Chapter Text
He had fucked up. There was no other way to put it. He had fucked up.
He brought a fifteen year old kid into a war he had no business being involved in for his own personal gain. He had dumped that same kid off with only Happy for supervision. Happy was a good head of security, a good babysitter he was not. He had given the kid a supersuit that protected him and allowed him to -somewhat- safely do his superhero thing but hadn’t monitored him until the situation became dire. Then things had gotten out of hand and the kid had taken off to be the hero in only a pair of ill-fitted pyjamas that had no safety features what so ever because he had decided it was a smart move to take away the only thing keeping the kid safe.
He had fucked up. He had become the one thing he had always promised himself he wouldn’t. He had become Howard.
He slams his hand against his work bench and runs his other hand through his hair with an exhausted sigh. No wonder the kid had turned him down. He was proud of the kid, he knew that he had made the right -the mature- choice, but there was a part of him that was hurt. He glances over his shoulder at the hissing sound of the lab door and tries to look slightly less exhausted as his fiancée enters the room.
Her heels click on the lab floor as she crosses over to him and wraps her arms around his neck from behind. He brings one hand up and covers her hands with it, feeling the diamonds in her engagement ring digging into the palm of his hand.
“You doing okay?” She asks gently.
He nods his head and gives her hand a gentle squeeze.
“Guess we can turn the kids room into something else.” He states, “Want a sewing room?”
“You’re hilarious.” She retorts, her voice deadpan, “Don’t do anything with the room.” She adds in a much softer voice, “Leave it for him.”
“He turned me down.” He reminds her, “He doesn’t want to be an Avenger.”
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to spend time with you.” She replies, “I talked to Happy after he got back today… He told me how much that kid looks up to you.”
“God only knows why-“
“Let me finish.” She cuts him off, “You don’t talk when I’m talking.” He offers her a half grin, “Anyway, I talked to Happy and he told me how much the kid looks up to you, he also told me that you gave him back the suit.”
“He’ll keep doing his spidey thing with or without the suit, he’s proven that.” Tony says when she pauses long enough for him to speak, “I’d rather he be safe.”
“He’d be safer if he had you in his corner.” She reminds gently.
He gives a self depreciating laugh, “Somehow I doubt that.”
“I don’t.” She replies simply.
“He got hurt because of me Pep, I took away that stupid suit and he got hurt.”
“You made a mistake.”
“He could’ve died.” He says in exasperation.
“But he didn’t.” She counters, “Yes it could have ended a lot worse than it did but you made a mistake and you’re learning from it.”
“I don’t want to let him down again.” He admits quietly.
There are things he will only admit to Pepper and that is near the top of his list.
“Then don’t.” She replies as if it’s the easiest thing in the world, “Like you said he’s going to keep doing his spider thing regardless, so be there for him. He doesn’t need to be an Avenger, I think he made the right choice turning you down. He’s fifteen years old. He doesn’t need to be involved in all of this.” She gestures vaguely with one hand. “But I think he could use you in his life, so don’t let him down, be there for him.”
“Don’t want to screw him up.”
Pepper laughs in his ear and leans heavier against his back, “From what I know about him he seems too tough to let little old you screw him up.” She presses a kiss to his cheek and leans back slightly, “You’re sitting in here feeling guilty for letting him down and leaving him to his own devises while planning on leaving him to his own devices again. You started this, you need to follow through.”
He realizes that she’s right and can’t help the small smirk that appears on his face. He feels a small weight lift off of his shoulders as his decision is made and another weight settle as he realizes the task in front of him.
“Have I told today how much I need you, Ms. Potts?”
“You may have said something along those lines.” She replies, and he can almost hear her smiling. “Now, I’m going up to bed, you can either stay here and mope or you can come upstairs and celebrate our engagement with me.” She pushes off of him and starts to saunter towards the door, “I’ll be in our room, Mr.Stark.”
He bolts up from the stool so fast he’s silently amazed that the it doesn’t go flying over.
****
He has Happy drive him into the city. He loves the open roads in California or even Upstate New York but he has no real desire to fight city traffic and he has a feeling that flying the Ironman suit into Queens and to the kids apartment will draw unnecessary attention and probably won’t win him any points with Aunt Hottie.
