this is really short but honestly tony/sharon is my fave family relationship in the mcu and i've completely made it up LMFAo but honestly with this whole howard/peggy friendship there is NO WAY that tony doesn't at least know OF sharon. it's so interesting and fun for me to explore, and i hope it's just as fun for you guys to read it!

Another pin pushed in
To remind us where we've been.
And every mile adds up
And leaves a mark on us.
And sometimes our compass breaks
And our steady true north fades.
We'll be just fine.

-Sleeping At Last, West

When Tony is sixteen years old Sharon Carter comes into his life, pink and squealing, and for some reason she is the one person that he can't manage to push out afterwards. She weasels her tiny blonde self into his heart and stays lodged there for years, bubbly and adorable and full of life, staring up at him with those wide brown eyes like he's the answer to all of her problems.

He's never had a sibling before. He's never been a role model for anyone, either. Tony's the guy that girls are embarrassed to bring home to dad, the one that's acceptable for a good time and not much else. Having someone so tiny look up to him like he's some sort of hero, like he can actually do some good in the world, is equal parts terrifying and amazing.

Love is a dangerous, slippery thing, and Tony doesn't quite know what to do with it. He hasn't been able to sustain a single relationship his entire life, and yet this tiny, fuzzy-haired little girl with her wrinkled hands and feet makes him want to be better, just so that he doesn't disappoint her. She can't even speak yet, and she already has him wrapped around her finger.

Sharon can't remember her life without Tony in it. She knows that he met her when she was a baby, but obviously her memory doesn't stretch back that far.

What Sharon does remember, though, her earliest memory, is Aunt Peggy bouncing Sharon in her lap while Tony makes faces at her.

Sharon remembers Tony swinging her at the park, helping her with her stupid math homework, scaring off creepy boys, buying her a limo to take her to prom. She remembers weekends and school breaks at Aunt Peggy's after his parents die, him and Uncle Gabe teaching her self defense while Aunt Angie and Aunt Peggy watched them, laughing from the couch. She remembers nights spent crying when the kids at school shun her for being related to (basically) a celebrity, the threats that he used to make to cheer her up.

The first face Sharon had ever seen was her mother's, and after that her father's and Aunt Peggy's. Tony's face, however, might just be her favorite one by far.

Harrison Carter is a busy man. Amanda Carter is even busier. They have nondescript jobs at nondescript companies and they go to work and make money and try their hardest to not be like Margaret Carter, war hero and founder of SHIELD. All they want is for their daughter to have a normal life, but Peggy keeps insisting on being part of it and they're busy and it's convenient.

So when Peggy offers babysitting services they can't turn her down, because they're too tied up in making money to provide Sharon will the normal life she deserves. It's the best and worst thing they have ever done for their daughter.

The first time they bring Sharon to her Aunt Peggy's to stay for longer than a few hours is when she's three and fussy and has a tooth coming in. Aunt Peggy and Aunt Angie play with her, feed her, and force Tony to interact with her, even though he's a recent graduate of MIT and has better things to do with his time. Which is why he's hanging out at Peggy's, obviously.

To her aunts' mutual surprise, the second Tony picks Sharon up, she stops crying. She looks up at him and places a tiny hand on his cheek. Angie laughs and Peggy lets out an uncharacteristic cooing sound while Tony's face turns red and he holds Sharon slightly away from him as he tries to make her stop.

She doesn't, just curls up against his chest and falls asleep in his arms instead, burbling unintelligible sounds and patting at his face gently. He cannot believe his luck, because after that moment he's stuck with nap duty every single time Sharon comes over. (He says he hates it, but he doesn't. He reads to her from his old textbooks and recites equations to her and asks her questions about ideas for his inventions like she'll actually answer him back.)

For Sharon's fifth birthday, Tony builds her a fully functional, life size, robotic barbie doll. It can speak, and walk, and dance, and Tony knows that Sharon is going to love it because it's miles above any shitty doll that Toys R Us would sell in a million years.

The whole thing goes about as well as Peggy expected it would when he first pitched her the idea.

Sharon lets out a large gasp when she rips off the wrapping paper with her tiny hands, bouncing around and placing the bow on top of her blonde curls, fully expecting a playhouse castle like she had asked for, or even one of those big dollies that she'd seen at the store with Mommy and Aunt Peggy and Angie.

