at a time and with that thought, she raised her hand and asked if she could go.

Penny decided to use the bathroom by the chem labs. All the classrooms in that area were closed for the day because some kid decided to mix the wrong chemicals and accidentally made a smoke bomb. They aired it out as much as they could but still kept it closed for the rest of the day.

She figured it would be unused.

The novelty of being able to use the girls restroom still hadn’t worn off yet and even though she felt kind of silly for it, every time she got to go into the girls instead of being forced into the boys just made her a bit giddy.

The last couple weeks had definitely put a damper on that, with Flash following her around and just generally making everything miserable. It was nice to be able to just go to the bathroom by herself and not be afraid.

All that to say, she let her guard down. In the girls room in that empty section of school, she relaxed for just a second.

She should have known better. She should have been on guard all the time. She should have listened to her Spidey sense even if it was going off all the time.

Just as she was leaving the restroom, someone grabbed her and slammed her back into the wall making her head crack against the hard brick. Flash was there, looming over her and she hated that he was taller than her.

“Hey Annie.” He smirked unkindly.

“My name is Penny.” He’d been calling her Annie ever since the first time he made a reference to little orphan Annie and this had become such an automatic response that she didn’t even think before her mouth was forming the words, despite the way her heart was beating so hard she was sure he must be able to hear it.

“Uh huh.” Flash leered down at her, his eyes raking over her body and she could feel it like fingers on her skin. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around herself, hunching her shoulders.

“What are you doing?” she tried to make her voice sound strong or angry or firm or anything but the meek little thing it came out as. She could feel her face heating up in embarrassment.

“I just thought we could have some fun.” Flash said lowly, his smirk widening to a cruel grin. “How much do you usually charge? I swear I’m good for it.”

From there, everything happened so fast. Flash surged forward and slammed his mouth onto hers, grabbing the back of her head and forcing his tongue into her mouth. She tried to shove him back but it was like all her muscles were locked up. Like suddenly her arms were made of stone and it took everything in her to get them to move.

It didn’t even phase him and he pinned her back to the wall, one of his hands moving down to her chest. She tried to knock his hand away but he had a firm grip on her blouse and ended up ripping it open, all the buttons flying off in every direction, exposing her training bra. She heard something tear and it sent a sharp spike of fear down her spine.

She couldn’t fight, why couldn’t she fight? She couldn’t even scream! Her body wasn’t doing what she wanted it to do and she couldn’t breath and god she’d never been this scared before! She wanted to push him away but she couldn’t make her arms move and instead they both somehow ended up on the floor.

He was on top of her.

She felt his hands at the buttons to her jeans. Penny flipped over and tried to crawl away but Flash grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her back.

Entirely by accident, she ended up kicking him between the legs and finally he was off of her and on the ground several feet away.

Penny did the only thing she could think to do.

She ran.

That same day…

Penny ran. She ran straight out of the school, down the street and didn’t stop until she reached the tower. She was clutching the two sides of her blouse, keeping them closed together in a fist as she ran. She didn’t pay attention to the people in the lobby when she finally got to the tower and ran right passed the security check point and didn’t question why the private express elevator was already waiting for her by the time she got to it.

The sudden sharp silence of the empty elevator was deafening.

Her whole body was shaking. She was out of breath and sweating and the tears she felt like she’d been holding back for weeks were burning behind her eyes.

“P-penthouse, please.” The elevator was already moving but she still tried to squeak out her destination. She thought that maybe Friday had said something in return but she didn’t hear it. It seemed like she blinked and suddenly she was looking into the foyer.

On shaky legs, she walked, practically stumbled, down the hall and to her parents bedroom. She wanted her mom and dad. She had to get to them.

She pushed their door open slowly and looked around.

“M-mama? Daddy?” why was it so hard to talk? It was like there was a rock in her throat and her voice kept coming out shaky and weak.

There, thrown carelessly across the back of a chair, was her dads old MIT sweatshirt. It was her favorite one to steal and she quickly dropped her torn and ruined blouse on the floor and pulled the sweatshirt over her head. Immediately she felt safer. It was big on her and covered her all the way down to her knees.

Penny staggered her way back down the hall, ending up near the kitchen.

“Dad?” she called out, much softer than she intended, but it was no use. The place was quiet and empty. She was alone.

Her chest felt tight and her stomach hurt and her head was still throbbing from where it hit the wall earlier and all she wanted was her mom and dad.

“F-Friday? Where’s dad?”

“The boss is on the avengers common floor. Would you like me to take you to him?” if an AI could sound compassionate, Friday had it down.

Penny simply nodded and walked back towards the elevator.

It was getting harder to see, harder to breath, harder to keep standing. She could barely hear anything passed the rushing sound in her ears. She wiped her hand down her face and was surprised to feel it come back wet. When did she start crying?

Unconsciously, she hugged herself around her middle and tried to focus on the smell of her dad surrounding her.

Finally the doors opened again and she managed to take a few small steps out before her body just stopped and she couldn’t move another step.

She couldn’t move.

Swallowing around the massive lump in her throat, she opened her mouth and yelled as loud as she could manage.

“DAAAD!”

It was closely followed by a sob and then the sound of running feet.

Tony came running around the corner, took one look at her and rushed to her side. Penny, the second she saw her dad, lifted her arms in the universal sign for ‘up’, not unlike a toddler would, but she was far too upset, scared, hurt to care about that.

She threw her arms up around his neck right as her legs started to give out and he stooped down to wrap her up tight in his arms.

“Honey, what happened? Why aren’t you in school? Are you okay?”

His questions came fast, one after the other, dripping in concern and the sound of his voice was like a balm to her heart.

For a second all she could do was cry, but Ned had been right all along. She should have told her dad what was happening and then maybe today wouldn’t have happened at all. She had to tell. It was too much. She thought she could handle it but –

“Daddy,” she said, high pitched and rough, her voice breaking in the middle. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I know I should have told you and I’m so-sorry!” she took a big gasping breath as the words just came falling out of her. “I thought I could handle it but I just want him to stop touching me!”

She felt her dad go stiff at her words, then he was holding her even tighter, slowly rocking her back and forth. “Sweetheart, what do you mean? Tell me what happened.”

She sniffled and buried her head in his shoulder, the tears never stopped as she told him everything.

