Work Text:
Tony swirled in his chair as he waited for FRIDAY to calculate the chances of success to his new idea. He wasn’t really that much into the project, which was why he wasn’t all snarky towards his AI about how slow she was going and instead paying more attention to Morgan who was painting in the corner of the room peacefully, her tongue sticking out of her mouth.
There was a corner in the lab that Tony didn’t remember he arranged there. It looked like it was ready for someone to use but there was never anyone else in the lab that could actually work so it didn’t make sense, but since he brought Morgan with him, he just let her stay in that corner and allowed her to draw and paint in her little area to pass the time. The wall that was filled with designs Tony didn’t remember drawing was soon covered in colorful drawings instead. You’d expect her to draw a lot of drawings of Iron-Man seeing as it was her father, but instead she went for the red and blue vigilante, Spider-Man.
When Tony asked her about it once, Morgan said that she wanted to have a full stack of drawings so that when she finally got to meet him, Spider-Man would have plenty to choose from as a souvenir from her. It was sweet, but also a little strange because nobody actually knew who Spider-Man and Tony didn’t want his daughter to go to this stranger and chat with him. What if behind that mask of vigilantism for the sake of Queens was a pedophile? What if he hurt Morgan? So yeah, Tony wasn’t exactly suppressing Morgan’s wish to meet Spider-Man, but he wasn’t encouraging it, either.
To be frank, Tony kind of wished he could meet the vigilante someday. He knew that they’ve encountered before but he never got close enough to the guy for Spider-Man to tell him who he was. What really surprised Tony was that he didn’t even bother looking into it. He could probably hack enough cameras and databases to figure out who was under that mask, but he chose to stay ignorant. How did he even recruit the guy to fight Captain America before the blip? It was all a haze that Tony chalked up to the time being traumatizing and unpleasant. His mind just didn’t want to remember.
Morgan lifted her head from the drawing, used duct tape to attach it to the wall and then turned to Tony. “Tell me more about Spidey.” She begged. And the thing was, Tony remembered telling Morgan about Spider-Man plenty of times. He remembered telling her stories in so much detail, it was like he knew the guy. But he didn’t remember those details and he didn’t remember what made it so important to tell Morgan about Spider-Man. Maybe it was because the guy died in Tony’s arms from the Snap? But why would Morgan care about it? There were plenty of other people that died that were closer to Tony.
There were too many questions and too little answers. Sometimes it almost felt like Tony was cursed somehow. Forced to forget. But then he waved the thought away – it wasn’t possible. He was just trying to put too much meaning into something that wasn’t that important.
“I have a better idea,” Tony said and got up, trying to divert Morgan’s mind away from the illusive vigilante of Queens that Tony didn’t remember well enough to come up with a story about. “Let’s go down to the labs and see what everyone is up to? You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Can I take a popsicle?”
He sighed. “Strawberry, right?” He rolled his eyes and pulled one out of the little fridge he had in the lab. It was filled to the brim with food, though there was nothing with mint inside, for some reason. It wasn’t obvious at first, but something in Tony just let him know what was absent from the fridge. What COULDN’T get inside for whatever reason. He ignored it and handed the popsicle to his excited daughter. “Don’t tell Mommy, okay?” He winked.
Morgan nodded with a serious expression while unwrapping her snack happily. “Okay.”
Together, Morgan’s little hand in Tony’s bigger one, they entered the elevator and started heading down, not even bothering to tell FRIDAY where to take them. It didn’t matter to Tony as long as it took Morgan’s mind off of the whole Spider-Man thing. So he let her babble excitedly about how she wanted to show Pepper her new paintings and how she wanted to see if anyone downstairs had better paints because hers kept on breaking and God forbid the girl used anything that was cheap when she was only six. Almost seven.
When the doors opened, Tony and Morgan found themselves in the interns’ lab, where the younger people in the tower worked. Which was perfect and FRIDAY probably planned this since Morgan could interrupt them more freely and they were usually nicer to her, deciding she was more important than their projects. The girl squealed in delight and tried to run forward and out of the elevator the moment the doors opened before Tony’s grip held her back. The interns in the room looked up, dazed eyes quickly trying to focus on who came to their floor.
One intern gasped and the project she was working on slipped through her fingers to the floor. Another one gaped at Tony and Morgan like they were ghosts or Jesus walking on water before his eyes. There was a group of three interns that were huddled together, all looking up with these clueless expression on their faces but they giggled a little in shock at the visitors. And there was the last intern who was sitting next to the window, in the corner of the room. He looked at Tony and Morgan, pursed his lips and then quickly turned back to face his computer. Tony wasn’t sure, but it looked from his place like he was trying to delete something quickly.
Alright, suspicious.
Quickly refocusing on his daughter, Tony let Morgan skip around the interns lab to peek at all of the projects they were working on. The lab director appeared by his side at some point that explained that the interns were working on a feature in a bigger project from the R&D labs upstairs. Apparently it was easy enough to give to the interns. So they weren’t really working on that different things – just separately. Except for the ones who decided to join forces. And that girl who, now that Tony really paid her his attention, wasn’t really working on a project but just messing around with whatever was around her while staring contemplatively at her computer screen.
