Wee Little Stark

chapter 8

Chapter 50

Summary:

short chapter!

I'm kind of having some writer's block for all 3 stories right now, so I'm sorry that the updates are coming slow!-feel free to send suggestions or stuff you'd like to see, that helps get the creative stuff flowing again :)

also: there were a couple people who commented on WLS not too long ago but i was on my phone and i thought i hit "mark read" but i accidentally his "delete" instead SO I AM SO SORRY I DIDN'T DELETE YOUR LOVELY COMMENTS ON PURPOSE I PROMISE I FEEL SO MEAN

Chapter Text

The view was both beautiful and worrisome, Darcy decided, it was efficient and fluid but it also spoke of the danger to come. She stood on a balcony that overlooked the outdoor training arenas at the new Avengers Facility and listened to Natasha yell at Pietro and Skye to actually spar instead of flirt with one another.

Darcy chuckled and nudged her father in the shoulder with her own when he slid up next to her at the railing she leaned against. "You did good, Dad. This is remarkable."

Tony let out a small huff of amusement as he watched the scene below. "You know it's all to keep you safe."

Darcy frowned. She didn't like the way her dad would casually dismiss his desire to see the world safe, the way he would say it was only for her. It was in a sense, she supposed, but there was so much moretoo. Tony hid behind his selfishness when he was doing something selfless, and it killed Darcy a little inside to see him tear himself apart like that.

She decided to bring the issue to light at long last. "It's more than that, Dad, and you know it. Yeah, you'd do anything to keep me safe, just like I'd do the same for you and everyone else I love. But you do it for everyone else too. Why do you hide it?"

Her Dad sighed, knowing he got caught. Tony shook his head. "They won't believe it." At her questioning gaze, he continued, "You know what my life has been, Bot. I was the Merchant of Death, my original solution to save my life ended up almost killing me, then my creation to world peace tried to wipe out the human race. There's so much more too, Darce. More than you can ever know. I wasn't a good man, not until you came into my life. Even then, I struggled."

"I don't understand."

"I'm selfish. Always have been, always will be. So first and foremost I wanted the world at my feet. I had an empire, almost every technological leap came from my mind and the world trampled over itself to get it. It was intoxicating. It took me far too long to realize what I was doing to this world. I wrought down fire and brimstone on this earth for so long. I thought I was just giving weapons to our men, but both sides were getting them. It wasn't an excuse though, I was mass producing murder. I was putting the bullets in our men's guns, but also their enemies. How can I wash that blood from my hands, Bot? That was my dad's legacy, my legacy. When you showed up on my doorstep I was certain my hands were going to leave bloody prints on you. I couldn't stand it to be your legacy.

"So I started amping up the green energy side of SI, because I couldn't stand the thought of leaving you with a broken and dead world. I needed to make it better, before you took your part in it. But I was blind.

"I was so devoted to changing, to making it right, that I couldn't see Stane using me, using SI for his own agenda. It wasn't until I was taken in Afghanistan that I realized what kind of mess I made. Even then, when I was so sure of the path I wanted to forge, a good man died because of me. Yinsen lost his life to set me free." Darcy swallowed at the thought of the good doctor, the man who made sure her father was able to live another day. With tears in her eyes, Darcy continued to listen to her father speak.