Kitten Peter!
Go here for the post that started it: Plot Bunny - you actually need to read this if you haven’t already, if you want to read on under the cut.
I was very surprised how many people actually liked the idea, so I decided to make a little series out of it! Suggestions and prompts are welcome! The previous prompt about the Avengers meeting kitty Peter and Pete not liking Steve very much is already being incorporated (haven’t forgotten you, anon ;-) )
Lets fill in some background that I'm too lazy to write out.
-Civil War did not and will not happen, but there has been a rift in the Avengers team by the time Tony finds kitty Peter (when Peter saves him from the mugger).
-This was caused by the ending of Tony and Steve's relationship. They had been together for a while, but then the Winter Soldier happened and Steve realized that Bucky was still alive.
-The fact that the Winter Soldier killed Tony's parents came to light, but under different circumstances that didn't lead to a direct, physical confrontation between the three.
-Steve decided to stay in Wakanda with Bucky, during the removal of Hydra's programming.
-In that time, even though he and Tony were still an item (though Tony was understandably upset that his boyfriend chose to be on another continent with hardly a phone call for weeks), Steve slept with Bucky.
-When Steve and Bucky return to the US, Steve breaks up with Tony.
-Tony feels used and that he had been a stand-in for Barnes all this time.
-When Steve says he wants Bucky to join the Avengers as well, it's the last straw for Tony.
-He blows up spectacularly and resigns (temporarily) from the Avengers.
-The team (except for Steve and Bucky) is allowed to keep their living spaces in the tower, but any and all Avengers business is to be had at the compound.
-Since they need to train regularly and have many missions, the team spends most of their time at the compound as a consequence. (Unintentionally isolating Tony from them. But don’t worry! He has kitty Petey now!)
-While the team isn't happy with Steve for the way he handled things with Tony, there is no bad blood between them. (This is the reason why inner team relationships are discouraged, after all. If one ends on bad terms, the whole team dynamic is in jeopardy. Steve is still a good team captain and a good friend, he just really messed up with Tony.)
-They understand that Tony needs some distance, and hope that time will heal this particular wound.
Okay! Let's start the story!
A loud and quite pitiful 'meow' had Tony looking up towards the huge bookshelf, upon entering the living room.
And there, right at the top of the almost three meter high shelf, sat Peter, his fluffy, little kitten, hunched in on himself.
"Petey, we talked about this. Don't climb stuff if you can't get down again."
The tiny kitty fixed his huge, adorable eyes on the billionaire and gave another pitiful sounding 'meow'.
Tony sighed in defeat.
"Don't know why they are called puppy eyes. You got those mutts beat by a mile. Hang on, Pete."
He quickly strode to the side of the bookshelf and grabbed the ladder.
"Why do I even own this thing? No one ever reads the books at the top. Just a stupid dust collector."
As if on cue, Peter let out a little sneeze. Tony smirked.
"If you rolled around up there, you better believe you’re gonna deal with that yourself. I'm not gonna try bathing you again. Last time was traumatizing enough."
The memory actually had him shivering a little. As soon as he had reached the top, Tony held out a hand for Peter, and the little kitten cuddled right into it. The billionaire's heart melted a little every time he realized how tiny his little Peter really was. He could probably close his hand entirely around the fluffy body.
After making his way back down, purring kitten carefully cradled against his chest, Tony headed for his lab.
"Alright Petey. We have a full day of mechanics ahead of us. First a few improvements to the propulsors on my suit. Don't worry, I'll not do any test runs with you there."
The first time Tony was testing out his suit's flight capabilities with the kitten in the room, Peter had run along the table he had been resting on and knocked everything off it. And he hadn't stopped until Tony's feet were safely back on the ground. A second and third flight test bore the same results. At first Tony had thought his kitten was scared of the suit, but Peter never had a problem when Tony tested any of the other functions. Only the flying and hovering above ground seemed to alarm the little fluff ball for whatever reason.
"Then we are gonna work out the kinks in the clear water system that were reported," he paused to scratch Peter under his chin, to which the kitten wiggled happily in his palm, "and then you can have a re-match with 'the captain'."