“There’s this boy and he’s awful. He keeps spreading rumors about me and, but, now it’s more. He, he spanked me outside of gym last week and then today, h-he, he w-waited for me outside the bathroom and, and he pinned me to the wall and,” she had to pause to take a breath, ashamed of the next part more than anything else. “I know you and uncle Happy w-were teaching me how to fight but I j-just froze! It was like I couldn’t move!” she was practically begging him to understand, to not think less of her for not fighting back. To not be disappointed in her. “And, then he… he tore my shirt open and, and we were on the f-floor, and – ”

“Okay, okay! Okay honey, I understand. It’s going to be okay, daddy’s got you. You’re safe baby. You’re safe now.”

Penny closed her eyes, letting his words wash over her.

“I’m sorry.” She said again, weakly.

“No!” Tony replied emphatically. He set her feet back on the ground (at some point he must have straightened up and her feet had just been dangling a few inches over the floor without her even noticing) and pulled back just far enough to hold her tear streaked face between his hands.

“Don’t you apologize, baby. You did everything right.” He sounded so sure but Penny just couldn’t help but feel like she should have done more. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do in that situation: you got away, you got home safely, and you told me right away. You did everything right, sweetheart, okay? I promise.”

Penny nodded but couldn’t keep her chin from wobbling violently and Tony scooped her up again, holding her tightly and rubbing her back in soothing circles as she sobbed into his shirt and buried her face under his chin. It was the safest place she could ever find.

He held her until her sobs turned into little hiccups and the shaking that had permeated her body had finally subsided.

“Friday, elevator please.” There was barely a second between him asking for the elevator the ding to signal the doors opening. Tony walked forward, Penny still hanging off of him, feet dangling, until he could gently set her down in the elevator car.

He pulled back again, this time using the sleeve of his ridiculously expensive suit jacket to wipe her face clean of the tears and snot.

“Here’s what’s gonna happen, okay? Are you listening?” Tony spoke quiet and gentle while Penny nodded meekly, sniffling. “You are going to go upstairs and take a nice warm bath with all the fancy products in me and Peppers big tub. Then you’re going to get into your comfiest jammies. I have to finish something down here for just a minute but I will be right behind you, I swear. And I’m going to order us dinner from that Italian place we like, yeah?”

“w-with garlic bread?” Penny had to ask, ignoring the way her voice still wobbled.

“Of course there’s gonna be garlic bread. Do I look like heathen to you?” Tony joked and Penny actually felt a ghost of a smile creep into the corners of her mouth.

“Dad…” she bit her lip and one more tear managed to leak out of her eyes. “I don’t wanna go back to school tomorrow…” she mumbled miserably.

Tony face grew serious and firm. “Honey, you are not setting foot back in that school until you, me, Pepper and uncle Happy are all satisfied that you’ll be safe there. Scouts honor.” He finished, holding up three fingers in a poor imitation of a salute.

Penny giggled wetly, still sniffling. “You were never a scout.”

“I could have been a scout.” Tony answered with a grin. He took a deep breath and leaned in, plunking their foreheads together and looking her in the eye. “I am so proud of you for telling me, princess. You don’t have to carry this around anymore, okay? So drop it all, the huge weight this must have been, right here at my feet. I’ve got it from here.”

She nodded one last time, lunging forward for another hug. Tony squeezed her tight before pulling back and dropping a big kiss onto her head.

“I’m right behind you, okay?”

“O-okay.”

“I love you, baby. I’m so proud of you.”

“Love you, dad.” She gave a tiny wave as the doors closed.

God, this was a nightmare, Tony thought. This whole day, honestly the last few months were just awful but this really took the cake.

“Tony?”

And the SHIT TRAIN just kept on rolling. Slowly, Tony turned away from the elevator to look at his three guests. Clint, Natasha and Steve were staring back at him with looks ranging from shock and disbelief to deep concern.

Without saying a word, he marched back into the living area where their little meeting had been taking place.

“Tony, what – ”

Tony cut Steve off, not wanting to hear it and definitely not in the mood for it.

“Here are the documents.” He opened his briefcase and yanked out three thick paper packets and tossed them onto the coffee table. “They outline all the details of your parole. You’re not to leave the tower and any access you had in the past has been revoked.”

“You have a kid?” Clint whispered, disbelievingly. “You’ve had a daughter this whole time and never – ”

And that was immediately enough of that.

“Let me make one thing real fucking clear.” He said, slamming his briefcase shut and spinning on his heel to glare them with steel in his eyes. “We are not friends. Any relationship we may have had in the past is gone and this,” he pointed viciously to the documents he was leaving behind, “Is the last thing I do for you. Sign them or don’t, I don’t care but if you don’t sign them, you have 24 hours to get out of the country or you’ll be arrested. The fact that I’m being forced to house you for the duration of your probation is as much a punishment for me as it is for you.” Tony grabbed his briefcase from the couch and took wide hurried steps back towards the elevator.

“Friday! The ex-avengers are to be under supervision. They are not allowed on any other floor of the tower besides this one, the gym, and the living areas assigned to them. Absolutely none of them are allowed into the penthouse or on any of the business floors. Is that clear.”

“As crystal, Boss.”

“And that girl is my personal intern. If anyone ever asks you who she is you will tell them that she is my personal intern. Do you understand?” he asked quietly, but the rage in his voice made it obvious it wasn’t actually a question. They nodded in agreement anyway.

The elevator was already waiting for him when he turned back around.

“Tony,” Nat called out, softly, trying not to piss the man off any further than he was. He still glared at her when he turned around. “I hope your intern is okay.”

He didn’t say anything as the doors closed in front of him.

Chapter Text

It was Penny’s first day back out as Spider-man.

Yes. Spider-man.

She talked a lot with her dad about going back out and being the friendly neighborhood spider-man again and they both agreed, in order to protect her identity, that she should stay as Spider-MAN. No one would ever think Spider-man was a fourteen-year-old girl. It was the perfect cover.

Turns out, dad had been waiting for her to tell him she was ready to get back out there and had made a whole new suit for her in anticipation of it!

He added an automatic voice modulator that made her sound like a boy and the body of the suit was slightly more structured to hide any ‘curves’ she might develop.

They settled on some new rules she had to follow and she had no plans to break them on her first night back.

