"Tony?"

Rhodey's voice snaps Tony out of his frozen shock and the mechanic slowly turns toward his best friend with wide eyes.

"He shouted at my kid," Tony says, the words spilling from his mouth like someone turned the tap on at the sink. "He shouted at my kid and shouted at me and you punched him... You punched my father. He- He tried to apologize to me."

"I know, Tony. I shouldn't have punched him like that, I just lost control-"

"Thank you," Tony says, cutting Rhodey off. "Thank you... I don't know what I would've done. He deserved it. He never should've yelled at Peter like that. There's a reason why he's not allowed near my kid."

Carol opens the backdoor, still holding Peter in his arms. He looks worn out from the long morning, puffy eyes still bloodshot from when he tripped.

"Dadda?" Peter whines, big eyes finding Tony's easily. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. He's never going to see you again, okay? You're safe now," Tony reassures, taking Peter into his own arms.

Peter's smaller than the average four-year-old, still the size of a toddler. The doctors have said that his stunted growth is normal. He was born early, has always been tiny for his age. They've been told that Peter will grow to a regular height, just slower than the rest of his age group.

Peter immediately lets his head fall onto his dad's shoulder, little hands fisting the material of Tony's shirt.

"Do I get ice cream?" he asks quietly.

Rhodey laughs loudly at that, subconsciously hiding his bloodied knuckles behind his back.

"Yeah, kiddo. We'll get you some ice cream," Tony says, pressing a kiss into Peter's hair. "We'll go now, you can take a nap in the car if you're still tired."

"I have to work from home today, so are you okay to do it without me?" Carol asks.

"I have to catch the bus to work in a few anyway, so it'll just be the two of you shopping unless you want to put it off until tomorrow?"

"We'll be fine. I need some father-son time anyway," Tony reassures, pushing Peter's curls out of his face gently.

They say their goodbyes and Tony carries Peter out to their car.

*

When they get to the nearest grocery store, Peter is more hyper than ever. He lives for Grocery Saturdays. It's his favourite time to spend with his dad and occasionally his aunt or uncle whenever they can come along.

They walk into the store with their pre-set list of things they need to buy, hand-in-hand.

The grocery store is pretty empty other than a few familiar faces from Peter's school.

"Can I go say hi to Ned?" Peter asks, tugging at his dad's hand and pointing across the store to where a small, chubby boy stands with his mother. Tony recognizes him as Peter's best friend from their school.

"Go ahead, kiddie. I'll be down this aisle," Tony says, letting go of Peter's hand and ruffling his hair before sending him on his way. He isn't worried about letting Peter out of his sight for a few minutes. There are enough familiar faces in the store that he knows someone would question anything suspicious.

Tony's looking for the cheapest cereals when he hears someone call his name.

"Tony! I didn't expect to see you around."

He turns to the voice and comes face to face with Steve.

"Oh, hey!" Tony greets, smiling at the blond. The stress from the morning has all but faded and he's able to forget about it when Steve pulls him in for a kiss.

"How have you been? You look tired," Steve points out, taking Tony's basket to carry instead.

Tony smiles at the generosity and pulls out a box of cereal to put in the basket, relieved to no longer have to carry the heavy basket.

It's true, Tony is pretty exhausted, but he's never not tired. Normally, it just gets pushed to the back of his head at how tired he really is, living off caffeine and wine most days.

"I'm good. Just had a stressful morning," Tony admits. "What about you? How have you been?"

"My flight leaves tomorrow morning for Germany to see my friend. I needed to pick up some plane snacks and something for dinner tonight," Steve explains. "I'm good, though. Still a little hungover from last night, but I'm not surprised. We had a lot of wine."

"Yeah," Tony laughs, turning to face Steve properly. "I was going to text you, I just got caught up with-"

"Dadda?" Peter calls out. His voice isn't far from the aisle and Tony's heart drops. He hasn't told Steve about Peter. He hasn't told him about his kid yet. But it looks like he doesn't have much of a choice.