Instead, she gets a personalized "Hello, Sharon" in a robotic, yet still mostly feminine voice, mouth falling open when she hears it. She wraps her arms around the thing and then looks back at Tony, who's laughing hysterically while Aunt Angie tries to chase him around the room with a spatula. Mommy's frowning and Daddy's laughing, Uncle Howard and Uncle Gabe are smiling at her. When Sharon gazes wide-eyed at Amanda she gives her daughter a tight-lipped smile, trying to seem enthusiastic about it.

Mommy had given her some coloring books, and Aunt Peggy and Angie had given her a really cool gun that shot fake darts and she had hit Tony with one but he hadn't cared.

His present was the best of all. Tony stops in front of her, pausing his escape from Angie long enough to kneel down next to Sharon. She throws herself at him, pink party dress and all, hugging him as tight as she knows how.

"Made it for you, squirt," he says, tilting his head towards the doll. Sharon gasps again, face scrunching up in delight, opening her mouth wide and exposing her missing front tooth to him.

"I love her!" she cries, jumping up and down. "Does she have a name?"

"You can name her anything you want."

"Even Peanut?" Sharon asks, and Tony presses his lips together to keep from laughing.

"I did say whatever you want, didn't I?"

So Sharon names her new doll Peanut and the adults give her an hour to tire herself out while they eat cake in the kitchen.

Of course it doesn't last long. Tony may be a genius, but he still makes mistakes, so when Sharon lets out a cry from the living room while everyone else is in the kitchen, he comes running.

Sharon's sprawled out on the floor, rubbing at her arm while the automated doll flails around the living room. Tony looks at Amanda sheepishly. "I can fix it—" he starts, but Amanda shakes her head harshly, pursing her lips together, probably regretting ever agreeing to let Sharon have her birthday party in New York with "Auntie Peggy and Cousin Tony" instead of in Virginia with all of her other friends.

"Don't bother," she says, scowling at him and scooping Sharon up in her arms. "Harrison, we're leaving."

The death of Howard and Maria Stark shocks the entire nation, but it hits home the worst. Sharon misses the first wave of the aftermath at home. Her parents refuse to let her visit Aunt Peggy's or Tony until he has enough time to "finish grieving", whatever that means. All that Sharon knows is that the TV keeps saying something happened to Uncle Howard and Aunt Maria and she doesn't understand and she just wants to talk to Tony and give him a big hug.

She climbs up on one of the kitchen cabinets to reach the phone, trying to remember Tony or Aunt Peggy's phone numbers, but when she presses the numbers in she ends up calling someone that she doesn't know.

Her mommy finds her crying in the kitchen and pulls her into a big hug, dialing the right numbers for her, but Tony doesn't answer.

Mommy and Daddy finally bring her to Peggy's two weeks later for something called a funeral, and it's terrible. Everyone is crying and Tony's upset and she doesn't know how to fix it.

Her aunts and Mommy make her put on a black dress and a black bow in her hair and she cries, confused, because everyone else is crying too.

"Aunt Peggy," Sharon asks, "why is Tony so sad?"

Aunt Peggy looks at her, smiling sadly, and tells her "You'll understand when you're older, my love", and Sharon stomps her foot and crosses her arms because she hates when people say that to her. She's a big girl and she wants to know now.

Sharon trails after her family downstairs and finds Tony waiting on the couch, head in his hands. She hops up onto it next to him, quiet, and puts a hand on his leg. Tony jumps and Sharon flinches, pulling away from him.

"Shit," he mutters, finally looking at her, and Sharon knows that that's a bad word but she thinks that now is a special time and maybe Tony is allowed to say what he wants. Tony's face softens when he sees Sharon's lips start to tremble and he opens his arms, letting her crawl into his lap.

"I'm sorry, Share-Bear." Her faces scrunches up as she looks at him, his eyes rimmed with red and a tear sliding down his cheek. She wraps her arms around his neck and he sobs into her shoulder and they go to the funeral and he cries more, Sharon seated next to him, clutching his hand so tightly that she's afraid it's going to break.

The amazing thing is, Tony never cared or felt bothered by the fact that he was hanging out without someone sixteen years younger than himself. He loved Sharon, and Sharon loved him, and that's all there was to it. They were family, and he had learned the hard way what it was like when family didn't have your back, and even worse how awful it felt to have broken relationships that never had the chance to be fixed.

He wanted Sharon to grow up knowing that he had her back. Everything else was secondary.

So if his revolving door of girlfriends ever made gross comments about it, he'd dump one and move on to the next. Most of them were weirded out by it, but some of the lucky few took quite a liking to Sharon. They'd braid her hair and smile at Tony when he said he had to babysit, not caring that their night would be spent watching Barbie movies and drinking chocolate milk.

