mucked | entranceway

I'd still put good money on you being an adorable little blighter.

[ so quick to make this about him. nevermind her 27th birthday. ]

[ hell, it's her birthday. surely he can indulge her without avoiding the subject of his childhood memories. ]

you know you were one of five people who liked me. my nannies called me what

troublemaker
dysfunctional
disrespectful

can't imagine why.

I suspect it's easier being an aunt. You can hand them back when they start making trouble and losing respect.

[ but she knows herself. more importantly, she now knows this man. peggy doubts there was much defeated handing-back of unruly boys. ]

I never lost respect for you aunt peggy.

[ surely it's sweet enough. of course it implies that the other part is true enough. he always did give her trouble. ]

I should hope not. Did your gamut of nannies ever come up with a punishment fit to put you in your place as a child?

[ WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND LETS THIS WOMAN NEAR KIDS? ]

nope.

And not out of lack of trying.

I'll wager they were all of them American, weren't they?

[ yep. we're going there. ]

You need a proper British one for any hope of creative repercussions.

I think one of them was Colombian.

I had you and Jarvis and you didn't think of one, either. I'm pretty sure you thought I was cute.

No, see, that's exactly it -- a rabble-rouser like you? It's got to be the sort of discipline you don't even realize is happening. Hide a menial task behind letting you think you're doing a Big Important Job to help your auntie, and with any luck there wouldn't be a peep out of you all afternoon.

Edited 2018-04-09 20:58 (UTC)

[ his response takes a moment. He thinks back, goes over many, many memories of fixing appliances that never needed much fixing, programming new folders for her PC, building little projects only to come back two hours later with the finished result.

It always won him smiles that he remembers rather vividly and a sort of rare warmth he'd only otherwise get from his mother. ]

actually I really do think it was exactly like that.

And I'd imagine it happened so often you really ought to have been put on the payroll.

[ now this? this is a birthday gift. ]

[ tony could tell her stories, he has so many to choose from. He'd remind her of them in her older days, when her mind would confuse him with his father and he'd share a memory or two to remind her that he's tony and not howard.

It's much easier now. ]

I never really minded. I was mostly bored as a kid and I hated nearly everyone.

I guess you're different.

Lucky me.

[ and she just might mean it. ]

I suppose it's just as well you gifted-and-dashed. I'm not certain I could handle a musical number from either one of us just now.

ok come on

I just did you a favor.

[ a blatant lie. ]

I know you're not great at this whole birthday thing.

I can still do songs in text if you want.