Once his throat cleared, Tony Stark, a certified genius, multi-billionaire, philanthropist, world renowned superhero, inventor, panicked.

There was no other word for it. He panicked. His brain shut down, his thought process stopped, and he panicked.

This was bound to happen. He knew it. The statistics were not in his favor and he was too drunk half the time to remember if he'd used a condom every time he slept with someone. Even then there was a slight chance the condom didn't work. During his party years there had been a lot of women who claimed they were pregnant with his child. It left him on edge every time. Thankfully they all were disproven and sent away with a little hush-money (Obie's idea, not Tony's).

The idea of having an illegitimate child haunted him during that period. When he thought about it. When the first pregnancy scare had popped up, he nearly threw up in front of her. Once he made it back from the toilet and sent her away, Tony had thrown himself into all the research possible. His mind spun with probabilities, statistics, and doubts until the results came back.

It was negative. They always came back negative. It was a huge relief off his shoulders the first time, and he'd quietly ushered the embarrassed blonde out his office and life. Now aware of this new threat, it added another section to his parinora. The pregnancy claims faded as time went on and his life became a walking public hazard. His concerns shifted to other things like Iron-Man, saving the world, and dealing with his own set pathetic problems.

During the few rare moments he allowed for the possibility of him having a kid, Tony always imagined this certain scene. The kid— usually a girl for some reason—he'd never seen before would strut into his life, and cockily state that they were his child revealed to them by a letter from a dead relative. The kid would turn his and the Avengers' lives upside down. They'd all fit together instantly, no awkward bumbling or adjusting, and slowly the Avengers' whole world would revolve around his kid. The whole team would love his kid; but never as much as Tony would. Pepper would practically adopt the kid and Tony would become a better person who didn't make the same stupid mistakes over and over again just so he wouldn't make his kid cry. Then they would all live a perfect happy life in their giant Avengers family.

Complete and utter nonsense. A fantasy that would never come true. Tony knew it. Which was why he never let himself think about it, especially after that whole Germany airport showdown and Siberia.

Until now.

Now when he literally was face-to-face with it.

All those long forgotten anxieties bubbled back up with a passion and flooded his brain until all he could think was one thing. He had a kid.

So Tony panicked. Big time. On the inside at least. His insides were all mushy and panicked, but his outside was set in stone. He had way too many emotions— fear, concern, joy, anger, confusion, surprise, panic, worry, worry, panic —that his body decided to show none of them. Tony was pretty sure his eyes had gone wide and his face paled, but that was the only sign of the pure chaos going on underneath.

He stared at Peter like an idiot. He knew he was, but he couldn't get his body to move, and he couldn't get himself to look away either. Peter— his kid, oh gosh, his son —stared back, his own eyes wide and face pale as his hands trembled.

Tony's subconscious screamed at him to move, go help Peter because he was in pain and he needs help and those innocent brown eyes teemed with confusion— and was that hurt? Please let that not be hurt, that was way too much for him to handle right now —and Tony just stood there like an idiot, barely able to think.

Without warning, his arms jerked up and placed his hands on Peter's shoulders and twisted the limp teenager around. His arms felt wrong. This situation felt wrong. His whole body felt wrong. Tony's movements were too stiff and jerky, like a wooden puppet. He watched as his body moved and interact independently of his brain with a sense of detachment. His palms dug into Peter's jacket as his legs started to push him towards the lab door.

Tony wanted to scream at himself. What was he doing!? He can't kick Peter out of the lab! That was the opposite of what either of them needed right now!

He didn't stop though. Tony couldn't stop. His stupid puppet legs and stupid puppet arms kept pushing despite his mental protests.

Peter offered no resistance. He mindlessly obeyed, too shocked to even form a legible sentence much less process what was going on. Tony wasn't processing it himself either.

Tony blinked and suddenly they were at the lab door. He watched numbly as his puppet hands punched the door code in with shakey puppet fingers and pushed Peter out with his puppet arms.

Peter stumbled out of the room, the shock made him recover with the balance of a drunk man. Then he turned around and blasted Tony with the most heart wrenching stare Tony Stark had ever had the displeasure to be on the other side of. Tony's heart sunk.

'I'm sorry kid.' Was what he wanted to say. 'I'm sorry I'm a terrible person and just dropped this bomb on you and now kicking you out like a heartless piece of crap when you are obviously suffering, and I just want you to know this isn't your fault and we'll get through this together, I swear.'

