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The first time someone said he looks like Tony
Peter Parker is just getting used to the fact that he’s actually been adopted. Not only adopted. But adopted by his longtime mentor Tony Stark and his wife Pepper Potts.
Peter has been in the foster system his whole life, since his uncle Ben and his aunt May died in a car crash while he was in school, he was five years old and had no other family. And despite being so young, Peter at the time could feel a sense of immense grief and dread and an understanding that he would never get to experience what other children his age would with their parents. Because he would never have parent’s or parental figures again. The idea was only solidified when year after year he watched his friends in the foster home he lived in get adopted while he was left behind, and this was solidified again around the time when the blip happened, and more kids started getting put into foster homes, and there were less parents to even adopt.
He had to admit it was harder on the younger kids during the blip, he was fourteen almost fifteen and had grown accustomed to living in the foster home, but there were times when he still felt lonelier than ever. When the blip got reversed he almost accepted the fact that he would just age out of the system, until Mr. Stark suddenly, and unexpectedly, asked to adopt him.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly unexpected. He had been doing Spiderman stuff with Mr. Stark for a while, even before the blip, telling his foster home guardian it was an internship for quite a while. He even sometimes felt like part of the family, and he would often sense Mr. Stark and Mrs. Potts had a specific feeling of affection toward him he didn’t understand. And it only heightened after the blip was reversed. That was until they adopted him, and everything sort of just made sense.
Peter has been rotating between foster homes since he was five. He is currently sixteen, and is still getting used to the fact that he’s finally been adopted. adopted by the person he admires the most: Mr. Stark.
Peter has often been plagued with a desire to reclaim his childhood, a desire to relive it actually. His parents died before they could experience all the “firsts” in parent-child relationships. Sure, Ben and May probably experienced Peter’s first words, his first time walking, the first time Peter ate solid food. But he doesn’t remember any of that. And with most of the foster homes he was placed into, he was left to fend for himself, and he took on a caretaking role for the other children there. Witnessing their “firsts”, before he even got to experience “firsts” of his own.
He wondered what kind of “firsts” he could even have now that he was almost eighteen and what kind of “firsts” he would experience with his new family because of his age.
“FRI, can you turn the music up? Seriously, something wrong with your sound system you’re not telling me about?”
“Sir, the volume at which you wish to listen to music is damaging for your hearing. I’ve reminded you on numerous occasions. Are you sure you want to–”
“Yea, I’m sure, crank it up!”
“As you wish sir, but I must remind you–”
“Shut it FRI, or I’ll have you replaced.”
Peter can already hear the bickering between FRIDAY and Tony when he enters the tower’s private lab. Usually he’d be on his way home from Midtown, or bringing Ned around to the cabin that Peter now calls his home, but Thursdays were specifically designated for Tony and Peter to work in the lab. He’s still getting used to the fact that Tony is a permanent part of his life, and vice versa.
Peter watches Tony roll his eyes and watches as he lifts his hand — drawing with a pencil — off of the blueprint papers he was working on and placing it on the metal lab table. Tony wipes sweat off of his forehead and turns around in his stool, looking at nothing in particular, the direction of his gaze unconsciously aiming at the ceiling and then at the holographic system on the wall as if FRIDAY is in there somewhere.
Tony turns around away from his computer system and toward the work, but as he leaned over and began to draw, Peter’s attempt to enter the lab quietly to not disrupt Tony’s work fails.
“Mr. Stark, Peter has arri–”
“A bit delayed don’t you think?” Tony asked, throwing his arms up in the air. “Turn off the music.”
“Happy to, sir.”
Peter smiles as he walks through the glass doorway with his backpack thrown over his shoulder and Tony turns around with a smile just as big as his.
“Mr. Stark!”
Peter lunges forward and jumps into Tony’s arms in a hug, his backpack shaking with the noise of clutter from inside of it, and Tony pulls him closer to his chest with a smile.
“For the thousandth time kid, call me Tony, the documents we signed let you do that you know?”
Peter pulls back and Tony holds him by the shoulders, and he blushes in embarrassment as Tony ruffles his hair.
He didn’t know how these things worked, after all it wasn’t that long ago that Mr. Star–Tony was his mentor. A mentor with a rock solid exterior that Peter had to carve into slowly, and a mentor with so much knowledge Peter’s admiration for him was something he thought he had to hide. He was still getting used to the fact that he never really had to hide the admiration in the first place.
