"Tony, I really need to get back to this project." Bruce said as he batted away at the arms that were encircling his waist. His eyes were trying to focus on what was on the slide in front of him and not on the attractive man behind him.
"You've been working all day, you need a dinner break." Tony murmured as he leaned even closer into Bruce, as close as possible without actual melding with the Physicist.
"Oh did you bring me food?"
Tony rubbed his hands along Bruce's stomach and chest, "I brought you something even better, me."
Bruce chuckled, "You're not going to leave until I give in are you? Give me a couple of minutes to record what I'm seeing here and I'm all yours." Bruce was tempted to take his time just to tease Tony a bit but he knew last time he did that equipment got broken. He smiled briefly at that memory and quickly wrote down his observations. The moment he sat his pen down Tony started again, lifting Bruce's shirt and kissing along his spine. He took his time exploring Bruce's skin not only with his mouth and tongue, but also his fingers. They had learned early on that a slow warm up kept the other guy from stirring and by the time they finished, any rumblings from the rage monster could be quieted with just a few minutes of meditation. Tony wasn't used to taking so long to get what he wanted but had learned to love it. He could observe every small change in Bruce's arousal, temperature, breath, the slow tensing of muscles. So when Bruce suddenly tensed up and his breath became a bit shallow Tony stopped what he was doing.
"What's wrong?"
"Microscope, ribs, bruising," Bruce said between quick breaths.
Tony took a quick step back still keeping one arm around Bruce. "You should've said something."
"I did, several times, I guess you…"
Tony moved Bruce down to a clear part of the lab table. Then turned Bruce around lifting his shirt back up to inspect the damage, "I was observing a very attractive, hot, sexy, man," Tony accentuated every word with a kiss on the slightly red area of Bruce's chest that had the faint imprint of the scope on it. "Who can blame me for being distracted?"
Bruce closed his eyes letting out a slight moan, "I guess not. As good as this is, I really need to get back to work."
"Nonsense," Tony murmured and tapped the table with one hand. "Hop up on there, better position," Tony continued as he knelt. "You know these tables can hold about 1,000 pounds each. Even with repeated impact," he added with a smile.
"I don't want to know how you know that do I?"
"I could give you a demonstration. Now, now would be good."
Bruce shook his head as he laughed, "Maybe later, I told you I have work to…" Bruce's voice trailed off as he turned toward the clicking sound he just noticed. He turned just in time to see a figure walk out of the lab, "Pepper."
"Yeah I know you have a project for Pepper."
"No, Tony," Bruce pointed toward the door, "Pepper."
"Fuck." Tony said getting up from the floor. "Pepper!" He called after her, "Pepper, come back here."
"Are you off your knees Tony?" Pepper called back.
"Yes, Pepper."
Pepper turned then, revealing the baby carrier and Abby once again in her hands. "Now you see why I turned you down every time you got amorous in the lab. Hi Bruce." Bruce decidedly embarrassed just manages a wave back. "I need a huge favor. Apparently one of our sales people has managed to terminally screw up a multi-billion dollar deal in Chicago. Now I have to go and deal with Mr. Brennan personally."
Tony winced, he knew how much Pepper hated Niall Brennan, billionaire, investor, and womanizer. "I can go."
"You're too flat chested and not a redhead Tony. I can deal with Brennan." Pepper sighed, "That's not what I was asking. What I need is someone to watch Abby and I don't have time to check out sitters. I hope to be back tomorrow afternoon at the latest. If I still have the allure, breakfast should be enough to get him back on track."
Tony swept his eyes over Pepper from head to toe, "Still have it, although it's totally going to be wasted on that jackass. I'm sorry you have to deal with him."
"He's our best inroad into the Midwest market. You can repay me later."
"Week vacation?"
"Two, the private island, my guest list."
"Done."
"And Abby?"
"Of course we'll watch her," Tony said taking the carrier and handing it to Bruce who had moved off the lab table. "I'll go with you and get the rest of the little squirmer's stuff."
