Chapter Text
Stark was amazing. Brilliant, a bit rude at times in the funniest ways, usually directed at Steve till he’d convinced the brat to give him what he needed in the moment, and honestly? Tony was an actual sweetheart.
He had Natalia -bold and cheeky in a way they never let her be in the Red Room and making Bucky’s heart full- wrapped around his fingers, especially when he was too bratty for even Steve to deal with. She doted on him and kept him in line in a way none of the others managed. It was no wonder Miss Potts adored Natalia, the way Tony was just as wrapped around her fingers too.
Bucky moved the boutique bag to sit under the table across from Sam and next to Steve. Steve was grinning like a excited little boy, same way he always did when Bucky pulled him into a cheeky secret when they were young, but Sam just raised an eyebrow at them both. “Didn’t think you were into that sort of thing, Barnes.”
Bucky snorted, noting the way Steve giggled a little. Steve was a non-biological little, which wasn’t something that existed back in their day, and something that wasn’t as socially accepted just five years ago, compared to today with three of the main Avengers team representing the group so well nowadays. It was more popular with younger crowds just finding their place in life, but it meant Bucky got to encourage that playful side when he could.
“Nah, it’s a sun hat babydoll got at the boutique, I just stole the bag because I also grabbed Tones a present that I didn’t want him seeing yet.”
Sam looked more than a little amused. Bucky tended to call Natasha and Tony anything but their names, but saying it without Nat around was too cute. The one time anyone else but Bucky, Phil and Pepper tried to call her sweetie, she just about kicked them sterile, would have if Bucky hadn’t seen that mau on her face and known just what it meant. “A present for the baby? Where is he, actually?”
Steve looked a little excited at that, sitting up a bit. “There’s a natural littles sized park around the corner. I think you and I should go sometime! We can make it a playdate like we used to in DC!”
Steve looked and sounded so excited, bouncing in his seat a little, which made Sam melt at him a little. Sam was a non-biological caregiver, which was different than Bucky’s biological caregiver because it meant he wasn’t quite as strong as a biological caregiver, but it mostly just meant he didn’t have the calming pheromones.
Sam was lucky Steve was too big in headspace to want to be carried, like Tony tended to crave, because Steve used to get too much of that back before the serums.
Bucky would feel guilty about how he might have turned Steve and Natalia into littles, since they grew up with him taking care of them, but they were both so happy with their caregivers nowadays, he couldn’t guilt himself the ‘what if’s of the world.
His kiddos were just fine the way they were.
Sam was giving Steve such a soft look, that Bucky almost felt like he was intruding, but Sam let Steve have his hand to play with, and turned back to Bucky. “Baby boy’s present?”
Bucky glared at him a little, knowing damn well why the man was smirking at him, and sighed. He pulled up the boutique bag, first pulling out the lacy white sun hat Natalia had gotten, showing it off to him with a little grin. He just knew Pepper and Happy would put her in a little sundress so she could show it off when they had a weekend off at the mansion. Sam seemed to get that, giving it a little smile.
Before going back to snickering when Bucky pulled out a ten inch robot designed squishmallow. “I thought you said you were done spoiling him with those?”
Steve giggled, reaching out to pet a single finger up its snout. He had a few of them himself, but Bucky had put a light ban on getting more than one a month for any of the littles in the manor recently. It was, somewhat, a pain. “I just get like that around washing day. Worst day of the month, no matter who’s doing them, us or the laundry service. He hates it when I have to clean his nests. I’ve made a new rule, we will clean each nest, one at a time, and never on the same days. I don’t care if I have to use the laundry service for them, but I won’t clear out every nest he has at once anymore.”
“It’s because baby Tony cries when all his nests are empty. He gets super tiny on those days and cries and doesn’t let anyone pick him up. I think he thinks his friends are being punished.”
Bucky sighed, gently packing up the comfortable toy and Natalia’s new hat, and put the bag back down. “He’s just too little. I think I need to stop being so strict with him, sometimes.”