“I guess you’re right.” Peter barely mutters.
Peter catches Tony chuckling, and he feels accomplished like he’s not struggling to navigate this new dynamic. Like it’s natural like it’s always been.
“There we go! Now, come over here kid, I’m working on something new for your suit since you’ve got those weird organic shooters now–yea by the way how is that?”
Peter let Tony lead him to sit on the stool beside him — the stool everyone had an unspoken rule about, and that rule was that it was reserved for Peter, even before the adoption — and Peter plopped his backpack on the ground and sat down. Tony handed him a blueprint and he took it excitedly.
“Well, it’s gotten less embarrassing, I haven’t woken up in a web again since last time, MJ and Ned really want to see, but I think they’d freak out so” Peter paused and really looked at the blueprint. “–hey are these panels in the suit?”
Peter had had his power for a while now, yes he can climb walls, and superstrength along with weird spider traits that often made it hard to thermoregulate. But Peter’s new and terrifying development now made him able to produce organic webs, and what he was looking at was a blueprint design of designated panels for his web shooters to shoot out of instead of leaving tiny holes in his brand new suits at the wrist. A mesh panel that blended into the fabric, with a tiny plastic hole placed directly above his spinnerets, so small you couldn’t even notice it unless you looked closely.
Peter’s heart shifted in his chest, Tony was accommodating his new changes. In the foster homes, nobody ever cared to ask if he needed anything when he was going through puberty, or when he had been grieving his aunt and uncle.
“Yea, I know you said you don’t mind the holes in your suit, but if we align the panels right above your spinnerets, it could blend in really well. Same color as everything else.”
“I don’t think they need to be as big as you drew them though, what about more like this?”
Peter could feel Tony watching as he drew smaller square panels as opposed to rectangular ones. Tony pulled up another piece of paper beside himself.
“Okay, yea I see the panels don’t need to be that big. Do you like the material?”
Peter nods silently, and started thinking about other upgrades to draw. He’s had quite a few ideas already, since he’s been daydreaming about being in the lab all day at school.
Peter notices Tony pull out paper of his own and start working on upgrades for the Iron Man suit, and it becomes a moment of comfortable familiar silence like always. Peter’s drawing is suddenly interrupted by Tony’s shoulder brushing against his own, he raises his head to look at him, slightly annoyed that his concentration is being broken.
“This isn’t you trying to get out of your homework is it now?” Tony asks.
Peter shrugs, ducking his head shyly.
“No, no I swear, just wanted to show you some things I’ve been thinking of.”
Tony looks down at the designs Peter drew as Peter holds it up to him. Peter is silently waiting for Tony’s approval. Peter often wondered how alike they are. He can often tell that his and Tony’s brains work the same. That they both ran ten miles an hour and the only thing that slowed them down are things like this.
“They’re very clever, kid, now pull out your algebra or whatever you got in that backpack.”
Peter sighs, then unzips his backpack, pulls out his notebook and the science textbook and drops them heavily on the table, then begins working. Tony begins working on his new suit upgrades, drawing them carefully, and Peter scribbles every so often after he scans the pages of text.
“Music?” Peter asks.
Tony smiles.
“You bet.” Tony exclaims, patting Peter’s back. “FRI, turn the music back on, this time at thirty-percent volume.”
“Has my persistent worry for your hearing finally got through to you, or is this to protect Peter’s hearing?”
“No need to be condescending.” Tony mutters as the music slowly turns back on.
Tony and Peter continue working side by side for a long few long moments. Unaware to Tony and Peter, locked into their tasks, Pepper is outside the glass door beeping into the lab. When she walks around the table to watch her boys, she smiles at their mannerisms.
Tony has his eyebrows furrowed in concentration, his hand rubs at his facial hair, and his pencil moves manically across the page. And Peter’s eyebrows are furrowed the same, his hand rubs at his chin — no facial hair though — and his pencil rubs manically too. Tony and Peter are also both mumbling their own thoughts out loud under their breath at the same time, and only when Pepper laughs out loud do they register she is there by lifting their heads at the same time in her direction.
