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Chapter Text

Tony should have known not to rely on technicalities.

“Multiple kids of wealthy and influential individuals have gone missing this morning. NYPD is actively investigating the disappearances.”

The article had appeared on his feed as he opened his news app. The time on the oven read 10.28 and he had just woken up. He grabbed his cup of coffee and made his way from the kitchen down to the lab with his cup in one hand and the tablet in the other. He thanked the Gods that he didn´t have any kids of his own to worry about. No one that could be used against him like that.

He thanked too soon.

“Incoming call from May Parker, boss”

Friday´s clear voice rung out in the empty lab and a sense of dread washed over him. He shook it off.

“Answer it, Fri!”

“Tony! Have you heard from Peter? Ned texted me and said that he never showed up to school and he won´t return my calls!”

May sounded like she was on the verge of hysteria and Tony couldn´t stop is as the feeling of dread returned with full force. He motioned for Friday to pull up the kid´s vitals to see if he had skipped in favor of going out in the suit. It wouldn´t be the first time.

“I´m sure he´s fine, May. I´m pulling up the suit vitals right now to see if he…” The red dot on Tony´s screen placed the suit at home. The watch that Tony had given him a few months prior was also offline. It was the same kind of watch that he himself and Pepper wore. Through it he could get the kid´s vitals, location and it even had a panic button. Currently it was showing nothing.

“Shit! May, I´ll try to call him, okay! I´ll call you back as soon as I have news.”

He barely waited for the woman to confirm before he hung up and dialed Peter´s number. It wasn´t until the third call had gone unanswered that he allowed himself to accept the pieces his brain was putting together.

Peter wasn´t his son, but he was as good as at this point. But nobody knew this. Only the closest friends and family knew how much the kid meant to him. On paper he was nothing more than an intern and they rarely left the Tower together – so no one would have spotted them together. But, if Peter´s radio silence had anything to do with the other missing kids…

“Shit!”

-

Peter´s morning had started out like any other. He´s snoozed for half an hour only to rush through the rest of his morning routine. May had given him a kiss on the cheek before he´d rushed out of the apartment with a piece of toast in his hand and one of his shoes untied.

He looked down at his watch – the one that Mr. Stark had given him a few months ago – and realized that his train would leave in 9 minutes. He quickened his step.

He never made it to the subway.

He got distracted by a text from Ned and before he knew it, he was being dragged into the alley he was passing and a hand was covering his mouth. He tried to fight them, but he was just Peter Parker right now. He couldn´t really use his Spiderman strengths – at least not until he knew what their motive was.

A fist connected with his stomach, leaving him breathless and unbalanced, and that was all it took. He felt a prick on the side of his neck and a few seconds later, the world went black.

When Peter awoke again, he wasn´t alone. The metal under him was cold but he could feel someone warm next to him. He slowly opened his eyes.

A few lights hung from the ceiling of what looked like a shipping container, illuminating what seemed to be at least twenty kids around his age. Some were unconscious, but most were awake – and looking at him.

“No, I´m telling you! It can´t be that because Parker is here and he´s not like us.”

Peter looked around. He knew that voice.

“Flash?”

Peter´s classmate sat almost directly in front of him. His hair was messy and his clothes disheveled. He looked a mix between angry and scared.

“Are you rich?”

“What?”

“It´s not a complicated question, Penis! Are you rich?”

Peter looked around the container and the kids who were awake. They all looked at him with serious faces.

“What? You know I´m not, Flash.”

Flash looked pleased with the answer, which confused Peter further.

“See, I told you so. He lives with his aunt who´s a nurse. He doesn´t fit the profile.”

“What profile?”

Peter shot his school bully an annoyed look before looking around. He locked eyes with a girl who sat a bit further down from Flash. She looked like she was maybe a few years older than him, like more college age. She gave Peter a timid smile.

“All of us have parents who have a lot of money and influence. We´re guessing that this is some sort of big scale ransom thing…”

“Yeah, and everyone but you fit the mold, loser.”

He looked back towards the boy in front of him. Flash was working hard to keep up a façade of arrogance and unbotheredness, but Peter could see plain and clear how terrified he was. His retort died in his throat. After all, he was more experienced with handling these sorts of situations, so if picking on him helped Flash stay calm, he´d take it.

The rest of the kids woke up within the next hour. After some interrogation it was clear that Peter was the odd one out. They had kids of successful business owners, politicians, lawyers, investors, wall street moguls and more.

Peter wondered if maybe they had mistaken him for someone else. Maybe they thought he was the son of some business man. He felt scared at the thought of what would happen once they found out they had made a mistake. Would they let him go or would they kill him?

Peter stood up and began exploring the container. The lights in the ceiling didn´t gave a lot of light, but it was enough for Peter to spot cracks and bumps in the metal. Possible weak spots should he need them. He couldn´t pull out Spiderman just yet. It was too risky. But if it came down to keeping his secret identity or saving all the kids in the container, he´d throw his identity out the window in a heartbeat. He just hoped that this could end without that happening.

Peter guessed that they were inside two containers that had been merged into one. All the kids had been placed in one end, and in the other there was a single desk and a small cubicle which Peter guessed would serve as a bathroom of some kind.

He walked over to the doors and pulled, only to find them fortified. He would still be able to open them if he used all of his strength, but they were stronger than a normal shipping container would be. Remodeled to be able to hold twenty kids off, he realized. Whoever these guys were, they weren´t amateurs – they had planned this thing well.

Suddenly there was a loud rasping sound followed by the doors opening. Sunlight poured in and Peter was faced by three big men in black combat gear. The one at the front took one look at Peter and smiled.

“Well, well, well. Why am I not surprised that you would be the one to try and play hero?”

A chill went down Peter´s spine. Did they know about Spiderman? But that didn´t make sense because if they did, they wouldn´t have left him untied in a container he could break out of within five minutes.

Peter went to back away from the man, but only made it half a step before the man´s hand had reached up and grabbed ahold of the back of Peter´s neck. The grip was painful and Peter had to stop a whimper from escaping his lips. He grabbed ahold of the man´s arm in an attempt to keep himself balanced, and looked at the man in fear.

“Now, let´s lay sound ground rules, shall we?”

He spoke to the room at large but kept his grip on Peter. Peter could feel every pair of eyes on him and the man in front of him.

“You are all worth more to us alive, so as long as you behave you will stay that way. When we get what we want from you parents you will be released.”