Since Morgan knew not to mess with anything, Tony decided to be kind and actually see if any of the interns had any issues with their projects, as easy as they were. He didn’t think they were stupid – no intern of him would be stupid – but they were still starting their lives and were probably around their third year into college or university. It wasn’t a stretch to assume that they would have some level of difficulty with working at a place like Stark Industries.
And they were happy to indulge him with questions, apparently. Tony went from one to the next, listened to their problems and then tried to politely steer them in the right direction without coming off as rude. Pepper would have probably called him rude, anyway, for assuming those people couldn’t handle it by themselves. Well, by the looks of it, they really couldn’t.
By the time he turned to the intern by the window, Tony lost track of Morgan, so he was surprised to find her sitting in the intern’s lap, almost bouncing as she drew something on a sheet of paper he must have given her with a red crayon Tony must have missed as they went down here. The intern awed at her sloppy drawing and Morgan giggled and grabbed his hand like she always did to Pepper or Tony when she wanted to make sure they didn’t leave.
She never did that to anyone else. Morgan was a pretty shy girl. Sure, she could interact with people just fine, but she never got close to them. Sitting in someone’s lap wasn’t something Tony’s ever seen her do with another person other than Pepper, Tony and a few of their closest friends that kept on visiting regularly. So for his daughter to be this close to this random intern already? Well, it baffled him.
“Daddy says I’m going to be really smart and that I’ll get the company and I’m gonna rule it.” Morgan said with a nod and the intern – he looked younger than the others and Tony couldn’t fathom why there was a kid that looked no older than fifteen in one of his labs.
The intern hummed. “Do you wanna do it?” He asked. Morgan drew another line on the page in front of her, her eyebrows furrowed a little. “Mo, what do you wanna do when you grow up?” He asked again. Tony took a step closer to them, intrigued. He never really saw any kind of reluctance from Morgan to the idea and she was really too small to understand, but could it be she didn’t want it? He wasn’t going to force her to have the company. She could do whatever she wanted.
Looking up at the intern, Morgan widened her eyes earnestly. “I wanna draw.” She said. The intern laughed and ruffled her hair a little before complimenting her drawing of, once again, Spider-Man. There was a warm look in the boy’s eyes as he looked at Tony’s daughter, like he was closer to her than Tony’s ever imagined. He frowned. What was happening? It didn’t make sense. And yet, deep inside, Tony looked at the scene before him and couldn’t help but feel like it was right. It was perfect just like that, with the two of them sitting together like it was the most natural thing in the world.
He frowned and made his way to the corner. The intern looked up and his eyes widened at the sight of Tony before he quickly looked away, guilt sparkling in his eyes. Tony didn’t understand that. “Okay, little gremlin. Leave the poor kid alone.” He said and Morgan snapped her head in his direction, her eyes lighting up. She didn’t jump off and run towards Tony, though, instead just staying in the intern’s lap. Okay, that was really strange.
“Daddy, Daddy!” Morgan bounced in place and the intern chuckled a little and put his hands on her waist, trying to subtly calm her down. Tony couldn’t blame him. “Petey liked my drawing! He loved it, right?” She turned back to the boy with wide, pleading eyes.
“Yup.” The intern nodded, his eyes glancing briefly in Tony’s direction like he was afraid of the man. Well, that wasn’t new. “Best Spider-Man drawing I’ve ever seen.” He said and Tony’s eyes drifted over to the boy’s screen to see what he was working on. It looked like an advanced version of what the rest were working on, and it seemed to be just fine so far. Then Tony snapped his eyes back to the intern who was looking at the screen, too, an embarrassed expression on his face. “Um, I should probably get back to work, Morgan.”
She pouted but jumped back to the floor, her red crayon clutched in her hand. She walked over to Tony who held her up in his arms. She smiled again. “What about your drawing, Little Miss?” He gestured with his hand towards the Spider-Man drawing she left behind. That was another thing about her – Morgan cared so much about those drawings, she never threw them away or forgot them behind. They were important to her. “Don’t you want to take it with us back up?”
Shaking her head, Morgan smiled at the intern again. He returned the smile, something bright in his eyes. Tony felt like he was grasping for something that wasn’t there, for a second. “Peter can have it.” She looked at the delighted boy. “You’ll keep it safe, right?”
He nodded. “Yes, I will.” He promised.
His name was, according to the records of the internship program, Peter Parker. He was eighteen and… and that was basically it. That was all the information about him that Tony could find in the database about the interns. He gaped at the screen and for a moment just listened to Morgan’s chatter in the background as she poured tea for her dolls in order to pretend to have a tea party in the lab.
