↳ the d-word

wednesday

she spent another hour annoying bruce and tony while claiming she was trying to help them. tony didn't buy that though, he also didn't when she tried to back up her statement by showing him a photo of her nerd school and a picture of her locker she had snapped, which, to him, looked like hell, because all her books just were thrown into there and on top of them sat a single half-eaten apple which was already rotting.

he had let out an audible scream of shock and had been so distressed that bruce literally had to ban her from the lab for the time she would spent there this day.

evi had left with little to no protest, just sending tony a mischievous smile and imitating the gesture of biting into an apple, which had made him even more angry.

now she was on her way home.
and going home had been as awful as evi had internally predicted it to be. steve stayed true to his word and drove her so that she could finish her homework.

he took school way too seriously, but whatever.

evi started working on her math problems, when the phone rang

"nana!" steve exclaimed excitedly

"i'm doing math homework, steve. just like you wanted me to. i'm not sure it's right to use my phone at the moment. maybe you can leave a message and i'm sure i can call you-"

"-we figured it out. bruce and tony did it. they figured it out"

"what?!" evi stood up and send her chair flying to the ground "they did what?!"

"they know how to bring them back, all of them.. bucky, sam, wanda.."

"steve.." tears spilled from evi's eyes "that's amazing, give them both a big hug from me and tell them i love them"

"so affectionate all of a sudden" steve laughed

"learned it in psycho hours"

"you shouldn't call therapy 'psycho hours' we talked about that" steve lectured

"you know that i'm just messing with you" evi laughed

"finally some understanding from your side, proud that you can do that now"

"learned that in psycho hours too" evi laughed and before he could reply, she talked once again. "when can we do it? now? should i come back? maybe tony could call happy and he could-"

evi had met happy last year. he would often drive her to school or get her and bring them to the starks, where she would play with morgan or spend some time with tony in the lab.

"no, it's alright. they know how to do it, but it will take some time. they said something about atleast another two days or so"

"so.. saturday?"

"yeah.. saturday"

"okay, then say thank you, please and i'll see you later. should i order something? do you know when you'll be home?"

"i don't know, this could take a few hours, they need all the help they can get. but i'll bring food later and we'll make a movie evening, because you know, school, so i try to be in as soon as i can"

"okay, see you then"

"see you then, love you nana"

"i love you too" she ended the call and started to work on her math problem once again.

———

friday

evi woke up from the ringing of her alarm, sitting up in bed and looking at her phone.

steve had come home around eight o'clock and had brought pizza. they had spent the evening watching a rerun of a few harry potter movies, until evi had to go to bed. she pleaded steve to let her stay up, but arguing with him about school was like talking to a wall, so she had been send to sleep at 11.30

evi walked down the steps to the kitchen, taking out a bowl and making herself cereal. when she sat down at the table, she noticed the little note, steve had left her

'good mourning, nana' it said 'i'm already back at the compound, trying to work this out. i'll probably be out till tonight, you don't have to come. watch a movie or read something. tony and bruce are optimistic that this will work tomorrow, so we can go together then. i love you, see you later'

- dad

evi audibly caught her breath as she read how he had signed the little letter. he had never done that before. while he always referred to her as his daughter, which she did too, neither of them had ever used the d-word before. not while talking to others and not while talking to each other. they only ever used the term father, but steve was still steve, even if their relationship was more official now, or was he?

it wasn't like evi had a problem with calling steve dad, she had thought of it before, yes, but even though he had adopted and accepted her, she was never sure if her calling him that, wouldn't make him uncomfortable.

maybe he had thought the same.

evi smiled at the note and took it into her hand, before she brushed her finger over the little word. 3 letters. she couldn't remember when she last said that word

"dad" she said, as if to try and look how it would sound. just like how she had expected, it sounded weird and foreign, like another language, which in fact, yes it was, because evi had grown up speaking and understanding sokovian, but still.

after breakfast she got up and went back into her room. putting his note into the little cabinet of her nightstand. when she was about to pack her bag for school, she returned to her desk and looked at the adoption picture of steve and her.

"dad" she tried once again and this time it sounded less weird, when looking at steve. when thinking about steve. when using it with consideration.

she had never known a word could hold that much emotion. but it did.

and later when she came back from school, she knew what she would do. what she had to do. for steve. for her dad.

there was no decision to make here, because she had already decided..

*