Some songs later, I decided to make some lunch for everyone. I opened the fridge and looked at the contents and thought of what I'll prepare. I guess chicken and fries will do.

I started to chop the vegetables after I took all of the ingredients which mainly consisted of leafy vegetables like cabbage and lettuce. While I boiled the chicken breasts and some potatoes and finished chopping the vegetables, I started to peel the skin of the new batch of potato and chopped it to what a perfect fry should be. The deep fryer was already heating up and it took no time at all for the oil to be in boiling point. As I start to pour the potatoes in the oil, I checked at the boys to see them asleep on the couch.

"Hey, Jarvis, take five shots of them will you?" I ask politely. The TV's camera started to capture Miles lying on the couch and Alvin Theodore and Simon sprawled on his chest.

After the fries were cooked, I placed it on top of a plate that has napkins to let it absorb some of the oil. I took out the boiled chicken and placed it on a bowl and started to season it making sure that I don't cut open the chicken. Letting it marinate for a few minutes and popping it in the deep fryer took no time at all.
Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ was playing in the background, courtesy to JARVIS. As I sway lightly to the tune, I take out the vegetables from the steamer with a tong and place it on a separate plate. Cooking has always been one of my passions. For such a long time in my parent’s life and mine, cooking has been a long-time activity that I have done. It was so familiar that I just automatically find comfort in it. Although, I’ll admit nothing beats late nights and early mornings in the lab with dad. According to dad, “After all, you first learned how to hold a screwdriver before a spatula.”

Putting the dish all together was no hard feat. I let myself move in the kitchen out of instinct and familiarity and in no time at all, the dish was done and plated. All I had to do now was wake up the boys, and call my dad from his lab.

We were seated at the table and we ate while talking about what we did earlier while dad was in the lab. Dad laughed at some of the stupid things and mishaps we did in the course of three hours such as playing ‘Twister’, ‘Tic-Tac-Toe’, and even ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’. After lunch, that was full of compliments about my delicious homemade food and –again- laughing at each other’s stupidity - Miles, Alvin, Simon, Theodore and I sat down on the couch while watching Tom and Jerry. It was silent, a comfortable silence actually which was nice and soothing. Then, Miles broke the ice. He looked at me with curious eyes.

"How do you do it?" Miles asked slowly, confusing me. I looked at him with a questioning gaze.

"Do what? Be able to cook awesomely mad?" I asked with a hint of a smirk on my lips. Alvin rolled his eyes.

"No dumb, dumb!” Alvin exclaims.

"What Miles means is that how do you do it? You know," Simon paused,"-being a Stark and all. Handling the paparazzi, the fans, the big life, being in a big picture... Managing your time between family and work? I mean, don’t you get tired with all of that?" Simon's words started to render me speechless. I open my mouth only to close it again. My mind was on carousel mode, gears shifting and mind moving up, down, left and right from thinking. I stared at a portrait above the television. The portrait was of me and dad when I was just seven years old. We were smiling like idiots, and mom was just beside us, looking down at us with a smile while the photographer tried taking a perfect shot of the family, which was this photo. I remember that moment like it was yesterday.

It was a beautiful winter day outside the Malibu mansion, and today, dad, mom, and I are going to have a family photo-shoot.

"Okay! Mr. Stark, compress with your daughter. Miss Potts, move a little beside Elizabeth!" John ordered, after me and dad goofed around with talking about what pose we'll use while mom kept on scolding us. Dad started to smile like an idiot that made me copy his smile too. He bent down on one knee and we were staring at each other with that idiotic smile. Then, I heard a camera click and a flash.

"Perfect! That is picture perfect!"
 
That photo reminded me of how happy I am with my family. Family... That word rang in my head that made me smile and instantly, I knew the answer to his question.

