"Daddy?"
Nick sighed and looked towards the doorway with a glare, "It's an hour past your bedtime, boy. You know the rules."
Tony's bottom lip shook. He knew the rules, he did! He knew he wasn't supposed to be up and awake after 7:30pm when he was little. He was scared though and his Captain AmeriBear wasn't enough to soothe him.
"I…"
"It's too late for little boys to be awake, Anthony."
"B-but—"
"You have to the count of three to get your little as back to bed."
"But Daddy—"
"One."
"P-please I—"
"Two."
"Daddy! I—"
"Thr—"
"I had a bad dream!" Tony blurted out miserably, tears pooling in his eyes, "I-I was scared a-and Amer-AmeriBear w-wasn't enough a-and I…I…"
He didn't mean to make Daddy mad at him. He was just so scared! He wanted to be a big boy, but it was so hard and he was just so scared.
Nick looked at the trembling little boy standing in the doorway in his zippered footie pajamas and his glare softened, "C'mere, Tony."
Tony blinked, shaking loose a few tears errant tears, then threw himself at Nick. The older man caught the little boy with a grunt. Three to four nights a week with a regular bedtime and three square meals a day had made his boy gain a few pounds.
Good. He'd always thought his little brat had been too thin.
Nick held the boy tight (Nicholas J. Fury does not snuggle dammit) and rubbed a hand through the little boy's hair, "Shoulda said something sooner, boy."
"Was scared." Tony mumbled into Nick's chest as he cuddled in closer, "Didn't mean to make you mad."
"I'm not mad." Nick muttered into the boy's hair, "Not anymore at least."
Getting mad at Tony when he was little only ever ended in tears, frustration, and urine soaked sheet from Tony's failed attempts at self-soothing.
He;d just gotten the kid to barely needing pull-ups. He was not putting either of them through potty-training hell again.
Never again.
"Wanna tell me what this dream was about?"
Tony tensed up, one hand holding his chest through the zippered front of his pajamas and the other holding Nick's leather jacket in a death grip.
As the boy started to tremble again, Nick frowned down at him, "Tony?"
"Ev-rything." Tony mumbled into Nick's chest, wiping his nose on the man's shirt "Y-you left m-me. Couldn't…couldn't find you. A-and me! I was s-scared a-and i-it was cold a-and my old m-m-mommy and then there was a f-fight a-and I d-didn't wan to, b-but they—they made me and—"
"Who's 'they'?" Nick asked coldly, scratching Tony's head gently to reassure the boy that it was him he was angry with, "Tony. Who. Are. 'They'?"
"C-c-ca—Bar-Bar—Nnn." Tony keened lowly, his body shuddering.
Oh.
For a moment, Nick was silent. He had assumed that Tony had gotten over everything, for the most part. Sure, the boy had been clingy as hell and even the grown Tony had stuck a little close at first, but he'd been rather independent the last few months. Hell this is the first nightmare the boy's had in awhile.
If this boy wasn't cute as hell, Nick would've been more frustrated with the fact that he'd fallen for Tony's act.
"I'm here, fine as can be." Nick told the whimpering boy, pulling him back a little so he could look him in the eye, "I'm not going anywhere. You know that."
Tony nodded his head then leaned forward once again, but was pushed back, and he whimpered, "D-Daddy?"
He knew it! Daddy was mad at him. He should have just stayed in bed. He could be a big boy if he tried!
Nick held Tony's chin and forced the boy to make eye contact, "It seems to me that you're a little more upset at the Cap and Barnes incident than you let on. What have I told you about not being upfront about how you feel?"
"Th-that it'll only h-hurt me in the end." Tony stuttered in response, with fresh tears in his eyes, "S-sorry—"
Nick moved to cradle the boy's face in his hand, "There's nothing to apologize fore, brat. I should have known better than to assume you have everything handled."
Tony frowned at him, "But I—"
"After all, you're just a little guy. Leaving you to your own devices wasn't very responsible of me, huh?" Nick told him as he thumbed the tear tracks on the boy's face, "Not very good at this 'Daddy' stuff, am I?"
Tony gasped and threw his arms around Nick's neck, "No! Best Daddy! My Daddy! Mine!"
"If you say so, brat." Nick muttered with an eye roll.
Kiddo fell for that distraction technique every time. The "Bad Daddy" trick worked like a charm no matter what.
"How about a movie?" Nick suggested, moving Tony next to him and reaching for the remote, "Think I saw 'Snakes on a Plane' a couple clicks ago."
Tony smiled warmly, stuck his thumb in his mouth even though he wasn't really supposed to suck his thumb anymore, and cuddled into Nick's side. His Daddy, his favorite Daddy of all, and his favorite movie were the perfect fix to any problem.
The movie had only been playing a handful of minutes when Nick hears the slurred words, "L've you, Daddy."
"Love you too." Nick grumbled back stoking Tony's hair as the boy drifted off to sleep.
Damn adorable brat was too cute for his own good.