A/N: I honestly worry if I'm doing okay with this fic, especially since I can't update it regularly. I'm working on drafting some chapters for my Season 5 fic. As well as one-shots for Steve/Tony that I post on AO3

Chapter Four – Small Steps are better than none taken

Steve is a light sleeper, the smallest of movements would wake him up. He blamed the seventy-year nap for this because he was always afraid of sleeping for too long. The serum made sure that he needed as little sleep as possible but it didn't stop him from being afraid of closing his eyes. During the time he had been on the run from the government and the Accords he barely slept, the fear of being caught rained down on his thoughts. There was also the occasional nightmare that had plagued him since his fight with Tony. He hadn't thought about it when they were fighting because he wanted to stop Bucky from being hurt but in the end after he had left the other man in a Siberian facility it plagued him. The thought that he could have killed Tony, and he had been worried for days until the man had shown up on television.

The letter the stupid letter, was more for him to ease his guilt than for Tony himself, he knew it was a shoddy attempt at an apology, and they never used the phone until it had been absolutely necessary but in the end the guilt had stayed with him. He watched the news constantly looking for signs of Iron Man, or of Tony. The guilt kept building as he realized that the Avengers had followed him, Thor had his own battle in New York, but that was the extent of what he had seen of the man until they were battling Thanos and his armies, him and Banner had been in another realm while Steve had fought in the Civil War as it had been dubbed.

No one had stayed with Tony, except for Spiderman, and Colonel Rhodes who had been battling his own injuries from the fight at the airport. Steve's beard itched, but he didn't shave, he was no longer the clean cut Captain America, time had changed that. He knew he had an early morning class but sleep alluded him that night. How can someone possibly lead a group of kids into the Avengers, or SHIELD if he still didn't have his confidence back. When he finally fell asleep it was close to two in the morning and he had just passed out from exhaustion.

The bed jostled as someone dropped themselves on it making Steve jump and grab the person thinking they were trying to attack him only to find his face full of hair and a metal arm prying him away. Natasha sat at the edge of the bed he hair tied back as she drank a bottle of water.

"You know if you don't wake up for your early morning run people worry," she said smiling. "Tough night?"

"Just the same old dreams, sorry I didn't meet up with you guys," he said looking at the clock as it signaled the time. It was six in the morning he had only gotten four hours of sleep.

"It rare for you not to be up at the crack of dawn annoying us into keeping up with you," Bucky said next to him. "Although if you were going to attack me just because I jumped on the bed I would have tried something different."

"I told you not to jump on the bed but you wouldn't listen to me," Natasha said smiling at him. "Anyway, we were talk to Stark last night."

Steve's eyes jumped between the two of them trying to figure out what they could have talked with Tony. He couldn't formulate the words that were running through his head, he thought they had resolved everything with their earlier talk but he thought about his conversation afterwards with Bucky and Sam and he knew there was so much more they needed to talk about.

"Steve, he's moving forward with all of this, and as much as I love you guys, I think he's right. Families fight, that's what he said, and we're all a big albeit slightly dysfunctional family, and so we fought now it's time to move forward," she said looking at him with sadness in her eyes.

"I just want to go back and change everything that happened, but it's not possible," he said trying to keep himself from looking down. He could face a million bullies and try to save everyone but when it came to his feelings and his mistakes he felt as if he were incompetent.

"Stevie, you can't bring the past back, but you can try and change the present," Bucky said to him. "Talk to him, actually talk to the man because next time you try to drag everyone into a war for the sake of saving someone I'm going to kick you in the balls as Nat watches."

"That was very graphic," he said smiling at his friend. "Come on let's get ready to teach the future of our world."

"I still can't believe you volunteered us for this," Bucky said as he jumped off the bed. "I never saw myself as a teacher."

"You are more of a people person than most so it could be good for you," Natasha said smiling as she rubbed Bucky's back.

Steve knew it was sweet for the two of them, he knew they've had something for one another for a while but he didn't pry, it was time to let Bucky live his life and for Steve to stop interfering. It was also time for him to forgive himself and maybe try to get his life in order especially when it came to Tony.

"When you get the chance you should probably also thank whoever it was that convinced Stark to move forward instead of dwelling on the past," Bucky said as he was walking out of the room.

Steve looked at him confused for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"He means that there's someone in Tony's life that's making him see clearly, and pushing him to realize that families no matter how much they fight, will always come back together," Natasha said smiling. "That's how we found out that he was truly forgiving us, there's someone in his life that's changing him or maybe they had always been there and we never noticed."

