Work Text:
So, here he was. Babysitting a kid. for a whole eight hours. There was so much work he could be getting done in eight hours, and the fact that it was midterms really wasn’t helping his stress levels. The kid in question was swinging her legs back and forth, sipping at her apple juice. He had given her that because he wasn’t really sure whether or not giving alcohol to kids was normal. His old man had done it. Made it a bonding activity and everything, even though he hated the burn of the drink sliding down to his belly and the scathing disapproval of Howard whenever he nearly puked.
So, back to the subject on hand, he’d given her apple juice because he wasn’t sure If that was normal or not, doubt based on the fact that every time he brought up the way his family (barring Jarvis) had treated him around Rhodey, he’d been horrified, quick with unnecessary reassurances of no, Tony, dude, that is not normal, do you need to talk, do I need to punch Howard? Yadda, yadda, all that shit. Apple juice just seemed like the safe option because if what Rhodey told him wasn’t right then apple juice looked kind of enough like alcohol to be safe? And on the off-chance that his platypus was right, then he didn’t want to, like, accidentally traumatize Sharon. Aunt Peggy would shoot him.
Sharon hadn’t said anything since her parents dropped her off, (their babysitter left little notice and they were passing by Cambridge) but that was fine by tony. he didn’t like to talk as a kid either. a blissful fifteen minutes passed by in silence interrupted only by tony’s clacking of the keyboard (he was programming a rudimentary AI, it didn’t have a name yet but Tony was thinking of dummy, dum-e, something like that.) and Sharon's loud sipping as she worked at the apple juice.
A high-pitched screech in the air caused Tony to key-smash--probably confusing the hell out of dum-e-- and he whipped his head to look at her, scared that she’d somehow managed a way to stab herself with her cup. All was well when he took her in, she was just sitting there, glaring at him. Irritation twitched in his chest and he scowled at her.
“What the hell was that? You scared the shit out of me!”
“Sesame Street is on!”
“What?”
“Sesame Street is on!” she yelled, glaring daggers like it was somehow his fault.
Tony glared back, and it became an impromptu glaring contest. Sharon won. She must have learned how to glare from aunt Peggy.
“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”
“Anything! I need to keep up with sesame street or else I’ll be out of the loop forever!! My friends will talk about it and I won’t be able to and my entire social standing will fall apart! This is a crisis Tony!”
“A show about sesame seeds is that influential?”
She gave him a ‘are you actually this fucking dumb look’ and to be honest, Tony probably deserved it, but give him a break, it’s not like he ever had as much as a social life than Sharon obviously does.
“Have you ever even watched it?”
“...no?” he asked cautiously.
“WHAT!” She shrieked. If Tony was completely deaf by the time her parents came this pick her up, it would be their fault. ”where’s your TV, I have to fix this! Siddown!”
Tony oofed as she grabbed a hold of his shirt and pulled him down “hey! Watch it! What’s so important about this show anyway?”
Sharon sighed "it just is, okay?" She said, fingers jabbing at the remote.
Tony rolled his eyes as he took the remote from her to turn it to the kid’s channel. ”don’t screech at me when I don’t like it, Kay?”
He didn’t get an answer. She was already enamored by the weird red puppet on the screen.
A few hours later and Tony was… well, to say ‘happy with his current position’ would be stretching it. especially since Sharon kept insisting that he lift his pinky finger whenever he took a sip of his gross m&m water, though the kid kept insisting it was tea.
Tony was honestly afraid for whoever tried to negotiate with her in the future, because if she managed to convince Tony fucking stark to have an m&m tea party with her, then she could accomplish anything.
He didn't like the soft toys Sharon was using for her other party guests, though. The weird pink fuzzy guy kept staring at him. And also, wasn’t she a little old for toys? Howard threw away all his toys, barring the Captain America action figures (that he secretly played with under his bed until he was sent off to boarding school.) when he was five. He took another sip of his m&m tea in a pathetic attempt to drown the little ache in his chest that came with thinking about that. Some whiskey or something would've worked better.
(he was always too emotional for his own good anyways.)
But no, Sharon seemed completely fine, wasn’t watching out for an adult, or even making Tony promise not to tell her parents. It was weird. But fun, kind of. Having Sharon so relaxed kind of made him relax. Not all the way, just slightly less wary than usual. Loosening the ever-present ball of anxiety in his chest.
Yeah, exchanging pleasantries with president Sharon and sir bufflenut (which was apparently the pink fuzzy guy’s name.), it was nice, in a silly way.
Sharon was crying. Oh god, Sharon was crying, what did he do?? he hasn’t hit her, he hasn’t even yelled at her. Why the hell was she crying all of a sudden?!
“Why the hell are you crying all of a sudden?!”
She flinched and sobbed, and tony ignored the swell of guilt that came with her wailing. He couldn’t fix whatever was making the kid cry if he didn’t know what it was, after all.
“I-I fell and my knee hu-urts” she hiccuped and sobbed and, oh, was that it?
Tony knew exactly how dad would have reacted if it was tony in Sharon’s position. Screamed and yelled and hit. Maybe locked him in the cupboard until he stopped blubbering. That’s what Howard would’ve done.
…there was a cupboard right behind them. He didn’t think he’d be able to bring himself to yell and hit her.
That’s what Howard would’ve done, or even mom if she was particularly tired, although that was rare. She usually would’ve ignored him or have gotten Jarvis.
Jarvis, who would’ve given Tony a hug, spoken to him softly and told him he wasn’t angry at him. Jarvis who would’ve made it all better. Tony missed him.
Before Tony was aware of even making a decision, Sharon was in his arms and he was bouncing her softly, murmurings vague comforting words as he took her to the bathroom.
He set her on the sink and gave her a captain America plaster from the first aid kit. Murmuring mindless comfort the whole way.
“S’okay Sharon, I got you, I’m not angry, I promise--”
“Why would you be angry?” She mumbled, her sniffles tapering off.
“uh…”
...Maybe Rhodey was onto something about the way his parents treated him.
That thought was for another time, though.
He ignored his growing unease to reassure Sharon, “Nothing, kid, just making sure. Do you wanna watch some mindless tv?”
She nodded and jumped off the sink, letting tony guide her to the living room.
(later on, Sharon's parents picked her up. They gave him some money, which he didn’t really need, and thanked him while Sharon begged her parents to let her stay for longer. They told him that maybe he could babysit her next time they popped by, if he wanted. Tony didn’t really mind, Sharon was a good kid.)
(as he caught up on his missed hours of work he couldn’t shake the feeling that Rhodey would’ve been proud of him.)
(maybe Jarvis too.)