Chapter One: Introduction

"Captain Rogers?" Agent Hill poked her head into Steve's cramped apartment for the tenth time that day.

After SHIELD had extracted Steve Rogers from the ice, they had stuck him in this small apartment and told him to rest. To recover. As if spending 66 years underwater wasn't enough rest.

Steve looked up from the computer that Agent Coulson had taught him to use the day before. He had tried to catch up on everything that he missed, but found that it was much more difficult than it had been in the old days. He couldn't just go to the library and find a book summarizing the years; there were too many different categories of life for that. There was years of military history, cultural phenomena, various food trends...there were entire websites that consisted of nothing but "artsy" pictures of glitter in bathtubs, spray painted garbage, and pizza lying in the grass. Steve would be lying if he said that he understood the world that he found himself in.

Steve closed the laptop and looked up at Agent Hill. He let out a heavy sigh and smiled sheepishly. "Agent Hill."

"How are you settling in?" Agent Hill asked with a sympathetic smile. Everyone looked at Steve like he was a basket case these days. He hated it. He may not have understood everything surrounding him just yet, but he was capable of understanding it all. He had, after all, spent a few days working in the lab with Howard Stark before.

"Fine." Steve lied.

"Good." Agent Hill obviously didn't believe him. "Well, um, if you're feeling up to it, Tony Stark sent a car for you. Tony is -"

"Howard Stark's son." Steve's eyebrows furrowed.

He had come across a few news reports about Tony while browsing the internet. He looked just like Howard. From what Steve had read, he behaved like him, too. That was strangely reassuring. The Stark lifestyle lived on.

Agent Hill nodded, still smiling that sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, you know what? I think that would be good for me. It would be much more familiar than any of this." Steve gestured around the apartment before affording Agent Hill an apologetic smile. "Not that I'm not grateful for it all, I just…"

"No, I understand." Agent Hill agreed. "I'll let Tony know that you're on your way. The car is just downstairs. You'll know it when you see it."

"Thanks."

Steve shrugged on a jacket before emerging from his apartment and wandering down the stairs. Once out of the building, he noticed a massive limo occupying a majority of the street. It had "Stark" written all over it. With an amused grin, he approached the car.

The driver's window rolled down. "Captain Rogers?"

"Yeah," Steve smiled weakly. "I'm just going by Steve these days."

"I'm Happy."

"That's...nice?"

The driver laughed. "No, people call me Happy."

"Oh." Steve felt his face redden as he climbed into the back of the limo. "Then it's nice to meet you, Happy. Have you, ah, have you been working for Tony for long?"

"Too long."

Steve laughed. "He can't be that bad."

"You don't know him."

"No, but I knew his dad. I don't think he could out-do Howard."

"Bet you ten bucks that you're wrong."

"You're on." Steve grinned.

It was nice to talk to somebody that didn't look at him like he was an animal newly rescued from the shelter. It was nice to be able to joke around with somebody that wasn't worried about setting him off or offending him in any sort of way. Steve immediately decided that he liked Happy.

"Did you spend much time with Howard?" Happy glanced at him through the rear view mirror. He didn't look like he was trying to make small talk; he seemed genuinely curious about Steve's connection to the Stark family.

Steve nodded. "Yeah. He...ah...well, he made me. There were a lot of days spent in the lab with Howard. He'd invite me over for dinner sometimes, too, but I think that was more to impress women than it was to spend time with me. Did you ever meet him?"

Happy shook his head. "I was hired the day after Howard...well, you know. Tony was a kid; he had just gotten his license. He didn't feel comfortable driving after the accident."

"Poor kid."

Except, Tony wasn't really a kid at all. He was almost twice Steve's age. Not even Howard had been that old when Steve went into the ice. Steve didn't know quite how to feel about that particular fact.

"Yeah, well. He's got a lot of other things to worry about, anyway. You should see the stuff he dreams up. His mind is thousands of years ahead of everyone else."

"Well, I'm sort of used to being behind the times these days."

"Then you'll feel right at home."

Steve chuckled. Yes, he definitely liked Happy. Maybe he would invite Happy over when he was tired of all of the sad smiles and unnecessary explanations that the agents at S.H.I.E.L.D. kept offering him. It would be a welcomed break from being treated like an antique.

"And here we are." Happy declared as they drove into what looked like a parking garage. They were immediately surrounded by at least twenty cars. They were all glossy and looked very expensive. Steve took a moment to look around at them before following Happy in the direction of the stairs.

Happy led Steve through the most high-tech house that Steve had ever seen. He didn't stop and point out various items in the house to explain the technology behind them - something that Steve appreciated. Steve just glanced around at his own leisure as they strolled through the massive rooms and narrow hallways.

"He's in his lab. He's always in his lab." Happy explained from over his shoulder.

"He got that from Howard."

"Happy? Is that you?" A male voice called from the bottom of the staircase that Happy and Steve were now descending. "Is he here? Hill said that he would come."

