Actions

Work Header

The affairs of Tsums and Dragons

Summary:

Tony needed a space to hide from the chills of winter, Hulk had pointed him in the direction of a modest crack, barely a cave worthy of any dragon. He wasn’t expecting to find a cradle of new life, nor was he to find the family he’s always wanted.

Notes:

Chapter Text

Tony skittered across the rugged landscape, weaving around rocks and ducking under ledges he was just a wyrmling. A little guy, what could he do? Well besides anger most of the dragon kind by being himself. Not a small feat he wondered if it had to do with his father or perhaps it had been Obie. When the other had tried to sell his heart, like who did that? Most folk these days wanted to preserve dragons and not eat their hearts!

Plus it was a great way for people to get heavy metal poisoning, well someone had wanted to eat Tony’s heart, though not when they realized Tony looked like a lizard with wings stuck on as an afterthought. That deal had backfired on Obie, and once Tony had realized who had sold him out well. Obie, if he was alive, certainly would not be flying ever again. 

All Tony had to show for that was a magic seal on his chest, some sorcerer supreme had patched him up can’t squiggle about with a hole in your chest or something. Tony refrained from asking if the sorcerer was part of the taco bell menu. He was 85% sure, Tony was after all a junk food connoisseur, he was a smaller dragon so he could have some as a treat. Well he might have become a bit of a nuisance because Fury caught him and released him miles away. That didn’t stop him of course he had developed a taste for hamburgers and people just tossed out perfectly good food!

No one was eating it. Why was it a big deal if he took it from the garbage and it was free! That was how he was in his current predicament. Out here on a mountain surrounded by other dragons. A preserve or something, Tony was not happy. He missed the cities, the food, and best of all the stuff. His hoard was probably scrapped, fire lizards didn’t belong in the city according to Fury. That was dumb, he could live off pigeons in the city, or fried chicken. Out here he’d had like a single rock and some water.

He bolted behind a rock, as a larger dragon snorted past. Thankfully not the one that had been chasing after him, but Tony didn’t dare move just yet. He should have been a lap dragon pampered by the upper echelon, yet here he was squeezing himself into cracks avoiding teeth and flame. The dragons were calling him a lizard, it was very off putting. He just wasn’t fully grown! Granted his type would grow in length vs height but still his mother had been the size of a horse so that was much bigger than he was currently. 

He wiggled over a ridge and noticed in his pouting of being a smaller dragon, that no other dragons were on this side, he skittered down knocking some rocks loose. He jumped and glided to a nice flat rock in the sun, finally he could take care of his scales and bask. The rocks bounced down the cliff and hit something that didn’t sound like rock at all. Tony poked his head over the lip of his perch to see the biggest greenest dragon stooped over a small crevasse.

Tony pulled his head back, maybe that was why this side was empty? no one wanted to challenge the big green dragon. Tony didn’t want to, but it seemed he had already done so by scattering rocks onto them. He could hear the dragon move the rustling getting closer and in a fit of defiance Tony scrambled into an aggressive position.

Arms at his side ready to show off his ability to do some push ups, wings flared up and out, the scary eye spots ought to help. He whipped up his tail and he was ready. He could hear snorts from some of the other dragons on the ridge. Yeah he was fearsome! He also acknowledged that this threat display hadn’t even deterred the New York rats, but those had been more aggressive than any of the dragons here.

The green dragon cast a shadow over Tony, but he still rattled his wings. His posture became defensive as he did his best to scare the green away. The green settled down on part of the flat rock that Tony had backed off as the green got closer and settled down. The massive head was looking at him like he was curious.

Tony stuck his tongue out, he blew a raspberry at the green and slithered under the ledge, to save himself from the flames. The green rumbled, but there was no fire licking at Tony, he waited a bit because he didn’t want to find out how fireproof a firelizard was. Then he poked his head back over the lip to see the green still watching him. Though the other dragon had laid down on the flat rock, Tony was disappointed he wanted to bask, and the dragon had taken up all of the best parts of the rock!

He crawled back over to the dragon, and then as best he could climb up the side of the dragon. He squeaked when the dragon actually shifted and helped him up. Maybe the big dragon wasn’t so bad after all.

“I’m Tony!”
The dragon merely rumbled but there wasn’t anything that seemed a miss. So Tony settled down on the dragon’s back pleased to have a little patch of sun all to himself. And started to clean up his dusty scales.

-

The big green dragon was called Hulk and was known for his rage. Though to Tony he was very gentle and slow, and surely he would make the green upset at him eventually just like every other dragon that had been in his life? Yet it never happened, there was another dragon that came around typically when Hulk was foraging for the roots and rocks he liked to eat.

Natasha was a purple dragon, with no wings. She bore a mark much like his own chest spot but her spot didn’t glow and there was no magic coming off it. He liked Natasha but also didn"t. She was very intimidating, Tony was very much attracted to her, she moved like a ribbon, so graceful and she would actually spend time talking to Tony too. That probably helped she was the only other dragon on the range that would spend time with Tony.

