"You look like shit."

"Hate you, too, Josh."

Joshua Meyers smiled innocently at Eliza Martin, but let out a yell as the girl tossed a grape at his head. Jasmine rolled her eyes as Peter simply let out a laugh of amusement. But what the blond said was true – Eliza did, in fact, look like shit. Dark bags were under her eyes and her entire body was sore; there was a light bruise on the side of her cheek, and her hair didn't look as nice as it usually does. She didn't get a wink of sleep the night before, and early this morning Felicity made both Eliza and Killian train. So, Eliza was extremely tired but couldn't do anything about it. She had school; mid semester finals were coming up soon and she wasn't about to allow herself to miss a day. It was too risky.

"Everything okay, though?" Jaz asked. Her light eyes bore directly into Eliza's brown ones.

Eliza slowly nodded. "I'm fine," she lied. "Just didn't get enough sleep."

"Geez, you're always running yourself to the ground around this time of the year," Josh noted, "You're gonna die one day from not getting enough sleep."

"She does this thing where she studies nonstop when big tests are coming up," Jasmine explained to a confused Peter. "Just a warning: Ellie becomes way more irritable than normal. She punched Josh once for saying her shirt was on inside out junior year of high school."

Eliza glared at the redhead but didn't say anything. It was true. Josh did get a punch in the face because of a small comment that shouldn't have mattered then. And, secretly, Eliza was a bit guilty for it; but, of course, she wasn't going to let the blond boy know that. He would ravish in that knowledge. Peter, at hearing Jasmine, let his eyes go wide in slight worry. They had agreed to study together, after all. He's seen her punches first hand since they fight together every once in a while; he doesn't want to be on the other end of it.

"Oh," Peter mumbled out.

She rolled her eyes, and said, "I won't punch you, Peter. Not unless you piss me off."

Joshua went on, then, to talk about the many times he nearly got punched by the brunette during the times they studied together throughout high school and college. But he lives to annoy Eliza, so it wasn't shocking at how many stories there were – especially during the time when she hadn't learned to control her anger completely just yet. Half way through the third story, all of the loud talking in the cafeteria abruptly stopped and turned into quiet muffles. Eliza watched as Josh's mouth dropped open mid sentence, and how Jasmine's eyes widened, voice squeaking as she clamped her mouth shut. Peter turned around and so did Eliza, to the doors of the cafeteria.

Her jaw went slack and her eyes widened, body tensing. Suddenly, she was fully awake. Peter let out a shocked, "oh", and shifted in his seat. Her father stood in the doorway by himself. Sunglasses sat on his face and he wore a suit. He lifted the sunglasses to the top of his head as he looked across the room. Finally, his dark eyes landed on his daughter and her eyes widened even more. She was confused, and honestly a bit nervous – maybe somewhat scared – of the reason why Tony Stark was in her school, obviously looking for her. She and Peter glanced at one another for a split second before back at the billionaire as the man started walking towards them.

"Mister Parker, Miss Martin," Tony greeted as he got in front of the two of them. He nodded as a greeting to the Meyers. He then looked back at Peter and Eliza. "I was in the perimeter and decided to just tell you two in person that neither of you are needed for work today. Basically a free vacation day. Take it, don't ask, be happy." He paused as he eyes locked with his daughter's. "You look like crap, kid."

Eliza's face fell with a annoyance. She wanted to make a smart ass comment, but she didn't. She kept quiet and just stared at Tony.

"Right!" He clapped his hands and smiled. "That's all I came in here for. Um, see you two tomorrow, then."

Peter gave a awkward wave as Tony turned around and Eliza just sat, frozen, in her seat. Her thoughts were running wild with questions, confused with her dad's actions. Tony said hi to a few other students that spoke to him, even a few teachers, but other than that he quickly left the room and the building as well. Peter quickly turned around in his seat while Eliza did it at a slower rate. She didn't know what to do or say. Dread filled her, though, as she saw Josh's and Jaz's large grins and wide, excited eyes.

"That's was awesome!" Josh yelled.

"Um-."

"Dude, he personally told you not to go to work!" Jaz freaked out, "He gave you a free vaca day! Who does that?!"

"Tony Stark," Josh stated in excitement. "Oh! Have you heard that someone over heard Stark talking the other night at a charity event?"

Jasmine narrowed her eyes at her adoptive brother, asking, "Dude, what? People hear other people talk all the time."

"Okay, yeah, but did you hear what the guy over heard?" Josh asked, voice lowering some. When no one answered him, he spoke again. "He was talking about kids – his kids. Like, his own flesh and blood. Tony Stark is dad, guys!"

Suddenly, Eliza was choking on the drink she had been sipping on. The liquid had gone down the wrong way at hearing her friend's words so out of the blue. As Peter patted her back to make sure she was okay, and as Jasmine looked back and forth between Eliza and her brother, Josh simply continued on talking about the Stark Kids possibility.

