Tony couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. After all, Pepper had gotten up early and made an amazing breakfast with stuffed crepes, which she almost never does, for Peter's first morning with them, and they had such a good time over their food before Pepper went to work. But when it came time for Tony to head out to the Avenger compound, Peter recoiled.
Which, he admitted, was understandable. His life was already shifting so much it wasn't even funny. Within less than two days the poor kid had found out the one person he had trusted more than anyone was lying to him, and that he was not only not an orphan, but actually belonged to the man he looked up to most in the world, and had idolized since he was very young. And now he had his own bedroom in his father's house. But to meet the rest of the Avengers?
"Are you sure you don't want to go?" Tony asked again from near the door, keys in hand.
"I think so." Peter said from the couch, where he sat cross legged with a notebook in his lap and a book propped open in front of him. "Ned texted me the homework from my first class already. I'll just do my work as he sends it to me and I'll be all done when you get back." He gave a small smile.
"I promise, I won't be gone long." Tony said, accepting his defeat. He donned his signature aviator sunglasses and opened the door and headed out for the car, trying to make a mental list of priority things to do so he could get home as quickly as he could, when he heard the soft 'pop' of the front door seal opening and he turned around.
"Dad!" Peter called, jogging down the steps. "Wait up!"
Tony froze in place, choked up. He hadn't expected to hear that name, or for Peter to run on out, but it made his heart soar. He was suddenly glad he almost never drove without sunglasses, but when Peter got closer he had blink away the tears that had involuntarily formed away before he could see. "You tagging along?" He ask, extending an arm, which Peter stepped into so his shoulders were covered by the gesture.
"It's okay, right?" Peter ask quietly.
"Always!" Tony said excitedly. He wasn't sure how he was going to tell his teammates, but this seemed to be one of the better ideas- and for once even Pepper agreed. Meeting them would be the best way to tell the others 'hey, so I have a kid...'
Tony spend most of the trip telling Peter the story of how he met the other Avengers, and how they became a team. He told Peter about building the tower, then the complex, and how after Hydra took down SHIELD that he became the mother hen of the group, and that is how the complex was born. "And honestly, I'm just so excited you decided to come, because I have something for you there, and I was hoping you'd want to ride out so I could give it to you!"
"Really?" Peter sat up a bit in his seat, choking himself a bit on the seatbelt as he did so. Tony laughed.
"Yeah, but it's a surprise. So. You know." Tony sort of gestured, looking for a word, "Be patient." Is all he could come out with.
"Are you kidding?" Peter rolled his eyes, "Because I won't be distracted at the ACTUAL Avengers complex." Peter reminded him. "Which, still is so insane that my dad owns."
"It means technically you do too, kiddo." Tony said. Peter, who had previously been chewing a wad of gum, sputtered as he swallowed the candy in shock.
"Wait, what?" He gasped. Again, Tony laughed, longer this time. He shook his head.
"Yeah, kid. You're currently the only heir to Stark Industries. I mean, I figure in a year or two I was going to try and convince Pepper we need a couple more. I always wanted like, a big family. Might need your help to get her on board with that- But you'll still be the oldest. So you'll be like, in charge of it all one of these days." Tony glanced over at Peter, who looked, if at all possible, more shocked than when he'd learned he was related to Tony.
"Holy. Shit." Peter whispered. "So I'm gonna be like, rich."
"Gonna be?" Tony snorted, still amused. Peter looked over at Tony, his eyes wide.
"Umm." He sort of hummed.
"Pepper is adding you a pocket money account to our bank tomorrow, which we'll keep a couple thousand in, for starters. But I mean, if you need or want anything now, just say so." Tony said.
"But I mean, I don't-" Peter sank back into the car seat.
"You don't what, bud?" Tony said, shifting his blinkers on as he took the exit from the city.
"I don't, you know, just want..." Peter sighed, and Tony could feel his frustration and embarrassment. He waited though, to see what Peter was so torn up by. "Dad, I don't..." He started again, using 'dad' for a second time. "I want to be with you. I'm not exactly looking for money..."
