Chapter 2
The door had turned out to lead to a library. Just the sight of all the books excited Tony, and his breathed quickened ever so slightly. The titles swam in the air in a haze of knowledge and green, and he couldn’t wait to read everything he could get his hands on. But then he remembered Ty next to him, and frowned.
“D- do you like to read?” He asked nervously. He didn’t want to lose the only friend he had here already, that would be terrible, and only further proof that no one liked him. (He had deduced that sometime in his sleep, it was fairly evident. The books around him smelt of dust and mildew, the perfect combination of old and undiscovered that Tony was dying to look into.
Thankfully, Ty nodded, his eyes bright. Tony sighed in relief, then realized how out in the open they were. He looked around slowly and pointed to an aisle that led them off into the library, and remembered that the entire point of literally breaking and entering into the room was to find out what the mysterious man had been doing. Shakily, Tony took a breath and walked forward, listening closely for any signs of movement other than Ty.
Soon he heard the rumble of other voices, and crept closer towards it; peeking around the corner of a bookshelf he saw the owners of the voices, one heavily-green coded man and a woman who was completely absent of said green. The way they were talking sounded like it wasn’t a good idea for Ty and Tony to make themselves known, so Tony crept away, expecting Ty to follow. The mutterings of ‘students coming in two days from now’ and ‘time enough, damni-’ were enough to make Tony nervous. Perhaps the couple was married? That would explain why they were fighting, or at least it would to Tony.
Just because there were others in library didn’t mean Tony was going to give up a chance to explore like this, and given the waves of excitement Ty was giving off next to him, he wasn’t either. Tony looked for a place to start, taking hints from the coding on where would most interest him. He took a step forward, and glanced upward, and it dawned on him how big this school must really be. He didn’t really understand were he had been sent at the time, but with his father’s money and his apparent genius intellect, this was probably high standard and expensive. How many other kids would be attending here? Speaking of kids, where were all the kids?
Oh, right, his brain chided him for not paying attention to the adult’s conversation, they were to arrive in two days. Ty and him must have been dropped off early because… well, Tony didn’t know why Ty was here early, but even at six he knew the reason he was here early was because no one wanted to spend time with him, and they were too busy with more important things, like running a multi-billion dollar company.
He felt a pang in his chest, and pushed it away to the corners of his mind before taking a well conceived staircase up to the next level of the building. There had to be a hidden corner somewhere, after all there were four each level and the library was accumulated of three floors, topped off with a glass dome-like ceiling. Despite their searchings, all the shelves were in neat, infuriatingly tidy rows, making it impossible to find a place to hide away and read a book. Eventually Tony had to settle for a spot on the third floor (it would be most isolated, no one cares that much to go out of their way looking for a book), because the shelves changed patterns halfway and created a block that was impossible to get to without pushing books out of the way and climbing haphazardly through.
There was no corner box, but the shelves around him served well enough, so he sucked it up and called quietly to Ty, who had also been searching for the perfect reading nook. A soft patter of footsteps could be heard, and then,
“Where are you?”
“H- I’m in h-here.”
Tony climbed out and led Ty through, and smiled nervously, spreading his arms wide as if to say, ‘here it is’ and then looked around for a book. The search was soon interrupted by Ty motioning to him, and Tony followed his gaze to the top of the shelf. There it was, the book that would entertain them both. Tony just knew it.
It didn’t actually have a title, and there seemed to be a lack of coding about it. The leather cover was a cracked, old blue, and weathered gold engravings painted a pretty pattern on the outer spine of it. Unfortunately, it was virtually impossible to reach without going to a great deal of trouble to get it.
Fortunately, Tony was all too willing to go to those lengths to acquire his reading material. And Ty seemed to be just as excited about it, because he was already scoping out a way to get it. Judging by the sturdiness of the shelves, Tony probably would be able to climb up to get it. But the other brunette maybe not so much, as he was taller and probably weighed a bit more.
Taking into mind the part where he had thought ‘probably’, Tony began his climb. Getting a firm hold on the smooth (yet dusty) shelf was one thing, getting one while climbing was a whole other level. Literally and metaphorically. Everything about it was taxing, and Tony was just about to reach for it, so close, and-
And it was gone. Like it had never existed, three smaller books filling in the space it had been in. Tony had an uneasy feeling run through him, like something was wrong, and Where was that book? but his brain was saying No, silly, there obviously wasn’t any book, you were just… It seemed to trail off at this point, but he had hung there for long enough, and Ty was saying, “Come on, Tony, grab them!” So he grabbed the three small books with one hand (nearly falling with the task of it) and climbed down using only one hand, his arm burning.
Tony looked at the three books in his hand with detachment. They were bland, and more than very dull, so he couldn’t see why Ty or he’d ever want to read them. Their titles were generic, and something in the very back of his mind was niggling There was no title, though... and he grimaced as best as a six year old could when highly confused.
Ty grabbed the three books with excitement and looked at them, then furrowed his brows as if expecting something different, but not knowing why. Tony looked at him incredulously, but decided not to say anything if he wasn’t going to, and began once more his search for an interesting piece of literature.
