Iron Man's Daughter, Spiderman's Sister

3

I looked up at him and he wiped the tears off my cheeks.

"Hey, don't talk like that kid. If May's gone, you can stay with me."

"You say that now, no one ever wants to keep me for that long. If she's gone, that's a sign I shouldn't be happy."

"No, it isn't. You're familiar with my backstory I assume?"

I nodded, confused.

"I thought the same thing when I was in that cave. Maybe this is the universe's way of telling me it's over. Maybe this was my time. But you know what? It wasn't. I fought and I worked so hard, and I became Iron man. Not only did I become a superhero who gets to save and help people, but if I never made it out of that cave, I would never have got together with my assistant, who's now my wife."

"What are you trying to say, Mr Stark?"

"When I was in that cave, I was given advice from the dying man who saved my life. Don't waste your life. I'm trying to say that none of us can know the future. Unless you've got the time stone and are able to see 14000605 different possibilities. But even then, you never know what's going to happen for definite. If you give up now, you could be missing out on so many other opportunities. You're only 13 kid, and often it's your childhood that shapes your future. You've had a hard one, but that just makes you tougher and more determined."

I had wiped all of my tears away by now.

"You know, if the whole Iron Man thing doesn't work out, you'd be a great motivational speaker." I smiled weakly.

Tony ruffled my hair. "That's the spirit kid."

"Hey, do you think I could uh, take a look at the controls?"

"I thought you were a computer whizz?"

"I am, but I'm pretty good at the engineering side of things too, I guess."

"Really? Are we related somehow?"

"Not that I'm aware of." I looked up at him, smiling. "You know, you're pretty nice when you're not being an egotistical douche bag."

"And you're kinda sweet when you're not being an annoying 10 year old."

"I'm 13."

"Same difference." He shrugged and I laughed. "Now how about we take a look at those controls together, OK kid?"

"Sure, old man." I smirked and he furrowed his brow.

"Old man? We'll see about that."

He moved towards me and I ran away, eventually turning into a chase around the ship.

"You'll never catch me alive!" I shouted at him.

"Where are you, you little runt?"

A few minutes later I was hid behind the control panel and looked above it to see there was no one there. I let out a sigh of victory, but before I knew it I was being picked up by the waist and swung around in the air.

"Got ya, munchkin."

I started hitting his back. "Let me down, old man!"

"Only if you apologise."

"Never!"

"Well, too bad for you then."

He hoisted me over his shoulder and started to spin around really fast.

"Fine, fine, I'm sorry for calling you old."

He put me down. "Good."

He looked at me and we both burst into laughter.