Lucky Thirteen

"So, for someone who's interested in somebody, you haven't said much about him since Sunday," Betty said casually, coming into their shared office. Bruce looked up from where he was grading finals with a raised eyebrow at the woman's observation. "Have you even spoken with him since? Have you settled how you're going to have your first date?"

Bruce shook his head and looked back down at the paper on his desk. He had told Tony he could call him in a few days. That was Sunday morning and this was Wednesday morning. He didn't think it constituted freaking out about it just yet.

"Did you even give him your number?" Betty suddenly asked and he looked back up at her in amusement.

"No," Bruce replied. "But even if he wasn't a tech genius who could probably…" He looked around the room with a shiver of realization. "…who could probably spy on me without my even knowing it, I'm sure he knows how to find my number and any pertinent information he needs from my application or, this little thing called a phone book."

"Well, an internet phone book," she corrected. "Okay, I know. I'm just so excited for you. It's a little thrilling. A serendipitous meeting with a dreamy billionaire and a long distance romance? It's not like you at all. It's not practical. I'm impressed."

Bruce snorted at her assessment of the situation. "You mean a serendipitous romance between two men who might just be a little crazy if they think this is a good idea," he said dryly. "And, no, I guess it isn't like me. But maybe I'm due a little joie de vivre recklessness." He shrugged.

"More like overdue and for more than just a little," she countered with a warm smile.

He opened his mouth to respond when their attention was turned toward the door. The receptionist was standing there with a delivery man. His brow furrowed and he stood to his feet as the receptionist gestured to him. The delivery man came over and Bruce was too stunned to react.

"Delivery for Dr. Banner," the man said with a smile and held out the vase of roses. Bruce blinked a few times before taking them. "You have a wonderful day," the man then said and left again with the receptionist.

"Bruce!" Betty looked at him with wide, marveling eyes as she hurried over.

Bruce wasn't sure what he was supposed to do other than question reality. He looked down at the lovely roses in the equally beautiful complimentary vase – or, well, he's sure the vase was part of the cost – and noticed the card taped to the front. He tentatively opened it and, as he did, his face began to twitch with the beginnings of a smile as it all started to sink in.

Bruce,

I couldn't find a picket fence... Not sure if you're a flowers kind of guy. You seem like a flowers kind of guy, but I could be wrong. I just like giving gifts (fair warning) and what's more classic than a dozen roses? Only that's a little boring so I thought a baker's dozen might be more fitting in our particular situation. They say 13 is unlucky, but something tells me you and I aren't exactly normal so it's probably lucky for us. So yeah. Flowers. Hope you like them. Actually there was another purpose to this. Not sure when you're free for me to call and email seemed a little impersonal. My personal number is 237-8275. I'm a CEO so my hours are flexible during the day. Give me a call. I'm looking forward to working out when we can see each other again.

Tony

P.S. If you hate flowers just tell me. Honestly I've been with men, but I've never done the dating thing with a man to this extent so feel free to tell me if I'm screwing it up majorly. My ego can handle it.

Bruce was aware he was grinning a little too much like a schoolboy at the moment as he finished reading the handwritten note in the card. He committed Tony's number to memory, laughing a little when he realized it spelled out AESTARK, and then looked at the flowers.

"Thirteen roses," Bruce said in slight awe at the gesture.

"No way," Betty responded in disbelief. "That's so sweet. May I?"

Bruce nodded and handed her the card as he moved back to his chair. He stared at the flowers for a good long moment as Betty made little squeaks over the message from Tony. Finally he couldn't think of any more reasons to delay the moment. He reached for his cell phone and dialed Tony's number.

His breath hitched slightly when he heard Tony's voice on the other end; he'd replayed the sound of Tony's voice over in his mind since returning home, but his imagination wasn't as good as the real thing.

"Hey, Tony. I love flowers."

"Okay, okay," Tony said laughing as they sat at the small restaurant that Bruce had picked just outside Willlowdale.

