Chapter 2- A Messed Up Sense Of Normality

If there was anything that proved to Tony that Kurt was trying his very best to be strong, it was the fact that he was returning to school a few weeks earlier than planned. The elementary school had suggested that Kurt take a month to himself to adjust to his new surroundings. Whilst Tony thought that that was a good idea, Kurt had vehemently disagreed.

"I love this house, Uncle Tony, but I can't stay here for a month without going to school. I'll have nothing to do with my day. Plus I'd fall behind and have to repeat the grade which is the last thing I want to do!"

After that, Tony couldn't help but agree. If Kurt was sure that he wanted to go back to school, Tony definitely wasn't going to be the one to get in his way of that. He imagined that if the school tried to intervene, Kurt would calmly and rationally lay out all the reasons he believed himself fit to return to school. It hadn't been long at all since the accident and Tony was silently wishing that Kurt would take a little more time to regroup. Yet the boy was adamant and that was enough for his uncle.

So after a morning of Tony repeating the question, "Are you absolutely positive that you want to be going back to school today, Kurt?", the decision was set in stone. Kurt was going back to school.

And it turned out that he had the worst sense of timing.

Tony came out of the principal's office feeling surprisingly good about Kurt's return to the institution.

After a quick rundown of the situation, the principal explained that Kurt was in no academic trouble, even if he had missed the month. Tony figured as much was the case. He knew about Kurt's high intelligence for his age and for older ages, too. It wasn't much of a surprise that he ahead of his peers. He had good genetics and keen thirst for learning, he had shown that much at an early age.

Tony had spent the first half of the morning wondering how Kurt was doing when it dawned on him that if there was a problem, the school would call him. He just had to sit back and go about his day. It was a slow day, nonetheless, until the middle of the afternoon when Tony's usual lunch of pizza was interrupted by a visitor.

"Tony Stark, going about his business as if he's some kind of mere mortal," was the greeting and Tony smiled and shivered at the tone. His favourite and least favourite person, depending on his mood and the situation.

"Good afternoon to you too, Miss Romanoff."

The woman frowned. "You sound like Jarvis."

"It's called a politeness feature. You should try it sometime. For example, you know, knocking? That's a thing that people do. I can understand why you're not used to it given all the sneaking and breaking into places you do."

"Ouch," she smirked. "Right where it hurts. My espionage skills."

Tony sighed softly. "Why are you here, Natasha?"

She looked around, innate paranoia kicking in immediately. "I just wanted to know how you were doing."

"You couldn't have called?"

Natasha was used to Tony being aggravating and acerbic, but she was still taken aback just a little bit each time it happened. "I thought it would be more personal this way. We haven't really spoken since it happened, Tony. I'm just making sure you doing okay."

Tony felt the tears spring to his eyes, but he quickly diminished them as he always did with nothing but a cough and a shake of his head. "I'm okay. I'm mostly focused on Kurt these days, anyway."

Natasha smiled sympathetically. "How is he doing?"

"He went back to school."

"Already?" She was surprised; she didn't think anybody would make a decision like that. "And you didn't try to stop him?"

Tony stared at her. "You seriously think I would have let him just go back to school as thought nothing had happened? Of course I tried to stop him. But he's not just an ordinary nine year old, Nat. He's incredibly self-possessed and made it clear that I wasn't going to make his decisions for him."

Natasha blinked rapidly. "Tony, he's a child. You're his guardian, you're supposed to make these decisions for him."

Tony had no more arguments for her. His lips tightened into a thin smile. "Just wait until you meet him. You'll understand. He isn't like most kids his age."

Before Natasha could speak, Tony's phone buzzed.

Jarvis alerted his attention. "Mr. Stark, the elementary school is calling."

"Thanks J! Oh god." Tony answered the call. "Tony Stark."

"Ah, Mr. Stark. I'm afraid there's been a bit of an incident involving Kurt and another boy."

Tony's mind blanked on the words. "Incident? What do you mean, incident?"

"Well, I've got them both here and they seemed to have been fighting each other. I'm not sure who started it or why they were fighting but they've both been pretty badly bruised. You wouldn't think two nine year olds could hurt each other this much."

