Chapter 1
"We lost sight of him Tony" Steve muttered
"Shit- Fri, run a scan, any suspicious heat sources in the neighborhood, check the cameras too." Tony heaved a sigh, hardly believing they'd let the guy off so easily "Anything?"
"There is a single source of heat coming from the alley to your left, sir"
Tony raised an eyebrow looking towards the alley "Idiot, he cornered himself. Leave him to me" he walked slowly through the entrance to the narrow alley, making sure to make noise with his heavy suit, warning and intimidating anyone who was inside. Tony reached out, making sure not to aim in the exact spot because he wanted to see the guy's face, fair combat.
The moment the explosion hit the dumpster he had aimed at, the deafening roar reached his own ears, his own heart froze when, instead of seeing a criminal come out of hiding, he heard a high-pitched whine that could only have come from a puppy, coming from behind the adjacent dumpster. He walked towards the bin, peering over the lid and his heart broke into so many pieces that he could barely breathe properly as he stepped out of the iron suit and walked around to stop in front of the black garbage bag that was shaking in a way garbage bags shouldn't.
The man knelt down carefully, preparing himself for what he would find cruelly tied inside that bag, he ripped a part and opened it. His eyes immediately met the wide, wide brown eyes of a small boy, messy, tangles brown curls and... two tiny, dainty little ears on top of his head.
"Hey little man, how are you?" He said in the sweetest voice he owned and little did he know he had since he had never used that voice with anyone. "Who did this to you, man?" All he got in response were fat tears running down the little boy's face.
Tony mentally cursed himself, he just traumatized the poor kid "I won't hurt you, kid" Tony tried to reassure him "I thought there was a bad guy back here, you're not a bad guy are you?"
"Tony?" Steve called entering the alley and walking over to his friend who was kneeling behind the Dumpster, muttering things to someone "What there was? Did you get him?"
Tony looked at Steve with a look that Steve couldn't understand, silently denying "come here, I need your help" he said getting up and giving his place to the blond man who still didn't understand what was going on.
He spied the place Tony was pointing and when he saw it he almost felt sick. "I scared the kid, thought it was the guy and well, now he hates me." Tony explained and Steve saw a rare expression of guilt and regret on the billionaire's face " try to catch him so we can take him to the tower, we won't leave him here, alleys are no place for a little thing like that." Tony said speaking the last part more to the boy than the man.
Steve crouched down in front of the garbage bag, his heart ached when he saw the look of dread on that innocent little face "Hey bud, we're not going to hurt you, come here" luckily the tears had stopped but the boy didn't seem willing to give in at all "Come on, come here...Are you hungry?" He gave a soft smile when he saw the little ears perk up with the question "I don't have anything here now but in our house there is, do you want to come?" It was a few more long minutes of Steve mumbling things to the boy before he finally extended a hand to the man.
Steve let out a slight sigh of relief before picking up the boy and propping him up on his hip, he had never held a hybrid before, and was surprised that he weighed less than he'd expected for a human child his size. The kitten buried its face in the crook of Steve's neck, and he took it as a confirmation that they were off to go.
As Tony called Happy to come get them he noticed the collar stuck around the boy's neck, the identification appeared to have been ripped off and he wondered why they kept the collar tight around the boy's neck.
"That seems to be bothering you, hm? We'll get it out of you in a bit" Steve muttered with his chin resting on the top of the boy's head who was now looking at Tony who was talking on the phone. "He won't hurt you, Tony is nice" the boy looked at Steve for a few seconds before looking back at Tony who was now looking at him too.
" Happy is 2 minutes away from here. Let's get out of this hole soon, I think I could have caught about 10 different types of diseases just for breathing in here"
///
"Friday call Doctor Cho and ask her to prepare the medbay" Tony said as she entered the elevator with Steve and the kid
"Tony, Steve." Cho greeted, her gaze going directly to the hybrid in Steve's arms "What about this little boy?"
"We found him in an alley, inside a garbage bag. He doesn't seem to be hurt but he has this collar around his neck that is very tight, I didn't want to take it off in the car and risk hurting him" Steve explained putting the kitten on the stretcher
"Okay, let's get this off and then we can do a check and make sure it's okay." She explained as he rummaged through his drawer in search for scissors
Tony sat in the armchair next to the boy and kept his eyes on him throughout the conversation, wondering if the boy could speak. Not all hybrids spoke as they needed to be encouraged more than a normal child. For some reason there weren't enough studies about them, apparently they are not considered important enough to spend money on studies with them, but even so, Tony always found hybrids to be extremely special and mysterious beings who deserved special attention, they could have the intellect equal to that of a human or greater, if they were encouraged correctly.
