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"Papa? Can we get a puppy?"
A surprised chuckle comes out of Steve as he looks up from his marking at his son, who's playing on the carpet.
"What? No. Your dad would kill me."
"But Micah has a puppy! He's really cute. I pet him when I go to his house! He barks and everything!"
Steve winces. If Peter's best friend has a dog, Peter probably isn't going to stop pestering them for a while. He and Tony had thought about pets before; Steve wouldn't have minded, but Tony had decided against it. And there was no reason for him to change his mind now. If anything, it made even less sense to get a dog. They were barely in the house, it wouldn't be fair to keep a dog cooped up in the house all day.
"There's more to a dog than just barking Pete. You have to take him on walks, feed him and play with him."
"I can do that!" He says excitedly, bouncing up and down.
Steve sighs. Time to take the easy way out. “Why don’t you let your dad decide, hm?”
“Okay!”
Steve just shakes his head and closes the sketchbook he was marking. He’s done for the day; he wasn’t really getting anything done anyway. “What do you want for dinner Pete?”
Peter just shrugs, too absorbed with whatever he’s doing, probably in a different world right now. “I don’t know.”
Steve heads to the kitchen, unlocking his phone. He feels like trying something different out, eating something new. Mexican maybe? He eventually decides on fajitas, pulling out the ingredients. For some reason, he can already imagine a dog wandering around the kitchen as he cooks, taking the dog on walks with Tony and Peter, and him rumbling on Steve’s feet as he’s marking.
He almost burns the chicken in his thought, and has to frantically flap at the smoke alarm with a tablecloth. He really needs to get his head in the game before he burns the house down.
Tony arrives home from work just as Steve is plating up, and the family of three lose themselves in the domesticity. Now that Peter has started school, Steve and Tony are back to full time work at their office and school. Because of it, they don't get to spend as much time as they used to be able to with each other, so they try to make the most of what they have.
Surprisingly, Peter doesn't bring up the dog conversation for the entirety of dinner, which makes Steve think that he forgot all about it.
But it looks like he spoke too soon.
"Daddy?" Peter says, in a tone that instantly makes Tony squint suspiciously at him.
"What did you do?" Tony asks, mock glaring at his son.
"Nothing!" Peter says defensively, but giggling.
"Well forgive me bambino, but I don't quite believe you."
"Can we get a puppy?”
“What? Where did this come from?”
“I play with Micah’s puppy when I go to his house! I think it would be really fun to get one too. Even you could play with him!”
“This is the first time I’ve heard anything about a puppy, I didn't even think you liked dogs.”
“I love dogs! And Papa told me to ask you when I asked him.”
Steve almost drops the plate he was putting away, and pointedly refuses to look at his husband. Of course Peter would throw him under the bus. He can still feel his eyes on him though, so he decides to busy himself in pretending to rearrange the cutlery.
“Oh did he now?”
“Yep! So can we? Can we? Can we?” Peter is pretty much bouncing off the walls already, and they haven’t even said yes yet. God knows what he’ll do if Tony actually says yes. Steve thinks he’ll genuinely explode with excitement.
“I’m not saying yes right now Peter,” Tony says carefully. “A dog is a lot of work.”
“I promise to feed it! And play with it and take it on walks!”
“I’ll think about it, how’s that for an answer?”
“Hmmm, okay. Don’t think about it for too long though.”
Tony just shakes his head at his son. He’s definitely got his stubbornness from Steve, he doesn’t ever remember being that stubborn.
Rhodey would probably disagree though.
The next two and a half hours are lost to their daily winding down/bedtime routine. It’s a Tuesday, which means a new episode of The Great British Bake Off, and it’s become a tradition for the three of them to watch it together, Peter with hot chocolate, Steve with tea and Tony with coffee.
And then it’s time for bed, which for Peter, means changing into pajamas and bedtime stories and for Steve and Tony, preparing for the next day. It’s also the only time throughout the day they get together. They don’t count the mornings; it’s always rushed, trying to get Peter ready and out the door on time, Steve making sure he has everything for work and Tony still being half asleep before his first coffee hit.
Steve and Tony curl up on the bed in each other’s warmth, reveling in it. They fit together like puzzle pieces; they may have parts missing, but with each other, they feel complete, whole.
“So, Peter wants a dog,” Tony says, breaking the comfortable silence.
“Yeah. I know you never wanted a dog, so I didn’t want to say yes to Peter when I didn’t think you would.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. How have I become the mature one?”
“Hey!” Steve pokes Tony in the shoulder. “I’m still mature! A dog wouldn’t be a bad idea though. It’d teach Peter about responsibility.”
“Yeah, I think when we last had the dog conversation, we were still living in our old apartment. It definitely wouldn’t have been fair to keep a dog there. The poor thing would have gone stir crazy.”
Steve hums. Tony is completely right. Their last apartment was tiny, but since it was only the two of them, they made it work. It was always cluttered, and nothing had it’s space, and it stressed them out, but they were both so busy, they didn’t really have the time to sort it out. It wasn’t until they decided that they wanted to expand the family that they started looking for a bigger house, and by that point, the dog conversation had long been done, dusted and forgotten.
“Well, Peter’s birthday is coming up soon… And we haven’t even started planning for it yet,” Tony muses, and Steve sits up straight.
“Are you saying yes?”
“You seem just as excited, if not more, than Peter.”
“I kind of am. It would be nice to have a dog around.”
“So we should get one then? Should we tell Peter or keep it a surprise?”
“Um… Surprise,” Tony decides.
“Sounds good sweetheart,” Steve smiles, leaning in to kiss Tony softly. They smile into the kiss, before pulling apart and drifting off into the land of sleep.
Yeah, Peter was going to freak.
**********
“IS THAT A DOG COLLAR?!” Peter shouts in excitement.
“Steve, I can’t believe you just ruined the surprise! He wasn’t meant to find out until the evening!”
“It’s not my fault Peter is so nosy! He gets it from you!”
“Don’t put this on me!”
Steve just shakes his head and turns to Peter, who’s practically vibrating with excitement.
"Okay, yes we did get you dogs-"
"DOGS?! As in more than one?!"
"STEVE!"
**********
But after the chaos, Steve finds his visions do come true. The two dogs (christened Dodger and Tessa) very quickly become part of the family.
Dodger, a sweet mixed-breed boxer, is the one who keeps Steve company while he cooks, and is always by Tony's side in the home lab on his late night binges.
Tessa, the blue Staffordshire bull-terrier, is the more playful one of the two, and almost immediately attaches herself to Peter's side. The two of them adore each other from the get go, and whatever Peter is in the house, Tessa won't be far behind.
And when the days start getting colder, Tony gets the fireplace going, and the five of them curl up under a massive blanket, basking in the warmth the fire gives off, but also the warmth the dogs emit.
The dogs have well and truly become part of the family, and it feels amazing.