Soft Words (Alternate Prompt)
Tony was having a good day.
He had actually slept a whole seven hours last night, woken up without nightmares and had gotten coffee and made breakfast for himself. He wasn’t one to cook, ever, but for whatever reason he had found himself in the kitchen whipping up some eggs and toast before he headed down to the lab.
After a few hours of work, Tony had texted Penny casually to ask her how patrol was going. He knew the kid enjoyed her Sunday patrols because it was one of the only days she got to go out in the morning.
(“Pen, kid, why the hell did you get up at 6 am on Sunday?” Tony asked incredulously, giving her a look when he checked Penny’s patrol log. The girl spun around in her chair, eyes lighting up with excitement.
“Well, I saved this lady once from getting hit by this dude on a moped-“ Tony snorts at that “- it was going really fast, Mr. Stark! It definitely would have broken a rib or something!” Penny pointed at him defensively, carrying on with exasperation.
“Anyways, after I helped her she was telling me about how she ‘owed me’ and I told her it wasn’t a big deal but then she mentioned she actually owns a coffee shop and she told me to swing by sometime and I figured why not so I did!” Penny swings her feet where they hang over the table. “And now I like to go sit on top of it- like, the building- in the mornings on Sunday to watch the sunrise before I patrol because guess what?!” Tony hums in question, smirking at Penny’s clear joy over the whole situation.
“It overlooks the Hudson, Mr. Stark!-“ Tony has to force himself to not grimace at the kid’s very prominent bad luck with that specific river. “and the owner is really nice and she usually gives me a fresh blueberry scone totally for free, Mr. Stark!”)
The kid had texted him a picture of the sunrise view from that morning and he had to admit, it did look like a nice spot. He had smiled fondly at the thought of the whole situation.
They had sent a few more messages back and forth as the day went on. She had sent him the last text around 5 or so, letting him know she was back home from patrol. By now it was almost 1 am and Tony was still in a good mood. His music was playing loudly across the room and he was close to wrapping it up for the night, admittedly getting a bit heavy in the eyelids.
Tony had gotten quite a lot done in the day, coming up with some new safety features for the kid’s suit and a few more for his own. He had worked on some new phone models for SI and had only a bit of paperwork to sign off on. Tony tapped his pen against the desk, considering staying up a bit longer, before deciding against it and tossing the writing utensil onto the desk surface. Tony stretches from where he sits, his back popping in multiple places, before spinning around to stand up and-
Tony nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees the door to his lab is open and a person stands a few feet in the door away.
“Jesus Christ, kid!” Tony yelps, covering a hand over his chest at the sight of Penny Parker hovering in his lab. The music shuts off quickly. “Holy hell, Pen! What are you- Penny?“ Teasing turns to concern quickly on his tongue. It didn’t even register at first what time it was and that Penny should not be here right now because it’s a school night. It takes all of 0.2 seconds for the light-heartedness to plummet to extinction as the image before him unwraps in his mind.
Penny stands there in a large black hoodie and sweatpants. Her arms are wrapped tightly around her midsection, as if pressing down on a painful wound. Her stance is.. awkward. Wrong. Like she physically isn’t able to stand up comfortably. And worst of all, her face is red and puffy from crying, silent tears still down her cheeks. Her expression is locked down in a grimace/horrified vacancy.
Tony is off his ass in a second, heart in his throat.
“Penny? Honey?” Tony is rushing forward then, hands outstretched and he can’t cross the distance fast enough, knocking a few papers off a worktable as he skirts past it hastily. The girl presses her lips together firmly, looking up at him like she can’t quite see him. She shakes her head. Tony is starting to freak out, eyeing the arms still pressed solid over her stomach. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
“I-“ Penny stares for a second more, tears welling up once more in her haunted brown eyes. She opens her mouth, closes it, then nods. “Yes.”
Tony is really fucking panicking now. Because he’s quite literally been holding Penny in his arms as she’s bled nearly to death and even then she’d assured him she ‘was fine’.
Penny didn’t ever say she was hurt. Ever.
“Okay, okay, hang on sweetheart, where are you-“ Tony can’t finish the words because he nearly gets knocked over when the girl is suddenly wrapped around his body. Tony catches her without thought, holding her against him protectively. The sob the rips through Penny’s throat makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. “Shh, shh, easy. I’ve gotcha.”
Tony desperately wants to ask her where and how exactly she’s hurt lest she be fatally wounded and him be wasting time, but when he tries to peel away even the smallest bit, Penny just clings on tighter.
One of Tony’s hands find the back of her head, gently running his fingers through her hair. The girl is crying in a way that Tony doesn’t even know how to process.
He’s seen Penny cry angry tears from things that have ticked her off on patrol or at school. Even at him when he sets a rule she doesn’t like.
He’s seen Penny cry pained tears from injuries of all varieties.