He finally settled for a red book with black tree designs called Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales, thinking that anything with such a sinister cover might be able to give him a different reason for his discomfort. The book did not disappoint, but the layer of dust on his fingers on a few pages in was enough to set it down in distaste.
“Ty?”
“Yeah Tony?”
“Do you thin-think we could ask for a f-f-feather-duster of sorts t-to clean this p-place up?”
Ty nodded and got up, as if he had been thinking the same idea from the way he put down his book all too quickly. Tony smiled, thinking that as long as he had a friend to get through this strange place, he might be ok. Following Ty out of the nook, he snuck behind him all the way to the entrance of the library that they had broken into. They were about to open it when the sharp click of high-heels came from the meeting-area the two grownups were having.
A lady with greying hair, no coding, and a hard-set face walking around a corner, and Tony nearly yelped in fear. Oh, they were going to get in so much trouble…
She stopped as she realised that there were two little boys in the area with her, and frowned before seemingly understanding who they were and that they had just been the early-arrivers (or at least, in Tony’s case.)
“What are you two boys doing, sneaking around here like this? How did you get in? No, don’t answer that,” she winked, before continuing, “you better follow me, it’s around lunch-time, wouldn’t you say?” Tony nodded, his face pale, and swallowed, but Ty walked right up to her and said,
“Who are you?”
She chuckled and muttered something sadly before leaning down to Ty’s height and saying, “Well, I’m Peggy Carter, but you must call me Ms. Carter, ok? Because I’m a teacher here, of course. And you must be the newbies, Tony Stark and Tiberius Stone. How have you two been liking it here?”
She walked right up to them, and Tony smiled shyly at her, willing to let Ty do all the talking (which he was doing very readily, no hesitation on his mind whatsoever). Ms. Carter smelled like strawberries and snow (if snow had a smell, that would be it) and everything about her seemed sweet and kind and then intense and in charge, all at the same time.
Tony took to her like a match does to flame.
To elaborate more, (because Tony took a liking to anyone who did the same to him) she was brilliant. Her smile lit up the room, and her frowns put everyone on edge. Ms. Carter’s eyes seemed to be made of steel, or iron, strong and forceful but so pliant when she warms up to you. Like Tony, who she apparently adored. (He was not cute, no matter what she said.) Ty would always stick out his tongue at her when she had her back turned, but Tony would give him a confused look and the boy would shut his mouth.
Ms. Carter helped him get through his first day (well, him and Ty) and then, at night, she declared it was time for bed. Tony swallowed roughly and nervously, unsure of how he was going to sleep when his mind felt so alive. Ms. Carter assured him he would manage just fine, and that it was just adrenaline- Tony had to look that word up later.
Then Ms. Carter stood by their door as Ty clambered onto his bunk and Tony slipped into his. Immediately he shifted onto his left side (because that was the best side to sleep on) and presumed sleeping position, his eyes closed loosely and mouth parted slightly. He had a lot of practice, because sometimes when his father would stumble in drunkenly, Howard would lose his veracity if he believed Tony was-
Tony clenched his eyes shut, ruining his act, and the thought that he couldn’t even sleep correctly upset him so much he nearly cried. (Didn’t, though, he was a big boy.) His eyelids still appeared to be pink, so he opened his eyes, wondering why the light was still on.
Once they adjusted to the light Tony saw that Ms. Carter was still there, but had now moved to a chair and had taken out an old book. “Wha- What are you d-d-doing? Aren’t we going to- to bed?” Tony mumbled into his pillow, forehead creased. The teacher looked at him with something he couldn’t place, then explained,
“I’m going to read you boys a story. Lord knows all children need a story before bed, doesn’t your father ever tell you one?”
Tony shook his head sadly, but then remembered all the times he’d gone to help his father in the labs, when Howard wasn’t too busy. “S-Sometimes, when I get to work wi- wi- with my dad in the workshop, h-he’ll tell me stories about this g-great guy, C- Captain America! He’s s-s-so cool, and still alive t-today!” Tony looked at her happily. Ms. Carter had an unreadable look on her face, but before she could say anything, a voice from the top bunk spoke out;
“Don’t be dumb, Tony. Captain America died in a plane crash into the ocean. Even if he hadn’t drowned, that was years ago, so he’d be dead by now. That’s just a story for babies. You aren’t a baby, are you?”
The taunt in his voice was so clear that with a sudden burst of anger Tony nearly yelled, “No! Captain America is alive because he is amazing and way better than you’ll ever be, Ty!” His breath hitched, and he breathed fast, then realized that he hadn’t stammered at all in that sentence with a fleeting triumph (before he realized what exactly he’d said.)
Ms. Carter looked a little pale, and was glancing between the two nervously. A flurry of thought ran through Tony, and he said, with a stroke of genius,
“Ms. Carter, do you think you could read us that story?”
She sighed in relief of the ebbing tension, and nodded.
“A long, long time ago, there was a woman who wanted to fight in the war……”