Anxiously, she stood on the roof of the tower, just breathing. She was nervous. It had been so long since she went out and sometimes she thought she might have forgotten how but after what happened in school… she needed something to be hers. She was tired of feeling weak. She wasn’t weak, and she missed swinging around New York and seeing all the people wave at her as she went by. She missed feeling like she was part of the community. This was her home and the people of New York were part of her family.

She’d been out of school for almost two weeks. Tomorrow was Friday and it was going to be her first day back. She felt like she needed to go out as spider-man before she could go back to school. Like somehow it would make her braver. She just wanted to feel that sense of control in some part of her life.

“Hi Karen.” She said softly.

“Hello Penny. It’s good to see you again. Are you ready to go?”

“… I think so…”

She took one last deep breath all the way down to her toes and slowly let it out.

Then she jumped.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

*two weeks ago*

Penny did what her dad said and went straight to his bathroom where Friday was already filling the big jacuzzi tub for her.

“Miss Penny?”

“Yeah Friday?”

“Can you step back out into the bedroom please? Just for a few seconds.”

Penny sniffled and furrowed her brow in confusion. “Why?”

She never thought she would see the day when Friday hesitated but she did, before saying in as gentle a tone as an AI could manage, “Penny, what happened to you was a crime and I would like your permission to document any injuries you sustained during the attack. Even if you choose not to press charges, it would be a good idea to have the evidence just in case.”

Penny tried not to cry again. Her attack. She was attacked. At school. The thought flew through her mind almost too fast for her to grab it but she realized in that moment that she hadn’t felt safe in school in a long time and today she was attacked by one of her peers.

Slowly, she nodded and inched her way back out of the bathroom. She peeled off her dads hoodie and her training bra and stood still, with her eyes closed and her arms at her sides until Friday told her she could go back and get in the tub.

She didn’t really want to see what she looked like. Her body hurt so she knew she was hurt but it almost felt like if she didn’t look then it wouldn’t be real.

She looked.

There was a hand shaped bruise on her wrist that went all the way around. When she turned, she saw that the whole of her upper back was purple and red from where he slammed her against the wall and then to the floor. There was a huge goose egg on the back of her head from when it bounced off the ground when they fell.

There was no blood anywhere, thankfully. Everything would probably be gone before noon the next day. It was good that Friday took pictures now, before all her injuries started healing.

She had to look away from the mirror when she felt that familiar burning sensation behind her eyes.

Bath. She wanted a bath. She wanted a bubble bath.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Friday. Where’s Penny? Is she okay?” Tony said the second the elevator doors closed on the ex-avengers. He almost cringed at his own words. Is she okay? Really? Of course she’s not okay.

“Miss Penny is getting into the tub as we speak. She seems to be calmer than before, though her heart rate is still elevated.”

Good. Okay. No, not good, but better at least. He decided to give her a few minutes to decompress. He had some phone calls to make anyway.

“Please inform Pepper that she’s needed at home immediately. Set up a video call with Principal Morita right now and pull the security footage from the school. I want to know exactly what happened.” He sighed, loosening his tie as he pulled his laptop out of his briefcase and set it up at the kitchen island. He sat down heavily on one of the stools at the counter and put his head in his hands.

How could he let this happen? Why didn’t Penny tell them what was going on? She had to have known they would protect her from this… didn’t she?

‘No. Stop it. You are not about to go victim blaming your own daughter.’ He yelled to himself in his head. He didn’t know why Penny didn’t say anything about the bullying, but it didn’t matter right now, but he would find out later.

“Friday, ask Penny what she would like from the Italian place. Lasagna? Pasta? Gnocci? Whatever she wants.”

He waited. It only took five seconds.

“She said ‘yes’.” Friday sounded like she wanted to laugh and, fair enough, because it got a huff out of him anyway. “Shall I place the order?”

“Yeah, go for it. Don’t forget the garlic bread.”

Not two minutes later Pepper came rushing out of the elevator, her heels clicking harshly on the tiled floor.

“What happened? Friday said it was an emergency and something happened to Penny?”

Tony immediately pulled out the stool next to his and pulled her down next to him, trying to calm the brunt of her anxiety. “Penny’s okay. Something happened at school today and – ”

“Boss, principal Morita is on video call.”

“Thanks Fri.”

If possible, Pepper looked even more worried. “It’s that bad?” she questioned cautiously.

He looked her dead in the eye, unable to completely rein in his own anger at the situation. “It’s bad enough that after this, I’m calling the police.”

Her eyebrows shot up into her bangs. This was bad.

She nodded, slipping back into her CEO persona at the drop of a hat. “Start the call, Friday please.” She said, faux air of calm surrounding her.

His laptop screen came alive, the image of Mr. Morita sitting at his desk in the same way he had been months before, on their first call. If he was shocked to see Pepper sitting with him, he didn’t show it.

“Mr. Stark. Miss Potts. Your assistant said this was a matter of some urgency. What can I do for you?”

Tony decided not waste time and got straight to the point.

“My daughter was assaulted at your school today.” He said simply.

The principals eyes widened slightly as he sat back in his seat in shock. “Excuse me?” he breathed out.

“Friday.” Tony barked out, harsher than he intended. “Do you have the footage?”

Instead of answering, a small window popped up in the corner off the screen and a video clip started playing. Tony was never more grateful that he convinced the principal to let him upgrade their school’s security system before classes started.

The three of them sat in silence for several minutes as they watched the security footage. They saw Penny walking down the hall and into the girls restroom. Seconds later, a boy followed behind her and waited behind the door. A few minutes later, the restroom door opened and Penny emerged. The second she was clear of the door, the boy jumped out and slammed her harshly against the wall. All of them winced at sound of the vicious crack of her head hitting the wall.

They listened to the short conversation, faces growing more grim with every word. Then, it happened pretty fast after that. The attack. The assault. That boy tearing her shirt practically in half, exposing her. The short fight that ended with them on the ground.

Tony was biting his cheek so hard he tasted blood. He didn’t need to look at Pepper to know she felt the same.

The clip ended with the boy on the ground and Penny running out of school.

They sat in silence for several long seconds. Tony and Pepper, to calm down after seeing what their kid had gone through. Morita was simply at a loss for words.

“Is there more?” Morita broke the silence to ask. He clearly had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer.

“Yes. There is.” Friday answered him.

Morita sighed deeply, frowning and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Mr. Morita, I believe we need to have a conversation about the safety of your students.” Pepper said, quiet but severe. She turned to look at Tony and a silent conversation passed between them ending with him giving a small nod and Pepper standing with his laptop in her hands. She walked quickly to her office.

