A/N - I am sorry I haven't uploaded in a while. Though this came to me a lot faster than i expected it too. I recently had some time to restart some writing on Erin and this is what came out. She is eight in this so she is quite a bit older than I usually write her. First hint at Tony Robot making and some Pepperoni fluff Clintasha fluff will hopefully next chapter. Don't hold me to that. :P P.S this is more of a milestone for Tony than Erin. First solo babysitting.

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All4TheBest


TECHNO TROUBLE

Why Tony Stark should never be left in charge of Erin Barton


The smell of bacon lifted up through the tower and hit the twitching nose of the young child who was pretending to be asleep at the given moment. A small voice groaned as a pillow was placed in front of her face in a want not to rise for the day. The smell was closer now and the girl reluctantly moved the pillow away to glare at the man who was now sitting on the edge of her bed eating a piece of aforementioned bacon.

"Some of us are trying to sleep." She groaned out as she herself sat up. The man turned and sent her a smirk making the child growl. Her blue eyes searched the man's brown trying to get her point across. The man just raised one eyebrow with a wider smirk and the girl sighed in defeat.

"Can I at least have some bacon if you are going to wake me up at an ungodly hour?" She asked and the man just shook her head before she huffed in annoyance and wiggled from underneath her blankets. She grabbed a piece of bacon out of his hand as she walked past.

"Hey," he protested but the bacon was already hanging out of the girl's mouth as she smiled around it. She pulled out her clothes for the day and turned to face the man who was now lying over her pink bedspread. The entire room was a pale pink and decorated in a way that was much more suited to an adults taste than to a child's. The sole light in the room was a three pronged chandelier; the bed was a normal sized four poster bed with pink drapes and the carpet was a tan color that seemed slightly pink most days due to the overwhelming amount of items in the room that were pink.

Erin's small child's favorite color was in fact not pink, the girl found it to be a completely over used favorite color of girls. When her father and her had moved into the tower however, Tony, believed all girls should get pink and refused to let her paint her room green or yellow the girls two favorite colors so she dealt. She walked over and jumped on the foot of her bed leaning over Tony to smack his cheek lightly.

"Why am I up at five thirty."

"Because Pepper just left for the office,"

"So,"

"That means I am the only adult in the tower."

"Movies?" Erin asked with a smile and the man just nodded. The two moved to the in tower theater where they used the lazy boys that lined the room as replacement beds as they munched on sugary cereal an curled up with overly large blankets. The first they watched was Iron Giant, witch after being shown the movie by Erin, Tony admitted he did resemble the main character. They only got though part of The Terminator before Erin's wrist watch went off.

"It's time to get ready for the day." Erin said.

"Make sure you wear something warm its cold out." He told her with a smile as she pushed him.

"It's December of course it is cold out dunderhead." She said shutting the door behind him. There was a knock followed by.

"Language." The man called.

"You're one to talk," the girl called back. Stripping herself of the oversized black shirt, that had once belonged to her father, she had worn and slipping out of the small pajama shorts she slipped into a more weather appropriate outfit. She loved the winter; it was her favorite time of year. She loved dressing up in layer upon layers of clothes being bundled up so tight it felt like a portable blanket. She also loved the fact winter meant Christmas.

After she ran a brush though her hair quite a few times she tugged her hat on her head and wrapped her scarf around her neck. She grabbed her backpack near the door skipped her way to the kitchen.

"Morning," Tony said with a smile he did not have back in the theater room.

"Good morning. What has got you in such a good mood?" The girl asked climbing into her own seat as her guardian dished her out some pancakes and scrambled eggs. "Scratch that you're in a really good mood," she said as she began to eat.

"Is there something wrong with being in a good mood?" He asked with a smile, "at six ten in the morning yes." The girl groaned and he just reached over and nudged her with his elbow.

"But we have something to celebrate. I was thinking that maybe you should stay home from school today. We can celebrate and finish watching The Terminator." He said and the girl chocked on her pancakes.

"Are you crazy!" Erin yelled completely scandalized. "I have not missed one day yet, you are not making me miss one now are you insane?" She asked and the man let out a laugh.

"Most children would be happy for a skip day." He said with a smile.

"When have I ever been considered, 'most children'?"

"I concede." Erin said with a smile. There was a crash down stairs and hearing it Erin took off in a run to see what was happening Bruce and Tony behind her. She jumped on the railing for the stairs and slid down amidst protest from the two scientists. Slipping to the glass door she called to Jarvis to allow her entry, the A.I did just that opening the door.

"Reset the system J.A.R.V.I.S." She called knowing that would keep Tony and Bruce out of the room for a few minutes. She slipped deeper into the

"Resetting system,"

"J.A.R.V.I.S, why is Tony making a robot?" Erin asked leaning over the table to peer at the silver man below.

