Disarm • Stark

"You want one?" Tony asked Mazzy, holding a donut out to his daughter. 

Mazzy, however, was too frozen solid with fear to even give him an answer. From what she could remember, she'd never been this high up in the air before unless she was in a plane, let alone in a giant donut on the roof of a donut shop. 

"No?" Tony asked, raising his eyebrows. Still, Mazzy remained silent. Tony shrugged his shoulders, popping the last piece of a donut into his mouth. "More for me, then," he murmured, his mouth full.

Still, Mazzy stared down at the world below them with wide, terrified eyes. The short flight up into the donut was terrifying in itself, but sitting up there for a long period of time was even more scary. Tony insisted on it, though, because he was sure it'd be a fun and exciting time. Really, though, he was just trying to make up for the fact that he had scared Mazzy last night. 

Pepper gave him an earful about how irresponsible of a father he was just minutes before he promptly plucked Mazzy up out of her bed and took her on a 6 AM donut run, which she most definitely did not ask for. If Mazzy had a say in it, they'd be at an ice-skating arena, ice-skating their cares away. But Tony didn't stop to think what Mazzy wanted. He just did the first thing that came to mind, which just so happened to be donuts. 

As she sat frozen in a giant donut, Mazzy couldn't stop thinking about what Pepper and Happy would say in this situation, if they were there. Pepper would probably be screaming at Tony about how infuriating and irresponsible he was, and Happy would probably be freaking out about how unsafe Mazzy was, up in that donut with him. But Tony was watching her, ready to catch her in case she just so happened to lean a little too far to the right or left. Even if what he was doing was irresponsible and inconsiderate, he would make sure she was safe. 

He'd already failed at that enough last night. 

"Sir! I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the donut!" a voice shouted from down below, snapping Mazzy right out of her frozen state. She looked down to where the voice came from and saw a man standing in the parking lot, looking up at them.

The strange thing about this man was that he wasn't just another normal customer clad in either their business casual as they were picking up donuts before work, or their funky-looking pajamas they neglected changing out of for their early morning donut run. This man was dressed in all black. He had big black boots and a long black trench coat, along with, interestingly enough, a black eye patch covering his left eye. 

Now, this was a person Mazzy was interested in talking to. 

She knocked her little fist against the metal over her dad's chest. "He says you have to exit the donut," Mazzy said, pointing down at the strange man. 

"Thanks, sweetheart," Tony said, although he could very well hear the man shouting at him from below. To him, of course, the strange man wasn't just a strange man. He was the annoying, persistent man who had once visited him in the middle of the night shortly after he announced himself as Iron Man. So, Tony let out a long, annoyed sigh before setting down his box of donuts and reaching over to Mazzy. "Alright. Let's go," he muttered, scooping her up into his arms.

More quickly than Mazzy would have preferred, Tony lowered the two of them down to the pavement. When Mazzy's feet hit the ground once again, she was frazzled for a few moments before regaining her composure. 

Without a word, the strange man made his way into the donut shop. Reluctantly, Tony followed. Unreluctantly, Mazzy followed, too. 

Less than a minute later, the three of them were sat together at a booth beside the large, glass windows. 

"What's your name, mister?" Mazzy asked the strange man, her eyebrows raised with curiosity. 

"Nick Fury. I'm here to talk to your dad about something called the Avengers Initiative," Nick Fury explained to the small girl. 

Tony let out a groan, glaring at Fury over his sunglasses. "I told you, I don't wanna join your super-secret boy band," he said, completely uninterested in the whole thing. Fury let out an amused chuckle, which seemed sort of fake, in Mazzy's opinion. 

"I think you should join the super-secret boy band, Dad," Mazzy told Tony pointedly. Fury smirked, pointing at the girl to emphasize her point. 

Rolling his eyes, Tony turned to look at his daughter. "You don't even know what it is," he reminded her. 

But Mazzy only shrugged. "It sounds really cool, though."

Again, Tony rolled his eyes. "I don't need a team," he said before taking another swig of his coffee. It was supposed to be helping the hangover, but it wasn't doing much good. 

And again, Fury let out a little chuckle. "No, no, no. See, I remember, you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?" he asked, sipping his coffee.

"It's- it's- it's..." Tony repeated over and over before sighing and shrugging. The truth was, doing everything himself wasn't working out for him. But his ego was too large to ever admit that to anyone. So, he covered it up with his facade of humor and complete carelessness. He lowered his sunglasses down his nose and peered over at Fury, gesturing to his face. "I'm sorry. I don't wanna get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye?" he asked. 

Mazzy instantly crossed her arms and whipped her head over to look at him. She furrowed her eyebrows, glaring at him. "You aren't supposed to say things like that," she whispered harshly. 

Tony huffed, leaning his elbows on the table and rubbing his eyes. "Honestly, I'm a bit hungover. I'm not sure if you're real or if I'm having..."

"I am very real," Fury said, his tone tense. He leaned in closer, making stern, direct eye contact with Tony. Mazzy shrunk down into her seat. "I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."

