Chapter Text
If he really wanted to, Tony could blame this all on Pepper. She could have anything she ever wanted delivered right to their front door at the tower, but she always insisted on going to the store herself to get whatever she needed. She said it gave her some sense of normality, which yeah, Tony could understand where she was coming from with that. Sometimes some of the team would join her on her outings, usually when she went to the mall, and Tony was no exception. Today, it was Pepper, Tony, and Steve making the trip, mostly to just browse through the clothing racks, and Steve said something about wanting to find a new pair of running shoes. Tony was only coming along because he’d spent the last three days cooped up in his workshop, and he needed to step away from his work to clear his head.
All that morning, Tony had been teetering on the edge of his headspace, and he hoped the distraction of shopping would keep it at bay. He had too much work to get done to be worrying about being little.
As soon as they entered the mall, Pepper was off. The three of them had agreed to meet at the food court in about an hour and a half, so until then Pepper was going to be taking every store by storm. Being the CEO of a company as big as Stark Industries gave her an excuse to spend a little extra on her wardrobe, she needed to look professional after all.
Since Tony didn’t have anything he was shopping for, he just trailed behind Steve as he milled about. They talked a bit about nothing in particular, and Tony distracted himself by fiddling with his phone while they walked. He’d offer his opinions on the different pairs of sneakers Steve was trying on, but for the most part he was uncharacteristically quiet as he thought about the issues with the suit that were waiting for him back at the tower. And he was fighting off his headspace, which didn’t exactly put him in a chatty mood.
They left the store, Steve with a new pair of navy blue sneakers in a shopping bag, and Tony followed behind him. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see a text from Bruce asking where he’d left the data sheets they were using for a project together. Tony stopped, closing his eyes as he racked his brain trying to figure out where he’d put them, and then texted back that they were in one of the drawers at his desk. When he looked up from his phone, Steve was gone. Now, had Tony been completely in the mind of an adult, this wouldn’t have been a problem. But the whole time they’d been in and out of the stores, he’d been in and out of one headspace and on the edge of the other. And now that he was separated from Steve? Yeah, he was a lost cause, and his little headspace swallowed him right up.
Tony glanced around nervously, looking for Steve’s blond hair poking out above the crowd around him. Damn, he didn’t realize until now just how crowded the mall was. It’s a Saturday afternoon, of course it’s crowded. But that’s not what you should be thinking about right now, the adult-Tony’s voice told him in the back of his mind. Someone bumped into his arm as they walked past, and Tony remembered that he was standing in the middle of the walkway. Surrounded by people. No, surrounded by strangers . With nobody he knew in sight. It would be laughable, how cliché the situation was if he wasn’t so terrified (He was a little boy, lost in a mall, and he couldn’t find his daddy. Seriously?) His body went on autopilot, because there’s was no way he was thinking clearly at this point, and he walked along with the crowd until he could step off into a little area with no foot-traffic.
Tony ran his hands through his hair. He knew his daddy probably wouldn’t even be looking for him, because he didn’t know that he was a daddy right now. Tony didn’t tell Steve (or anybody, for that matter) that he was skirting around the edge of his headspace. Had Steve known that there was even the slightest chance that Tony could be little, he never would’ve taken his eyes off of him. But as far as Steve knew, Tony was a grownup who probably went off on his own to do some shopping and that he’d just meet up with him later like they’d agreed. What was he supposed to do? It’s not like he could just find the security office and have them find Steve for him. He could only imagine that announcement. Steve Rogers, please report to the security office immediately to collect your forty-five year old little boy. Yeah, absolutely not. He was better off trying to find Steve on his own, even while as young as he was feeling right now.
When his phone buzzed in his hand with another text from Bruce, Tony was ready to slap himself for not seeing the obvious solution to his problem that was right in front of him. He had a phone. Steve had a phone. He was just glad he could blame it on his headspace that he hadn’t figured that out sooner.
He dialed Steve’s number (Tony knew it by heart) and he waited impatiently for him to pick up, but the ringback kept going and going, until Steve’s voicemail answered instead. Disheartened, Tony quickly sent him a text. Where are you? I need you. He stared daggers at his phone, waiting for it to buzz with a response from Steve saying he was coming to get him right now. He was fighting off the urge to slip his thumb into his mouth and find a quiet corner to curl up in until his daddy came for him, he just felt so scared and alone, and he could feel the tears threatening to flood his eyes any second now. He settled for chewing at his fingernails and pacing back and forth anxiously, which he guessed was better than nothing. Finally , his phone went off, and Steve had answered.
I’m on my way to the food court. The food court was on the lower level of the mall, on the complete other side from where Tony was. Tony redialed Steve’s number, and this time he picked up. “Hey, what’s up?”
Tony whimpered his response so quietly that he didn’t know if Steve would even be able to hear him above the noise from the crowded mall, “Daddy.”
Thank god for Steve’s super-soldier hearing. “Baby, are you still near the shoe store?” Steve could go into daddy-mode just as quickly as Tony could become his baby.
“Yeah.”
“Okay honey, stay there, alright?”
“‘kay.”
“Do you want me to stay on the phone with you?”
Tony’s daddy was so smart. “Yeah.”
“Alright baby, I’m so proud of you for calling me, you did such a good job.” Steve praised. He did most of the talking, his voice was enough to help Tony calm down and keep from getting worked up about being all by himself. Tony stood facing the wall, not wanting anyone to recognize him and ask for an autograph or a picture, he definitely wasn’t in the right mind for any of that. That’s why he never ever left the safety of the tower when he was feeling little, and he was ready to fight his headspace off if it started creeping up on him while he was already out. Today he must’ve had a lapse of judgement or something, he wasn’t thinking clearly after being locked away in his workshop for so long. No, he was never letting this happen ever again.
Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he spun around to see Steve standing there smiling warmly. Oh how badly Tony wanted Steve to just scoop him up in his arms and hold him, but he knew that they couldn’t do that in the middle of the mall. He did allow himself to lean into Steve’s touch, nuzzling up as close to Steve’s side as he could without it being ‘questionable’.
“Daddy,” Tony said quietly, more to himself as a reassurance that yes, his daddy was here now and he wasn’t alone anymore.
“Hey honey. I’m so sorry I lost you, I didn’t know you were little,” Steve cooed.
“S’okay.” Tony rested his head on Steve’s shoulder.
Steve pressed a careful and quick kiss into Tony’s hair. “Let’s go find Pepper and we can go home, okay? Maybe we can get an ice cream at the food court before we go, what do you say?”
Tony smiled and nodded. It didn’t matter much to him what they did now, he was just happy that he had his daddy back.