An hour later Steve is watching in mixture of amusement and faint horror as the two Starks pull apart one of the brand new, very expensive looking, six-wheeled remote controlled cars and gaze at the inner circuitry. That this is happening on his living room rug makes it all the more surreal.
'There,' Tony points as his son looks on in fascination, 'the belt will slip... But if we put this on here...' Tony seems to always know where to find a tool box.
'You fixed it?' Pete asks, wide eyed.
'Nearly,' Tony nods, 'need your help though, squirt, put your finger there to hold the wires back for me?'
The look of concentration on Pete's face is truly adorable.
Steve has to take a photo.
'There,' Tony sits back, 'we fixed it.'
Pete grins.
Tony snaps the plastic chassis back onto the car and turns it on as he hands Pete the remote,
'Have a go.'
The car shoots forwards and crashes into the wall before rebounding, righting itself, and zooming off to run straight into Steve's side table. The table gracefully topples to the floor as the car speeds on.
'Whoops,' Tony's grinning, 'let's turn the speed down,' he adjusts a dial and the car is suddenly under control. 'Sorry, Cap.'
Steve just shakes his head with a laugh,
'I should have expected it as soon as you got out the screwdriver.'
'It's like you know me,' Tony grins up at him.
'Why do I have the ominous feeling that my entire life is going to be defined by a series of badly thought out decisions prompted by Starks?' mentioning Howard even vaguely is something of a risk.
It pays off when Tony just laughs,
'Oh, Cap, you have no idea...'
'Well, it's all worked out so far, I suppose,' Steve picks his table back up.
'You think so?' Tony is smiling but his gaze seems just a little too intense.
'Sure,' Steve feels his own smile falter. 'I don't know how things would have played out if I hadn't become...' he waves towards his body vaguely, 'but I'd like to think I helped.'
'I meant for you personally,' Tony shrugs, 'here and now. You're ok with being in the future?'
Steve keeps his gaze and tries to puzzle out what Tony's actually asking. A remote control car humps his leg before flipping over and moving back across the floor. Tony's biting his lip against laughing at him.
'I blame you for this,' Steve informs him and sits cross legged on his couch and out of the reach of Pete's car.
'That's fair,' Tony grants him.
'I like it here,' Steve tells him as they watch Pete bump the car randomly into everything Steve owns. 'I've made friends now.'
Tony's expression turns serious again,
'I hope so. I'd give you anything you need to make it easier.'
Steve nods,
'I know, Tony. You're a good friend. How I reacted when we first met was...'
'Hey,' Tony climbs off the floor to side beside him, 'you can't take all the blame for that.'
'I can,' Steve shrugs and looks down. 'You were teasing me, but there was no reason for me to think you were being malicious.'
Tony leans against his arm,
'Hey, all's forgiven, sweetheart.'
It's wonderful and terrifying how tactile Tony can be without thinking.
'Alright,' Steve smiles and nudges Tony with his arm, 'thanks, Tony.'
The car crashes into the wall.
'Pete, do you know how to steer your car?' Steve asks.
'Yes,' large brown eyes blink up at him.
'So, you just enjoy crashing into things?' he grins.
'It's meant to,' Pete tells him. 'It flips, see?' The car drives into the sofa and flips itself over to move off again in the opposite direction.
'Right,' Steve smiles and watches as Pete follows after the car, dragging his blanket behind him.
Crashing something just because you can is definitely a Stark thing to do.
Tony's still leaning against his side.
'Would you like a coffee?' Steve stands up.
'Sure,' Tony looks up at him.
Steve winces as the car flips itself over against his ankle.
'Sorry, Cap,' Tony doesn't sound, or look, sorry.
'At least it can't fly,' Steve shrugs as he dodges around Pete and into his kitchen.
'Hear that Pete?' he can hear Tony's grin in his tone. 'Cap has an idea for an upgrade!'
Steve contemplates slamming his head repeatedly into his kitchen cupboard.
'Upgrades can only be worked on and tested in the workshop!' Steve calls back.
He hears a scoff,
'That's where the best toys are anyway.'
'Would it still flip?' Pete has his priorities straight.
'Yeah, we could do that,' Tony sounds distracted. 'Micro-repulsors in each corner on both sides...'
'Tony, can you please not plan to put advanced weapons on a child's toy?' Steve calls.
