Chapter 22
Peter loved taking trips to Uncle Bruce’s lab. Tony couldn’t say he wasn’t pleased that his son seemed to have bonded so much with the man; Bruce needed more people in his life who loved him just the way he was.
"What cool things do you think Uncle Bruce is going to do with you today?" he asked as he carried the three year old down the corridor to Bruce’s lab.
"We gonna do duh ‘splosions!"
"Sounds great," Tony agreed, pushing the door open and carrying Peter into the lab. "We’re here, Brucie! Drop whatever you’re doing at a safe distance and come say hi to your favourite nephew."
"Unca Booooos!" Peter called, toddling over to Bruce at top speed once Tony let him down. “‘Splosions!"
"Hey, Pete!" Bruce grinned, leaning down to scoop the little guy up. "You want to create some explosions, huh?"
"Managable ones," Tony called after them. "Steve will kill me if you accidentally blow up our - put that back, Peter; we don’t touch Bruce’s things!"
In Bruce’s arms, Peter froze, a chubby hand halfway to grabbing a beaker of something green and particularly lethal looking. Before Tony could reprimand him about the dangers of touching unfamiliar things further, however, Peter’s bottom lip began to tremble and his eyes filled with crocodile tears as he turned in Bruce’s arms to face him.
"Sorry Unca Boos," he hiccuped, and Bruce shot Tony a panicked look.
"No, buddy, it’s okay," he soothed, and Tony rolled his eyes.
Peter was getting to be more and more like Steve every day with the guilt tripping. They were going to end up doing exactly what he wanted, danger be damned, and Steve’s wrath was going to be legendary.
Stupid, cute kid.