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Dark liquid poured from the head into the waiting coffee cup below. The machine hummed as it worked it’s magic, vibrating against the marble countertop. Tony Stark inhaled deeply, the scent of freshly ground coffee surrounding him. Purchasing the latest and best coffee machine on the market had been a decision and one that kept on giving.
Tony usually had coffee brought to him from expensive cafes. When he had quit drinking, one of the first things he did was buy a coffee machine and teach himself how to make his own coffee. The act took his mind of having a drink and the coffee was so much better than what he had been buying. He had sourced the best beans and took great pleasure in the simple act of grinding the beans and making himself an espresso.
Bringing the cup to his lips, Tony let out a hum as the warm liquid filled his mouth and flavour burst across his tongue.
“Tony? What are you doing?”
Tony turned to find Pepper giving him an incredulous look. She held a stack of files in her hands that he really hoped wasn’t for him.
“Making a coffee. Do you want one?” Tony asked.
“Tony,” Pepper groaned, coming closer. “What was the rule?”
Tony blinked. “No coffee after ten pm?” He looked at his watch. “And right now, it’s only four o’clock in the afternoon. Unless Strange has messed with time again.”
And Tony really hoped that the universe wasn’t imploding. It had been a long week and Tony really just wanted to put his feet up for a little bit and enjoy his coffee. After many years of being a superhero and the shit that Tony had seen, he had come to enjoy the simple things in life.
“What?” Pepper’s brows pinched together. “Tony, I’m talking about Peter, Shuri and being unsupervised in your lab.”
Tony blinked and then jolted, nearly spilling his coffee. Tony should’t have forgotten the one rule them had implemented after the princesses first visit. This wasn’t just subjected to the lab but extended to neither of them being left alone when they were together. Between the two of them, the chaos they created left messes that Tony and T’Challa to clean them up.
Princess Shuri had been visiting without her brother this time. She had come to New York to visit with a professor for a paper that she was working on and had asked if she could stop by the visit Peter.
Peter had aimed his puppy dog look at Tony and he had crumbled like a wet paper towel. Not that Tony was going to deny this princess from visiting his tower. He liked the younger genius and he never wanted to keep Peter from his friends.
“You will be supervised,” Tony had warned them.
“We promise not to cause any messes this time, dad,” Peter had promised. Then the kid had promptly turned pink when he realised what he had called Tony, much to the geniuses delight. It wasn’t the first time the Peter had called Tony ‘dad’, the name making Tony’s heart skip in his chest, but it was still early enough that Peter still turned pink at the slip.
Tony had never thought he could be a dad. But meeting Peter and getting close to him, it had changed Tony in a way that he always thought was never for him. It made him feel so light when Peter called him dad and he never wanted his kid to stop calling him that.
So far, Peter and Shuri had kept their promise. Tony had escorted them to the lab where the two had sat themselves down at the workspace that Tony had made for Peter and had begun to work.
At first, Tony had watched them before he had started working on his own project that he needed to get to. They had all fallen into a comfortable rhythm and it had been going so well that when a coffee craving had hit, Tony had left without a second thought.
“FRIDAY,” Tony called, putting his coffee cup down on the edge of the sink.
“No fires boss,” FRIDAY reported. “Peter and Shuri are still working. Dum-E is supervising.”
Tony felt his breath stutter out of him and he flashed Pepper a smile. “See. Peter promised no chaos.”
Pepper rolled her eyes. “Come on. They should have a break anyway.”
Not wanting to get on Pepper’s bad side, Tony obediently followed his wife towards his lab. Her heels clicked on the floor as they walked, Tony catching up and guiding her forward with a hand to the small of her back. She shot him a look behind a smile she was trying to hide.
When they reached the lab, the doors whooshed open and they stepped inside. Peter and Shuri stood facing a monitor, their backs to Tony and Pepper. They were talking rapidly, Peter hands moving widely as Shuri typed rapidly on a keyboard. Dum-E was off to Peter’s side, fire extinguisher at the ready, making trilling noises every so often.
