Birthday Party
Coulson was pretty sure he would prefer to be doing stacks of paperwork than run a birthday party for a six-year-old. His house was currently full of kids from (Y/N)’s class and their parents seemed to be milling about as well.
Unfortunately, that meant that Helen the Soccer Mom was at his home and he was losing his mind.
Helen was in charge of parties and other random things for the class, which mean she was a very over-involved parent. Coulson was trying to avoid being around her as much as possible, but it seemed that Helen the Soccer Mom could find him anywhere.
“Phil!” She waved at him while grinning as she walked over to him. He fought the urge to scowl as she got closer. He needed to be nice to these people to keep up with his cover so (Y/N) could have a somewhat normal childhood. “I was hoping I could talk to you about-“
“The bake sale. Yeah—I figured.” He sighed, already annoyed. Helen had been calling him twice a day for the past week to remind him about the bake sale and what was allowed to be sold at the damn thing. The list of things he couldn’t bake was longer, and Helen liked to remind him as often as she could.
“It’s coming up next week, and I want to make sure that you fully understand what can be sold.” Helen nodded seriously. “We don’t want any of the kids to have-“
“Look,” Coulson cut her off. He had had enough of this woman’s constant annoyance, and he was putting an end to it today. “I get it, you’re very excited about this bake sale. I’m sure you don’t have much else going on in your life, but I do, and if you keep calling me every day I will have you framed for terrorism.”
Helen’s overly-blue-eye-shadowed eyes rounded in shock.
“I’m glad we could have this discussion, Helen. Now, I’ve got things to do that don’t involve being harassed by you.” Coulson gave her a polite smile. “By the way, thanks for coming to the party.”
He walked past her, a sense of triumph filling him as he headed for the living room where the kids were playing a very rousing game of pretend. He saw that (Y/N) was sitting by the coffee table, drawing in the sketchpad that Coulson had bought her after the bike incident while the other kids played.
Coulson went to her, kneeling down to see what she was drawing. It was a picture of the kids playing, and as usual—it was incredibly well done. Her art skills were getting better and better as the days went on, and Coulson was glad to see she had found something she loved so much. However, he wished she would go play with the other kids considering it was her party.
“Don’t you wanna play with the other kids, (Y/N)?” Coulson murmured, trying to keep his worry from showing on his face.
“Not really,” She shrugged, looking up from her drawing. “Besides, I don’t think they really like me, daddy.”
Coulson frowned, “Why do you think they don’t like you, sweetheart?”
Another shrug as she went back to drawing. “I just don’t think they like me.”
The doorbell rang, and Coulson sighed. He pressed a kiss to his daughter’s head before he got to his feet. He headed for the front door, opening it to reveal Fury and May. They were both dressed in civilian clothing, both of them carrying wrapped presents.
“Ugh, it sounds loud.” May complained as she stepped inside.
“Well, there are quite a few kids here,” Coulson chuckled as he shut the door behind them. “Glad you guys could make it.”
“Well, considering I haven’t actually seen the kid in over two years, I didn’t want to miss this.” Fury replied.
“Yeah…” Coulson rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh. “Well, I had my reasons to keep her away from you, sir.”
“Which I should apologize for.” Fury nodded. “I should remember that (Y/N) is like any other kid. Where is she, by the way-“
“Uncle Nick!” (Y/N) darted out of the living room and wrapped her arms around Fury’s waist. Coulson noticed how Fury winced slightly at the force of the hug, and Coulson could definitely understand that. (Y/N) didn’t know the kind of strength she had. Fury leaned down, hugging the girl back. (Y/N) then hugged May’s waist with just as much strength. “You guys made it!”
“I couldn’t miss seeing your dad’s face when you open this.” Fury held up the gift in his hand.
“Should I be worried?” Coulson frowned.
“It’s harmless,” Fury replied with a smirk as he leaned in to whisper. “It’s a toy shield.”
“Oh,” Coulson snorted. “Well, I’m sure she’ll love that.”
“Like Captain America’s shield?” (Y/N) gasped excitedly.
Fury looked down at her, eyebrows raising slightly. “You heard that?”
(Y/N) nodded, “I have really good hearing, Uncle Nick. Hey!” She looked up at Coulson. “When can we have cake?”