For some reason the thought that someone else was around Tony to the point that they could truly change him, made Steve feel like he had lost something. What could he lose with a person he had fought with?

"Don't over think it," Bucky said. "For all you know it could be one of those kids that's always hanging around him. He has somehow created a family for himself, even Vision protects him now, so in the end they're all changing him."

"That could be it," Steve said thinking about his own fractured relationship with the genius inventor. "I have misjudged him a lot over the years, maybe it's time that I start over with him."

"That would be a good idea," Bucky said before he dragged Natasha out of the room.

Starting over, was a great idea, he just needed to figure out how to start.

Waking up before seven in the morning was something Lucas wasn't very fond of, mainly because his friends were night owls and usually worked until late at night. He was usually up with them helping with whatever project they needed to do. The three of them hadn't foreseen the fact that their first class was at nine in the morning, and breakfast would only be served to the students from seven until eight. The first class was a training course, and it was a mandatory class, but they also wanted to make sure that none of them puked their guts out.

"Why is the sun so bright," Farkle said as they walked towards the dining hall.

"Shhh, don't talk too much," Isadora said to them.

Lucas couldn't help but laugh, he didn't care if he was tired because of who was teaching their first class. The excitement could keep him going until he passed out. He steered his friends towards the doors and pushed them towards the line for food. The two geniuses groaning as they moved along. As they set their trays down on their table he went off to look for some drinks only to bump into someone who easily towered over him. When Lucas looked up he came face to face with his hero not realizing that he was now covered in hot coffee. It took Lucas a whole minute to react to the burning sensation on his chest.

"Sorry kid, are you alright?" Captain America asked and all Lucas could do was nod at the man. "Make sure you get cleaned up before class, and check for burns."

Lucas still couldn't say a word and he started to realize that this was not how he imagined their first meeting to go. Even at Aunt Peggy's funeral he hadn't really had the chance to talk to the man, but now as he faced him he realized that he was losing momentum.

"Lucas are you alright?" a familiar voice said as his cousin walked up to him. "Steve I'm so sorry about this, Lucas is normally very well he's talkative but you're his idol so he's probably just star struck."

"Thanks a lot Sharon," Lucas mumbled as he turned around and grabbed a napkin from his plate.

"Ah he speaks," she said smiling. "Anyway, Steve this is my cousin Lucas Friar, Lucas meet Steve Rogers."

"It's nice to meet you sir," he said sticking his hand out. "I've heard so much about you from Sharon and Aunt Peggy, so this is… well it's really a pleasure to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Lucas," Captain America said, making Lucas want to jump for joy because his idol said his name. "I have to go prep the training area so I'll see you both later."

As soon as the man walked away Sharon slapped Lucas on the shoulder. "Very smooth there cuz, you meet your idol and you freeze up."

"Yeah well no one can be entirely perfect," he said smiling. "But it's something great."

"Yeah except the people in our family don't get star struck, we are people of action, and Aunt Peggy would be mortified if she saw what you did."

"No she won't, she told me about the day he became Captain America, the woman touched his chest the minute he came out of that machine."

The two of them started laughing the moment the words were out of his mouth, when it came to Captain America there were no bigger fans than the Carter Family, and Lucas would never count Stark in that, no matter what people said.

He went back to the table with drinks for him and his friends as he saw the two of them sleeping on their trays. They hadn't seen what had happened but he knew that the moment they heard about it they would laugh in his face because he was supposed to be a cool and calm one and the first thing he did was freeze up and stutter.

"Wake up sleepyheads," he said shaking them awake. "I brought coffee, and we have to eat and get changed for class, and I know how much you two like to learn."

Farkle grumbled as he lifted his head. "It's not learning, we're training, as in sports and I'm terrible at sports."

Isadora only took the cup of coffee before inhaling it in one go, if there was anything that his friends needed in the morning was a decent size cup of coffee and a math book to argue over.

It took another two cups of coffee before they were fully awake and then they all dug into their food before heading back to their dorms to change into their training clothes. All of their school outfits were issued by SHEILD, outside of school hours they were allowed to wear their regular clothes but once on campus they needed to be in their gear. When Isadora and Farkle heard about it they tested the material to see why only to find out that there was a thin layer of bullet proof material, and the fabric was fireproof. They liked that the gear was meant to protect them, but in the end their training clothes weren't as sturdy.