It was a quaint place and exactly the kind of restaurant Tony had envisioned Bruce picking. It wasn't a hole in the wall, but it wasn't exactly five-star. It had made him smile a little that he had already guessed Bruce's general tastes. It was a nice, casual place just right for a first official date.

He tried to stop laughing long enough to continue. "So you're telling me that you actually tricked your entire dorm into thinking you built a functioning teleporter?"

"I did," Bruce said with a wry smile and a shrug. "And I got away with it for weeks until finally the level of gullibility was just too much. I decided to say it broke before somebody tried to submit my name for some Nobel Prize. I actually had a few offers," he finished with a laugh of his own.

"That is unbelievable." Tony shook his head, still smiling in amusement. "I bow to you because that's impressive. You're an actual troll aren't you?"

Bruce shrugged slightly. "Maybe a little," he admitted.

"That’s excellent," Tony said and rubbed his hands together in an exaggerated show of scheming as he tilted his head and studied the physicist.

"Oh no," Bruce deadpanned. "I'm going to regret this."

Tony smirked. "Maybe a little," he echoed. He took a drink before continuing. "Okay, so my turn," he said. They were taking turns sharing random bits and pieces about themselves in a way that Tony thought felt completely natural and not at all awkward like his last few dates. "I actually really like flowers." He hitched a shoulder.

"Yeah?" Bruce asked with a raised brow. "Does it have anything to do with your wife? Dr. Hansen had a degree in botany right?"

Tony smiled at his casual knowledge of Maya, not to mention interest. Most of his last dates had closed off awkwardly, unable to handle the topic of his late wife. He wasn't sure if they'd felt like they would just be second choice or what, but Bruce didn't seem to have that kind of reservation.

"Um, it's perhaps a little to do with her, yeah," Tony answered. "She could name pretty much every plant by species and tell you their function. But maybe because she worked with them, she wasn't what you would say sentimental about flowers in the usual way. If I gave her a dozen roses, she wouldn't really see the flowers so much a romantic gesture as what the scientific properties and uses of those flowers were," he explained. "Which… Yeah I loved that about her so maybe that's why I'm a little partial to them on a more, uh, aesthetic level I guess you could say? Well, that and our three daughters have flower middle names so I also relate flowers with them."

He paused and for a brief moment felt slightly insecure. "I hope that doesn't lessen the gesture of my sending you flowers too," he offered quickly. "I don't want you to feel like—"

"It doesn't," Bruce interjected before he could finish that line of thought. "You like flowers. You equate flowers with special things. I think if anything it makes me feel special," he said reassuringly. "Besides, you don't know enough about me yet to get me something that I might prefer so it's okay, Tony. And I really did love the flowers. I… I thought it was romantic."

Bruce said it like he wasn't accustomed to someone showering him with romantic gestures – frankly, Tony thought that was criminal and had to wonder about how many blind men there were in the world if a guy like Bruce hadn't been snatched up and hoarded like the treasure he obviously was. Tony gave a small internal laugh at his own corny thoughts and decided that he was selfish enough to be grateful for the amount of stupidity and blindness that existed in the world for once.

"I like learning about herbs and plants in general for health purposes. I have an herb garden actually." Tony came back to the present and Bruce was still rambling as if trying to prove to Tony he had liked the flowers. He smiled softly at the effort. "But honestly I do think flowers are beautiful and I like nature in general." He paused and furrowed his brow. "Although you probably gathered that from some of the ideas I shared with you in Germany. I'm curious about your daughters' middle names by the way," Bruce added and though it was said at the end, it didn't sound like just an afterthought; his tone was genuine curiosity.

"You know, I don't know if I would call myself a nature guy intrinsically," Tony admitted. "I couldn't tell you a thing about herb gardens and camping, hiking? Yeah, that's a chore. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors. But in doses. I'm admittedly spoiled. Dad didn't take me fishing, he took me yachting… because it was good publicity for me to be at the party and posing like a happy family.