It didn’t make any sense. First of all, when Tony asked FRIDAY to show every record of a Peter Parker in New York, she came up empty. When she tried all over the world Tony told her to look for the one that looked like the intern. She found no one with that name, either. It was like the kid didn’t exist. And another weird thing about him was that the kid was eighteen. EIGHTEEN! Stark Industries didn’t TAKE people that young. They had to be in their second year of college/university at the very least. Peter Parker didn’t answer that request, and yet he was in that lab, working on something more advanced than the others in that room, including the lab director.
Morgan seemed to like him a lot. The girl who steered away from Rhodey unless he was around her for over five hours? Yeah, that same girl talked Tony’s ears off about Peter and how nice he was and how much she wanted to see him again already because he was fun and smart and she really, really liked him. She talked about him like she knew him, which made no sense because, well, she didn’t. She’s never met him in her life.
What was going on?
And that look. That look the kid gave him when Tony entered the lab? It was like he was trying to hide something from Tony. Maybe the fact that he was a mystery that Tony didn’t understand at all? How could this kid get an internship at SI without anyone noticing how WEIRD it all was. His records didn’t have anything about going to school or high school or having a family. He was just a name with a picture and a date of birth.
When he asked FRIDAY who signed on his internship – who let him intern in the first place – the AI claimed that the signature was hers. As in, somehow… FRIDAY just decided to take in this random kid and grant him an internship. Tony didn’t even think that was possible. Of course, he made sure FRIDAY always checked things and made sure they were safe. She always alerted everyone when people came into the building when they weren’t supposed to be there, so how come she just saw this application to be an intern from a kid who must have just finished high school… and decided to let him do it without showing it to anyone else? That was WEIRD.
The problem was that when Tony checked the AI’s code to see if anyone hacked into it somehow, he found nothing wrong with it. He double and triple checked it just to be sure but the code was perfect, just like he thought it was. So how come this kid got an internship from FRIDAY?? She couldn’t give internships. She could only forward the applications to Tony or Pepper. Mostly Pepper.
“FRIDAY, show me the project on his computer.” Tony instructed over a week later. Pepper wanted him, of course, to let it go because she didn’t know what Tony found out. He figured he should probably tell her about the weird intern that Morgan really liked, but what if she kicked him out for it? No, Tony didn’t know why the kid was there, but he was definitely meant to be in the company. There was something about him…
“On it, boss.” The AI replied easily and then a bunch of files appeared on his screen.
They had weird names that after a while Tony realized were just related to movies. Seriously, could there be a geekier kid in the building?? He examined the projects the kid had going on. According to the files, he was ahead of everyone else in their joined project by weeks, but he never went far enough ahead to alert the lab director, apparently. It was like every time the kid got far enough away, he stopped working for a while and instead moved on to different projects until the other caught up to him.
There was a file of personal projects, too. Tony furrowed his brows at the ideas there. So many things that Tony could have sworn he’s seen before. Ideas that he remembered but never actually came up with. It was like someone else brought them up and Tony just… had them now. And when he asked FRIDAY to compare some of his old projects that never got completed to these ones, FRIDAY brought up plenty of material that made Tony’s head spin. That was too much. Too much that didn’t make sense in the least, because how could this random kid have Tony’s ideas… that weren’t really his own?
Tapping his finger against his desk, Tony stared at the projects thoughtfully. “FRIDAY, who came up with these?” He asked.
She was quiet for a moment. “Your son, sir.” Came the response. Tony blinked at the screens before him and tried to make sense of the words that FRIDAY uttered in an almost confused or hesitant voice, like she wasn’t sure why he was even asking this. Which was weird because… why would he NOT ask this? And what kind of answer was that? His SON?
“Okay, FRIDAY? Honey? I need you to be one hundred percent serious for a moment and ignore everything Barton must have programed you with and tell me who really came up with these plans.” He said slowly, as if the problem was with his punctuation. It had to be, right? Because there was absolutely no way FRIDAY had any trouble with her coding – he just made sure of that – and Tony knew for a fact that he didn’t have a son. He had a daughter who was still having her sweet tea party in the corner.
FRIDAY, apparently, became confused. “Your son, sir.” She said again. Tony pursed his lips. “I have records of you working together on those projects. Would you like me to access them for you?” She suggested.
Would he? He wasn’t so sure. His eyes drifted towards Morgan who got up from her seat to try and get a torch lighter from another desk. Tony quickly scrambled to his feet. “And what do you think you’re doing, Maguna?” Tony asked and stood between her and her target. Morgan looked up at him with hurt, like she couldn’t believe he just between her and her soon-to-be cause of death. “This is dangerous and you know Mommy doesn’t you to mess around with these until you’re old enough.”
“I’m old enough.”
“Can you ride a bike without training wheels?”
She pouted. “I’m old enough.” She pressed and tried to wiggle her way around Tony but he just caught her hands playfully, blocking her further. She whimpered and let her lip wobble pitifully. That girl was a master when it came to making people do as she said. Fortunately, Tony had a few years of dealing with her under his belt. “Daddy, I just want to warm up Mrs. Buttercup’s tea because Unicorn Phill dropped ice inside and now it’s too cold for her and she can’t drink it. And if she can’t drink it, we can’t continue.”
