diitopagalhai

ananya.

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Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

ae dil hai mushkil.

Pairing : Tony Stark x desi!daughter!oc

Words : 718

Description : Radhika "Radha" Kapoor wasn't the ideal Stark child, and she knew that. She wasn't interested in science or math and she absolutely hated violence of any kind. But even with her "imperfections", how hard was it for her father to care about her for once?

A / N : This is dedicated to all of the other desi kids who search up “desi marvel” on tumblr and find very little :( I might do another part to this, but I’m not sure ( read : I am definitely doing another part to this ).

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THE FIRST time Radha met her father, she was holding her Jaggu stuffed toy close to her chest ─ so what if she was twelve? Tony Stark had jogged down the stairs, looking at his phone, accompanied by a strawberry blonde woman who had taken one look at her and gasped softly, her eyes already shining with something like affection.

Tony looked up at her, and she saw nothing.

“Hi,” he said, the lines sounding plastic and rehearsed. “I’m Tony, your dad. Now you’re gonna be staying at the Avengers Tower with me and the other Avengers. Cool?” She nodded, looking down as the cement floor in front of the tower.

She missed home. She missed her maa, Rahul, Mumbai, even Karan mama! Sure, she video-called them every week, but it just wasn’t the same.

And her father didn’t even make an effort to connect with her. Whenever he did, it was forced and fake.

“So, Radha,” he said during one dinner with the rest of the Avengers, butchering her name completely. She gritted her teeth. Her name was one of the things she loved most about herself, yet this man didn’t even try to say it correctly. “What do you like to do?”

The rest of the team looked at her expectantly. She smiled a little. “I love history, singing, and watching movies, and art. I have a friend back home ─ uh, in India, and we decided that we would open a museum of Indian art together.” While the rest of the team looked sad at her slip-up, and interested at the rest of her words, Tony rolled his eyes, and her heart sank.

She looked down at her hands. She had a piece of roti in her hand, ready to eat with her aloo gobhi. She set the roti down and pushed her chair back with a slight screech. “Um, I think I’ll go to bed now.” She picked up her plate and speed walked into the kitchen, quickly finishing the rest of her food ─ she hated wasting ─ and placing it in the sink.

On the walk back to her room, she heard a snippet of conversation from the living room. “Art. And history? Seriously?” She swallowed.

“Come on, Tony.” Someone else said exasperatedly. Perhaps Bruce or Steve? It didn’t matter though. She ran to her room and slammed the door shut. She collapsed onto her bed, crying.

“Maa, mujhe tumhari bahut yaad aa rahi hai. Mujhe yahan nahi rehna hai. Karan mama, mujhe ghar le ke jao.” Mom, I’m missing you a lot. I don’t want to stay here, Karan uncle, take me home.

The next morning, she woke up to someone knocking on her door. “J.A.R.V.I.S., open the door, please.” She managed to sit up just as the door swung open. It was Natasha.

“Hi,” the older woman said. Radha stared at her, still not fully comprehending why she was here.

“Hello?” Her voice turned up at the end so that it sounded like a question. Natasha chuckled.

“You said that you liked to watch movies?” Radha nodded shyly, surprised that someone had remembered. “Well, every Friday, we have a movie night, and we take turns choosing. Would you like to choose today?” Radha hesitated. She would love to choose, but. . .

“Tony won’t be there,” Natasha promised. “He’s always in his lab anyways.” Radha smiled.

“Okay.” That night, Radha, Natasha, Bruce, Steve, Clint, Thor ─ and Pepper, a pleasant surprise ─ gathered in the living room in front of the television. Radha inserted the dvd into the dvd player, and stepped back, smiling. She sat down next to Natasha on the couch and covered herself in her blanket, watching the familiar opening song for Hum Tum come on.

As she fell asleep on Natasha’s shoulder while Karan and Rhea reunited onscreen, the woman looked over Radha at Steve. He looked back at her worriedly, but determined. If Tony wasn’t going to be a parent to Radha, then they would. Their ragtag team of heroes would take care of this girl who deserved so much more.

And when she left for Wakanda with the rogues three years later, Tony would come to know how much he was missing out on.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

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