Bruce
„… and when you’ve got this screw lose, you need to be careful with the metal plating. The wires here get easily tangled and we don’t want that. Got it?”
Bruce had to blink several time to process what was happening in front of his eyes: Tony Stark was explaining how to perform maintenance measures on DUMM-E to a three month old baby. No, not ‘a’, his baby girl.
The infant did not seem fazed by the mechanic’s technical terms, but instead bathed in his father’s attention. Securely strapped in her seat, she wiggled gleefully with tiny arms and legs whenever Tony waved with his screwdriver whilst talking and incoherent sounds bubbled from her mouth whenever she felt like contributing.
Now the bio-chemist understood how Pepper did not seem overly worried when she sometimes left for unavoidable CEO-business for a few hours. Not that he had ever doubted his friend’s fatherly abilities but the way he tended to explosions while not taking care of himself simultaneously… well… the workshop simply had never seemed like a child-friendly environment.
Noticing his own fond smile, Bruce pushed himself away from the doorway. Bright blue eyes caught his approach first and gave him a delighted squeal. He was still wary around the infant because of the Other Guy but she did not seem to mind at all. Just like her parents.
“Oh, look! Uncle Brucey has dared to come down to our secret lair of awesome!” Tony made sure to look at his child while talking to her and then turned to the proclaimed ‘uncle’. “What’s up, buttercup?”
“Dinner is ready.”
“Who cooked?”
“Steve.”
The answer seemed to please the man because he turned back to his daughter hand held his palm in front of her. “High five, darling! Tonight’s edible nom-nom.”
Bruce only shook his head and huffed out a laugh. “Meet you two upstairs.”
Clint
It was late, when Clint came back from his latest mission and all he wanted to do was raid the fridge for leftovers (hopefully pizza), shower and then sleep for a week or two. He did not expect to see the kitchen illuminated at fucking 3 o’clock in the morning and most of all he did not expect Tony Stark carrying his sobbing infant and…
“So the compressor in a turbojet is driven by the turbine and that rotates at an enormous speed so it adds energy to the airflow which it compresses into a smaller space at the same time…”
Really? He explained the workings of a turbojet to a baby? Only Stark… Really. The archer laughed silently only to be baffled once more when the engineer paused his technical rambling to cradle his daughter a bit more.
“Come on, sweet pea! Yeah, I mean you, you little ball of cotton candy.” Tony all but cooed and kissed the girl’s nose. “Don’t you think it’s nappy-time? Yeahh you think it’s nappy-time! Daddy promises to cuddle with you but only if you stop crying. Mommy will cuddle too! But she has had a rough day and we need to be really quiet…” His voice turned lower towards the end of the sentence until it was only a whisper. And the kid, she seemed awed by her father’s technique and now silently reached out to boop his nose.
Stark himself smiled at her as if she were his moon and star – which she probably was. Clint had never seen the man so enraptured. Not even with Pepper or his tech.
Who would have thought? He knew Natasha had been regretting her assessment of the genius for some time now but this was still a sight to behold.
With a last look back to the strange pair, Clint left for his floor hoping he would find a lonely candy bar or a pack of potato chips somewhere in his cupboards.
Natasha & Steve
“I still think you favor your left foot too much and…”
Natasha fell silent when Steve touched her shoulder and slowed down, activating stealth mode out of habit. When she shot him a curious look, he lifted a finger to his lips which where curled into a cryptic smile.
Slowly, they walked further into the living area into a better hearing range and… The redhead pulled out her phone and activated the video recording function before they approached the scene:
Tony was lounging on a couch, his daughter securely in his lap. They were watching The Lion King and the inventor was holding back manly tears while the infant only beamed at the pretty little animals wiggled her limbs to Hakuna Matata.
“Seriously, how is that a movie for little children? It’s traumatizing!” The genius huffed and blinked a few times before pressing a gentle kiss on his baby-girl’s head. “But you’re safe. no mean uncle here except for uncle Clint because he’s a giant a… butt. And if someone would try to harm you and mommy and I are not there to help, I bet aunt Tasha will totally go Mulan on any predator… or future boyfriend. Wait! Forget that word. It’s a bad word! Repeat after me, darling: I don’t want a boyfriend until I’m 30.”
The girl only looked up at the kiss and gave her father a toothless grin which he mirrored.
“I’ll take that as a yes. And remember: If you ever meet a boy not as flawless as your uncle Steve, ditch him. You deserve better.”
At that, Natasha looked up to see said uncle’s smile freeze and cheeks blush furiously. A quiet chuckle escaped her lips as she poked him with her elbow.
Steve’s small subsequent “Hey!” eventually gave them away.
“Oh my God of Thunder! How long have you been filming Romanoff?!”
