Tony's Girls

By: InitialA

Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Marvel universe.

"I'm telling you, Daddy won't like this."

"And I'm telling you, it's going to be just fine."

"Didn't you read the notes on Uncle Peter's fight against Doctor Octavius?"

"And didn't you read what Doctor Octavius was trying to do? I'm telling you, with enough time to hammer at it, we can make it work."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yuh-huh." The twins glared at each other over their glasses as they carefully made their way down to Tony's private lab; pint-sized scientists that they were, their arms were full of papers.

The elevators were down for maintenance, and the stairs were not well lit. "Mommy probably figured out we were going to try nuclear physics next and purposely closed the elevator to Daddy's lab…" Tonia grumbled.

"She's in Colorado this week, dummy. She's not psychic," Cleo retorted.

"Yet."

Tonia opened the door to the lab floor, and they were met with the sight of Steve and Natasha, kissing. Both girls made faces. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!"

Steve jumped about three feet away from Natasha. "Girls! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!"

"You shouldn't be kissing Tyotia Natasha. Boys have cooties!" Tonia admonished.

Cleo grabbed one of Natasha's arms. "Quick, you need a cootie shot."

Natasha hid her amusement as Cleo performed the 'medical proceedure'. "And what will happen if I catch Uncle Steve's cooties?"

"You really don't want to know," Tonia said, with such seriousness that Natasha's mask almost broke.

Steve looked put-out. "And here I thought you stopped having cooties when you grew up."

Cleo regarded him solemnly. "You always have cooties. You have to be very, very careful about spreading them around."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"You know girls," Natasha said, snaking an arm around Steve's waist, "sometimes after people are together long enough, they become immune to that sort of thing."

Tonia and Cleo traded disbelieving looks. Natasha nodded. "It's true. And someday, you might find that it's worth getting cooties from someone."

Tonia stuck her tongue out. "Yuck."

Cleo shook her head. "No way."

A door opened down the hall. Tony stuck his head out, wiping his hands on a dirty cloth. "Hey. No parties without my express written permission."

"Daddy!" Tonia raced down the hall to meet him. "Look, I have a formula I want you to look at!"

Cleo looked back at her adoptive aunt and uncle before joining her sister, "Remember, Tyotia, that cootie shot only works against one infection at a time. No more kissing!"

She didn't hear Steve murmur to his lover, "I think we can risk it."

((I haven't seen the new Spider-man movie yet, but dammit all if I won't figure out a way to incorporate all of the Marvel movies together somehow anyway… And, for the etymology-inclined, 'cooties' were first coined in World War I, so Steve would be well-versed in cootie-lore. ;) ))