Tony had no doubts that she had it handled, and he would much rather be there for Penny when she was finished with her bath.

Tony released a shuddering sigh, toeing off his shoes and throwing down his loosened tie. Today was just a nightmare. Yeah, he knew it was going to be a rough day when he got up that morning but he had no idea how bad it would get.

He made his way down the hall, stopping in Penny’s room so he could grab her favorite sweat pants and a soft looking tee, before continuing to his own room. He saw his old MIT hoodie on his bed and set the clothes down beside it, knowing she was just going to throw it right back on, when he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye.

There was a lavender colored blouse on the floor. He recognized it from the security footage. He picked it up gently. Most of the buttons were torn off and the collar had a rip in it.

He didn’t know how long he had been standing there, just looking at it, when he heard the bathroom door open behind him.

Penny stood there in the doorway, absolutely swimming in peppers plush robe. When she saw what was in his hand her lip started to quiver just a bit, but it was enough to have Tony across the room and pulling her into a tight embrace, the torn shirt left forgotten on the ground.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Two weeks later, back on patrol…

Penny didn’t really have a plan for the night, she just knew she wanted to swing and as she went, she was greeted by the people of New York with cheer. Everywhere were shouts of ‘Spider-man’s back!’ and ‘Where you been, Spidey?!’

She loved it. She had almost forgotten that incredible swoopy feeling she got as she dove off a building and caught herself with a web. The heady feeling of scaling a building and being up so high.

It was the best.

She was only going to be out for a few hours though, she promised dad, so she made a quick loop around a few blocks and found a nice high rise to perch on.

“Got anything for me, Karen?”

“There’s a mugging in the alley down the block to your right. If you hurry you can – ”

“Oooh Say less!” and off she swung.

Yeah, she was finally starting to feel like herself again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Things got a lot easier at school after Flash got expelled. Tony wanted him to be thrown in jail but because he was a minor, he got off with community service. Penny was just happy she would, hopefully, never have to see him again. He wasn’t allowed near the school and he was banned from entering any Stark owned buildings.

At least he was gone and she didn’t have to be on guard every second of the day at school, always looking over her shoulder. She and Ned even joined the Academic Decathlon team! They’d both wanted to earlier in the year but Flash had been on the team and, well, ew.

Penny loved it! Their friend Abe was on the team too, and this girl MJ, who was kind of mean but not in a cruel way. Penny had a bit of a friend crush on her but Ned thought she was scary. After a month on the aca-dec team, she just randomly started sitting by them at lunch. Ned got so scared the first time she did it and it was hilarious.

For once, everything was going well and it didn’t feel like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not that everything was easy, but nothing felt so insurmountable now.

It was nice.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tony was sitting at the kitchen counter pretending to work on his laptop while nervously jiggling his leg. He glanced down the hallway, again, for the fifth time in ten minutes.

 Pepper was sitting at the table looking over some legal documents and pretending not to be endlessly entertained by Tony’s overprotective behavior.

“I think you might be more nervous than she is.” Pepper said with good humor.

“It’s her first date!” Tony replied desperately, like that should be obvious.

“Honey, it’s Ned. We’ve met Ned. We like Ned.” Pepper was trying really hard not to laugh but Tony was being ridiculous. “They’ve hung out before plenty of times!”

“Yeah, but that was just as friends. Now it’s a date. It’s different. Before he was just a friend. Now he’s a boy.” Tony said with emphasis. Pepper rolled her eyes and let him get back to his worrying.

The next second, Penny came running out of her room with a dress draped over her arm. She ran right past Tony and straight to Pepper.

“Mom! What do you think, this one or the one I'm wearing?” she asked with wide eyed desperation.

(The ‘mom’ was a new thing, and it still made Peppers heart soar every time she heard it.)

Penny was wearing a light pink and white floral sundress that flared a bit at the waist and her favorite jean jacket and some white sneakers. To the side she held up another dress, this one dark blue and layered almost like a peasant dress. She bit her lip, waiting for Peppers verdict.

“I like the one you’re wearing. It looks lighter and more you. Are you sure you’ll be warm enough though? It is November, honey.”

Penny shrugged, tossing the blue dress over the back of the couch. “We’ll be inside the whole time anyway. We’re going to the mall and we’re just gonna walk around, hit the arcade and the food court and maybe a few other shops. I think it’ll be okay.” She finished, hoping Pepper wouldn’t tell her to go change into something warmer, she really liked this outfit.

Pepper just hummed, nodding her understanding. “Okay, sweety.”

Just then, the elevator dinged and all three of them turned to see Ned walking out, anxiously rubbing his hands off on his pants. Pepper had to pinch her lips together to hold back her smile when she saw how nervously excited he looked. It was just too sweet.

He had a bouquet of flowers in his hands that he awkwardly held out to Penny when he got close enough. Penny smiled real wide and ducked her head as she took the small bundle.

Pepper noticed Tony nod in approval when he saw which flowers the boy picked out. Honeysuckles and Marigolds. Penny’s favorites. She couldn’t help but agree, those were definitely some brownie points in his favor.

“Thanks Ned.” Penny giggled and while Ned blushed and it was, honestly, adorable.

Pepper got up and reached gently for the bouquet. “These are lovely, Ned. Why don’t I go put these in water so you kids can get going?”

“Yeah!” both Penny and Ned said at the same time, turning to each other and laughing. They tried to rush off towards the door but Tony caught Penny by the arm before she could get very far.

He pulled her in for a quick hug, which she happily returned, and when he pulled back he held out a little black card. “This one is my treat, okay kiddo? So don’t worry about the price of anything, I just want you guys to have fun. Call Happy if you need a ride. He’s driving you guys out to the mall and he’s on standby to come pick you up when you're ready to go. Capiche?” he looked back and forth between the two kids. Both of them nodded in agreement and smiled wide.

Tony handed Penny the card and she took it cautiously, like she wasn’t sure if he was serious or not. She threw her arms around him in another quick hug, whispering a thank you into his ear.

“I love you, princess. Have a good time.” He whispered back.

“We will. Love you too!” Penny carefully tucked the card into her pocket (Her dress had pockets!) and she and Ned bolted for the elevator. They were giggling and whispering to each other before the doors even closed.