Those were the ones that stayed longest.

Sharon liked most of them, and she hated it when they left. She never asked Tony why he couldn't keep a girlfriend, but she wished that he wasn't so sad. He liked to drink the nasty stuff that her parents had all the time for dinner. Sharon knew what it was because she had snuck a sip once and instantly spit it out.

He never drank too much, though, just got really quiet and put her to bed in her room at Peggy's or even his own new house, and spent a lot of time in his room with his notebooks. Sharon wished there was something that she could do to help him.

When Sharon's in middle school, Tony's work at Stark Industries forces him to spend increasing amounts of time in Japan. After about the sixth time he leaves, Sharon begins to suspect that he might not just be going there on business, but she doesn't tease him about it. If he's happy, she's happy.

But she is slightly weary of Obie, even though he's only ever been nice to her. Sharon had liked Howard a lot better, but he was long gone now. Howard had always brought her cookies and candy to butter her up, but she didn't mind, because Aunt Peggy liked him and Sharon trusted Aunt Peggy with everything she had.

Obie, on the other hand, has always scared her a little bit, even when he did the same things. Even though she was young, Sharon knew some things, and she knew that the way Obie looked at Tony was a little too sinister to be normal. She never told Tony how she felt because she knew how he felt, and he saw Obie like his new dad and Sharon didn't want to upset him.

She calls him as much as she can when Mom finally lets her have a phone, and texts too. Dad yells at her about the phone bill, but Tony starts paying them after Sharon tells him about it. She messages him sometimes at school when math gets too boring, not caring about the time difference because she knows he'll answer her no matter what.

Sharon, 2:22 PM, text me a picture of u and rumiko

Tony, 3:22 AM, I have no idea what you mean, squirt. And also it's 3 AM here, you do know that right?

Sharon, 2:24 PM, yeah but u never sleep anyway

Tony, 3:25 AM, You got me there. Don't say I never gave you anything.

Sharon, 2:25 PM, OMG she's so pretty when can i meet her!

Tony, 3:26 AM, When pigs fly.

Sharon, 2:30 PM, rude.

Sharon, 2:30 PM, also don't you have your own jet?

Tony, 3:32 AM, I've taught you well.

Sharon, 2:33 PM, love you too.

The day that Tony shows up at her tiny high school in the middle of goddamn nowhere, Virginia, Sharon instantly knows that something is wrong. She never gets taken out of school early because her parents are always too busy working, and whenever Aunt Peggy comes to visit she waits until school is done, anyway, because Peggy "values her education" or something annoying like that.

So when she's called to the main office and sees Tony there, Sharon feels her heart sink into her stomach. She's fifteen years old and she's never ever seen him like this before, not even when his parents died. He's too quiet, too composed, no hint of his usual smile on his face as he signs her out and walks her to his car. His hands shake on the steering wheel as they sit in the parking lot.

Sharon's the one that finally breaks the silence. "Tone," she says softly, her old childhood nickname for him that she never stopped using. "What's wrong?"

"They were murdered," he whispers, looking up from the wheel to meet Sharon's eyes. God, she's never seen him look so dead before. It's like he's seen a ghost, but even worse, because he just looks… empty. Not scared, not angry, just blank.

"Wh—" her voice breaks as she reaches for one of his hands, needing to feel that he's still alive, that he's still her cousin Tony and that everything is okay. "Who was murdered?"

"My parents. Fuck, Sharon, they were murdered. What do I—" his voice cracks. Sharon propels herself across the console and pulls him into a hug. He grips her tight.

"We'll fix it," she tells him. "We'll find out who it was, we'll—"

Tony's voice is rough when he answers her. "I'll find them. I don't know why I'm here. Sharon, I don't know—"

"Because we're family, stupid," she snaps, pulling back to grab his face in her hands. "That's why you're here. And we can fix this."

She has a hard time making friends in high school. Elementary and middle school are fine compared to the amount of teasing she goes through when she starts her freshman year. Sure, they'd learned about Captain America all the time, but it's only when high school hits that Aunt Peggy is really mentioned. Which makes Sharon furious, by the way, despite the shit that she gets for being related to her.

Aunt Peggy did great things in the war. She was brave, and strong, and she even founded SHIELD, not that Sharon could tell anyone else about that last part. She doesn't understand why men have to get all the credit, even though she loves Uncle Gabe and Dugan and the rest of the Commandos.

