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Tony wasn’t sure how he was supposed to do this.
It wasn’t every day he told people he had a son. A wonderful, kind, caring and genius son. The best son. He still couldn’t believe it himself; part of him grieved all the years he missed with Peter—he still wished he had known earlier—, but most of him was just overjoyed to be able to call that incredible young man his own.
But now he was faced with the problem of telling May and Pepper.
He had asked Peter if he wanted to be there for it, but the boy had just said that he didn’t care too much and presented him with May’s schedule. Which is how he ended up asking her to come to the tower on a Wednesday while Peter was at school. He’d asked Pepper to block out her time as well, deciding that it was best to just kill two birds with one stone. He still had to tell Happy after that.
And now he was waiting for May to show up. FRIDAY alerted him that she had arrived, but it was taking her longer than usual to get up to the penthouse. He assumed that his wonderful AI had alerted Pepper as well, and they were now heading up together.
He was proven to be right when the lift doors opened to reveal May and Pepper chatting as they exited into the penthouse.
Tony was glad the two of them got along so well; Pepper deserved a friend who didn’t care about her status, someone she could talk about ‘girl stuff’ —as Peter would say—with, and May? May deserved somebody who would always be there for her without any expectations or judgment. The woman had gone through so much and had still managed to raise a wonderful young man while juggling so many things at once. Tony will forever be grateful for her.
“Hey, Honey,” Pepper said, rounding the sofa and sitting in one of the plus arm chairs diagonal to it. May took the seat next to her, nodding once at Tony. “What’s this all about?”
“There’s, uh…” Tony hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to continue. This was the first time in a long time that he didn’t know what to say. “I need to talk to you about something. Both of you. It’s about Peter.”
“Oh, God,” May said, eyes wide as her fingers drummed a beat into the arm of the chair. “He’s not dying, is he? Tony, you better not tell me my nephew is dying.”
“What?” Tony’s brows furrowed as he looked at her, then at Pepper—who bore the same concerned expression as May—, then back at her. “No, why would you ask that? No, he’s not dying.”
“Oh, good,” Pepper breathed, a hand over her heart. Tony supposed that if somebody told him that Peter was dying, he’d take it much less calmly than Pepper and May had. “Why do you sound so nervous then?”
“You know how people are always telling me that Peter and I are practically the same person?” He started slowly, lacing his fingers together as May and Pepper nodded along to his words. “You asked if I was sure I wasn’t secretly Peter’s father.” That statement was directed at May.
“Yes, I was joking, Tony,” May replied, lips pursed.
“Yeah, I know you were,” he murmured back, scratching the back of his neck. “But you guys weren’t the only ones. I’ve had lab directors, interns, business partners, and even my old forensic anthropology professor ask the same thing.”
“What are you getting at, Tony?” Pepper looked confused now, the puzzle pieces not quite clicking together yet.
“So many people kept saying the same thing over and over again,” he said, pausing momentarily, to bring the DNA results up on his StarkPad. “So many times, in fact, that I decided to double-check.”
He reached across and handed the StarkPad to Pepper first, who stared at it with furrowed brows. May did the same from over Pepper’s shoulder. It wasn’t a standard DNA test, since he had been the one to run it with a specially written programme, so there was no clear ‘MATCH’ written anywhere.
“It’s a match.”
There was a long pause before May was looking up and blinking at him, almost as if she was trying to clear the smoke from her eyes.
“Sorry,” she said, looking back at the StarkPad and squinting at it. “Did you just say that it’s a match?”
“I did.” Tony nodded, his jaw clenching and unclenching the way it did when he was nervous. “Peter is my biological son.”
“Okay,” May got out thoughtfully, as if mulling over the words.
“Okay?”
“Okay,” she replied more firmly this time, a soft smile on her face.
“That’s it?” Tony asked, brows furrowed. He didn’t know what reaction he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t whatever this was. Pepper hadn’t even said anything; she was just sitting there, looking at him with the smallest smile on her face.
“That’s it,” May said, nodding. “Look, DNA or not, Peter’s your kid, Tony. Anyone can see it. This just means that you can have rights over him. Bonus, it means I don’t have to worry about parent-teacher conferences anymore,” she joked, waggling her eyebrows at him.
