Fic: Iron Heart (Chapter One)
Title: Iron Heart
Series: Lady Iron of SHIELD
Fandom: The Avengers (AU-Cinematic Universe)
Characters: Antonia “Toni” Stark, Steve Rogers, Peter Parker, others.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Toni/Steve
Warnings: None yet, but I’ll let you know
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Toni comes to the aid of another super hero, proving that just because her heart is made of iron, doesn’t mean it’s just as cold.
Notes: Bare with me on this one :D
Chapter One:
Toni Stark was amazed to see that she was leading a somewhat normal life. She had a stable relationship with the man of her dreams, was running a very successful technological company, had the strangest-yet most caring-family in the world, and if that weren’t enough, she was a super hero. Life was good.
For her. She knew of someone else who wasn’t having as good as a life as she was; a sixteen-year-old boy named Peter Parker.
He first came under her radar a year earlier-two months after Vanko, three before Steve was revived-through the Maria Stark Foundation (MSF), the charity Toni wanted to hate because her mother loved it more than anything (including Toni). Once she stopped focusing on the name and started focusing on all the good they did, she couldn’t help loving it. That wasn’t the point though; the point was that she came across the file on Peter Parker, the teenaged science nerd who had recently lost his uncle and was working hard to care for his ailing aunt (he had a “job” at the Daily Bugle as a photographer; wasn’t officially on payroll, but J.J. was known to pay anyone cheaply for a good photograph and Peter seemed to have an inside line into many fantastic pictures of Spider-Man) and to make his way through high school and hopefully college. She liked the look of him, the love of science was a plus and he seemed to be a good kid that just needed a chance. She informed him of his full-ride scholarship after high school personally and after an hour of chatting with him about the theoretics of time travel over the tea and cookies his aunt served, she was very pleased with her choice.
While everyone knows that Toni has poor impulse control, very few people know that the Iron Man suit has x-ray vision. So when Iron Man met Spider-Man a week later, she couldn’t resist peeking behind his mask.
Peter was invited to lunch at Stark Enterprises the next day.
“I know what you’re doing,” she stated plainly as they ate their lunch of pepperoni pizza, boneless Buffalo wings and root beer at her desk. “I realize you have your reasons for doing it, which is why I’m not going to tell you to stop.”
“You’re not?” Peter asked. His face had paled considerably following ‘I know what you’re doing’ and was now starting to regain some of its color.
“I’m not. However, I am going to be keeping an eye on you. If you have any problems, let me know. If your GPA drops so much as a decimal point, I will be on you like cheese on pizza.” She picked up another slice, quite happy that the cheese didn’t move an inch, illustrating her point perfectly.
“Yes, Miss Stark…”
“I also expect you to contact me if you’re having any major issues with your… extra-curricular activity. It’s not just you out there; you don’t have to do this alone.” She took a bite of her pizza. “I may be quoting something someone said to me recently, so obviously I’m still learning this and will give you some leeway. You have at least two screw ups before I’ll get mad. Maybe three.” Peter cracked a smile.
“Yes, Miss Stark.” She quirked an eyebrow at him.
“One more thing, Peter? Call me Toni.”
Sometime after her first meeting with Peter, Toni came across the files of his parents; Richard and Mary Parker, who were SHIELD agents. Toni found a picture of the pair in their file and felt her heart skip a beat; she knew Mary. She worked with Howard, of course, but Toni knew her… Mary had been the one to teach seven-year-old Toni to knit. Mary Parker (Fitzpatrick at the time) came into her room one day, gave her a pair of needles and a skein of red yarn, and sat down on the bed beside her, teaching her to cast on, to garter stich, to purl… by the time Mary had to leave, Toni had the start of a misshapen scarf.
“Can you come see me again?” Toni asked eagerly, smiling broadly.
“I’ll do my best, dear,” Mary replied, returning her smile. “Keep working on that scarf, okay? I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”
“I will!”
