"Were you actively napping?" Tony asked Bruce incredulous as he stared at him.
"No, no." Bruce tried to deny as he shifted in his chair. "I just drifted."
"Just drifted?" Tony asked sceptically. "When did I lose you?"
"Elevator in Switzerland." Bruce admitted sheepishly.
"I just poured my heart and soul out to you and you sleep through my story of my past demons and pains?"
"I told you I'm not that kind of Doctor—"
"Was I boring? Is that it?"
"I'm not a therapist. I don't have the—"
"What the time-?"
"The temperament." Bruce deadpanned.
Tony stared at him and then opened his mouth to either repeat his story or start another story but was cut off.
"Can we leave?" Nate asked innocently from where she sat on the couch behind Tony's therapist couch (which he bought especially for his little chat with Bruce) with her legs across Steve's lap—he was actually happily rubbing her bare feet which made Tony seem like a bad boyfriend considering he used an empty suit to rub Pepper's shoulders once. "We listened to the story fully."
Tony shot the couple a scowl.
"Go and be all cutesy couple-like and all that." Tony huffed.
"I didn't act like this when you and Pepper got together." Nate told him.
"You moved out." Tony pointed out with a smirk.
Nate huffed before she got up and pulled Steve up and left to two scientists to their story-sharing.
"That's so weird." Tony commented. "My little sister with Captain America, a guy Dad never stopped talking about."
"What's weird is the fact that you build your sister a robot dog when she was like three and didn't warn me when she moved in with it and I had to find out when I walked in on you taking him apart." Bruce shot back.
Tony smirked, he remembered the horrified look on Bruce's face before he realised that Howie was a robot. The rant that followed was amusing to say the least in Tony's mind. Bruce didn't think him almost having a heart-attack and the Hulk freaking out to avenge Nate's fallen dog was amusing.
(Bruce would freely admit that the affection that the Hulk held Nate in was odd, especially when during the few times he had lost control Nate had been able order the Hulk around and even had him watch Disney movies once till he calmed down which he did with Nate in his arms—it had been unsettling to wake up with Nate planted on his lap as she watched Disney movies while Steve glared at the fact that Bruce was naked again (that had been before Tony had made trousers that could survive the transformation) which made Bruce flush deeply before he pushed Nate off his lap and ran for his room.)
"She was four actually." Tony informed him hauntingly. "And I'll have you know that she loves every upgrade I give him."
Bruce just shook his head totally amused. Tony was impossible.
Clint was observing from his vent—and yes it was his vent as he had claimed it with a sharpie—and was frowning down at the two couples below him.
He had read the reports on the Stark siblings as Tasha was being assigned to them. He had read how Fury thought they were co-dependent to each other, fiercely protective of the other and completely selfish when it came to the other—so he had been surprised when Pepper and Tony got together and Nate moved to New York.
From all reports the siblings had lived together since they first meet when Nate was a couple months old and Tony was seventeen—only ever being separated by Tony's job, Nate's gallery openings and such, and when Tony was kidnapped.
It seemed to be an odd and out of character move for Nate to move away from her brother, but when it came clear that she was only doing it to get more involved in S.H.I.E.L.D and make Fury back off Tony it made more sense.
Seeing Steve and Nate get together during the Battle of New York had been surprising—especially when one filtered in Tony's strong protests to the pairing—and the fact that they stayed together after and their relationship seemed to be only growing stronger had made him observe the couples when they all moved into the Tower.
He wanted to see for himself the relationship between the siblings and their partners.
The siblings were still close—able to see through the other's bullshit easily and could have silent conversions filled with slight changes to their faces and mini-gestures—and still fiercely protective of the other, but they were no longer alone and only had the other. Tony had Pepper, who needed him to protect her in a way that Nate didn't anymore, and Nate had Steve, who didn't try to shelter her from danger as long as he was right by her side.
And Clint supposed he could understand their relationship, how it had grown to make room for other people, and how they no longer needed just the other to function.