“When did you walk in?” Tony asks, his heart jumping in surprise. “Could’ve given me a heart attack.”
“Hi Ms. Potts.” Peter mumbles.
Pepper laughs again as Tony and Peter cross their arms at the exact same time. Their faces are so identical if she didn’t know either of them she’d assumed Peter is biologically Tony’s. Their hair falls almost the same way on their faces, their eyes the same brown and hold the same concentration, their movements so swift and similar it was like they move around each other in tandem.
“What are you laughing at?” Tony asks.
Pepper just grins, she could cry right there if she thinks about it any longer.
“Nothing. You two just look exactly alike.”
Peter smiles and the realization hits him. It’s the first time anyone has ever told him that he looks like Tony. He wonders if everyone thinks they look alike, if they thought that even before the adoption was official. Not that it matters, Peter just felt a sense of pride in starting to look like the one person he admires. And feels pride in the fact that this is the first time someone has said this about him and someone else.
Tony ruffles Peter’s hair, and like a father, says,
“I’m rubbing off on him I suppose.”
The first time he realizes he’s never going back to the foster home
Peter is still getting used to the fact that he’s been adopted. That he’s not going to wake up back in another foster home. But sometimes he still has nightmares that he is back in his foster home, and has nightmares about his uncle Ben and aunt May.
Today is no different as he lays in bed fast asleep dreaming. He dreams that he’s being pulled away from his aunt and uncle from the car — flipped on the highway — screaming their names. He begs the firefighters pulling him from the rubble to let him say goodbye one last time. Then almost in a blink of an eye the setting switches so that he is back in his foster home, and he’s talking to one of the youngest boys there — Luca — about his parents, and there is a feeling that rises in his chest that tells him he is unwanted. He jolts awake just as Luca is about to respond to Peter’s story, and he sits up in his bed panting.
Peter looks around the room. He is still getting used to the fact that he’s been adopted. That he is in a cabin — Tony Stark’s cabin — north of New York. He lets out a sigh of relief, as he feels the blankets around him in his twin sized bed, and notices the Star Wars posters on his wall, and the Death Star Lego set he built with Ned in the corner of his room. Yet, he still has this feeling of fear and dread, as if Brian — his foster ‘parent’ — was going to show up at the front door and tell him that actually the Starks have changed their mind, and he needs to come back.
He doesn’t know what to do with these feelings, so he sends Ned a text, aware that Ned is probably asleep and waiting. When Ned doesn’t answer, he becomes aware of the bodies in the room next door. Tony and Pepper. And he is overcome with a feeling of wanting to go to them for retreat.
He slowly creeps into the hallway, and pushes open Tony and Pepper's bedroom door that is already slightly ajar and when it creaks open he’s surprised to see Tony sit up in the dark immediately. He’s immediately aware of the fact that he’s sixteen, and standing in his adopted parent’s bedroom, because he’s had a bad dream. And he is suddenly very embarrassed.
“Sorry I–”
“Hey kid, what’s wrong?” Tony asks.
Peter finds relief in this assumption, that Tony knows Peter so well he knows he’d only be in Tony’s bedroom at 2:00am if something was wrong.
Peter looks down, still embarrassed, and then looks back at Tony.
“Bad dream.”
Tony simply pats the bed, the empty middle spot beside him and Pepper — who seems to be asleep — and Peter immediately steps forward and crawls into the spot. Tony lays back down and pulls Peter into his chest, Peter grabs onto Tony a little stronger than he intended.
“Woah, must’ve been some bad dream, you wanna talk about it?” Tony asks.
Pepper wakes and sighs when she turns around.
“Oh Peter, honey.” Pepper sighs.
Pepper moves closer on the bed so Peter is sandwiched between his two guardians. Pepper presses a kiss onto his head, and Peter relaxes when Tony runs his hand through his curly hair, and he shrugs.
“I’m just—I don’t want to go back–I want to stay here.” Peter mumbles into Tony’s shirt.
He is so embarrassed. He’s acting like a child, like a toddler. Never in his life has he acted like this, he’s always been the caretaker, always been on the other side of interactions like this. Like when Luca had a nightmare and crawled into his bed, or when he had to comfort the youngest girl Lila in his foster home because the parents who were supposed to adopt her changed their minds at the last minute. But he’s so scared that this isn’t real. He’s so scared that this is all a lie, and that he’s going to be taken away from Tony and Pepper and everything will go back to the way it was.
