It was dark and damp on a cool mid-summers night. New York hadn't had a night like this in a while, the bright moon lighting up every street corner and glistening off of the busy cars and taxi's in the traffic that never slept. It was so quiet, almost eerily quiet. All that was to be heard was the gentle zoom of cars passing by and the rapid breathing of the couple heading frantically toward an apartment in the heart of the city. Mary Parker clutched her newborn son tightly against her chest, her heart breaking in half to be having leaving him only three days after his birth. She wasn't in much condition to go to work, but she had to do what she had to do. Her husband, Richard, was speeding, tears falling into his thick glasses steadily as he contemplated the situation at hand.
They were being followed, he knew they were being followed. His only hope was that he could get his son to his brother's house quick enough to lead their pursuers as far away from there as possible. Colonel Fury had an important mission for his wife and he, and it was a mission he didn't expect they would be returning from…if they even made it there at all. He practically turned their blue mini cooper on its side as he skidded to a stop quickly outside his brother's place and hopped out of the car. He ripped his wife's car door open and grabbed all of their son's belongings while she rushed him to the door and rang the bell.
Richard's much older brother, Ben, opened the door, his bright smile falling almost immediately as he saw the panic etched into his sister-in-law's face. He let her in without a moment's hesitation, not bothering with fruitless conversation. He knew his brother was a very secretive man, anything he asked would be either avoided all together or lied about. His wife May, however, well…she had never quite understood that.
"Mary? Mary what on earth is going on? You're scaring me!" She fretted, her aged face contorting into chagrin and deep concern as the young mother, who was sobbing harder than she'd ever seen before, wordlessly slipped her newborn baby into her arms.
"W-We need you to watch Peter for a while, that's all." Was all she said, kissing the top of the baby's forehead and turning toward her husband, who was dumping all of the child's belongings into the already cramped living room. Ben's face had now taken on a grim expression, knowing his brother wouldn't have brought literally everything that baby could possibly need if he was just going to be gone for 'a little while'. He exchanged a brief look with Richard, whose broken brown eyes told him everything he needed to know.
"Don't worry, you go. We'll take care of Peter until you get back." He smiled bitter-sweetly at his baby brother, who he knew he may never see again. He didn't know what his brother's line of work was, Richard wasn't allowed to say. However, Ben was no fool. He knew both his brother and sister-in-law lived dangerously, whatever they did, and from the looks of things they had stumbled into some trouble they couldn't get themselves out of. As much as it broke his heart, he had to let them go.
"Take care." Mary and her husband bolted out the door and slammed it shut, leaving the elder Parkers with nothing but the screeching sound of tires and a screaming baby. May brought the child closer to her chest and gently shushed him.
"It's okay, Peter, mommy and daddy will―oh!" She exclaimed, suddenly becoming aware of why the baby was crying so loudly. There was an enormous purple bite on one of his tiny hands and a small web-like string was attached to it, the most peculiar looking spider dangling from the end.
"Shoo!" May said in disgust, brushing the string into the floor and stepping on the spider. Ben sighed heavily and walked over, examining the welt on his nephews hand carefully.
"It probably hitched a ride on the poor thing from Richard's house…you know how he likes to experiment with those damned spiders when we isn't off doing god only knows what. Get in the car, we'll take him to a doctor. We don't know if the spider was poisonous or not." May nodded, rocking Peter gently in her arms in an attempt at soothing him. Ben went to the hallway closet and fetched their coats, helping May into hers as she wrapped a blanket tightly around Peter. They walked to the front door, but never made it out before the sound of shots rang and May's blood curdling scream fell upon deaf, uncaring ears from as far as five blocks away.
Tony Stark bolted upright in his bed, panting heavily as he fought to catch his breath. He could feel the strong, muscular hands of his husband rub his back in comfort and he closed his eyes.
"I didn't mean to wake you." Tony had married Steve Rogers no less than two weeks ago and this had been their first night home after their honeymoon in Paris. The two had begun dating after Tony's near death experience fighting Loki and Steve's rather…interesting CPR. The two had been inseparable ever since. Steve pressed a gentle kiss into Tony's neck.
"Je t'aime á la folie." Steve purred in the little French he had picked up on while he was there, earning a shiver from his husband who laughed weakly. He tried to respond with some sarcastic remark, per usual, but he couldn't, opting to simply bury his sweaty face into Steve's chest. Steve's bright blue eyes were laced with disquiet as he wrapped his arms gently around Tony.
"It's okay, I know what this is like. PTSD is no fun." Tony knew good and well that Steve had the terrors too, he'd been met with those not long after Steve had moved in. It brought him little solace to be reminded of his counterparts war induced baggage and he groaned loudly.
"Je tiens á vous protéger." He pouted. Steve laughed gently and cupped Tony's face, forcing the younger man to look him in the eyes.
"You do, Tony. I know you do." The couple's lips met delicately, lovingly. Tony wasn't sure if he would ever become used to the sweet feeling of Cap's tongue colliding with his. He moaned into his partner's mouth, feeling some of his tension ease up a little before his phone began to ring. Steve pulled away and was about to ask Tony not to answer it, but he'd already pressed the button.
"Bonjour." Tony said into the receiver, using the worst accent Steve had ever heard and smirking so bright it nearly lit up the room. Steve chuckled to himself, there was the Tony he had fallen in love with.
"Incredible. You marry Captain America and come back speaking French." Quipped the voice on the other line, which Tony recognized as belonging to Fury. Tony glanced briefly at the clock on his nightstand.
"What do you want? It's three AM…" Stark could practically hear Colonel Fury rolling his eyes at him.