“I’m not-” He paused, unsure how to phrase it. “I don’t want to take him away from you, May. I would never do that. I thought we could figure something out together.”
“We can,” she agreed, looking thoughtful for a second. “You’re not on Peter’s birth certificate, though. I’m not sure how we would do this legally.”
“Tony would need to file a petition,” Pepper supplied helpfully, still smiling. If Tony thought she was the best before, he certainly thought it even more now. “You would need to have Helen run the test again, though. The courts are going to want something more official than ‘Tony Stark’s AI’, but I’m sure that can easily be arranged.
“And you’re sure you’re okay with this, May?” Tony had to ask again, because he liked May; she was part of their little family, and he wasn’t even afraid to admit that he saw her as the sister he never had.
“Tony,” she said softly, reaching across to pat the back of his hand gently. “I’m more than okay with this. I don’t know why Mary kept this from you. I don’t think it’s fair that she did. I’m sure you would have been in Peter’s life from the very beginning if she had just told you, but this? You being Peter’s father, officially? It’s going to open up so many doors for him, both personally and professionally. He loves you, Tony, and I know you love him, too. Anybody with eyes can see that he’s your soul child.”
Tony hadn’t thought about it that way before, but he realised now that it was true. He’d heard people talk about soulmates and whatnot, but it was always about romantic partners. While he thought that Pepper was his romantic soulmate for sure, Peter was the other half of his soul. His kid understood him in ways nobody ever had before, and he had this odd knack for knowing exactly what Peter needed—all of this despite the fact that Howard had never once provided him with a good example of a father while he was growing up.
So, yes, May was right; Peter was his soul child.
“Thank you, May,” he murmured, smiling back at her for the first time since they sat down to talk. “So we’re really doing that custody arrangement thing, huh?”
May laughed, loud and full. She seemed to remember that conversation, too. After everything Peter had put him through, they had once joked that she and Tony should have a custody agreement, since Peter spent so much time at the tower as it was.
“We are, yes,” she said, her nose scrunching up in the way it did whenever she was particularly fond of the person she was talking to. He’d seen it a lot with Peter. “I expect weekly family dinners, you know? Whenever I can make it, that is.”
“We wouldn’t have it any other way, May,” Tony replied, eyes soft as Pepper reached across to take his hand. This was good; the ball was finally rolling in the right direction.
⋆˚꩜｡
It took two months for the petition to be filed—somebody lost the initial paperwork, which drove Tony insane—but once it had been filed, he found himself signing Peter’s new birth certificate by the end of the week. Perks of being the one and only Tony Stark, he supposed.
He still hadn’t told Happy.
Somewhere along the way, amid filing paperwork and multiple angry phone calls to the courthouse, he forgot to tell the man what was happening. Happy, in true Happy fashion, didn’t question it at all. Tony supposed he was used to it by now; Tony often did things without informing him, and he would just be there for the ride. He still thought back to his partying days when Happy was always there, despite hating crowds and people.
He didn’t appreciate it much back then, but he’s now glad it was that way.
When he and May stepped out of the courthouse, they parted ways with a quick wave, Tony clutching the birth certificate like it was a lifeline. This was it, this was legal recognition of his status as Peter’s father. The best status, in his opinion.
May was off to work—she had taken an extra-long lunch break to come to the courthouse—and Tony was going to pick Peter up from school. He couldn’t wait to tell him the good news.
“Guardianship papers, Boss?” Happy’s voice filled the car as he started it back up, Tony grinning to himself.
“Something like that,” he said, running his fingers over the edges of the folder. “Pete’s been pretty anxious about this, so he’ll be glad to hear it ran smoothly.”
“Ah, yes, your own personal ‘mini me’,” Happy grumbled, though the quirk in his lips betrayed his affection for Peter. Tony couldn’t blame him; Peter was hard to resist, and he certainly took after Tony a lot—on a smaller, less destructive scale.
The rest of the drive to Midtown was quiet, with only the sounds of the radio playing softly, leaving Tony to mull over his thoughts. The custody arrangement with May stated that he had Peter basically all the time; May would get him on her days off from work or during long weekends. He’d offered her a job at the tower in the MedBay, but she’d declined. He knew it was because she wanted to help people, and working in the private sector for Tony Stark meant she was confined to helping SI staff members and Avengers.