Tony however had figured out early on that Natasha had the hots for Hulk, and it seemed like it was returned. Hulk would watch them on the ridge but he would never join, and every time Tony came back to him, he would give Tony the saddest eyes till Tony babbled about everything. Tony wished there was a way to get them to talk. Natasha seemed reluctant to move down the side, and Hulk never went up past a certain point on the mountain.

Hulk was not built for rocky terrain, he confessed that he’d been in the desert before people had moved him because they had wanted to live in his several hundred acre territory. The further he went up the side the more rocks that would dislodge and Hulk seemed really worried about the safety of that crack, Tony still hadn’t braved to inspect it. Sensing it held great importance to Hulk and even though the curiosity was gnawing at his insides he respected Hulk’s space.

Tony often wistfully talks about fast food, which Hulk finds amusing that humans had relocated Tony even though it seems like he’d adapted to their lifestyle.
“Why move you? You fit in their mess.”

“Right!? I was cleaning up their mess, less garbage means they have a smaller carbon footprint but noooooooo.”
Tony didn’t talk about him melting the padlocks to get into the dumpster and the amount of other city vermin that would follow him to the loot.

“Hmmm, what will you do for the winter Tony?”
Hulk looked up at the ridge searching for a glimpse of Natasha, Tony also looked that way but mostly by looking straight up and back as opposed to turning his head.

“Winter? A cave I guess...’
Tony looked back at Hulk.
‘..Why are we not going to be cave buddies?”

Hulk looks away then his gaze drifts back to that crack.
“I brumate, I turn into a rock in the winter. That’s why I"ve been eating so much.”
Tony blinked slowly. He just assumed Hulk normally ate that amount. Though the rock part was harder to parse.
“YOU turn into a what?”

“A rock, normally I’d bury myself in the sand… here I just brumated and basically ‘become’ a rock.”
“OK, so not magically a rock?”
Hulk makes a snorting noise.
“No Tony.”
Tony nodded to himself that made more sense. Though now Natasha’s needling about his winter plans made more sense. She had of course invited Tony to her cave, he looked at the half eaten bug under his claw. He didn’t want to take her up on the offer feeling it would hurt Hulk somehow.

“I guess I’ll find a crack to squeeze in…Not sure do you have any ideas?”
Tony suspected he would have to room with Natasha. There wasn’t much in the way of caves on this side of the mountain.

“Hmm, well let me look around.”
Tony nodded and went back to his bug, trusting Hulk to find or maybe make something for him.

Natasha was up at the ridge again a day after the Hulk confessed to becoming a rock conversation. Tony came up to meet her with a bug in his mouth, he swallowed it hastily to avoid a comment about a gift or treat. Natasha was sunning herself and Tony crawled up beside her, fanned out his wings and also basked in the sun.

“Well, have you found a place for the winter?”
“Hulk is looking for me!”
Natasha leaned in and her eyes glowed with interest.
“Oh?”

“Well yes, we’re friends.”
“Aren’t we? You could be in my cave.”
Tony paused when he saw another dragon and his little throat pouch inflated as a warning to the other dragon. Natash snickered and didn’t even glance at the other dragon.
“I don’t think Hulk would like that.”

Natasha curled a claw under his chin and moved Tony"s face back to her.
“Tell me more about Hulk.”
Tony looked at the purple dragon, his eyes narrowed, yeah both of his dragon buddies had it bad for each other.

“Welllll, he has a thing for another dragon.”
He placed his claw on her hand and pushed it down from his head, she let him. Natasha was easily 3 times his size but never once had she used it to intimidate him. No, Natasha was far more subtle with her threats.

“Is that so?”
Natasha sounded a bit sour, Tony frowned and looked back over the side where Hulk was waiting for him.

“YEs, he’s got a thing for this elegant purple dragon, you know my other friend!” 

Tony then skittered over the edge, wings open as he glided down to the Hulk, landing directly on the large green dragon’s head. Like the perfect little red hat. He waved his tail at Natasha. Hoping that she understood his clarification. His little mind whirled with how to get those two to meet.

“So?”
“Oh Hulk, you two have it so bad!”
Hulk snorted and lumbered away from the ridge, he had something to show Tony. the cave he’d be staying for all winter. Tony was later of course grilled for details, mostly about how well the scars were healing, apparently Hulk knew enough about plants to mix up some sort of healing paste. Natasha had lost her wings and the wounds were just now healing, Tony was right mad when he’d finally seen those scars and of course he’d blurted that out to Hulk. Thus the healing paste, Tony still wanted to bite the person responsible for Nat’s scars.

Tony mentioned how glossy Natasha’s scales were looking and how she asked about Hulk, and was careful not to speak of the cave invite. He would have to think of something during the winter to get his two friends together.

“Well Tony I found you a cave for the winter.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, here it is.”
Hulk pointed with a claw in the direction of a modest crack, barely a cave worthy of any dragon. The crack that Hulk had been so invested in the whole fall. Tony was of course intently intrigued because it looked to be perfect for his size. On the other claw, it was barely a cave much like the way he was barely a dragon.

“Okay suppose I should fill it with food?”
“I’ve been stocking with roots and berries.”
“Oh? So there isn’t a family of mice here?”
Hulk bowed a bit and Tony slid off the massive head to look at his friend"s soft amber eyes. So much for a green rage monster. Hulk had been so careful with Tony and he refused to listen to those terrible stories about Hulk tearing apart dragons.