That said, even if I believe in tech and the future and I guess to a healthy extent industry, I wouldn't be in the clean energy business if I didn't agree with you that the world would be better if it was greener. The Maria Stark Foundation donates millions of dollars a year to build green parks across the country, especially in inner cities because it's important to me that we pave the parking lots and put up paradise instead," he mused.

"That's a nice sentiment," Bruce said with a thin smile.

"You're probably a Joni Mitchell fan aren't you?" Tony asked with a studious glance.

"Guilty."

Tony considered the point further. "You know, one thing I love about being a billionaire is having a large home with gardens, access to the ocean and scenic trails. Wanda owns a horse and houses it at nearby stable even, so there's really no shortage of outdoor activities. I can get the outdoors without the roughing it." Tony suddenly laughed a little as he realized now he was the one rambling as if trying to prove a point and Bruce was the one smiling patiently. "That was not meant to sound that boastful by the way," he backtracked.

Bruce shrugged. "Maybe not, but it sounds nice. I'd boast." He paused. "Although, you should maybe know now… I like fishing," Bruce said with a gleam in his eyes. "And I used to think it would be nice to own a log cabin somewhere. Somewhere to escape from it all," he said, still smiling in amusement.

"Oh, well, that's the deal breaker," Tony said with an exaggerated shrug before letting himself smile broadly. "No, see, in reality all that tells me is you and me are potentially looking at a romantic cabin get away some time in the future."

"Careful. I might hold you to that," Bruce said playfully.

Tony liked the implication. "I hope you do," he said. "So as for my daughters' middle names," he started, not having forgotten Bruce's curiosity, "there's Skye Daisy, Wanda Lily, and Darcy Rose. Maya and I didn't set out to do the themed middle name thing, but Wanda didn't have a middle name when we adopted her so we thought maybe it could be a way to help her feel included if we gave her a flower middle name too. Then Darcy was born and we kept the theme."

"I like that. Beautiful names," Bruce said just as their waiter returned with their meals.

They remained silent for several minutes as they took the first few bites of their respective meals.

"I like to read," Bruce offered eventually. Tony raised a brow. "One of the things I like," he elaborated, "is books. I mean I'm kind of a bibliophile. I can't help myself. I relished escaping into books when I was a kid," he explained and in spite of the reasons for it, Tony thought it sounded like a good memory that he had managed to hold onto. "One of my favorite things to do as a dad is sharing some of my favorite classics with my kids, depending on their reading comprehension levels. Right now I'm reading the Anne of Green Gables series with my youngest, Jemma. I'm maybe going to miss it a little when she doesn't ask daddy to read to her every night," he then said with a small sigh as he took another bite of his food.

Tony looked down at his plate and nodded. "Yeah, I understand. I'm kind of wondering what empty nesting will feel like after having so many children," he said, sharing one of his biggest fears because it felt safe to do so.

He had a fear of not being needed anymore by his children. He had a fear of a very large, empty mansion when the kids all moved out on their own, even if they did visit regularly. He had a fear of growing older without finding anyone else to share his world in those lingering later years. But as he looked back up and saw Bruce nodding with a look of absolute empathy, he suddenly had hope that maybe he wouldn't always be alone.

"I tell myself I have 10 or 11 years until Jemma graduates," Bruce said soberly, "unless she graduates earlier of course," he added with a small smile."But even that doesn't seem very long when I think about how it feels like just yesterday Steve was only a little baby fighting to survive. The years just fly by."

Tony smiled softly and reached one hand across to squeeze Bruce's forearm where it rested against the table. "Other parents have survived," he said, willing himself to sound hopeful for the both of them. "I'm sure we will too no matter how impossible that seems now."

Bruce looked down at Tony's hand on his arm and then looked back up and their eyes met. The physicist smiled thinly and placed a hand atop Tony's in an equally reassuring gesture. Their eyes remained fixed on one another in this state for a moment longer before breaking away and returning to their meals and easier conversation.

Though the topic changed, Tony felt pretty certain that there had been an unspoken promise between them that no matter where this thing went, they would be there for one another as friends and maybe that would help ease any future struggles they both went through as fathers. Of course, there might have even been an unspoken hope that this thing did go somewhere and that this was just one of the potential struggles they would share together.