"Just my luck," Tony murmured. He looked around the room, to his left. "Where's the staff here."

As Mazzy watched, intimidated, Fury reached forward and pointed out marks on the right side of Tony's neck, which Mazzy had failed to notice until just now. His skin was red and irritated around the linear, black marks trailing up the side of his neck. 

Concerned, Mazzy got up on her knees to look more closely at the marks on her dad's neck. When and how had he gotten those? What did they mean?

"That's not looking so good," Fury said, deadpanning at Tony. 

"I've been worse," Tony muttered, knocking Fury's hand away from his neck. 

"Are you sick, Daddy?" Mazzy asked, her eyebrows pinched together with concern. 

"I'm fine," Tony insisted. 

"Are you?" Fury asked. He knew, though, that Tony wasn't fine. He knew exactly what was happening to him and knew that if Tony didn't deal with it soon, he would die. But he had his own solution to the problem. And, either way, he was not about to say that to a little girl worrying about her father, no matter how much of a narcissistic asshole Tony was. 

Lucky for Tony, Mazzy's attention was very quickly taken from him and put onto someone else. 

A very familiar red-haired woman walked into the diner with purpose. Clad in an all-black bodysuit with weapons tucked away all over her body, none other than Natalie Rushman made her way over to their little booth. 

"We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer," Natalie reported to Fury, not even sparing a glance in Tony's direction. 

Mazzy's eyes were wide with both shock and admiration as Natalie spoke. After swallowing a large sip of his coffee, Tony slammed his cup back down onto the table and stared up at Natalie with the same shocked look as his daughter- except Tony's look was full of a lot less admiration and a whole lot more anger. He had a sort of are you kidding me? look on his face before he let reality sink in and calmed back down. 

"Huh," he eventually said monotonously.

"You're a super spy!" Mazzy exclaimed excitedly. 

"You're... fired," Tony murmured. 

"That's not up to you," Natalie Rushman said to Tony. She flashed a quick smile at Mazzy before taking a seat next to Fury, on his side of the booth. 

"Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff," Fury explained, putting a hand on Natalie's back. 

Again, Mazzy's eyeballs practically popped right out of her head. "Your name isn't Rushman?!" she asked.

"It's not Natalie, either," Natalie, or Not-Really-Natalie, rather, said. Mazzy's jaw dropped. Not-Really-Natalie held out a hand for Mazzy to shake. "Natasha Romanoff," she revealed. 

Silently, but excitedly, Mazzy took Natasha's hand and shook it. 

When she looked over at Tony again, he gave a weak, "Hi."

"I'm a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury," Natasha explained, clearly and quickly. 

But Tony didn't care at all about that. He cared more about the fact that she fooled him and everyone else, which secretly embarrassed him. "I suggest you apologize," he said, leaning his cheek against his hand. 

Fury didn't even give him a chance to continue. "You've been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff, you updated your daughter's guardianship provision in your will. You let your friend fly away with your suit," he listed off. Mazzy didn't know what a guardianship provision was, but she didn't have the guts to interrupt and ask. "Now, if I didn't know better-"

"You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it," Tony interrupted, his tone tense and annoyed. 

"Woah, woah, woah. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it?" Fury asked, like it was the most unbelievable thing in the whole world. Which it really was, honestly, except Mazzy was there and she saw Rhodey take it. So, Rhodey took it, but maybe Tony let him take it. "Little brother walked in there, kicked your ass, and took your suit? Is that possible?"

"Well, according to Mr. Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage," Natasha explained. Fury gestured to her, as if saying, my point is proven. Tony only glared at her blankly. 

"Dad, are you really sick?" Mazzy asked, getting a bit more worried as the conversation went on.

"I'm not-" Tony cut himself off, immediately softening his tense, annoyed tone. "I'm not sick, Maz,"  he said. Mazzy wasn't sure if she believed him. 

Lucky for her, Mazzy didn't have to decide whether or not she believed him, because Fury was ready to butt in. "You are sick, Tony."

"Well, what do you want from me?" Tony asked, irritated with the whole situation. From his perspective, there really was not anything he could do about his sickness, and he didn't want to talk about it whatsoever in front of his daughter. She already had enough worries as is. He did not want to add to any of that, especially if he was going to be dying any time soon. 

"What do we want from you?" Fury asked, his eyebrows raised. He sounded like he couldn't believe the question. Hadn't he already made it very clear what he wanted? Not to Tony, apparently. "Uh-uh," Fury said, shaking his head. He leaned in again as Natasha got up and left the table. Mazzy watched her go. "What do you want from me? You have become a problem. A problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with!"

Mazzy didn't like any of this arguing, so she kept focusing on Natasha instead. She watched Natasha walk away until she was out of her sight, and then when she returned, she watched Natasha walk back up to the booth, right by Tony's side. 

As soon as Natasha returned to the table, Fury interrupted his own rant to say, "Hit him."

