Toni Stark

{2}

Brief mentions of abuse, substance abuse, neglect.

Antonia Stark was born on May 29, 1970 to a father that already despised her and a apathetic mother.

Dark eyes that were already shining with intelligence. As soon as Howard took a look at her, he was disappointed and angry. What use was a girl in a man's world?

Once Maria made it back to the mansion she handed off her daughter to Jarvis and didn't look back.

~

Edwin Jarvis looked down at the bundle of inky curls and storming eyes and smiled. At the little girl with no one. At the little girl who ruined her parents carefully crafted plans the day she had the audacity to be born a woman in a world where that gave you a disadvantage at every turn.

Born to a father who expected a boy. Someone to shape into another him, to take over SI. Her father who hurt and hated her for daring to be born a girl.

But Toni Stark was built strong. And she will NOT become a victim.

She was born a storm and like most storms she was gorgeous, deadly, and powerful. She fought every step of her life to be herself, to separate herself with every part of her being, from those who saw her and assumed she was weak. How wrong they were.

~

Toni died the same day Maria handed her to Jarvis and returned to her shallow socialite lifestyle. Kept dying while Howard smashed her first circuit board.

The young hopelessly naive trusting child who might-have-been simply disappeared altogether when Maria looked at her for once, only to use her as a prop for good press. Died while Jarvis taught her how to hide bruises under layers of clothing and make-up.

But Toni Stark was built on her ashes. Toni who watched Howard break the circuit board and built another, better than the first. Toni who built and built and built until she could do it better than him.

Toni Stark who learned Maria's game of light and shadow until she too could manipulate the spotlight. Toni Stark learned how to let them see what they wanted and think it was their idea.

She was four years old when she made her first circuit board.

Howard smashed it and laughed in her face. Told her to stop trying to be smart, she was a naive little girl. She raged inside at the drunken fool.

Toni planned to show him that she is better than he could ever hope to become. Better than the stinging disapproval shown with bitter words. Better than a obsession over a dead man. Better than the woman who drowned herself in pills and alcohol to avoid her child.

Toni is better than Howard and Maria in every way.

When she was almost seven, she built a V8 motorbike engine. Howard told her that if she was going to do anything, she would learn how to build a bomb or make something to find Steve Rogers.

The man who is so much better than her, who was the only person the crazy bastard loved more than himself. Because anything else was useless and so was she if she expected anything from him.

~

Toni is 8 when after Howard's drunken rage at her, stands her ground and screams her little throat raw. Because she is sick and tired of having the smell of scotch mixed with blood soaked into her skin. She is tired of covering bruises and cuts with makeup.

Toni bares her teeth and aims to punch him. Howard is to busy trying to drunkenly stumble towards the bar to notice the scrappy child charging him. She leaves a bruise and a myriad of scratches. (He makes her black out the night. )

Toni Stark is twelve when Howard hits her hard enough it should have killed her. Toni feels it, the way the pressure fractures her skull. Knows it in the way she can feel the gentle embrace of darkness, in the way she is finally free from the overwhelming pain she is accustomed to.

But she claws her way back because if she is gone who will be with Jarvis, her pseudo father, the only person who cared for her. So she fights against the welcoming embrace of death, fights to see him again.

As Toni grew she has been shipped to every fancy boarding school thought of and has been expelled by every one. She did everything to invoke her parents ire, she had girlfriends, boyfriend's and everything between. She drank, she partied, and she was anything but meek.

~

Toni was a wildfire that raged and demanded to be let out to devour everything in its path. She did what nobody thought she could, used their doubts and expectations against them. She rose to the top and obliterated those who dared oppose her.

Covered pain with razor sharp wit, covered hurt with blood red lips and fake smiles.

Toni has been hiding and surviving under Howard's fists for years. Thriving against the tears and blood that threaten to choke her. She has become excellent at pretending and lying. She doesn't flinch at the cracked ribs when she sits. She laughs when all she wants to do is cry.

She plays at being the perfect little Antonia. She hates the feeling of pretending to be this dead girl that might have been. Hates the way it chafes at her soul. But she's good at it. So she plays the part.

Toni turns the world into a captive audience and pretends like sudden movements don't terrify her. She's excellent and lying after all, especially to herself. Her walls were higher than the Exosphere. No one was let in and Toni guarded her heart so close she almost forgot what it was like to feel.

But, then came Jarvis who cared for the little genius girl that made him little things. Who taught her what it means to love and be loved.

And a small part of her dark heart was dedicated to the man with a kind smile that loved the wide eyed girl that hurt more than anyone ever should. The man who treated her like a daughter and loved her when no one else did.

It was Toni Stark who decided that Jarvis was her family. Her first person.

Toni Stark who made herself. Who shaped and molded and forged herself into a goddess.