He stands outside their apartment door, a baseball cap that probably does little to hide his identity pulled low over his head, and has a moment of hesitation. He raises his hand to knock but lets it fall to his side with a sigh. His anxieties from the night before were returning full force and he was suddenly very aware of every single reason he’d make a terrible mentor to this kid.
He raises his hand again and gives a firm knock. He started this and he needs to follow through. Pepper’s words are the only thing keeping him rooted to the floor as he waits for someone to answer the door.
He hears a chain slide and offers his signature smirk when the door opens a crack to reveal the kids face.
“Uh… Hey Mr. Stark.” He greets uncertainly.
“You gonna open the door, Kid?”
“Now might not be the best time.”
“Who’s at the door, Pete?”
Tony raises an eyebrow at the kid when he shoots him a warning look before opening the door up wider.
“It’s Mr. Stark, May.” The kid calls back.
He steps through the door but stops in his tracks when he sees Aunt Hottie standing in the living room, a deadly look on her face.
“Oh good.” She says her glare hardening, “I have a bone to pick with you, Peter go to your room.”
“May-“
The kid barely gets the word out before May turns her glare on him, he swallows heavily and shoots Tony a look that screams ‘good luck’ before disappearing into his room. Tony has never been so jealous of anyone in his life as he watches the kid disappear.
“You took my kid to Germany, to fight a fight he had no business being involved in without my permission, you encourage his vigilante justice and leave him all by himself and then you take away the one thing that is keeping him safe.”
He stands and listens to May yell for close to an hour. Listens as she outlines his irresponsibility, his mistakes, his flaws, reminds him of everything bad the press has ever said about him and then finishes by reminding him of every time he’s taken a misstep with her nephew. He waits until she finishes her rant and then gives her a minute to catch her breath before speaking.
“I made a lot of mistakes.” He admits, “I’m big on accountability and as I’ve told your nephew if something happens to him that’s on me.”
“Yeah, it is.” May agrees vehemently.
“And that’s why I want to do everything I possibly can to make sure he stays safe out there.” Tony replies, “I built him a suit that has every safety feature I could think of and it has an AI that will contact me immediately if he’s hurt or in serious danger, I can review all of the footage of his patrols and monitor what’s going on.”
It was an incredibly simplified version of what the multi-million dollar suit could do but he knew May wouldn’t understand if he went into great detail.
“I don’t care if you can see a video when something happens.” May counters, “I don’t want my nephew out there risking his life.”
Tony runs his hand over his face with a sigh. “Neither do I.” He admits, “He’s too young to be dragged into all of this but he’s good at what he does and with a bit of training I think he can be great, maybe one of the best.”
He sees May turning over his words in her head but he can tell that even though he may have gotten his point across she still doesn’t condone it.
“I still don’t want my nephew out there, I don’t care how good he is.” Her face softens slightly and he sees the concern she’s been hiding under her anger. “He is all I have left Mr. Stark, there are a lot of other people who can take care of the little guy, it doesn’t need to be him.”
Tony can’t argue with that. Sure he had been the one to take him to Germany, a mistake on his part and he realized that now. The kid was fifteen, Tony knew that he should be stressing about exams and finding a girlfriend, not being a vigilante superhero.
“He can’t be an Avenger.”
Okay so he’d offered that too.
“I offered him a position on the team as a way to keep an eye one him.” Tony explains, “He’s going to keep doing this regardless of what anyone says.”
He hears a creak and sees Peter hesitating behind May.
“He’s right, May.” Peter offers quietly, “I can’t just stop… There are people who need me.”
“And there are people like Mr. Stark and the Avengers who can deal with it.” May counters.
“They handle the big stuff.” Peter replies, “I stay close to the ground, look out for the little guy.”
May tucks her hair behind her ear and studies her nephew, “Why is this so important to you?”
Peter glances over May’s shoulder at Tony and he gives the boy a small nod of reassurance.
“Uncle Ben used to say that if you have the power to do good but you don’t then when the bad things happen they’re your fault.” He shuffles his feet and gives May a pleading look. “I need to do this, May.”
