Archive of Our Own

When it came to child care, unsurprisingly, Tony was winging it. A bit of the time, even Pepper was winging it. Despite the numerous amount of parents that shared their advice through magazines, online articles, or interviews, it still was a lot of guesswork. Like snowflakes, each baby was different and that meant not one of them could be easily handled.

Peter was no exception.

Tony never thought he would have to add “father” to his resume, but considering the work he did for Peter, perhaps it would be fitting. He would never use a resume in his life, but maybe he should start paying attention to fathers that were trying to get a job.

Most of the work was done by the woman in the relationship and Tony Stark felt like a deadbeat as he kind of just sat there. Peter was hungry, that’s up to Pepper, Peter needed comfort, he liked Pepper over Tony. It was kind of insulting and Tony tried his best not to be hurt by it.

Besides, he did get his moments with the child. Cleaning the diaper, which was not what he was hoping for, playing with the child who could hardly comprehend what he was holding in his hands and instead threw things for entertainment, and there were the one off chances that Peter would be resting in Tony’s hands and actually fall asleep.

He was glad he at least got those moments because he could not handle Peter relying on Pepper for everything.

They took a couple of months off in order to care for Peter. Obadiah stepped up to run the company in the meantime. It was going so well that Tony was half tempted to ask for more time off. Seriously, only 12 weeks off of unpaid labor for pushing an entire child out? Tony was half tempted to argue with the government about that. A woman birthed a whole new life and she would get 3 months off from work…

Tony was so insulted that he took more time for the family and he was thankful Pepper didn’t argue. Seemed he could win in a fight against her if it involved Peter.

However, when he tried to ask for a full year, that’s when he met the short end of the stick and Pepper raised her eyes at him. That argument he did not win, even with Peter’s adorable face as his secret weapon.

Pepper went back to doing work for SI and Tony reluctantly followed. It wasn’t like he was leaving his house and working at an office building for eight hours a day. He was still in the same house as Peter, so was Pepper, and Tony already tinkered in his spare time. All in all, for him, it was like nothing changed, all except the mindset. The mindset that he had to work was pissing him off and really doing its best to convince him to ignore it.

But, Pepper would send him one glare. Without even knowing his thoughts, she would squint her eyes at him and he knew that she somehow knew his feelings, so he bit his tongue and went back to work lest he face her wrath.

Some things never change.

And Peter… Peter was an angel… at times.

Tony knew the base of what being a father entailed. Though Peter was adorable, he was also a living being and he was half of Tony, which meant he was going to be a pain no matter what and Peter definitely followed those rules.

When he would wail and scream with no end in sight and nothing the parents did solved anything, Pepper would turn to Tony with a deadpan face and say, “This is your fault.”

He would argue with her, because how was it possibly his fault that the child was crying all day? But, it was his genes after all and he was Tony Stark. He knew, so he kept his mouth shut and simply nodded. He was too tired to deny it anyway.

Peter ate into their sleep schedule like none other. For Pepper, it was detrimental, for Tony, it was normal. Tony didn’t have a normal sleep schedule. In preparation for Peter, he actually tried to get some consistency in his life and he preferred to sleep next to his wife’s side, but he had spent years beforehand making his own schedule and sleeping after a caffeine crash. That still wasn’t abnormal for Tony Stark.

So, a lot of the time when Peter was up before the crack of dawn, Tony was with him, rocking him in his arms and trying to hush the baby back to sleep. It didn’t work all of the time, but Tony still appreciated the time spent with his child.

Then, there were other moments, where Peter was the image of perfection. A sweet little baby that smiled up at them, crawling around and making noises that melted Tony’s heart. Rhodey had commented way too many times that Tony was getting soft. Tony then proceeded to punch him in the shoulder.

Besides, it wasn’t like his best friend had any room to talk. Every time he came over, he had a new baby toy for Peter to use. His parents were the rich ones and yet it felt like his uncles bought the most stuff for him.

Rhodey once showed up with a lion rattle when he first came to visit Peter. The second time, he brought a blanket. The third time, he brought another model airplane despite the kid having no idea what it was. The fourth time, he brought the noisiest toy known to man, one that Tony had dismantled the second Peter fell asleep. He mailed it back to Rhodey in a box of its own scraps.

It was crazy to watch Happy interact with Peter. This guy was his security and he always had this downturned expression whenever he addressed Tony. That was, until Peter was brought into the situation. All of the sudden, the guy was smiling, making cute noises and faces at Peter and it felt so demeaning for such a tough guy to be doing such a thing. Then again, Tony was doing those things, so he kept those thoughts to himself.

However, it did not stop Tony from teasing Happy whenever they were in the car together. At work, Happy was back to his stoic self, back at the mansion, he was speaking gibberish to Peter as if he actually understood it.

Pepper was as perfect as Tony knew she was going to be. She took every challenge with raising a child in stride and when she knew nothing about a situation, she would not rest until she did. JARVIS was updated with a whole bunch of baby raising knowledge and Pepper would pour through his entire database to find answers to anything wrong with Peter. She was hardworking and endearing as a mother. It made sense why she was Peter’s favorite.

Tony tried his best not to be hurt by that. Pepper was, after all, the best person in the world.

He even invited Obie to come and meet Peter. He knew his second in command was not interested in children, not really being a family man himself, but this was still a big thing in Tony’s life and he wanted Obadiah to be a part of it. To the man’s credit, he did give Peter gifts every now and then, but it was obvious he just looked up the best baby gift of the year to send to them.

Still, Tony couldn’t help but smile when Obadiah leaned down to examine Peter who was sitting in a play chair that Happy (despite Rhodey buying a new toy at every turn) actually bought him. It was noisy, but that helped entertain Peter, so Tony had yet to turn this one into pieces.

“He looks just like you, Tony.” Tony had seen the similarities, even Pepper had pointed them out, but it still warmed his heart to have Obadiah notice the same thing. “There’s no doubt about it, he really is yours.”

He stood up, slapping a hand on Tony’s back. “I can’t say I envy you, so best of luck with him. Good job, Tony.”

And that was the best he was going to get from him.

JARVIS now had an album full of Peter pics and half of them were literally of the kid doing nothing. Tony knew half of them were the baby doing the same things he always had and either Pepper or Tony being so engraved into the moment that they just asked JARVIS to save the footage.

Tony had gone through the photos with Pepper a couple of months after Peter’s birth and they were surprised by the sheer number of them that were just Peter sitting on the ground. That’s it.

Well, at least they had plenty of baby photos to tease their kid with when he grew up.

There were some that Tony saved to his favorite file and even had printed so they could be hung up around the house, making the mansion more of a home in addition to Pepper’s redecorating. One of them was Peter falling asleep on Tony. It was the first time it had happened and the man was so enthralled with the aspect that Peter decided to sleep on him instead of Pepper. It was a one in a million chance of that happening. Without him even realizing, Pepper had taken a snapshot of that moment and now it hung in their living room.

Another one had Peter looking up at Pepper as she held him. He had the biggest smile on his face, no teeth at all in his gums, but it made the smile all the more adorable. He even saved some pictures of Peter interacting with Rhodey and Happy. The former had the kid flying around like an airplane, smiling while Rhodey rushed in circles. Tony could still hear the kid’s laughter from that moment. His favorite one that included Happy was when Peter was eating a sandwich and the kid had shoved some of his bread into the security guard’s mouth without any warning.

Tony fell over laughing at that one.

Pepper had some saved that were her favorites as well. Some of them caught Tony off guard because… they weren’t even of Peter.

He had no idea when Pepper got this one, but it was of him on the ground in his lab, tinkering with a bunch of colorful material. For the kid’s first birthday, he wanted something meaningful to give to Peter. He was rich and could buy anything the kid desired, but, just like when he was first stuck in the toy aisle before Peter was even born, he was stuck on what to give him. So, Tony tried his hand at making baby gifts.

He wasn’t actually that bad at it.

He made a baby bottle for Peter, something that could warm the milk (or any drink) or keep it cold with just a press of a button. He also turned one of Peter’s stuffed animals into a robot that could react to the kid. It also had an alarm just in case anything happened to him.

Pete loved it when his stuffed doggy all of the sudden responded to him with barks and would listen to the gibberish he was spouting out.

However, unknown to Tony, Pepper had walked in on him making such a thing. She quietly asked JARVIS to save the picture of Tony working with a stuffed dog like he was preparing for surgery. It was one she had framed and put in their bedroom.

When Peter’s first birthday came around, Tony wanted it to be the biggest and the best there was. However, he was completely misguided on how to do parties for children.

“Honey, he’s turning one year old.”

“And?” Tony asked. He and his wife were in their bed, talking in hushed voices as to not wake Peter. He was in a different room, but Tony swore that kid had acute hearing or something. Babies had a sixth sense for when parents were relaxing and Tony believed in that fact.

“This isn’t like one of your parties you normally throw. This is a child.”

Tony paused at the thought. It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to throw a party. The tabloids and news say his parties were the biggest of the year. But Pepper had a point, this wasn’t a party to celebrate another big year with SI, or to celebrate his birthday, or just because Tony was bored. No, this was his son’s birthday and he wasn’t going to overstimulate Peter by doing what he normally did.

So, he took a deep breath and asked his wife how it should go.

“What is he into now?” Pepper asked him.

“Animals,” Tony answered without a second thought. He knew everything Peter was into because he made it his job to keep getting things in that category for the kid to have. But, mostly he knew because he was sick and tired of hearing Rhodey make animal calls to the kid. He would walk into their house and would moo loud enough so the kid could hear him throughout the entire mansion. Tony had heard more animal noises come out of Rhodey’s mouth than actual words in the past month alone.

Pepper nodded in agreement. “So, we start there. Get him some animal themed decorations, maybe even a cake. Invite some of the children from those parenting lessons we go to.”

Pepper had insisted on those, suggesting that they could help the new couple get used to raising a kid alongside others who were doing the same thing. Tony felt out of place there, especially with some of the stares from parents who noticed that Tony Stark was in their baby care class. But, surprisingly, after a while, they got used to it and treated him like a normal dad. They even made fun of him for some of his suggestions. It was both insulting and a breath of fresh air. Pepper sure seemed to enjoy it.

For a second, Tony imagined what Pepper had said and it wasn’t a bad idea. He didn’t know the first thing about throwing parties for a child, so he was okay with following her lead on this one. However, he did not like the idea of inviting all of those rowdy children into his house. Pepper may have changed it up to be more baby friendly, but it was still a billionaire’s mansion with high tech in the basement.