On the way to the training hall Lucas saw the girl again, she was surrounded by three guys and smiling at them. One of them looked like he wanted to run the other way, while the other three were dragging him along laughing. Lucas couldn't understand why he couldn't talk to this girl and apologize, he couldn't understand why it got under his skin that he had messed up and couldn't fix it at all. Since they were all going to the same place maybe he'd get the chance to fix their relationship, or at least get a second chance at a first meeting.

Early mornings weren't her thing, but since her father had to be up this early she wasn't going to complain, so after two very strong cups of coffee, and some mini cinnamon rolls that Vision made for them Riley and Peter were off to school. They make their way through the woods, Riley on her bike and Peter using his web shooters, every once and in a while he made his way back to Riley to keep her company.

"This is so cool," he said although they were dressed in their normal SHIELD issued gear, both of them were trying really hard not to tear them.

She knew her father had designed the suits, he wanted nothing but the best protection for his kid, as well as the kids at the school. The fabric was breathable, and light. He had told her that it was what he had used on the Avengers when they were a team. So much work he had put into his team for it to blow up in his face later on, but Riley knew that trying to piece back together his Avenger's family would make him happy. She didn't like the hurt looks on her father's face, because it hurt her as well.

"Peter be careful not to hit a tree," she yelled out after him.

"Oh please, I can do this in my…" he stopped as he actually hit a tree and a bird's nest landed on his head.

"Told you, they're a lot closer back here," she said trying not to laugh but failing.

"Gross, I have bird feathers in my mouth, this would never have happened if I was allowed to wear my Spiderman suit to school."

"Yeah well dad said no one is allowed to know you're Spiderman yet," she said as they made it pass the small hill behind the school. She slid to a stop in front of the bike rack as Peter pulled feathers out of his hair.

Riley pulled out a bottle of mouthwash she carried around, normally for after lunch because braces when she was in middle school made her a stickler for fresh breath and not having food stuck to her teeth. She handed it to him and chained up her bike.

"Thanks," he said as he handed the bottle back to her.

"Keep it, I'll get another one, plus I don't want you to give me the bird flu from you rinsing your mouth out with my mouthwash."

Before Peter could make a remark Zay and Ned stepped out of a car driven by her Uncle Rhodey, she smiled and waved at the man.

"Be good in school kids, I'll see you guys later," he said before driving off.

"He has to be in Washington today," Zay said as he pulled the collar of his uniform. "He also came home last night laughing about someone freaking out about his daughter being alone in a room with boys."

Riley could feel her face burn, "We were just in the workshop, geez my dad is going to freak out about everything."

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that all of your closest friends are guys," Ned said laughing with Zay.

"Maybe you should find some girls to be friends with to keep him from freaking out?" Zay said once the laughter died down.

Riley sighed knowing that maybe she needed that but since no one knew who she really was, it was difficult to make friends and bring them over.

"Come on boys' time for training," she said as they started walking towards the building. Ned groaned and she knew it was because he was the least athletic one. Zay ran track when he was at their prep school, she had boxing training with Happy over the years, and well Peter was Spiderman.

"Don't worry you'll be fine," Peter said as the dragged Ned along. "Nothing will go wrong, and maybe you could build up enough muscle that you could become like the Hulk."

"Ned Hulk is brave," Zay said in a Hulk voice.

"Ned Hulk is strong," Peter joined.

All Riley could do was smiled and drag Ned along towards the building. The boys started laughing after a while which only made her laugh as well.

The training hall was huge, so when they walked in the group separated and Riley went into the girl's locker room to change into her training gear. The class was made up of guys and girls but in the end there were more guys in the class, so the girl's locker room had only fourteen girls changing. She knew her father wanted to keep it even but it was rare for parents to be alright with their daughters joining a super-secret organization.

Riley's locker was next to another brunette girl's who looked like she needed another cup of caffeine to function.

"Hi," Riley said as she stored her stuff inside and began changing.

"Don't tell me you're a morning person?" the girl said squinting before she put on a pair of glasses.

"Not really but my dad buys really good coffee so I had several cups this morning," Riley said smiling.

"I need more coffee."

Riley pulled out a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans she got from Vision as a thank you not too long ago. He had wanted advice on where to travel and she told him where he should go, especially since Riley knew that it involved a certain girl. He maybe an android but he was learning about all kinds of things including human relationships.

"Here," she said handing the girl a handful of beans. "Their chocolate covered coffee beans, and the chocolate is laced with coffee. I got it from a friend who had traveled to Europe, and I don't mind sharing."

