Steve didn't know what to say. Everything that had happened in the last few weeks was just too much, he never would have expected to be pardoned especially after what he had done to Tony. Just thinking about Siberia made him feel sick, he had spent the first month in Wakanda afraid every time the news came on that it would be reporting on him attacking Tony. He knew he was Captain America but the public seemed to take Tony Stark as one of their own, not Iron Man but Tony Stark himself. The reason for that had baffled him for years, he would look at Tony and not understand how the public were so behind him. When he first met the man he had read up a little on him but that was all, he had mainly read about the scandals he had been involved in and when he first met him he had been unimpressed with his attitude, what with hacking into shield moments after arriving on the ship. It wasn't until he was in hiding after the Civil War that he truly found out who Tony was, he found out about all the charities the man supported through the Maria Stark foundation and just how much of his own money he put into efforts to rebuild places the Avengers had destroyed. Curiously in recent months his donations to projects affecting under privileged kids and projects in Queens had grown dramatically, he didn't think people would have noticed if they hadn't been following it as closely as he was but it was still notable. After that the public's love for the man became clear, he knew that had Tony gone public with what had happened in Siberia he would have never been pardoned, in fact he would be lucky not to spend the rest of his life behind bars. But then again, Tony wasn't like that, the man wasn't vindictive, he also put so much effort into protecting those he considered friends and he supposed maybe on some level Tony still considered him one.

Also, the pardon Tony had managed to get for them was nothing short of amazing. He doubted he would ever be able to thank him enough. He had been worried about jail time or something similar but they had all just been put under house arrest unless the Avengers were called for a mission. They had to stay in either Stark Tower or the Avengers compound at all times, unfortunately this also applied to Clint and Scott despite having their own homes and families, but Ms Potts had been quick to inform the two men their families were free to visit and would in fact arrive in two days' time. Their rooms as well were amazing, clearly a lot of work had gone into them to make them all feel at home, he had been touched to find a desk full of art supplies in his room and all the clothes and other random items he had left at the compound had been placed in the wardrobe and on the shelves. Seeing Sam's and Wanda's expressions he knew he wasn't the only one to find such things.

Tony stood in the lounge area uncomfortably as the new arrivals looked around their new rooms, he wasn't too sure what to do with himself so settled for wandering around the lounge to see if they had forgotten something obvious. This floor had once been used for storing Avenger's gear and was simply a large open space, so he was honestly amazed with the changes to it. He hadn't actually been here himself, Pep and Rhodey had decided how it would look and got everyone's things moved in, all he had done was fund it. However the exclamations of surprise he had heard in a few rooms and whistle of appreciation from Clint told him they had probably done enough. And he still had no idea how to bring up Peter, he couldn't just stop them meeting his son, sure Peter was grounded and not allowed into the labs for a further week after that but they would surely still come across him and it wasn't fair to Peter to be made to hide in his own home. He was surprised Thor hadn't mentioned him yet to be honest, he usually asked about Peter as soon as he arrived but he supposed the arrival of the others had distracted him.

"Where did Rhodes disappear off to? I wanted to speak to him about….well…."

Tony winced ever so slightly as Sam re-entered the room, "he doesn't hold it against you, what happened was an accident."

"Still, I need to see him."

"He's um…..busy right now." Tony replied unsure exactly what to say on the matter. He could feel the questioning gazes of Sam, Clint and Steve burning into his skull but he ignored them and took a seat on one of the many couches gesturing for the others to follow suit. He couldn't help but notice they had subconsciously split in half and sat on opposite sides of the room with Thor and Bruce in the middle, just like Berlin. Shaking his head to get rid of the thought he looked up and made eye contact with each member of the team.

"Right, so I assume you already know the terms of your pardons?" at their nods he continued, "the compound is having work done right now so you'll be here for at least three weeks then you can decide whether you want to stay here or move upstate, we will need to go there to train however, there is a small gym here Nat and P-Spiderman tend to use but that's all." He saw Steve open his mouth probably to ask about Spiderman but Thor interrupted first.

"And where is the man of Spiders? He is usually to be found with you Stark. Unless he is…what do you say? In the ground?"

Nat couldn't suppress a snort at the god's words as Bruce tried to explain the boy was grounded and not dead as Thor had made it sound.

Ignoring the quizzical looks from those not in the know Tony continued on, the quicker he got through with this the quicker he could get home after all. "So yes. Bruce and Nat live one floor up, they stay here permanently, with Brucie-Bear working here it's easier for them. Then myself and Pep have the top floor. The one below here has the gym and pool but anything below that my employees use so be aware of that. FRIDAY is installed so if you need anything speak to her of course." Turning to look at Scott and Clint he continued "there's a games room your kids are free to use on the thirty fifth floor, my employees often take their kids there especially now it's the school holidays. There's wi-fi and plenty of games and things, it's totally safe FRIDAY vets everyone who even attempts to visit that floor."

