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All in all, Peter’s day had been pretty good. Ned had gotten a new Lego set for them to build, his first date with MJ was coming up soon, and so far his patrol had been nice, if uneventful. He had been able to help a few old ladies across the street, returned another stolen bike, and was currently sitting on a rooftop overlooking the city.
Peter had to admit that his life was finally looking up. He had gotten so used to worrying about eating too much for May to afford that he was always hungry, or coming home with bruises that he had to hide, or worrying what May would do when she found out about Spider-Man. However, when May actually did find out, after the whole homecoming fiasco, it went a lot better than expected. She let him keep being Spider-Man, on the condition that wasn’t out for more than three hours on school nights, finished all his homework, and didn’t try to hide injuries.
She also yelled at Mr. Stark, which he worried would be the end of any support he might have gotten from his hero, but it actually resulted in him having a real internship (paid, on Mr. Stark’s insistence, and well enough to cover the food worry). Three days a week he would visit the Tower to train, work on his suit (or any other random project they thought of), and sometimes just hang out.
He was actually getting somewhat close to Mr. Stark. It was beginning to go beyond just mentor and mentee to something more that he was honestly too afraid to name. Besides, there was no way that Tony Freaking Stark felt the same way about him. Maybe he acted almost… fatherly sometimes, but that was just him being nice. There was no reason for Peter to see anything more in it.
Anyway, it was almost 8 o’clock, and his 3 hour time limit was coming to an end, when Karen stated, “Peter, Protocol Spidey Share has been initiated.” Spidey Share was one of the first protocols he had added to Karen once Mr. Stark taught him how to modify her code. It was simple, but useful. Any time there were more than 3 articles published about Spider-Man or Peter Parker in a 10 minute interval, or if there were any articles that mentioned both Spider-Man and Peter Parker, he was notified. It was an easy way to keep track of the rumor mill without having to Google himself all the time. If something about him was deemed important enough to be published 3 separate times in a short interval, he would know.
That’s why he was somewhat surprised that the protocol came up, considering that he hadn’t really done anything interesting recently as Spider-Man, and there was no reason for three articles to be published about Peter Parker scoring a date with his crush. “Pull them up on my phone,” he requested Karen. He pulled his prototype StarkPhone out of a nano-tech pocket on his side. He quickly entered the passcode, and opened the web browser to see what articles Karen had flagged.
He nearly choked.
Right there, in big bold letters, “ Peter Parker - Tony Stark’s Secret Heir? ”
What?
Had someone found out about the internship and misunderstood what “personal intern to Tony Stark” meant? Because he certainly wasn’t Mr. Stark’s heir . Why were people even looking at Peter Parker, rather than Spider-Man, as he had initially assumed?
He shook his head and kept reading. The first paragraph was a discussion of the history of Stark Industries- all stuff he already knew. The second revealed that a mid-level, but ambitious, SI employee had been suspicious about Peter’s place in the company, and how a high schooler had managed to score such a prestigious internship. The employee, accordingly, decided to do some research.
This didn’t necessarily surprise Peter. He had visited different parts of the company a few times (a few times every few weeks) to help with things, and he always got odd and vaguely mistrustful looks until Mr. Stark came in and told the actual interns/employees to listen to him. The fact that someone was suspicious of him wasn’t in and of itself that surprising, but deciding to research him? That was a bit much.
His eyes widened as he kept reading:
“The SI employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, compared photos of the young Parker to his ‘mentor’ and realized that they shared many distinct facial similarities, from their eyes to their face shape. Curiosity piqued, the employee managed to get a swab of both Parker and Stark’s DNA and compared them in an SI lab.
The test revealed a 96% chance of paternity.”
Peter dropped his phone into his lap. 96% chance of paternity . Considering his spider DNA, the percentage was actually probably higher. 96% was already enough for almost any law enforcement agency. If the test was accurate… Mr. Stark was his dad .
It felt like his world was crashing down on him. Had the employee lied? Was the test wrong? There was no way that he was actually Mr. Stark’s… Mr. Stark’s son. It was impossible. That was way too crazy of a coincidence. There was No. Way.
But- he had known for years that Richard Parker wasn’t his biological father. It was fairly obvious when he considered that he really didn’t look like either of his parents, the dates really didn’t line up, and his blood type couldn’t come from his supposed parents’. But not being Richard Parker’s son didn’t make it any more likely that he was Tony Stark’s .
