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“Peter, Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Stephen asked, picking the baby up. He’d been moping lately. Whenever he usually screamed or cried about something he didn’t like, he instead just looked up at Stephen with sad eyes and went back to holding his Iron Man stuffed animal to his chest. The sorcerer was pretty certain why he was so sad. Tony wasn’t there.
“I know,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to the baby’s head. They’d seen him earlier that morning, but had to go early. Peter had been crying up until they got home. Then, he was silent, sulking in his crib, refusing to eat or sleep.
“I know you want to see him, but you can’t. And I know you can’t understand me, but I wish you could. I wish you could understand all of this and why you can’t see him, but it can’t be this way.” There was a good reason for it, not that any of them had to like it, but what the judge said had to be done. And Stephen had started it, no matter how much he regretted it now. He felt too shameful to take it back now. “We’ll see him again. Next week.”
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“Hey, Peter,” Tony said, forcing a smile onto his face when he saw the baby. Stephen handed him over to the engineer, who hugged him close to his chest, pressing a kiss to his forehead. Peter made delighted noises as he babbled nonsense, happy to see his father.
Stephen sat down on the couch beside Natasha as Tony took Peter in the kitchen to get something to eat. Natasha looked back at the sorcerer.
“This has gone on for long enough,” she told him. “Whenever you leave, he holes himself up in the lab. He’s so sad without either of you. He still loves you and of course he loves Peter. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was depressed by now. You need to work this out.” She got up and left with that. Tony hadn’t been taking this well at all. They needed to fix this.
The day wound down and Tony found himself handing Peter back over to Stephen, one last kiss pressed to his forehead. Peter knew what was going on at least a little bit. He had watery eyes and his bottom lip was trembling as Tony said a soft goodbye before the two of them left.
Once home, Stephen rocked Peter to sleep before realizing he left the pacifier at the compound. He sighed, knowing he would need to get it. Peter wouldn’t take a nap without it. So, he made a portal back to the compound, being silent as he stepped inside and grabbed the small object, not wanting to be spotted, but he stopped when he heard shuddering sobs coming from the other side of the couch.
“C’mon, Tony,” Natasha’s voice soothed. “They’ll be back next week.” Another few seconds of hard sobbing.
“I can’t do this anymore,” he told her. “I can’t see them again. It hurts too much.” There was no talking for a few minutes and Stephen tried to ignore the pain in his chest as he continued to listen to the cries without going to help.
“Tony-”
“I can’t, Nat. Stephen’s a better parent than I’ll ever be. Obviously, he already thought that because he got Peter in the first place. I should’ve known I could only be like Howard.”
“Tony, don’t you dare say you’re like that man. He hurt you. You’re such a good parent. Just because Stephen can’t see that doesn’t matter. You need to get yourself together. In a year or two, you could try and get better guardianship over him, more time with him. But they’re not gonna allow it if you continue to act like this. Peter’s made you better, I can see that. You need to keep that up.”
“As long as I’m a superhero, I’m never going to have Peter for more than one day a week. He’ll just grow up hating me like I did Howard. At least, it would be better than Howard. He’ll be safe.” Tony stood up, still facing the wall, and Stephen stepped back into his portal, closing it before they could see him. He needed to fix this.
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A week later, when Tony had been called to court, he was pretty sure Stephen was trying to take away all his privileges from Peter. He made himself look presentable to the public before going, Natasha at his side, ready to defend him. She wasn’t going to let this happen. Tony was a really good parent, even if none of them believed that. And she wasn’t going to let them tell him that he was a bad parent because he wasn’t. He’d changed so much for Peter and deserved to have his kid.
Finally, they got to the meeting and the judge called everyone to court before picking up a piece of paper that Stephen had apparently signed, along with his lawyer.
“We have spoken to all the different Avengers and everyone in your lives,” the judge started. “We’ve made an evaluation after Stephen suggested that this wasn’t the best arrangement with Peter.” Tony steeled himself, waiting for the man to tell him that he couldn’t see his son again. “We have decided, with Stephen’s insistence, that we drop the schedule and let the two of you decide what will happen between you three.” Tony looked back at Stephen, but the man was looking up at the judge. “The court is adjourned.”