There was a pause as he looked around room. No one made a sound, but Peter could hear quite a few heartbeats speed up.

When the man spoke again there was an undertone of challenging that made Peter tense up.

“Now I understand that most of you probably watch a lot of movies. And there you see someone step up to play hero whenever something bad happens.” He let his eyes lock with Peter´s and the grip on the back of his neck tightened even more. “Trust me when I say that you don´t want to do that here. Do you understand?”

No one answered.

His eyes tore away from Peter´s to look around the room.

“Do you understand?!”

His loud voice made most of the kids flinch back, but they all answered him with a stumbling collection of yeses. He refocused on Peter, something dangerous in his eyes. When he spoke, he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.

“How about you, Stark? Are you going to play hero like daddy?”

Peter froze, and he could feel everyone else in the room do the same. Stark? Did they think that Peter was Mr. Stark´s son? How had they even come to that conclusion? Sure, Peter saw the man as a father figure – not that he would ever admit that to anyone – but that was just a fantasy. Besides, it wasn´t like anyone outside of the team, Pepper, May or Ned even knew that they had a relationship of any kind.

Peter quickly pulled himself out of his thoughts and shook his head. If they believed that Peter was a Stark, then he wasn´t going to tell them otherwise. It probably wouldn´t end well for him. He just hoped that Mr. Stark would figure something out before they decided to try and get a ransom out of him.

Pleased with Peter´s response he let go and pushed him back towards the back of the container and the spot by the wall that Peter had left a few minutes prior. Peter didn´t waste any time to reclaim it. The three men backed out of the container and closed the doors back up.

Everyone turned to look at Peter, who kept his eyes on his beat-up shoes. The silence only lasted for a few seconds.

“Stark?! What the hell does that mean?”

“Did he mean like… Tony Stark?”

“I though you said your parents weren´t rich…”

Peter looked up and noticed the eyes of everyone in the room on him. He didn´t quite know how to respond. He didn´t want to lie to them, but if he told the truth then their captors might hear and that probably wouldn´t be ideal.

Peter had spotted two cameras when he´d done his search of the container, but he didn´t know if they had audio. He stole a glance at the one by the door. It looked simple, so he was probably in the clear about the audio. Despite that he decided to go with a sort of half-truth – just in case.

“Well… technically he doesn´t have any kids…”

That was true. Technically he didn´t. Peter wasn´t his biologically or legally. But the team would often joke about the fact that Mr. Stark acted like a dad around Peter. Even the two of them had started to joke around with it.

Like how Peter would loudly exclaim “But daaaad!” whenever the man refused to let him get pizza for the third time in a row at the Towers cafeteria. The man would play along with a smile and say something along the lines of “Listen to you father, Pete! You need to eat healthy sometimes too or your mom would have my head!” The mom in the context would be Pepper, who often complained about the fact that Mr. Stark always fed Peter unhealthy food.

So, his statement wasn´t necessarily a lie. Technically he wasn´t Tony Stark´s kid, but depending on the moment, they might act like it.

“So what? You´re like his secret kid or something?”

“Or something…” Peter mumbled while Flash scoffed.

“Please! Parker is not Tony Stark´s son. I think I would have known. I mean we´ve gone to the same school since middle school. I would have noticed.”

“How would you have noticed?” The girl next to Peter gave Flash a disapproving stare. “I think that if Iron Man himself wanted to keep something secret, he would. Or do you maybe think that you´re smarter than Tony Stark?”

Flash mumbled something undistinguishable in response but dropped the conversation at that. Peter felt extremely relieved. In the hours that followed, someone would occasionally give him a look of curiosity or awe, but other than that they left him alone.

Peter let his mind wander. He wondered if Mr. Stark know what was going on by now. When he didn´t show up at school, Ned would have texted May and May would have probably called Mr. Stark. So, the man probably knew, Peter concluded. Question was if they had put the pieces together yet and figured out that Peter was among the kidnapped rich kids.

Peter closed his eyes and leaned his head back towards the hard metal wall of the container. This must be all over the news at this point. Twenty kidnapped kids of influential and wealthy people wouldn´t go unnoticed, and the media must be in a frenzy right now. Peter just hoped that his name would be kept out of the whole thing.

Chapter Text

The first contact was made at 5pm. Every parent received an email.

“You will receive our demands within a few days. Unless you wish to bury you child, you should comply.”

Not even Tony could get anything on the sender. Whoever these guys were, they were good.

The NYPD worked fast, thankfully. By 5.15 they had been informed of the message, and invited every parent down to the station. Paparazzi lined the sidewalk as parents arrived. The whole ordeal was the hottest thing on the news right now, and pictures of the grieving parents would get sold within the hour.

The cameras went crazy when Tony Stark himself walked out of his car and into the station.

A huge conference room had been set aside for the parents. A few FBI agents were present as well and taking statements from parents. Every head inside turned towards the door when Tony walked in. Shock and confusion were present on most of them. May stood by his side.

“Mr. Stark. How may we help you today?”

One of the officers walked up to the man in question. Tony could see clear on his face that the officer believed him to be in the wrong place. He clenched his jaw to stop himself from screaming at the man.

“What the fuck do you think? I´m here to get my kid back.”

May put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Out of the two of them, she was definitely the level headed one.

The officer´s eyes widened. He turned around and jerkily waived someone over, and only a few seconds later they were joined by an FBI agent. The officer whispered something to the agent before walking away.

“I wasn´t aware of the fact that you had children, Mr. Stark.”

The agent spoke calmly, and went straight to it. Tony appreciated it. He didn´t have the time or the patience for small talk with the woman.

“He´s not my son, but these guys seem to think he is.”

“I understand. And what relationship do you have with the child in question?”

Tony stopped dead in his tracks. He looked over at May. How could he describe his relationship with Peter? Intern wasn´t enough. Mentee didn´t feel right either. Neither did friend. Anger welled up in him. Blood be damned, Peter was his son in every other way that counted. At least that´s how he felt. Only, it had never been discussed. Tony didn´t know how Peter felt, or how May would feel about Tony claiming that role.

 “Kid´s my personal intern… or at least it started that way. Truth be told… he´s the closes thing I have to a son. They took him because in every way but on paper, he is my child.”

Tony let out a heavy sigh. The agent scribbled something down in her notebook. Reluctantly he turned to look at May. His declaration was big, and it would change a lot and he just didn´t know how she would feel about it. She had the power to separate the two of them if she wanted to – if she felt like he just crossed a line. Tony didn´t know if he could survive that.

