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There were a lot of things Tony regretted about the way he used to live his life, before Iron Man and before the Ten Rings. He’d been a war profiteer, even if his intentions had been good. He’d partied and drank and taken more illicit substances than he cared to admit. He was lucky to be alive, if he was being honest with himself. He was even more lucky that all of his sleeping around hadn’t left him with any diseases, even if they had left him with something permanent.
That was something Tony couldn’t ever regret, that one night stand with Mary Parker, then Fitzpatrick, that’d left her pregnant. For five years, he hadn’t even known about the child, about Peter, but he could hardly blame Mary for feeling like they were better off without him. She’d met her husband by then, anyway. They didn’t need him for anything. But then Mary and Richard Parker had died, and Peter had gone to live with his Aunt and Uncle. When Ben died, too, Mae hadn’t known what to do. She’d felt far too old to be raising a child, especially while grieving over the loss of so many loved ones.
So, she’d brought Peter to Tony, and informed him that he had a son.
Tony hadn’t known what to do, of course, how to act. He’d never expected to have someone show up at his door with a kid, especially not now that his days of fucking around were far behind him. He figured, if it was going to happen, it already would have. Thank God for Steve sweeping in to save the day and cover Tony’s fumbling ass.
Now, watching over his tablet as Bucky chased a wildly cackling Peter around the common room, Steve making grilled cheese sandwiches in the kitchen, Tony couldn’t help the smile that crept across his face. He hadn’t thought anything was missing from his life, before Peter had walked into it. He’d had an amazing, committed relationship with two men who loved him – who were kicking bad guy ass right beside him as super heroes, for crying out loud, Stark Industries had been doing better than ever, and the Avengers had assembled into a larger friend group than Tony had ever had before.
So, no, he hadn’t though anything was missing, but it had been.
And now it wasn’t.