Midnight Racer-Tony Stark's Daughter

twenty-five

Sleep never came to claim Dallas last night, the evening only morphed into the next day, realization only hitting her as the sun did. Crying does not ever help anyone, sure it makes you feel better or it's used as a release, but Dallas couldn't find it in her to break through the very thick wall of memory to access the fragility of her past that had been stuffed away for so long, kept only underneath other situations that she forced herself to focus on to rid of the worst ones.

Sure, her throat was tight and she could see her hands shaking, but as always, Dallas couldn't allow herself to focus on herself, now only worrying about how she'd handled things with Tony.

He had been so nice to her. Took her into his care officially, and allowed it to not be announced to the press immediately. Taken her out to breakfast, spoke to her, and offered his home to her. Dallas? She'd been so...selfish and so disrespectful towards the man.

Apologizing for the outburst was a thought that came and went. What would she even apologize for? For not telling JARVIS that she was going to an illegal street race instead of the store, and so when Tony went to spy on her he found her unaccounted for. Yeah, that'd totally be a good explanation, even if it is the truth.

Dallas is stubborn. So, as soon as the sun was high enough and it was still too early to be awake, she left the Tower. It was a more difficult experience leaving today, than it had been yesterday. JARVIS was more hesitant and moved slower, trying to coax her into staying in the Tower and go exploring, yeah, no, Dallas left as soon as the elevator door opened on the lobby floor, going for her car.

It was six in the morning when she found herself eating breakfast in a McDonalds–the only other people in there being the sleep-deprived workers that were still trying to wake up–eating off of the dollar menu.

The food wasn't too bad, plus Dallas was used to crappy fast food breakfasts. They were fast and cheap, the perfect combination for a runaway...ex-runaway, new adoptee. It just had no taste now, it was her mind occupying all of her senses and think think thinking. Overthinking the situation, replaying it over and over trying to repair the damage already done as if just thinking it to happen would turn it to a reality.

"...Iron Man suit caught flying early today above Manhattan..."

The news on the tv behind Dallas caught her ear. She turns around, breakfast sandwich still being held between her hands, to see if her ears were deceiving her. Sure enough, at...6:45 now, wow time flew, was Iron Mans suit time stamped only minutes before the current time.

She pulls out her silent phone from her pocket, leaving her left hand to hold the burrito together, and blinks at the overloaded screen filled with scrolls and scrolls of missed calls and texts from Tony. He's coming for her, or at least looking for her if the news and the text messages are anything to go off of.

The screen hurt her eyes from the lack of sleep, and having not adjusted to the brightness that the little screen emitted straight into the soul of her eyes. These things would have people going blind within the next few years going off of this brightness level. So, Dallas looks once again at the messages on the screen of her unlocked phone, and presses the power button. Promptly, turning it off and putting it back in her pocket.

Dallas finished her burrito and orange juice quickly after that, dwelling on last night was not helping and the whole Tony looking for her in the suit wasn't being too kind on her right now. He'd told her he was smart enough to find her, and had ways to do so, whatever that had meant. It replayed like a broken record in her head, the security cameras in the building were making her anxious now.