Call it what you want, but I call it growing up.

I.

Madelyn Joyce Stark was the reason Pepper needed a break from Tony at one point, early into her days working for him. One gala together with Pepper as his plus one resulted in her coming back three years later with his daughter in her terrible twos. Tony slightly resented Pepper for hiding her, but also understood why. He had never wanted children until the first time Madelyn grabbed his finger with her whole hand. His world had changed with her. Ever since Nick Fury had told Tony that he wasn't the only superhero in the world, he had come to learn that villains also came with that territory. He keeps Pepper and Madelyn hidden from the world as much as possible, while making sure the two know how to keep themselves safe.

It's been eight years since the day that Tony became known to the world as Iron Man. Madelyn is now a senior in high school, days away from graduation Midtown School of Science and Technology. Today was her last official day of school, which most seniors were ditching. She, unfortunately, was unable to get out of it thanks to her parents. "You are not ditching school, young lady. You are on scholarship to Empire State, how would that look?" Pepper had said sternly. And so Madelyn sat in her business and economics class with two other students she swore were not even in this class. On the whiteboard, written in black expo marker read the words, 'The real world'.
"Well, I'm sorry your parents made you come to school," The teacher, Mr. Trudeau said with a chuckle. "So I guess we can have a free pass for the next forty minutes." There was a pause.
"Mr. Trudeau, why does the whiteboard say 'the real world' when we're just sitting in a room?" One of the only other students asked.
"Because I didn't expect to have any students today, so I'm just kind of winging it." Madelyn raised her eyebrows in disbelief, but could not help the twinge of a smirk forming on her lips. "So, I guess the question I pose to you all is what are you going to do in the real world once you leave this room?" The two other boys in the class talked of going to out of state universities and majoring in pharmaceutical in technological research. "What about you, Elly?"
"I am double majoring in anatomy and robotic engineering, and I applied for a summer internship at Stark Enterprises." Mr. Trudeau and the other students raised their eyebrows, the younger ones doing so in disbelief while the teacher raised is in remembrance.

"They have internships? That has got to be impossible to get!" One of the boys exclaimed. Madelyn tried to refrain from rolling her eyes but was unsure if she was successful. She shouldn't be annoyed—these kids didn't know she was a Stark. The administration knew, but the students only knew her as Madelyn Joyce for her safety.
"Oh that's right." Mr. Trudeau walked behind his desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a letter. He walked over to Elly and handed her an envelope with the Stark Enterprise logo on the front. "This came for you this morning." Madelyn had applied for the internship anonymously through Mr. Trudeau so that her parents had no knowledge of her application's existence; she wanted a fair chance like everyone else. "You can read it at home if you like." Elly shook her head before tearing open the letter and reading it aloud.
"'To whom it may concern, after thoroughly reviewing your application, Ms. Potts and myself are ecstatic to inform you that you have been selected for the Stark Enterprises Academic internship.' I GOT IT!" Despite being their child, it was still a very exciting accomplishment, especially considering all applications are anonymous to ensure there are no biased selections. The class continued to shoot the breeze, killing whatever time they had left until the bell rang. Elly began packing her things and started to head out.

"Congratulations again, Ms. Stark." Mr. Trudeau said quietly, but just enough for her two lone classmates to hear. Elly just gave a sly smile before heading off to lunch.

Being one of the few seniors that attended school on their official last day, Elly sat in the cafeteria alone with a sketchbook out and a turkey sandwich in hand. Her left hand was scratching along paper as she drew up robotic designs—a hobby she developed from her father. She was constantly trying to come up with new weapons to add on to variations of her dad's Iron Man suits. She ignored younger students as they walked by until she felt someone bump her shoulder. Before she could look up, she felt something cold spill onto her left hand that was still grasping her drawing pencils. Madelyn reacted without thinking and screamed, "Are you KIDDING ME?!" The chubby boy that seemed to be the culprit stared at her in shock. His friends, a young timid looking brunette boy, and a girl with a scowl on her face and a head full beautiful curls, stayed silent. Elly had never seen them before.

"I-I-I am so sorry!" The boy stuttered out. Elly just huffed, throwing her sandwich on the table before stomping away. The underclassmen looked incredibly dumbfounded. "She's scary." The boy, Ned Leeds commented under his breath. The curly haired beauty, Michelle Jones, looked at the spill that Ned had caused, picking up the soaked sketchbook. The page Elly had been working on wasn't entirely destroyed, MJ noted as she began flipping through the journal. The entire notebook was filled with different designs of upgrades of Iron Man's suit, as well as an original design for a sleeker suit, but each page now contained smeared graphite from the spill.

"She's clearly a fan." MJ says as she looks at the sketches.

