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Hydra and alien tech again. They obviously would never learn, but it happened so often that the entire team didn't even bother coming out. The fighting team consisted of the Stark family, Bucky (they always brought him if they knew Hydra was involved for his personal revenge), Wanda, and Vision. Tony had lost sight of Stephen at one point, but the faint crackle of the man's whip was enough to keep him from looking for his wife. That and the fact that FRIDAY could easily pinpoint his location, as well as Peter's. He didn't make them suits for shits and giggles after all.
Okay...maybe it was part of the reason.
The main, important reason was that if he couldn't put a shield around the world, he would put one around his world. Especially when one part of his world yawned over the comm in the middle of a fight while lazily webbing a Hydra agent against a nearby wall.
"Underoos, that better not have been a yawn I heard."
"It was totally a yawn. Look, I'm doing it again." He was. The little shit. All while punching the lights out of the last agent.
"What have I said about sass on the battlefield?" Tony asks over the comm and watches as Peter swings around the streetlight he's perched on before jumping down.
"It better be clever?"
"Yeah, and that wasn't it."
Peter sniffs. "Agree to disagree."
"Stephanie! Are you hearing this blasphemy?!" Tony pauses in his walk toward Peter and allows his helmet to retract when Stephen doesn't respond. "Babe?"
Nothing. The others were looking around for the missing sorcerer, and Peter had truly swung into action. The cub went looking for Mama Bear, and it didn't take long for the silence over the comm to be replaced by Peter's side-splitting laughter. It was nice to know that Stephen was unharmed, but Tony still didn't know why the laughter was warranted. Bucky had followed the Spiderling and his laughter rang through the communicators as well. That was enough for the engineer to go find out what was so funny.
When he found the rioting duo, whom were actually holding their sides from laughing so hard, Tony looked past them and groaned loudly at what he found.
Stephen was unharmed...but he was a fucking baby. Levi was swaddling it's infantized master, looking as confused as a piece of outerwear can. Damn alien tech.
"Stop laughing or I'll put you both on diaper duty."
Peter only laughed harder, his face red. "Duty."
The insinuation had Bucky laughing harder as well, and Tony did the only thing he could think of. He smacked them both upside the head, armored hands and all, before stooping over to pick up his miniaturized wife. Tony had to hand it to Stephen though. He was a cute baby.
Who was also looking far too pleased with his situation.
"Stop smiling. I hoped this would never happen and you had to go ahead and complete the circle. What do you have to say for yourself?" Tony asks the babbling infant. His only answer was Stephen blowing spit bubbles that did not have the billioanire's heart melting.
At least Peter was spared this time.
"Aww. He's so cute." Wanda coos at the infant in Tony's arms and the man sighs heavily.
"Hey, Red Riding Hood...could you not? This is really weird for me."
Wanda laughs. "Sorry, sorry. We should get him back to the tower."
"He must have been hit with alien tech. This is something we will have to wait for to wear off." Vision mentions softly.
"Yippee." Tony drawls as his helmet reforms over his face. "Levi, come protect him from the wind while we head back."
The cloak rewraps itself around Stephen just before Tony flies off with him, leaving the others to follow. Wanda and Vision could fly back, Peter could swing, but Bucky couldn't travel by air. He had joined them by motorcycle, and he would be taking it back to the tower. Peter would probably jump at the chance to forgo swinging to hitch a ride on the bike. Tony wasn't worried though. The soldier wouldn't let anything happen to the teen.
Once he makes it back to the tower, Stephen was almost instantly snatched from him by Natasha, who holds out the babbling baby at arms length.
"Cute." The assassin places Stephen on her waist as Tony's nanotech armor fully retracts. "Alien weapons?"
"Yep." Tony confirms with a pop and grabs a bottle of water out of the fridge.
Wanda and Vision had arrived moments after Tony, but Bucky and Peter took longer, confirming the engineer's earlier assumption that Peter would go with Bucky. It took them longer than usual though, and just when he was about to call Peter, he and the soldier stepped off the elevator with bags of food. A lot of food. Tony wasn't really sure how they managed to hold onto all of it on the motorcycle, but he wasn't going to complain. They brought Chinese food for everyone and Tony was starving. He was glad he had the mind to give Peter his own debit card that was connected to the family funds. Of course the teen had his own money, but for moments like this? Feeding the Avengers was pricey. Still chump change for Tony though.
"We practically cleaned out the restaurant!" Peter announces as he walks into the kitchen and pitches forward, only for Bucky to throw his arm out and catch the teen by his shirt. The teen grins and dumps his armful of bags on the island. "We got some stuff that Mom can eat--holy crap...is it weird to call him Mom right now?" Tony opens his mouth but clamps it shut when the teen continues. "Yeah totally weird."