May looked at him with fondness and Tony felt his heart skip a beat in hope.

“Glad to see you´re done denying it to yourself.”

Her voice was quiet enough for only him to hear. The words floored him. His expression must have looked ridiculous because despite the situation they were in, May laughed.

“I´ve seen the way you care about him, Tony. You mean the world to him and I can see that he means the world to you. I wish this declaration happened during better circumstances, but for what it´s worth; he loves you like a father too.”

Tears began to well up and he furiously blinked them away. With his words lodged in his throat, he opted to grab May´s hand instead and squeeze it.

The agent asked a few more questions about Peter, when they last heard from him and his relationship with Tony. May answered most of them.

When the agent was done, she left them with a small nod. Only a few minutes later, their attention was drawn to the front of the room. A different FBI agent – this one an older man with slicked back gray hair, a neatly trimmed beard and a dark suit – stood at the front of the room, motioning for everyone to sit down. Most did. Tony and May did not.

“Thank you all for coming in so quickly. The FBI and NYPD are working together on this case and are both putting our best resources into finding your children. Now, I know that it is not uncommon that people of your position take the security of your children a few extra steps. So, if anyone of you have provided your children with a tracker of some kind, please raise your hand.”

A few hands went up, Tony kept his down.

Apart from the watch (which was still offline, and if Tony had to guess; broken), he had also given Peter a tracking chip.

The tracker in Peter´s suit had malfunctioned a few months prior due to a hit from a weapons dealer landing just right (or wrong). Peter had called for help only for Tony to be unable to find the kid. When Peter swung over to the tower an hour later with a gunshot wound and several cuts and bruises, Tony had brough up the idea of a micro tracker. It would be imbedded under his skin and Tony had promised never to use it unless there was an emergency. Peter had agreed.

Said tracker was currently giving him nothing. Something was blocking the signal.

Tony watched as agents and officers walked around to the parents who had raised their hands, asking if said trackers were giving them any clues to their children’s whereabouts. They all gave the same answer – no signal.

Tony purposely kept his hand down. Him and May had discussed it beforehand. This was a big scale operation and the ones in charge were no amateurs. They knew what they were doing and they were clearly trained. But trained where? Tony wouldn´t be surprised it at least a few of them had some sort of ties to law enforcement. The fact that there was no signal meant that the kidnappers were blocking it somehow, which meant that they knew of the trackers. Chances are that they would attempt to remove them.

Only Tony, Pepper, May and Peter knew of the micro tracker. If the kidnappers had some sort of ties to the police, they couldn’t risk exposing the fact that Peter had a tracker. Besides, the information wouldn´t do the police any good as long as the signal was offline. As soon as it came back online, Tony would alert the cops, and let them help with the rescue.

-

On his end, Peter was also hiding the fact that he had a tracker.

His watch had been removed at some point while he had been unconscious. The tracker on the bottom of his foot however was still there, and Peter prayed to Thor and every other God he could think of that Mr. Starks technology really was as good as he claimed.

It was clear to Peter that the area they were in had been equipped with a signal disruptor of some kind. Otherwise, Mr. Stark would be here by now. Instead, Peter would just have to wait until they let him go outside.

A few hours passed before the kidnappers showed their faces again. Conversations inside the container were low and sporadic. They were all too scared to do anything. When the doors opened up again, it was the same men that entered. The man that had grabbed Peter and spoken to the group walked in first. He seemed to be the leader. He was tall and lean with a fair complexion, dirty blond hair and tattoos all over his arms. In his hands he had two bags. The others held similar bags too.

“Take one of each and pass it along.”

The bags were dumped on the kids closest to the door and Peter could spot them pulling out subs and bottles of water, before passing them along to the next kid. Peter grabbed his share when it reached him. He was starving. He needed a bit more calories than a normal person each day, and even more than that if he had hurt himself and his body was healing. With nothing but a few pieces of toast for breakfast in him, his stomach had been rumbling for the past few hours.

When the bags were empty and every kid had food in their hands, the kidnappers spoke again.

“I would like everyone with a tracker to raise their hand.”

All hands stayed down. The man let out a sigh.

“That was my way of playing nice. We have a list already of some of your trackers and a scanner that will tell us about the rest. So, I will ask again!” His voice was low when he repeated himself. “Anyone with a tracker, hand up.”

Many more hands went up this time. The man smiled. It was cold. He turned towards the door and motioned for someone. The woman who walked in was short, with a gentle face and civilian clothes. She did not fit in with the rest of them, and Peter wondered how she had ended up here. She made her way to the very back of the container where there was a clear space. A table was set up against the back wall and she put a bag on the corner of it. A medical bag, Peter realized. They would remove the trackers themselves, right now.

The girl closes to the back was grabbed by one of the guards and pushed towards the woman. Peter really hoped that she was a trained doctor or nurse when she brought out a scalpel. The two of them spoke quietly for a few seconds before the woman cleaned a spot on the girls arm before cutting into the skin. A small tracker was brought out, and the girl was stitched back up.

Everyone who had raised their hand went through the same process. Most of the kids had raised their hands. Those who weren´t in the back ate their food.

Almost an hour passed before every chip had been removed. The leader walked around to the few kids who hadn´t raised their hands and scanned them. He had a small device that reminded Peter of the hand held metal scanner that you would see at the airport. Peter held his breath when he was told to stand, but did as he was told. The chip went unnoticed and he released his breath slowly as he sat back down again. Mr. Stark had done it again. Peter would thank that genius brain of his when he got out of here.

The doctor put everything back into her bag again and walked out. The others followed her out.

“How come you didn´t have a tracker? Daddy doesn´t care if you go missing?”

Flash sat in front of Peter with his hand against his cheek. His tracker had been inside a fake tooth, and they had unceremoniously pulled it out. Thankfully it wasn´t as tightly stuck as a real tooth, but it still left his left cheek a bit swollen. Peter couldn´t help but feel bad for him.

“Gotta be honest and say I´m pretty glad he didn´t put a tracker in me. That doesn´t look too nice.” He motioned to Flash´s swollen face, and earned a dark look in response. Peter continued. “And I had a tracker in my watch, only they took it off when they grabbed me, so…”

The room fell silent again.

