AN: Hey guys! So… this chapter came like pulling teeth. You can thank a plane delay and a lull between college tours for it. I hope that it reads better than it wrote!
We finally address Tony adopting Peter in this chapter. I actually rewrote that part over and over again. I ended up doing something a little different from the classic cliché, and it fell right into place when I finally figured it out. Hopefully, it won't disappoint.
Thank you so much for all of your reviews, follows, and favorites! I can't believe how many people have been reading and enjoying this!
WARNINGS: brief mentions and descriptions of a sensory overload
In the end, Tony adopting Peter turned out to be the most anti-climactic thing in the world.
He'd thought about making a big deal out of it. Sitting the kid down, giving an emotional speech, and then presenting the papers to him with a dramatic flair.
But somehow, it just didn't feel right.
Instead, Tony asked the kid on a lazy morning. The sun was sporadically peeking though some lingering storm clouds and the TV was playing Family Feud at such a low volume that it was almost white noise. Tony was buttering the bread for Peter's grilled cheese and the kid was sitting on a barstool, one leg tucked underneath him, half watching his mentor cook and half watching the sluggish sunlight drift in and out of the windows.
Tony said it before he'd really thought it through.
"Hey, kid, how would you feel about me adopting you?"
There hadn't been any shocked silence. Peter's eyes didn't widen or fill up with tears. Instead, he just glanced at his guardian with a tilted head before his expression quickly morphed into an easy smile.
"Sure."
And that had been that. Tony had picked up the paperwork from his lawyers the next day and brought it all back to the Compound. He'd gotten Rhodey and Happy be their witnesses but otherwise went to great lengths to keep the whole thing quiet.
Tony wrote his final signature with a flourish. He leaned back onto the couch's cushions with an air of finality as the four of them just stared at the completed documents that were now resting on the coffee table.
They look so simple, and yet they had just given Tony everything he had ever wanted.
They had given him a family.
"So…" Peter said, voice tentative, "is that it? Am I… yours, now?"
"Yup. You're all mine. God help me."
Peter laughed, curling his knees up onto the couch and tucking himself underneath Tony's outstretched arm. "Cool."
"Welcome to the family, kid." Happy said, giving the pair one of his rare smiles.
"Tony's your responsibility now. I'm tapping out. Good luck." Rhodey added, reaching forward to ruffle the teenager's hair.
Peter laughed, leaning his head against his mentor's (his father's?) shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll keep him in line."
"Really?" Happy asked airily. "No one else ever has."
"Very funny, Happy." Tony quipped back, briefly giving the arm that was wrapped around Peter a reassuring squeeze. "Can you maybe not spend the first few minutes I'm a dad telling my kid about how irresponsible I am? I'd really appreciate it."
"Don't worry, Mister Stark." Peter smiled around the words. "I already know how irresponsible you are."
"Thanks for defending my pride, kiddo. And stop with the 'Mister Stark' thing, okay? Call me Tony, like, all the time now. I'm literally your parent."
"Sure, Mister Stark."
"You're obnoxious."
Happy and Rhodey were both grinning at the new family, and Tony couldn't remember ever feeling quite as content as he did in that moment, with his best friends right in front of him and the reassuring weight of his kid's head resting on his shoulder.
And just like that, Tony Stark thinks he finally understood what it meant to be loved.
Five days before Peter's Christmas break ended, Tony brought up the distance issue.
"The Compound is almost three and a half hours away from Midtown, Peter." The billionaire said. They were back on the roof, pointing out constellations with the help of one of Peter's Christmas presents: a stargazing guide.
"Do I… do I have to change schools?"
"Not unless you want to." Tony reassured, noticing the way Peter's voice had wavered on the question. "You can be homeschooled, if you want. I'm sure that between Vision, Rhodey, and I, we could give you at least a passable education."
Peter just shrugged. "I guess."
"Or," Peter looked surprised that Tony was offering a third option, "we move into the Tower and you keep going to your fancy geek school. It's your call, kiddie."
"I- really? I can keep going to Midtown?"
Why the hell was the kid acting like Tony had just given him a puppy, or something? "Of course, Peter. Why the hell would I stop you?"
