Chapter Text
Peter stretches out his body, his arms reaching above his head and hitting the headboard, as he wakes up. His body feeling well-rested for the first time since finding out that Mr Sta-Tony was his biological father, as the past few days his mind just wouldn’t shut off long enough for him to get a decent night’s sleep.
The good night’s sleep was probably because he finally talked things out with Mr…with Tony last night. It definitely felt good to get some things off his chest, to have the man take away some of his fears and worries. There were still somethings they needed to talk about, but Peter had just felt so emotionally drained from everything, that Tony had told him to head to bed and that he’d text May that he’d be spending the night. He was so tired that he didn’t even bother to argue that ten o’clock was to early for him to go to bed or try to argue that Spider-Man need to go out and stop some muggers because that was when the real crimes started happening. The idea of his head hitting a soft pillow and his body being wrapped in a comfy duvet was just too appealing.
He pats around the bedside table for his phone, and once he grabs it, he’s surprised to see that it’s only 7:30. He’s never woken up that early on a Saturday before. It’s like an un-written rule for all teenagers to sleep in as late as possible on the weekends. Then again, he did go to bed at ten, which is very early for him, so maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising that he’s up this early.
“Good morning Peter. Boss would like me to inform you that breakfast is ready” F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice brings Peter out of his thoughts.
“Morning F.R.I”, Peter sits up, rubbing a hand over his face to wipe away the sleep. “I’ll be right there”.
Peter shuffles out of his bed. He doesn’t bother getting dressed since it’s Saturday morning and its only breakfast, so he’s only in a pair of flannel pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt. He fumbles around as he pulls some fuzzy socks on his feet to keep them warm against the cool floor.
He leaves his room and heads towards the kitchen where he hears Miss Potts and Mr…Tony. He’s really going to have to try and get out of the habit of calling the man ‘Mr Stark’ now. Though he’s not sure if he’s ready to call him ‘dad’ yet. Sure, he’s accidently called him ‘dad’ to May once…maybe twice…and yes, he does see Tony as a father figure…but Peter’s pretty sure that it’s a little to soon, after everything this past week, to be pulling out the ‘D’ word.
Anyway…would Mr S-Tony even want to be called ‘dad’? The man seems like he’s happy with being his father, but would calling him ‘dad’ make him feel uncomfortable?
It’s probably best to wait a while before using that word. Let them both get used to their new relationship.
Their new relationship.
Father and son…wow.
Even nearly a week later and it’s still unbelievable and mindboggling. He has a father, who is alive. A father who he used to dress up as for Halloween…he hopes May doesn’t still have those photos.
Are things going to be awkward now? Last night was a little awkward…but that was mainly because of him running away the last time he saw the man, but it quickly became less awkward and began to feel more like normal.
Peter really hopes that this doesn’t change anything between them. That it doesn’t become an uncomfortable silence between them as they awkwardly work in the lab, being overly aware of what the other is doing.
Just the thought of their time in the lab becoming like that sends a tight panic through Peter’s body. He loves spending time with Tony in the lab and he doesn’t want to ruin that or ruin any time that they spend together.
…He’s just got to try and act like normal and hopefully everything will be okay.
Peter braces himself as he enters the kitchen. Miss Potts is sat on one of the stools around the kitchen island drinking a cup of coffee, dressed immaculately of course, and Tony is stood on the opposite side of the island, leaning over the countertop with his forearms, wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and some cargo pants. Both of them turn their heads to look at him as he walks into the room, making him freeze in his step and he’s sure he looks like a deer caught in headlights.
“Good morning Peter” Pepper smiles sweetly, taking a sip from her coffee. The boy’s hair is currently just a mop of untamed curls, and she thinks it’s absolutely adorable.
“Morning Miss Potts” Peter is happy that his voice comes out normal.
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, it’s just Pepper” she shakes her head, but her smile remains so he knows that she isn’t annoyed with him.
