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“You. Got a dog.” Stephen, arms folded, stared at Tony, his boyfriend, and the small mutt in his arms.
“Yep,” Tony replied, as the dog leaned up to lick his face. “See? He’s a sweetheart.”
Stephen shook his head, just as Tony set the small dog down on the floor.
It was brown, with darker patches, bright shiny blue eyes and a paler underbelly. It’s paws were dark, giving the illusion that it had walked through mud, and it tripped over its own paws as it walked.
“You just had to get one that someone didn’t want, didn’t you?”
“That’s the point of a rescue dog, Stephen.”
The sorcerer rolled his eyes, and Tony fake pouted.
“Come on, give him a chance. I’ll let you name him!”
“Alright. His name is now Stay The Heck Away From Me.”
“Stephen, no.” Tony crouched down, clicking his fingers to catch the dog’s attention. It scampered over to him, managing to fall over once along the way.
“I thought you said I could name him?” Stephen watched Tony sit down on the floor, lifting the little dog into his lap.
“That was before.”
“Alright, fair enough.” Stephen raised his hands in surrender, then sat himself down, somewhat reluctantly, next to Tony. Almost immediately the dog was scrambling over to Stephen, sniffing him curiously and wagging it’s slightly poofy tail.
“Aw, he likes you!” Tony leaned over to scratch the dog behind the ears. The dog looked up at Stephen, almost questioningly.
“Come on then, little buddy,” Stephen said with a small sigh, patting his lap. The dog immediately leapt into his lap, and started trying to lick Stephen’s face. “Ah! Tony! It’s killing me!” Stephen dramatically flopped backwards, laying on the floor, which resulted in the dog standing on top of Stephen so it could better lick his face.
“Oh no, guess I’ll have to leave you to die,” Tony replied teasingly, before lifting the dog off of Stephen so that he could sit back up. Stephen reached over to pat the dog.
“Okay, I’ll admit, he is pretty cute,” the sorcerer relented. “A perfect little buddy for us.” Stephen’s gaze lit up. “Buddy! That’s what we should call him!”
“I was so sure you’d choose something like Dumbledore, but-” Tony was cut off as Stephen smacked his arm.
“Jerk,” Stephen said, turning his attention back to the newly-named Buddy.
“You already love that dog more than me, don’t you?” Tony made a fake-grab for Buddy. “Unfair!”
“You’re the one who got him,” Stephen pointed out, holding Buddy close to his chest, smiling down at the dog.
“Two can play at that game,” Tony muttered to himself.
It was two weeks later that Stephen came home to find Tony with a small, cream and white corgi, as well as Buddy.
“Tony, what-?”
“Oh! Stephen! Meet Iron!” Tony held up the corgi, Lion King style, and Stephen resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“You’re narcissistic. You know that, right?” Stephen told his boyfriend.
“Oh, very,” Tony agreed, grinning. “And I also did this.” Tony tapped Iron’s collar, and a nanotech Iron Man suit expanded over the dog, covering the corgi apart from its head. Stephen bit back a yelp of surprised, and Iron seemed resigned to his face, just sitting down and letting his tongue loll out.
“Just because I made Buddy a cloak and some robes last week-”
“So you did make an outfit for him! Aha!” A look of triumph crossed Tony’s face, and Stephen rolled his eyes.
“Peter’s coming over today, you might want to take that terrible fashion statement off of that poor dog before he gets here and turns into an animal rights activist.”
“Please, I can almost guarantee that his cat has its own Spider-Suit.”
As if summoned, a ginger tabby cat stalked into the room, followed seconds later by a breathless Peter.
“He just had to… run for it… didn’t he?” Peter got out between the great gulps of air he took into his lungs.
“Cats, right?” Tony said, shaking his head. Peter glanced up and spotted the two dogs.
“You got dogs?” Peter glanced from one to the other. “AND YOU MADE HIM A LITTLE IRON MAN SUIT!!!”
Stephen rolled his eyes as Tony shot him a grin that clearly read I told you so.
“Buddy’s got a cloak and robes,” Stephen put in, unwilling to be one-upped by his billionaire boyfriend. At the sound of his name, Buddy came trotting over and put his paws on Stephen’s leg. Stephen leaned down to scratch behind the dog’s ears.
“Awww! Buddy is such a cute name!” Almost instantly the dog left Stephen’s side and trotted over to Peter.
“Traitor,” Stephen muttered, and Peter laughed, patting the mutt.
“Oh yeah, give his dog all the attention and forget about poor Iron here.” Tony folded his arms over his chest and fake pouted.
Peter’s cat decided, at that exact moment, to stalk over and demand attention. By loudly meowing.
“Oh shut up,” Tony said half-heartedly, arms still folded over his chest.
“Hey! Don’t tell Fireheart to shut up!”
“You named him after warriors? No wonder he’s a troublemaker,” Stephen commented, reaching over to stroke the cat.
“I don’t know whether to laugh at the fact that you described a cat as a troublemaker or the fact that you’re in the same fandom as Peter.”
“Oh shut up.” Stephen turned to glare at Tony, and Fireheart meowed, demanding attention again.
“Oh! I made a Spider-Man outfit for Fireheart over the weekend, wanna see?” Peter was practically bouncing with excitement, if that was possible when Buddy was sitting firmly in his lap.
“Sure, kid.” Tony leaned over and ruffled Peter’s hair, who huffed in annoyance.
“Stop messing up my hair,” he whined, but it was half-hearted. He unzipped his backpack to pull out what looked like a mass of red and blue material.
Peter gently pushed Buddy off of his lap, and reached over to pick up Fireheart, who only seemed mildly annoyed at being picked up.
He then set about putting on the costume, and before long Fireheart had magically changed into Spider-Cat.
“Hang on.” Stephen moved his hands, and within a moment his regular golden magic was surrounding his hands. He used it to bring over the robes and cloak he’d made for Buddy, and they magically drifted onto the dog. Tony snorted upon seeing this.
“We’re all idiots, aren’t we?”