A New Friend And A New Uncle
“Is he asleep?” Steve asked cautiously, making sure to keep his voice low so as to not wake up Tony. Natasha stood up from her spot at the kitchen table and checked on him, he was snoring softly on the couch and was curled up into a ball, his torso was laying flat on his stomach with his arms tucked underneath him and his legs were curled up next to his body. He looked so uncomfortable and Natasha cringed knowing his back would be killing him when he woke up.
She walked back over to the others, “He's sound asleep.” She said softly. The Avengers all let out a soft sigh. They had been doing so well and then it all just went so wrong.
After his accident Tony had taken a nap because he'd exhausted himself with all the stress and emotions. While he napped the Avengers contacted Doctor Strange to see if he could make the spell disappear faster. Natasha and Thor didn't think it was a good idea, the spell was going to wear off naturally, why rush it? But Steve felt it was best to get this over with already, he was… uncomfortable, with little Tony and just wanted normal Tony back already.
Clint and Bruce were indifferent to the entire thing. Bruce was a little uncomfortable but they all were so that was okay. Clint had joked with him a bit but overall left him relatively alone, feeling like big Tony wouldn't appreciate him hanging out with him while he was like this.
Because of Steve's want to rush this and get it over with he fucked them all over in the long run. Doctor Strange came to visit them and attempted to fix the spell Loki had put on Tony, but he ended up just making it worse because he severely underestimated Loki and just what spell Loki had used. He ended up fucking it all up and now Tony would be stuck like this for an extra day, not a few hours.
Doctor Strange left shortly after, he originally offered to attempt to lessen the time, now that it was his spell he should be able to reverse it, but Natasha shut that down immediately, not wanting to accidently add more time to this. Now they were stuck with the little Tony for a lot longer than they would have if Steve had just calmed down and waited.
So now the Avengers were sitting at the dinner table, contemplating where to go from here. They knew they had to call Fury but they didn't really want to. They knew they would be in for hell if Fury found out they had caused Tony to be stuck like this longer because they were impatient. Steve sacrificed himself and bit the bullet and called Fury. He took a deep breath and put Fury on speaker.
“What is it now?” His rough but smooth voice came over the phone, they could also hear what sounded like… scrubbing? It clicked in Clint’s mind that Fury was probably scrubbing the crayon off his walls and it made him wanna laugh at the idea. Fury, Nick Fury, scrubbing red crayon of his walls because a child– he knew Tony wasn't really a child right now but he was damn sure close –has colored it onto the walls. Steve let out a shaky breath and spoke “There has been a new situation regarding Stark…” Fury was silent and then he spoke “Fuck… what is it now?”
Everyone had anxiety and the tension was thick as Steve spoke “He's going to be stuck like this for a day longer than we originally thought…” The line was completely silent, even the faint scrubbing sounds were gone and it was quiet, it made them all feel sick and then the string of curse words came before he began chastising them like they were children who had misbehaved.
After a few minutes of being absolutely verbally beaten he spoke, “Why? What even happened to make him be stuck like this longer?” Steve felt his stomach do a flip at the question but he answered anyways. To say Fury was pissed would be an absolute understatement, he was above livid, the Avengers were being screamed at over the phone and they honestly deserved it. While they were getting chewed out a certain someone started to slowly stir awake.
He let out a little yawn and sleepily rubbed his eyes as he sat up. His slightly curly hair was sticking up in places and he lazily turned his head to see the cartoon on the TV. It was a blue dog and a man in a green shirt. It was cute and it gave a warm comforting vibe that invited Tony to lay back down and suck on his pacifier while he relaxed and watched the cartoon.
He liked having a pacifier, even though he was three and a big boy so he shouldn't have it. Daddy would be so mad if he saw him like this, laying on the couch lazing around, sucking on a paci and watching baby shows. He'd be seeing the darkness of the closet and feeling it’s cold, unforgiving, hard floors under him if Daddy were here. He felt a cold chill down his spine as he thought about it. It made him want to snuggle up further under the fluffy blanket he'd been given.
He did the opposite though and he got off the couch and quietly crept to the dining room. He peeked his head into the room and saw them sitting at the table and heard someone yelling at them over the phone. It scared him, who was yelling like that? Was it his daddy? Was it that Fury guy? It made his tummy do flips and made him wanna throw up.
