Chapter 22
A few months later, Tony's makeshift family had fallen into a comfortable pattern. Stephen was usually the first one up, working on things for patients and the like back in New York or actually in New York for a surgery or meeting. It was a toss up whenever Tony was actively awake but Peter was on a strict schedule and was automatically fed seconds at every meal plus snacks. Peter's enhanced metabolism needed the calories. The boosts both Stephen and Tony had gotten from the adoption ritual were slowly increasing their own need for food so the general grocery order kept being added to.
Stephen was tracking the changes for the moment but he had quietly confided to Tao and Tony that the two of them might wind up with something nearly equal to Peter's spider powers. Exhibit A was the fact that all three of them apparently had some sort of web spinnerets in their wrists that ached from time to time and needed to be used periodically. As a result the Malibu Mansion now had a converted guest room housing various hanks of their personally made spider silk even if the three of them weren't exactly sure what to do with them. Tao obviously had an idea but she was more amused over them not seeing the obvious so refused to explain what they were missing. Friday was trolling them with various fiber crafts adverts and random beginner videos on said crafts.
"Friday? Why? Just why?" Tony asked in exasperation as he opened up his tablet to a background picture of Anansi weaving on a loom.
"Sir, you don't seem to be getting the hint," Jarvis pointed out, deeply unimpressed.
"Alright then, why don't you tell me what I'm missing, huh?" Tony asked, openly irritated.
"Silk yarn and silk thread exist," Jarvis said pointedly.
"Yes? So?" Tony asked impatiently.
"Yarn and thread are used in weaving, knitting, crochet, sewing, and various other fiber crafts," Jarvis said bluntly. "They are the primary supplies as the rest are more shaping tools rather than part of the final product."
The near simultaneous facepalm from all three silk producers was epic. It greatly entertained not only the AIs but the current sorcerers playing bodyguard that day.
"I took the liberty of ordering a few small hand looms in weaving starter kits. There were a few beginner kits for crochet and knitting as well," Friday practically smirked. "I figured that spinning it isn't really needed with how you're producing it but the instructions on how to use a drop spindle along with a few of them to try it are also with the kits. I'm still researching how to dye spider silk so there's nothing on actually changing the color is available yet for you to play with. Normal silk dying might not work but I have an order prepared of such materials if you decide you want to try dying it that way after you have some woven or otherwise formed into fabric."
"I'm bored enough to try it if you don't want to stop whatever work you're doing," Peter volunteered.
"The kits were put in the raw materials storage with the extra dowels for holding any webbing you guys produced," Friday instructed cheerfully.
Peter quickly fetched one of the weaving starter kits and started putting it together. Stephen looked bemused as he watched while Tony was clearly entertained by Peter's interaction with the kit. It wasn't long before the sound of a shuttle moving through the threads was heard with Peter occasionally looking up at the tv which was being used as a screen to show him instructions. The two adults smiled over the Spiderling and went back to work, allowing the quiet discussion with Friday over the basic weaving to sooth them as time passed.
A few days later Peter was visiting Kamar-Taj and showing off his small piece of woven spider silk when the two Infinity Stones half kidnapped Tony and Stephen. Both men woke abruptly in the white misty dream space facing nearly human sized gem stones, one green and one blue. Time and Space were obviously peeved.
"Enough stalling! Accept the echoes by the end of the day or I will claim the child and take him elsewhere," Space told them both bluntly after practically dragging them into the now established dream space the stones used to talk to them.
"It isn't that simple," Stephen protested immediately. "Introducing it, or re-introducing it in Tony's case, to the human body has risks. Then there are the still lingering effects from the adoption ritual that continues to change us. There is a very good reason why I haven't dragged Tony or Peter before the artifacts to see if one will bond with them. I've even held off on casting practically any protection spells because I just don't know if there will be any side effects and how to handle them if they do crop up. I'm not even sure the socket from the last surgery is safe to use like that and we needed to see if it would try to heal over before installing anything into it."
"That doesn't excuse the lack of a necklace holding a smaller one," Time said dryly.
"That's my fault," Tony jumped in. "I don't want it to break on either of us and it might be a good idea for it to be more than just a necklace. I can clamp one onto the eye amulet thing but I am building them by hand. Making it smaller to actually act as a pendant or gem isn't exactly the easiest thing to do."
Both stones growled and grumbled but conceded the point.
"You are vulnerable without it," Time complained. "Your armor doesn't provide enough protection from simply having the echo power it and my Keeper doesn't have armor at all!"