'My Iron Man suit isn't a weapon,' Tony replies promptly.
'Whatever you say,' Steve sighs
'Sir, Ms Potts is suggesting you prepare yourself for your meeting,' Jarvis announces as Steve re-enters his living room with their drinks.
Tony is still sprawled on Steve's sofa in his clothes from the day before,
'I bet she didn't say it was a suggestion,' Tony takes his coffee from Steve.
'She did not,' Jarvis agrees.
'Fine,' Tony stands up. 'Get someone to bring me a suit; I'll take a shower.'
'Certainly, sir.'
'When they get here with my suit can you bring it through to your room?' Tony asks.
'My room?'
'I'm borrowing your bathroom,' Tony doesn't wait for a response before leaving the room and tugging off his t-shirt as he goes.
'Sure...' Steve shakes his head and refocuses on Pete. 'Hey, buddy, would you like to do some painting?'
'Ok,' Pete drops the remote for the car and follows Steve to his dining table.
'Your Dada bought you a lot of paints,' Steve starts unpacking the blue storage box that Tony carried down with them earlier.
'Dada is the best,' Pete tells him as he kneels up on his chair.
Tony has bought everything from the paints and brushes to a plastic sheet to protect the table. Steve smiles as the first thing Pete does is pull the top off of all the different colours and dip a different finger in each one. He presses each finger to the paper.
'What are you drawing?'
'I'm not,' Pete hasn't quite managed the tone of true exasperation that Tony uses. 'I'm trying the colours.'
'Of course,' Steve smiles and then looks up as the door opens. 'Ms... Pepper?'
'I brought Tony's things,' she walks past carrying a suit bag and a small selection of toiletries. 'Is he still in the shower?'
'Yes ma'am.'
'Good, I won't be a moment,' she disappears down the hall.
Steve hears her first open his bedroom door and then the door to the bathroom. He can hear cascading water and muffled voices and then the door closes and Pepper reappears,
'Sorry for the interruption but he needs to look like Doctor Anthony E Stark, expert in electrical engineering, not Tony the privileged lazy rich boy. His charm can only take him so far,' she smiles.
'His charm takes him a long way,' Steve replies and then contemplates biting off his own tongue.
The look Pepper is giving him is, once again, assessing.
'It does,' she agrees finally. 'The meeting is at eleven; that's forty five minutes from now. Can you please make sure he is on his way to the conference room before quarter to?'
'Yes, ma'am,' Steve fights the urge to salute.
Her smile is sunny,
'You are incredibly sweet.'
There's not much he can say to that so he just smiles back.
She nods and gets back onto the lift.
Steve has noticed that Tony and Pepper never seem to need to wait for the lift; he suspects Jarvis.
Ten minutes of quiet, but messy, finger painting later Tony returns, dripping wet, with a towel around his waist,
'Very good, Pete,' he praises his son, 'where'd Pepper put my stuff?'
'In my bedroom,' Steve refuses to watch the path of a water droplet as it slides down Tony's collarbone and then down across the arc reactor and... beyond.
Luckily Tony doesn't seem to notice as he's found Steve's coffee from earlier. Once he's finished that, he presses a quick kiss to his son's head and heads back to Steve's room.
'Why do you stare at Dada?'
Steve whips his head back around, realising he's been staring at an empty doorway for a couple of minutes,
'I...' big brown eyes that are identical to Tony's gaze up at him. 'I like your Dada,' Steve tells him, 'I just like seeing him around.'
Pete seems to consider that,
'Is that why Dada wants you to watch me? Because he likes me?'
Steve can't be certain, but that sounds like quite an impressive bit of reasoning for a three and a half year old,
'Yes,' Steve tells him. 'He wants to make sure you're always safe.'
'Because he likes me?' he asks quietly.
Steve's heart breaks,
'Of course he likes you,' he voice comes out a little broken, he clears his throat. 'Pete, your Dada adores you, ok?'
'I do what?' Tony's fixing one of the cuffs on his shirt, which isn't buttoned all the way, with a tie hanging loosely around his neck.
How does someone make themselves that gorgeous so effortlessly?
'You like me,' Pete smiles.
Steve sees the tiny flicker of pain that races across Tony's face,
'Peter,' Tony replies seriously and crosses to crouch beside his son, indifferent to the mess the boy's fingers could make of his suit, 'Pete, baby, I love you.'