Pepper shook her head and went to grab a vase out of the cupboard.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They went to the food court first, of course. They decided to get one thing from every place and created a kind of charcuterie board of junk food. It was incredible. The stomach aches were absolutely worth it. No regrets.

After that was the arcade and they spent an inordinate amount of time playing the two person shooters (which Penny dominated), then some air hockey (which Ned was shockingly good at) and then over an hour of DDR that they were pretty evenly matched at, though Penny did tap into her Spidey powers to come out on top more often then not. Ned only accused her of cheating a couple of times.

Then they got pretzels and frozen lemonades and window shopped while they ate. There was a debate about whether they wanted to go to the build-a-bear or the As-You-Wish first, but a rousing game of rock paper scissors solved that problem and so now they were painting little pieces of pottery at a small table in the back of the store.

Penny snorted a laugh, looking at Ned’s weird creation. “What even is that?”

“I think it’s a cupcake? Or possibly an ice cream cone.” Ned shrugged, dipping his brush back into the paint.

“Yeah… but why does it look like that?” she smiled, crinkling her nose.

“Because I’m painting it to look like the poop emoji!” Ned was far too excited and it sent Penny into near hysterics. Of course that’s what he was doing. Ned just grinned, pointing at her own work of art. “What are you making?”

She turned it towards him and said, just as excited as he was, “It’s an Iron Man Unicorn!”

Ned got his first good look at it and sure enough, it was a unicorn painted in Iron Man colors and the Iron Man pattern. He threw his head back and barked out a laugh.

Behind the counter they heard one of the employees hiss out a ‘shush’ not for the first time, but they were having too much fun to really care.

Penny kept sneaking glances at Ned for the rest of their painting time, trying hard to bite back what she knew would be a goofy looking smile.

She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little nervous about going on a date with Ned. They were such good friends and she had been worried that dating might change things, in a bad or weird way, but so far it was amazing! It just felt like she was hanging out with her best friend, which she was, but now she was also thinking about kissing him at the end of the night. Her first kiss!

(Her real first kiss because she did not consider what happened with Flash as her first kiss. She refused.)

The more she thought about it the more sure she was. She was definitely going to kiss him by the end of the night! If the little looks she kept catching him send her way were anything to go by, she didn’t think he would mind. Sometimes she caught him stealing glances at her lips so she thought he probably wanted to kiss her too!

Every time it got quiet as they painted their little sculptures, one of them would try to subtly look at the other, get caught and then blush and giggle and look down and ugh!! It was cute! She didn’t think it was out of line to say that this was shaping up to be the best first date ever.

It was her turn now. She looked up at Ned from under her eyelashes. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, grinned, and knocked into her shoulder with his own, sending them both into a fit of snickering that earned them another mean look from that lady at the front desk, but they didn’t notice.

It was maybe another half hour of this back and forth before they were both done. They happily got up and put all their supplies away, dropping off their water bowls and paint pans into the sink and washing their paint covered hands as best they could. Penny was very proud to see that she didn’t get any paint on her dress, though Ned was not as lucky. They both carefully carried their creations up to the front and set them down on the counter.

The woman gave them a bit of an annoyed look but she still put on her customer service voice as she started checking them out.

“Okay, for these two little guys and all the paint you used, that’ll be $78.23.” she turned around to put the two ceramics on the drying shelf behind her. “They’ll be ready for pick up in about two weeks from today but you can call after a week or so to see if they’re ready earlier.” She continued, this speech clearly very practiced.

Penny blanched a little at the price but fished around in her pocket for her dads card anyway. She felt kind of bad, she hadn’t even looked at how much it cost! They hadn’t used his card except for food so far. When they went to the arcade, they split the cost between them with money they had both saved up from birthdays and allowances.

She knew her dad wouldn’t mind, he was always trying to get her to ask for more stuff, but it still felt a bit like taking advantage.

Nervously, she handed the black card over to the lady right as Ned bumped into her shoulder.

“What do you want to do next?”

Penny smiled wide. “I thought we were going to Build-A-Bear?”

“Oh yeah!” Neds face lit up at the reminder. “I want to see if they have turtles so I can make my own Rafael!”

Penny laughed and nodded in agreement, before turning back forward and reaching out to take the card back. She paused before she could even finish raising her hand.

The lady was holding the card, looking down at it intently with one eyebrow raised. She flipped the card around to look at the other side and her face got even more pinched. Slowly, she lifted her eyes to look at the two of them.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Penny and Ned shared a confused look. “Uh… is something wrong?” Penny asked, getting more nervous by the second.

The lady scoffed. “Seriously?” she said, holding up the card. “Did you seriously think you could get away with this?”

“Get away with what?” now Penny was getting worried. She did not like it when adults were angry at her and this woman was getting gleefully affronted.

“How did you even manage to steal Tony Starks credit card?” she asked, somehow both offended and impressed.

Penny felt her stomach drop. Oh no, how was she supposed to explain this? When they were buying food, no one looked too closely at the card, they just ran it and gave it back.

“I-it’s, no, it’s not what y- we didn’t steal it!” Penny looked at Ned who was staring at her wide-eyed and just as scared. She couldn’t just go around telling everyone that Tony Stark had adopted her and gave her the card for her to use. Not just because she didn’t want everyone to know but because there was no chance anyone would believe her.

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, the woman did not believe her. Instead, she looked over both of their shoulders to the glass doors behind them and waved someone in. Not a second later, both Penny and Ned felt a heavy hand land on each of their shoulders.

They looked behind them with a gasp to see a large security guard in a yellow and black polo shirt standing there. He glared down at them before looking over their heads to the woman standing smugly behind the counter, holding out the little black card like it was a trophy. “Caught these two trying to use a stolen credit card. You’ll never guess whose it is.” She said with a smirk.

The guard reached out and took it from her without a word. He read the name on the back and he had to do a double take, blinking several times to be sure he was reading it right. He glanced between both of them first in shock, but it was very quickly replaced by suspicion.

The mountain of a man tucked the card into his shirt pocket with a frown and grabbed both of them by their upper arms in a firm grip. “I think you kids better come with me.” He said, already dragging them out the door without waiting for a response.

“Wait! Sir, please! T-this is a mistake!” Penny tried, getting desperate and feeling her cheeks light up as they were dragged through the mall with everyone staring. People were even poking their heads out of other stores to see what was going on. Penny gave up trying to find some plausible excuse, ducking her head down to hide bright red face. No one would believe her anyway.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ten minutes later found both Ned and Penny sitting side by side in a couple of old office chairs in a dingy old office in one of the backrooms of the mall and all Penny could think about was how dirty the walls were and how mad her dad was going to be.

