#tsbflash

There’s a floating free space this round, but I haven’t decided where I’m gonna use it yet.

“Any second choices?” This was from Bucky, who had his chin in his hands and looked absolutely enthralled by everything that Morgan was saying; she’d had him wrapped around her finger from the first time Tony had brought her into the shop, cell phone in one hand, briefcase in the other, and Morgan cradled against his chest in her baby sling. 

“Hmmm.” Morgan wrinkled her nose, perusing the menu. “A cheeseburger!” 

Behind her, Tony rolled his eyes, fighting back the fond smile that threatened to cross his lips. “Now you’re just being silly. Come on, Morgan. Give Bucky your order.” 

Morgan hemmed and hawed a few more moments before finally settling on an açaí juice. (She was a weird kid. Tony had never been more proud.)

“You got it, pumpkin,” Bucky assured her, already sliding over Tony’s completed coffee without him having to place the order. “Hey, Stevie,” he called, toward the back room. “You got any cheeseburgers for the rabid mongoose?” 

“I’m not a mongoose!” Morgan protested, still giggling as Steve came through the swinging door with a tray balanced in his arms. 

“I do not,” he admitted regretfully. “I do, however, have a fresh batch of ginger cookies. And I think…” He squinted a little, carefully examining the tray. “Yep, I think one of them has your name on it. Literally.” 

He tilted the tray toward her, and Morgan’s eyes went wide as she spied her name, spelled out in bright orange frosting. She mouthed the letters to herself before turning to Tony with big, hopeful eyes. 

“Please, Daddy? Can I have the cookie? Pretty please.” 

“You're gonna spoil your dinner,” Tony protested, more because he thought he should than because he had any actual intention of not giving in. “Fine,” he added with a heavy sigh. “Just the one, though. I mean it, Morgan!” 

Morgan just nodded, only half listening and she stood on her tippiest of tip toes, taking her drink and her cookie and carrying them with painstaking care over to her favourite table. “Thank you, Daddy,” she told him. “You’re the bestest!” 

“Oh, hey,” Bucky teased, giving Tony a wink. “You hear that, Stevie? We’re in the company of the bestest.” 

Tony rolled his eyes at them and didn’t even attempt to hide the way he preened at his daughter’s compliment. “I am the bestest,” he informed them loftily. “And you two need to stop spoiling her, seriously. This is not conducive to good parenting.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Bucky just waved him off while Steve gave him a smart-ass grin. 

“That’s your job, Tony. We don’t have to worry about parenting.” 

“Eat me, Rogers. Besides, I’ve seen the way Sam looks at you when you’re hanging out with Morgan. I give it six months tops before he starts bugging you to wrangle up a couple kiddos of your own.” 

Bucky waggled his eyebrows at him. “He’s got you there, Stevie.” 

Steve didn’t bother to deny it. “Oh, hey, speaking of eating you,” he said, earning him a perplexed eyebrow raise from Tony. 

“And bets,” Bucky interjected. They both turned to him with creepily angelic looks on their faces, and Tony felt a headache coming on. 

“When’s your boyfriend coming by?” 

“Jesus Christ,” Tony muttered, pinching his nose. “For the billionth time, Rhodey is not my boyfriend. Didn’t one of you enter an active war zone to save the other one? You’d think if anyone was able to understand the power of platonic male friendship, it’d be the two of you.”

Steve shrugged. “And yet.” 

“To be fair,” Bucky added. “Morgan does refer to you as her two dads.” 

“Sounds like romance to me,” Steve added. 

“She’s four,” Tony protested. “She got a little confused by the concept of a godfather. Cut her some slack.” 

The two baristas both scrunched their noses up. “Did she though?” 

“And there goes your tip for the night,” Tony told them. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take my coffee and go sit with my daughter, who I like much more than either of you.” 

“Ooh. Burn,” Bucky said dryly. 

Tony was saved having to respond by Morgan’s sudden squeal of, “Uncle Rhodeyyyyyy!” and he glanced over his shoulder in time to see a whirl of purple as she launched herself at the man in question. Rhodey was beaming as he caught her easily, hugging her tight and then spinning around in circles so that her little legs flew out behind her and the shriek of her laughter filled the small cafe. 

Tony couldn’t help smiling at the sight of them. Pepper had never wanted kids, and when she’d ended up pregnant there had been a lot of discussions of what they were going to do. While she was very much a regular presence in her life, she wasn’t a parent, and Tony had never regretted that decision. It didn’t mean he hadn’t been batshit terrified the moment the tiny, wrinkly little baby had been placed in his arms. But Rhodey had been there right from the beginning, stepping up before Tony even had a moment to shoot him frantic puppy dog eyes. He’d fallen in love with Morgan just as quickly as Tony had, and he’d been with them every step of the way. Tony knew that Steve and Bucky just liked to fuck with them, but really, he could understand why Morgan had gotten the role of godfather and actual father confused. 

