Lily's P.O.V.

I was very nervous my first day of university at UCLA. My dad came out to L.A. with me in the morning to get me registered for all my classes. The end of April is not the best time to start, but my dad convinced them that he could teach me everything that was covered already in the course. Looking over the course outline, I realized that he already had. It helped, of course, that I did take some advanced engineering courses back in North Dakota and that they were the only classes that I didn't sleep through. By lunch, I basically knew my way around the university.

"I can't believe I am starting University already!" I said, stuffing my face with fries from the on-site McDonald's.

"Lots of people start University at 17." My dad answered, devouring a cheeseburger. He must really love those things. He eats them all the time.

"Yes, but towards the end of 17, not a week after their birthday."

"Okay, fine. You are young by University standards. As for Stark standards, you're ancient."

I swatted him from across the table.

"Come on, that's just because I was stuck in North Dakota and didn't want to leave Emma."

"Well, now you left her anyways."

"At least I get to go home every night. I don't think that I am ready to move out yet."

"I basically moved out at 7. That was when I was sent to my first boarding school."

"7? Isn't that a little young?"

"Yes, that is young. My parents got rid of me as soon as they could."

I didn't know what to say, so I stared at the McChicken that I was eating.

"Well, I better be off." My dad said getting up. "Are you sure that you won't get lost getting to your next class?"

"I'm sure, Dad."

He walked around the table and gave me a hug.

"I'm going to work, but don't be afraid to call me for anything. Happy is going to stay around this area to help you if you need to escape from the press or anything like that. You should be fine here, but just in case. I will come as soon as I can if anything happens. You know how fast those suits of ours can fly."

He winked and walked away.

"Bye, Lily!"

I walked into my first class about 20 minutes early as I had nothing better to do. I took a seat at an empty chair in the middle of the room and set up my laptop. I stuck on my Bluetooth headset and whispered into it.

"JARVIS, you there?"

"At your service." said a voice in my right ear.

"We are going into typed command mode, okay?"

"As you wish."

An empty text window appeared in the corner of my screen. Now I could control the A.I. without actually speaking out loud. I still had tons of time before class, so I popped up a game of chess.

"That's a nice laptop." A male voice said from beside me. I looked up at him. He was gorgeous. He had light blond hair that was not too short or too long, cheerful gray eyes and a perfect complexion.

"Thanks." I answered. I glanced at the clock in the corner of the screen. There was 5 minutes until class started. The room was nearly full. I closed the down my game and opened Microsoft Word.

"Is it a Stark computer? It looks like one."

"Yep."

"Wow. Those are nice."

I looked at his laptop, which was pretty sleek as well.

"Yours is nice, too."

"I don't know. It's a Windows 8 Acer. Nothing special."

Just then, professor walked into the room. I got JARVIS to listen and type everything that he said. Today's lesson was on some basic robotics stuff that I had already covered with my dad.

"Now class," My professor said, pulling me out of my daydream, "you are going to put all of these elements of robotics to work. For the rest of the year, this class will be practical. Today, you have unknowingly decided your partners. Seats with odd numbers, look to your left, even numbers, your right. Those are your partners. I glanced at my seat number. It was 156. I smiled. To my right was the cute boy who commented on my laptop.

"Thank you all for coming. Class is dismissed."

I shut down my laptop and put it in my bag.

"I guess that we are partners then." The boy said.

"Yep. "

"You must really like one word answers. My name is Alex. Alex Fisher."

I didn't know what else to do, but tell him my name. If we were going to work together for the rest of the semester.

"Hi, Alex. I'm Lily Stark."

He stared at me for a second, before smiling.

"Nice to meet you, Lily. Is this your only class this afternoon?"

"Yes." My dad insisted on giving me a light schedule for my first semester.

"Awesome! I had a really cool idea for our robot, but I didn't know if we could get it all done in class time. We could always work after class if we needed too."

"That would be awesome!" I said, smiling. "The more complex, the better."

"I agree. I have to go. I'm meeting some friends. Want to join us?"

"Maybe another time, I have to get back home and do a few things." I lied. As much as I wanted to make friends, I still wasn't too sure about him yet.

"Okay. Well, see you tomorrow."

"Bye!"

I finished packing away my stuff and headed out to my car. There was a piece of paper stuck in under the wiper. I picked it up, recognising the awful writing.

Lily,

I just wanted to be the first to congratulate you on your first day at university. JARVIS beat me to it on your birthday, so this is sort of revenge. Pepper said that it would be her because she will be at home when you get there, but I outsmarted her! I am very proud of you, Lily. You did something that not many other people your age can do. You moved across the country to live with a parent who you have never met before and enrolled at a university two weeks later. I envy your courage. Everybody should. I work with the avengers and you are still one of the most courageous people that I know. You are right up there with Steve (Captain America). I should take you to New York to meet them all sometime. Stark Tower has kind of unofficially become Avengers Tower. It's kind of our central hub thingy. Anyway, you would love Banner. He's fun to tease, as long as you don't go too far. He's not the guy you want to make angry. He is also extremely smart. He works in the R&D floors of the tower now. How did I get this off topic? I was just writing about universities, like, half a paper ago. Back to that, I know that you will do fine. You will have tons of pressure on you, I can guaranty you that. I always had pressure on me through university and the rest of my life. People wanted me to become my father. They expected me to have the same skill set and to act the same way. By doing that, they morphed me into him. Before Afghanistan, I was my father. Iron Man changed that and gave me a whole new outlook on life. I don't want you to have to be kidnapped to realize what I did. You are not me, Lily. I do not expect or even remotely want you to be me. I want you to be you. Be who you want to be. If this means dropping all your physics and engineering classes and doing an English major instead, do it. Don't be pressured into doing things by others because I did them. I really hope that I didn't need to tell you that and you chose engineering on your own. You have a real gift in it. You haven't started university and you already impress me with your knowledge. You have a very bright future, Lily, and I am very proud of everything that you have accomplished. Be true to yourself and remember that Pepper and I will be happy no matter what you decide to do. I love you so much, Lily. Thank you for being the light of my world.

Dad

After reading that, I sat down in my car and cried. That was the most heartfelt thing that I had read in my life and it was for me from my dad. My dad was not the type of person to do that, so it made the letter that much more meaningful. One year ago, all I felt was hate towards the person who was my father. In that letter, he told me he that I was the light of his world. You know what? He was the light of mine too.

A.N. An incomplete version of this chapter has been sitting in my folder for so long and I just couldn't wait to get it posted! I hope that you all enjoyed it.