A/N So I don't know if anyone reading this has been reading my The Martian story, but the next chapter isn't ready yet (the holidays cut into my writing time) and since it's Monday I wanted to post something and this chapter was almost ready... If you're not reading that story then I suppose you dont care about that and I hope you're excited for this chapter regardless lol... This chapter ended up a lot longer than I was expecting because Tony and Darcy got super chatty and would just not shut up but I guess you wont complain about that either... Anyways I hope you enjoy!

Nobody moved to stop Tony as he left the room, the balcony doors opening and closing behind him silently.

"Well shit," Darcy groaned. "I guess I should probably go talk to him."

"Or you could not," Clint interjected, disgust thinly veiled in his voice.

Darcy looked at her friends and saw that same revulsion on all of their faces, some more clearly than others.

"Hang on now, everyone needs to dial the murder faces back about ten notches. Don't judge him too harshly," she sighed. "I made it sound worse than it was. Don't get me wrong I'm not excusing it at all. And what he did was wrong yes, but it wasn't entirely his fault." Another survey of her friends told her they still weren't feeling too forgiving. "Let's just say I've had these," she gestured to her chest, "since I was twelve and I came by them honestly. When my mom told me the story she fully admitted that she lied about her age. And if you ever saw a picture of her when she was sixteen you'd have no problem believing it either."

The others still looked skeptical, but no one looked murderous anymore, so that would have to do for now. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I need to go talk a man off the ledge."

Following Tony's steps, Darcy crossed the room and headed outside. The man in question was standing at railing on the far side of the balcony staring out at the skyline as the summer sun set over the city. He didn't acknowledge her arrival, but she could see by the tensing of her shoulders that he knew she was there.

"Don't do anything rash now," she called at his back.

"Why, would you miss me?" Tony asked snarkily, not turning around.

"Well sure," Darcy said in the same tone. "But dude, it's mainly because if you jumped the day we confirmed that I'm your only known living relative and heir, there is no way in hell that I could convince the world that I didn't push you."

At that Tony actually laughed and turned to glance at Darcy who had sidled up next to him at the railing. "You're not wrong," he said wryly. "Patricide isn't a good look for you."

"Neither is jail house orange," she retorted with a smirk, before joining him in watching the sun set. She spent so much time in the Tower that sometimes she took for granted just how amazing the view was from it. They stood together in silence for several long moments before Darcy spoke again. "I didn't handle that as well as I could have in there," she admitted softly.

"That would make two of us," Tony agreed, admitting his part in the mess of what happened.

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have been so harsh," she continued. "I was pissed off so I purposely said it in the most inflammatory way possible and that wasn't cool."

"But it was the truth wasn't it," he countered, turning towards her. "I mean I was nineteen, slept with a sixteen year old girl, got her pregnant, and never even thought about her again while she was busy raising my child. The facts are pretty inflammatory all on their own."

Darcy matched his stance. "Yeah, but it's not completely your fault. I mean yes, it takes two people to make a baby. But at least don't beat yourself up for the fact that Mom was so young. Mom was a bit of a wild child who happened to grow up in Spring Break central. I'm sure you didn't think you needed to check IDs at a bar during the annual college coed pilgrimage to Ft. Lauderdale."

Tony just shrugged noncommittally and turned back to look out at the city. "I should have been more responsible."

"If you had been more responsible, then I wouldn't exist," she pointed out, bumping her shoulder into his.

"You make a valid point there," Tony conceded.

"And since I'm pretty fond of existing," she continued, "I'm gonna give you a pass. Just this once."

He rolled his eyes, "Thanks kiddo." The familiar but now loaded endearment slipped out unthinkingly, and he glanced at her face to catch her reaction. But when all she did was smirk up at him, he relaxed.

"You know, I don't remember never not knowing that my dad wasn't my biological dad," Darcy said conversationally, she wasn't exactly sure where she was going with this story, but she kept talking anyway. "There were wedding pictures all over the house and I was in them. And I grew up hearing the story of how my parents got together and how I was responsible for them meeting."

