Chapter Text
1975, Manhattan, New York.
It was the twenty-nine of May.
The day wasn’t that remarkable. The sky was surprisingly clear of clouds and the weather was pleasant. No one would have thought that the most universe changing event was supposed to be taking place at that very moment, nor that it had to do with Maria Collins Carbonell Stark giving birth to two babies instead of one.
This is, however, not Maria’s story, no matter how much pain it brought her to bring the two healthy babies to life. The babies were fine, of course, born with a twelve minute difference from each other. Maria had been expecting a baby, yes, but not two. The fact that the second baby was a girl was a surprise for everyone involved, especially to one Howard Stark.
You see, the millionaire had been pressured by his peers to procreate, he was entering an age already, nowhere past his prime, he would argue, but he recognized that perhaps he was old now, and he needed someone to carry out his legacy, hence the baby. The pregnancy hadn’t been easy on his wife, Maria’s temper had been horrible, but Howard had braved it like a man that had braved war before. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t surprised by the fact that he had gotten two babies when he had been expecting just one.
Not that he couldn’t work with it, he was a millionaire, the babies wouldn’t want for anything in the world. Howard watched in half a haze as the babies were cleaned and handed to Maria so that the woman could welcome them to the world. They had screamed, very loudly, if you asked Howard, and were now both in a crib silent and looking very pruned.
Howard supposed that all babies looked like raisins when they were born, he didn’t see any remarkable qualities in them, they were practically identical save for the fact that one of them was female. Jarvis, ever present and loyal Jarvis, was the first person to congratulate him on the babies. He smiled at his butler and thanked him as he observed the two babies, their eyes were closed and Howard wondered how something so small could elicit the entire range of emotion that he was feeling.
He only hoped that he could do right by them.
Being born was not something that Astrid would ever recommend to anyone. Her first few hours as a newborn human were confusing and painful, she didn’t know where she was or what the point of it was, and the fact that she had gained awareness while in her mother’s womb was not helping matters in the slightest. Being born was the most harrying experience ever and Astrid was sure that she was going to carry that trauma for her entire existence.
Now her new name, Astrid, was something that had surprised her. She had been waiting for Natasha or even Antonia, but apparently Astrid had won out the name lottery.
Not that she was complaining, it was a pretty name. Rolled off the tongue quite easily and she could work with it. Another thing that had Astrid somewhat surprised was her twin. Because even though her eyes were not really working to 100%, her ears were and she had heard both names, her twin brother was none other than Anthony Edward Stark.
She felt as if this was some cosmic joke. But this was not her first rodeo. In fact, it wasn’t even the first time that she was being reborn, but it certainly was the one in which she had gained awareness this early.
She wondered what had changed, the last thing she remembered from her past life was wielding the accursed infinity stones, all six of them. Her past life had been a bit of a disaster, probably closer to the original timeline as possible. She hadn't gained true understanding of what was going on until it was too late for her to try and change things for the better.
She had been so angry at the moment of her death, if only she had had more time. Which she now had. She had too much time now, and a brother to worry about. But she figured that she could plot later, in the meantime she needed to figure out how to be a baby cause it had been a while since she had ever seen one and she was not sure for how long she could keep the charade up. If anything she would try to copy her twin and go from there.
Tony Stark was not having a good day.
Actually, that was an understatement. Tony hadn’t been having a great week, it was only logical that it had ended up with him dead and somehow being back into being a newborn baby. He was going to punch Strange in the face at some point.
Despite his anger and despair, Tony was quick to notice the differences of this time. The obvious one being that he seemed to have a sister, a twin sister. As far as Tony was concerned he had always been an only child. So either his sister was going to die in the next few hours or this was some new timeline changed by whatever it was that he had done with the stones.
If it had been possible for him, he would have snorted at Howard’s audacity to name both of his children. Oh, Tony had been expecting the ‘Anthony Edward Stark’ thing, now Astrid Estelle Stark had been a surprise. Somehow, Tony could see the irony in the names. Monogramming things was going to be easy.
But easy to remember names aside, Tony had a new problem in the form of a new baby sister that he was going to take care of. The last thing he needed was for her to be kidnapped or used against him. He was not going to allow a baby to pay for Howard’s mistakes.
His plan was easy. He would copy his twin’s actions and try to be a baby and from there he would survive his childhood once more. He would try to save his parents from Hydra and then he would save the world from Thanos. He was Iron Man, he could do it. He had all the time in the world.
Jarvis had to admit that the children were exceptionally well behaved.
He would have thought that two newborn babies would require more attention. But the Stark twins were actually very quiet and seemed to require very little. It was a blessing in disguise since he momentarily had only Ana to help him. No nannies had been hired as of yet, since Miss Carter and Mr. Stark needed to run extensive background checks. Especially after what had happened to the late Arno Stark.
The poor thing had been suffocated to death by a russian spy posing as a nanny. So Howard was not going to take that chance again. Not after five long years of miscarriages and losses. These two babies would be guarded like the treasures that they were. So far only Ana, Miss Carter and Jarvis himself had been allowed close to the babies.
The butler couldn’t help but to smile as he watched over the two sleeping babies. Ana had changed their nappies, they had been so fuzzy, and then they had been fed and now they were sleeping. Jarvis was glad that they could ignore the rest of the world for a bit longer, and he vowed that he would protect the two sleeping babies with his life if need be.
Peggy Carter-Sousa watched as Howard assured Maria that the babies would be fine with Ana and Jarvis while she regained her forces. The matron had already been dispatched and the house had been properly searched for any threats to Peggy’s godchildren. Howard had asked her to be the children's godmother; he had yet to name a godfather, although she was sure that he was thinking of calling Obadiah once again.
She thought about offering Daniel for the honor. But the two of them being the babies’ godparents would have been counterproductive, especially if something were to happen to any of them, and in their line of work such a thing was inevitable. Then again, Obadiah Stane had always rubbed Peggy the wrong way, but Howard trusted the man implicitly.
She sighed as she made her way to where the babies were sleeping. She needed to call Daniel and assure him that the babies had been born just fine, thankfully and if she had anything to say about it, the children would make it to adulthood. She smiled as she spotted Jarvis standing over the crib. Placing both children together had been the logical solution, Howard had only been prepared to receive one baby into the world. She had to recognize his quick thinking in naming them something somewhat similar, it solved the issue of everything in the room being monogrammed ‘A. E. S.’, the man was always too clever for his own good, even if he could be an idiot sometimes.
“Mr. Jarvis,” Peggy greeted gently as she stepped into the room.
“Miss Carter,” Jarvis answered, amusement clear on his face.
Peggy couldn’t help but to smile at the two babies, they seemed to be holding hands in their sleep.
“They are incredibly adorable,” she commented.
“Of that there’s no doubt, hopefully they will sleep through the night,” Jarvis said amusedly.
Peggy watched as one of the babies moved slightly.
“I wouldn’t hold my breath.”