Some Things Never Sleep

Chapter Thirty Nine

"You're grounded." Darcy told her. Emma was currently sprawled out across her bed as she read a biography of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's real life romance. Michelle had dared her to read a romance so of course Emma picked a real life one about a couple who cheated on each other constantly and were twenty five years apart in age. And people were always going on about Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively? Emma didn't think those two were fucked up enough for her liking.

"Really?" Emma asked doubtfully as she turned a page in her book. Darcy crossed her arms as she leaned against Emma's doorway. It was the day after she had returned from D.C. and Peter had made her promise they would meet up at school to discuss what they were going to do about Birdman.

"Yes, you're grounded." Darcy confirmed and Emma glanced up from her book, raising an eyebrow. The school had called Darcy earlier and told her that Emma had skipped Nationals to go off God knows where. Darcy was apparently trying to discipline Emma.

"Was this Jane's idea?" Emma inquired nonchalantly and Darcy spluttered.

"No." Darcy said and Emma gave her a doubtful look, causing Darcy to sigh heavily. "Fine...maybe."

"I think it's cute that you think that I care whether or not I'm grounded." Emma deadpanned and Darcy groaned in frustration.

"Why can't you just argue with me like a normal teenager?! Or murder me in my sleep because I took your phone away like other kids your age?!" Darcy complained and Emma smirked at her.

"That sounds very tempting actually." Emma quipped and Darcy just shook her head at the blonde.

"You're the hardest kid to ground." Darcy told her. "Fine. Since you don't seem care whether or not you're grounded then I'm just going to take this super hot picture of your DILF of a dad with me. That's right. I'm confiscating it and not for my own needs." Darcy ranted as she snatched the picture of Emma's father from her bookshelf. Emma just watched her curiously as the brunette took the framed picture and then walked out of the room.

"Make sure the picture comes back in one piece! Don't violate my father's picture beyond recognition!" Emma called out of her and was answered with the sound of Darcy's bedroom door slamming. She really hoped the brunette was just joking or otherwise that was just nasty. Before Emma could think of any other worst nightmares, another nightmare of hers was trying to make a guest appearance. Emma wrinkled her nose in disgust as she saw Stark's caller id pop up on her phone. It looked like he wanted to facetime. She really didn't want to talk to Stark right now but she knew he'd probably only continue to annoy her if she ignored him. Taking a deep breath before exhaling, Emma accepted the call and watched as Stark's hideous face popped up on her screen.

"Mini Cap!" Tony greeted jovially. "It's so nice to see your bright and shining face staring back at me." Emma only blinked before answering.

"What do you want, Stark?" Emma asked boredly.

"What? I can't just call to see how you are?" Tony questioned but Emma wasn't buying it.

"No. You only call when you want to be annoying." Emma told him and Tony sighed tiredly.

"No, I only call when I see something that causes me some concern." He pointedly told her and Emma rolled her eyes.

"Can you actually not right now? I'm too busy being grounded." Emma replied as she glared at Tony and Tony glared right back at her, all niceness gone from his face. It was time to talk business.

"Listen, Rogers, I'm two seconds from actually kicking you out for real this time and sending you on your merry way to find gramps." Tony told her and Emma really had to hand it to him this time. He was doing his best to act like some sort of father figure but he still didn't have her respect and he never would.