Tony wakes up to an empty bed.
Jarvis didn't wake him, so Pete must be fine; Steve must have arrived.
'Jarvis?'
'Good morning, sir. Peter is currently eating blueberry pancakes with Captain Rogers.'
'Marvellous,' he stretches and relaxes back bonelessly.
'Ms Potts has left instructions for me to contact her once you are awake.'
'What time is it?' Tony mashes his face into his pillow.
'The time is seven forty five,' Jarvis responds.
It's for the best that Pete isn't here to hear Tony's response to that news.
'Tony?' Pepper's voice sounds out across his room.
'Pep!' Tony sits up and rubs a hand over his face. 'Congratulations, you're an auntie!'
'So I've heard,' Pepper beams at him when he finally picks up a tablet from beside the bed so they can see each other. 'Congratulations, Tony.'
Tony smiles at her,
'You have time to come out here and meet him?'
'Of course I have time,' she scoffs at him. 'Tony, you know you're going to have to be careful how you release this to the media.'
'I know how to handle the media,' Tony reminds her.
There's a moment of silence as she smiles at him,
'How are you, Tony?'
'I'm fine.'
'Tony,' she scolds.
'I'm just thinking about what happens when the second baby is born,' Tony admits. 'If he actually looks like Steve I guess I just hope no one jumps to the right conclusion.'
'Why would he look like Steve?' Pepper just looks confused.
'Because AIM are crazy people who made a kid from me and Cap,' Tony tells her.
'You aren't going to tell him,' she doesn't look impressed.
'He doesn't need to know,' Tony shrugs.
'Tony,' she shakes her head, 'that just isn't fair! On either of them!'
'I'm not going to keep them apart,' Tony points out. 'They'll see each other all the time.'
'No,' she disagrees, 'why would you even want to keep this from him?'
'Not forever!' Tony tries reassuring her. 'Cap's still a little... unsettled in this century. If I tell him the kid is his then he'll have this responsibility that he can't walk away from. He isn't ready for this bullshit, Pep.'
'You think this is better for Steve?' she hisses at him.
'I do,' he nods. 'Because it is. He's just starting to find things that he enjoys; I can't rip that from him and hand him a baby.'
'Does he not like kids?' Pepper's still not looking happy.
'He does,' he tells her, 'doesn't mean he wants one with me, though. And I will tell him. Definitely. Before Jim's sixth birthday or Jarvis'll do it for me and the fall out from that would be much worse.'
'Six years?' she shakes her head.
'Look,' he interrupts her with the tone she knows he means he's actually being serious, 'what does it matter? It's just DNA. If he wants to be in the kid's life, he will be, if he wants to be responsible for helping look after him and protect him, he can. What does it matter if I don't tell him? If he doesn't want anything to do with him then it's for the best that he doesn't feel obliged.'
Pepper just looks sad now.
'If he sticks around,' Tony continues after a moment, 'then they'll both know it was because he wanted to.'
'But...'
'There's no downside,' Tony interrupts. 'Either Cap gets it and everything is fine or he's angry, but he'll be angry with me, not with Jim. If the only fall out is Cap being furious with me,' he shrugs, 'then I'm definitely doing the right thing.'
'I'm not happy with this,' Pepper tells him.
'You don't have to be,' Tony wrinkles his nose. 'Just don't tell Cap.'
'Who else knows?' she sighs.
'Bruce and Jarvis.'
'Oh, like either of them would argue with you...' she mutters. She forgets how sensitive the mics are in StarkTabs.
'Women make this choice all the time,' Tony tells her. 'I'm trusting you not to tell him.'
Blatant manipulation on his part.
'I won't tell him,' Pepper finally agrees, 'but we're going to talk about this again when I get there.'
'The deadline is his sixth birthday,' Tony reminds her, 'I can tell Cap before that if I think it's a good time.'
'Captain Rogers is about to enter hearing range,' Jarvis reports.
'I'll speak to you later, Pep.'
'Steve's there at this time in the morning? Did you sleep with him?' Pepper's eyes have widened.
There's a choked noise from the hallway.
'Yes, we had crazy monkey sex,' Tony tells her.
'Gah...' Steve has apparently forgotten how to speak.
'Alright,' Pepper seems to relax, 'but why is he there?'
'He's making breakfast because he's,' Tony gestures at Steve and grimaces, 'wholesome.'
'You make that sound like an insult,' Steve remembers how to speak. 'Good morning, Ms Potts.'
'Good morning, Captain,' she replies with a smile. There's no hint of what he's told her in her tone; she's his favourite. 'I'll call you later, Tony.'
'No breakfast in bed?' Tony dumps his tablet and gets up.
'I wasn't even sure you were awake,' Steve replies and glances away as Tony stretches his arms over his head.
'I'd always welcome a wake up call from you,' Tony smirks at him.
'I'll remember you said that the next time I fancy company on my morning jog,' Steve shoots back as he leads the way back down the hall.
'Jogging isn't my thing,' Tony replies easily, 'but I'm sure I can think of an activity we could do together that'll work up a sweat.'
Steve laughs; a marked improvement over a few weeks ago when he would have flinched and glared angrily.
'Dada!' they're interrupted as Pete jumps down from his seat at the bar and runs to Tony.
'You don't have a table,' Steve informs him, 'so we ate at the bar.'
'Huh,' Tony scoops up his son and then glances around as if he's expecting to find a table. 'Right. I've not needed one. Good morning, Pete.'
