Recruitment
Chapter 12
2 months have passed since the day Tony revealed himself to the world as Ironman, and the night the mysterious Nick Fury showed up in his house and told him and Gohan about the 'Avengers Initiative'.
Fury wouldn't go into too much detail, except that it was a special team meant to be the last line of defense for the planet, and Tony and Gohan were up for consideration to be members.
The last bit of info he gave before he left was another person of interest he wanted them to look into for the initiative, Bruce Banner.
Once Fury had left, Tony, Gohan, and Pepper all discussed it and decided to accept the offer.
Tony saw it as a good opportunity to help people, to make up for the mistakes of his past, to atone.
Gohan gave it a lot of thought and decided that he would still be a warrior and protect others, and he figured it would be good to do it through a group like this where he wouldn't have to hide his abilities as much as he did back home.
Pepper wasn't a huge fan of the idea, but she knew this was what Tony and Gohan wanted, and she figured there wouldn't be many –if any at all– potential enemies in the future that could threaten them since they destroyed all the S-Suppressor.
Afterwards, Tony had JARVIS put a metaphorical ear to the ground so they would know any info on Bruce Banner's location if and when he came out of hiding.
Tony was irritated at Fury for dumping this search on him, especially after he'd broken into his house, but he was excited to meet the man.
He saw and appreciated the level of intelligence Banner possessed, and he was also fascinated by the 'Big, Green Rage Monster' he'd turn into when angry or threatened.
Tony also saw the potential fun they could have sciencing it up together and wanted to bring the man out of the cold. So he held his tongue and started the search.
After learning about what happened to him, Gohan was also looking forward to meeting Doctor Banner, thinking he might be able to help the man control his transformation.
Until any news came up, the new Stark family went back to their new 'normal' routine.
-Stark Family Malibu Home-
After wrapping up some current Stark Industries projects and the latest upgrades to Tony's armor, he and Gohan were heading to the home gym for some training.
Tony had recently added holo-projecters that generated physical holograms. He placed them throughout the entire room so they could simulate multiple different terrains, and he also built training drones similar to the ones Gohan saw Bulma make for Vegeta.
Gohan was impressed with it all. The room itself was bigger than the rooms Vegeta would use for his training and the drones were even more state of the art than Bulma's.
Though instead of creating a machine to increase the gravity in the room, Tony and Gohan decided on the holo-projecters, figuring they wouldn't need that much, and practicing on all the potential battle grounds of this Earth was better practice for possible future Avengers missions.
"Alright, Dad, are you ready yet?" Gohan calls out, dressed in a gi similar to the one he wore during the Cell Games, except he now has a white undershirt on under the usual purple overshirt.
"Yep, and I'm really starting to like these outfits." Tony comments as he enters the room in the new training outfit Gohan made him, a long sleeved yellow undershirt, yellow pants, a red tunic, a black belt, and red wristbands.
Gohan chuckles. "I thought you would." He figured Tony would enjoy a gi more if he made it in a similar color scheme to his Ironman armor.
After admiring himself in a mirror for a bit, Tony turns to Gohan. "So what's the plan for today, Kiddo?"
"First, I want to try flying again. Then if that goes well, some Ki blasts." Gohan replies. After so many close calls from falls, Gohan wants to make sure Tony has full control of his Ki, incase his armor malfunctions.
"Sounds good, I'm ready to go. Let's get started." Tony signals to JARVIS, and the room transforms into a wide expanse of grasslands.
"Ok, now focus on your Ki. Surround yourself with it, then put it between you and the ground." Gohan instructs.
Tony closes his eyes, thinks back to the times he has been able to float before and how it felt when he did.
He follows Gohan's instructions, concentrates on his Ki, feels his energy flowing inside and around him. He then takes control of it and tries forcing more of it between the bottom of his feet and the ground.
"That's it, you're doing it!" Gohan praises.
Tony opens his eyes and sees he's at least half a meter off the ground.
"Holy shit, I'm doing it!" Tony shouts.
"$11,000 on 'Swear Jar' now, Sir." JARVIS informs.
"Don't be a party pooper, JARVIS, I'm concentrating. Besides, only 5 slip ups in 2 months, I'd call that great progress." Tony counters, sticking his tongue out at the ceiling.
Hearing a snort from below, Tony looks down at Gohan and sees the boy trying to suppres a laugh.