The mention of her late husband seems to deflate something in May and Tony sees her shoulders slump.
“I need you to be safe.”
“And we’re going to do everything we possibly can to make that happen.” Tony says firmly, “That’s why I’m here actually.”
He sees the surprise pass over Peter’s face and can see the disbelief etched across May’s.
“I would like Peter to join us at the Avengers compound to train and work on his suit.” Tony says.
“The compound is upstate.” Peter reminds him.
“Thanks for that excellent point on geography, Kid.” Tony replies sarcastically, “I can have Happy, my driver, pick him up and drop him off, if he wants to spend the night he has a bedroom at the compound. I have a state of the art lab set up where he can work on his suit and two gyms where he can train and hone his skills to be safer on the streets.”
“I’m not letting my kid go upstate to spend weekends at a potentially dangerous compound that I haven’t seen with people I barely know.”
“So come see it.” Tony replies simply, “I’ll have someone contact you and set up a visit so you can see everything before Under-“ He catches himself quickly, “Peter can come visit.”
May crosses her arms over her chest and shifts as she looks at him. She seems to consider it for a moment before nodding slowly.
“Let’s go now.”
He hadn’t been expecting that and he opens his mouth to protest but May holds up her hand to stop him.
“I don’t want to see it when you’ve had time to fix it up and make it kid friendly.”
He wants to argue, wants to protest and remind her that he has a busy schedule. He’s Tony Stark for god-sake and he likes to do things on his own terms but there’s a part of him, a part that sounds suspiciously like Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts that tells him he needs to do this on her terms if he wants the kid in his life.
“I’m not a kid.” Peter pipes up indignantly.
Tony waves a hand at him, “The adults are talking.” He gestures towards Peter’s bedroom, “go get your backpack, it looks like we’re going on a field trip.”
“I have homework.”
“No you don’t.” Tony dismisses easily, “You have to study for your Calculus midterm and you can do that in the car.”
“How did you-“
“I listen to the messages you leave Happy, now get your backpack and get in the car.” He shoos him off with a mild glare, “It’s a long drive and I’m on a tight schedule.”
So he has to maintain a bit of his pride and ego by sliding that in there. He can see by the look on her face that May is surprised he’s giving in so easily and that gives him an iota of satisfaction.
He taps his foot impatiently while he waits for the kid to grab his backpack. By the time he hears a loud bang and a startled yelp from down the hallway May has joined him by the front door, her purse over her shoulder and a jacket in her hands.
“Let’s move it, Underoos!” Tony calls impatiently.
Peter practically falls out of his bedroom and stumbles down the hall with his backpack thrown over his shoulder and Tony can’t help but shake his head at the teen who can so easily swing from building to building but apparently can’t manage the simple task of walking down a hallway.
“Okay I’m ready, Mr. Stark.” Peter assures him, his breath coming in short pants.
He rolls his eyes and follows May out the front door, the spiderling following close behind. Tony can’t help but note how much quieter the kid is than normal. He knows he owes the kid a talk, he wishes he could go back and change how he handled a lot of things over the past six months but he also knows he can’t. The only thing he can do is move forward and try to do better, maybe apologize to the kid if he can work up the nerve and move past his emotional immaturity.
****
The ride to the compound takes forever and by the time they get there Tony can tell Happy is ready to kill the kid. May had taken the front seat with he and Peter in the back. Peter had been sitting directly behind Happy and muttering as he studied his Calculus notes, no doubt driving his head of security insane.
“We’re here, Boss.” Happy announces gruffly as they pull up in front of the compound.
“Thanks, Hap.” Tony replies, only somewhat sarcastically, “I’ll call you when they’re ready to go back.”
Happy nods as they all climb out of the car. Tony pauses and watches May take in the large compound, her eyes widening at the sight in front of her. Peter wanders around the car and hitches his backpack over his shoulder. No matter how hard he tries to hide it Tony can see the small spark of awe in his eyes and can tell that he’s internally ‘fanboying’.
