The kid is sleeping on their porch again Tony noticed with a frown. He leaned in the doorway and brought his coffee to his lips, eagerly draining the cup and blearily wishing for more.
He looked the same as he always did. Ratty hooded sweatshirt, worn jeans, sneakers that he could tell had had better days, and his hair was matted and dirty looking that fell in front of his face. The only thing that looked remotely clean was the blanket that was covering him that Tony knew Steve had placed over him.
At that moment arms wrapped themselves around him and he was pulled back into a warm chest.
"If he wakes up and sees you staring at him he's going to freak and call you a pedophile again." Steves familiar still slightly sleep laden voice said into his ear.
Tony snorted and leaned back against his husband of three years. "Okay first off, I'm not a pedophile, being a pedophile means I get off of watching the kid. Second off, why is he here again?"
He didn't even need to look behind him to tell that Steve was pouting slightly, eyes wide for what Tony called and swore was his puppy dog face despite how many times Steve protested at the name.
"It was raining last night." he said, knowing that Tony wasn't going to look at him he injected as much of a pitiful tone into his voice as he could. "I couldn't just let him get wet."
"So you let the homeless kid sleep on our porch?" Tony asked, finally turning around to face Steve if only so he could see his raised eyebrow and judging expression.
Steves pout deepened. "He barely agreed to the porch, I wanted him to come inside," he ignored Tonys hacks and gasps at the thought of a flea ridden homeless teen on his pristine white couches. "But he said no, I had to wait until he was actually asleep to put the blanket on him."
"Something that no doubt I should thank you for but my clothes are warm enough." the kid said with a groan as he turned over and onto his back, leaning in a way that Tony would swear wasn't comfortable against the banister. "Seriously, it's too early in the morning for me to hear your couples squabbling."
Tony snorted. "You wouldn't hear it if you didn't mooch off of our porch." he retorted. He reached out with the tip of his foot and nudged at the kids leg. "Go on, shoo."
Steve rolled his eyes but had a fond smile on his face. "You hungry? There are still plenty of breakfast left, eggs and waffles." he offered, pulling back from Tony a bit and taking a step towards the kid. "Or I could make something else if you want."
The kid slowly stood up and stretched his arms upwards, the blanket falling to the ground which he quickly picked up and folded once Steve raised an eyebrow at him and sheepishly handed it back to him. "No thanks, have plans I gotta get to and I can't be late."
Tony rolled his eyes this time, rolling his cup in between his hands as he did. "Late for what? Downtown rush to pickpocket tourists or something?"
The kid ignored Steves tuts and soft lectures and instead grinned at Tony. "You, you get me." he said bringing his thumb towards his chest. "And exactly, I'm looking to get a bit more than usual today, tourists are coming more to the city."
With what looked like a practiced move the kid jumped up, his dirty and stained sneakers landing him on top of the banister, he seemingly enjoyed Tonys squawks of protests, and flipped through the air, landing on his feet before taking off towards the direction of the subway. "Later geezers!"
"Peter! Be careful!" Steve called out to him, watching almost worriedly as the kid waved his hand to show that he had heard and continued on. "I'm worried about him." he finally said.
Tony snorted. "I'm more worried about our blanket, we need to properly disinfect it, you don't know what kinda germs he put on those things." He grinned when Steves face did that scrunched up thing where he wasn't pleased with what Tony had said but wasn't going to gather enough energy to argue.
"Tony." he started with a small sigh.
"Sorry, sorry." Tony said waving his hand, he let his arm go out and place the empty cup on the windowsill and reached out to wrap his arms around Steves neck to bring him closer. "That was mean, I'm sorry, I should be nicer to the teenage runaway that sleeps on our porch."
"I don't think he's a teenage runaway." Steve started to say, an age old argument between them. "But that's not the point."
Looking to avoid any kind of conflict this morning Tony quickly leaned in and kissed Steve on the lips, letting his hand trail up into his hair and curl around the strands that he didn't have the chance yet to put mousse into or any kind of gel; just the way he liked it.
"C'mon hotshot." he said, sliding his hand into the edge of Steves sweats and pulling him back into the house, forgetting about the coffee cup. "We still have time for a shower quickie if we go fast enough."
"We never end up having just a quickie." Steve protested but made no move to pull out of Tonys grip.
Unnoticed by either of them a figure quietly and carefully moved around the roof of their house and extended their arm outwards. A sliver of white rope shot out of their wrist and attached it to the forgotten cup. A single twitch of their arm and the cup was jerked backwards into their awaiting hand.
"I'll try to come over for lunch." Steve promised him. "I just don't know if I'll be able to get away from the other teachers by then."
