'Dada,' something is patting his face.

'Go away, Dummy...' he tries pressing his face further into his pillow.

'I'm not Dummy,' he gets a poke on the nose. 'I'm Pete.'

'Sure you are,' he pulls the sheet over his head.

'Dada?'

A small body burrows its way under the sheet and his arm to regain access to his face.

'Dada?' he opens his eyes to see Pete gazing at him in the gloom.

'I need to teach you to make coffee,' he informs the boy.

'Good morning, sir,' Jarvis calls. 'Captain Rogers is approaching your bedroom.'

'Wonderful,' he slumps over onto his back and pushes the covers from his face.

'Hey, Dada,' Pete beams and climbs up to straddle his stomach. He pats his chest with one small hand, 'it's day time, Dada.'

'Barely,' Tony replies.

The kid doesn't even have the decency to look anything other than wide awake.

There's a soft knock on the door before Steve pokes his head in.

'Tell me you have coffee,' Tony points a finger at him.

'I do,' Steve smiles and enters the room with a mug.

'Cap!' Pete grins and bounces on Tony's stomach in his excitement.

'Gah,' Tony groans. 'Tell me I wasn't like this as a kid?'

'I do not have the data to reach a conclusion either way,' Jarvis tells him.

'Come here,' Steve laughs as he sits on the bed by Tony's feet. Pete abandons his father in favour of Captain America.

Tony rolls over and glares at the coffee which Steve has left out of his reach.

Move to get the coffee or pull the sheet back over his head?

The coffee does smell good.

'What do you want to eat then?' Steve asks as he accepts a hug from Pete.

'Coffee first,' Tony pulls himself across the bed. 'Don't even tell me what the time is.'

'It's not that bad,' he can hear that Steve is trying not to laugh. 'Just quarter to seven.'

'I said don't tell me,' Tony sits up enough to drink his coffee.

Steve laughs because he's a terrible person.

'Come on, Pete,' his son is lifted onto Steve's hip as he stands. 'Let's get you dressed and leave your Dada to caffeinate.'


Steve makes scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast and a full jug of coffee.

Tony arrives freshly showered and shaved as Pete finishes his food. Steve immediately holds up the coffee jug as an offering and Tony makes a happy noise in his throat as his mug is refilled.

He could get used to this morning routine.

'Where's Pepper?' he asks as Tony drinks.

'No idea,' Tony shrugs. 'Jarvis?'

'Ms Potts is collecting Colonel Rhodes from the airport,' Jarvis reports.

'Rhodey?' Tony jolts upright and just beams, 'Rhodey's here?'

'His flight should be landing shortly,' Jarvis confirms.

'That's great!' Tony's still grinning. 'Cap, Pete, you can finally meet my other best friend and the guy that should definitely be your favourite uncle.'

'I'm not in the running?' Steve fakes a pout.

'You're not his uncle,' Tony's looks a little pained, 'you're Cap.'

Well, that makes the normal Tony amount of sense.

'I was only joking, Tony,' he looks away to check on Pete.

'Yeah,' Tony isn't looking at him either. 'Look, Steve, there's something I...'

'Hey,' Steve spots Pete opening the liquor cabinet under the bar, 'hey, no! Pete, no!'

There's the sound of breaking china behind him and things go a little insane.

Tony is suddenly between him and Pete, and two gun turrets have descended from the ceiling to aim at him.


His blood is pounding in his ears as he pulls short gasps of air into his lungs,

'Don't,' he hears himself as if from a distance, 'don't...'

He keeps his arm outstretched in front of him, palm out, and tries the blink his way through the haze in his vision.

There's shouting and he never knows what it is he does wrong.

'Tony?'

He tries to stop her, sometimes, but it always ends up hurting more.

'Don't!' he shouts.

If he watches though... There's still pain, but at least there's no surprise when it comes.

'Sir?'

Disappointment and shouting and pain. The only variable is the intensity.

The figure in front of him has their hands up and has backed away.

'Sir?'

Jarvis? That's Jarvis...

'Jay?' he finally drags in a halfway decent breath.

'Sir, Captain Rogers does not appear to be a threat at this time?'

He blinks again and it's Steve in front of him.

'Steve?' his voice sounds broken.

'Tony,' he's glancing at the gun turrets, 'God, Tony, do you really think I'd hurt him?'

'Fuck,' Tony drops his hand and leans forwards against his knees. 'Fuck, I thought this had stopped... Fuck.'

'Dada?' oh, great, Pete just watched him completely loose his mind.

