Chapter Text
Kat was, as Tony expected, in her bedroom. He knocked lightly, then opened the door and poked his head in. She was curled up on her bed, knees pulled up against her chest, arms wrapped around her legs, still dressed in one of Natasha’s uniforms. She didn’t look up at him, but the tell-tale shaking of her shoulders spoke volumes. The sight of her simultaneously made Tony want to hug her and shake her at the same time.
“Hey,” Tony said cautiously, entering the room.
“Bonjour,” Kat whispered.
“Technically, it’s ‘bonsoir’ since the sun is setting,” Tony said, aiming for playful. She sniffed in response and he sighed, taking a seat on the side of her bed. Bucky and Steve crowded into the room behind him, but neither of them seemed willng to approach the bed and instead stayed clustered near the door. Tony had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at them.
“I was just trying to help!” Kat burst out, lifting her head. Her eyes were bright with tears and her lower lip was trembling.
Tony sighed, realizing that – of course – Natasha had been right. He was quiet for a moment, looking at her face. In many ways, Kat was so terribly young. But in others, she was as old as Bucky. The dichotomy sometimes made it difficult to know how best to respond to her. But that was they had all signed up for, he reminded himself. They were lucky that Kat hadn’t done anything like this before, and now they had to react appropriately to keep from ruining everything they’d built.
“I know you were,” Tony said finally. “And we appreciate it. You saved Natasha, Bucky and Steve today.”
Behind them, Steve made a noise of protest. “Tony –”
Tony held up a hand to silence him, keeping his gaze on Kat. He felt that it was important to acknowledge the good in what Kat had done. How many times had Howard totally ignored Tony’s contributions, preferring instead to scold Tony or focus in on a tiny flaw? The situations weren’t identical, but they were close enough that Tony did not want to foster that sense of being ignored in Kat.
She deserved to know that she really had helped today.The last thing they needed was Kat feeling like she had to prove herself in some way. Tony cringed at the mere idea, thinking carefully about how to phrase his next word. Kat had lit up at the praise, and he almost hated to bring her down, but…
“But Kat, you have to know that you are not allowed to go out into the field again unless you’re told otherwise,” Tony said, keeping his tone gentle but firm.
“But I helped!” Kat exclaimed, her face falling.
“You did, but in doing so you put yourself in a lot of danger,” Tony said.
“No I didn’t. I was fine!” she said.
“You were wearing a uniform that wasn’t yours, which means it wasn’t fitted to you, and working with weapons that you had never used before and so weren’t totally sure how they worked,” he pointed out.
“It was a knife,” Kat said flatly.
“Tony made those,” Bucky spoke up. “When Tony makes something for us, they’re usually advanced. One of those knives has a special built-in compartment with poison in it. One press of a hidden button and the blade is coated in a very lethal poison that can kill in seconds. What if you had pressed that button and –” He couldn’t seem to bring himself to finish that sentence.
“Poison never killed me before,” said Kat, but with more uncertainty this time. Tony’s stomach clenched at that. She shouldn’t know that. And the way she said it – he tried not to think about Hydra purposely feeding her different kinds of poisons, and how scared she must have been as her body reacted in unpredictable ways. Bucky and Steve were capable of surviving different kinds of poisons and toxins too, but an incident six months ago had proven that it was a very painful experience.
He swallowed and said, “You never know when you’ll run into one that could.”
Kat was quiet for a moment, and Tony dared to think they’d got through with her, when her chin jutted out and she said, “Then you can make me weapons that don’t have poison in them.”
There was Steve’s stubbornness rearing its head. Tony shook his head. “That’s not the only issue. By going out in the field, you put us in a lot of danger too,” he added when she went to protest. Kat’s mouth clicked shut and she stared at him in confusion.
“What?” she said in a small voice.
“I didn’t know you were coming. No one did. I thought you were another enemy at first; I was ready to fire off a repulsor blast. What if I had hit you? I know you’re enhanced, but that still could’ve done serious damage to you.” He breathed shallowly at the thought. “There’s a reason we’re all in constant contact with each other. It’s so that we know where everyone is at all times.”
Kat frowned for a bit, then said, “So give me a communicator too.”
“No,” Bucky and Steve said in perfect unison. Kat pouted at them, looking exactly like Steve when he wasn’t getting his way. Tony tried to keep a straight face, clearing his throat.
“No,” he repeated. “That’s not happening. You’re not getting weapons or a communicator. Because the other part of this is that you’re just not ready for the field. You haven’t trained with the team. We don’t know what you are and aren’t capable of, and we haven’t devised safe or painless ways to figure that out yet. And there’s still a chance that, if you have the code words in your head, you could be turned against us.”
Her face fell. “So you’re worried I’m an enemy.”