“Well yes and no, I’m not sure what they are but they’ve invited you for the winter.”
“O-kay.”
Tony looked at the crack; it was narrow and thus hard to see into the darkness. Though his curiosity was killing him he wanted to know what these ‘not mice’ were.
“Can I just check "em out to see if this works?”

“Yeah that"s probably best.”
Tony shivered in the cool wind, winter was almost here and this was his only other option. He wiggled into the hole and slid into the small cave. He heard something skitter away, but his eyes were still adjusting to the darkness. It was much nicer though there wasn’t much in the way of wind, and if Hulk rocked up at the entrance they’d probably be good from the snow too.

Tony looked down, focusing on two potato shapes in front of him, one was giving him a critical gaze. The other seemed hesitant and had some sort of shell. Tony lifted his head up and hit it on the ceiling, his wings flared out as he took an aggressive stance. What were they?

“Tsum! Tsum tsum!”
“Tsum?”
“What,”
They certainly weren’t rats or anything Tony had seen.
“Hulk! Hulk what are they?”
Tony backed up, toppled over and scrambled out of the crack to hide behind Hulk’s forclaw as the two tiny bean things peered at him from the entrance of the crack.

Hulk proceeded to converse with them as they just said Tsum over and over again. The black and silver one was being very assertive but the blue one was just staring at Tony. Not sure why, though when Tony realized it was staring and had his heart patch he hid it with his tail. No one was going to eat his heart again. Not even that potato thing!

--

So the assertive one was called James, but preferred Bucky. The blue one was Steve, why did he have a shell? That wasn’t covered, they were of course miffed that Tony couldn’t understand them. Tony watched them check out his tail as he settled back in their cave. It was decided that Tony’s heat would help them for the winter. He just needed to learn their language. 

Tony was a fast learner so he agreed not wanting to room with Natasha and tossing the wrench in both of his friend’s budding romantic relationships. So he would spend some time in the cave instead of basking. He missed the sun but it really didn’t help that it was winter and the sun was just a cheerful reminder of how cold everything was to get.

Bucky was doing that thing with the dirt, Tony watched he was pretty sure the other was singing as he was digging. Tossing the dirt towards Steve who was nervously cleaning it up and packing it down, Tony peaked at the Tsum sized hole that Bucky was digging, Bucky turned to Steve to Tsum at him, Tony ducked into the hole and used his feet to dig it bigger.

“Tsum! Tsum!”
Bucky sounded excited but also upset.
“Ssum.”

Steve was definitely not happy with the dirt. He felt an arm on his side and turned his head to look back up, it was Bucky. Patting his side, Tony stilled and Bucky joined him in the hole and they dug together. Or rather Tony was directed to claw out the larger rocks that Bucky couldn’t dig out. As so they’d been digging for the rocks?

Steve took a rock and pushed it over to the freshly packed dirt. Bucky nodded and went back into the hole. Tony assisted the rocks were easily the size of the Tsums, and Steve seemed to push them around easily. Though he would rearrange the rocks every time another was pulled up. The digging made the cave a bit larger, there was now an area a bit cooler than the rest of the cave which might be necessary if Tony overheated he could just slip into this pocket and cool off some without leaving, and possibly freezing the Tsums.

Bucky exhaled and patted himself down then made for Steve. The exchange was perplexing, Steve seemed to be very aggressive towards Bucky, who seemed to be enjoying it. Tony curled his tail around himself confused, but he realized Bucky was doing this on purpose and Steve didn’t like dirt. Steve was yelling at the other for essentially tracking dirt all over the place.

Well Tony licked his claws clean and made his way over to the rock circle, it looked like a nest. He put one claw in, looking at the Tsums still arguing, he hopped into the circle and curled up, it was pretty much his size. The softer dirt was nice, not quite as nice as sunbaked sand but close enough.

He wasn’t actually sleeping just resting his eyes but the noises stopped and eventually he felt two warm bodies join him in the rock nest. Bucky tucked next to his leg. Bucky was more firm and he didn’t hesitate to touch Tony. Steve rooted around in the space that was available, until Bucky complained. Steve was much softer, his little body tucked into the crook of Tony’s neck. The shell part was missing, thankfully. 

Steve started to hum, it was like a cat’s purr and Tony found it pleasing, Bucky moved closer to Steve and anything else was lost because Tony failed at pretending and actually fell asleep.

“He’s so warm.”
“Stop it punk, making me jealous.”
“Oh what does the dirty jerk want now.”
Tony frowned something, Steve was rubbing his arm. Must be he was the soft one. Bucky was more like a gourd in softness. Well unless this was a strange dream, he was probably understanding the Tsums now.

“Rubbing your backside against our space heater, I’m only a Beta Steve, you can’t be like this.”
“Oh like what?”
Okay so Steve was teasing Bucky, probably getting back for the shower of dirt earlier. Though it did feel like Steve was rubbing himself all over Tony.
“Like some loose Tsum, you’re mine!”

