Emmy shook her head, not at all liking the room in front of her and making that clear to whoever was close enough to see.
"Emmy, you liked the school last week when we toured it," said Steve gently, kneeling next to her. "What changed, sweetie?"
Emmy signed quickly to him, her face falling as she cast yet another anxious look down the hall.
"Sweetheart, you knew that there would be people here," sighed Steve at Emmy's voiced concern. "You need to be around people your age."
Emmy pouted, little tears filling her eyes but not falling. Steve sighed again and pulled her in for a hug as noise from the kindergarten room echoed out to them.
"Sorry I'm late," gasped Tony, running down the hall and skidding to a halt next to his family. "Pepper wouldn't let me leave early. Emmy, why aren't you in your classroom yet?"
Emmy looked up at Tony imploringly, hoping he would see sense in the insane idea they had of putting her in school. It had come up right after the adoption had been finalized, how they planned on educating Emmy. Steve and Tony both agreed that she needed to be in a school with children her own age, at least for a little while. They had researched schools, toured, interviewed, and eventually settled on one close to the Tower that was Kindergarten to Fourth grade with four classes for each grade. It was diverse, had a mixed socioeconomic background, and allowed Emmy to have a large pool of children to choose from to be friends with but not an overwhelming amount of people older than her. The big selling point, however, was the fact that the kindergarten teacher Emmy would have was a male. That was how they found themselves two weeks after the new year started, sitting outside of a noisy kindergarten classroom with a daughter who was not at all sold on the idea of going.
"Tony, maybe we should wait," whispered Steve. "She's not even five. Almost everyone starts at five. She's going to be so young for her class."
"Steve, she's brilliant, she's always going to be young for her class," said Tony dismissively. "She'll be fine. Come on, Ducky, let's go see what your new friends look like!"
Tony took Emmy's hand and walked her into the room with Steve right behind. It was chaotic, loud, but everyone seemed to be happy and her new teacher, Mr. Lee, greeted them at the door. He was in his late twenties, two inches taller than Tony, with sandy hair and dark brown eyes.
"Hello," said Mr. Lee. "Emmy, I'm so glad you are here. This is your cubby, you can hang your coat there and put your lunch in the bin, just like you practiced, remember?"
Emmy shyly hung up her jacket and put her lunch box away, stealing glances around the room as she did.
"Alright, Ducky," said Tony, getting on one knee in front of his daughter. "You have fun at school and Papa and I will pick you up when it's over. Understand?"
Emmy nodded and gave Tony a hug before hugging Steve as well.
"Good girl," said Tony with a grin. "Now, I see some boys over by the building blocks who look like they could use some help building a proper bridge. Why don't you go show them how it's done?"
Emmy nodded and wandered over to the blocks.
"Thank you very much," said Steve to Mr. Lee. "Please call if there's any trouble or she's upset or-"
"We'll see you at pick up time," interrupted Tony, pulling his husbands arm to drag him from the room.
Before Mr. Lee could respond, the pair of super hero's were gone. Steve allowed Tony to pull him out of the building and almost halfway home before stopping him.
"How can you be fine?" asked Steve, a tiny hint of anger in his voice but mostly it was confusion. "Natasha bet you would be a bawling mess."
Tony looked up at Steve, unshed tears glistening in his eyes, and that look said enough about how emotional Tony actually was and how hard he was trying to hide it. He had been upbeat and happy for Emmy because that's what she needed, he was determined to make it to his workshop before losing it completely.
"Okay," whispered Steve, kissing Tony's forehead. "Let's go home."
In the classroom, Emmy didn't mind the other kids in her class. They were loud and asked lots of questions and no one seemed to want to sit still for story time, but they weren't mean and Mr. Lee never pushed her for an answer even though she knew most of the answers to the questions he asked. It wasn't until the end of nap time that there was a problem.
The fire alarm went off.
