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Tony walks into his room to grab his tablet off the nightstand and he pauses when he hears splashing in the connecting bathroom. Was Stephen taking a bath? He only took those when he had a long day, and it would make sense since Tony and Peter hadn't seen him come home. The sorcerer probably portaled directly to the bathroom.
At least it wasn't the shower. Last time Stephen portaled into the shower, he had been slimed and although the many rounds of sex that followed were amazing, Tony just wasn't down for that right now. He had a long day himself and it wasn't even over.
"Babe? You in a fish mood?" Tony asks as he walks over to the closed bathroom door and raises a brow when he hears frantic splashing.
"Don't come in!"
"...why?" Tony asks carefully.
"I'm...not decent." Stephen responds lamely, and with the tone that he even knew that sounded lame.
Tony chuckles. "It's a bit late for that Stephanie." The engineer says as he opens the door. "I've seen every inch of--"
Tony freezes when he enters the bathroom. There, sitting in their rather large tub, was Stephen...but he had a tail. A fish tail. A cyan colored fish tail. The doctor blushes hotly as his husband continues to stare and he sighs heavily.
"Not a word Tony."
Stephen's voice broke the other man's trance and he bursts into laughter, resulting in getting splashed by the annoyed doctor. "Peter!" Tony shouts. "Mama Bear took fish mood to a whole new level!"
"I'm not coming in there! I'm already scarred for life!" The teen shouts from downstairs and Stephen sighs with relief.
"Nothing scarring here Underoos! Just get your butt up here! You'll love it!"
Stephen glares at Tony when they hear Peter groan loudly, and the sorcerer prepares himself for the teens guaranteed laughter when he arrives. Peter shuffles into the bathroom skeptically and carefully looks over Tony's shoulder, and his snickers quickly turn into full blown laughter that renews Tony's own. Stephen glowers at them for a full two minutes as they finally calm down, and they wipe their eyes free of mirthful tears.
"Mom...when we called it fish mood--"
"Do not finish that sentence." Stephen grumbles. "A spell went wrong and turned me into this, but Wong kicked me out. He didn't want me to get the books wet, so now I'm stuck here while he finds a spell to fix this."
"Honey, that can't be comfortable. There's a pool down on the training floor if--"
Tony blinks when Stephen opens another portal before diving through it and he and Peter look at each other when it closes. They trip over each other as they rush down to the elevator and take it down to the training floor, and quickly find Stephen "stretching out" by swimming around. Tony approaches the edge of the pool and crouches down just as the doctor swims up to him, and grins.
"How does that chlorine taste?"
"It was awful until I used my magic to purify the water." Stephen responds and flicks some water up at Tony.
"Better though?" Peter asks and the sorcerer nods.
"I'll be much happier when I have legs again." He notices the growing twinkle in Peter's eyes and he points at the teen. "Cub, I swear to the Vishanti, if you make me watch The Little Mermaid on an endless loop, I will put you in a timeout portal!"
"Whatttt?! Psh! I wasn't going to--" Peter stops when both Stephen and Tony give him a look. "Okay, yeah. I was totally going to do that."
Unfortunately, Tony couldn't stay any longer. He was already late as it was to his next meeting, and this new development with Stephen had made him even later. So he gave his wife a kiss and ruffled Peter's hair, earning an annoyed groan from the teen, and left for the rest of his day. Then Peter had decathlon practice to get to even though it was a Saturday because Nationals was around the corner, and had to leave not ten minutes later, leaving Stephen alone.
He got bored and lonely fast. The loneliness being the stronger feeling because he was stuck in this damn pool. He couldn't even portal to a lake or the ocean or anything because the water would be too cold for his hands, even as he was now. He was stuck waiting in the pool with no one to talk to. Once upon a time, he would have reveled in the quiet but not anymore. The quiet would have been more bearable if he had soemthing to occupy himself with but he didn't. All he could do was swim...and that lost its appeal within the first ten minutes.
So he was left to his thoughts without anything to do and that was never a good thing. He somehow managed to keep himself from depressing thoughts, and he also realized that Tony always gave him something to do or distracted him with endless chatter if he ever caught Stephen staring off at nothing. Crossword puzzles, reviewing contracts and paperwork to make sure Tony didn't miss anything, rambles about new suit upgrades, and even poked him with sharp objects. Of course the last one always got Stephen glaring at his husband and threatening to send him free-falling, but he never noticed until now that Tony had been distracting him. Even if it meant he would sleep on the couch that night, he always kept Stephen out of his head in whatever way he could.
Stephen maybe loved him a little more now.
Peter did it too but he stuck with rambling about anything and everything, or cuddles.