Tony jerked away when two Tsums impacted him in the neck. He made an unflattering ‘hurk’ noise that had smoke filling up the tiny cave. This caused Steve to start coughing, and they stopped talking and the Tsumming was back. It was a frantic tone and Tony couldn’t parse it at all, so he used his tail to push them towards the crack towards fresh air. As his coughing started to rev up.

“Tsum tsum tsum!”
Bucky hopped on his legs while looking back at the smoking crack then to Hulk and finally to Steve who was not looking at anything, he was breathing shallowly though.

“Fire lizard, indicates that yes he can breath fire, you wanted warmth.”
“Tsum tsum tsum tsum!”
Bucky pointed at Steve who refused to meet Hulk’s eyes.

“What happened? Tony are you alright?”
Hulk inquired into the crack that was still smoking, Tony carefully slid out of the cave. The worst of it was over but his throat still felt a bit raw.
“They were rough housing, hit me in the neck.”
“Ah,”

Hulk looked at Bucky who was staring back defiantly daring Hulk to say something, the green merely sighed. Steve bounced in.
“Tsum tsum… tsum?”
Bucky seemed to deflated and Tony wondered why he could understand them half asleep but not now? Maybe it was the emotions being so very high.
“That would be Tony’s call.”

Tony blinked and stuck his tongue out looking down at Steve, retracting his tongue slowly.
“Yeah maybe leave my neck and heart alone? And could you do your humping thing on Bucky?”
Steve turned bright red when Tony said ‘humping’, he seemed to deflate and Hulk pulled away to chuckle. Bucky made a noise like he agreed, on all points that Tony got.

Well Tony thought that settled it, though he did enjoy Steve rubbing up against him. He wasn’t going to compete with Bucky. He wasn’t sure if he could anyways, he looked back at the smoke lingering in the crack.
“So Hulk could you blow my smoke out, Steve seems to have an allergy.”
“Will do, just get them up wind for me.”

Tony bobbed his head but had to stop bobbing it when Hulk gave him the look, ah yes he’d probably sit there all day bobbing without meaning to. He moved carefully over to Steve and Bucky and offered a claw to step up on. Bucky bounded on first resting in Tony’s wing pit with ease, Steve followed suit. They were fairly safe there but it was kind of itchy, Tony wiggled up to the top of the mountain, on the ridge to watch Hulk use his lungs to blow out the smoke. Tony was curious to see if there were any other exits of the cave, so he was very busy scanning the surrounding area of the crack for smoke to notice Natasha slither up.

It was Bucky of course that alerted her.
“Damn that"s a bombshell dragon… check her out Stevie!”

“Tsum, tsum.”

Really sounded like no thank you to Tony.
“You would, you and the underdogs.”
Tony jerked to look down at Steve who was actually looking directly at him, Steve was turning red, and Tony’s mind grinded to a halt. Wait what? He looked back at Hulk to see the other done with blowing the smoke away. Missed that and now he felt like he’d missed a very valuable piece of information in regards to Steve.

“So these are Hulk’s potatoes.”
“Lady, I am the finest potato this side of the continent.”
Bucky wiggled his eyebrows and Natasha just looked at Tony, she was confused.
“Yeah it takes a while to understand them, he’s um I think he’s trying to flirt with you.”
Natasha smirked and she moved closer to Bucky.
“I do like my men feisty, tell me more.”

Steve had nearly turned purple and Tony raised his wing up covering him from the scene of Bucky shamelessly flirting with Natasha who was flirting back. It was amusing because after a few sentences it seemed Natasha had figured out the general gist of what Bucky was saying.
“This has been very amusing and enlightening. I must say, Bucky, I have my eyes on a green dragon. But I wish you luck in making a triad.”

“Damn, Hulk stealing the best ones!”
It was in jest and then Bucky patted down Tony’s wing to do that face bump with Steve who was still pink, like an affirmation of a bond or something. Tony looked up, he was tired, his throat was itchy still and he really wanted to finish his nap, he could ponder the triad part over later. He bid Natasha farwell and weaved his way down to Hulk. unwilling to see if his cargo could hold on for a brief flight.

After the smoke incident winter came with big soft white flakes, and Tony could typically understand Bucky completely, and Steve sometimes. Bucky had a peculiar song he sang while digging that typically became ‘Tsuming’, regardless of how much Tony focused on the other. Steve was harder, Tony wasn’t sure why but the other seemed content on napping with Tony then kicking him out to rearrange the nest, Steve wouldn’t even let Bucky help with that.

Tony had helped once and it was really just him moving the same few rocks into different positions, and Steve being unhappy about every combination. Bucky had of course found this vastly amusing as he snacked on some drupe, face covered with sticky juice. Tony had flicked his tongue all over Bucky and then snatched up the other bit of fruit. Leaving Steve alone which seemed to help and diverting Bucky’s attention on how to get back at Tony who was easily five times larger.

Though he could still understand them better when he was half asleep, which was curious. He’d get snatches of conversations before either fully waking up or falling back asleep. He did his best to prolong these periods because it seemed like they were up to something.