It was a scheduled drill, the school was required to run them at least once a semester, but it was loud and blaring and there were flashing lights and when Mr. Lee brought the class out into the fall to leave the building, it was full of other students. Everyone was trying to get out at once and she knew there were lines, she knew that all she needed to do was follow the little boy, Asher, in front of her, and she would be fine, but that didn't help when one of the bigger boys, a fourth grader, was shoved out of his own line by another fourth grader and the boy who was shoved fell into Emmy, knocking them both to the ground. By the time Emmy got to her feet, her class was gone and most of the other kids had followed, leaving her and the boy nearly alone in the blaring hall.
"Sorry," sighed the boy, getting up and dusting off his pants before fixing his black rimmed, askew glasses. "Flash can be such an idiot."
Emmy looked around wildly, her hands signing her desire to get out and find her class or better yet her fathers.
"Let's go outside before we get in trouble, kid," said the boy.
Emmy didn't follow him and he came back after several steps, holding out his hand.
"I'm just going to take you outside to find your teacher, okay, kid?" said the boy. "It's quieter outside."
Reluctantly, Emmy followed, her tiny hand dwarfed by the fourth graders, but he let them walk at her pace, not pulling her along too quickly so her little legs could keep up. They made it outside much faster than Emmy thought they would and he quickly spotted the frantic kindergarten teacher.
"Emmy!" gushed Mr. Lee when the boy brought Emmy over. "Thank goodness! How did you get lost? You were supposed to stay in line. Fire drills can be scary."
"Sorry, Mr. Lee," said the boy. "That was my fault. Flash pushed me and I tripped over Emmy."
"Well, thank you for bringing her back," said Mr. Lee with a kind smile. "Now you'd better get going to your class or you'll get in trouble."
"Bye, Emmy," said the boy, using the name he assumed was the girls, if her teachers use of it was anything to go by.
Emmy waved and joined her peers in line.
When it was time to get picked up, all of the students waited outside, running around the school yard until they heard their name getting yelled. Emmy ran up to the fourth grade boy who had helped her and sat next to him. He was reading a book.
"Hey kid," said the boy when he noticed her staring intently at the cover. "It's about robots."
Emmy's entire face lit up and she quickly dug through her backpack and pulled out the old robot from the orphanage. Proudly, she held it out for his inspection.
"That's a nice robot," said the boy.
Emmy nodded and pushed a button. The robot turned on.
"Good afternoon, Miss Emmy," said the robot in JARVIS's voice. Tony had been sure to install the AI shortly after Emmy arrived home. "Your fathers arrive shortly to pick you up."
"Whoa, is that an AI?" gasped the boy excitedly.
Emmy nodded proudly and signed that her daddy had made it.
"That is so cool!"
"Emmy!" called a familiar voice.
Emmy looked up and waved at her daddy and papa, hugging them both when they came close enough. Tony picked her up and twirled her in the air, laughing as she squealed in delight before handing her off to Steve, who kissed her cheek and set her back down.
"Did you have a good first day of school?" asked Tony, crouching next to Emmy on the cold ground.
Emmy nodded, signing and smiling as she explained how her day went. They boy wandered off and Emmy allowed Tony to pull on her purple mittens before taking his hand and following Steve out of the yard and back towards the Tower. It was a slow walk, several blocks in the cold, and the wind began to pick up as sleet started to fall about a block into it. Tony hoisted Emmy up and pulled her into his jacket, allowing her to bury her face into his shirt to protect it from the wet precipitation.
"Next time we are driving," said Steve when they made it back into the warmth of the Tower. "I know for a fact that you have a beautiful collection of luxury cars. We are taking one of those. Man kind spent those 70 years I was frozen perfecting inside. I am not going to disregard all that hard work."
"You big baby," laughed Tony, setting Emmy down when they reached the common living room. The girl ran into the room and jumped on the couch, landing on top of Bucky, who was watching a Hallmark movie.
"Hey brat," said Bucky, sitting up as Steve's phone began to ring. "How did school go?"
Emmy launched into her day with gusto.
"Hello?" said Steve, holding the phone to his ear.
"You still want a son?" said Coulson on the other line.
*Well, next chapter is the last one. Always- Ari
