Life as Maya Stark • Iron Man's Daughter [ 1 ]

1

Six months after the events of Iron Man. . .

"In other news, billionaire Tony Stark has just arrived in Queens, New York, along with his daughter Maya Stark. For the past six months Tony Stark has juggled being a superhero and being a father while also working on his newest creation, the Stark Expo. When one of our reporters asked Mr. Stark about the Expo, he responded, "The Stark Expo was a dream that my father had a long time ago. He was never able to build the Expo, but that is why I am here. I have taken what my father started and finished it. I only hope that my father is watching from up above with a smile on his face as his dream becomes reality." The Stark Expo opens tonight and everyone can expect to see Mr. Stark there-"

Maya quickly paused the tv with a frown on her face before looking down at the note in her hands.

Maya-

Sorry I wasn't able to be there and say Happy Birthday when you got up. As you probably know, the Expo is opening tonight and Pepper has me doing about a million things today so that I will be ready. But don't worry, I should be back later tonight so we will still have time to celebrate. By the way, Pepper is making sure that I don't forget to tell you that she made you some food for lunch and dinner and put it in the fridge. Anyways, I'm really sorry, Kid. I'll see you tonight. Happy Birthday.

Dad

Maya sighed and crumpled up the note, throwing it at the wastebasket that sat across the room. The note immediately bounced off the side before landing on the floor. Maya groaned and got up to throw the trash away properly.

She couldn't believe that her dad wasn't going to be here with her for her birthday. Sure he said that he was going to be back home tonight, but Maya knew how unlikely that was. After all, all Tony had done the past six months is be late for everything that was important to Maya.

Like when Maya had entered her robot into the local science fair. Maya had been so excited and had even made the colors of the robot like Iron Man as a surprise for her father, who wasn't allowed to see the robot until the night of the science fair. But when that night had come, Maya remembered looking into the crowd only to end up not finding the face of the one person she had wanted there. Pepper and Rhodey had given Maya sad smiles and that was when Maya knew that Tony wasn't going to come.

Then there was the last day of Maya's first year of college. Tony had promised her that he was going to be there to pick her up and that they were going to go celebrate the end of the year. So Maya had gone outside as soon as her class had ended only to find that her father was no where in sight. Maya remembered how she had sighed and sat down on one of the benches before waiting on her father to show up. Even as the rain had started pouring down on her, Maya still believed that her father would come. But Tony never did show up and Maya had ended up having to call Happy and have him come get her instead.

Now Tony wasn't going to be there for her birthday and that really hurt Maya. Why couldn't Tony take a day off to spend this special day with her? After all, it was her first birthday with him.

Maya sighed and checked the clock in the kitchen of the hotel room that Tony had rented for them for the next few days. It was already two in the afternoon and Maya hadn't even been out of the room yet.

Maya glanced out the window and down at the town that she used to call home. She knew this place like the back of her hand. Tony wouldn't mind if she went out for just a little bit, right?