No one else spoke that night. Most of them were tending painful cuts, and they were all too uncomfortable and scared to attempt to strike up conversation. Peter laid down on the metal floor and closed his eyes. There wasn´t anything he could do right now. His whole body was itching to do something. To rip the doors open, and get them all out of there. But he couldn´t. Mr. Stark had been very clear with him how important his secret identity was and that if he ever ended up in a situation like this, he wouldn´t use his powers unless someone’s life was on the line.

So, instead he simply got himself as comfortable as he could, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

It wasn´t until day three that something happened. One of the younger girls was grabbed when they came in to hand out breakfast. They didn´t give anyone a chance to react before she had been led out of the container by one of the guys. The others dumped the bags of food on the floor before walking out themselves.

“What do you think they want with her?” It was Jake who´d asked. His dad was the CEO and founder of a tech company.

“Maybe they´re finally contacting our parents for ransom?” Olga, whose mom was a successful wall street trader, looked around with a hopeful look. A murmur of agreement was heard.

Peter had nothing to add, so he simply reached for one of the bags and took out a sandwich. He had been slightly underfed the whole time, but it wasn´t too bad. He didn´t move much and he didn´t get hurt, so his body didn´t require as many extra calories as usual. Still, the lack of extra food was beginning to affect his abilities. The biggest one being his senses.

As they ate, Peter strained his hearing as far as he could. He wanted to make sure that the girl that they had taken was okay. He could faintly hear talking, and he knew that if he had been at full capacity, he would have been able to make out what they were saying. As it were, he could only hear a few words here and there. But it was enough to make him relax. Valentina´s young voice stood out from the others, and Peter found it without problem. She sounded calm, albeit a bit nervous. Nothing that made Peter fear that she was being hurt.

It couldn´t have been more that 15 minutes until the doors opened up again and Valentina was pushed back in. They closed and locked again behind her. She didn´t have enough time to sit back down in her spot before the room exploded in questions.

“What happened?”

“Are they letting you go?”

“Are they letting us go?”

“Did they hurt you?”

The poor girl looked overwhelmed as her eyes shot around the room and everyone speaking. Peter stood up and brought his fingers to his mouth. A loud whistle cut through the container and bounced off of the metal walls. The room fell silent and everyone turned to look at Peter instead. Peter tried to channel Mr. Stark as he looked over everyone and met their expectant faces. He hated to be the center of attention, but he was still Spiderman and while he couldn´t go out and save people out there, he could still save poor Valentina from this mob. So, he pulled on a mask of confidence and power – like he had seen Mr. Stark do countless of times – and spoke.

“How about we all just sit down and take it easy. You have to give her some space. She can´t answer you all at once.”

There were a few mutters – mainly from Flash – but everyone sat back down. Valentina shot Peter a grateful smile as she too sat down. When everyone was seated, Peter followed suit.

“Okay, tell us what happened?”

Every pair of eyes moved from Peter to Valentina. She met Peter´s eyes as she spoke, seemingly getting comfort from him.

“They let me talk to my mom.” A whisper broke out, but no one interrupted. Valentina continued. “It was a video so I got to see her too. But I didn´t get to say much before they took over.”

“Did they give their ransom demand?”

Valentina looked over at the boy in front of her who had spoken.

“Yeah,” he breathed, a sad tinge to her voice. “They want 150 million pesos deposited into some hidden, offshore account by tomorrow morning, at the latest. They´ll let me go as soon as she does.”

Now it was Peter´s turn to interrupt.

“Pesos? Why not dollars? Did they say?” He asked, leaning forward in curiosity.

She shrugged and looked back at Peter.

“No… maybe they plan on going to Mexico after all of this is over? Or maybe it´s just easier because my mom´s company is based there and so a lot of our money is in Mexico.”

Peter leaned back towards the wall, a crease in his brows. He heard others ask her some more questions, but he was too distracted.

There had to be more to it than just convenience. The theory that they might be heading to Mexico afterwards was a solid one though. Peter mulled over the thought while the conversation between the other kids lulled down. Conversations broke off into smaller groups instead, and Valentina was left alone. Peter stood and walked over to her. She looked at him with big eyes when he sat down in front of her. Valentina couldn´t be more than 10 years old, and was probably the youngest kid that had been taken.

“Hey, how are you holding up?”

He tried to make his tone soft and relaxed. She was still tense and on edge after her time with their kidnappers, and Peter wanted to help her calm back down. Her shoulders fell down a bit and she dared a small smile in his direction, which he quickly reciprocated.

“I´m all right. It was just scary to get dragged off when I didn´t know what they wanted. And my mom looked so scared too. I´ve never seen her like that…”

“I understand. It´s normal to be scared in a situation like this.”

She gave him a once over, before letting out a small laugh.

“You don´t seem too scared though. Is that because your dad is Iron man, and he never gets scared?”

At that question, it was Peter´s time to throw his head back and laugh. He looked down again and met her eyes with a smile. She was smiling too.

“I´m scared too. I guess I´m just better at hiding it. And M - dad gets scared too sometimes. Just like you and me.”

Peter had been forced to catch himself before he said Mr. Stark. He still had to keep up appearances after all. The new word felt both strange and comforting in his mouth.

Valentina´s eyes lit up.

“Really? Iron man gets scared too? About what?”

Peter chuckled and brought a finger up to his chin, pretending to think. Valentina giggled at his theatrics, and Peter could feel others looking at him now too. Waiting for him to speak again.

Peter let his finger fall back down in his lap.

“Well, last week we were working in his lab after dinner and I miscalculated the chemicals I was mixing. The whole thing blew up in my face and caused my sweater to catch on fire.” Valentina let out a small gasp, and Peter had to make an effort not to smile at her reaction. “By the time we had gotten the fire out, dad was terrified. Forced me to go down to our medical wing to get checked out and then he banned me from the lab for the rest of the night. He was really scared.”

“Oh…” the girl sat deep in thought for a few seconds, before she looked back up at Peter. “So, he´s like my mom? Scared because you were scared.”

Peter smile fondly at her conclusion.

“Yeah, exactly.”

Peter stayed and spoke with her for a little while longer before moving back to his own spot. She looked a lot more relaxed when he left, and he felt happy that he had been able to help. Even if he was just Peter right now.

