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Tony might just end up punching Steve Rogers in his perfect, All-American teeth.
Okay, so maybe that shouldn’t be his most important concern at the moment. The tesseract is still MIA, that alien Asgardian psychopath is currently in SHIELD lock-up only a few floors away, and also Tony’s working with SHIELD which is…less than ideal.
They rejected him for their superhero project in the first place, and he’d rejected their offer of consulting in turn. He’s scooping up all of their dirt with the opportunity, though, so that’s something. SHIELD’s been one step ahead of him since he first started acting as Iron Man—it’s time Tony gets them over a barrel for once.
And how dare Captain Spangles criticize him for it! Honestly, missing a few pop culture references is one thing. Being naive enough to trust SHIELD is another. They pop him out of the ice and suddenly Rogers is licking their boots? Howard Stark was the one behind the entire recovery operation in the Arctic. He’d spent years obsessed with finding Steve when the rest of the world gave up on him (and when Tony wished his father would too). Even if Tony and Howard butted heads constantly, the Stark name is a legacy at SHIELD, just like Carter. It should mean that out of anyone, Tony is the one to be trusted, not Fury.
He can tell that Bruce is watching him stew. He’s been staring at the same screen for the past five minutes, watching his encryption program crack through SHIELD’s firewalls.
He runs his hands through his hair and rests them over his eyes. Just a minute to gain his composure and he’ll get back to himself.
“Dad?” says a little voice in his self-imposed darkness, and for a moment Tony thinks he’s imagining things. It’s another day in the workshop in California, and Peter is looking at his father—sleep deprived, a little bruised from a mission, slumped over the desk worried that he still hasn’t done enough—like he flew into space and hung the moon just because Peter asked him to. When Tony uncovers his eyes, it will just be his son looking back, smiling between the last of his missing baby teeth with his most recent engineering project between his hands awaiting Tony’s praise.
When he uncovers his eyes, though, he’s still in the Helicarrier’s lab. Bruce is at the desk across the room, staring towards the doorway with a confused expression.
Tony turns his head and finds Pepper, dressed casually in a different pair of denim shorts than the night before accompanied by a t-shirt that looks suspiciously stolen from his closet, Peter’s ten-year-old hand so incredibly tiny looking in her own. Peter’s also dressed in shorts—an indicator that they’ve come from New York’s sweltering summer heat rather than the supposed trip Pepper was taking to Washington, DC.
“Hey,” she says, smiling at him with a tilt of her head. He’s only known Pepper for a few years now and has only been dating her for the past two, but her smile always leaves him a little breathless. He hadn’t really dated before getting Mary Fitzpatrick pregnant and only had the occasional (heavily protected) fling after. He thinks she might be his first real love, maybe the only person he’s ever loved like this, and it’s both incredibly terrifying and exciting whenever he sees her and feels the intensity of it all over again.
“Hey,” Tony sputters out through his surprise. “Hi, this is—yeah, wow, you’re here.”
He only gets a few steps towards the door before he has an armful of Peter wrapped around his stomach. “Hey, buddy, it’s good to see you.”
“I missed you,” Peter says, pulling away to look up at Tony with a big grin.
“I missed you too. Always do. But didn’t you have fun with Aunt May and Uncle Ben?” Tony asks, moving his hands to Peter’s shoulders.
Since finding Peter’s birth certificate while going through the deceased Mary-Parker-née-Fitzpatrick’s belongings, Ben and May Parker have been a joy of an extended family to have around. They’ve taken the time Tony and Peter have been spending in New York to build Stark Tower to get to know their nephew better, and it’s given Tony trusted babysitting while he’s been swamped with SI work and trying to figure out his new relationship with Pepper.
Peter nods enthusiastically, bobbing back and forth on his toes with his usual pent up energy while still standing under Tony’s hands. “Yeah! Ben took me to stargaze on the rooftop, and Aunt May made this really gross tuna casserole, but it was okay because Ben ordered pizza with extra pepperoni instead and I ate so much I almost puked!”
“Comforting,” Tony jokes, flipping Peter’s back to his chest and going in for a tickle at his ribs. “They spoil you, kiddo, and we can’t have that!” he shouts above Peter’s laughter, knowing he’s also prone to spoiling Peter rotten and has turned out with a wonderful kid despite it all.
