Chapter Text
“Hey, how’re you doing?” Pepper asked, rubbing a hand up and down Tony’s back.
Tony shrugged, rubbing the sweat off his hands with the knees of his pants. He was a nervous wreck if he was being honest. He didn’t want to do this, especially when he wasn’t even allowed to have Steve there. Or any Caregiver, for that matter. Something about keeping the results stead and un-swayed. Tony felt more like he was going into surgery than a test. All of the things he wasn’t allowed before the test, the stipulations on what he could wear and how his hair was to be kept.
The idea was to not give him anything to latch onto that would sway him to being Big or Little for the testing. Tony hated every second of it. He wasn’t even allowed to sleep last night, making him agitated right off the bat.
“It’s going to be okay.” Pepper said reassuringly. “Steve will come pick you up the second you’re out and you can go right home.”
Tony nodded, looking up to give Pepper and thankful smile.
“Stark, Tony!” A nurse shouted from the hallway entrance.
Tony stood up, squeezing Pepper’s hand before he followed the nurse down the hall. He wasn’t allowed to know what the test was over or what kinds of things he’d be doing, so he followed blindly into a room.
“Go ahead and hop on the bed.” The nurse instructed, moving around the room and grabbing things from odd places.
Tony did as he was told, eyeing the nurse suspiciously.
She took his vitals and started asking a few basic questions about his health history. Tony answered as best he could and they soon moved on to other questions that seemed a bit odd but understandable. As much as he disliked telling a random lady about his libido, he knew it was needed. When they moved on to something else, Tony couldn’t stop asking questions.
“What is this?”
“Why am I doing this?”
“How’s that work?”
“Why do you need this?”
The woman, surprisingly, didn’t seem the least bit bothered by his questions answering them all as fully as she could. They had to stop and take a break for a moment so she could collect his answers and reactions before they moved on to the second part of the test. Tony was amazed that an hour and a half had passed so quickly but was grateful for a moment to rest. He asked to go to the bathroom and then they were right back at it.
A while later, Tony was getting frustrated with the quizzes and tests that seemed to just be going in circles. He could feel his eyes grow hot as the nurse tried to explain an exercise again when Tony hadn’t done it right. The second attempt was no better than the first and Tony gave up, tears starting to fall in his frustration. He was tired, he was hungry, he was frustrated, and he wanted to go home.
The nurse gave him a sympathetic look, putting the clipboard down and telling him they were finished with the testing. Tony was so happy, he almost broke into sobs of relief. The nurse took his hand and lead Tony out of the testing area and back to the lobby.
Sitting in a chair at the front with his leg bouncing was Steve, looking just as nerve-wracked as Tony felt. Phil sat next to him, smiling as Tony walked in. Tony dropped the nurse’s hand and ran to Steve who seemed all too happy to squeeze Tony tight to his chest. Tony heard the nurse and Steve talking but he didn’t care what it was about. He was so drained he was almost instantly asleep, the only thing that had stopped him was the soft movements of Steve walking and then taking a seat somewhere.
“How’d it go?” Steve asked as they sat down in a small meeting room, Phil taking a look at the paperwork due to Steve’s hands being commandeered but the Little in his lap.
The nurse smiled, almost proudly. “I have never seen a Little hold out as well and as long as he did. At first, I was worried it was due to the trauma he suffered under his previous caretaker. It became evident this was not the case, however, when we started physical testing.”
“What do you mean ‘hold out’?” Phil asked.
“Well,” the nurse stated, “To be blunt, this test is more about a Little’s control over themselves than actual ability. Making him stay up and not allowing food or water, these are all things to destress him before he even starts the exam. Whilst it may seem inhumane, we do take precautions whilst they are here to make sure we aren’t doing any harm.”
The nurse pulled a piece of paper out of a file in her hand, placing it in front of Steve. “A little that cannot withstand an hour is what we would call an incompetent Little. These Littles are few and far between, and mostly consist of Littles who suffered from a preexisting condition unrelated to their Classification. Between an hour and two hours are the competent Littles. This is where almost all Littles fall, able to control themselves as needed with very few incidents of concern.”
Steve looked at the paper, eyes landing on the time stamp. “Tony took the test for three hours, what does that mean?”
“It means, Mr Rogers, that no one could possibly lay claim that Tony Stark is unable to own and operate a multi-million-dollar corporation.” The nurse said. “I have never, in my 32 years of testing Littles, had a patient able to withstand the test so long.”
Steve couldn’t help the ear-to-ear grin spread across his face. All of that worry for nothing. Tony wasn’t just a genius; he was an amazing and strong person.
Getting home later that morning felt like walking on the moon. There was nothing holding him down or weighing on his mind. All he had to do was go home and sit with his Littles, and it was the best feeling in the world.
Tony woke up later that afternoon, surrounded in the familiar warmth of his bed on Steve’s floor. He wasn’t sure why he was on Steve’s floor—he wasn’t feeling particularly Little—but he found he didn’t really care. Steve’s floor was much better than Tony’s.
