Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn't until six months after everything calmed down from the Snap, once everything was reversed and put back into place, that people started to notice. At first, the only one's who knew were the Accord Council and the Avengers. Tony lived a life he never had, one away from the public eye. He went on dates with Stephen in cruddy diners and didn't get gawked at. He took Peter to parks to play, no one even blinking.

It was when they were doing a final world-wide roll call that Tony finally outed what happened to him and Stephen. A press conference was held at SI, all with live DNA test results to confirm that this eighteen year old wasn't taking advantage to a morbid situation.

"When the Infinity Stones broke, exploding into the cosmos, both Dr. Stephen Strange and I were too close to the time stone. It altered our appearance to a younger versions of ourselves. I would like to to say this once, and only once. We still have our scars, Stephen's hands are still fucked up, as well as my chest. We still have 100% of our memories. I don't want to be asked a million times if I'm adequate to be head of Stark Industries." Tony growled.

They still might have their minds, but their emotions are very much like they were when they were younger. Tony was just glad he stopped regressing at eighteen, only miffed that Stephen was further back, stopped regressing at nineteen. There was a murmur from the crowds, and Tony knew what they were thinking. He took a deep breath, his younger pride was drowned out by his older wariness. He was so tired.

"One more thing before we get to questions." Tony said, taking a deep breath. He was doing this for a new life, for Peter, for himself. "I'm stepping down as Iron-man."

The whole room exploded, but fell silent when Tony held up a hand. He didn't have cue-cards, but had rehearsed this enough times in front a a mirror, in front of Stephen. Pepper helped him, the best friend that she is.

"I will be backing my team from the ground, mentoring the next generation of heroes." Tony assured. The floor was in an uproar, hands were raised, and questions shouted at Tony. Happy stepped forward, but Tony waved him down, he could answer a few questions. He picked at random.

"Mr. Stark, are you still marrying Ms. Potts?" A woman in the middle asked. "Since you are still of legal age."

"No, but it's not completely because I'm younger. By going into Thanos's spaceship, Pepper made it clear that if I did what I did, she would dump me. And Pepper is nothing but a woman of her word. I put her throw a lot as Iron-man. And even though I'm stepping down, she has no guarantee that I'll stay down, which I very much will try my hardest to do. We are both currently in new relationships however. She still is my CEO and we still are friends." Tony glanced at Stephen with a wink. He picked a man towards the front this time.

"Mr. Stark there is speculations that the rogue Avengers will be given pardons and the Sokovia Accords will be dropped. What do you say about this?" The man asked. Tony snorted, honest to god, let out a laugh.

"I say that Rogers is still an ignorant man. I say that if his self-righteous ass would have read the Accords he wouldn't have tried to make a big deal out of it. If he hadn't lied to me, he wouldn't have made a big deal. If he knew the power he had over people, he would have realized that everything he does is a big deal. But for the speculations of the Rogue Avengers being pardoned on parole basis, this is true. As for the Accords going away, well that is not true. The Sokovia Accords are being amended, to make sure that enhanced individuals are not prosecuted or discriminated against. It is not giving free reign on any group of individual to just destroy the city trying to save it, and then walk away like nothing happened. That has never been what the Avengers have done, not until SHIELD went down and Nick Fury died." Tony said. "But that's not for me to disclose anymore information about."

Tony pointed for a woman in the back, going on to the next question. This went on for a good hour until they were just asking the same things, going around in circles, annoying Tony. This is when he left, leaving Pepper to close the Press Conference like she always does. It was when he was out in the hall that a young woman approached him. Happy was about to turn her away, but Tony waved him off again, she didn't seem threatening. And even though he had stepped down as Iron-man, didn't mean he didn't have Bleeding Edge still nested in his arc reactor.

"I wanted to ask." The woman took a deep breath. "I'm a report in Queens, Melisa Wu. I know that you have a relationship to Spider-man. No one has seen him since he went up in that space-ship with you. Did he come back? Or is he dead?" She asked, slightly shaking. "I don't care about who he is. But, he saved me once, and I just want to know if he's fine." Tony opened his mouth to speak.

"TONY!" A screech sounded, and Tony only had a second before he had to catch a falling four year old. Ms. Wu's eyes widened, looking up at the ceiling where the kid had been sticking in wait.

"Spider-man is alive, but he won't be on the streets for a very long time... years even. I wouldn't hold your breath. But he's perfectly healthy." Tony said. Peter snorted, giving the woman a toothy smile.

"Well, if you see him. Tell him that I'm grateful for his work, and am happy that he isn't dead." She felt really uncomfortable. She turned away, leaving the billionaire and child to themselves. She passed the younger doctor on her way out, shutting the door on three of them.

