Iron Wolf

Chapter 7~ The Birthing Suite

Melody's POV

"Ow!" I heard my dad yelp after injecting himself with something.

"Sir, please may I request just a few hours to calibrate-" JARVIS began but dad cut him off.

"No. Forty-eight. Ah! Micro-repeater implanting sequence complete." Micro-repeater? What was he doing with micro-repeaters?

"As you wish, sir. I've also prepared a safety briefing for you to entirely ignore," JARVIS told him.

"Which I will. Right, let's do this," Dad said. "DUM-E. Hi, DUM-E. How did you get that cap on your head? You earned it." He started walking towards the emotionless and yet still emotionally-abused robot. "Hey. Hey! What are you doing round in the corner? You know what you did. Blood on my mat, handle it."

"Sir, may I remind you that you've been awake for nearly seventy-two hours," JARVIS said and I scowled. Seventy-two hours? Jesus Christ, do I need to knock him out every night to make sure he sleeps?

Dad ignored JARVIS, as he typically did and addressed his collection of suits. "Focus up, ladies. Good evening, and welcome to the birthing suite. I'm pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, bad-ass, baby brother." What has he done now?

" Start tight and go wide, stamp in time. Mark 42 autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Initialize sequence," Dad told JARVIS before motioning for his new suit and looking like a complete fool.

"JARVIS, drop my needle," Dad said before he started dancing to a funky version of Jingle Bells before trying once again to get his suit to go to him. "Crap." Dad bit his arm where he'd injected himself before hitting the spot five times. He tried again and this time a part of his suit latched onto his hand. He pointed his other arm towards the suit and another piece latched on.

"Alright, I think we got this. Send 'em all," He laughed. One of the legs flew over and attached itself to him and another part flew into the glass cages. More parts began hurling themselves at Dad.

"Probably a little fast, slow it down. Slow it down just a... little bit," Dad said, dodging another piece. More pieces flew at him, forcibly attaching themselves to his crotch and his back, making him lose balance.

"Cool it, will you, JARVIS?" He groaned.

"Yeah, JARVIS, wouldn't want do hurt dear old dad, would we?" I asked, finally making myself known as all but the facepiece attached themselves to dad.

"Tails? What are you doing here?" Watching you. Don't stop on my account. Carry on." The facepiece hovered, waiting to merge with the rest of the suit.

"Come on. I ain't scared of you." The facepiece flies over and dad flips over to grab the piece and finally, the Iron Man suit is fully attached to him.

"I'm the best," He said, cockily before one of the stray pieces of the suit shot over to him, and knocked him down, which knocked the entire suit, except for the headpiece, off of him.

"Oh, you're the best alright," I laughed. "That's what you get for being cocky."

"As always, sir, a great pleasure watching you work," JARVIS said.

"Dad, we talked about this. You're supposed to be going to bed at 11 every night. What is this about you being up for seventy-two hours?"

"I was making progress so..."

"So you'd rather make me worry even more than I already am about you because you wanted to play with your toys. Is that it?"

"No, Melody-"

"Because that's what it looks like. Come on, dad, don't I worry about you enough since you joined your superhero boy band?"

"I know, but-"

"When was the last time you ate, dad? A real meal, not just a granola bar to keep you going?"

"Forty-eight hours ago, Ms. Stark," JARVIS answered.

"Two days ago?! Dad, come on. You need to eat a full meal and then I'm knocking your ass out and you are going to sleep until seven tomorrow morning when you will eat another full meal. Because I refuse to have to run yourself ragged."

"Melody, I'm fine, I promise."

"Dad, just because I can't die doesn't mean you can't. And I still need you. I will not have you dying on me because you became anorexic or because you are forcing yourself to be an insomniac. Not on my watch," I said, tears pricking my eyes.

"Melody... sweetheart, come here," He said, opening his arms to me. "I'm sorry I've worried you so much. But you don't need to worry about me. I've got everything under control. I promise. I'm not going to die anytime some."

"You don't know that. On top of you not taking care of yourself, you're also Iron Man. Who the Hell knows what could happen to you out there. I'm just so scared of losing you, Daddy."

"Why do you think I've been working so hard? So I can build the best suit there is so that you don't have to worry about me when I'm out fighting the bad guys."

"That doesn't help if you wither away to nothing before you build it, dad," I muttered.

"Ok. Ok, you're right. How about this. I promise to eat at least two full meals a day and sleep six hours every night," He sighed, petting my hair, desperately trying to calm me down.

"Make it seven hours, and you spend at least three nights a week in my bed and you've got a deal," I answered.

"Alright, deal. My little cuddle monster," He chuckled.

"I was serious about you eating and sleeping the rest of the day away, you know that right?" I asked, still not letting him go.

"You're really not letting this go, are you, Tails?"

"I am not going to lose you over something so stupid," I answered.

"Alright, how about we go order some pizza and then spend the day watching Disney movies and taking naps. How does that sound?"

"It sounds perfect. But only if I get to order the pizza. We are having none of your weirdness."

"So your weirdness is better? Who ever heard of putting pineapple on a pizza? You're a disgrace, Melody Luna. An utter disgrace," He mocked.

"I love you too, Daddy. Always," I smiled, before dragging him to my room and ordering the pizza. With pineapples.