Peter grins, “old habits die hard”. He walks further into the room and sits on the stool next to Pepper.
“Well considering the new…revelation, maybe we could try and get the name Pepper to come out of your mouth instead. I think it might be a little weird to keep calling me Miss Potts”, there was no tiptoeing around subjects when Pepper was involved, she likes to get straight to the point. Though a gentle smile is still on her face as a way to keep Peter comfortable with the conversation.
Peter bites his lip and nods, his grin turning into a shy kind of smile, “you have a point. Although it’s going to feel weird not calling you Miss Potts because…well you’re Miss Potts”.
“And what am I? Chopped liver?” Tony interrupts.
“Yes” both Peter and Pepper answer, with smirks on their faces.
“Unbelievable!” Tony throws his hands up in the air, “this is not allowed. You two are not allowed to gang up on me”.
“Don’t be so dramatic” Pepper turns to Tony.
“I’m Tony Stark. Everything I do is dramatic”.
“Don’t I know it” Pepper sighs, as she takes a look at her watch to check the time. She quickly finishes of the rest of her coffee and gracefully slides off her stool, “I’ll leave you boys to, mostly likely, play in the lab because I have to head to work”. She walks around to kiss Tony goodbye before giving Peter a kiss on the side of his head as she passes by him to leave, “be careful”.
“When aren’t I?...wait, don’t answer that!” Tony shouts after Peppers retreating figure as Peter tries and fails to cover up his sniggering, “hey”, Tony turns to Peter, “like you’re any better ‘Mr-I-got-bit-by-a-radioactive-spider-during-my-school-field-trip-and-then-decided-to-become-a-superhero’. Careful isn’t in your vocabulary”.
Peter pulls an offended face, “I feel like the ‘getting bit by the radioactive spider’ part was more Oscorps lack of safety than mine”.
Tony pauses for a moment, as though he’s thinking about it, and then nods, “I suppose you’re right”. He turns around and pulls out a plate from the oven that had been keeping Peter’s extra-large breakfast warm, “here, eat up Underoos”.
Tony had been up about an hour earlier than Peter, having woken up with Pepper, and had made omelettes for breakfast as that was one of the few meals he was trusted to make. He could make omelettes, pancakes and a few Italian dishes, and that was about it for foods that required cooking, unless they wanted to burn the kitchen down.
For the first time since Tuesday night…or more likely early Wednesday morning, he had actually gone to bed and gotten some much needed sleep…and also a shower. Pepper had refused to share a bed with him till he washed. Which was fair since he hadn’t come out of his lab in about three days because he had been upset about Peter not coming.
Though before he showered and slept, he texted May to let her know where her nephew was, so she didn’t worry. Then he went to check on Peter, to make sure the teen was getting the sleep he also needed. Which he was. Peter was fast asleep.
Tony couldn’t help himself; he stood in the doorway and just watched his son sleep for a few minutes. His son. It felt so…he didn’t know how to describe it. He just still can’t get over the fact that he has a child. A child, who was in his home and sleeping peacefully. He just felt…full. Full of so many different emotions.
Happy, scared, thankful, hopeful, vulnerable, optimistic, content, anxious, insecure, amazed, worried, eager…love.
So many emotions. It felt like his heart was going to explode.
Peter had been laying on his back, mouth open, with some drool already coming from his mouth. His son must have been completely out of it because he didn’t wake up when he walked into the room and reached out a hand to brush some of Peter’s curls from his forehead.
He left soon after that because he didn’t want to risk waking the boy up.
He showered away his three-day old stink, then he quickly snuggled in next to Pepper in bed. It shouldn’t have been surprising how easy sleep came to him last night, with his mind feeling a lot more at ease and his body relaxed. He slept for almost eight straight hours, which is basically a record for him. So, he was actually feeling quite refreshed today.
Peter shoves a large forkful of one of his omelettes into his mouth, “fank oo Mista Tark”, he says with his mouth still full of food.
