YAY MORE.

Here is the next chapter where her genius shows. So. Yeah.

Current Song: Awesomely, the song that this whole story is named after just came on. So.

After The Storm by Mumford and Sons

Current Thought: That's it for tonight guys.

Enjoy.

After The Storm Part 5

"…and now I cling to what I knew. I saw exactly what was true. But oh no more. That's why I hold,that's why I hold with all I have.That's why I hold…."

Carmen is smart. Tony and Steve have never said any different. She's Tony smart, is the thing, so they don't understand why she hasn't asked them to put her in different classes, to do something more challenging. If they had asked, Carmen would have told them that she's already different because she has two dads instead of one, no mom, and both her parents are superheroes. She doesn't want to be that different. She wants to have friends thank you very much.

But she's 12. She's only been moved up to a freshman high school class. And she's sick of the stupidity. And she's sick of getting picked on and not saying anything.

So when she walks into the house trying to hide tears, Tony and Steve are on that like white on rice and it's not pretty when they finally sit her down.

She's dressed in jeans and a Batman t-shirt, a zip-up hoodie thrown over that. She's wearing converse and has to push her glasses up her nose because they keep sliding down. Her dark hair is short and wavy around her ears and her bright blue eyes peek out behind the glass of her lenses. She's adorable and looks like the poster child for Gamers Anonymous and Tony couldn't care less about that last part. His baby is perfect.

They're in the kitchen, and he puts his tablet down. He's been working out the math to some upgrades for the armor and Carmen snags the tablet, finishes the math up for him and says, "You dropped a variable," before giving it back with a sigh.

Yeah. Tony hadn't even been that smart at her age. She needs to get out with it.

"What happened?" Steve asks gently, setting down a turkey sandwich in front of her, and it's sad that Steve knows that both his daughter and Tony are easier to talk to when you give them caffeine or food.

Carmen picks up the sandwich and devours it while talking. "I'm sick of those idiots," she says truthfully. "They… they're bullies. They think I'm stupid."

"Well why would they think that?" Tony asks.

"Because I don't do anything in class!" she exclaims and Tony wipes at his face because yes, that was a piece of lettuce she just spit out at him. Gross. She just ignores him and continues on though. "I try not to be all smart and in their faces but today, no. No, I couldn't do it anymore. I'm sick of it." And Tony can see her practically swallowing back her tears. "They are horrible people. So I got up and left in the middle of my math class, walked into the seniors AP Physics class and showed them how to make a thermonuclear reactor with a little bulb on the end so the waste won't drip around everywhere."

Tony wants to smack himself in the forehead, but Steve does it for the both of them and says calmly, "Did you get into trouble?"

She grunts now, a small, self-satisfied smile on her face. "Nope. I got praise, and it was about freaking time." Steve sends her a look to be mindful of her language. She shrugs. "I also told them I wouldn't be back at the end of the day. And I'm not."

Steve looks to Tony in a panic. He doesn't know what to do. She needs schooling, but she needs better schooling, schooling that's at her level. The rest of it is a joke, Tony knows it is for her. He remembers feeling like that, and all Howard did was send him to MIT. Which, he concedes, may be what Carmen wants.

"Ok. You have a couple of options. Option one is college. I have plenty of contacts at MIT who would love to have you, seeing that you're such a smarty pants like your Pops," Tony says, but Carmen immediately makes a face at him.

"Um, no."

"Why not?" Steve asks. "That sounds like a good opportunity."

"I don't want to leave New York!" she exclaims, a frightened expression on her face. "And you guys need to be here…" And she'd be alone. Tony wants to smack both himself and Steve and Steve looks like he just realized he was actually thinking of sending their 12 year old all the way to Massachusetts. Alone.

Ok. Yeah. They're both idiots.

"Ok. Option number two then. I have a bunch of old professors that I'm still in touch with. They're all retired. I can hire them to… tutor you, I guess you could say. You could be home schooled by a bunch of old smart guys."

Carmen seems to warm up to this idea a lot faster. "At home? They'll come down here?"

Tony nods. He's thinking up numbers, sums and payments. Yeah. They could do this. "Yup. I can find them some housing, seeing as SI just opened out a complex. I'll offer them free housing and a pretty nice salary for as long as you need them." He shrugs and Steve is already smiling.

"Yeah," Carmen says, and she looks like she's not going to cry anymore, so that's always a plus in Tony's book. "Ok. Let's do that."

"Wonderful," Steve says with a grin.

"Now," Tony says seriously, cracking his knuckles and leaning across the table to face his daughter and get closer. "Whose ass am I kicking? Remind me who called you stupid again?"