“We’re not throwing it here, are we?”

“Oh,” Pepper shook her head. “Absolutely not. We are renting a place.”

She said it so quickly and stubbornly that Tony couldn’t help but laugh. Unfortunately, that woke Peter up and JARVIS alerted them to the child now crying and yelling from his room. He glanced over at his wife who was glaring at him.

“Anthony Edward Stark, you are dealing with that.”

He couldn’t even argue with her. “Yes, ma’am.”

---

It startled him when it first happened. Pepper was handling something important at SI. Tony had done all he could for the situation, which was to say, not much at all. Pepper would come back with a stack of papers that he wouldn’t want to read, but she would force him to because it was his job and she always got her way.

But until then, Tony Stark was free and he spent that time as he usually did. Well, as he usually did after having a child. Just over a year ago, he would’ve probably gone out and done something stupid, found some place where he could party or have fun. But, today, he had a son to take care of, so he brought some tools up from his lab and worked in the living room as his son smashed his toys together with sounds of destruction.

He was starting to do that a lot lately, making a lot of noises. He would say syllables and things, but none of them were actual words or phrases.

Still, Tony was watching him like a hawk for when something did make sense and had JARVIS on standby to sit and record. His first party was coming up soon and Tony would like to have his first words be something before then.

It would be awesome if they were “dada”, but Tony knew his life would be on the line if Pepper figured that out, so he was also trying to get “mama”. Then again, the one person Pepper couldn’t really argue with was Peter so maybe she’d let whatever word he said first slide.

Tony watched his son, forgetting to work on his actual project. The kid had his animal toys with everything else Rhodey, Happy, and Tony had bought him. He kept slamming them on this piano that played the same four notes and Tony had blocked the noise out at this point lest he go crazy.

“Bambino, what are you doing?”

The kid looked up at the nickname. Tony had gone around calling him a lot of things besides “Peter”. He knew the name was meaningful and that it was his son’s, but nicknames were just so much… better for Tony. He hardly called Rhodey by his real name, despite how much his friend asked him to.

Peter’s nicknames consisted of “Kid” because he was simply his kid, “Bambino” because the kid’s eyes were so wide, he was like a little deer, and “Underoos” simply for the clothes he would wear, but it’s not like the kid had much say in that. Pepper had lectured him about calling Peter by his real name, especially since he was still trying to learn words. She didn’t want him to think his name was actually Bambino.

Tony would worry about that bridge when he crossed it.

Peter picked up the rhino toy he had and once again made a cooing sound followed by an explosion as he smashed it down into the piano. The musical note that played out really contradicted Peter’s moment, but the kid did not care.

For a second, Tony pondered the idea of having one of his weapons play a little jingle before it blew up its enemies. Wouldn’t that be something?

“Do you not like the rhino?” Tony gave up on working on his stuff and made his way over to Peter. Obadiah might have things to say about Tony spending more time with Peter, but what was he expecting? He was a father now. Besides, he still worked. Tony was faster than any normal engineer, it may be a bit behind his normal schedule, but he was still miles ahead of anyone else. Besides, the only one who paid attention to his schedule was Pepper and Obie.

When Peter didn’t reply, Tony asked the question again, this time shaking his head to try and grab Peter’s attention. It worked and the kid followed the motion as he glanced down at the rhino and then threw it across the room.

Tony watched it and realized this was not the first toy Peter had thrown and there was now a pile to where Peter had tossed them.

Well… that’s fantastic.

“Bambino, you’re really going to make daddy go over there?” Frankly, Tony didn’t want to move from his spot.

“Ya.”

That was one thing Peter knew how to say, “Yeah,” or at least something close enough to make the difference unnoticeable.

With a groan Tony crawled over to the pile Peter had made and dragged all the toys back. Peter laughed as Tony did so and he was glad that his grunting was rewarded with Peter’s laughs.

“You’re making fun of daddy.”

This time, Peter nodded of his own volition and Tony could see Pepper in this kid’s DNA. No one else would get such a laugh at seeing him suffer like that.

As Tony placed his head in his hands, he nearly missed the word that escaped Peter’s mouth, but his ears caught onto the sound and the billionaire whipped back to stare at his child. Peter had gone back to playing with all his toys, now having them at his disposal again. He looked none the wiser to what he actually said.

“What did you say?” Tony prodded. He wasn’t sure if Peter actually understood the request or if he simply only knew how to say one thing so he just repeated it, but Peter did reply.

“Dada.”

Tony’s heart leapt into his throat and started beating thrice the normal amount. Blood rushed through his veins and a smile so wide lit up Tony’s face.

“Yeah, that’s right, I’m daddy.”

Peter laughed at that. He pointed to Tony and said again, “Dada.”

Tony couldn’t believe it, an actual word and it was “dada”. This was such a huge milestone and yet it happened in his living room, on a normal day, just as Peter was playing and-

Pepper was not here for this.

“JARVIS, please tell me you got that?”

“I get everything of Peter on recording, sir.” Right, he knew that.

“Maybe you should try saying mama next.”

Peter seemed to take that as a challenge and after Tony repeated the word a few times, he finally got the words out of his mouth. “Mama.”

“Alright, we’re going to show Pepper right now.”

Tony reached down to pick up his kid, ecstatic to show his wife that Peter could actually say “Mommy” and “Daddy” or similar words. It didn’t matter, he had it on recording and he knew Pepper would be furious if he kept this from her until she got home. She would also be furious that he interrupted her at work. Tony did kind of throw that workload onto her just so he could babysit today.

As Tony stood up, Happy chose that moment to come walking in. “Hey, boss, Pepper is ready for me to pick her up, so I wanted to let you know that I’m heading there now.”

Tony wasn’t expecting the security guard to burst into his house like he did, so when Happy started speaking, Tony turned to him and let out a swear.

“Geez, Happy, you can’t sneak up on me like that.”

“You could hear me walking down the hall.”

“Like I was pay-”

His sentence was cut off as Peter said his third word and the joy and exhilaration that Tony felt earlier disappeared in a second. He was hoping he misheard and it was an echo instead of a tiny body, but Happy had frozen in his spot as well, staring at Peter with wide eyes and Tony knew he was screwed.

“Hey, Pete, please don’t say-”

“Sh*t.”

Tony cursed again, but this time he made sure to do it in his head and keep his lips locked tight.

Happy, the traitor, laughed from across the room. “You’re so dead.”

Pepper was indeed excited to learn that Peter could now say “Mama” and “Dada”, but Happy, still a traitor, told Pepper about the other word Tony had taught his son and he ended up being secluded from Peter and forced onto the couch for that night.

The great Tony Stark sleeping on the couch…

He had fallen asleep on his desk in his lab before. This, honestly, wasn’t that bad, but it was his pride that was more hurt than anything.

---

Tony should’ve expected this. He was a genius, how could he not account for this one principle? A million calculations and he missed this one. He was going to baby proof the house again, he was never going to turn off JARVIS again. He had the AI running a self diagnostics, a deep one that required the AI to be down and after the events today, Tony was never going to do it again.

“He’s not there?!”

“Tony, for the fiftieth time, he’s not in the living room, our bedroom, his bedroom, or the kitchen.”

It was a giant mansion and, for the first time ever, Tony was cursing at how big the place was. Peter could get up and walk now and he took the one moment of distraction when his parents turned away from him to get up and disappear.

Cue to heart attack for both parents.

The last place they hadn’t checked had been Tony’s lab downstairs, but there was one giant flaw with that: downstairs. Peter might be able to get up and move around now, but he was not capable of going down stairs. They would’ve heard it if he tried, so Tony crossed that off first and explored the other places hoping he would find his missing child there.

Except, nope! Peter was nowhere to be found and Tony was running out of options before he called an entire SWAT team to search his house.

“Are you sure he didn’t go downstairs?” Pepper called from the other side of the house.

Well, Tony was sure until a few seconds ago, after they had searched literally every other avenue. He might as well just search it and get it over with. What did he know at this point? 

What he did know was, besides the stairs, there was a keypad with a code that’s needed and Peter didn’t know that.

Still, he went downstairs, inputted the code, and froze in place as he watched Peter jump around the mess he had down here.

What?

Here Peter was, jumping up and down as he surveyed the area. He placed his tiny hands on one of Tony’s desks and perked his head up, glancing at the metal and technology. He reached his hand out to touch it and that sparked Tony to actually move and pick the little guy up.

“No, we don’t…” The words fell on Tony’s tongue. Circling around, the little kid just laughed as Tony examined his lab. Nothing looked out of place. Granted, Peter had only been missing for five minutes but… “How?!”

“Tony.” Pepper came down the stairs a few seconds later. A look of immediate relief fell across her face when she noticed him with Peter. She reached forward and gently took her son from his hands, holding him close and kissing the top of his head. “Don’t give us a scare like that, baby.”

Again, Tony reiterated his question to his wife, hoping she could shed some light on the situation. “How did he get down here?”

Pepper simply shrugged. “You coded the doors to be biometric because you hated typing in a code.” That was… true. It also did explain how Peter was able to get in here without a code, but there was still the question on how he got down here. Again, stairs were not Peter’s forte. Unless his son had decided to climb walls now.

Pepper noticed Tony’s questioning glance and turned around to point to the elevator on the opposite side of the lab. “You also have that.”

“The kid doesn’t know how to use it!”

“Are we sure about that?”

Tony paused. He guessed they weren’t. They never really tested otherwise. He wasn’t even sure if Peter was tall enough to touch a button on it, but… There was no other way he could’ve gotten into the lab. Tony had marked off the stairs because they were physically impossible for Peter, but the elevator? Physically possible. It just required hand-eye coordination and the ability to comprehend it in order to activate it. Tony figured a one-year old couldn’t manage that.

And yet, here they were. Peter was in his lab with his eyes wide as he tried to reach behind Pepper to grab another tool from Tony’s desk. The father picked it up and moved it away from the child’s grubby hands.

Peter really activated an elevator to get down here.

Tony sighed, but it was more of a chuckle. He brushed his hands down his face to hide his laughter. It was infectious, and soon Pepper was joining in.

“He’s a genius,” Tony said.

“Like father, like son.”

---

“No.”

“Tony, I am not having this argument with you.”

“Absolutely not! I am staying home and watching the kid.”

“Pepper can watch the kid!”