"Oh for fucks sake Peter, I know you aren't. I came after you!" He laughed again, then paused. "Don't tell Pepper I said 'fuck'. But no, son. I know. But I'm not exactly going to not give my son what is rightly his, either. So, you know, get used to it." Peter nodded, and seemed to relax a bit. It didn't last long though, because as the fence around the complex came into view, Peter seemed to perk back up with excitement.
If at all possible, it seemed like Peter was even more in awe of the complex than he was of the Stark Industries campus. He tagged along quietly with Tony as they stopped by what he assumed was Tony's office, then moved on down a long hallway to where Tony said the common area was. "This one, by the way, we will double back to. It's Bruce's lab, but most of the fun stuff and pet projects he and I had going are still in there. There are a few things I'm sure you'd love to work-" Tony paused as James Rhodes stepped around the corner, catching him off guard.
"Tony?" He said, obviously also a bit surprised, especially seeing he had a guest of such a young age with him.
"Oh! Rhodey!" Tony said, taking a quick side-hug from his long time friend. "Did you get my message?"
"Yeah, yeah. I was just on my way to tell everyone to meet up in the conference center." He replied, still glancing over Tony's shoulder. Peter kept himself being Tony, as if he were trying to disappear in his shadow. Tony picked up on what both of them were doing, and he stepped around and gently tugged Peter a bit forward.
"Colonel James Rhodes." Rhodey said, extending a hand.
"Rhodey." Tony said, rolling his eyes. "We all call him Rhodey. Rhodey, this is Peter." He waited as Peter nervously shook Rhodey's hand.
"Nice to meet you, sir." He said quietly. Rhodey smiled at Peter, but gave a questioning look to Tony.
"I'll explain in a bit." Tony said, hand still on Peter's shoulder, as they moved to head on down the hall. "I have to go do inventory with Vision, but gather everyone else up, please?" Tony ask as he walked away, vaguely hearing an annoyed agreement from his friend as they continued on. Once Peter could tell that they were far enough away, he looked up at Tony.
"War Machine, right?" He said, in almost a hushed tone, his excitement peaking through now.
"The one and only." Tony confirmed.
"Woah." He whispered.
"Yeah, but don't let him hear that. He doesn't need the ego boost." Tony snorted. They continued on down the way until they reached the area where Tony had set up to meet with Vision. He turned to Peter, and signed. "So, this is literally a store room. You can come along, if you want. Or. You can go right there," Tony pointed to a door across the way, "And see what I have for you in there. Up to you."
"Uhh." Peter hesitated.
"I'll come get you in a few. Don't touch just yet- just look!" He called as he shooed Peter off toward the room he'd set up. He sighed and shook his head as he turned and entered the storage room.
Peter's eyes grew wide as he entered the room and lights snapped on, illuminated a roughly Peter-sized mannequin sporting a bright red/ webbed/ blue suit. He stepped a bit closer and a voice sounded from above. "Good afternoon, Peter." The soft female voice called.
"Umm, hi?" He called.
"I am your personal intelligence assistant. Nice to meet you." She replied.
"Like FRIDAY?" Peter ask as he walked around the suit, running a hand over the fabric.
"Very much so, yes." She replied. "This is your new upgrade. Your father felt you might need something with a bit more, as he said 'oomph' to it than the sweatsuit. Which includes me." She informed him.
"Bruh." Peter breathed under his breath. He picked up the arm on one side, looking at how the web-shooter was tucked in so that it was minimally noticeable.
"Tony put together a small introductory video, would you like to see?" the voice from the suit ask.
"Please!" Peter nodded, unsure if she could see him or not. The wrist on the other side of the mannequin rose on its own and a blue light flickered for a moment before a video popped up of a very tired looking Tony Stark in what Peter recognized as the workshop in the basement of the house.
'So, hey kid. I started working on this thing before you and I met, back when I was just going to recruit you to maybe train for a future set of Avengers. Since I met May and ran the test, I decided to go ahead and trick it out with some other goodies. I'm going to upload this to the suit so that if you decide to come with me out to the complex tomorrow, you can see a few of the features I installed. The video that follows this is a rundown of features, and when we have some time I'll help you take it for a spin out at the training ground. So- I guess I hope you like it..." Tony trailed off and the video showed him lean forward to end the recording. Peter noticed he was wearing the clothes in the video he'd be been wearing the day before and he wondered what time Tony went to sleep.
