I am pretty sure I am channelling Tony in writing this chapter... but unfortunately I do not own Stark Industries. Or Marvel.

TapTap

Claire looked down on the workbench and chuckled, glancing over at Tony who was giggling as he worked out a new prototype multi device remote control. The workshop was under lockdown protocol, meaning no one could hear or see in; but Tony had opened up the other direction, so though neither one of them knew it, she and Tony heard every word of Pepper and Bruce's loud argument. She knew it was childish of them, but Tony's mischievous side was infectious, and she hadn't even tried to talk him out of it.

Listening with half an ear to Pepper's yelling at Bruce about, "How could they possibly put a Stark Industries employee at such a risk", "Why hadn't they thought of something like that happening, weren't they supposed to be geniuses," and, "What was he thinking letting the door close with her inside?!" By the time she got to the, "Honestly Bruce, you are worse than Tony, I expect this kind of nonsense from him, but you?! You're supposed to be the adult influence in the lab!" Tony was laughing so madly he had to put his work down.

"Pepper is even more feisty than normal," Tony noted as Dumm-E brought him more oil-free coffee. The engineer smiled as he took a sip. Claire was useful in so many different, unexpected ways.

"I could blame hormones, possibly." Claire shrugged, but smiled as well. "Or you two are just worse than usual and it has nothing to do with Pepper."

"Very likely the latter," Tony agreed, as usual more insightful than most people would assume him to be.

"She is right about one thing, though," Tony added, waiting a moment to speak further as Pepper's voice rang out louder than previously, threatening to lock Bruce and Tony into the Hulk room together until they solved this issue so it could never reappear. "Not with that, that's a terrible idea. But we need a way to let you out on your own," Tony specified.

"I know, I was thinking of that," Claire responded, looking up from her paperwork. She usually left formalia to Pepper and numbers to Jarvis, but she did fill in all the forms for the lab for Tony, as the go-between between him and Pepper in management. "How about some sort of, well, cat-flap?"

"We considered that with our exit, but it has to be too small to fit through to make sure that the Hulk cannot possibly get a hand or something through, not that I'd think that he'd actually..." Tony rambled in reply.

"Too small for you and Bruce," Claire pointed out, and Tony's eyes lit with the idea. "I can get through less than half the space you two would need. Not to mention that it can have a lock, too, but it'd be so small, said lock could be considerably less complex than the game you two have to solve."

"That is not a terrible idea. In fact, I can do something with that," Tony promised, setting straight to work after pointing out the one flaw in their plan, "we just cannot implement it before those two clears off..."

Bucky yawned for himself as he cut up tomatoes and watched while Steve fried some eggs over at the other end of the kitchen. It hadn't been a tough call for the Avengers, but with Tony and the Hulk both elsewhere, it had still been enough of a workout for him to crave comfort food and cuddles with Steve in front of some stupid television program.

Natasha had withdrawn to do ballet in her private studio, Rodney (taking Iron Man's place for the day) had returned to base directly, and Clint (still recovering, he had only piloted the quinjet, but since he was still recovering that had seemingly been enough of a workout) had already crashed upstairs somewhere. Tony and Claire had both disappeared by the time they returned, but as Pepper was busy yelling her lungs out at Bruce over some accident in the lab, that was hardly surprising. Coupled with the blacked-out workshop, no one worried about their whereabouts. If they were lost, it was clearly on purpose.

Steve was a bit concerned that Pepper shouldn't yell at Bruce, but Bucky had reassured him immediately. There was simply no way Bruce would let himself be provoked that easily, and Pepper wasn't even remotely foolish enough to follow him if he needed space. It was their prerogative to yell all they liked. What was worrying was the fact that Claire had apparently almost got into trouble.

Bucky was startled - in the best sense - out of his thoughts as Steve wrapped his arms around his waist and kissed his neck. Sighing blissfully and tipping his head to the side, Bucky closed his eyes. He could get used to this. And he was so very grateful that he was allowed to.