Peter’s still small at ten, so it’s easy for Tony to heft Peter up and over to where Bruce is practically trying to blend into the corner, anxiously tapping at the screen and trying to look more engrossed than he actually is.
“I’ve got someone for you to meet, Petey,” he says, placing Peter on the floor in front of Bruce and staying on his son’s level to faux-whisper into Peter’s ear. “Do you know who this is?”
Peter shakes his head, backing into Tony’s chest a little, his usual energetic spark replaced with the nervousness he displays at anyone that isn’t in his immediate family.
“Yeah, you do. Remember that paper I read to you about radiation?”
Peter nods vigorously this time. While the actual academic text was far over Peter’s reading level, Tony had been reading over the work at the time because he was worried about radiation from the tower’s Arc Reactor, and Peter had begged for whatever watered down explanation Tony could give.
He has a habit lately of trying to get into whatever Tony’s into, whether it’s classic rock or a boring ass spreadsheet for the Stark Industries quarterly budget that Pepper’s forcing Tony to go over. Tony assumes it’s a way in which Peter vies for a little bit more of his often divided attention, and he’s happy to give it as long as the kid seems genuinely interested.
Peter’s always been interested in Tony’s work, though—the sciences, the mechanics of Tony’s suit…Tony’s not exactly surprised he’s ended up buying every advanced science concept for kids textbook that exists, or that he’s ended up quietly funding the creation of a few more.
“This is the guy that wrote it,” Tony reveals with the correct amount of childish awe. “Peter Stark, meet Doctor Bruce Banner.”
Over Peter’s head, Bruce gives Tony a silently doubting look that’s asking, you read a child my papers, seriously? Tony only nods, smiling as Peter’s look of complete adoration shifts to the scientist in front of him.
“Bruce Banner, meet your biggest fan—next to me, of course,” Tony teases. He really has been a fan of the older man since he was in college. Despite his age, Tony feels like Bruce gets him on an intellectual level in a way that none of the other proposed “Avengers” seem to, and it’s been great to see his mind work in real time.
“It’s nice to meet you, Peter,” Bruce settles on, shaking Peter’s hand politely.
Peter shakes back greedily with both of his own hands clasping over Bruce’s bigger one. “That’s so cool that you’re working with my dad, Mister Banner. It took him a whole week to read your paper to me, but I learned a whole lot about gamma radiation, and he told me we’d read the one on ion particles next.”
Bruce leans back on his heels, hands in his pockets. He smiles at Tony from under his glasses. “He really is your son.”
“And that’s the nicest way anyone has ever uttered that sentence to me.”
“Tony,” comes Pepper’s admonishment from where she’s been intermittently watching them and doing something on her phone, leaning against the open door frame. Probably booking the private jet.
“That’s my cue. How about you show Peter around, Bruce?” Tony asks, the actual ask for a moment alone outside without small ears clear.
“Sure thing,” Bruce replies, thankfully leading Peter far away from where Loki’s staff rests in its cradle. To Peter, he adds, “Just don’t touch anything, okay?”
Peter nods dutifully. “Lab rules.”
Bruce’s expression is slightly impressed as he puts a guiding hand on Peter’s back, leading him to the holographic monitor Tony was working at when they arrived.
“Funny seeing you here,” Tony remarks, sidling up to Pepper and leading them outside of the lab to talk. “I distinctly remember something about a flight to DC and a smattering of filthy, filthy promises if I did my homework. Which totally worked, by the way. I’m the only one who did, actually. Total teacher’s pet.”
“I highly doubt that,” Pepper scoffs, but puts her phone in her purse. She snakes an arm around his waist, leaning her head against his chest.
“On the news, I saw—“ she starts, explaining her need for the physical touch. It grounds her, after missions, after scares where he could have been dead if things had gone differently. “This seems serious, Tony.”
Tony shrugs. “Currently I’ve met an alien that wears a red cape and Captain America. I’m still not convinced this isn’t just Fury attempting to organize some kind of government-funded cosplay convention.”
Pepper’s non-response communicates all that it needs to. “I just…I thought Peter should see you, just in case.”
In case you die. In case you don’t come back. In case you need to remember what you’re doing all of this for in the first place, goes unsaid.