Steve balked at that. “You’re never easier on me and Nat, I had time out for ten minutes yesterday! And Nat got a spanking last week!” Steve deflated a little, looking nervous as he held Sam’s captured hand between both of his. “Is it cause me and Nat aren’t biological littles like Tony is?”
Bucky sighed, reaching up so he could tussle Steve’s soft hair. “No, punk, it’s nothing to do with biology. He just gets so much smaller than you and babydoll do. You two only go down to four and five, but Tony gets as little as six months if he’s really upset. Even happy baby Tones is just a tot at most. Natalia bit a reporter last week. She knows she’s supposed to tell Phil or her mommy if they aren’t being nice with her, and the reporter didn’t touch her so she shouldn’t initiate. You, on the other hand, need to remember that we don’t take off clothes our caregivers put on us and go streaking through the house.”
Steve grumbled. He didn’t like spankings, since they didn’t reinforce anything for him. His mom never would have hit Stevie as a kid, since he was so sickly and always felt like shit anyways. Pain didn’t reinforce anything for him. Time outs were hell though, since he got bored so fast. Natalia liked the physical reminder, mostly because it didn’t hurt for longer than a few minutes with her serum. Sort of like when Tony was bigger, and started to tantrum and Bucky gave him just a few -at most, three- swats to his little bottom, it helped both of them refocus and get back in their heads after feeling icky.
Steve sighed. “I didn’t want that shirt.”
Bucky grinned. “So you had to strip down to nothing in protest?”
Sam gave Steve’s hand a little squeeze. “Is that what you get up to when I’m out of town, buddy?”
Steve was cherry red. “I’m a good boy, I didn’t want that shirt.”
Sam pulled him in a bit so he could cuddle Steve against his side some.
They had a different dynamic than Bucky and Tony, and Phil and Clint, and a very different dynamic than all of them had with Natasha, Pepper and Happy. Steve and Sam seemed to like to reinforce a rather basic type of BDSM where Steve had specific rules to follow, and was meant to follow all babysitters rules as well. Tony, who was just a baby, got a bit of leeway as it was mostly about taking care of him in his headspace, keeping him safe and occupied and cuddled and warmed. Phil and Clint were similar to Tony and Bucky, a need for comfort and safety while Clint was tiny, and an emphasis on playtime with other littles and being good was an afterthought that Phil cared about more than Clint did. Natasha was a spoiled princess with Pepper and Happy, they tended to give her whatever she wanted because that was just the dynamic they fell into. Happy liked giving her baths and massages and keeping her clean and healthy, while Pepper had a sugar momma streak a mile wide. She was their little girl, inside and out of the bedroom, and her goals with being a little were to reparent and make up for what the Red Room didn’t let her have. She had little friends and cute outfits and got to go out with her mommy and daddy.
Which meant Bucky knew fully well that Steve would probably be either writing lines, or some other form of correction from Sam later. Sam was always gentle with it, never physically painful in any way, maybe a bit boring and mind numbing, but even if Bucky had given him a time out the other day, it was the issue of him not following rules that Sam had given him while he was gone, that Sam needed to talk to him about.
The door to the cafe opened up, and a slightly flushed Natalia came in with Tony on her hip. Tony was skirting the line today, nearly three whole years old, biologically. He had a cheeky grin on his face that matched Natalia’s, and a bright red and shiny gold paci barely held in his mouth by his teeth. Natasha slid into the chair next to Bucky with a happy giggle when Bucky handed her the iced coffee he’d gotten her. He would ask for some blueberry herbal tea for Tony’s sippy cup in a minute, having waited because Tony liked it a bit warm.
The girl leaned in, pressing a messy smooch to Bucky’s cheek. “Dad, the baby needs a change. I missed you. We met a boy in the park and I swear he was walking on the wall at one point, but then he wasn’t and he was a little like Tony and so his daddy came over and scolded him for… that, um, his daddy said we were crazy when we asked if he was a mutant and I think he thought we were gonna be mean to him but I told him technically I am too, and he didn’t confirm it but he didn’t say no, and I got the daddy’s number for you and mommy so maybe we can have a playdate and then the baby needed a change so we had to go. I think we surprised him that I’m not a mommy, just a no bio little, but he smiled so I think it’s okay.”