“You want me right?” Peter asks, and he almost hopes they didn’t hear.
Tony and Pepper immediately move closer, their hands holding Peter into a huge hug, apparently having understood what Peter was saying.
“Oh honey, you are never going back there. We want you, have wanted you more than anything.” Pepper whispers. “We fought to have you for months.”
“Nobody, and I mean nobody, can take you away from me. I mean that.” Tony spoke softly, yet protectively.
Peter is overcome with a feeling of relief, and comfort. For the first time in his life he feels safe, and he feels like he’s being given something he has never experienced as a child before. He is still getting used to the fact that he was wanted…still getting used to the fact that this was permanent, and the way it used to be is not the way that it is, and never will be again. He still asks,
“Can you promise?” His voice cracks as he does so.
“We promise.” Tony and Pepper both whisper.
And Peter finally lets it go.
The first time Peter calls the cabin ‘home’
When Tony signed the adoption papers making him Peter’s father and sole guardian Tony was just as ecstatic as Peter was. Of course for drastically different reasons. He knew Peter was ecstatic because he had been in and out of foster homes for years, and he was finally being adopted like he had wanted all along. Tony was ecstatic because he was finally adopting someone he considered to be his family already for a long time.
He already felt like Peter’s father, even if he was reluctant to call Peter his son — only due to the fact that he was worried it was too soon — he had been a reluctant mentor for the kid for a long time.
Peter had basically lived at the Avengers tower, working in the labs, meeting the other Avengers too. Tony had noticed Peter trying to impress him, and trying to impress the other Avengers. And despite their hard exteriors, they became just as impressed as Tony was.
There was even an ongoing theory — that he’s pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to overhear — proposed by Clint that Peter was Tony’s biological child. Sometimes, Tony wished this was true. Only because he had missed out on so many of Peter’s “firsts” as a parental figure.
He worried he had nothing new to offer Peter — besides an extravagant lifestyle much out of his means and love — and worried he didn’t know how to be a father because of his lack of a healthy father-son relationship growing up.
Pepper assured him that even adopted parents could have “firsts” with their children and assured him that milestones are built together and they would come naturally. He really hoped they would.
Tony didn’t expect to get an emergency phone call from midtown. But when he was informed that Peter was experiencing — what the school could only describe as a sensory overload, Tony instantly knew what was wrong.
It had something to do with Peter’s new developing senses. First it was the organic web shooters, and now it just makes sense that his spider senses are getting upped a notch. He immediately felt responsible, like he should’ve seen this coming, and also immediately felt pained for Peter. He had to get to him as fast as possible.
So he took one of the cars with blackout windows and drove from the cabin to Queens as quickly as he could.
When he arrives he rushes into the principal's office, and — after signing the sign out form — the principal leads him towards the quiet conference room they put Peter in. Ned is sitting next to Peter for emotional support, holding his hand, while Peter has the hood of his hoodie up covering his ears and his eyes are closed tight as his head tilts toward his lap.
When he enters, Ned pats Peter gently, and Peter’s eyes shoot open. When Tony meets his gaze his heart breaks as he sees tears forming in the corners.
“Mr. Stark–Iron man, sir–” Ned sputters.
“Tony, please. How long has he been like this?” Tony asks, he looks between the principal and Ned.
Ned nervously looks at Tony.
“He said he had a headache earlier, but it got really bad an hour ago.”
Tony smiles gently at Ned.
If Tony knows Peter at all, he knows Peter has always been a person to downplay his issues until they were debilitating, for everyone else's sake. Meaning that the pain Peter is feeling right now is probably more painful than Ned or even his principal took notice of. Tony already feels like he’s messing up as an adopted parent.
“Alright well, I’ll get him home okay.”
Ned nods okay, and Tony steps forward, Peter immediately holds onto Tony’s arm with a tight grip. And Tony frowns at the kid, he loops his arm around Peter to lead him by the back out of the conference room then out of the school. Peter keeps looking down at his feet as he is guided toward the car.
Tony stops in front of the car and Peter instantly hides his head into Tony’s chest, and lets out a few sobs. Tony’s arms wrap protectively around the boy, and if he could shoot the sun he would.
