Iron Heart's Love

The Betrayal

"Well kid, guess what, you are going to the mall!" Tony said with a smile.

Aria smiled and jumped out of bed. She was so glad to be finally out of bed; she ran to her room to change into something cute. She raced through her closet not really knowing what to wear. She eventually came out of the room wearing an off the shoulder pink top that had long lace sleeves, blue jeans, and her boots. She spun around in a circle to show her dad and he smiled before handing her off to her boyfriend and friend.

"Make sure she doesn't do anything too dangerous." he said with a smile.

They both nodded their heads and walked out the door with her. They were not ready for what was about to take place, and they honestly just wanted to get it over with. Steve was breaking inside, and Natasha was thinking about just turning everything off and leaving. Her emotions were getting to her, and she never let her emotions get to her.

"Excited?" Natasha asked softly, doing her best to hide the sadness she felt.

"Very. It's the first time I've been out in days!" she said, sitting up front with Steve.

She smiled over at him and took his hand as he drove. Steve smiled back, also doing his very best to hide his sadness, and drove on towards the mall, holding her hand tightly. Aria smiled as the three of them pulled up. She was so excited to go inside. It wasn't often that Tony let her go to places normal kids her age went. Tony got out of the car and hurried around to her side to open her door for her.

Aria smiled at him as she walked through the door. Steve frowned at Tony before walking in after her. Aria slowed down and took a deep breath as she entered the busy building. She looked around at all the little shops in the mall and grinned. She turned and grabbed Steve's hand and darted into the first shop she saw. It was a clothing store named Forever 21.

"Welcome to Forever 21, let me know if I can help you with anything." said one of the workers there.

Aria just smiled and nodded her head before zipping around to all the racks. Natasha smiled softly as she watched her friend zoom around the store. She grew sad knowing that her friendship was about to end because of a piece of paper. Steve so badly wanted to follow her, to share in her joy at being here, but he forced himself to hang back and stand beside Natasha. Just to add some authenticity to what was coming.

Tony smiled and walked up to Aria as she brought a couple of items that she loved up to the counter. He handed her his credit card and looked her in the eyes. He was going to try and make today somewhat good for even though he knew what the outcome was going to be.

"Buy whatever you want Aria, I want you to be happy. I have to go and deal with some stuff, just have the stuff put into the car in between every shop so your arms don't get too full okay?" he asked, giving her a small smile.

"Of course, and I promise not to go overboard on it either and blow all of it." she said with a giggle.

"Kid, I'm a millionaire, I think you'll be okay." he said with a hearty laugh.

Tony turned and walked outside taking the secondary car that was waiting for him with his fiancée Pepper Pots. They were going to see a lawyer over Pepper adopting Aria with Tony. Aria didn't even know she was adopted. After everything they had been through, Tony didn't have the heart to tell her. She already counted him as her father, he wanted to make it true. He was hoping it would help her get though what was about to go down.  

"Tony, maybe we should adopt Ronnie too?" Pepper asked, turning to look at him.

"She's the child of the god of thunder, he asked us to look out for her and that's what we will do. Aria was abandoned on our doorstep at the age of two months, her story is different. We will still treat Ronnie as one of our own until Thor comes back for her."