Shadowplay | Tony Stark

TWENTY - BROOKLYN BRIDGE

"You know what? I think this is the best pizza I've ever had."

"I can tell, you only left me two slices."

Mila's face fell as she looked at Tony with guilty wide eyes and a mouthful of pizza. He stared at her for a moment before breaking into a smile, shaking his head with a quiet laugh.

"I'm just messing with you, I've eaten more slices than you actually, my bad."

It turned out that Tony did end up cancelling the eight-thirty reservation he'd made at a French restaurant downtown, a chain reaction from Mila having a breakdown over not having an outfit suitable for a place as fancy as the one Tony had booked.

It had never occurred to him that Mila wouldn't have anything to wear when he made the booking, simply thinking that she looked beautiful in anything and everything he'd ever seen her wear. He knew from her red-faced panic as she sifted through her suitcase, however, that an outfit was a far bigger deal than he'd initial perceived.

And that was how Mila and Tony had ended up sitting on a bench on the bay of the East River in Brooklyn Bridge Park, staring up at the structure in all its glory as the bright lights of Manhattan illuminated the black night sky.

They'd taken the subway to Brooklyn, Tony's suggestion, and had enjoyed a walk through the park before stumbling across a truck selling wood-fired pizzas. Mila grabbed a cheese pizza while Tony disappeared to find a liquor store, returning with four bottles of beer.

It wasn't the evening that he'd planned for Mila to experience, but the smile on her face as she finished her third slice of pizza and washed it down with a mouthful of Budweiser reassured Tony that she certainly wasn't missing the French onion soup and escargot they probably would've had. 

She sat with one leg hanging off the edge of the bench and the other tucked up by her body, her arms clasped around her leg clutching the bottle of beer. She was dressed casually in leggings and a hoodie, a long trench coat over the top and a pair of sneakers, though her makeup was flawless with a dark waterline and nude lip, her hair curled across her shoulders as she looked up at the skyline across the water.

"What're you thinking about?" Tony asked, dusting his hands of crumbs and tossing the pizza box into a trash can next to him.

Mila kissed her teeth with a shake of her head before tearing her eyes away from the city to look at Tony, "How you can be happy leaving this place at night to come back to the lake house."

"Easy," Tony said, cracking the cap off his beer bottle by smashing it against the arm of the bench, "You're at the lake house, that's why I leave the city."

Mila rolled her eyes, a slight smile tugging on her lips, "Yeah, me and the screaming child."

"He's not that bad. Speaking of which, Clint text me not long ago," he pulled his phone out of his back pocket, "He said Tristan and Peter have both crashed in your bedroom so looks like you'll have to sleep somewhere else tonight. He didn't take a nap today, did he? I'll bet he'll sleep right through till at least eight."

Mila covered her smile as she took a sip of beer. She'd noticed over time that Tony had subconsciously picked up more and more traits of a parent. She had never specifically asked Tony to give her a helping hand in taking care of Tristan, the superhero seemingly taking on the responsibility without giving any of it a second thought. It came naturally to him, so it seemed, Tony enjoying chasing the toddler around the garden and having fights with cardboard swords.

He'd started putting Tristan to bed more, too, being the adult requested to read a bedtime story over Mila. There had also been days where she'd walked downstairs to find Tristan and Tony sat watching cartoons together, Tony feeding him cereal like a slave knowing full well Tristan was more than capable of doing it himself.