"For entertainment I believe Miss. Barton this is not Mr. Stark's first attempt. " The A.I informed her, Erin poked at the metal a red light came from the robots head.

"Threat detected." The robot said in a detached voice that made Erin shiver.

"Um…. J.A.R.V.I.S," Erin called.

"Yes Miss. Barton," The A.I answered.

"Can you shut him down?"

"System is rebooting Miss Barton."

"Shit,"

"Language Miss. Barton," The A.I said, about a year and a half ago when the Barton's and Natasha, considering that despite Erin's wish and all of the Avengers probing her father had yet to propose to Natasha, moved in Tony programed the A.I to work as a disembodied guardian for the red head to make sure that she got away with practically nothing in the walls of the tower.

"Threat detected, must engage," The robot said in mantra as he walked closer to the girl.

"I am too young to be married." Erin attempted hoping that like the A.I Tony had given the robot some type of humor. When the metal hand clasped around her throat she figured that she was wrong.

" .V.I.S HELP!" The red head called as the robot lifted her into the air by her throat. With a hand on each side of the robots arm she tried to figure out a way to fight back as she worried what fighting back would do exactly. As she contemplated what to do while struggling against the grasp a blue ball of energy collided with the robots elbow detaching the arm and sending Erin to the ground. She scrambled to hide under an the nearest desk in the lab cowering in the small leg space.

"Threat detected, must engage." He called once again. Erin let out a scream as the robot pushed the desk over and loomed over her again.

"Threat detected, must en…ga…" It said as it bended at the hips before collapsing over the eight year old who was still screaming, Tony Stark practically leapt from his computer to the robots side pushing it off the girl.

"UNCLE TONY!" The girl cried throwing herself into his arms. Tony pulled the girl against his chest as he moved to sit in a seat the girl weeping in his lap until Erin closed her eyes. He asked J.A.R.V.I.S to call up the blueprints he worked on redoing with one arm as the other supported the young girl. Three hours passed as Tony held to the now sleeping eight years old before he nodded off as well. At lunch a very peeved and very pregnant Pepper Potts came back to the tower. Apparently since Tony decided to disregard the calls from Erin's school J.A.R.V.I.S had forwarded the call to Pepper meaning the red head had to deal with the fact Tony had not done the simple task of making sure an eight year old got to school. Then Tony had not answered any of her calls.

"Anthony Stark you better have a good explanation for not answering you're…." She began as she marched down the stairs.

"My God, TONY!" She called and her tone was enough to wake the only partially asleep man slumped backward in his chair.

"Suuuush Pep, you'll wake Erin," He said twisting his neck to pop it sleeping in desk chairs was a common practice for Tony Stark and one, he amended he needed to stop years ago. "It's my entire fault Pep, I am going to destroy that thing as soon as she wakes up."

"You don't have to Uncle Tony; I shouldn't have been playing around. I know the rules." Erin said sleepily. That much was true, she knew the labs where off limits all of the time, there where to many experiments that could be dangerous for her to be running around. She knew the rules and she had broken them.

"Hey Kiddo, how long have you been up?" He asked his voice still soft his own sleep still in his tone.

"A few minutes, Aunt Pepper is loud." She said as she moved to sit up and get off his lap Tony's arms just tightened around her though. Erin was momentarily surprised. Tony disliked physical contact. A rare hug after hard missions was really all Erin was able to get from the man. Here she had ruined one of his shirts and fell asleep in his lap yet he still was protesting her getting up. She figured it was the parent instincts emerging in him. After all she knew it wasn't long before Pepper's due date. She was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth however as she snuggled deeper into his arms. Her parents where on an extended mission and had been gone for almost three months. She video chatted with them three times a week but it wasn't the same, Uncle Steve had been gone for two weeks on mission and despite his solider persona he was usually the most open to hugs and physical contact. Bruce was stand offish because of the other guy, Thor was gone most of the time and rarely spent time at the tower. So despite not being scared of the man Erin still did not know much about him. Tony was somewhere in the middle of Steve in Bruce, he reluctantly accepted contact but never initiated it. Erin's eyes swept the damage of the room before they landed on the clock that read twelve thirty. She pushed herself from her honorary uncle's lap and rounded to face him.

"You Made Me Miss School!" She announced and Tony and Pepper let out laughs as Erin huffed. She decided that she would protest ever being baby sat by her Uncle Tony again because he had no regard for her perfect school attendance record. She told her the rest of the team as they trickled in for the Christmas holiday's weeks later and everyone shared a laugh. Tony's robot stayed locked up in the lab for years before he decided to try and fix it but he never got very far before he scrapped it and made one that had more intelligence. That endeavor did not go very well, but we will save that story for another day.