Tony arched one eyebrow and Darcy saw the question in his eyes so she elaborated without him having to ask.

"After my mom turned up 16 and pregnant, she didn't get a trashy reality show on MTV. Instead my grandmother shipped her off to live with her parents in New Mexico," she explained. "When I was nine months old, my great grandmother was watching me while my mom was at work, she was standing on a step ladder cleaning when she slipped and fell, breaking her hip. She was able to get to a phone to call 911, but she wasn't able to get me from my crib and by the time the paramedics got there I was screaming. My dad was the rookie EMT on the crew, it was only his second week on the job so he was the one who got sent to go get me. Apparently, he was the baby Darcy whisperer because I stopped crying the second he picked me up. Once they got my Nana to the hospital he tried to hand me over to the social worker on duty, but the way the story goes I started screaming whenever he tried to put me down or give me to anyone else. It was the end of his shift so he stayed at the hospital and took care of me for hours until they could finally get ahold of my mom. My mom ended up asking my dad out for coffee to thank him for watching me, and the rest was history."

"Anyways," Darcy said done with her aside, "it wasn't some deep dark secret. It just never really mattered to me and I didn't think about it much. My dad was my dad and that was all there was to it. I do remember asking my mom about it once I was old enough to wonder, but she told me she had no idea who my biological dad was. She turned my conception into a cautionary tale about the dangers of lying to your parents, underage drinking, and becoming sexually active too young."

"Did it work?" Tony asked curiously.

"You bet your ass it did," Darcy said with a laugh. "As much as I love my mom and my hometown I had big dreams. I wanted to go to college, see the world and have grand adventures and do all the things my mom couldn't do because she had a baby before she graduated high school. I couldn't wait to get out of New Mexico. Which makes it even more ironic that the only reason I applied to Jane's internship because it was close enough to home that I could visit my mom on weekends, since I wasn't able to go home for the summer, and that's where all my crazy adventures I wanted so bad started. All I wanted was six science credits I was missing, and instead I tazed Thor, which led me to SHIELD, who sent me to New York, which led me to working with the Avengers where I got bit by an irradiated rat, in the building built by biological father who happens to be Iron Man."

Tony looked at her through narrowed eyes. "You don't live a normal life."

Darcy glanced over at Tony with an arched brow and a smirk curling up one side of her mouth. "I think it's safe to say that it runs in the family."

"Well, you're not wrong," he replied with an almost identical smirk. "Normal is boring and overrated anyways."

Darcy didn't think Tony had any concept of what normal actually was, but she didn't say it. Instead they fell into a companionable silence as they watched the lights flick on in the buildings around them as the sun dipped below the horizon.

"I'm not mad at your mother. I believe you when you say that she kept you a secret from me out of both of our best interests. But I keep trying to imagine what would have happened if I had known about you," Tony finally said. "I can't."

"There's a lot of variables," she said in way of agreement.

"I might have fucked everything up and been a terrible absentee father and you would hate me more than I hated my own father," Tony mused. "Or maybe if I had known I had a daughter it would have forced me to grow up and I could have avoided a lot of mistakes I made along the way. And we could have had a relationship your whole life."

"That would have been nice, but maybe the choices you made in that life meant that for whatever reason you never became Iron Man and the entire island of Manhattan got nuked during the Battle of New York," she countered. "You're a futurist, stop thinking about the past. I know you, the what-ifs are going to drive you crazy. I'm here, you're here, I don't resent you, and you never had to change diapers. We can't go back, so we better just go forward and quite frankly things could be a lot worse. So my vote is we go back inside, make fun of everyone for thinking that we might not actually realize that they've all been talking about us since we left the room, have another drink and get the party going again."

Tony looked at her for a long moment, seeing her with new eyes. "You're pretty smart kiddo."

"I'm glad you've already got that figured out," she grinned, already heading back inside.

And just like she predicted, the moment the pair crossed over the threshold all conversation ground to halt. Darcy glanced up at Tony with a knowing smirk which he returned in kind before fully entering the room.