"Don't pretend like you weren't already awake you mother-fucking insomniac. You've probably been in the lab all night." Normally that statement would have been absolutely right, but now that Tony had Steve as a bed partner he liked to at least try to spend a portion of the night curled against the solider.
"Yeah, yeah, spit it out." He grumbled, mouthing to Steve that it was Fury on the line, who was looking back at him in a worried sort of confusion. There was a sort of strange silence on the other end for a few moments before Fury finally found the right words.
"I hate to ask this of you, I know you and Rogers just got home but…you know what, just come down here, it will be easier if I show you." This perplexed Tony, his eyebrows furrowing as he put his hand on the receiver to talk it out with Steve.
"Uh, they want us down at SHIELD. Says he has something to show us." Steve shook his head.
"You just had a PTSD fit, Anthony Stark, I am not letting you out of this tower." Tony rolled his eyes.
"Baby, seriously? I'm fine." Steve didn't look so sure, chewing on his lip in contemplation. He took Tony's hand in his own, which felt considerably less sweaty that it had earlier.
"Ask him how important it is." Tony begrudgingly did as Steve asked. This is where the married couple often butted heads. Both felt like the dominate male, and both of them felt the need to be extremely protective of the other.
"He says it is life or death important." Steve sighed and lay the back of his free hand across Tony's cheek as if to check his temperature.
"You sure you're alright?" Tony's chocolate colored eyes melted and he nuzzled into his loves hand. He didn't answer, knowing his response to Fury would be more than enough.
"We're on our way."
It took Tony a lot longer to get to SHIELD's current base than he would have liked. He was used to going places in his suit, but at this hour Steve had informed him it would be rude to wake the sleeping citizens. So they climbed into one of Tony's many overly expensive cars, particularly a Lamborghini Veneno this time, and made the twenty minute trip down town. Steve had yet to see all of Tony's cars and he looked around in the cherry red vehicle for a while.
"Tony…how much did this car cost you?" Tony smirked, knowing Steve would freak out. Hell, Steve freaked out any time he saw gum being sold for two dollars at the drug store.
"Only 3.9 million, not the most expensive on the lot, but on up there I guess." Steve paled several shades and stared at Tony like he had gone absolutely mad.
"Anthony that is ridiculous." Tony snorted, pulling to a stop and climbing out of the car. He lazily wrapped his arm around Cap's shoulder as they entered the building.
"Don't worry. You'll get used to being married to a billionaire eventually." Steve rolled his eyes, but returned Tony's smug smile as they approached Fury, Agent Romanoff, and Agent Barton. There was something small and sniffling bundled up in Romanoff's arms and Tony narrowed his eyes at it.
"Is that a baby? I didn't know you and Bruce could―" One extremely sour look from Natasha told him he had definitely poked fun at the wrong time.
"I'm actually sterile, Tony, but thank you for reminding me." She growled, a tremendously apologetic look crossing Tony's face, though Steve piped up before his husband could further shove his foot in his mouth.
"What's going on?" Fury gestured toward the baby.
"What's going on is that young Peter here was just rescued by Natasha and a few other SHIELD agents after his aunt and uncle were murdered by Hydra members who were tracking his parents. Agents Mary and Richard Parker have not been located, so until I can get them flagged down someone has to keep the kid." Tony blinked stupidly for a moment at the small child, whose face he couldn't really see through all the blankets.
"They left him alive?"
"I don't think they were going too, but Nat and I knew that the Parkers were being trailed. Thankfully we got there in time to mend the situation." Barton interjected, looking over almost lovingly at the child.
"I can't keep him, I've got two kids of my own and another on the way…and Natasha is almost always on a mission when she isn't with Bruce. If you guys don't take him we are going to have to put him in foster care until we can locate his parents, and I don't think that's fair." Tony could see Steve's expression melting into a puddle of goo and he shook his head wildly.
"No no no no, Steve, we cannot keep a baby." Steve ignored Tony and reached out his arms, Natasha placing the young boy into his arms very carefully.
"Make sure to support his neck." Steve nodded and very gently pulled the covers away to get a good look at the baby's face. He had the most adorable chubby cheeks and wide, innocent hazel eyes. His little tufts of brown hair were sticking up everywhere and Steve was instantly smitten.
"Steven." Tony warned, his expression urging his husband to not get attached. They were NOT keeping this baby. Steve's eyes were filled with an intense emotion that Tony couldn't quite put his finger on.
"Tony we can't let them put this innocent baby in the foster care system…not when I know we can take care of him. Please…" Steve walked over and held the child upright so that he could stick him in Tony's arms in a way that would cause the baby to lay on his chest. Steve moved Tony's hands into the right places to properly support him and then backed away, waiting to see how his lover would react. Tony looked down at the tiny infant that was now cuddling into his shoulder. Peter made a tiny coo, attempting to get comfortable and grabbing hold of Tony's shirt.
"…." Tony was clearly having an internal battle with himself. Steve could see the little flicker of possibility in Tony's eyes and he quickly took the opportunity to ask a bunch of questions to pull on his heartstrings.
"How old is he?"
"Three days. They had really just taken him home good when Fury called them out for a mission. He didn't think it would play out like this…" Natasha replied, her eyes flickering over at Tony quickly.
"I hope they aren't dead. Orphaned at three days would be so awful…but we can only send out a rescue mission once we know Peter is safe." It seemed to be working, Tony was staring down at Peter with a soft, inquisitive expression.
"Just until you find his parents, okay?" Steve grinned, flashing a dashing smile at Director Fury.
"We'll take him."