Clint and Tasha had that type of relationship—Clint would always remember the fourteen-year-old-girl with too cold green eyes that he had been sent to kill and ended up saving—and understood how it changed when they were no longer alone in the world.
Clint smirked as he watched Tony glare and scowl at Steve when the Captain cuddled closer with Nate and was only distracted when Pepper smacked him on the shoulder and gave him a tablet to play around on while the others went back to their movie.
Tony had down-right loathed Captain America—he had listened too many rants of the oh-so-prefect-soldier from his old man who spent more of his time looking for what he had to believe was a corpse than with his own son—and he hadn't liked Steve Rodgers when he had first met him.
He was self-righteous, disgustingly good and honest, and couldn't take a joke if it slapped him in the face—okay maybe he was being a bit harsh, so sue him.
He had honestly not seen what had captured Nate's interest and affection for the blond, had been sure that Steve didn't deserve his sister.
It had only been after the Battle of New York that Tony admitted to himself that he may have been the slightest bit unfair to Steve—old feelings of both Captain America and his Dad had made him unable to see that he could be friends with the tall blond.
So though he disapproved, glared and scowled at the couple, Tony watched them.
He watched the gentle yet firm way that Steve would touch Nate,—wary of his strength yet confident that he would never hurt her—he watched the way they both could go hours in silence as they lost themselves in their arts, he watched as Nate took Steve out to get him used to the modern world, watched the panic that would shine in blue eyes when Steve would be confronted by too much modern-world at once that would start to leave the moment Nate came into his sight and left completely when she took his hand or hugged him.
He watched the way that Steve would fondly watch Nate when she became lost in a new project and would actually feed Nate so she didn't have to stop her work, he watched the way Nate would comfort Steve after his flash-backs or nightmares, watched the way that Nate tried to make things easier for Steve—once dressing up in a 40s styled outfit and watching a black-and-white movie on the big screen TV that Steve had seen before he went off to war (a date like the ones that Steve would have taken his girlfriend on if he hadn't crashed and froze), watched the video online of Nate's 40s style dance flash-mob in Times Square with Nate and Steve dancing in the middle of it.
He watched the silent comfort Nate would offer when Steve was having one of his brooding days, watched as Nate joined Steve when he was working out, watched as Steve helped Nate build up her strength so he didn't have to worry about her outside her suit as much as he did, watched as Steve would gently run his fingers through her hair and massage her head when she had a headache and couldn't take her pills, he watched the gentle yet protective way that Steve held Nate when they slept and watched the love grow and shine in their eyes as they looked at each other.
And admitted grudgingly to himself that they were prefect together and Steve wasn't really that bad of a guy—he still didn't deserve his baby sister, but then again no one did.
Nate had, of course, noticed his slowly decreasing dislike of them being together and had beamed at him happily when he didn't automatically glare when Steve wrapped a loving arm around Nate's slender waist.
He still glared when he noticed the love-bites that would sometimes cover Nate's neck that she wore proudly and made Steve flush deeply though he always looked pleased and the slightest bit smug when he saw Nate's bruised neck.
('The Captain's secretly possessive then?' Clint had asked when Nate first walked into the kitchen with her neck black and blue with Steve close on her heels.
Tony had choked on his hot coffee—burning his tongue—and glared at the tall, muscular and flushing blond and the grinning archer while Bruce had snorted into his Hulk mug—Tony had especially bought it for him—and Tasha had smirked before she bit into an apple.
Nate had given them all a sly, smug and extremely pleased smirk—a smirk that Tony recognised well as he wore it often after he and Pepper became physical in their relationship—before getting her breakfast—an extra sway of her hips that had captured Steve's attention.
The couple ended up leaving before Nate could finish pouring her cereal to Tony's disbelief, disgust and anger while Clint had whistled and wagged his eyebrows when they swiftly left the kitchen.)
He didn't want to see anything that told him that his sister—HIS LITTLE BABY SISTER THAT HE HAD RAISED!—was no longer innocent because of Captain America—Steve Rodgers—and was getting more than he and Pepper was.