"What? A grown man bickering with a voice from the ceiling is amusing to you?" Tony asks with a raised brow and a smirk.
Unable to hold it in after Tony's fake stern tone, Gohan laughs. "Maybe a little bit."
Tony chuckles, then attempts to move through the air.
Impressed at how quickly Tony's getting the hang of flying around, Gohan just sits back and observes for a bit.
After a few minutes of letting Tony get the hang of his Ki control while airborne, he asks, "You think you're ready to try Ki blasts now?"
Tony turns to Gohan and descends back to the floor. "Might as well, I'm on a roll today."
As Tony lands, Gohan runs him through the process. "Alright, start channeling your Ki into your hands."
Tony does as instructed and feels the warmth of his energy building up in his hands.
"Good, now draw it out."
Tony complies, and after a bit of concentration, he has an energy ball in each hand.
"You did it, Dad! You really are on a roll today."
"You got that right, Buddy Boy." Tony replies, proud and cocky for a moment, but he then looks at his hands, then back to Gohan, and asks, "Uhh...now what do I do with these?"
Gohan laughs again, considers the options, and decides. "How about some target practice?"
"Good call. J?"
JARVIS wordlessly activates a few of the drones and they start hovering around the room at a moderate speed.
"Now this should be the easiest for you, just aim and expel the energy."
Tony's eyes follow the drones as they dart across the room. He waits for one to get to just the right spot, then fires one of the blasts.
After a direct hit, the drone crashes to the ground.
"Kick ass!" Tony cheers, fist pumping the air with his now free hand.
"$11,100 now Sir." JARVIS quips.
"Not now, JARVIS, I'm busy being awsome." Tony jabs back as he shoots down the second drone with his other Ki blast.
"Of course, Sir, my apologies, how rude of me." JARVIS says, the sarcasm in his tone palpable.
"That's better." Tony quips back.
"If you 2 are done with the verbal sparring, how about some actual sparring?" Gohan asks, joining the banter.
"Uh-oh, JARVIS, your sass is rubbing off on the boy. You better dial it in or I'll have an uprising on my hands." Tony warns, waving his finger sternly at the ceiling.
"I'll try my best, Sir."
Tony and Gohan both laugh, then take their stances, ready to start their spar, when Pepper comes into the gym with Goten in her arms. "Hold up, boys, I need to head back to the office, so you'll have to watch Goten."
"Sure thing, let's call it a day, Squirt." Tony tells Gohan.
Suddenly, a fun idea pops into his head, and he starts approaching Pepper and Goten while trying to hide his smirk.
Knowing that look on her boss' face, Pepper gives Tony a suspicious glare. "What are you up to, Mr. Stark?"
Tony feigns innocence as he takes Goten from Pepper and shifts him to one arm, then raps his other around Pepper's waist. "Oh nothing, Ms. Potts. I just want to show you and Goten what I learned today."
Pepper looks to Gohan and sees a similar smirk on the boy's face. Though before she could ask him what Tony's up to, her feet leave the floor and her eyes widen in shock.
She looks down and finds that Tony has them hovering off of the floor.
"Oh my God!" She shouts. She wraps her arms around Tony to keep from falling.
Tony laughs at her reaction and speeds up a bit, going a couple of laps around the room.
Goten giggles turn into hysterical laughter as they go higher and faster.
Gohan laughs at the sight, flies up to his family, and plucks Goten out of Tony's arm.
"Bubba!" Goten chirps in greeting as Gohan takes him into his arms.
Tony wraps his other now free arm around Pepper and spins around in the air. Then deciding that's enough fun, goes to land.
"God, Tony! Give me a warning next time!" Pepper scolds, slightly out of breath.
"Sorry, Pep, just wanted to make sure you were fully awake before you went in to work." Tony replies with a grin.
Pepper is about to continue her scolding but hears Goten shriek. She and Tony look up and see Gohan lightly tossing Goten up and catching him while still flying around the room.
The mini lecture Pepper was going to give Tony is lost as she enjoys the sight of Gohan and Goten laughing and messing around, looking so much lighter and carefree.
She smiles and decides to let Tony off the hook for now. "I'll see you boys later, try not to blow anything up."
"One minor explosion, and you never hear the end of it." Tony playfully grumbles.
Gohan floats down next to Tony in a sitting position with Goten in his lap.