Tony rolled his eyes and Obadiah caught onto that, giving Tony his most tired glare. The billionaire responded, “Pepper has work.”

“And so do you!”

Yeah, but not if Tony could ignore it, which it seemed like he was failing to do. Outside the camera, Pepper was playing with Peter on his toy mat. Toys were scattered in every which direction, but the kid was interested in a model version of one of Tony’s cars downstairs. Maybe he should show him the actual thing. Would Peter like that?

Who was he kidding? Of course he would. The kid was starting to love all things cars and vehicles. The kid had watched the movie Cars with them at least ten times and another dozen with Rhodey, yet that man never complained. Tony had to bite his lip and have the power of Pepper on his side in order to keep from complaining.

Rhodey was also happy with the fact that Peter was playing with the model airplanes he had gotten for the kid before he was even born and the new car ones he had just acquired. A fact he would not stop pointing out to the two parents.

“There are hundreds of qualified babysitters in the country-”

“Not for my kid.”

Once again, Obie sighed and glared at Tony. “Yes, for your kid, Tony. You can find a qualified caretaker and be on your plane in the next hour.”

“But-”

“Goodbye, Tony.”

The billionaire flicked his phone shut and turned to Pepper with a glare, expecting the woman to be on his side, but Pepper was still Pepper and throughout having a child together, he forgot that she was also tired of him avoiding work.

“Tony.”

He met her expression and his heart sank. “Please, not you too.”

“Yes, me too. You have to go to the conference in D.C.” Not for a couple of days. If Obie had his way, Tony would apparently be on a plane in an hour. She picked Peter up and brought the kid over to him. Peter seemed confused and upset that he was being dragged away from his toys, but the kid turned to his dad and, as if noticing his expression for the first time, his puzzlement faded away.

“Dada.” He reached his arms out.

How could he argue with his adorable child?

Tony picked Peter up and held him in front of his face. The child had reached forward to run his hands down Tony’s beard, laughing at the feeling.

“Hey, kid. I have to leave for a bit, but you can bet I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He tilted his head to the side, much to Peter’s dismay, to ask Pepper a question. “You can handle finding a babysitter, yeah?”

“I work and live with you for a living, yes, I can handle it.” He felt like he should’ve been insulted by that statement, but decided to let it go. There was no use arguing with Pepper, he should know that by now.

“And when I get back,” he turned his attention to Peter and the kid wasted no time placing his hands on his dad’s face again. He giggled and it was spreading to Tony as well. “I’m going to take you on a ride in a real car.”

Peter’s face lit up at that and he started jumping in Tony’s arms. “Race like cars vroom!” he called.

“Yes we will.” His kid was so much like him and it made Tony so proud and happy to be able to spend time with his kid and do things like this. But, there was also a wife in this situation, one who had common sense.

“You’ll be going the speed limit and putting Peter’s car seat in.” She glared at the man, but Tony pointedly ignored it.

Now where was the fun in that?

---

Pepper had stayed true to her word and went through a whole list of candidates for a babysitter. Things were still on the downlow with the press and Peter. Pepper wanted them absolutely nowhere near her child until he was a little bit older and could comprehend that his father was a billionaire and owned one of the biggest companies in the world. Until then though, it was a whole lot of NDAs and legal discussion for any of the nannies that walked in. Although, Pepper’s glare and stern promises if anything were to get out were enough to deter some of the nannies from even finishing the interview.

And people thought that Tony was the scary one. Honestly, he sat through some of those interviews before getting bored enough that he actually went and did SI work. Turned out it was the lesser of two evils. Pepper was better at narrowing down the list and telling Tony near the end anyway. That was just their dynamic, so the woman said nothing when Tony didn’t come back from his “break”.

He was once again in his workshop when Pepper finally came down at the end of the day. After the mishap with Peter entering his lab, Tony had programmed it to actually need a code for either entry point, something that had Tony slamming into too many doors when they didn’t open. He ended up just telling JARVIS to let him in, but forced everyone else to use the code. Peter had not come down here afterwards, but the kid was brought down sometimes by Pepper or even Rhodey when his friend wanted to come by.

Speaking of which, the Air Force member was now watching over their child. He had practically broken down Tony’s door, picked up Peter, declared he was having an “Uncle-Nephew” day, and then left. Tony didn’t even have the energy to argue with him. He should be back within the next hour or so if he wanted to follow Peter’s curfew. And if he didn’t, well he would have one Pepper Stark to deal with and that was not something Tony would wish on his worst enemy. Rhodey knew better.

“Hi, honey, how was your day?”

Tony moved the giant project out of the way. Pepper liked it when he actually turned to face her when he talked. Sometimes he would get swept up in his work and forget about proper manners, but he was actually finished with this new weapon so he could actually do that for her this time. “Good enough to make something to get Obie off my back.”

Pepper shook her head at that. “You say that like he’s the bad guy, but we all know you’d rather do anything else than work.”

Tony glanced up at shock. “Excuse me. I make the weapons, I attend the business meetings-”

“You are on your phone half the time.”

“-And I go to big, public events.” Tony placed his hands on his wife’s shoulders. “I’ll admit, you keep me afloat, but I do actually work.”

Pepper rolled her eyes at that, but she knew that Tony was somewhat correct in his statement, so she let it go. Tony was thankful, he didn’t want to have a discussion about his work etiquette either. Stark Industries was doing fine. He knew the numbers. His business was still booming and continuing to grow.

Without any explanation, she dropped some folders onto an empty spot in Tony’s workshop. (He’s pretty sure he covered every surface there was. Where did that come from?)

“What is this?” Tony asked. At least she didn’t hand it to him directly. She knew that wouldn’t go over well for either of them.

“Candidates for the new nanny.”

Suddenly interested, Tony picked them up and started thumbing through the resumes. From what he could glance at, they were actually really promising, but he didn’t expect anything else from his beautiful wife.

“Do you have a favorite?”

“You’re supposed to look at them yourself, Tony.”

“Sure, but you already have a favorite.” He leveled his wife with his signature Tony Stark expression and she just sighed in defeat. They do this all the time with business or whenever Tony’s buying art. She was the expert, so why should he look through it when he could just ask her?

Pepper reached forward and pulled a specific folder out, flipped it open, and placed it on top of all the other folders. “Her name is May Parker. She’s originally from New York, but her husband got a job opportunity down here, so they moved. She works as a nurse, but her new job has her working terrible hours and she’s hoping for something better. She doesn’t have a family of her own, but is family oriented, even taking care of some newborns at the hospital when they are understaffed. Her background check is good, she passed all the tests I gave her, is okay with traveling when we have business in other states, and frankly, having someone with medical knowledge around Peter is a comfort.”

Tony nodded. That was enough for him. He shut the folder and handed it back to Pepper. “Then let’s schedule another interview so she can meet Peter.”

Pepper nodded in agreement and took the folders to just place them on his worktable again. Tony stared at them in disgust. This was his workspace for weapons. The folders were out of place.

“Come on, let’s go kidnap our son from Rhodey.”

Pepper glanced at the clock on his wall, squinting her eyes with a mischievous smile. Tony halted in his steps, watching with wife with a curious gaze. “We still have an hour, right?”

“Yeah,” Tony asked nervously.

Pepper smirked again and Tony’s knees felt weak. “Then maybe we should make the most of it.”

It had been a while and they had been distracted with everything going on with Peter turning one and talking and-

Tony grabbed his wife and kissed her.

---

May Parker was actually an angel, Tony was certain. She aced her second interview and meeting Peter was like a choir singing. She worked with him so seamlessly and it was like Peter wasn’t even scared of the new stranger. He still preferred his mom and dad, but he didn’t snuff or cry at May’s presence or when she played with him and it opened up a lot of time for Pepper and Tony.

So, they went on dates, they had sex, they actually focussed on SI work to get Obie off of their backs for a good while.

May watched over Peter, having to fight off Happy and Rhodey whenever the two wanted to kidnap the kid again. The woman actually had a stern expression and a fierce temper like Pepper. That meant whoever challenged her was in for the fight of their lives.

And Happy was smitten.

The security guard could only blush when some news anchor walked up to the family going out to eat at a restaurant. May had been there at the time and before any Stark or even Happy could push the paparazzi away, May was yelling at the journalist and scaring the camera man off before he could even click the button.

Tony just stood in awe. This was the real reason Pepper wanted May, he was sure. Now there was another woman who could yell at him when he was being stupid, especially with Peter.

And yell May did.

For the first month, she was still getting used to everything and kept quiet, but once she got comfortable around the billionaire, she did not keep her thoughts silent. Her biggest concern was with how much Peter tried to get into the lab and though Tony made it impossible for him to do so, the child had figured out how to input the code now.

Tony had no idea where he learned that, but May did not have the code and it caused a frantic Happy to come rushing in and taking the kid out as May could not.

Suffice to say, May had the code now, but only for reasons like Peter wandering where he wasn’t supposed to. She didn’t want to step foot in there normally and Tony was grateful for that.

May had a lot of parenting advice to give Tony, despite not having any kids of her own. Her husband, Benjamin Parker, was also a loving soul and the two of them were going to be the best parents if they ever had a kid of their own.

They never talked about it, but Tony could see how Peter kind of filled that hole for them. Yes, Tony allowed Ben to spend some time with Peter. He couldn’t really stop it when May was out watching Peter and her husband had the day off. Peter had gone about calling them “Aunt May” and “Uncle Ben”, much to Rhodey’s and Happy’s dismay. They now had another person to fight with for “Best Uncle”.

Not a position Peter cared about actually anointing, but they were gunning for it nonetheless.

May helped a lot. Heaven knew Tony barely had any idea what to do, especially with his own dad being such a bad example and though he had Pepper’s assurances that he wasn’t like him, May was also there to give him lessons on how to be better. Even his wife, the one who did everything on her own, took some advice from May on how to better take care of Peter.

It helped Tony actually take steps and not be afraid of them. Not to see the failure of Howard Stark whenever he looked at himself in the mirror. He could turn to Peter more and not fear ruining the child’s life.

And the child was just loving all the attention he was getting.

The photo album JARVIS had put together was growing in size and Tony was prepared to build the entire album its own server that was backed up so nothing could happen to it. They already had terabytes of Peter just being adorable and Tony knew it would only grow as the child grew.

It felt… right.

