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It was calm in the tower. Well, as calm as it could get when Peter was home. The teen was currently sitting on the ceiling, flicking cat treats down to the floor, and confusing the hell out of Tibbs. The cat ate them as fast as they appeared, but he would always look around trying to figure out where they were coming from. He came up short when he pawwed at both Tony and Stephen in the kitchen, Cassie (who was watching tv in the living room) was a dead end too. He just wasn't used to humans being on the ceiling so he never looked up.
While all of this was taking place, amusing Peter's parents to no end, Carol had entered the penthouse, and Tony had never moved so fast in his life when he saw what she brought. He practically jumped across the island to use Stephen as a body shield when he saw Goose tucked under one of her arms, and Carol laughed as she set the Flerken down.
"Danvers! What is that thing doing here?!" Tony says as he points around Stephen at Goose.
"He wanted to come with me." Carol says simply, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
It was not.
Peter, in his precious ignorance, flicked a cat treat at Goose and literally scurried away when he opens his mouth and tentacles come out to snatch up the treats. "OH MY GOD! WHAT IS THAT THING?!" The teen shouts as he unconsciously flips down to the floor to step in front of Cassie.
Goose scared the crap out of him (and interested him at the same time) but he wasn't about to leave the other teen vulnerable. He vaguely catches an unreadable look on Tony's face when he glances toward his father but thinks nothing of it as he turns his attention back to the alien cat. The alien cat that Tibbs seemed to suddenly be completely fascinated with. Peter shouldn't really be surprised. Tibbs was the chillest cat he had ever met, so him not being bothered by some very uncatlike behavior from Goose was pretty normal for him.
Carol just grins as Cassie looks around Peter to look at Goose with some interest if her own. "He's a Flerken."
"A rather tame one at that." Stephen says as he approaches Goose and crouches down to scratch behind the cat's ears.
"Carol, if that thing eats my wife or my kid, I'm holding you responsible!" Tony says.
"Relax Stark. Just treat him like you treat your cat." The woman says as she waves a flippant hand in his direction.
Peter laughs half-heartedly. "Probably not a good idea. Tibbs is kind of special in his own way." As if to prove his point, Tibbs walks right up to Goose and sniffs his mouth curiously.
"Anyway, I was told this is where to go when I want a place to hang out for a bit." Carol says. "Clint was very specific about the 'family floor'."
Tony puffs out an affronted, but defeated sigh. "Stephanie, remind me to put Barton at the top of the cleaning list."
"Noted." Stephen replies dryly as he stands and takes a seat on one of the couches.
To everyone's relief, Goose seemed content to keep Tibbs company, and Tony joined Stephen on his couch after giving the two cats a wide berth. Although he wouldn't admit it out loud, Goose was one thing Tony was afraid of, but his earlier actions probably gave that away. Peter was taking it all in stride after his initial shock and relaxed out of his defensive position to take the empty spot next to Cassie, and Carol walks over to sit on his other side.
She asked to be caught up on what had happened while she was gone, and also what she had missed, and they all delivered. Tony told her most of the Avenger history such as Thanos's first invasion of Earth, SHIELD's fall, or anything related to the Avengers. Stephen caught her up on the more magical side of things, and the teens? Movies. Cassie recommended a few chick flicks and offered to have a movie night with Carol, who accepted whole-heartedly, but everyone groaned when Peter opened his mouth and starting making Star Wars references.
Of course it all went over Carol's head, so when she asked what he was talking about, Peter stopped nerding out and gave the woman a surprised look.
"What?"
"You keep talking about Star Wars. What is that?" Carol asks, not knowing about the nuke that was currently exploding in Peter's mind.
Cue the most offended gasp the teen had ever made. Even more offended when Bruce had asked all that time ago if Peter ever got tired of watching Disney movies and Star Wars. As if.
"You haven't seen Star Wars?!"
Tony sighs as he stands. "You've done it now Danvers. Don't expect to leave that couch anytime soon."
"Cassie, would you help me make dinner?" Stephen asks as he follows Tony's example.
"Sure." She replies and follows the couple into the kitchen, leaving behind Peter asking FRIDAY to start the first Star Wars movie. To her credit, Carol didn't look like she was regretting anything. That would probably change soon.
"To think you like him." Tony teases Cassie and she blushes bright red. "Okay, I had some doubts, but that right there?" He motions toward her face. "That just confirms my theory."