Tony lifted at eyebrow. “Why don’t you try using your imagination to solve it, then?” He tried. Morgan pulled her hands away from him and stomped her little foot, her head turning away from Tony dramatically. God, she was such a drama queen, it was hilarious when he wasn’t beyond tired. “Or you can pour her a new glass of tea?”
“We’re out of tea.” She objected like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And then she pitter-pattered back to her corner, her pout still on her face. Tony sighed and sank back in his chair, his eyes closing. He would have been a lot more energized had he just been sleeping enough instead of wasting his time trying to come to the bottom of this Peter Parker business. But he couldn’t let it go. Especially now that the boy apparently came up with ideas that Tony’s nonexistent son came up with.
He rolled his head backwards and tried to remind himself that this was just a mystery he would laugh at later because surely there was an explanation behind all of this. Maybe someone tricked FRIDAY? Maybe she understood something he said the wrong way? Maybe she was lagging a little after all. She was a program. She could be mistaken sometimes, as much as Tony didn’t like that idea.
The ding of the elevator made Tony open his eyes and he stared as the numbers over it indicated that it was going down from his floor. A glance towards the corner revealed Morgan’s empty corner, the girl nowhere in sight. He jumped to his feet immediately and ran towards the elevator, watching the numbers of the floors to know where the girl went exactly. His breath caught a little when he saw that the elevator stopped on the interns lab.
“FRIDAY!”
“On it.” The AI said immediately and the elevator came back up, probably ignoring the people who called it earlier on. They were going to get a little annoyed but Tony needed to get to his daughter who decided to angrily wander off in the tower where she could get hurt. Of course, she went to a place filled with young people who seemed to like her enough, but Tony could never be too careful. Or worried. God, what was she thinking?!
The moment the elevator came back, Tony practically threw himself into it and grumbled to FRIDAY something about not allowing Morgan access to other floors unless she was with a responsible adult. The AI confirmed it and then Tony just waited until the doors opened again to reveal the familiar lab of the interns. They didn’t look too confused at his appearance there this time – probably because Morgan was already there, in the corner of the room, hand clapping Peter Parker slowly as he seemed to teach her how to follow the correct order of the claps.
Wasn’t she pouting about not getting to play with a lighter only two minutes ago??
The other interns followed Tony as he approached the corner slowly but didn’t say anything. Peter and Morgan, though, were too focused on the task at hand. Morgan was struggling to follow the instructions, but Peter didn’t seem to mind and just helped reminding her of the next movements every time with a patient smile and a look that almost reminded Tony of love even though it had to be adoration because this kid couldn’t love his daughter – he didn’t know her.
“Alright, let’s try again.” Peter suggested and Morgan bounced on her toes excitedly, bobbing her head up and down as she readied her hands with sparkling eyes. “Okay, so left, right, one-up, one-down, grab,” He chuckled a little when Morgan tried to take her hand away and he had to chase after her to keep her in place. The girl giggled. “Okay, grab, down-grab, slap – your thigh, Mo, not your face – click, clap-left, clap-right and then again.”
“I’m doing it!” Morgan grinned as they tried it again, Peter still telling Morgan what to do as they went. It was sloppy and definitely not the best, but she was getting better the longer Peter worked with her. Tony glanced at his computer screen and noticed the boy wasn’t even busy before Morgan came down – he was playing some new video game and since he was in the corner nobody could notice it. Nice. “Petey, Petey! I’m doing it!”
“That’s right. You’re amazing!” Peter laughed and then dramatically leaned back with a loud exhale as he shook his hands like they hurt. “Alright, that’s enough for now. I think I need some time to recover. You’re really strong, si – “ He cut himself off when he noticed Tony and a blush covered his face immediately. He looked away shyly and his hands fell limply by his sides. He looked saddened, all of a sudden, and Morgan tilted her head in confusion.
She nudged his leg with her foot. “What’s wrong?” She asked.
Clearing his throat, Tony watched as Morgan turned around to him and then smiled and waved like she didn’t just run off on her own to see a kid that Tony was more than a little suspicious about. “And what do you think you’re doing down here, buddy?” He asked, trying to go for both intimidating and amused.
The girl shrugged. “I needed the torchy thing so I asked Peter to give me one,” She said. The boy’s eyes widened a little and he tried to sink into his seat even more, his hands coming up to cover his face. “But he promised to teach me a new game instead. Here, Dad, wanna see?” She held out her hands like she was expecting him to just go for it. Glancing around, Tony saw the eyes of every intern in the lab trained on them. Oh, what the hell.
He held out his hands, not exactly sure about what he was supposed to do exactly. Morgan looked a little unsure, too, because she nudged Peter again until he peeked at her and asked him to remind her what to do. He looked mortified at the prospect of teaching Tony and Morgan how to play, but it looked like he couldn’t stand Morgan’s puppy dog eyes any better than Tony could so he dropped his hands and then went right back to reciting the words. At first he faintly moved Morgan’s hands around to help her, but eventually he let go and Tony found himself playing with his daughter in the middle of the interns lab.