Tony was reminded of his time before Peter, before the kid was even a bean in Pepper’s stomach. He was lonely, he’d admit it now. There was an empty part of his soul that he tried to fill with women and booze, yet that never seemed to do the job. Now, however, he didn’t even notice it was gone. That ache, that empty hole was filled. Having this family, though not all connected by blood, was important to him. It meant so much to him. He would do anything to protect them, this he was sure of.

Tony Stark had grown to care for something much bigger than himself and it made him feel warm.

---

As Peter continued to grow, things changed to fit the child’s needs.

His two-year old state had Tony pulling his hair out. Pepper was not any better. May had warned them about the terrible twos and how awful it would be to deal with them. Even the nurse seemed tired of Peter’s attitude at times. Pepper and Tony would come home and she would be there with a wailing child, ready to hand him off.

Happy and Rhodey had even started to take a step back, mostly from fear because Peter was a blend of Pepper and Tony and could there be a worse combination when he was angry?

May had told Tony that, despite how rich he was and how tempting it was, he could not bend to Peter’s every whims and that meant he would have to let the child actually cry things out and argue with Tony.

He did not like it. Firstly, because Peter was his baby and it hurt to see him cry. Secondly, because the kid was actively challenging him and Tony wanted to fight back.

Then he realized he was having an argument with a two-year-old who was still in diapers and Tony gave up.

Even Pepper seemed at her wits end when she would try to feed Peter and the child would find anything and everything wrong with the meal.

“He is just like you.” Pepper said one night as they laid in bed together. They were staring at the ceiling, trying to get over the stress from the day. Surprisingly, it wasn’t work that was the most stressful, but instead their own child. They used to return home for reprieve, but now SI had become that. Even Obie was surprised with how much Tony was showing up.

“I’m pretty sure he has some Potts in there as well. He has your stubborn streak.”

“You’re stubborn too.”

“Then we’re screwed.”

Pepper closed her eyes with a sigh.

---

Peter definitely had a mouth on him and, Pepper didn’t need to say it, Tony knew exactly where the kid got that from. Like father, like son, he guessed.

“Peter-”

“No! No nap!”

Tony ran a hand down his face. “Yes nap.”

“You take a nap!”

“I don’t need to! I’m a grown up.”

Peter huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Then I no nap.”

Tony growled at his kid, clenching his fists shut. “Yes.”

“No!”

“Please.”

Peter shook his head.

“Peter!”

“No!”

That’s how Tony ended up asleep on Peter’s bed with the child curled up beside him. Pepper had taken a picture of the moment and made a plan to get it framed.

---

It happened again when they were at the store. Thankfully there were no people around to hear the child’s wails, but that could also be acting as a deterrent.

Tony had needed some things for a personal project of his, so he ended up going to a hardware store. May was babysitting Peter and the child insisted on coming. Tony didn’t have a good reason to say no, so the two tagged along.

Tony wished he said no.

They had passed by an ice cream shop and May had cringed the moment she saw it. It was a second later that Peter saw it too and had started demanding ice cream.

Listening to the wise words of May Parker, Tony denied his child the treat and that had caused this current episode. Peter was yelling and crying and saying that Tony was stupid.

It kind of hurt.

He tried his best not to be personally attacked by Peter’s words, May also trying her best to be encouraging to the father. Still, it was kind of hard when there was a child pulling on her arms and trying to fall to the ground to pout. After a bit of that, Tony picked his child up and carried him to the car, all while Peter continued to fight.

He was too much like his dad.

The kid continued to yell the entire way home and it kept irritating Tony. So much so that he finally got to the point where he actually yelled at Peter.

He hadn’t done so before. There was always the scolding or the denials, but there wasn’t a full out yell. He had tried his best to keep his temper in check around Peter, but this state was just challenging Tony until it came out.

“Peter!” Tony yelled so loudly that it caught the child off guard. He stared up at his dad with wide eyes. “I am not going back and buying you that ice cream! Okay?! With how you’re acting you don’t deserve it and I don’t want to hear anymore of your cries! You want to go into time out? Because I am severely debating that and also taking away all of your toys! So shut up!”

The child could only stare and it was while he was looking into his son’s brown eyes that he felt his heart drop.

He didn’t actually… he didn’t do that, did he?

Peter started crying, but this time for a completely different reason. His mouth warbled and he turned and ran away. Tony could only stand in the same spot, frozen as he stared at where his child was.

May, bless her soul, stayed for a moment, glancing at Tony and biting her lip before she chased after Peter. He would rather she go after him anyway. Tony didn’t want his child to be alone, but… Tony was the last person Peter wanted to see, he knew that.

Tony felt like crying himself. He robotically made his way down into his lab and sat in his chair, spinning around as his mind wandered through the void. All he could think about was Peter’s wide eyes as he yelled at his kid, as the kid became scared of him.

He sucked in a breath and threw his head into his hands. He was the worst parent ever and now Peter wanted nothing to do with him and he had ruined any chance he had of being a good father.

He was just like his dad. There was no stopping that. His blood ran through his veins and was just waiting for the moment to strike and make Tony mess up. He had ruined it, he was going to continue this, throwing his son’s life into a pit of agony and pain.

His father didn’t love him.

Pepper made her way downstairs an hour later, having finished whatever thing she was supposed to do today. She found Tony on his couch, staring at the wall as he laid on his side. Seemed May told her what happened because the woman sat down on the arm of the couch and, without a word, started to run her fingers through Tony’s hair. He didn’t even move as she touched him.

“You know you’re not a monster.”

He still needed to figure out if Pepper had the power to read minds. She was still too suspiciously good at that.

Tony didn’t say anything, so Pepper continued, having the conversation for the both of them. “It was bound to happen at some point.” She sighed. “Peter needs to be yelled at and I know it doesn’t feel good, but it’s necessary.”

“I told him to shut up.”

Pepper nodded. “We were all thinking it.”

That wasn’t exactly helping. He groaned and shoved his head further into the couch. “Pepper.”

“We were,” she stated. “I have never wanted to tell someone to shut up so much in my life and I know you. I also work at your company and there are a lot of idiots that deserve to be told that.” She sighed and continued to pull at the strands of hair on his head. “The point is, there needs to be opposition to Peter. He needs to be told no, he needs to be yelled at so he can understand. It sucks and he’ll get upset, but it has to happen.”

Tony stayed silent at that. He had been told that, he theoretically knew that. It made sense, he suspected it would happen, but still… when it actually came around, it didn’t make him feel any better. Did people say it was necessary because it made them feel better? Should anyone say yelling at their child was a necessary step in getting them to grow? In his mind, the yelling was constant and was never followed with any love or learning angles. It was just a kid getting in his father’s way, so his father yelled at him.

And it ruined their relationship.

He couldn’t let that happen to Peter and him.

“The kid isn’t scared of you,” Pepper continued. “He needed a moment, but now he’s asking for you.”

“Asking for me?” Tony perked up and turned to Pepper in surprise. That was… why would he be asking for Tony? The woman nodded.

“Believe it or not, the kid is actually worried he did something very wrong and made you mad at him.”

Tony quickly sat up. The kid shouldn’t have to be upset about anything. He did nothing wrong. Sure, he was having a tantrum, but it was Tony who took it too far by yelling at him. Although, Tony wasn’t sure the kid could realize that he never made a mistake. “I’m not mad at him. I-”

Pepper nodded in understanding. “Peter doesn’t know that. All he knows is that he did something that made you raise your voice and now he’s worried he screwed up.”

The kid was two years old and he was already thinking he screwed things up. It was just Tony’s blood running through his veins and messing the kid up.

He sighed and sunk back into the couch, hoping it would open up and swallow him whole.

“Come on.” Pepper stood up, tugging on Tony’s arm until the billionaire gave in and allowed his legs to actually work. Pepper stayed behind him, a steady hand on his back as she led him towards the door and up the stairs.

It was silent as they made their way to Peter’s room. May must have left for the day once Pepper got home. Tony felt the need to apologize to her too. That would have the news foaming at the mouth: Tony Stark apologizing for once in his life.

Pepper knocked on the door and it was now that Tony could hear soft cries coming from the other side of the wall. His heart dropped again and all he could think about was how that was because of him.

He shouldn’t be here. His child was in pain because of Tony. He hadn’t physically hit his son, but he may as well have. He was awful, the scum of the Earth, and Pepper should’ve made the decision to keep this from him because he-

“No.” Pepper flicked his forehead, promptly shutting down his thoughts. “Don’t go down that path.” She glared at him with a look so powerful, Tony felt weak.

Her and her mind reading powers.

The door opened and the first thing Tony zeroed in on was his son curled up on his bed and crying with the quilt Rhodey got him wrapped around his shoulders. Tony couldn’t stop himself from immediately moving, kneeling next to his son’s side. Peter’s eyes grew wide when Tony closed in and the kid cried even harder.

Pepper was wrong, he shouldn’t be here. He was just making a mess of things and-

The door clicked shut behind him and Pepper was not in the room with them, meaning she was outside, playing security detail until Peter and Tony made up.

Sly woman.

With a sigh, Tony turned back to Peter and lifted a hand up. He paused for a moment before deciding to just bite the bullet and place his hand on Peter’s hair, running his fingers through it like Pepper had done for him just moments before.

He could do this. Pepper gave him a chance and Tony knew he would make mistakes, but… she believed in him. That’s why she pulled him into this room. He loved this kid, he did, and that already was doing better than Howard ever did.

He kept combing his fingers through Peter’s hair until the cries silenced and they were just left with the hiccups from Peter trying to breathe. The kid made no move to speak and Tony didn’t either, so they just sat in silence for a good couple of minutes.

Tony didn’t know how to start the conversation, what to even say. It wasn’t that easy. He shouldn’t have yelled at Peter, especially to tell the kid to shut up.

Maybe he should start there then. Keep it simple at first and then grow. “I’m sorry, Underoos.” The kid glanced up as Tony addressed him, he had part of the blanket in his mouth, probably his whole hand underneath it covered in snot and tears. He stared at Tony with wide eyes.

Those eyes were his. Copied from Tony and pasted right onto Peter. It hurt to stare into those eyes and see so much wonder, so much innocence, so much genius. The kid had asked him on multiple occasions what Tony was working on and though a lot of the technicals would go over his head, Tony would dumb it down so Peter could understand.

And Peter loved it.

Tony had never taken the kid into the lab to actually work on something. Pepper would have his head, but maybe it would be a good way to apologize, to start making up. Tony was in the workshop at this age after all.

