Request by: @shady80smusicsingercolor
Summary: A lesson on perfection.
A/N: Sorry that’s it’s been a while guys! Even with being less busy I’ve had a lot going on and a lot less motivation to write. Sorry also that this request took so long for me to fill.
Perfection. Noun. The quality or state of being perfect such as freedom from fault or defect, i.e., flawlessness. An unsurpassable degree of excellence.
It is what you were meant to be. What was expected of you. You had to do everything to perfection. You had to be perfection personified, otherwise what was the point?
Except you were far from it. You were only human after all.
‘Y/N Stark’s transcript released, heir to Stark industry only has a 3.0 GPA’
‘Tony Stark’s daughter caught arguing with paparazzi’
‘Y/N Stark’s skincare routine for dealing with severe acne’
They went on and on. Every possible flaw they could find would be picked on. Even when you strived for the top, for perfection. So why was it that even when you pulled your grades up, even when you weren’t actually arguing with the pap, and you bought the best makeup to hide any blemishes on your skin, they still picked at you.
It hurt. Why didn’t they understand you were a 16 year old girl who just wanted to live her life and not be criticized 24/7.
What used to be a problem you could ignore seemed only to grow. It was gradually becoming a cesspool in your mind of negativity.
Tears made their way down your cheeks one afternoon. It was a big fear of yours, dating. But this one guy who you really liked had asked you out. You thought everything was great. But that afternoon he broke up with you. It hurt, he was only the second guy you’d ever given a chance and yet he took your heart and smashed it.
He said it was because he didn’t like the speculations in the tabloids about you, that all your negative traits they talked about seemed true and he didn’t want to be with someone so in the spotlight.
It broke your heart so much that even though you had 3 classes left in the day you lied to the school staff saying you were feeling ill and they called Happy to take you home.
You held yourself together long enough to make it to your room at the compound before you broke down.
But just your luck you only had about 5 minutes of peace before there was a knock on your door.
You held your breath to keep from sobbing again. You didn’t want to talk to anyone and you knew that no member of the team would stop from entering if they thought something was wrong.
“Y/N?” Steve called, knocking softly again.
He sighed behind the door, he knew you were crying, he could blame his perfect superhuman hearing, but he knew he’d be able to hear you no matter because you were just across the hall from him.
“I’m coming in,” he warned, opening your door.
You buried yourself deeper into your pillows. “I’m fine Uncle Steve, I just want to be alone.”
“You don’t seem fine, sweetheart,” He argued. “What’s going on?” There was a dip in your bed beside you, and a hand stroked through your hair.
The gentle touch brought another sob out of you. “Why-why am I like this Uncle Steve?”
Steve’s frown deepened. “What do you mean?”
You sniffled and pulled your head up to look at him. “Why do I have to be like this? S-so imperfect.”
“Nobody’s perfect, doll. What’s got you so worked up about something like that?”
Sobbing you continued to hide in your pillow. You shook your head in response.
“Y/N, listen, I want to help you but I can’t do that if you can’t tell me what’s wrong.”
You were quiet for a while, in that time you managed to calm some. At least enough to pull your face away from the wet pillow.
Steve stroked your hair the whole time, hoping the contact would help relieve some of your stress.
“I wish I was someone else,” you whispered. “I wish dad never kept me, so I could just be normal. Why-why does everyone expect me to be perfect? Why do they make it hurt so much?”
“Hey,” Steve stated. “You don’t mean that. Your dad loves you. No family is normal. No one is perfect, like I said. You might be different because of who you are but don’t see that as a downfall. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be you and anyone that tells you otherwise is wrong.”
You shook your head and pressed your face back into your pillow. “You don’t get it Uncle Steve… you don’t have to worry about how-how your skin looks, or what other teens think about you, or how smart you aren’t just because your dad is a genius- I-I hate my life, it’s not fair. Everyone thinks I have the world because of who I am but no one ever stops to think about how I feel about what they say about me.”
“You can’t let others control how you feel, doll. Do you think your dad would be so successful if he cared about everything every person that doesn’t have any impact on him said?”
“I’m not my dad!” You shouted, wincing because you hadn’t really expected it to come out that way. A soft whimper left you and you curled more in on yourself.
Sighing, Steve leaned down and kissed your head. “No, you aren’t. I just meant that you shouldn’t care for anyone else's opinions of you except for those that matter.”
You thought over his words and while you knew he was right, it still didn’t take away your pain. It did help you feel like you mattered to anyone as anything other than what your imperfections showed.
An alarm going off on Steve’s phone had you pulling your head up slightly.
He shut it off with another sigh. “I might need to go, sweetheart. But I can stay if you need me to.”
You shook your head. “I really just want to be alone, Uncle Steve…”
Nodding, he offered you one last kiss to your head before making his way to the lab.
He divulged everything to Tony, who quickly made his way to you.
He didn’t bother knocking, he just opened your door and walked in. “Sunshine, what’s going on? Your uncle betrayed you and told me you were upset.” He laid down beside you, and started to try to remove the pillow from your grasp.
The second the door opened you whimpered and clutched your pillow tight. You knew you shouldn’t have told him. Of course he’d send your dad. You ignored him and favored clutching your pillow to keep him from taking it.
“Fine, keep the pillow. But you still need to talk to me. What’s got you so down?”
You mumbled into the pillow.
“Huh? Was that-, was that my baby girl trying to talk to me? I couldn’t hear her past that pillow over her mouth.”
Whining you pulled the pillow away. “Nothing’s wrong, dad. Go away, I just wanna be alone.”
“Nope, not gonna work. Tell me, why do you think there's something wrong with you? There’s not by the way but I want to know why you think there is.”
You sighed, your eyes stung with tears again. “Tommy br-broke up with me because of the stuff the tabloids have-have been saying about me… I-I don’t care that he broke up with me… it’s-it’s the why. I know I’m not perfect… but why do they have to pick at that? Why do they have to remind me that I’m not a genius, I have bad skin, I’m not pretty, I don’t have any talents, I don’t dress right, I give the pap attitude-“
“Whoa there, sunshine!” Your dad cut you off. “None of those things make someone perfect. You are perfect. Want to know what makes you perfect?”
“You’re my dad, of course you think I’m perfect.”
He chuckled. “Well, no duh. But that’s not what it is. You’re perfect how you are because it is who you are. It’s all the good you do for the world and others. It’s how you love. It’s how you try so hard at everything you do because you want it to be perfect. But just because stuff isn’t perfect, doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. Want to know something?”
“The pap plucks out people's flaws and insecurities to show all the jealous people in the world that just like them they’re their own person. And to make them jealous because I guarantee you the majority of the people out there don’t believe the tabloids anyway. And you shouldn’t either, sweetie.”
“No, no buts. Listen, I love you. The only opinions from others that you should care about are the people that you care about. If you care about every last opinion of every person, well you’ll never feel good. You should only care about the ones that really matter. Got it?”
You sniffled. You both knew it wasn’t a complete fix, but you nodded your head, knowing that your dad was pretty right. If you cared about every last person’s opinion of you, of course you’d never be happy. But you already knew that the people that you cared about the most and the ones who felt that way about you, well, those were good. Those were the ones that made you who you are. Perfect or not.
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