#darkly-stark

Tony’s eyes were threatening to slide shut, but he blinked heavily and determinedly kept them open. It was 11:53pm and he was not going to fall asleep before midnight, even though it was getting harder and harder to stay awake.

In the crib next to him, Bruce had already passed out. Clint was asleep too, snoring softly in his big boy bed. So were Bucky and Sam: they were sharing a bed tonight, both of them crammed into a space that was much too small, but somehow they made it work.

“Anthony? What are you doing awake?”

At the sound of the soft voice, Tony startled. He barely had time to look up before he was being picked up. Thor carried him out of the nursery before any of the other Littles could be awakened, pushing the door shut behind him.

“You should be asleep, little one,” Thor said softly, one hand supporting Tony’s diapered butt. He brushed a few strands of hair out of Tony’s face with the other hand.

“Wanna see midnight,” Tony said, rubbing at his eyes.

“I believe your mother told you that you weren’t allowed to stay up,” Thor said, but he sounded more fond than angry. “Come on, then. If you stay in your crib, you’ll wake up your cousins.”

He carried Tony down the hall and into the softly lit living room. It looked like his parents had been having a romantic dinner together; they were the ones who’d ended up stuck with baby-sitting duty, while all of Tony’s uncles and aunts went out for New Year’s Eve.

“Mommy!” Tony said, stretching his arms out when he caught sight of his mother.

“Tony,” Loki said with a sigh, rising from his place on the couch. “You are supposed to be asleep, young man.”

“It’s almost midnight,” Thor said. “We might as well let him stay up.”

“You’re too soft,” Loki said, rolling his eyes, but he sat back down. Thor sat next to him, letting Tony cuddle against the two of them. Tony leaned his head against his mommy’s chest, listening to the comforting sound of Loki’s heartbeat, clutching as his daddy’s hair with his hand.

Please ignore logic and any physical laws you’ve ever heard of. Otherwise enjoy :)

“So, what do you think?” Antonia asked curiously as she reached up and pulled a hairpin out of the elegantly twisted knot of hair on the back of her head.

“I don’t know,” Clint muttered distractedly. “Isn’t that-” 

The connection broke and for a long moment all Antonia could hear was heavy breathing and the grunts of two men beating the crap out of each other. She would have been been worried, except, well. It was Tuesday. Missions always did go to shit on Tuesdays.

“-two hours out of our way?” Clint finished a moment later. Out of breath but clearly not particularly worried, so Antonia chose not to ask and focus on the important part instead.

“Yeah, and?” She carefully fiddled with the hairpin. This was always the tricky part. You could have all the lasers and cameras you wanted, but at the end of the day nothing beat a good, old-fashioned lock. Nothing except a hairpin and patience that is. And certain heavier machinery, but that would have been damn hard to hide under her dress. “You’ve never cared about detours before. Or should I be worried that C with his lectures about responsible usage of resources is starting to get to you?”

That got her the expected snort--and a reassuring ‘click’ from the lock. Finally.

“I’m in,” she whispered under her breath and carefully opened the small casket.

“Good,” Clint replied. “Because we’re about to get a whole lot of company.”

Right on cue the alarm started blaring.

Antonia would have closed her eyes and started counting to ten if not for the fact that she was in a hurry. “What did you do?” she growled, as practiced hands quickly worked open the Japanese puzzle box.

“Look, nobody has four different alarm codes, alright? Three, okay, I can see that, but four? That’s just overkill!” Clint shot back, sounding simultaneously annoyed and impressed.

“Really,” Antonia drawled whilst staring at the tiny memory stick that was the cause for their ruined anniversary, “and what about a gigantic fortress in the Swiss alps did not scream “overkill” to you?”

Pocketing the stupid thing she slipped their calling card into the box and carefully closed the safe.

“I don’t know, the scenery is impressive. Coming out hot on the second level in three,” Clint panted. 

“Three it is,” Antonia replied before the comm link went dark.

Not at all worried--her man could take care of himself--she opened the grand, bulletproof windows and carefully secured her rope on the wall. Then she started counting.

Exactly two minutes and thirty-two seconds later she stepped onto the window ledge and peered down.

Now for the fun part.

Three. Two. One.

Antonia threw herself over the edge just as the windows two stores below her shattered and Clint fell out, yelling “I’m Batman!” at the top of his lungs.

Just for that Antonia was tempted to drop him after all.

*

“I still can’t believe you got a girlfriend,” Antonia grumbled whilst rubbing the last remnants of the snowball Clint had thrown at her out of her face.

“Psh, I don’t just have any girlfriend. I have the best girlfriend,” Clint announced utterly unashamed, with a ridiculously wide grin. “I’m gonna marry her one day.”

Antonia punched his arm hard. “That better not be a proposal, you jackass.”

“Trust me, sweetie, when I propose you’re gonna know it,” Clint smirked.

Antonia narrowed her eyes dangerously. “Call me “sweetie” again and you can walk home.” 

“You wouldn’t do that, would you?” Clint pouted. “Not when we’re about to make a small detour to Disney Land!”

“I thought it’s two hours out of our way?” Antonia retorted, trying and failing to suppress her smile.

“So?” Clint shrugged. “It’s our anniversary. Coulson will live.”

I love both of these ships, so much. Rhodey/Tony is just perfect, all that pining since MIT and being friends first, and for T’Challa/Tony I think they could talk tech all the time and T’Challa would treat Tony right, like he deserves.

I’m just imagining it’s a whole lot like watching The Abomination and Hulk fight. Except angrier. And, somehow, louder.

“We need to stop them,” Tony insists.

Bucky puts his hands on his hips. “Nah.” Then he shakes his head, repeating, “Nah. I think this is literally the best thing that has ever happened to me. All those times he got into fights he couldn’t win, all those times he fought me. I have lived to see the day when Steve kicks his own ass and I am going to enjoy every minute of it.”

Tony stares at him in horror before turning to look at Rhodey, brows furrowed together in confusion and hurt. “?!”

“I would never want you to fight yourself,” Rhodey says hurriedly, clutching Tony to his chest, then gives Bucky the side-eye because what the fuck kind of friend was that.