He then noticed Clint was staring at him, he squeaked when he noticed Clint was eyeing him and that got the rest of the Avengers to look at him. His heart dropped. He was terrified, he'd been caught eavesdropping! His Daddy would have tanned his behind good for this. He didn't know if these people would do that but he wasn't willing to find out. He stood up– when had he crouched down? –and ran out of the room.
As Tony booked it back to the couch Clint giggled at the display, he had to admit it was pretty cute and he wasn't exactly opposed to having Tony like this a little longer. He was kinda cute like this and the little guy was honestly starting to grow on him. The way he absentmindedly babbled to himself when he thought no one heard, the way he pulled at the edge of his shirt when he giggled, the way he looked so starry eyed and innocent. It was all too much, he was a cutie.
Clint sighed and he was honestly pretty bored of sitting at the table with the rest of the Avengers. He'd zoned out half way through Fury’s rant and he honestly didn't care about the rant at all. It wasn't his fault that Tony was stuck like this longer so he didn't understand why he was also getting yelled at. He stretched and stood up to leave the room, the others gave him confused looks but he ignored them.
He went to the living room to see what Tony was doing, when he entered the room he saw the little guy curled up under his blanket, watching blue's clues. It made Clint smile and he didn't understand why. He walked over to Tony and sat down on the floor next to the couch and decided to watch blue's clues with him.
Tony gave him a confused look and tilted his head, like a puppy. It was adorable to Clint and made him smile. Tony looked even more confused at the smile and gave Clint a weird look. Clint just shook his head affectionately and went back to watching the TV. Tony slid off the couch and sat next to clint.
He gave Clint a confused look and Clint gave him a slightly amused but confused look back. Tony pulled his pacifier from his mouth and spoke. “Why do you have those thingys on your ears?” He asks gently as he pointed to Clint's hearing aids. Clint smiled at him and spoke softly and gently, “I do a lot of cool hero work and one time on a mission a bad guy made a really big explosion and it hurt my ears so badly that it made it hard for me to hear for the rest of forever, but these ‘thingys’ are my hearing aids, they make it so I can hear properly again.” He smiled at Tony as he answered.
Tony gave them a curious look, “can you take them off?” That question drew a chuckle out of Clint and he spoke “yeah bud, they come off. I take them off sometimes because everything is so loud so I need a break, so I take my hearing aids off and I don't gotta hear anymore.”
Tony giggled quietly “if you don't like someone you can just take them off and you don't gotta hear them.” Clint giggled right along with him “don't tell anyone, but I do that all the time, when Colson or Fury is yelling at me I just turn my hearing aids off and pretend I could hear them.” Tony giggled louder and kicked his feet a little, that made Clint genuinely smile at him, God he was being too cute.
It was weird for Clint, Tony was different but he didn't look different, he looked and sounded like Tony but he acted like a three year old boy and it made Clint wanna treat him like a three year old, but everytime he looked at the little kid all he saw was Tony staring back. It was kinda freaky but he got over it quick when Tony popped his pacifier in his mouth.
It really made him look so much littler, he seemed so happy, it kinda made Clint sad. Tony had never seemed so happy before. This version of Tony was smiling and giggling, and the Tony he knew would never giggle so openly. When Tony laughed he always put a hand over his mouth to muffle it, like he was embarrassed about it. Clint noticed Tony didn't do that when he thought the Avengers weren't around.
It made him wonder what they did wrong to make Tony self conscious. He had a hunch it was Steve's fault, Steve used to make comments to Tony, say things like, “not everything is a joke Stark” and after so many of those comments Tony started to hide his laughs around them. It made Clint mad to think about. ‘Why was Steve such a dick sometimes?’
Clint didn't like Steve all the time, but especially when he fully thinks about how mean Steve can be sometimes. He understands that Steve is struggling to adapt to having to live in a new century and, he's worried about so many things and, he's had a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders, but that still doesn't give him the right to treat others however he wants.
Clint ran his fingers through Tony's hair and repressed a laugh when Tony whined and then pouted at him. ‘just like a real little kid' he thought to himself as he played with Tony’s hair. Tony yawned and leaned up against Clint’s shoulder and 15 minutes later, he was being laid back down on the couch, getting swaddled in his blanket and his pacifier lazily bobbing in his mouth every so often.
Clint could get used to this.