Then again, it was just a good excuse for his dad to not spend time with him, but… He could be different. He could spend time with Peter, help him take apart and put together his first engine, teach him how to do math so the kid could excel in school just like his dad.

Tony could be different.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

Peter moved a little, his leg kicking out from under the quilt. The blanket was smaller than his body size, made more for decoration than anything. He wondered why Peter picked this quilt over any other blanket. He stared at the happy picture of himself and Pepper at their wedding and turned away.

“Sorry I made daddy mad.”

Tony shook his head. “I could never stay mad at you, Bambino. Just couldn’t handle the yelling, I guess.” He put his head in his hand. No, that wasn’t right. “That’s no excuse, I’m sorry.”

Now it was Peter’s turn to shake his head and he really looked too much like his father. His hair,  his eyes. Where was Pepper in all of this child? “I sorry.”

Tony laughed. “Kid, I’m trying to apologize.”

Peter pointed to himself. “Me.”

Tony opened his mouth to argue, but then quickly shut it. There was that stubbornness once again, showing off its ugly face in the midst of an apology. It wasn’t really that ugly in this case.

“Then we can both be sorry,” Tony compromised. “And promise to be better.”

Peter thought about that for a moment before he finally nodded, agreeing with his father. “Yes, please.”

Tony reached up and pulled his kid off the bed, wrapping him in a hug. “I love you, Peter.”

“Love you too, daddy.”

It was true and he wanted to make sure his son never forgot it.

---

Pepper wasn’t completely on board with the idea, but Tony had been waiting for this moment and he really wanted to see how far Peter’s genius actually took him. He was young, really young, but he was two and a half years old! Tony knew inventing was in his blood. His dad did it, he did it, and Peter had snuck into the lab when he was just one year old. If that wasn’t proof enough that Peter was Tony’s son, he didn’t know what was. He wanted to see what Peter could do.

So, after making Tony promise to follow way more child safety guidelines than normal (he guessed his lab was the most dangerous place in the entire house), Pepper finally relented and worked upstairs while Tony brought Peter downstairs. She would be close enough in case anything happened, but far enough away that she wouldn’t fret every second.

Peter, of course, was excited for the whole thing. The kid wouldn’t go to bed the night prior because he was ready for his dad to fulfill his promise of showing Peter the lab. While Tony was happy for his excitement, he also hoped the kid didn’t crash in the midst of the lesson.

Still, his energy seemed to keep going. Peter was jumping up and down as Tony opened the door and allowed the kid in.

Peter wanted to look at everything, touch everything, but he kept his hands to himself. Pepper had practically drilled the rules into Peter’s head the night before, saying if he broke any of them, he would not be allowed downstairs again. The kid seemed to be paying deep attention to that.

In the corner of the lab, a machine whirred and turned to glance at Peter with its claw hand. Peter gasped at the sight.

“Daddy, a robot!”

Tony laughed. “I call him Dum-E. He’s clumsy and stupid.”

Peter frowned at that. “Rude.”

“Yeah.” But it was an apt description for the robot. “I invented him.”

“Invent?”

“I made him,” Tony said again, hoping Peter would catch on. The child did and his eyes grew wide.

“I want!”

He was here for that reason after all. Tony didn’t mind showing Peter a bit about Dum-E. It wasn’t exactly what he had planned for today, but the kid was enamored by him, so he was going to show him.

He taught Peter the basics first. At least, what he considered the basics. He had no idea if Peter was actually getting any of it. Still, the kid paid attention and didn’t get bored once. Tony was impressed.

Once they were done with Dum-E, Tony brought him over to his cars and showed Peter what he was doing on one he was currently tuning up. He got distracted and never finished it, leaving the engine on the floor for the past week, but it worked to show Peter. The kid was into cars, so he understood a bit more of this subject. However, he couldn’t fully understand cylinders or gaskets or any more complex car parts, so Tony would point at an object and say simple things like, “this makes the car go vroom.”

Peter laughed and he enjoyed it and, to Tony’s surprise (but also proving his hypothesis right), Peter got it. The kid started putting some parts together like a puzzle. It was still with the help of Tony, but the inventor stood in amaze as Peter picked up a pipe and placed it next to one that it connected to.

His kid was a genius and Tony Stark was so proud he could share this with Peter.

The two continued working and time got lost on them. Tony continued to point out car parts and name them. Peter had trouble pronouncing the words, but he got the gist of it down. Tony was just super happy to be having this moment.

It was interrupted as the door to the lab opened. Tony glanced up, half expecting to see Pepper storming down to tell them they missed dinner. But, to his surprise, it was Obadiah that was strolling down into the lab. He paused when he saw Peter on the ground alongside Tony and quickly cleaned his expression to appear more friendly looking.

“Whatcha doing?” he asked.

“Proving Peter’s just like his old man.”

“Huh.” Obadiah stared at Peter, placing his hands on his hips. “Well would you look at that.”

Tony smiled. Yeah, look at that. Peter was the future, his future. Tony would do anything to keep him safe.

---

“Thank you for coming with us to New York, May.”

Said lady waved Pepper off. “Are you kidding me? I’m more used to this place than California. This is home to me.”

Tony was glad to hear it because this was Peter’s first time in this place and New York was busy. There were a lot of people, it was loud, and it was big. Tony was glad May could watch Peter and also knew how to handle the new setting. She and Peter would fair just fine.

Pepper still seemed a bit apprehensive about bringing Peter here, but it was either leave him for 2 weeks as they traveled for a meeting Tony had been forced to attend, or bring the kid with them alongside May who knew how to navigate this place.

It wasn’t that hard of a choice, especially if it included being able to actually see Peter at night. Neither of the parents had to say that they did not enjoy being separated from their baby for that long.

When Tony brought it up with May, the woman was ecstatic. Coincidentally, Ben had some extra days off, so May was also taking this opportunity to bring him along (with permission from her bosses of course) to spend time with him, all while watching Peter. Tony did feel better having two adults watch over him than just one.

Peter loved hanging out with Ben and, Tony would never say this to his two friends, he seemed to be connecting with Peter on a deeper, emotional level that Rhodey and Happy had yet to hit.

Tony actually had lunch with the man after Peter once talked about what he and Ben did for the whole day. May and Ben had taken Peter to the arcade and the child absolutely loved it. The lunch was an offer to pay back Ben for how much he spent, but the man quickly waved him off.

“You don’t owe me anything, Stark. Your kid is brilliant and May loves him. She’s a lot happier now that she isn’t stressed about work and Peter’s fun to be around. I know we aren’t related, but I do think of him as my nephew.”

Tony had thrown a hundred dollar bill his way nonetheless because the man was dealing with his kid despite not being paid to. He loved Peter just as much as May did and when his work allowed it, he would hang out with Peter. He deserved some compensation.

At that lunch, they also talked about how to parent Peter. Ben didn’t have the background Tony did and the man was a lot more humble and down to Earth. Tony knew he could never be on that level, but it was nice to talk to the man and learn about how he would handle situations and what he had been teaching Peter. Tony was glad that “sharing” was on that list because he knew he was atrocious at that. It didn’t help the fact that Peter was technically rich and could get whatever he wanted so he was used to having things to himself. Ben had made sure to nip that in the bud before it could become a problem.

Tony was happy to welcome Ben into their mess of a family.

Ben laughed at May’s statement. “It is more familiar here.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” May bent down so she could be at eye level with Peter. “What do you say that I show you the best park in the entire world while your parents work?”

“They can’t come?” Peter held his stuffed animal closer. It was of a brown and white dog, one Happy had gotten the kid for his third birthday after his original robot dog disappeared. Tony knew he should’ve built a tracker into that thing. Peter had yet to leave it behind and brought it with him as his “emotional support animal” as Ben called it.

Tony was wondering if this was secretly a ploy for Peter to get his own, real dog. That was completely up to the missus as Tony knew he could not make a decision like that without her being involved. He may be able to slide it past her if he used the fact that it was for Peter. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, a motto Tony Stark loved to live by.

Then again, he wasn’t sure he wanted another unruly child running around the house. Child as in dog this time. Peter already had Tony feeling like he’d sprout gray hairs early.

“They’ll join us for dinner at the best restaurant Manhattan has to offer.” May was incredibly good at dissuading Peter from getting upset. The kid knew that Pepper and Tony were busy and that sometimes, they couldn’t go with him to things, so he went with May and, in this case, Ben instead. Still, the kid talked about how he missed them. It made Tony feel like he was doing something right, especially after all the wrongs he did.

Peter thought this over, actually trying to weigh both sides of the coin. He looked up at his parents, and Pepper, the mind reader she was, responded, “We’ll be there,” before the words even left the kid’s mouth.

Peter smiled at that, a little chuckle of glee escaping his mouth before he reached his hand up and took hold of May’s hand.

“When we get back, you can tell them all about your adventures in the park. There’s birds, dogs-” Peter’s eyes lit up, “-even little ponds where ducks live!” Peter was now jumping up and down like an excited kangaroo. He pulled on May’s hand, though he had no idea where Central Park actually was, and tried to get her to move. “Okay, we’re going, we’re going!” May looked over her shoulder as she waved off to the two parents. “Say ‘bye bye’.”

As if remembering who actually was raising him, Peter let go of May’s hand and ran back to his parents. He leapt up and Tony had to quickly lean down with his arms wide open to catch his kid.

“Hey, kid, don’t trample us.”

“Bye mom!” He reached forward and wrapped Pepper in his arms. He then did the same to Tony. “Bye dad!”

Tony loved the kid and it was both heartwarming and sad to watch him go have fun while Tony had to be dragged by Pepper to the SI branch in this state.

As soon as they were out of eyesight, Pepper turned to her husband. “Y’know, the press is hounding me more lately.”

Tony tended to ignore whatever it was the press had to say. None of it was really good anyway. However, ever since he married Pepper, there have been some that painted him in a good light. There was also the opposite where a lot of news articles questioned what ploy Tony was getting at now.

The ploy was he loved Pepper, was that so hard to understand?

“About what exactly?”

“About Peter.”

Tony’s face remained neutral, but there was a strike of fear in his heart. Peter was supposed to stay off the news. They hadn’t made an official message about Peter and that was for good reason. The kid was barely growing up and they wanted him to live a normal life for as long as he could. But, there was the truth that the older Peter got, the harder it would be to keep him hidden from the internet, especially with him traveling with Pepper and Tony.