'Hey, kid,' he manages to straighten up but he can feel himself trembling.

'Dada?' he's at his side with his arms in the air wanting to be picked up.

'I'm fine,' he lifts his son into a hug and presses his face into his hair. 'I'm fine.'

'I'll go,' he looks up to see Steve looking devastated.

'No,' he blurts, 'wait. It wasn't you. I don't think you'd... I just... You sounded just like Maria. I mean my mother. Her tone whenever she... When she was about to... I'm sorry. It wasn't you. Please don't go.'

Steve looks massively conflicted.

He takes a deep breath,

'I'm sorry. Especially for the guns. Jarvis, fuck, stand down. I appreciate it, buddy, but let's not shoot him, ok?'

'Of course, sir,' the guns retract.

Another deep breath.

'Do you want me to go?' Steve asks but takes a step forwards, his hand twitching towards him.

He's shaking his head wordlessly and remembering that night he called the suit on Pepper.

'It's alright,' Steve another step towards him. 'You're alright, Tony. Just breathe.'

He nods, his gaze still fixed on the other man as he hugs his son.

Pete leans back in his arms and pats his chest,

'Dada?'

'I'm fine,' he summons a smile. 'Everything's fine.'

'Did I do something bad?' Pete gazes up at him.

'No,' Tony swallows. 'No, you weren't bad. You're not in trouble. Just don't go in that cabinet again, it's got lots of glass bottles in it, ok?'

'Ok,' Pete gazes up at him.

'You want to go and play, squirt?' Tony glances at Steve and lets his son down.

'Ok,' Pete smiles at him for a moment then goes to his toy boxes.

'I'm sorry,' Tony tells Steve again. 'I thought I was past having...'

'It's fine,' Steve has gotten even closer.

'Jarvis nearly shot you!'

'No he didn't,' Steve disagrees. 'He backed you up but he never would have shot me.'

'I'm such a mess...' he rakes his finger through his hair and that's apparently Steve's breaking point.

He's tugged against warm, solid muscle and hugged.

'You're not,' Steve almost growls.

He sighs and wraps his arms around Steve's waist,

'Hey.'

'Hey,' Steve murmurs into his ear. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

'Nope.'

'Do you want me to shut up and just keep hugging you?'

'Talk, please,' Tony doesn't beg. He sighs and closes his eyes as his head rests against Steve's chest, 'Say something Captain America-y; recite the constitution or something.'

'Ok...' there's a small pause. 'Not all of us can storm a beach, or drive a tank, but there's still a way all of us can fight.'

'Oh my god...'

'Series E defence bonds: each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun.'

Tony leans back far enough to stare into Steve's face.

'We all know this is about trying to win the war. We can't do that without bullets and bandages, tanks and tents. That's where you come in,' he summons up a winning smile to emphasise his speech. 'Every bond you buy will help protect someone...'

'You still have this shit memorised?' Tony interrupts with something resembling a smile.

Steve huffs a breath,

'It was the most Captain America-y thing I could think of without breaking into song. And it made you smile so...'

Tony pulls away from him fully this time and scrubs a hand across his face.

'Do you need anything?'

Tony just shakes his head and doesn't meet Steve's gaze,

'I'm fine.'

He can practically feel how Steve isn't convinced. In the edge of his vision he can see Steve trying to catch his eye so he fixes his gaze on his son instead. He's lining up cars, probably ready to send them all shooting across the room.

'What do you need me to do?' Steve asks again.

Tony realises he has one hand pressed to his arc reactor and his other arm is hugged around his waist.

He forces both arms to his sides.

'Tony?' Steve takes a step closer.

He sways towards Steve before he realises what he's doing.

Steve pulls him back into a hug that has his face tucked against the bare skin of his friend's neck.

He lets out a long sigh as Steve pets his hair and slumps against him, knowing his weight is nowhere near enough to knock the soldier from his feet.

'Hey,' he may allow himself to press his nose against Steve's skin.

He must be allowed a free pass when he's just had a panic attack, and Steve doesn't normally read anything into his overly tactile nature.

'Hey,' he can feel Steve's voice vibrating his nose.

Ok, he may have just nuzzled Steve's neck.

Time to pulls away again before he can take any more liberties

'I'm just going to play with Pete until Rhodey gets here,' Tony rallies enough to throw up his media smile. 'You can go polish your shield or whatever.'

'Oh,' Steve looks confused and then gives him a wonky smile. 'Ok, I'll see you later then?'

'Sure,' he goes to sit with Pete and doesn't let himself watch Steve go.