“For the last time, where did you get this card?” the lead security guard was practically yelling in her face and had been since they sat down. Apparently the lady at the pottery store had pushed her emergency button to call for security and then this guy, ‘Lead Security Guard McNeal’, called up and got the whole story from her. Or at least her version of it.

If Penny had to describe Mr. McNeal for a police sketch artist, she didn’t think she would be able to. The man was as average in every way that a human could possibly be average.

Penny gulped, trying to stay calm and channel Pepper’s energy. She shifted her shoulders back and tried very hard to look intimidating. She knew that wasn’t a look she could pull off very well but damn it, she was trying!

“I already told you, we’re not going to say anything until our parents are here.” She was maybe a little too proud that her voice didn’t waver at all as she spoke.

The man groaned in anger and the female security guard who had been standing by the door, her nametag said Christa, finally seemed to have had enough and walked over to the cluttered desk to grab a pad of paper and a pen.

“Alright, why don’t I get your parents numbers and I’ll go ahead and give them a call. Yeah?” she looked pointedly at her superior and they glared at each other for a few seconds. It seemed like even she felt like he was doing a bit too much.

He grumbled but nodded. “Fine. The police are already on their way anyway.” He said with a malicious smirk. He clearly expected that to have some kind of effect on them, but when Ned and Penny glanced at each other they shared the same tight look. Both trying not to roll their eyes. This guy was clearly on a power trip.

Christa almost seemed like she was fighting the same urge when she turned back to face them. She just let out a small sigh and raised the pen. “Who’s first?”

“Oh! Me! Call my mom first.” Ned raised his hand eagerly, like they were still in class, and she passed him the pad and pen to write his information down.

“I’ll be right back.” She said as she backed out through the door.

The silence that followed was uncomfortable.

Penny and Ned sat shoulder to shoulder. Neds leg was bouncing up and down with nervous tension as Penny was picking at a loose thread on her skirt.

Mr. McNeal sat behind his desk, glaring and angrily tapping a pencil on his desktop. Penny could recognize the raised up chair and obnoxiously large desk for the poor attempt at a power play that it was. Pepper had told her all the ridiculous ways men try to make themselves feel big.

It was at this point that Penny made her first mistake. She should not have looked over and made eye contact with Ned. They could read each other too well and she could tell just from his face what he was thinking.

He lifted one eyebrow. ‘You think this guy is compensating for something?’

She bit her lips together and tried not to smile. ‘Do you see the size of his desk? He must be.’

Ned nodded as subtly as he could, now also trying not to smile and looked briefly, pointedly, down at the chairs they were sitting in. ‘Does he really think this is intimidating? I feel like a toddler.’

The chairs were slightly smaller than a normal office chairs would be, leaving them closer to the ground and in combination with the older mans lifted desk chair, the result was more comical than intimidating.

Penny had to fight down a smirk and shrugged. ‘Poor little guy just wants to feel big.’

Her second mistake was laughing. To be fair, Ned laughed too, but still.

“Do you think this is funny?” McNeal sounded one step away from yelling. They both sat up straight, biting their cheeks and folding their hands in their laps just like they would if they were in the principals office.

McNeal stood suddenly and stalked around his desk to stand in front of them. “I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you. I’d be hoping I could find a good enough lawyer to keep me out of jail. You do realize you committed a crime, right?” he got in their faces, pointing from one to the other, his warm, disgusting breath ghosting across their skin.

And, okay, Penny can admit, maybe she let her temper get the better of her. Maybe it would have been better if she had kept her mouth shut. This was supposed to be her first date with her best friend and everything was going so well and then these people had to come and ruin it and having some stranger yell at her for something she didn’t do and breath nasty, day old coffee breath all over her face was just the very last straw.

She smirked, looking at Ned from the corner of her eye. “The only crime here is his receding hairline.” She muttered, and then they both busted out laughing.

Until McNeal hit her.

He reached out lightening fast and slapped her hard across the face. She stared at him in wide eyed shock, holding her stinging cheek. She could feel tears of humiliation gathering in the corners of her eyes.

“Hey!” Ned yelled and stood up faster than Penny had ever seen him move, more furious than Penny had ever thought he could be.

Ned lunged at the older man, throwing one very good punch right at his jaw and placing himself bodily right in front of Penny.

McNeal came back with a shove and grabbed Ned by his shirt, pulling his arm back like he was going to throw his own punch but Ned body slammed him back until they landed against the desk, knocking several things loudly to the floor in their struggle.

It was lucky the door burst open when it did, before any more damage could be done.

Two police officers and the lady security guard from before came running in and separated the two. Ned was still fuming but he didn’t fight when the cops put him in handcuffs and sat him back down in his chair next to Penny.

Penny was still sitting in stunned silence. She could not believe everything that just happened in the last twenty seconds. Her cheek felt warm and painful and she couldn’t stop the embarrassed tears from sliding down her face.

“What the hell is going on here?” one of the officers asked, looking between the three of them.

“He hit her!” Ned screamed, glaring dangerously at the man in question.

“He lunged at me and attacked me! I want to press charges!” McNeal snarled at the same time, voice muffled from behind a wad of tissues. Ned’s punch had left him with a split lip and a bloody nose.

One of the officers looked at Penny and she showed him her bright red cheek without being asked.

Christa stepped in then and said to the other cop, “I called their parents and everyone is on their way right now.” When Penny gave her a curious look, she continued, “When I spoke to his mom, she said she would call you parents for me.”

“How far away are they?” the same cop, cop number one, asked.

“She said everyone could be here in about ten minutes.”

Penny furrowed her brow. Ten minutes was… fast. Even for Tony.

She glanced down at her watch and saw in the center a small, blinking red light.

Ah. Of course.

Karen was in her watch and she must have alerted everyone when they were still being ‘escorted’ out of the pottery shop by the big guy. She’d probably been recording this whole thing.

“If they’re that close by, we may as well wait for them to get here before moving anyone to the station. Can everyone stay calm until the Parents arrive?”

The officer, cop number two, looked around at everyone. McNeal nodded reluctantly and Ned, even though he still looked furious, made no move to leave his seat.