His mouth dry even thinking about it, Tony nods. “Yeah, that’s—yeah. Thanks, Pep.”
Pepper kisses him, quick and chaste, but it’s enough of a distraction that he doesn’t notice the star-spangled-man-with-a-plan walking past them until Steve Rogers is already in the lab and watching Bruce and Peter poking around at the computers.
“Oh, shit,” Tony grumbles through his teeth, at Steve’s heels in seconds. He doesn’t want Peter to see him, because if Peter sees him he’ll get all excited, and then—
Peter’s gasp is instant. He scrambles straight into Tony’s side, jumping up and down and pulling at Tony’s pants with a voice that hides none of what he’s saying despite it coming out with the intended rasp of a whisper. “Dad, Dad, Dad, it’s—don’t you see him, it’s—!”
“Yeah, buddy, I see him,” Tony replies, hiding the annoyance he’s currently feeling at the man in question behind a smile and a nervous brush of his hand through Peter’s hair. At the very least, Peter is being completely adorable, acting like a kid meeting his favorite character at Disney World. He can be happy about that.
With the accursed knowledge that he has to be the grown-up in this situation and that Peter’s adorable little doe eyes are watching his and Steve’s every move, Tony lets out a deep sigh. “How about I introduce you to him?”
“Please,” Peter replies, wrapping their fingers together, the excitement literally vibrating off of him.
He loves Peter. It’s for Peter. It’s not going to kill him to introduce them. Maybe it will even remove the giant stick from the Captain’s ass.
“Hey, Captain,” Tony starts, attempting to silently communicate that his happy smile isn’t for Steve, but for his son. “This is my son, Peter.”
“Nice to meet you, son,” Steve says, getting down on his knees to reach Peter’s level. God, even that almost sets Tony on a tirade. Peter isn’t anything to Steve, he’s Tony’s son, Tony’s kid, Tony’s to call buddy and baby and tesoro, and what right does Steve have—
“Wow,” Peter breathes out. “It’s so amazing to meet you Mister Steve—Rogers—Mister America?” Peter shakes his head. “I was so excited when my dad said you were alive, we love your stories a lot.”
“You do?” Steve replies with the child-excited lilt, shit-eating grin plastered on his face and not at all missing the we in Peter’s sentence as Tony wishes he would. This is exactly what Tony was afraid would happen.
“C’mon, Pete, he doesn’t want to hear about—“ Tony tries, but Peter’s excitement barrels right over him.
“Mmhm, ‘cause my grandpa was, like, best friends with you, and so he told Dad all these stories and Dad told them to me every night for forever. And then when I wanted more he read me all of your comic books, even the super old ones that Dad says are just military propaganda, and he does the best voices, especially for you.”
“I’m honored you and your dad like me so much,” Steve says, looking straight at Tony. But of course Peter is captivating and everyone loves him, so he’s also probably being genuine about it, like an asshole.
“You used to be my favorite superhero, but then Dad became Iron Man, so he said I have to say he’s my favorite or he’ll be sad about it.”
“That was a joke,” Tony grumbles, definitely not blushing.
“My favorite one is the one with Miss Carter in it, because you went into that bunker and you were like—“ Peter punches at the air excitedly. “To all the bad guys, and then she interrogated that one guy all by herself and you looked at her all funny and gross like how Dad looks at Pepper, but then you blew up the bunker and it was like boom!” Peter mimes the explosion, ending the tale a little breathless.
A little too breathless, when the story is over and he’s still breathing a little too deeply.
“Inhaler, Pete,” Tony reminds, expectant when Peter’s pockets turn up empty and he has to dig out the one he always keeps in his earlier discarded suit jacket.
Steve watches them with a look Tony can’t exactly decipher—maybe remembering the days before his enlistment, when he’d had asthma and every other medical issue under the sun. Still, Peter calms down long enough to take a couple of puffs from the inhaler, thanking Tony when he gives it back.
“Sorry,” Peter says, sheepish, but breathing easier again. “Dad says I get too worked up sometimes.”
“Which is great, love that about you, honestly,” Tony interrupts. “But then you lose your inhaler for the twentieth time and I worry about what you’d do without me.”
