Chapter 11

Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed, slumping into the sofa beside Pepper. The others had just finished recounting what they saw, with no small amount of trepidation, Tony's recent breakdown still fresh in everyone's minds and they all hoped to avoid another one. No one knew how Tony would react after all, his unpredictability was part of his charm, but it also often presented reason for caution. He could lash out, yell, turn on Nebula, turn on the others, have another panic attack. There was honestly no telling what he would do.

Pepper rubbed her hand down Tony's back where he sat next to her, her other hand resting on his bicep, tear tracks still stained her cheeks and it said a lot that the usually impeccable Pepper didn't bother to wipe them away, her look the last thing on her mind. Clearly this boy was cared for more than they originally thought.

"So, you saw him- you saw his-" Tony couldn't finish, but his ending was clear. You saw him crumble. You saw him die. In my arms.

"We also saw him doing some kick-butt moves on Thanos. Man, I am going to congratulate him for those when they get back, then ask him to teach me them," Clint attempted to lighten the tense atmosphere. 'When they get back' Tony mused, it was an odd way of phrasing it, like they had just gone on a mission or a holiday and they were just waiting for them to come back. Like Peter would walk in, fling his bag down, probably collapse next to him or on his lap and start excitedly telling him all about it, most likely with wild hand gestures to punctuate his points.

"Kick-butt moves?" Steve's question pulled Tony from his thought and he was grateful that it was before they could take a darker turn, like so many of his thoughts had in the past week.

"Yes, it was quite impressive, I hadn't seen such good adaption skill before" Bruce turned to Steve. Steve glanced at Nebula and Nebula, with a slight nod from Tony, started playing the video from earlier, but this time she knew when to end it, so it was before Thanos got his hands on the kid. No one thought it would be a good idea to have Tony see that. Again.

"That- that's actually really good" Steve said sounding surprised. Tony smirked, "Of course he's good. He's better than good, he's amazing. You should see him when he's fighting in the streets."

"Speaking of seeing him, back to my earlier question. Can we please see some photos of this kid, preferably smiling" Clint was practically begging, and it didn't pass Tony's notice the slight film of tears in his eyes.

Rhodey snorted, "It won't be that hard, Peter has almost always got a smile on his face." Pepper nodded with a soft smile. Tony hesitated before opening his mouth, but Bruce cut him off before he could get a word out. "We should really talk about the progress made though, towards defeating Thanos. We want it done as soon as possible after all" Ever the voice of reason. They really could have used him during the Accords debacle that left then in shambles. But then again, without it Tony would never have met Peter, and Tony wouldn't take that back for anything.

Steve chuckled quietly, "I don't think we should worry too much about progress, Tony's made a lot of it." Everyone looked at Tony, but he simply quirked a brow, "What? You just thought I was lazing about these past few days? I'm not exactly known for my inactivity. Natasha and Clint, I have upgrades for your weapons, Steve I have a new idea for your shield, it should be lighter and easier to maneuver but just as strong. Bruce, I may have discovered a way to synthesis a fabric that stretches with you when you transform so you don't have to destroy your clothes all the time."

The Avengers had to restrain themselves from openly gaping at the billionaire who just shrugged at the stares. "What about locating Thanos?" Thor spoke up for the first time in a while. Tony grimaced, "Turns out there was more damage done to the suit than I thought. The nanobots are still trying to fix it and once they mend the circuits and inner workings, I can get to work triangulating the energy signature. But until then, we're basically useless, there's nothing more we can do." They nodded along knowing that if Tony said there was nothing more to be done then there was nothing more to be done, his logical mind had most probably gone over just about ever option they could think of already. It was quiet for a while before Clint broke it once again, "So, pictures?"


Tony wasn't exactly sure how he ended up here, in his living room surrounded by the Avengers with Pepper tucked into his side, Rhodey on his other side and Happy next to Pepper. Together, the four of them took up the sofa but they were comfortable, they had long ago given up the concept of personal space when sitting on the sofas to watch something, a certain teenager had something to do with that. Rhodey had his legs up on the recliner and Tony had carelessly thrown his legs over his, leaning his shoulder into him. Similarly, Pepper was leaning into Tony, who had an arm around her, and her legs were up on Happy's lap.

The Avengers were sprawled out on the other sofas, almost how they were before the accords disaster when they would have movie nights and took in the odd position of the group. They had obviously done this before and were comfortable to be practically in each other's laps. They were all dressed more casual than any of them had ever seen, even Happy who was wearing jogging bottoms and a t-shirt, and Pepper who none of them had ever seen out of dresses and pencil skirts, was wearing a shirt, leggings and pink fluffy socks that said in bold writing, 'THE BOSS'. Pepper saw Natasha eyeing them and smiled, "Peter got them for me for Mother's Day" Natasha just nodded with a soft look, Bruce squeezing her hand form where he sat beside her.

