Tony had never planned on becoming a parent; too many issues with his own father had turned him off from the idea entirely and he had been busy with Stark Industries since he had inherited the company. Between that and everyone who read any sort of tabloid being convinced he was a dick, he had given up.
That was, until he had been approached by Mary Parker. A young biologist who was just starting to break into the field, she had gone to the expo and it ended up in a one night stand, which then resulted in an unplanned pregnancy and an angry fiance.
Before he could fully think of anything besides the massive scandal that her pregnancy would cause, he agreed to take the baby as soon as it was born.
Six months later, Tony was sitting inside of the NICU, watching as the baby boy, his son, struggled to breathe due to his underdeveloped lungs. He had wanted to avoid becoming a father, yes, but being in that room and watching the newborn fight for his life, that's when he knew.
'This is my boy.'
•••
15 Years Later
"Well, what about Lisa in accounting? She gives me candy bars."
"I'm not taking an accountant to a gala just because she fuels your candy addiction." Tony rolled his eyes as Peter tossed a handful of popcorn in his mouth. "Besides, why should I take someone anyways? I'm an esteemed guest."
"It looks really sad if you don't, Dad," Peter insisted as he turned back to the web shooter he was working on, but before Tony could respond, he continued, "what about Pepper? She's single."
Tony swallowed back his feelings for his assistant quickly so Peter wouldn't pick up on it. "You know, I'm the one who's supposed to be invested in your love life."
"Well, maybe if you were married, I wouldn't have to get involved." Peter shrugged before shoving the web shooter into his backpack. "I gotta get to school. Bye, Dad."
And in a flash, he was gone, leaving Tony in the lab with a small pile of popcorn and a broken web shooter.
'This kid is going to be the death of me.'
That being said, he wasn't exactly wrong when he suggested that he should go with Pepper since Tony had hired her when Peter was three years old and she had practically helped raise him since. But, she had at least three boyfriends since she started working for him and he knew that she had a distaste for his behaviors, even if he had straightened himself out now.
Despite his heart wanting to ask her out, his head knew that it wasn't happening anytime soon, if at all.
'Maybe Lisa is free,' he thought to himself as he went to grab his phone, his finger only hovering over Pepper's number for a brief moment before pressing his finger against Accounting and pressing it against his ear.
•••
"Alright, easy kitty," Peter cooed to the calico in his arms as he slowly descended down from the large tree. "How'd you even get up there?"
The meow that came from the cat was more of a pitiful squeak than anything else as it clawed harshly against the spandex.
"Hey, hey, I know you're scared, but it's okay." He stopped to press his feet firmly on the ground. "We're on the ground now. It's okay."
"Meowthra!" A shrill voice squealed and he turned to see a girl who couldn't be older than five, with a woman trailing behind her. "You found her!"
"Make sure she doesn't get into any more trees, okay?" he asked before pulling the cat's claws out of his right shoulder and placing her into the little girl's arms.
"Okay!" She grinned, taking her mother's hand before calling out, "thank you, Mr. Spider-Man!"
Peter chuckled to himself, making sure the girl was out of view before lifting his gloved, left hand to his right shoulder, pulling back to see the obvious blood stain coming from three long, deep gashes.
'Damn, those claws were strong', he thought to himself before trying to figure out his plan. 'I can't swing with my shoulder all bloodied up like this, but it's also not bad… Then again, it also hasn't healed already, so maybe it is.'
He knew that the best situation was to head home and get it treated, given how likely his dad was to freak out when he saw the injury, but his dad was also really busy getting ready for the gala.
'I'll just swing back to the tower and tell him when I get back. After all, it was just a cat. How bad can it be?'
•••
Pepper had never been one to flirt.
She wouldn't go out of her way to impress anyone in the romantic field, and she definitely wouldn't make advances on someone who was perceived to be a bad person. She trusted people and believed they were right.
But that wasn't how she felt about her boss, Tony Stark.
Despite the fact that she was his personal assistant and had been for nearly fifteen years, she knew his reputation; that he slept around, was a playboy and couldn't stay out of trouble.
Despite all the gossip and bad press, however, she stayed. She stayed when he found out he was having a kid, she stayed when he got stranded in Afghanistan, she stayed through it all.