The girl looked at her for a moment before taking the candy and shoving it in her mouth, chewing blissfully as the chocolate melted in her mouth. Riley ate some before storing the rest of the bag.

"You're a goddess I swear," the girl said before sticking out her hand. "I'm Isadora Smackle."

"Riley Matthews," she answered with a smile. Saying the last name hurt sometimes but she was happy to have made a friend so easily. "So what brings you to this school?"

"I have these two guy friends, one is super athletic, and the other is a science nerd, I'm more of a computer nerd, but it doesn't matter because we're going to rule the world. How about you?"

"Well, I blew up a science lab, and one of my dad's friends recommended this place, plus my guy friends are here too," she smiled.

"You blew up a science lab," Isadora said in awe. "Wait I heard about this but I thought it was a myth. It makes sense now, and we're both surrounded by guys, so I guess this means we were meant to be friends to balance that part of our lives out."

Riley couldn't help but laugh, she had become a legend in other schools for trying to figure out a formula, but the story everyone else said had turned out differently, to everyone else they thought that she did it to get out of class. Which was a lie, especially since she had finished all of her school work up until senior year when she was in middle school. Her father wanted her to have a normal life so he didn't pressure her to go to college early, even though she did have a Bachelor's already through correspondence, well actually it's three Bachelor's degrees, but what could you expect from Tony Stark's kid.

Their teammate assignments were on the door by the entrance to the training hall, and the two girls saw that they had been paired together. They had laughed it off as they walked into the hall and lined up. That's where she saw him, the kid that she had almost hit with her bike, she didn't know how to feel about him since he had yelled at her on the first day, but instead she decided to take her own advice and let go. If her father had to do it she would do it as well.

"Good morning," a loud booming voice said. Riley turned to see who her instructors would be, her father had said that the class would be led by Captain America and some of the Avengers.

It was a way for the team to bond with the new students. Now she saw Agent 13, Sharon Carter, standing next to Sam Wilson, the Falcon. Steve Rogers at the center, with Natasha Romanov also known as Black Widow and James Barnes, The Winter Soldier on his other side. The metal arm on the Barnes fascinated her, mainly because her father had designed it as a peace offering, she remembered him agonizing over it for months, mainly because this was also the man who had killed her grandmother. Suddenly forgiveness had become her mantra, he hadn't known who he was, it was Hydra that had made him do it.

"As you know, this class is set up to test your physical capabilities, but also to increase your stamina," Rogers said as Riley attempted to reconcile the fact that her two worlds were colliding in front of her without anyone but Peter, Zay and Ned knowing.

"You have all been paired off, and each pair has been assigned to a team, one team is going to be led by Natasha Romanov along with James Barnes, the other with Sharon Carter and Sam Wilson. Your team assignments were listen with the numbers one or two on the roster that was inside of the locker rooms. Team one will go with Romanov and Barnes, Team two will go with Carter and Wilson."

Riley felt like her heart had stopped for a moment before Isadora was pulling her towards team one. She was lucky because her friends were all standing there waiting for her, but the worried look on their faces meant that they understood her hesitation. She now had to learn to work with the man who had killed her grandparents, and although she wanted to exercise forgiveness she was also afraid that the two assassins would be able to uncover who she really was. Peter squeezed her shoulder as they walked forward. It was his way of saying that everything was going to be fine, of course it was she had Spiderman on her team, and friends who would do anything for her.

"Alright for the next few minutes get to know your team, they're vital into how you survive the training, they will become your family, your leaders are like your parents," Rogers continued.

Everyone nodded as the teams were lead to different sides of the training hall, they had been given the time to talk to one another. Riley jumped when someone touched her shoulder only to turn around and come face to face with the boy from the first day of school. Isadora stood at his side and a blonde boy on the other.

"Hi I'm Lucas," he said smiling slightly at her. "I wanted to say sorry for what happened yesterday, I didn't know you were a student here."

Riley sighed for a moment before looking up at him. "I'm Riley, and sorry for almost running you over with my bike."

The two of them laughed for a moment, their friends looking at them confused before they went on to explain what happened. Riley learned that the other boy was the one that Isadora was talking about, a science nerd.

"I'm Farkle," he said introducing himself. "Isadora says you're the legend that blew up the science lab at that prep school."

"Guilty," she said smiling.

The group shook hands with one another as they all introduced themselves, no one but Riley, Ned and Zay knew that Peter was Spiderman, his identity was a secret as much as Riley's was. Once they were done with introductions the group started running laps, Riley started feeling lighter for a moment. The Winter Soldier wasn't the same person who had killed her grandparents, she needed to let go of that part of her father's misery. He was her instructor, and a part of the family she was trying to piece back together for her father.

