Tony woke slowly, voices murmuring around him, the tone thoughtful.

"Did we wake Sleeping Beauty?" The teasing voice was so unexpected, it took Tony a minute to place it.

"Duo?" he asked, looking up, then realized he'd done his best octopus impression to wrap himself around Duo, and sat up, disentangling them. "Sorry. You shouldn't have let me—"

Waving it off, Duo said, "You needed the sleep."

"So do you," Winner said pointedly. Tony realized that although Duo was as relaxed as he had seen him, he did seem tired.

"Sleep tonight. Promise," Duo said, making an x over his chest. "But excuse me for a minute." He popped up as though he hadn't just had Tony wrapped around him for who knew how many hours and vanished down the short hall to the bathroom.

Tony rubbed his face, making sure he didn't have any dried drool clinging to his skin and cleaning the sleep from his eyes. When he felt less vulnerable, he looked up to find Winner watching him bemused.

"I don't know what you did, but congratulations," Winner said with honest warmth.

"Huh?" was Tony's intelligent response.

"It looks like he's decided you're his."

"Should I know what that means?" Tony asked.

Winner gave him a mysterious smile but just shook his head. Tony had the wandering thought that Pepper and Winner should never meet.

By lunchtime, Winner provided Tony with a list of extensive notes and suggestions about the Accords and announced they would be leaving shortly. Tony tried to protest, but Duo seemed at ease with the announcement.

Tony and Natasha went down with Duo to see Winner and Tall Barton off. Happy would drive them to the airport.

Winner surprised Tony with a hug, and he gave good ones, but while he did, he said, "If you break him, know that I will break you," in a low, genuinely threatening tone. When he stepped away, he was smiling and Tony was staring. Without missing a beat, he turned to Natasha, "Ms. Romanov, a pleasure," with his hand held out. She took it, bemused.

"Anytime, Mr. Winner."

"Quatre," he said, that same sunny smile not at all reflecting the threat he'd delivered.

"Natasha," she said as well.

He nodded then moved on to Duo, who he wrapped in a tight hug. Tony didn't catch what he said, but he could see Duo smiling. Tall Barton merely nodded at them.

"Thanks for allowing us to impose," Tall Barton said.

"My pleasure," Tony said. It was even kind of true if only because their presence so obviously relaxed his son. Tall Barton did give Duo a hug, though a much shorter one.

"If you need us," Tall Barton told Duo.

"Always," he agreed. "That goes both ways too."

Tall Barton's eyes softened. "Always."

They stood watching as Winner and Tall Barton got in the car and drove off.

"You sure you're okay with them going?" Tony asked Duo.

Duo looked at him in surprise. "It's fine," he said, and it actually sounded like it. "It's always nice to see each other, but we don't need to see each other to stay close."

"Do you have anything on your plate today?" Tony asked.

"Nope, actually. I called while you were napping. After that mess with Hydra, NYPD pretty much told me 'we'll call you' if they need anything else."

"Well, I've got all of Winner's notes to go through—does the guy even sleep?"

Duo chuckled softly. "He does. He just reads and thinks really fast. He is a genius, you know? Just a different kind than you," he said bumping Tony's shoulder lightly.

"I hadn't heard that Winner is a genius," Natasha said, frowning.

"We're all just full of surprises," Duo teased but didn't elaborate.

"How are your stitches?" Tony asked.

Duo rolled his eyes, but obligingly lifted his shirt. The stitches were bare to the air, but to Tony's eye, they looked… more healed than he would have expected. Even most of the surrounding bruising was the mostly-healed yellow and green. Duo seemed to realize it because he said, "I told you I heal fast." He dropped the edge of the shirt. "I'll let Dr. Banner take a look at them tonight, but I think they can come out tomorrow."

It wasn't supersoldier fast, but it was definitely faster than Tony or even Natasha and Short Barton healed. Duo turned to head to the elevator, but not before pausing to run a hand over the hood of Tony's newest Audi e-Tron concept car, running his eyes over the vehicle appreciatively.

"Do you like cars?" Tony asked.

Duo startled as if he didn't realize he'd done it. He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. He was in all-black, that seemed to be his go-to, but he was wearing just a basic crew under his jacket today. It was odd to see Duo appear caught off guard. "Yeah. I mean, I like pretty much anything that has a motor—cars, ships, aircraft." He shrugged.

"You want to tinker?"

"And that's my cue to head out," Natasha said. "See you, boys." She strode to the elevator.

"You'd let me touch one of these babies?" Duo asked when she'd gone.

Tony made a dismissive snort. "You're my kid. You'll be fine."