Tony immediately said, “Not at all. I know you would never hurt us if you had the choice.” He reached out and put his hand on her hand. “We’re not saying no forever, Kitty Kat. In the future, if you want to fight with the Avengers like Bucky does, we’d be glad to have you. But those days are a long ways off, okay?”
“You’d really let me in the future?” she said doubtfully, looking past Tony at Steve and Bucky. Tony half-turned to see the two supersoldiers exchanging looks.
“If you got through all the tests and everything was okay, then we’d talk about it,” said Steve finally. Tony hid a smirk. He knew that Steve and Bucky would be doing everything they could in the future to steer Kat away from that path, just like he was sure that Kat would be digging her heels in and going for it with everything that she was.
Kat looked from Steve to Bucky to Tony, her eyes narrowed. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” Tony said, squeezing her hand. “Okay? No more trips into the field.”
“Okay,” Kat said after a significant pause, and Tony breathed a sigh of relief.
“There’s the matter of punishment,” Steve said.
“Steve,” Bucky hissed as Kat stiffened.
Normally Tony would’ve agreed with Bucky and let the matter pass. But Dr. Laurie had already talked to them about this too. She had warned them that sooner or later Kat would start trying to push boundaries, and that they needed to discpline her when she did. Kat needed to know where the limits were, and more importantly she needed to know what would happen when she pushed those limits. She needed to know that they weren’t going to abuse her the way that Hydra had.
So Tony cleared his throat and said, “I’m afraid Steve is right. You won’t be getting any dessert tonight, and your bedtime will be an hour earlier than normal.”
He eyed Kat cautiously as he spoke, wondering how she was going to react. Howard’s punishments had always been slightly more… unusual. Some might go so far as to call them abusive. So Tony was basing this off of what Edwin Jarvis used to do when he was in charge of punishing Tony. Never cruel, never angry, just something small and simple that still had an impact.
“That’s it?” Kat asked.
Tony nodded. “That’s it.”
“But I get my dessert back tomorrow?” she pressed, and Tony had to smile.
“You get your dessert back tomorrow,” he confirmed. He was totally unprepared for Kat to suddenly throw herself at him, and was nearly knocked off the bed as a result. Bucky grabbed his shoulders at the last moment, steadying Tony as Kat broke down into sobs.
Tony shot a look of gratitude in Bucky’s direction even as he wrapped his arms around Kat and whispered to her, doing his best to calm her down. Nothing seemed to help until Steve and Bucky crowded onto the bed with them and wrapped their arms around both Tony and Kat. It warmed Tony’s heart to hear Steve apologize for yelling at Kat: he knew Steve’s reaction had been borne of fear, but it was still good for kat to hear it.
Eventually, Kat cried herself to sleep with her head on Bucky’s shoulder and both hands fisted in Tony’s shirt, her legs in Steve’s lap. Tony breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Time would tell how well the three of them had navigated this, and if Kat would keep her word about not going out in the field again, but he thought that everything had turned out, if not pretty well, then at least okay.
“You did a great job, Tony,” Bucky said softly, and Tony’s head snapped up in surprise.
“What?” he said.
“Bucky’s right. You handled that masterfully,” Steve said. His eyes were so warm and full of pride. “I don’t know what the hell Bucky and I would’ve done if you weren’t here.”
“Probably made even more of a mess by arguing with each other when we should’ve been talking to Kat,” Bucky said with a rueful shake of the head.
“You would’ve been fine. All new parents struggle,” Tony pointed out.
“You don’t seem to. It’s like you look at Kat and you know exactly what she needs and how to talk to her,” Steve said.
Tony flushed. “I don’t – I mean – ” Usually words were easy, but he found himself struggling to know what to say in the face of their unexpected praise. In a way, Kat was a combination of him, Bucky and Steve, but tempered by something that was uniquely Kat. It wasn’t always easy figuring out how he was supposed to react or relate to her, but Tony had never thought of it as being overly difficult.
“It’s okay. I’m just really glad that you’re here and that you’re helping us do this,” Bucky told him. “I’d be lost without the both of you. Thinking of trying to get along without you two makes my head spin.”
“Well, you’re never gonna have to worry. Tony and I are in it for the long run, right Tony?” Steve said.
“Of course. For as long as you want me here,” Tony said, and Bucky and Steve exchanged a look. Then they both smiled.
“How about forever?” Steve said, and, before Tony could do much more than blink, Steve leaned over and kissed him. As soon as Steve pulled away, Bucky was there. It was a little more awkward to kiss Bucky because Kat was between them, but Bucky managed. The back-to-back kisses left Tony’s heart fluttering.
“Forever,” he agreed breathlessly, and found himself smiling back.