There’s something about the kids puppy like energy that makes Tony smirk. The energy, the enthusiasm had irritated him when he had first met the kid and he knew that it still grated on Happy’s nerves but watching the kid bounce on his heels he can’t find it in himself to be annoyed.
“You wanna stand there and stare or go on a tour?” He asks, even if he’s not particularly annoyed he does had a reputation to uphold.
He sees May nod and adjust her purse on her shoulder, Peter is still practically vibrating as he leads them to the compound. He steps up to the front entrance and enters his code and scans his hand.
“The entire compound is equipped with state of the art security, only the Avengers and Pepper have access to the building. Press is allowed in only when they are given a pass and accompanied by security, all of our press is hand picked by Pepper and vetted thoroughly by Happy and his security team.” He opens the front door and allows everyone to step through, “The security in this building rivals the Pentagon, not to mention it’s filled with the highest volume of enhanced humans in the world… Or it was.” He corrects slowly, “There is literally not a safer place on earth.”
Unless they’re attacked. He keeps that particular thought to himself, sure they have a target on their backs but he has personally seen to it that they have measures and counter measures for every possible scenario he could think of.
“This is the lobby.” He gestures around, “Press room is through there, there’s a front desk to check in guests there.”
The desk is empty since its a Saturday and there’s no real reason to have anyone around, especially since it’s only Pepper, Tony, Rhodey, Happy and Vision who are regularly around this part of the compound. He leads the way past the lobby through to another door equipped with a keypad and hand scanner.
“Through here is the Avengers living quarters.”
He steps through the doors and waits as the small group follows him. He leads the way up a staircase that opens up on to the main living area.
“This is the main living area, kitchen, dining area and living room.” He gestures around, “There’s a games room too, video games, board games, the works.”
The kids eyes are wide as saucers as he looks around the immaculately kept space. Tony looks to the kitchen and can’t help but remember the morning before everything turned to shit.
‘What am I running a air b&b for a biker gang?’.
He snaps himself out of it and motions for the small group to follow him down a hallway.
“Bedrooms are all in this hallway.” He gestures to the doors, “Doors are marked with names, stay out of the ones that aren’t yours.”
Not that any of them are filled anymore. He rolls his eyes at the though and pushes forward to the door at the end of the hallway.
“This is your room, kid.” He opens the door and steps inside followed closely by May and the kid who is looking around in awe.
The rooms are all similar in layout there is a queen sized bed in the middle of the back wall, he’d had Pepper pick colours and she had gone with a navy blue for the back wall that the bed was on and a grey for the rest. The comforter on the bed is grey and the accent pillows are all navy blue. There is a dresser with a flatscreen on it on the left side of the room next to the closet door and a desk and bookshelves on the right side of the room. It is simple and pretty empty, he normally lets whoever is living in the room decide how they want to decorate. There are only two personal touches he had added, the desktop computer on the kids desk with three screens is one of them. The picture frame on the bedside table is the other. The picture frame doesn’t have an actual photo but rather just a black background with a thin grey line running through it. To anybody else it would make no sense but he can tell by the kid’s face when his eyes land on it that he understands exactly what it means.
‘Don’t do anything I would do… and definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do… There’s a little grey area in there, that’s where you operate.’
“The computer is yours to use, I have F.R.I.D.A.Y monitoring your search history though.” He gives Peter a pointed look, “No porn.”
The kid’s face turns beet red and he sputters something that Tony quickly waves off, he sees a small smirk on May’s face and silently high-fives himself for that small victory.
There’s a few hidden features in the room but he’ll leave them for the kid to discover later, he leads the way out of the room and points to the door at the end of the hall, one door down from the kids room.
“That’s my room.” He gestures, “And Pepper’s too of course, when she’s actually home.”
Which hasn’t been horribly often as of late, he knows she’s busy but God he misses her when she’s not around.
He leads them back down the hallway and through the living space, he gives them a quick tour of the games room and the library and then down the hallway where the offices and board rooms are.
“Pepper and I both have our own offices here, Bruce has an office attached to his lab, I’ll show you that wing in a minute, Cap, Rhodey and Nat all have offices in this hallway too, everyone else just works out of their rooms. No one else does a lot of interfacing with other agencies so they don’t really need offices.”
