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𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑃𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑆𝐼𝑋𝑇𝐸𝐸𝑁 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑂𝑤𝑛 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑡
☀︎︎
"Come on, kid," Tony's voice echoed into the hallway from the kitchen. "You don't want to be late on your first day."
It was cheerful in a mocking way, calling out to him as a tease. Eddy was still half asleep. His eyes felt puffy and his nose full. Coffee was what he needed, but the only way to get the spike of caffeine was to go through Tony first, and he certainly wasn't letting that happen.
"I wouldn't need to worry about being late if I could teleport," he replied grumpily as he slouched onto the bar stool by the island.
"We talked about this!" Tony said as he pushed one of his power smoothies in front of him. It was green and sloppy. "Go. Get a life until we sort this out. And no messing this up."
Edward snorted. "When did you get responsible?"
"When I realised you weren't," he said. "We're working in the lab tonight. Well, I'll work and you can try to keep up."
Eddy ignored the playful dig.
"You'll be there?"
Tony nodded. "Promise."
With one of Tony's unused backpacks over his shoulder, filled with a pencil case and a single notebook, Eddy made his way toward the car that waited by the front of the compound. Happy stood beside it with his arms crossed in his usual joyful stance. When Edward made it to the passenger seat, the older man rolled his eyes and opened the back door instead.
For the most part, the long car ride to Midtown was filled by a thick silence, apart from the odd lines of advice that Happy would come up with. The majority of it wasn't useful, but he appreciated the effort. It also helped to keep his mind from deviating to thoughts of what Peggy would think. They were dangerous moments. Not only that, but the fear of attending a new, futuristic school was suddenly settling in.
The sun had been up for four hours by the time Happy pulled the car up to the curb a whole block away from the school. The sleek, black car with the tinted out windows didn't exactly fit his picture and Happy refused to drive anything else. The light warmed his face as he stepped out, shutting the door behind him as he pulled the backpack over his shoulder, rays the colour of sand staining the pavement.
"Hey kid," Happy shouted, his expression looking passive but his voice betraying the worry he felt. Eddy turned and smiled knowingly, making him roll his eyes. "Try not to get lost. I'll pick you up from the same place."
Dulled yet clangorous, the sounds of this part of the city brought Edward back to the first day he'd travelled to his current time. It felt like years had passed since he'd stumbled into the Avengers compound without really knowing where he was, when in fact it had only been a few months. New York had given him a shock, with the thick air and metallic front faces that lined each street. At least around the school, the true busyness was lessened to a calm sense of chaos, no matter how bizarre the contradiction sounded. Large, boxy cars still whizzed past him as he walked the rest of the way to Midtown, but the sun gave a soft, gentle glow that blunted the harshness of the journey.