Except that all of Mr. Stark’s friends say he looks like a young Tony. One time, he made some smart alec remark to Happy, and the man replied jokingly in a quiet prayer, “I can’t handle two of them.” And there was the way that they worked together. They were seamless in a way that he hadn’t been with anyone else, not even Ned. They almost intuitively understood one another once they got past Peter’s initial awkwardness.
He would be lying if he said that he didn’t think of Mr. Stark somewhat paternally, but it was still way too bizarre of a coincidence. And there was no way that Mr. Stark thought of him the same way. He wasn’t worth having a billionaire superhero for a dad. And now… there was no way that Mr. Stark hadn’t seen these articles. Even if it was all made up, Peter couldn’t help but wonder if Mr. Stark would send him away.
Just then, he got a text from the man in question, “Hey kid. Mind coming over? I can have Happy pick you up.”
He froze. This had to be about the articles. He wished that he could get a read on Mr. Stark, but the message was vague and he had no clue whether or not there was anger behind it. Was this where Mr. Stark was going to tell him that he wasn’t welcome ever again? He knew he was probably overreacting, but a large part of his brain was too scared to lose this thing they had, whatever it was. But it wasn’t like he could just ignore the summons. Mr. Stark could fly himself over to Peter if he really wanted to.
He texted back with the same vague tone, “I’ll just swing over. I’m not too far.” Mostly, he didn’t really want Happy to pick him up. For one, it would take longer in NYC traffic and he knew that the longer he put this conversation off the more he would spiral.
But mostly, he didn’t want to be a burden to the man who could maybe potentially be his dad. He liked to think that Mr. Stark actually wanted to hang out with him, but he only started because Aunt May yelled at him. What if Peter was only a job to Mr. Stark? He wanted Mr. Stark to know that he didn’t want to be a burden. Especially if he was actually the man’s son, as unlikely as it was. He didn’t hang out with Mr. Stark to get the man’s money. He hung out with Mr. Stark because they were… something to each other.
He sighed, put his phone up, and started swinging to the Tower. The way over was shorter than he would have liked, as some part of him wanted to delay this conversation for as long as possible. However, he had soon landed on the Tower’s overhang. He walked inside, retracting his nano-tech suit (and would Mr. Stark make him give it back if he decided he didn’t want anything to do with Peter?), to see the man sitting on the couch, looking almost nervous.
“Hey kid,” Mr. Stark said, not quite smiling, briefly meeting his eyes before looking away. “Hi,” he responded, joining his mentor on the other side of the couch, feeling awkward around the man in a way that he hadn’t since they first met.
Mr. Stark broke the silence first. “So I’m guessing you saw the articles?” he asked. Peter nodded slowly. So this was about… that. At least he knew that much about how the conversation would go. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out the main question on his mind, meeting his mentor’s eyes again, “Is it true?”
He looked away, mentally kicking himself. There was no way it was true, as much as he sort of wanted it to be, and now he was just increasing his chances of getting kicked out forever. At the very least, he was making things more awkward, and he really didn’t want to do that when he was already concerned about their relationship ending. But sitting next to Mr. Stark, he couldn’t deny that they at least looked a little bit similar. (And they both were obviously not comfortable with this conversation.)
But that wasn’t definitive proof. Not even close. Lots of people looked similar. This conversation would be weird for anyone.
Before he could start rambling about how it was probably impossible but he just wanted to know for sure and he was sorry for asking, Mr. Stark interrupted his thoughts with a quiet, “Yeah, kid. It is.”
He looked up again at that, this time holding his mentor’s (dad’s?) gaze. For a moment, it felt like the world stood still and the only thought echoing around in his head was, “We have the same eyes.” He had Tony Stark’s eyes . He felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack as he fought back his new major identity crisis. He was Tony Stark’s son. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed before. It felt like staring into a mirror. The same eyes reflected back at him. The same intellect hidden behind them, just older, and maybe guiltier? Why would Mr. Stark be guilty? Unless…
“Did you know?” Mr. Stark broke eye contact, and time started again. It had come out more accusatory than he meant it to, but he felt that he should get a pass based on the fact that he just found out his mentor was actually his biological father.(!) He still felt bad, seeing the flash of hurt and guilt on Mr. Stark’s face.
Mr. Stark didn’t answer for a moment, but finally stated, “I found out about a couple months ago. Rhodey kept saying that you were like a mini-me, and I finally decided to check, just to be sure.” He huffed out a quick laugh, “I uh. I didn’t get the result I was expecting. That was right before I gave you a raise. Decided that I should probably do something to make up for 15 years of lost child support payments.”