It was kind of fun. It felt… it felt like he’s done it before. His eyes drifted over to Peter who watched Morgan and then moved on to stare at Tony with this faraway look in his eyes, like he was remembering something. When their eyes locked, Peter didn’t look away immediately, instead seemingly trying to convey something to Tony, like a secret that he couldn’t put into words.
“Boss, you have a meeting in three minutes.” FRIDAY chimed in.
Tony and everyone else looked up at the ceiling except for Peter who immediately withdrew from Morgan and him again, looking at the screen of his computer a little like he wanted it to just kill him with radiation or something else that could potentially end the kid’s life. Tony’s eyes went over to Morgan who scrunched up her nose, already knowing how boring those meetings were. Ugh, if only Tony didn’t have to go to them, either, but those were the days where Tony got to look after Morgan instead of Pepper and it was summer so unless they found someone to look after Morgan, they had to take her. Usually Happy could do it, but he was busy, taking a day off to visit the grave of that woman he used to date –
Tony’s mind screeched to a halt. The woman’s name was May. May Parker. He remembered that perfectly. She and Happy met each other through Spider-Man, even though Tony had no idea what the connection between May and Spidey was. She died last year in one of Spider-Man’s fights, in Happy’s building. It was hard on Happy. Really, really hard. The first time to he talked to Tony about it after the man woke up from the coma he was under ever since the Snap, Happy told Tony about this kid that was at the grave and that claimed to know May through Spider-Man, too.
May Parker. Peter Parker. That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
“Peter, right?” Tony turned to the boy, not allowing himself to think too hard about his decision. The kid opened his mouth to reply and then quickly snapped it back shut, his eyes wide open in shock. “As you must have heard, I have somewhere to be, and it’s pretty boring for a kid, most of the time, so would you do me a favor and look after this little angel for two hours?”
Peter glanced down at Morgan who grinned so wide, Tony would have been hurt had he not known how much she disliked those dull meetings Tony and Pepper dragged her to. “Uh… sure?” The kid shrugged, sounding uncertain. Tony patted him on the back and then pointed a finger at his daughter before warning her not to be a bother. She promised and then conveniently jumped up to sit in Peter’s lap like she belonged there. The boy just welcomed her with a smile.
And with that, Tony left. He might take a little longer than two hours since after the meeting he had to find out more about the connection between May Parker and Peter Parker. There had to be something there. He had to find it.
There was nothing. No evidence of the woman knowing a kid his age, no pictures or photos of them together. No nothing! It was still like the kid didn’t exist. But something in Tony told him that the two of them knew each other before the woman died. That Peter and May were close and that Tony was supposed to KNOW about it all, and yet didn’t for some reason. It was like a curtain was pulled over his eyes, preventing Tony from seeing the truth.
It was annoying.
After finding absolutely nothing, Tony gave up, took Morgan out of Peter’s hands – they were mixing some kind of white substance together in a flask and Tony decided to trust Peter’s judgement with that – and he took Morgan back home to the lake house. She was exhausted after hours of playing with Peter and under Pepper’s questioning gaze the girl ate quietly, took a shower and went to sleep without even making a fuss about it. That was a nice side effect.
Once the girl was safely tucked in bed, Tony turned to Pepper and just told her everything. He didn’t want to get Peter kicked out because the kid was obviously brilliant according to his work and he had something about him… Tony didn’t want to see him leave. But this was getting weirder and weirder and Tony couldn’t hide this from Pepper anymore.
At first she was agitated with Tony for keeping such a thing from her and claimed they HAD to at least question the kid thoroughly to make sure he wasn’t planted in their company somehow. But then Tony showed her a picture of him that FRIDAY took and it was like a switch went off in Pepper’s brain. She paused her rant about how dangerous this all was and stared at the kid with eyes that kept on widening. Tony was surprised to see tears welling there and by the looks of it, Pepper was just as taken aback when her hand came up to her face and returned with liquid on it.
“I don’t understand.” She muttered, giving Tony a confused look while wiping the tears away quickly.
“Yeah, me neither. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Unheard of.” Tony stared at the picture of Peter along with Pepper and then furrowed his eyebrows and leaned his hands on the table the hologram FRIDAY showed them flickered above. “FRI, you mentioned something about a son?”
Pepper looked a little affronted by this, probably thinking FRIDAY found some kind of illegitimate child of Tony from before they got together, somehow, but he knew this couldn’t be it. It couldn’t. “Yes, boss. According to my database, you and Mrs. Potts had a child on August 10th, 2001.” She said. Pepper and Tony both glanced at each other and then stared back at the screen. So the AI continued. “On February 2nd, 2006 he wandered off and disappeared. You filed a missing person report and the police tried to find him but you only found him in 2016.”
