Work Text
Taking care of six baby dragons was downright exhausting. Bucky let himself fall onto the sofa on his back with a groan and flung his right arm over his face.Steve chuckled at him, three squirming lizards firmly tucked under his arm. "They're running you ragged, Buck," he commented with amusement in his voice. "I know you said you weren't gonna make us co-parent, but not even your stubbornness is going to carry the day this time, and you know it."The remaining three lizards were unaccounted for as yet. Bucky suspected they'd snuck into Tony's workshop again. The six of them liked being in there, and Bucky was still a bit mystified by that.let go, a small feminine voice demanded. Steve huffed. "Will you behave if I do?" He countered. but we're bored, a second feminine voice, muttered a bit mulishly.Bucky made a face. That complaint came up all the time. "We need to find you six a hobby," he said and forced himself to sit up.Steve settled next to him without a word, and Bucky scooped up the three troublemakers pinned under Steve's arm.The lizards were, luckily, easy to tell apart with their brightly colored scales. All six had slightly different patterns and colors. Tony had taken to calling them by their dominant colors, since they didn't have names yet.The dragons had refused all attempts on their humans' part to give them permanent names, repeatedly telling them that they would choose their own when the time came. The six of them tolerated Tony's nicknames, at least."C'mon, Red," he said holding the squirming dragon up in front of his face, "you're bored. What do you want to do?"Red grumbled at him and didn't answer. She did that when she wasn't sure what to say.He'd learned quickly that these six were nothing like human children. It was like running herd on a half dozen mostly mature teenagers. The dragons were scarily smart, and didn't hesitate to simply drop new knowledge in his head when they deemed it necessary. They'd given him what had felt like half a library soon after hatching, and it had contained the equivalent of care instructions from their mother. But their relative mental maturity didn't match up with their lack of physical maturity at all.They all adored him, and made that clear anytime their slightly moody temperaments allowed it. And, frankly, between that and their -- mother's (or father's? Maybe they were like seahorses?) ... their parent's magical PTSD eraser, he felt so much more like himself, it was hard to believe that he'd only been watching over his charges for about a month. "Alright," Bucky let her sulk, "what about you, Rose? Do you have a suggestion?"let us build with tony, she said, not hesitating. Steve raised an eyebrow at her. "You six do that already," he pointed out.no, Rose disagreed. we explore his castoffs. we learn what he wanted to do and why it didn't work. let us design with him."That's Tony's decision," Bucky told them. "Ask him. Neither of us can give permission for that."Green made a plaintive sound. tony doesn't share ideas readily. he hoards them.Speckles appeared, then, sinuously sliding through the open door and crossing the floor until he could climb up Bucky's pants leg and curl up on his knee, tucked comfortably under Bucky's metal hand.The tiny scratches and pricks of Speckles' claws on his leg made had him wince but he said nothing. It was no worse than a kitten would inflict and would heal in under five minutes.Speckles peeked out between his thumb and forefinger. sorry, he muttered. "It's okay," Bucky told him, crooking his thumb so he could rub at the dragon's chin. "Something wrong?"bored, Speckles told him, sounding grumpy. Clearly this was a problem they'd have to deal with."Where are Gold and Swirls?" Steve asked. in the workshop, Speckles answered. Predictable. Bucky shrugged mentally and gathered up the four that had sought him out, then made his way into the foyer to wait for the elevator.He didn't mind stairs, but after ten flights or so that got boring, and Tony's workshop was in a subbasement of the Tower, more than sixty floors from the living quarters and the penthouse he lived in, though that was in name only considering how much time he spent in the workshop. Steve followed after a beat, not saying a word, and scooped Rose off Bucky's shoulder. She huffed at Steve, then curled up against his skin instead.The elevator doors opened before Bucky could decide what to say, so he stayed silent. Steve didn't speak either. They arrived on the subbasement landing under a minute later, and stepped off to the familiar sight of Tony manipulating three different holographic displays at the same time, jumping nimbly back and forth as he worked."JARVIS?" Bucky asked, "He's not working on anything sensitive, is he?""Not at present, Sergeant," the AI answered, and unlocked the door. A few notes of Tony's music -- played at lower volume than he'd used to favor before the lizards had hatched and started visiting him regularly -- came through the opened door and then it cut off entirely as Tony turned to glance at them then went right back to his project. "What can I do for you?" He tossed over his shoulder. The pair of 'missing' babies had been perched on Dum-E's arm watching Tony work. When Bucky appeared in the doorway, they looked over and then turned back to Tony, launching themselves through the air to land on Tony's shoulders. The pair of impacts, light as they were, didn't even break Tony's concentration and he simply kept on soldering. Bucky wasn't sure what Tony was building, but that didn't matter. "Our litter is bored, and wants to help more actively in your designing," Bucky replied, crossing the room to lean against Tony's workbench with one hip.Tony turned to Gold, and gave her a look. "Is that true?"He got a unanimous chorus of yes, in reply.Making a thoughtful sound, Tony considered that a bit. "We can come to some kind of arrangement, I'm sure," he agreed after a beat.That prompted the remaining lizards, still in Bucky's arms, to wriggle free of his hold and join their brother and sister until Tony had one clinging to every available part of him. He gave them an amused look, and took action. "J, open up a design interface for those six and let's see what they come up with."A potent but wordless sense of glee and joy hit Bucky hard enough to very nearly send him reeling.The moment the lizards were occupied, Bucky grabbed for Steve, slinging an arm around Steve's waist and hauling him in close, so he could do his best to kiss Steve senseless.Tony never missed a trick, his hands landing on the pair of them and starting to steer them towards the door in a bid to get them into his bedroom. "Keep an eye on the babies, J," he requested as he moved, making Steve snicker. "We'll be busy for a while.""Knowing you three, Sir," the AI replied with a wry tilt to his speech, "no one will hear from you before dinner. Do enjoy yourselves.""Oh, we intend to, JARVIS," Bucky put in. "We intend to."