Chapter 3- Emergent
Both Kurt and Tony's routines starting gelling together after the fight incident. Kurt agreed to stay home from school while being emailed his homework assignments and the syllabus so that he didn't miss anything that was crucial to his education. Even though Tony knew Kurt could probably advance straight to high school at his current stage of development and thrive. He was exceedingly intelligent and could probably think and write circles around most high schoolers. Tony always pictured his own child sitting at the table as Tony helped him with math homework or whatever, but this situation was completely different. Kurt wasn't his, even though sometimes it felt like he was, and he didn't need any help with anything. And even if he did, he wouldn't ask for it.
Tony saw a lot of his younger self in Kurt and it was sometimes extremely jarring to watch him go about his life as Tony once did. Almost exactly as Tony once did. He had very few friends, preferred to take comfort in knowledge and took no prisoners, using his intelligence to subtly manipulate his peers without them even knowing anything about it. It was inspiring to watch another pull off what he had mastered before middle school.
Natasha still dropped by every now and then. She said that she was just killing time, but Tony knew that she had grown attached to Kurt and his wellbeing was now an important thing for her. Even though she would never admit it to anyone, least of all Kurt, the sentiment was there and maybe Kurt knew as much.
Everything was quite humdrum for a while, much to Tony's temporary relief. Kurt needed some stability and the less drama that was around, the more he would be able to cope with his losses and aid his own development.
That was until Nick Fury decided to drop by, unannounced.
Kurt was in his bedroom when Tony entered the kitchen, seeing the intimidating man sat the breakfast island.
"About time you came around."
"You were expecting me? I must say, I'm surprised."
"It's not that, you just always seem to show up at my door on in my house when my life is finally drama-free. And with that comes the drama. What's going on this time?"
"We can't be sure until we speak with Thor, but it's a sizable magical reading. Our radars were only just able to handle the potency of the signal."
"And you want me to stop it."
"Not just you. Remember when we talked about the Avengers initiative?"
Tony's eyes widened. "I thought that that was just a precaution."
"It was. And now we need them. I've got Thor gauging things from the Asgard side of things, Banner has agreed to come on board and is heading to go and get Barton. I was wondering if you could talk to Romanoff, I think it would be better coming from you."
"Who says I'm involved in this? You can't just show up and tell me that I have to do something, especially not now."
"Your nephew," Fury guessed.
"Kurt. And speaking of, you have no right to enter my house while he's here. I didn't give you access. And as for Kurt—."
"What about Kurt?"
Tony looked as the boy descended the stairs with his book clutched in his hands.
"I heard raised voices so I thought I'd come down."
Tony sighed. "Kurt, this is Nick Fury, my boss of sorts. Fury, this is my nephew, Kurt."
Fury crouched down to Kurt's level, which Tony knew to be a big mistake. "How you doing, kid?"
Kurt appraised the sight in front of him with a smirk. "Perfectly well without your condescending posture, thank you very much. I'm eight, not three."
Fury looked shamed and stood up, coughing. "I apologise."
"No need, I'm quite the anomaly for my age group. What's the important business about?"
"That's classified," Fury snapped, mouth tight and sealed.
Tony frowned, pointing at Kurt. "Nick, he's going to be involved in this no matter what happens. Even if I do agree to work on this, Kurt's going to be directly affected."
"Uncle Tony?"
Tony was reminded of a conversation that Kurt had had with him about secrets and talking about him as though he wasn't there. If he was mature enough to handle something, Tony would tell him.
"We talked about my being Iron Man the other day, didn't we? Well, it looks as though I'm going to be called into action again."
"So you're on board?" The smooth voice of Captain America entered the room and Kurt stopped still. He wasn't wearing the suit, just regular civilian clothes. Kurt would have argued that they made him look even better. Especially the leather jacket. Although he did appreciate the tights.
"Ah, well if it isn't the Star-Spangled Man! How you doing, Cap? Got a plan?"
Cap nodded civilly. "Stark, good to see you again."
Kurt stood, gaping at Captain America. It was really him. So he said as much.
"Captain America."
"Hey there, sport. You must be Kurt." Tony wanted to dance with glee when Steve knelt down to address Kurt. Obviously that was the way Steve operated around children back in the early twentieth century, but Kurt would not appreciate it.
Until he did.
"Kurt Elizabeth Hummel, it's really good to meet you. They taught us about you in class."
Tony was shocked. Until he put two and two together. And, honestly, he should have seen it coming. Kurt had a thing for Cap. It seemed that everybody but Tony himself did.
Steve's brows shot up. "Really? They probably got the facts wrong."
"My teacher didn't want to admit that you were in love with Bucky Barnes, but I could see it in the videos. It was pretty undeniable."
Steve coughed, blushing. "Well, uh, that's…"
Nope, Tony thought. This was even better than Cap getting chewed out by an eight year old.
"It's okay. I know you're probably still anxious about people knowing. Force of habit, I'm guessing. Being into boys isn't a bad thing anymore. Well, to most people. The uneducated plebeians still think they can have a say over who loves who but times are changing."
"You tell 'em, buddy," Steve high-fived Kurt, who blushed. Tony was shocked. He had never seen Kurt so…well, like a child. Steve made him giddy and excitable. And he high-fived him. Since when did Kurt Hummel high-five anybody? Or allow himself to be called 'buddy'?
"So I guess I'll let you three get on with your meeting. I have The Birth of Tragedy sitting half-read upstairs anyway."
Fury and Cap watched him leave with wide eyes. Tony just shrugged.
"I guess this is what you were like as a kid," Steve commented, not unkindly.
"A little less precocious, but pretty much yeah," Tony replied.