"Wait, look at the margin notes." The other boy, Peter Parker, said as he took the sketchbook from MJ. "There's actual physics being put into this. Oh man, what if these were projects for her?!" Without saying anything else, Peter took off with the notebook in his hands, chasing after Elly. He managed to catch her coming out of the bathroom and making her way towards the school's exit with a scowl on her face and her chestnut brown hair now up in a sloppy bun. "H-hey! Wait!" He said, trying to get her to stop before she left. She turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "You left this in there. It looked kind of important." She didn't make any motion to take the sketchbook.

"It's already ruined, I'll have to start from scratch." Elly said bitterly.

"I feel really bad," Said Peter quietly. "I-I could try to recreate them for you and give them to you when I'm done?"

"It's my last day here, I'm a senior." She pointed out blankly, getting him to understand that they would never meet again.

"O-oh."

"It's fine. I'll just work on it at home. Thanks for the offer though…?" She trailed off, realizing she didn't know his name.

"I-I'm Peter, Peter Parker." He held out his hand to shake, which she looked at with a grimace before shaking it anyway.

"Madelyn Joyce, but most people call me Elly." After a brief, awkward pause of silence, Elly bid him farewell before exiting the school. She had had enough of the day and decided to skip the rest of her classes, regardless of what her mom had said to her this morning. Peter just looked dumbfounded, watching after her as she left until she was entirely out of sight. After she was gone, he began flipping through her sketchbook, trying to figure out how he was going to recreate her work.

Several days had passed since Elly's last day of school. It was finally Saturday; graduation day. Elly's long chestnut brown hair sat in loose waves over her shoulders and she wore a lacy white knee length dress underneath her graduation gown. The graduating class of two thousand sixteen sat in folding chairs in the football field of their school as they awaited for their individual names to be called, shake their principals hand, and receive their little diploma folder so they could finally turn their tassels to the left. Just one more row of students to get through and Elly was finally done. One of the teachers coordinating the event motioned for the row Elly was in to stand and exit towards the right in a single file line to keep everyone in alphabetical order. "...Kaitlin Johnson!" The girl in front of Elly shook the principal's hand as she was handed her diploma. "Madelyn Joyce!" Elly took a cautious step forward, staring at her sandal clad feet before locking eyes with the principal. He mouthed the word 'congratulations' as he shook her hand and handed her diploma. The row that Elly had walked with returned to their seats and waited for the rest of the graduating class to receive their certificates. It only took forty five minutes, she thought with a mental scowl.

"Graduates, please move your tassels over to the left, as your journey here as ended and your forever begins. Family, friends, and faculty; I am proud to present to you, the Midtown School of Science and Technology class of two thousand sixteen!" A large eruption of cheers tumbled throughout the football stadium, the sky now littered with graduation caps. After a couple of announcements, the graduate were able to roam free to take pictures with their fellow classmates and find their families. Elly tried to find her mom and dad, which usually wasn't that difficult, but today it felt like trying to find Waldo and Carmen.

"Elly! Hey, Elly!" At the sound of her name, the brunette turned around to find Peter Parker running up to her. A black leather notebook was in his hands as he slightly panted, trying to catch his breath. "I um..." He held up the notebook before looking at Elly's confused light brown eyes. "I know you told me not to worry about it, but I felt really bad. So I tried to get it done as quickly as possible." Elly took the notebook, realizing it was a leather bound sketchbook, inside a recreation of all the work she had done. Her confusion turned into awestruck.

"W-wow, oh my god. Thank you, Peter. This is amazing. You even got all of my notes and formulas in here." He looked away slightly in discomfort.

"Yeah, thankfully I understood them. Otherwise I would have been worried that I just botched all your projects." Before Peter could say anything else, Tony and Pepper walked up to their daughter, spewing the hugs and congratulations. The smiles stopped once Tony noticed the very confused underclassmen.

"Parker? What are you doing at the graduation ceremony?" He asked, causing Peter to start sputtering incomplete words.

"Dad? Why do you know Peter?" Asked Elly suspiciously.

"D-dad? Oh boy, that makes a lot more sense now." Peter said quietly, referencing the contents of the sketchbook he recreated filled with various weaponry designed for the notorious Iron Man suit. "H-hey, Mr. Stark."

"Answer the question, Parker." By now, Tony had an arm protectively wrapped around his daughter's shoulders while Pepper had one of her arms wrapped around Elly's. They actually looked like a picture perfect family, Peter noted.

"I-I came to give Elly a gift. My friend Ned ruined her sketchbook so I got her a new one and tried to recreate all the pages. They're brilliant, by the way, and it totally makes sense that she's your daughter since she was designing a whole bunch of add ons to your Iron Man—" He was rambling at uncontrollable speeds, his throat filling with anxiety; even more so when he noticed that both father and daughter were wide eyed.