"I'll admit it's not easy. Every day I'm stuck with that routine where I manage time with my family and my work. I guess it's because of dad and mom. I stay strong for them, put on my brightest smile to tell them I'm okay and that they raised a child that they know they can be proud of. I put that smile to tell them how grateful I am to the both of them, how much I'm in debt to them. I just only show my true self to the people I know I can trust. And that's the four of you, mom, dad, and a few I've gotten close to. Many people want to be me, a Stark: smart, rich, and famous. But have they ever thought of the struggles that they might encounter. The struggles I encountered? The risks I took? It's hard to be me. At some point of my life, I wanted to be normal. Be a normal kid or a normal teenager. But then, I thought. This is normal. I was living with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, and frankly they don’t look like celebrities to me because yeah, I lived with them throughout my 17 years of existence. This is the life I was accustomed to," I paused and looked at them, shrugging, "-I guess, over the years I've gotten used to this lifestyle.” The four of them stared at me in understanding, and somehow, I felt my lips tug up knowing that I’ve somehow influenced the minds of these three famous singing celebrities and the one soon-to-be celebrity.

And so... the rest of the day was spent with stories and food.

Around 5 in the evening, Dave picked up the boys and I was kind of sad that they left. Mom came around at six in the evening after I made some vegetable salad and pan seared fillet mignon. We ate and talked about our day and it soon came down to me and dad in the lab, and mom going through some paperwork for the company. Dad and I started working on the prototype of the arc reactor. While I assembled the magnet and wires, dad and I fell into our regular habit of asking each other how our day went by.

"So... how's your day?" He asked. I laughed at his question and he gave me a confused look.

"Do you have to ask? Of course I had a blast!" I exclaim, and give him a huge grin. He laughed along with me and started to stare.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" I said touching my face but then I remembered what I was previously holding using that hand. My mouth fell in shock.

"You tricked me!" I looked at my hands and saw grease, and then I looked at my face at the nearby glass wall and saw 3 hand prints.

"Now you do," Dad said and laughed.

"You're mean," I grumble while wiping the grease with a less clean (it actually has a lot of oil and grease, but I just picked a clean spot) towel from the table, then smirked and looked at dad.

"But so am I," he looked at me and smirked too. I took the towel away from my face and wiped it on his left cheek. He stood there trying to process what happened. Then he placed his hand on his gray towel covered in fresh grease and started stalking towards me.

"So that's how you want to play it?" A few minutes before, we were working on the arc and now we're putting grease on each other's faces. I started laughing when I saw dad's face full of brown grease and dad started stalking towards me again.

"Miss, sir, I should warn you that Miss Potts is coming in-" JARVIS' sentence was interrupted by a female shout.

"Tony! Elise! I thought we agreed on no more work after-" Mom paused and stared at our grease covered faces, "...midnight..." she trailed off and examined our faces. Mom started laughing, and dad nudged me. I looked at him, and then dad pointed at mom. I started to realize what he was saying and smirked. Dad started to walk forward, with his towel behind his back, I followed suit a few feet away front the two.

"I know... I'm sorry honey..." dad said stopping in his tracks just two steps away from mom.

"Sorry 'bout this too," then, dad wiped the towel on her face and gave a hearty laugh while he ran away and went behind me. Mom tried to process what happened like dad earlier. She wiped her cheek and then glared at the two of us (mostly dad).

"Protect me!" Dad whispered in my ear. Mom took the oil/grease can, squirting it once, and then glared at dad. I took a side step, then, using my powers, I started to wield a force field by spreading ice around the floor. Ice crept from my feet and surrounded me in a circular manner as I motioned my hands upward and the ice followed my movement in an upward motion and effectively meeting at the top. I smile at my work. A force field with clear ice that lets me be protected from harm (ahem, mom). Dad banged on the ice calling my name but sped off when mom was hot on his heels. I watched as mom and dad chased each other trying to put grease on each other's faces with dad failing miserably. Considering mom has a can of grease and dad's towel fell to the floor, mom is so winning. I made a little hole in my force field, laughing as I see dad try to look for any type of leverage.

"You're going to lose dad! Go mom! Kick dad's ass!" I say, laughing at the end when dad stepped on a puddle of oil and fell face first to the floor.

"Not helping!" Dad replied making me laugh more. Mom started to squirt the oil on dad's shirt and placed the can on the table with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Okay. Now Anthony, take a shower, Elizabeth, clean the lab after you and your father finish showering," she paused while I put down my force field.

"Thank God you didn't make me-" dad was cut off by mom when she spoke.

"You will clean too Anthony," she said pointing at dad. Then I finally spoke.

"You should too mom, considering you joined the grease fight," I say with a smirk. Mom rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless.

"Okay."