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When the team starts to realize what’s going on they all assume it’s all because of Tony. That it’s all about Tony. It’s not. It’s rarely about Tony, though sometimes they do gang up on him. People don’t quite see Tony the way he is at home, when he’s part cat who wants to sprawl and lounge and part octopus in the way he clings and holds tight.
When they’re at home and it’s just them he’s selfless, sometimes to the point of being irritating, in the way that he rarely wants the focus on himself. He’d rather have Pepper all breathless from laughing as he and Bruce go back and forth trading quips and zingers in the way that they do - Tony all quick and Bruce with his dry sense of humor and his little quirk of a smile.
But he loves to dote on them. He spends his nights between them, curled tight around Pepper with Bruce on his other side, hand spread over the arc reactor. If Pepper is nestled between them Bruce always nudges until she’s curled with her head on Tony’s shoulder, Bruce able to see the glow of the reactor if he can’t touch it. When Bruce is sandwiched between them Pepper snuggles at his side and Tony reaches across him until he can rest a hand on Pepper’s hip. It works. It’s a tangle of hands and Pepper’s hair spread like a glorious fan around them, but god he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
People say Tony steals the spotlight, that he makes it about him - but really when they’re out he puts on a show because he wants to save them from the press. He deflects and diverts, keeps the focus on him so they aren’t bothered. When they get home they kiss him senseless, show their thanks with touches and soft breaths against each other he can’t help but give in and doesn’t put up a struggle.
He prefers it though when it’s Pepper he and Bruce gang up on, leave her trembling and grappling at them both. Or when they have Bruce struggling for composure, when his eyes flash that brilliant green and he’s moaning against them. Tony doesn’t need to be the focus, watching them is more than enough for him.
It’s a salvation all it’s own, somehow they balance each other out. Tony doesn’t think it’s going to be perfect, or that it will be easy all the time, but he finds that this is a life he wants to work for - a sort of love he never expected to find once, let alone twice, in his life.