Momma Rhodes made spaghetti with garlic bread. The adults sipped fruit punch out of wine glasses and the kids - Rhodey, Mary and Tony included - sipped fruit punch out of pink plastic cups. The food was delicious, as Momma Rhodes and Bert's cooking was prone to be, and Tony practically melted in his chair as he ate plate after plate of spaghetti. Mary ate much less than him, her stomach still getting used to regular food that wasn't an IV drip or hospital food, though she seemed to enjoy it just as much as he did. The youngest children at the table, Patrick and Chris, had spaghetti sauce smeared across their faces. Peter was fast asleep in a bassinet in the corner, having already eaten, and wouldn't be hungry for the next four hours or so.
Tony was practically falling asleep at the table, warm food making his head heavy and foggy. The chatter at the table served as a background noise, sleep grasping at his conscious mind, trying to draw him in.
"Alright, alright," Momma Rhodes said. "I think someone needs to get to bed." She looked pointedly at Tony, who was still swaying in his seat. "You mind helping him up the stairs, Jim?"
"Sure thing, Momma," Rhodey said, rising from his chair and hauling Tony out of his seat. "Come on, Tones. Time for bed."
"No."
"Tony."
"No."
Rhodey sighed.
"Please, man?"
"You're carrying me."
"Absolutely not."
"Then I'll sit my happy ass down at the table and-"
Rhodey groaned, long suffering, before crouching in front of Tony. Tony hopped on his back happily, relaxing, arms dangling over Rhodey's shoulders.
"Onward, Honeybear!" he said, pointing toward the stairs. Rhodey started walking. Mary followed them after grabbing Peter from his bassinet. Rhodey took him up to his bedroom, dumping him on his bed and tucking him in. Tony smiled up at him.
"Love ya, Platypus," Tony said. Rhodey rolled his eyes, though Tony could tell he was fond.
"Love you too, Tones."
"Mary?" Tony called when Mary turned to follow Rhodey out the door. "Can- can you stay in here? Just for the night?" Mary raised an eyebrow. "I just want to sleep near Petey, and it's not like we've never slept in the same room before, so..." Mary shrugged, nudging Tony over on the bed and climbing in beside him. She places Peter in between them, fast asleep and with his fist in his mouth.
Tony stares up at the ceiling, suddenly feeling wide awake.
"You… you asked what happened? To my face?"
"Yeah?" Mary asked, turning towards him slightly and propping herself up on her elbow. Half of her face was covered by a curtain of curly blonde hair.
"It was Howard," Tony said quietly, almost too quiet to hear. "It, uh. It was pretty bad. The bastard almost broke my ribs, gave me a concussion… Hey, I'm fine now!" Tony said quickly at her horrified expression. "Just… you asked, so..."
"Oh, Tones..." she said quietly, sounding heartbroken. "Tony, I'm so sorry..."
"Wasn't your fault," Tony said. "Stop apologising."
"Okay," Mary said. "Is there something else you're not telling me?"
"Yeah," he said. "J-Jarvis, my butler? You remember him?" Mary nodded. "He, uh. He died a little while ago. I watched him die. And then I almost walked into the ocean and started having, like, prophetic dreams from the great beyond or some shit but that's not important right now-"
Mary sat up, adjusting the pillow so it was on her side of the bed in case Peter fell off, and moved over to Tony's side. Tony looked at her quizzically. She opened her arms, as if asking permission to hug him. Tony's eyes burned slightly.
"Y-yeah," Tony said, voice slightly shaky. Tony sat up, and Mary wrapped her arms around him, rubbing circles in his back as his shoulders shook slightly.
"It's gonna be okay, Tony," Mary said. Tony nodded against her shoulder, and Mary carded her fingers through his tufty brown hair.
"J-Jarvis, he… he raised me , man-"
"I know, I know..."
"J-Jarvis… he told me to have hope. T-that if I did t-that, it would all be okay…. But…. I'm so sorry, Princess, I just don't know how- "
"It's okay," Mary said. "It's gonna be okay. We're both out of our depth, but it's gonna be okay, I promise. We will make it okay."
"Here's hoping, right?" Tony said, voice thick. Mary chuckled.
"Right." They sat like that for a little while longer, not saying anything, Tony taking the comfort that Mary offered and Mary just happy to make him feel better. "You tired, hon?" Tony nodded. "Lay down and get some sleep, okay? I'll still be here in the morning."
Tony nodded, laying down, Mary crawled back to her side of the bed, replacing her pillow to its former place. Tony laid an arm across Peter's stomach gently, muscle memory at that point. Mary took his hand in her own, rubbing patterns into his knuckles.
"I love you, Princess. You know that, right?"
"Yeah, Tones, I know," Mary said, smiling. "I love you too." Tony smiled, before slipping off to sleep.
" Peter! " Tony said, staring at his three month old son in shock. It was late in the summer, a few weeks before school would start again, and Tony and Mary were still living with the Rhodes family. He was attempting to watch all the kids at once - Patrick, Chris, and little Peter. And they were all little demons - even Peter, who was usually an angel.
Well, Tony thought offhandedly. Satan was an angel at one point, so...
Chris and Patrick had asked Tony if they could get the paints out and paint something for Momma Rhodes. Tony hadn't seen a problem with it, since it was kid paint anyway, and would be easy to wash out should they stain their clothes or skin.
What he hadn't expected was for the two twin boys to use his son as canvas.
