Story Summary:
Peter doesn't see a problem with being Mr. Stark's son in secret; he's just happy that he gets to be a part of his life. But while he's still getting used to the new normal, things in Peter's life begin to unravel. He realizes that he doesn't completely understand his powers, the police have decided Spider-Man's a menace, and some of the people at school are determined to make him miserable. And just when he thinks things might be settling down, someone discovers that he's Tony Stark's son and decides to tell the world.
Chapter 1 Summary:
It's been about 8 weeks since Tony and Peter reconciled at the end of Congratulations: it's a Boy. Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone, and now Peter is ready to let his best friend in on the secret.
Today was the day.
Ever since he and Mr. Stark had come to a sort of understanding on the whole biological father thing, Peter had been trying to decide when he should tell Ned.
The fact that he was going to tell Ned was a given - and he'd told Mr. Stark as much. But when, had been a little more difficult to say.
Of course, Mr. Stark had been cool about the whole thing - surprisingly cool, actually. He'd told Peter that it was totally up to him who found out about their relation. Except, of course, for Colonel Rhodes and May, who already knew.
Amazingly, he'd even asked Peter's permission to tell Happy and Ms. Potts. Peter had said it was fine… really, he knew that Mr. Stark would only tell people he really trusted since they'd decided not to go public with the information. But even still, Mr. Stark had wanted Peter to know who knew their secret and who didn't, so he'd asked him every time before he told anyone. Peter even knew which of Mr. Stark's lawyers knew.
Well, he'd been told. Peter hadn't really committed their names to memory. But the point was that Mr. Stark had asked.
And in turn, Peter had told Mr. Stark who he'd planned on telling. That list began and ended with Ned.
The thing was… Thanksgiving had come up just a few weeks after he'd first talked to Mr. Stark in his kitchen, and Peter had decided to wait to tell Ned. Not that he didn't trust him… he supposed he just wanted to keep it to himself for a little while. He knew that once Ned found out, he'd want to meet Mr. Stark (again), and ask him questions, and come to the compound… and all of that was fine. But deep down Peter had just wanted a little time to himself with Mr. Stark. Time to get to know him without having to share him.
So for Thanksgiving Mr. Stark had actually come to their little apartment in Queens. May had made her traditional turkey dinner, and Mr. Stark had come over in jeans and a sweater, of all things. Up until that point, Peter wasn't sure he'd ever even seen the man in anything so casual. Or maybe he had, but he just hadn't paid as much attention before he'd known that he was actually looking at his father.
In fact, May had mentioned after dinner how similar Peter and Mr. Stark looked, both wearing sweaters, and both with their hair a bit messy - and apparently - identical expressions of post-dinner bliss on their faces. Mr. Stark had chuckled at the comment, and Peter had made a silly face at May, but he hadn't been able to get the comment out of his head.
Looking like Mr. Stark wasn't something he ever imagined he'd care much about, but that night he'd stayed up, laying on his bed with his laptop on his stomach, looking at pictures of himself and his father side-by-side, searching for the resemblance. It was there, he found out. Maybe not so much that if someone saw them on the street they'd immediately know they were related - they weren't identical or anything. But if you were looking for it, it was there in the shape of their lips and eyes, and in the way their hair curled a little by their ears when it got too long.
Peter would never admit it to anyone, but he was secretly pleased to find that he did look at least a little like his father. He'd even found out, thanks to the internet, that when they'd been younger, Mr. Stark and Peter had had nearly identical smiles.
So Thanksgiving had come and gone, and then Christmas had been right around the corner. Ned went to visit his grandparents, and Mr. Stark invited Peter and May out to the compound for Christmas… it didn't seem right to tell Ned then. They weren't even going to see each other until Ned got back from his grandparents' right before school started.
Peter had spent the night of Christmas Eve with May at the compound so they'd been able to get up and open gifts with Mr. Stark on Christmas morning.
The whole thing had been really nice…
Peter had actually ended up spending the entire first week of Christmas break up at the Compound with Mr. Stark while May had gone back to work.