“He kissed me today.”
“He made you less sticky, he knows how much I dislike messes.”
Steve was resting his head on Tony’s arm tucked neatly into the crook. It was Steve’s favorite spot.
“Punk, I’m going to win Tony over first. He can’t even understand you!”
“Well, I should probably speak more carefully? I really like him.”
Tony banished the sleep as best he could, was Steve mumbling? Was that why he couldn’t understand him? Stuttering? Could Tsums’ have a speech impediment? It made sense he wasn’t sure why this was surprising though.

“I’ll ask him tomorrow if he wants to join us as a triad.”
“That would be nice,”
Steve wiggled down and started that purring thing, and Tony recognized that it was soothing him to sleep, shutting up his active mind spinning the word Triad over and over hadn’t Natasha said that?

Tony woke to an empty nest, he stretched out cracking his legs and wings. Yawning he scratched his chin, okay time to think about last night. Triad? Yeah it sounded promising but he wasn’t sure if he heard that correctly. Getting up he moved closer to the crack, sneaking his tail out to collect some snow and pull it in so he could lick it off as water.

The Tsums had their fruits, which of course they shared but this was nicer because it gave him something to do. Also he could check up on Hulk by peering out the crack. Also he didn’t want to steal all their food, and both Bucky and Steve seemed to prefer the fruits and berries over the leafy veggies and roots. Tony did find a juicy grasshopper amongst the leaves which he snapped up without thinking of the Tsums. It had really hit the spot and Bucky didn’t seem to care But Steve had turned green and hidden from him for the rest of lunch time.

“Hey, don’t worry, sometimes he forgets you are a dragon.”
Bucky rolled over a blueberry, Tony took it carefully and swallowed it. They were his favorite after all.
“It"s okay, I thought maybe he wanted some, but he clearly doesn"t.”
Tony curled his tail around him, to warm it up he wasn’t giving himself a hug. Bucky was still chewing on a leaf but he didn’t seem to notice the tail thankfully.

“I do want you Tony,”
“I-I beg your pardon?”
Tony lowered his head to get closer to Bucky.
“Yeah we want you to join us, in a triad.”
“Oh for the winter?”
“Yes, till we get tired of each other! So much longer maybe.”

Tony looked back at the crack, ‘till we get tired of each other’ was an odd but correct statement. He assumed that they would probably get tired of him by the end of winter. Which sort of stinged but Tony was fine, he"ll be happy with this now and then later oh yes he would be very sad but the memories would help? He wasn’t sure. Though he couldn’t really say no because he also wanted this.

“I’d like that,”
“Great, let"s go tell Stevie that he can stop mumbling!”
“Is that why I can’t understand him?”
Buck did a full body Tsum shrug,
“Yeah probably but sometimes I think he doesn’t want you to understand. It"s like he can’t lose if you don’t understand, love does that I guess.”

Tony stopped moving, the strange blushing sort of made sense now.
“He loves me?”
“Yeah we both do! You"re pretty smart and you mesh so well with us.”
Tony bobbed his head as they moved back to the rock nest, where Steve was normally puttering about. Feeling chuffed by the compliments he had his wings half furled out ready to give Steve a little dance.

Steve though was just laying in the middle of the nest asleep, Bucky bounced over and prodded the other. Steve normally would fuss at Bucky but instead he merely rolled to the side.
“Punk, why didn’t you tell me?!”
“I didn’t want you to worry, jerk.”
“Tony agreed, and you pull this! Worst timing Stevie!”

Tony tilted his head, Steve sounded breathless like he’d just run, and Bucky seemed to be worked up. He moved closer, only to balk when Bucky suddenly hissed at him.
“Sorry Tony, Steve is starting his heat, come in see if you could squish him or something?”
“Squish him?”

Bucky did a full body nod and then bounced away, letting Tony get closer to Steve.

“Is he sick?”
Steve made a weak noise as Tony inched closer.
“Naw, heat is more like he’s got a horny period. Us Tsums have a needlessly complex sex system with three types, I guess it makes sense since we can reproduce with just two but Stevie here is an Omega so he gets heats. I’m a beta so I can help him but I don’t have the weight to satisfy him. We tried last time with a rock strapped to my back.”
Tony found that imagery amusing though he wasn’t sure why.

“It didn’t really work,”
Bucky sounds regretful, which Tony understood. You are partnered with someone and then find that you’re not quite compatible.
“Okay, I’ll squish him.”
Tony carefully laid on top of Steve and then lifted one claw to put more weight on him and Steve made a noise that sounded like a sigh.
“Oh alpha!”
Tony flicked his tongue out on Steve’s face.
“Tony, I’m Tony. Steve.”
Bucky snickered and settled down on Tony’s side next to the bit of Steve poking out from Tony’s armpit.
“See Alphas are the heaviest and hardest of us, and you fit that pretty well Tony…Now I got a request.”

Tony was still watching Steve wiggle under him more as he just laid on the other. Initially Tony had been worried he’d hurt Steve but it seemed like being squished didn’t actually harm the other and he wanted to be squashed some more. Having something soft burrow under him was a bizarre feeling, he could probably get used to it as Steve was humming as he wiggled deeper.

“Okay I’ll do my best.”