" Oh my God, " Tony said, hands covering his face as his shoulders shook with laughter. Oh, Mary was going to kill him.
"Oh, baby, what did they do to you?" Tony asked, crouching by his son. Peter had recently learned to sit up by himself, though he still couldn't get around on his own. The boys had dragged him into the kitchen to paint, though Peter looked as if he hadn't been able to get any painting done. A glob of paint dribbled from his chubby chin. The paint was quick to dry, making his skin sticky. Peter's lip jutted out, and he squirmed, obviously uncomfortable.
He had left for five minutes.
He moved to pick his son up, but before he could, a glob of blue paint was pelted at his head. It was Chris, two smears of blue paint on the boy's cheeks, grinning from ear to ear. Tony had blue paint dripping from his hair.
"Chris," Tony said. "Look at the mess you made! Your ma's gonna get you, kid!"
The almost-four-year-old shrugged.
Tony hated children.
Except for his child. His child was an angel. His child was the victim here, covered from head to toe in sticky paint and looking like he was a second away from crying.
Chris threw another glob of paint.
" Christopher Allan Rhodes! " Tony said, standing up and trying to shake the paint from his hair. The boy giggled. "Wait… where's Pat?"
The three year old jumped down onto his back, hands smearing hot pink paint on his neck. The other three year old grabbed a paint brush and continued painting Peter while Tony was occupied with Patrick.
He heard the front door open.
" Help! " he called, gagging as paint got in his mouth.
And then the whole Rhodes family was in the kitchen, plus Mary. Bert seemed to be in shock, Marty looked horrified, Mary immediately ran to her baby, Shelby was indifferent, both Charlotte and Rhodey were trying to hold in their laughter, and Momma Rhodes looked murderous.
Chris dropped his paint brush immediately, stepping away from Mary and the baby, trying to look casual. Patrick dropped down from Tony's back.
"I'm only goin' ta ask this once ,'' Momma Rhodes said, accent a million times thicker now that she was angry. "What. The Hell. Is goin' on here?!"
Peter started crying. Mary rocked him back and forth, getting smeared in paint in the process.
"The boys said they wanted to do some painting," Tony said, not meeting the woman's eyes. "I left to find them more paper and to use the restroom, and when I came back..." He pointed at Peter, who was staring at the wall over Mary's shoulder blankly.
"You let the twins paint? " Momma Rhodes demanded.
"That… yeah..."
"We never let the twins paint, Tony!" Tony winced.
"Well you didn't tell me that!"
Momma sighed.
"Just go get that baby in the tub," Momma Rhodes said, rubbing her temples.
"Yes, Momma..." Mary stood up, and Tony followed her into the bathroom. After undressing the baby, Mary started washing him, and Tony handed her rags and soaps on her request.
They could still hear Momma Rhodes raising Hell downstairs.
"Lord, they got you good, huh, honey?" Mary asked. The boy had stopped crying as soon as he'd been placed in the bath. The baby slapped the water, giggling as soapy water went everywhere. Mary and Tony smiled fondly.
"He's a good kid," Tony said as Peter tried to hold water in his chubby little hands.
"Of course," Mary said. "A little hyper, but..."
"Is that even normal? " Tony asked. "The hyper thing? Aren't most kids supposed to be sleeping a lot at this age?"
"Well, yeah," Mary admitted. "But he just likes moving around, I think. And because he moves around so much he already knows how to sit up on his own, and he'll probably be able to crawl soon. Babies usually start doing that at six months."
"I just wish he wasn't so tiny," Tony admitted. "I don't want him getting made fun of for that when he's older."
Mary shrugged.
"He's got short parents."
"Yeah, he's got a short father, and I was teased mercilessly in grade school for how small I was."
"You were also years younger than them," Mary reminded him.
"We probably shouldn't let him skip any grades, if the teachers ask," Tony said. "If he's smart we could just… put him in a fancy STEM school or something. Or get him a private instructor. Or something."
"Oh, definitely," Mary said. "All that 'skipping grades' stuff messes with your development as well. Fuck that."
" Language, " Tony reprimanded.
" Hypocrite, " Mary said in that same tone of voice Tony used.
"You think he's gonna be smart?" Tony asked, handing Mary a loofa.
"I mean, probably. Genetics and all that. It's really not all that important that he is, though," Mary said.
"Right," Tony said. "Of course not. Brains aren't everything."
"He's gonna be a handsome boy, though, I can already tell," Mary said, booping the baby on the nose. Peter smiled up at her gummily.
"Gonna be chasing girls away with sticks," Tony muttered. Mary snorted.
"Or boys," Mary said.
"Lord, I hope not," he said. Mary narrowed her eyes at him.
"Haven't you had hookups with guys before? And boyfriends? What do you care?" Mary asked, voice edging on dangerous.
"Yeah, and I also got harrassed all the time for it, too. Got my ass kicked one too many times as well. Plus I always have to worry about Howard finding out and actually killing me. It's not fun."
"The world's changing," Mary said with a shrug. "Maybe Petey won't have to worry about that, should he be…gay, or bisexual, or whatever."
"Maybe not," Tony admitted. "I hope not."
"And if he is, if anyone messes with him..." Mary said thoughtfully.
"They'll have the wrath of Stark Industries lawyers raining down on them."
"Hell yeah," Mary said, grinning. "Hand me that towel - yeah, the ones with the llamas on it, he likes that one."