Wanting to give Pepper something she can use for payback, he decides to let slip, "Well it wasn't just one, I think there were at least fou-"
Tony covers Gohan's mouth with his hand before the boy can finish that sentence and tries to distract Pepper. "Hey, aren't you going to be late? Don't worry, we've got this."
Pepper shoots Tony a knowing glare. "Alright, I'm heading out, we'll talk about this later."
Once Pepper had left the room, Tony turns to Gohan. "Little traitor. Don't forget you caused one of those explosions."
Gohan gives Tony an innocent smile. "Sorry about that."
Tony smirks at Gohan's playfulness and ruffles his hair. "Yeah, I bet you are. Come on, let's go change. Then we can figure out what to do for the rest of the day."
After changing back to their normal clothes, Tony and Gohan take Goten to the –as Pepper now calls it– 'Family Room' to watch a movie.
They were partway through 'Monster's Inc', which had Goten's undivided attention when Gohan decides to ask, "Has there been any new updates on Dr. Banner yet?"
"Nothing since the incident at that factory in Brazil. He's pretty good at covering his tracks, but now that that bast- I mean jerk, Ross is chasing him again, it might cause him to make a mistake that JARVIS can pick up on, hopefully it won't be much longer before we find him."
"For his own sake and for those soldiers Ross keeps throwing at him." Gohan adds, worry leaking out in his voice.
"It'll be ok, Little Man. We'll find him eventually. Until then, it's fine to relax and have fun when we have the time to. Just enjoy the moment."
Before Gohan can respond, Goten's laughter distracts him.
He turns to his brother and sees him copying the little girl in the movie, jumping around and shouting. "Boo!"
Tony laughs at Goten's antics and Gohan cracks a smile. "Yeah, you're right. Nothing we can do but enjoy the moment."
The rest of the day goes on peacefully. Tony and Gohan keep Goten entertained with movies, cartoons, and games.
Then while Goten was down for a nap, Gohan helped Tony with a few more Stark Industries projects. Afterwards, while Tony replied to emails and signed some documents, Gohan did his daily world history catch up with JARVIS.
Pepper returned home that evening and lectured both Tony and Gohan on lab safety. Once they were sufficiently scolded, they all sat down for dinner, then watched another movie together.
Gohan dreads going to sleep, but doesn't let it show as he goes through his usual night time routine.
He puts his pajamas on, brushes his teeth, has a laugh with Tony and Pepper as they dress Goten in one of his hooded animal onesies with the corresponding ears stitched onto the hood –tonight's being bear– and watching Goten pretend to be that animal for a little bit before laying him down in his crib.
Having said his goodnights to everyone and unable to put it off any longer, Gohan reluctantly lays down in his own bed and closes his eyes.
-Gohan-
Once again, Gohan finds himself back on this rooftop on the night he almost murdered Obadiah, except this time, Tony doesn't interfere.
"Ok! You win! I surrender! Please stop!" Obadiah begs as he coughs up some blood.
"Stop? We're just getting started." Gohan answers with a sadistic smirk.
Gohan hauls Obadiah out of the wreckage of his armor and holds him up in the air by his throat.
With one finger from his free hand, he starts shooting him with small Ki beams.
"AUGHH!!! I'm begging you, please stop!" Obadiah pleads.
Obadiah's screams of agony just amuse Gohan. He fires more beams that drill through his shoulders, knees, and torso.
"Come on, be honest now, if the roles were reversed here, would you stop?" Gohan asks.
Obadiah doesn't respond.
"I thought so." Gohan remarks as he pierces one of Obadiah's lungs with another beam.
"Gohan! That's enough! He's already beaten! You don't have to go any further!" Tony shouts.
Internally, Gohan's saying, 'He's right, there's no reason to do this.' But aloud, he says, "You're right, the fight is over, but he still hasn't suffered enough."
"But, Kid-" Tony tries to argue, but Gohan cuts him off. "But nothing! This man has caused the deaths of who knows how many innocent people by selling weapons to terrorists, knowing full well what they were going to do with them, just to satisfy his selfish desire for power and money. No justice system in the universe will give him the punsihment he deserves. They'd either put him in prison for the rest of his life where he could still potentially hurt others, or give him a quick death. Either of those options would be far too lenient, he deserves to feel the pain of all of the people he's hurt before he dies. I'm going to make sure that happens."