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“Tony, can we talk?” Stephen asked, walking into the living room in the compound. He had dropped Peter off earlier and had talked to Natasha for a little bit. Now, he needed to talk to the engineer.
“We probably should,” he replied, tickling the bottom of Peter’s feet. The baby squealed, kicking his legs at his father. Stephen sat on the ground across from them, instinctively caressing Peter’s face, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead. With both his parents there, Peter couldn’t be happier, though he could tell something else was wrong by the way their faces looked.
“You’re probably wondering why I did that.” Tony sighed and nodded. Even though he had Peter now, he still needed to know. They’d had an argument before all of this happened. Stephen had told him he could never be a good parent while he locked himself in his lab and said he knew that his drinking habits would come back. He’d left with Peter before the engineer could argue. And that’s how all of this had started.
“I heard you and Nat talking the other day. You said you’d never be a good parent, but you’re wrong, Tony. You’ve been an amazing parent to Peter. It was wrong of me to doubt you and to take Peter away. I’m sorry I did it. I hope that you’ll be able to forgive me when the time comes.” Tony closed his eyes, biting back tears. He still loved him so much and just wanted to fall back into his arms, but he knew if he did that, he would not get the time he needed to get over this. He had to keep Stephen away for a time.
“It’s gonna take a while,” he stated. The other man nodded, understanding. Tony looked back at Peter who was gazing back at him, glancing up at his other father every now and then. Suddenly wanting attention, he held his arms out, whimpering quietly. Tony picked him up, bringing the baby to his chest. This was gonna take awhile, but Stephen was willing to give that time. He’d made a mistake. He was determined to right it.
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It took many uncertain and emotional months before Tony allowed Stephen to start redeeming himself to him. The sorcerer was very gentlemanly, pulling chairs out for him, holding the door open, pretty much doing everything he could. He loved him and wanted to show him that. And he was beginning to show Tony just how much he cared about him.
Stephen convinced Tony to go on a date with him when ten months had passed of Peter being with both of them at the compound. They’d shared the baby’s first steps and words and he was getting bigger and bigger everyday. Tony decided to say yes to the date.
“So, was there a point to this date?” Tony asked, once they’d settled into their seats in the back of the restaurant. Stephen had called ahead to have a part of it alone for the two of them. No press, no people, no stress. Just the two of them.
“I did have something important I wanted to talk to you about,” Stephen started, taking one of Tony’s hands with his own slightly shaking ones. “I will be forever grateful that you forgave me and gave me the chance to make it up to you. And I hope I’m not mistaken when I say that we’ve grown closer than we’ve been before.” Tony wasn’t exactly sure where this was going, but it sounded good so far. “Alright. Well, I had something really important to ask.” He didn’t speak for a moment.
“Go ahead,” Tony said softly, bringing the other man out of his thoughts. He smiled back at the man he loved and brought his hand up to press a kiss to it.
“I found my father’s ring in my stuff at the sanctuary the other day and I was wondering if you would hold onto it for me.” Tony felt his lips part a little before a light smile crossed his features.
“Are you asking me to marry you?” The other man smiled.
“Only if you’ll say yes.” The engineer smiled, nodding. He really did love him.
“Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
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“How is my wonderful husband and our son?” Stephen asked, sliding into bed beside Tony. He’d been gone for a few days on ‘wizard work’ as Tony liked to call it, but he was back now. Back to be with his husband and son. Peter was almost two now and slept with his parents as much as they would allow, which was a lot. Whenever Tony had to tell Peter no, it always made him feel bad, like he was being a bad parent. Stephen was always there to reassure him it was okay, though. He could never be like his father.
“We’re both good,” Tony replied, turning to accept a kiss from the other. “Peter ran himself out of energy today.” He looked down at the boy curled up between them, fast asleep. “He was exhausted.” Stephen looked down at the boy, smiling fondly at his peaceful face. “Hey. I love you.” The sorcerer looked up at his husband and smiled, leaning forward to kiss him.
“I love you too.” They settled into bed on either side of their son. Stephen smiled as he watched Tony settle into a deep sleep. He loved his family. Everything had turned out great. Everything was going to be great.