little piece of heaven (tony stark's daughter)

18

rosie's p.o.v

my heart thumps in my ears, drowning out the shouts from behind me. legs burning, i skid along the smooth flooring and dive right over the couch, just missing nat's head, to shield myself from the fireworks to follow.

the assassin, clint and steve all frown down at me in confusion, my panic having alarmed them slightly and shocked them out of their movie trance. i attempt to offer a smile but it melts into a quiver and then i just look more odd.

rhodey's heavy footsteps thud into the room as he grabs my arm, pulling me to my feet, "rosalie stark we are going to continue whether he likes it or not, i am not giving up until i win". he narrows his eyes when a smile crosses my face and i shrug, forgetting the commotion downstairs.

"we're going to be dancing for a long time then" i tell him, tugging my arm away as jarvis resumes the music.

paramore fills the room and i flip my hair over my head, pulling it into a ponytail so it doesn't affect my vision.

my body is controlled by the music, moving freely for the first time in weeks. ponytail swinging, i do a few turns, they're a little wobbly because i haven't danced in a while but i hold myself in fith and then decide it's safe to continue.

rhodey makes desperate attempts to copy my movements, always a few steps behind, but we both immediately pause when the shout rings through the building.

"rosalie astraea harmonía atlanta nyx nova-stark, stop shaking your ass and sit it down on the floor right now!"

biting back a smile, i look over at rhodey, a similar grin threatening to break out on his face.

"he's mad" i whisper, trying not to laugh "he brought out the full name".

the three avengers have kept quiet until now, but clint speaks up "sorry your full name is what?".

both rhodey and i ignore the archer, glancing towards the elevator that dad is going to walk through any second.

sure enough, a small ding warns us of his arrival just as the doors open.

the glare that's painted onto his face is his 100% dad face, i know it well. rose-coloured boy continues to play but my brain's filtered it into the background noise as he walks towards me. "you're supposed to be resting".

the roll of my eyes comes on instinct, and i slightly regret it afterwards when he raises his eyebrow "rosalie" he warns.

"dad" i whine "i'm bored, and i'm fine. there's no point of me staying in bed". i look up and flash my puppy-dog eyes.

he keeps the eye contact for a moment before placing a hand on my shoulder "nope, not taking any chances, you've almost died way too many times lately".

"dad!" i protest as he attempts to steer me towards the lift. when i don't get a response i shakoff his grip and fold my arms "fine, i'll prove it".

i move into the middle of the room where i'm not likely to fall over anything or kick someone in the face.

"rosalie don't" dad drags a hand down his face, clearly exasperated. i don't care, i'm tired of this.

i raise my arms above my head, flexing my back slightly to make sure i still have the flexibility, before throwing myself backwards. my back arches as my feet leave the floor, the few moments that i'm in the air feel comfortingly like flying, something i've missed for the past few days. my hands meet with the floor as i split my legs. they reach the ground one by one and i quickly lift my head to take off again into a back tuck. when i've landed, i hold my chin up and look at dad defiantly.

"come on tones, she's bored out of her mind. the kid's clearly fine" rhodey offers before lowering his voice to a whisper that he thinks i can't hear, but i can. "she hasn't been herself since the mandarin incident, you know that, i'm just trying to cheer her up. the sooner she's back to normal the better".

they both glance over at me and the room is still for a minute before dad nods silently. "pep and i need to talk with you" he tells me after a moment, offering out his hand for me to take.

with a shrug of resignation towards uncle rhodey, i walk towards my dad and accept his palm. it never tends to be a good thing when your parents want to talk to you, away from the other people you live with. this problem is that i don't go to school, so it's not about grades, i don't really tend to do anything wrong apart from just now and i'm pretty sure that pepper would be on my side anyways, so it's not about that. if dad's going away again i'm pretty sure i'll have a breakdown.

before i know it, i'm sat with dad and pepper in my room.

i'm cross-legged on my bed. pepper and dad are sat opposite me. they're both in comfy clothes, they haven't done much work since the mandarin thing, seeing as i was sick and then it was christmas. pepper is fiddling with her sleeve, her usually well-kept hair a little messy and slight dark circles under her eyes as if she hasn't slept. she leans into dad a little, as if asking for support.

it's making me nervous.

dad seems more confident, though i suppose what with everything recently i've learnt that he's good at hiding things, like the fact that he gave out our address to a bunch of terrorists. he nudges pepper, prompting her to speak.

"so.." she starts, suddenly seeming awkward. her eyes glance to dad for help. he rolls his eyes and focuses his attention on me.

i've kept quiet this whole time, i'm not even sure i want to hear what they have to say. this is stressing me out.

"roos, you see pepper as your mom yeah?".

the question leaves me a little taken aback, they know i do.

"yeah" i respond with a skeptical frown.

"so how about we make her your mom, by law"

i sit there for a minute, unsure as to what he means. if this entails any form of dna altering then i want nothing to do with it, i'm already freaky enough.

"i want to adopt you, rosie" pepper finally adds.

an uncontrollably smile fights it's way onto my face "cool".