"Yeah, Stephen is getting armor but I have to finish learning enough to forge it in a way that won't interfere with his spell casting. Magic isn't my go-to in a fight so its not as important for my armor," Tony explained. "Our armor is getting one or more reactors no matter what just to power them. If the ones you want us to wear everywhere don't actually need to do anything then I can build them with some help from Jarvis pretty fast. On the other hand, if they have to go inside us we need certain precautions in place for safety reasons.... It nearly killed me last time."
"I will accept the necklace that does nothing but hold my echo as an acceptable stop gap so long as you also make one for your Spiderling and for Tao," Space grudgingly conceded.
"You still haven't fetched me from that pedestal," Time pointed out, obviously annoyed.
"And were you fetched by now in the Before?" Tony asked archly. "I can understand Space being impatient but we have to be careful about the lead up to the invasion that Loki was forced to lead. I mean I would absolutely love to avoid it but its the best chance we have for getting everyone on board in actually fighting Thanos. I'm honestly shocked that no one has asked us about the time travel comments we made in the fight before Madam Web and Coyote stepped in."
The silence was telling.
"I, uh, don't, didn't lose my hands until 2016 and then I wasted my money on failed treatments..." Stephen admitted somewhat awkwardly. "I only encountered the Time Stone a little bit before certain people decided to invite Dormammu in to feast on the world. The first time I used it in any major way was that fight... when I established the time loop."
"Look, as much as we've changed things maintaining at least some of the timeline we remember is actually important or we won't be ready and we won't be able to protect either of you," Tony pointed out with a sigh. "I've done what I can through my company but tech wise? We are just too far behind the rest of the universe and the rest of the universe tends to fall to that bastard. By now Thor made it to earth for a bit and Loki is in Thanos' hands. If I could have safely changed that I would have. Loki is wicked smart and he's clearly been emotionally abused in Asgard to say nothing of what Thanos is doing to him right now. He's also our best chance for an invasion that isn't immediately going to be disasterous. I know the reactor has to go back in but we don't want it killing me before we have even a chance to get things right so its staying out for a bit longer and I'm making one that can just slide right into the bio-metallic matrix you've both had a hand in forming there. I found traces of both your energies whenever I checked it to avoid potentially nasty surprises."
"Were you going to tell me about that?" Stephen asked, eyes narrowed.
"Yes but I didn't see much point until I actually built the one we plan to put in," Tony shrugged. "At that point it becomes actual medical data rather than that weird thing attached to me."
Stephen gave him an unimpressed look but let it go for the moment. He would be dealing with his boyfriend's antics later, in private.
"The New York invasion is an important event. Once that happens we can go to town changing things because it will provide a demonstrated threat that we can point at and use as justification," Tony explained. "Otherwise we will find ourselves fighting against our own world and people just to get basics, never mind actually being ready to deal with the purple grape when he gets here."
"We could gift you Loki?" Space suggested.
"Mind won't let him go without reason and the additional loss of life it would cost to stop the invasion would put our champions at risk," Time corrected. "Then there is the imprint of the Mad Titan that was stored inside our brother. It will have to be purged not unlike what happened at the birth of Ultron. I don't recommend allowing the Vision to exist but beyond forced hibernation used on Mind I don't know that he would accept what you might be willing to offer him in trade. This is especially true since you took the child off the table. The only other potentially acceptable champion to present to him is one of your AI children or certain powerful telepaths. One Jean Grey would be eligible but it would pit we of Infinity against the Phoenix Force. Another would be Charles Xavier and both of them are in the same place. Wanda Maximoff won't actually need Mind to wake her powers and I am rather inclined to deny her access to ourselves and our siblings."
"We will think on it," Space promised. "Make miniature echoes to wear until it comes time to accept them into your flesh. Time's champion isn't required to have it implanted so long as he wears it constantly and make one for the spider child. It will prevent mind control in you once seated in your flesh and lessen it by half for the other two who would only wear it as an amulet."
"Yeah, okay. That makes sense," Tony sighed as they were released from the meeting place. Stephen went to speak only to be met with a raised finger from Tony.
Tony silently led his boyfriend down to his lab and fetched out a box designed to hide the signature of an infinity stone or two. Opening it up he handed over the first thing that came to hand from inside it. A necklace with a glowing flat circular disc slightly larger than a quarter that was clearly a modified arc reactor. A second and third one came out of the box before it was closed back up and put away. One went around Tony's neck and the third was put on Peter's bed for when he got home. He would later hand one to Morgan directly.
"This doesn't come off, Doc," Tony warned as he watched the other man put on the necklace. "These necklaces have a supply of nanites as an emergency measure and connect directly to Jarvis and Friday. Yours will only come off for me but it will try to help if you give it a run down of the situation and what you need done. Just don't expect it to stay off of you if it opts to play distraction. Understand?"