Again, he feels guilty at not foreseeing this happening. He should’ve known, the boy is going through the spider equivalent of puberty. He should have researched more, he should have made him a special pair of headphones, and a special pair of sunglasses. He would go above and beyond if it meant Peter wasn’t going to be in pain. Has this happened before? Maybe he isn’t as present a parent as he thought. He hurried the doubts and thoughts out of his brain.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay, we just gotta get you into the car first.”
“O-okay. Can I sit up front with you?” Peter asks, muffled into the shirt.
Tony nods.
“Of course, bud.”
Tony leads Peter to the passenger door, keeping Peter’s head tucked into the side of his body, and he strokes comforting circles into his hair. He opens the door as quietly as he can and guides Peter to sit in the car seat, he buckles him up. When Peter lets out a sound of pain again, he leans down and looks in his eyes, they are full of tears.
Tony places a kiss on Peter’s forehead and nods quickly.
“You want your mom, she’s at the tower for a meeting, but we can head there if you want?” Tony asks.
And he’s vaguely aware of the fact that this is the first time he’s referred to Pepper as Peter’s mother, and of course it feels as natural as it should.
Peter just shakes his head.
“I want to go home.” Peter whines. “Please.”
And when Peter grabs onto Tony’s arm again, he finally registers that Peter is calling the cabin home for the first time. Not ‘your house’, not ‘the cabin’, not even ‘the house’....home. That he considers it home, a safe place for him to go to when he is in pain. That he wants to be with Tony.
Tony’s heart melts, and he knows then that there he is a present parent, that he isn’t doing anything wrong, that he is what Peter wants and needs. Tony nods.
“Okay, underoos, let’s go home.” Tony whispers.
The first time Tony rocks Peter to sleep
Tony manages to find a pair of his sunglasses in the glove compartment and place them on the kid before they start driving. And Tony leads Peter into the cabin once they arrive. When they make it up the stairs and into the living room, Tony guides Peter and they step into the living area.
Tony can tell that the sensory overload is still bad. Tony leaves all Peter’s belongings in the car, he is going to get Happy to get his things from the car the next morning, since Happy lives in his own cabin a couple miles away.
“FRIDAY dim the lights, and activate the noise cancelation devices on all the windows.”
“As you wish, sir.” FRIDAY responds, her voice dimming also as she speaks, aware of the situation.
Tony can worry about making Peter his own personalized sensory kit when the kid isn't overwhelmed. For now, he wants to focus all his energy on doing what he can right now.
Tony is no stranger to sensory overloads. Sure, it’s different for Peter since his spider senses are the thing being overloaded when it happens, meaning it felt ten times worse than any regular sensory overload. But Tony can relate to feeling overwhelmed when there is too much noise, and when there is too much light. He often had the same reaction Peter is having right now, when he was a kid. Tony’s parents however, never took it seriously enough. So he learned to mask the pain. Tony isn’t going to let Peter do the same, he wants his kid to tell him whenever he is in pain.
Peter pulls his hood off in response to the lights dimming, and Tony lifts the sunglasses off of Peter’s face. Tony watches Peter relax, his eyes blinking in the dim room, and his grip on Tony’s arm manages to loosen.
“Do you want to sit on the couch, or would you feel more comfortable in your room?” Tony asks.
“Um, can we–can we just sit on the couch for a bit.”
Tony nods, and leads the kid carefully to sit down on the sofa with him. Peter instantly grabs onto Tony’s shirt and buries his head into his chest. And Tony leans back, wrapping his arms around his kid, and when he hears Peter cry again in pain, he sits up again.
He grips Peter’s hand and places it directly over his heart — thankful he had the arc reactor removed, the bright light would be inconvenient as hell right about now — and keeps Peter’s head close to him with his other hand. He starts to rock Peter in his arms back and forth and shushes him like a baby.
Tony is very aware of the fact that Peter is sixteen years old, and that he probably hadn’t been rocked like this in a long time. But this is Tony’s first time rocking Peter in his arms, he didn’t have the privilege of rocking Peter as a baby, or even witnessing anyone else rock him as a baby for that matter. So he is going to do that now selfishly or not, and Tony can start to feel Peter relaxing…he isn’t going to stop until Peter calms down, or until he falls asleep. And he doesn’t stop until he feels Peter’s hand loosen around his shirt.
