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Peter Stark had lived a fairly normal life up until that point, well at least as normal as the son of Iron Man could, but when he turns 18 and tells the world who he is everything changes. He had grown up with his aunt and uncle until he was 14 and Tony Stark had come and brought him to Germany to fight the Rouge Avengers. When they got back May had sat them down and told them both something that Peter’s mother Mary had told her years ago. Tony was Peter’s biological father. Mary had not wanted him to know until he was 18 but May had decided to tell him when she saw that they were getting close anyway without knowing. His life had been thrown for a loop but after a few months of weird tension, Peter and May moved into Stark Tower. Peter moved into the penthouse and May moved into one of the Avenger's old floors.
The Avengers had been reformed and Tony Stark was still a part of it but none of the other Rouges ever rejoined or were really spoken about. The new Avengers included Spider-Man, Iron Man, Iron Lad, Iron Patriot, The Vision, and occasionally Thor.
No one knew why CEO of Stark Industries Pepper Potts-Stark and Owner Tony Potts-Stark had called for a press conference, but the large room SI used for press conferences was full of eager reporters. Pepper Potts-Stark and Tony Potts-Stark were one of the world’s most well-known couples, but that didn’t mean the world knew very much about them. They knew that they had gotten married three years prior and that they had a two-year-old daughter. But all they knew about the daughter was that her first initial was M. But other than that, they didn’t know much about them or their relationship. Everything was kept under lock and key especially since the media dubbed it “Civil War”.
The reporters were getting antsy, the press conference was supposed to start five minutes ago, and they had heard nothing. Most of the older reporters were used to this when it came to Stark, but he had rarely been seen in public not to mention press conferences ever since he came back from the fight with the rouges, so the younger reporters were not accustomed to his ways.
All of a sudden the room got very quiet as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts walked onto the stage. Pepper looked as regal as ever but the older reporters who had been around when Tony was a more prominent figure could tell he was different. Instead of his usual suit and sunglasses, he was wearing a pair of black dress pants with a T-shirt with a science pun on it with a black blazer on top. He also looked healthier, there were no longer dark bags under his eyes, and he looked stronger than ever before, he also had a smile on his face that looked very different from the fake smiles he had perfected in his youth.
“Hello everyone, thank you for being here today. We have a big announcement to make but before we do, we wanted to let you know that there will be a question-and-answer session at the end of the press conference so please save your questions for then. Okay, I am going to let my husband take over now.” Pepper stepped back away from the podium and Tony took her place.
“So, I guess we should get this show on the road. We called you all here today to introduce you to someone very special to me. I am going to bring him out in a moment, but I want to ask you to please be respectful of him. Everyone I am pleased to introduce my son Peter Stark.” The room exploded as a young Bambi-eyed boy walked onto the stage. He was slightly taller than Tony but was nowhere near as confident and seemed to be almost trying to hide behind his father. He had soft brown curls and was wearing a very similar outfit to Tony but had no blazer and a different science pun on his shirt.
“H-Hi everyone. I-I am P-Peter Stark.” He gave a small wave to the rabid reporters who were all shouting questions at him.
Pepper clapped her hands together and the room fell into silence. “Please save your questions for the end.” Every reporter in the room knew not to mess with her, everyone who had not learned that was no longer allowed in the room, or any major news office for that matter. There was a reason no one from the Daily Bugle had been allowed at a SI press conference for years. “We will be answering a few questions but please do not shout them out. We will call on you to ask a question.” Pepper nodded to the boy who pointed towards a younger reporter in the first row.
She stood up and flattened her skirt before starting, “Emily Dickinson from The New York Times. How were you kept a secret from the media for so long?”
“Um. Well.” The young boy turned to look at his father who nodded at him before continuing, “Dad and I didn’t know about each other until I was 14. My mom didn’t want me to know until I was 18 but she and her husband who I thought was my dad, died when I was six and I lived with my aunt and uncle until my uncle died when I was 14. Not long after I met Tony as an intern and my Aunt May decided to tell us that Tony was my dad. After that, we just told everyone I was his intern so that no one asked why I was always around.”
Peter looked to his father again who had a happy smile on his face and nodded towards his son. Peter pointed to another reporter who stood up from his chair. “Robert Phillips from Washington Post. How is it having Iron Man as a father?”
“I don’t really see dad as Iron Man, I just see him as my dad. It is hard when he is out there risking his life though. But other than that he is just like any other loving amazing dad.” The reporters all watched in astonishment as a small tear fell down Tony Stark’s face. They had never seen him display any kind of real emotion like this. He always just smiled and pretended everything was fine. There weren’t even any photos of him crying from his own parents’ funeral which if you thought about it for too long was really sad but everyone just liked to forget that and pretended that he was not a normal person who should get to express his emotions at his own parents funeral.
Peter pointed to another reporter who stood up, “Mary Carver from Newsweek. Why did you wait so long to tell the world who you really are?”
“Dad wanted me to have a normal childhood. He grew up in the public eye and it was horrible for him and he didn’t want that for me. We decided it would be best if we waited until I had graduated from college which I did a few weeks ago.”
Peter pointed to another reporter, “Brandon Rhodes from Buzzfeed News. If you have already graduated college how old are you? Did you follow in your father’s footsteps and start early?”
“I am 18 and yes I did start college early, I was 15 my first semester of college. But unlike my dad, I stayed in high school while doing my college work online after school.”
“Okay, that is all of the questions we will be taking today. Thank you for coming.” Pepper put a hand on Peter’s shoulder and led him out of the room with Tony following behind. As soon as the small family left the room all of the reporters jumped up and collected their things. The room cleared out in record time as all of the reporters rushed back to their offices to write up the story.
Within two hours almost every reporter who had been present at the press conference had already published a story about Peter Stark, and the whole world couldn't get over his cute face.