-

The first ransom demand came in the morning of the third day. Only Tony wasn´t made aware of this until late evening. And neither was the police. The woman who had been contacted; Luisa Mendoza had been told not to get the police involved until after the transfer had been made. The woman had done what they had said. 150 million pesos had been transferred from one of her private accounts in Mexico, to an offshore account at around 4 in the afternoon. Two hours later her daughter had been returned to her, unhurt apart from a small cut on her arm from where her tracker had been removed.

Tony had spent all night looking into the receiving account. By morning he had a name. Joshua Barett. He passed this information along to both the police and the team. Nat disappeared straight away to see what she could find about the man.

On day four, three more ransom calls were made and by day five, three more kids had been returned. Just like with Mendoza, they had been told not to involve the police until after the deal was done. After seeing young Valentina returned safely, they had all followed the directions. The police were not happy, but there wasn´t much they could do. They tried to enforce their presence in the parent’s homes, but they had been attacked by so many lawyers that they had been forced to withdraw.

What was interesting to Tony was the fact that they didn´t always ask for money. The first child had been traded for money, so had two of the kids from the second round, but one set of parents had been asked something else entirely. The father owned and ran a successful tech company who had their services and products in multiple of places and companies – one of which being the FBIs NYC field office. The father had pretty much direct access to the FBIs servers, and had been asked to use that access to delete some evidence and surveillance.

The man had been arrested, but Tony had a feeling he didn´t regret a thing. There wasn´t much a parent wouldn´t do in order to keep their child safe. The realization scared Tony as he stood in his lab. The amount of access he had… the iron man suits, the arc reactor, his tech, not to mention his access to Shield and their whole operation…

Dread filled him. How much was he willing to sacrifice for Peter? The answer was obvious and scary.

Everything! 

Chapter Text

Joshua Berett was dead. Natasha had pulled every contact and every favour she had to find him, and it had led her to a grave in DC.

Joshua Barett had been a Navy SEAL, dishonourably discharged five years ago. Almost three years after that, he had lost his life while protecting a client. The man had started a company with some friends that specialized in the protection of influential and wealthy people. Barett had been assigned to a Colombian weapons manufacturer, and they had been attacked mercilessly. Both Barett and the client had died.

Tony cursed and pushed himself away from the desk where Nat had pulled up the information. The two of them were in his lab, as well as Steve, Bucky and Clint. The others were following other leads.

“The first lead in days and all we´re getting is a dead guy!”

Tony ran a hand over him face. He felt defeated. Five days had passed since Peter had been taken and they were no closer to finding him. His tracker was still offline, but none of the kids who had returned could recall him having a tracker removed when Tony had asked them. So, the tracker was still there. It just wasn´t giving him anything.

Tony had noticed the lack of order when it came to the ransom demands. They didn´t go from youngest to oldest, or cheapest to most expensive, or money to favours… the kids got picked at random it seemed. Which only meant that Tony had no idea when it would be his turn. He had to find them before it happened. He knew that they wouldn´t ask him for money, not when he had so much more to offer. But those were all things that he just couldn´t give. He was in an impossible situation. Sacrifice one life to save millions. Could he do it? Tony didn´t think he could. So, his only option was to find them and rescue Peter before it came to that.

“It can´t be random though, Tony. This Barett guy has to be connected somehow.”

Tony turned to look at Steve. The Captain had his eyes set on the projection as he read through the information. He looked tired. They all did. They had been up most of the nights, pouring over whatever leads they had found. Tony didn´t think he´d been able to sleep calmly until Peter returned. Whenever he tried now, he wouldn´t make it more than an hour until he shot back awake with his heart in his throat and a crushing feeling in his chest.

“Then let´s find the connection.” Natasha met his eyes and gave him a determined nod. Tony felt some of the pressure releasing from his chest. Natasha was on his side, and she was the best in the business. She wouldn´t quit until she found what she needed.

What she needed was apparently Clint Barton. It was the archer who had found the connection first and had put the pieces together by the morning of day six.

Joshua Barett might be dead, but his brother was not. Justin Barett was five years younger than his brother, and by the looks of it he had looked up to his older brother a lot. He had joined him in the navy as soon as he´d turned 18, and had become a SEAL like his brother. When Joshua got kicked out, his brother had followed, and together they had started their firm. Justin’s SEALs team from the navy had joined them two years later. Said brother and team was also currently nowhere to be found.

Tony had just passed the information along to NYPD when his phone rang.

-

On day four was when Peter really panicked. Jake had come back from his ransom call looking pale. When pushed he had told them that his price hadn´t been money. Instead, his dad would have to hack into the FBI and delete information.

“He´s gonna end up in jail for that!” The boy had been on the verge of a breakdown, and Peter was tempted to join.

He had assumed that they would all be traded for money. Money, Mr. Stark might be willing to give for Peter´s return. Peter would then have to spend the rest of his life paying the man back of course, but that was an issue for the future. What wouldn´t work on the other hand was if they asked for something else. Mr. Stark had access to things that could kill millions in the wrong hands. There was no way that Peter could let him trade that for him. But if he didn´t, Peter would surely die.

The next day, Jake was collected alongside the two other kids who´d had their calls the day before. Jake´s dad must have done it then.

Three more calls were made during the day. All of which were asked for money. One of the kids were even collected that same night.

Peter had hoped that with kids getting sent home, there might be some extra food available for him to eat. His strength had joined his senses on the downfall by day five, and he felt constantly hungry. Unfortunately, their captors did not waste money on buying food for kids that were no longer there. Peter spent most of his day sleeping, as he found himself feeling weak and tired. As it were, he wasn´t sure if he would be able to fight all of them off. This only scared him further when he realized that he might have to.

Mr. Stark would also realize that he couldn´t trade his tech, or use his access, to get Peter back. To many lives were at stake, and the only logical thing to do would be to sacrifice Peter. He understood that too.

So, Peter would have to fight his way out. Hopefully sooner rather than later. He might stand a chance today, but he wasn´t so sure if he had to wait another few days.

As fate would have it, his turn came the next day.

It was early in the morning on day six. The usual guys came in through the opened door and walked over to Peter. He didn´t have time to realize what was happening before one of the guys had grabbed his arm and pulled him up and out the door. It shut loudly behind him.

Peter squinted slightly in the brighter light and looked around. They seemed to be inside some sort of warehouse. The ceilings were extremely high and there were dirty windows running across the top of the walls. The place was empty apart from their container, a big table with chairs in the opposite corner and a few simple cots next to it.