Tony raises an eyebrow, “okay…first, take small bites or you’re going to choke. Second, don’t talk with your mouth full. And third, I think maybe we can stop with the Mr Stark stuff. You know…considering…”.
Peter swallows his mouthful of food and nervously looks up at Tony, “y-yeah…of course…yeah”. God, he hasn’t stuttered in front of Tony for months. Now he’s back to his dilemma from earlier. Does he or doesn’t he call him dad? The answer is still the same, he can’t right now because he doesn’t want to make things weird with Tony. “Thanks for the breakfast…Tony”, Peter gives a nervous smile, which Tony copies, before eating a small forkful of omelette.
Tony can’t deny that Peter calling him ‘Tony’ instead ‘dad’ hurt, because it did. May had said that Peter had once called him ‘dad’ to her, so he may have gotten his hopes up in the thought that Peter would call him that. That Peter would see him as his dad.
Perhaps the teen just needed a little more time to feel comfortable in calling him ‘dad’… That was probably it. This time he isn’t going to let his self-hatred talk him into thinking Peter doesn’t want him, because that isn’t true. The fact that Peter is here now, eating breakfast in his home, shows that Peter does want him in his life. He just needs a bit more time to adjust, and Tony is happy to give Peter all the time in the world.
He’ll earn the title ‘dad’, no matter how long it takes him.
Tony pours himself a cup of coffee, because no matter how much sleep he’s had, he basically needs coffee to live. He’s almost positive that if he didn’t have five litres of coffee a day…he’d go into some sort of caffeine withdrawal and would probably die from the lack of coffee in his system.
Peter scrapes up the last bits of his breakfast, clearing his plate like he does for all meals thanks to his metabolism, and quickly finishes eating. He then looks up at Tony, who is already watching him.
“I was wondering about…living arrangements?” Peter says nervously, “because as nice as it would be to spend more time with you Tony…I…May, she’s-“.
“It’s okay Peter, I’m not going to take you away from May. She’s your family” Tony tells him, and Peter relaxes in his seat. “But…I talked to May and we thought, if you’re okay with it, that maybe you’d like to have a couple more days here…with me. You’ll still live with May of course, you’d just spend a few more nights here sometimes”.
Peter nods his head, a shy smile on his lips, “yeah…that-that’d be great”.
Tony feels himself relax now, with Peter confirming that he did want to spend more time with him, “we were thinking that on the weekends that you already spend here, instead of Happy picking you up on Saturday, you could come here after school on the Friday” Peter nods, happy with the idea, as Tony continues, “we figured that once we all got a little more…settled, we could find a few more days here and there that you could spend here”.
“…like maybe lab Wednesday? Instead of going home, I could stay here” Peter suggests, “I’d just have to get up a little earlier on Thursday to get to school”.
Tony can’t stop the grin that makes its way onto his face, “that sounds like a great idea, though we’ll have to run it by May first, which reminds me. After I texted your aunt last night, she said you could stay the weekend if you want. I figured we could get some training in that we couldn’t do last weekend and maybe spend a bit of time in the lab”.
Peters face fills with happiness, before he remembers one other thing he needs to ask about, “you’re Tony Stark”.
Tony stares at Peter with confusion, “…yeah Underoos, I’m Tony Stark”, Tony suddenly frowns, “did you hit your head last night on patrol before you came here? I didn’t get an alert from the ‘Scrapped Knee’ protocol”.
Peter bats away Tony’s hands as the man tries to grab his head to look for any bumps, “no, I’m fine. I just meant…you’re Tony Stark…you’re famous. The press…they don’t leave you alone and-and when they find out that I’m…you know…they’re going to-“.
