One story finished, four new stories begun. Who taught me maths? (Or rather, who failed to teach me maths?)

I claim no ownership and do not mean to cause anyone any offense.

TapTap

Tony Stark stepped into his tower at the end of a long day of actually attending meetings for once, and tossed his tie to be forgotten somewhere around the couch-area. Pepper had promised this was it as far as the boardroom went for a rather long time - between her, Jarvis, him and Claire, the company was running as smoothly as a company ever could, and he liked the sound of increasingly getting to stay in his workshop. That, and galas and lots and lots of playboy publicity. Apparently that sort of thing proved that things were well in hand and running well at Stark Industries to the public, and he was willing to play ball with those instructions. He even mostly kept to Pepper's list of, "Acceptable behaviour," while he was at it. Mostly, being the word of the day.

Before he managed to make it into the kitchen, Jarvis announced, "Sir, we have a level one alert in the Green room."

"Oh?" he poured himself a scotch, not bothering with looking up into the cieling as so many guests and housemates did. "Who is in there? Bruce or Hulk?"

"The Hulk Sir, as well as Miss Thomas." Tony did not wait to ask silly questions about whether the doors were locked or what had happened, and Jarvis had purposely not been given remote access, for security reasons. So he ran.

Tony might not have known what to expect when looking into the secured room, but Claire sitting peacefully next to an unconscious Bruce was actually one of the alternatives, if he had stopped to think about it. He did not truly expect Hulk to harm someone as obviously not a threat and as sensible as Claire, but he still wasted no time in opening the escape route from outside and usher her out. She rose with a relieved sigh as she noticed him there.

"Tony. Thank heavens," she half-whispered as he closed the door behind her. "Just in time."

"Has Bruce not transformed yet?" he questioned, sighing in relief internally. This was just too close a call.

"Oh, he was the Hulk for about four hours, but I did not want to be in there when Dr Banner woke back up," Claire corrected him, still in a low voice, shuddering. "Can you imagine the lecture he'd give me?!"

Tony blinked, surprised, but then he laughed. Shaking his head, he settled for leading her downstairs. Bruce would let himself out, and if they were really lucky, he wouldn't remember Claire being in there with him at time of transformation.

"All too true, sweetheart. Wanna tell your uncle Tony what happened?" He made a beeline for his abandoned whiskey glass. He had a feeling he was gonna need it. Especially if Bruce or Pepper caught wind of this. Never mind if both of them did. He shuddered at the thought.

Claire shrugged, getting started on mixing one of those chocolatey drinks she liked. Tony's kitchen had started to be stocked with tiny marshmallows and cocoa powder, and Tony would never, ever, ever admit to anyone at all just how much he enjoyed that. The Avengers had become family, but this made him feel like it was real in a way which they didn't - like he was a dad. Man, his baby girl wasn't even born yet, and he was already done for. Then again, maybe biology wasn't everything. Maybe he already was a dad, hen-motherness and all.

Claire's customary snort at his ridiculousness brought him out of his sappy thoughts just in time. "Sure, my fairy godmother," she addressed him. "The puzzle you and Bruce made is too hard for me to solve and the doors closed by accident. There was a backup call for the Avengers and the Hulk didn't have anybody to calm him down that time. He was distracted easily enough though. He mostly seemed worried to accidentally step on me, to be honest."

Tony blinked again. Few people ever surprised his cynical, flamboyant ass, but Claire could make him speechless. Usually with her crazy (though sometimes almost brilliant enough to be his own, and that was saying something) ideas though, and not this sort of thing.

"Alright, mini-me, we need a new escape plan. Any ideas? Let's go down to the workshop and lock the doors before Bruce gets back to himself," Tony added, on second thought. He didn't mind Bruce when he was angry, actually, but he didn't like him when he got all responsible. Nope.