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When Natasha woke up, she felt much warmer than normal, and immediately knew there were at least three bodies in the bed with her. She knew it was either Tony or Clint, but she was betting on Tony, because Steve and Bucky were off on a mission right now, and Tony was the only one out of the two of them that shifted this much in his sleep. She could feel his squirming against her chest.
Bruce was still sleeping behind her, one arm over her waist and breathing even. She probably woke less than half an hour after Tony snuck in with them. She wasn’t nearly as light of a sleeper as she was on a mission, but she would wake up in between dream cycles if she felt something different.
She blinked a few times, looking down at the squirming man against her front. Tony was probably in either littlespace or kittenspace before he came in there, but she was betting on kittenspace, since he mostly went to his big brother when alone in littlespace if she wasn’t immediately available. The room was dark still, and it was probably still early in the night. She closed her eyes again to go back to sleep.
When she opened them up again, it was bright in the room for morning, and Natasha looked down at the kitten still pressed against her chest with a fond smile. Tony was blinking big eyes up at her, the look of trust and love in his big brown eyes melting her heart just a little more than it usually did. She leaned in, mouth closed while she gently nuzzled her nose against his in greeting, before turning to get off the bed.
She really would like to stay and just snuggle with her kitten, but she would like it more if she had an empty bladder and no morning breath. She could smell the mint on his though, so he’d probably already had his morning bath and grooming from Bruce, who was nowhere in the immediate vicinity. Even after two years, Bruce still loved giving Tony and Clint their baths when he could, saying he felt helpful and loving when he got to help them while in subspace.
Tony dropped into subspace faster than anyone she’d ever met if Tony didn’t find any threats around him, and didn’t have any work at the moment; as long as he was around a caregiver he could trust to keep him, he could drop at any moment’s notice. There was no telling what might have sent her baby into subspace that late at night, but she was glad he trusted both her and Bruce enough to come to them at night.
Bruce may be a sub too, but he was also what Natasha would consider a caregiver, when it came to Tony and Clint.
As she came back out of the bathroom, she could hear Bruce opening up the bedroom door, and looked up with a smile for him while she came back to the bed to cuddle the quiet kitten curled up around her pillow. Tony gave a small meow in greeting to both of them, nuzzling against Natasha’s hand when she reached in to pet at his soft hair.
Tony sat up when she started going for the drawer she kept his gear in, but only pulled out his ears and collar. She wanted him a little more mobile for breakfast. He always got finicky about eating out of a bowl, and without his mitts on, he could be trusted to sit at the table with them, which lead to a much more happy kitten than if he had to eat on the floor, but he always fussed when they had to take his mitts off first. Natasha thinks that Tony might have some issues eating in a position where he’s not upright, and the idea of being messy just grated on his nerves. He would probably get upset with them if she made him after having a bad time the night before.
“Bruce, did you make breakfast?”
Bruce nodded, coming over to sit on the side of the bed, leaning in to press a kiss to Natasha’s cheek, before leaning down to nuzzle at Tony, who turned onto his back, one hand curled up into a partial fist so he could bat at Bruce playfully, meowing. “I’ve got breakfast ready, Tony’s been cleaned up, and I checked up on Clint a little bit ago. He’s pretty adult right now though. I think he’s planning on spending the weekend adult, since he and Phil haven’t had much time off recently.”
Natasha nodded, giving her and Bruce a few minutes to just pet the kitten a little bit and wake up more. Finally, she stood off the bed with a stretch, pulling a pair of sleep pants over her underwear, and Bruce’s sweater over her cami. It was warm in the tower, very warm, but she still didn’t like Tony running around in tee shirts. She grabbed another sweater from Bruce’s side of the closet, and came back over, tiredly wrestling the kitten into it. Not that Tony didn’t like it, he loved the sweater, but what kind of kitten would he be if he didn’t make a fuss over the silliest of things? Not a very good one in his opinion.
Bruce grinned at the kitten when he pulled away from Natasha, meowing indignantly as he burrowed into Bruce’s shoulder, obviously upset at Grandma being so horrible to her sweet baby kitten. That’s not nice of you, Grandma.
Natasha grinned too, way too charmed by her quiet little beast. “Okay okay, I know, Grandma is horrible for wanting her kitten comfortable. Okay, let’s go eat breakfast. Maybe afterwards, we can visit little master Clint, and you two can play. I know Uncle Phil misses seeing the prettiest kitty around when he’s at work.”
Tony seemed to perk up at that, looking at her with big eyes for a moment, before meowing again, gently moving with Bruce’s help, climbing down off the bed with the use of an ottoman half the height of the bed, while Bruce kept a firm hold on his waist. “Good boy, Tony. Can you go wait in the kitchen for us now?”
Tony sat back on his ankles, leaning up to he could nuzzle Bruce’s neck a little, making a small grumbling noise of asentment. He sauntered out of the room with as much dignity as a man on all fours could.
“Hmm, do you know what sent him to us last night?”
Bruce shook his head, “Jarvis said he just woke up and came down to our floor with no indication that anything might be wrong.”
“I believe Sir is noticing a keen absence of his other caregivers during their mission. Normally, when he wakes up in the night, one of them soothes him enough that he’s become used to it.”
Natasha nodded, “Well, if he had to choose one subspace or the other, it makes sense that he’d choose the one with a caregiver at the ready for it.”
Bruce nodded, following the woman out into the kitchen. Tony was already sitting in a chair at the table, looking a little more awkward than usual in his headspace, but it was nothing short of cute.
She didn’t see anything wrong with him coming to her for help. No matter the fact that he had two new Doms now, Natasha would always be needed to keep her little kit safe and happy. She loved that.