Rhodey was surprised when he stopped by Avengers Tower that Tony was in his private garage and not in the workshop.

"Duo's with him," FRIDAY informed him, and if an AI could be gleeful, she was. He also noted that the kid apparently got FRIDAY to call him by his first name. It would never have happened with JARVIS.

Rhodey wasn't sure how he felt about Tony's son. He wished he were surprised that Tony did have a mysterious love child out there, but if he were being totally honest? He had wondered at the fact that Tony seemed to have not made that mistake for years. That said, he knew that the kid stressed Tony out, which could be… problematic.

Tony's usual music was going, which was normal. "FRIDAY, music please?" Rhodey asked.

Popping up from behind a partially dismantled motor, Tony demanded, "What have I said about turning off my music?" though he gave Rhodey a smile.

The sound of wheels on the pavement revealed that Tony's son had been under another car. He sat up on the creeper. Rhodey had seen a couple pictures that Tony had gotten his hands on—all of them official; official Preventers photo, driver's license photo, license for operating heavy machinery. He was older than in those photos, which made sense—most of them had been taken when he was sixteen. His face had lost the baby roundness Rhodey had become familiar with, and the eyes were darker, heavier, warier. In the old pictures, static though they'd been, he'd seemed… impish, as if he were ready to laugh. Rhodey didn't see any of that now. He had some grease smeared on his forehead and cheek, a wrench in one hand, his other behind him as if he were reaching for a gun. He was all in black, and colorful tattoos peeked out under the short sleeves, ending before his elbows. He still had the long braid though, pulled over one shoulder.

"You can stand down, kid," Tony told him. "Rhodey's a friendly."

Rhodey watched as he visibly relaxed and pulled his hand back out. He stood, and Rhodey watched him do it with enviable grace. Even before the accident, getting off those creepers had been hell.

"Rhodey, this is Duo, Duo, this is Rhodey."

"Colonel James Rhodes," Rhodey said, longsuffering. He held out his hand to the kid, who had taken out a rag to wipe some of the grease off.

"Duo Reyes-Maxwell," he said, taking Rhodey's hand. He was almost comically short—shorter than Natasha, even—but his hands were big, rough, and his grip was strong and sure. "So you're best friend Rhodey?" he asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

He told himself very firmly that it did not warm his heart to know that Tony had called him that.

"The one and only!" Tony confirmed, coming over. "How are thing? Haven't touched base in a few days. I have some thoughts on how to make the apparatus less overt."

Duo's eyes had taken in his apparatus with barely a glance, but now he paid more attention.

"You made this?" he asked Tony.

Tony already had the specs pulled up on several screens. "Yup. Still a work in progress, though."

Duo didn't glance this time—he really looked. It was a little creepy to see the wheels turning behind those purple eyes the exact same way he'd seen them spin behind Tony's eyes innumerable times. "Can I ask?" was the first thing he asked though. Rhodey had to grin because that was more tact than Tony usually displayed in entire days.

"Total paralysis from the waist down," he explained.

"The exoskeleton is still a prototype," Tony said dismissively. "I'm going to do better."

Rhodey sighed. "The exoskeleton is a damn miracle, Tones," he said before turning his attention back to Duo. "Why the interest?"

"I have a friend who broke her back on an assignment. She's wheelchair-bound now. I'd love to be able to give her something like this. She'd need prosthetics too, but I don't think they'd be that hard to integrate."

Something about the story caught Tony's attention, because he wandered closer. "Just a friend?" he asked.

Duo rolled his eyes at the suggestive tone. "You know my romantic history—it's Heero and Jesus. Isolde was one of the partners I went through before Une let me and 'Ro partner. It was our mission that her back and legs were broken on."

"And you feel like that's your fault?" Tony asked.

He shifted his weight and crossed his arms, and when he did it, Rhodey noticed the Jesus tattooed on his neck and what certainly looked like a wedding band on his left hand. "It wasn't," he said after a moment, but it sounded grudging, the same way Tony admitted things were out of his control.

"And was this one of the partners who put you in the hospital?" Tony asked, a focused intensity that Rhodey knew to be wary of.

But Duo waved it off. "She's one who ended up in the hospital with me," he said, as dismissive as Tony had been about the exoskeleton.

"Your boss and I are going to have a very long discussion about resource allocation in the near future," Tony told him.

Duo laughed, a bark of humor that seemed to catch him off guard. "Oh, please let me be a fly on the wall for that." He snickered and grinned, still obviously amused by the idea. "Anyway, can I get the specs for the exoskeleton? I'm happy to fabricate it myself, if necessary?"

