Chapter Text
Tony had been monitoring the goings on in Wakanda since he left the hospital AMA after Siberia. Anyone who though he wouldn't, was either stupid or delusional. He'd even done all of the hacking personally, usually keeping a constantly shifting surveillance feed open while he worked in his lab. After the first day or so, Tony gave F.R.I.D.A.Y. the responsibility of monitoring the situation, though he checked in on it every so often. He had a new plethora of entries in his schedule, including Rhodey's surgeries and PT, and non-skipable commitments for SI.
When the AI gave him the first interesting update in the last month, Tony happened to be in Nairobi, Kenya. The particular project he was working on was not exactly a secret, but he was also the only person who knew about it and was involved.
To keep it quiet, Tony had hacked the project into the appropriate place on the SI servers, but marked it as complete so it wouldn't attract attention until profits reached a certain amount annually. Normally, the CEO would have to approve such an endeavor personally, due to the unconventional nature of it, but Pepper hadn't spoken to Tony much since they broke up, and he didn't want to get in her way.
The idea was to provide self-sustaining housing units on the city's outskirts to families from the slums. There was a screening process of sorts, but it mostly consisted of Tony talking to the adult members of the family. In part, the project was a bit of atonement for his many sins, direct help to people who needed it, and an experiment in environmentally friendly living. There was also a financial aspect, SI made charitable investments and donations, but it was first and foremost a for-profit operation.
By Tony's calculations, the excess solar power that could be generated by each unit and subsequently sold, would bring in substantial profit within three years. The building and maintenance gave jobs to the locals, and two of the people with whom he had already spoken had ideas that could be turned into successful SI tech with time.
One man, called Abasi, knew a fair amount about water purification, but had given it up because of difficulty finding work and the need to support his aging parents and 3 children. Kenura, a young woman supporting her 5 siblings, had ideas about solar power that Tony hadn't thought of yet. She had gone to a bit of University on scholarship, but returned when her parents died and the family fortune, what there was of it, had been stolen.
When his monitoring turned up something, Tony was in Nairobi for the third time, working to finalize the regular sale of excess energy from the housing units. His first visit to the country had been to introduce his idea and find interested families, and his second had been to help with and oversee construction. He was not one to shy away from getting down and dirty, so when he could, Tony moved materials, laid out plans, and put in screws alongside the local workers. He had always been a believer in doing things with his own hands. Rhodey suggested that he just didn't trust anyone else to do it right, and there was probably more truth in the theory than Tony would admit.
The third trip came to a close with a dinner cooked by both Kenura and Abasi's families after Tony set up internet for SI's newest employees and connected them with SI scientists overseas whom he trusted to work on the two projects.
The inventor was on his way back to his plane when Friday informed him of the strange turn of events in Wakanda. Calling T'challa was the first order of business, and to Tony's surprise, the King picked up the call personally. "I take it you have learned of the situation here," T'challa began, not doubting for a minute that the inventor had hacked his way through Shuri's robust and usually impenetrable cyber-defenses.
"I'd like to know how it happened," Tony replied.
"Would you be able to come here? I understand it's inconvenient-"
"Don't worry, I'll be there as soon as I can," the inventor interrupted, "I'm in Nairobi. I'll touch down in a few hours."
Not waiting for the King to reply, Tony ended the call, and began the pre-flight check. He had sent the pilot on a first class flight back to the States because he wanted to be alone. As it turned out, sending the man away was a great idea because Tony couldn't have anyone knowing that he was in Wakanda.
Sitting in the cockpit, the inventor took his father's old aviator sunglasses out of a hidden compartment. Howard Stark was a great man, but he wasn't the best parent. He wasn't abusive or neglectful in the legal sense, but he was always working, and never figured out how to connect with his son. The only thing the two had managed to bond over was aviation. Well, that and their love of the Jarvis family.
Howard was a skilled pilot, and he taught Tony every detail of caring for and flying planes. When his parents died, the 17 year old inventor had gone through the process, and got training he didn't need, receiving his pilot's license on his 18th birthday. Looking back, Tony had used the process to grieve for his father, because while he had been fairly close with Maria, he hadn't known Howard very well.
Tony's Aunt Peggy had been very proud of him, and she told him a story about Howard flying Steve into enemy airspace. Hearing about the Captain dampened Tony's mood a bit, but Peggy looked so nostalgic and happy that he didn't have the heart to say anything.
As he took off, the inventor shut off his memories and looked towards the country increasingly far below him. Tony hoped that he would get the chance to come back soon, but he doubted that it would happen; trouble was coming.
Touching down at the King's private airstrip in Wakanda was a lot easier than Tony had expected. Apparently, T'challa had informed the staff of the new arrival, but kept his identity a secret.
Parking the plane in the available hanger, the inventor grabbed his bags and went to meet the waiting representative of the King. It wasn't that he was planning to stay for any length of time, but his bags contained gifts from his friends in Kenya as well as important paperwork and electronics. It was for that reason that he also denied the offer of the representative to carry said bags.
Immediately, Tony was taken to a meeting with T'challa and some of his staff. They explained the situation and asked for his help, which he gave willingly. Once he agreed, they explained the details and Tony began to regret his decision. The King left to perform his kingly duties, and one of the advisors led the inventor to a closed off room. Inside, there were children and an single guard.
One of the room's occupants was standing in the corner with an expression of annoyance, three were crying for their parents, one was threatening another with a knife, and one was sitting on a couch looking incredibly bored.
Seeing what was going on, and that the available adult was not taking action, Tony took control. First, he confiscated the knife and sent both of the kids involved to a separate corners. Next, he picked up the youngest and let her cry on his shoulder, and he gave candy that he'd swiped from a desk somewhere to the other two criers.
"Your a natural!" the advisor exclaimed.
The inventor gave him a look that immediately shut the man up and made him want to question his life choices.
"I hate you," yelled the person on the couch.
"No you don't," the genius said with such finality that commentary ceased altogether.
That was how Tony Stark ended up being the caretaker for 6 children between the ages of 2 and 13.