Bucky somehow got a hold of the jist of all that, nodding along with a little grin while Steve went back to giggling on the other side of the table. He gently took the toddler off of her, giving Tony a few soft kisses to his cheek and nodded. “Alright. Give Uncle Sammy the number so he can give it to me and Mommy and we can set up a playdate. Good job, babydoll.”
He got up with the diaper bag, noting how Natalia scrambled into his chair as he got up with Tony, immediately chattering Steve’s ear off about how nice the other boy was. Maybe if they find a new little buddy, Tony could have someone similar to play with. It was tough being the smallest little sometimes, but not always.
He pulled out the sippy cup before the change, asking the barista to make Tony a blueberry tea with two ice cubes in it so it’ll be ready and waiting for his eager baby. The woman behind the counter cooed at Tony, making him hide shyly in Bucky’s shoulder, peeking out to give her a little grin behind his binky.
The bathroom was overall typical, but it’s the first thing that had made this place an Avengers favorite, even if none of the other littles needed it. The changing table in the disabled stall was adult sized. As in, it had enough room to change non-biological littles on it. Steve and Natalia had perfect bladder control with their serums, and Clint wore pull-ups, so he didn’t need the changing table because if he had an accident he could clean himself up most of the time, but Tony was too physically small when he needed a change to use an adult sized changing table.
But it had made all of them relax around the cafe when they were properly in the city in this area. Some places still weren’t all that accepting of non-biological littles, but the cafe was a safe place to bring their kiddos.
Just because Bucky had a biological little, didn’t mean he didn’t love his Stevie and Nat just as much. Hell, he loved Clint too, he just didn’t help raise Clint. He wasn’t one of Bucky’s kiddos. He was a good friend, though.
Tony was giving happy babble behind his paci, playing with a soft lovie with a stuffed animal head in the middle of it, mostly chattering on about the nice boy at the park that had played on the swings with him.
If he was on the swings with Tony, he was probably pretty tiny as well. Tony at this size, still used the baby swings. He was too tiny and uncoordinated on the swings without seatbelts.
Bucky frowned at the light pinkness around Tony’s sit spots and upper thighs. Tony had such sensitive skin at this size, and Bucky put on a bit of diaper rash cream, just in case. They were going to have to have after-bath nakie time later.
Unlike Steve who went stripping and streaking across the house last week, making time was allowed for Tony and Clint, mostly to make sure their skin got some time to breathe and clear up any rashes. These were not the same as adult fun times nakie time that Natalia had with her mommy and daddy, or that Clint had with Phil. Bucky wasn’t sure if Steve and Sam were even interested in that together, or they’d just finally found something Steve wasn’t gonna be a chatterbox about for the first time in his life, but it wasn’t the same. Streaking is naughty.
Little tot Tony had only done it a few times, but he never even got out of the room when he tried to take off on Bucky, and it was obviously meant as nakie playtime, so Bucky always gave him tickles to punish the baby boy.
He got the tot rediapered and back into his overalls, making a quick check to make sure his chest wasn’t rashy either. They still weren’t sure what kept the reactor from staying adult sized, but Bucky made an effort to check on it during changes and bathtime, since it occasionally got a bit pink around the edges.
Doctor Strange had offered to come check on it, recently, so he could see if he could adjust the inherent magic around it to make Tony more comfortable.
Tony seemed nice and comfy how he was right now, though, still chattering away. Bucky leaned down for a peck to the little boy’s lips before he picked him back up again. “Such a good boy for me, no fusses at all during changes, love you, dollface.”
Tony squealed a little, suddenly looking a whole year younger in Bucky’s arms, and leaned in to press a sloppy smooch, the same type Natalia had earlier, to Bucky’s cheek. Bucky laughed as he carried the little boy out of the bathroom. The nice barista gave Tony his sippy cup of nice tea, and they went back to Sam and the kiddos.
It was a nice day out.
***
Tony liked being big. He could be big and work in his lab for days.
Sometimes he got techy and needed a nap, or Dummy absolutely required his attention for gentle pats and playing fetch, but he could work in his lab for days.
