Work Text:
One month later.
October, 2013
It starts off with a scream.
Tony looks up, spinning toward where Bruce is also straightening from his work. “Was that Peter?” he asks as Bruce stands up, walking quickly over to Tony, who spins back around and opens the camera feed on Peter’s room. They both frown, looking at the screen because Peter’s room is empty, so they both lean forward, squinting until Bruce points at something and then starts jogging toward the door. Tony blows up the screen until he can see it, Ollie poking out from underneath Peter’s bed. He sighs, getting up and heading for the door. When he gets upstairs, Bruce has Peter in his arms and is pacing through the room, bouncing him up and down, whispering softly to him.
“Oh,” Tony says as thunder rumbles overhead, “Huh.”
“It woked me up,” Peter mumbles into Bruce’s chest
“I know, baby, it’s okay,” Bruce hushes, rubbing his back, “You’re safe in here.”
“How do you know? What if it comes inside the Tower?”
“It won’t. The Tower’s protected.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Is Ollie safe, too?”
“Of course he is.”
Tony smiles at them, leaning against the doorway. Bruce holds him for a little bit longer before Peter pulls back and wipes at his face. “I don’t want to nap anymore,” he mumbles, and Bruce nods, kissing his forehead.
“You don’t have to. Do you want to come down to the lab with me and dad?”
“There’s so many windows!” he shrieks, hiding when the room flares brilliant white light from a crack of lightning.”
Bruce looks over at Tony, who frowns and shrugs. He can’t think of what to do in this situation—he’d never been afraid of anything when he was little, too afraid to upset his father, and he knows Bruce always kept everything locked up inside, so this is new territory for all of them. Tony holds up a finger and turns out of the room, walking a few paces away before saying, “Jarvis, what do kids like when they’re scared of something?”
It’s a moment before Jarvis says, “There are various things that I’ve found in the search engines, sir, but, for the current situation, I would suggest building a fort.”
“A fort?” Tony repeats, his frown deepening.
“It appears—from the photographs I have seen—that they are built with blankets and pillows, and they typically encompass an entire room. This would provide coverage from the lightning, as there would be no windows, and it would be distracting for Peter, sir.”
“A fort,” Tony says, nodding to himself before he goes back into Peter’s room, where Bruce is smiling at him, and he remembers belatedly that they’re both still wearing their earphones for the intercom from the lab.
Tony nods to Bruce, and so Bruce asks Peter, “Do you want to build a fort?”
“What’s that?” Peter asks, looking at him curiously.
“It’s like a blanket castle.”
“Okay!” Peter exclaims, squirming until Bruce sets him down, “We can use my blankets and the ones on your bed and—and—do we have any others?”
“I’ll get them,” Tony says before he turns out, heading for their room and the linens. When he returns, his arms full of blankets, Peter is tugging Bruce out of his room, and Bruce is laughing at him.
“Apparently, we’re doing this in the living room because it has more space.” Tony just shrugs and follows them.
Two hours later, Tony is in the kitchen, smiling as Peter erupts in yet another bout of giggles from inside the fort, Bruce’s soft laughter joining in. He finishes with the trail mix—Peter’s request because he wanted all the snacks—before going around the island and making his way back toward their masterpiece. It covers the entire living room and then some, stretching from the island to the hallway leading away from the front door, and there are two towers hanging from the ceilings. Jarvis created a set of blue-tinted lights that he strung up throughout the fort, so everything is cast in a glow like the lab. There are pillows everywhere inside, though the main room—because Peter had to have separate rooms in case they needed to hide from the storm—is covered entirely, pillows strewn about all over the floor, and Tony’s unsure of where they all came from. He enters through the front flap, through the little crawl space Peter requested, gives the password to Jarvis because he knows Peter can hear him and will know if he doesn’t, and then enters the main room, where Peter is dancing around, trying to catch blue fireflies that Jarvis is flittering about. There’s another flap at the back that leads to their hideout room.
“Snacks!” Peter cries when he spots Tony, and Tony laughs, coming over and sitting near Bruce, who is stretched out on the pillows, watching Peter with a fond smile. He leans back against Bruce’s thighs while Peter sits opposite them, digging both hands into the large bowl. “This is the best fort ever,” he says before he shoves food into his mouth, and then they’re both laughing at him.
They spend the rest of the day in the fort and even sleep in there when Peter passes out an hour before bedtime, their little family all curled together. In the morning, though, they wake up late and hungry, and, after a big breakfast, Bruce says, “Wanna go see if there are any puddles to jump in?”
Peter shrieks something incomprehensible and nearly falls off his stool in his hurry to get back to his room and get dressed. Tony takes the opportunity to kiss Bruce long and slow, and they’re both beaming when they part. And so, while Bruce helps Peter dress, Tony takes down the fort, and then they’re outside splashing through puddles until Peter is soaked through, his giggles unending.