"I'm sorry, what?" Tony stared at his daughter this time, a look on his face that only Elly could decipher. With that look on his face, she knew attempting to hide her secret was futile. She narrowed her eyes in a glare before speaking.

"I wanted to tell you when I got home. I applied for the Stark internship, and you guys actually picked me." She said. Before Tony could answer, Peter started babbling again.

"You're on the Stark internship too? Hey, I guess that kind of means we'll get to work together for the summer!" Elly blinked at Peter then looked at her dad.

"Please tell me you're joking, pops." Tony tutted his tongue in disagreement before going to pat Peter on the back.

"To be fair, honey, he's technically on a grant right now." Pepper took her turn to glare at her boyfriend. She knew what lie Tony fabricated for Peter's aunt May, but it seemed that lie didn't extend to their daughter. "What? He is. Hey, Parker," Tony said quickly, attempting to deflect the attention on him. "Get a picture of us with the graduate." Tony moved back to stand at Elly's left side and wrapped an arm around her waist; Pepper mirrored him, wrapping her arms around her daughter. Elly held her diploma open in one hand and her graduation cap at the top of her head, posing a wide smile. Peter counted to three before taking a burst of shots. The photographer in him began taking over as he had Madelyn take a photo with each parent, then had her pose by herself. "I'm not paying you to develop these, Parker!" Tony said after what must have been the hundredth photo. Pepper let out a laugh before offering to take Tony's phone back from the young boy.

"Now one of you two!" She chirped before gently nudging her daughter towards a confused looking Peter Parker. He incoherently stuttered out polite refusals until Elly's hip touched with his as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders, her free hand holding her diploma. The wind blew her light brown locks in his face, allowing him to smell the faint scent of her shampoo. She smelled like mint and vanilla. Unsure of how he should be standing with her, he wrapped an arm around her waist, giving a small side hug as they smiled together. "That's adorable." Pepper said, showing the photo to Tony. "Look at your interns; they're yours for the whole summer, Tony." Iron Man rolled his eyes."

"Please, don't remind me. Which, actually reminds me. This—" He pointed to Peter's arm that, for some unfathomable reason, was still on his daughter's waist. "is going to be kept to a minimum. Or you know, not at all." Immediately at the comment, the young boy retracted his arm away, holding both of his hands up at defeat.

"O-of course not, Mr. Stark." At the exact same time, Elly said,

"Ew, dad. He's like thirteen."

"Hey, I'm fifteen, thank you!" Peter disputed. She rolled her eyes, ignoring his statement before looking at her dad.

"It's not going to happen." Elly replied adamantly.

A week had passed since Madelyn's graduation and, by the good graces of her father, her mom and herself got to take a small trip to Italy together as a graduation gift. She wished her dad would have joined, but supposedly he had too much work to do. He'd been saying that a lot lately. Still, she enjoyed the getaway with Pepper but now it was time for Elly to return to New York and get to work. Currently the seventeen year old was in her room unpacking her suitcase when a knock was heard upon her open door. She looked up from the ground to see her dad standing in the door way. He was holding the leather sketchbook Peter had given to her at graduation, flipping through the various pages.

"Uh, hey dad." Elly said with a twinge of confusion. "Why are you going through my notebook?" He shrugged indifferently.

"Parker said you had some designs in here, thought I'd check them out." Tony was now sitting on her queen sized bed, still flipping through the pages while she unpacked. "These are great, by the way. Might steal a few or all of them." Elly laughed before playfully throwing one of her shirts at her dad's head.

"Speaking of Parker, what is this mysterious grant you have him on?" When Tony said nothing, Elly paused from her unpacking, she looked at him expectantly.

"Actually, kiddo, that's your first assignment as an intern. He needs a suit."

"Excuse me?"

"We've got a lot to go over. Come on, let's go to the lab." Tony stood up and began walking out of her bedroom, waiting for her to follow behind. "So you've been keeping up with the Accord, right?" Elly grimaced.

"Yeah. Uncle Steve still isn't going to sign, is he?"

"Uh, yeah. Don't call him that, he's not your uncle." There was a very obvious twinge of annoyance in his voice. Normally she would have argued—she loved her uncle Steve Rogers and her and her mom had always welcomed as family. Tony did for a while too, until now. The two were now in the lab at the top of the Avengers tower and he immediately began pulling up various YouTube videos as well as New York street cameras, civilian surveillance, and anything of the sort with one common subject: Spider-Man was in every video. "It seems our friend Peter Parker is more than your friendly neighborhood nerd." Elly's eyes widened in disbelief.

"No way, dad. There's no way, have you seen that kid? He's so little." Tony laughed, patting his daughter on the back.