"Who was that?" Stephen asked, eyebrow raised.

"No one important." Tony shrugged.

Chapter Text

Tony was going to keep Peter's condition a secret from the world. It had made sense early on, but when everyone came back besides the little nerd, everyone started to panic. Well, everyone that knew Peter, which meant Midtown School of Science and Technology. At first, Tony had tried to convince people that Peter moved away, with May's help. The only problem was that May hadn't moved away, and it was very common knowledge that the two only had each other left. The next plan was to say that Peter had ran away, but May wouldn't do that to Peter, and Peter was just as angry. He didn't want his name tarnished. What if they found a way to reverse this?

So here Tony was, with a four year old on his hip - a four year old that should be thirteen years older - walking into a high school to tell a few teachers and a whole decathlon team that Peter Parker, their friend, their classmate, and their student was spider-man, and had been turned into a toddler.

"I can walk." Peter pouted, wiggling in the man's arms. Tony huffed, but was slightly grateful. He may still have need for his arc reactor, but his old muscles didn't follow into this scrawnier, younger body.

"Sure, kid." Tony snorted, placing Peter on the floor. He chuckled as the kid's tiny shows lit up. Tony took Peter's tiny hand, leading the kid to the gym where he instructed the principal to gather everyone that was needed. They stopped at the door. "You ready?" Tony asked.

"No." Peter fidgeted. "What if they don't believe us?" Peter asked, blinking away the wetness in his eyes. Where Tony and Stephen just had to control their teenager-ish tempers and angst, Peter had a lot more to deal with. Every little emotion was too much for the kid. Even getting excited had the down fall of him passing out from exhaustion.

Not only that, but because of his spider power, which have only grown stronger, not yielding to the younger, smaller body, Peter's drowning on his own enhanced status. His small heart beats far faster than his small lungs are capable of feeding it oxygen. Leading to the small spider-man backpack that held the boy's oxygen for his nasal cannula. All to prevent Peter from virtually stalling out and dying. His sense and anxiety were over powering at times. A tony body held even less heat than his older one did, which wasn't much due to the lack of thermoregulation of the Spider DNA. Tony wanted to just hold Peter, give the kid the world and more.

"You can always just throw the nonbelievers across the room." Tony suggested, getting Peter to laugh. Tony opened up the double doors, noticing that the room instantly went silent. No one moved, all looking at Tony with wide eyes.

"I was afraid you wouldn't show up." Principal Morita huffed, holding his hand out to Tony, who shook it, giving the man his most famous sparkling smile.

"No need to worry." Tony chuckled, turning to the hand full of people.

A few whispers broke out, mostly from the students, gawking that Tony 'fucking' Stark was here. Why was Tony 'fucking' Stark here? There was a tight tension in the air, and Peter was hiding behind the man's leg. It was sort of funny that Tony was technically just a 'year' older than most of the people here. He took a deep breath, putting a calming hand on Peter's curls, knowing the kid was starting to panic.

"Hello, I'm Tony 'Fucking' Stark." That broke the tension, a few people let out nervous chuckles. "But this isn't about me. Many of you are concerned about Peter Parker. You don't know what happened to him. I'm here to clear that all up." Tony said.

"How?" A boy asked, he was sitting almost in the exact middle. Tony could feel Peter hide further behind Tony. This must be the kid Peter told Tony so much about. The one that always bullied Peter, accused him of a liar.

"Because Peter's my protege, and now I guess he's my kid." Tony stepped away, letting everyone's eyes fall onto the toddler. Peter squeaked.

"No, that wasn't p-part of the plan!" Peter gasped, almost like second nature he shot webbing at Tony's leg, flinging himself behind the billionaire for cover. There was a shocked silence from the display of very familiar web-thread.

"Plans are shit, Kid." Tony chuckled, before turning back to the group. "When you all where going to your trip to MOMA, Ned Leeds drew everyone's attention to Thanos's ship over New York. This was to distract you from seeing Peter jump out of the bus and join me in New York as Spider-man. Ever absence, ever tardy, ever half-cooked lie was because your classmate decided to get bitten by a radioactive Spider and fight crime." Tony glanced down at Peter, who shrunk away, blushing in embarrassment.

"I didn't want to get bite by the spider... It's just my luck." Peter scuffed his shoes, making them light-up.

"So you allowed a fifteen year old to go to space with you and fight an alien dictator?" One of the teachers asked, glaring at Stark. He might look young, but that doesn't mean he's innocent.

"Yeah, you want to tell everyone about that, Peter?" Tony pushed the tiny superhero forward.

"I'm still saying that it was your fault Mr. Stark. The suit was too innovative, too resourceful." Peter shrugged. "I was back-up. You could have DIED up there!"