“And then if you add an absorbent -“
“-which would reduce the ambient noise -“
“Making it almost silent.”
“And if we use materials -“
“What are they doing?” Pepper asked quietly, her eyes wide as she watched the two.
Peering closer, Tony’s eyes widened as he read what was on the screen. “They’re designing a new type of power source.”
“Should we be worried?” Pepper asked warily.
As Tony read over their notes projected on the screen, a smile started to spread across his lips. “No, we should be in awe. This is incredible.”
“Dad!”
Peter had heard them, spinning around and grinning at him. “Your back! Can you take a look at this?”
Tony and Pepper moved closer, joining Peter, Shuri, and Dum-E at the monitor.
“We’ve been discussing alternative power sources,” Shuri explained as she gestured to the monitor.
“After the last climate talk, we decided that since those in power aren’t taking it seriously, we should,” Peter said. “We’ve been researching some ideas on new power sources.”
“We based it after your arc reactor,” Shuri said, nodding at Tony’s chest. “And how you implemented that technology into the tower.”
“You’re the first to dive into clean energy,” Peter rambled excitedly. “And I wanted to follow in your footsteps.”
Dum-E gave a loud trill, lifting the extinguisher higher.
Pride spread through Tony’s body and he could feel Pepper melting beside him.
“We’ve only just started,” Peter said, gesturing to the monitor. “And this is just a rough idea but are we on the right track?”
“Yeah, kid, you are,” Tony said proudly. “This is amazing work.”
Peter and Shuri preened and gave each other a high five.
Dum-E trilled and sprayed the fire extinguisher. White foam came spraying out in a rush.
Tony pushed Pepper back, shielding her from the most of the spray while Peter spluttered loudly as Shuri shrieked.
It lasted for a moment before DUM-E switched it off. The robots trilling coo broke the silence.
Peter swiped at his face, white foam clinging to his clothes and hair. He gave DUM-E a wide-eyed look. “What was that for?!”
DUM-E trilled.
The monitor flickered and the calculations Peter and Shuri were working on was suddenly replaced by a familiar video.
“I - dude,” Peter spluttered as he watched a younger Tony Stark testing out his prototype Iron Man suit with DUM-E hosing him down with the fire extinguisher.
“Like father like son,” Pepper said, giving Tony an amused look as Shuri cackled loudly.
“Chaos,” Tony sighed fondly. Louder, he said. “Alright, that’s enough.”
The video stopped and DUM-E let out another cooing trill.
“You’re cleaning this up,” Tony warned his first robot.
“Don’t worry,” Peter said, patting DUM-E’s claw. “I’ll help.”
“After you have cleaned yourself up,” Pepper said. “Shower both of you, go.”
“Yes mum,” Peter said and then hurried out of the room as Shuri continued to cackle, trailing after him.
“I’ll get started,” Tony said, pressing a kiss to Pepper’s flushed cheek as she looked pleased at the title Peter had given her.
“I’ll get some snacks ready,” Pepper said and she left with a click of her heels.
Tony grinned as Pepper left the lab, leaving Tony with a mess to clean up. Although Pete had promised no messes, Tony found himself not caring. This was the type of mess he didn’t mind cleaning up. He enjoyed seeing all his kids getting along and he made sure to give DUM-E a pat.
“You’re the best,” Tony told DUM-E.
DUM-E trilled happily.
As Tony started to clean (and later joined by his kid) he couldn’t help but think that he was the luckiest dad in the world to have Peter Parker as his kid. And although he could never leave him unsupervised with Shuri, Tony didn’t mind. The two of them were going to change the world and Tony would be right there to cheer them on, along with T’Challa. Tony would have to call him and warn the King that Peter and Shuri were onto something big and that they would probably high fibre foods in their future to avoid any stomach ulcers.
Tony wouldn’t want it any other way.