Congratulations, it's a Boy - Chapter 1
Notes:
This story is, essentially, Homecoming from Tony's POV in a universe where Peter is Tony's biological child. This was inspired by how adorably parental Tony was throughout Homecoming. Plus, it's one way to explain how Tony was able to make a Spidey suit in no time flat. (Spoiler alert - he'd already been working on it before Civil War!)
In order to cover Tony's POV, we're starting back at Iron Man 2 and skipping up through time to get through parts of Civil War, and then onto Homecoming.
Disclaimer: The MCU timeline is a bit of a mess. I'm not attempting to fix it; I'm just playing in the sandbox and pretending the inconsistencies aren't there. (Like Marvel does!)
Meanwhile, during Iron Man 2...
Tony was planning the birthday party to end all birthday parties. Literally, for him, since chances were good that he wouldn't live to see another. Well, maybe "planning" was too strong a word. His current plans consisted of getting drunk and having a ton of people over.
"Sir, you have received an email that I think you should read." Jarvis' voice came, as usual, interrupting his little pity party.
"Really? Does it contain the cure for palladium poisoning?"
"No, sir, but I think-"
"Is it full of amazing party ideas?"
"No, it's -"
"Then I don't think it's relevant, Jarvis. Come on, we're planning a party here! Let's stay focused."
"It's from Sandra from MIT."
"Sorry, that's not ringing any bells. Is it another donation they want? At this point, sure, let's leave them a nice chunk of change in my will. I've got a will, right? Jarvis, start a will and put MIT on the list."
"Sir, Sandra isn't a representative of MIT; you had a brief relationship with her when you visited MIT to speak several years ago."
That brought him up short. A "relationship" was probably stretching it by a mile, and several years? People were usually much quicker to resort to extortion.
"Okay, okay, fine; I'll bite. What does she want?"
"She regrets to inform you that she's dying, and she wants you to know that you have a son that she put up for adoption at birth so she could continue her education. She is sorry that she has not - "
Tony cut Jarvis off before he could hear any more about her regret. "Put it up on the screen, let's see it."
The dates matched up with a vague memory he had of a good time with an MIT grad. She claimed she knew the kid was his because she hadn't been with anyone else - not that he had any way to verify that. The baffling thing was that she wasn't asking for money or… anything at all. She just wanted to get her biggest secret off her chest before she died.
If it was true, Tony supposed the kid had gotten lucky that he'd been put up for adoption; both of his biological parents were dying at the same time.
"Great. Well, that's depressing, thanks for that, Jarvis. Look, I don't know if this is even true. Do me a favor, see if you can track the kid down. Find out who he is and add him to my will. He can have a nice chunk of change when I die too."
And with that out of the way, it was back to party planning.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A few weeks later found Tony flying low over the ocean running some real-time tests on the newest iteration of his armor - all while staying comfortably under the radar and out of the military's hair - when Jarvis broke in on his HUD.
"Sir, I have the identity of your son if you'd like to see it now."
He came to a stop, hovering over the water. "Sure, throw it up here."
The kid - Tony still couldn't be sure that he was actually his son - seemed to be in fairly capable hands. He'd been adopted at birth by a Richard and Mary Parker in Queens, New York, and from the school picture Jarvis had managed to pull up, looked like a typical kid of... whatever age he was now.
"Vital stats?"
"Peter Parker, born March 2, is 9 years-old and currently in fourth grade at Highland Elementary School in Queens. The Parkers have chosen to keep him in a public school, although there are indications that he excels in math and science."
"Math and science, huh? Do they even do science in 4th grade?"
"Apparently he enjoys running his own experiments at home, according to school records."
"Hmm." Tony's mind raced. The kid wasn't his spitting image or anything, but from the sound of it he was fairly bright, then again, he didn't have much of a concept of how smart kids were supposed to be that age.
Jarvis' voice broke into his thoughts. "Sir, his parents completed a child safety kit with a DNA sample. If you'd like to verify paternity, I could match his record to yours."
Tony sighed. Better to know for sure before going any further, he supposed. Though he really wasn't sure what he was hoping for. No matter what the results said, he was no father. He was only just starting to get his life straightened out, and the thing with Pepper was still brand new… and he'd been dying just a few weeks ago. He was pretty sure if he were to look up "unstable lifestyle" in a dictionary, he'd see his own picture staring back at him.
"Sure, go for it, Jarvis. How long will it take to get results?"
"I'll have to get through the security on the database where Peter's DNA results are stored, and compare it to the to data I have for you. I'll also see if Sandra's DNA was collected by the hospital where she was first diagnosed in order to get the most accurate results. Approximately ten minutes, sir."
And whoa, that was fast. In ten minutes he'd know whether or not he was a father. Well, again, he wasn't a father. He doubted he could ever really be a father. But at least he'd know if Peter had come from him biologically. Though he wasn't even sure what he'd do with that information, if he were honest.
Tony realized he'd been hovering in the same spot for a while now, so he turned in the direction of home, and started back. If he took his time, he'd know one way or another before he even got back to his garage.
Just under ten minutes later, Jarvis chimed in, interrupting thoughts of what life would've been like if Sandra had come to him years ago instead of putting the kid up for adoption and then waiting until she was dying of cancer to tell him about it.
"Sir, I have the results."
"Okay, Jarvis. Hit me."
"It's a match. 99.9% chance that he is your biological son, which is the percentage needed to be recognized by law as a biological parent."
Tony's stomach did a funny swooping dance. "Great. Congratulations to me then, eh? It's a boy."
"Would you like me to make contact with the Parkers and tell them you're interested in meeting Peter?"
"What? No. No, no, no. None of that now. This kid has a good thing going; no need for me to bust in and ruin it. No, Jarvis, let's keep this to ourselves. I want those results encrypted and stored on my secure server. For now just… tag the Parkers with a digital alert. Let me know if anything important ever pops up. Otherwise, we're keeping away from Queens."
"Of course, sir."
"Oh, and make sure that elementary school - Highland, was it? Make sure they have updated science books and equipment. Anonymous donation."
It was only a few weeks later when Jarvis informed him that Peter's adopted parents had died, leaving him in the care of an aunt and uncle. Tony almost made contact at that point.
But in the end, he talked himself out of it. May and Ben Parker had been close to Peter's parents, and they were people Peter was comfortable with.
He collected the data and ran multiple scenarios through his head. There weren't any that ended well if he broke into Peter's life with all his chaos and nonsense. No, Peter was definitely better off without him.