Tony tries to intervene, but Sharon can fight for herself. Aunt Peggy taught her how to punch right, and Sharon gets into more than a few fights with annoying bullies, not that she cares. After she stops crying and starts taking things into her own hands, everyone pretty much backs off. Her mother is livid, but Sharon doesn't care.

She's going to go to the Academy and make Aunt Peggy proud and she doesn't care what all these losers think. She graduates at the top of her class and Tony claps the loudest in the stadium during graduation and flies her to Paris to celebrate.

Students at the Academy don't really take well to legacies, Sharon soon finds out. If she had thought high school was awful, being around students who actually knew all about Aunt Peggy's legacy was even worse. She tries to keep it a secret for as long as possible, which, in reality, is only three days. (Her roommate, Barbara Morse, has no problem with it. Turns out that she's pretty much the only one that doesn't.)

Sharon's professors are a whole different story. The first time that one of them reads her name out loud, stuttering over the last name and looking around the room like it's some sort of prank, Sharon raises her hand and instantly regrets it.

She spends the rest of the class period sunk low in her seat (in the front row, idiot, what was she thinking?) as the professor glances over at her every time he makes some reference to Aunt Peggy.

Which, incidentally, is basically the entire period, because the introduction is of course focused on the founding of SHIELD and the Agency's history. Sharon snaps the hair tie on her wrist and wishes that she were invisible.

She fields calls from Tony for as long as she can before he shows up out of the blue one day with coffee and donuts, nonchalant as can be, even though he's Tony fucking Stark and everyone knows it. She gapes at him in shock as he strolls through the library because a) How does Tony even know how to find a library, b) What the fuck is he doing here, and c) Everyone is starting at him like he's a walking billboard and Sharon wants to die. She wants to die and she wants to take Tony with her, but not until she's had this coffee that he's about to give her, because she has priorities.

Beet red and angry beyond comprehension, Sharon stares him down through her sunglasses as he sits down in the chair across from her, throwing Bobbi a smirk as she fumbles with her textbook.

"Why are you wearing sunglasses inside?" he asks Sharon, like this is just another one of their coffee dates and he hasn't just literally infiltrated her school. She doesn't answer him. He reaches towards her face.

"No, Tony, don't—" she fights to get away from him, but she's already leaning back against a bookcase in her chair and one wrong move will send her sprawling. He has her sunglasses off in seconds.

It's his turn to be stunned. "What the fuck," he says, deadpan as he looks back and forth between Sharon and Bobbi as if one of them is going to give him an answer. Sharon's fingers absently brush the huge shiner on her right eye. She looks down at the floor, past Tony towards the exit, at the astounding number of faces currently turned in her direction — anywhere but into his eyes, which are now dark and narrowed at the bruise around her eye.

"It's not a big deal," she mumbles, and Tony's shaking his head before she's even done speaking.

"I beg to differ. Want to tell me how it happened?"

Sharon looks up at him, biting her lip. "Just made a wrong move while sparring. It's stupid." Bobbi makes a sound next to her and Sharon feels a murderous rage starting in her chest and moving throughout the rest of her body. Tony's eyes snap to Bobbi, and Sharon tries to divert his attention.

"It's nothing, really," Sharon insists, trying to be as convincing as possible.

"You've always been a bad liar," he tells her, and looks back at Bobbi. "Spill, blondie," he commands. Sharon glares at her, and Barbara shrinks in her seat slightly, overwhelmed by the attention. Even one of the most beautiful, most popular people at the Academy isn't immune to the effect of Tony Stark, it seems.

"She's telling the truth," Bobbi says, and Sharon relaxes in her seat.

"Fine," Tony says. "Are you busy?" he asks Sharon. "Let's go do something. I'm starving."

"Donuts not good enough for you?" she asks. Tony rolls his eyes.

"Those are for you, Share-Bear," he teases back. Her face goes red again. Sharon has no inclination to look or speak to Bobbi ever again after this conversation. She thinks she might have already died of embarrassment.

"You know I still know you were lying, right?" Tony asks Sharon half an hour later, popping a piece of a sushi roll into his mouth. "Blondie might just be an even worse liar than you are."

Sharon snorts. He obviously knows nothing about Bobbi whatsoever. "Her name is Bobbi," Sharon corrects, taking a long sip of water to avoid Tony's question.

"Sharon, come on," Tony presses her. "How bad could it be? Who do I have to kill?"