Peter rounds the corner and comes running towards Tony at full speed. He stops when he makes it to them and Tony sighs, taking Peter's hand in his and turning to face Steve.

"You... You have a kid?" Steve says slowly, glancing between Peter and Tony.

"Steve, this is Peter. He's mine, yeah," Tony explains. Peter's quiet, wide eyes staring up at Steve in confusion.

"You have a kid," Steve repeats.

"I should've told you," he says, shaking his head as his free hand starts to tremble with his nerves. "I know I should've told you, I just really liked you and I didn't want to scare you off. I didn't want you to think I was crazy or something."

Steve opens his mouth to respond, but Peter beats him to it.

"You're very pretty," Peter blurts, oblivious to the situation. "What's your favourite dinosaur?"

This seems to just make Steve more scared about Tony being a dad. He sets the basket down on the ground, looking anywhere but at the pair.

"I-"

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm really sorry. I just- I hope this doesn't have to change anything. If it does... I understand I guess," Tony says. He doesn't want to have to handle this today after what happened that morning, but he doesn't have a choice.

"I- I have to, uh, I have to go. I- I'm sorry, Tony."

*

Tony spends the afternoon with Peter, playing Legos and teaching him Biology for fun, trying his best to forget about the whole day. It's been one train wreck after another.

But Peter's a little ray of sunshine like always and helps to lighten the mood with his ramblings about everything from Aunt Carol to his new favourite colour to his best friend, Ned.

Rhodey gets home in the afternoon and heads up to shower just as Carol comes up from the basement where their office is to make dinner.

It's a Saturday so Carol ends up making a bunch of miscellaneous finger foods for them to eat.

They're about to settle in to eat when there's a knock on the front door.

All their eyes shoot towards the noise, everyone a little worried that Howard's come back to press charges or something against Rhodey for the punch.

"I'll get it," Rhodey says, warily. The last thing he wants is for Tony to have to go open the door if it is Howard. This is now his problem and he doesn't want Tony to be dragged further into this mess.

Rhodey cracks the front door open and lets out a breath of relief when it's a young man.

"I need to see Tony," he starts. His baby blue eyes are filled with worry and determination, darting between Rhodey and the door.

"Why?"

"I'm Steve. I don't know if he mentioned me, but I need to talk to him... We went on that date last night."

Rhodey opens the door wider, beckoning Steve into the house. From how well their date had gone, there shouldn't be any reason to not let him into the house.

Steve looks towards where the others are and his heart immediately swells.

Tony and Peter are sitting at the dining room table together. Peter has three dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets on his plate and Tony's stolen one to play with, making little roaring noises and everything.

"Tony?" Steve calls out, unable to convince himself to move from the foyer.

Both the boys look up from the table and Peter leans across the table to the blonde woman.

"It's the pretty man from the store today," Peter murmurs.

The blonde nods, smiling at him and ushering Tony towards Steve.

Tony walks over and stops about a foot away from Steve, crossing his arms over his chest.

"How'd you even find out where I lived?" Tony asks. Rhodey quickly moves back to the living room to try to grant the pair a little bit of privacy.

"I found the website for your car repairs and it had your address listed," Steve admits, blushing in embarrassment.

"Right. Okay, what are you doing here?" Tony knows he's being bitchier than he should be, he's just annoyed that nothing seems to be going right in his life anymore. He's pretty much been disowned by his parents who may or may not try to press charges for assault and he can't even hold a relationship for more than a day.

"I came here to apologize, Tony," Steve starts, eyes searching Tony's face for any hint of emotion. None show, he stays impassive and cold. "I came to apologize. I shouldn't have freaked out like I did. I know we've only been on two dates if you include the coffee, but I do really like you, Tony."

Tony takes a deep breath, looking over his shoulder at the dining room. They're all obviously listening to the conversation, pretending to be focused on their dinner plates.

The tables made for six, never more than four people sitting there and Tony can't help but imagine it differently.

Tony sitting at the head of the table, his boyfriend and son on either side of him. Carol would sit next to Steve and Rhodey would sit next to Peter. They'd have one empty chair at the other end, but it would be for whenever they have a guest over. It would make everything feel homier.