It was to the table that Peter was being led. There was a big computer set up on the head of the table, and the leader sat in front of one of the screens. His face was covered by a mask, and his arms with a long sleeve. When he saw Peter, he got up from his chair and gestured for Peter to sit. The guy holding him led him over and pushed him down. Peter righted himself on the chair before looking up towards the screen. His eyes went wide when the face of his mentor greeted him.

“Pete! Thank god! Are you okay? Have they hurt you, buddy?”

He sounded scared and relieved and nervous all at once. Pretty much exactly how Peter was feeling. He leaned forward slightly in his chair and he smiled in what felt like weeks.

“I´m okay. Not a lot to eat, but apart from that I´m fine.”

Peter hoped that Mr. Stark would understand. Not a lot to eat = I´m not very strong right now. The look that swept over the man’s face told Peter that his message had been received.

“Good… good! I´ll make sure to order you a huge pizza when you get home, alright! All the toppings you want. We´ll have a father-son night. Just the two of us and a mountain of snacks.”

Peter felt his insides warm up and he couldn´t stop it as his smile widened. Mr. Stark was playing along. He wouldn´t tell the truth about Peter and him. He was still protecting him.

The warm feeling in his chest didn´t last very long though. He felt someone grab the back of his shirt and pull him back towards the backrest. The gun felt cold against the side of Peter´s head and he instantly tensed.

“As heart-warming as this family reunion has been, I think it´s time we began talking business. What we want from you is simple Mr. Stark. And you´re not an unintelligent man, you have probably guessed already.”

Peter saw the man pull in a sharp breath and his eyes flickered between Peter and the man with the gun standing behind him.

“We will send you an email address and you will provide us with detailed schematics of both your suit and the miniaturized arc reactor. You have until tomorrow morning at 8am to meet the demands. If my inbox is still empty by then, we will send you not only you son´s dead body, but a nice little recording of his death – and trust me, it will be a long tape.”

At the words, Peter began struggling against the hand holding him down. He had to get out of here. Mr. Stark couldn´t give them that, and Peter really didn´t want to die tomorrow. His efforts were short-lived though. The gun was pressed more harshly against the side of his head, forcing his neck to bend. His mentors frantic voice bled though the speaker only a second later.

“Stop! Stop! I´ll send it, just don´t hurt him! He´s just a kid, he´s scared okay, but he´s not gonna fight you. Hear that Peter! Don´t fight them. Just keep your foot on the ground and wait this out okay?”

Peter stilled at the words. Keep your foot on the ground. It was a strange thing to say. Foot… not feet. What does that even –

The tracker!! Peter glanced over at the container where he had spent the past six days. They must have only put the tracking disruptors in the container, not the whole warehouse. It made sense. They would have removed all the trackers before they let any kids out of it… only a genius had designed his and it was still in Peter´s foot.

He let his eyes fall back to the screen in front of him. His head was still being pushed to the side, and Mr. Stark´s face was a bit crooked, but Peter could still see all of the emotions running through the man´s eyes. He nodded as well as he could against the tight hold on his shirt and the gun buried in his hair.

“I won´t fight. I promise.” He breathed out; his voice low. Everyone was frozen for a few seconds before the gun was removed from his skin.

“Good boy.” The patronizing voice made Peter´s blood boil, but he forced his anger down.

“Now that we have a deal, I´ll let you go prepare your end. Remember, no talking to the cops until after dear Petey-pie is back home.”

The screen went dark before Mr. Stark had time to answer. Peter could see himself in the black screen in front of him, and it was the first time he´d seen himself since being taken. He looked like shit. There was no point sugar coating it. His hair was greasy and his curls messy. He had dark circles under his eyes, despite the amount of sleeping he had been doing. He looked pale too and his eye were shot wide and terrified.

Peter tore his eyes away from his own face as the man behind him pulled off his mask. His blond hair was messy after begin stuffed inside the fabric for so long and he was smiling. A chill went down Peter´s spine at the sight of it. His grip on Peter´s shirt tightened and the boy was pulled out of the chair and onto his feet. He swayed a bit as he was twisted around to face the man.

“Stark…” his tone was almost disappointed, but there was an angry glimmer in his eyes that told Peter that there was more too it. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn´t play hero.”

“I´m not! I won´t…” Peter hated how his voice shook. But he had promised Mr. Stark that he wouldn´t fight them. His mentor was coming for him, he just had to wait a bit longer. Only problem was that he probably wouldn´t make it here before the leader had his way with him. So, Peter would have to stand down and take it. He would have to allow the man to hurt him.

“No. You won´t. But you did, and I can´t let that go unpunished, now can I? It might give the others some ideas…”

Peter opened his mouth to answer, only to have the air forced out of him before he had a chance to utter a single word. The fist connected with his stomach a second time, only there was no air left to push out. He felt his throat close up as he tried to desperately pull air pack into his lungs. The man was strong, and as he pulled his hand away again, Peter could catch a glimmer of silver over his knuckles before the silver came flying at his face. Peter had enough time to close his eyes before the blow came… and came…. and came…

By the time he was dragged back to the container, his vision was swimming and his head felt like it was split open. The dragging of metal against metal when the opened to doors made him flinch and his vision blacked out completely when he was tossed inside. The doors closed back up as Peter tried to catch his breath again.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Parker!”

He felt strong hands grab his arms and flipping him over to lay on his back. His vision was still coming in and out, but he felt his head being placed in someone´s lap and soft hands brushing his hair out of his face.

“What the fuck happened out there?”

He could make out Flash´s voice from somewhere by his left knee. He sounded scared... and worried. Not the normal emotions that Peter would connect with the guy – especially not in regards to Peter.

“I tried to fight them… they weren´t too happy about that.” Every word he said pulsed through his head like the bass during a concert.

“Dude! You´re like the smartest guy in our entire school… how did you not realize that that was the dumbest thing you could have done?”

Peter actually let out a winded laugh at that.

“Did you just compliment me, Flash?”

There were a few seconds of silence.

“Whatever, Parker… Just don´t fall asleep! You might have a concussion.”

Despite his situation, he couldn´t help but smile. Who would have thought that all it would take for Flash Thompson to be nice to Peter was to get beaten half to death?

Despite his classmate’s order, he couldn´t help but let his eyes fall shut. His vision was still swimming and he felt nauseous watching the faces swirl and swim before him. It wouldn´t be too long anyways, he reasoned. His dad would be here soon to save him.

