Days passed, and the team managed to gather for all the Tribble births, which were short and generally uneventful.

Tony was kind, and gave Clint the first one, even if he threatened him with child protective services (or maybe the SPCA would have been more apt, he wasn't sure) if he didn't take good care of him.

Clint declared him adorable and spent the rest of the day leading it around the vents, and was quite concerned when three days later it gave birth to the one Natasha claimed. Bruce declared both parent and child healthy, and everyone parted ways until the next one.

Then everyone had one except Tony.

They were all waiting for Bruce's to give birth, everyone gathered with their respective Tribbles, birth certificates for each stuck to the fridge with magnets, one for everyone except Tony.

Finally, the Tribble became two, and everyone cheered. Tony clutched his little darling to his cheek as it purred.

"Hey buddy," he greeted, reluctantly handing him over to Bruce to be checked.

("I don't know why Tony," he'd said. "They're not even organic, not entirely anyway, and I'm not even a doctor!"

"You're the best we've got," Tony told him, clutching Ullr closely. Of course, Bruce sighed and gave in.)

"It's fine," Bruce told him, handing Tony's Tribble back and picking up his own. Now that everyone had them, Tony wasn't sure what they would do with the rest. His was pregnant already, and then it would give birth. Maybe if he developed Tribble birth control...

The baby Tribble (even though it was the same size as everyone else's) whined at him.

"Aw, what is it buddy? Longing for your... erm... daddy?" he asked, holding it closer to Bruce's again.

Bruce's Tribble began whining as well, and the rest in the room followed suit.

"That's... weird," Tony noted, kneeling down next to Ullr, who was sitting on the floor, apparently now quite sadly.

Tony found himself on the couch.

"Um, guys?"

Natasha dropped from the sky, or something, to look at him. "He's awake," she announced.

The rest of the team appeared, and yeah, that was a bit creepy.

What? he signed to Clint.

"You sort of... collapsed," Clint said with a shrug. "You were already so close to the ground, it wasn't a big deal."

Tony frowned. "No twitching?" That was more to Jarvis, who was more informed than anyone else on this topic.

"No sir, it appeared to be an atonic seizure. I've sent an email to Doctor Carlyle, as he requested to be notified of any seizures."

"Thanks buddy."

"What do you remember?" Bruce prompted.

Tony scrunched up his face, cause that should help him think, right? "My brand new baby was... whining I think? And everyone else was too, Ullr and all your little guys. Which was weird, cause they haven't done that before. Oh, is my Tribble okay? Did I squish him?"

"He's fine," Bruce assured him, and then nodded. "But yeah. The Tribbles seemed really anxious, if a Tribble can be anxious."

It took a minute, but it dawned on Tony. "Well, what did you know?" he said faintly. "I accidentally invented an early warning system for seizures. Go Tribbles!"

Thor frowned. "I am not sure of what you speak, but I do so enjoy these furry creatures, especially Ullr."

"Hey Steve, if I outfit one of these in the suit, will you be okay with me being on the team?" Tony asked, offering his best smile. And really, that smile had gotten him laid and sealed deals and possibly even saved his life. It was a good smile.

Even Captain America couldn't be entirely resistant.

He sighed, in that way that he did, and Tony braced himself for The Look, but it never came.

"Of course. And Tony, I'm sorry about before. Bruce helped me learn more about it, and if I'd known about the medication and how effective it was, I wouldn't have been so..."

"Dickish?" Tony offered, and Steve frowned.

"Overbearing."

Tony nodded. "That too."

"I was worried about you getting hurt. That's all, okay? I worry. That's what I do. I worry about you falling from the sky during a seizure and I worry about Clint falling off a building with no one there to catch him. I worry about Bruce getting lost alone after he transforms back and I worry about Natasha not having backup. Heck, I even worry about Thor, even though he's a god."

Tony blinked. "That's very nice of you."

Behind Steve, Clint was signing something to Natasha and trying very hard not to laugh. Natasha was giving him a death glare.

Oh yeah, he was supposed to be listening.

"I'm sorry that I didn't trust you, but you haven't always been..."

"Sane? Stable? Honestly, I could keep going, there's a laundry list of character defects," Tony smirked.

"Responsible."

Oh. Oh. Okay then, he really went there, and no, Tony had to stop that, because if they thought he was responsible, there was no telling what would come after that. Nice? Grownup? Considerate?

Hell no, this had to stop.

"Oh, don't worry Cap, I'm not. But me and my trusty Tribble, who I've still got to name, and no, I won't be accepting suggestions from the audience Barton, will be all set to go for the next mission, okay? I'll make him his own suit and everything. Not sure how he'll fly it, but it'll be great. If that's all I've really got to go get started on that, since you never know when evil will strike next!"

Still talking, Tony made a quick escape, clutching his Tribble to his chest.

Once in the elevator he cradled it close to his chest. "You do need a name," he told the Tribble thoughtfully, and it chirped adorably at him as they headed down to the lab. "I should probably go about this scientifically."

That was where Bruce found him hours later, with an old fashioned white board set up. He was sitting on his stool staring at them.

"Tony?"

"Busy."

"With... what?"

"Naming my Tribble."

"With science?"

"Have you seen my robots? I've tried to go without doing it scientifically, and I ended up with Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers."

Bruce shuffled his feet. "Yeah, I suppose," he said, and Tony could hear the little smile.

"See, everyone else has named theirs already. We've got Ullr, which is the team one. Thor has Alva, so that's one girl. I'm pretty sure Ullr is a guy? Natasha has Vera, Clint has Legolas, and wow, I still can't believe he named it that. Steve has James," Tony had to stop and roll his eyes at that, because come on. What an original name. "You've got Andrade. Hell, even Coulson has one, and he named his Lola. That makes three girls and four guys. I need to name mine something not too close to anyone else's, and possibly even out the gender imbalance. But I'm really feeling it's a guy, so I've sort of thrown that out the window."

"Right," Bruce said, and he was totally just humouring Tony now. "What about naming him after someone you lost?"

And ouch, that hurt, because there were so many people he'd lost. Some of them he'd rather forget, and some of them who hurt to think about.

There were his parents (hell no he was not naming his awesome Tribble after his father) and there was Obie (again, fuck no), and Yinsen (which would hurt too much) and Jarvis (already used). Yeah, he could name his Tribble after his mother, but it was a boy Tribble, and Maria was not appropriate for his son. Thing.

Oh!

"Bruce, you're a genius," Tony exclaimed, and if Bruce said anything after that, Tony wasn't listening, because he was busy naming his Tribble and building a suit and about ten other things at the same time.

And maybe the next time that rock monsters invaded the city (because yes, it had happened before, and wow, he was so over it already) Tony brought Collin along in his own suit.

Of course he didn't give the Tribble guns, he wasn't irresponsible.

He did have a built in taser for self defense though, and it served Clint right for trying to fly on him.