AN~ To answer a question from the reviews: I chose 'Pete' mainly because there seems to be quite the fan base for Tony and Steve having Peter Parker as their son. It wasn't really my intention for Pete to end up as spiderman though, I just liked using the name.

Thanks for all the wonderful reviews :-)


Steve is barely getting over the size of the suite he'll be staying in when he hears a knock at the door.

'Captain,' Jarvis speaks through his ear bud, 'Peter Stark is at your door.'

He grabs open the door and grins at the little boy,

'Hey, Pete.'

'Cap,' Pete gazes up at him and fidgets.

'Where's your Dada?'

'Working,' Pete pouts. 'Dada said I could come find you.'

'Of course,' he earns a smile. 'Do you want to come in?'

'Uh huh,' Pete takes a strangely tentative step into the room.

It's heartbreaking to think that Tony lived through this, and that he lived it much longer than Pete had to.

'I was just looking around the place,' he gestures around the living room that is the first of the four rooms in his suite; the other three being a bedroom and bathroom to the right and a study to the left.

'Dada's room is bigger,' Pete tells him.

'Yeah?' he can only imagine what the Master Suite must be like.

'Do you want to see?' Pete asks as he climbs onto the window seat to see outside.

'No thanks,' he smiles. 'I was thinking of going to get some food. Do you want to come with me?'

'Alfred said he would make sandwiches,' Pete informs him as he drops back off onto the floor.

'Sounds good,' he offers his hand to Pete.

'I think we go this way,' Pete beams as he leads him down a hallway.

'I'm sure Jarvis can help us if we get lost,' he smiles down to where Pete is practically bouncing as he tugs on his hand.

'Peter is leading you in the correct direction, Captain,' Jarvis confirms.

'I essplored earlier,' Pete tells him, 'with Jarvis and Alfred!'

'You explored,' he corrects with a smile. 'Was that with your bike?'

'Yeah! Dada put little cameras on my helmet,' Pete points at his head.

'That's clever,' he is lead down a staircase that he definitely didn't come up.

'Dada's a genius,' Pete reports seriously.

'With some things,' he agrees quietly.

'Here!' Pete lets go of his hand and runs off down the hall before careening through a door to the left. He jogs after him and catches the door before it swings closed, 'Alfred, this is Cap!'

He glances around the old style kitchen. Tony either had no say in the design of this room or has never been here in order to object to it.

'Hello again, Master Peter,' the butler smiles. 'Can I help you, Captain Rogers?'

'Cap came to get food,' Pete climbs onto a stool beside where Alfred is slicing a ham.

Alfred wordlessly gives Pete some of the meat,

'Would ham sandwiches do for you, Captain?'

'Thanks,' he smiles. 'Can I help at all?'

Alfred considers him for a moment,

'You might consider using the monstrosity to your left,' Alfred gestures to a very out of place looking chrome coffee machine, 'if you desire coffee rather than tea.'

'Alright,' he laughs and presses the buttons he's memorised to mean a simple white coffee with one sugar.

'Will Master Stark be joining you?' Alfred has prepared three plates of food, two of which he places on a small table across the kitchen.

'No, Tony's working,' he helps Pete into his chair as Alfred huffs.

'I shall take his food to him then,' the older man replies, 'enjoy your food, gentlemen. Call me if you require anything else.'

'Thanks,' he smiles. Pete makes a sound that might mean the same, but he's taken a large bite of his apple. 'Don't talk with your mouth full,' he laughs as Alfred leaves them alone.

Pete just keeps eating.

Pete's last mouthful has barely been swallowed when, with his eyelids starting to droop, he gets down from the table,

'I want Dada.'

'You need to have your nap, Pete,' he smiles.

'With Dada,' Pete insists. 'He promised.'

He would really rather have a little more time before seeing Tony again.

'Come on,' he holds out his hands and then lifts Pete into his arms, 'I'll take you to your Dada.'

'Promise?' Pete asks even as his head drops onto Steve's shoulder.

'I promise,' he confirms.

Jarvis directs him back to the ballroom and he steps into the room to see Tony's already dropping down to meet him.

'He's asleep but I promised I'd bring him back to you,' he reports as Tony performs something of a visible check of his son.

'Thanks,' Tony hesitates for a moment before reaching to take his son. As soon as Pete is transferred Tony turns and walks away.

'Tony...' he follows helplessly as Tony crosses to put his son onto a couch at the side of the room.

'Yes, Captain?' Tony isn't looking at him.

'I'm sorry, ok? I get that you aren't interested.'

Tony shoots him a quick look.

'Please tell me we can pretend I didn't say anything?'

Tony scowls at him,

'We would be a terrible match.'

Something in his chest tightens at those words.

'Yeah,' he lies and tries to smile.

Tony looks briefly conflicted before a smile washes over his face,

'I'm afraid there's not a gym here,' the subject is changed, 'but the grounds should take you a couple of hours to run around.'

He accepts the reprieve,

'Sounds good,' he renews his efforts to smile back. 'I was thinking; if you're going to be working I might take Pete out for a few hours? I mean, if that's ok?'

Tony shrugs,

'If he wants to.'

'I'll see if any of the others want to come,' he adds, strangely desperate to continue the conversation.

'If there's a better babysitting option than Captain America then it's got to be additional Avengers,' Tony agrees and taps his eyepiece before lifting back into the air.

'I'll… go then.'

'Sure,' Tony doesn't look at him. 'Jarvis'll call you when Pete wakes up.'

'Great, ok,' he watches Tony pathetically for a moment before forcing himself to walk away.

He knew he could never have Tony, so why does this hurt so much?