"How many kids to you think he has? What about their age?! Damn, wouldn't it be cool if we were friends with a Stark kid?" Josh rambled on.

Eliza wiped her mouth and shrugged Peter's hand away from her back. She stared at Joshua, emotionless. She had no idea how to react or what to say or how to say anything to Josh. Eliza bit her cheek as she tried to think of something to say to Josh, something that wouldn't make it seem as if she as the daughter of Tony Stark.

"But... He's not exactly fit to be a dad, don't you think?" Jasmine asked hesitantly. "After all, he did create a murder bot and he seems a bit...selfish. He's childish, too. Other than that redhead, he's never had a serious relationship. And he doesn't seem like he would even care."

"But he's Iron Man-."

"Tony Stark could be fit for a dad and you wouldn't even know it," Eliza abruptly snapped at the redheaded friend in front of her. "You know nothing that's been going in his or what he's actually like. Being selfish and a playboy is the media's image of him, Jasmine. You don't know the man. He could very well be capable of loving someone other than himself, got it? And what does being in a serious relationship have to do with anything? Sure, he might be in one now, but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy!"

"He created a robot that wanted to destroy the world-."

"On accident! It was an accident, Jasmine, he didn't mean to! He wanted to make sure the world was safe, but obviously that backfired! People make mistakes. No one's fucking perfect!"

"Why do you care so much on what I think of him, Eliza?! He's a random billionaire you and Peter Parker work for!"

"Because," Eliza struggled to come up with something other than the argument that he was her dad. Finally, she thought of something to say, "Because if he was a dad, I'm sure he wouldn't be too happy with people saying he was unfit to father kids." She then stood up and grabbed her things, moving to leave. "But say whatever you want, I guess."

+++

Hours later, Eliza was finally home and it felt good to simply sit and watch TV – procrastination at its finest. She should be studying; with Peter, actually, but she cancelled last minute claiming to be feeling ill. She didn't know if Peter believed her or not, but that didn't matter because he agreed for them to study together another time. Eliza was also perfectly fine with not running around as Vixen, either. She was relaxed at the moment and being lazy for once felt good. She sighed as she the clacking of heels no the tile floor, and then there wasn't. But then the woman spoke and Eliza was quick to interrupt her.

"You look-."

"I know. I look like shit," Eliza snapped, not looking away from the TV screen. But after a second or two, her shoulders slumped and she looked up to Pepper Potts, who was standing beside the couch. "Sorry," she muttered.

"I was gonna say mad," Pepper sighed and sat down beside the college student. She looked at Eliza and asked, "What's wrong, Ellie?"

The young girl shrugged and leaned her head against the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling for a moment. Part of her didn't want to tell Pepper; the part that still wanted to push the woman away and tell a lie. Another part of her did want to tell her, though; the part that wanted a mother figure to talk to whenever she needed it, and at the moment, Pepper was the mother figure. So, after a short mental debate, Eliza let out a defeated sigh and looked at the woman with tired eyes.

"Well, for starters my friend started saying Dad wasn't fit to be a father and I got pissed, which in return pissed her off because I was defending him," she explained. "Apparently there's something going around that a guy over heard Dad talking about Killi and me."

Pepper frowned.  "He's an amazing dad to you two," she said, ignoring the rumor for now.  "And he loves you both more than I can explain."

"Yeah, I know.  But try telling that to someone who doesn't for sure know that he does have two kids.  It's just a stupid rumor to them," Eliza sighed.  "I just never realized until today how nice it would be to stick up for him freely without getting the 'You don't know him' argument back at me and the 'Why do you care so much' question.  I wanna say that he's my dad – that he's an amazing dad, and he's more than just Iron Man and Tony Stark.  He's Steve's frenemy and Rhodey's best friend."

Pepper reached over and pulled Eliza into a hug, and the young girl let her; she even hugged back.  "He's a good boyfriend," the woman stated.  "A little bit of a mess, but he's also a bit broken.  But he's not perfect."

"Exactly!"  She pulled away from the hug and say up straight.  "I want to tell everyone that but I can't!  Not without them knowing I'm Eliza Stark and Killian's Killian Stark."

"You know he doesn't want to tell people for a reason," Pepper reminded her.  "His enemies will quickly go after you kids.  The media will feed on you like a pack of piranhas. It's good reasoning, Ellie."

Eliza huffed and crossed her arms. She looked at the TV before back at Pepper. "It just pisses me off," she said.

"How about one day you Stark's and I talk about telling the news about you and Killian?" The woman suggested. Eliza nodded without saying anything else and gave Pepper a thankful smile. The redhead woman simply smiled back before standing up. She grabbed the remote and turned the TV off, speaking before Eliza could protest. "Go to bed. You need the sleep."

Eliza nodded and, even though she didn't want to and wasn't that tired, she went to her and got in bed.  And just like the one before, the night was rather sleepless.