"Wow, you guys didn't even try for subtle," Tony snarked, making his way over to the bar to make another drink.

"Not even a little bit," Darcy agreed. "Did you guys want us to go back outside so you can keep talking about us?"

"What! No," Jane exclaimed. "We were just-"

"Talking about us," Darcy repeated, a bemused expression on her face as she returned to her abandoned dinner.

"No," Jane tried to deny again. "We were just…. Okay we were talking about you."

From the bar Tony snorted into his glass of scotch.

"I think we're all just wondering how this is going to change the dynamic around here," Bruce admitted honestly.

"Who says it's going to change anything?" Darcy countered. "We're still the same people we were this morning. And we've known each other for a long time. It's not like we're just meeting. This doesn't change the status quo."

"Of course, this is going to change things," Natasha interjected. "But only time will tell how."

Darcy disagreed, but she wasn't going to sit here and fight about it. "We'll see," she shrugged and flipped the lid of her pizza box shut, it was time to keep the night moving. "Yo, Hawkguy flip cup rematch?"

"Oh you're on Lewis," Clint said perking up from where he was perched on the back of the couch. "I call Nat!"

"I call Steve!" Darcy claimed her own teammate.

"I'll grab the plastic cups," Steve offered, going to grab the solo cups that were kept in the bar for this exact purpose.

"Hey JARVIS? Be a bro and put my party play mix on would ya?" Darcy asked the AI.

"Of course Miss Lewis."

Soon enough the party was back into full swing and everyone was having a good time, an unspoken agreement to put all discussions about the new familial status of two of their inner circle, on the back burner for the night. Of course it didn't escape anyone's notice that the usually verbose Tony spent the rest of the evening uncharacteristically quiet unless directly addressed. But given the circumstances everyone was willing to give him a pass on it. Darcy however, was having no problems keeping up with the others late into the night.

"Okay kids, it's been fun, but I think it's time this girl to head home before she turns into a pumpkin," Darcy announced as the party started winding down.

"Just stay here tonight," Jane called from the couch where she was laying with her head in Thor's lap.

Darcy considered it for half a minute before dismissing the idea with a shake of her head. "I would but I have some paperwork back at my apartment I need for work tomorrow."

"I'll drive you home," Tony offered.

"Oh, that's okay I can take the train. And since when do you offer to drive anyone anywhere at one in the morning. Wake up Happy maybe…" she joked.

"It's late, I'll drive you." Tony repeated, ignoring the whole second half of her statement.

"No really, its fine," Darcy assured him. "I take the subway this late all the time."

"Darcy."

"Tony."

"Really I think all of us would be more comfortable if one of us escorted you home," Steve interjected, cutting through the tension. "If you insist on taking the train across town I'll go with you."

Darcy looked away from her staring match to glance over at Steve and then back at Tony. It was tempting since she was dying to know exactly what Steve meant by that whole 'my girl' comment earlier, since she had never gotten a chance to corner him about it, but it was also clear that Tony wanted her away from the rest of the gang and that seemed like the more delicate situation at present.

"Thanks Steve, but it'll be faster to just get a ride from Tony."

Steve nodded but leaned in and lowered his voice before speaking again, "Do you think we could go get coffee tomorrow? There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

Darcy smiled up at him, "Of course, I'm gonna be in the labs tomorrow so just come find me whenever."

He returned her smile and opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could the moment was interrupted by an obnoxiously fake cough from inside the elevator where Tony was already waiting for her. Darcy glanced back at Steve to roll her eyes, but she waved her goodbyes and called her goodnights to the group as a whole as she grabbed her bag and jogged over to the impatient billionaire.

"Are you even okay to drive?" she thought to ask as they descended to the garage, it had been a party after all.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tony assured her. "I was babysitting that last drink for the last couple hours."

Darcy nodded and turned back to face the doors. Although she hadn't specifically monitoring his alcohol intake, it had been awhile since she had seen him at the bar pouring himself a new glass. That and she trusted JARVIS to both know if Tony's BAC was too high to drive.