Gohan releases his grip on Obadiah's throat and drives a fist into his gut, sending him skyrocketing into the air.
He flashsteps up to him and delivers another brutal blow, launching Obadiah even further into the sky.
Gohan repeats this process several times, making sure he holds back just enough that he doesn't kill the man just yet.
"PLEASE!! HAVE MERCY!!!" Obadiah wails.
'Stop, this has gone way too far! This isn't accomplishing anything!' Gohan internally begs to himself, then aloud whispers to himself, "Of course it's accomplishing something. It's making me feel better."
Then loud enough for Obadiah to hear, Gohan replies, "Sorry, I'm fresh out of that."
He aims a devastating kick to the base of Obadiah's spine that sends him hurtling back towards the roof where Tony is.
Before Obadiah can crash through the roof, Gohan flashsteps right under him and runs a fist through the man's gut.
Obadiah coughs blood all over Gohan. As his body goes limp and he pitifully wheezes his final breath, Gohan turns to Tony and sees the horrified look on his face.
'He thinks I'm a monster now, and he's not wrong.' Gohan mentally laments but externally keeps that same smirk on his face and calmly tells Tony, "Don't worry, I made sure you weren't in the splash zone."
He turns back to glare at Obadiah, and with the hand that isn't impaling the man, completely obliterates him with a Ki blast.
Gohan watches the ashes rain down for a bit then looks over at the skylight where the remains of Obadiah's armor lay.
When he gets close enough, instead of seeing his own face in the reflection, he sees Frieza's.
Startled, Gohan shouts in surprise, stumbles back, and looks around himself. He notices Tony is gone and no one else is around, so he calls out, "Dad? Are you ok? Where did you go?"
He flies off in search of Tony, Pepper, and Goten, hoping Tony just went on ahead and he'll find them all together, but no matter how long he looks, he can't find them.
"I don't understand, where could they be?" Gohan asks himself in frustration.
A familiar voice tells him, "Where do you think, my dear boy? They left you, just like the rest of your family."
All the color drains from Gohan's face and a shiver runs down his spine. He turns to the direction the voice came from, and to his horror, finds Cell standing just a few feet away from him.
"Cell?! How are you here?! You're supposed to be dead! And what do you mean they left me?! They'd never do that!"
Cell chuckles. "Of course they would, after enough time seeing what you're capable of, everyone you care about will see you as the monster you are and abandon you before you can get them killed."
"I'm not a monster! I only fight and kill when it's necessary for the greater good!"
Cell bursts into a fit of laughter. "You can't be serious! Was it for the greater good that even when you had me cornered and could have killed me at anytime, you instead pulled a Vegeta and beat me down, utterly humiliated me, and completely demoralized me?"
Gohan recoils at the truth of Cell's words, but before he can compose himself and try to defend himself, another familiar voice speaks up. "That's right, you looked like you were having more fun than I did when I impaled your little bald friend with my horn, or when I blew him up."
Gohan stares in horror as Frieza appears next to Cell.
"Frieza?!" Gohan shouts in disbelief.
He shakes his head and argues, "I'm nothing like you 2. You hurt and kill people on a whim to satisfy your sick egos, I do it to punish evil people like you!"
Cell and Frieza both laugh, then a couple more familiar voices join in on their laughter.
"I don't know about that? Did you 2 see that distinction when he got you killed?" Frieza asks the newcomers.
Tears start to build up in Gohan's eyes as Goku and Chi-Chi appear next to Cell and Frieza.
"Nope, he was exactly the same as you guys. Don't you think so, Chi-Chi?" Goku responds.
"Oh absolutely. Completely cold blooded and ruthless." Chi-Chi nonchalantly replies.
"How can you say that?! You did the exact same thing with Frieza on Namek after he killed Krillin." Gohan accuses Goku while tears start to fall.
"Yeah, at first I was so lost in rage, I was hurting Frieza just to make him suffer, but when I calmed down, I decided to spare Frieza after I defeated him, to try and teach him humility and mercy." Goku counters.
"That completely backfired and he tried to kill you the second you dropped your guard! Then because you still held back and spared him again, Frieza came to Earth to kill us all! If Trunks hadn't shown up when he did, we would've been slaughtered!" Gohan yells, finally letting out some of his anger at Goku.
