Post Civil War

“Morning, Bruce” she greeted casually much to Alfred’s surprise since they haven’t seen each other for almost half their lives and Master Bruce came home from his nightly adventures quite late the night before, he turned also with a ready greeting and didn’t even miss a beat when it wasn’t the ‘Bruce’ he was expecting, “Good morning, Dr. Banner” and turned back to his task of grinding the grains of coffee. This might present a problem and awkward situations in the future, he thought to himself even if Alfred was sad to even think that, in normal circumstances, Ms. Anastasia would have enjoyed the confusion, now she didn’t even acknowledged the potential for mischief that opened.

“Good morning, Toni, Alfred and good morning, Royce” he stretched his arm to mess a little with the girl’s bright blonde hair much to her chagrin.

Bruce was completely baffled when Alfred simply took the plate and the cup much faster than he thought anyone should be capable of before he could even completely reach for said items but the message was clear: Alfred would do it not him, once again ignoring laugher at his expense, this time from his adoptive daughter, for not knowing what a butler even did, he took the seat next to Toni to wait for his breakfast, four years ago that made him uncomfortable, nowadays it just made him sigh a little and he had to admit that sometimes it was good to be pampered.

Dressed in his usual button down with the sleeves rolled up and social pants, he stole some glances at his wife, worried about the stress lines and deep shadows, the pale skin and the way her clothes sagged a little from her shoulders. But he had to admit that comparing it to the image he had of her from a couple of days ago when they video chatted she actually looked better and then he winced for the fact that how she looked now was actually an improvement.

“Master Bruce regrets that he will be unable to attend today’s breakfast” Alfred broke the silence while putting a plate of hash browns and a huge omelet down along with two mugs, one coffee and one tea.

They thanked him and Bruce would have been impressed that he didn’t even have to say anything about his preference but cringed a little at ‘Master Bruce’ even as he felt better when he saw Toni’s lip twitching a bit with his reaction, this will be so weird.

“Mr. Wayne is your cousin right, Toni?” Royce turned to the woman whose eyebrow raised a little.

“Second cousin to be more specific, who told you that?”

“Ms. Potts said that we would be staying with your cousin for a couple of days before he takes us to another place of his”

Toni grimaced; it should be her to explain the situation to her kids instead of relying on Pepper… again, “What is a second cousin?” Royce asked after a moment.

“Our mothers were cousins, my grandma and his grandma were sisters, that made our mothers cousins and that makes us second cousins” she explained when Royce still looked a little confused.

“How come you never told us about him?” she was curious, Toni was always open and she never seemed annoyed with all her questions, even daddy sometimes rolled his eyes at how much she talked but to be fair, Harley talks as much as she does.

“You never asked” she smirked a little at the girl that was pouting now.

“Do you have any other family, Toni?” that made the billionaire pause a little.

“Through my mother, Bruce Wayne is my second cousin as is Bette Kane but we only meet in family functions and…it’s been a while since the last one, because of the age gap between us we are not close, uh, Kate Kane is another one, I kinda miss her to be honest, and then I have a couple of relatives through marriage, through my father’s side, I have an uncle, he lives in German with my cousin and I also have a brother”

Bruce knew all that so he barely even glanced up, he was more surprised by the fact that Toni could have steered the conversation off of family entirely, she has never liked to discuss them and after what happened, it must be excruciating talking about it, reviewing the conversation in his head, he realized that Toni was more numb than anything else, so whatever pain, or more likely, displeasure she might feel about the subject was on the background for now, he could only hope that when the wave finally crashes, he would be able to help her.

“What are their names? What do they do?” Royce was bouncing in her seat, she didn’t know that Toni had other family, since their adoption, they got used to seeing Colonel Rhodes, Ms. Potts and Happy, sometimes Colonel Danvers visits with Colonel Rhodes and sometimes Dr. Cho comes to talk with Bruce about boring work but mostly it has been Harley, Bruce and Toni in the Malibu Mansion. And Peter but he wasn’t even there most of the time since he went to school in New York so he stayed at Stark Mansion and Toni alternated between Malibu and New York.

Royce would never say anything to Harley but she often got lonely back in Rose Hill, it was always just them and daddy and daddy was always working.

“My uncle is Edward Stark, he sold his part of Stark Industries to my father because of lack of interest in the business world and became a politician in German, he is a philanthropist and works alongside the government as a consultant now that he is retired, his son, my cousin, is called Morgan…our relationship is complicated, we have never been close, not even as kids, he is working for Siemens, it’s an electronic company, last I heard he made his way to the board of directors” she stared at her coffee before taking a sip.

