Midnight Racer-Tony Stark's Daughter

twenty-one

Dallas shuffled out of the room, leaving her already falling back asleep friend to the guest room all by himself. The long hallways were anything but familiar. They were shaded differently than the ones she'd seen last night, it was very...disorienting that there was so much to this building that was still undiscovered to her. She supposed soon it will all end up being discovered after everything happens.

"Good Morning, I've directed Sir to one of our conference rooms and and he's asked me to direct you there as well." JARVIS came through the ceiling, his tone lowered just as if he'd woken up too.

"That'd be great, thank you."

The AI leads her through numerous hallways, close to silent the entirety of the time, only speaking when a turn is necessary to get where she's going. It leads her to an elevator and from there it's simple, and Jarvis hardly has to do anything at all except go right.

The room itself was simpler than the more important looking one that she'd been stored away in the other day, this one was more casually furnished like it wasn't actually used for real conferences and more like birthday parties or hangouts between groups. It was comforting to not be in such a professional room, and Dallas already felt herself relaxing in the room.

There is a stack of folders on the table, neatly storing away the papers that remain inside.

Tony is standing by the window, looking out of it and at the people down below, not even noticing Dallas enter the room.

It was surreal to see the man already dressed up in a neat suit so early in the morning, Dallas didn't know where he found the time to even put that on when most days she finds herself unable to even wake up until the afternoon. She clears her throat to announce her presence, not wanting to startle him.

He turns around, his focus adverting from the window, he greets her with the raise of his coffee cup.

"Morning."

"Good morning." Dallas replies, taking a seat on the opposite side of the giant intimidating stack of papers.

Tony sets his coffee down next to the papers, almost spilling some on top of them as he takes a seat in front of them. The door clicks and someone walks in that Dallas doesn't know or recognize, in a very professional suit all done up nicely without one hair out of place and takes a seat next to Tony.

"Hi, I'm Mister Richards, you can call me Mark." The new man offers his hand, and shakes Dallas' firmly in one motion, then sits back in his seat.

"Dallas, nice to meet you."

"Mark here is our lawyer, professional business. Anything legal we ever need to sort out, he's our guy." Tony clarifies the mans presence.

Dallas only nods her head. She tried to follow Marks words as he begins to speak the best she could but then they just started to tune out and were un-focusable, almost mute to her. Papers were signed by Tony, he was saying something too only she again wasn't hearing any of it. He made Mark laugh though.

Papers went underneath Tony's hands, the pen he gripped signing away with ease. They didn't ask her anything, she was really only a witness to her life changing before her eyes. Mark always looked like he was explaining each paper and it's purpose, because Tony kept nodding along and signing, flashing an occasional guarded smile.

It was when a paper was pushed in front of her across the table with a pen next to it that her ears rid the silence, "Sorry, what is this again?"

"It's basically just an agreement. That you accept Tony's guardianship and acknowledge what and how your life will change from here on out. How there will be new challenges to overcome due to the social status you'll be entering. That this is what you want." Mark explains.

Tony looks up from his coffee, "This is what you want, right?"

Dallas blinks slowly, looking down the document with illegible text covering the entirety of the page, it is a commitment, a commitment to a new life, a new beginning– something she's heard people on the news say after new buildings or company's are started–with a real guardian there.

Decisions in her life were always chosen for her at least up until three years ago when Dallas finally made one of her own, and it was the best damn one she's ever made and doesn't regret it one bit, because if it led her here to this place, to this person, to this big decision...the stress remained at a zero percent because it may have been big but it wasn't a hard decision.

She signs the bottom of the paper, looking up and over to see Tony's face quickly brightening up even though he was doing his best to try and hide up his smile, "Of course it's what I want. It's what I've always wanted."

Mark gleamed, jumping up to take the paper and pen back. He neatly stuffed it in his stack of signed ones and closed the folder, sticking it in a briefcase he'd brought along.

"It looks like I'm finished for the time being, if you need anything ever call me, Stark." Mark nods at Tony who stands up to shake his hand.

"You can count on it Mark, and I feel like I've told you a million times already to call me, Tony."

"Maybe one day, Stark. Good bye now, lovely meeting you Dallas." Mark waves his good byes and is out the door just as fast.

Dallas watches Tony as he still stares at the door Mark just left out of, his hands are retreating into his pant pockets his face retracting back to being more relaxed, and he breathes as if he'd been holding air inside of him the entire time during the meeting.

Looking at someone you've read about, and followed in the news casually from a fans perspective that told tales of every aspect of their life and then looking at them again from a relative point of view, Dallas felt like she knew absolutely nothing about Tony, despite that he loved coffee at any hour.

"You good, kid? You've just been staring at me, and it's starting to creep me out just a bit." Tony chuckles awkwardly, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck.

"Yeah, yeah sorry I didn't meant to do that."

"Alright, if you say so...Say, are you up for I don't know if you're hungry or not, but some breakfast? You don't have to say yes if you don't want to." Tony rambles.

"No, I want to. I think that'd be a good idea. Food sounds nice." Dallas stands up, Tony's still a good few feet away from her now holding up his coffee mug.

His eyes brighten, the rambling ceases, "Great! I'll just text my driver..."

Tony takes out his phone already beginning to type away.

The whole personal driver scratches at a awkward string in Dallas' core, she didn't want to impose or bother this driver. The very idea of him having a personal driver felt like too much right now, and she wouldn't want them having to wait on her and Tony either.

"Actually. Could we just, um, go by ourselves? If that's okay with you." Dallas, sticks her hands in her pockets to stay away from fidgeting with them, she hopes that came out less small and more confident.

Tony closes his phone, sliding it away into his front pocket, seeming fazed by the request but not upset over it, only encouraging.

"Yeah, sure. Why not? I don't have a whole collection of cars for nothing, come on, I'll show you, you can even pick which one we take." Tony decides, already leading the way out.

"Sounds good to me." Dallas smiles behind Tony's back, following him out into the hallway when she remembered that Griffin was still here.

"Oh! What about my friend, should I tell him to leave 'cause I have the keys to the car and–"

Tony stops, Dallas almost bumps into him but it turns into more of a hard stop and fumble over her feet.

"Don't worry about him, Jarvis will take care of him, and from what I hear, he's already made a friend out of Clint. He'll be fine. Now come on, we've got places to be, and hopefully nobody to see." Tony says, ending it with a cheer.

Dallas cracks a smile, "Right, right. Let's go."

A/N: I'm really excited to start on the next chapter, ahhh.