"But what you did was worse." Chi-Chi retorts. "Sure, Goku was naive and let someone he shouldnt have go, but he just wanted to see the best in everybody. You Gohan, you just tortured your enemies for your own satisfaction, to the point where when Cell was going to self-destruct to destroy the Earth, Goku took it as an out to get as far away from you as he could. Why else would he refuse to be brought back to life?"
As if having the wind knocked out of him, Gohan falls to his knees and tries to catch his breath, but the tears just won't stop coming and his vision starts to blur. "I'm...n-not a monster. I only get like th-that when I-I lose con-control of my Sa-Saiyan side."
Cell, Frieza, Goku, and Chi-Chi all laugh again.
"Sorry to break it to you, brat, not even full blooded Saiyans go as far as you when killing." Frieza taunts.
"That's right." Cell cheerfully adds. "It's not just the primal Saiyan urges, it's you. You're what's wrong, Gohan, and soon you're going to drive away your sweet, little surrogate family, just like you did with your blood family. I bet even your darling, little brother won't stick by you for long."
Unable to handle watching and listening to his worst enemies and his own biological parents taunt him any longer, Gohan closes his eyes and slams his hands over his ears. "They saw all of my memories and they still took me and Goten in! They won't turn their backs on me!"
All Gohan's tormentors just continue laughing.
Even though his ears are covered, all of the sickening laughter is bouncing around in his head. In a desperate attempt to drown them out, he just starts repeating, "They won't, they won't, they won't." While trying to keep himself from panicking.
"THEY WON'T!!!" Gohan screams as his eyes snap open and he springs upward on his bed.
Realizing it was all just a nightmare, he tries to calm his breathing. He can just barely register JARVIS telling him the date, time, and his location.
"Should I inform Sir or Ms. Potts that you're in need of their assistance?" JARVIS asks.
Gohan shakes his head and looks to the ceiling. "No. No thank you, JARVIS, I'm ok now. It was just a nightmare."
He slowly slips out of his bed and checks to make sure Goten is still asleep.
Thankfully, he somehow didn't wake his brother, so Gohan tiptoes out of their room and heads to the home gym to work off this anxiety.
He doesn't bother changing into a gi and just has JARVIS use the holo-projecters to put Cell and Frieza's forms on two training drones.
-Tony-
"Sir? Sir, please wake up." Tony faintly hears.
"Hmm? JARVIS? What's up? What time is it?"
"It's 2:30 a.m, Sir. My apologies, but you instructed me to wake you if something was wrong with either of the Young Sirs."
Fully waking up at that, Tony sits up. "What happened, J?"
"From what I could hear him say in his sleep, it appears Young Sir Gohan was having a terrible nightmare. He awoke screaming. When I asked if he would like me to alert you or Ms. Potts of his distress, he refused and has spent the past 45 minutes in the gym destroying drone after drone."
Tony gets out of bed, heads to the boys' room to quickly check on Goten, then heads down to the gym.
Just as JARVIS had said, he finds Gohan destroying half a dozen drones that the holo-projecters are displaying the images of the monsters the boy had to fight in his past.
After the last drone ceases to function, Tony hears Gohan tell the wrecked drones, "I'm nothing like you."
As Gohan looks towards the ceiling –probably about to ask JARVIS to bring out more drones– Tony makes his presence known. "How about you take a break?"
Gohan jumps and spins to face Tony. "Dad? How long have you been there?"
"Not long, just got here. Come with me."
Tony turns to leave and Gohan follows him, expecting to be going back to his room, but instead, Tony leads him to the lab.
"Why are we in the lab?"
"I usually come here when I can't sleep. I work on projects to clear my head and get my thoughts and feelings sorted out." Tony explains as a bunch of holo-screens appear around him.
He taps one, and with a flicking motion, sends it to Gohan. "Wanna look that one over for me?"
"Um...ok." Gohan complies, and for the next half hour, that's all they do, Tony checking and altering models and schematics on multiple screens at once, then sending one Gohan's way to double-check after he's finished looking over the previous one.
Once Tony figures Gohan's had enough time to clear his head and sort through his feelings, he motions to JARVIS to save their progress and shut everything down.
As the screens vanish, he turns to Gohan, gestures to the nearby couch he keeps down here, and walks over there to sit.
Gohan follows and sits next to him.
They sit in silence for a minute, then Tony asks, "So, you wanna tell me what's on your mind, Kid?"