But now it was January, and Peter knew that he couldn't put off telling Ned any longer. As it was, there was a chance that his friend would be upset that he'd waited so long.
He'd get over it, though. And it'd been worth it to have the extra time to start trying to wrap his head around the situation without adding Ned's inevitable freak-out to the equation.
And luckily, they still had a couple days of winter break left, so Peter was hoping that if he told Ned today, he'd have a couple days to digest the news and wouldn't be so eager to talk about it at school like he was when he found out that Peter was Spider-Man.
-0-0-0-0-0-
"Wait, wait, wait… so you're telling me that Tony Stark is actually your father. Like, literally your biological parent."
"Yeah."
"How did that even happen? Did - uh… I mean…"
Ned suddenly stopped himself from saying whatever he was about to say, but Peter already had an idea of where his mind was headed.
"He didn't know about me. My birth mom never told him she was pregnant. So when the Parkers adopted me, they weren't told that my father was actually alive because nobody knew about him."
"Wow. So when he found out, he decided he had to get to know you."
"Uh, yeah. That's basically it." Leaving out all the years that Mr. Stark had watched over him from afar, not wanting to interfere in his life. No reason for Ned to know about that. Besides, it was sort of true… it's just that Mr. Stark had spent years getting to know him through school reports and photos before he'd actually introduced himself.
Ned fell silent, staring down at the carpeted floor of Peter's room. Suddenly his head shot up. "Hey, didn't Stark move upstate? Does that mean you're moving?"
Peter shook his head. "I'm staying here. I go up and see him every other weekend."
"Oh so, he's got like… visitation rights."
"I mean, kinda? It's not like a legal arrangement or anything. He wouldn't take me out of school and away from May. We're just… getting to know each other. It's cool."
Ned was nodding to himself. "That's amazing, dude. Like, what is your life, even? First you get superpowers, then you get a super dad… too bad you're not old enough to play the lottery." He paused. "Wait! Stark is rich! It's like you already won the lottery! Oh my god!"
Peter shrugged. "I guess. I'm just happy that he's so cool, you know? I don't care about the money."
"I bet he got you something amazing for Christmas. What'd you get? A car? A boat? Your own private jet?"
Peter couldn't help but chuckle. "I got a t-shirt, a music CD, and a photo album of family pictures. I don't need a boat or a plane."
But because he couldn't help it, Peter smirked. "Besides, he already got me a car a while back."
Ned's mouth dropped open. "Seriously? That's amazing! You can't even drive yet, though. What'd May say?"
"She's okay with it. Technically, it's Mr. Stark's car… but the weekends I go visit he's teaching me to drive in it. He said once I get my license I can have it."
"That's so cool. This is like, seriously, the best thing that's ever happened to us."
"Well… I won't be able to have the car here. We don't have enough parking. But I'll be able to drive it up at the compound when I visit."
"It's still amazing. But hey, why do you still call him 'Mr. Stark' all the time? Is he like, one of those rich types that won't let you use his name?"
"No, I just… I don't know. He keeps telling me to call him 'Tony', but it seems weird."
"You think you'll ever call him 'father' or 'dad'?"
Peter shook his head. "Definitely not 'father'; that sounds too formal… and kinda weird."
Ned adopted his best Darth Vader voice. "Luke… I'm your father…"
"Yeah, exactly. But I don't know about 'dad'... we'll have to see. I've never actually called anyone 'dad' before, so maybe someday…"
"Wait, never? Not even the dad you were raised with?"
"Nah, I was a little kid when my parents died. I think I was still saying 'daddy'."
Ned nodded. "Huh. Makes sense, I guess." Then his eyes widened. "Dude! You know what this means! You're about to become the most popular kid in school! Flash will never be able to make fun of us again."
Ned must've seen Peter's expression, because suddenly his face fell. "Don't tell me it's a secret."
"It's a secret, dude."
"Another secret? Are you serious? This could make our high school careers, man. That's not fair." Then Ned suddenly got serious. "Oh crap. Is he- does he want you to keep it a secret? Does he not want people to know?"
