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Rhodey does not roll his eyes as Tony dances across their shared lab, but it is a close thing, held together only by the fact that Tony Stark is maybe the cutest thing that Rhodey has ever seen in his life. Peter is laughing, sitting on the counter and kicking his feet, and Tony is obviously putting on a show for the kid. He’s fourteen, got into a program studying at their college for a few hours a day by the skin of his teeth, and Tony scooped him up into his academic arms and started toting him around on day one. Rhodey turns to look at the recording camera, rolling his eyes.
“As you can see, I’m the only adult in the room. But, to continue,” he says, beginning to explain the experiment in front of him. They’re livestreaming on YouNow for their Youtube audience - the ones that like livestreams anyway. It’s a simple experiment, just something for funsies, so it’s not like it matters that Tony is kinda goofing off. Peter isn’t usually even around for their Youtube stuff, but he had gotten a report back with a grade he wanted to show Tony, and well. He’s here now. Rhodey doesn’t mind the kid, hasn’t ever really spent time alone with him, but doesn’t mind him.
“Hey Rhodes!” Tony calls, distracting Rhodey mid-sentence. He’s holding the skeleton in a bridal dip, a pen between his teeth in place of a rose, and he has his eyebrows raised like this is some sort of challenge. Peter has one of his legs pulled up to rest his head on his knee, watching the proceedings and masking a giggle. Rhodey gives Tony an indulgent smile, melting a little.
“Hey Stark. Got somethin’ to say?” he asks, raising an eyebrow of his own. Putting down his beaker to cross the lab is barely a decision, but he’s glad that Dum-e is running the camera so that he’s not just walking out of frame. Tony grins around the pen, taking it out of his mouth and leaning the skeleton against the counter, as haphazard and ill-advised as that may be. If Rhodey ever writes a novel about his boyfriend, that may just be the title of it. Haphazard and Ill-Advised: The Tony Stark Story.
“Maybe I do, Rhodes,” Tony says, grabbing onto the lapels of Rhodey’s mostly just decorative lab coat. They’re doing a mad scientist theme for all of October, even in live shows, so there’s fake blood spread down the side of the coat, sticky on Tony’s fingers. Their noses are touching, their mouths scant millimeters apart when Peter throws a balled up piece of paper at them.
“Stop being gay on main!” he laughs. Rhodey rolls his eyes before kissing Tony anyway, pulling away after just a moment.
“Hate to say it, but your kid is right. We have an experiment to do, Mister Stark, and that means you need to wash your hands,” Rhodey admonishes, grabbing Tony’s offending hand and spreading it out for the camera, making the fake blood marks obvious. It’s bright and sticky rather than the dark tackiness of real blood, which has both its benefits and its detractions. Tony sticks his tongue out and lays a quick kiss on Rhodey’s cheek before crossing the lab, sticking his hands in the sink to dampen them before grabbing the fun Halloween theme soap he picked up a month before October even started. Rhodey turns back to the camera.
“He’s not my kid,” Tony mutters about half a minute late, to which Rhodey just laughs. He’s about to pick the experiment back up when he gets an idea.
“Hey Parker, make yourself useful. You’re experimenting with the big boys, kiddo,” Rhodey announces, jerking his head to the side. Peter nearly falls directly to the floor in his scramble to get off of the counter to come help. As many times as he’s hung out with them in the background of videos and streams, this may just be his first time actually performing in anything they broadcast. Hopefully, he doesn’t fuck it up.
The rest of the stream passes with little to no shenanigans, though there are always some jokester moments when Tony is on the scene. He’s obviously trying to be a good scientific influence for Parker though, which is cute. Rhodey just does his normal thing because it never really matters who is in the lab with him (though he’ll always prefer Tony at his side to literally any other scientific mind, even if he got the chance to work with Bruce Banner from Chemistry and Radiation or Helen Cho from Anatomy Technology), he’s always going to be more on task than Tony. He’s the one who closes off the stream, if only because Dum-e likes to try to close it off for them and Tony is really bad at saying no to the little guy.
“That’s a wrap! We’ll see you guys next time, don’t forget to check out the channels if you haven’t already, and the edited footage of this stream will be on our shared channel by Wednesday! Happy sciencing!” He exits with their usual Vulcan hand sign, turning off the camera and closing the stream summarily. He’s not even surprised when Tony’s arms wrap around his waist, a kiss pressed behind his ear.
“I’m not really that bad, am I?” Tony asks, a shiver passing through Rhodey at the breath against the shell of his ear. Rhodey turns in Tony’s arms, kissing the tip of his nose as soon as he’s settled again.
“You’re a little shit, Tony Stark, but no, you’re not that bad,” he says quietly, actually kissing Tony. The press and slide of their lips is familiar, warm, and always feels just as much like coming home as stepping into their shared apartment does. Rhodey barely holds himself from rolling his eyes when another piece of paper collides with the two of them. Peter is giggling again.
“My eyes! My poor baby eyes!” Peter says, barely able to parse English through his laughter. Rhodey just flips him off instead of pulling away, able to taste the laughter on Tony’s mouth.