Work Text:
When James Rhodes graduated MIT, he had never predicted he would’ve been buying a house with Tony Stark. Tony, who had become his boyfriend.
At first, Rhodey wasn’t enthused about the prospect of buying a house, simply because he knew he would be away a lot with the military. But when he came home after months long tours, to a home filled with family photos, trinkets, and love, he knew it had been the right decision.
His and Tony’s relationship and gone from strength to strength; they even adopted a cat together (“only you would adopted a cat named Jinx, Tones.” “Don’t make fun of her name she’s a baby.”) which eventually led to them adopting children.
Which brought them to where they are now.
After settling Riri into her bed for the night, Rhodey entered his room to find a sight that would forever make his heart glow with love. Tony was laying on their bed, dressed in what was clearly Rhodey’s MIT sweater and pyjama pants, humming a soft lullaby to the baby, Miles, who was dozing on his chest, his little hand balling into a fist around the soft material of the sweater. Next to them, in a furry little ball was Jinx, her pure white fur tinted orange from the sunset that spilled in from the window.
As quietly as he could, Rhodey crossed the room and sat down next to Tony, pressing a kiss into his coconut-scented hair, before running his finger down Miles’ soft cheek, drawing a coo from the baby.
“Hey you.” Rhodey breathed, as if speaking any louder would shatter the serenity of the scene.
Tony turned his head towards him and smiled, his eyes sparkling with love and content. Before they had adopted Riri and Miles, Tony had been a jittery mess, terrified that he would be the kind of father that Howard was to him, but as soon as little Riri was placed in his arms, all the worries and doubts had seemingly seeped out of him. Rhodey could only watch with pride all over his face as Tony rocked their baby back and forth, whispering promises of love and protection into their ears.
“Hey honeybear.” Tony yawned back, pressing his head into Rhodey’s shoulder, but never loosing his grip on Miles.
“Riri fell asleep in the middle of my story now you and Miles are gonna fall asleep on me too?” Rhodey said with a huffed laugh.
Tony clearly took this as a go ahead to close his eyes. “Jinx is still awake.”
Rhodey turned to the cat that had previously been sat in a ball, wide awake, keeping vigil over her humans. As soon as his eyes connected with the pale blue of the cats, she too closed her eyes.
“I swear this household is against me.”
Tony simply hummed in response, prompting Rhodey to carefully scoop the drowsing baby off of his chest and place him in his crib next to the bed, before sliding down to lie with Tony. They stayed like that for a while, Tony’s eyes remaining closed as Rhodey raked his fingers through his hair, soft and fluffy.
“Sour patch, you’re thinking too loud.”
“That’s physically not possible.” Rhodey responded, pausing his hand in Tony’s hair.
Tony rolled over to face him, his eyes wide awake despite being on the verge of sleep only moments ago.
“You’re worried about tomorrow.” He deducted.
Rhodey sighed. “Of course I am, it’s the first time we’re both gonna leave the kids for more than a day.”
“I told you I can get someone else to go and present instead of me. I can call Pep right now and have it rearranged.” Tony said, reaching to grab his phone.
Rhodey reached out and stopped him, intertwining their fingers before bringing Tony’s hand up to his mouth for a kiss, watching as the lines around his boyfriends eyes softened at the action.
“Don’t. We’ve gotta learn to leave them at some point. Besides, the crowd will be waiting for Tony Stark, not some random S.I employee they’ve never heard of.”
Tony quietly laughed. “I’ll have you know all my staff are very highly trained.”
“You get my point Tones.” Rhodey replied with an eye-roll.
Tony simply smiled and cupped Rhodey’s face with his hands, ignoring Jinx, who had decided to come and lay right between them.
“Tomorrow we’re gonna get up, drop Riri and Miles off at your mom’s, get on the plane, do our thing and we’ll be back in time to watch another god-awful episode of Dora the Explorer.” Tony said.
“Promise?” Rhodey questioned with a teasing grin.
“Promise,” Tony nodded. “Besides, its only Afghanistan, we’ll be back before you know it.”