"Unfortunately. But he is what he is. He's got talent, and he also is in dire need of an upgrade. Look at this." He pointed to one of the screens that were paused on Spider-Man. "He is literally wearing a hoodie and tights." The Starks shared laughter, he looked like a colorblind robber that didn't realize he stuck out like a sore thumb.

"So how is he my project?"

"I need you to design a suit for the kid. I know you've got the capacity to do it, but he's got a couple of requirements he needs in the suit." Elly looked slightly concerned.

"Like…?"

"Oh don't worry, you guys are going to go over it. He'll be here tomorrow"

"Dad, this is not how I imagined how this internship." Tony just shrugged before guiding his daughter out of the lab, an arm around her shoulder. His stomach began to growl lowly, making him look down, then at her.

"Hey, are you hungry? Let's go get lunch."

"Dad, stop deflecting!"

"Chinese food it is, kiddo!" Elly rolled her eyes. Some things never change.

Over lunch, the father and daughter pair talked more of what to expect from the upcoming internship. From what it sounded like, she was most likely just going to be doing maintenance for Iron Man, with the exception of the fruition of Peter's Spider-Man suit. It didn't sound incredibly glorious, but considering her concentration of study being anatomy and robotic engineering, some exposure would be better than none. After lunch, Tony returned back to the lab while Elly finally got around to unpacking and eventually began cleaning her entire room. Pepper walked by, stopping when she saw her daughter almost furiously throwing piles of paper into a trash bag, stripping her bed sheets, and tossing out all the water bottles that were littered around her room.

"Oh boy, you're anxious cleaning again. What's wrong?" Pepper was leaning against her daughter's bedroom door frame, iPad in her hand as her daughter looked up at her curiously.

"Oh um. Nothing, really. I just start work tomorrow so I guess I just wanted to clean my space and my mind, something like that." Elly replied nonchalantly. Her mom's head tilted slightly in skepticism.

"Who do you think you're talking to? I know you, Madelyn Joyce."

"Yeah, can't hide anything from you." She said quietly. Her mom was her best friend, and her mom always knew. "Well, dad gave me my first assignment. I guess I have to design a suit for Peter Parker."

"Ah, so he told you of your little friend's alter ego. Well, I wouldn't be nervous. Your dad went through that sketchbook front to back. I think he knows you can handle it; you can handle anything honey, you're my daughter after all." Pepper went to hug Elly and placed a kiss at the top of her head in comfort.

"Thanks, mom." After her mom left her room, Elly went back to cleaning, though at a much slower pace now that her anxiety began to subside. She replaced the sheets with clean ones, put every misplaced item in their home, and swept and mopped her hardwood floors. Having a clean room helped her calm down and helped her creativity flow. Elly laid belly down on fresh sheets with the leather bound sketchbook Peter gave her, turned to a blank page and began to sketch designs for his suit. Eventually, she began to get lost in her drawings, trying to think of what else Peter besides holsters for his web fluid. Hours must have passed without Elly realizing it until her mom knocked on her bedroom door.

"Dinner is ready, honey." Elly nodded, closing her sketchbook and standing up. Together, mother and daughter walked down the hall to the elevator. After Pepper pushed the button down to the second floor, Elly gathered they were going to the communal dining room, which was usually where the earth's greatest defenders dined.

"Oh, is everyone joining us for dinner?" Elly asked. Pepper just smiled as the elevator doors opened right to the dining room. Natasha, Vision, and Wanda were all gathered at the table, a large spread with all of Elly's favorite foods were set up family style. Tony was in the kitchen, pulling something out of the oven as his family walked in. "Oh wow, what's going on? Dad's actually cooking?"

"We wanted to welcome you officially as a part of the team." Natalie said. Pepper took the seat to the right of Tony's spot, the head seat facing the elevator, as Elly took the head seat directly across from her dad between Natalie and Wanda.

"Thanks so much guys, it looks great!" While Elly was incredibly grateful to have dinner with her second family, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness noticing half of them were missing. No uncle Steve or uncle Clint. Regardless, she tried to enjoy what was left of her broken family.

Halfway through dinner, Vision got up and grabbed a bottle of white wine from the fridge, and poured a glass for everyone, even Elly. After the glasses had been poured, Tony cleared his throat. "Thank you, everyone, for being here considering the circumstance. I just wanted to congratulate my daughter on earning the Stark Enterprises internship." Everyone at the table raised their glasses and said cheers before taking a swig of their wine. "I'm proud of you, honey." Tony added afterward, making Elly look down in slight embarrassment.

"It's not a big deal dad."

"Oh come on, honey. Be proud, you really did earn this and you're going to be great." Said Pepper with a glowing smile.

"Ugh, here's to hoping, mom." Elly raised her wine glass again before downing what was left in it.

Author Note: Hiyo~ This story has already been posted to my Tumblr, Tom-Hollandaze but I figured I would share this here.