Natasha's hand shot up to Tony's neck, pricking it with some sort of needle. Tony jerked back, groaning in pain, and Mazzy watched the interaction with caution.

"Oh, God, are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" Tony grunted as Natasha grabbed his chin and turned his head around in order to get a better look at the lines trailing up his neck. Mazzy watched those lines, too. She watched as the dark color seemed to drain from his veins, his neck returning back to the way it initially looked before any of this- before Iron Man. "Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds?" Tony muttered.

"Holy moly!" Mazzy breathed out in awe. 

Tony's eyebrows furrowed. He looked at Mazzy, and then at Natasha, and then at Fury. "What did she just do to me?" he asked, concerned and overwhelmed. He really just wished he were lying in bed, honestly. But instead, he was at this donut shop with persistent Nick Fury and the lying Not-Really-Natalie. 

"What did we just do for you?" Fury corrected his question. 

"It fixed your neck," Mazzy said, poking the side of his neck with her pointer finger. He swatted her hand away. 

"That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work," Fury explained. 

Still, Tony didn't seem grateful in the slightest. "Give me a couple of boxes of that. I'll be right as rain," he said. 

"It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms," Natasha told him.

"It's not a cure, Dad," Mazzy parroted. 

"Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix," Fury said, eyeing up Tony's neck once more. 

"It's gonna be a hard fix," Mazzy agreed, nodding her head in agreement. 

Turning to look at her, Tony gave her an are you kidding? sort of look. "Who's side are you on, here?" he asked.

"We're all on your side, Tony. If you haven't caught on, we're helping you," Fury insisted. 

"I don't need your help. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element," Tony said, unimpressed by Fury's offer of help. 

Mazzy was still confused, and honestly, she was a little annoyed. As the conversation advanced, she was coming to realize that her dad knew that he was sick, and maybe even dying, based on how Fury and Natasha were acting about it, and he didn't even care to tell her. Mazzy could have very well been spending her last days with her father without even knowing. Didn't she deserve to know about this sort of thing?

From Tony's perspective, however, he was only trying to protect Mazzy. He didn't want her to be scared. He didn't want her to worry about him at all. And he especially didn't want her treating him any differently just because she knew he was dying. And when it came to Nick Fury and SHIELD, Tony didn't want Mazzy anywhere near any of them. He didn't want her near any superhuman organizations, like the Avengers Initiative or whatever the hell else Fury had in mind. 

All Tony could think about when he heard about the Avengers Initiative was what SHIELD would want with Mazzy if they ever found out what types of drugs and serums were pumped into her veins during the span of those two short years when she went missing. 

Of course, the public was under the impression that Mazzy had gotten very, very sick as a young child. That was why she wasn't seen in public for two years. That sickness was what caused Mazzy to lose her hearing. But that was a cleverly constructed lie to avoid putting too much attention on the young girl. 

But, if SHIELD already knew oh so much about Tony, then they probably already knew about Mazzy, right? Tony wasn't sure. And, either way, he didn't really want to take that chance. 

If Tony was taking help from anyone, it wasn't going to be SHIELD. So, "I've tried every single one," he emphasized. 

Fury shook his head. "Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."

That intrigued Tony. He had a difficult decision to make. Could he take the risk? Could he let SHIELD- Nick Fury, more specifically- help him, at the risk of his daughter being involved in all of it?

Super-powered people weren't always treated well. Tony remembered hearing about Steve Rogers, the super soldier who fought valiantly for the US. Growing up, the mighty Captain America was all his father, Howard Stark, ever seemed interested in talking about. They worked together during World War II and Howard was even involved in the Strategic Scientific Reserve's Super Soldier Project, which created the serum running through Steve Rogers' veins. Howard helped Steve in his fight against Hydra before he ended up under the ice in 1945. 

No one cared where Steve came from, who he was, or how he got his powers. All that mattered to them was that he had the power to fight. So he fought. Lucky for them, Steve was passionate and determined. Fighting was what he wanted to do. 

But Mazzy? 

Mazzy was practically a baby. She couldn't make an informed, true decision on what she wanted to do. And even if she couldn't remember it herself, Mazzy was still affected by what she was made to do during those two years. Tony could see it in her, sometimes. In her eyes. In his nightmares. In the way her skin patched up those cuts that the glass left in her hands and knees just last night. 

Would anyone care that Mazzy was only six years old, almost seven? Or would they see what she was capable of and use it? Would they force her to fight at a young age, or would they train her persistently and ruthlessly until she got older?  

It was obvious to Fury and Natasha what Tony was thinking about. He couldn't stop glancing over at his daughter, and behind his facade of carelessness, they could see him deep in thought. 

He was irresponsible. He was an irresponsible, wreckless father and everyone knew it. But only he could know just how much he cared about his daughter and how her life would play out. He could never be too careful.

"Stark," Fury said. Tony looked away from Mazzy to meet Fury's eyes. "We know. And she won't be a part of it."

They knew. And she wouldn't be a part of it.