She shakes her head, still stalling. She doesn't know what to say. She's always had a hard time asking people for help. For the longest time she hadn't even known where a few of the practice rooms at the Academy were, but she sure as hell never asked the student body with a clear vendetta against her. And she didn't ask Bobbi because she was too embarrassed and felt like a sham.

Sharon was supposed to be this amazing legacy, raised by the one and only Peggy Carter, getting into the Academy on her own force of will and with no favoritism whatsoever.

What was she supposed to tell him? That one of their favorite women in the world was the cause of all of her misery? Tony would hate that, and he'd definitely tell Aunt Peggy. And Sharon had no desire for Peggy to come storming into the Academy to fight Sharon's battles for her. She wanted to prove that she could do this on her own.

Tony's still looking at her, concerned. Sharon lets out a breath. "Some students at the Academy... just... don't really like me that much," she tells him, trying to be as vague as possible but still giving up enough information to satisfy him.

"That's bullshit. What's not to like?" His eyes flash dangerously, probably remembering the hard time that she'd had in high school.

Sharon rolls her eyes. "Perhaps... the fact that I'm related to Peggy is a factor. SHEILD agents don't really take favoritism lightly."

Tony's eyebrows furrow together just as he drops his chopsticks. "You're kidding," he blurts. "As if you would ever— as if Peggy would ever—" he spouts, getting angrier by the second, "Those little shits! How many times has this happened to you? Who do I have to call?"

"Tony, stop," Sharon hisses, looking around the restaurant. "I can handle it."

"I know you can, but you don't have to. You'd think that people who actively worship Peggy would have a better sense of respect."

"But I have to." That makes him pause. "Tony, I need this. I need to do this myself. They'll never respect me if I don't fight my own battles. Just... let it go. Please."

Tony stares at her for a second, soaking in what she's said. "You're a tough kid, you know that? How many times have I watched you push through shit like this?" he murmurs, as if he's realizing it for the first time. "I keep forgetting that you're not five years old anymore."

Sharon laughs, throwing a napkin at him. "'Bout time," she grins.

Sharon, 5:05 PM, apparently we're lovers now

Tony, 5:05 PM, That's disgusting.

Sharon, 5:06 PM, you're disgusting. i'm a catch

Tony, 5:08 PM, I'm Tony Stark.

Sharon, 5:08 PM, can u tell that i'm rolling my eyes right now. stop watching gossip girl

Tony, 5:09 PM: How would you even know that unless you watched gossip girl? Hm?

Sharon, 5:10 PM: bobbi hates me

Tony, 5:10 PM: Excuses, excuses. Do you need me to beat someone up? Bribe them with cash?

Sharon, 5:12 PM: i told you i could handle it

Tony, 5:12 PM: Proud of you, kid.

Sharon, 5:13 PM: yeah, yeah

Sharon's parents die halfway through her first year at the Academy, in a car accident. People back off slightly after that. Not so much, but at least no one's punching her anymore.

She makes it through her first week after it happens in a daze, unable to comprehend it. Her mind jumps from theory to theory. Maybe it was the Winter Soldier again, like with Howard and Maria. But then why would they go after her parents and not her, or more importantly, why not Aunt Peggy? Maybe they knew that Peggy's health was starting to fade.

Or maybe it really was an accident. But she was at the Academy now, training to be a SHIELD agent. Were there really such things as coincidences anymore?

Sharon ignores everyone's calls. Aunt Peggy's, Angie's, even Tony's. She spends hours in the training rooms, punching away her pain, trying to keep her distance from everyone, including Bobbi.

It doesn't take long for Tony to show up again. Sharon should be annoyed, but when there's a knock on her dorm room's door and Bobbi's not there and he's standing on the other side, all she can do is let her shoulders slump and open the door wider. He sits on her bed and gives her a good five minutes of silence to mope before pulling her into a hug.

That's all that it takes for her to absolutely break down since she first got the call about their death, clutching at his shoulders and sobbing into his chest. She can't believe that they have to go through this again so soon. It probably won't even be the last time, either, now that she's going be working for SHIELD.

She's sick of it. Sick of people dying, sick of getting hurt, sick of crying. Tony rubs her back, letting her get it all out before speaking again.

"It's just you and me against the world now, huh kid?" he asks, and Sharon lets out a weak, snotty laugh.

"Still got our aunts, though, don't we?" she asks, and he nods, smiling wryly at her.

"I was trying to be poetic," he explains rolling his eyes, and Sharon barks out a laugh for the first time in weeks.

"Just you and me, then."

tell me what you thought of this! i won't give up until everyone accepts this as canon tbh