Tony was of course worried that Bucky was going to ask him to breath fire on him or something equally as odd as squishing his partner.
“May I Stack you?”
Tony lifted his tail head swiveling to Bucky.
“Stack?”
“Yes, I wish to ride on your back, more weight for Steve you know.”

Tony squinted at Bucky; it sounded more like a personal request that Bucky had then deflected into helping Steve. Still he lowered one wing and let Bucky hop on his back, watching out of the corner of his eye to see Bucky sort of swell up, then devolve into purring. So he was the meat in the Tsum purr sandwich? There were worse things so he settled his head down on top of his tail.

Steve’s heat only lasted for a few days but Tony basically kept him pinned to the floor for most of it. At one point he and Bucky had licked Steve into hysteria. That had been curious and amusing, though Tony was very happy when Steve was back, for now he could understand the other. The blushing did not stop much to his joy, he could do a few push ups and inflate his throat and Steve would turn bright red and try to hide under his shell.

Tony was nudged awake again by Steve’s soft back side.
“Punk, you want to be squished again?”
“I wouldn’t mind being squished by such a handsome dragon.”
Tony lifted his head slightly to look at the two, they seemed up to something. He wasn’t sure why this always happened in the middle of the night.

“Are you humping me?”
Steve turned pink a bit but he puffed up.
“I want to ravish you!”
Bucky not to be out done by Steve also puffed up.
“We"re both going to ravish you.”
Tony squinted at the both of them unsure of how the logic would work there. Maybe they could lick him? He was willing to try so he shrugged his shoulders and wings.
“Well sure,”

He could have sounded more excited but he was already worrying about what would happen after winter, after they got bored of him. So when they both hopped on to his back he startled a bit, not paying attention to current matters. He flopped down dramatically.
“I have been slain.”
One claw on his forehead, as Steve wiggled around in his wing pit. Bucky was licking his tail and Tony was just confused.

“Steve, are you trying to tickle me?”
“Am I?”
Steve sounded confused, his head poked out from the wing.
“I don’t know, do you normally rub your face in Bucky"s arm pit?”
“I wish the little punk did!”

Bucky was making a lot of disagreeable noises, as he moved along Tony’s tail. He then leaned dramatically on Tony’s leg.
“What gives man, we’re rubbing and licking you all over and nothing! Tell us what you like?”
“Oh I uh… Well I’ve never done any of this before.”
Steve looked at him with watery eyes.
“You don’t like anything?”

“I like hamburgers!”
Tony lifted his head, looking at the two concerned Tsums.
“Er, I’ve never had sex before. It wasn"t high on my must haves. I do love cuddling though.”
Tony carefully pushed Steve off his back and then he flopped over so his belly was up. Using his claws he put Steve on his tummy. Bucky had already climbed up. They both approached the heart seal, the soft blue glow reflecting in their eyes.

Tony for a moment froze thinking this was the end but he relaxed Bucky and Steve would never purposely hurt him.
“This is my heart seal, some wizard fixed my heart. Maybe that is why?”
Steve’s soft little nub touched the edge of the seal, his face solemn.
“You are not broken Tony.”
Tony wasn’t sure why tears gathered in his eyes. Bucky joined Steve one hand on his heart as well.
“You Goof!”
Tony realized Bucky was crying too. He lifted a claw to Bucky"s cheek to take some of the tears away, Steve was also crying. Oh, Tony wasn’t sure what he’d done to make them cry.

“Thank you Steve, Bucky. I did wonder, hey no crying. I’m pretty happy I have two lovely Tsums as friends.”
“You can’t get rid of us that easily!”
Bucky puffed up, Steve just wilted.
“What do you mean?”

Steve sighed,
“We’re a triad, you can’t decide just because you are Ace to leave! We want you to stay! I wish you would have told us Tony. We wouldn’t have asked that of you!”
Tony placed a claw on both of the Tsums, to keep them still.

“Ace? Hmmm, well maybe never had considered that for me. I like snuggling you! I kinda like it when you rub up against me to tease Bucky too!” 

He was stroking Steve and Bucky, and they both had become very soft under his claws, He sighed.
“It was only for winter though.”
“No it"s not!”
Both of them responded, Bucky banged his metal nub on Tony’s chest.
“Stevie, we fell in love with a Goofball!”
Tony smiled at least Goof was a better name than punk or jerk. He had the best nickname out of the bunch.

“I think I’ve fallen in love with two very horny potatoes.”

Steve made a hiccup noise, Tony curled his claw around him in an attempt to lift him up. Steve rubbed his tear soaked face into the heart seal as he tried to cling to Tony’s chest. Some sort of magic jolted through Tony and he flopped back. Buck evaded the claw and also nuzzled the seal.
“OURS! We’re bonded now!”
There was no response from Tony because he was too busy experiencing whatever that was.

He did carefully curl up on his side one claw full of Steve, with Bucky tucked up right against him. Tony wrapped his tail around his two little love lumps, they were his. Finally finding something to hoard, and the possessive little flame burned in his chest.