"I," Tony's traitorous puppet voice stuttered. "I, I need to figure this out."

The lab door slid shut.

Tony stared at the glass door, stared at his kid who stared back with a blank face before the kid stumbled back without any of his usual grace and climbed up the stairs with agonizing slowness. Tony wanted to scream, pound on the door, call Peter back, ask for forgiveness, but the puppet body wouldn't move. It only stared at the door long past his son disappeared up the stairs.

What had he done?

That thought shuffled through Tony's brain with uncomfortable speed and with rightful pain he deserved. What had he done? He had kicked Peter out. No warning, no words, no emotions when the kid was just as emotionally compromised as Tony was. Probably even more. Tony had at least played with the thought that he might have a kid out there, but Peter probably hadn't even suspected the possibility that Richard Parker— and yes, Tony had looked up Peter's parents before going to meet the kid three months ago, it was no wonder his mom looked vaguely familiar —wasn't his flesh and blood dad.

Crap, and Tony had actually kicked him out. He'd looked him in the eye as he guided his kid out of the lab and told him to get out before he slammed the door in Peter's face like some kind of emotionless butthole. What kind of person did that? The kid's world had just changed forever and Tony had kicked him out. Tony had kicked out his kid. Kicked out his son. Why? Why did he do that? He should have stayed and talked. They could have panicked together, sorted out their feelings while they processed together over hot chocolate and coffee. Literally any other reaction would have been better. Instead, Tony left the kid to flounder on his own while Tony shut the literal and metaphorical door in his face.

Then, like some sort of demon who emerged from the dark with the sole purpose was to drive Tony's mental health through the floor, a thought passed through his mind. That was a move his dad would have pulled.

Tony reeled back. No. No. He wasn't about to go down that path. That was a bad path. It led to a lot of dark things that Tony couldn't afford to get into. He'd already gone down that lane way too many times to be healthy. Tony wasn't Howard. He was better than Howard. He was twice the man Howard was. He stopped making weapons, he became a superhero, saved the world, got engaged to a beautiful woman who he didn't deserve, made friends, lost friends.

Tony was better than his dad, but Howard's blood did flow through Tony's veins. There were some traits shared between the two of them. The same intelligence, the same charisma, the same alcoholism, the same ability to mess up everything they touched. Honesty, he was a worse mess then his dad had been sometimes. Which isn't surprising considering that Tony was related to Howard.

Now that same blood ran through Peter's veins.

The thought hit him like Mjolnir to the chest. Tony let out a breathy gasp, his chest tight. He needed to think about something else. Something that wouldn't hurt to think about. A distraction. He needed a distraction.

He took a step back and stumbled, suddenly in control of his body again. He took another step and dragged himself to the closest holo-screen, shaky non-puppet fingers reached for the schematics of a new Quinjet design he was working on. An older project he'd started before Germany, before the airport fight, before Pe- that he'd shoved to the side and reluctantly picked back up recently at General Ross's urging. The new version was supposed to fly on cleaner power along with a few other minor renovations. A downgraded version of the engine was going to be sold to the public to help improve public transportation.

Not that it mattered right now. What mattered as that the project was unfinished, so it was work. Work meant numbers and procrastination and not thinking about emotions for hours on end while he powered through the complicated math and science. His two favorite subjects. Math and science were logical. They could be taken at face value and were either right or wrong. They didn't have grey areas or issues that couldn't be fixed.

There were times Tony wished he was a math or science problem. They didn't have to deal with stress or other people. They didn't worry about emotions and dealing with emotional problems or making mistakes.

Now, to boost the Quinjet engine performance, he needed to enhance the boosters another twelve percent, but they became too unstable around ten so he'd have to find a way around that and….

"Miss Potts?"

Pepper glanced at the white tiled ceiling as she scratched out her signature with one hand while the other one shuffled some papers on her office desk. "Yes F.R.I.D.A.Y? Is something wrong?"

"The Workaholic Protocol has been activated."

Pepper's hand paused and she frowned at her paperwork. She fought the urge to sigh. Tony had been doing so good too. "How long? What project is he working on now?"

"About three hours and twenty minutes ago. Boss is currently working on a prototype stun gun for the police force, but he's completed thirty-six projects without a break."

That was slightly more alarming. Three hours of work wasn't unheard of from Tony, he could go for days if he was really into a project. To complete that many projects in a row was slightly more unusual. Typically it was a single large project that grabbed his attention long enough to activate this program. Pepper set her pen down. "What qualified this for the Workaholic Program?"