May and Ben were just normal people, so when Peter went out with them, he blended in with the crowd. He was nothing more than a normal boy, not the son of billionaire Tony Stark, the heir to Stark Industries, the next headline. He was thankful the kid got that opportunity, but surely he must be questioning why his dad wore sunglasses and a hat to “hide” his identity whenever they went outside. He wasn’t exactly subtle.

One time, when Tony and Pepper had managed to get some time away from work, they took Peter to the aquarium to show him the animals of the sea. He lived next to the ocean after all. The kid was completely enamored by it and Tony was so happy to see the kid squeal when he glanced at a shark, followed by giddy laughter.

Then, in an aquarium of all places, somebody tapped Pepper’s shoulder and asked her if she was the famous Pepper Potts, or more accurately, Pepper Stark. Pepper had adorned the same outfit Tony was wearing, a hat with sunglasses, despite them being inside. She also was in casual clothes, which was something Tony himself rarely saw and he was married to the woman.

Tony, however, still looked like himself. He didn’t even bother to shave or mix up his hair. He simply had the glasses and the hat on and was wearing what he normally would in the lab. Then again, people didn’t see him while in his lab.

Still, it was clear he was Tony Stark. Pepper actually looked like she belonged and yet this reporter came to her directly and asked her.

Pepper wasn’t expecting it either, because for the first time ever, Tony had watched Pepper freeze. She was worried about using her voice, about giving herself away. They didn’t want the paparazzi surrounding them and Peter, who hardly understood who he was, and this guy was pulling out a recorder already.

So, Tony ran up to the guy and started cursing him out in Italian. Maybe he learned a few things from May, as the babysitter would sometimes mumble Italian under her breath when Peter was being exceptionally difficult.

Peter glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow and Pepper turned to him in absolute shock. None of that mattered, because he managed to scare the reporter and the dude ran off without even confirming that he was indeed talking to Pepper Stark, or even asking why the guy speaking Italian looked like Tony Stark.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure if that would work, but it did and the family was able to continue their aquarium adventure without any more hassle.

Yes, he knew the reporters would be a problem and he was hoping he could just ignore it for a little bit longer. Pepper seemed to not like that idea though and instead wanted to tackle it as soon as she could. She was right, of course, this wasn’t really something he could let stew.

“What are you thinking?”

Pepper didn’t like it either. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. If there’s one thing Tony knew Pepper hated, it was the press. Still, she couldn’t stay away from it. She cared what people were saying about them, about the company, so she would pay attention to those things. She had read all the bad things about Tony and though they were most likely embellished, she still hung out with him after all those articles.

He hadn’t been a daisy in his early life.

“We’ll need to address them soon, before Peter actually has to go to school.” That didn’t give them a lot of time with just the normal Peter. Tony didn’t think telling their son would change how he acted. He probably didn’t know what the stakes of having a very rich and famous father were. But telling the world would change how they saw Peter and when he started going to school and getting out in the world, it would affect him.

Tony didn’t want it to.

Still, what choice did they have on the matter? Tony couldn’t hide Peter from the world and it would be better if they told everyone before it was leaked because that would just cause reporters to swarm SI and none of them needed that.

“Then we should call for a press conference.”

Pepper groaned, but kept herself composed. “I’ll work on it.” She frowned as the sentence came out of her mouth. Tony felt the same way.

---

Tony had lost countless hours of sleep. Pepper had lost countless hours of sleep.

To Tony’s credit, it wasn’t actually his fault this time. Both the adults had actually tried to be good citizens that had a normal sleep schedule (Pepper more so than Tony). However, Peter’s immune system had a different idea.

The kid was sick, a fever burning up and driving Tony insane.

Peter had woken up in the middle of the night and had thrown up. Pepper had been the one to go take care of it, leaving Tony blissfully unconscious. She set Peter back to bed, but an hour later, the kid hurled once more.

Pepper, who had just fallen asleep, was woken up once more by Peter coming into their room to tell him he threw up… again.

That was the start of the fever week.

Tony had been woken up at that point and he called May over, despite it being after midnight. The nurse/babysitter didn’t even complain about being asked to work in the middle of the night. She came over as soon as she could, a tired and bleary Ben following behind her with a nurse’s bag.

May looked wide awake. She took the bag from Ben’s hand before he could even comprehend it and she went into Peter’s room where Pepper was trying to console their child.

Tony felt like no matter where he went, he was in the way. He had no expertise on the human body, much less a toddler’s body. He knew sometimes sickness happened, but he didn’t like the idea that Peter was constantly throwing up and having trouble keeping food and water down. He didn’t like the idea that Peter had trouble sleeping, or that he was sweating, yet he felt cold.

Tony hated it. He hated it so much.

He wanted to invent something that could make it so Peter would never get sick again. He didn’t know if that was possible, but he was going to break the barriers of possibility if it kept his son protected from mere germs.

It was hard to be a father when he was constantly worrying.

Ben had gone to the couch, still tired and not fully up. The man laid down and Tony didn’t bother with it. He was too busy pacing back and forth near the door.

Finally, after 15 minutes, Pepper came back out. She closed the door softly behind her and backed up in surprise when she nearly ran into Tony.

“What are you doing?” she whispered. Tony hoped that was because Peter was sleeping and not because she was trying to be courteous to half the people in the house that still weren’t fully up.

He wanted to explain to her that he was worried and that he figured pacing at the door was better than anything else. He wasn’t even sure what to do. Sitting down made him feel lazy, going in made him feel like he was in the way. He felt extremely out of place in this situation.

“I don’t know,” he said instead.

His wife took a minute to look at him. He felt like he was being studied and he didn’t like it, but he stayed still and stared into the beautiful eyes of his wife instead. Finally, she sighed and wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.

“It’ll be alright.” Pepper sounded unconvinced herself. She was just as worried as Tony. Perhaps them being Peter’s parents were making this situation ten times worse than it actually was, but who would like it when their kid was sick and throwing up every hour?

Tony didn’t say anything about it and instead reciprocated his wife’s hug.

For the next week, they barely got any sleep as they helped Peter. The kid was knocked out half the time and crying the other half. Happy had come into the house once to ask Tony something, saw the way his hair was sticking up, the bags under his eyes, and the crazed look in his eyes and he simply turned around and walked back out the door.

A wise decision.

May was practically living at the mansion for that week. Checking on Peter and doing her best with what she had to get his fever down. Tony was half tempted to take Peter to an actual hospital on day three, but May assured him that things were starting to look better.

And they were. Not good enough to allow Tony some actual sleep, but good enough that the billionaire could actually breathe.

By the end of the week, Peter was up and using all the energy he had gained from his time stuck to his bed. Tony got himself five cups of coffee that morning and Pepper didn’t even comment on it, instead taking one for herself.

---

Tony Stark did not panic. He instead hated doing things with a strong passion. So, when people started filling up the conference room and Pepper told him they had to go, Tony pouted like a two-year-old and tried to distract all three of them in order to keep them in the house longer. That never worked with Pepper though, as the woman was a pro at getting him to leave the house when he didn’t want to, so five minutes later, he was in the car with Happy driving and Peter between him and Pepper as they went to the meeting room.

The minute they stepped out of the car, the cameras would be there and Peter’s secret, despite not being announced yet, would be out. It would be obvious when the child was holding onto his parents’ hands and walking with them into the building.

This was it.

A couple of days before, Tony and Pepper had sat Peter down and explained the situation to him. The kid didn’t care at all and already suspected his dad was rich.

“You act like the rich people in the cartoons I watch.”

Tony had no idea what to say to that, so he just nodded instead.

So, Peter knew they were rich and that didn’t change a single thing. Still, the most important part was that they had to prepare him for the press. They told the kid not to answer anyone who asked him questions, despite how May and Ben taught him that it was nice to talk to people. The kid was a little confused on that, but when Tony started going into the depths of how evil they could be, the kid agreed to stand back, at least waiting for permission from his mother and father before doing anything.

Pepper had slapped him after the talk. “Did you seriously tell your kid that the press are evil monsters that want to suck his blood so he has to stay away from them?”

“Am I wrong?”

“Tony!”

The kid understood what was going on and he was silent the entire time in the ride. As they got close to the building, he glanced out the windows and took note of the reporters. To Tony’s surprise, the kid didn’t back down and instead took a deep breath, puffing out his chest, and grabbing onto his mother’s hand as she led him out of the car.

He was brave just like her.

And, of course, people started shouting questions over one another at the sight of tiny Stark exiting the vehicle. They aimed their microphones towards Pepper, but thankfully security did a good job of keeping them all away. Tony met up with his wife and son and felt the protective urge to push people back as they made their way up the steps and through the building.

The yells were constant and yet they all walked like the powerful family they were, heads held high and nothing deterring them. Peter was definitely of their blood as he walked like he’d done this a million times. The kid was fitting in perfectly and Tony was surprised that this was the kid’s first press conference. He was acting completely natural at this and Tony wondered if a trait like that could be passed down through blood.

They made their way up to the podium. Rhodey was there, standing off to the side. Happy took his spot right besides the family. Obadiah was on the front row, nodding to Tony as the man took to the microphone.

They discussed letting Pepper do the talking as literally all of them knew she was better at it than Tony, but she wasn’t the head of the company, the name on the side of the building. As much as Tony hated it, it was best if he did this part. He complained about it, but he would do it.

“As I’m sure you all noticed, I’m here to talk about the elephant in the room. Or, more precisely,” he glanced backwards at his son and Peter was giving him the widest smile ever, “the kid in the room.”

The press had the forethought to laugh at that. He wasn’t sure if that was them actually finding it humorous or them humoring Tony.

“So, let me just say that, yes, Pepper and I do have a son.” He gestured towards Peter and the cameras were lifted up, already snapping shots of Pepper and Peter in the back. Tony resisted the urge to stand in front of them. He knew this was going to happen, he needed to keep it under control. “His name is Peter Stark and-”

“Mr. Stark?!” Someone raised her hand in the back and Tony welcomed the distraction from talking. He never knew what to say at these conferences and just went with the first thing that came to his head. Pepper always told him it was a bad idea. She brought cards with her that Tony purposefully forgot to pick up. As Tony gestured to the reporter, she gave her piece. “Though Peter is still young, do you plan on him taking over the company once he grows up?”

“If you’re asking if he’s a genius like me, yes, he is. I’ve actually been building car engines with him, so suffice to say he’s following in my footsteps. Yes, the company will most likely go to him. We haven’t gotten to that point though and I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.”