"And I did, and you did, and now thanks to your and Strange's plan, we're tiny." Tony snorted. "I didn't want him there, he was a stow-away."

"Wait, so the Stark Internship?" The first kid, the annoying one, asked.

"At first it was a cover up for Peter Being Spider-man, due to no-one knowing. So no-one got suspicious." Tony explained. "Then Ned found out, because Peter doesn't lock his bedroom door, and then his aunt found out... because he doesn't lock his bedroom door." Tony turned to the teachers. "And I don't know if you know, but May Parker is a terrifying woman. So then I had to actually mentor the hyper-active kid, and found out he is seriously a genius. And now he pretty much runs SI under me and Pep." Tony shrugged. "So now you know."

"Peter Parker is Spider-man?" A different kid gasped. Tony didn't care about the names of anyone.

"Yes." Tony and Peter nodded.

"Prove it." Another teacher asked. "No way is that boy Spider-man. I teach his gym class. I've seen him, he's no enhanced vigilante."

"PeTeR pArKeR iS a ViGilAnTe?" A different kid wheezed, but everyone ignored her. Peter rolled his shoulders and took off his shoes and socks. He shot webbing onto the ceiling, and climbed up until he was far above Tony's head. He then flipped upside down in a very familiar Spider-stance, using only his sticky-feet to hold him up. His oxygen tubes hung around his head, but Peter made sure it didn't pop out of his nose.

"Ta-DA!" Peter laughed, before flipping off, preforming acrobatics that only a spineless spider-man could achieve. That is until he got to the ground, and started to cough up a lung, clutching his heart, which was beating even faster.

"What's wrong with him." The Principal stepped forward, but Tony waved him away, kneeling in front of Peter, rubbing the kid's aggravated lungs and heart, calming him down.

"Because he's enhanced, his hear beat faster than a human's. Before, it would have felt like he ran a ten-k, but constantly. That was his normal heart rate. We had to stop putting him on a heart monitor when he got heart, because it would burn the equipment out. But since it was a gradual thing that happened after the bite, his body got used to it. When the time stone exploded, turning us younger, smashing us into smaller bodies, Peter's already rapid heart beat was given to a four-year-old's heart. It's like hummingbird levels at all times. This means he needs more oxygen. That's where this comes in." Tony patted the backpack. "When he actually does something extensive like flipping around to the ground, it spikes his heart to dangerous levels." Tony explained.

"Shit." A kid breathed. "Wait, so when Parker gets stabbed as Spider-man, and then talks about it the next day like it wasn't him... he's bleeding out?"

"No." Peter huffed, only to rethink, and then shift his weight a little. "I mean, no? not that much. Look, I have rapid healing, and I wouldn't have, like, died... not seriously." He let out a loop-sided grin, but everyone else looked down at him with shocked and almost scared expressions.

There was a long pause before another teacher let out an gasp.

"So it was you who stole the chemicals from class?" The woman grumbled. "I thought I was going crazy."

"I'll pay for replacements." Tony sighed.

"Oh, that reminds me. I have extra things I need to grab here." Peter worried his fingers.

This lead to the whole group of people surrounding Peter and his locker. They watched in awe as the tiny boy lifted up the line of red storage unit to reveal stashes of bottles of liquid labeled 'web fluid' and was that the original Spider-man outfit. It was hidden in their halls all this time. How had no one noticed?

"I'll also pay for damages." Tony broke the silenced, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"So what will happen now?" Principal Morita asked. "All of Peter's achievements? All of his school?"

"One of the downfalls." Tony explained. "We can't keep Peter in school, exposing him to the media. We can't claim that he's dead, because we may be able figure out how to reverse this. And if we don't, then Peter lives his life again."

"So why are you telling us all of this?" A girl asked.

"So no one files a missing person report. So my disappearance won't make it to Buzzfeed: Unsolved. For conclusion?" Peter blew out a breathe, which turned into a mighty yawn.

"Other than Tony, have you meet any other Avenger?" A girl asked.

"I've meet all the New-vengers personally. I've fought against Falcon, the Winter Soldier and Captain America during the whole Germany-Leipzig airport thing. Oh, and also Ant-man. I've meet King T'challa, but mostly hang out with Shuri. I haven't meet Thor yet, and I've meet most of the Guardian's of the Galaxy. Oh, and Dr. Strange! But that's kind of obvious..." Peter nudged Tony, giving the man a wink.

"Oh, you little rat." Tony gasped, scooping Peter up, letting him hang upside down over his shoulder. There were gasping squeals ripped from the boy. Tony turned to the group. "Speaking of, I have a hot date to go prepare for. So I'll bid you all, a' duex."