He could also be Iron Man, and save the world. It was hard work, and he actually was required to go down for a nap in the SHIELD nursery afterwards. It was hard because sometimes he still felt too big to actually shift his body down in size, so he had to have the adult sized crib, which usually meant Clint or Natasha would sneak in with him and force cuddles on him, but that was okay too. He could save people, and that was nice.
But his favorite thing in the world? The best thing ever?
Okay, it miiiiight be playing with Dada, when he’s teeny tiny, and cuddling up into his neck while he was small, but also it might be this.
He was so excited he was gonna vibrate out of his skin.
He was about teenage sized right now. Thirteen, to be exact, because that was the most important teenage age! That’s the age he met his Rhodey at!
He was making up the room connected to Tony’s in the mansion, making sure the bed was as cozy and firm as Rhodey liked it, and digging through boxes looking for Rhodey’s little outfits that Tony kept for him for his six month leave.
It was a legal requirement. Rhodey was a biological little, which meant he was legally required to have a full month off for every six months of military service. It was a concession to allowing littles into the service at all, but it was really good for them, which was proven by the fact that Rhodey was a colonel and had a very good record, along with always passing his mental evaluations, because he was proper and kept his schedule very well.
Tony found the last box of Rhodey’s kiddo clothes, and picked it up with a huff to carry off to Rhodey’s bedroom. They hadn’t been in the mansion for very long, so Tony had had to find all of Rhodey’s things and get his bedroom ready.
Rhodey was a little boy, just a few years older than Tony, so he had a bed with guardrails and no changing table, but that’s okay, because for the few times that he got the same baby age as Tony, as long as they were above twelve months old, they were allowed to share a crib, and use the same changing table.
This was the first year that Rhodey and Tony didn’t have Pepper and Happy as a main caregiver, though. Bucky and Tony’s relationship had sort of just happened, just as fast as Pepper, Happy and Natasha’s had.
Tony hoped Rhodey didn’t get upset that Pepper was planning to step back as Rhodey’s main caregiver for this month. They had all talked about it, and Rhodey had even been talking to Bucky about it too, but they didn’t know yet till Rhodey was little with Tony.
Of course, Pepper still lived with them, so her and Happy would still be available if Rhodey needed him, but Tony and Rhodey were a long time bonded pair. Before Bucky, it actually hadn’t really mattered who took care of Tony. His requirement was spending all of Rhodey’s off-time with him, as brothers and best friends, and having a weekly Skype call where they spent time in teen headspaces and talked like they used to back in college.
But Bucky had become super important to Tony. Tony didn’t want to force it, but that was Dada, and he could handle it if Rhodey had a different main caregiver, but also, that was a scary thought.
Heck, Rhodey might even end up attached to Sam or Phil or one of the other big Avengers that came and went.
He didn’t know. And there were more caregivers in their lives than either of them had ever had before.
When Rhodey was little with the military, he didn’t have an assigned caregiver. He had a playgroup of other littles in the Air Force that would play with him, with a couple caregivers who worked to clean up messes and diapers and break up fights between the tiny ones. It kept them healthy in their headspaces.
Just like Tony, though, Rhodey never got attached to an actual caregiver, even the ones he saw regularly. He had small buddies that he played with regularly, but none were as important as his baby brother, he always told Tony. They were friends, but not his baby . Tony was his baby.
Tony took the last box of Rhodey’s things, a few stuffies and a favorite blanket Rhodey trusted him with included, to the laundry room, giving it to a maid in blue jeans and a tee-shirt who grinned when she saw him. She wasn’t a caregiver like Bucky, but she wanted to be one like Phil one day, so she tended to dote on the littles around the mansion, and she genuinely seemed to like working in the laundry rooms. She was one of those weird adults that liked cleaning, Tony could never understand it, but she was super careful with his teddies when she cleaned them, and sometimes gave good hugs if Tony saw her while he was tiny. He liked her.
“Young Mister Stark, is that the last of Colonel Rhodes’s things?”
Tony nodded. “From what I can tell, yeah.”
