Chapter Text
Tony had just landed on the roof of the Avengers Compound, exiting his metal suit with an ease only he and Rhodey knew, his phone already resting in his hand. F.R.I.D.A.Y. had kindly gotten the door for him as he made his way down the various floors to the common areas and living quarters.
Tony had arrived back from some conference meeting Pepper had badgered him into going to about stuff he couldn’t care less about and had no idea why he had to be there in person rather than using a video conference calls. He hated putting his stuff on hold for that thing, especially when he had planned to spend the rest of the day with the kid at the Avengers Compound seeing as it was a Friday afternoon. He had Happy pick Peter up from Midtown already and Tony had texted Peter throughout the meeting, much to Pepper’s chagrin. He had ultimately stopped when he told the kid to work on his school things and Tony didn’t want to be the reason the kid wasn’t on top of his school stuff seeing as he already could be so easily distracted. There was the added pressure on Tony to look after the kid at the request of his aunt. Yep. That too. She had asked him that after she had screamed at him for the better part of an hour about having her kid be slinging around the neighborhood getting himself into dangerous situations and accused Tony of having helped hide that from her. (Which wasn’t completely wrong.) Still, it was amazing that the kid still had a secret identity and hadn’t slipped to the whole world about his certain wall crawling activities.
He wanted to be able to go to the lab with the kid later anyways so it was best for both of them to get work done first. (Tony was weirded out by how responsible he was being. The same went for Rhodey who found it all the more amusing).
He was almost to the bottom of the stairs from the roof where he exited his suit having chosen the fastest means of transporting when his descending path crossed with the kid walking back from his quarters in the compound.
“Hey, kid,” the billionaire let a smirk tug at his lips as he put an arm across the kid’s shoulders. The spiderling turned to him, earphones dangling out of his faded gray sweatshirt’s collar, and a look of surprise and joy lit up his deep brown eyes. God, why did this kid have to be so precious.
“How was school? Done with your homework?” Tony prompted casually.
“Oh! Hey, Tony. It was fine really,” he fumbled before continuing. “And yes, it’s all done. I was just heading to get some snacks. Also Clint and Thor invited me to play MarioCart,” Peter responded, excited to spend a whole afternoon with the Avengers. Tony remembered when Peter watched him with that sort of awe. “Great. Why don’t you text your aunt that and head on over to the common area.”
“Wait, Mr. Stark!” Peter pivoted around on his right foot to call out. Tony looked at the kid expectantly. After all, Peter only got to formal with him when he needed to ask something of Tony, no matter how small it was. It was a bit annoying but all the way endearing.
“Please, we’ve talked about this. Don’t call me that, Pete. You know it makes me feel old,” Tony waved with practiced exasperation.
“But you are old,” the boy just snarked in reply. Tony scoffed. His humor must be rubbing off on him. If that was a good or bad thing, who could tell.
“Watch it, kid.” Tony scoffed, ruffling the kid’s walnut locks. “You don't want to get on my bad side.” It was Peter’s turn to scoff. “Besides, you know me well enough. It’s Tony to you. We’re way past last names and prefixes at this point. What were you gonna ask, anyway?”
“Oh, right,” Peter’s face flushed before he stuttered on. “I asked Aunt May if I could stay the weekend and she said that it was okay. I’ve already got my overnight stuff in my backpack.”
“That's great, as long as the Great Aunt Hottie approves,” Tony encouraged, teasingly.
Peter was too ecstatic to even be bothered to notice the May comment. That or he chose to ignore it. “Thank you, Tony.” Peter hesitated a moment, wringing his hands a bit, the complete opposite from the cool demeanor the billionaire had, with his hands in his suit pockets and a sly expression on his face. For a moment, Tony’s stance changed and he gestured the boy over to him, surprising the kid with a hug. “Don’t worry, kid. I’m not just getting the door for you.” The kid melted into Tony’s arms and for a moment all was good and still. It was broken by Tony’s wavering voice.
“Now then.” Tony pulled back from the embrace and passed his hand on the kid’s back, aiming him towards the hallway the kid had just turned from. “Get out of here, kid. I’ll be right over to the communal lounge in just a bit. Rhodey and Bruce should already be there, too.”
“Cool! Thanks again, Tony,” Peter shouted as he was already skipping down the hall of the compound. Tony just shook his head with a genuine smile splitting his wrinkling face.
