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After everything he and Steve had been through these past few years, Tony just wanted some normalcy. He craved it.
For a lot of people, normalcy, consistency, the innocuous mundanities of life—they could drive a person insane. Days could become boring, tedious, one month running into another with seemingly no end in sight.
But when practically every moment of your life going back the past decade, give or take, has been unpredictable, you covet these unremarkable bits of time that other people take for granted. Y’know, the grass is always greener, something about god and his plans, blah blah.
This longing for a simple life manifested for Tony in his sudden and adamant decision that they adopt a puppy.
“Gee, Tony, us? I don’t know, we barely keep ourselves together, and then there’s Morgan and Peter, would we—I don’t know—would it be too much to take on, you think?”
Tony just grinned. “No.”
Steve sighed defeatedly, but with only adoration in his eyes, “Well, if you’re so confident-“
“I am.”
“Well. Then yes, I’ll absolutely adopt a puppy with you.” Steve holds Tony’s face in his hands, squishing his cheeks a little and ruffling his hair.
“I say we take the kids too, let them help us decide?” Steve suggested.
“I haven’t told Pepper about this, so, sure … as long as we say we’re going miniature golfing or something?”
“Tony!”
“What! She’s gonna say something so mom-like,” he made a face like a child forced to eat their vegetables at the dinner table, “worse than you. Probably tell me I can’t get a dog because I’m,” and Tony made obnoxious air quotes, “‘irresponsible’ and ‘almost die a lot.’”
“And would she be wrong?”
Tony just rolled his eyes. “Fine! She can be in on it. But if she vetoes my plan it’s you who’s facing the consequences, Rogers.”
“Gladly.” Steve smiled, dragging Tony off to Pepper for her approval.
Pepper, to Tony’s pleasant surprise, was totally on board with the plan. Her only request was that “the dog cannot be bigger than me!”
Steve and Tony felt like they could meet that criteria.
——
Peter and Morgan were beyond thrilled that the tower was officially getting a pet. Peter has his own place, but he arguably spends more time here then there, especially because he babysits Morgan whenever he gets the chance. He tries to teach her all the hallmarks of a successful superhero—good one liners, snazzy attire (preferably under which lies a plethora of voice-activated surprises for the enemy), and at least one battle’s worth of experience in space. Meanwhile, Morgan taught him how to make a proper grilled cheese (after he failed to meet her standards on several babysitting occasions), and, on a more serious note, how to be nicer to himself.
As for Pepper, she always knew Tony still loved Steve. It might sound bad, but she was honestly a little relieved when everything finally came to light. Now she didn’t have to feel like she was always waiting for the floor to fall out from under her or the sky to crumble. Co-parenting was no problem, especially with “Auntie” Nat in the mix, and as intense and terrifying as things got there for a minute, in the end, everyone was happier for it.
She thinks a dog will be good for Tony, and even though Steve grumbled a bit, she can just tell he’s gonna be one of those dads who never wanted a pet and then very quickly becomes that pet’s best friend once they’re actually in the picture.
——
“Well, we’re just going to have to get all of them.”
At the shelter, Steve was agonizing over how they could possibly choose just one of the puppies.
“Okay!” Morgan was immediately on board with his solution. “Can this one be mine?”
Her pick was a tiny, extremely chaotic looking chihuahua named Lola. She looked a bit like if a regular chihuahua had gotten into a few ounces of coke.
“Steve, honey, I love your enthusiasm, but let’s stick with just one for now, hm?” Steve rolled his eyes but reluctantly agreed.
“Lola there is officially in the mix,” Tony declared, “so what about you Peter, do you have a favorite?”
Peter was currently fixated on a pit bull terrier who kept cocking his head in the most adorable confusion. His name was Royal.
“I like how this one has no idea what’s going on. Very relatable, 10/10, he has my vote.”
Meanwhile, Steve had of course made his way over to a saint bernard named Ben with the saddest sad puppy dog eyes that have ever puppied.
Mimicking that expression himself, Steve pleaded, “Look at him! Oh my god. We have to get this one. Please?”
Tony was just about to call it a day and take Ben home, absolutely melted by the twin sets of soft, imploring eyes looking back at him, when he spotted a shaggy little maltese mix out of the corner of his eye.