When they woke up in a sort of teary crusty mess, Tony licked Steve and Bucky"s faces clean. Then he moved to the crack to gather snow to drink the melt water off his tongue. The Tsums followed him but he was focused on the task at hand.
“So you’ll stay with us Tony?”
Tony slowly blinked and let his tail droop outside, he was feeling a bit too hot and stuffy and this would help with that.

“As long as you’ll have me Steve.”
“Forever,”
Bucky chimed in, they bounded off to nibble on breakfast, pleased that Tony wasn’t going anywhere. Tony was perplexed as he pulled his tail in, the light on his scales was shimmering. His lovely red coat seemed to have bits of gold flecks on it. Was he due for a molt? He itched at his chin, maybe the heart seal magic? After finishing his drink of the meltwater he carefully turned full circle to check out the gold accents, he certainly looked stunning. Like a real dragon, now that he knew it wasn’t just a winter triad he wanted the snow to end so he could stretch his wings and fly once more.

Tony settled down and munched half heartedly on a root, if not for the Tsums he’d probably sleep the entire winter away like Hulk did. Waking only to occasionally munch on something, that grasshopper had been so long ago and Tony could only sigh wistfully for a bug or two.  

“So when spring comes what do you guys do?”

Bucky didn’t answer as his face was inside a plum, Steve looked up from his berry looking thoughtful.
“First we do our best to wake up Hulk. This time it should be easier, you can warm him up with the fire. Maybe warm up the surrounding rocks too so he thaws quicker?”
“Sounds doable. I may need a lot of food for that.”

Tony was thinking about how he could lure Natasha down to help, he’d seen her blow smoke rings and one time a smoke heart. Where there is smoke there is fire after all. Not that he’d ever seen Natasha’s fire, which was of course something he did want to see. Tony had been disappointed when Hulk had told Tony, he didn’t have fire breath, just scream breath. Probably best that Hulk didn’t use that.

Steve made a face at Bucky, moving away to snuggle up to Tony with his berry. Bucky once finished attempted to join as a messy purple stain. Steve protested loudly and Tony took charge to lick the other clean, they really needed a better water source. Tony’s lizard mind was insisting Bucky was a soft overripe fruit and would be good to eat. He resisted that thought, Bucky was sweet, and adorable but he was not food.

Finally Tony couldn’t handle it any more and he slid out of the crack into the winter wonderland, to come face to face with Natasha. She looked thoughtful, Tony fanned out his wings in a long anticipated stretch. He felt the soft body of Steve hop on his back.

“Spring is here, and you have a new coat coming in, It looks quite regal.”
“Thank you! So will you help me thaw out Hulk?”
Natasha nodded and they set to work following Steve’s instructions of heating the rocks around Hulk first. Natasha’s fire was pink and paired well with Tony’s blue fire as they worked their way around the circle. The snow in the area was pretty much melted and with Steve’s advice it drained away before it could become mud.

Natasha offered a side of goat to Tony at the end and they feasted upon it. Steve had bounced back to his crack looking a bit queasy, Bucky stuck his head out glaring at the sun till he spotted Tony then shrugged and went back to Steve.
“Seems the Triad worked out.”
Tony jerked back to Natasha he’d sorta become consumed with eating and had forgotten about her.

“Yeah, I was a right goof about it at first. Didn"t think someone like me could find happiness, you know?”
Natasha curled her tail around Tony and she leaned her head in,
“I know Tony, we aren’t broken. I know far too well. It hurts but we have each other and you have those Tsums. And I will have Hulk.”

Tony leaned into the dragon embrace, wrapping his tail around Natasha. He’d always found Natasha more of a kindred spirit, and he was happy for her.
“I’m glad you came down, I was going to hatch an elaborate plan to get you down here somehow…”

There was a snicker and they resumed their meal in silence. After the meal they basked in the sun around Hulk’s slowly thawing body. Eventually Natasha climbed up Hulk and rested on him like a purple scarf. She shooed Tony off, only after both Steve and Bucky had poked their heads out of the crack.

“Tony go and tend to your mates, they’re worrying about you.”
“How, how do you figure?”
Natasha smiled, waved her claw in a shooing motion.
“Look,”
Tony looked back at the crack to see Steve and Bucky in the crack but Steve was shivering. They were watching him of course, eyes only for him. Waiting and no doubt worrying too, Tony got up and made his way to the crack to see Steve start to bounce in place. Bucky had fallen off, and he could hear the starts of another squabble, as he slid into the crack.

This was home, this was his home and he found relief like some huge weight had been lifted from his life. He stepped into the middle of the argument and layed down fanning out his wings so the two love lumps couldn’t see each other.
“Goof, you can’t hide that Punk from me!”
“I can still hear a Jerk!”

Tony rolled gently onto Steve who didn’t even try to run away, and with his tail he caught Bucky. They wrestled a bit, making a mess of the rocks and dirt. Tony was very happy to get a bit of a dirt bath, he didn’t dare try it at the start of winter because he’d thought the stone nest had some sort of meaning. No turned out it just satisfied Steve’s nesting drive and it was better if it got messed up occasionally so he could rebuild it.
“We’re dirty!”

