Hello wonderful readers!

I hope you are all doing well! Sorry about the delay in updating. Life threw a few hiccups at me and I hadn't had the time to write. Thank you for your patience and for those still waiting for prompts I am getting to them!

PROMPTS ARE CLOSED!

This prompt is from Pikkukala on A03 - Peter is out in public/in school and people start recognising and/or taking photos of him. Turns out that others have forgotten that Peter is not a public figure, that his connections with the Avengers/Starks are not known, and his photo has accidently been published as part of publicity materials. This could be either Avengers PR where a (out of uniform) team photo(s) have been released to the media, but they forgot to give the ones that Peter wasn't in, or a Stark family one where they have given select candid photos to a magazine for an article but included ones with Peter in them.

I hope you enjoy and apologies for any mistakes!

Illegitimate Son

"Peter are you even listening to me?"

It was only the loud rapping of May's knuckles on the café table that brought Peter back into focus. He blinked at his aunt who is staring at him with a soft frown on her face. She doesn't look mad, merely concerned so Peter guessed he hadn't zoned out for too long.

"Sorry."

"Okay, what's going on. You've been weird all day." May leaned in closer, lowering her voice. "Is it Spider-Man related?"

Peter shook his head quickly.

"Girl trouble?" May pressed. "Is it MJ?"

Peter felt his cheeks go warm. "No. I am not having girl trouble."

"Talk to me sweetheart," May pleaded. She slid her hand across the table, nearly knocking Peter's milkshake in the process, to squeeze his hand that rested on his cutlery.

Peter blinked, his gaze shifting away from May to the group of teenagers in the corner of the café. They were staring at Peter, their phone angled in his direction. When they caught him staring, they hastily hid their phone, breaking into cryptic giggles. Peter felt his face pull into a frown.

May must have noticed for she released his hand and turned to look over her shoulder. She stared long enough for Peter to hiss at her to stop looking.

"Who are they?" May turned back to Peter. "Do you know them? Are they in your classes at school?"

"No, I don't know them," Peter frowned. He hesitated, licking his lips. "This has been happening all day."

"What has?" May asked.

Peter was relieved to see that she was taking him seriously. At first, Peter thought he was just making too much of a coincidence. The first time it had happened, it was at school before the morning bell. Peter had brushed it off thinking he had just missed the latest gossip. Students were always giggling and whispering about something, so he took no notice. As the day wore on though, Peter noticed it more and more.

People were taking photos of him.

They were staring and whispering about him, debating in their groups on who should approach him. It was strange and confusing. When the final bell had run, Peter was glad to be able to escape the school and the bizarre behaviour of its students.

May had been on night shifts at the hospital all week and so they had decided to spend the afternoon getting a coffee and catching up on their week. As Peter headed to the café, he noticed that even strangers were staring at him and trying to get pictures of him.

"People, strangers, they've been trying to get pictures of me," Peter explained. "Kids at school were too. I don't understand what's happening."

"Do you think they know?" May asked.

Peter shrugged helplessly.

May pursed her lips before reaching for her bag.

"What are you doing?" Peter asked as May pulled out her phone and unlocked it.

"Googling you," May said simply.

"Why would I be on Google?" Peter slid his chair closer to his aunt and peered over her arm to get a look at the screen.

As soon as May had finished typing in his name, she hit search. It took a few seconds to load but when it did, Peter felt his jaw drop.

"What the hell?" Peter yelped too loudly in the café.

"Holy shit," May whispered.

Peter filled the screen. It was a candid shot of him, working in Tony Stark's lab. Tony was in the shot as well. Tony stood behind him, a hand on his shoulder and a wide grin on his face, the pride and love visible through the image. Morgan was seated on Peter's lap, the two of them bent over a tablet, working together.

Peter remembered that day. Morgan had wanted to spend time in the lab with Peter and Tony and so Peter had showed her what he had been working on for the Spider-Man suit. Luckily none of that was visible in the photo, but the image said a lot about the family.

May clicked on the top link and it opened to an article.

"Stark Industries latest rounds of PR photos has introduced Tony Stark's illegitimate son, Peter Parker-Stark," May read out aloud.

Peter stared at May.

May's lips twitched, her shoulder's beginning to shake.

"Don't you dare laugh," Peter warned her.

It was too late. Laughter bubbled out of May. She clapped a hand over her mouth to smother them, but Peter could still see her shoulder's shaking.

"Aunt May," Peter whined. "It's not funny!"