He’s seen Penny cry happy tears from laughing so hard she can’t breathe to being so grateful for things she gets emotional.
But this- this is guttural. It’s painful and wrong and hopeless in a way Tony hasn’t heard. Like she is being torn apart mentally and emotionally.
Tony’s whole body feels like it’s been lit on fire from the sheer wrongness of the sound.
“Penny, you gotta talk to me hon,” Tony soothes, his own voice boarders on shaking. Penny adjusts in his grip, pressing her face into his chest. She just cries.
“D-don’t leave. P-please s-stay. Please-“ Penny weeps, hiccuping and struggling to control her breathing. Tony’s rubs gentle circles in her back and stays very still.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m here, I’m right here.”
Something in him is stirring. A thought that lingers because this just seems so specific. A thought that Tony slams the door on and ignores the hell out of because- no. No.
For a few minutes, the two of them stand just like that, Penny crying in his arms and Tony doing his best to just be a support. At some point, her breathing calms just ever so slightly, her sobs turning into whimpers here and there. That’s when Tony finally speaks as softly as possible, leaving the question open for rejection. If Penny needed him to stand here all damn night, that’s what he would do, but he’s anxious to get her somewhere else and not just standing in the middle of the lab.
“Pen, do you want to go to the couch? It may be more comfortable for you, kid.”
“Y-yeah that’s..” Penny’s voice makes Tony’s heart ache. She sounds so, so sad.
Because she’s not bleeding out and nothing broken and nothings bruised so that can only mean-
Penny starts to move away from him, just barely so he has enough room to guide her, but the kid’s knees start to buckle. “Whoa!” Tony rushes to catch her right before she can crumble to the ground, and holds her back up to his chest. Tony stumbles over to the sofa, easing both of them down on the furniture.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I-“ Penny starts to apologize around her tears, shaking her head once more but Tony just adjusts the little girl in his lap, leaning back so she can curl up against the side of his ribs, knees tucked up and her ear right over his heart. Her small hands grip his shirt in a shaking grasp.
“Don’t apologize, it’s okay. You’re okay Pen.” Tony presses a soft kiss into the top of her head, the she seems to break all over again.
After maybe ten minutes, Penny fluctuating between her choked cries to little, animal-like whines that tear him in two, she finally speaks again, her voice is the smallest Tony has ever heard.
“I- May. She, she’s had a new b-boyfriend for a few weeks and I had a weird feeling about h-him but he has been nice so I didn’t say anything,” Tony closes his eyes, praying his heart isn’t beating faster.
God. No. Fuck. No no no. No!
“May was j-just late getting home from work. Skip, he was there w-when I got home a-and… he called May and she told him it would be another hour or so- then he- Mr. Stark I don’t-“ Penny shutters under him, her teeth chattering together from anxiety. It takes everything within him to stay silent. He just squeezes her arm gently, confirming that he was listening. He was here and he would do anything for her. Anything. He was safe, and there was nothing she couldn’t tell him. Penny nudges into him a bit further.
“I- I couldn’t stop him. It was like I couldn’t move- I’ve never felt that way before. He- he pushed me onto my bed- and then, then he- I just couldn’t stop him Mr. Stark. I didn’t want him to- I didn’t… but he just held me down and I-“ Penny sobs again, and Tony thinks he will kill a man tonight. His gut churns and he wants to throw up.
Not this sweet, perfect little girl. Not his Penny. How could anyone-
“I’ve never- I just- I w-was a virgin, Mr. Stark and I can’t get that back and I- I don’t want it- please I, please help-“ the shame in her voice is like poison to his blood. “Please help me.” Those words are what do it, so innocent and broken.
I was a virgin, Mr. Stark
The sentence spoken after the childhood dream of a fairytale love story being ripped right out of grasp.
Tony rests his face against the top of her head, tears falling down his own face, and finally speaks up. He can hardly talk past the tightness in his chest.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry Penny.” He holds her, feeling stupid because what the hell can he say to make this better? But Penny nods, as if she could accept that apology and use it to patch something up inside. To stop the bleeding wound in her mind. So he keeps going, not sure what else to do. “It wasn’t your fault. Nothing, not one thing about any of this is your fault. I love you so much. And I wish- god, more than anything I wish I could take it away for you and I could make it all better but- I can’t. But I’m here now Pen. I’m here, and I’m not leaving and I’m just so goddamn sorry.”
Penny hugged him tighter, and that’s where she stayed until later he would carry Penny up to her room and sit with her until she fell asleep. Later he would text May Parker and tell her Penny was staying over tonight and wouldn’t be at school the next morning, knowing he would have to explain that when she woke up to that information. Later he would text someone he hadn’t thought he would talk to for a long time. And later, Natasha Romanoff would respond with four simple words.
TS: I need you to take care of someone for me. He raped my 15 year old intern.
Nat: Send me his name.