He didn’t know about Pepper, but Tony’s heart was beating loudly in his chest. He wanted to shove it all away and claim it wasn’t true because how could all of these things be legitimate when Tony remembered none of it? But it was FRIDAY and she was never wrong. Plus, Tony had this deep gut feeling that told him to listen and believe because it was all true, whether or not it was insane. And oh boy, was this insane.
“FRIDAY, where has he been all this time?” Pepper asked, sounding heartbroken and confused. She probably felt the same way, after all. Tony could see it in her eyes, the deep need to know more because this was so much more than just a fantasy or a bug in the system. Something went horribly wrong for them to forget a futile part of their family like that. “What happened to him?”
“He was found by Hogarth McAnuff who brought him into the system. Richard and Mary Parker adopted him and after they died, Richard Parker’s brother and sister-in-law took him in until you found him there.” She said.
Tony gripped the edge of the table so hard, his knuckles went white. “Was his aunt’s name May Parker?”
“Yes.”
Oh, God.
Tony huffed in disbelief. “FRIDAY, have you got information about him?? Have you had it all along and just chose not to tell me anything??” He asked. When the AI said that he didn’t ask her before, he buried his face in his hands. Pepper’s hand landed on his shoulder blade comfortingly and she looked at him before at the screen.
“FRIDAY, show us everything you have on him, please.” She asked and then read whatever FRIDAY brought up to Tony who felt too exhausted by the heavy burden of simply forgetting all of this. “Peter Parker. He was born as Peter Stark but when Mary and Richard adopted him they must have changed his name. God, Tony, I don’t think they knew that they were basically kidnapping him.” She said. Tony hummed. “They died in a plane crash when he was seven and he moved to live with May and Ben Parker. Ben Parker was then… murdered when Peter was fourteen.” She swallowed. “Tony, Peter was there when it happened.”
This was getting better and better, wasn’t it?
Pepper was quiet for a moment. “Oh.” She said. Tony peeked up and read over everything she already went through before he got to the new information. The notes about how Tony came across the kid when he came to recruit him for that stupid fight against Cap all those years ago because apparently the kid was also Spider-Man. “Oh, my God, Tony.” Pepper said. And yeah, that pretty much summed his feelings and thoughts, too. Just… oh, my God. Holy shit, maybe.
That was why Morgan remembered Tony telling her so many stories about Spider-Man. Something must have made them all forget the kid, but Morgan remembered the stories. She somehow knew more about the kid than Pepper and Tony combined. And according to Tony’s memories and FRIDAY’s report, the kid died on Titan from the Snap, right before Morgan was born. He missed the first five years of the girl’s life! That was his sister!
And she knew that. She right over to Peter the first time she went to the interns lab. Tony didn’t understand it. He didn’t know why Morgan remembered more than both her parents and he didn’t understand why they forgot the kid in the first place, but as freaky and unnatural as it sounded, Tony knew deep down that it was true. That it was all facts and not some kind of cruel joke from the universe. Well, maybe it was a cruel joke from the universe, but it was also very much real.
Pepper slumped in the chair in front of the table, her hand in her hair. “Now what?”
Good question.
“There has to be a mistake here.” May said, her eyes moving between Tony, Pepper and Peter who sat by her side, his eyes downcast and his fingers twitching. He hasn’t said a word yet, which made Tony feel like he was going to combust, but no one was going to pressure the kid, either. “There has to. His name is Peter Parker. I get that your son’s name was Peter, but it doesn’t mean they’re the same person.”
Tony and Pepper looked at each other sadly. They’ve looked into it. Richard and Mary Parker had no idea what they were doing – they thought they were just adopting a random kid who had no family. May Parker certainly had no idea about everything that was in the kid’s background. It must have hurt to hear that the kid that she raised was actually one that had a family and has just been taken from them. Tony knew what it felt like to be torn apart from your kid. Pepper and he weren’t going to do the same thing to May, though.
“The fingerprints match, Ms. Parker.” Tony said, trying to sound as sympathetic as possible while also feeling strangely giddy because that was his kid on the other side of the table. That was his child that was looking down, a faraway look on his face. “I’m sorry you have to find out this way. I wish you didn’t have to…” He didn’t know how to finish the sentence so he trailed off.
Pepper leaned in a little, trying to keep her eyes off Peter for longer than five seconds and terribly failing. “We know better than anyone what it feels like to have your world shaken up from its core, May.” She said. The woman pursed her lips but there was no hate or malice in her expression. Just resignation. She knew they were telling the truth. She knew they were in the right. She thought they were going to take the kid away from her forever. “Do you need a glass of water? I could get you something. Maybe something else. Anything you need.”
Burying her face in her hands, May Parker shook her head from side to side, looking lost. “This can’t be. It can’t be. I don’t understand.” She mumbled quietly, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.
Head lifting up, Peter looked at the woman and then at Tony and Pepper. Tony expected some kind of resistance. He expected the kid to look at them like they were the people that would end his life. He expected anger from the kid because it looked like Pepper and Tony were about to tear him away from the woman that’s been by his side, taking care of him like he was her own.