The second officer stepped forward and cuffed one of Penny’s wrists to the arm of her chair as a ‘precaution’. Penny decided not to argue about it. She was done trying to talk to people who wouldn’t listen and clearly everyone here had already made up their minds about what had happened.

Penny reached out with her free hand and placed it on Neds arm. She could feel the muscles underneath slowly loosen but he was still tense. He wouldn’t take his eyes off McNeal.

The older man spoke quietly to the officers. It was low enough that Ned couldn’t hear it but Penny had to sit and listen to him twist the story just subtly enough to make the whole incident her and Ned’s fault, painting himself as the victim and them as violent and out of control. ‘Criminals.’

She roughly wiped her wet cheeks off on her shoulders, not wanting to give that creep the satisfaction of seeing her cry and angry that it was already too late to hide it.

She scooted as close to Ned as she could get and they both sat quietly, refusing to even acknowledge the other people in the room or the officers when they tried to question them. Penny was so done. Everything that happened in the last hour was bullshit and she was mad. It took everything in her to not break the cuffs and trash this whole dumb office.

That was the real rub of it. She could. She could easily break out of these cuffs. She could break that stupid desk in half and not even lose her breath.

Except she couldn’t. Spider-man could, but not her. Ugh.

Sometimes she hated having a secret identity and now she had two. Not only was she secretly Spider-man she was also secretly Tony Starks daughter. She wouldn’t trade either one for the world and she didn’t want to be a typical spoiled rich kid, but god sometimes it would be so cool to say something annoying like ‘Do you have any idea who my father is?’

In reality, she would never, but in her head she could pretend so that’s what she did for the rest of the time it took for her parents to get there.

At some point the officers tried to talk to them, ask them what had happened and they even seemed genuine about it but both Penny and Ned kept their lips sealed and refused to speak. Eventually they gave up and left the two of them alone.

True to their words, it was just a little over ten minutes when she could hear the very familiar sound of Peppers favorite pair of red bottom stilettos and the soft squeak of Tony’s leather shoes coming down the tiled floor of the long hallway leading into the office they were being kept in. She could hear quit a few other foot steps trailing behind them so she knew at least uncle Happy was with them. Other than the sound of their foot steps, they were completely silent and Penny had to hold back a smirk as she could finally relax back in her chair.

Ned saw her sit back and raised an eyebrow in her direction. All she had to do was nod and he sat up, looking at the door. Waiting.

There had been soft talking throughout the room. The police officers were talking to each other and occasionally answering their radio’s. The two security guards, the woman, Christa, and the big guy from before who had joined them a few minutes earlier, were murmuring to each other, looking back and forth between the two teenagers and their boss. It wasn’t loud but there was the low hum of conversation.

When Pepper and Tony walked through the door and into the room, everything went silent. They stood in the doorway for a few seconds, taking in the room, letting their eyes scan over Ned and Penny, sitting and handcuffed. Penny could see her dads jaw clench when he saw her own wrist locked in a cuff. They made eye contact briefly, and Penny was as familiar with the ‘Let me handle this’ look he was giving her as she was ever going to get. This was one time when she was perfectly happy to let herself thoroughly enjoy watching someone get their ass handed to them.

Pepper and Tony moved further into the room, letting Happy and three other people that Penny recognized as being part of Tony’s main legal team into the room.

Penny couldn’t help but to compare Pepper with McNeal. Where McNeal played at being powerful, resorting to cheap psychological tricks to appear in control, Pepper didn’t have to pretend. She walked into the room in her sky high heels, her black suit with the pencil skirt that Penny always loved, her hair pulled back in a French twist and it wasn’t hard to see who had real power and who was just playing dress up.

Pepper let the silence linger for another few seconds (Penny was sure for dramatic effect) before stepping forward.

“I understand there’s been some confusion about Mr. Starks credit card?” she asked innocently, voice smooth as silk.

Cop number one snapped out of his stupor first and pulled the very same credit card out of his pocket. “Yes, ma’am.” He held it out to her and she took it, passing it over to Happy without even looking.

She waited, looking unimpressed with her hands clasped in front of her, for him to continue.

He cleared his throat uncertainly. “Hm, we were called in about these two kids,” he shifted and pointed a thumb back behind him in their direction. “They were caught trying to use Mr. Starks credit card.”

“These little thieves,” McNeal finally seemed to have recovered from his own shock at seeing the wealthiest man on the planet standing in his increasingly cramped back office and jumped in to share his own warped version of events. “They thought they could go on a spending spree using your stolen card! We have no idea how much they managed to get but one of our employees was able to put a stop to it before they could do any more damage.” The man looked unbearably smug after he finished, looking right at Tony as if expecting paise for a job well done.

Tony only glanced at the man from behind a pair of sunglasses, not saying a word.

Pepper looked the man up and down carefully, zeroing in on the fresh massive bruise forming around his jaw. “What happened to your face?” she asked.

He huffed out a malicious laugh and pointed at Ned. “The big one attacked me when they got caught! Don’t worry, I will be pressing charges.”

Penny had to clamp down on Neds arm to keep him from jumping up.

Pepper turned and shared a quick look with Tony, who had remained entirely silent through the whole exchange. He had his hands in his pockets and to everyone else in the room, he looked bored and annoyed.

Penny could see the absolute fury he was holding back in the lines around his mouth and the crinkle of his forehead.

Pepper turned back to the rest of the room. “Mr. Marshall.” She said calmly, and a small man in a sharp suit and dark rimmed glasses stepped out from behind her, laying his briefcase on the big desk taking up most of the room.

“Alright, I see one, two, three, four, five people in here,” He rotated pointing to the two cops, McNeal and the other two security guards, one at a time before turning full circle and popping open his briefcase. “If you all don’t mind, I’m going to need all of you to step forward and sign this simple NDA.” He took out a short stack of papers and a fountain pen, looking from person to person. “Who’s first?”

“An NDA?” Christa spoke up from the corner. “I’m not trying to argue but what do we need an NDA for?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“Mr. Stark takes his privacy very seriously, as I’m sure you can all understand. During the course of this conversation we’re about to have, there is the chance that some personal things may crop up. This NDA is very short, so please be sure to read it first, but all it states is that any information you learn here today will remain confidential. We just don’t want any unnecessary rumors spreading around.” Pepper finished with a sure smile, stepping aside to allow a clear path to Mr. Marshall and his pen.