Fury cleared his throat. "So about the initiative."
"Right. Always down to business with you, isn't it? I'm not sure. Maybe I could do it, though Kurt would have to be fully protected at all times, whether I'm on assignment or not."
"Understood. We can get someone to watch him while you're fighting. One of the tech guys can sit with him. Or maybe Rumlow wouldn't mind watching him."
"Rumlow would just make him uncomfortable. I can just ask Pepper to stay with him when we're on location somewhere. She's already agreed to help out with him as much as she can. They haven't met yet, but I'm sure they'll take a liking to each other."
"Good. Now that that's sorted, we can let the initiative run as planned. Thank you for your co-operation, Stark. We'll be in touch." Fury made motions to leave and Tony frowned.
"Wait, why is Cap here?"
Steve turned his head and held up a hand. "Okay, rude."
"No, I just meant…you came here to brief me and recruit me. That doesn't usually require two people to do. Usually just an email."
"I thought you'd need more convincing."
That was a fair point, Tony guessed. "I have something concrete in my life now. I have things I need to protect, people I need keep safe. I'll do whatever I can to make sure that happens."
Steve nodded, smiling lightly. "Hell, I'm not gonna argue with that. We'll get out of your hair, Tony."
"I look forward to your call. Wait, actually I'm sure I do. Judging the size of this life-ending signal you're getting. If you need Thor's help, it must be something pretty big."
"Just…prepare yourself. And Kurt," Cap smiled. "He seems like a good kid."
"Please, he's never been a kid a day in his life."
Tony waved his polite goodbyes at Fury and Cap left the house, Fury driving away while the Captain followed on his motorbike. Tony shut the door and cleared his throat, addressing the upper level of the house.
"Kurt, I know you're listening."
The boy appeared behind the curve of the stairs, wincing. "Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to keep anything from me. I swear if any more adults omit vital pieces of information from me under the guise of 'protecting me' I'll set fire to myself."
"Wow, morbid. But I get it. There's not much I'd keep from you, Kurt. I know that you can handle whatever it is. Ideally, I'd want to preserve your childhood, but that's already been and gone, hasn't it?" Tony pouted at that fact, that's Kurt childhood had literally been ripped from him with no warning. Now he was emotionally grown up and that wasn't fair on anyone.
"So what exactly happened? I'm not familiar with the exact line of work."
"Well, to cut a long story short, something alien has shown up, you know like it did with Thor's hammer?"
"Yeah, that was all over the news," Kurt shrugged easily.
"It's bigger than that, it's had a bigger reading. S.H.I.E.L.D thinks that it's big, so Fury has rolled out the red carpet for the Avengers Initiative. It was mostly just a precaution, but he thinks that time has come today for it to be implemented properly."
"So you're going off somewhere to fight aliens with other Avengers and leaving me to fend for myself for long periods of time?" Kurt sounded almost hopeful at the prospect of being left alone.
"I know that sounds like paradise for you, but what kind of guardian would I be if I left you alone? I've asked Pepper to come and stay here while I'm gone. Whenever that is. It'll be fine, you'll love Pepper."
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"On and off," Tony admitted with a sigh. "We have a lot of problems, but we always manage to work through them."
"If she sticks around deals with you out of pure choice, then she must be someone pretty special."
"Watch it, you. I have the authoritative power to…ground you, I guess?"
Kurt snorted. "When I don't leave the house anyway? Good one, Uncle Tony."
"I'll take away your books."
Kurt went pale. "You wouldn't."
"Well, no, I know how important they are to you, but the option is always there if you get really bad."
"Like if I read too many books in one day?" Kurt smirked.
"If you induce nosebleeds in any more of your classmates, we may have to talk."
"Says the man who's going to be murdering aliens soon."
"I'll have a team for that."
"About that, you can have meetings here, you know. You don't have to worry about me. If I get to see Natasha more often, it'll be a bonus."
"And Captain America?" Tony winked playfully.
Kurt blushed. "Hush."
"That got to you."
"He's just like…really pretty to look at. And he's a national hero, what's more attractive than that?"
Tony shrugged. They weren't points that he could argue with. He smirked, thinking of the time Kurt was going to have when puberty struck. Being around people like Steve and Clint and even Nat when his hormones developed? Well that was going to be very fun. "Whatever floats your boat, Kurt. Now, I hate to sound like that parent, but is all of your homework done?"
"Can you really imagine a world in which I haven't done my homework? I already scanned the pages and emailed them to my teacher. She's very surprised that I have my own email address."
"Like you even get emails?"
"Bi-weekly fashion newsletters, Uncle Tony. I can't miss out on any trends."
"Kurt, you're eight."
"I'm impressed at your counting skills. Did you have a point hidden somewhere there?"
Tony just chuckled and started prepping lunch. He knew he could have it delivered, but Kurt liked homemade sandwiches that reminded him of his parents. Tony could make them exactly like Elizabeth used to, something that Kurt was extremely grateful for.
Tony looked across the counter at Kurt and thought about the impending battle that was soon to threaten everything. S.H.I.E.L.D were rarely ever wrong about readings like that. It was either nothing or an apocalypse these days. Tony was just going to have fight that much harder to protect Kurt. Not that he needed protecting most of the time, but even Kurt couldn't fight his way through an alien invasion.
As Kurt stared back at him innocently, he smiled at everything that had transpired. They were making of the best of a truly awful situation. Tony knew that he never would have had kids naturally, and Kurt would be the closest thing he had to one. Not a bad example of the ideal child, Tony rather thought.
He just hoped that he could keep his and Kurt's worlds in balance with everything that was to come and that their dynamic would survive whatever was headed their way.