"No need. It's in the main room; there are two bottles already made up in the fridge and notes in both of your emails." Pepper turned to leave.
"One of these days you are going to guess wrong Pepper," Tony responded.
"Not today. Thanks guys hope to see you tomorrow."
Tony returns to Bruce who has the carrier on the table where he had been sitting earlier. He's talking to little Abby who has her tiny fingers gripped tightly around one of his. "I think she remembers me," Bruce says as leans his head against Tony's shoulder. "Sorry babe."
"Oh I can ravish you later when Pepper gets back. She's going to have to put up with the octopus masquerading as a man. Hell even at the height of my playboy days I wasn't as bad as him."
"I wasn't talking about that. I've got to finish this project; you're going to have to take care of Abby. I want to," Bruce smiled down at the baby, "Believe me I do, but I'm on a deadline."
"Me? I can barely take care of myself, and you want me to take care of the little squirmer. I can't do that Bruce; Pepper will kill me if something happens to the baby."
Bruce put his arm around Tony's waist. "You're kind of cute when you're nervous. But you'll be fine. You're a genius remember? Besides, you'll have JARVIS and I'm down here if you get in over your head."
"Why don't we keep her down here?"
"It's going to get loud and chemicals will be involved. Don't be such a 'fraidy cat," Bruce joked.
"Tony Stark is not a 'fraidy cat, just thought you would like the opportunity to hang out with your new friend." Tony responded, trying to gain back his dignity.
"Look, I'll come up and do her next feeding and get her ready for bed. She shouldn't be any trouble after that."
Abby wasn't trouble for twenty whole minutes after Bruce had gone back down to his lab. At first it was a small cry. A little shushing, tiny hand holding and she was back asleep. "That wasn't so bad," Tony thought. It wasn't. It was the calm before the storm.
Just as Tony settled down with the notes from his latest project the crying started again. Louder this time and a little shush and hand holding had no effect. "What's wrong now Abby," Tony said before realizing. "Oh right, you are months away from even the simplest speech. I guess I'll just have to investigate," Tony continued as he lifted the baby from her portable crib, first thinking that maybe she would prefer sleeping on his chest like with Bruce the night before. He had on a pretty heavy shirt so he figured the arc light wouldn't bother her. However the moment he put his arm under her to support her bottom, he knew why she was crying.
"Really? You couldn't do this while Bruce was up here. Do you have any idea how much I hate dealing with…" Abby's crying became louder. Tony's voice softened, "I guess that doesn't matter. We need to get you all dry again. JARVIS I need a video on diaper changing, highest rated, most views." Tony gathered the diaper bag and headed for his bedroom.
After several layers of towels he felt it was safe to place a wet baby on his bed. "Send the video to my phone JARVIS." After watching it twice, because he had to be missing something, Tony declared most of the male race, particularly those in movies, morons and made quick work of changing the soggy baby. "Really, you would think it was rocket science the way they make such a big deal about it," He continued as he pulled towels and baby toward the center of the massive bed. "Be right back, got to wash my hands." Tony started the conversation again as he soaped up. "You know what else Abby? The smell is not bad as I thought it would be. I've been to frat parties, maybe I have a better frame of reference. Or maybe Brucey is right, you get used to it… And once again you can't understand a word I'm saying." Tony scooped up the baby and returned to the main room.
Tony sat back on the couch and started to check his email. He would go to bed but he wasn't tired and honestly he was getting out of the habit of sleeping alone. However, he was getting very bored. Tony didn't do just sitting around well. He did read but usually with music blasting or while walking around at least. But he felt the need to sit sentry over the now sleeping baby. The feared wrath of Pepper had to be the motivator since he knew there wasn't a shred of maternal instinct in his body. After all he was a textbook narcissist.
After an hour of total quiet and reading journal articles, Tony couldn't take it anymore. With a couple of taps on the phone he accessed the schematics for the new arc reactor powered engine he was working on and with a swipe of his hand six screens hung before him, illuminating the room.
