1973

Howard's palms pressed hard against his eyes. Damn, he was tired and staring at these intricate schematics for so long was beginning to give him a headache, but he was close—too close—to turn in for the night! He needed some caffeine, something to give him the power to persevere for just another hour or two. If he and Vanko could do this, it would change the world! It would be his legacy!

Thoughts of what could be were interrupted by a timid voice behind him, "Daddy?"

Howard inhaled deeply through his nose as he spun his chair around to face his three-year-old son, "Anthony, what are you doing up?"

The young boy shuffled his feet as he stood in the doorway of the workshop, "Can't sleep."

"You know you're not supposed to come down here," he said with great exasperation, "Go get your mother or Jarvis, I'm very busy."

Ignoring his instructions, the stubborn boy hesitantly walked further into the room, "What're you workin' on?"

Howard knew he should scold the child for deliberately disobeying him, but his head was pounding and he was too exhausted to deal with the tears that would certainly follow. Instead, he rubbed his temples and said, "Something far beyond your comprehension."

"Oh," the boy came to a stop next him, squirming and pulling at his pajama top.

Why was Tony so uncomfortable around him? He needed to grow more of a spine; he didn't want his son cowering before anyone. That would lead to him being manipulated by people and lord did he know the world was filled with such cruel dregs just waiting to devour someone like his boy.

Noticing Tony's fingers had found their way into his mouth, Howard groaned and yanked the child's hand downward, "No, that's disgusting! You're much to old to be putting your hands in your mouth."

"S-sorry, daddy."

He sighed. Tony was smart for his age—no—brilliant was a much more suitable word. He wanted the best for him! He wanted Tony to be strong, confident, and not let himself get pushed around by anyone! Coddling him would get him no closer to those things.

The inventor stared as the toddler stood on his tip toes, attempting to look over the desk at the schematics that were currently sprawled over it. A bit roughly, Howard placed his hands under the boy's armpits and lifted him into his lap. He purposely ignored the way Tony stiffened.

"These are blueprints for a project an associate and I are working on. Do you recognize any parts?"

"Ummm…." Anthony scrunched up his nose in concentration as his brown eyes darted all over the paper. Finally, he pointed at one area, "That—that's where the power comes from…and you wroted Pd so it's pally-dum like on the periodic table. Um and those thingies are conductors."

Howard grunted in agreement, "Yes, but it's pronounced palladium and those are the easiest parts to identify. Can you name anything else?"

Tony paused for a minute before shaking his head no.

"That's what I assumed."

He sometimes wished he…knew how to better act around his son, but he wasn't good at expressing those feelings—wasn't good at dealing with children. He could only show his care by furthering the success of Stark Industries for the day when Tony would take over and doing his best to ensure the boy was ready to deal with the harshness of the world.

"Now pay close attention, what you pointed out is a palladium core ring. Palladium 107 emits high-energy electrons which…" he spent the next ten minutes explaining various portions of the blueprints. Tony interrupted with a question every now and then, but for the most part quietly listened. How much of it he actually understood would remain to be seen.

Howard was in the middle of explaining how the reaction chamber worked when he heard a light sucking sound. Stopping mid-sentence, he peaked over at Tony's face. The boy was comfortably settled against his chest with his thumb firmly placed in his mouth, asleep.

He exhaled and ran a hand though his greying hair. All that time spent explaining wasted.

Pulling Anthony's thumb out of his mouth and adjusting his head so that it laid on his shoulder, Howard came to a stand. Briskly, he walked out of his lab and down the hall towards Tony's room. Halfway there he collided paths with a sleepy looking Jarvis. The man was wearing a plaid robe and looked shocked to see him. His expression morphed into a warm smile as he eyed Tony with great amusement and whispered, "Hello, Master Stark. I see the young sir paid you a midnight visit."

"Yes he did," Howard said, "What are you doing up so late?"

"I was just on my way to get a refreshment. My throat is incredibly parched."

"I know the feeling. I was planning to get something to drink myself before I was interrupted," he gestured his head towards the sleeping form.

"Ah, well, I would be happy to get you something too if you'd like."

"That would be wonderful. Coffee and make it strong. I plan on staying up for a little while longer to finish up something. Would you mind putting Tony to bed on your way to the kitchen? I feel like I am so close to having a break through with the arc reactor project. Vanko and I have almost finished the schematics. I just need to figure out how to—" He cut his ramblings off as he noticed Jarvis's disheartened look. Or maybe he was just reading the man's facial expression wrong. He was never good at that sort of thing. "Sorry for rambling, you know I get carried away."

"Oh, that's no problem, sir, it's just…," he appeared to struggle to find the right words, "If I may, I think it would mean a lot to the young master if it were you who did the honors of putting him to bed."

What honors? What was Jarvis going on about? Perhaps the man was in need of sleep more desperately than he himself was.

"He's unconscious, he wouldn't know if Richard Nixon was putting him to bed," he chuckled, "Here take him. I've got to get back to the lab."

With that, he deposited Tony into the other man's arms. The toddler stirred only slightly but didn't wake up. For a moment, it looked as though Jarvis was going to say something more, but ultimately nodded, "I'll bring your coffee down shortly, sir."

"Thanks, Jarvis."

Howard spun on his heel and marched back to the lab, mind already lost in a new string of equations.

He would remain unaware that Tony would wake up two minutes later and question Jarvis where his father was with great disappointment.

A/N: I find MCU Howard Stark to be a very interesting character and really wanted to explore him and Tony's strained relationship. The next chapter will be about the day Howard found out he was going to be a father. Please let me know what you would like to see in future chapters and I may just write it!

PS: I am in no way a scientist/engineer, so I have no clue about any of the science I am writing about. I did read an article here about how the arc reactor could work in real life, but the information went way over my head. I did draw inspiration from it though to make my hand waving science sound better.