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Tony woke up human again and was glad for the blankets someone had wrapped them up in. It had probably been Vision or Kai. Wong would have just laid it on top of them instead of tucking them onto the blankets properly and Ultron wouldn't have bothered at all. The only other thing that made sense was if it was more than one of them doing it because the blankets were actually both on top of them and underneath them, protecting the couple from the stone floor.
Stephen grumbled into his skin, also human once more. Tony snickered and gently disentangled them. He needed the bathroom. By the time he got back Stephen was half awake and trying to find him, wrapped in a blanket for modesty. Tony laughed and, ignoring the fact he only had a battered button up shirt and some boxers on that had been nearby, gently steered his partner back to their area. There was a free standing wardrobe there that had clothes for both of them.
They got dressed and found the kitchen area without problems. Wong was scolding Vision for attempting to cook while making food. Tony and Stephen greeted them and Wong grunted at them before adding more food to the pan so that the couple could have a serving.
"More check ups all around I see," Kai said in clear amusement.
Stephen grumbled but agreed while Tony made a face. Between the spell removal and the transformation they actually did need to check things. Then there was the fact that Dormammu stuck Jarvis inside Tony's body. All things considered it was pretty important to get them both checked over.
"Stephen, I get the feeling that if I lay an egg with Jarvis here that not only will I be forced back into a dragon whenever we have kids but that I will be drawn back here for laying each egg," Tony warned. He refused to look up from his food and face the reactions to his little announcement.
"So that's what his plan is," Stephen sighed as he drew Tony into his arms comfortingly. "He probably recognized whatever species we turned into or something. You didn't show obvious signs of Jarvis or his crystal inside you once we turned human. The crystal was the size of six month old baby after all. I figured it stayed with your dragon form and that's why Dormammu said it was safe for you to switch forms without worry. On one hand that means we have to deal with your dragon form exclusively for anything regarding kids on the other it means that we probably don't have to worry about him being at risk with you in human form."
"That's both disturbing and a relief," Tony admitted. He was released soon afterwards so they could finish their food.
They had nearly finished breakfast in a companionable silence when Tony realized something.
"Stephen? Why did I get a girl dragon body?" Tony groaned in realization.
"I could tease you about it but honestly? I don't know," Stephen answered. "I only know that it was one of the safest ways to do this if you wanted kids with me. I can act as your Doctor and if the babies are carried in the dragon body until you lay them as eggs they are actively more protected both while inside you and after being laid to various extents. You aren't compromised after they are laid and we can set up a ridiculous number of protections around them on top of guarding them ourselves."
"Good point," Tony said, blinking in surprise. "I mean I get the feeling that I might be stuck in dragon form for a week or two before laying the egg but Jarvis is actively safer. I can feel a constant light pull on my magic helping him along and everything."
"That's interesting," Kai mused. "Can you feel anything else?"
"Uh, that Jarvis isn't entirely healthy? But he's sort of okay since the body is only at a few cells right now so my magic feels like it's repairing the rips in his self while the body grows?" Tony answered, obviously voicing the pieces as he worked it out. "I also need to stay near Stephen. It feels like it's for protection but also because if I have trouble with feeding Jarvis magic he can loan me some of his? It feels complicated, like it's tangled up in our dragon bodies and that it was really important for him to have made me his dragon mate first like he did. We.... just don't need to do anything on the human side of that if we don't want to."
"If we included anyone else in our relationship our Dragon sides have to approve of them or in dragon form we might kill them," Stephen supplied with a sigh. "It's... our dragons would see it as an attempt to steal our mate or children or both without that approval. Dragons are also notorious for how protective of their hoard they are but with mates and offspring it's magnified by at least ten. Also, gold and jewels serve a practical purpose in helping to polish and clean our scales. Our dragon forms are too young for it, our scales too soft. If our human forms weren't mature then we would probably be considered pre-teens. Physically mature in certain respects but not mature enough in most. The fact that I was already attached to Tony before we changed negated a number of things and kept us both from going on a proper rampage after the first shift."
"Yeah, we get info from our Dragon sides now," Tony said, explaining why they knew what they did in the face of the surprise from all four of their family. "Friday counts as part of my hoard until she gets her own physical body. It's a weird line because living things can be part of a hoard but living hoards are a lot harder to take care of and more fragile. No matter what anyone or anything as part of a dragon hoard is considered precious by the dragon. Gold, silver, and jewels just have a more practical purpose and aren't actually seen as valuable in the same way. You would get a dragon less angry stealing some gold than if you stole a person from their hoard. It's like stealing someone's favorite soap. Could they get really angry? Yeah but it isn't as valuable to them as something like their favorite pet or a family member."