The name ignited an immediate response in Peter, as the kitten quickly turned around to look over his human's hand, ears perked up, little head swiveling from side to side, and a low hiss building up in his throat. Tony watched with an amused grin. 'The Captain' was what Tony had named the old roomba with the Captain America color scheme, that he had bought as a gag gift for Steve, when they had first gotten together. It was a pretty useless device, not having the motor power needed to suck up some of the bigger stuff on the floor, and a rather poor battery life. He should have probably thrown it out (or blasted it with a repulsor), when Steve came back to New York waving his new/old boyfriend in his face, and ended their relationship.
At first he had gotten some petty satisfaction in watching the roomba (that he mentally linked to Steve) roll around and clean up his dirty floor.
'That's right, suck it up you fucking cheater!'
When he had started taking Peter into the lab with him, and 'the captain' had started its bumbling roll among the floor, the little kitten had developed an instant hatred for the roomba.
Peter 'fought' the captain every time the thing came out of it's charging station. Whenever Peter felt he had come out the winner of these 'battles', he would hop on top of the captain and let himself be carried around for a victory lap. All the while looking as regal and proud as a tiny little ball of fluff was capable of.
It was as cute as it was hilarious and Tony had a few dozen videos of it saved away.
He resumed his chin scratches to calm the agitated kitty down again, and exited the elevator into his private lab.
"Now, Pete, don't you go climbing up the shelves again. That's where I put all the dangerous things, that adorable little furballs should not stick their whiskers in."
He pointed a threatening finger at Peter's nose. Peter batted at it with a paw.
"I mean it. Dum-E is armed with the fire extinguisher and he will spray you if you try to get your furry little butt any higher than the table."
Another small hiss. Peter liked playing with the robots, but he hated being sprayed with the fire extinguisher. (Fearing that the kitten would get sick from licking his fur clean, Tony had outfitted Dum-E with a special extinguisher filled with foamy cat shampoo)
The lab was actually not that hazardous of a place to be for a little kitten, after Tony had removed anything potentially dangerous from easy reach, that is.
All chemicals were stored in specially sealed and reinforced containers, that wouldn't break easily, no matter how many times Peter's paws pushed them over the table's edge.
The soldering equipment needed a certain sequence of button pushing before it activated, and even then a human adult hand was required to reach and press down on the trigger.
Most of the fine tuning on his engineering projects was done via holographic input, and his automated robot arms would do the heavy lifting behind a thick glass cylinder, that Peter couldn't climb.
Whenever Tony needed to do something himself, he had a specially made enclosure he would put Peter in, that would keep the feline safe from harm.
As Tony worked, Peter amused himself by climbing Butterfingers and U, being chased around by Dum-E, climbing up on Tony and rubbing his body along the man's beard, batting at any hologram the genius had pop up, and looking for all the little snacks Tony kept hiding for him in the nooks and crannies of the lab.
Peter was just about to take a well deserved nap on Tony's lap, when the man started looking around the table.
"Where is that stupid pen?"
Peter perked up at the words, jumped off his human's lap, and raced to one of the crates that held his toys. He dove in head first, shuffled around a little, and then emerged with a gold and red pen in his mouth. He raced back to his human, scrambled up the pant leg, hopped onto the table, and proudly dropped the pen beside his human's hand.
Tony's look was a mixture of stunned and incredulous.
"Did you steal and hide my pen?"
The little kitten bumped his head against the hand on the table.
"Oh, and now you want me to pet you for bringing back the pen you stole?"
Despite his words, Tony did just that.
"That's probably how the term 'cat burglar' was born. You adorable little thief."
Peter was a house cat and the tower had no mice. He had to find some way to bring his human little gifts, okay?
Tony didn't actually need to write anything down, he just liked twirling the pen between his fingers when trying to figure out a particular issue with his tech. He gave Peter another rub behind the ears and then picked up the pen. Peter settled back into his lap, kneaded his thighs a bit, walked in a little circle, and finally settled down for his nap.
The moment’s tranquility was broken by Pepper's sudden entrance.
"How come the owner of the world's leading tech-company never bothers to check his phone?"
She came to a stop before his work station and crossed her arms under her chest, an annoyed, but also worried frown on her face.
Tony lifted up his arms in a show of innocence and pointed at his lap.
"Sorry Pep. Petey has me pinned down, you see? Couldn't have gotten to my phone without waking him."
Pepper rolled her eyes.
"Yes, you seem incredibly regretful. Never mind that. Rhodey called. There is a mission on the horizon that needs Iron Man. The team is going to be here tomorrow, for further briefing, preparation and training."
Well, shit.