“They’re not going to do anything. Or at least not for a while” Tony interrupts Peter’s rambling, “you’re right about the press not leaving me alone, they don’t leave anyone alone incase they miss a story, and I don’t want that for you. Unfortunately, it will be impossible for us to hide you from the press forever, but we’re going to kept it quiet for as long as we can so that you can have a normal life”. Tony pauses for a second, “or as normal of a life that a teenaged boy who’s also a web-slinging vigilante can have”, he gives Peter a reassuring look.
Peter nods, feeling relieved once more. If everyone was to find out he was Tony Starks son…the others at school would never leave him alone…although the one upside to them knowing would be that Flash couldn’t tease him about lying about knowing Tony Stark. The look on Flash’s face would almost be worth telling everyone. Almost.
There would also be the press who wouldn’t leave him alone if they found out, and how could he be Spider-Man if he had people following him?
He’s always been a private person. So, suddenly having people want to know everything about him is going to be horrible.
He’s not stupid. He does know that eventually they would have to tell everyone that Tony Stark has a son. He knows that, and it scares him, but there is no escaping it because he’s a famous person’s kid. Maybe in a few years it may not seem so daunting, but there is no way he could handle it right now or any time soon. Especially when he’s still coming to terms with all of it himself.
So, if they can hold it off for as long as possible, he’ll be grateful and take as much time as he can get.
“I told Ned, about this…is that alright?” Peter asks.
“He’s your guy in the chair, right? Your best friend” Tony’s proud that he remembered that, “of course it’s alright. You can tell anyone you want, as long as you trust them… That includes your little girlfriend, MJ”.
Peter groans, throwing his head back, “Tony! Stop!”
Peter and Tony spent the weekend as they normally would. They spent a few hours training and then relaxed in front of the telly to watch a few movies. On the Saturday, because they had both been up early, they managed to squeeze in some time in the lab. Although not much got done because the bots wouldn’t leave Peter alone.
For the first hour they were in the lab Peter was pretty much stuck in the middle of the bot’s as the three of them had him surrounded. Tony had found it hilarious and choose to sit and watch his bots circling his son, while Peter attempted and failed to escape their circle. Dum-E kept trying to shove one of his oil smoothies into Peter’s hand, U kept tugging on Peter’s hoodie and Butterfingers kept trying to pat Peter on the head.
Tony made sure to get lots of photos.
He also informed Peter, when the boy started getting frustrated and asked why the bots were acting like that, that they saw him as their little brother. Which made Peter turn slightly red and he lost all frustrations with the bots and he let them continue their smothering of him.
Eventually, Tony had to threaten the bot’s with being turned in to scraps if they didn’t give Peter some space. They did so, but not without several whiney beeps.
Once they got to working, both in the lab and during training, Peter was pleasantly surprised, apart from the first couple of minutes, just how not awkward it was. Everything went just how it normally would, and Peter felt so relieved that nothing had really changed.
Watching movies in the evening felt awkward for a little longer because Peter was more aware of how close he and Tony sat next to each other, but he was soon engrossed in the movie, so all insecurities disappeared.
The weekend just went really well, and it made Peter feel a lot more secure in this whole situation and made most of his worries disappear. It was still odd to think about the fact that he has a parent that was alive, it’ll probably take ages for him to get his head around it, but he can see this working out.
Tony was very pleased with how the weekend went. He tried to keep it relaxed and as normal as possible for Peter, to make him more comfortable, and he’s pretty sure it worked. Peter seemed like he was at ease and like he enjoyed the weekend. Which is what Tony wants because if Peter has a good first weekend as father and son, then he’ll keep coming back.
When Happy came to pick Peter up Sunday evening some of the nervousness returned because Peter wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to hug Tony goodbye or not. In the end they ended up awkwardly standing in front of one another, neither one making a move, with Happy standing at the elevator rolling his eyes at the pair of them. Eventually Peter just awkwardly waves at Tony and throws a “see you on Wednesday, Tony” over his shoulder as he walks to the elevator.
Tony is left standing with a grin on his face.
Peter and Ned slide into their usual seats for lunch.