Stephen stops grabbing things out of the fridge and stares at Cassie. "Wait. You like--"
Cassie shushes them loudly and grabs the food from Stephen. "Shut up! He has enhanced hearing!"
Tony snorts. "Not when he's nerding out over Star Wars."
He reaches around Stephen and grabs the container of blueberries, ignoring the sorcerer's quip of 'You're going to turn into one of those one of these days', as he pops a handful into his mouth. The engineer was close to teasing her some more by asking Cassie when her crush started, but decided to leave it alone when Stephen distracted her with a few cooking tasks.
Her mom and step-father decided to travel after the events of the Snap, and Cassie moved into the tower permanently with Scott. She was usually only up in the penthouse with them whenever her father was at work or just because (meaning to ogle Peter, even if the boy was completely oblivious to it), or if everyone got together for some thing or another like movie night. This was definitely not a movie night though. If any of the Avengers stepped off the elevator from now on, they would immediately turn around and leave once they saw that Peter took over the living room with Star Wars movies. Again.
Of course there had been times when Cassie had been sick and didn't want to be alone when Scott had to go to work, so she would come up for Mama Bear cuddles. Stephen spoiled all of the kids and they all adored him because of his attentiveness as a parent figure and as a doctor. Clint once had to bring Lila up so Stephen could tell her that, yes, you do need to sleep when you're sick so you can get better faster, because she thought her father was trying to scam her into sleeping. Once Stephen had confirmed Clint's words, Lila went back to Barton's floor without a fuss and slept like she was supposed to.
Peter would always be the favorite though.
Tony pours himself a glass of water and looks toward Goose and Tibbs, and finds the cat's lying next to each other, purring contentedly. The engineer didn't even bat an eye at the scene. In fact, he expected Tibbs to befriend the alien cat. It was just a feline version of Peter and the Hulk, and that had been interesting. Of course, it gave both Tony and Stephen temporary heart attacks when Peter approached the Hulk after a battle, but then the teen just fist bumped the big guy and told him he did a good job. The Hulk gave Bruce control willingly after Peter did that, and after a couple more tests, they discovered that Hulk liked Peter because the boy treated him like a friend. He was even able to ask the big guy if they could have Bruce back so he could help Sam when he had gotten hurt, and again, the Hulk gave Banner control.
"Just when I think that this group can't get any weirder, someone has to go and prove me wrong." Tony says and looks over at the sorcerer as the man hands some vegetables over to Cassie to chop.
Stephen smirks. "Someone has to."
"Why do you think I married you?"
Cassie raises an eyebrow. "I swear your reasons for marrying each other changes all the time."
"It doesn't change. It's just a growing list. You'll understand when you and Underoos tie the knot." Tony moves away with a laugh when the teen points her knife at him, and then throws another handful of blueberries into his mouth with a wink. "Then again that will never happen at this rate because our kid is incredibly stupid when it comes to picking up signals from girls."
Cassie sighs heavily as she throws her chopped vegetables into the boiling water on the stove. "I noticed."
"When is your father supposed to get back?" Stephen asks her.
"Late."
"You might as well stay for dinner." Tony says and looks toward the living room when Peter and Carol start arguing about something that happened in the movie.
Today was just full of surprises. Carol actually looked to be enjoying the movie with Peter and the billionaire half-expected them to binge watch the entire collection. That meant Cassie would either have to endure the torture or they could direct her to the guest room where there was another tv. Peter's room was available but that was a can if worms he didn't want to open if Scott saw her in there. Knowing Peter, if he actually went to sleep tonight, he would change in his bathroom and just get into bed and go to sleep if Cassie was in there watching movies. He was used to friends taking over his tv and one half of his bed. Cassie was a whole new situation for obvious reasons though. Scott didn't seem to know about her crush on Peter but it wouldn't matter, she was a teenager now. It also didn't matter that Peter would never take advantage of her whether he knew about her feelings or not, and Tony couldn't fault Scott for worrying. If he and Stephen had a daughter, he would worry too.
"Can I make something for dessert?" Cassie asks, interrupting the engineer's thoughts.
"Depends on what you're thinking." Tony replies, ignoring Stephen's eye roll.
"Cheesecake?"
Tony blinks and motions at the counter in front of him with exaggeration. "Explain why it isn't in front of me at this very moment."
Cassie laughs and both Tony and Stephen share a look when it briefly pulls Peter's attention from the movie.This mutual pining thing was starting to amuse Tony. Especially the fact that Peter wasn't even aware he was pining.