He made his way over to her, reading her name: Shiloh.
Something about Shiloh drew Tony in. The little snow-white ball of fluff felt incredibly familiar to him, but he just couldn’t seem to place it, and then,
And then, he remembers.
He remembers being a kid, walking around the shelter when he was young, just dying to take one of these little guys home—dying to have a soft, fuzzy new friend to keep him company amidst the coldness of his father and his house.
Howard, of course, always said no. Couldn’t have a messy dog running around tearing through things, especially when the Stark home was always full of priceless new creations.
There was a puppy at the shelter he frequented most back then, Tony recalls, who looked a lot like Shiloh. She was there every time he stumbled in, hair falling into her eyes, always smiling. He remembered this specifically, because a lot of the dogs didn’t express such consistent happiness. A lot of them looked sleepy or sad or even sort of defeated, and rightfully so, waiting and waiting for their perfect family to take them home.
Tony thinks he probably liked past-Shiloh so much because he was waiting and searching for that family too, and he wanted to stay happy and hopeful like she always seemed to do.
Steve had snuck up behind Tony, and lightly placed a hand on his back, “Hey babe, is, uh … everything okay?”
Tony jumped a little, surprised, “Oh! Yes, of course. I was just, thinking about something.”
He turned towards Steve, and then looked around at everyone, “So! Did we decide who’s becoming an honorary avenger yet?”
Steve made strong eye contact, and clasped one of Tony’s hands inside his own. Pointing at Shiloh, he replied, “Yeah, I think you did.”
Steve spun Tony around so that he was facing their soon-to-be-new-family-member and held Tony’s waist lightly from behind. “C’mon, say hi!” Steve waved the other two over to meet her.
——
Back at the tower, Tony felt like he was living inside one of those cheesy movie montages.
One minute, Morgan’s at the kitchen table with a box of crayons mapping out what she thinks Shiloh’s superhero suit should look like, while Peter sits beside her and occasionally makes genuinely serious suggestions for design improvement.
The next, Steve is dragging him outside to the backyard where Pepper stands, holding a copy of Puppies for Dummies, trying very hard to focus on reading while Shiloh runs all around wreaking havoc on her educational plans.
Later, they’re all together in the living room, Shiloh on Tony’s lap, and episode after episode of those “Celebrities Answer Questions and Play with Puppies” youtube videos playing on the TV, because Peter wanted to see how Shiloh would react.
At first, she barked a lot. Then, gradually, she seemed to get tired of that and instead just began watching intently, appearing wildly curious.
Probably wondering how she got stuck with us and not Captain Marvel, Tony thought, smiling to himself.
——
Shiloh slept in bed with Morgan that night, and when Tony went to check on her and tuck her in, he felt his heart swell in his chest seeing them together like that, so much it felt like it might burst.
He pulled her blanket up all the way so she wouldn’t get cold, kissed her forehead, and gently shut the light off.
Nat had come over earlier to assist Pepper with the “training,” and the two of them had fallen asleep on the hammock outside, the how-to book from earlier nudged between them.
Feeling pretty tired himself, Tony made his way to his own bed, where Steve was waiting for him.
“Today was a good day. A normal day,” he sighed contentedly as he climbed under the sheets and laid his head against Steve’s chest.
“I’m really glad we got one of those,” he added.
Steve concurred, “Me too.”
“Hey,” Tony began, “how did you choose Shiloh so easily? I know you saw me looking at her, but you just left your little guy with the pleading eyes? and you brushed past Morgan and her loony, yappy, okay so maybe that decision wasn’t as hard, but you know, how did you-“
“Because you chose her, silly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Steve clarified tenderly, “I could tell you wouldn’t be satisfied if we had left that shelter with anybody else. Now I don’t know why, I don’t know what it was that made you go over there—I’m sure one day you’ll tell me—but, y’know, I knew she was the one.”
Tony felt his heart doing that inflating thing again.
He didn’t even know how to respond, didn’t have the right words.
He just squeezed Steve’s hand tight under the blanket and leaned even deeper into his chest, letting his eyes fall shut and the gratifying feeling of their breathing syncing up put him to sleep.