Or they used to. He silently tells his brain to shut up and forget about the Rogues for ten minutes.
He leads them out of the living quarters and to the large bridge that brings them across to the training centre. He punches in the code to get through to the training centre and leads the small group in.
“This is the first gym.” He motions around the mostly empty room, “We do most of our indoor training exercises in here.” He guides them through another door to a room that is filled with gym equipment, “This is where we actually work out.” He gestures to the boxing ring in the corner and then to the doors next to it, “Changing rooms and showers are through there.”
He leads them to the next area and ignores the equipment set up for Rhodey’s physical therapy, another reminder of the fallout of his crappy decisions.
“Medbay is through there.” He gestures to the doors to his left, “I would take you through but they’re doing maintenance and cleaning today. It’s a state of the art medical facility, the best doctors and equipment in the world, all of them have signed NDA’s and are specially trained to deal with enhanced humans.”
“Like Peter.”
It’s the first time she’s spoken since they entered the building and it makes Tony pause in his somewhat robotic speech.
“Yeah.” He agrees, “Regular doctors wouldn’t know how to deal with Peter’s enhanced metabolism, he needs special medication for pretty much everything, he burns through regular medication too quickly. The doctors we employ here are aware of everyone’s unique situations and treatment plans are in place for each resident.”
It is a system he and Bruce had personally seen to.
“I didn’t know any of that.” May says quietly.
Tony spares a glance at Peter and can see the distress on the kids face at his aunts distress. “We still have a lot of work to do.” Tony admits, “I’ve managed to create a painkiller that will work for minor injuries and I’m working out the kinks on an anesthetic I hope we won’t need but biomedical engineering isn’t really my area.”
It is one of the reasons he is working so hard to bring the Avenger’s back together. They need each other, no matter how much he hates Cap in that moment he knows that the world needs them as a unit and they need each other as a unit. Functioning alone is doable for awhile but not forever.
“What else do I need to know?” May asks.
Tony glances over at the kid again to find that he is still staring down at the floor.
“What has he told you?”
“That he got bit by a spider that gave him powers.” May replies with a shrug, “He can stick to stuff and he has heightened senses.”
“That’s the jist of it.” Tony agrees, “There’s also the fact that he is probably one of the strongest enhanced individuals on the planet, rivalling only Captain America… His metabolism is absolutely insane now, he needs to be eating a lot more than he used to to keep up with it.”
He sees Peter flash him an angry look out of the corner of his eye and he can’t quite figure out why but dismisses it as a problem for later.
“Other than that he’s still the same old nerd that you know and love.”
“Hey!” Peter protests indignantly.
Tony rolls his eyes and turns his attention back to May, “Look I know it’s a lot to process, why don’t we finish what’s left of the tour and then you and I can sit down and I’ll give you a run down of the specifics.”
May seems to consider it for a moment before nodding. He leads them through the rest of the training centre, shows them Bruce’s closed up lab and his own personal lab, something very few people have seen. The kid almost dies of excitement and he can’t stop the quiet chuckle as he watches him bounce around the room chattering excitedly. He walks over to his work station and pulls up the holograms of his newest suit designs for the Iron Spider.
“Here Kid.” He drags the kids attention away from the wall of Iron Man suits, “Take a look at the mockups for your next suit upgrades while I talk to your aunt.”
He can tell by the look on Peter’s face that he knows exactly what Tony’s trying to do but he can also tell that the kid is too excited to care as he lunges to take a look at the holograms.
“Don’t touch anything while I’m gone okay, we’ll just be in the office.”
He leads May to the small office off of his lab, a simple room with a desk and a couple of chairs that he’s never actually had reason to use. He patiently answers every question she throws at him to the best of his ability and tells her honestly when he has no idea what the answers are.
“So what do you want then?” She asks after she’s gone through every other question she can think of.
“What do you mean?”
“Peter.” She nods through the glass wall to where the kid is flipping through suit designs, “You don’t just do all of this for no reason, not for some kid from Queens who isn’t even an Avenger, he told me he turned you down.”
