A/N: I'm not dead. Have some college.
A year passed. Allie was admitted into the undergrad program at MIT for bio-mechanical engineering, but she had to be on-campus to take her classes. Clint and Natasha took a sabbatical from working with the Avengers, and the Barton-Romanoff family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Tony had a house there, (of course), and he let them rent it, on the condition that the rest of the team could come up and see them (read: Allie) on weekends and holidays.
"You'd think we were divorcing the team," Clint muttered to his wife, as the others started to draw up a visitor's roster on the calendar.
Natasha snorted. "I think if Steve goes three days without mothering somebody he's gonna start mothering the twins again and Wanda'll put him through the wall on purpose."
A~A~A~A
Allie's first week on campus, her mom came with her so she could find all her classes and talk to all her teachers. The professors were thrilled to have a Stark-sponsored prodigy in their classes. Everyone else, all the students, just stared at her and at her mom, and snickered. Allie remembered what Tony had told her, and ignored them.
The second week, she asked her parents if she could go alone. "I think, I need to do this by myself," she told them.
Clint and Natasha shared a glance, and nodded. "If you feel like you can handle it, sure," Clint said.
She hugged him. "Thanks, dad."
He kissed her hair. "Any sign of trouble and we'll be there, okay?" he said.
"I know."
So the next day, Clint walked her to the edge of the campus, and she walked to her first class by herself.
Clint went around the side entrance, found a nice quiet corner, and turned on his tablet. The school's camera feeds came up, courtesy of FRIDAY, and Hawkeye settled down to keep an eye on his kid.
Everything was going great until Allie got to the second class. It was a lab class.
"Everyone pick a partner, and we'll get started on disassembling these babies," the professor said.
There were thirty-one people in the class. Thirty of them shared a glance, pointedly ignoring the thirteen-year-old, and paired up. Allie was left alone. She bit her lip, lifted her chin, and climbed onto the chair to start the project.
The professor sighed. "Guys, really, you're gonna leave the smallest engineer without a partner?"
"She's a prodigy, she's fine," one of the students said dismissively.
Allie narrowed her eyes. "Yeah. I'm fine, professor."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"All right."
Allie ignored the other pairs, and reached for the toolkit. She did this kind of stuff all the time, with stuff that was way more high-tech. Except she wasn't strong enough to pull that bolt apart... She didn't want to ask for help from any of the guys in her class. They were laughing at her, thinking she couldn't hear.
She looked at the tools on her table. If she had some time, she could rig a big enough lever to give her the force necessary to pull it apart. Or... She glanced around. No one was watching her.
Allie shapeshifted her muscles briefly, just long enough to force the wrench to turn on the bolt, and break it apart. She shifted back to regular size just as the bolt clattered to the floor.
Everyone turned to stare at her.
She blushed. "I got it," she said, smiling at them.
The professor squinted at her. "Yes, you do," he said.
Allie smiled smugly and kept working.
Her next class was Applied Mathematics. It was easy enough, and Allie set to calculating with vigor. She didn't have FRIDAY to double-check her calculations, so she had to go back and mkae sure that she was doing it right. That was something she hadn't expected.
"Having trouble?" the girl next to her asked quietly, giving her a small smile.
Allie looked up at her. The girl was nineteen, maybe, with a TARDIS t-shirt and long, straight hair. "No, I'm good," she said. "I'm just double-checking my work because I don't have a computer."
"Oh that's a good idea," the girl said, grimacing. "I'm Eden, by the way."
"Allie," the small shapeshifter replied.
Eden grinned at her. "I like your hair."
Allie blushed. This morning she'd decided to shift her hair color from its usual brown to streaks of silver like Pietro's. "Thanks," she said.
"My mom won't let me," Eden sighed.
"You live at home?" Allie asked cautiously.
"Yeah. We live not far from here." She gave ALlie a curious look. "You too, right? I think I remember your mom from last week."
"Yeah."
Eden nodded. "Your mom is super pretty."
Allie grinned. "She's the best."
"Good. Hey, for this problem, what did you get?"
Allie compared notes with her, and was embarrassed when she discovered she'd misplaced a decimal. "Ugh, I really miss FR- my, computer," she sighed.
Eden gave her a kind smile. "Wait until the second module, we'll get to use our tablets and laptops then. My friend took this class last term, and he told me."
"Oh, cool." Allie smiled at her shyly. "Thanks."
"No problem."
At the end of class, Eden paused before heading out. "Hey, uh, do you have lunch in your bag? Or, is your mom gonna come get you? I don't mean to be like, weird, but, you're kinda small to be alone."
Allie spotted her dad hovering outside the classroom. "No, that's my dad, we're gonna eat lunch together. I have two hours of break."
"Oh, okay, good. See you later, Allie." Eden gave her a wave, and headed out.
Clint waited for Allie to walk up to him. "Who was that?" he asked.
"Eden. She's really nice."
"Good."
Allie glanced up at him. "You were watching me, weren't you?"
"Yup."
"You already know everything about her, don't you?"
"Yup." He ruffled her hair, ignoring her glare. "Let's go eat lunch, kiddo."
A~A~A~A
Steve came by the next week to see how they were doing. He brought hugs from the rest of the team, cookies, and a special two-in-one SI laptop with FRIDAY on-call instead of the standard AI. "Tony sends his greetings," he told Allie, handing her the gift-wrapped present.
Allie unwrapped it, and beamed. "Thank you thank you!"
Steve accepted the eager hug, and kissed her hair. "I'm just the delivery boy, but you're welcome."
A~A~A~A
As college classes came and went, Eden became Allie's Rhodey. She took the small teenager under her wing, showed her the quietest spots for studying and working, and introduced her to the members of the Robotics Club, which Allie promptly joined.
After running a full background check on Eden and spying on her and her family for two weeks, Allie's parents allowed her to invite Eden to the house. Allie waited on the steps outside for her.
"This is Tony Stark's house," Eden said, stunned, when she got out of the cab.
"Yup," Allie said cheerfully. "We're renting it."
"Are your parents millionaires?" Eden asked, hastily smoothing her hair.
"Nope." Allie opened the door, and ushered her inside. "Mom, dad, this is Eden. We have Applied Math together."
Clint held out a hand. "Nice to meet you. This is my wife Natasha, and I'm Clint."
Eden's eyes widened as she shook his hand. "Wait..." She took a step back. "Wait, you're Avengers."
"Yes we are."
Eden glanced from Allie to her parents and back again. "Wait, so... what? Allie, you're a superhero?"
"Not yet," Allie told her. "I still have to finish college."
Eden gave a disbelieving laugh. "Oh. Uh, it's nice to meet you. Thanks for saving the planet and stuff."
"You're welcome," Natasha said, smiling at the awestruck young woman.
"Who's your favorite?" Clint asked, ushering both girls into the living room.
Eden blushed. "Um..."
"Daaaad," Allie complained, "you said you were gonna be coool."
"Right. Sorry." Clint cleared his throat. "I'll just go shoot stuff." He nodded to Eden, and headed out of the room.
"So you girls can study in the living room, and I'll get out of your hair," Natasha said smoothly. "Allie, tell me when you get hungry and we'll get Thai food, okay?"
"Okay mom." Allie led Eden to the living room. "Oh, ignore the dog. I'm updating his software."
Eden blinked at the robot dog sitting in the corner, plugged into a laptop. "Okay. Cool."
A~A~A~A
A/N 2: If anyone has any scenes they'd like to see of Allie (and Eden maybe) at MIT, or coming home on the weekends, or stuff, let me know. Thanks for sticking with me!