Tony was willing to bet his entire fortune and his company that this other boy was a lot bigger than Kurt and that Kurt was a lot more injured. "I'm on my way."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark."

Natasha raised her eyebrow. "Problem?"

"Not now, Romanoff. This sounds serious."

She nodded and her smirk was gone in an instant. That was one of the things that Tony loved about her. She could easily shift her demeanour to suit any situation if needed. She was a master of her own emotions and Tony thought that was admirable.

"Do you want to come with you?"

Tony shrugged. "If you want to."

"You might need some reinforcements."

Tony shrugged once more and Natasha rolled her eyes as they headed towards the car, the less ostentatious one that Tony preferred when he wasn't thinking about speed or the paparazzi. Blending in was hard for him, but he could do it if and when he needed to.

Tony and Natasha made it to the school in record time, slamming the car doors shut and heading for the front reception of the school.

The receptionist looked at the two of them and frowned. "How can I…?"

"I'm looking for my nephew, Kurt Hummel. I was told to come in."

The receptionist had a peculiar look in her eye as she gave the two directions towards the principal's office.

Walking through the school, Natasha hummed.

"What?"

She smirked. "Just looking at what I missed out on. All these lockers, lined up so neatly along the wall. Everything's so ordered."

Tony appraised her curiously. "You ever wish you could've done all of this? The humdrum school life with no killing?"

Natasha tilted her head. "Sometimes. Although my skillset has comes in handy more times than I can count. I have a feeling they don't teach target practice in Gym class these days."

Tony chuckled. "No, but they should."

"What, so your average schoolyard fight turns into a gunfight?"

Tony shrugged. "I doubt most of these kids know which end of the gun the bullet fires from. From what Kurt's told me, they're not the brightest."

"Kids usually aren't. And when they are, they're usually highly intelligent."

At that point, they had reached the Principal's office.

When Tony and Natasha were allowed, they saw the situation for what it really was.

There sat Kurt, an furious twinkle in his eyes and a smattering of dried blood around his face and on his shirt. The other boy was relatively unscathed save for a bruise above his eye.

From Tony knew of conflict and his nephew, it was rather easy to piece together what actually transpired.

Kurt had thrown the first punch, a fairly weak blow to just the right place above the eye for it to bruise. The bigger kid had grown angry and beaten Kurt to a pulp until somebody eventually intervened.

"Sit down, Mr. Stark, please. There are a few things we need to discuss. Noah, if you could wait outside for a few minutes." The Principal sounded very tired of the entire situation and Tony couldn't wait until she showed it.

Noah trudged outside, milking his bruise for all that it was worth. Tony rolled his eyes as did Natasha.

Principal Matthews turned to Tony. "Is this is your wife, Mr. Stark?"

Natasha smirked. "He wishes. No, I'm a family friend."

"Very well," she nodded. "Thank you both for coming down. The situation is this…"

Kurt quietly held up a hand. "If I may intervene here and tell it as it happened."

Principal Matthews glared at the boy briefly, but sensed Natasha looking back at her. She averted her gaze and nodded.

Kurt straightened his bloodstained shirt and cleared his throat. "So it was recess and I was wandering around the playground. The teachers don't let me stay inside the classrooms anymore because they want me to be more social or something.

"So I'm looking for something to do to occupy my time and then I realise that I can just sit down by the tree with a book and read until it's time for class again."

Tony smiles to himself as he's reminded of a younger version of himself, always reading and ignoring his peers. Well, for the most part. That lasted until the age of sixteen, when he realised that putting his penis inside somebody could feel extremely good.

"I'm there, just reading and minding my own business, when Noah comes up to me and takes the book. This is happened way too many times for me to not know how this would end. I try to get it back and it ends up getting ruined.

"So I try to have a discussion with him, telling him that I wanted my book back and that he had no right to take it from me. He then proceeded to throw it onto the roof of the building."

Tony was growing angrier by the second.

"And it was only then when I realised something. I don't have to put up with this kind of treatment. I can try and do something about it. So I stood up and confronted the situation. You can see how that turned out."

Natasha frowned. "What aren't you telling us, Kurt?"

Kurt was almost confused at her presence, but he recognised her from a photo at Uncle Tony's house. He didn't know her name, though. "What makes you think I'm omitting something?"