'Dada,' Pete wraps his arms around his neck.
'What's the verdict, kiddo? Does Cap know his way around a pancake?'
'I know my way around a coffee machine,' Steve replies and hands over a steaming mug.
'You are my favourite,' Tony informs him as he inhales the vapours.
'There were blueberries,' Pete tells him matter-a-factly.
'Yeah? Well, Cap's an overachiever,' Tony tells him and hops up onto one of the bar stools. 'Feed me.'
'Sure, Tony,' Steve just looks amused as the turns back to his frying pan.
'You still hungry, squirt?' he asks the boy as he traces a finger over the glowing outline of the arc reactor through his shirt.
'Nuh, I had three,' Pete holds up three fingers to demonstrate.
'Sir,' Jarvis calls, 'three shipments have arrived for you; one of clothing, one of toys and another of refined iridium.'
'Don't get those muddled up,' Tony smirks.
'I shall endeavour not to, sir,' Jarvis snarks. 'The toys are being loaded onto the lift.'
'Have you two been introduced?' Tony waves a hand vaguely. 'Pete, the voice without a face is Jarvis; he's my best friend and he looks after us, ok?'
'Hullo Jarvis,' Pete says carefully.
'Hello, Master Peter,' Jarvis replies gently.
'Here,' Steve puts a stack of pancakes in front of Tony and pours syrup over the lot, 'I'll take Pete and you eat those.'
'I love you,' Tony informs him as he relinquishes his son and attacks his breakfast.
'That's good to know,' Steve sounds a little strange but Tony's too busy right now to wonder about it.
'You got him dressed alright?' Tony asks as he swallows down some more coffee. He nods vaguely to where his son is clearly not dressed in the pyjamas Tony put him to bed in.
'I may have dared to enter a 24 hour mall on my morning run,' Steve admits, 'and they had some clothes in his size. You don't mind, do you?'
Tony just scoffs,
'Oh, so much. The liberties you've taken... Make me breakfast for the rest of the week or I'll never forgive you.'
Steve laughs,
'Well, I can't have that.'
'Delivery on the lift for you, sir,' Jarvis announces.
'Get that for me?' Tony asks, waving vaguely at the lift doors as they open. 'It's all stuff for Pete.'
'All of it?' Pete sounds awed.
'Sure thing,' Tony agrees.
He may have gotten a little carried away, but it's not like the kid doesn't deserve it.
He swallows down the last of his pancakes and refills his coffee before venturing over to help Steve with the boxes. Dumping them all in the middle of the floor means they can see what's arrived as well as freeing up the lift.
'Wow,' Steve murmurs and glances at him.
Getting one of each of the Avengers action figures was necessary though, and he couldn't help the cuddly shield. The three tubs of Lego technic just make sense and so do the large number of toy cars, the road mat to go with them and the multilevel car park and garage. As for the paints and crayons, what kid doesn't like that shit? And the three remote controlled cars were just too good not to get, though, actually, if he just adjusts the gearing... But not right now. The bicycle is, admittedly, not the most practical toy at the top of a skyscraper, but the penthouse is pretty open plan and he doesn't have carpets.
Pete is quickly enamoured with the little toy cars and sends them shooting off in all directions across the polished floor. Tony sits cross legged next to him as he puts stabilisers onto the shiny red bike and Steve shakes his head before starting to remove various toys from their packaging.
'There isn't a puppy in here, is there?' Steve asks quietly.
'No,' Tony knows he looks baffled.
'There's every other present a little boy could want,' Steve replies with a shake of his head.
'No pets,' Tony looks back down. 'Perfect, that's the first thing he can resent me for.'
'Don't be absurd,' Steve tells him. 'He'll just make himself a robot dog and everything will be fine.'
Tony laughs quietly,
'If it turns out like Dummy that's not much of an improvement, but it wouldn't shed on everything, I suppose.'
Peter finally flings the last of the cars across the floor and scrambles off after them.
'I think this may be yours?' Steve asks a few minutes later, holding up a StarkTab.
'Why would I want another of my own tablets?' Tony smiles. 'It's Peter's. Turn it on, will you? Jarvis can configure it from there.'
'He's three,' Steve objects, but does as he's told.
'And a half!' Pete adds from across the room as he wiggles his way under the couch to reach one of his cars.
'Three and a half,' Tony nods, 'get it right, Cap.'
'Sorry, Pete,' Steve shakes his head with a laugh. 'Tony, is this a gun?'
'A nerf gun,' Tony agrees. 'There's a bow and arrow version around here somewhere too,' he grabs it from Steve and shoots his son who shrieks with laughter and runs around dodging.
'This is so wrong,' Steve is grinning.
'Probably,' Tony agrees as he runs out of ammo. 'Kid, bring me all those darts so I can reload.'
'So very wrong,' they watch Pete scoop up all the nerf darts and carry them to his dad.
'Good job,' Tony tells him as he reloads. Pete beams and then runs to duck behind a box of paints as Tony takes aim. 'That's cheating Pete; Starks don't cheat.'
'Don't listen to him,' Steve retorts, 'your Dada is a massive cheat, he just talks his way out of it after.'
'That's slander Cap,' Tony grins and leans to the side to fire off a shot. 'I dare you to prove it in court.'
'I'm willing to take a settlement,' Steve grins back. 'A couple of million should do.'
'Done deal,' Tony tells him, and then shoots him in the shoulder.
