Chapter Text
“I am not working with that absolute brat anymore! If you want the X-Men’s help, find someone who can handle being yelled at, because apparently, I can’t.” Logan stopped in front of Fury with the most pissed off look, arms crossed. He looked like he was about to make teapot noises at any second.
Fury though, Fury has almost no self preservation. “You’re not a scientist. Why’d they even send you?”
Logan made a steamed up noise, and Phil stepped between the two of them, “Really, I’m sure everyone’s tensions are high right now, but neither of you are helping them by growling at each other.”
Logan glared down at Phil, ignoring the way that Rogers and Barnes stepped closer, in case they had to intervene to save the man that had been so kind to them since waking up in the 21st century. “He told me, to get parvo .”
Fury bit his lower lip, like he was honestly trying not to laugh, and Steve assumed he must honestly not mean it when he complained about the Stark twins being so annoying, otherwise he wouldn’t have found that funny. “Well, you’re not an actual dog, don’t take it so seriously.”
Logan crossed his arms, and stepped back two feet. “Mark my words, one day, that boy is going to say something he regrets, to someone who can’t take a joke.”
Fury nodded, “Like you.”
Phil let out a snort, leaving the two of them to start leading Rogers and Barnes towards the quarantine labs again. “Trust me, he says something he regrets at least once a day.”
Phil started off with Steve and Bucky again, glaring at Logan and Fury as he went past. The two of them had no sense of self preservation. “Ignore the snarling mutant, he always gets that way around Tony. The two of them grate in each other’s nerves.”
Bucky snorted, but Steve just frowned, “Forgive me for wondering, I know it’s not my place and all, but it seems as though everything I hear about Tony is bad, and everything I hear about Greg is… actually, I don’t think I’ve heard anything about Greg yet, to be perfectly honest.”
Dear lord, this man spoke like he was trying to make peace with opposing nations. It was charming. If Phil weren’t a spoken for man…
“No offense taken, Captain, but you might actually have it backwards. Tony is the sweet one.” Which is something that Phil only actually knew, because he’s been roped into babysitting the twins on more than one occasion. “Tony may be louder, and angry right now, stuck in quarantine, but Greg is the one that you need to watch out for.”
Steve’s eyes were wide, “That was ominous.”
Not really. Just that while in littlespace, Greg was the one out of the two of them that actually bratted more. Tony in littlespace was a darling thing.
He rounded the corner, and they were suddenly standing in front of a sectioned off lab, where the twin Starks were isolated, arguing about something while Greg scowled at his baby brother behind a mask. Tony wasn’t wearing a mask though. If he was going to get infected, he’d already be infected because of his immune system being low from his cold.
Steve noticed that the two of them did share some similarities with Howard, but beyond them being at least half italian, from Howard’s side, it’s where they stopped as well. They weren’t identical twins. Tony was much smaller than his big brother, who Phil said, was at least a month older than Tony, since Tony hadn’t appeared until later in the pregnancy. They had similar faces, but their hair was as different as black and white. Almost literally. Greg seemed to be fussing over his little brother though, trying to check his temperature.
He stopped next to Clint, who was sitting across from the entrance with an uneasy look about him. He always got nervous when his favorite playmates started fighting. “What’s going on here, Barton?”
Clint shifted a little on his seat atop a crate, “Tony needs a check up, but he won’t let Greg do it. I think they’re fighting over something, but he won’t let Greg touch him right now.”
Phil let out a sigh, leaning against the crate next to the archer. “Alright, when’s Rhodes getting here? We could use him.” Because he’s the only one who knows how to get them to shut up and do as he says.
Clint perked up a little, “Rhodey’s getting here in about five minutes.” Rhodey was his favorite uncle. He liked Rhodey.
“I thought you said these guys were the smartest people you’ve ever met?”
Phil turned to see what Bucky was seeing, stepping up to the sectioned off plastic area with a frown. Tony was getting kind of growly, pushing at Greg’s arm with a frustrated noise, which quickly developed into a small slap fight between the brothers. He snorted. “Don’t even talk, I watched you and Rogers get into a fight about cartoons yesterday, this is how siblings always act, no matter who they are.” He whistled sharply, making both geniuses look up. “Both of you quite fighting, or you’ll be in separate quarantines.”
The two of them grumbled at the order but did as they were told, Greg stepping back so he was no longer in Tony’s space. He’d wait till Rhodey was there, and then complain to Daddy that Tony wasn’t letting him give him a check up.
And for once, he was actually being a doctor, not just playing one, because Daddy always says that playing doctor with the baby is a no no, and very naughty. Meanie daddies always make you stop doing the fun stuffs.
He pouted, looking away while he waited for Rhodey to get there. Tony was curled up in a little ball on the lab’s couch, under several layers of blankets, shivering.
Greg reached up to scratch at the gas mask on his face, before turning to walk over to the plastic separating him from freedom. “Do I have to wear this stupid thing? It itches. Besides that, it makes literally no sense.”
Phil raised an eyebrow at the man. “I’m sorry, I’m not the doctor here, I have no idea what you mean.”
Greg let out the loudest sigh from behind the mask, and roughly pulled it off, a scowl on his face, looking pissed. “Listen, if I could have possibly gotten infected already, I would be. Tony’s the one I’m worried about. We’ve been here over six hours now, I’ve tested my blood three times, all three times, I came up negative for the virus. I’ve tested Tony the same amount, and twice, he’s come up positive.”