“You were radio silent all weekend Peter, what were you up to? Was it Spider-Man?” Ned’s voice is gleeful and definitely not as quiet as it should have been.
“Shhh! Ned!” Peter whips his head around, checking to see if anyone overheard.
No one did, of course, because no one pays attention to the two losers sat in the corner. The closest person to them was MJ, who is sat a few chairs away, and is engrossed in reading. She looks so pretty when she’s lost in one of her many books, her face slightly pinched in concentration.
“It wasn’t…that” Peter lowers his voice, pulling his thoughts away from MJ and back to Ned, “I was with…my-with Mr Stark”.
“Did you talk things out with him about the…’I am your father’ thing?” Ned leans in closer, eager to hear what his best friend has to say.
Peter nods, “yeah. We talked things over, and you and May were right, I was worrying about things unnecessarily”. Peter’s mouth starts turning up into a small smile, “he uh, he wants to give this a go. We spent the weekend together. I was a little worried that spending time together would be awkward now…but it wasn’t, not much. Only a little to start with, but then we were working together like normal”.
“Told you everything would be fine”.
“It’s still surreal though” Peter fiddles with his fingers, “I have a dad”.
“A dad whose Ironman” Ned grins, his voice rising slightly.
“Shh” Peter hisses.
“Sorry, it’s just…have I mentioned recently how I’m so glad you’re my best friend?”
“Most days” Peter shakes his head, but the grin stays on his face.
“So, what did you do at the compound?” Ned asks, ready to absorb everything Peter tells him.
Peter rambles on about everything he and Tony did over the weekend, especially in the lab. It takes Ned all of his willpower to keep quiet when Peter tells him about the bot’s and their new obsession with him.
The conversation eventually turns to what new movies will be out soon and which Lego set are they going to build next. At some point, during that, Peter finds himself looking over at MJ. He’s contributing less and less into the conversation with Ned as he focuses more on MJ. She has a curl of hair that’s fallen from her ponytail and is right in front of her face, she doesn’t seem bothered by it though. She just carries on reading with her eyes scrunched up in her normal MJ way.
Peter watches as MJ places a bookmarker into her book as she puts her book down and picks up her phone. He frowns in confusion as MJ holds her phone out and takes a selfie of herself. Peter is pretty positive that MJ isn’t one of those people who takes selfies all the time. Taking a selfie seems like a very un-MJ like thing to do.
He finally looks away from MJ, he isn’t sure how long he was staring at her, when his phone beeps. Sliding his phone open, Peter opens the text he just got and becomes even more confused at what he sees.
“Um, MJ…why’d you send me a selfie?” he looks back over at MJ.
“Pictures last longer” MJ says, not even sparing Peter a glance, as she picks her book back up.
Peter can feel his face turning red as his eyes widen and his jaw drops. It takes him almost a minute to respond, “I-I wasn’t…I wasn’t staring, I was just…uh…”.
MJ raise an eyebrow but doesn’t look up from her book.
Peter shuts his mouth and turns to look back at Ned. He’s sure his facial expression is shows the horror he’s feeling.
“You are hopeless dude” Ned shakes his head, Peter groans in response, “you know you could just ask her out, right?”
“Shh!” Peter flaps his arms around in panic, “she already caught me looking at her, I can’t just ask her out”.
“…yes, you can”.
“MJ’s just started being our friend, I don’t want to ruin that” Peter sighs, “can we drop this please”.
His friend is one hundred percent ridiculous, but he isn’t going to push him since he does have quite a bit going on at the moment. For now, Ned will wait and see how this plays out. He nods and change the subject, “so, which Lego set should we go for? Vonreg’s TIE Fighter? Or, First Order AT-ST?”
The rest of the week goes by like normal, or it mostly goes by like normal. Peter finds that it takes him a few days before he has the nerve to even glance at MJ now.
He has his usual Wednesday at the compound, though this time he stays the night and Happy takes him to school Thursday morning, and he spends the weekend with May, which he enjoys immensely because it had felt like forever since he and May had spent some proper time together.