But all Tony could see was that look he could never forget, the one Peter gave him all those years ago after he slipped and fell. His scrapped his knee and it bled a little so Pepper cleaned it, which made Peter clench his teeth and hiss in pain, and then Tony bandaged it. The look Peter gave him then was of so much trust, like he was willing to put his life in their hands without batting an eye.
With a sigh, but without taking his eyes off Pepper and Tony, Peter rubbed May’s back slowly, comfortingly. “Aunt May? May, I’m so sorry.” He whispered to her, but in the small room Tony and Pepper could hear it. “I didn’t…” He shut his mouth for a moment and May lifted her head to look at him, her eyes shining. “It’s true.” He told her and then looked back at Tony and Pepper. “I remember.”
That dream haunted him. That… that memory. It had to be a memory. It felt like something his brain just found. Tony woke up with that image of Peter’s eyes locked on his, admitting that he knew what he was to Pepper and Tony. He knew they were telling the truth. And he seemed to trust them even after they lost track of him. But what happened afterwards? What did they do? What happened to May? What did Peter do??
He had no answers because his memories were seemingly gone. And by the looks of it, Pepper had a similar experience because she woke up with this grave expression before she looked at Tony and they both agreed without sharing any words that they were going to the tower together today. They had an intern to talk to.
The interns didn’t get excited this time. Well, maybe just a little. They looked at Tony, then looked at Peter in the back where the kid looked like he wanted to just disappear, and then turned back to their work, looking absolutely done with whatever it was that was going on between Tony and Peter. At least the kid had the decency to look guilty as he ducked his head and typed furiously on the computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
After what felt like eternity but was probably five minutes of intense silence and of Tony just staring at Peter who wrote lines of code thoughtlessly, the kid sighed and grumbled something to himself before he spared Tony a look, wary and unsure. His hand gripped a takeaway cup of coffee that was definitely still full, but also very cold. “Morgan’s not here, Mr. Stark.” He said, like that was the only reason Tony could come down here.
“I know.” The billionaire replied and Peter’s fingers froze over the keys, his eyes locked on the screen but his gaze contemplative. Tony kicked the leg of his chair lightly, making the kid shudder and then turn to look at him, wariness morphing into apprehension, like a person who didn’t want to believe something was happening. Didn’t want to give in to hope. “She’s back home with Happy, probably talking his ears off and making him wish he’d said no to babysitting her.”
A smile appeared on Peter’s face before the boy ducked his head again, hands falling to his lap. Tony thought back to the trust in his eyes in that dream. That memory. The kid trusted him back then without even knowing much about Tony and it’s been a while since that happened. It’s been a while and Tony believed they’d spent some of it together, so Peter knew him. Well, it looked like he didn’t forget everything, so Tony mostly HOPED they knew each other. And if the kid trusted him without even being close to him, then Tony wanted to believe he would trust him now, too.
Clearing his throat, Tony pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. Peter’s smile faded. “We need to talk to you for a moment.” He thought about it. “Maybe more. Probably more.”
The kid looked a little panicked. “We?”
Tony’s first instinct was to put a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down but while the kid automatically seemed drawn to the touch as he leaned into it, his eyes widened even more and he looked at Tony like he was scared or worried or alarmed or… or… Tony didn’t know what to call the look in Peter’s eyes, but it wasn’t very subtle that he wasn’t calming down anytime soon.
Without saying much else, Tony basically dragged Peter out of the lab and into the elevator that sailed upwards with the two of them silently staring at the doors. Tony wasn’t sure what he was feeling – something between annoyed that the kid was obviously aware of everything, unlike others, or glad that he was going to sort it all out – but Peter was definitely longing to be someplace else. He stared at the doors like he was willing them to stay closed forever.
But they did open and after Tony stepped out into the penthouse, Peter very reluctantly dragged his feet after him, eyes glancing up to notice Pepper who was pacing a little in front of the couch. Then Peter looked down again, lips pursing. Pepper stared at him and reached out a hand as if to touch him before she caught herself and immediately drew back to look at Tony and try and see ho this was going so far. He shrugged. She didn’t look very pleased.
When no one said anything, Peter started shuffling his feet awkwardly, his hands tilting by his side like he wasn’t sure what to do with them. He looked sideways as if expecting someone to just show up out of nowhere and then his lips pulled down in frustration. He lifted his head to face the two adults in the room and then looked back down quickly, like their eyes were poisoned.
“You know, I wouldn’t have believed in magic had I not met Doctor Strange,” Tony said, breaking the silence. Pepper groaned a little but didn’t interrupt. Peter looked up at them again, eyes darting from one person to the other quickly. “And sure, I don’t know how to identify magic, but I’m pretty sure that when everyone just randomly forgets a person, it’s related to magic. And I swear, if that wizard is behind this, I’m going to – “
Peter froze. “Y-you remember?” He asked, voice so small and fragile, Tony could almost see the string of hope attached to him, pulling a little.