They didn't speak again as the elevator deposited them in the garage and he led them to the Bugatti. And except for Tony asking where he was taking her, they stayed silent as they left the Tower and began their trek across town.

It took a couple stolen glances across the car for Darcy to decipher the look on Tony's face until she finally realized that he was working himself up to say something. The reason he had insisted he drive her home was because he had something he wanted to say to her away from the others and now he couldn't get himself to say it. She didn't recognize it at first because it was an expression that to her knowledge, was foreign to him, since speaking his mind was never something he struggled with. She gave him a few more minutes to self-start before she got impatient.

"Whatever you wanna say, you should probably just say," she blurted. "At this time of night it's not going to take very long to get to my building and then you will have gotten me away from the others for nothing."

Tony shot her an unimpressed look from the corner of his eye before he refocused on the red light they were currently stopped at.

"You do like me right?" he finally asked in a rush, his fingers drumming rhythmically against the steering wheel. "I mean, would you consider us friends?"

"Of course I do Tony," she reassured him, before turning the question around on him. "Do you like me?"

"There's a very short list of people that I don't actively dislike, let alone that I can honestly say I care about," he replied truthfully. "And you've been on that list for a while now."

Darcy grinned, "Thanks Tony."

But he wasn't done yet. "I know you're an adult and the last thing you probably want or need is another parent sprung on you at this stage in your life."

She considered his statement for a beat, "There's no such thing as too much family."

"It's been a long time since I've had any family," Tony countered as the light turned green. "Actual blood related family. And it's been even longer since I liked any of my family. Honestly, I don't even remember what that feels like."

He trailed off for a long moment and this time Darcy patiently waited him out. She knew he had a complicated relationship with his parents, his father especially, but he was always flippant about it. She'd never seen him allow himself any vulnerability.

"But I'd like to give it a shot," he finally said, glancing at her in the passenger seat. "Obviously I'm not going to ask you to call me Dad or change your name or anything stupid like that. But, if you're willing, I'd like to spend more time with you. We're already friends, I'd like to try family."

Darcy was genuinely touched, she knew how hard it was for Tony to put himself out on the line emotionally. She was fairly confident that Pepper and probably Rhodey were the only other members of their circle to see this side of him. She reached out to pat the hand that he had resting on the stick shift.

"I'd like that Tony," she smiled at him when he glanced over again. "I'd like that a lot."

"Good," he said letting out a breath he wasn't even aware he was holding as he grinned back at her. "Great. It's going to be awesome."

"Of course it is," she agreed easily. "We're both awesome on our own, so together the awesome multiplies exponentially."

"Wait until I tell Pepper."

Darcy looked mildly alarmed. While she was on friendly terms with the CEO, they weren't particularly close and she had always been a little in awe of the older woman, joking that she wanted to be just like her when she grew up. Now she was her biological father's girlfriend and that put a completely different spin on things. "How do you think she's going to take it?" she asked.

"I think it's a safe bet to say she'll be surprised," Tony shrugged, weren't they all. "But she already adores you."

"She does?"

"Of course. She was just saying not too long ago how much easier her life became once you started running herd on all of us," Tony smirked. "Of all the potential 'you are the father' scenarios that I have no doubts have crossed her mind at some point, you are the best possible outcome."

Darcy turned that over in her mind a couple of times. "I think that was a compliment?"

"It was."

"Okay good, just checking," she laughed. "You gonna call her?"

Tony considered it for a moment. "No," he finally said pulling up to the curb in front of her building. "She won't be home for a couple of weeks, but I think this is more of an in person conversation."

"I think you're probably right about that one. Anyway, thanks for the ride Tony, but my bed is calling my name," Darcy said reaching for the door handle.

"I'll walk you up," he announced, already turning off the ignition.

"That's not necessary," she assured him. "My building is right here."

Tony peered out the windshield looking around at the neighborhood like it was a foreign country. "I think it is."

