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“I hate this. This is stupid, and bad, and I think I might use these fuckers to kill someone, this is so stupid.”
Tony frowned, coming around to the other side of the couch, where Natasha was glaring daggers at a pair of knitting needles. She had a pile of yarn in her lap, tangled around one of the needles, and looked like she’d rather snap it. Tony sighed, sitting next to his Domme and taking the yarn ball from her side. Natasha wasn’t bad at crafting, Tony had once watched her make an entire blanket in less than a week with crocheting, but Tony had met maybe three people in his entire life, that liked both crochet and knitting. And they were probably aliens or something.
He started winding the yarn around the ball for her, while she pulled out her phone with a sigh, texting Bruce. By the time he’d had most of the yarn wound around the ball again, Natasha looked a little more relaxed.
Tony smiled, leaning into her side for a cuddle while he finished her work. Natasha was pulling the needles out of the work, and shoved them into a bag at her side, grabbing a crochet hook instead while she waited for Tony to finish untangling it for her. Natasha wasn’t a patient woman the majority of the time, and Tony was actually amazingly good with busy work and getting small details on something just right. He had to be, because being an engineer wasn’t anything to scoff at.
Tony wasn’t in little or kitty space right now. He felt like an adult human. He was big, he just needed a cuddle though. Tony had almost no personal bubble, which is okay, because even when Natasha was feeling weird about touching people, Clint was always a cuddle monster.
Natasha reached up a hand to gently run through Tony’s messy curls, watching his fingers work. “You’re too good to me, dobroserd. You know how to make me better.”
Tony turned his head and pressed a kiss to her cheek. He loved Natasha, in or out of headspace, she was amazing.
Clint came crashing into the room, just as Tony was giving the yarn back to Natasha, making as much noise as possible. He was so much louder in littlespace. “Gramma, Gramma, guess what?! Uncle Steve says that we gots lots and lots of new playdoh and lego kits for the playroom, and Tony’s new kitty toys are here!”
Clint smushed himself in between Tony and Natasha on the couch, rambling on about how excited he was, and Tony smiled, letting him cuddle into his side. The three of them were damn near in a pile, pretty much in each other’s lap. He liked it when the little cuddled them like this. It felt warm and snuggly.
Clint grinned and squished their heads together. “Tony, Tony, Tony you come play with me? There’s new kitty toys, and legos ! There’s legos, and you’re an engineer! You know how amazing legos are.”
Tony nodded solemnly, “I do, in fact, know how amazing legos are.”
He let the little archer up off their laps, following him back into the kitchen, where Steve was unpacking several Amazon boxes, sorting through the lego play kits and new cat toys. Tony didn’t see anything wrong with so many lego kits. Normal people would call the amount of lego kits that he got for the playroom, excessive, but Tony was an adult, and he understood how important they were.
There was a light purple one, that Clint grabbed up right away. It wasn’t very big, but it looked fun. “Look, Tony, look! This one has a party! Look, let’s put it together in the living room with Gramma!”
Tony nodded, grabbing a second box as he followed after him. That one wasn’t all that big, and wouldn’t keep them entertained for long, but this one was a hotel, and would probably take a while to finish.
When they got back into the living room, Natasha was making granny squares -because granny squares are fast and easy- and Tony followed Clint over to the soft rug they had there for Clint and Tony to play at. Sometimes Steve and Bucky joined them, because Steve and Bucky were daddies, and that was nice, but they were alone in the room with Natasha right now. Tony could see that she was much more relaxed, but still, keeping an eye on them without them noticing, which was nice. It was always nice to know they were watched over, even if they didn’t need it.
Tony leaned in on his stomach, a pillow from one of the couches against his chest. It kind of pressed against the reactor scar, but Tony didn’t flinch at it like he used to, so he was calling that a win.
They must have been down there for a while, building together, because the next thing he remembers other than tiny bricks, is Steve kneeling down next to them with a tray of food. Oh, lunch!
Steve leaned over and pressed a kiss to Tony’s curly head. “Hey, baby. Are you and Clint having fun with legos?”
Tony frowned, sitting up just enough to grab an apple slice off the tray. “Not little.”
Steve raised an amused eyebrow, looking back at Natasha. Natasha gave him an equally amused look, nodding at Tony meaningfully. Steve nodded back. “Hmm, that’s a real shame, it seems so darn boring to be an adult right now.”
Tony nodded solemnly before catching himself and giving Steve a scowl. “Nota baby.” He looked back down with a scowl, going right back to his lego creation.
Steve just smiled at him and nudged Tony’s plate closer for him to eat. Ten minutes later, when Tony and Clint had gone back to their legos, Steve got back up to go get the rest of the new things for the living room’s play area.
Clint looked up at him, zeroing in on the toys in his arm like he had some sort of kitty toy meter. It was amazing. “‘S that Tony’s new kitty toys?”
Steve nodded, getting the rest of the objects in his arms into the toy box before handing the packages to Clint, who immediately set about tearing into them. “Tony! Tony! Look, it’s a new bobby feather, and the FroliCat Dart machine!”
Steve had to help him get into that box, since the laser pointer machine was a little tricky in it’s packaging.
Tony was suspiciously silent on the floor next to them, avoiding looking at their stuff. Steve had the sneaking suspicion that he was trying to avoid falling into kittyspace right now.
Something bumped into Tony’s hip, and he looked over, seeing Natasha’s yarnball had somehow ended up all the way on the other side of the room from her, even though she was studiously ignoring it while she kept on texting Bruce.
Yep, Tony was boned. He could already feel himself slipping down right now.
***
When Bruce came up to the living room half an hour later with Tony’s collar and paws that Natasha had asked him to bring up, he couldn’t help but frown at everyone in the room. “Oh come on, guys, you don’t have to torture him like that. Come ‘ere, kitten, I’m not gonna be mean to you like these jerks are.”
The kitten in the living room happily escaped from where he was being baited with that dreaded feather and trying to ignore -and mostly failing- the awful laser pointer machine. He felt frazzled, and happily went directly into Bruce’s arms, knocking the other scientist onto the floor so he could get into his lap for proper snuggles. Bruce always made things better when everyone else was torturing him. Bruce just cooed at him, giving Steve and Natasha glares. They were the human adults here, they shouldn’t be doing this.
He wrestled the kitten around a bit in his lap, getting access to Tony’s neck to clip on the collar, and his hands so he could put on his paws.
When Tony was finally dressed properly, he decided to just plop himself down in Bruce’s lap, since he was the only one there that didn’t torture him. He thinks he might take a nap.