Imagine If You Assembled the Avengers: Volume 1

The Path Less Travelled (Tony Stark x reader)

Graduation was finally coming in a week, and you couldn't be more excited. Not only would you be free of high school, but your 18th birthday was just days away. It meant that you could finally make your own decisions about your future, make decisions that actually meant something to you, and right now the entire world was open. Despite the freedom of choice, you knew what your path would be; your dream of becoming a Broadway performer had been a lifelong one. Living in Malibu made it incredibly difficult to pursue, but your plan was to move to New York once graduation and the following festivities had been completed.

It would be far easier to move across the country than it was going to be telling your father about the plan. Your father was Tony Stark. He was against your career path from the first mention of it several years ago. Your wit and intelligence matched his, and he had aspirations that you would work for Stark Enterprises and one day, takeover the company as successor. It was true, you had an interest and natural ability in physics, and once he had introduced you to Dr. Banner, bio-organics had caught your attention. But they weren't your passion. You didn't feel them in your soul like you did when you performed for a crowd and heard their applause resonate thru you.

Today was going to be the day you finally told him. As you drove from your mother's house to his, you tried to formulate a speech that would grab his heart and allow you to go your own way. Your efforts failed and all you could do was hope that you could form any coherent sentence thru the anxiety raging inside you. Intelligence wasn't the only trait you had inherited from him.

You hadn't even reached the doorway when JARVIS greeted you.

"Hello, Miss (Y/N). It is a pleasure to see you again. Your father is in the garage, and is anticipating your arrival."

"Thanks, J."

You opened the front door to a barrage of rock music and sounds of drilling, and smiled at the familiarity of your childhood memories of watching your father work. Living with your mother had left you with weekends and holidays with him, but he was always sure to overload your times together with fun, learning and adventure. The suits were off-limits, of course, but you never gave up hope of getting your own, even now as you admired his growing collection.

"Hey, pops. Whatcha working on?"

Tony looked up from his current project as you entered, dropping his tools and bouncing up to grab you in a tight hug. "It's about time you showed up! What, did you forget the way?"

"We said two o'clock, remember?" You smirked as you pulled back from the embrace, "you know, they say that hearing is one of the first things to go when you get old."

"Watch it, punk. I've got one more week to ground you if you cross me."

"Empty threats don't scare me." You took a deep breath and sat next to his workstation, grabbing a small tool to keep your hands occupied as you tried to quiet your nerves. "So, dad, I came over here to talk to you about something."

"Yep, I remember." He sat back down and began to work again, but kept his primary focus on you. "JARVIS, cut the soundtrack." The music went silent, and the sounds of your breathing and your rapidly increasing heartbeat grew deafening in your ears.

"Ok, so as you know, graduation is on Friday." You could feel pangs of nausea growing in your stomach. "I've already talked to mom, and...and..."

Tony had continued to work as you spoke, but now as you faltered his attention was fully on you. "And?"

"And...I'm moving to New York on Saturday."

"Like hell." He dismissed you quickly, returning his focus to his project, not taking what you had said seriously.