Gohan hesitates for a moment, the taunts of his nightmare's versions of Cell, Frieza, as well as his biological parents echoing in his head.
Worried they're right, he decides to answer Tony's question with another question. "Do you remember the night on that roof? When I snapped and was about to kill Obadiah?"
Tony blinks in surprise at Gohan's answer but nods. "Yeah, what about it?"
"Did you finish him off before I could because you knew I wasn't going to end it quickly?"
"What do you mean?"
"Could you tell that I was going to drag it out like I did with Cell?"
"Honestly, I wasn't thinking about that. I just didn't want you to have to finish it. You've had to do that kind of stuff way too much already. Besides, I was blind to Stane's true nature and his little side buissnes, so it was my responsibility to make up for it by stopping him."
Gohan breathes a small sigh of relief.
"Was that what your nightmare was about? That night, the fight with Stane?"
While terrified of what Tony might think, Gohan can't bring himself to lie to him. "Yes, but instead of you stoping me and finishing the fight yourself, I tortured him."
Gohan hunches in on himself. "You begged me to stop, Obadiah begged me to stop, I was screaming at myself to stop, but I wouldn't. I just kept inflicting him with excruciating pain, and I had that same satisfied feeling I had in my fight against Cell the whole time, even as I reduced him to dust."
Tony was shocked, but just places a hand on Gohan's shoulder in support. "Did anything else happen afterwards?"
"I looked at the remains of Obadiah's armor and noticed my reflection, but it wasn't my face I was looking at, it was Frieza's."
Gohan pauses for a bit to try to keep a grip on his composure. "Then you were gone, so I went looking for you, Mom, and Goten. But no matter how long I looked, I couldn't find you."
Tony spots the tears starting to build up in Gohan's eyes, but he doesn't say anything yet. He just gives his shoulder a few pats to let the kid know he's still here and will be while he gets everything from this nightmare off his chest.
"When I couldn't find any of you, Cell showed up and said that you all abandoned me. I told him you wouldn't do that, but then Frieza appeared and said that what I did to Obidiah and Cell during our fights was no different than what he did to Krillin back on Namek. I told them that I wasn't like them, I didn't like hurting people, I just did it when necessary. But then...but then my birth parents appeared and said Cell and Frieza were right, that I was a monster, that they stayed dead to get away from me, and it wouldn't be long before you, Mom, and even Goten would realize it and abandon me before I could get you all killed too."
The tears finally fall from Gohan's eyes as he finishes explaining his nightmare.
Tony's at a loss at what to say at first, it's devastating to see that Gohan clearly agrees with his nightmare tormentors. The boy still blames himself for his parents choosing to stay gone, and is assuming one day, he, Pepper, and even Goten will start thinking the same.
It's absolutely not true, but he isn't sure what to say to prove it.
Taking Tony's silence the wrong way, Gohan assumes the worst, ducks his head in shame, and asks, "You think I'm a monster, don't you?"
Gohan's resigned tone gets Tony to shove his doubts aside and he pulls the boy into a hug. "No, you're definitely not a monster, Gohan."
"But-" Gohan tries to argue but Tony shushes him. "But nothing. Now I may not be a psychologist, but ever since you were little, you were thrown into one horrifying situation after another. Situations that most adults wouldn't be able to cope with at all."
Tony affectionately pats his boy's back. "And, Kid, you just kept rolling with the punches, always putting everyone else's well being above your own. Plus, you never exactly got a lot of free time to deal with all the feelings those events caused, or had anyone willing to help you work through them, like you were just expected to get over it and act like it never happened."
Tony hugs the boy a bit tighter. "All that, along with being a Human, Saiyan hybrid –two races that clearly don't deal with their feelings as much as they should– caused you to bottle everything up and only lash out when you could against the monsters that really deserved it."
Gohan glances up at Tony as he continues. "Considering everything you've been through, the way the people in your life who should have protected and reassured you during and after the hard times acted, you divided yourself into a fighter who could and would destroy anyone who would threaten you or the people you love, and a kind, gentle, kid who would try every other method to solve a problem before resulting to violence as a way to cope. It makes sense. It may not be the healthiest thing to do, but with what you had to work with, I'd say you turned out amazing."
"Do...do you really think that?" Gohan asks.
"You're damn right I do." Tony confidently replies.
"$11,200 on 'Swear Jar' now, Sir." JARVIS cheekily informs.