And when he looks down at Peter’s face he smiles at the way his kids mouth hangs open, and his eyes are closed in sleepy bliss. Tony carefully lifts the kid off of the couch, and starts carrying him up the stairs and toward his bedroom.
The first time Tony calls Peter his son
“So, no spidermanning past nine tonight okay? Remember you have a baby monitor in your suit, so I can see you.” Tony says, his face tilted up toward the ceiling, rock solid in parental authority.
Peter nods.
“But what if—I mean hypothetically I was on my way home and there’s an old lady that needs saving, or a burglary or—”
“9:00pm, or you’re grounded for the next two weeks.” Tony says casually, swatting his hands. “And don’t you have that project due…the one you’re doing with Ted–”
Peter groans.
“What?” Tony asks, exasperated.
“It’s Ned.” Pepper corrects from across the room. “It’s not due till next week, let’s extend the curfew to ten tonight.”
Tony gives Pepper a look of disbelief, but before he could protest she responds,
“Hey, we’re at a gala until midnight, let him have some time to do his spider things.”
“Fine.”
Peter is sitting in the tower on the ceiling eating chips — that are hung the right side up from the ceiling by a web that he is fishing his hand into every so often — while Pepper and Tony are rushing back and forth below him getting ready for a press conference then a gala. Peter is still getting used to the fact that he’s been adopted by Tony Stark, a billionaire and Iron Man, and his wife the CEO of Stark Industries.
He’s getting used to the fact that he has certain luxuries he’s never had before. Like a fridge that is always full — in the cabin, and in the tower — brand new clothes (like the pajamas he is wearing right now) and sometimes living in a skyscraper.
He thinks about all those times in the foster home he wouldn’t get fed because Brian bought alcohol instead of groceries, and all the times he’s had to live on ramen, free lunch from school, or cooking from Ned’s mom.
Now he’s sitting on the ceiling in the tower watching his guardian — because the word ‘father’ is too unfamiliar than ‘Tony’ right now — get dressed in a suit that probably costs more than a car.
Pepper is getting ready in her dress as well, meaning Peter is going to be in the tower by himself, until they both come home around midnight usually — unless an Avenger decides to show up. His plan was that he was going to go out patrolling, then come back to the tower around 10:00pm and eat.
He had all the food he needed for the night, but he had a craving for ramen. He mentioned this a day ago and Tony stocked the entire cupboard with different ramen varieties — against Pepper’s protests. Peter’s unfamiliar with the idea that he could ask for anything — okay not anything — and they’d get it for him, he tries not to abuse it.
“Hey Pep, have you seen the red–”
“Tie?” Pepper asks, she’s holding Tony’s red tie in her hand with a smirk.
She hands Tony the tie and they bicker just a little bit, and Peter takes note that whenever they do it’s always mixed with laughter. Peter is so used to Tony and Peppers dynamic, but it always warms his heart, he’s always wanted parents that are so in love with each other it makes their children smile. And he guesses that is him. He is still getting used to that fact. The fact that years ago Tony was just Mr. Stark and Pepper was just Mrs. Potts, now…they took care of him and went to his parent teacher conferences, and gave him a curfew.
Peter interrupts the bickering when he notices Tony’s collar needs fixing, and his tie needs tying. He jumps down from his spot on the ceiling and steps toward Tony and starts fixing his collar over the red tie. Tony rolls his eyes, but lets Peter fix his clothes, only when Peter goes to tie his tie does he react by staring at Pepper and stating,
“Look at this, you’re gonna stand there and make my son tie my tie?”
Peter looks in Tony’s eyes, and there’s sarcastic charm, but a loving truth to it. It’s the first time Tony has called Peter his son, and Peter feels proud. It’s exactly what he’s wanted for so long: to be somebody’s son.
He smiles when Pepper intervenes.
“Fine, I’ll tie it this time, but don’t make it a habit. You’re going to tie our son's tie next time he’s forced to come to a gala.” Pepper says, and she sends Peter a wink.
She places a kiss on Peter’s cheek before stepping in front of him and taking his place in the tie tying duties.
