A/N: Okay, I'm slowly working my way through my old picture drabble request, picking the ones I have an idea for as I go. For this one, I had a pretty specific prompt, which I modified a little to fit the situation I imagined better. But the gist remained the same: Skyeward baby is experiencing the hardships of having famous agents for parents at the Academy. Beyond that, this piece also sees the first appearance of a character who has been on my mind for a while now, but I haven't had the chance to introduce yet.

Legacy

At first, the Academy is complete fun. Haylie's class is a wild bunch, full of crazy, loud and adventurous people who laugh over showing up hangover at Agent Stanhope's Monday morning lecture, and she loves them for it.

Then it all changes with the first "Hey, I hate to be a bother, but I was wondering… Aren't you related to those Wards?" kind of question.

Because yeah, she is related to those Wards–yes, the Head of Operations and the Head of the Metahuman Committee, those agents who have been with S.H.I.E.L.D. since before The Fall, are her parents (and she is related to the other kind of Wards as well, the politicians, but nobody talks about that). And yes, she knows former Director Coulson, and Melinda May, and a bunch of other "famous" people. She grew up knowing them. But she is so much more than that.

Only people don't seem to be able to grasp this concept. Because at first it's just oohing and aahing and "that's so freaking cool." But then people are whispering behind her back–look, she is the Ward girl, that Ward girl–, and whenever a mission her parents took part in come up in class everybody is looking at her, waiting for her to spurt out classified details or whatnot, and before she knows it, an upperclassman is stopping her on her way to class, because he just needs to know how this or that op really went for his homework and Haylie must know it, since her parents were on that op.

So the Academy soon ceases to be a fun place, and her loud and crazy classmates soon become simply too much.

A month in, she is just so fed up with the whole thing–so much that, for the first time since she was fifteen, she starts to question herself whether she really wants to be an agent. A Wednesday is particularly bad, when a guy just keeps following her around the whole morning, wanting to know every little detail about the mission in Hong Kong in 2013, even though Haylie keeps telling him that she has no idea of what happened in Hong Kong in 2013.

By lunchtime, she's just had enough, so she hides away on the edge of the campus, at the old oak tree with its conveniently low-hanging branches she loves to sit on; that's where Aiden finds her.

"Hey there, Lady Elf," he says, walking up to the tree with his hands deep in his pockets. "Why the long face?"

Haylie can't help but smile at the nickname. She met Aiden right before training started, at a team building event held for the new recruits. She was just about to introduce herself to him, when he raised his hands to stop her, told her that he just sucked at remembering names, and that he'd just simply call her Lady Elf, because she "looked like an elf"–having inherited her father's tall and slender frame, she couldn't even argue with him, so she simply laughed and told him that if she's an elf, then he's a troll. And that day a friendship was born.

"Hey back to you, Lord Troll," she replies. "I hate my name."

"Why? It's a pretty decent name," Aiden says, leaning against the trunk of the tree. "Haylie Grace Ward. It has a nice ring to it, if you ask me."

Haylie chuckles at his antics. "You know what I mean."

Aiden frowns. "They were at it again?"

"As usual," she nods. "Today it was about some mission in Hong Kong like… a hundred years ago. As if I know all my parents' missions by heart!"

Aiden snorts. "Shame on you, really. It would be the least to cram in… Hey!" He doesn't get to finish the sentence, because she kicks towards him, missing his head only by a couple of inches.

"Don't want me to hurt you!" she laughs as Aiden collects himself, dusting off nonexistent dirt from the shoulder of his shirt.

"That was low, Ward."

"Not low enough, apparently," she says, and they both chuckle at her terrible joke. But as their laughter tapers off, Haylie leans back against the trunk, one leg hanging off the branch, and sighs. "But do you know what I hate about the whole deal the most?"

He shakes his head, looking up at her as he slowly sinks down and sits on the grass. "No, Lady Elf. Indulge me, please."

Haylie closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before continuing. "It's just… I never thought of my parents as 'agents,' I guess. I mean, of course, I knew what they were doing, I've heard all the stories, and I practically grew up in the Triskelion, but…" Another sigh. "They were never really 'agents' to me. Does it even make sense?" She looks down at Aiden, and he solemnly nods.

"It does. Go on!" he waves, almost like a conductor.

"So then I come here, and hear nothing else, just how amazing they are, and how they solved this and that situation–my textbooks are full of them and the other members of my family!" she lets out a dry chuckle. "But these… these… superhuman-personas who do nothing else but save the world are not how I know them."

"Interjection," Aiden cuts in, raising his hand, "your family is pretty much made of superhumans. Well, at least your mom is one. And, you know," he shrugs, "you too."

"That's not the point!" Haylie almost whines, raking her fingers through her hair in frustration. "What I mean is…" She sighs. "What I mean is that my mom is the person who sat with my on Saturday mornings, watching cartoons and eating cocoa puffs by the handful. The person who sat me on her lap and showed me the basics of hacking. And my dad made pancakes on Sunday mornings, and wrestled with me and my sisters on the living room floor, always letting us win. And my Grandpa Phil had the best stories, and Grandma Mel would take us out for ice-cream if we didn't tell our parents. What I mean is… They are my family, first and foremost. And they may be… partially… the reason why I am here today, but… I'm more than them, and they are more than what people see them as," she concludes with a shrug. "And I just wish they could see that."

Aiden is silent for a moment after she finishes, then he sniffs, and says, "Alright, that is kind of tough. Not tragic, but tough. I'd even give you a hug to make it better if you were on my level," he teases, looking up at her, sitting on the branch. "But hey, Lady Elf, I have an idea–let's have a party at your parents' place without asking, invite the whole class, thrash in furniture a bit, get your sisters drunk, and then have your parents walk in on it. I'm sure the chewing you'd get would remind the guys that they are just people, too."

Haylie laughs out loud at that. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure all I'd get, after the initial freak out, would be a shrug and a "we've done worse."" Then, with a smirk, she adds, "And admit it–you just want an excuse to party."

"You know me, Lady Elf," Aiden says with a dramatic sigh. "But now would you please descend to my level? I'd hate to be late from Callum's class."

Still chuckling, Haylie leaps down from the branch and lands gracefully on the grass, just as Aiden gets to his feet. She links their arms together and they start walking back towards the center of campus.

"But," Aiden says after a couple of steps, "acknowledging your mental trauma, I can offer you a drink tonight to ease your pain."

Haylie playfully nudges his side with her elbow. "Throw in a pizza too, and I'm in."