Shadowplay | Tony Stark

SIXTY THREE - PROUD

"I thought they didn't have these little assembly things in nursery?"

One month had passed since the family returned to Chicago and to nobody's surprise, Mila had fallen back into her old routine like nothing had ever happened. In fact, all four of them had, following her strong lead on how to deal with the events back in New York.

Although Logan's escape was an isolated incident and they were still more than safe, Tony was admittedly rather worried about how easily Mila was able to pretend like she hadn't almost died again, but he'd learned over time that that was simply her personality. What had happened, had happened, and there was no part of Mila that wanted to dwell on the past when they had a future that was now so eagerly bright waiting for them.

She and Tony had had a brief discussion about Logan's fate before they left New York, although she chose to spare herself of the details. She'd had an gut feeling about what had happened up on the rooftop after Clint carried her back inside, and while Tony was fine with telling her everything, all Mila wanted to know was if her family would be safe, to which Tony told her that they would always be safe from then on.

Apart from a few nightmares throughout the first week of being back at home, Tristan had also seemingly coped with the trauma in a similar way to his mother. He was still his loud, confident self that was so full of love and life it made forgetting the past and looking ahead a little bit easier for his parents and brother.

Peter had been hesitant to leave the house in case his mother needed him for anything for the first two weeks, the over-cautious teenager always offering to stick around if Tony was working out in the garage or had called into the bar for a quick drink with Joss. Mila's heart melted at the sincerity and kindness her oldest child possessed, and while she wanted to spend all the time in the world with him, she also didn't want him to give up his own social life.

"They don't," Mila replied as she unclipped her seatbelt, "They advised that I move him up to pre-k after he turned three, it's all different now."

"Pre-K?" Tony raised a brow when he killed the engine of his car, staring at Mila through blue-lensed sunglasses, "Are these not all the same thing? Daycare, nursery, the lady you leave kids with in a hotel when you're on vacation?"

Mila just rolled her eyes and shook her head, grabbing her purse from the floor, "Come on, we can't be late."

Tony scoffed as he got out of the car, "No danger of that, we're literally thirty minutes early."

Pausing with an irritated sigh, Mila tilted her head and pursed her lips as she glared at Tony from across the top of the car. His smirk was toying with her and he'd seen her frantically rushing around the house all morning getting ready, panicking about what seemed like nothing to him, though everything to her.

"I'm sorry," he said, holding his hands up in defeat, "I just don't understand why you're so worried about this. Isn't it about the kids?"

It was a dreary, day in early Spring by that point through the dregs of Winter were still clutching on by their last threads, a bitter chill in the air and thick grey clouds covered the sky, not even a hint of sunshine to be seen anywhere.

Mila had taken the morning off work to be able to attend her son's first pre-k assembly and had been writhing in a fear-encased anticipation ever since receiving the email about it. She was grateful that she didn't have to go alone, though the thought of also not turning up alone like so many people in her town might've expected was equally terrifying.