[IC] Hooked on a Feeling

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

Guin had been out of Stark Tower for a few hours, as Pepper had agreed to take her to her doctor's appointment. She also had gotten her hair trimmed and Pepper had insisted on buying her some new clothes, as most of hers had grease stains on them from working in the garage. She also had taken to writing down important information on her jeans in sharpie, much to Pepper's displeasure. Her unofficial step-mother found it hard enough to understand why Guin would intentionally cut holes in her jeans as well to make them look more distressed.

She stepped out of the elevator with Pepper, waving at Lance a bit before going up to her father with a big grin. She showed him the report from the doctor with a bit of a flourish. "Boom! Clean bill of health - no repercussions or anything from the drug abuse. Plus, I got a sticker," she said, pointing to a little silver star she'd stuck on her nose. "So? Does this mean we get to do the family trip to Disney?" Guin asked. "Please, Dad? Please?"

"She has been clean for four months now, Tony," Pepper acknowledged, setting down the shopping bags. "Got her some clothes that don't look like a bear mauled them too while we were out."

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

Lance gave Guin a smile when she walked in, looking up from his book. He was glad that she had gotten the clean bill of health from the doctors, and was glad that she was still sober. He didn't want to find her to the point where she nearly overdosed again, or anywhere near drugs ever again. That whole incident freaked him out, and he had a lot of problems himself about the whole situation. Guin was his only friend, and he didn't want to see her get hurt.

Tony took the report from her hand, reading through it quickly, before he looked at her with a smile. "Nice job Penguin, we'll see what we can do about that trip," he said, before looking over at Pepper. "What's wrong with clothes that are dirty or something? It just means you spend a lot of time doing things instead of just sitting around doing nothing all day."

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

"See, when a normal person says dirty, they mean that the clothing is unclean - not a torn up scribbled all over disaster," Pepper pointed out. "It was getting to the point that her clothing was indistinguishable from the trash," she added with an eye roll. It never really was a big mystery where Guin had inherited her sense of style from - she dressed like Tony did on days when he was working. Pepper just wished her sort of step-daughter would wear something that didn't look like she'd pulled it out of a dumpster every once and a while. She then rummaged through the bags, pulling out a concert t-shirt. "See? Still her style, but it hasn't been cut to shreds yet."

"Yet - just wait till I find the next YouTube t-shirt tutorial I want to try out," Guin commented with a smirk. Pepper gave Guin a look and her smirk instantly started to fade. There were very few people who could get Guin to fall in line with just a stare. Most people could have held a gun to her head and Guin still wouldn't be able to keep a straight face. Pepper Potts just had that sort of effect on her.

Banner headed in from one of the adjoining rooms, having just gotten off the phone. He looked over at Lance, giving him a slight smile. "Hey, buddy...Why didn't you tell me you're getting an award?" he asked him softly. "Your science teacher just called..." he then explained, sitting down on the couch next to his son.

"Can Lance come with us to Disney, Dad?" Guin asked hopefully. "And would it be the one in Florida or California? Because I have strong opinions on which one is better and I can have J.A.R.V.I.S. throw together a presentation on the 1000 reasons to consider."

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"Hey, everyone has a different definition of the word dirty... Just mine isn't exactly like most people," he said giving her a smile before looking over at Guin. "I don't see why not, and which park would you prefer to go to? And please, don't have J.A.R.V.I.S. throw together some whacky presentation about which is better. Just tell me which one you would want to go to, it would make my life a whole lot easier."

Lance crossed his arms, letting out a sigh. He had completely forgotten about that, and he hadn't really wanted to bring it up anyway. The idea of it was a little weird to him, but he didn't care. His dad clearly thought that he should have mentioned it, despite what went through his mind regarding it. "Look, it's no big deal alright... I kind of forgot about it until you just now mentioned it..."

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

"Guinevere Victoria Stark, is that why J.A.R.V.I.S. couldn't generate those spreadsheets for me earlier?" Pepper asked sternly, giving Guin the full name treatment. It was the one thing however that didn't have its intended effect - as it always made Guin wonder what her dad would have named her, had he been given the chance. Maddie had just slapped on a ridiculous name for a baby, forcing everyone around Guin to find various ways to shorten it. There was a short period of time, according to Pepper, where they contemplated calling her Vera for short.

"Nah, that was because he was busy rendering some specs for me - since P.H.I.L. isn't fast enough to do that yet or intelligent enough," Guin quipped. "But to answer your question, Dad, the clear answer is Disney. We can stay at the house in Malibu for a bit, then maybe one of the themed hotels in the park? Oh and then L.A. is right in the middle of the two - I want to see if I can find Murder House from American Horror Story. Maybe run into Evan Peters lurking around, reliving the glory days before the show started to go downhill..."