Steve sounded rather sad about it, buck though just looked at home in the dirt he was singing that song that was just tsumming. Tony wiggled in the dirt some more making sure to scatter more on Bucky vs Steve.
“Chill out punk, this is just spring cleaning.”
“This isn’t clean!”

So the next day Tony and two very dirty Tsums poked out of the crack to look for some place to bathe. They were greeted by a half thawed Hulk who couldn’t stop smiling. Tony could see a purple tail curled around one of Hulk’s still frozen legs, he beamed back at Hulk.
“We’ve done spring dirtying, do you know of any springs in the area for cleaning?”
Hulk pointed with his head, since his words failed him, or maybe that was also frozen?

Tony made off in that direction with the two Tsums on his back for the ride.
“I’m glad Natasha found a partner, and now we’ll see her more often!”
Tony was very happy, Bucky agreed and Steve seemed reluctant.
“I am glad, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hulk so happy. I just don’t feel comfortable around Natasha? I like her but…”

Tony stilled in his movement to look back at Steve.
“Yeah I get that, like she’s dangerous.”
Steve nodded, and looked less confused about the conflicting feelings.
“A dragon after my own heart!”
Bucky waxed on about how he hoped others found him dangerous, and Steve retorted that statement and they devolved into punk and jerk comments. Tony enjoyed it as he weaved his way towards the water which he could hear.

 

The water was very cool, and Tony decided with the help of Bucky to dig a shallow pool that they filled with water. Then he used his flame to heat it up so Steve and Bucky could bathe without turning into shivering lumps. Tony however dipped into the spring. It wasn"t as cold as snow and it really did help with all the deep itches. He needed the dip, and he swam around the pool for a bit once Steve and Bucky had cleaned up, they then washed their clothes which was new to Tony because he’d thought the colors were their skin.

 

Mind blown, though Tony was currently going to shed his old skin so maybe not. He got out of the water and started rubbing himself on the nearby rocks. Steve instantly became concerned when he saw that.
“Are you itchy? I can itch you, that looks like it hurts.”
“Naw it feels really good.”

Tony lifted his head off the rock, and Steve looked at him shocked.
“Tony, your skin is falling off!”
Bucky stacked on top of Steve.
“Cool it Punk. he’s just shedding. It"s a normal Dragons thing. Remember when Hulk did that. Steve’s face turned slightly green with that statement,
“He’s going to eat his skin?”

Tony stopped in itching his neck,
“Well yeah it"s a good source of…”
Trailing off when he saw how green Steve was becoming. He wanted them to look for bugs but recalling how Steve reacted when he ate a bug maybe not. He rubbed his flank along the rock, his old skin was too tight and he wanted to see the gold flecks on his new skin.


“I’m going to take Stevie back, little punk here can’t handle that. Okay?”
“Yeah okay.”
Tony waved them off with his tail, as Bucky carried Steve on his back, having Steve on his back seemed to give Bucky a bit of a bounce in his step. Once they were out of Tony’s sight he turned and bit his tail pulling the skin off. It felt so good to deglove divest of the old skin. 

 

After a few dips and rock rubs Tony was pretty much clean of his old skin. Anything else would fall off with general walking and flying. He posed in his new skin, shaking out his wings he hopped up into the spring air, there was enough current to keep him aloft and this had been something he’d been dreaming about for a while.

Flying back he scoped out the mountain side, most of the snow was melting and from what he could see none of the other dragons had woken. There were no bodies on the crest of the mountain just yet, so hopefully they had a few days head start with foraging and bug hunting. With his wings finally stretched his belly let him know that it would very much like some bugs, or better yet a hamburger.

 

Once Tony landed Bucky and Steve climbed up on his back and they joined Hulk in the warmed semi circle of rocks. Tony and Natasha reheated them so they could all spend the night out on one of the first days of spring. Star gazing was apparently something Hulk did with the Tsums. Bucky had been talking about it as the warmed the rocks up.

 

Seemed like he’d been looking forward to this all winter long.Hulk was doing that rumbly chuckle as he moved around slowly trying to find a better position to host everyone on his back. Natasha took up her favorite spot around Hulk’s shoulders and Tony wanted to be the hat again, but he tried to get on the Hulk’s back with the Tsums on his back. Thinking he could still see the stars from there; and give Natasha some space.
“Tony, come over.”
“I, uh you sure?”

Hulk grinned and tilted his head, 

“I’m sure.”
Tony then climbed his way up, and over Natasha who bumped his snout as he did so. There once on top of Hulk’s head he could see the stars better. Bucky was making happy noises, Steve was quiet but from what Tony could feel he was snuggled into Bucky’s side.

Hulk spoke in a smooth voice.
“Do you see it, Bucky?”
“I see Boötes! There!”
Bucky pointed just off to the left at a cluster of stars.
“Yes, now for our newer family members, let"s go over those stories.”
The voices washed over Tony, who was just tickled to be called family doing something he’d never dreamed he’d get. Learning about the story with people turning into bears was just a bonus. He sighed as he listened to Hulk and Bucky narrate it with Steve sometimes piping in. Natasha’s tail curled around his as he looked back at her, sharing a smile. As they shared this memory together, family was to be found and made; Tony couldn’t have asked for a better one.