Iron-Hawk Short Stories

Pizza + Parenting

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"But Papa said we were going to a restaurant." Ezra complained, his Dad picked him up and carried him away to stop him from squabbling. "Papa is going to be lonely."

"Life lesson. A restaurant in your father's book, is a five Michelin course." Clint muttered, experiencing the word 'restaurant' many times. He carried the child to his car and unlocked the doors. He seated the child in the back and strapped him in before he got into his own seat. "What kind of food do you like to eat?"

"I don't know." The child muttered, playing with his fingers. The blonde let out a sigh and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Do you like pizza? Help me out here Ezra." Clint said, the child just shrugged. "Alright fine, pizza it is" He turned on the engine and drove to a pizza parlour he always enjoyed. He turned on the radio and tapped his fingers against tune of the song.

The child sat quietly at the back, staring out of the window as they drove. Ezra Stark had never been a loud child, a majority of the time he does not speak back. Mostly answered through body language and shakes of his head. He wasn't a child with many likes and dislikes and even if he did, he never expressed them.

Both his parents worried about Ezra's individuality. They could only help that their son will come out of his shell eventually.

"Do you want to listen to anything?" Clint asked as a general. He could only hope Ezra answered but the child just shook his head. "Do you have a favourite song?" A shake of a head came as a response once again.

The parent just sighed and decided to keep driving. He eventually pulled up to the location and unbuckled the child from his seat. Ezra held onto his parent's hand and followed him into the store.

"Your father and I used to come here a lot." Barton said as they walked up to the counter, that peaked the child's interest. The adult quickly made an order and paid for it. "But we usually brought it back home or ate it in the car."

"Do you still come here?" Ezra asked, Clint was surprised the child asked a question.

"Not as often anymore. Let's just take it home so your father can eat as well."

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"So this is where you went." Stark smirked as he opened the lid to the carboard box that contained the pizza. Clint smiled and took a small bite of the pizza. Tony took a slice into his own hands and took a bite, he moaned at the taste.

It had been a while since he had greasy New York food. Recently he had consumed whatever was handed to him by butlers and caterers at his company. All the food was professionally made but eating food like this, he missed.

"You said you were going to go to a restaurant and your standards of a restaurant is different than others." Barton smirked as they watched their child from the counter. Ezra took small bites from his food whilst he watched the television.

"I was actually just going to grab McDonalds." Tony responded, Clint raised an eyebrow.

"McDonalds isn't a restaurant and since when did you go out and buy fast food?" The blonde scoffed.

"McDonalds is close enough to a restaurant. And I enjoy the occasional cheeseburger here and there."

They watched as Ezra came back with an empty plate which he just barely managed to place on the counter.

"Are you still hungry?" Tony asked, the child shook his head. Apparently one slice of pizza was enough to fill a child up. "Are you sure?" Stark handed him another piece (a smaller one of course). The child looked sceptical but took the food that was handed to him and walked off with it. "He's adorable."

"He's too meek. What if he gets into a fight one day?"

"He's your child just as much as he is mine. Go teach him martial arts."

"Do I look like I know martial arts?"

"You know how to fight. What's the difference?"

Clint Barton could list about twelve differences in his head and counting. But he realised that teaching his child how to fight might have been a good idea.

"I worry about him" The blonde muttered, "He's too quiet."

"He's been like that since day one." Stark said but agreeing with what Barton said. "Maybe the experiment went wrong."

"Are we really going to count this as an error in your experiment?"

"He came from a test tube. Maybe I fucked up an equation here and there."

"I mean it's not a massive concern, right? Our kid is healthy, rather smart and I'm pretty sure he's happy." Barton stated. Tony shrugged and just agreed. They had no idea how to raise a child, most of time, it was a lot of assumptions. "Let's just hope he opens up a little more when he's older."