"He's here." Happy answered, sparing Steve a small smile. Steve smiled back despite the nerves pinching at his stomach. He was about to meet Howard Stark's kid. His full grown kid. It seemed too surreal to be true.

"Good. Good. Ah, don't you have something else to do? I think I saw a maid running around without a badge on this morning. Maybe go handle that." A scrawny brunette materialized at the bottom of the staircase. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as he looked at Happy imploringly.

Happy nodded. He glanced at Steve and smiled reassuringly before turning around and going right back up the stairs, leaving Steve alone with Tony. It was then that Tony finally looked at Steve. Steve looked right back at Tony.

He looked a lot like Howard. He had the same big, brown eyes, the same dark hair that was sticking up at all angles (Howard was constantly messing up his hair when he was stressed out), and the same mustache. He did possess a few qualities that differed from Howard, though. He seemed much more hesitant than Howard. He was looking Steve over warily, not quite sure what to make of him just yet. He was also missing the crowd of women that Howard usually had swarming around him.

"So you're the famous Captain Rogers." Tony finally said. He didn't sound very much like Howard.

"So you're the infamous Tony Stark."

Tony stared at Steve long and hard. Steve wondered if he had managed to offend Tony. He didn't know whether or not he had inherited his father's sense of humor. His worries were put to rest when Tony chuckled and took a step forward, reaching out a hand towards Steve. Steve ambled down the remaining stairs and shook Tony's hand.

"I feel like I'm meeting the Goddamn Wizard of Oz." Tony confessed, still looking Steve over like he was some sort of puzzle that he had yet to figure out.

"Why?" Steve had read the Wizard of Oz, but he didn't quite get the reference.

"Because I'd heard so much about you as a kid that I just…" Tony shook his head and laughed. "You didn't seem real. You were just a bedtime story."

"Yeah? Well, knowing your dad, half of it was probably made up." Steve admitted.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like my dad would tell me bedtime stories. He only told me about you when I was in trouble. Steve wouldn't do paint the cat, Steve wouldn't steal the car, Steve wouldn't hide in my carry-on bag halfway across the Atlantic Ocean."

Steve arched an eyebrow but decided that he didn't know Tony well enough to ask about any of those stories. Yet. "If Howard didn't tell you, who did?"

"My Aunt Peg. Well, I guess you'd just know her as Peggy, wouldn't you? What was the deal with you two, anyway? Did you...you know?" Tony clicked his tongue and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Steve cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"We were close."

"How close?"

"Close enough."

"Hm." Tony looked Steve over for a minute, obviously dissatisfied with his answer.

"Did you see Peggy a lot when you were a kid?"

"All the time. She usually watched me when my parents were off making the world a better place. Sometimes she'd even bring me on some of her missions. One time I saw her beat the shit out of a man with nothing but a stapler."

"You're kidding." Steve folded his arms across his chest and beamed.

"Nope. It was awesome."

"Well, she is a pretty incredible woman."

Tony nodded, looking at his shoes for a moment. "Have you seen her yet?"

Steve shook his head. "No, not yet. SHIELD's pretty much kept me on house arrest for the past few weeks. I think they're waiting for me to have some kind of breakdown."

"Don't do that while you're here. My stuff is too valuable for that."

Steve snorted. "I wasn't planning on it. Have you...have you seen her lately?"

"I visit her when I can; usually on Sundays. We play Clue. She cheats."

"How is she?"

Tony looked down at the ground again. Steve didn't take that as a particularly good sign. "Y'know, she has her good days and her bad days. She's old."

Steve nodded but didn't press the question. It was obvious that Tony didn't want to talk about it. Steve understood.

"How about you? How are you? I read a little bit about you a few days ago and it sounds like you've had a rough few months."

Tony's eyes widened for a moment. Showing his inner Howard, he caught himself and flashed Steve a smirk. "You've had a rough 60 years, Cap. I think you win."

Steve shrugged and shook his head. "I don't really think it's a competition. Besides, I was asleep during that time. I didn't really have to do much."

"I know. I thought Fury was going to have to start sending a chaperon in with Coulson while he monitored you."

"What?"

"Oh, yeah. Dude's obsessed with you."

"And you're not?" Steve nodded towards an entire wall plastered with newspaper clippings that appeared to be about him. Tony scowled.

"I'm not obsessed with you, I'm just following your story. There was more than one story about the Wizard of Oz, you know."

"I do know." Steve agreed. "My mom used to buy me the books when I was sick."

"Buying books." Tony smirked and shook his head. "God, you're ancient. C'mon, I'll show you the rest of the lab. I bet all of this looks like a different planet to you."

"Not really." Steve bit back as he followed Tony through the lab. "Howard's lab looked like this, too. I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now. It's sort of familiar."

"Did you spend a lot of time with my dad?" Tony asked as they walked.

Steve shrugged, unsure of how to answer the question. "Some time. We were trying to win the war. We couldn't have done it without him. He was a genius. You probably already know that, though."

"Yeah, that's about the only thing I know about him."

"You weren't close?" Steve couldn't really picture Howard being much of a family man.

