This is a part of my "All the Trees Change in the Fall" universe. A prequel of sorts to "Ruining My Game".

Age of Princesses and Pirate Ships

"Little town full of little people, waking up to say." Darcy sings out, pointedly looking at her father from her spot next to him.

Shaking his head, he says, "Bonjour!"

Smiling, Darcy continues, "Bonjour!"

"Bonjour!"

"Bonjour!"

"How about instead of French lessons, I get you singing lessons," Tony jokes, rubbing his ear. He's only joking because his five-year-old daughter would be devastated if he ever let her think he thought her not good at something, but seriously, if she kept up with this, he was going to end up deaf.

Sticking her tongue out at him, she ignores him and just continues to sing along with the movie. "There goes the baker with his tray like always..."

"Where's Agrabah, daddy?" His six-year-old asks, wrapping herself in his arms.

"In the Middle East, I suppose?" Tony needs to have words with the producers of children movies. They are far too impressionable for some of this stuff.

"Let's go find it!" She shouts, jumping off the couch, putting her adventure face on.

"Sure," he chuckles. "Tomorrow. It's bedtime."

For once, Tony beats Darcy to movie night. He got an early copy of Lion King and deep down it'll convince his daughter that princess movies are lame.

"What's this?" She asks when she finds him already in the media room. For once, the seven-year-old isn't the one who needs to set up the movie so it takes her a minute to figure out what she's supposed to do.

"This is Shakespeare with lions."

"Cool!" She claps excitedly, because wild animals are awesome.

Tony can't help but sing along with his little girl. At least it's all in English for once. That is, until "Hakuna Matata" starts. Crossing his fingers behind her back, he hopes she doesn't ask to learn Swahili next.

"Peter Pan?" Tony questions, wiping his greasy hands on his pants.

"Yes, daddy. Peter Pan." The soon-to-be eight-year-old turns around from the tv, raising her left arm. She's wearing extra long sleeves, a hanger sticking out from the end instead of her hand.

"Captain Hook?" Tony shakes his head and sits in his usual seat along the couch. "Aren't you supposed to want to be a princess?"

"Princesses are lame," she responds, hopping onto his lap.

"Oomph, watch the hook, princess."

"I'm a pirate today." She scrapes the hanger handle down her daddy's face, pretending to be shaving the man.

"I thought princesses were lame?" Tony asks, spinning his daughter in a circle, dancing with her in the middle of her room.

"Not when you have this cool dress to wear!" Darcy steps away, and curtsies, tripping onto the floor.

"And where did you get this dress? I thought you didn't own any dresses?" Placing his hands under her arms, he pulls her back up to her feet, patting her on the head.

"Pepper got it for me. And it's poufy, making it the best birthday dress."

"But it's not your birthday till tomorrow."

"So. This dress is too awesome to wait. I'm going to wear it until then."

"You can't sleep in this," he pulls at the extra layers of fabric making up the girl's skirt.

"Watch me." Crossing her arms across her chest, she gives her daddy a look he just can't say no to.

He rolls his eyes. "Fine."

Giggling, she jumps into his arms, hugging him close.

"Tell me there isn't any singing in some unknown language, please, please," Tony practically begs. He was running late for this week's movie night, having a late brainstorm session with Obie and R&D. Luckily, the PA he hired the year before was actually a competent PA and Darcy loved having her around.

Pepper gives him a questioning look from her spot on the couch.

"Don't ruin the movie for Pepper!" His ten-year-old daughter shout, scooting over to give her dad room between her and the armrest. "It's only one song!"

"Well, I'm not getting you lessons since you totally didn't stick with the Swahili," he flicks at her shoulder as he sits down next to her.

"You speak Swahili?" Pepper asks, looking more confused.

"No, other than Hakuna Matata, I didn't really like the language," Darcy responds, shrugging.

"Yet, you think French is nice," Tony mumbles, unimpressed with the fact that his daughter took to French like he took to computers (which she did, too).

"I don't think this counts as a princess movie," Tony pleads with the girl. Yes, he liked how this Disney movie had a kickass chick as the protagonist, but after watching it twelve times in the course of month, he needed a break. "Let's watch Hercules, instead. Screw it, I'll watch any other princess movie. Just not this one."

"Don't care daddy," the eleven-year-old Darcy smirks at her father, spinning in a circle in front of the tv. "Can I have a sword?"

"What?" Tony stops staring at the opening credits to see his daughter collapse to the floor, giggling. "You have a sword. It's right there." Pointing at the plastic lightsaber near the VCR, he cringes when Mulan's grandmother tests the lucky cricket.

"That's not a sword. I want one that can cut and slice." She gestures with her hands, making the swishing noise as well. "Maybe there's a big enough knife in the kitchen?" She perks up, eyes wide hoping her dad would say yes.

"No."

"But daddy," she whines the best way she can. She makes sure her eyes are extra wide (the Disney eyes, her daddy calls them) and makes her lips extra pouty. If he says no to this face, he really means it.

"If you're not going to watch the movie, I'm going to put something else on."

Huffing, she grabs her lightsaber, hits her daddy in the arm with it before sitting next to him on the couch. Snuggling into his arms, she starts to sing along with the movie.

"Plus Pepper will kill us if I gave you a sword," he mumbles into her hair.

"She doesn't have to know!"

Rolling his eyes, he ponders his daughter's latest request. "Why do you want a sword?"

"Because I want to be able to defend myself. I'm no damsel in distress, daddy." She leans back, looking into his eyes. "I can protect myself."

"How about a taser instead?" Tony suggests, because he knows she'd somehow manage to cut herself. "A sword isn't very practical. And I'm sure we could get away with you having a taser."

"Awesome!"