Mary came back a time or two, but eventually she stopped coming; Toni tried not to be heart broken, but it was next to impossible. Reading through the file as an adult, Toni learned what happened to the young woman who had been her friend; she had been a SHIELD data analyst and translator, assigned to an office overseas (the file didn’t say which one). While there, she met Richard Parker, whom she would later marry. She was promoted to a field agent and worked with her husband. Their son, Peter, was born August 30th, 1996; they went MIA, presumed dead, six years later.
It was raining inside the office the day Toni read that; that’s why the pages got all wet and fuck anyone who thought otherwise.
Back to the present: Toni received a phone call from MSF saying that Peter had decided not to accept the scholarship. Toni wanted to call him personally and try to get an answer out of him; she didn’t want to alienate him. Over that year, she had built a relationship with Peter, mentoring him in a way she wished she had been mentored by… well, anyone. So, she didn’t call him. Instead she called his Aunt May; after she got what she needed from her, she called Nick Fury.
“I promise,” she told him, “I will do whatever the hell you want, I just need this one thing.”
“You do whatever the hell I want anyway,” Fury replied. “Eventually.”
“Yes, but I will take the ‘eventually’ out of the equation; I won’t even argue this time.” It would have been silent, but Toni wasn’t convinced she couldn’t hear the gears turning inside his head, trying to decide what would be less hassle; giving her what she wanted or having to listen her bitch the next time he wanted her to do something.
“Alright, Stark; what do you want?” There was more silence after Toni told him what she wanted. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“You’ve gotten the other party’s permission.”
“Mostly, just have to talk to the kid.”
“Fine.” Toni was very happy Fury couldn’t see her punch the air right then.
“Thank you, Sir!” she hung up before he could say anything more, quickly punching in another number. She waited through the first ring, and the second, unable to stop herself from grinning when on the third ring, someone picked up.
“Hello?”
“Peter, Toni Stark. I want you here for lunch. I’ll send a car, where are you?”
Lunch was again pizza and wings and root beer and Peter looked just as nervous this time as he had the first. It was amusing, to Toni anyway.
“If this is about the scholarship, Toni…”
“Peter, why didn’t you tell me your aunt was sick?” His jaw dropped. “I told you to let me know if you had any problems and I meant that…”
“What can you do?” Peter asked a little bitterly. “The doctors want to put her into a home; I’d have to go into foster care…”
“You’re only half right,” Toni replied, sipping her soda. “Doctors do want her to be in a home because they can help her better there. She won’t have to stay in one forever, but for now it’s the best option.”
“She can’t afford that…”
“I can; I’ve already talked to your aunt and offered her my assistance.” Peter’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Of course. She turned me down.”
“What?!” Toni knew she shouldn’t tease the boy in this way, but it was so much fun.
“She refuses to leave you to foster care with a bunch of strangers,” Toni continued. “She wants you with someone she knows, someone she trusts… so, the only way she’ll let me help her is if I take you in myself.” Peter’s eyes were already wide; another surprise would pop them out of his head.
“You?”
“Oh yes.” She smiled at him, watching him assess her, trying to figure out just how serious she was. “You would essentially be the Dick Grayson to my Bruce Wayne; while your aunt is receiving care in the nicest convalescent home in the city, I would be your guardian. You’d have to follow my rules, which are basically the same as they’ve always been. Possibly with a curfew added, I haven’t decided yet.” Her face turned serious. “This all depends on you, Peter; you have to agree to this, your aunt won’t let me do anything if you don’t. I’m not going to make you retire Spider-Man, I won’t even make you tell the Avengers who you are; you will have to work with us and if I tell you to do something when you’re suited up, you will listen. If I tell you to run, you run and then we discuss it later.” She took a deep breath, letting it out slow. “I’m probably not selling this too well…”
“I’ll do it.” Toni’s eyes widened this time. “My aunt’s everything to me, Toni; she’s done so much for me and never asked me to do anything in return… if she wants me to go live with someone I like so she can get better, then I’ll do it.” He grinned at her. “Can I get Hulk to beat up bullies for me?” Toni grinned back.
“Peter, if anyone’s bullying you, I’ll beat them up myself.”
“Awesome.”