And, of course, Peter.
Tony couldn’t blame her for not wanting to be around whenever Peter got seriously injured. He still had nightmares about the building collapsing on Peter, and he wasn’t even there to witness it. Then there was that other time when Peter got shot, and Tony wasn’t sure he was going to make it. Somehow, that had been more terrifying than when Steve had left him for dead in Siberia.
May had said that was the true mark of a parent; worry to the point where all self-preservation goes out the window. Most of the time.
Tony made sure to never get seriously hurt again after that; he couldn’t make any promises, but he tried his best. The thought of leaving Peter behind without him? That was the scariest thought of it all, to the point where he had even considered retiring. But at the end of the day, he was Iron Man—he wasn’t going to retire any time soon.
He knew Peter understood; hell, Peter would have been pushing him back into the suit the next time something big happened because ‘The world needs Iron Man’. His kid was right, of course; even if Tony locked up the suits, the next time aliens came pouring out of the sky, he’d be out there. Which is why he ended up promising to always do his best to come home.
The car rolled to a stop, and Happy turned the radio down slightly, bringing a smile to his face. The security guard may never admit it, but he loved Peter; certainly enough to recognise and adjust to Peter’s sensory threshold.
It seemed Peter had already been waiting for them, because he was bounding down the stairs of the school, not even half a minute later, opening the car door and sliding in next to Tony, taking stock of the envelope the man was holding.
“Is this it?” Peter asked, chucking his bag into the boot of the car, his leg bouncing so hard the car was vibrating slightly. Happy raised an eyebrow from the front seat, watching them through the rear-view mirror.
“Yeah, bambino,” Tony answered, opening the envelope and pulling the certificate out, staring at his signature right next to Mary Parker’s. A signature he’d only ever seen once in the last fifteen and a half years. “Your new birth certificate, with my name right there.”
Peter’s face nearly split in half from his grin. Tony barely had enough time to drop the certificate in the passenger seat next to Happy before his son was hugging him. From the way Peter was trembling, Tony could tell he was crying; he wasn’t afraid to admit that he was, too. The stress and anxiety of the waiting game had gotten to them both, and if Peter was anything like his father, Tony knew all too well that he wasn’t coping with it very well.
“It’s official,” Peter said, pulling away and swiping a hoodie sleeve across his eyes. “Like, I’ve known for a while now, but somehow it feels different to actually see it on the most important document of my life, you know?”
“I know, kiddo,” Tony murmured, squeezing Peter into his side, looking up to meet Happy’s baffled expression in the mirror.
“Tony, what the hell?” Happy exclaimed, unbuckling his seatbelt to whip around and stare at them. “When were you going to tell me about this?”
“Dad didn’t tell you?” Peter was looking between the two of them, confusion written on his face, and Tony grimaced slightly.
“I’m sorry, Hap,” he said, biting his lip awkwardly. “It slipped my mind with everything we were doing to get my signature on Peter’s birth certificate.”
“I just thought you would have told me,” Happy huffed, and Tony hated the way he looked so hurt.
“I was going to, I swear, I was,” Tony replied, with Peter squirming out from under his arm to flop against the back seats, rummaging for something in his bag. “I had this whole plan, I was going to get you that apple pie you really like, but then the courthouse called and told me they’d lost the original petition I filed and after that? I had so much crap to do trying to fix their mistake, it slipped my mind. I fucked up, I know. I’m really sorry. You were supposed to find out right after Pep and May.”
“You know what?” Happy was smiling, which Tony took as a good sign. “That is such a Stark thing to do, I can’t even be mad anymore. I’m glad you were going to tell me and not keep this a secret. A little disappointed you forgot, but I can live with it.” He was laughing now, which Tony felt was even better than a smile.
“Here, Uncle Happy,” Peter’s head popped back up from the boot, and he reached forward to give Happy a candy bar that he was holding in his hand. “They had Baby Ruths with lunch today. I grabbed an extra since I know you like them.”
“Thanks, kid,” Happy replied, taking the candy bar from Peter and immediately pocketing it. “That’s going to go great with my afternoon coffee. Best nephew ever.”
Yeah, Tony thought as the car finally pulled out of the Midtown parking lot. Peter was definitely the best of the best.