chapter twelve
╰ ( civil war )

💫 ━━ IT has been a year since the events of Ultron and much has happened.

School was one of those things. School was not something Paisley liked, at all. She quite frankly disliked it but she was also very thankful that she was homeschooled. Everyday one of the Avengers or someone in the tower would get Paisley and Ryder together and teach them whatever they could. Somedays it was training, others it was a math lesson.

Since many were gone — Natasha, Wanda, Steve and Sam were gone — school was canceled until they came back. So until they came back, Paisley and Ryder were stuck with Tony. And since they were stuck with Tony, they were stuck going with the older man to MIT.

Tony tried his best to make sure they were having fun though. He took them both to as many toy stores as they could handle in a day. He bought them all the sweets their stomachs could handle. Tony was trying to be the cool babysitter and dad.

( Right, yes, Tony had officially adopted Ryder so he wouldn't be taken away from his new found family. Tony also saw himself in Ryder from the way he walked, and from the occasional sarcastic comment that left the little kids lips. He would say that adopting Ryder was the best thing to happen in the last year, and he's not lying. And when it came to Paisley, he was one of the best babysitters ever. )

Paisley and Ryder were sitting in the very front row. Toys in each of their hands as they watched something form on the stage. Then they heard a soft piano melody playing.

A woman was sitting at the piano, her hair was greying, she looked at peace as she swayed ever so slightly. That woman was Maria Stark, Tony Starks mother. She's singing a song, her voice smooth. "Try to remember the kind of September. When grass was green..."

Paisley grins when she sees a man that looked a lot like her favourite babysitter ( favourite for now ) stand up from the couch with a Santa hat on. She nudged Ryder, pointing to the not so real hologram of Tony.

"Wake up, dear, and say goodbye to your father." Maria says as she continues to play the piano and hum.

"Who's the homeless person on the couch?" Howard Stark flashes his wife a look when he sees Tony. Howard had greying hair, and a tux that hugs his body — even Paisley and Ryder see Tony in him, or him in Tony.

Tony chuckled, "This is why I love coming home for Christmas... right before you leave town."

"Be nice, dear, he's been studying abroad." Maria's words are directed towards her husband who's putting on his watch and fixing up his tux.

Howard Stark only rolls his eyes, "Really, which broad? What's her name?"

"Candice." The young Tony grumbled as his father pulled his Santa had from his head.

"Do me a favor? Try not to burn the house down before Monday." Howard narrowed his eyes at his son.

Young Tony smiled. "Okay, so it's Monday. That is good to know. I will plan my toga party accordingly. Where you going?"

Ryder and Paisley giggled as they watched the man who they knew so well walk around with a goofy grin on his holographic face. 

"Your father's flying us to the Bahamas for a little getaway." Maria told her son as she looked up at him, her fingers still dancing along the piano keys.

"We might have to make a quick stop." Howard stepped towards his wife, letting the quick news into the air.

Young Tony stuffed his hands into his pockets. "At the Pentagon. Right? Don't worry, you're gonna love the holiday menu at the commissary."
Maria stopped playing the piano when her son finished talking.

"You know, they say sarcasm is a metric for potential. If that's true, you'll be a great man some day." Howard told Tony before he looked to his wife. "I'll get the bags."

"He does miss you when you are not here. And frankly, you're going to miss us." Maria stood from her place at the piano she loved so much and walked towards her son. "Because this is the last time we're all going to be together. You know what's about to happen. Say something. If you don't, you'll regret it."

Howard Stark walked back into the room for the very last time, "I love you, Dad. And I know you did the best you could."

Maria placed a kiss on her sons cheek, and when she leaned back, the real life Tony Stark was standing in the background, waving to the two kids in the front row. "That's how I wished it happened. Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or BARF. God, I gotta work on that acronym. An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to... clear traumatic memories." Tony blew out a candle and everything around him shimmered before it disappeared. "It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport... or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but..."

Tony paused, his eyes darting towards Paisley and Ryder one last time before he continued. In a room full of people, he looked for the two kids who managed to light up his day whenever they could.

"Plus, 611 million dollars for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in the right mind would've ever funded it." Tony walked away from the small set that had been built, he's now standing in the middle of the stage, glancing at a sign that reads MIT Alumni Honors: Tony Stark. "Help me out, what's the MIT mission statement?"

"To generate, disseminate . . . and preserve knowledge." Mostly everyone in the room said loudly, the words echoing.  

"'And work with others... to bring it to bear on the world's great challenges.'" Tony added. "Well, you are the others. And, quiet as it's kept... the challenges facing you are the greatest mankind's ever known. Plus, most of you are broke." The crowd chuckled at Tony's words. "Oh, I'm sorry. Rather, you were. As of this moment... every student has been made an equal recipient of the Inaugural September Foundation Grant. As in — all of your projects have just been approved and funded."

The crowd of people cheered and some even jumped up from their seats. Paisley and Ryder clapped their hands, the toys they once held now in their laps.

"No strings, no taxes... just re-frame the future! Starting now." Tony reads a sign of words, Pepper Pots name at the bottom, he frowns. "Go break some eggs."

Tony walks of the stage and runs right into an MIT teacher who had two kids by his side — Paisley and Ryder. He kneels and both the little kids jump into his open arms with wide smiles.

"You did great, Tony-Poney!" Paisley says, bouncing with excitement as she picks up her toys and grabs ahold of Tony's hand.

"Thanks, Pais." Tony smiled a genuine smile as he held onto both Ryder and Paisleys hands. He walked through the backstage before he made it to a quiet corridor. He pulls the two along with him towards an elevator where a woman stands silently.

"Hi." Paisley waves, eyes locking with the woman's as she does so.

"Hi, sweetheart." The woman says before she turns towards Tony, a tilt of her head. "That was nice, what you did for those young people."

Tony waved her off, as if he didn't just give away bucket loads of money. "Ah, they deserve it. Plus, it helps ease my conscience."

Paisley and Ryder just listen, standing side by side as they watch the woman and Tony talk.

"They say there's a correlation between generosity and guilt. But if you've got the money... break as many eggs as you like. Right?" It was the way the woman said those words, like they had a hidden meaning that Tony hadn't figured out yet.

Tony narrows his eyes and half smiles, he then turns to face the elevator. He's not surprised to see the two little kids repeatedly pushing the button and lighting it up, he lets out a soft chuckle. "Going up?"

The woman shakes her head, "I'm right where I want to be." She opens up her handbag and Tony panicked. His mind thought that maybe she had a weapon, or that make she would hurt him or the kids, so he grabs ahold of her wrist.

Tony frowns when he realizes what he did. He lets go of the woman's hand and looks towards the kids to make sure they didn't see anything, they didn't. "Okay, okay. Hey! Sorry, it's an occupational hazard."

"I work for the State Department. Human Resources. I know it's boring... but it enabled me to raise a son. I'm very proud of what he grew up to be." The woman looks at a photo she pulled out from her hand bag before she shoved it at Tony. "His name was Charlie Spencer. You murdered him. In Sokovia. Not that it matters in the least to you. You think you fight for us. You just fight for yourself." Tony shakes his head, ready to argue with the woman that it wasn't his fault. "Who's going to avenge my son, Stark? He's dead...and I blame you. I blame all of you."

The lady walks away as the elevator door opens. Tony stands there, a sad glum frown on his face. There's a tug on his wrist and Ryder is pulling him forward, "Come on, dad."

He's glad his kid and his niece ( because that's what he sees paisley as ) are safe by his side.