"I dunno, buddy - the Hank Pym Award for Scientific Achievement sounds like a big deal to me..." Banner mumbled. He just wanted to let his son know that he was proud of him and that he cared about him, but with each passing day, he felt Lance grow a little more distant. He tried not to let it bother him, but he missed the way things used to be. Back when Lance had first come to live with him in New York, he'd be able to make his kid smile. All it took was running a reaction in the fume hood and letting him see crystals form. Banner would have given anything to be able to turn back the clock - to know that his son loved him as well again.

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"Alright, Disneyland it is then," he said with a laugh. Guin was a lot like him, especially when it came to explaining what she was doing or something to Pepper. "I'll see what we can do, but staying at the Malibu house sounds like a great idea, get a nice vacation away from New York for a while or something. It'd probably do us both some good."

"Whatever..." he muttered, not really wanting to talk about it much more. He probably could guess what was going through his dad's head, and he definitely did not want to talk about that either. Lance knew that he had been pushing his dad away, but it wasn't like he had been there for him. When his best friend ended up in rehab, he had felt so alone, and his dad didn't seem to even notice that. There was no one around he felt like even cared, but he had managed to keep those thoughts back until Guin came home. There were so many things he wished he could tell his dad, but the thought of the Hulk coming out because of the yelling prevented him from mentioning anything.

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

"It's not a vacation unless Iron Man doesn't come with us, Tony," Pepper pointed out, getting herself a glass of water. She jumped on any chance she got to separate Tony and his suits. Sometimes, she swore it was like Guin wasn't an only child and that Tony was determined to give her an ever increasing number of metallic siblings. However, there were also alarming moments where Pepper actually felt a bit jealous of the suits. She shook her head slightly. "I mean it, Tony. No suits. And Guin - no blasters!"

Guin sulked slightly. Pepper brought up the blaster incident every time they were about to go on vacation. She didn't see why it was such a big deal, anyways. How else was she supposed to practice her quick draw so one day, she could definitively say that she had shot first? But the last time she'd tried that argument on Pepper, she had gotten all of her wireless devices confiscated for a month. She didn't really care to repeat that experience. On the bright side, Tony did seem open to bringing Lance and Banner along with them. She knew Lance wasn't a big fan of crowds, but she was hoping to convince him to go on rides with her.

"How long can we stay in California for?" Guin asked. "A month would be the ideal length of time, in my opinion. Plus, you know Lance and I don't even need school..."

"Buddy, I...uh..." Banner began, but he didn't even know where the sentence was going. He doubted he'd be able to make the situation better so he just nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets, walking over towards one of the quiet corners to stand by himself. He didn't really know how to talk to most people, let alone his own son. He used to be a confident person, before the Hulk had came into his life like a big green wrecking ball. He didn't even know how to tell Lance that he loved him. No matter what he said, he always just seemed to make things worse.

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"But what happens if all hell breaks loose in California? I know New York is a bigger target for those sort of things, but the west coast could get hit too or something crazy like that!" Tony protested, but seeing Pepper's face caused him to let out a sigh. "Alright, but don't blame me if something happens. And I don't know Guin, skipping school is not something you want to do, at all... I don't know if you can."

Lance said nothing as his father walked away. He wasn't even paying attention to what the Starks were going on about, the only thing that mattered was what had just happened. Knowing that his dad wanted to say something, and wasn't able to made him sort of mad. If he wanted to say something, and it didn't involve yelling, then why didn't he just say it? It bugged him, but he wasn't any better. Most everything he said to him nowadays could be taken the wrong way, and usually resulted in yelling.

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

Pepper sighed as well. She knew that Tony tended to be paranoid, ever since the Battle of New York. It made her worry about him sometimes, especially when she saw the same paranoid tendencies beginning to take route in his daughter. There had to be some sort of genetic basis for the behavior - she just wasn't sure what. This type of nervousness, the certainty that the world was going to end if he didn't have the tools to protect it...It didn't just come out of nowhere. "Alright, you can bring one suit," Pepper compromised. It was partially because she figured with their luck, they might actually need it.

"Not sure how you're gonna pick just one, Dad," Guin said with a smirk. She knew her father loved his suits. Last time she checked, he had designed at least forty different models - probably more. She had lost track on which version he was working on, since it seemed like he went through at least three suits a week. It helped that they were rich and had plenty of money to buy the needed materials. She didn't understand why her father didn't just recycle material from old suits to make new ones, but it was a moot point by now. She glanced over at Lance, before noticing that Dr. Banner had gone to a corner. She liked to think of it was Banner's pouting corner - since he generally went there and in Guin's mind, pretty much just sulked.