Smiling sadly, Pepper made a so-so gesture with her hand. Peter bit his lip. “FRIDAY remembers.” She said. Peter mumbled an ‘I know’ that didn’t help his case at all. “And Morgan remembers the stories we told her about you before, so Tony looked into it.” She said. Peter gulped and looked down again, drawing invisible lines on the floor with his foot. “And there’s this… feeling.” She continued. Peter stopped moving his foot but despite not looking at them, it was clear he was listening intently. “Like I know you. Like we know you.”
He looked at her, the hope in his eyes thickening. Tony sniffed. “And I do remember something.” He said. Pepper and Peter snapped their heads in his direction. “That first conversation with May,” Peter exhaled shakily and Tony could see the way Pepper’s hand twitched by her side. “At the tower. We just figured out who you were – “
“And you told May and she freaked out,” Peter sniffed but chuckled a little. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and then rugged at his shirt. He stared up at Tony, his eyes wide. “How do you remember that? I thought the spell made sure no one could remember me.”
Tony shrugged and then narrowed his eyes a little. “What spell?” He asked. Peter hesitated. “Look, we already know who you are – FRIDAY told us everything we need to know, kiddo.”
“We just want to know why we don’t… have all of those memories anymore.” Pepper added. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears and Peter stared at her in alarm. “I want to know why Morgan remembers her brother but I didn’t even remember I had another kid.”
So Peter told them. He said that before the Snap he spent his time with them or with Aunt May pretty much equally, but then Thanos happened and when Peter came back Tony was in a coma and Pepper worried about him and had Morgan to take care of so Peter just drifted towards May more and stayed away. He looked embarrassed to admit that he didn’t want to be around Morgan back then because she was something she wasn’t used to and so he never actually met her, but then he also said it was probably why the stories in her mind didn’t get erased – they were stories and nothing more.
Anyway, Peter stayed with his aunt, went on a trip, battled some guy that used to work for Tony once and that wanted revenge and eventually, before he died, shared a video that revealed Peter’s identity to everyone and made him look like he was a murderer. Pepper tried to help but with Morgan, the company and Tony still in a coma it was hard to do much so Peter and May dealt with most of it. But people still didn’t like him, which meant he couldn’t get accepted to college and neither could his friends. The three of them got rejected from every single place they tried because of who Peter was.
So he went to Doctor Strange to make everyone forget who Spider-Man was, but he messed up the spell and the world was breaking or something – Tony was really beginning to question his sanity at this point – so Peter was forced to make the decision to make everyone forget who he was.
“And I went to find my friends and explain everything to them all over again, but you should have seen how happy they were about finally getting accepted to MIT!” Peter threw his hands in the air and paced in front of them. Pepper and Tony looked at each other and then back at him. “They were so… happy without me to ruin their lives. So I didn’t… um… I didn’t tell them. And I didn’t tell you. And May died so I didn’t need to…” He sniffled. “Anyway, I just needed some money to pay for an apartment and I came here to just… see if FRIDAY remembered me, and when she did she kinda just gave this internship and I sort of… went with it?” He turned to look at them when they remained quiet. “Are you okay?”
Tony opened and closed his mouth a few times, no sound coming out. Pepper cleared her throat with a small smile on her face. “It’s just a lot to take in, honey.” She explained and Peter sheepishly nodded.
“It-it’s okay. I don’t need anything from you. I just… I basically have everything I need to get by so you don’t need to, like, do anything. I can just go back to my place and you can forget about all of this because I know this is a bit much and, I mean, Morgan is awesome. You don’t need to worry about another kid, so – Besides, I still have this thing I promised MJ I’d help her with – she’s my… she WAS my girlfriend. Before. Uh…”
“You are not going anywhere, kid.” Tony stated firmly. Peter tilted his head and stared at him, clearly caught off guard. “Are you out of your mind? You think that after having ten years of not knowing where you were, we’re just going to let you disappear again?” He scoffed and narrowed his eyes threateningly at Peter when the boy opened his mouth to protest. “Uh, uh, uh! I don’t wanna hear it. If it’s not an affirmation that you’re gonna come home with your family – family, Peter! – then you’re not allowed to say it.”
Pepper elbowed him when Peter just stared at him and then smiled at the kid warmly. “What he’s trying to say is that we don’t want you out of our lives, Pete.” She said. Peter’s eyes brightened. “And I’m sure Morgan would be thrilled to have you over. She’s been talking about you for ages.” His smile widened. “And I bet your friends would want to hear the truth from you, too, you know?”
He looked down and then back up at them. “I…” He swallowed. “I don’t know.”
She smiled at him. “It’s okay, honey.” She crossed the room before Tony could understand what was happening and her arms wrapped around Peter. The boy was stunned for a moment before Tony heard his quiet sobs, hands coming up to envelope Pepper in a hug. Tony didn’t quite join the hug, but he did put a hand on the kid’s back. “You don’t have to know. We’re taking the pressure off your shoulders, now.”
Tony wasn’t sure, but he was pretty certain the kid was using his freaky spider-powers to stick to them. And strangely enough, the billionaire didn’t have any problem with that.