They were so human-like yet so different, Tony couldn't help but stare at the poor kitten sitting on the table. Her hair was extremely dirty as was her face and the rest of her body but her face was delicate with big doe eyes, a cute button nose, a little baby fat was still on her cheeks, her delicate fluffy little ears on top of her head wiggled by every little noise that came in the room, and then a long, fluffy tail that curled around her hips. The boy was a little thin, tired looking and Tony wondered how long the boy had been abandoned in that alley, he guessed it wasn't very long but anyway, wherever the boy was living they weren't taking good care of him.
"Cho, can you find out his age? " The billionaire asked still looking at the boy who was now trying to look at him too, but was being prevented by the doctor who was cutting the tight tissue of his neck being careful not to accidentally cut him then managing to remove the collar, leaving only a temporary mark around the neck "it's just a kitten" she reflected a little and placed his thumb gently on the boy's chin asking him to open his mouth "I mean, between 13 and 14 years old."
"13 or 14? Isn't he too small?" Steve asked quietly leaning against the wall
"he's a kitten, kittens are small. Don't worry he's still going to grow, hybrid development is just a little slow."
"I wonder if he has a name, he looks like Thomas" Steve suggested from his seat and then received a negative nod from the boy
"Oh, ok, it's not Thomas" Tony smiled in amusement
Cho gave a thoughtful little wave before turning to the kitten, "Do you have a name? Can you wave to me?" The boy looked at her for a second, thinking and then shook his head. "He doesn't have a name... you can pick one then."
This took Tony by surprise, he never chose a name for anything other than a machine and Steve seemed to think of several outdated 1940s naming options. "We can do that later." Tony decided "let's not call him anything, it needs to be something he likes".
'Besides, we can't keep him' he thought but decides not to get into that subject for now.
Everyone instantly agreed as the boy gave an adorable little smile of satisfaction at the idea of being able to choose whether or not he liked his future name and the billionaire smiled back as the boy seemed to be starting to like him "I guess that means we're putting our misunderstandings in the past, aren't you buddy?"
The boy looked at him for a moment with a look that Tony interpreted as 'maybe'.
//
After the consultation and the relief of knowing that he didn't have any injuries, Steve let the boy walk a little way to Tony's floor. "I can fix him something to eat" Steve offered "unless you want to cook"
Tony shook his head "No cooking skills you know" he said amused and walked over to the boy taking one of his hands in his larger hands as he looked unsure of going into the kitchen
Steve let out a low chuckle "how about you clean up this kitty while I cook?"
The billionaire scooped the kid up into his arms, surprised that he seemed to have gotten over the shock of the back alley incident and allowed the man to get close to him. "I can take care of it...I just hope he likes water."
Tony went to the bathroom watching with a slight smile as the boy leaned over his shoulder, not bothering to fall and just explored the place
"Look, I will fill the bathtub, ok?" The man warned before closing the door and putting the boy on the ground.
"Can you help me, Kid? Over there under the sink over there" he pointed even though he knew the boy wasn't stupid not to know what a sink was "in the cupboard there are some towels can you go over there and get one?"
The boy moved a little uncertainly but went to the sink and opened the cupboard, taking out a soft white towel. He hugged the towel to his chest before returning to Tony's side and sitting on the floor to wait for the tub to fill.
Tony watched everything carefully
So like a normal child.
He turned off the faucet when the tub was ready and put a hand in to make sure the water was warm. Bath time went better than the man imagined, although the boy was a hybrid, he had a lot of fun in the bathtub. Tony put some bubbles in the water and that seemed like enough for the boy to take his bath without struggles, screams or anything like that. The boy was more independent than they imagined, he knew how to bathe himself, just silently asking for help to wash his hair, he had a serious and concentrated look on his face as he helped Tony wash his little ears. The man let out a low sigh seeing the marks of the collar on the boy's neck. Someone surely had painfully tightened that collar around that little thing's neck.
When he was squeaky clean with his dirty smell being replaced by a soft sweet smell, Tony brought out some of his old clothes to compare and see which one would look less huge on the little boy. He helped the boy to wear a T-shirt that the man quickly cut the hem so it didn't look like a dress, he did the same with some sweatpants, put a pair of socks on the cold little feet and then all Tony wanted was to hug that little bug but he stopped himself. He got up and held out his hand for the boy to hold.
After a bath and warm food the boy fell asleep on the couch and Tony was relieved knowing the boy was safe and warm
"It's only 2:30pm. We'll take him to the police station when he wakes up" Tony briefly warned Steve who seemed about to disagree "He's not a pet, Cap, he's a literal child. They'll find him another suitable home."