Chapter Text
Steve woke to the smell of bacon frying, which meant that either Tony had decided to cook in his quarters or someone was playing around with the air vents. Steve looked around the bed. Tony was still asleep, bare-chested with the arc reactor and a mess of shrapnel scars on full display. Steve feathered a sheet over him very delicately so as not to wake him up. Flip and Bruce were also sleeping. Clint and Tasha sat up behind Steve.
"JARVIS, who's cooking?" Steve asked. The rich scent made his stomach growl.
"Aunt Betty is making breakfast in the kitchen on the common floor, and expects you all to join her at your convenience," JARVIS replied.
Well, all right then, Steve thought. She must have finished up her preliminary lab work, gotten some sleep, and decided to pamper us a bit. He liked Betty a lot. Her relentless competence never ceased to impress him.
Clint and Tasha slipped out of bed and padded into the bathroom. After they finished, Steve took his turn next. Tony, now wearing his t-shirt and bathrobe again, got the turn after that.
"Thank you for everything," Flip said to Steve, wrapping him in a hug.
"You're welcome," Steve said. "Turnabout is fair play."
Flip giggled. "I wondered about the name."
"Yep, that's where it came from," Steve said as Tony left the bathroom. "Go wash up, then let's see what Aunt Betty made for breakfast."
In the kitchen, they found Betty presiding over Tony's lab-grade cooking equipment with flawless confidence. Clearly she had spoken with JARVIS, because she wore a lush sky-blue bathrobe with pink-and-burgundy roses embroidered along all the edges, over navy blue sleep pants and a t-shirt of Marie Curie. Pink bunny slippers protected her feet, their eyes rolling and ears flopping as she moved through the kitchen in a graceful dance.
"Um ... your slippers are looking at me," Bruce said.
"Of course they are," Betty replied. "I always keep at least one eye on you."
"Thank you for making breakfast," Steve said. He counted plain, blueberry, and chocolate-chip pancakes alongside a platter of bacon and a bowl of impeccably dissected fruits.
"You're welcome," Betty said. "We all have the day off. Director Fury tried to whine something about further debriefing to me. I reminded him I wanted to get at least six hours of sleep before looking after the team today, and the rest of you started the assignment earlier than I did so you obviously needed more time to unwind. I also pointed out that if he breaks the guy who usually does your paperwork, Hulk will come smash his favorite flying toys again. He was delightfully cooperative after that."
"That's ... quite an accomplishment," Steve said. Most people had far less luck convincing Director Fury to be anything approaching reasonable. Then Flip peeked out from behind the other members of the team.
"Morning, Flip," Betty said calmly. Then she reached out and tousled his neatly combed hair into a complete mess.
"Hey! Cut it out!" Flip protested.
"No. Little boys shouldn't be too perfect. It makes them grow up into boring men," Aunt Betty said, a spark of mischief glinting in her eyes. "Now go sit down."
As Steve passed her, he felt a comb pressed into his hand. From the feel of it, this was Phil's personal comb rather than one of the spares kept in the bathrooms. He sat down beside Flip, who was futilely trying to restore order with his fingers. "Here, let me help," Steve said. He ran the comb through Flip's hair. Most of it lay flat. One lock seemed inclined to separate itself from the rest. On a hunch, Steve flicked it forward to fall over Flip's eyes.
Flip huffed a sigh, blowing the hair up. "Darn it, this always happens when I don't put gel on it. May I go back to my room for a minute?"
"No," Uncle Tony said. "You're too young to put product on your hair. You'd look like some rich old bag's show dog."
Flip snickered at that image, and agreed to settle for almost perfect hair.
Betty put the first two platters on the table, which happened to be chocolate-chip pancakes and bacon. Then she headed back to the counter for more. Steve's mouth watered as he started forking food onto his plate.
Flip cast a dubious look at the chocolate-chip pancakes. "Uncle Steve, should we be having candy as part of breakfast?" he whispered.
"Do you want to argue with Aunt Betty?" Steve whispered back.
Flip shook his head.
"Then we're having candy with breakfast," Steve said as he put one of the pancakes on Flip's plate.
"Hey, if you don't want 'em, I'll take 'em," Clint said, grabbing the platter.
Tasha smacked his hand. "Share," she said in a quelling tone. Tony leaned over to snag a couple of pancakes for himself.
"Don't fight over the food," Betty said as she set down the rest of the pancakes. "I made plenty."
Bruce sat down with the fruit bowl and filled his plate with that and blueberry pancakes, then passed the bowl to Tasha. "I'm sure breakfast is perfect," he said.
It was, really. Steve basked in the warm glow of accomplishment that followed the completion of a mission, however harrowing the destruction of the quinjet had been. Flip had cheered up enough to enjoy the extra attention he was getting from the team. Bruce and Betty sat together, their knees touching, as they discussed the results of her early analysis of the gamma gear. Tony and Clint were trying to build a tower out of fruit chunks, much to Flip's amusement, while Tasha rolled her eyes at their antics. And of course the food was delicious.
After breakfast, Betty tipped her head at Steve and said, "Do you want to take over now? I just meant to get the day started ..."
"No ma'am, you're doing a great job. I wouldn't dream of cutting in," Steve said. The nice thing about reversing the exercise, he had discovered, was that it allowed the aunts and uncles to take turns organizing activities. It was a more fluid exchange of leadership which intrigued him enough that he wanted to explore it further.
So Betty herded them all into the common room, where she tucked herself up on the loveseat with Bruce. Steve wound up on the couch with Flip and Tony, while Clint and Tasha took the chairs.
"JARVIS, start the movie, please," Betty said. Steve was amused to see that she'd prepared in case he left her in charge. She made a capable strategist.
Steve laughed when the title came up, Beauty and the Beast. He hadn't seen the Disney version before, though of course he knew the story. This Belle seemed to be more of a bookworm than a beauty, though. He could relate to that.
Flip cast a sidelong glance at Steve and slowly snuck one foot up onto the couch.
"Go ahead and make yourself comfortable," Steve said to him.
"Yeah, it's our furniture, we can use it however we want," said Tony, who had his feet propped on the coffee table.
"Okay then," Flip said. He plunked both feet in Tony's lap and flopped on top of Steve.
Steve found that he didn't mind being used as a cushion, not at all. He stroked a fond hand over the flannel star on Flip's chest, then traced the broad red and white stripes. It felt good to return a little of the care he had received in such generous measure. Looking around at the rest of the team, he knew they felt the same way.
Turnabout is fair play, Steve thought happily, then settled down to watch the movie.