Steve is in town with Pepper and Phil so Tony's a bit surprised to hear voices coming from the sitting room when he walks into the house. Well, mansion. Whatever. Living space.

And then he realizes he recognizes those voices, but there are three of them that he hasn't heard in years and that's when he knows that the tutors are here.

Tony walks in on three of his old professors gaping in awe at his 12 year old daughter who's scribbling on a large white board. She likes the white boards better than the holographic ones he prefers, but that just shows that she's old school like her Dad.

"Hi Poppa," she says, and Tony didn't even notice he had spaced out.

"Hey there munchkin. What'er you up to?" and Tony sits down on the only spare seat in the room. Carmen's moved everything around, and that's fine. So long as she moves it back. Because Tony is definitely not cleaning up her mess.

"Anthony," his old engineering professor says, and yeah. They all only called him by his full name back in the day, but now he realizes that they were using it as a term of respect because he was one smart fifteen year old. "She's smarter than you were when you came to us!"

Tony laughs because yes, yes she fucking is smarter than him than when he was that age. Seems Steve comes from the smart peoples as well and it only added to his genius genes. And no, Tony is not jealous. Hell, he's proud as fuck that his baby will one day be considered a genius among the geniuses and their genius community. She's that smart. And these two men and one woman will help shape her into that.

Speaking of which, Dr. Medeiros, his only female teacher, a physicist, smiles and says, "Truly Anthony. She's brilliant!" Her heavy Brazilian accent doesn't take away from the awe in her voice.

Carmen is back to an in-depth discussion with his theory professor, pointing at the equations on the board. They're having a comfortable back and forth and yeah, his baby is smart.

Which is exactly when Steve walks in. He's laughing, which means that Phil probably cracked a dry joke before he and Pepper dropped Steve off, but the sound is cut off when he takes in the strangers in his house. Tony jumps to his feet and smiles at Steve, relaxing the other man immediately. He'll never get over the fact that he, out of all people, can best relax Steve. It's a great feeling.

"Dr. Medeiros, Dr. Kleine and Dr. Graycen, this is my husband, Steve Rogers. Steve, these are the smart people that are going to teach our daughter how to science," Tony says eloquently.

Steve laughs softly, a lot more honest than is probably appropriate for the company they're keeping at the moment, but Carmen smiles and nods to the Dr. Graycen, the theory professor. Dr. Kleine, the professor that had made the first comment, the engineering professor, nods and stands up to shake Steve's hand. Steve makes sure to keep his introduction quick and polite so as not to take the spotlight from their brilliant daughter and have it put on Captain America. Steve is great that way. Tony loves him all the more for it.

Tony excuses himself just as Steve does and he trusts his daughter with those people. They were the ones that kept him sane during his years in MIT. He can trust them to do the same for his kid.

"So," Steve says, a bit exited, Tony can see that. "They're all brilliant, aren't they?"

Tony nods. "They've discovered, invented or contributed to something huge at least twice in their lives. So yes. Brilliant."

Steve laughs a bit more breathless. "She looks so happy," he says and yeah. Carmen looks happier in that room with people almost sixty years her senior than she has in a long time, especially with people her age that aren't part of their wacked out family.

"That's an awesome thing," Tony says. "Because I only do awesome things." He pauses to see Steve smile and then says, "Like you. I do you and you're awesome."

"Tony!" Steve says, almost scandalized, not even blushing because they've been married for 15. He just doesn't blush anymore.

Tony shrugs. "Just as long as the Profs don't hear me…"

Steve shakes his head and wraps his arms around Tony. "I heard them calling you Anthony."

"Don't you start getting any ideas," Tony says, wrapping his own arms around Steve's neck, his wrists resting over each other.

"Can I call you that, Anthony?" Steve asks anyway.

"Steven," Tony says warningly, and Steve laughs.

Tony has to smother him in kisses to get him to shut up. But shut up he does.

So... yeah. The next chapter is gonna be super long because it actually has plot. For those of you who still haven't read Teenage Dirtbag, I recommend that you should. Not just because I'm shamelessly promoting it, but because there's a part in the end that's important.

Carmen is seventeen and she has an arc reactor in her chest. Now, she mentions that something happened to her in the summer she turned sixteen. That is important so important because the next part is when that happens. It's plotty and awesome and dark and her past universe comes to bite her in the ass and everyone's worst nightmare happens. So.

That ones gonna take a bit to write. That's why I worked on the first five chapters for you guys to have something to read until then.

Ok. Reviews are welcome, again. Thanks so much!