"You don't spend a lot of time on the west side do you," Darcy said with a smirk.

"No, I can't say that I do."

"You're parked in a red zone," she pointed out.

"It'll be fine for ten minutes," he countered. "And if not, I can afford the ticket."

Darcy shook her head, but relented. She knew when to pick her arguments. "Well fine, if you're going to walk me up lets go."

Grabbing her bag, she climbed out of the car, Tony only a few steps behind her. As soon as they hit the lobby, his face crumpled as the smell hit him.

"I know, I know," she shrugged, "it takes some getting used to. I think something died in the walls a couple weeks ago, its better once you get on the elevator."

Tony didn't say anything, but dutifully followed her onto the elevator making a point of not touching anything. "Has anyone from the tower been here before?" he asked as she hit the button for the 5th floor. "Jane or Steve?"

"Clint has," she replied with a shrug. "He helped me move my couch in when I got it."

"Of course he did," Tony muttered under his breath. "And of course he wouldn't see a problem with any of this."

They stepped off the elevator and were greeted by the sounds of screaming coming down from the end of the hall. What Tony noticed even more than the shouting was the fact that Darcy didn't seem to notice it at all.

"Is that a concern?" he questioned as the screams raised in pitch, and he was able to pick out that the fight has something to do with eggplant parmesan. "Should I be telling Jarvis to call the police?"

"Nah," Darcy replied, digging her keys out of her bag. "That's just Ruben and Robyn. This is an almost daily event with them. Honestly, I think they enjoy it."

"So screaming about Italian food is like foreplay for them?"

"God I hope not," Darcy said shooting a disgusted look over her shoulder as she slipped her key into the lock. "They're brother and sister, twins actually. Unfortunately you're not that far off, trust me if you meet them they definitely give off a Flowers in the Attic vibe."

"I'm just going to have to take you word for it, as I would like to avoid meeting them at all costs."

"That's probably for the best," she agreed, as she opened the door to her apartment and stepped through it.

"This is seriously where you live?" Tony asked hovering in the doorway, the horror clear on his face. "This isn't some sort of elaborate joke you're playing on me right now."

"Yes, I just happened to have the keys to a random apartment on the off chance that I you would offer to drive me home tonight and insist on walking me to my door," Darcy replied sarcastically, flicking on a couple of mismatched lamps and tossing her messenger bag onto the futon. "This is home sweet home."

"No."

"No, what?"

"No, you are absolutely not living here," he replied looking at a suspicious dark spot in one corner of the kitchen. "Is that mold? Has no one informed you of the dangers of toxic mold? For one, it's toxic!"

"Yeah, I've been meaning to spray some bleach on that. But bleach is heavy and half the time the elevator it out of order," she shrugged.

"Yeah, no, not living here," Tony stated again. "SHIELD does pay you right? You're not just squatting here. You actually pay rent to live in this flop house."

"Yes, I pay rent. No, I'm not squatting here. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure I can only afford this place because this neighborhood got hit pretty hard when you and the gang rumbled with the Chitauri," she told him. "So I guess I should actually be thanking you for that."

Tony looked positively dismayed at the idea that he was somehow inadvertently responsible for her deplorable living conditions. "Clearly we didn't hit this neighborhood hard enough, because I'm pretty sure this whole building should be condemned and ripped down."

"Hey now," Darcy said defensively. "While I admit that this isn't the most ideal of living conditions, it's only temporary. And like I said it's the most I could afford on a SHIELD flunky's salary and a mountain of student debt. Well without roommates, and those craigslist ads are just scary. There was one guy who was asking for a roommate that didn't mind if the tub was occasionally filled with marinara sauce. I am not about to live with spaghetti boy. So yes it's a shit hole, but it's my shit hole."

"Then you're going to have to deal with some superheroes for roommates because I'm not leaving you here," Tony said decisively, crossing his arms over his chest. "I have plenty of guest rooms until we get an apartment of your own situated."