Peter waved away his friend's concern. "No, it's not like that. He left it up to me. But come on, man, he's Tony-freakin'-Stark! People try to kill him like twice a year. Plus, he's famous even apart from what he does as Iron Man. If people knew I was his kid, the media would be all over our school. I'd never have any privacy."
"So you'd be famous too. Is that really a downside?"
"Uh yeah, if I want to keep being Spider-Man, it is! I've got enough to worry about trying to keep my identity secret as it is; I don't need people following me around all the time taking my picture while I'm trying to sneak off and change into my suit."
"Ah. True."
Ned continued to pepper him with random questions until May called them to dinner. Overall, Peter thought he'd taken the news pretty well. His friend wasn't thrilled with it being a secret, but then again, he still wasn't completely happy about Spider-Man being a secret either. But the important thing was that Peter knew that he could trust Ned; he'd never tell anyone without Peter's permission.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Ned came back over to his apartment the night before their first day back at school so they could put the finishing touches on an elaborate Star Wars AT-AT model that Ned had received for Christmas.
"This is gonna look so cool in my room, dude."
"Yeah. So are you gonna put it on the - hold on." His phone was vibrating in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw it was Mr. Stark.
"Hey," he answered.
"Hey kiddo, just calling to check in. How's it going?"
"Good. Everything's good. Ned and I are just working on a Star Wars thing for his room." At Ned's questioning look, Peter mouthed, 'MY DAD' silently, just to see how it felt.
"Sounds like some good, nerdy fun. Look, I don't want to keep you, but I wanted to make sure that you were still okay with the school stuff we talked about."
"Yeah, I'm fine with it. It's only the principal that would be able to see it anyway."
"Right. Him, and his admin staff. But legally, they won't be able to say anything about it to anyone."
"Sounds good."
"Okay then! One of my lawyers will be at the school tomorrow bright and early to get everything set up. You still coming up this weekend?"
"Definitely. And hey, would it be possible for me to maybe bring Ned sometime?"
"Yeah, anytime you guys want. Just give me a head's up so I can let my staff know he's coming, okay?"
"Got it, thanks."
Once Peter ended the call, he saw that Ned had finished the model and was looking at him expectantly.
"That was… my dad." Peter half-smiled, kind of enjoying saying the word, even if he wasn't ready to say it to Mr. Stark's face.
"Yeah, I got that. Dude, I don't know if I'll be able to get used to Tony Stark having your number and just calling you up whenever. It's mind-blowing. Does he call often?"
"I guess. We talk on the phone or text pretty much every day now."
"Mind-blowing…," Ned muttered, shaking his head. "What was that about the principal?"
"Oh! So… even though we aren't going public with the information, we decided to make it official and legal. Just in case… I don't know." Peter swallowed. "If anything ever happened to him, I'd want to have the right to be there. And same if anything happened to me." He couldn't bring himself to mention something happening to May. She wasn't allowed to get hurt - ever.
"So over the holidays he got his lawyers to work out the details. They got my birth certificate updated with his name on it, and now they're going to submit the info to the school."
"Wow. Will all our teachers know?"
"No. There's some kind of privacy law. It'll basically be in my official record, but only the principal will know about it. They'd only open my record again if something happened and they needed to look up another guardian for me. But May's the school's official contact still, so that'll never happen."
-0-0-0-0-0-
That night, as he stared up at the ceiling waiting to fall asleep, Peter realized that he felt different. He'd be going back to school a new person, in a sense. Even more so than after he and Mr. Stark had first worked things out. He'd already had two holidays with his father and it was feeling more real and more settled every day.
And even though Flash would still call him 'Penis Parker' and kids would still laugh, Peter found that the thought didn't bother him as much anymore. They could say whatever they wanted, they could laugh, they could mock… but Peter would be able to open his phone and text his actual biological father any time he wanted. He could call him after school if he wanted. He could go over and visit him, or invite him over to the apartment. Those were things he'd never been able to do his whole life.
He couldn't imagine he'd ever get tired of it.