Chapter Text

As soon as the call ended, Tony stood up from his desk and called his suit.

“Friday, send the coordinates of Peter´s tracker to the police. Tell them to hurry and that we´ll meet them there.”

“Will do, boss.”

Tony turned to the team around him as his suit flew into the room.

“We leave in two minutes. Clint, get the jet ready.”

Everyone nodded before running out the room to get whatever they needed. As soon as Peter´s tracker had come back online, they had all begun preparing. Everyone was dressed, their weapons at their side and comms in their ears. The jet stood ready for take-off.

Peter´s tracker lead them to New Jersey. To a mostly abandoned neighbourhood a few miles from the docks. Clint landed the jet about a mile away from where Peter were and they took the last bit of the way on foot. The jet was exceptionally quiet, but the kidnappers would still hear it if the team decided to land right in front of the building. Tony knew that every second of preparation that the kidnappers would get, could get kids killed in there.

It didn´t take them long to arrive at what seemed to be an old factory. The building was big, with dirty red brick, huge doors, spotty windows at the top, and a steel roof. Tony felt glad that this hadn´t happened during the winter. The building didn´t look like it held heat in very well, and with Peter´s problems with thermoregulation, it wouldn´t have been a fun experience. Not that he was currently having a good experience… but at least he hadn´t been forced to worry about freezing to death.

“The cops are ten minutes out. Do we wait or go in before them?”

Natasha turned to Tony, and he couldn´t express how grateful he felt. Normally, Steve was in charge during missions, and it was he who made such calls. But this wasn´t just any mission. This was about Tony´s kid, and he appreciated that they all let him take charge. He appreciated it more that they would ever realize.

“We go in now. They´ll join when they get here.”

The team nodded, and three minutes later they had a plan mapped out.

Sam had sent Redwing out to scout and they had watched through one of the top windows. The inside of the building was mostly empty apart from some cots, a big table and two big shipping containers next to each other in the opposite corner.

“That´s gotta be where they´re keeping the kids!”

“Yeah, only question is which one Peter is in.”

The team was silent for a few seconds as they continued to scope out the place and come up with a good plan of attack. Everything in Tony was screaming at him to just bust through the doors and kill everyone in sight until he had Peter in his arms. But he held himself back. There were too many uncertainties in that plan, and it could lead to Peter getting killed. He couldn´t risk that! Not when he was this close.

When they finally went in, Tony´s body was shaking of nerves and anger and God knows what else. Despite that, his arm was stable as he raised it and fired a blast to blow of the lock of the back door. Tony, Rodney and Clint went through the back while Steve, Sam, Bucky and Natasha went through the front. Just as they had planned, Steve´s team went in first, drawing everyone to them, only for Tony and his team to enter a few seconds later. The back door was located close to the containers, and the three of them spread out to cut off the kidnappers’ access to the kids. Clint had climbed his way onto the container within a few seconds and was firing arrows with deadly accuracy. Tony and Rodney were firing blasts to keep the few who advanced away. The others were smack in the middle of it, throwing punches and kicks left and right. There were about 20 of them, but they still didn´t stand a chance against the team.

By the time the cops showed up, only eight kidnappers were left standing, and as countless of cops filed into the building with their weapons drawn and ready to shoot, they surrendered.

Tony attention left the chaos in front of him within seconds and turned towards the container behind him. He ran to the set of doors closest to him and opened them up. What met him was a bunch of kids under a few dirty bulbs of light. They were squeezed together in the back corner by a small table, and every set of eyes was on Tony. Every set but one…                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Peter laid on his back, with his head in a girl’s lap. She looked terrified, and she held a desperate hold on Peter´s sweatshirt. As soon as recognition hit, and she realised just who was standing in the doorway, her whole body relaxed and she leaned down to say something to Peter. Tony couldn´t hear what she said, but the action pulled him back to reality and he stepped out of his suit before running down the length of the container, and dropping down on his knees next to his kid.

“Pete! Hey, can you hear me buddy?”

His voice shook as he spoke gently. One of his hands went to run through the kid’s hair while the other grabbed onto his arm. Panic filled him as Peter´s eyes scrunched up in pain at the touch.

“We need a medic in here! NOW!”

Tony barely made out his teammates in the doorway as he turned around to yell. His head whipped back when he felt weak hands grab onto the sleeve of his shirt. Peter had opened his eyes into slivers, and he had a soft smile on his lips.

“I´m okay, dad. I promise.”

“Seriously, Parker!? You were beaten half to death like 20 minutes ago. You´re insane if you consider this okay!”

Tony looked over at the kid who had spoken. He looked like he was around Peter´s age, with messy black hair, dirty – but clearly designer – clothes, and blood on his hands… Peter´s blood he realised. At the boy´s words, Peter started to giggle. Honest to God, giggle! His eyes had closed again, and his hand had fallen from Tony´s shirt, and he was giggling like crazy. The sound forced a chuckle out of Tony, and soon the two of them were getting the strangest of looks from the rest of the kids, as they laughed together. Tony found that he couldn´t care less. He had his kid back, and said kid was fine enough to be laughing. That was all that mattered to him.

“Hey dad?”

“Hmmm?”

Peter had stopped laughing, but he still had a soft smile on his lips. Tony smiled back, even though Peter´s eyes were still closed.

“You think we could get some garlic bread with the pizza?”

Tony didn´t even try to stop the laugh that forced its way out. He smiled fondly down at his kid, laughter still on his lips as he ran his hand though the kid´s dirty curls again.

“You can have all the garlic bread in the world, bambino!”

Peter let out a happy sigh.

“Awesome…” he said. Before promptly losing consciousness.

-

When Peter woke up, he woke up to the view of the Tower´s medical wing. It took his brain a few seconds to catch up and remember the last thing that had happened in the container. His memory was a bit dodgy, but he remembered most of it at least… he hoped. There was a strange feeling about garlic bread being relevant that he couldn´t quite place though…

“Hey kid, you waking up?”

Peter turned slowly, mindful of his still painful head and his swimming vision, towards the sound of the voice. Mr. Stark´s smiling face greeted him. He couldn´t help but to smile back and grab onto his mentor´s hand when it reached for his.

He hummed noncommittedly, his mind still half asleep and his tongue felt a bit swollen and awkward in his mouth. He heard a low chuckle.

“It´s alright, buddy. You can sleep some more. I´ll be here when you wake back up again.”