Peter rolls his eyes to Steve, like Tony’s being understandably dramatic when Peter having an asthma attack when Tony isn’t around is actually one of Tony’s Top Ten Peter-Related Fears. (Yes, he has a list, and somehow listing out his most ridiculous fears about what could happen to Peter didn’t help his anxiety lessen like that one parenting book he read years back said it would.)
“Sorry to interrupt the fun, boys, but we have a flight to catch.” Pepper walks up, putting her hand on Tony’s shoulder with a squeeze. It’s less about the flight and more about her worry that they don’t have much time left before whatever is going to happen, happens. To Peter, she says, “Say your goodbyes, okay?”
Peter lets out the most suffering of groans, but obliges. “Bye Mister America!” Peter waves at Steve, not waiting to be corrected on his name choice, instead letting Tony lead him away towards the door.
“Just a sec, squirt,” Tony says, going to his knees and cupping Peter’s chin in his hand to still him. The temptation to make this goodbye a bigger deal is there. But then Peter will get anxious about Tony, and Tony will be anxious about Peter being anxious, and it will all just be a big spiral of Stark anxiety they don’t need.
Peter easily folds himself into Tony’s chest, empathetic as ever, easily catching what Tony wanted. “Bye, Dad. Love you.”
“I love you too, Peter.” Tony rocks them both in the hug, remembering when Peter was a baby, remembering when he was a child holding his own child, when the world was somehow both more and less complicated than it is now, when nothing else needed to make sense as long as he was holding Peter close.
“See you soon?” Peter asks. It’s a more common question now than in the days of Peter’s early childhood when their quality time together was generally undeterred by business meetings and visits abroad that Pepper and Tony try not to force Peter along for, especially during the school year. The consequence of Tony and Pepper both being young company heads with something to prove, he supposes.
(And also the result of the hole Obie left behind, but he tries not to think about the old days when Obadiah held his son and Tony was able to think of the man with anything but pure hatred, because there’s nowhere for those old emotions to go, now.)
“The minute I’m done here,” Tony replies, brushing the thoughts away and pulling away from the hug to kiss Peter’s cheek. “Seriously. Just you and me, wherever you want to go.”
“Legoland?” Peter asks, despite having been there multiple times already. Legos have been a staple Peter toy since the moment Tony trusted the kid not to swallow the pieces, and Tony can’t deny that he loves watching Peter’s brain work through them.
“Sure, bud. Legoland.”
A little more timid, Peter asks, “And then can we go home? Just…for a while? With Pepper? Please?”
Home. The Malibu mansion. Years spent teaching Peter to swim on the private beach, chasing the kid all over the house during hide and seek, having Pancake Sundays. The closest they’d ever been to a normal family at times.
“Of course, Pete. Of course. Just us. I’ll even invite Uncle Rhodey, it’ll be the whole family together. That sounds nice, huh?”
Tony brings Peter back in, and Peter nods into his shoulder.
He loves his son so much, god, why did he ever choose this superhero thing anyway? Why couldn’t he just raise Peter in their house, run the company, make clean energy, and be satisfied?
He thinks of Loki, a being that wouldn’t hesitate to kill his child only floors away. He imagines the blue glow of the tesseract in Peter’s eyes, having to watch Peter turn against him in an instant.
Peter’s body brushes against the Arc Reactor in Tony’s chest, squirming and restless from the long hug.
A warm light for all mankind to share.
That is the plan, isn’t it? And that includes Peter. Pepper. Rhodey. Happy. And it won’t get done without Tony, without Iron Man.
“Be good for Pepper,” Tony says, trying to let Peter go in steps, moving from the hug to his shoulders. “Don’t get into trouble. I know you hate flying.”
“Makes my ears pop,” Peter grumbles. “Hurts.”
Tony smiles, wondering if that’s it, that’s what is going to break him, Peter being childish, being wonderful and perfect and still so small, but still too big, getting harder and harder to protect from the world around him.
“I know,” Tony says, trying to keep it together for just another minute. “But for me, okay?”
Peter nods, smiling when Tony pets his hair, the small touch always a tether between them, an action from his babyhood that Tony can’t seem to quit and Peter has never asked him to.
“Stay safe.” Tony says this to Pepper, standing and bringing her in next. In her ear he whispers. “Don’t leave DC. Not until—“
“I know,” she replies. Even for him, with Peter, she won’t bring them back unless it’s safe. “See you soon.”