She smirked. "Trust me, I know. I don't know if you're just not comfortable including it or whatever, but there's something missing from your story."

"How perceptive. You're right. I omitted the part that included Noah taunting and teasing me about my deceased parents."

Tony stood up.

Natasha sighed. "Tony, sit down. You're not going to help anything by letting this take over you."

Tony crossed his legs and grunted. "Fine. But this kid better have apologised."

Kurt scoffed. "Please."

Principal Matthews folded her arms and stared. "Is this true, Kurt? If I ask Noah, will he admit to it?"

Kurt, Natasha and Tony all stared at her simultaneously, their glares eerily similar.

"You seriously can't be that dense," Natasha chuckled.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, I'm sure," Natasha continued. "He's a nine year old boy who's facing getting into trouble if he admits that he did something wrong. Do you seriously think, as an educator, that he's going to tell you everything and get himself into trouble?"

"People can surprise you."

The spy smirked. "That much has already been proven today. But I happen to have a very good read on people and I am willing to bet everything that I own that Noah is going to deny it when asked."

Kurt smiled. "Not to interrupt, but can I at least go home now? I'm in quite a bit of pain and would love to clean this blood off myself."

Tony laughed. "Good idea, kid." He turned to Principal Matthews. "If I know my sister, I'm guessing she came down on you pretty hard about how Kurt is treated at school."

The woman nodded.

"Excellent. This is going to fun. Lizzie was very intimidating in her words, but I assure you, that's nothing compared to what I'm capable of."

"Are you threatening me, Mr. Stark?"

"Me? Nope. I'm merely warning you. My nephew is the most important thing in my life and I won't rest until he's treated fairly by both students and faculty. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes."

"Marvelous! Well, I hope for both of our sakes that nothing like this happens again. You got your stuff, Kurt?'

"I do," Kurt nodded.

"No need to linger here, then," Tony smiled pleasantly. "Off we go."

Natasha and Kurt followed his lead in walking out of the room, sharing a look that neither of them could explain. It wasn't as though they had a code, they just felt the need to look sideways at each other in that moment.

Once in the car, Natasha allowed Tony to vent his frustrations. But first, he asked Kurt one simple question that would have changed the way Tony reacted.

"How long have you been treated this way, Kurt?"

The boy shrugged. "I forget. I guess ever since first grade when people realised that I wasn't like them. It's been pretty consistent since then, actually."

Tony and Natasha shared a look.

Natasha hesitated carefully. "You know you don't deserve it, don't you Kurt?"

A smirk played at the edge of Kurt's lips. "Says the woman I met just today whose name I've yet to learn."

She rolled her eyes. "Natasha Romanoff. Nat is fine, though."

"You know who I am," Kurt waved his hand. "It's nice to meet you. I've never met any of Uncle Tony's friends before."

"I think there's a reason for that," Natasha chuckled.

Kurt frowned. "Am I missing something?"

Tony waved his hand. "You'll see soon enough."

Kurt just shrugged and pondered how he was effectively going to remove all of the bloodstains from his clothes.

Tony started to drive the car, looking through the mirror at Kurt every so often, who was caught up in what seemed to be his own thoughts.

Natasha studied Tony, looking for signs of his true personality poking through his caring uncle part. It was then that she realised that maybe Tony was actually this caring person at heart and his cocky, sarcastic playboy nonsense was the façade all along. She could read people, but he was definitely an enigma. So, for that matter, was Kurt. She thought she had him figured out, but she knew that she was wrong.

And maybe that wasn't such a bad thing anymore.

Nick Fury looked down at the computer screen in front of him.

"What am I looking at, Agent Hill?"

Maria Hill licked her lips. "Sir, this is an intel report collected by some of our agents about recent alien activity in New York. You remember the reading we got when Thor's hammer surfaced?"

Nick nodded. That wasn't a day he was likely to forget in a hurry. "What are you saying?"

Maria looked at him somberly. "Something's on the horizon, sir, something big. We don't quite know what yet, but we're working on it. It might help to see if Thor can gauge what's happening up on Asgard. What do you think, sir?

Nick turned away, looking up to the sky. "I think it's time to assemble the Avengers."