Tony lay with his head on Steve's chest, letting the soldier run his fingers through his hair without complaint. The room was quiet save for the sounds of their breathing and heartbeats and the whitenoise hum of the airconditioning. The only light came from the reactor in Tony's chest. He grabbed Steve's hand, bringing a halt to the affectionate combing, and laced their fingers together. "If you quote me on this I may punch you with the suit on, but you are better family than I ever hoped to have."

Steve chuckled and squeezed Tony's hand. "Why do you feel the need to hide how sweet you can be?"

"I am not sweet." Tony sounded indignant—and on the verge of pouting.

"Yes you are."

"If I am, the rest of the world doesn't need to know."

"Fine." Steve unlaced his fingers from Tony's and wrapped his arms around the smaller man. They fell silent for a while. "Tony?"

"Hm?"

"Have you ever thought about being a father?"

Tony froze then rolled out of Steve's arms and sat up. "Please tell me you're joking."

"I'm completely serious." Steve sat up as well.

"There's no way. I am not parent material and I know it. Besides, kids are messy and require more of a lifestyle change than I'm willing to make—ever."

"You said the same thing about marriage."

"That's different. You're more or less indestructible and you don't touch things that look like they might kill you. Kids eat things that look like they could kill them. I've had this conversation with Pepper more than once—which is part of why she and I didn't work out."

Steve looked down, frowning. "I think you'd make a great parent."

Tony shook his head. "No."

With a sigh, Steve pulled Tony into his lap, ignoring his squirming. "Just think about it."

"I already have."

"You've only thought about the things you expect not to like." He rested his chin on Tony's shoulder. "Imagine having someone to teach about all your computers and projects who's just as impressed as I am by all of it but actually understands more than every fourth word. Someone glad to see you come home safe from a fight who wasn't in the fight. Someone who will always see you as a hero no matter what the papers say. Someone to do better for than your father did for you."

It was a long time before Tony spoke. "How long have you been thinking about this?"

"Since the bomb scare at the children's hospital."

"Of course." Tony sighed and let his head fall back against Steve's shoulder.

"I'd really like to have a family with you." Steve's voice was just above a whisper. He rubbed his knuckles against the stubble on Tony's jaw. "Your robots aren't a family."

"So what, though? I doubt there's an agency on earth that would let me adopt. They might let you, but I have a rather ugly and public history."

"You'll just throw money at them until they give you your way like you always do."

Tony elbowed him in the ribs.

"I'm not wrong." He kissed Tony's hair.

"Maybe not. And I suppose there are other options." Tony couldn't believe he was even considering the options. "We could have a surrogate. There are background checks for that too, but you already made the point about money. Of course we'd have to find a surrogate and decide which of us would be the biological father..."

"I nominate you. Brilliance runs in your family and the traits I was born with I wouldn't wish on anyone."

"Huh. I don't know to what extent what was done to you would be heritable. A significant amount of epigenitic rewriting must have happened, probably some genetic rewriting as well, otherwise it's hard to explain things like your metabolism. Unfortunately there aren't any good genetic samples left from before—yes, I've looked into this—almost everything in your record from the forties has degraded due to poor storage. Things like your asthma probably have less to do with genetics than with the fact that you're a male who had a low birth weight, was raised in a low-income environment, and were exposed to tobacco smoke as a kid. So who knows."

"Who knows." Steve leaned back against the headboard. "I wish we didn't have to pick. You know, I've always kind of envied those couples you see sometimes, arguing over whether their kid's nose or something is more like his or hers. Probably because I always knew I'd never have one of those arguments. Guess having a surrogate would be the next best thing to the impossible."

Tony opened his mouth to say something, stopped, and sat fully upright. "It's not impossible."

"What?"

"Jarvis?"

"Sir?"
Tony got out of bed and walked to the opaque window, paying no mind to his lack of clothing. "Pull up all the biosciences journals I've read in the past six months."

A virtual library of glowing blue articles appeared on the window. Tony flicked through them, searching. Steve moved so he was sitting on the edge of the bed and watched in confusion. Eventually, Tony came to an article that made him smile. He tapped the corner to maximize it so it filled the window from floor to ceiling then turned to face Steve who was scanning the text with his brow knit. "It's experimental, highly controversial, and ridiculously expensive, but not impossible, and therefore right up my alley."

Still reading, Steve asked. "Are you agreeing?"

"I guess I am."

"That was a much shorter conversation than I expected."

"I've probably lost my mind."

Steve got up, hugged Tony, kissed him warmly, pulled back, and brushed a thumb over his cheek. "In my experience, the things that seem the most insane tend to turn out best."

A/N: Brand new story! I've got a few chapters typed, few more handwritten, and tons more planned out. I hope to get things posted in short order. This will eventually develop a more typically superhero-ish plot but for a while before that just enjoy the slice of life chapters.
I love to hear from my readers, it honestly helps me write, so if you've got anything to say please say it.