Tony opened his mouth, and Rhodey knew what he was going to say—It's not ready for the public. It's still just a prototype. "I think you should let her give them a try," he interrupted. Tony didn't think it was complete and wouldn't want someone not in his immediate circle to test it in case something went wrong. His perfectionist streak meant well, but Rhodey had only been truly wheelchair-bound for a few weeks as Tony had gone into problem-solving overload to find a solution for him. He could not imagine how miraculous a gift the exoskeleton could be to someone who had been wheelchair-bound for years. Or even possibly had never walked at all. "Before you argue with me, just shut up and listen."

Tony crossed his arms, unconsciously mirroring his son. That was going to take some getting used to. "I'm listening."

"I know all the reasons you're going to list as for why it isn't ready. But Tones, your prototypes are other people's life's works, and you know it. You lit up the Tower on an arc reactor prototype. You took out military jets with a suit prototype. I'm telling you—this?" He tapped a toe to make the point. "This is a miracle that will change so many lives. And I know that not everyone will be able to use it, but the sooner you can get this out, the sooner you get it to more people to see how other people react to it?" He could see he wasn't quite getting through, so he changed tacks. "You want to make up for the weapons manufacturing? It isn't going to be with the Avengers or with the arc reactor. You can do enormous good with both of those, but war hurts individuals. This?" He put his hands on the hip support of the exoskeleton. "This heals individuals."

He knew he had him when Tony sighed. He looked at Duo, contemplatively. Duo put his hands up, and Rhodey noticed starburst-like scars on his palms. "Don't look at me. I know how to put machines together and take people apart. It'd be nice to be able to put a person back together, for a change. Especially a friend."

"Yeah," Tony said with a sigh. "Okay. You win. I'm going to need some information about her. These aren't designed to be one size fits all or even most," he warned.

"Tell me what you need, I can get it for you. I can even put you in contact with Sally, since I'm sure she'll want to oversee her therapy, and if you don't mind, Colonel Rhodes, I can put Sal in contact with your doctor?"

Rhodey gave him a dry look. He was young, yes—anyone under thirty was young to Rhodey these days though. He was young, but there was a quiet competence about him that reminded Rhodey of Tony calmly correcting MIT professors. "Under one condition," he said, making his tone severe.

Judging by Duo's raised eyebrow, he didn't buy Rhodey's mock-serious tone. "That is?" he asked, willing to go along.

"None of that 'Colonel Rhodes' shit. I leave that for recruits. You're Tony's son—that makes you family," he said, and it may have been a little teasing, but he also meant it.

Duo eyed him, crossing his arms, assessing, the wheels turning again. Then Rhodey saw it—that impish spark he'd seen in the static photos. "Whatever you say, Jimmy," he said, and the grin he flashed was pure Stark mischief. It brought some of his best memories of a too-young Tony at MIT to mind.

Tony laughed and tried to turn it into a cough, but he wasn't very successful. Rhodey gave him the expected glare, but it only made Tony laugh harder. "He's got you there, Uncle Jimmy."

Rhodey put his hands on his hips. "I do not deserve either of you," he informed with wounded dignity.

Duo spun the wrench still in his hand. "Good thing that we don't get what we deserve then, isn't it?" He said it as if he were teasing, but Rhodey didn't miss the heavy undercurrent of the words. He turned to go back to the creeper, and Rhodey somehow wasn't surprised to see a gun tucked into the back of his pants. "You actually any use with machines, Jimmy? Or are you just going to stand around and watch us work?" he asked over his shoulder before he sat back down.

"Boss, Vision asked me to let you know that dinner is ready," FRIDAY cut in.

Tony and Duo exchanged glances, and Rhodey could just imagine them both deciding to ignore eating for the machines. "Oh, no. You can both come back and finish this later," he informed, going over and grabbing Tony by the back of the shirt.

"Traitor," Tony said, sulking.

"Yup."

"Duo, your uncle is a dirty, rotten traitor."

"Hai, hai," Duo said, getting back up, and neither Rhodey nor Tony needed to understand Japanese to understand the condescending tone. He put the wrench away in Tony's toolkit, grabbed a jacket, just throwing it over an arm rather than putting it on. "Let's go see how Viz did without supervision."

He pushed Tony in front of him to the elevator, and it took a moment for what he said to sink in.

"Wait," Rhodey said, chasing after them in time to catch the elevator. "No one told me Vision was making dinner!"

"Don't worry," Duo said, and Rhodey couldn't help but notice that he'd put himself squarely in the corner of the elevator. "He's using my recipes. I told him not to make any adjustments."

"FRIDAY?" Rhodey asked.

"Yes, Colonel Rhodes?"

"Is it too late to order takeout?"