Spider-Man stopped several would-be bike thieves’ and helps a couple of old women across the road. He also rescued a ferret from a tree because apparently ferrets are the new cats…or at least that’s what the little girl had said after he rescued her pet.
The next three weeks continue on like that, and with the alternating weekends at Tony and May’s, which makes Peter happy. He’ll admit that there is still a slight…oddness, whenever he’s with Tony, because he still can’t get over the fact that; one, he has a dad and two, that dad is Tony Stark. However, when they are together it doesn’t feel like much has changed. He feels like something should have changed…but no. It feels mostly like it did before they found out they were father and son, which makes Peter realise that maybe they had been acting a little like father and son for a while. Which is probably why he had taken to accidently calling Tony ‘dad’ in front of May, and why he’s been almost calling him ‘dad’ for the past few weeks too.
That’s made things a little stressful, trying to make sure he doesn’t call Tony ‘dad’ because he doesn’t want to freak the man out. Each week it seems to get harder, so this weekend he’s going to have to be alert and make sure he doesn’t slip up. He doesn’t want to ruin this. Not now, not while everything’s going so well.
“We’re here, kid” Happy says pulling Peter from his thoughts. He hadn’t even realised that Happy had pulled up to the compound. “You’re quiet today kid, you okay?”
Peter meets Happy’s eyes in the mirror and nods, “I’m good. Just got lost in my thoughts”.
Happy looks at Peter for a moment, deciding whether or not to believe the boy, before nodding, “okay, enjoy your weekend”.
“You too” Peter smiles at Happy before he stumbles his way out of the car and up the steps to the compound, his school bag slung over his shoulder.
“Good afternoon Peter” F.R.I.D.A.Y’s chipper voice greets Peter as he enters the compound and heads towards the elevator.
“Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y” Peter replies in an equally cheery voice, “where’s d-Tony?”
“Boss is in one of the conference rooms. Shall I take you there?”
“I don’t want to disturb his meeting” Peter says as he steps into the elevator.
“Boss is not currently in a meeting. I’ll take you to him”, and before Peter could tell her it was okay to drop him off in Tony and Peppers floor, F.R.I.D.A.Y takes him up to the conference floor.
“I can just go to Tony’s floor and start my homework” Peter says, not stepping off the elevator.
“Boss is in conference room two” is all F.R.I.D.A.Y says, continuing to hold the doors open for him.
Peter sighs. Clearly, she isn’t going to take him anywhere else. “Thanks F.R.I”. He steps out of the elevator and walks over to the conference room 2. He has no idea why Tony would be in a conference room if he wasn’t in a meeting. Tony didn’t like being in the conference room when there was a meeting.
Tony is almost hundred percent certain that talking to an actual brick wall would have better results than talking to Lang and Barton. Neither man, Barton in particular, are getting it through their thick heads that he’s trying to help them.
Last week, the accords committee had finally agreed to letting Lang and Barton come home if they agreed to house arrest. Now, a week later, they are here to get their ankle monitors put on…and making Tony regret doing this for them.
Since Tony had been the one to think of the idea and push the idea, he had to be the one responsible for Lang and Barton during their house arrest. That had been one of the conditions of agreeing to let the two men come back home. Another condition was that he had to, personally, make the ankle monitors so that neither man could find a way out of them, and he has to have weekly check in’s with the men too.
Of course, this wasn’t going over to well with them. Well…it was mostly Barton that was being difficult. Barton doesn’t trust him, which is fine because he doesn’t trust Barton either. Lang was mostly staying quiet and Tony was pretty sure the man just wanted to get the monitor on quickly so he could go see his kid, however because Barton is kicking up a fuss, it is taking longer than it should have.
Apparently, even though he doesn’t trust that the house arrest deal is a legitimate offer, he still came out of hiding for it…
This is the kind of idiocy that he’s having to deal with.