Tony snorted. "I think I saw him ten days out of the year."

"You're joking."

"Mmm, I don't really joke about my dad."

"I'm sorry, Tony. He was a great guy. Really."

"I'll have to take your word for it."

Steve smiled grimly. He felt for Tony; he hadn't seen much of his dad during his childhood, either. He was always out trying to find work to put food on the table. Much as Steve had tried not to resent him for his absence, it had happened all of the same.

"What are those?" Instead of making some kind of speech to try to cheer Tony up, Steve decided to distract him by asking questions. It had always worked on Howard, after all.

"Those?" Tony's eyes lit up. Steve smiled. "Those are my suits. Haven't you heard about them?"

"Ah, Tony. I've researched you a little, but I don't know everything about you yet."

Tony sighed impatiently and guided Steve over to a huge collection of the suits that he was talking about. They were all bright red with gold accents. It seemed that Tony was just as much a showman as Howard had been.

"This is how I got out of that little hostage shindig I was in a little while ago. They're better than planes; they can fly, they're fully weaponized, and they've got the most advanced radar system in the world. Best of all, they're incredibly rare. You're looking at the only ones on the planet."

"Really? You made all of that? How's there room for all of that stuff?" Steve craned his neck to get a better look at all of the angles of the suit.

"Technology has advanced since 1940." Tony smirked.

"So people keep telling me." Steve sighed, sticking his hands in his pockets and wandering past the set of suits to a wall covered in picture frames and more newspaper clippings. It seemed that Tony was a bit of a hoarder. Howard had been like that, too. He had a hard time letting go of things.

One picture in particular caught Steve's attention. Tony looked incredibly young - maybe twelve years old - and he was wearing a cap and gown and clutching a diploma. A much older Howard Stark was standing beside him, arm draped around his shoulder and that wide, cheesy smile of his playing on his lips. A beautiful woman stood on the other side of Tony; a woman that Steve didn't recognize. It must have been Tony's mother.

"Were you graduating grade school?" Steve asked, turning around to catch Tony's attention before gesturing towards the picture. Tony let out an annoyed huff and walked over to get a better look at the picture. When he did, he let out a dismissive noise and shook his head.

"I was graduating college."

"College?" The word must have meant something different in the 21st century.

"Didn't anyone tell you that I was a boy genius? I finished my master's degree while the rest of my friends were still picking their noses in high school. It isn't really that hard; you just have to be able to repeat whatever the professor says and make it sound like it was your idea. It's just like any other sort of school."

"What college did you go to?" Steve questioned, not taking his eyes off of the picture.

"MIT. Don't tell me, you went to a more historic school, didn't you? Harvard? No, Princeton. Yeah, you seem like a Princeton kind of guy to me. Have you gone back yet? Are you going to visit and heckle all of the kids, complaining about what it was like in your day?" Tony teased with a playful grin. Steve smiled back awkwardly.

"I didn't go to college."

"Really? Did the war get in the way?"

Steve chuckled and shook his head. "More like the Depression."

"Yeah, but that happened before you would've gone, right?"

"It wasn't over in just a year, Tony. It lasted up until I went under the ice. The first time I went to the grocery store and saw the price of everything today...I thought someone was playing a joke on me. Anyway, I had to drop out of school when I was pretty young. Times were tough and we all needed to chip in to pay the bills."

"Oh." Tony was quiet for a moment. Steve wondered if he had overshared. "How far did you get?"

"Ninth grade."

"Huh."

"It wasn't all bad. It was nice to get away from the bullies. I used to get picked on a lot. Believe it or not, collecting scrap metal was much better than dealing with courtyard beatings."

"Fair enough." Tony agreed. "You should think about testing for your GED, though. Can't get much work without a degree these days."

"Really? Do that many people graduate high school?"

"Most people go to college, Steve."

"You're joking." In the 40's, college was a luxury. Only the rich kids, the talented athletes, and the super smart eggheads got to go. The rest of the more average students graduated and got a job wherever they could. The idea that everyone got to go seemed like a completely different concept.

"Nope. You might find yourself a little under qualified for any job you might apply for these days. That's alright, though. You can use me as a reference. Just don't apply to work for me. I don't need a high school dropout skulking around." Tony said good-naturedly. Steve ran a hand through his hair and nodded to himself.

College.

Now there was an idea.

He had always been a little bit disappointed at never having been able to finish school, and now he had the perfect opportunity to do so. He was still young, he now had money, and he had all the time in the world. Going to school would be the perfect way to catch up on everything that he had missed out on while still giving him time to adjust to everything.

That was it. That was what he was going to do.

Steve Rogers was going to go to college.

It's happening. It's all happening! So I got the idea for this fic while reading another fic (Shoutout to WinterShield13 and her story "What If") and decided that Christmas break from school would be the perfect time to get some serious writing done. I'll also be posting a few Christmas-y one-shots on Christmas Eve, but this will be a much bigger and longer project. So grab your notebooks and sharpen your pencils, folks. Steve Rogers is going to college and I am bringing you all along for the journey!