Steve would take care of Peter whenever the rest of them couldn't, another free babysitter to add to the list. Steve could be like Peter's second father.

But he's thinking too far ahead. Make it through a third date and maybe then he could start thinking about permanence.

"I should've told you," Tony finally says, turning back to Steve. "I should've told you that I had a son and that I'm a dad. It should've been made clear when we got coffee. It was unfair of me to keep it a secret."

"I get it," Steve says quickly, relief flooding his eyes. "It makes sense. I'd be worried too about people's reactions, but I swear, this won't have to change anything between us if you don't want it to."

"Of course not. Do you want to stay for dinner? It's not as fancy as our dinner last night, but we have dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, a shit-ton of fries, sausage rolls, and cheese sticks? And I think we still have some cheap, shitty wine. It's okay if you're not, you know, ready to meet the family, though," Tony says, offering a smile.

Steve's face lights up. "Sounds amazing. A lot better than my plans to make a sandwich when I got home."

"Come on. I'll introduce you," Tony says, extending his hand. Steve takes it, immediately intertwining their fingers with a bright grin.

"Steve, this is my family. My best friends, Rhodey and Carol, and my son, Peter. Guys, this is Steve, my... my friend," Tony introduces. He doesn't want to push a label onto their relationship yet. Not without discussing it first.

Steve doesn't seem to mind, shaking everyone's hand. Carol quickly stands and takes a spot at the head of the table instead, leaving one side empty for Steve and Tony to sit side-by-side with Peter and Rhodey across from them.

"My favourite dinosaur is a triceratops," Steve tells Peter, finally answering the question he was asked at the grocery store.

"That's boring," Peter says, rolling his eyes as he grabs another chicken nugget off his place and takes a bite. "My favourite is a Qianzhousaurus."

"A what?" Carol says, turning to the kid with wide eyes.

"A Qianzhousaurus. It's like a T-Rex, but with a long nose!" Peter exclaims, not seeming to care that all the adults are staring at him for his strange knowledge.

"Um, okay. What happened to the Plateosaurus? I thought that was your favourite?" Tony says, sighing. He doesn't know how this kid got all these smarts and looks as adorable as he does.

"That was my last favourite. This is my new favourite," Peter says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"How old are you?" Steve asks. "I'm twenty-three and I only know like three types of dinosaurs.

"I'm four!" Peter says, grinning widely as he holds up his small hand and shows off four of his fingers in excitement. "It's almost my birthday!"

"Did you teach him the dinosaurs?"

"He learns it by himself," Rhodey responds, narrowing his eyes a little bit. He's obviously still wary of Steve. "He has a few books on them and we let him use our phones sometimes so he can learn."

"He's a genius in math," Carol continues. Peter's obliviously munching on his chicken nuggets, unaware that they're all talking about him. "And in science, but Tony's taught him most of that. The teachers are already considering him for the Gifted Program."

"Miss Cat likes my drawings," the kid inputs, looking up with his innocent doe eyes. "She says I need to work on my drawing instead of doing the older kids math work."

"What do you mean?" Tony asks. This is the first time he's heard of this. There's meant to be a parent-teacher interview coming up in a few weeks that he'll attend to talk to the teachers about Peter's progress.

"At recess," Peter explains like it's obvious. "Miss Cat says I need to stop helping the older kids with their homework and hang out with kids my own age. Her favourite dinosaur is a pterodactyl."

"How old are the kids?" Carol asks.

"Um..." Peter trails off, brows furrowing as he tries to remember. "I think they said they were eleven."

"Eleven?" Tony gasps, jaw dropping. "You're doing a sixth graders math work when you're in kindergarten?"

Tony lets out a sigh, shaking his head. Of course, his kid is doing sixth grader homework.

"We'll deal with that later," Rhodey says, turning back to Steve. "You like Tony?"

"Don't do this," Tony grumbles. Rhodey seems to have gotten in his head that because he's three years older and because Tony doesn't have any siblings and his dad can't be there to fill the position, Rhodey has to make sure all of Tony's relationships are up to his standards.