Tony and Gohan both look up at the ceiling, and laugh.
After settling down again, Gohan says, "That certainly lightened the mood."
Tony chuckles. "Yeah, I'll say." Then gets serious again. "Sorry I left you hanging there for a bit, I was lost in thought and let you come to the wrong conclusion. I'm still trying to figure this whole parenting thing out, and my old man wasn't exactly a stellar role model on the matter, so I'm kinda playing this by ear. Are you feeling any better, Gohan?"
"Yeah, I'm feeling ok now. You shouldn't sell yourself short either, I'd say you're getting really good at this parenting thing." Gohan replies with a teasing smile.
Tony smirks. "Just 'ok' and 'really good', huh? I'll have to hit the books so I can get better marks in the future."
Gohan laughs again as Tony stands up.
"Oh, you think that's funny do ya?" Tony asks as he crouches down in front of Gohan.
He hooks his arms under his kid's knees and hefts him up onto his back.
Surprised at the sudden motion, Gohan nearly falls backward. He manages to wrap his arms around Tony's neck and pull himself up before hitting his head on something. "Hey! A little warning next time?"
Tony laughs as he adjusts his hold, then starts heading out of the lab. "Sorry 'bout that. You see, this is why I need to hit the books more often."
Gohan chuckles again. "I guess so, I almost had to deduct some points from your score for that."
They share another laugh as Tony carries Gohan to the boys' room on his back.
Once they're inside, Tony drops Gohan onto his bed, causing him to bounce a bit.
"Thanks for the lift."
"Sure thing, Squirt. Do you need a glass of water or anything before you try to sleep again?"
Gohan shakes his head. "Nah, I'm good. Thanks, Dad."
Tony ruffles Gohan's hair. "No problem, Kiddo. If you have another nightmare, you can come talk to me or Pepper, no matter what time it is, ok?"
Gohan nods his agreement then gets under his covers, feeling a lot lighter than he did before he went to sleep earlier.
He closes his eyes, almost certain that he won't have another nightmare this time.
Tony closes the door behind him and heads back to his own bedroom.
He's really surprised at himself, not sure where that all came from, though he's relieved it seemed to help Gohan.
As he's laying down, about to fall back asleep himself, JARVIS tells him, "I'd say you got a perfect score, Sir."
"Thanks, J." Tony replies as he falls asleep.
-Later that Morning-
"Tony, Tony wake up."
"Mmm?" Tony grumbles. He cracks an eye open and sees Pepper, completely made up and in her work clothes. "Pep? What time is it?"
"7:00 am. Sorry, they need me to come in. So you'll need to get the boys up and make breakfast."
"Ugh, alright, Pep." Tony confirms as he drags himself out of bed to clean up and get dressed.
Afterwards, he says his see ya laters to Pepper, then heads to the boys' room.
Any morning grumpiness dissapates when Tony sees Goten standing in his crib with the hood of his bear onesie still up.
"Morning, Monkey." Tony quietly greets Goten while he pulls him out of the crib, hoping not to wake up Gohan. After last night, the boy deserves to sleep in.
"No Dada...rawr." Goten mumbles.
Tony lifts a finger to his mouth. "Shhh, we don't wanna wake up your brother yet."
Goten looks over at Gohan, then turns back to Tony and whispers, "Rawr."
Tony can't suppress a chuckle, but manages to keep it quiet. "That's good, Teddy Bear. Now how about we get you changed? I miss my Monkey."
Goten nods with a big smile.
Tony gets Goten changed, makes enough breakfast for both boys and himself, gets himself and Goten fed, puts Gohan's portion in the fridge to heat up later once he wakes him up.
After wiping all the crumbs off Goten's face, He sits down in the 'Family Room' to put on a movie to keep the baby entertained while he does some work on his Stark Tablet.
After about half an hour, Tony checks the time. "8:30, You think I should give your brother another half hour before I wake him up, Monkey?"
Goten turns to Tony, holding a finger to his mouth. "Shh Dada. Tee-Vee"
Tony can't help but laugh. "Well, sorry, little sassy pants. I'll just give him another half hour. You can go back to your cartoons, Monkey."
"Actually, Sir, you may want to wake Young Sir Gohan now." JARVIS suggests.
"Why? What's up, J?"
"Dr. Banner has been spotted, I have a location, Sir."
So much for taking it easy today. "Well shit."