"Whoa there cowboy," Darcy brought her hands up to indicate it was time for a full stop. "I know we just talked about being family and all, but just because you found out you were the lucky sperm donor that went towards creating the awesomeness that is me, does not mean that you can suddenly start dictating my life. I'm a young independent woman making it on her own in the big bad city. I've long since moved out of my mother's house, I'm not about to move into yours."

"Okay one, I dictate the life of everyone around me, you're not that special and my sperm has nothing to do with it. And two, it's not like I'm telling you to move in so I can monitor what you watch on TV and enforce a curfew. I mean you have met me right?"

"I just don't want it-"

"Darcy," Tony cut her off. "If I had seen where you were living before I found out you shared half my DNA, I still wouldn't have let you live here. Besides you're at the tower for work most days anyways and when you're not working you're there with either Jane or Steve so much that it's past time you had your own room anyways. Frankly I don't know why you didn't move in when Jane did. And you do have half my chromosomes so I know you're not stupid. Are you really going to pass up free rent in the most awesome building in midtown?"

Darcy considered this for a long moment. It would be nice to have an apartment that didn't smell like curry every time her downstairs neighbors cooked. Or where she didn't get woken up by the dog that lived across the hall every time a siren went by. And frankly the more distance she could put between herself and Robyn and Ruben the better. To have shower that she didn't feel like she had to wear flip flops in would just be a bonus at that point.

Plus, Tony wasn't wrong about how much time she currently spent at the Tower. She had crashed out on the couch enough times after movie nights that she had taken to keeping an emergency overnight bag in Jane and Thor's rooms. And if she wasn't paying rent, which was ridiculously high, even for this hole, she would be able to pay off her bills in about half the time and she would be able to treat herself to those really amazing boots she had her eye on.

She sighed, a little annoyed with herself for giving in so easily. "I guess I could join the Island of Misfit Toys."

"Fantastic," Tony clapped his hands, happy to be getting what he wanted. "Pack a bag for a couple of days and lets get, I can already feel the spores making homes in my lungs. I'll send movers for the rest of your stuff on Monday. On second thought I don't know if I want anything that has been sitting in this cesspool in my house. Maybe we'll just burn it all and I'll buy you new crap."

"No Tony."

"Fine, hazmat team it is then. But no furniture, only personal belongings, wherever you end up in the tower will already be furnished by something other than homeless chic."

"Fine," Darcy conceded, most of her furniture was a collection of thrift store finds. And not the trendy 'look at how bohemian and funky my decorating is' thrift store, but more 'just try not to think too hard about what that mysterious stain is' thrift store.

"You can send movers, but I'll be packing my own boxes," she countered. "I don't want strangers rifling through my underwear drawer."

"Good, I'll be waiting in the hall," he glanced at the hall in question. "Actually, I'll be waiting in the car. With the air purification system running."

Darcy rolled her eyes as Tony practically fled her apartment. Earths Mightiest Heroes indeed. But she moved quickly in grabbing a duffle bag out from her closet and throwing the things she would need for the next few days inside of it. She hadn't been lying in saying that she was looking forward to going to bed, and if she wasn't going to be able to do that here, then there was no point in sticking around longer than she had to.

With her bag slung over her shoulder she was halfway down the hall to the elevator when she remembered that she hadn't grabbed the paperwork she had come home for in the first place. With a sigh she jogged back to her apartment, ran inside grabbed the files that were sitting on the coffee table, shoved them into her messenger bag with her lap top and was headed back towards the elevator only pausing to lock the door behind her. All in all it was less than twenty minutes from the time she got out of the car to the time she was sliding back into the passenger seat.

"So," Tony said as he pulled away from the curb before she could even get her seatbelt on. "How much you want to bet that if we go back through the commons everyone is still in there talking about us?"

"There's no way I'm taking that bet," Darcy scoffed. "I'm not stupid, I'm a Stark remember?"

A/N So what did you think?! Did everyone figure out where Darcy lives? I couldn't resist slipping that little reference in :D Anyways I hope you enjoyed it!