There were murmurs after that, even some people trying to ask Obadiah about how he felt, but the man simply glared at them and turned back to the front. Seems like everyone was going to get a piece of the press today.

“Mr. Stark!” Someone else raised his hand and he didn’t even wait for Tony to address him before talking. “You have been noted as many things in the past and you haven’t denied them. Among those is the fact that you’re a playboy. I know many will question if this is just you exploiting a scenario like that.”

Well, that was kind of correct. Peter might have been a result from his playboy days, his last day to be exact. But that did not mean that he was just exploiting it because he had to deal with it now. He found the entire fact ridiculous. Peter was his son and he cared for him no matter where he came from. If it was Pepper or another woman, he would care for Peter like his own. He might have been a mess in the past, but now he had a son. Sure, it came from him not giving a crap, but now there’s a responsibility there and Tony was determined to pull through on his part.

“There is no exploitation with Peter. I love my wife and together we’re raising our son. There’s nothing more to it than that. Why do you think we’ve tried to keep Peter out of the limelight?”

Another lady raised her hand. Once again, she did not wait her turn. Tony was starting to wonder what kind of reporters these businesses sent over who had no decorum. “Many women in the past have claimed to have the child of Tony Stark-”

“Those were proven false,” Tony immediately stated. “Peter is one hundred percent mine.”

“Even so, it has been reported that you are not ‘father material’ and one account of you actually laughing in the woman’s face.”

Well… he had no memory of that, so he was probably drunk out of his mind. Tony bit his lip to keep the frown from entering his face. The press, like the bloodhounds they were, probably already saw it. He was glad he couldn’t see Pepper’s expression in all of this.

Knowing that she had Tony in a tight spot, the reporter continued. “Other reports count to you being an alcoholic, immature, irresponsible-” Those are basically the same thing, “irrational, and completely unfit to be a father, so forgive us if we seem a little apprehensive about the fact that you-”

“Excuse me.”

Suddenly, a tiny body was shoving Tony to the side and trying to poke up over the podium. Tony glanced back at his wife who was giving him a slight nod. That sly woman, she was releasing their secret weapon. Maybe she was getting as pissed as Tony was that this reporter was just hammering him. Sure, he had been like that, but that was four years ago and surely they must have updated information by now. Guess they just wanted to stir the pot.

Tony knelt down and lifted up his child. Like a prince, the kid waited for him to be up, frowning slightly at the crowd. He had never done this before, but he acted like a pro. Did Pepper give him a talk about what to do?

“Are you saying my daddy is bad?”

The crowd was silent at Peter’s accusation and nobody had the gall to stand up and question or interrupt a child. At least they had some decency.

When no one answered, Peter continued, his fingers pressing down on the wood holding the microphone. “My daddy is the best in the world. He plays with me, builds with me, and teaches me fun things.” Tony was kind of glad Peter wasn’t going further into the details because as much as he goofed around the press in the past, he did not want them having any new father material to use against him and they would surely use it against him. “He messes up and gets scared, but he cares and I love him.”

Peter glared at the crowd. “So stop hurting daddy.”

The reporter that had been trying to hound Tony had her mouth wide open and Tony took that as his cue to drop Peter down. Pepper had now made her way over and had picked the child up into her own arms. Tony glanced backwards at her and mouthed “Thank you”. That was one way to shut the paparazzi up, have a child chew them out.

“There will be no more questions,” Tony announced and he quickly took off the scene with Pepper and Peter in his arms. Happy was following right behind, trying to hide the smirk that appeared on his face. Rhodey, from where he was following as well, was purely laughing.

“I’m buying that kid ice cream,” Happy announced and Peter’s eyes grew wide at the mention of the sweet treat.

---

Pepper had drilled this into his head a million times already.

“Tony, Peter is starting school in a month. We’re going out to get some supplies, do you want to come?”

“Tony, Peter is starting school in a week. May and I have prepped him on what to expect, but I know I should go over it with you as well as you are the most likely to panic.”

“Tony, it’s five days until school starts. Peter’s really excited about it. I know it’s going to be a change, but you have to be-”

“Pepper.” Tony glanced up from the engine he was looking at. Peter had put this one together on his own and Tony was now doing a thorough investigation to see how well constructed it was. He could tell it was done by a four-year-old, but all the parts were actually placed pretty well and fit where they were supposed to go. Maybe they should’ve thrown the kid into school earlier, but Pepper had made the claim that she wanted Peter to have friends his age and it didn’t matter how quickly he did school. As well, she wanted to spend more time with him before the moment finally arrived. Tony could understand that. “I get it and I’m comfortable with it.”

“You are?”

“Yes, of course.”

He was not.

The day came when Peter had to be sent off to school and Tony stood beside the car, his hands clenching into fists as he watched his kid happily walk into the school, being greeted by his pre-school teacher.

Tony hated it and he wanted to just grab the kid, put him back into the car, and find somebody to homeschool him.

“I thought you were comfortable with it.” Pepper gave a sweet smile as Peter waved them goodbye before he disappeared through the doors.

Tony hated those doors.

“I was.” Until the moment they actually got here and it seemed to click in Tony’s mind.

They had left Peter with May for full days before and he never panicked about that. Probably because he ran a background check on the woman and Pepper had personally interviewed her. Fact was, May was one person and she was trustworthy.

This class however… There were other kids, teachers Tony hadn’t personally investigated, a public space, people exploiting Peter because he’s a rich kid, and a million other different things.

Tony grinded his teeth together. He made a mental note to ask JARVIS to pull up reviews of the school. Pepper had already done that, but maybe it’s time for Tony to do a little illegal work to get in deeper.

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Tony, he’ll be fine.”

“How are you not freaking out right now?!”

“Becuase I know my kid and I know that people have to be really stupid to try anything to him.” Pepper turned to her husband. “He put a room full of reporters in their place. He has yours and my stubborn attitude. The kid can handle himself.”

Guess he wasn’t giving Peter enough credit. Pepper was right, as always. He should give both her and Peter more credit. Both were brilliant in their own ways and though Tony would never stop protecting them, he did have to allow them room to roam.

“You are fantastic, you know that?”

Pepper smirked. “I do, but you can stand to say it a bit more.”

That was something he wouldn’t mind listening to.

“Okay then, we have some time at home together-”

“We are going to work.”

Well, Tony didn’t like the sound of that.

“But we can-”

“Go to work.”

“But Peter-”

“Will be picked up by Happy when his classes are over and May will watch him until we get back.

Pepper had this entire day planned out already and didn’t even tell Tony. The man could only stand there in complete befuddlement as Pepper got in the car and sat there perfectly normal.

She was more powerful than she gave herself credit for and she had Tony wrapped around her finger.

---

Peter’s fifth birthday came around and Tony felt like he was wrangling two extra children as Happy and Rhodey continued to argue over which one of Peter’s gifts he liked more.

“You bought him more legos? He already has a ton of those!”

Happy scoffed and it felt so weird to see Happy, of all people, scoff. It was also weird to see Rhodey argue with another grown man about children’s toys.

“You can never have enough legos. Besides, now that I know he likes Star Wars, there’s a whole plethora of builds I can get him!”

It was Ben who introduced Peter to Star Wars and Tony felt a little jealous that the man found the show that Peter absolutely adored. Did Pepper think he was a bit too young to be watching a movie like that? Yeah, but half the deep stuff went over Peter’s head and he really just liked to watch people fight with sticks of light.

Tony pondered on making a lightsaber for the kid’s birthday, but Pepper shot that down the minute it came to his head.

Her and her mind reading powers.

Rhodey had bought the kid an actual model ship from Star Wars, alongside a bunch of car models, as he knew the kid liked cars as much as his father. Both were still holding onto the theme of things they started giving Peter before he was even born. They were really a one trick pony.

“Besides,” Happy argued, “mine are at least helping his creativity and skillset in building.”

“Excuse me, my stuff is useful for a young developing mind and for creativity. The kid is a kid and therefore likes playing with things. You can’t play with legos!”

“Yes you can!”

Tony had left the room after that. Peter enjoyed both the gifts they gave him and still had yet to pick a favorite uncle. Tony figured, at this point, he never would, but that wouldn’t deter Happy and Rhodey.

---

Peter passed everything the teacher threw at him with remarkable numbers. Tony didn’t expect anything less from his son, though.

Peter also came home with some projects he made, all of which Pepper wasted no time putting on their fridge. Tony had woken up one morning and went to go get something from the fridge and ended up struggling to find the handle to open the door. Though it was in the same place, it had been covered to the brim with pictures Peter drew and things he made at school. Tony loved his son and wanted to show off what he did, but Pepper was a master of the arts, did she seriously organize the fridge this way?

As time moved on, Tony got more comfortable with Peter going to school. Nothing bad had happened and Tony may or may not have given Peter a bracelet to track his vitals and warn him if anything happened.

He didn’t tell Pepper about it, but the woman came and questioned him about it the next day nonetheless.

As the kid grew up, he was starting to get a better grasp on everything. He could work on a lot of things without Tony looking over his shoulder and the man was both sad at the missed bonding time but so happy to see that Peter could put together a computer, or at least, some circuits of one.

The kid passed through preschool and kindergarten in the blink of an eye and, next thing Tony knew, Peter was getting taller, and was going to first grade.

He did not like the fact that the kid was growing so fast. It was bittersweet as he was so proud of him, but… could his baby not stay his baby?

He mentioned it to Pepper one night as they laid in bed. “He’s growing so fast now.”

“They say it happens before you can blink.”

He sighed. “I don’t like that.”

She was silent before she whispered, “I don’t either.”

He held her close that night.

Peter would continue to tell them about all the things he did, having fun at school and excited to share what he learned. He knew a lot about technology and engineering, but that wasn’t exactly the things they taught first graders, so Peter was learning more about animals, rocks, and rain (for some reason). He was super excited to tell his parents about it over dinner like they didn’t already know. Pepper was the best at acting surprised to learn all of this and asking Peter more questions about it. She was testing him and Tony saw it from a mile away. Still, it kept Peter entertained and gave him things to clarify with his teacher the next day, so it was beneficial for all.

“You’re really good at this,” Tony told her one night as they laid on the couch, watching a movie that Peter was absolutely not allowed to watch. “I don’t know if I ever told you that, but… you’re a really good mother.”

“Thanks.” She was running her hands through his hair and Tony was practically half comatose on top of her. “I’ve never really said it, but I have no idea what I’m doing half the time.”

