After eating Pete settles against Steve's chest and tucks his head under his chin,

'Where's Dada?'

'Your Dada is working,' Steve rubs his back. 'Time for a nap, Pete.'

Pete nods against Steve's neck.

Steve presses a kiss to the boy's forehead and scoops up his blanket from the floor,

'Shall we take your blanky with us?'

He nods again and hugs it when Steve hands it over.

It's so hard to imagine that this nervous little boy could ever become Tony Stark as he knows him now.

'Ok,' Steve walks across the room. 'Don't worry; your Dada hasn't gone far. Jarvis, what's Tony doing right now?'

'Sir is arguing the relevance of what appears to be an anomalous data point,' Jarvis replies.

'Is he winning?' Steve smiles.

'Of course,' Jarvis sounds smug.

'I want Dada,' Pete nuzzles his face into Steve's neck.

'I know you do,' Steve's heart can't take this. 'By the time you wake up your Dada should be back, ok?'

'K...'

Steve puts Pete into the bed in his own room, makes sure he isn't too close to the edge and that he has his blanket. He presses a kiss to his forehead and crouches by the bed for a minute making sure Pete is definitely asleep.

'Jarvis, you'll tell me if he needs anything?'

'Of course, Captain.'

Steve smiles and quietly exits the room, leaving the door ajar.


Tony rolls his shoulders and scrolls down the numbers again,

'Does anyone know why power output is dropping in the evenings?'

Nobody answers which is really an answer in itself.

'Whatever,' Tony drops his tablet and looks at the screen showing the other members of his meeting.

'The numbers are very promising, Mister Stark,' one of the men says.

'Of course they are,' Tony mutters to himself. 'We knew they'd be good. I just want to know what's affecting the data set.'

'Sir,' Jarvis chimes in and instantly has Tony's full attention.

'Yes, Jay?' he's half out of his seat.

'Your night team are transmitting their report for their data set.'

'What the hell took them so long?' Tony grins and grabs his tablet back up. 'Get them in on this call.'

'Of course,' Jarvis confirms.

'Mister Stark,' a woman appears in a new hologram, 'I'm so sorry for the delay.'

'Hmm...' Tony waves a hand dismissively as he pours over the new data. 'Jay, let's get the data side by side.'

The other members of the night team have joined the meeting and are discussing the output values with their counterparts but Tony tunes them out.

This is all he needs to get the roll out going, he grins, soon all his facilities can be on arc reactor power. After that he can start supplying energy to other nearby facilities and beyond.

'Alright,' Tony knows he's grinning, '100% bonuses all round and put meals out on your expenses for your whole teams,' the people who haven't worked with him before are now stuttering. 'Jay! Press conference time!'

'Of course, sir,' Jarvis has probably already drafted a press release. 'Will the press room on the tenth floor in half an hour be adequate?'

'Do it,' Tony agrees. 'Let's get this ball rolling. Send messages to all our other teams; they need to start planning for the switch over. We'll alternate between east and west and work our way north.'

'But Mister Stark! The variations in power output are surely concerning?'

'No, no,' Tony waves a hand and Jarvis brings up the data in question in a graph and overlays it with indications of usage and power preservation, 'it's all explained. It's designed to match power requirements which reduce over night; I admittedly didn't expect it to drop quite so low, but I guess Stark Tower stays busier over night than you do.'

He gets up from the table,

'Anything to add?'

'You're a genius,' someone blurts.

Tony grins,

'Yes. Yes I am.'


'Ms Potts,' Jarvis interrupts Pepper from reading a budget request from one of the software development teams.

'Yes, Jarvis?'

'I thought you may wish to know sir has called for press conference in half an hour.'

'For the data from the other arc reactor prototype?' Pepper puts down her tablet. 'The numbers were that good?'

'The numbers exceeded everyone's expectations, except sir's and my own, of course.'

'Of course,' Pepper laughs, 'where is he?'

'With you momentarily,' Jarvis replies.

True enough Tony steps from the lift a minute later,

'Pepper! Did Jay tell you the good news?' he's already down the corridor to his bedroom so she follows him. 'Everything's good, Pep, we can get this thing going. This time next year we should have four more facilities entirely self sufficient!'

'That's great Tony,' she can feel his enthusiasm and grins back at him as he strips off his suit. 'What was wrong with that suit?'

'I want something flashier,' he tells her as he unbuttons his pants.

'Of course you do,' she sighs and walks into his closet. 'Black or grey?'

'The dark grey,' he calls back, 'double breasted.'

'Alright,' she lifts it from the rail.

'Red or blue?' she comes out to find him wearing a shirt and holding two ties.

'Red,' she smiles and lays his suit on the bed. 'I'll get you a watch.'

'How do I look?' he grins once he's dressed.

'Like a billionaire,' she rolls her eyes fondly.

'Perfect,' Tony nods and strides off to the lift. 'Jay, how's the timing?'

'You have ten minutes but the press are already assembled,' Jarvis replies.

Pepper just laughs; she's missed the bursts of chaos that come with living with Tony Stark.


Steve hears from Jarvis that Tony's hold some sort of impromptu press conference downstairs just before Pete wakes up.

'Dada?' the little boy blinks up at Steve as he wakes.

'It's Cap,' Steve smiles down at him. 'Your Dada's just telling the world how amazing he is; he'll be back soon.'

'I want Dada,' Pete's lower lip trembles.

'Oh, Pete,' Steve pets his hair as he hugs him to his chest, 'he's just downstairs.'

'I want to go downstairs,' Pete declares. 'I want to go to Dada.'

'Well...' Steve bites his lip.

'There is space 'backstage',' Jarvis suggests, 'should you wish to wait to the side for sir to finish his announcement.'

'Yeah, ok,' Steve gets up. 'We can do that, can't we, buddy? We can wait quietly to the side to see your Dada?'

'Ok,' Pete agrees promptly.


Tony has finished announcing the roll out of the arc reactors and is taking questions from the press when it happens.

He hears a gasp to his right and turns his head in time to see his son dash across the stage to join him behind his podium. Pete wraps his arms around his leg and clings. Across the stage Steve is standing two strides out of cover with one hand uselessly outstretched.

'Ladies and gentlemen of the press,' Tony quirks an eyebrow, 'I give you Captain America,' there are flashes from their cameras. 'Super strong, tactical genius, all round good guy and,' he makes sure he's grinning at Steve, 'apparently not a great babysitter.'

'I told you before I have a documented weakness for being talked into bad decisions by Starks,' Steve looks apologetic.

'Alright,' Tony turns back to the press, 'I have a second announcement for you today, you lucky people,' he leans down and scoops his son into his arms. 'This is Peter Jarvis Stark and he's my son.'

The room falls into stunned silence.

'Say hi, Pete,' Tony presses a kiss to his son's hair.

Pete lifts his head from Tony's chest to look out across the room, Tony smirks and throws up a peace sign as the room explodes with noise and camera flashes.