She smiled, taking the box from him. As a teen, Miss Lea was a couple inches taller than him, and she grinned down at him. “Should I make up his room once I’m done, or do you want someone else to do that?”
“If you want to, that is. Otherwise no one in particular has asked to.”
Pepper used to ask to make up Rhodey’s nursery for him, but she was taking a step back, because of Bucky. But Tony and Bucky didn’t know if Rhodey wanted Bucky to get the nursery ready for him.
Miss Lea smiled at him. “Setting up nurserys is fun, to me. I should have everything ready tonight for Colonel Rhodes’s arrival tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Miss Lea.”
Tony was off again, on his next adventure, and felt a bit of a tingle as he realized he was getting a bit smaller. He sighed, checking in the nearest bathroom mirror to make sure his clothes were properly sizing down with him. It was something Doctor Strange had offered when he’d come to check on Tony’s arc reactor, saying that he’s tried it on the wardrobes of several other littles now, including a few mutants and non-heros, both demographics of who tended not to have the the same ambient magic levels around them.
Tony turned a little, checking to see how everything was shifting around a bit as he got smaller. He settled again, probably around nine, and pants were shifting evenly and nicely. No colour changes, and shockingly enough, his band tee actually stayed a couple sizes too big the whole way down, just like when he put it on in a teen body that morning in his big boy room across the hall from his nursery.
Awesome. But also, he looked kinda wrong with pants and a band tee as a nine year old. Nine year olds should be in play clothes. Also he should probably pull on a pull-up, just in case. What if he got even smaller?
Sometimes when he felt super big, he could ignore pull ups or diapers. Kinda?
See, Tony was different than Rhodey. Rhodey and him had found that out pretty fast when they first met, actually. Rhodey could control when he went little. Like he could control it super well. The physical changing aspects of it, anyways. The therapists said it was all a part of compartmentalization.
Apparently Tony is really bad at that, because he just couldn’t control it like Rhodey did. If he let himself get small, he couldn’t stop at a certain age, and sometimes he couldn’t stop himself from getting big again.
Tony thinks that’s the real reason they wanted Doctor Strange to check on him. They were afraid he’d go big in the middle of the night and get strangled on his sleeper jammies or something. Pepper had methods for that. She was a huge fan of sleeper sacks, or if it was warm out, not giving Tony a shirt at all. Sometimes if he was really fussy, especially after getting his reactor when people seeing his chest became hard on him, she’d just put him in either a big sleep sack with a stretchy neck, if he was tiny, or a huge band tee shirt if he was one and up.
But now, now Tony had real baby jammies, and Bucky even put him in footie jammies with animal features on them, or even swaddled him if Tony needed it while he was tiny.
Overall, even now, Bucky and Pepper still favored overalls and romper and jumpsuit style clothes for him, and Tony agreed with that, because he thought he looked adorable in overalls and rompers. He was the cutest lil guy.
But Bucky and Pepper agreed that they liked them the most because the necks were wide and any shirt underneath can be gotten rid of without exposing the arc reactor. Which also meant the cotton rompers were tested with the Linot Lei scale, which is the clothing scale designed to see what can break apart without actually ruining the garment. Like how the romper shorts have buttons that undo with pressure so they can open fully at the crotch, without actually ruining the outfit.
It was an interesting scale, but it made a few necessary adjustments to daily clothing and such. Pepper thought it was a life saver, since the scale hadn’t been around when Tony was growing up.
Tony ran back off to his rooms when he was sure he’d finished growing down a bit, and reached for the drawers he knew had nine year old safe clothes. He was in his big boy room, since the nursery was for babies, but it always felt so big. Maybe he should have another bedroom for not-teen not-baby Tony. He’ll think about that.
He pulled out a few shirts humming a little as he went through them, before deciding on a gold one, and a pair of red overalls.
He was so original. It was impressive.
He might have left a slight mess behind him as he left the room, but Tony couldn’t fathom focusing on that right now. He was needed elsewhere.
“JARVIS, where is everyone?”
JARVIS sounded fond as he rattled off positions around the tower. Apparently Steve and Natasha were having a swimming playdate in the pool room. Yuck. He wouldn’t join them.