If it were possible to hear a frown, F.R.I.D.A.Y sounded exactly like it. "Boss hasn't made any attempts at communication, and is ignoring all attempts being made to him. Plus, he hasn't gotten a cup of coffee ever since Peter Parker left the building."

Pepper's face blanched. This was serious. Tony, ignoring coffee, that was bad. Pepper groaned and closed her eyes. He was in that zone again, the one where he spent hours upon hours on work without stopping for food or water or even the bathroom until he ran himself physically and mentally ragged and collapsed where he stood. In the past it was accompanied with a lot of drinking, though that had part had stopped in more recent years.

Either way, alcoholic or not, it was bad for Tony and bad for the people who cared about him. The last episode had lasted a week and Pepper barely slept the entire time due to her worry for him.

Tony hadn't had one of those episodes in years. He'd gotten close after Germany, but he hadn't regressed, which surprised her. It had taken a little poking around, but Happy spilled easy. Tony was still in contact with the enhanced teenager he'd brought with him to the fight. The Spider-Man. Well, it was sort-of contact. Happy had direct contact with the kid— which the man complained about constantly during the discussion — while Tony hovered from behind the scenes and threw new gadgets at the kid while he discreetly fussed from a distance.

It was adorable. Pepper never thought she would get to see this side of the great Tony Stark. It was startlingly paternal and Pepper liked it. Tony's face had lit up after she mentioned the kid over dinner and he'd started to ramble with the ferocity that he talked about projects with. Pepper had gotten the kid's full backstory, description of his powers, and to know all about his likes and dislikes before dessert was served.

Spider-Man's real name was Peter, wasn't it? Peter Parker. For all the talk, Tony hadn't said the kid's name a lot. He'd used more nicknames then anything. F.R.I.D.A.Y had said Peter left right before Tony relapsed. Maybe he had done or said something?

Accidently, of course. The boy was too sweet to cause such pain on purpose. Tony had sent her some of his favorite Baby Monitor Protocol videos the day after dinner, and she'd watched them with great mirth. The kid was about as harmless as a fly. A fly who could stop out of control trucks with his bare hands, but a harmless fly nonetheless.

Pepper quietly stood and shoved some papers into her purse. "F.R.I.D.A.Y, cancel all my appointments for today. I'm going to Tony. Please give the clients my apologies."

"Yes ma'am." she replied instantly. "Should I summon a driver for you?"

"No thank you. I'll drive."

"Your expected arrival at the Avenger's Compound is six forty-three." AI informed cheerfully. "See you there."

Pepper shouldered her purse and walked out of her office. Her heels clicked against the white tile as she walked down the hallway. None of the employees looked up, and if they did, they gave her a simple nod, recognizing the hurried pace. Pepper mentally thanked each one she passed. She had the best employees.

"Tony."

Tony ignored the sound. It wasn't important. Not as important as the hologram of the engine design he had started for fun a couple months ago. Lines of numbers flew over his head in rapid succession as he twisted the hologram engine in front of him. He spun it again and selected a couple features before he messed with some stats and let the testing program run. Instead of taking a couple seconds, the results sprang up immediately. The whole hologram lit up red and let out a loud beep. His hands were back on the hologram in a second.

"Tony."

He ran the program again. This time it flashed green and a bell sound rang twice. He saved it instantly and pulled up the next project. He barely glanced at it before his hands were moving again. Starkphone. Less advanced version of the one he carried but still years ahead of what any other rival company could come out with. He was pretty sure that they were saving this one for five years down the line. Didn't matter. It was work. It was a distraction, therefore it required his attention.

The details were the same as his phone, just light projected onto a glass screen instead of the holograms that Tony used. The problem was that the glass was too fragile for daily use. To set the phone down with even a fraction of power caused the glass to shatter. Too dangerous, especially with ki- people who weren't careful with their stuff. A phone that shattered every time it was set down didn't look good for the company. At this point plastic might be a better alternative because it could handle pressure and it was less expensive-

"TONY!"

Tony jerked as the annoying sound suddenly jerked through his subconscious and very clearly turned into the exasperated voice of his fiancee. The hologram of the phone spun out of his hands as he jumped around and was greeted with the sight of Pepper. She was still in her work clothes, pencil skirt with a matching blouse and heels.