Family that needed to take small steps in order to become whole once again.

It was almost one in the afternoon when Tony realized he hadn't eaten anything except cinnamon rolls, Vision was working along with him on the paperwork for various missions that needed to happen in the upcoming weeks. The android was good at keeping up with the sheer amount of things that Tony could easily miss, especially since he hated paperwork. But Vision was also helping him keep the secret of his daughter's identity while also keeping a close watch on Riley. Every once and a while he would leave and check up on the training session that had started early in the day. They were training the kids on everything from boosting stamina to being spies, he knew it was strange but for some reason it felt like home to be surrounded by all of this cloak and dagger stuff.

The students had regular classes in the afternoon, some were allowed to go to the previous schools if they didn't want to take the classes on campus. Peter was alternating between the two along with Ned, with special permission. Zay and Riley were both going to be full time students, he had wanted his daughter to have a normal childhood and somehow got her invited into a spy school.

"How about some lunch?" Vision asked looking at him closely. "It seems as though your levels are dropping."

"Let's go eat with the kids," he said smiling. He knew he couldn't really have lunch with his daughter but being close to her would be alright. She was his anchor through all of the madness in his life so of course he needed to lean on her even now. When they reached the dining hall he looked around and saw the students all talking about their first day, it was nice to see something so normal after a morning of paperwork. He grabbed a cup of coffee and walked around for a moment listening to them and introducing himself to the tables of students.

Spotting Riley at a far table with Ned, Zay and Peter he made his way over to say hello like he had to all of the other tables. He didn't want it to seem suspicious if he had only gone to see her and no one else. When he walked over he smiled at the group as they stopped talking.

"How was your first training session?" he asked them, it felt normal to ask.

"Good Mr. Stark," Peter answered smiling while Ned groaned into the table.

"That's good," he said smiling at Riley who smiled back. As he introduced himself to the table one of the guys looked at him and glared which only made him skeptical about being so close to the teenagers he already knew. "Well I'll let you all get back to your lunch, it was nice meeting you."

He walked off wondering why the green eyed teen glared at him, and he knew he would have to ask Riley about it later. He made his way to a table as Vision set down a tray for him, he sat down and sighed.

"You should probably eat that," Steve said as he sat down in front of Tony.

"Well we wouldn't want to disappoint Vision since he wanted to make sure I ate something," he said smiling.

"Listen Tony," Steve said looking directly at him. Tony couldn't figure out where to look, the man's eyes were as blue as the ocean and sometimes he swore that he could drown from looking at them. They mesmerized him in some way but he couldn't figure out why. "I talked to Nat and Buck and they told me about the conversation you had last night. I know it's hard to let go, but… well thanks for trying."

Tony shook his head to bring himself back to the present. "Don't worry about it, I know I had to learn to let go, and it took one very headstrong person to force me into it, even though I was being stubborn about it."

"Hearing you say that reminds me of Peggy in a way," Steve said smiling. "I would like to meet this person one day."

At the mention of Peggy, Tony couldn't help but think just how much of his Aunt and Godmother had transferred over to how he had raised his daughter. Pepper was the same in some ways, but no one could hold a candle to his godmother. He realized that he had never told Steve about the connection, no one outside of Fury, and his parents knew about it either. It was something he pushed back when the dementia had started taking over the woman's life, and it also reminded him of the first time she had met Riley. Peggy had been so proud of him, but that memory had faded like so many others, and after a while he couldn't bear to visit her, especially when a certain super soldier returned.

"You will one day," was all he said as he pushed back the memories of the woman who had helped raise him on stories of Captain America, when his own father ignored him. "So how was the first day?"

"Interesting, some of these kids can fight, other's need a little help, but I'm guessing their more interested in the tech and science part of this academy. Buck and Nat have an interesting group on their hands," Steve said pointing out the group in the back. "Those kids over there are in their group."

The moment Tony saw that it was Riley's table he feared something would happen, it was the Winter Soldier, the image of his hand over Tony's mother's throat. All of a sudden he felt the walls closing in on him, he couldn't breathe, there was an ache in his chest as if the shrapnel was clawing its way to his heart. He couldn't breathe… he couldn't breathe….

He heard Steve saying his name but all Tony could do was move out of the dining hall and all but crawl down the corridor, he needed air. He passed out as he made it down towards the double doors leading to the lawn.