"Okay, Friday, play the file from where me and Pepper left off" Everyone stared at the huge screen in anticipation, Clint almost vibrating in restlessness to finally get a picture of the kid when he was smiling. Children were always a soft spot for him, having 3 of your own id that to you, you started seeing bits of them in other kids. Tony had never been that way though, staying clear of kids as much as he could which is what made this kid so intriguing. All the Avengers were wondering about this kid, a teenager of all things, that had managed to break through Tony's near impenetrable walls, the wall they themselves had barely gotten through.

It seemed that May had decided to start right at the beginning of when they met as Peter's video diary this came on screen. Happy groaned slightly Rhodey snorted in amusement. The others looked at them questioningly. "When I took him to Germany that first time, when I first met him, he made a video diary of the events to send to his aunt, who didn't exactly know the actual reason I took him there," Tony winced at the disapproving looks sent his way, especially Pepper's, but their attention was soon captured by the exuberant narrating on screen.

Steve recognized some parts from what Tony had been watching when he went to see him in the lab and had to admit that the kid had a certain charm about him. It was near impossible not to smile at some of his actions and comments, at Happy's obvious irritation with him on screen, though the Happy on the sofa had the beginnings of a smile on his face which spoke volumes about how much he cared about the kid.

"You know, the kid is going to hate this, right? The Avengers watching him embarrass himself with this thing" Rhodey commented mildly, tilting his head slightly in Tony's directing, not taking his eyes of the screen. Tony smirked, "Oh I know"

The next thing that came up was a picture. Peter looked slightly different, his hair had grown but there was something different about how he held himself and how he looked. It must have been sometime after the video. That was to be expected though. Tony just meeting a kid, hell anyone, and accepting them fully into his life was so out of character that it wouldn't be Tony, and they would seriously worry that Tony hadn't been kidnapped and replaced with a look-a-like, so obviously it wouldn't be just after they got back from the airport battle that Tony would willingly spend time with him.

Peter was standing with Tony next to him, his arm swung around the kid's shoulders. Peter was beaming at the camera while holding a trophy with a ribbon on it declaring him the winner of first place, Tony had a proud smile on his face as he looked at the camera. "Science fair" Tony muttered in explanation to the others who didn't know what the trophy was for.

"So not a sport evet then?" Steve asked good-naturedly. Rhodey and Happy laughed at that and Pepper grinned. Tony snorted, "God no, could you imagine trying to get Peter to try out for a sports team?"

"I thought he was Spiderman?" Natasha frowned, "Surely he would be good at all sports with his reflexes and agility, not to mention stamina"

"Oh yeah, the kid would beat everyone, but he doesn't want anyone to figure out his identity, so he likes to keep a low profile," Rhodey told them.

"He is also prone to sudden clumsiness," Happy supplied sounding exasperated, and Steve wondered just what the kid had done to make Happy like him (Which was an achievement all by itself) but also annoy him at the same time. Seriously, who was this kid. Steve was about to find out.

"He is also much more into the academic subjects anyway," Tony finished as the picture changed. The two in the picture hadn't changed much from the previous picture but neither of the were looking at the camera anymore and it was clear the picture had been taken with out either of them being aware of it. They were smiling at each other, Tony ruffling Peter's hair and Peter ducked like he was trying to escape it. The wide grin on his face however, undermined any notion that he was at all annoyed with the older man. The proud grin on Tony's face had not moved an inch, obviously it was not just for the previous picture then. The next one was similar, but May was in the picture with them, arms wrapped around Peter with a grin of her own stretching across his face.

Rhodey wrenched his arm from where it was wedged between him and Tony, and rest on the back of the sofa just as the picture changed again. This time the pair was stood out side a theatre and Peter had tear tracks on his face that he was wiping away while Tony stared at him, incredulous.

A chuckle escaped Tony, "I remember that. I had taken him to watch the Lion King musical and he cried at Mufasa's death. I almost didn't believe he was actually crying but he genuinely was."

Pepper rolled her eyes, "And you should have known he would, you had watched the movie with him before, he always cries at that scene." The 4 were silent suddenly and the others couldn't help but feel they had missed something.

The next picture came, and it appears that Peter managed to gather his composure as he was, to the Avenger's surprise, grinning with his arms wrapped around Tony's waist and Tony's arms were wrapped around him too. They should probably stop being surprised by Peter and Tony's open affection for each other, they had a feeling they would be seeing it a lot over the next few hours; they settled in and got comfortable.