The restaurant that Bruce had picked was near a canal. He might have picked it for that purpose which is to say he might have picked it in hopes of extending their first date beyond just a casual dinner to a casual stroll along the canal. Thankfully his pick had not been in vain and he found himself walking alongside Tony in the growing dusk as the atmosphere of night life along the canal – which included many couples like themselves – filled his senses. It was calm and relaxing and, of course, his idea of romantic.

As they walked they filled the space around them with more tidbits about themselves by asking one another random questions.

"You don't have to answer this one," Tony hedged on his next question, "but what was your mother like?"

Bruce smiled softly. He missed her and there was so much sadness in their short life together, but it was an easily answered question just the same.

"Beautiful. Inside and out," he started. "She deserved the world and maybe the moon to go with it. She was like… She was like a lullaby. I know that maybe sounds weird—"

"No, not at all," Tony interjected. "Lullabies are… They're safe, soothing, familiar."

"Yeah," Bruce confirmed softly. "I think a small part of her still loved my dad simply because she didn't know how not to. I wish she hadn't of course, but most of what I remember of her is just love. So much love. She loved me and did everything she could to protect me. God, she gave her life to try and protect me. She was brave, strong, a… a hero really. I wish I could have been the hero she needed…"

"You were just a kid," Tony said soothingly, brushing their arms together as he leaned in to say it. "That's not a kid's job." He shook his head and straightened again. "I should know. I think my dad wanted me to be perfect. Wanted me to, I don't know, probably be some kind of Golden Child savior before I could walk or something. Because that's the only way I can imagine I would have lived up to whatever expectations he had for me. But I was a kid and I couldn't do it."

Bruce looked at him in empathy. "You're right. It wasn't our job. But you did do so much, Tony. He might not have seen that or made it clear that he saw it," he hedged since he hadn't known Howard Stark personally to know if it was just a matter of not seeing it or not being able to show it, "but others did and it doesn't change what you achieved." Bruce paused. "Okay, what's the achievement you are most proud of? Because that's what matters to me and I'd love to know."

Tony looked at him, blinking before looking back ahead of them as they walked. "Achievement I'm most proud of?" He echoed the question.

"Besides your kids," Bruce added.

"Okay. Well, my dad actually came up with arc reactor technology and I just sort of perfected it," he said easily with just enough ego. "So I can't say that. But I wouldn't anyways. I think that honor probably belongs to JARVIS."

"JARVIS… He's the AI you created in college right? The one on your phone?" Bruce looked sidelong at him.

"Yeah, that's him. He's way more advanced now than when I built him, but there's still room for improvement. I update his code once or twice a year, make improvements, and check for any bugs or lapses I might have missed or inadvertently caused with past improvements. He's constantly evolving. Eventually I'd like for him to be able to do that on his own. To self repair, suggest his own updates, that sort of thing. He's almost there, but not quite." He paused. "Uh, mostly because—"

"Skynet?" Bruce asked teasingly.

"Yeah. Maybe," Tony answered with a chuckle. "He's already pretty sentient so it might be too late. Fair warning," he joked. "But I don't know if I want him to have that much self-awareness as his main function is still to help protect me and my children. But, yeah, he's my greatest achievement. And there's maybe a little sentimental value since Jarvis was the name of my butler growing up."

"You had a butler?" Bruce probably shouldn't have been too surprised.

"He was more than that," Tony replied in a fond tone. "Sometimes he was all I had."

"Oh." Bruce knew that Tony was asking for him to feel sorry for him, but he did feel sad for him.

"When dad was being dad and mom was… burned out from trying I guess."

"I'm glad you at least had him," he said honestly and Tony looked slightly surprised. "You know, you said you wish we could have been friends and you're right. That would have been nice, but not just for me. You needed someone too."

"You don't really have to do the poor little rich boy thing," Tony said, sounding uncertain.