With an eyeroll and a huff she turned off the recording and put her phone back. “Long enough to prove everyone you’re a total sap.”
Exasperated, Tony covered his daughter’s ears. “Don’t listen to her, darling. Aunt Tasha is a liar.”
Aunt Tasha just smirked wickedly.
Thor
“… so when you move your hand like this, the sensors will pick it up and create an intricate web of several light beams and voila, your mobile is back online. Pretty ingenious, huh?”
Thor smiled fondly and took the new stack of Pop Tarts from the toaster to join them at the kitchen table. Stark had been teaching his little princess the workings of holographic projection in a most patient manner.
Expectedly, the little one did not answer his questions but seemed content enough just to sit in her high seat and suck on her favorite pacifier: Winnie the Pooh Bear in an Iron Man Costume. But now, at his return, the little girl showed interest in his colorful pastries and made grabby hands after it.
“No, are still too sweet for you, darling. Plus: Thou shall not take a God’s Pop Tarts. It’s an old proverb.”
At her indignant flailing, the Thunderer handed her the box and hoped the vivid pictures would suffice.
And it did! She happily stared at the pastries and sometimes gave a quiet squeal.
“Sheesh! No daughter of mine should be lured by shiny pretty things.” Her father murmured in mock-exasperation and shook his head as if he could not believe what he was seeing.. “You’re lucky, you even are perfect beside this flaw…”
Pepper
When she came out of the bathroom, Pepper halted in her steps.
“You know, the other fish had no right to be this mean to the rainbow fish just because he didn’t give away his shiny scales. Maybe those were his armor. Can you imagine? The decrease of physical defense might be too high and next time he leaves his cozy coral reef, some stupid seahorse knocks him over. Or worse:” He made a theatrical pause. “a porcupine fish! ” The baby on Tony’s stomach patted her father’s cheek and gurgled in reply.
The book about the rainbow fish lay discarded on the night stand next to them while the genius, billionaire, ex-playboy, philanthropist and superdaddy discussed another side of social inequality with his infant.
“But after giving away his scales, the rainbow fish has so many friends. I’m sure they’ll protect him.” Pepper shot back with a smile and a wink while crawling next to her most precious beings.
“Don’t listen to mommy. She just wants daddy to be nicer to other people.” At her chuckle, he changed his voice to stage whisper which their darling baby-girl seemed to enjoy verily. “She just doesn’t know that all my niceness belongs to you.” He bopped his daughters nose while she used her hand to pat the blue glow of the Arc Reactor through the fabric of his shirt.
“Yes, that’s right, sweet pea. All my niceness for you is in there.”
“I think you will have to give her one of your spares once she gets her own room.” The woman with strawberry red hair chuckled gently stroking the soft down on her daughter’s head. “She always has a hard time falling asleep whenever her favorite nightlight is still down at the workshop.”
Tony
Tony sat up breathing heavily and trying to shake off the disturbing feeling of fire and falling. Pepper did not seem awake and JARVIS was not yet giving him place and date so at least he hadn’t been screaming or something. That was good. But he had the distant feeling, that something had woken him before the really shitty part of his dream. The answer to this question came in way of wining that sounded from the bassinet right next to their bed.
Still a bit jittery, he immediately moved from the bed to the cradle to look after his sniveling child. “Hey, sweetie.” he murmured. “What’s up? Huh?” His voice still sounded a bit tight, but the longer he looked at her, the more he relaxed.
Carefully, he picked his daughter up from her bed sniffed at her to find the source of her misery and gently held her in his arms when he did not detect a smelly butt. The soft wails receded immediately and she just looked at him with glittering eyes through the blue glow of his Reactor.
“Bad dream? Do babies have bad dreams? Anyway, daddy understands.” he started to ramble in a low voice, slowly walking out of the room so they would not wake Pepper. “But it’s getting better. Daddy is having less bad dreams. Probably because mommy and you are around. And the rest of this… nuthouse.” He smiled at her when she stretched her little fist towards something that wasn’t there.
“Bwwwt!” She said.
“Yeah, bwwwt. You bwwt the bad dreams away all by yourself. Protecting daddy.” He laughed and she met his eyes. The fist bopped at his chest and for a moment, there was nothing but silence between them.
“Da!”
Stunned, Tony looked at his daughter. Did she really just… “Did you just… did you just say ‘da’?” Apparently, she found his expression extremely funny because soon she was bubbling drool through her smile. “You said da! Can you say it again? Da!”
“Da!”
“Can you say ‘Dada’?”
“Da!”
“Okay, princess, no pressure. Da is great. Da is amazing. You are amazing!” When he kissed her forehead, he felt proud tears worming their way into his eyes. Manly, proud tears, but tears nonetheless.