Steve could see the others nodding out the corner of his eye slightly overwhelmed with all the information Tony had just heaped on them. "A games room? Was that always here?"

Tony laughed slightly "no it's only been here a few months my…someone suggested it to me, after he realised some of my employees didn't have childcare available all the time he asked if he could create something for these kids and now we have the MBP floor."

The group sat in silence for several moments deep in thought trying to process all the changes that had occurred in their absence. They had all noticed Tony seemed different than he had before but none of them could put a finger on how exactly, the man was definitely more relaxed but he also seemed somehow lighter and less stressed.

The silence was eventually broken by Clint and everyone's heads whipped around to look at the now blushing man. "Sorry, I'm starving guys."

At that announcement Pepper paled. "That's what we forgot. We didn't know exactly when you would arrive until last week so we didn't put anything in the kitchen, I meant to order something as soon as we heard but well…"

Tony looked at Pep and knew exactly what she wanted him to do, "we have plenty of food in the penthouse, you can all come up and eat with us."

"Why do we need to go up? Can't food be brought down? Surely the kitchen is bigger down here?" Clint questioned confused as the two lovers seemed to have a conversation using only their eyes.

"We can't, we have someone staying and so we are eating upstairs. Take it or leave it." Tony told them bluntly standing up and making his way to the elevator as he did so.

Deciding not to question the clearly uncomfortable man Steve nodded and followed him into the elevator.

ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ

As soon as he stepped out of the elevator Steve knew something was different but couldn't pinpoint what it was straight away. He had been in the penthouse countless times, all of them had…well not Scott but the rest of them, so he knew the furniture was the same and the setup of the room didn't appear much different so what was it? His musings were interrupted by Clint…

"Rhodes! I thought you were doing some top secret business, disappearing on us like that. But no, you just came here to steal the best seats." Clint teased as he leapt over the back of the couch to sit down next to the other man frowning as he landed on a sweatshirt, was that the name of a school on the front of it?

"Take a seat, make yourself at home Barton, no problem." Tony muttered as he grabbed a bag of chips off the table and helped himself, Steve wasn't too sure whether or not he was joking to be honest. "And shoes off you animal." That had to be a joke especially coming from a man who had open bags of chips lying around his home, he had never seen Pepper or Rhodes eat chips as long as he'd known them, so they could only be his.

"You can't be serious? I've not even been anywhere to get dirty shoes."

"My house, my rules. Shoes off. We haven't got ours on." The man said gesturing to himself, Rhodey and Pepper who were indeed in either slippers or socks.

Steve slipped his shoes off leaving them where Pepper indicated, noticing that there seemed to be a lot of shoes there already. Sure, Tony was a billionaire but there was a lot of shoes and he didn't think Tony would be seen dead in some of those. A couple of pairs were practically falling apart in fact. Shrugging it off he made his way back to the lounge and sat down while the others left their own shoes with his. He relaxed on the couch letting his eyes wander round the room until they landed on Sam who seemed to be trying to tell him something using only his eyes. Raising an eyebrow, he followed Sam's line of vision and blinked unsure if he was seeing things. There was a photograph on the side table of a teenage boy looking uncomfortable, it looked a little like the school photos Clint had shown him of his own kids in fact. He kept looking around the room and saw even more photos of the same boy, some of the kid by himself and others of the boy with Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Happy or another woman he had never seen before. The boy appeared to be the same age in all of them and judging by the look of his companions had to be quite recent, in one the boy appeared to be in a lab with Tony and Bruce, in another he was wearing a yellow trophy holding a trophy grinning madly. He couldn't tear his eyes off one of the photos of the boy and Tony, the man's arm was slung over the teens shoulders but the most noticeable thing besides the huge grins they were both sporting was Tony's clean-shaven face. He wasn't aware Tony had ever been clean-shaven as an adult, not as long as he'd known him anyway. The goatee was as much a symbol of Tony Stark as the Arc Reactor, it was bizarre to see him without. On the wall were three photos in a row and he had to pinch himself seeing those. Tony was in them with a child, not the boy from before but a toddler. The man looked at ease as he held the boy securely on his hip in the first then was sitting at the kitchen table feeding the child in the second. It was the third that truly blew his mind though, Tony was asleep on what looked like one of the couches in this very room with the child lying on his chest also dead to the world, it was cute, it was paternal almost. It looked fairly recent as well, it couldn't have been more than a year old in fact, so who were these children Tony appeared so at ease with? Turning to look at the man he opened his mouth to ask but was cut off.

