Chapter Text
Tony Stark had never been that close to his father. Howard had never done the fatherly love thing; instead Tony had been dragged up under the firm hand of Jarvis. He had admired the way the older man had tried to keep him on the straight and narrow, a respect that had led to him programming the soothing voice into his AI assistant. He had read the literature, of course he had, he was a genius after all, about the effects of poor parenting on the abilities of the child to raise offspring. It worried him, would he be a bad parent. Not that Howard was awful, just distant.
Tony realised he had been staring at his own hands for well over five minutes. How was he going to sort out this problem? When did he suddenly feel the need to have children in his life? Surely things were more peaceful without mini Stark’s running around the tower. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t have children. He certainly could, he was Tony Stark.
Then it struck him, he didn’t actually like small children, and sure they were cute to look at, all big eyes and bright smiles. But the dribble, he had too many electronics around for that. Also the mess, he could create enough on his own without the added help of little hands. The list against children was growing longer, after all who could look after them when he was in the lab. They were ok to hold for press photos but not to keep. No he would rather hand them back after a few minutes. Then he was struck with a spark of an idea….
“No” was the answer that accompanied the stern look Pepper was giving him as they sat in the living room. She had been idly flicking through some papers when Tony had sidled up to her. From this manoeuvre alone she had known she wasn't going to enjoy the next words that came out of his mouth.
“Oh come on Pep, it’ll be great, me and some teenagers crashing around the tower, what could go wrong?”
“Tony, you might be smart…”
“A genius”
“But you have the mind of a child, mixing teenagers into the equation can only end in disaster” Pepper continued ignoring his interruption. “I mean do you have experience with them at all?” The CEO of Stark industries sighed. She knew she was fighting a losing battle with Tony.
“Well Jarvis has and I mean he raised me so what could possibly go wrong?” Pepper raised one immaculate eyebrow at him. The problem was, that once an idea entered into his head, it was never truly going to go away. That’s how they had ended up with the suits in the first place, not forgetting that one time with the giant rabbit toy. Pepper tried to forget these things but somehow they always came creeping back into her mind. Especially when confronted with an excitable Tony.
“Look, Stark’s home for delinquents sounds a perfect idea. I’ll take in waifs and strays that need somewhere to crash. Teenagers what could go wrong? They won’t drool on things, they can feed themselves, and I have enough money to fund their talents or whatever.”
“You can’t just throw money at every problem you have!” She knew this wasn’t going to be the end of it. Oh no Tony had that gleam in his eye that meant he would go through with this no matter what she said. Now he was smiling at her. She knew it was a lost cause. As long as he didn’t start waggling his eyebrows, she might just be able to maintain her composure.
“Ok fine I’ll look into the legalities of you running a foster home for teenagers but don’t blame me when you are stuck dealing with mood swings and raging hormones.”
Tony literally beamed, rising from his seat to squeeze the woman in a bone-crushing hug. He knew Pepper would get on board with his idea. She always had supported him, that’s why he had put her in charge of his company in the first place.
So it was after some digging into the legal side of setting up a foster home that, Stark’s temporary accommodation for rebellious kids was set up. Not that anything really changed; after all, being a billionaire meant Tony had plenty of rooms to spare in the tower. Now all he was missing was said children. Sorry teenagers, he had made a deal, nobody below the age of twelve. After all, loving families would scoop all the cute ones up in no time at all. He was looking for the ones who would prosper from being in a loving home, ones he could support and lead into adulthood.
Now where was he going to find some teenagers nobody wanted? Was it legal to take them from other foster homes or children’s homes? He guessed it was the best place to start.