Even if all she got back was a stolen stare or a brief glance, she stayed. She couldn't put her finger on why, exactly, but she stayed through it all, despite how much he could piss her off and press her buttons.
'Probably because I can't leave, even if I wanted to.'
Which snapped her out of her reflection and brought her back to where she was currently; locating Tony's wallet in a now empty boardroom; the sudden loud noise of the window breaking brought her further out of her thoughts.
"Hello?" she called out, holding her lone briefcase tighter in case she had to hit someone with it. "Is someone there?"
As she turned the corner and looked down at the ground, however, she couldn't hold back her scream as the briefcase fell to the ground before shouting.
"FRIDAY?! Alert the medbay! And get in touch with Mr. Stark!" Then, with her orders processed by the AI, she had turned back to the unmasked, unconscious teenager, who was still heavily bleeding from his shoulder, and kneeled in front of him. "Peter, it's going to be okay," she told him, as she cradled his cheek with her left hand, and brushed his damp curls away from his face with her right. "Just stay with me, please."
•••
"What I want to know is how a cat scratch turned into him losing that much blood!"
"He swung home with both of his arms after receiving the injury. It must've tore the skin open more."
"Well, just fix it!" Tony shouted at the doctor who scurried off, giving him the chance to pinch the bridge of his nose and take a deep breath. He'd had scares like this before with Peter in the past and a lot of them had been more severe than this, but his poor assistant had been the one to find him. He couldn't imagine how shaken up she was.
He finally gained the strength to approach Pepper; her face was still pale and her cheeks were still flushed, but all things considered, she looked like she was doing a lot better.
"Thank you, for having FRIDAY alert me," Tony told her, gaining her attention. "I really appreciate it. Mind if I sit next to you?" he asked, getting a quick head shake of "no" before he took a seat beside her.
"Peter's a good kid, a really good kid. But he is a stress magnet, hence the grey hair," he explained, gesturing to his head, which gained a quick smile from Pepper, "and when you go in there, he's going to apologize and tell you that he's never going to do anything stressful again."
"Let me guess, that doesn't stay true." Pepper finally spoke as she wiped at her eyes with a tissue.
"No, it absolutely does not. Like I said, stress magnet," Tony affirmed. "But, he does it with good reasoning. Like he was stopping a robbery, or trying to keep my tech from getting stolen, or saving a cat." He stopped to hold his hand out, which she took immediately. "I know I should just wrap him in bubble wrap every time he leaves the house, or tell him he can't do this anymore, but I think that would break him more than any injury he could sustain."
"You're a good father, Tony. A good man." Pepper nodded as she let go of his hand, "Peter's really lucky to have you."
"We're both better with each other," Tony added before looking down at his hands, his heart fluttering nervously. "So, Peter keeps trying to set me up for this gala thing in a few weeks. Several names have come up, even though Lisa Adams said no."
"Am I one of those names?" Pepper asked, but just as Tony looked up to respond, her soft lips were pressing against his and her hand was back in his. He cupped her cheek with his free hand and pressed back so they were kissing instead of him getting kissed.
When they finally broke away for air, Pepper looked him right in the eyes and smiled. "I'll check my schedule."
•••
A couple hours later, as Peter was laying on the couch with his feet firmly planted against Tony's legs, he finally told his son exactly what happened.
"So I was actively bleeding out and you were kissing your assistant? I'm so glad you were worried about your only son." Peter responded with sarcasm dripping from his words as he clicked through the TV.
"Hey, you were the one who was trying to set us up, you little-"
"Dad, I'm kidding!" Peter interrupted with a laugh, despite how much it made his bandaged shoulder throb. "I'm happy for both of you, seriously. Especially because Pepper makes the best banana bread."
"Okay, is there anyone in this tower who doesn't cave into your cravings?" Tony questioned with a raised eyebrow as Peter finally settled on a movie.
"Nope. It's the puppy dog eyes," Peter insisted as he adjusted his feet so they weren't completely pressed into Tony's thigh.
"Yeah, definitely not because I hold everyone's paycheck in my hand," Tony muttered under his breath.
But he couldn't even pretend to be angry with Peter, because he did it. He had his son, he had a girlfriend… things were finally going right.