The Sorcerer Supreme was stuck with his tail longer than expected and had to spend the night in the pool, and that had made him feel even more lonely. He missed the feeling of Tony's body heat against his back, the engineer's strong hold, the breath on the back of his neck...he even missed the times when Tony would lightly snore. Sometimes into his ear which drove Stephen bonkers at times.
He didn't sleep that night. He felt too cold after the reminder of what he didn't have. Stephen took to lazily swimming around the pool instead, and trying not to think about how empty and alone he felt. He wanted company. Anyone would do, even Tibbs or Levi would be a step up at this point.
He got Sam. The man had come down to the training room for his morning routine and didn't bother hiding his look of surprise when he saw Stephen in the pool.
"Hey Mama Bear. Couldn't sleep?"
"Among other things." Stephen grumbles and watches warily as Sam approaches the pool. The darker male quickly notices his fish tail, but instead of laughing, he just gave the doctor a weird look.
"Is that what everyone means by you being in a fish mood?"
"No. This was an accident."
Sam throws his hands up in the hair. "Then what the hell does fish mood mean?!" Stephen smirks in response and Sam rolls his eyes. "Screw you man."
"Tony has that covered quite well actually."
"Ugh."
The Falcon goes over to the farther corner of the floor to work through his routine, and the noise he made helped Stephen's loneliness. Steve and Bucky were the next to arrive on the training floor, and his conversation with them was similar to Sam's, except they were more accepting of the situation. They were used to weird at this point and just shrugged before joining Sam. The rest of the morning passed by with arriving and exiting team members, and Stephen was happy when Peter came down in his swim trunks to spend time with the sorcerer.
The teen's cannonball, however, left Stephen a little less impressed.
"Was that necessary?"
Peter grins when the doctor asks him that after he surfaces. "It's a rule Mom."
"Right...where's your father?"
"I think he's asleep still. Yes, he actually went to bed last night." The teen's says to his mother's skeptical look.
"That makes one of us." Stephen mutters under his breath, and splashes Peter with water when his son looks at him with concern. "How was practice yesterday?"
His question was distraction enough. Peter had gone off about how hard MJ was working them recently, but it wasn't so bad since they had gone out for pizza. The teen only had a few slices to put on a show of being a normal teenager, but he did buy a couple more boxes for himself when he left. The talk of food had Stephen's stomach growling loudly, and he was pretty sure it echoed throughout the room because the remaining team members had burst into laughter.
"Do we need to find some kelp or plankton for you to eat Mama Bear?" Clint teases.
"What do...merpeople...even eat?" Scott asks.
Stephen sighs heavily and resists the urge to smack his head against the ground by the pool. Stone wasn't a friend to anybody's forehead. "I can eat normal food you know."
Even Natasha had put in her two cents. "We can't give him fish guys."
"Fish are friends--" Peter starts with a grin and the rest of the team (sans Stephen) finish.
"...Not food."
The teen brushes away a fake tear. "I'm so proud of you guys."
Stephen groans. "Another Disney reference? Really?" He looks up from where he had earlier laid his head on his arms when a portal forms and the doctor finds Wong with a book. "Please tell me you can fix this. I've already suffered through the threat of having to watch a Disney movie on an endless loop and the children just quoted one..." A collective 'hey!' resounds through the room at the children term and Wong raises a brow.
"Maybe I should leave you like this for a little while longer."
"Please don't."
Wong smirks but opens the book. "Might want to grab your swimsuit or something."
Stephen's eyes widen slightly in understanding and he opens a small portal to grab his swim trunks. "Peter, close your eyes."
Peter didn't need to be told twice. He swam a little ways away and turned with his eyes closed, and the darker skinned sorcerer conjures the reversal spell. In the blink of an eye, Stephen had his legs back and he hurriedly pulls on his swim shorts before giving Peter the okay. The others went back to their training while Stephen was turned back to normal, and he was thankful for that because when he got put of the pool and tried to stand, he had faltered. Swimming with his legs back was one thing, but standing was entirely another. In the short time he had the tail, he had grown used to it but adjusting back to his normal form would only take a few moments. Peter, to his credit, had bit his lip to keep himself from making Little Mermaid references, and helped Stephen up to the penthouse. Wong had portaled away after being kind enough to cast one more spell to instantly dry both Peter and Stephen, and they had made their way to the elevator.
"Food first. I'm starving." The doctor admits.
Peter looks up at him sheepishly as he helps him to the table. "Now that I think about it, we forgot to feed you didn't we?"
Stephen gives him a deadpan look. "Did you really just compare me to a pet goldfish?"
"Nah. You're tail was too pretty. Maybe a beta."
"...you're grounded."