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"Oh, that's an easy one, I'd take the newest suit I've got, better designed, better in almost every way when compared to the previous one. I guess it'll be alright if you miss school... It'll be a little bit as we get everything set up for the trip though alright. It'll be fun, been a while since we've been back to the Malibu home anyway," Tony said, giving Guin a smile. It had definitely been a while since they had gone on any sort of non-business trip.

Lance was working really hard on trying not to pay attention to his dad, but it was kind of hard. The guy wasn't exactly that easy to ignore, and he was just standing in the corner by himself. He glanced over at his dad for a moment, but looked away again, trying to focus instead on the conversation about taking a trip to California. Lance gave Guin a small smile when he saw her glance over towards him. The idea of a trip to California sounded like fun, and it has been forever since he had been back on the west coast.

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

"Guin was eleven last time we were there," Pepper pointed out, chuckling lightly. "Remember her dilemma over whether she wanted to go to Hogwarts or be a Jedi?" Pepper whispered in Tony's ear, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. Guin wasn't her daughter, but Pepper had helped to raise her. Between Pepper and Natasha, Guin had enough motherly influence to make up for the walking attention seeking disaster that was Maddie. Of course, that wasn't to say that Pepper didn't want a biological kid of her own - she did - but she considered Guin to be her daughter.

"Hey, that was a pretty big deal!" Guin protested, rolling her eyes and giving her dad a half-hug before she went over to Lance. She noticed that Banner was still sulking in his corner, with the radiophysicist pulling out his phone on occasion and flipping through it. It was an archaic old flip phone - the kind that would survive the end of the world yet never have reception when you needed it most. "So I'm thinking we can probably bring the sleeping bags - or get new ones - and we can just sleep on the floor of my room at the Malibu place," Guin suggested to him. "There's a television in there, so we can play video games and marathon movies and stuff - sound good to you?"

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"How could I forget that? It was hilarious from my perspective," he said laughing a little himself. It certainly had been a while since they had gone back to the Malibu house. Tony laughed again when he heard Guin's protest about it, though she did have a point, to a younger kid, that sort of thing probably was important. "I don't doubt that it was important to you Guin, at all, it's just funny to think about now."

"I don't really have a preference Guin, I don't really care what we do," he said with a shrug, though he figured that someone was going to make some sort of comment about them staying in the same room. He also noticed that his dad had decided to not really care about what was going on around him, as he had yet to make any sort of comment about the idea of the trip. Lance knew that he wanted to go, but the question was, would his dad let him go.

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

"She was adorable at that age," Pepper mused. She glanced across the room at Guin and Lance, smirking a bit as she dropped her voice. "Do you think she likes him, Tony?" Pepper asked. She hardly saw Guin hanging out with friends other than Lance, though she knew there were a few other boys at school that Guin tended to team up with for group projects. Of course, those groups always included Lance Banner in them. It would have been rather cute, in Pepper's opinion, if they ended up together. Plus, Lance seemed to be a good influence on her.

"You need to strut, Lando," Guin said, rolling her eyes. "Make a choice for once in your lifetime. But since I am wearing the pants in this friendship, then we're going to marathon Star Wars and then play a tournament against each other of Kirby Air Ride. Maybe even a pillow fight too for old time's sake - and I won't even sneak in my blaster this time, so it'll be completely fair."

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"Yeah, she was," he said, still chuckling somewhat. "Anyway, second part of what you just said, not too sure, it's hard to say. I know for a fact he's got a thing for her, but I'm pretty sure she's oblivious to it, which is kind of sad. He sometimes is a little too obvious about it, but she completely ignores him," Tony whispered back to Pepper, shaking his head slightly. Lance was sometimes too obvious, and Guin was too oblivious.

Lance gave Guin a small smile, and let out a laugh. "I don't know about that Guin... Though a Star Wars marathon sounds like it would be a lot of fun. We also both know you'd beat me in any sort of video game, you're better at me at most of them anyway... So no offense, but maybe not playing a game I know for a fact I will lose at in two seconds flat," he said, still laughing slightly.

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

"You should see about setting them up together - it'd be cute," Pepper mused. Her phone started to buzz and she pulled it out, letting out a sigh. There had been a board meeting called that would begin in the next ten minutes, meaning that she'd have to head out. She loved her job, but she definitely had to have a word with her assistant about not forgetting to put things on her calendar this much. "I'll be back for dinner - impromptu board meeting," she explained, giving Tony a kiss. "Try not to cause our stock prices to dip too much before I'm back, will you?" she added with a wink, before she grabbed her bag and headed over to the elevator, going down to the R&D floors that the company operated on.

"Hey, video games aren't all about winning you know - and most of the fun in Kirby Air Ride is just driving around," Guin pointed out. "But we could see about picking up one neither of us has played before...I do think the Game Cube is the only console worth using, but I guess we could grab a Wii too while we're at the store and get one of the new games they put out for it. I'd suggest Just Dance but I know you're opposed to playing a fabulous game that has amazing song choices."