Tony couldn't help but smile, his husband the kindergarten teacher, Steve was muscled enough to be a bodyguard or at least a model; instead he choose to spread his talents out to children that couldn't give any more of a crap than anyone else. "That's what you promised me last time." he said teasingly. "I don't know if I can trust you anymore."
He could hear Sam Wilson, a man Steve had met during his time in the army and had someone roped into being his schools gym teacher, laugh and hide it as a cough, and glared at him. In response Wilson just grinned at him and winked.
Steve was blushing slightly and looked more than a bit bashful. "I'm sorry, the kids just like it more when I eat with them." he said, his hands fringing around his bag containing his art supplies that he had to store for the kids.
"I know, I know." Tony said patting Steves shoulder and kissing him quickly. "Come if you can, skype me if you can't." he said before letting out a heavy sigh. "Meanwhile, you'll be teaching kids their ABCs I'll be listening to the board thinking they know better than I do."
Steve smiled at him and fuck, they've been married for three years and they've known each other for seven; it just wasn't fair that his smile still made Tonys heart skip a beat. "If you want to switch just say the word." he said cheekily.
Tony waved at him, the thought of paint and crumbs and god knows what else landing on his suits was more than enough to balk him away from going anywhere near kids. It was why that despite everything he still hadn't visited Steves school yet. "Nah I'm good." he said. "Go, save the world. One mind at a time."
"I try." Steve said, his smile wistful and just a tinge sad. Before Tony could ponder the expression a bit more he leaned in and kissed Tony quickly once more. "I'll see you at home if not lunch."
Tony smiled at him and nodded, watching as Steve got into the car with Wilson and slowly merged back onto the traffic of New York City.
Sighing to himself Tony turned and glared at his company, Starks Enterprise, and rolling his shoulders back he entered it. He felt Jarvis' scans over him before he could even say the command and he smirked at that, his AI was perfect.
"Time to go to work." he murmured as he stepped into the elevator and without pressing the button was immediately being brought down to the basement, a place where no one else had access to and Jarvis made sure of it. The elevator came to a stop with a small ding and he stepped off, a finger going to his tie and pulling it out of its knot and throwing it somewhere he didn't have to care about for the time being.
"Welcome back sir.," Jarvis' voice said in greeting as the room slowly lit up, bit by bit.
"Wake up everyone." Tony said clapping his hands as the room lit up completely, illuminating his Iron Man suits entirely and his blueprints and plans and workshops. "Daddys home."
"You know, watching the two of you in person?" Sam told him as he drove carefully down the streets. "Is the equivalent of listening to two people on the phone going 'I love you more' 'No I love you more'."
Steve snorted and shook his head. "We're not that bad." he defended.
Sam shook his head. "You just don't know how bad you really are." he said, turning the corner and stopping in front of a Starbucks. "Because you don't have to be a witness to it."
The car door opened and two people slid into the backseat, handing over coffee and bags of cakes and cookies.
"Sorry Sam, no carrot cake today." Clint Barton said, his mouth full of his preferred vanilla bean scone and he popped another one into it despite how there was no room left. "Got you a blueberry muffin Cap."
Steve rolled his eyes and turned around to accept the drinks, a caramel iced latte with whipped cream for Sam and a black plain coffee for him, despite everything and his own sweet tooth he was adamant that coffee should be hard and 'American'. "Thanks Clint." he raised an eyebrow at his companion. "You alright there?"
Peter Parker glared at him as he drank his own concoction, a sugary cavity filled monstrosity of a drink. "Your banister is completely uncomfortable to sleep against, my neck hurts." He had changed from his previous outfit to a cleaner one; a new pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt, he had a completely different sweatshirt tied around his waist.
Steve raised an eyebrow at him. "You're the one that offered to be there." he reminded him.
Peter scoffed and leaned back, reaching into his own paper bag to grab a chocolate chip cookie and bite savagely into it. "Not the point." he said, crumbs spewing out from his mouth.
Clint almost automatically gave him a napkin, it took months and Sam would joke years, but he finally fought against the crumbs and messes; knowing just how frowny Steve got when it came to them.
"So, we got anything up for today or are we just debriefing and training?" Clint asked, leaning back into his seat.
Steve shrugged as he turned back to face the front, Sam had started to drive them once more. "Don't know yet, Coulson didn't write anything to me this morning so there isn't anything of priority."
"I thought he always woke you up in the morning with good morning texts with love and kisses?" Peter said, injecting the right amount of confusion into his tone.
Clint rolled his eyes. "You're just mad that he outbid you on eBay for those Captain America action figures." he said.
Peter mumbled under his breath, something about limited editions and how unfair it was to use five computers at once as Sam finally pulled into a garage.
"Well then." Steve said, looking at his team. "Avengers, time to go to work."