“Do you really think I believe that’s it’s just that simple?” Clint glares at Tony, arms crossed over his chest, “we can just wear an ankle monitor and that’s it? We can go home with no problems?”
Brick wall.
“If you don’t trust me or the committee then why did you come here!” Tony just wants this to hurry up and be over. “Look, I get it. You don’t trust me and that’s fine, I don’t care. I’m just trying to get you both home to your kids”.
“And how are we supposed to believe that you aren’t actually doing this to screw us over?”
“If I was going to screw anyone over, which I’m not by the way, it would be Rogers. Not you. You are low down on my list of people who I’m pissed at, and Lang…I don’t even know you. I have no feelings towards you, no offence”.
Lang shrugs, his face showing that he wasn't offended, “I just want to see Cassie. I don’t care how that happens”.
“Even if you have to make a deal with the devil?” Clint mutters and Tony rolls his eyes.
“Look, you either wear the ankle monitors and go home, or you don’t and you become fugitives again” Tony huffs, “I’m just trying to give you the chance to be with your kids”.
“And why would you care about that?”
And, as if on cue like it was rehearsed, the door glides open and Peter steps in. Tony hadn’t forgotten that the boy would be coming, he was looking forward to spending time with his son, he just didn’t realise that he’d been arguing with Barton for as long as he had. Both Lang and Barton should have been on their way home by now.
“Hey Tony, sorry if I’m interrupting anything. F.R.I.D.A.Y brought me up here, but I can go to your floor if you want” Peter says before he actually takes a look at who’s in the room.
Tony can see the exact moment when Peter realises who the two men are because his eyes widen almost comically. He can also see Barton’s face twist in confusion.
“…Hawkeye and Antman…” Peter says under his breath. Peter clears his throat a little and speaks a little louder, “you’re Hawkeye and Antman”.
Scott’s face changes from being slightly confused to being excited, “you know who I am!”
Clint squints at Peter, looking the boy up and down, “who are you?”
“Uh…” Peter nervously looks over at Tony.
Tony sighs and motions for Peter to come and stand next to him. He throws his arm around Peter’s shoulders, a move to comfort both of them, and also give himself a boost of confidence. “This is Peter”.
Peter gives a shy wave and Clint raises an eyebrow, “and Peter is?”
“Peter is the main reason why I care about you getting to see your kids…” Tony takes in a breath to relax himself. While he doesn’t trust Barton…he does trust that the man wouldn’t tell anyone about Peter being his son. Barton knows what it’s like to keep your kids a secret to keep them safe. “I wouldn’t want to be kept away from my kid either”.
If Tony wasn’t so tense, he’d laugh at Lang and Barton’s faces.
“You’re…you have…he’s…” Clint blinks, completely at a loss for words.
“I didn’t know you had a kid” Scott says.
“Neither did I until last month” Tony sighs, his hand tightening around Peter’s shoulder, “this information is being kept quiet because I don’t want the press finding out about Peter until he’s older. So, if you could keep your mouths shut about it, I’d appreciate it. If not for me, then for Peter”.
Both Scott and Clint nod quietly, still trying to comprehend what they just found out.
“Well, I guess with your past, having a few kids running around shouldn’t be surprising…uh” Scott’s eyes widen at what he just says, “I didn’t…that came out wrong! I just… I’m going to shut up”.
“That’s probably best” Tony turns and looks at Clint, “I’ve only known about Peter being my son for a month, but he’s been in my life for longer and I grew attached to him. It was just some strange but amazing luck that my dorky intern turned out to be my kid”. Tony looks down at Peter and smiles at him. Peter grins back and he looks back towards Clint, “If I was in your position…it would kill me not being able to see or even talk to my kid. Trust me, or don’t. That’s up to you, but I really am trying to help you see your kids”.
Clint stares at Tony and Peter and takes in a sight he never thought he’d see, “…okay…I trust you”.