"I do, yeah. We've only known each other for like a week, though," Steve explains.

"Are you going to hurt him?" Carol demands.

Tony lets his head fall into his hands. "Not you too," he groans.

"We're protecting you," she says. "If you hurt him, I'll be forced to hurt you."

Steve's eyes widen at the threat. He's a lot bigger than Carol is and he's a personal trainer, but the woman is intimidating when she wants to be.

"Ignore them," Tony says, rolling his eyes. "They're just being stupid. Carol, would you be a dear and get the wine and some glasses."

Carol rolls her eyes right back but stands anyways.

Steve takes the lapse in conversation as a good time to start eating the food laid across the table, using the plastic plate that's been set in front of him.

It feels nice for Tony. Really nice. Steve gets along with his family. That's the only thing that's ever really mattered.

Steve has friends, of course he does, but they're all long-distance friends that he met in University but who moved away after they graduated. Bucky who lives in Germany and Natasha who lives in Russia are the two most prominent, but even then, they only see each other once or twice a year. Plane tickets aren't exactly cheap. Other than that, it's really only the long-term customers he has as a personal trainer. It's nice to be hanging out with four other people.

As it starts to get later, Peter's moved to Tony's lap, head resting tiredly against Tony's chest, small hands curled into Tony's shirt.

They've almost finished their wine between the four of them and they've spent the time simply getting to know one another.

Steve can't help the smile when he looks at how paternal Tony really is. At first, Steve was sure Tony would be just like every other University graduate who's searching for a job, but Tony's different.

"You've got a flight to catch early and I should be getting Peter to bed," Tony murmurs, keeping his voice low to not disturb the kid.

"Yeah, I should get going," Steve says, accepting the not so subtle hint. "I'll text you when I get to my friend's place."

"I'll walk you out," Tony says, passing Peter over to Rhodey and standing from the table. He quickly finishes off his glass of wine before following Steve to the front door.

They close the door behind them for some privacy and Tony's holding his breath, worried that Steve's still weirded out about the whole thing. He's been told everything about Mary and Tony's past, but he hasn't run yet.

"Text me," Tony repeats.

"Do you..." Steve takes a deep breath, a blush spreading on his face. He bites his bottom lip nervously before he finally blurts, "I want this to be something serious. I know I haven't known you for very long, but I like this. Whatever this is."

"Me too," Tony says. His heart is racing and his hands are a little unsteady, but in a good way like his whole body has filled with butterflies. "I really like you."

Steve runs a hand through his hair shakily. "Would you be my boyfriend?"

If Tony's being honest, he's never been someone's boyfriend before. Nobody's ever asked and he's never liked anyone like how he likes Steve no matter how horrendously cheesy that may sound.

"Hell yeah, I would!" Tony exclaims. "Not to be cliché, but I really like you and I hope this will be something serious."

Steve leans forward, cupping Tony's face in his left hand and brushing a strand of brown hair behind his ear with a sad smile. "Too bad I'm leaving for two weeks. I would've definitely invited you back to my place."

"If you're using me for sex, I'll tell Carol and she'll kill you," Tony teases, unable to help the smile that fills his face.

Steve laughs loudly at that, blue eyes sparkling and the wine making his cheeks flushed.

"I'll keep that in mind," he says once he has his breathing under control. "I'm taking you on a date the moment I get back from Germany."

"You're sure?" Tony murmurs nervously. "I know my life is a little messy and a lot of people worry about putting themselves into someone else's messy life. I'd understand if-"

Steve cuts off his ramblings by kissing him sweetly.

"My treat. Not to be cliché, but dinner and movie sound good?" he says, smiling softly.

Tony grins right back at his boyfriend- holy shit he can't believe he actually has a real boyfriend what- and nods.

"The moment you get back," Tony agrees, kissing him again.

"I'll see you then."

"Text me when you land," Tony says, wincing at how possessive it sounds.

But Steve just smiles wider and kisses Tony one more time.

_____

LYSS