It took a few tense seconds, but the first person to walk up was Christa, closely followed by the other security guard (whose name ended up being Johan).

They each took an NDA and started reading through it. The officers shared a look between them and did the same. McNeal was the last to take one and he looked like it was the last thing he wanted to do, but he begrudgingly followed through.

Once everyone had signed and returned every form, and Mr. Marshall gave a nod and a smile to Pepper in confirmation, Tony finally stepped forward, slowly removing his sunglasses and tucking them into his suit pocket.

His mouth was set in a grim line as his gaze settled on the police officers in the middle of the room.

“Get those god damned cuffs off my daughter.” His voice was a low, threatening growl, and the temperature in the room seemed to plummet with every word.

The stunned silence that followed was deafening.

“… Daughter?” Cop number one whispered.

Tony glared. “Is there a fucking echo in here?”

Cop number two turned around and pulled the handcuff keys out of his pocket in one swift motion.

As soon as her hand was free, Tony spread his arms and Penny ran into him, taking in his comforting scent.

“Are you okay, princess?” he said it low, but the room was still so silent that his voice cut across every inch of it.

Penny nodded. Yeah, everything went to shit pretty quickly, but her parents were here and they brought lawyers. She knew everything would be fine in a few minutes.

“Sir, he hit her!” Ned yelled from across the room where he was still handcuffed but Tony followed his glowering eyes to a very pale faced and shifty looking McNeal.

Tony’s gaze narrowed. “You struck my daughter.” It might have been phrased like a question but the accusation behind it was clear.

The man floundered, stuttering out an answer that Tony didn’t bother listening to. Instead, he pulled back and gently took Penny’s face in his hands, turning her head to the side to get a look at her still red cheek. He rubbed his thumbs under her eyes, wiping away the last remnants of her tears from earlier.

Tony stood up straight, not taking his arm from around Penny’s shoulders, and looked back towards the officers who were both starting to seem a bit more sure footed now that the real situation was being made clear.

They’d all been wondering what in the world Tony Stark was doing there in the first place when they’d been waiting for these kids parents to arrive and, well, here they were.

Suddenly, everything was looking much different than what they’d been told.

Tony’s eyes darted from person to person as he spoke. “I gave my daughter my credit card to use today. She was going on a date with her boyfriend and I wanted them to have a good time.” He explained, turning hard eyes to a gaping and increasingly more faint looking McNeal. “Her watch has a recording device in it for her safety which was activated when they were first taken in by the mall security guards. I believe if we listen to the recording, that might clear a few more things up about what really happened to this mans face.”

“T-this was all, a big misunderstanding!” McNeal tried to placate, backing up a few steps when Tony’s eyes settled on him, but before he could even get going, a heavy hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him. Happy didn’t look like he was interested in hearing this guys excuses.

Rather than wait for permission, Pepper simply hit play on her phone and Penny would be lying if she said she didn’t get a certain amount of satisfaction out of listening to him dig his own grave with his very own words.

They all heard him berate the two teens for several minutes, refusing to call their parents until Christa stepped in.

When it got to the part where he slapped her, it felt like the whole room got cold. Penny could tell from Tony’s heart beat that he was just barely holding himself back.

They heard Ned yell and the sound of a scuffle that was quickly broken up by the police arriving.

Officer number one was already uncuffing Ned by time the recording finished.

Pepper cleared her throat before speaking and Penny could tell from the dangerous little smile on her face that she was fuming. “Well… that certainly was enlightening.”

Tony walked with Penny over to Ned and patted him on the back. “You okay, kiddo?”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony turned back to the rest of the room, not caring that he was interrupting a conversation between the lawyers and the officers.

“Do the kids need to be here for this? Or are they free to go?” he asked loudly.

The officers considered it for a second before one of them shook his head. “At this point, no, they can go. As long as we have their contact information for any follow up questions, this audio recording and any other mall security footage should be enough.”

Tony nodded, pulling the kids with him as he walked out of the room. When the door closed behind them, he released a great sigh and hung his head.

“I’m sorry honey. I didn’t even think. We are getting you your own card for you to use as soon as possible.” He sounded so guilty and penny wrapped her arms around him in a side hug.

“It’s okay, dad, really. I didn’t think about it either.”

He squeezed her closer for a second, coming to a stop in the middle of the long hallway leading back out to the mall proper.

“What do you kids want to do? There’s still plenty of time left in the day. You can stay here, finish your date, or you can come back to the tower or we could take you somewhere else entirely. What do you think?”

Penny and Ned shared another look, and she could tell by his shy smile that they were still both on the same page.

“I think we want to stay. Finish our date, if that’s okay?”

Tony smiled and looked behind him. Penny hadn’t noticed until right then that Happy had followed them out of the office and was standing several paces back.

Tony leaned down with a conspiratorial and said, “Do you guys mind having a chaperone? Not to spy on you, just to make sure you guys are okay? He’ll be real sneaky, you won’t even notice he’s there.”

Ned nodded right away and even though Penny didn’t really want to, she conceded that, just this once, it would be okay.

She agreed and Tony quickly dropped a kiss on her head, gave Ned one more pat on the back and then he headed back into the office to finish what Penny was sure was going to be a very interesting conversation.

The three of them made their way back out into the main building, Happy staying several paces behind them to allow them at least the illusion of privacy.

They started walking in whatever direction they were facing. It didn’t really matter, they would get to the build-a-bear eventually anyway.

After a few minutes of not quite tense but also not so easygoing silence, Ned knocked into her shoulder with his and she looked at him, taking in his bright red face and shy smile.

“Sooo… your dad called me your boyfriend before…” he started.

Penny felt her brain short circuit for a second as she cast her mind back over everything that just happened and sure enough, he did, and Penny didn’t even clock it until just now.

Penny clenched her hands together, clearing her throat. “Oh? Uh, yeah, I – I guess he did. Heh.”

Silence.

They kept walking at a sedate pace for a few more seconds.

Penny had to swallow a few times before she could speak again, wishing there was a drink cart near by because suddenly her throat was very dry.

“Um… is that… uh, is that alright?” she asked, only brave enough to glance at the boy from the corner of her eye.

“Yes!” Ned practically shouted, face lighting up in embarrassment before lowering his voice and saying, “Yeah, sure, that’s cool with me.”

And, really, what else was Penny supposed to do at that moment other than kiss him?