Phil looked horrified, taking a step back in a way that made Steve and Bucky realize, that he knew Tony and Greg more than just in passing. He was probably close with the two of them. “He’s… he’s sick? Why didn’t anyone notify me? You said you had this quarantine under wraps.”
Greg shook his head. “No, I do, The first time, and the last time I checked him, he came up positive. The stagger in the results show that his body is still fighting off the virus, and if he weren’t sick right now, he’d probably have already fought it off… Phil, I need some things. Immune boosters from medical, and in my lab, I have a cabinet with Tony’s name on it. It’s got a bag inside for him.”
Clint nodded next to him. “I’ve got it.”
When he left, Greg backed up a few feet and sat down on the edge of the lab bench. “Christ, Phil. You know how bad his immune system already is. I’m not even worried about him being able to fight this off, I already know he can, but this is going to put him down for at least a month recovery time.”
Phil nodded, “How bad would the infection get if he gets it?”
Greg thought it over a few seconds. Not that he had to, he’s not been able to think about much else while in here. No, he was taking that time to work himself up to getting the words out. “If… if he can’t fight the virus off, it won’t kill him. It won’t even do much, but it attacks the throat and larynx. He could easily lose his voice for a couple of months. Could get bad enough that he has to eat through a tube, but he should be able to fight it off. I hope he can. It’s why I need Clint to get those immune boosters.”
Phil nodded, “And the damage it’s already done to him?”
Greg shrugged, “I’m not sure yet. He’s working off pure adrenaline and cold induced insomnia right now. I think he’ll crash soon though. He’s been flagging for a while. I’ve been trying to keep him sitting, because he’s dizzy… he probably won’t be talking all that well for the next week or two.”
Phil looked away, letting out a humorless laugh, “Tony Stark without a voice. The universe astounds me.”
Greg didn’t laugh, sounding at least twice as somber about it. He looked like he might start crying at any point. He couldn’t stop thinking about worse case scenarios. In people who couldn’t fight the virus off at all, they eventually lost hearing and smell as well as most of their sight. He didn’t want his baby brother to get hurt. “Who would argue with me? Rhodey never argues with me. He’s the mediator. I-”
He turned away, making a horrible choked off noise, before walking away entirely, back into the lab to sit next to his tired looking brother, gently petting his hair with one big hand.
Steve and Bucky felt like they were intruding on something they shouldn’t be.
***
When Colonel Rhodes came into the lab, everyone knew it. Not because he was loud, or even that his presence was greater than anyone else’, but because they could all hear two twin shouts of his name from across the lab before both twins were pressed up against the plastic, looking frantic at their boyfriend.
Tony was wearing a temperature sticker on his forehead, and looked a little red and sweaty, but was also shivering, and Greg just looked like a lost little boy.
Rhodey took one look at them giving him pleading eyes, and turned to Phil. “Let me go in.”
Phil looked horrified, “You can’t go in, it’s under quarantine-”
“Do I look like I give a damn? I promise you, I’ve got a better immune system than either of them, and I’ve already had the vaccine. Either let me in, or I’ll let myself in.”
Phil sighed, one hand reaching up to rub at his eyes. He couldn’t say he wouldn’t do the same thing if his baby was in there, so he finally brought a hand up and waved the colonel off. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so when they start annoying you after half an hour. You aren’t going to be let out until the quarantine is up. That could be a while.”
Rhodey shrugged, pointing to the two suit cases he left by the door. “I came prepared.”
Phil sat back, finally putting his paperwork aside -him and the super soldiers plus his own littlun, have all moved into the hall section in front of the lab for now, all worried over the twins- and watched Rhodey get past the guards and into the lab with both suit cases. The first thing that happened once he was in, was he nearly got knocked over by two excitable men, both clinging to him like he was their last lifeline.
Yeah, Phil would do the same.
***
Steve couldn’t sleep. Of course, he didn’t need as much sleep as a regular human might have, but he was still thinking about Tony and Greg.
He and Bucky were supposed to be meeting them for the first time today to talk about the Avengers initiative, but then they had called quarantine on the two of them, and things had devolved from there.
He sighed, sitting up in the bed, and getting up without waking Bucky. He grabbed a thin sweater, and pulled it on, before heading out the door and back into the hallway.
He was just planning on checking up on the twins, and going back to bed, but he stopped when he got to the lab now, cocking his head to the side oddly. “Hey.”
The smaller twin, Tony, was sitting in front of the plastic, a notebook in his lap. The man blinked up at Steve tiredly, before reaching up one hand to rub at his tired eyes like a three year old might. It was oddly endearing. Steve came over and sat across from him on the other side of the plastic. “Are you feeling bad?”
Tony nodded, quiet though, and reached up to point at his neck, making an upset face.
Steve nodded, frowning. “Ahh, sore throat. That’s not fun. Do you know who I am?”
Tony thought that over for a few seconds, before turning in his notebook to a blank page. He wrote big in it, and turning it around to face Steve.
CAPSICLE
Steve’s eyes went wide, and he couldn’t help the slow grin sliding onto his face, despite the grim situation that they were currently in. He thinks he and Tony are going to get along just fine.