Until, of course, Tony turned around to see a stock still Scott Lang standing there with his mouth paused in the process of eating some orange slices. He looked like a doofus, as Peter would say. What else was new? Tony was much more worried about how much of the exchange did the Ant-Man see? After all, he wasn’t particularly close to Lang in any sense of the word.
“I knew it!” The shrinking man exclaimed indignantly, spitting out some citrus juices rather awkwardly.
“What?” Tony questioned, confused and a bit defensive.
“I knew that Spider-Boy was your kid!”
…………...
After a second of Tony defensively and uncharacteristically fumbling over his words as Scott’s eyes lit up with a kind of understanding that made the billionaire uncomfortable, the bug guy actually managed to get serious for a second.
“You don't seem as bad as I’ve heard you were, too.” He then gestured to the empty hall the kid had disappeared down just a minute prior. “Does that have something to do with…” he trailed off.
“What can I say, having the kid around has done me a lot of good.” With those words one of Tony’s rare genuine smiles graced his goateed face. Scott nodded along,
“No, I get it. He’s someone you want to become a better person for.” Tony was a little shocked at the little observation. Tony never imagined he'd have a reason to talk to Scott about, well, anything really. Anything of personal importance. That goes to show that he could be wrong about some things.
“I’ve got a kid, too. Cassie, she’s eight now. Seeing her makes me want to be better. You know, when I got out of jail, I knew I needed to straighten out my life to be able to actually watch her grow up. I already missed a few years and that's unforgivable. So it was enough of the petty crimes then I got picked up by Hank and Hope Pym and they for some reason thought to trust me. And look at me now, I’m a-”
“A what? Second rate superhero?” Scott made a face at the interruption, having lost his momentum. Tony just smirked. Who said Tony would allow himself to get too friendly with people.
“No. I was going to say, I’m doing some good in the world.” He stops to think on his words. “I guess what I’m saying is, I shouldn’t have judged you like I had. I don’t know you but I can say I trust you a lot more that I know what you're about in a sense. We’re all fighting for different reasons, it's just good to know yours are good, too.” Tony looked at the bug man oddly for a second before breaking the building silence.
“Enough of this heart to heart nonsense.” Tony waved his hand around, “let's get back to work and get you some proper help. Why don’t we drop off your suit at the workshop and I can take a look after I’m done lazing around with the rest of these weirdos.” Tony waltzed forward with confidence, leading the way to the open labs. He was trying his best to cover up his emotions that still felt too raw to ever share with anyone besides Peter, Pepper and Rhodey.
“Oh, I’m actually good right now. I had Hope look over the suit while she wasn’t busy. But have you checked in with Clint at all. I’m just saying, I know it can be hard but it's good to know that there's another dad that you can talk to and who’s got your back.” A dad. Was that what Tony was now? Jeez, he was getting old.
“I think Clint’s boy is around your kid’s age, so you know, if you ever need to call someone about that, he’s your guy.” Scott continued, his slightly irritating voice seemed to carry a more meaningful tone with the topic. “Besides, you don’t seem like the guy to have friends who are parents, much less responsible ones.” And with that, Tony just lost the respect he had gained for the lamer member of the team, not that Scott was wrong. He didn’t seem like the parent type by a long shot.
“He’s not technically mine,” Tony spoke but it was a weak attempt at an argument. He still worried over the boy along with May Parker, took care of him half the time, helped him with school work, and gave him unwarranted and embarrassing life advice. The kid was more of a son to him than he ever thought he deserved.
“Don't deny it, I know what being a dad looks like. I’ll try not to bother you so much but to be honest, I’m just glad we have something in common to talk about ‘cause honestly and no offense here, but I thought you were kind of a huge selfish douche for a long time. But this changes things.” God, this guy rambled and he didn’t like him nearly as much as Peter to tolerate it.
“Good to know,” was Tony’s flat tone.
“Just if it helps, we can always go to each other about it. It will be like a club or a squad. A squad of Dads. Wait. Thats sounds kind of lame actually.” Tony let out a big sigh as he walked away down to the common area leaving Scott alone with his citrus snack. “Wait, hold up. I’m actually going that way, too. Clint owes me money on a bet,” the former thief trotted after Tony’s uncaring form, having chosen to ignore his ant teammate.
…………….
That little talk had gotten Tony thinking. It wasn't the worst interaction he’d ever had with the former petty thief. Well, it was a conversation with Lang in the first place, so that was new. Tony had never considered talking to or with Scott and maybe he’d take him up on the offer. Maybe. If dealing with both Bird Brains and Bug Boy was worth being a better father figure to Peter, he could suffer through it, right?