A short video showed an animated version of someone in his suit using the web-shooter, agility mode, computing calculations, ect. Peter found it a bit hard to pay attention to what was being said as he watched the cartoonish version bound around the animated city in the illustration. Too soon the video ended and the lights brightened back up. "Mr. Stark is waiting outside, Peter." The voice of FRIDAY patched through.
"See you later, Peter!" The suit's AI called as Peter headed out the door. Tony stood across the hall, propped against the wall, arms crossed.
"Well?" He ask, smiling.
"Oh my- Dad, seriously. That is sick!" He said, hugging Tony. "Thank you so much!"
"Told you..." Tony tussled Peter's hair. "Now come on, lets go meet the team."
Peter took a deep breath and nodded, before following after his father down yet another long hallway, his nerves building into tighter knots with each step.
Peter sat in the corner, watching Tony pace around as the other Avengers chatted among themselves, mostly whispering about him. He sat still pretending not to hear them as they all ventured guesses about why he was there. And he had to admit that some of them were actually pretty close. However, none of them had it quite right. They all finally silenced when Rhodey finally came back in, the last one they were waiting on, and he took a seat. Peter took mental stock of the room.
Captain America sat over on a couch with Black Widow and a young man he didn't recognize who had flight goggles hanging around his neck. At a small table with two armchairs sat a young brunette woman Peter recognized from recent news stories as Wanda Maximoff, along side the living tissue android known as Vision. Sitting on a stool in the corner with his feet pulled to his chest like a perch was Hawkeye, who watched every twitchy step Tony was making carefully.
"So-" Tony started, shoving his hands down in his pockets and freezing to look around the room. "Thank you guys for dropping your day to come in and see me for a moment." Tony started. Peter watched the others look him over and he couldn't help but feel a bit out of place among them.
"Many of you remember what sort of past I had, and all jokes aside, we don't have time to get into that. But-" Tony swallowed, "You are all like my family. Hell- you guys are my family."
"Are you trying to break up with us, Tone?" Clint Barton called from the back, and everyone gave him a small laugh. Tony smiled in a tense sort of way.
"No, look." He sighed. "I want you all to meet my son, Peter." He gestured to the corner where Peter sat, and Peter tensed in his seat.
"Um. Hi." Peter said, giving a small, half-hearted wave to the room. He felt the eyes of the entire team on him, and he sank back on the chair.
"Twenty bucks, Barton!" Black Widow called, leaning back in her place to get a better look at Barton.
"Seriously?" Tony shouted. "You guys suck!" They sat in tense silence for a moment, then everyone but Peter burst into a fit of laughter. Peter sat stiffly as he watched them. Tony clutched his chest, taking a deep breath. "Come here, kid." He said, waving Peter over.
Peter was hesitant, but rose from his seat and came over to the center of the room, where one by one the others gave him either a hand shake or a hug, and both Wanda and Natasha gave him kisses on the cheek. He felt a bit more at ease, smiling with them, until Captain America, the last one standing off to the side, came over. He held his shoulder's back and held out his hand for Peter to shake.
"You do look quite a bit like Stark." He said, his handshake strong and intimidating. His tone was quite a bit less welcoming than the rest had been.
"Uh, thanks." Peter said, waiting for Steve to let go of his hand. Finally he released his grip. Natasha came back over and looked him up and down.
"Yeah, you really do." She confirmed. Peter smiled a bit and shrugged.
"So- That brings me to my next point..." Tony called, coming back through the crowd around Peter and putting a hand on each shoulder. "Peter had himself a small accidental dose of radioactivity, and has found himself to be enhanced. That being, he has abilities, and has been fighting crime as what you may have seen in videos on the net as the 'Spider-Man'. It's actually how I found him at all." Tony explained.
"No way!" The young man with the flight goggles who had introduced himself as Sam shouted.
"Small world." Clint confirmed. The others started talking to him and asking questions, but Peter could not shake the feeling of Steve's eyes on him from across the room.
So, I decided not to do a time jump like I had said I was thinking I would do when I wrote my last chapter, but I made this one a bit longer, so maybe forgive me? That will be next time, most likely.
Thank you all for showing so much love and support to the story!
And as always, thanks for reading!