The first time Peter calls Tony ‘dad’
Peter was stabbed by a mugger at exactly 10:00 pm as he was getting ready to swing back in time for curfew. And Peter is still getting used to the fact that he’s been adopted, and still getting used to the fact that because of this, Tony has put a baby monitor protocol inside his suit…meaning he’s grounded forever, or he’s just become a huge disappointment.
He always felt guilty that Tony adopted a superhuman, he could have a regular kid that doesn’t climb on ceilings, and doesn’t fight bad guys on the streets of New York. But it didn’t really hit him how concerned Tony could be until…well, until he was stabbed.
Peter stumbles into the tower, the floor Bruce Banner is currently on. He was alerted by Karen of the personnel that were in the tower, and he wanted everything to avoid Tony, and also Bruce had promised to take care of any medical needs Peter required with his spider DNA.
When he crashes inside Bruce’s lab, he is clutching his side and he’s losing a concerning amount of blood.
Bruce jumps up from where he’s sitting and spots the blood seeping through Peter’s suit.
“What happened?”
“Stabbing–please don’t tell–”
Bruce just gives Peter a look of annoyance.
“I’ll tell Tony if I damn well please, but right now we’re heading to med bay so I can fix this.”
Bruce grabs Peter and throws Peter’s arm around his shoulder, and they make an excruciatingly slow walk toward med bay down the hall.
When they arrive Peter is already getting drowsy as Bruce lifts him onto the bed.
“Kid, you gotta stay with me, okay?”
Peter just nods, but still has trouble keeping his eyes open, the light above him is too bright and he’d rather just go to sleep then think about what Tony is possibly thinking right now. He must be so disappointed.
Bruce begins pulling out some blood he collected from Peter previously — again, his spider DNA requiring an exact match. Peter closes his eyes for a minute, then feels cold scissors cutting open the side of his suit. Peter sits up immediately.
“No, no, no, not the suit, he’ll kill me, Bruce please–”
Bruce cuts anyways and his eyebrow quirks up.
“I’m pretty sure Tony is going to be more worried about you than the suit.”
Peter slumps back, not as reassured, but lets Bruce start to access the wound in his side, and he closes his eyes for another few moments.
Tony is alerted by Bruce that something is wrong. According to Bruce: Peter swung by the tower after a mugging, stumbling and covered in blood, why Karen didn’t alert Tony was a mystery. Turns out the guy mugging the old lady in Brooklyn was also holding a knife and managed to stab through Peter’s suit into his side.
Tony immediately rushes out of his conference meeting and runs down the hall, some people inside yelling for him to come back. He doesn’t care. He catches the elevator just in time, and when it opens three floors up, he rushes down the hall and crashes into Med bay.
He takes in the sight in front of him. Peter’s suit cut open, blood seeping out of his side from a deep stab wound, Bruce doing everything he can to put more blood in the kid's small body.
Tony is pissed, not at Peter, at the people who thought stabbing his son was a good idea. He also is pissed at himself for not thinking of making the suit stab proof, but he supposed the only way he could do that was to make him a suit out of iron, he’s going to shove that idea aside for another time.
None of the two people in front of him have noticed he’s in the room yet, and Tony watches Peter’s eyes open for the first time in the past 5 minutes he’s been there.
“Where is he?” Tony hears Peter ask. “I want my dad, please.”
Tony’s heart feels like it’s been punched or twisted. Tony immediately steps further inside, making his presence known. It’s the very first time Peter has called him ‘dad’ and not just ‘dad’, but ‘my dad’. He mouths a ‘thank you’ to Bruce who has turned around to watch Tony step beside Peter.
“I’m here, I’m here,” Tony whispers, he sits down on a stool Bruce rolls his way, and starts to run his fingers through Peter’s curly hair. “Dad’s here.”
“Please don’t be mad.” Peter manages to say.
And before Tony can respond, Bruce is pushing an anesthetic, so he can surgically treat Peter’s stab wound.
When Peter wakes up in med bay the next morning, he registers that he is bandaged up and Bruce is sitting on a stool charting beside the bed. Bruce notices that he is awake and smiles, and puts his clipboard down.
Peter feels an utter sense of dread, like he’s let everyone down, how inconvenient he has made himself.
“I was stabbed.” Peter says, not a question, before he turns to Bruce and starts sputtering. “I’m so sorry—you were probably up all night—I interrupted your work—”
“Kid, you know that any Avenger would do anything for you right?”