Peter let his eyes close again. He squeezed the hand he was holding and hummed again.

“Thanks, dad” Was the last thing he said before he allowed his mind to drag him back to sleep.

The second time he woke up, he felt much better. His head wasn´t pulsing painfully, he felt much more awake and alert and when he opened his eyes the world wasn´t swimming.

Mr. Stark was still in the chair next to Peter´s bed. Just as he had promised. He hadn´t noticed that Peter was awake, still distracted by the tablet in his hands. He was tapping furiously and muttering under his breath. Peter let out a puff of air as he tried to stifle the laugh that the vision brought him. The sound caused the man to snap his head up, and the frown was quickly replaced by a smile.

“You awake for real this time?” He asked while pulling the tablet down on top of the covers by Peter´s leg.

“I think so.”

“How you feeling?”

Peter thought for a second. Physically he felt fine. He had no idea how long he´d been unconscious, but it must have been at least a day. He moved his face around a bit, and felt no tenseness that would come with a beaten face. Yeah, at least a day.

“I´m hungry.” Is what he eventually settled on. Mr. Stark rolled his eyes, and huffed fondly at him.

“You always are. Friday, could you ask someone to bring the spider baby some food?”

“A spider-meal have been ordered, boss.”

“Not a baby…” Peter grumbled. Doing his best to hide the smile that wanted to break out. He had missed this so much! Teasing and messing around with Mr. Stark, having a bed, even hearing Friday´s voice and quick sass.

“You´re my baby, so I get to call you that as much as I want, right Fri?”

“Correct, boss.”

At this, Peter actually did smile.

“Common Friday, you´re supposed to be on my side here!”

Mr. Stark let out a barking laugh, and Peter squirmed his way up to a sitting position. Silence fell over them. Comfortable at first, only to turn tense after a few seconds. Peter let his eyes lock onto his hands in his lap, unsure of where else to look.

Mr. Stark broke the silence with a sigh.

“I´m really sorry, Pete!”

Peter´s head snapped up and he took in the sight of his mentor. Mr. Stark wasn´t looking at him, but Peter could see the sadness and the guilt that was swirling around is his eyes. He leaned forward in the bed.

“No! You have nothing to be sorry for. You saved me! I knew you would, and you did.”

“But it was my fault that you needed saving in the first place! If it weren´t for me you would have never been in that situation! You wouldn´t have needed saving!”

A second or two of silence fell over them, and he leaned back in his chair with a tired sigh. When he spoke again, his frustrated and angry voice was replaced with something much more heartbroken. It was barely a whisper – not meant for Peter´s ears, and if it weren´t for his super hearing he probably would have missed it.

“I should have never let it get to this point… shouldn´t have let you close.”

Peter felt himself flinch at the words. Mr. Stark had been one of the best things in Peter´s life for the past year and a half, and those words felt like they tore him in half. His eyes began to tear up, but before any tears fell, they were interrupted by the door opening and May walking in with a stacked plate of food.

Peter quickly forced a smile onto his face as she approached the bed. She set the plate down on the little table on the side opposite of Mr. Stark, before leaning down to hug him. She brushed a few stray curls away from his forehead as she pulled away to look at him.

“Hi, sweetheart! How are you feeling? Anything hurt?”

Peter forced the smile to stay as he shook his head. Nothing hurt anymore. At least not anything physical…

“I´m fine, May. Really! I´m just a bit tired.”

His aunt frowned a bit before giving him another soft smile.

“How about you eat your food and then get some more rest? We´re all right upstairs if you need us. Just tell Friday.”

Peter nodded, forcing himself to not look at Mr. Stark. That is, until the man cleared his throat and forced Peter´s attention and eyes over to him. He looked closed off. The only emotion that Peter could detect was slight uncertainty.

Mr. Stark was never unsure about anything…

“I´ll join you, May.” The man smiled. It was obviously forced, yet no one said anything. Peter tore his eyes away again as the man stood from his chair. The tears starting to pool up again.

May leaned down to cup his cheek and plant a kiss on the top of his head.

“I love you, baby! Get some sleep.”

And then, before Peter had time to answer, they were both gone.

Peter let the tears fall then.

Chapter Text

Mr. Stark didn´t return to the med bay for the rest of the day. Peter fell asleep right after he´d finished his food, and woke up a few hours later with May by his side. They had spent the rest of the day talking. Peter didn´t dare to ask about his mentor, and his aunt never brought him up either. She left after dinner, with clear instructions to sleep. Peter had never felt more awake though. He laid awake for hours, deep in thought. With Mr. Stark and their conversation stuck in his head.

The man had been clear before, hadn´t he? He didn´t want Peter. He didn´t want him close and he regretted ever letting him close. He just didn´t want to tell that to Peter´s face. The thought almost broke him. Peter had imagined what would happen when he finally got out of that container. How Mr. Stark would hug him, hold him close and tell Peter that he´d missed Peter just as much as Peter had missed him. Then, everything would go back to normal and Peter could just forget the whole thing. Never in a million years had he imagined that his homecoming would end up with him being rejected by the man.

Peter couldn´t help but wonder what he´d done wrong. Surely it couldn´t only be that Peter had been hurt. Peter got hurt all the time on patrol and he ended up in the Towers med bay at least once a month. Never before had the man done anything but hold Peter´s hand as he woke up from surgery or just got a smaller cut cleaned up. So, it couldn´t have been that.

Maybe Peter had disappointed him? He was Spiderman – a superhero with super strength and all that – but he´d still gotten himself kidnapped. He´d put Mr. Stark on the line where he might have had to give a lot of valuable information to people that could, and probably would, use it to hurt others. Mr. Stark had been in that position because Peter hadn´t been strong enough to take care of himself. Of course the man was disappointed, Peter thought.

Peter could feel himself tear up again, and he rested his head back on his pillows in an attempt to keep the tears from falling. He wasn´t successful.

He was a disappointment and a burden. That was clear. He´d let Mr. Stark down, and now he was paying the price. He wondered how the future would be. Would he still be able to come here when he needed help, or would he have to go back to stitching himself up at home after a bad patrol? Although, May knew now and she was a nurse. She could help. But still, it wouldn´t be the same.

Tears fell at a steady stream now. He couldn´t find it in himself to wipe them away. Staying in the med bay without his mentor at his side felt extremely lonely. The room felt too empty and too big. He wanted his mentor’s presence more than anything, but he realized that he didn´t deserve it. