Chapter Text
What no one knew about the twenty-three-year-old genius, was that Tony was very charitable. Sure Stark Industries was charitable, but when Tony had taken over, Obadiah had made sure he knew it was because of the press and public image it gave the company by being seen ‘giving back’. So Tony donated out of his own pocket -it’s not like he didn’t have enough money to do so, hell even with the number of donations he did, he and six generations at least would have enough money to live expensive carefree lives. And he did it in secret, he didn’t want people to know because they’d assume it was selfishly done when it really wasn’t.
Then one day, he and JARVIS stumbled across a small run-down children’s care home called Avengers House. He could tell that the funds for the place were insufficient and decided to make an anonymous donation. What he wasn’t expecting was for the man running the care home to call him several days later after somehow managing to find out that Tony was the donator. The man was persistent and Tony eventually agreed to meet for coffee.
——LINE BREAK——
“I’m Phil Coulson, I run the Avengers Children Care Home, thank you for meeting me.”
“No problem, I assume you know who I am.” The man nodded as Tony took a sip of his coffee, which was surprisingly good despite the coffee shop being incredibly small and cosy-looking, “I have to admit I am confused by this whole ordeal.”
“Well, I told the kids that someone donated a very large amount, enough for us to replace all the old furniture and have a little bit left, I’ve asked them to write suggestions for what we could do with it. But, they wanted to know who the donator was. So I tracked you down Mr Stark and let me tell you, I was greatly surprised and curious as to why.” Tony shrugged, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
“As much as the news and press portray me as an asshole, I’m really not as bad as they think.” He shrugged again, “Mr Coulson, I have more than enough money to last at least six more generations to live without ever working and my income is only increasing, so one day there’ll be enough for twelve generations and so on. I doubt I’ll ever have children, so I may as well help out where I can. I didn’t do it for the press, I didn’t do it for the company, I did it because you and all those other run down and forgotten charities and care homes need it.” When he stopped, Tony saw Coulson’s smile, the man seemed proud.
“That was the answer I was hoping for Mr Stark.”
“Please, call me Tony. Never Mr Stark, that was my father.”
“Tony.” Phil nodded, “the kids would be really happy if you’d come over one day when you have the time, so they can thank you.”
“I…I’ll see if I can find the time.”
“That’s all I ask.” He smiled and Tony found something very comforting about the smile, he downed the rest of his coffee, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with the genuineness of the man.
“Okay…well, I…umm…gotta go.”
“I don’t doubt that we’ll see each other soon.” He heard Coulson call as Tony hastily left the coffee shop.
——LINE BREAK——
About a week later, Tony found himself driving down the roads of a rougher neighbourhood in one of his less flashy cars before pulling to a stop in front of a building that had scaffolding -he could tell that his donation was being spent to fix up the building- covering the front. Tony stood at the front door, unsure of what his next action should be; did he knock on the door or turn around and leave? He hadn’t called ahead for this reason. Raising his fist to the door, he inhaled deeply and exhaled before knocking three times.
He waited anxiously for someone to answer the door; he began to turn away and leave when the door opened.
“Oh hello Tony,” Phil said with a kind smile as he stood to the side to let Tony walk in, “I have to admit, I was beginning to worry if you’d come or not.”
“Sorry, work, what can you do?” He joked trying to hide how uncomfortable he felt, he didn’t doubt that Phil saw through his lie -because that’s what it was, sure he had been busy with work, he always was, but it was more of an excuse to postpone his visit- but the man said nothing, merely beckoned Tony to follow him through the corridor.
“No worries, I’m just glad you showed. The children will be excited to meet you, there just in here,” He moved to the side and Tony looked in through the open door to see a bunch of children doing their own things but they appeared to be relatively behaved -Tony thought too soon.
As if they read his mind, a small sandy-haired boy jumped up and grabbed the book that a black-haired boy had been reading causing a taller and broader blond boy to chase after him, demanding he return the book.
“That’s enough!” Phil shouted, “Thor let go of Clint, Clint give Loki his book back.” Begrudgingly, they did as told, “now, this isn’t the sort of behaviour I think the donator of all that money would like to see.” That caught everyone’s attention, including the be-speckled curly brown-haired boy who hadn’t so much as twitched and looked away from a collection of stapled papers that he was reading through when the chaos happened, the children all turned to Tony, who squirmed ever so slightly at the stares.
——LINE BREAK——
“Why don’t you all sit down in a circle and introduce yourselves, okay? Names, ages and…how about your favourite thing to do?”
“Okay, Mr Coulson.” Some of them said almost in unison and Phil turned to Tony,
“Yes, sir, yes.” Tony joked with a silly grin as he saluted the older man and grabbed himself a chair, squeezing in between the two boys who had been reading.
“Would you like anything to drink?” Coulson asked before he left,
“Coffee please.” He nodded and left, leaving Tony to the mercy of a bunch of children.