Peter barrelled back into the lounge when he heard his dad's voice, he had just nipped away to go to the toilet and grab his phone so he could take some photos of his new Lego. "Dad! Dad! Did you see I'm a Lego? Uncle Rhodey got me it. Did you know I was a Lego? Why didn't you tell me? This is so cool…" he stopped abruptly when he felt eyes burning into him from all directions curling into himself unconsciously.

Tony winced as Peter came running into the room. Well at least he wouldn't have to find a way to bring up the subject now he thought as he pulled his shell-shocked son into his side. Ruffling the boy's hair affectionately he looked down at him, "I only found out last week, I didn't know it was released yet though, I asked for a set as soon as possible, it was going to be a surprise, I don't know how Uncle Rhodey beat me." Turning to his long-time friend he raised an eyebrow. "How did you get that before me Rhodey-Bear? I didn't know anyone could get things before I could."

The man simply shrugged, "I said I would give it directly to Spiderman and that he was a huge fan, they care more about Spiderman getting it than you, Spiderman has Instagram after all."

"Woah. Woah. No." Sam said standing up before Tony could retort causing everyone to go quiet and stare at him. "You're that little asshole from Berlin?" he asked Peter. "You? You caught Bucky's arm. You webbed us to the ground!"

"Language!" Everyone froze as Steve and Tony scolded Sam simultaneously.

"Don't go calling my kid an asshole, especially in his own home. Birdbrain!" Tony continued as he pushed Peter behind him and made his way over to a now uncomfortable looking Sam.

Peter winced as everyone began shouting over each other, Captain America was shouting at his dad for making a child fight for him, Falcon and Dad were shouting at each other, well dad was shouting and Falcon was backtracking and Hawkeye was trying to get information from Nat while moaning that he got stick for keeping his family quiet so why was Tony able to do it? Ant-Man and Scarlett Witch just looked super uncomfortable to be honest, and he couldn't blame them he would rather be anywhere but here. He looked at his Uncle desperately as the noise levels continued to rise with everyone trying to shout over each other.

"Stop! You are not shouting like this in our home." Pepper didn't need to shout to get her point across, but everyone still fell silent at her words. "Sit-down, you are all adults. Act like it." Peter had to supress a wince at her tone and she could see his dad doing the same, whenever she spoke in that tone someone was in trouble.

She stepped in front of the TV so everyone was able to see her, smiling softly as Tony stood next to her pulling their son between them so they could stand as a family. "This is Peter, he is our son and Spiderman. Any questions?"

Team Cap all exchanged nervous glances before Clint spoke up "how old are you Peter?"

Surprised to be questioned straight away Peter blinked "nearly 16." He couldn't see it but knew his dad was holding back a laugh and winced slightly when he realised what he said. Was there any way to sound more childish than saying you were nearly something?

"How did you become Spiderman? Can you talk to or control spiders?" Before Peter could answer Scott's question Sam cut in.

"Does that web come out of you?"

"What no! Ewwww. I got bitten by a radioactive Spider at Oscorp on a tour. And no I can't speak to spiders, why? Wait? Can you speak to ants, that's so cool, what do they talk about?"

Before Peter and Scott could start talking about the conversations had by ants Steve interjected.

"Why did you make your son fight in Germany Tony? What kind of parent does that? Just because you're Iron Man you can't force that on your child."

Rhodey closed his eyes briefly at the question as he waited for the explosion. He saw Scott and Clint do the same, they knew better than to insult someone else's parenting in front of them.

"Hey!"

Rhodey's eyes shot open, he had been expecting Tony to be the one to shout but it looked like Peter had this one.

Peter shrugged his dad's hand off his shoulder and took a step towards Captain America. "You don't get to talk to my dad like that. He didn't force me to do anything. He's great, I was already Spiderman before he even met me, I got my powers and wanted to help the little guy. I decided to do this and I decided to go to Germany. You can't just come in here and shout at him, when you know nothing! You only cared about your murderous freaky friend." Peter's voice cracked but he continued on regardless. "You fought your own team and left dad for dead, what kind of Captain are you? When you didn't get your way you threw a tantrum and you called me a child. I used to think Captain America was cool but it turns out you're just a horrible bastard, you don't deserve to be here. I wish you'd stayed frozen asshole."

At that Peter stormed out the room tears streaming down his face leaving everyone in a state of shock.

Tony ran his fingers through his hair, he knew Peter was upset but he hadn't realised just how bad it was, he had been so worried Peter would be scared of Rogers it didn't even occur to him the teen could be angry. He made to go after his son but Pepper reached out and grabbed his arm stopped him. "No, you stay here, this is an Avengers issue and it needs resolved, I will speak to our son." Tony nodded at her words and gave her a half-hearted smile before slumping down onto the couch behind him.