"Perfectly," Stephen agreed with a smirk. It wasn't like he was going to admit yet that he had embedded a few protective spells of his own into the bio-metallic socket where the reactor would eventually sit again. This was especially true since it had been done while Tony slept.
"And the next time you cast protective enchantments anchored to a part of my body, no matter how weird that part is, remember that I'm actively training my own magic," Tony smirked right back before snapping his fingers.
The necklace tightened, shifting from a thick wire like a macaroni piece into a flat choker with the reactor at the front in the hollow of his throat.
Stephen groaned at being caught both on the spell work and by the necklace but didn't actually complain or argue. Fair was fair and the stones had specifically stated that it would work as a protection against mind control. He would put up with a fair bit for that. Not that he minded this one since it was from Tony but the principle was still there.
"Fine, you've collared me," Stephen huffed. It didn't hide his amusement at all. Tony just smirked wider.
"I can't make much in the way of nanites yet because of the tech limitations I'm working with but I have more than enough to attach some to you, Peter, and Morgan," Tony explained, amused. "Like I told you before I want to eventually give your skull an under the skin coating of them but until you're willing to let me in that far the collar is stylish, fulfills the requirements from the Stones, and protects that big brain of yours from being fucked over. I'll eventually manage to make you armor that won't interfere with your magic and fighting style, probably without a whole lot extra unless you ask for it for practicalities, but you'll have it."
"It also unequivocally marks me as yours," Stephen pointed out ruefully. "Not that I mind. I also don't mind that you don't seem to want sex yet and I know that you've worried about it."
"Yeah, I sort of have," Tony said, his smirk dropping away even as he looked away from the Sorcerer.
"I told you, Tony, any type of relationship. That includes ones without sex but still being your significant other," Stephen said gently. "A relationship should be able to stand without carnal urges getting in the way. I'm perfectly happy just sleeping next to you every night."
"Good," Tony said, distinctly relieved. "I think that I've agreed to sex with others too easily in the past and I don't want to wreck this thing between us. We're already co-parenting a Spiderling and preparing for war."
"Believe me, I get it," Stephen assured him before switching to light teasing. "Or had you forgotten that I've been preparing right alongside you?"
"Nope," Tony said looking back at Stephen and letting him see the want and love in his eyes for the man in front of him.
The Cloak of Levitation took that moment to remind them of its existence as it leapt from its hiding place in Stephen's pants pocket and wrapped them both up in a bundle. He had been sticking more to modern appropriate forms and letting the duo forget he was even there. They had noticed but weren't sure what to make of it even now that Levi had kidnapped them if only briefly.
"Levi!" Tony spluttered as Stephen grumbled something about pushy cloaks.
Levi physically picked them up and floated them slowly out of the lab as if in a slow wedding procession. The slight dips and sways even matched the wedding march if one were to translate the movements to music.
"Do I want to know?" Tony asked in disbelief after having identified the movement pattern for himself.
"Probably not," Stephen said ruefully. "I'd say just go with it but we both have important meetings in half an hour and I want a shower before I have to head out."
The way that Levi tightened around them before firmly thumping them down on their joint bed was quite emphatic.
"I don't think Levi is going to let us go anytime soon," Tony observed carefully. "Jarvis? Who was I supposed to meet again?"
"A few Hydra operatives still hiding in Congress and the various offices. I am afraid that the mixed group that agreed to have their meetings combined didn't register properly as connected before just now. Dr. Strange's meeting is with Dr. Jean Grey as a fellow medical professional on the matter of the mutant gene and various treatments for those who display unusual powers or abilities as a result. Tao has also contacted me with the request that Peter remain at Kamar-Taj for at least a week. He has apparently accidentally triggered an older relic they were unaware was more of an enchanted storage container. His presence is required for continued access to the revealed archive," Jarvis answered. "Would you like me to reschedule anything? I gave a tentative yes for Peter's situation on your behalf."
"Uh, huh, Hydra idiots or tagging along with Steph to talk medical with a lady the stones specifically named. Tough choice," Tony mused. "Let's tell the hydra goons that we need to reschedule because of a medical issue popping up. We don't have to specify who has the issue and I get a very convenient excuse to go with Stephen to his meeting."
"Very good, sir," Jarvis said openly amused. "I will arrange for a better meeting time so that Dr. Strange can accompany you rather than allowing you to walk into such a meeting alone as you had agreed to this time."
"Ah, yeah, that would be good," Tony said with a wince, not even bothering to argue with the glare his boyfriend was aiming his way.
"Jarvis please inform me if Tony does something like that again. I can think of far too many ways for an enemy to use such a situation and I would rather he have back up if not physically present with him then nearby," Stephen requested somewhat forcefully.
"Of course, Doctor," Jarvis agreed smugly.
The enforced nap afterwards was not planned.