"I dunno." The kid shrugged and, for a second, he looked terrifyingly young. Then, his face lit up and the weakness vanished like smoke. "If we live in the Tower, can I keep being Spider-Man?"
It was the first mention Peter had made of his vigilante alter ego since May's death.
"Do you still want to be Spider-Man?"
"I mean, duh. I just… I needed a little time, y'know? But I'm ready. I miss it."
"It's only been a month." Tony cautioned.
"I know. And I mean, I'm not back to normal. I don't really think there's a normal for me to shoot for, anymore. But I'm better. And Spider-Man is… I need him, I guess."
"You talk about him like he's a different person."
"He kind of is, in a way. But he's a part of me, and I can't just switch it off because I'm sad. Don't you feel that way about Iron Man, too?"
And Tony did. Even when Tony Stark was an over-worked, exhausted, anxious wreck, Iron Man was a solid, unshakeable, infallible hero. Where Tony Stark was weak, Iron Man was strong.
At least, he liked to think so.
"I just want you to know that you don't have to hide behind Spider-Man."
"I won't. It's just that… helping people is kind of what makes me who I am. And I can do that as Peter Parker, sure, but as Spider-Man, I can do so much more. Do you know what I mean?"
For a moment, Tony just marveled at how amazing this kid was.
"Yeah, I do."
Peter smiled, and then glanced down at the stargazing book that Tony had completely forgotten about. "Hey, can you find Taurus? I know he's there somewhere, but I can't seem to spot him…"
There was no more talk of heroes or sadness for that night.
They made the move back to the Tower three days before school started back again. Tony wanted to give Peter some time to adjust to his new surroundings before thrusting him into the thick of a new semester. The Tower was mostly empty, although Tony had hired of a team of professionals to have the penthouse completely renovated and refurbished.
The night before school started, Tony decided to take Peter out for some ice cream. There was a little parlor about a five minute walk from the Tower. In all honesty, Tony only noticed its existence because they'd driven past it at some point during the move. It was supposed to mimic 1950's décor, which had made Peter, for reasons Tony couldn't really explain or understand, bounce excitedly in the passenger's seat of the Audi and point it out in a landslide of jumbled speech. He'd made a mental note at the time to take the kid there soon. So, when Peter had seemed to start getting nervous for his first day back, Tony had dramatically declared that he hadn't had any ice cream in far too long and dragged the kid onto the streets.
In retrospect, it was a terrible idea, but, in his defense, Tony was just trying to cheer Peter up.
They'd finished their ice cream, and Tony was letting the kid ramble on and on about the newest Star Wars movie that had come out in December, when he noticed the paparazzi gathered outside the parlor's entrance.
He grabbed Peter and hauled him into the single bathroom immediately, clicking the lock shut behind them.
"Tony, what-"
"Just shush for a second, kid." Tony yanked out his phone and checked the news. He winced when he saw the very first headline.
Tony Stark Adopts Queens Orphan
Shit.
One look at Peter's anxious eyes nearly broke Tony in two.
"Okay, kiddo, listen up." You can do this. You don't have time to panic right now. Peter needs you to handle this. "There are photographers and reporters outside. I'm texting Happy to come pick us up, but we're gonna have to walk past them. And they're gonna ask questions and probably take a lot of photos of us. Your job is to ignore them. Keep your head down and let me handle it, okay?"
"Why are they here?" Peter asked, eyes darting nervously around the bathroom. "Are they here for you? It hasn't happened before."
He winced, and then flipped the phone so that Peter could see the headline. "They're here for us."
The teenager's eyes widened to saucers. "No, they-I-they're… they're here because of me? But-but I… I didn't even think- Tony, what do I do? I-I don't know how to do this. How do I-"
Tony cut Peter's anxious rambling off. "Listen. I know this sucks, okay? And I should have thought about this, but I didn't. And I'm sorry for that. But right now, all we can do is deal with the shit show. So, you wanna know what you're supposed to do?"
Peter nodded.
"You're going to take some deep breaths, calm down, and let me handle it, okay?"
He got another shaky nod in return. "O-okay."