Bruce reached over and squeezed his arm, taking him slightly by surprise given his expression. "I know. That's not what I'm trying to do, but our situations weren't so different." He shrugged.

"How do you figure that?" Tony asked curiously and with one swift movement moved Bruce's hand down to his own and linked them together as they continued to walk. Bruce smiled softly, more than okay with the change.

"Our fathers didn't know how to be fathers and you mentioned your mother tried even if she wasn't perfect." Tony nodded gently. "We had people that weren't our parents take over for them, Jarvis for you and my extended family for me. We were both troubled even if in different ways. We both were in our fathers' shadows. We both needed a friend," he explained. "But I think the most important things is we both turned out okay," he finished and squeezed Tony's hand.

They were silent for a moment as they continued to walk. Bruce was still musing on the similarities between them in spite of how different their backgrounds were. He had never given much thought to fate and coincidence and serendipity with the exception of how his adopted kids were brought into his life – and even then he wished Peter and Natasha had never had to go through the pain they did to get to him – but there was a small part of him that was starting to feel as though he had been meant to meet Tony just as much as he had been meant to have seven kids. Ever since Tony's speech at the airport Bruce couldn't deny that what was spurring him on in this crazy venture was how much he didn't want to miss out on what maybe was always meant to be a part of his life. And as crazy as it seemed, walking hand in hand with Tony Stark felt like something that was always meant to be a part of his life. The only thing that dimmed the feeling was wondering how long it was meant to be part of his life.

"I think they have the right idea," Tony said, gently interrupting his thoughts.

Bruce could hear the smile in his voice and looked to see him nodding up toward a walking bridge. There was a younger couple lost in what looked like a tender kiss. Bruce nodded in agreement, a smile touching his own face.

Bruce wasn't surprised when Tony stopped walking as they moved into the low lit underpass beneath said walking bridge. He stopped as well and turned to look into Tony's eyes, dark and inviting, before closing his eyes in tandem with Tony's. Two of their hands were still linked as they melted into the kiss, the kiss that would maybe tell them if the spark that was there in Germany was still there after they'd left the bubble of that place. And because the spark was most certainly still there – god was it there – Bruce's other hand moved into the short hairs at the nape of Tony's neck and Tony's free hand moved to cup his face as if both wanting to hold the other in place for as long as they could.

"This is right isn't it?" Tony asked breathlessly against his lips, neither of them moving very far apart when they broke the kiss. "It still feels right?"

Tony sounded hopeful. Bruce wasn't sure why he needed the reassurance at this point, but he wasn't one who could judge where that matter was concerned - especially since he was reassured that Tony wanted that reassurance.

"It does," he said in a low voice and then their lips were together again for another kiss, slow and meaningful.

"Another date?" Tony asked the next time they pulled apart, this time breaking away entirely so that they could regain their senses enough to continue their walk.

"It might still be crazy," Bruce said with a small, breathless laugh. "But yes. Definitely yes."

"Look at you, man." Rhodey broke through Tony's thoughts.

He was cycling through a bunch of gift ideas he'd narrowed down to give to Bruce on their second date. He knew it wasn't probably normal to give a gift on a second date, but this wasn't a normal second date and he now knew more about Bruce beyond a general appreciation of flowers so he definitely wanted to give him a gift. He kept coming back to a book. The only problem was he wasn't certain Bruce didn't already own it, if he was a self-professed bibliophile, and it was maybe a little more personal to himself since it was one of his favorites growing up.

Tony shook his head at the holographic screen before swiping it away. He then turned his attention to Rhodey. He had a weekend leave to spend with Sam, but had obviously not expected to have to play wingman when he'd gotten there.

"So," Rhodey continued now that Tony was paying attention to him, "you meet a guy at a conference. You ask the guy to come work for you. In a bizarre twist of fate that only you could have met with because let's face it, Tony, it's you, the guy has seven kids. And now you've only been on one date, but you're scrambling about like if either one of you proposed tomorrow it would be the most normal thing in the world." Rhodey shook his head with a bright smile. "Heads up, if you need a best man I'm going to need at least a short notice to request an extended furlough."

