Figlia

Chapter 2: A house may not feel like home.

Sitting on the top seat in the long glass dining table, Tony Stark also known as Iron Man, confusedly stared at the extra plate on his left, "Pepper? Did you sleep well last night?" he asked his partner, Virginia "Pepper" Potts, who is sitting on his right, opposite the unusual third plate.

"Yes, why?" Pepper answered while forking a sausage from a platter in the center.

"Why do we have three plates? Unless, you invited your mom for breakfast." he laughed.

Pepper shook her head at him, "You really have no clue, don't you?" Tony shook his head saying no while drinking his coffee which is a wrong decision for it spilled some droplets of coffee on his white and grey striped pajamas. The woman sighed and said, "It's for Dani, she arrived earlier this morning."

This caused Tony to choke on his coffee, "Dani?!"

"Yeah, hi." a 5'1" tall girl with dark brown wavy hair wearing a plain black shirt and grey yoga pants popped out of the dining entrance answered, rather gloomily.

"Hey, Dani sweetheart! Take a seat!" Pepper greeted her. She took the empty seat, the one that have been judged by Tony earlier. She didn't made eye contact with Tony but she gave Pepper a smile back. She glanced at Tony and saw him muttering "How much have I lost track?" to himself. She mentally rolled her eyes.

Tony cleared his throat and managed to say, "Good morning." Dani only nodded for she has not completely decided how she would treat him for the next 65 years.

The whole breakfast was silent except when Pepper would ask Dani things about school, since it was also where Pepper took her bachelor's degree, to make the atmosphere less awkward for the family of two. Seemingly, Tony Stark had swallowed his tongue. Dani had not been very comfortable the whole time, it has been 13 years after all. She quickly finished her small amount of food that she planned to take just in case the moment gets awkward, and it did. "I'm going to my friend's house, might come home late." She told Pepper, and also, if he cared, Tony.

"Oh, okay, don't go too late~" Pepper sweetly replied. Dani just smiled and went off.

As soon as she was far enough to hear their conversation Tony blurted, "Why didn't you tell me she's gonna visit?!"

"Visit?! She already graduated!"

"What?! I thought it was on the first Monday of next month?!" Tony demanded.

"Yesterday was the first Monday of the month next to the month that time." She tiredly answered. "I reminded you two days ago but you just nodded to me and said 'yeah, I'm just gonna apply some finishing touches on my bouncing badass baby' so I just assumed that you don't really care at all!" the woman exclaimed, annoyed at the man in front of her. She have witnessed how he had made his daughter feel in draught, not just for his attention but also his affection over the years.

Tony was taken aback, unbelieving how stupid he could be sometimes. Although he knew that this is how other people would see his relationship with his daughter, but not Pepper. She was there all of the time, she knew how he actually felt or so he thought, everyone has their own limits anyway. "And I thought... you're the only person to..." he sighed, "understand."

She exhaled, "That was before, Tony," she expected that this time would come when she'd finally say how she really see the situation even if it would hurt him, the truth shall set you free they say, "at the first 6 months, yes - I do not know how you were like before you technically gave me the job of sending her to school - but sixteen years of cold treatment? That's too much." Her faced went into a pained look, "Sooner or later you need to man up and face her again like how you said you did sixteen years ago!" There was silence, usually during arguments they would make a big noise all over the house as Tony is the human form of sass, instead he just stared at her looking actually hurt by the truth. The silence seemed forever until Pepper quickly cooled down and retained her composure, she apologetically looked him in the eye and held his hand. She saw Tony force a smile that almost went as a straight line than a convex curve that it should be. He knew Pepper was right he just couldn't spit it out of his mouth. Pepper stood up and kissed his cheeks, "I'll be driving myself to work-I'm lending Happy to Dani for the mean time. I'm sure he missed her too." She said and went upstairs to get ready for work.