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When Tony comes home, his family is nowhere to be seen but he can hear voices coming from somewhere further into the penthouse. Smiling, he drops his case on a chair, removing his coat and shoes quietly before he makes his way to the bedroom at the end of the corridor.
Luckily for him, the door has been left open so he leans against the frame with a smile to watch over his family.
Steve is sitting on the reading chair with Peter on his lap, a focused expression on his face as he follows the instructions given by their little boy. At five, Peter already knows his way around most technologies, having grown up playing around Tony’s workshop (though always under watchful eyes of course, including robotic ones), and he’s apparently set on teaching his papa how to play his latest game.
Tony knows Steve knows how to play the game. His husband has watched countless of videos on the Internet before they offered the game to Peter and he watched attentively when Peter showed them how he catches butterflies this morning at breakfast but he’s still listening closely to Peter now, a soft expression on his face as he makes the appropriate “oh” and “ah” sounds at the right time.
Honestly, watching Steve interact with their son now, Tony feels like he could fall in love with him all over again. He loves the expression on his face. It’s the one Steve wears when he pretends not to know about something to keep whoever is with him talking because he knows the topic is important to them. He will listen to them, face open and eyes soft and curious, and ask all the right questions, making them with him feel like the most important person in the world.
Tony is intimately familiar with this expression. He’s had it directed at him for years. At first, he had been a little hurt when he had found out that Steve knew a lot more about modern technology than he had thought but then he had realised that Steve genuinely wanted to listen to him rant and spend time with him and his heart had melted.
“And you click here- no, here, papa,” Peter says, pulling Tony out of his thoughts.
The little boy is pointing at the screen and Steve makes an exaggerate understanding noise that has Tony covering his mouth to conceal a chuckle.
“Oh right, right. Of course. And now, what do I do with it? Do I sell it too?”
“No! Now you take it to Blathers.”
“Father? Do I show it to daddy?” Steve asks with a playful smile, as if he doesn’t know exactly who Blathers is, and Tony has to suppress another laugh. Over the past week, Steve and him have become close acquaintances with all the characters in the game so there’s no way he doesn’t know who Blathers is. Peter obviously knows his papa is goofing around because he giggles and he shakes his head with a laugh.
“Nooo! Not daddy, Blathers. He’s the museum owl! He wears a bow tie and he sleeps the day and-and he really likes dinosaurs and he doesn’t like insects.”
Steve hums, his blue eyes warm and fond as he listens to Peter babbling on.
Tony is about to make his presence known when Peter suddenly gasps and Steve sits up a little in the chair.
Not wanting to disturb them, he bids his time, watching with a grin as Peter sticks out his tongue in concentration, very much like his papa who’s watching the screen intensely. There’s a moment of silence as they both wait with bated breath then Peter shouts excitedly, clapping his little hands together before looking up at his papa. That’s when he catches Tony standing in the doorway and he beams.
“Daddy!” He shouts happily, making Steve looks up sharply. “Papa caught a shark! Look!!”
Laughing, Tony makes his way to his family, dropping a kiss on Steve’s lips and one on Peter’s forehead before peering down at the screen where Peter’s character is showing off an impressive shark.
“My, my, well done! Look at how big it is!” Tony says with a wide smile. “You two make quite the team.”
Even though Steve is the one who caught the fish, Peter is glowing with pride as he nods. “Papa caught it! I’m teaching him how to play the game.”
“We also found fossils and caught a spider,” Steve informs him, leaning up to kiss him. “Welcome home. How was your day?”
“It was alright. I’m glad to be home to my two favourite people in the world,” Tony replies, sitting on the armrest and wrapping an arm around Steve’s shoulders to steady himself.
Steve hands the console over to their son and he wraps his arm around Tony’s waist, placing a kiss on his cheek before they both quiet down to listen to Peter babble about insects and fish.