He blinked to get rid of the numbers and schematics that floated around her head. What was she doing here? She should still be up at the Stark Industries Manhattan Headquarters. Did he miss a meeting?

If Pepper dragged herself all the way to the Compound, then it must be important. She wouldn't bug him if it wasn't. Best to not act like the complete mess he was and worry her more. Tony forced his body to relax. He leaned against a table and pulled on his best media-fake smile. "Hey Pep. What's up?"

Pepper's eyes ran over his body, and Tony was suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that he looked like a mess who was trying to cover up the fact. Crumpled clothes, messy hair, bloodshot eyes, the whole deal. He fought the urge to rub the center of his chest as his stress started to bubble up the longer she stared.

"Did you need something Pepper?" He tried again. Something in her face crumbled. "You wouldn't come all the way up here in the middle of a work day unless you-"

"Are you okay?" She cut him off.

Tony's teeth clicked as he slammed his mouth shut. "What? No, I feel fine. What do you mean? I'm just getting a headstart on all these projects I've put off."

His anxiety returned and he snatched the phone hologram out of the air and turned his back to her. Tony twisted it around a couple times. She knew something bothered him. Pepper wouldn't be here if else. If he played it off as something small, then she would back off for a bit, and he could dive back into his work and forget about the real world for a little bit longer.

That five second distraction was too long. He could feel the self-loathing start to ooze in again. The anxiety deepened into fear and self-disgust, because what type of person did that to their kid- "I felt like I've been putting SI on the backburner for too long so I decided to finish a bunch of stuff so the board can get off our butts about product design. It's nothing."

Pepper sighed, a soft sound that was all too familiar. "Tony, it isn't nothing. You've been down here for hours, honey. You activated the Workaholic Program. There is something bugging you."

Crap. He'd forgotten about that program. Snitch. "I've told you, nothing is wrong. I just wanted to finish some projects."

There was thunk as Pepper dropped her purse on the table and walked closer. Warm hands wrapped around his waist as her head dropped onto his shoulder. Tony leaned into her despite his hesitance.

Pepper gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. "If it's nothing, then why won't you look at me?"

Tony didn't answer.

She sighed again. "F.R.I.D.A.Y, save and shut down the hologram."

The hologram flashes in acknowledgement and blinked out of existence. Tony slumped as the phone vanished mid-spin. He sighed and scrubbed at his eyes with both hands, taking comfort in her touch. "I messed up."

"I assumed that you would think so. It couldn't have been that bad."

"No, Pep, that's the problem." Tony leaned on the desk, regret and dread rolling through his stomach. "It was that bad."

Pepper was silent for a while, processing in that sly way of her's. Her arms tightened a second before she asked. "Does it have to do with Peter Parker?"

He knew she would get it. She always did. "It has everything to do with him."

"Oh Tony." The sigh was tired, but lacked the judgemental aspect that he hated. She pressed her body against him completely and rested her head on his shoulder. Her thumbs started to rub calming circles. "I'm sure he'll forgive you."

"This is a little farther then simple forgiveness, Pep. More like earth shattering news with consequences that can't be fixed with just an 'I'm sorry'. Peter-" his voice choked at the name. He grabbed one of Pepper's arms. "Peter was in a very vulnerable state and I just smashed it like it was nothing, like he was nothing."

Tony went limp and dropped his chin to his chest. "I'm a terrible person."

The circling thumbs continued. Pepper kissed his cheek again, longer this time, before she started to hum a little melody into his ear. What did he do to deserve someone as fantastic as Pepper? She was absolutely perfect.

She kept it up for a couple minutes until Tony relaxed enough to lean back into her touch and grab both her hands. She let him soak in her comfort for a bit. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Tony sighed. All the dark feelings rushed back, but they were muted, driven back by the wonderful shield known as his fiancee. "I ran a DNA test on Peter to see how messed up it was from the spider bite that gave him his powers. It was out of simple curiosity, I didn't think anything would come out of it. I had F.R.I.D.A.Y run it through the system so I could put his biometrics in as a surprise for the next time I brought him up, and she found that his DNA ... matched mine. Parental wise." There was a sharp intake of breath, but Tony powered on. "I think we both went into shock. Peter's face went all pale and he gave me the most heart wrenching look, it was like looking at a puppy Pep, he was so sad it broke my heart, and, and I just kicked him out of the lab. Pushed him out like a butthole who doesn't care."