Tony held his breath but no crying came from the crib so he dived right into his project. Every so often he would look over, seeing the still sleeping baby and smiled.
Tony began to experience the calm that Bruce had but in his own way. He usually worked on his personal projects alone, in secret. Never showing or telling anyone until it was completed or determined to be a complete failure. Now he was sharing it with Abby, even though she was asleep for most of it. When she woke up for her feeding he decided to tell her about the whole project. His ideas, methods, even his fears, he didn't leave out one detail. He knows she doesn't understand a word, but her expressions; a smile, a grimace all seem to come at the right times. The bottle was soon finished; Abby burped like a pro and was quickly back to sleep.
A couple hours later finds Tony in the zone finally making headway on an issue that had been frustrating him the better part of two weeks. Just to his right, he hears a faint cry. "JARVIS, something from Bruce's meditation play list please." Tony lowered the brightness of his screens and kept working.
"Try Brahm's lullaby JARVIS she seems to be getting louder." Tony turned toward Abby, "I'm close to a solution here otherwise you'd have my complete attention squirmer."
After the fourth replay of Brahm's Tony begged JARVIS, "Try some other kids' songs."
"Can you be more specific sir?"
"I don't know, search for popular kid songs. Now."
Tony suddenly brought his hands to his ears accidently collapsing one of the screens he was working in, "What is that horrific sound?" Tony snapped.
"The number one kid's song of 2012 according to …"
"Turn…it…off," Tony growled, angrily collapsing the rest of his screens with a wave of his hand and stomped over to pick up the now wailing Abby.
"Come on now squirmer, it's okay," Tony says quietly, his anger disappearing the moment he lifted her up. "The crappy music has gone away. JARVIS remind me later to come up with a decent baby playlist in case we have to do this again tomorrow."
"So now that you have my attention what's with all the squawking?" The answer of course was more crying. "Of course you can't answer," Tony sighed. "It's like talking to a wall only it's wailing at you. Okay you are dry and," Tony looks at his phone "It's not time for a bottle but hey let's try that anyway." He places Abby in her carrier, setting on top of the counter in the kitchenette before rummaging around for everything he needed.
"Mind if I have a drink as well. No? If you keep up that caterwauling I may have to do a little drinking on the job. You are like a puzzle I can't solve right now and well… I had almost finished the puzzle that has been plaguing me for weeks. A few more calculations and…" Tony stopped right as he was about to pour the powdered formula in the bottle. "You stopped crying. So you wanted me to talk to you?" Tony stopped talking for a full minute before the crying started again. "Okay, okay, shush now. You aren't the first female charmed by the dulcet tones of the Stark pipes," he added with a smirk. Tony hastily dumped all the various objects back into the bag before gathering up Abby and placing her back into the crib and sitting on the floor beside her.
"So what should we talk about? I guess I should tell you a fairytale but honestly I don't remember how any of them go…" Tony fell into silence, lost in thought. Abby's wail brought him back. "Okay, okay, I got a story…He reached for his phone, calling up a set of photos then with a flick of his fingers sent them out to hover over Abby's crib.
"I'm going to tell you a story about six people who frankly were all a bit messed up, each in their own little way. But nonetheless they saved New York, probably the whole world, and became heroes.
"…and then I find out later it was the big green guy there," Tony pointed up at the picture, "who saved me. Well I couldn't let Bruce just go back to being alone after that, he had saved my life. So I asked him to stay here and work with me." Tony brought up another picture, "I never knew that I would end up falling for him."
Tony collapsed the last screen, a picture of him and Bruce on their first official date, before getting up and walking to the windows. "Wow, dawn already. You should see the sunrise from here, it's pretty spectacular. Part of the selling point of this property." Tony walked back to pick up Abby to share the view but she was fast asleep.
"Oh thank goodness," Tony collapsed onto the couch. "I think I'll join you."
