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Looking back on it years later, Tony had certainly not expected the turn events had taken after he'd sent that first email back to Steve, together with pictures of his newborn babies.
He snorted just thinking about it but the two men slouched on the couch next to him didn't comment apart from the side-glances they gave him; he didn't bother explaining himself, only kept reminiscing with a faint smile on his face.
The emails had become more and more numerous, longer too. Steve asked questions and seemed to grow genuinely attached to Tony's children, something that scared him initially - he had to protect them at all costs. But the difference had been that Steve was truly genuine all along. He hadn't rushed Tony, hadn't pressured him into anything. He kept him up to date on the progress he made with the list of doctors Tony had suggested and then with Bucky's own progress when they got there - never giving too many details as to overwhelm him but just enough for him to know the other man was on the right path.
It took a long while but one day, one of Steve's reply contained his phone number right after his " Yours ," and Tony's heart clenched a bit. They both knew he already had that number, knew it by heart even, with the number of times he'd thought of calling Steve. This was a nudge, gentle and unloaded, but a still a nudge.
Tony gave it a few more days; days he spent watching his children grow more and more, babble and drool, laugh baby laughs and paw at his cheeks and beard with clumsy, round fingers. Then he picked up his phone and called.
That had been the first step of a long list. There had been setbacks, there was only so much patience Steve Rogers could learn to display and even if he was trying very hard, Tony could tell it was fraying at the edges. But still, they kept their talks going, at a distance of Wakanda to New York, the timezones playing tricks with their sleep supplies but it was worth it. It had been then and when Tony looked around him now, it was undeniable that it had indeed all been worth everything.
Bringing Bucky into this, into them, into the circle that were Tony's arms around his three children that also happened to be Bucky's? An innate reluctance inside Tony made it hard but he pushed through it; the evidence of Bucky's healed mind and body and the earnestness Steve brought to the table made it possible.
The way Bucky's blue eyes filled with tears one too many times through the video chat as he told Tony how much he wanted to meet their babies, how much he wished he could have been a part of their lives from the start and just how ready he was to play his role now, that eventually got Tony to melt.
His heart stopped panicking at the very thought of it all, just as his hands didn't tremble anymore. He wanted to believe Bucky, he really did. Steve's voice in his ear, reassuring and loving and the very prospect of having both his babies and himself surrounded by this much love - it was unexpected but Tony wanted it, wanted to believe it was possible.
Having triplets on one's own was no easy task, but seeing as his children's faces illuminated when Tony told them they would be meeting their Papa soon and "Can we call him that? And can we call Steve Daddy Steve, too?" , Tony almost cried on the spot.
He did cry when Steve passed the door of the penthouse the day they'd planned to make it happen, and cried harder when the kids latched onto Bucky with all six arms and three baby voices asking a thousand questions. He relaxed into Steve's grip on him, his back to Steve's chest as they watched their other third and the pile of kids he was meeting for the first time.
Tony thought then that they might be able to make it work. Now, nearing five years after that first encounter, his two husbands form the best supersoldier mass on the couch as they very convincingly try to melt with its leather and a simple glance at the baby monitors Tony can't seem to part from - being able to see them soothes him like nothing else - informs him that his three, nearly 7-year-olds, are all sleeping rather soundly in their respective beds.
This is what happy looks like and it feels good, they deserve it. He snorts still. He had not seen that coming.