With a huff, Tony said, “Could’ve fooled me.”

“The other half is just dealing with a miniature version of you and that I am perfectly qualified to handle.”

“You just had to turn it into an insult.”

She giggled at that, her hands moving from his hair to his back and digging in. Tony groaned at the sensation. If she kept this up, they both were going to get significantly less sleep tonight.

“I just want him to be prepared. He’s really smart and can finish his work in a day. I don’t want him getting bored.”

“I’m sure he’s doing great. He’s our kid after all.”

“Yeah, I know.” She leaned her head back onto a pillow that decorated the couch. Tony had used it once to have a pillow fight with Peter. The two were fighting like Jedi from the movies Peter liked until Pepper came in and noticed them. They were then both reprimanded for using her pillows and she demanded they be fluffed up and placed right where they were before. “We can find out. Peter’s parent teacher conferences are coming up.”

Tony bit his tongue to ask what those were, or more specifically, what they entailed. He knew of them, of course, but had never attended one himself, even as a kid. He felt out of place in this scenario.

“Do you think it’s wise for both of us to walk into a school filled with a bunch of young kids and a whole lot of adults?”

Pepper mulled over this. “Probably not, but I’m going for my son.”

And when she worded it like that, Tony couldn’t deny it either. For Peter, he would do anything.

Though, he wasn’t sure how long he’d last.

That’s how he ended up wearing a formal getup to his son’s school. Peter was dressed up, though not in a suit like Tony’s. He had the thought to get the kid fitted for one, but with the way he was growing, it wouldn’t fit in the next year and it wasn’t like he was dragging Peter to business meetings every other week. The kid had no need for one.

Pepper was adorned in her nice clothing as well and Tony wondered if they overdressed for the occasion. Other parents were wearing casual clothes as they walked into the school.

Tony Stark didn’t care though. He was Tony Stark, he could wear what he wanted and do what he wanted and he wasn’t going to be judged because he showed up to see how his kid was doing in school (even though he knew Peter was doing great).

They wandered through the halls, Peter pointing out some projects they did that were hanging up outside of his classroom. Tony was glad to see Peter’s efforts put together with the rest of his class. They made something for Fall, every student decorating a leaf in their own way. It was beautiful and Tony quickly took out his phone to take a picture of it. He’d upload it to the Peter servers when he got home.

Parents took notice of the rich couple when they walked by. One mother even grasped her son and turned down a different hallway. Tony chuckled at the sight.

Others would point and whisper and when their kids acted confused, they leaned down to explain it to them. Tony wasn’t sure if those kids actually understood the importance of the people standing in front of them, but they nodded to their parents nonetheless.

One dad even took out his phone and shamelessly took a photo. Tony didn’t care if that got out. Let the public know that Tony Stark actually cared about his son and attended his parent teacher conferences.

Pepper did her best to ignore the stares and guided Peter into the classroom so they could talk to the teacher. Suspiciously, the line for the classroom had disappeared in an instant.

Mr. Frankle was the guy’s name and Tony tried his best to keep the laughter to himself. Pepper even elbowed him in the side when the man introduced himself. He seemed shocked to actually see Pepper and Tony Stark show up. The man knew who Peter’s parents were, that was no secret when they enrolled Peter into this school, but maybe he was surprised to see them actually show up.

So what? They were rich and therefore couldn’t attend one night to celebrate their son? People really had low expectations of him, didn’t they?

Still, the man stayed professional the entire time and gave them the basics they already knew. Peter listened in class, he did great on his work, and turned everything in on time. Tony spent most of the meeting questioning why he was here in the first place. Yeah, to go for Peter, but this was dull and they already knew all the stuff the teacher was telling them.

Tony was falling asleep halfway through, but thankfully, it was short and Pepper was paying attention to everything.

Seeing no other reason to be there once it was done, Tony got up and left the classroom, his wife and child following behind.

“You did amazing, sweety.” Pepper pinched his cheeks and the child groaned at his mother. “Is there anything else you want to show us?”

Behind his wife, Tony immediately started shaking his head and waving his hands to get Peter’s attention. His kid met his eyes and watched his crazy dance.

“Uh…”

In an instant, Pepper had turned around to face Tony and the man had to quickly lower his hands lest he get caught. He’s pretty sure he failed though, because Pepper had her “disappointed at Tony” look on her face and he knew he would be hearing about that later.

“I actually don’t think so,” Peter replied.

Pepper huffed at that before turning back to her son. “Ignore your father. If there’s something you want to show us, we can go.”

Peter simply shrugged and Tony didn’t know if the kid was actually on his side with this or if he was just telling the truth. “All the stuff I wanted to show you, I already did.”

“Alright.” She held out her hand for him. “Then we can go home. Seems your dad is incredibly tired.”

“Seriously?” said father responded. He butted in and poked Peter’s cheek. “I was thinking we can go get ice cream to celebrate our young man.”

Peter’s eyes grew wide while Pepper shot him another dirty look.

Yeah, he was definitely going to hear about this later tonight. He might as well enjoy his freedom while he had it.

---

Tony’s music played throughout the lab. It wasn’t as loud as he would prefer, but Pepper had made a protocol that ensured Tony couldn’t turn it up too loud with Peter in the room, to help protect his young ears and make it so he wasn’t deaf by thirty like Tony was.

Tony wasn’t deaf and he could hear perfectly fine. He thought she was just worried about Peter getting addicted to Tony’s bad taste in music. Her words, not his.

He would have to figure out how she was able to command JARVIS to do something like that, as the AI should be following Tony’s orders for most things and changing music was not something he had shared with her.

Probably some wife protocol she put in somehow.

Still, he had yet to change it back, mostly because he knew Pepper would just change it again and he would be fighting a losing battle. He did not win against Pepper Stark.

And, for her information, Peter actually loved Tony’s music. The engineer would sometimes watch his kid head bang or mouth the lyrics to the song that was playing and his heart would swell up. See, his music taste was great!

The father and son duo were working on something for SI. Peter wasn’t fully aware of all the hardware and technology Tony was putting into this weapon, but he was following along with Tony’s instructions and providing tools whenever he needed them. It was nice to have a worker in the lab, someone Tony could watch do his own work and be proud of it. He knew as Peter grew, he would just become better at building and inventing and it made him happy to have a son who could follow in his footsteps.

His music was turned down even lower when Rhodey entered into the lab. Tony spit out the screwdriver he had in his mouth and turned to his friend in dismay. Rhodey didn’t care about Tony’s attitude though, as he just went on talking like it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Seriously, he needed to program JARVIS to keep this from happening. His music stayed turned up.

“Hey, Tony.”

He had half the mind to ignore him, but he was better than that to his friends… at times… depended on the day.

“What’s up, Platypus?”

Beside him, Peter snickered.

Tony turned back to the missile he was putting together and frowned. Some of these bolts weren’t tight enough. It seemed him messing with the wires loosened them a little. It may still be fine, but he should check.

“I was coming to remind you about that award ceremony next week.”

Tony had no idea what ceremony Rhodey was talking about, but it was probably in his calendar somewhere. He would have to check. Still, he responded to assure Rhodey that he had his full attention. “Uh huh.”

He frowned as he jiggled the board the bolts were connected to and they moved. Yeah, it would need to be fixed. That was exhausting.

“I’m supposed to present you with an award.”

Oh, yeah, sure. “I would be honored if you gave me an award.” Tony picked up the screwdriver he dropped previously and put it back into his mouth. Once he fixed those bolts he would need it again. He just couldn’t remember where he put the wrench. He turned to his side and couldn’t find it amongst the pile he had created.

“So you’ll be there?”

“Totally,” he said around the metal in his mouth. “Underoos, do you know where-” And like magic, the item he had been searching for appeared right under his nose. He stared at it for a second before turning to glance at his son. Peter met his gaze with a cheeky smile. The kid knew what he was looking for without Tony even verbalizing it. Genius. “Thanks, kiddo.” He reached up and roughed up his son’s hair, much to his alarm, before grabbing the wrench and getting back to work.

“Are you even paying attention to anything I just said?”

“I’m responding, aren’t I?” Talking with a screwdriver in his mouth was harder than it seemed. Besides, he was totally paying attention. They were discussing… something.

“Unbelievable.” Rhodey’s hands dropped by his side. “I’m going to go talk to Pepper.”

“Don’t know why you didn’t do that in the first place.”

Just out of his periphery, he could see Rhodey flip him off as he exited the lab and walked up the stairs. Turning to the side, Tony realized that Peter was right there and staring at where Rhodey had left. He had seen the whole thing.

Oh, just wait until Tony told Pepper that. Rhodey would have to fight harder for favorite uncle spot (still not a thing in Peter’s mind). Precious Peter Stark could not see nor hear any vulgar language. Tony had been reprimanded enough already as it was.

“That’s a bad thing,” Peter said, causing Tony to laugh. He dropped the screwdriver into his hand and could finally use his mouth of his free will.

“You should tell your mom he did it.”

“But he’ll get in trouble.”

Tony glanced up. “I’m counting on it.”

The kid had no idea what Tony was truly getting at, but he turned towards his dad and let his laughter echo throughout the lab. For a second, Tony forgot that his music had been oh so rudely interrupted as his son’s laughter was even better than anything a band could make.

“Come on, Bambino, we still have a lot to do on this weapon.”

Peter turned his attention to the missile that Tony was working on, raising an eyebrow as he examined it. “Why do you make weapons?”

“To protect people.” This world was in a constant state of war and trouble, so Tony was doing what he could to keep people safe and serve his country. This was how his dad did it, it’s how his company did it and it was working out pretty great so far. To protect the things closest to him, Tony would do anything.

“So, you’re a hero.”

Tony paused at the title, turning to his son with a confused expression. “I wouldn’t say that. People don’t usually call me a hero.” He had a lot of names, that’s for sure. He couldn’t keep track of what the press called him anymore. He responded to “Dad” and “Tony” because the two most important people in his world called him that and he actually would talk to them. Unless Pepper was trying to bring up something with the company and Tony was more inclined to either ignore or forget.

Peter rolled his eyes. Where did a six-year-old learn how to do that? Surely Tony wasn’t that bad of an influence. “You’re a hero to me.”

Suddenly, it didn’t matter where Peter learned the bad habit. The world stilled and Tony stared at his son with wide eyes.

A hero.

That was a title he could get used to his son calling him.

A hero.

Maybe he should live up to that name.