Pepper's grip tightened as Tony went silent. She let out another breath and pressed her cheek against his. She didn't ask about his reaction, sensing that he really didn't want to unpack that right now and went for a different question instead. "When do you think-?"

Tony sighed. "His birthday is August 10th, 2001. So probably around a Christmas party the year before. Or January if he was one of those early-comers."

Pepper smiled at that. He could tell by the way her lips scrape on his cheek and her amused voice filtered into his ear. "Of course you would have his birth date memorized."

He scoffed, theatrically offended. She hummed in return. They stayed like that for several more minutes before Tony shifted his head to stare at her. "You're not mad?"

"No." Pepper kissed him again. "Not at the fact you have a kid. We both knew this was a possibility. The way you handled it wasn't the best, but I know you. I know that you were shocked and not thinking straight. You didn't mean to hurt Peter's feelings. And I know for a fact that Peter is going to forgive you, you just need to give him some time."

Tony faltered at that. "I don't know Pepper. You didn't see the look he gave me. He was crushed. It was like-"

"If he's anything like you, then I know he will. Just like how I know you are going to mope for a time, then get on your feet and fix this."

"It's not an easy fix."

"I know. But that's what you do Tony. You fix things."

"People are very different from machines. They're a lot more complicated to figure out and that's not even including the extra parts thrown in there." Peter's faced flashed through his mind and Tony wilted a bit more. Extra parts was an easy way to explain the circumstances of their relationship.

Pepper huffed. "What can I say? You like a challenge. Your best work always comes from beating them."

He wrapped his arms around her's, and briefly marveled at how perfect they felt there. He didn't deserve her sometimes. Tony twisted his head and kissed her cheek. "I don't deserve you, Miss Potts. I really don't."

She laughed. "Just keep thinking that and maybe one day you'll stop believing it. Now," she pulled one hand out of his grasp and wrapped it around his chest. "what are you going to do about Peter? Am I ever going to meet my future son?"

"Sure. You can meet him tomorrow if you want." Tony joked. "I'll just make sure to stay far away in case he doesn't want to see me again because I emotionally crushed him into bits and he probably hates me. On a completely unrelated note, are there any flights to China available?"

"I'm taking that offer completely serious, by the way. I'll have Happy pick him up right after school." Pepper patted his face and gave him a cheeky smile.

"Great." Tony grumbled.

She ran into Happy at the top of the stairs. She put down her phone when she saw him, halfway through constructing a text for the man. "Hello Happy. How was the drive?"

"Good." He grunted reflexively. Happy squinted down the stairs towards Tony's lab. "Hey, do you know what happened between Tony and that Peter Parker kid he's always with? The kid was all pale and basically cantonic the whole drive back."

"Yeah, I was just talking to Tony about it." Pepper glanced around. This section of the Compound was strictly for the Avengers but people did occasionally wander through, and Tony wouldn't want the news to spread to any unwanted ears. Just to be safe, she lowered her voice and leaned in close. Happy copied her actions despite his obvious confusion. "Tony was doing some DNA work with Peter and they found out they were related. Neither of them took it very well."

Happy's face blanched. "Oh."

Pepper sighed and leaned back. "Peter must have been shock. I know Tony was."

"... That makes a lot of sense." Happy commented, half to himself. "The kid never shuts up, and he looked so frazzled that I was actually worried. Tried to get him to spill but I don't think the kid even heard me."

"Like father like son." Pepper chuckled dryly. "Anyways, do you mind picking Peter up tomorrow after school again? I want to meet him and hopefully hash out a few misconceptions before either of them take it off into the deep end and do something unnecessarily dramatic."

"I can get the kid no problem. Where do you want me to drop him off?"

"Let's go somewhere more neutral."

A/N: Just in case any of you are curious, the scene Tony comes up with of meeting his unknown kid is totally aimed at the early "Tony has a child fics". When I started writing this story forever ago right after Civil War came out, all the stories where Tony had a kid were pretty much exactly the same. They were all Mary Sue OC's with bad names, living happily in Avengers Tower with Loki, chilling out with the gang playing video games all day long where Ceiling Vent Clint and Dumb Loud Blond Pop-tart Addict Thor ruled supreme as they beat Grandpa I-Don't-Understand-Any-Technology Steve. That whole fantasy part I wrote basically described every one of those stories. So in case you do remember those times and were wondering about the similarities, yes, that was on purpose. ;)