Tony pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his jacket pocket and slid them onto Peter's face. "Good. Just follow my lead."
The moment they stepped through the parlor's front doors, the crowd swooped in like a flock of vultures.
"Mister Stark! Is this Peter Parker?"
"Tony! When will you introduce him to the world?"
"Why did you adopt a kid?"
He ignored every single one of the chiming voices. Instead, he shoved Peter behind him and focused on keeping a firm hand on the collar of the kid's thin t-shirt. He shouldered a path through the throng of clicking lenses and fumbling hands.
"No comment." He snapped, feeling relief flood through him at the sight of Happy's Audi sitting on the curb. "Now get the hell out of my way."
He was mere footsteps away from the safety of the car when Peter gave a yelp and he felt the kid's collar jerk back out of his grip.
The sight that greeted him when he swung around made rage boil in his stomach.
Some grubby reporter had her fingers clutched around Peter's wrist tight enough to leave marks, and was tugging him towards the crowd and away from Tony. "Peter! Can you just answer a couple of questions for us?"
Peter's frightened eyes locked onto Tony's, and the tears pooling within them jolted the billionaire into action.
He lunged forward and tore the kid back against his chest. He could feel the way Peter's breathing was verging on out of control. It took every bit of self control he had not to start throwing punches. "Get the fuck away from him, you understand? Don't you fucking touch him."
He blocked out the sounds of the reporters' shouted questions and indignation and hauled the kid to the car, shoving open the door and practically tossing Peter across the bench seat before lunging in behind him.
The door slammed shut behind them, muffling the chaos outside.
"Drive, Happy."
"On it, Boss."
He diverted his attention back to the shell-shocked kid sitting next to him. His eyes were squeezed shut, fingers pressed firmly against his temples. The sunglasses Tony had given him lay forgotten in his lap.
"You with me, kiddo?"
"Yeah, I-I'm good." He shook his head, and then winced. "Just… lots of… stuff."
It struck Tony suddenly.
"Your Spidey senses." All those flashing lights and noises must have sent the poor kid into a full on sensory overload. If Tony didn't already feel like an asshole, he definitely did now.
"Yeah."
"You got it under control?"
Peter nodded, prying his eyelids open. Almost immediately, he flinched back at the flash of headlights through the windshield. Tony quickly rolled up the privacy screen and pulled down the window shades.
"Better?"
"Y-Yeah. Thanks."
"No biggie, kiddo. Sorry for… for all that."
"How…" Peter trailed off for a moment, face still creased in pain, "how did they even figure it out?"
It was a good question. Tony had taken every precaution necessary to keep the whole thing under wraps. Everyone who knew about the adoption, with the exception of their closest friends, had been forced to sign some pretty strict confidentiality agreements.
"I'm not sure. I'll figure it out, though. Don't worry." And when he did, whoever leaked it was going to regret the day they were born.
"I'm… I'm not really worried about that. I just… what do we do now?"
Man, when did this kid get so good at hitting the nail right on the head?
"We can deny it, but if you're asking me, that would be counterproductive. We could give a press conference. That'd be my choice. That way, we swing the control back to our side. Or, we can just ignore it. It's up to you."
"Can I… can I think about it?"
"Of course you can."
In all honesty, Tony knew from past experience that the press conference was the only real way to go. He hated the thought of subjecting Peter to one, but the quicker they addressed the rumors, the quicker Peter could begin adjusting to his new brand of normal.
The Stark brand of normal. The one Tony had lived with, and silently despised, for his entire life.
That normal.
"They… they won't ever leave me alone again, will they?"
There was a pitiful quality to the kid's voice that made Tony want to cry and rage all at once. For a minute, he considered lying to him. To let the kid live in ignorance and innocence for just a few heartbeats longer.
But that would be unfair. He deserved to know.
"No, kiddo. They won't."
When Peter nodded, a tear slid down his cheek.
Tony found himself wondering if it was illegal to buy every newspaper, magazine, and radio station in the entire damn world just to shut them all down.
And with his kid silently crying in the seat next to him, no plan had ever sounded more appealing.
AN: Poor Peter…
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