Sitting up, Tony stretched and looked around the room. The warm sun coming through the window told him it was later in the afternoon. After not being allowed to sleep last night and the stress of that morning, he wasn’t surprised he’d slept so long. Tony moved his blankets over and scooted across the bed to the edge and through the bumpers. Because of Tony’s fear of being trapped in a bed, he had denied a crib, but Steve insisted that Tony should have a place to sleep where he wouldn’t fall out of bed. The compromise had been bumper bars, the type Clint had on his bed, only Tony’s had two panels on each side where Clint only had one. The bumpers were low enough for Tony to get over if needed but high enough to keep him from spilling on the floor. Again.
Tony cringed at the memory that had set Steve on his bed-safe-for-babies-that’s-not-a-crib endeavor. It had been a long week and a lot of back and forth until Tony had resigned to sleeping in Bucky’s room until they found a better solution. Bucky’s bed was against the wall and big enough to fit them both just fine. Bucky would sleep on the edge and Tony would sleep as close to the wall as possible to not take up any more of Bucky’s bed than needed. It only took two nights before Tony would curl into Bucky’s side instead, comforted by his presence.
Tony walked toward the dresser, trying not to cringe at the stiff diaper between his legs that told him, not only had he had an accident whilst asleep (again), but it had happened long enough ago for the diaper to dry just a bit and become stiff. Tony tore the straps on the sides and let the diaper drop to the floor, replacing it with “underwear” from his dresser. Due to more than one occurrence of Tony losing focus right after he’d gotten out of his Little headspace, Steve had insisted Tony wear what were basically cloth diapers until he felt fully Big. Steve had even gone out and gotten ones with little tools dancing around the fabric, which Tony would never openly admit he loved. A pair of pants and a hoodie from Steve’s closet later, Tony walked to the elevator and hit the button for the common floor.
The trip down was so familiar now, he didn’t even have to think about which button to press or what would happen when he got there. It had only been about six months since the team found out Tony was Little and set about destroying Stane, but it almost felt as if he’d always been living like this.
Cutting the weapons division had dropped their stock so low, no one thought Stark Industries would be able to recover, but Tony launched a few ideas at the R&D team who turned around and had products ready to sell after two months. They still hadn’t fully recovered their stock price, but it was steadily climbing as people realized the durability of Stark products. Parent’s loved having tablets and phones that their kids could toss from a third story building and only come away with a small scratch. (“Must be military-grade, like the stuff they used to sell.”) With the holiday season right around the corner, Tony had very little concern over his company’s recovery.
“Hey, I was just about to come wake you up.” Steve smiled as he looked up from the table where he was currently coloring with Bucky. “How’d you sleep?”
Tony stepped out of the elevators, smiling. “Like a baby.”
That was a relatively new concept as well—making lighthearted jokes about his Classification. In what universe would Tony Stark openly admit he liked anything even close to a baby-ish item? Well, this one. The one where he had a family that tucked him in at night and helped him through tuff nights and made sure he was always comfortable.
“That’s good to hear. I didn’t want you sleeping all afternoon and not be able to sleep tonight.” Steve pulled another crayon from the box and passed Bucky the one he’d been holding. “Wanna come color with us?”
“No, thanks. I was just wondering where Bruce is. Got a new idea to bounce off him.” Tony replied as he walked toward the kitchen and yanked open the fridge. He was starving.
“Top shelf, right side.” Steve called, then replied, “I think he’s down in his lab still.”
Tony’s heart warmed just a little when he saw a sandwich, a small bag of chips, a container of carrots, and a bottle of juice sitting in a lunch box on the top shelf. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to people doing nice things just because they wanted to do nice things.
Tony thanked Steve and took off for the elevator, making sure to stop and give Steve and Bucky a hug on the way.
“I’ll call you when dinner’s ready!” Steve called as the doors closed.
Tony had a small smile on his face when the elevator dinged and opened to the lab floor.
Bruce and Tony talked for a while, then walked over to Tony’s lab to work on a project. They had been down there for several hours when JARVIS alerted them that dinner was almost finished. Tony told Bruce to go ahead without him and he’d be up in a few, trying to clean up a bit before he left. With tools back in place, Tony sat at his main worktable for a moment.
“JARVIS, pull up cams from the common floor dining room,” Tony instructed, leaning forward as the video played on a holo-screen off to the right. Just like that night so long ago, everyone sat at the table, passing bowls and plates of food around so everyone could have what they wanted. It was a happy sight, the kind that sent flutters through Tony’s chest.
For a single second, Tony’s heart dropped when at the realization that the team was doing exactly what they always do, no difference between Tony’s presence or absence. The sound of hydraulics pulled Tony’s head away from the screen to the entrance of the lab.
“Hey, baby. Bruce said you’d be up in a second but I wanted to make sure you weren’t getting wrapped into another project.”
“No, just cleaning up,” Tony said, shaking his head. He looked up one last time at the video stream, noticing a gap at the table between Natasha and Clint—where Tony and Steve sit. Tony turned back to Steve, closing down the screen before getting up and wrapping Steve in a hug.
Proof that there was a difference between his presence was clear when Tony stepped off the elevator with Steve, everyone looking up to great him. Bucky jumped out of his chair to run and grab Tony’s hand and lead him to the table, excitedly explaining that they were having breakfast for dinner and how funny that was. Tony loved every second of it and wrapped himself in the warmth of a family.
His family.