“I promise.” He knows he can’t keep that kind of promise, but he does it anyway, attempting optimism. Maybe they’ll find the tesseract and this will really all be over in a few hours. Maybe SHIELD really isn’t up to anything that dastardly. He can hope.
Peter waves goodbye as they leave, looking at Tony’s responding wave until the moment the doors close behind them.
He doesn’t want to be here, suddenly. In this lab that isn’t his, in this base hiding in the clouds. He wants to run down the hall, grab his family, and leave. It’s a selfish, but comforting thought.
It’s keeping him together until a voice breaks the silence.
“Stark…” Steve says, quiet but still here, still probably about to give Tony another lecture about what he should and shouldn’t be doing when they’re standing at the edge of a possible hellmouth.
“What?” Tony snaps. “What do you want? Come in here to nag some more, grandpa? Lecture me about the good old days where we all listened to orders and fought other people’s wars for them?”
“We’re the same age, Mister Stark,” Steve corrects, tone flat. Jesus, someone teach this guy how to take a joke already.
“Look, I know—“ Steve sighs. “Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. And I’ll take my responsibility in that. We’re different people, and this situation is stressful for all of us. We don’t need to add infighting to that.”
“Infighting,” Tony snorts. “I’ll remind you we’re not actually a team, and I’m not SHIELD, either. They didn’t want me. They said—well, a lot of things, but too young was in there. They act like I’m some reckless kid, but they’ll lauder you up and down the block for fighting Nazis eighty years ago and being a little taller.”
“A little,” Bruce snorts to himself in the corner, quiet but not quiet enough. Tony gives him a look for the dig.
Steve smiles to himself, which surprises Tony. He doesn’t know if he’s actually seen the guy smile since they met. He was half convinced Steve Rogers was actually some kind of unfeeling android his father created on the sly.
“People underestimated me, before,” Steve ends up saying. “Even after I got these abilities I was just—well, what you told Peter. Military propaganda. And if I had just listened to orders, that’s all I ever would have been.”
Sometimes, Tony forgets that part of Steve’s story too. Easily, once he met the man and didn’t instantly take the shine to him that his father seemed to. Steve saved his best friend without orders. Howard Stark flew the plane because no military official was asked to. The mission that made Steve Rogers famous wasn’t a mission at all.
“I’m not beholden to SHIELD. At least, I don’t want to be. But they’re the ones with the resources we need to save lives. That’s what I’m concerned with, and I think that you are too.”
Tony frowns, scrunching his brow. “Why are you being so—“ Tony wags a hand at Steve. “Nice? Is this some kind of 40s thing?”
Steve smiles again, shaking his head. “SHIELD gave me your file, just like they did Doctor Banner’s. I knew you had a son, but I didn’t expect—you’re good with him.”
Tony rolls his eyes. “Gee, thanks.” If he had a dollar for every media outlet that thought he didn’t love his kid just because he wasn’t parading him around in front of the media. He knew how that worked out with him and Howard, and he’d been fine with leaving Peter at home for fancy dinners he’d fall asleep at by ten o’clock anyway.
“I just mean—I can tell that you care about him. Miss Potts, too. You’re different with them, and if you ask me, it’s a better side of you than this…act that you put on for the rest of us.”
“What are you, a psychologist? Captain America, MD?”
Maybe Steve has a point—he gets more…defensive around other people. A habit born of a childhood people didn’t see behind the cameras. Then there was Peter, a new life Tony was desperate to keep to himself, to protect however he could. Still, who doesn’t play a part to others, and who is Steve to call him out when he’s obviously not everything this history books claimed him to be either?
“I’m trying here, Tony. Can you give me that much?” Steve asks, probably straining at this attempt at kindness when Tony keeps provoking him despite it. Not to mention that’s the first time he’s actually used Tony’s name in a conversation since they met.
Tony shrugs, a smile coming to him with an idea. “I guess so. I think I’m gonna need to sweeten the pot, though. Coulson is giving Pete some of his repeat trading cards. I think a signature or two would make me much more cooperative.”
“Deal.” Steve smiles in turn. “But first, I think I’m going to follow your example.”
Steve strides out of the room without another word, leaving Tony and Bruce to shrug at each other, neither of them sure exactly what that means.