Tony shook his own head even as he ducked it and smiled a little too much at Rhodey's ribbing.

"I'm scrambling because I'm nervous," Tony admitted.

"Yeah, I gathered that," Rhodey said mercilessly, albeit in good-humor, as he sat down in a nearby seat. "So what's got you nervous? You've already spent, what, you said three days with the guy? And you've been on one date. Sounds like it's going okay. And I'm pretty sure it's the third one that's the tell-all, not second," he added in jest.

"Hilarious," Tony deadpanned.

It wasn't that he hadn't given any thought to that but he wasn't going to insist on sex just because of some rule. They were already so compatible he was pretty damn certain they would be physically compatible too. It just made sense the way everything was going. And Tony didn't play by rules anyway so like hell he was going to let that be a tell-all regarding their relationship. Tony cleared his thoughts of that, because again he had thought about it - after all, who could blame him? - and now wasn't the time

He sighed, returning to the point at hand. "I'm meeting his kids tomorrow."

"You're kidding?" Rhodey looked as skeptical as he sounded.

"Nope."

"On a second date?" Rhodey pressed on dubiously.

"Yes." Tony fixed him with a look that said 'which part of this isn't clear?' "We decided that it's better to bring the kids into this sooner rather than later. Since, well, it's clearly a bigger issue for us than other couples with kids. I want to meet his kids and he wants to meet mine." Tony paused and articulated his next point with his hand, thinking it through even as he spoke it. "I think we're doing a lot of this on sheer instinct maybe. Because everything so far has been a lot of just going with it and taking chances. It's all been a little unorthodox maybe. But at the same time it feels right. And it felt right bringing the kids into this. So, yes. I'm meeting his kids tomorrow. Going to his house for dinner." He didn't miss the way Rhodey's eyebrows shot upward impishly. "And yeah I'm pretty sure this is the equivalent of going to meet his parents… only maybe worse because I'd rather face a shotgun than seven disapproving children," he ended with a small laugh.

Rhodey laughed outright as his dithyramb came to a finish. "Okay, yeah, yeah. You've got it bad." Rhodey sobered up again and looked at him with a genuinely friendly smile. "But I'm happy for you. You deserve this." He then gave a shrug, palms rising upward slightly. "Or you deserve to have your head examined because the dude's got seven kids. But good luck. What about your kids? How are they taking it?"

"Well, Skye's okay with it. Wanda is too. Probably the only thing they agree on," he said bemused. "Not really sure where the others stand yet. I don't want to push them too hard. I get that just because I've found someone doesn't mean they share the sentiment of trying to move on." He paused and hitched a shoulder. "But Pepper says I shouldn't give them too much leeway unless they absolutely hate the guy – impossible by the way – or it's hurting them too much. Otherwise she thinks this is a good step that Maya would want for them just as much for me. Frankly, I just think she thinks she's some matchmaker slash therapist all of a sudden since she told me to go to the conference."

"I agree with her actually," Rhodey said after a moment. "Not that you're not doing a great job on your own, Tone, or you're not fiercely loyal to Maya's memory, but I think whether it's this Dr. Banner or somebody else, you're not going to do the bachelor thing the rest of your life. I've never thought that."

"Really?" Tony asked in slight surprise.

"I always figured your loneliness would catch up with you again." He shrugged apologetically. Tony didn't make an effort to counter him. "And this is obviously the healthier option for you and your kids," he added with enough concern that Tony understood he meant the alternative could be a resurgence of his past vices. "So it's for the best that they see that now and come to grips with it."

Tony cocked his head back and looked at Rhodey with squinted eyes. "You realize you just made my earlier point about why Bruce and I are involving the children sooner rather than later, right?"

Rhodey's eyes darted slowly around as if considering it. He then snorted. "Well, there you go. Guess it's a fair point."

"I appreciate the seal of approval," Tony offered genuinely. He then looked down uncertainly for a moment. "Because eventually I'm going to want to bring him here to meet my kids next. And then if that goes well we're going to want our kids to meet. And…" He looked back up Rhodey expectantly.