Peter continues to ramble and Tony turns to look at Bucky with a raised eyebrow. "Did you give him sugar or caffeine?"
"No." He replies as he sets his own burden down and starts pulling out food.
While Peter and Bucky unload the food and pull out plates for everyone, the billionaire looks to Stephen when he starts to cry. He watches as Natasha tries to gently bounce him and soothe him in Russian, but she stops when Stephen starts clenching his hands just to cry more. Natasha grabs one of his hands as gently as possible, earning a whimper, and she whips her head up to look sharply at Tony.
"His hands."
Tony rushes over to her and examines the baby's hands to find that they were still scarred. Which meant that Stephen's hands still hurt him. Now that he was a baby, he had a very low tolerance for pain, and Tony could see lots of time with warming pads and gentle massages in the near future.
"Oh baby..." Tony takes Stephen from Natasha and very carefully starts a gentle massage on one hand. "I'll make it better tesoro."
Stephen sniffles into his shoulder. "H-Hurts."
"I know honey. Are you hungry?" The mini sorcerer nods as Tony continues his massage. "Okay. Barnes will get you some food, and after dinner we'll go lay down in the bedroom with the hot pads if you need them."
It was a plan. Stephen seemed to be able to relax for a little bit since the massage seemed to help with the pain, but then everything spiraled downward when it came to actually eating. His hands still trembled when he tried to feed himself, and Tony had to motion everyone toward the living room so he could help Stephen without the sorcerer feeling completely embarrassed. If anyone wanted seconds, they had waited until Tony and Stephen were finished and hidden in their room to go back into the kitchen.
The baby sorcerer had been miserable the entire time. His hands constantly hurt and he couldn't control the shaking enough to do things he used to be able to manage (like feeding himself), he of course couldn't control his bladder so diapers were a necessity, and Tony hated seeing him upset. The worst part about all of this besides his hands still being mangled? Stephen was aware that he was a baby. Tony and Peter were lucky enough to either not remember, or in the case of the first time for Peter; not aware at the time.
Natasha had checked in before heading back down to her own floor after everyone had finished with dinner, and Peter had thankfully caught onto Stephen's misery and shame that he just told Tony to call for him if he needed help. It was hard to see Stephen visibly relax when the teen didn't walk into the room. The sorcerer had the thought in his head that he couldn't let Peter see him in need if help, because he was supposed to be Mom. Peter shouldn't have to worry about his care. Tony kind of understood where he was coming from though. He wouldn't want Peter to worry about him either.
It took a couple of hours, but Stephen was finally able to relax enough to keep himself distracted from the leftover pain in his hands with a movie Tony had put on. As long as he had one hand on a heating pad and another in the engineer's hands while he continued the endless massages, the pain was somewhat bearable. The tears never really stopped though. Stephen couldn't seem to turn those off, so they were always running down his face, even if he had audibly stopped crying. Sleep was wishful thinking. His hands bothered him too much to be able to fall asleep.
It all broke Tony's heart.
So he thanked whatever entity that being a sorcerer meant he was somewhat resistant to the power behind the alien tech as well. Stephen had turned back to normal around midnight and the first thing he did was wrap his arms around Tony. He had been hurting badly. Physically and emotionally, that he craved some proper affection from his husband. He understood why Peter always wanted to be held after a bad day.
"I'm sorry." Stephen finally whispers after a few silent moments of cuddling.
"There's nothing to be sorry about. You were miserable babe." Tony kisses the top of his head before laying his cheek on it. "Were you always aware or was it gradual?"
Stephen tightens his hold around the engineer and nuzzles the man's collarbone. "Gradual I think. Why?"
"That would explain the spit bubbles." Tony turns off the movie when it's over. "Do you need anything? More heat? Painkillers?"
"...just keep holding me."
"I can do that. Let's get you into some pajamas though."
Stephen agrees with a nod and allows the other man to help him change. His hands were still sensitive, so this time he wasn't bothered as much by his need for assistance. He just wanted to crawl into bed, be held, and get some sleep. Pain was exhausting, no matter what kind it was.
The doctor gets back into bed as Tony gets into his own 'pajamas' (which was just a tank top and boxer shorts; Stephen's usually consisted of a t-shirt and pajama pants) and then crawls into bed next to Stephen before pulling him into his arms. Instead of wrapping his arms back around his husband, the sorcerer kept his hands safely tucked between their bodies, the natural heat soothing enough to balm the pain.
Being a baby sucked.