Peter remembered that day. Mr. Stark had been… off, in a way that Peter couldn’t quite pinpoint. Finally, worried that he had done something wrong, he asked what the deal was. Looking back, he could almost see Mr. Stark deciding whether or not to tell him the truth in the split second of hesitation before he announced that Peter hadn’t done anything wrong, and he had actually decided that his “super-intern deserved a raise to cover the cost of an increased metabolism.”
The feeling of something being off didn’t go away, but Peter eventually decided that it probably didn’t have anything to do with him and it probably wasn’t his business, so he just accepted it as normal.
Now, knowing that it not only had something to do with him, but it was important enough to make him question his entire sense of self, it hurt that Mr. Stark hadn’t told him. That was enough confirmation that Mr. Stark didn’t want him and was only keeping him around because of a sense of duty.
Well. He didn’t want Mr. Stark to feel like he had to take care of Peter now that they both knew, so he started quietly rambling, trying to cover up his hurt, “Oh. I understand if you don’t want me around then. I mean, I know I’m kind of a loser and I really don’t deserve to be your son so I can go now and you won’t have to see me again and I-.”
Mr. Stark cut him off with a hand on his shoulder. He looked back into the eyes that eerily matched his. The older man was rarely comfortable with physical affection. Anything closer than a high five was rare between them. Maybe the hand on his shoulder was an indication that he was wrong? Either way, it worked to cut off his rambles.
Still maintaining piercing eye contact, Mr. Stark stated forcefully, “Peter, I would be honored to have you as my son. Even if you don’t want that, know that you are worth everything to me, and I will always be proud of you.”
Peter didn’t see any hint of deception from the older man, and his Spidey Sense usually told him when people were lying to him, but that didn’t explain why his mentor hadn’t told him from the get-go. If Mr. Stark actually wanted him as a son, he would have told Peter the truth so they could get to that point.
Biting his lip, he finally asked, “Why didn’t you tell me, then?”
The guilty look returned to his mentor’s face, but Peter had to know. He didn’t want to bother Mr. Stark if he didn’t really want him around. He didn’t want to accept the man’s words now, accept this relationship, until he knew that Mr. Stark wouldn’t leave him at the first excuse.
He couldn’t lose another parent.
Even if he wasn’t technically related to Richard or Ben Parker, they were still his parents. May was the only one of his guardians who had never abandoned him in some way, and he didn’t know if he could take another heartbreak.
Mr. Stark replied, full of ashamed honesty, “Kid, there was a reason your mom never told me about you. I’m not exactly father-of-the-year material. I’m a mess. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted nothing to do with me. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to lose our relationship. I would love to be your dad, but being your mentor is better than never seeing you again.”
That didn’t make any sense. Why would The Tony Stark think that Peter wouldn’t want him as a dad? Peter had looked up to Mr. Stark for as long as he could remember. First as a scientist, later as a superhero, and finally as his mentor.
He would be ecstatic to have Mr. Stark as his dad.
And that wasn’t even considering that he already sort of did think of the man as a dad. He, in all honesty, didn’t know what having a dad really felt like, but he imagined that it was something like how he felt when Mr. Stark bought him an extra pizza to account for his heightened metabolism or told him that he did good on a project they were working on.
Looking at his mentor, he finally admitted what he’d been wanting to say for months, “I- I’ve thought of you as a sort of father figure for a while now, but I thought you didn’t feel the same, so I didn’t say anything about it, but anyway what I’m trying to say is that I want to give this a shot. Like this father-son thing. If you want to, too.” He bit his lip, still fearing rejection despite just hearing that Mr. Stark had wanted him as his son since he found out as well.
It stung that Mr. Stark hadn’t told him, but he couldn’t fault the reasoning when he was scared for the exact same reason.
Mr. Stark stilled, and all of the sudden he was being pulled into one of the best hugs of his life. “Alright, kid. Let’s do this,” his dad said. He grinned from ear to ear against Mr. Stark’s shirt because he had a dad . A dad who was alive and cared about him and wanted to be around him and that he already loved. And his dad wanted him. It was more than he could have hoped for.
His dad pulled back from the hug after a minute and stated, “You know we’re going to have to do a press conference or something, since the internet seems to already know about you.” Peter nodded. As much as he didn’t want to be in the spotlight, it was probably unavoidable at this point. He was worried about what that meant for Spider-Man, but he would make it work. He looked at his dad, and he had a funny feeling that it would all turn out alright.
Before they started getting into the next steps, Peter had one more thing to say. “I love you, dad.”
Peter actually heard his dad’s heart skip a beat, before he said, “I love you too, son.”