Worth Fighting For| B. Barnes

~Molweni, Ivory~

~~~~~ 8 MONTHS LATER ~~~~~

Wednesday
May 31, 2017
7:45 AM
~~~~~

"Ivory...Ivory..."

Ivory gave the meanest frown in her sleep, and turned over causing Bucky to chuckle at the young girl. She was never much of a morning person, and due to her lack of sleep in recent weeks he could understand why.

"Baby doll...wake up..." Bucky says, peeling one of Ivory's sweaty curls behind her ear.

"No..." Ivory whined turning over even farther in her bed.

"No morning snuggle today? You're not going to give Daddy any snuggles today?" Bucky says, earning a glance from the stubborn girl. Ivory sat up in bed and almost immediately had tears in her eyes, causing Bucky to sigh.

"Good morning, my sweet girl...come here, what's got you so sad today?" Bucky asks already lifting Ivory into his lap.

"I-I h-have a bad dream..."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"N-No, Nuh-uh I w-want Shi-Shi..." Ivory sniffles rubbing her eyes. Bucky sighed and hugged the girl closely to his chest.

"You know what today is?" Bucky asks Ivory, using his sleeve to wipe her cheeks.

"N-No..." Ivory said, shaking her head.

"...it's the last day of School! Shuri will be here soon to get you!" Bucky says trying to get the girl excited for school.

For Ivory, 'School' was pretty much Ivory in a class of about 10 village children her age, and Nakia was her Teacher.

The best part was that all of Ivory's classes were co-taught by Shuri, So sure enough, she got to be with her 'Shi-shi' everyday. Shuri volunteered to be an assistant teacher in Ivory's class to help her adjust to her new normal, and so far it's been working.

Could Ivory have gone to actual preschool with more of the village children? Absolutely. Given everything Ivory had been through in the last year, Bucky thought it would benefit Ivory to start her off in a smaller group to get her used to the idea of school before introducing her to the real deal.

"No school...I'm three..." Ivory whined not wanting to leave Bucky's lap. Much like her father, Ivory wasn't the biggest fan of being woken up...especially for school. It didn't help that she was already off to a rough start for the morning.

"Even 'Almost' three year olds still need school Peach..."

"Nuh-uh, I don't want to go..." Ivory whined.

"Shuri will be so sad if she doesn't see you at school...do you want Shuri to be sad?" Bucky says. Ivory took a minute to think about it, and shook her head no.

"She can't come pick you up if you stay home from school." Bucky says.

"No, I want Shi-Shi to g-get me." Ivory says wiping her eyes. then sat up, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Then we have to go to School...you only have one more day Peach." Bucky says trying to convince the girl.

"No more school Daddy, I'm three now..."

"Not today you goof, You'll be three tomorrow...your birthday is..."

"June first, two thousand a-and..."

"And?" Bucky parrots back to the girl.

"Um...uh...fourteen!?" Ivory says.

"There you go kiddo! You got it!" Bucky chuckled kissing the girl's forehead. "My smart baby girl..."