“He did.” Tony confirms, “I made a lot of mistakes with him.” He admits quietly, “You know all of them now, I royally screwed up and I know that… I wanna make it better, I really think that Peter can be amazing if he has the right training, not just as Spider-Man, hell the kid is a genius, you know that, he even keeps up with me and I can only think of one other person who can do that.”
“So you want to study him?”
“No.” Tony replies quickly, “I want to keep him sheltered from exactly that, he’s a kid, not a scientific experiment but he is different and he’s gotten good at dealing with it but he still needs help and I think I can give him that.”
“But why?” May asks again, “I mean I get why Spider-Man appeals to you but why Peter?”
“I don’t think they’re two separate people.” Tony replies with a shrug, “when I look at the kid I see a lot of potential and I just want to give him the opportunity to achieve it.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question.”
Tony sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Everyone knew my father, or at least knew of him but they only knew Howard Stark the weapons mogul not Howard Stark the man… He was not a good father, he was never there to encourage me, no matter what I did it was never enough it always could’ve been better… I never wanted for anything but there was still a lot of neglect and shame there… I’m just trying to break that cycle.”
“Peter is not neglected.” May snaps.
“I know he’s not.” Tony raises his hand to stop her, “You are the best person for that kid and he loves you more than anything in the world, he’s your kid and I get that, I respect that.” He glances over at Peter again, “But he’s part of this world now and if something happens to him in this world that’s on me, I want to make sure that he’s as safe as he can be, I want to make sure he’s the best he can be.”
“And if two years down the road he decides he wants to flip burgers instead of being Spider-Man?”
Tony shrugs, “That would be cool too, I like burgers.” He uncrosses his arms, “I just want to make sure that he has the opportunity to do more if he wants to.”
“We’re not a charity case, Mr. Stark.”
Tony shrugs again, “Never thought you were.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and leans his hip against the desk, “I’m worried about his safety, there’s nothing either of us can say or do that’s going to stop him from going out and being Spider-Man so let me at least make it safe.”
“I’m not saying yes.” She says slowly, “But if I did how would you want to do this?”
“You’re his parent you decide.” He replies, “Since he’d have to come upstate to do training it might make it easier on him to spend the night though.”
May bites her lip and seems to consider it for a moment before speaking. “I work nights every other weekend, I don’t want to leave him home alone and I definitely don’t want him going out when I’m not home to take care of him if something happens.” She shifts and studies Tony, “He can come here then, if that works for you.”
“That’s fine with me, I’ll have Happy pick him up Friday’s after school and bring him back Sunday at whatever time is good for you.” Tony replies easily, “Three days a week I go into Stark Industries, check on R&D that kind of thing, what if he came in with me after school on those days? Actually did an internship at SI?”
May narrows her eyes at him but sighs, “Only if it doesn’t interfere with his school work.”
“School comes first, always.” Tony agrees, “I’ll make sure to check in with him and keep an eye on everything.”
“And if I decide it’s too much I get to say stop and you respect that.” May adds.
Tony has to fight against the childish and probably inappropriate reply that immediately comes to mind and simply nods.
“He’s your kid, you have the final say.”
“And if he says that he doesn’t want to do this anymore you accept that, no coercing him into staying.”
He makes a face, “Coercion isn’t really my style.”
They work out a few more details before May finally relents and agrees to the entire thing. He would never admit it to anyone but telling the kid absolutely makes his week, the way Peter’s eyes light up and he sputters an acceptance brings him more joy than he thought he could feel.
He shows them the Olympic sized pool and gives them a quick tour of the grounds before leading back to the car.
“Okay so next weekend is my night shift weekend.” May says after Peter has said goodbye and climbed into the car.
“Happy will pick the kid up from school on Friday and bring him here.” He sees Happy roll his eyes out of the corner of his eye but ignores it. “I won’t be at SI at all this week, I have some stuff going on in DC so we’ll start the internship next week.”
May nods and hesitates for a moment, “I still don’t like you but thank you Mr. Stark… For helping Peter.”
He smirks at her honesty. “Call me Tony.”
May purses her lips and glances up at the sky, “May.” She finally offers.
“See you later May.”