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he grabbed the second coffee that Bucky was sliding over and made his way over to them. Rhodey had slung Morgan over his back and she was draped over his shoulder telling him some long story about her adventures in the ocean with an octopus. 

“Thank god you’re here,” Tony breathed, taking a sip of his coffee and letting the sweet, sweet caffeine wash over him. “The children are acting up tonight.” 

“Children, huh?” Rhodey arched an eyebrow at the counter and Tony glanced over his shoulder to see Bucky and Steve standing side-by-side at the counter, waving and smiling sweetly. Tony rolled his eyes and Rhodey shook his head. “Must be a full moon.”

'Oh... whoops?', Tony thought as he stared blurry eyed at a square-ish  robot chirping and rolling around his workshop. DUM-E was seemingly attached to that yellowish bot’s metaphorical hip and in the corner Tony could see a white hovering oval-shaped  bot quietly exchanging beeps with U and Friday.  

“FRI, baby girl, where do those bots come from? Do I have to pay someone to keep this shush shush?”

The slight static rumbling indicated his girl’s chuckling. Tony felt a wave of pride flooding him when she replied cheekily, “Only yourself, Boss. And maybe the rest of the family.”

Tony tried to look put out by this reply, he really tried, but when the yellow bot came to him and blinked with it’s big eyes, he couldn’t stop the big ass grin.

And if he cooed, that was no one's business but his.

“Hello, hello. And who are you?”

“WALL-E,” answered the small bot, outstretching its claw and reaching for Tony’s stained jeans. As soon as the name registered, the engineer realized what he had done.

“Oh. Oh god. Note to self, never watch movies with robots in them while running on 2 hours sleep for 57 hours and an unholy amount of coffee.”

“You want me to mark that done, Boss?”

“Na, it’s fine, Baby girl.” Then Tony turned back to the bot, who still looked at him with big, oh so gullible, eyes. ‘Gosh this bot is going to be the death of me.’

“Hello, Wall-E, you’ve  already found friends here?”

“Wall-E!” 

“Dum-E and you are probably best friends by now.” The happy chirp sound coming from both bots was confirmation enough. Tony loved his bots dearly, and adding one or two more didn’t seem such a bad choice now that the engineer got to talk with one. Just as he decided that yes, he would find room for the two new additions to his bot family, the second one, Eve if he remembered correctly from the movie, came over.

Tony watched and waited, curious to see how they bots interacted now that he was around.

Eve made a smiley face when Wall-E chirped at her and then turned to him, saying, “Hello Ton-E. I’m Eve. Thank you for housing us.”

Tony was taken aback by Eve’s articulation skill. None of his former bots had been that expressive. But alas, none of his bots had been programmed to act quite like Eve either.

So, after collecting himself, he smiled gently, reaching out his hand until Eve touched it in a mimicry action. Only then did he say, “You’re most welcome Eve. I hope you and Wall-E will come to love it here. But fair warning, I’m a bit loud sometimes.”

“That, boss, is an understatement.”

“Hey!”

The equivalent of laugher was heard from all corners of the shop as all the bots chimed in.

It ended in Tony sitting sulkingly on his chair mumbling, “Betrayal, from my own blood! How dare them all. That snark, that sass! Unbelievable.”

But all the bots knew he didn’t mean it, and those that weren’t sure, like Dum-E and Wall-E came rolling and doing what equals cuddling to him until Tony was laughing with them.

Throughout the day Tony managed to sort out a section for Eve and Wall-E to stay at, without the other bots intruding on their space because, -”No Dum-E, Eve and Wall-E’s space is their space because they are like me and my love. No interrupting while love time.” - and get to know the newest additions to his family.

In the evening he asked into the room, “What do you all want to do?”

Yes Tony had to do some SI stuff, and Avengers gear updates and -tomorrow waits for no one, love- , but he had decided that spending time with his family was more important. Seeing as his love wasn’t around at the moment, he sure as hell could spend his free time however he wanted.

In the end, they all watched a movie together. Wall-E and Eve, as the honorary new siblings, had picked it. The name was Big Hero 6.

As soon as Tony's eyes lay on the marshmallow like bot; as soon as Friday commented that he looked oh so lonely, Tony's head filled with schematics.