The Hamptons' House

2003: Part 1

It was strange how as you got older the time between parties seemed to be getting shorter. Three years was three years yet somehow as you turned your rental car into the driveway of Tony's Hamptons house, it felt like you'd only left a few weeks ago.

Not that a lot hadn't happened in those years. A lot had happened, but the time might have flown by so fast simply because half of it was experienced in that half-awake, living zombie phase of new parenthood.

Brody was born on the tenth of February 2001. While you and Kurt had been thrown into the life of new parenthood, the world had been thrown into turmoil thanks to terrorist attacks and the now-named 'war on terror'. Stark Industries were booming because of it and he was now listed as one of the top ten richest people on the planet. Not that that had changed very much. He had always been obscenely rich but he was still just your Tony.

When you sent him an email telling him about Brody's birth with photos attached he'd sent you the biggest bouquet you'd ever seen with a blue teddy bear that had Brody and his date of birth embroidered on the foot.

You put the car into park and got out, grabbing your bag from the back. It was still very early. A catering van sat at the door and people were unloading things from it under the watchful eye of Happy and the DJ had his station wagon parked beside your ford focus rental, unloading his equipment.

You made your way to the door and Happy grinned at you when he saw you. "Hey, Cookie," he said, greeting you with a kiss on the cheek. "You're early."

"Yeah, my flight just got in," you said. "Figured Tony wouldn't mind if I came early and used his shower."

Some caterers squeezed passed you holding large trays of vegetables and Happy tickets something off a chart. "The boss is in his room, I'm sure he won't care if you go straight up."

"Thanks, Hap," you said, heading inside. "It's good to see you."

As you passed through the hall you saw Tony's assistant Pepper overseeing the restocking of the bar. He had been so sure she hated him and yet three years on and she was still working for him.

You went through the kitchen and up the secret staircase. Tony was hunched over his desk that looked out over the ocean working on a circuit board. He was wearing socks and a robe and beside him was an open bottle of Glenfiddich beside an almost empty glass.

You dropped your bag by the bed and approached him. He was so absorbed in what he was doing he hadn't even looked up. You ran your hands over his shoulders and wrapped them around him.

"Woah..." Tony yelped and spun around, making you jump back a little to avoid getting kicked. "Cookie! You're early!"

"I am," you said. "You gonna beat me up?"

"You surprised me," he said, taking your hand and pulling you closer. "I thought one of the cleaners was trying to get fresh with me."

You straddled his lap and he ran his hands up your back as he looked up at you. "Nope, just me. What are you doing?"

"Oh," he said looking over his shoulder. "I've been working on creating an AI that can run the house. I had an idea for it, and I thought I'd see if I could work on it here, but this stuff is all 15 years old. So then I was looking at one of the things I was working on fifteen years ago..." He shook his head. "You know what? I have no idea. Where's Kurt?"

"He's taken Brody to his parents for the week," you answered. There had been talk about both of you coming again, but Brody was only two and so far, while you'd had nights off where you had someone babysitting, you'd never had any time off alone and Kurt had only had a few work trips that had taken him out of town. You didn't want to waste your first week away together, not actually together.