Shadowplay | Tony Stark

TWENTY TWO - BREAKFAST TIME

"Boys! Breakfast is ready!"

Tony wiped sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt, sighing with his hands on his hips when he put down the last plate of pancakes on the table.

He had a kitchen towel slung over his shoulder and flour down his chest, exhausted from the day before it had even reached ten o'clock.

Tristan had slept soundly beside Tony in bed for the rest of the night, waking up full of energy at eight-thirty. Although Tony could've slept in for a lot longer, his slumber came to an end as soon as the child started to shake him awake by the shoulders, whispering his name in his ear.

They'd headed to the floor below to make breakfast not long after waking up, Peter joining them around fifteen minutes later. Tony was thankful when the teenager appeared in the kitchen, giving him a small break from keeping Tristan entertained while he made breakfast for everybody.

"Tristan, honey, be careful swinging Rocket around by the television, you might hit something."

Tony was having a hard time keeping a watchful eye on the child while digging around in his cupboards in search of a plastic cup for him to have his orange juice in that morning, not trusting him with a glass.

While he adored spending time with Tristan and had never particularly found watching him a struggle, Tony experienced for the first time that morning how alert Mila must've had to be at all times as he kept catching the boy jumping off the arm of the sofa or chasing Peter around the table, terrified he was going to trip and fall.

"Boys!" Tony said again, trying to catch their attention while they pretended to fight each other over by the window, "Did you hear me? Pancakes are ready, hurry up or I'll eat them all."

With a quiet laugh and shake of his head, Tony paused for a second as he realised how different his mornings were now compared to how they once had been. He wasn't hungover or rolling out of a stranger's bed, instead he was making breakfast for two children and trying to keep them under control at the same time.

The boys eventually took their seats at the kitchen table, Tony sitting down beside Tristan and instinctively grabbing his plate to start cutting up his pancakes for him, picking up small pieces on the fork before handing it to him to feed himself.

"Thanks Tony, this looks great." Peter said with a smile, grabbing some syrup from the middle of the table.

"Yeah," Tristan nodded after swallowing his first bite, "Thanks Tony."

The boy giggled, finding it simply hilarious to copy any and everything that Peter Parker said and did. Tony smiled at him, ruffling his hair before helping him pick up another forkful of pancakes.

He leant back in his chair, taking his first sip of the coffee he'd made for himself over twenty minutes earlier and wincing at the cold, bitter taste, realising then that having a cold coffee and breakfast later than everybody else was the norm for Mila.

The more time he spent with her and Tristan, the more admiration he began to have for her as a mother. Tony had never really spared a thought to how life as a parent might be, but he'd had his own taste of it by that point and the difficulty of it had forged a great respect for Mila, especially knowing she somehow managed it all alone.

"Oh my goodness! Aren't you boys so lucky, did Tony cook this gorgeous breakfast for you? I hope you said thank you."

Mila strolled into the kitchen not long after they'd sat down to eat, a smile on her bare face and her hair tied up into a long ponytail down her back. She was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a cropped tank top, her skin glowing and eyes bright from what Tony assumed was the first full nights sleep she'd had in a while.