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"I think it would be cute, don't know what she'd think of that. She makes her own choices for the most part, no matter how much it might annoy me. Fine, I'll see you later, you've got a meeting, which is really boring, so I'll let you get to it Pepper, I'll see about planning this trip of ours back to California or something."

"Yeah... No dancing games for me Guin, at all..." he said with a small laugh. The idea of him playing a dancing game that he knew he was horrible at. Dancing was just not something he found all that fun. "Kirby isn't too bad, you are right about that... It is fun to just drive around on the cars and whatever..."

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

Guin woke up on the couch in the living room, her head resting on Lance's shoulder. They had been watching Star Wars late last night at the house in Malibu, with Tony explaining that they couldn't have marathons in Guin's room. The compromise had been the living room, but she must have fallen asleep towards the start of the Force Awakens, she reasoned, given that she didn't remember watching the ending. Of course, she glanced over at Lance and chuckled a bit. "You let me use you as a pillow all night?" she asked, before finding a blanket on top of her. "What a proper gentleman you are."

"She slept on the couch with Lance last night," Pepper told Tony and Banner, as she made herself coffee in the kitchen. Banner frowned a bit, but he didn't say too much. He knew that Tony and Pepper were trying to get their kids together, but he wasn't sure if Guin was a good influence on his kid. But then again, Lance hated him - so who was he to be a judge of who was good for Lance or not?

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

It had been a while since Lance had woken up to the heat of the west coast. In his opinion, New York was a little too cold for him, but he had gotten used to it for the most part. He still preferred the sun and heat of the west coast, despite what others might think. "Yeah, you fell asleep first, I managed to make it most of the way through the Star Wars marathon before I fell asleep," he said with a smile.

"Yeah, I noticed that. They would be great with each other if you ask me," Tony said to Pepper with a laugh. The two of them were trying to set the kids up after all. "So, what's the plan for today? I haven't really been paying any attention to that, too boring planning everything out if you ask me."

[Morose]

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

"Still, bit shocked you let me sleep on you," Guin commented with a laugh. She lifted her head up and stretched her arms out, letting out a yawn. Her hair felt horrible and for hardly the first time in her life, she contemplated chopping most of it off. It wasn't as long as it used to be, since she had gotten a haircut straight out of rehab, but it was still below her shoulders and she wanted to change that. She had this image of super short cute hair - like the girl in the Tron reboot - and it would be practical as well. She wouldn't need to carry around hair ties with her if she wanted to work in the lab or the garage, which was a big pain as she always seemed to be losing them.

Guin then shoved the blanket off of her and shook her legs out, trying to get all of the stiffness from sleeping on the couch out of her body. They had a big day ahead of them, one which she intended to fill with riding as many rides as she possibly could until she either died, puked, or the park closed - whichever came first. "So it's about an hour drive or whatever to get to Disneyland. I was thinking we could do Universal Studios today and hit Disney the next day, spend the night in a haunted hotel or something in L.A.?" Guin suggested to Lance, figuring she could convince Tony to go along with whatever she wanted.

"You couldn't plan your way out of a paper bag, Tony," Banner said, shaking his head. He was grateful for the change of subject and he took another sip of his coffee. He figured that Guin would've come up with something and convinced Lance of it. He didn't like the way Guin seemed to steamroll Lance sometimes, though he doubted Tony would do anything about it - Tony steamrolled people himself.

"I wouldn't mind an actual date, Iron Man," Pepper said with a smile.

[BlueSky44]

---

---

Lance Banner

---

---

"Yeah, but odds are you would have been grumpy with me if I told you no or something. I didn't mind though, kind of have gotten used to it by now Guin," Lance said, giving her a smile. There were other things going through his head about everything, but now definitely was not the time to mention or say anything about it to Guin. He'd have to wait and see what happened, as he usually did. Especially since he knew that Guin right then didn't see him as anything more than a friend, and she was oblivious to what went through his head. They had a day at a theme park to go to, and he was glad that they were on a vacation or something like one, even if he wasn't exactly on good terms with his dad still.

"Sounds good to me Guin... I may be from Nevada right next door, but I haven't really been to any theme parks... Las Vegas is pretty different from L.A. and places like that. I'm fine with doing whatever, you just have to mention it to your dad first remember?" he said with a small laugh. The main thing he wanted to do was get the whole incident at the Expo out of his mind entirely, one of the main reasons he wanted to go on this trip so badly. Away from New York, away from everything there, the whole incident and everything afterwards had been on his mind ever since, and he was glad that there was some distraction from it.

"You do have a point there, unless it is planning parties, that is something I'm amazing at," Tony said with a laugh, before giving a smile to Pepper, "Maybe we should do something about that then."