Chapter Text
Tony’s days were rather simple, all things said and done. He woke up, went to work, came home, went to bed, and started it all over the next day. He was just like every Little in that way, too. He didn’t have much time to be Little, but that wasn’t a big deal when he had some many other things to keep him busy.
Rolling out of bed, Tony went about getting himself cleaned as best he could, trying not to wince at the rash that’d been developing over the past few days. When he was dressed in gray sweatpants and an old shirt, he walked out to the living room and glanced over it to see if Obi was there. Of course he wasn’t--Obi didn’t spend much time around Littles—and Tony was both disappointed and relieved.
Right off the living room was Tony’s lab, the place he loved most in the world. Not that there were many places for him to go and rate against, but Tony thought he’d still like his lab the best.
“Two emails from Obadiah Stane have been marked for immediate attention,” JARVIS, Tony’s AI assistance, announced. The program had originally been made just to help Tony keep track of projects and deadlines, but the AI soon became Tony’s best friend. And, unlike Tony’s rabbit, Obi couldn’t take JARVIS away. Especially because Obi didn’t even know JARVIS existed.
Tony gave a thanks as he sat down at his desk, pulling his email up on the holo-screen, sighing when he saw Obi’s new idea for a three-stage missile. Tony didn’t like making this kind of stuff. Whatever happened to the green-energy initiative they’d been working on last week? The arch reactor was still completely possible to downsize with the right amount of determination. Tony figured it must have been done enough for Obi and that’s why they’d moved on.
Tony spun his chair around, reaching for his blueprint table. He tapped the side twice to wake it, then set into work. Work was easy. Tony knew what to do to not get in trouble and so long as he did what Obi asked, nothing ever happened. Obi said Tony could even work on his own things so long as the stuff Obi asked for was finished. Tony was very proud that’d he hadn’t gotten in trouble for almost a whole week. The bruises on his arm were a day or two away from fading, which was also nice. It had stopped hurting two days ago, but he didn’t like the marks.
Tony pulled the 2D design into the air to hover over the table, pushing here and pulling there to create something he thought Obi would like. It was almost finished, but he would have to do some testing to ensure his math was right on the thrust needed and the distance the missiles could go.
Just as Tony was going to close shop to get something to eat, a ding sounded and an icon popped up on his screen in the right corner. Tony tapped on the icon and saw a message from someone that seemed to speak for the Avengers. Obi had called them superheroes and had Tony designed all of their gear, but Tony wasn’t allowed to meet them. Tony had seen them battle, though, and they were awesome!
Captain America was a Caregiver, Tony knew because it was everywhere. The Winter Soldier, though he didn’t look it, was definitely a Little. He wasn’t so sure about the other people, but he was pretty sure their agent was a Caretaker and Hawkeye was his Little. The Black Widow and Hulk didn't have official Classifications, but Tony's brief recon of their video footage showed they might be in some kind of dynamic together. Tony had looked all over the Stark servers to find out more about them but there wasn’t so much as a saved-over file with anything. Tony would have given anything to install JARVIS down on their floors, but he wasn’t allowed off his floor and there was no way to have an AI do anything without a controller. Instead, Tony was forced to watch video footage from his holo-screen and try not to be too jealous.
The email was a forward from Obi from someone named Steve--a name Tony had seen before, though he had not face to go with it. He was asking for a Kevlar chest plate or something similar that would bend with with the wearer. Apparently, Captain America was getting chaffing from how stiff the current one was. Tony thought that was rather odd, but he told JARVIS to put it on the list of things for him to do. He’d figure out which one Obi would like him to prioritize later. For now, he needed to get out of a wet diaper before Obi came in and saw him.
Obi hated that Tony wasn’t an older Little and couldn’t fully control his bathroom habits, so Tony tried his best to keep it out of Obi’s mind. His use of cheaper diapers seemed to help because they kinda looked like underwear and were thin enough to go undetected. They didn’t absorb things as well and leaked a lot, but Tony would choose a few pant changes and wet sheets over Obi’s wrath any day. Plus, they were a lot easier to get on and off on his own cause all he had to do was step into them.
Once Tony was clean, he made his way to the kitchen to see if there was anything worth eating. The team seemed to have lots of really good food all the time. Tony mostly lived off microwaved dinners and canned soups. Some days he wouldn’t eat at all because he couldn’t find a reason to. When he yanked open the fridge and found only frozen food, Tony was thinking it might be one of those days.
Sighing, Tony closed the fridge and dug through the cabinets to see if he had any meal supplement bars left. Tony had lost a lot of weight recently and Obi wasn’t happy about it. If Tony was sick, no one would be able to make weapons that helped protect people. Obi had started picking up the bars in hopes Tony might gain some of the weight back. The pathetic truth was that Tony bathed in the attention--the semblance of care--for just that moment, and still held onto it like a lifeline.
“Tony, where are you, my boy?” Obadiah shouted from somewhere in the penthouse. “We need to talk.”
Tony's head whipped around to the find the origin of the voice. He hadn't even heard the door open. Ducking his head into his shoulders and wishing he could hide but knowing better than to do so, Tony closed the cabinet door and gave away his position. Obi didn’t like it when Tony ran away and the resulting punishment wasn’t worth the three extra seconds he’d get away from him. Especially when it sounded like Obi was already upset.
“Ah, there you are. Come here.” Obi said as he walked into the dinning room, waving Tony towards him.
Tony did as he was told, still holding the single meal bar he’d found and terrified of letting it go. He ducked his head just a bit as he passed Obi, muscles stiff of their own accord.
Obi took a seat at the head of the table and Tony slumped into his normal seat at the other end of the table. Obi’s face turned quizzical for a moment as he looked at Tony.
“You seem tired?” Obi said, sitting on the edge of his chair and leaning over the table as if to look at Tony closer.
“I’m okay,” Tony said.
“Good to hear.” Obi perked up and sat back in his chair once more. “Now, I wanted to talk about the missiles.”
Obi explained a few different things that Tony kinda understood, but didn’t put too much thought in. Some of his ideas were rather grand if not entirely impossible, but he had a tendency to overlook many of the finer details. So long as it looked sleek and went boom, Obi wasn’t too particular on the rest. Toward the end Obi’s rant, he gave Tony a due date, far enough off that Tony saw it possible to finish that and the vest for Captain America.
“Your birthday’s right about then, isn’t it?”
Tony perked up and carefully listened as Obi hummed.
“I suppose if you’re a good boy, we could get you a nice present, hum?”
Tony’s heart started beating quickly. He didn’t get presents a lot, but when he did, it was almost always something he actually wanted. One time, Obi even took him to a beach! Tony had worked really hard and Obi really liked what he’d made. It had been a lot of fun and Tony was hoping he could do something like that again, but he didn’t dare set his hopes upon it. Things didn’t work out the way Tony wanted very often.
Obi smiled, a pleased glint in his eye. “Get this done on time and I’ll see what we can do.”
Tony nodded his head, chest full of excitement as Obi got up and walked towards the door.
“Oh, and I brought you some fruit. Make sure you eat it.” With that, Obi was gone and Tony was left to steel his determination and get back to work.