Steve walked down the hall, crouched and leaning to the side so that Peter could hold his hand while he walked beside him. The two made their way to the stage to watch Tony make his speech.

After a cuddle and a word of encouragement from Peter, Tony walked on as Peter watched, holding his dad's hoodie tight. He whined a little, anxious about not being able to stand with Tony.

Bucky crouched down beside him, voice warm. "He'll be okay, bug. Peppers with him."

Peter whimpered, trying his best to behave. "My Dada."

Bucky wrapped an arm around the little one's tummy and squeezed him in a cuddle, Peters back to Bucky's chest.

"I know but he's Peppers too."

Steve made a noise of disgust and Bucky turned and smacked his knee. "I mean he's her person too, not her da- don't be crass, Steve."

Peter did his best to be good and wait but his spidey senses were making his spine tingle and his skin crawl. He needed to be with Tony.

The reporters were getting loud and rude, voices overlapping as they demanded answers from Tony and Peter could see him growing more anxious as it went on.

But it wasn't until one of them made a snarky comment that Peter moved.

"How can you protect the world from alien attack if you can't even protect yourself from a heart attack? How are you supposed to keep everyone safe?"

Tony flinched at the question and Pepper tried to direct everyone back to the main point to no avail. Voices rose and crowded the space, filling the room with noise and Peter had enough. No one was allowed to upset his Dad like that.

Bucky tried to hold him back but Spider-Man, as small as he was, was fast and he slipped himself from the soldiers hold. He huffed and puffed, furious and much to Bucky and Steve's horror, he marched on stage.

All eyes suddenly turned from the breathless and shaky Tony to the toddler as he placed himself in between the crowd and his Dad, stomping his light up trainer in fury. His hand was outstretched, little face set in a glare and adorable voice as scathing as he could make it.

"DON'T YELL AT DADDY! BE NICE!"

The room fell silent for one single second before the shouts rose up anew, cameras flashing in Peters' face. The poor boy flinched with each flash of light, senses overwhelmed and he was suddenly swept up and carried away by strong hands.

He grabbed at the arm holding him, squinting his sore eyes open to see Steve practically carrying Tony off stage.

He reached for him, worried. "Daddy!"

"Shh, Pete hang on." Bucky was the one holding him, his warm voice close to his ear as he pulled Peter up against his chest. But Peter didn't want a hug from Bucky. His dad was shaking and gasping in Steve's arms, looking scared and in pain. Steve was yelling something about needing to keep his heart rate down, sounding scared.

Peter got scared too. Dada was holding a hand to his heart and Uncle Steve was yelling for Bruce. Something was wrong and Peter needed to help.

He didn't want to hurt Bucky but his arm was tight around his tummy. His regular, flesh and bone arm. Peter opened his mouth, placed his teeth around Bucky's arm and bit down. Hard.

"OW! Son of a bitch! Peter!"

The plan worked and the soldier dropped the boy to the ground, Peter landing on his toes and sprinting over to Tony before he could be grabbed again.

His dad was making loud, horrible noises like his throat were closing and he couldn't breathe and everyone looked so worried. Peter didn't want to hurt them either but Steve was in the way.

He ran over and pushed the first avenger away from his dad, ignoring his cry of indignation as he hastily crawled into his dad's lap.

"It otay! It otay, Dada." He tried to use the same words that Tony used to calm him down whenever he cried but his arms weren't big enough to hold all of him. Peter settled for the biggest snuggle he could manage and wrapped his arms around Tony's neck, using his little hand to pat at the hair at the nape of Tony's neck.

"Petey got you Dada. It otay."

Tony's trembling hands wrapped tight around him, face dipping down to press to Peters' neck and he rocked the both of them. He breathed, focussing on Peters soft curls against his cheek and little heart pounding against his chest.

The ache in his chest, the one that told him his heart was in danger of giving out again, faded away with just four little words.

"I love you, Dada."

Tony let out a wobbly breath, one that finally came easy. "I love you too, Spider-Baby."

:::::::::::::::::::

Bruce slung his stethoscope back around his neck and sighed. "Everything sounds good and the scans show the damage hasn't been worsened. But we might need to adjust your dose of anxiety medication and get you in to see your therapist again."

Tony nodded, holding Peter tight on his lap as the toddler held his hoodie with one hand, the other curled in a fist in his shirt.

"Thanks, Bruce."

Steve buttoned up Tony's shirt for him, doing his best not to disturb the toddler lest he be shoved away again. No one had dared to move the boy from his Dad's lap, even for his checkup. The day had been stressful enough, for the both of them, there was no need to add to it.

"I know we have an even bigger mess to clean up now," they really did. The whole world thought that Tony Stark, notorious playboy, had a secret son. Every news outlet and BuzzFeed post was going to have his and Petes photos up and there was bound to be old flames coming out of the woodwork to get their fifteen seconds of fame pretending Pete was theirs. Tony didn't even want to look at how many phone calls Friday was blocking. But that could wait for the moment.

"But I'd rather focus on Peter. He's still not turning back and we don't have any leads on Magic Man."

Peter waved a hand emphatically as he scrunched his face into the most adorable frown he could manage. "BAD Magic Man."

Pepper nodded, trying and failing to turn her smile into a sympathetic frown. "Yes, he is a bad man but that's why we need to find him."

Steve leaned against the wall, arms crossed as he sighed, looking worn out. "Are we sure that's our only option? Doesn't Strange have that time stone? Why can't he just use it to return Peter to normal?"

Tony would have reiterated the very fun conversation he'd had with Dr Strange when this all started, about the sanctity of the realm and all that boring mumbo jumbo. But it seemed he wasn't needed. Dr Strange chose that moment to open a portal into the middle of the room where he popped his head through to frown at them, bored expression on his face matching his hard tone.

"No."

The portal closed and the room was quiet once more.

"Okay, I guess not. Anyone else?" Steve looked more tired than before but Bruce was frowning in thought, pen tapping against his chin as he ran through ideas in his head.

"I know Loki can't undo Magic Mans spell but what if he can manipulate it? We tried getting him to undo the spell but what if we just make Peter think that it's undone? Loki could use his magic to make Peter look like a teenager again. Maybe once Peter looks like himself he'll snap back."

Tony hadn't thought of that. "Someone call Thor."