"I'm sorry," May sniggered. She tried to school her features, but her eyes gave away her mirth. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. But only this could happen to you."

Peter sighed and slumped back into his chair. "No wonder everyone at school was staring at me. They think I'm Mr. Stark's illegitimate son!"

"Is that such a bad thing?" May asked, still looking far too amused for Peter's liking. "I mean, you're already a big brother to Morgan. It's not that much of a stretch."

"Mr. Stark isn't actually my dad," Peter reminded her.

"Maybe not by blood," May shrugged.

Peter opened his mouth to protest but the words died before they even formed. The truth was, Tony was like a father to Peter. Their relationship had been a bit rocky at first. As Peter begun to spend more time with Tony, it had begun to develop, grow and bloom. The whole mess with Thanos had only strengthened their bond and Peter was getting tired of denying who Tony was to him.

"Are you mad about that?" Peter asked May timidly.

May smiled warmly at Peter, hooking her ankle around his under the table. "I'm so happy for you Peter. He's good for you and you are for him. I can't ever be mad at you for having family."

"Thanks," Peter whispered, his overwhelming love for May nearly making him cry in the middle of the café.

"So, do you think Tony's know about this?" May asked after Peter had collected himself. She grinned when Peter gave a little shrug. "Want to have some fun?"

"I am so sorry Mr. Stark," the PR manager, Ryan, babbled at Tony over the screen. "Sir, I forgot to do a final check through before they uploaded the images. The personal photo was not supposed to be in there."

Tony gritted his teeth a Ryan spewed his apologies. Tony wasn't even sure how the personal photo had gotten mixed in with the PR promotional images about the company, or how they had ever let it get on the internet. Stark Industries had strict rules about what was to be posted on their websites and social media platforms. This is why they had a team and why everything was supposed to go through Ryan before being uploaded.

"Please tell me you have at least pulled down the image," Tony sighed.

"Yes sir." Ryan nodded but he still looked too hesitant for Tony's liking.

"What?"

"It went viral sir," Ryan winced. "The image is all over social media. Even though we took it off our site, it's still being circulated."

"Of course it is," Tony muttered.

Images of his kids was something that Tony was very strict about. The images of Morgan were ones that had been personally picked by Pepper and himself. Everyone at SI knew that if any other images of Morgan appeared, they would not only be fired from SI but would never find another job ever again. The only images of Peter on the SI website were those candid shots of him with the other interns and never with Tony.

Not because Tony was embarrassed by Peter, but so they could avoid this situation. While Tony was proud to call Peter his son, he didn't want to scare Peter off or have the world hounding him for information, like they would now.

"Sir," Ryan prompted hesitantly. "What would do you want me to –"

"Tony!"

On the screen of the tablet, Ryan winced as Pepper's voice floated through the Lake House. A moment later she appeared at his shoulder, her own tablet in her hands.

"Mrs. Stark," Ryan greeted, his voice squeaking. "Please don't fire me."

"Nobody will be getting fired," Pepper said, giving Ryan a stern look. "Today. We will be having a very long chat though with your whole team about this incident though."

"What am I looking at Pep?" Tony asked as Ryan bobbed his head rapidly on the screen.

Pepper handed over her tablet and gave Tony a soft smile. "I think this will ease your worries."

Tony looked down at the screen and swallowed thickly. His lips twitched as the image posted to Peter's Instagram feed, and he felt his face relax and the tension ease from his shoulders.

Peter stood up tall, a sign in his hands and he was beaming at the camera. The sign read -

My dad, Tony Stark, said he would get Morgan and I a pet Alpaca if this gets one million likes. Please help us get an Alpaca.

"That little shit," Tony huffed out a laugh.

"Ryan, set up a press conference for tomorrow," Pepper instructed before ending the call. Her arm slid around Tony's shoulder, and she pressed a kiss to his temple. "I told you he wouldn't mind you being his dad."

"You're always right," Tony chuckled. "Should have known better not to question you."

"You do know that this has nearly one million likes," Pepper said.

"I'm not buying them an alpaca," Tony grumbled.

"Daddy!" Morgan squealed from deeper within the house. "Peter said you're going to buy as an Alpaca! I'm going to call him Gerald!"

"I'm disowning him in that press conference tomorrow," Tony said dead panned.

"No, you're not," Pepper smirked and pressed another kiss to his temple.

"No, I'm not," Tony grinned.

Happy reading :D