“-and Sargent Barnes is making you a snack in the kitchen directly below your quarters.” Tony grinned, making a beeline for the elevator closest to their rooms. Bucky was a bit paranoid, so they were tucked securely in the East wing of the manor, no possibility of getting to it too fast for them to be snuck up on, but it did mean Bucky had to carry him when he was too crashed out to wake up himself. They thankfully had enough elevators, thought.
Even though the manor had a main kitchen, Stark Manor had never had just one, since it seemed impractical for a manor this big, and they’d all gone into use when the Avengers moved in. Since Natasha and Steve were so close to Bucky, they all and their caregivers had quarters close together, and Clint was on the other side of Nat since she wanted her brother and all the littles might as well be grouped together.
Clint and Phil were down in the kitchens too, when Tony came skidding in, obviously Phil was planning out dinner for later, since Thor was finally back in the manor and had brought Bruce back from Asgard. Apparently they would have a good old fashioned team dinner all together, with added partners. How fun.
“Dada, Dada, I finished getting all Rhodey’s stuff together for his visit, Miss Lea is gonna finish organizing his nursery later, Dada I’m so excited!” Tony crashed into Bucky’s legs with a little giggle, looking up with Clint started giggling too, giving him squinty eyes. Bucky said cats gave squinty eyes when they were happy, and Bucky always called Tony and Alpine his ‘best kittens’, so he had to give squinty eyes to show his love.
He might have dropped three more years, but that was acceptable with his new outfit and padding.
Speaking of Alpine, she jumped down from Bucky’s shoulders, and came to twine in between Tony’s legs, which sometimes tripped him, but it meant she was marking Tony as hers, so it was the best feeling ever. She was so soft. Tony reached down to pick her up under her front arms, giving her a big stretch as he went, which made her purr super hard.
There was a hand on the back of his head. A metal one. Tony looked up to give Bucky a grin as the man leaned in to press a kiss to his cheeks and clip a pacifier to his overalls. He would roll his eyes at that, but Tony’s physical age was almost always up to change, especially when this excited and ready for playtime, so they had diaper bags and baby boy stuff littered all over the manor. There always had been, since the day Tony first managed to age down when he turned ten, and suddenly Howard was alone with a toddler again.
Never let it be said that Howard Stark couldn’t calm a baby, but Maria had almost instantly been overwhelmed by it all. There was a certain stigma against littles in certain communities. No parent wants to see their little one grow down again, rely on someone else. Howard made damn sure Tony could have just as productive and successful of a life as a little as any other Stark.
Over his life, Tony could easily be found doodling Nobel prize winning designs in sketchbooks with crayons in the middle of parks or while cuddled into an adult. Howard made sure he would never settle for a caregiver that wouldn’t let him at least design while he was little. Tony kept his mind sharp when he was tiny.
So this house was rather well fit for Tony, whenever he had reason to come back to it over his lifetime, and he’d likely be back to it for the rest of his life, on and off. He’d been born here and now it was home.
Unless they needed to be in Malibu, then Iron Man and the White Wolf could be found there, and the Malibu home was a much more modern concept of exactly what kept Stark Manor so productive for Tony and safe for littles. Sometimes Natasha was there without Tony, since her mommy and daddy had to travel more often than Tony did, and she found the manor there a slightly more boring version of the manor here. She couldn’t cuddle with her siblings over there unless they went with her, of course.
Bucky gave him a soft pet to the cheek as he pulled back, looking pleased. “Why don’t you and Alpine go play with Clint? Me and Phil will have some snacks out for you two soon.”
Tony leaned up so Bucky could give him and Alpine more kisses for a few moments, pleased to smell fruit in the air. Good, his daddy was breaking out the good snacks.
Clint took Tony’s hand with a little giggle as he followed them both out of the kitchen, the three of them moving off to the closest living room, one of the favorites for the littles so their caregivers could keep an eye on them while they worked in the kitchen.
It’s time to play now! Tony is happy with his cousin Clint, and sister Alpine, so maybe he’ll tell you about the start of Rhodey’s trip to the manor tomorrow!