"And then you become The Brady Bunch?" Rhodey asked teasingly. Tony frowned. "Look, if you're worried about Sam, I trust you okay?" Tony gave a sigh of relief, but Rhodey laughed. "I let you take my son to Germany, Tony. And he already met the guy there. It's a little late to be playing the responsible guardian card."

Tony's eyes widened and he barked out a laugh. "Yeah, didn't think that one through. Still it might be a little different inviting him, you know, into the safety of the home. So the point stands. And I wasn't sure how you might feel about Sam being caught up in our…" He searched for the right word.

"Three ring circus?" Rhodey asked with a raised eyebrow and smirk. "Yeah, I kind of gave up on worrying about that three or four tours ago. You know, that time the papz finally got a picture of him published and everyone wondered when you adopted a black kid?" He asked with a laugh.

"To be fair some of the smarter rags put two and two together that he was your kid—"

"And then proceeded to accuse us of having an affair," Rhodey reminded him, although Tony didn't need it.

They both started laughing at the shared memory of the ridiculous stories that had followed.

"Oh, oh, well… I hope you weren't really interested because, sorry, you missed out," Tony goaded through their laughter.

Rhodey shot him an incredulous look even as they still laughed. "I think the term is lucked out. Dr. Banner can have you."

Tony's laughter became the silent kind, his shoulders shuddering and his head shaking. "Good. Because I really don't want to have to give you the 'look I like you, but we're just friends' talk."

"What's so funny?" Sam asked as he came into the room in the middle of their conversation. He and Rhodey were about to leave for a father-son excursion, as Tony referred to it playfully; in actuality they were heading out to spend time just the two of them.

Tony's eyes lit up with a mischievous thought. He then glanced at Rhodey.

"Just talking about that time your dad and I were having an affair," Tony answered Sam's question in a conversational tone.

The expression on Sam's face Tony couldn't describe even if he tried. "Wh— I… What?" He looked back and forth between them as if pleading for it to be a joke. Finally Rhodey's straight face cracked and he started laughing all over again. "Okay, I'm gonna need facts," Sam said.

"Relax," Tony said with a chortle. "It was a rag spread about us. When you were younger the papz got a picture of you and me and thought it was because your dad and I were a thing."

"That's really not that much better," Sam said, flopping down in a seat beside his dad.

"Ouch," Tony said melodramatically. "Harsh. You know, I do let you stay here for free and give you all the things I give my own kids. I feel hurt that you don't think I would make a good catch for your dad… hypothetically speaking."

Rhodey snorted. "Emphasis on hypothetical. And oh so you're the catch?"

"Catch of the day maybe," Sam said, nudging his dad. Rhodey laughed in agreement and the two bumped their fists together, although they had their own more elaborate fist bump.

"Okay, see this is why I'm with Bruce." Tony wagged a finger at them. He looked at Rhodey teasingly. "So you're just going to have to crank up your Taylor Swift playlist and move on."

"Right. Right." Rhodey nodded. "I'll do that right after you're done listening to Justin Bieber to psych yourself up for your next date. We all know Boyfriend is your jam right now."

"Uh huh, yeah, well, while you two are busy being hip dads," Sam said, standing back up to his feet, "I'll be in the car listening to Trouble Man."

"Where did we go wrong with him, Rhodey?" Tony asked loudly over his shoulder as Sam left the room, shaking his head as he did. He then turned back with another small laugh. "So, you know, she wasn't my type, but I should set you up with Vice Principal Hill when you get back into town," he said then without segue way.

Rhodey raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, you should probably get through at least a few more dates before you do the thing."

"The thing?"

"Yeah, you know. The whole 'I love love and want all of my single friends to be happy too!'" Rhodey said it in a mocking falsetto that sounded nothing like him at all and ended it with a dramatic sigh. "That thing."

Tony waited a beat. "That wasn't a no."

Rhodey shrugged. "It wasn't a no," he agreed and Tony smirked.