The nine year old mulled over this, “And your brother?”

“He is my older twin and his name is Arno, right now he is preparing to leave the hospital. There were… complications in his birth so he spent all his life in a hospital but now he is better but still has to go slow” she explained before Royce had the chance to ask.

“Will we meet them? What about your… relatives through marriage?”

At this Toni had to smile a little, it felt strange in her face, “One day perhaps, my Uncle Edward probably, not sure about Morgan, Arno will want to, Bette and Kate…I am not sure, it’s been many years. Bruce has an Aunt and a Granduncle, Agatha and Silas Wayne, I met her only once…it was an interesting experience and Silas babysat me once when I spent my summer vacation here”

Satisfied with her answers, Royce’s eyes landed on Bruce next who let out a sigh at her expectant look, “I also have a cousin, her name is Jennifer and she works for Stark Industries, climbing her way up actually. An Aunt, Susan Banner and an Uncle through marriage, Morris Walters he is a sheriff, we…it’s been a while since we met”

Nodding to herself Royce was interrupted by her brother, already showered and changed, dirty blonde hair dripping wet much to Alfred’s displeasure, “Good morning, Mr. Keener”

“Morning…Alfred, right?”

“Indeed, sir” he put a hot chocolate in the counter just as Peter dragged himself into the kitchen.

“Well but don’t you redefine the meaning of ‘sleeping beauty’?” Harley teased the older teen that managed to grunt out something definitely impolite.

“Good morning, Mr. Parker” Alfred ignored the teenager banter with a lighter feeling; he didn’t think he would have that with Master Bruce’s current relationships.

“Er…morning…”

“My name is Alfred Pennyworth, you may call me Alfred” he placed a second cup of hot chocolate at the table, ignoring the incredulous look Peter threw towards Toni who just shrugged.

Another pitter pater of socked feet and Master Jason froze at the door at so many strangers, “Good morning, Master Jason, Master Bruce won’t join us for breakfast today”

“Uhum”

“Those are Master Bruce’s guests, Dr. Banner, Mr. and Ms. Keener and Mr. Parker and Master Bruce’s cousin, Ms. Anastasia”

“Toni is fine” at the tired voice, Jason's head snapped towards the only woman.

Of course he knew who she was, and who Dr. Banner was but…they looked so different from the last time he saw them on the news.

Toni Stark was always in an impeccable professional suit, sometimes flashy like the red and gold one from her first ‘post-Iron Woman Revelation’ but more often dark blue tones, black, grey, sometimes white… when she wasn’t in her metal badass, he had to admit, Iron Woman suit. And then Jason sometimes saw her in one of those long dresses, always with a very vibrant red lipstick and a cheeky smile that reminded him a little of Bruce Wayne ‘playboy’ persona, but hers was sarcastic while his was airheaded. She was wearing an ACDC black t-shirt that was a little too big and jeans shorts, barefoot and a messily braided hair, unlike on those, very funny, interviews, gala functions or when she was out flying around, she looked exhausted. Too pale and with the look of someone that hasn’t slept in days.

Bruce Banner on the other hand was looking healthier. Jason still remembered the interview in 2012 after that alien invasion in New York, he had just been adopted and Bruce – he was still ‘Mr. Wayne’ back then – was watching TV with an expression that he later learned to identify as concern. Dr. Banner looked haggard and beaten down, in ill-fitting clothes, worry lines all over his face and with shadows so deep under his eyes that it looked like he would pass out at any second, to be honest he looked a lot like how Toni Stark is looking right now, the only difference is that instead of looking pale as a ghost, his skin showed marks of constantly being in the sun, now he only had a healthy tan, back then he looked like someone already past middle age and he was what? 32? His face smoothed out too, dressed in expensive looking clothes and his hair well combed into dark brown curls.

Jason eyed the kids. One was a young girl, younger than 10 he was sure, long light blonde hair that was brushed away from her face, still in pink pajamas, the boy next to her looked his age, 13 or so, dirty blonde hair almost as curled up as Dr. Banner’s, already dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and the older one wasn’t much taller than him, younger than Grayson, he was sure. Dark brown hair, just a shade lighter than Dr. Banner’s, straight and clearly he just woke up and came down to the kitchen because it was still a mess.

“Hi, my name is Royce” the girl introduced herself, looking at him curiously, “Jason” he took the plate Alfred offered and decided to just roll with it.

Life was weird; having breakfast with people he never met had nothing on spending his nights in a traffic light colored costume.