Peter looks at Bruce in shock. He’s only met the Avengers a total of three times, and he thought he had made a pretty bad first impression, his awkward sputtering always made him feel out of place. He's still getting used to the fact that when you have parents, you also have a whole village willing to take care of you, made up of people your parents know.
“Why?”
Bruce answers simply,
“Because you’re Tony’s.”
Peter is overcome with the feeling of want for Tony, he is sixteen years old and he just wants his father to hold him. Peter looks down at his hands then asks,
“Where is he? My dad I mean, can I see him?”
It’s the second time he’s calling Tony ‘dad’. He remembers calling him ‘dad’ last night. He’s wanted to for a while, it slipped out so naturally because he just wanted the one person who made him feel safe. And that was his dad, the one who wanted to adopt him, the one who has been his mentor for years. He’s never known what a dad was until now.
The answer of where his dad is is answered by Tony stepping into the room a few minutes after. Peter reacts instantaneously.
“Dad, I’m so so sorry, I’m–”
Peter doesn’t need to say anything else though, because Tony is crawling into the bed, ready to hold him as he shushes his apologies and whispers simply again,
“Dad’s here.”
The first ‘I love you’
For the first time Peter is going to be late for school and Tony is not happy. It was Tony’s fault, he accidentally set both his and Peter’s alarm to 9:00 am instead of 8:00am, and he did let Peter stay up watching Star Wars in the living room. Nonetheless Tony is rushing to get Peter ready and out the door.
“Let’s hussle roos!” Tony shouts. “Only so much time in the morning!”
Tony is in the kitchen, packing a basic ham sandwich into Peter’s lunchbox, Peter knows that Tony is including a handwritten note in the lunchbox besides the obvious eye roll he can see his dad doing from across the room. Peter got a note one time in his lunchbox, and so he started asking for more of them. He was still getting used to the fact that he had parents who’d pack his lunch and leave him notes, he was starting to be just like the other kids at school. He finally had someone to compare lunch notes with, Ned always bragged about the notes his mother left, now Peter has bragging privileges too.
“I’m almost ready–I gotta–textbooks–” Peter sputters.
Peter is rushing back and forth, trying to look for his textbooks. When Peter finally stumbles into the living room, Tony watches in amusement as Peter retrieves the book with his webs shooting them and grappling-hooking the books toward him. Peter feels a sense of pride, he always felt so normal as a superhuman in Tony’s presence. He sometimes felt different because of it, but here it was just normal life.
“I guess those organic webs of yours are useful for things other than fighting crime too, huh. Don’t have to refill them either.” Tony grumbles. “Don’t forget the sensory kit, in case you start flaring up again.”
“Already in my backpack.” Peter says, rushing to pull his backpack onto the kitchen counter.
Tony hands Peter the packed lunchbox, and Peter puts all of the things he needs into the bag.
“Okay kid, Happy is gonna take you today, I have a board meeting I can’t miss and seeing as we woke up late today–”
“That’s okay, I like talking to Happy. He acts like he gets super annoyed by how much I talk, but then sometimes I make a joke and he laughs so I know that he doesn’t actually not like talking to me and — oh Ned! Ned said this thing–”
“Peter, for Christ sake I love how much you talk, but you gotta get going.”
Peter laughs, and nods, putting his backpack on. Tony ruffles Peter’s hair and Peter whines protesting the affection.
“Alright, alright, have fun at school.”
“I will, I love you!” Peter says, before turning around.
Peter hops happily out of the kitchen then pauses, stopping in his tracks. That was the easiest ‘I love you’ he’s ever said in his life, yet he’s afraid of what Tony will say. Has he made a mistake? Tony has shown that he loves him in every way except by saying it, maybe he won’t ever say it.
What Peter doesn’t see is that Tony is smiling, because for the first time those three words from a family member actually mean something, and there is no way in hell he’s going to make Peter think it was a mistake for saying it.
“Love you too. Now go!” Tony fake grumbles.
Peter grins in relief and rushes out the cabin door toward Happy’s car. And when they enter the city heading toward Queens, he realizes for the first time that he’s used to the fact that he’s been adopted. That he's got the family he always wanted, always imagined. That he is never going back to how things used to be.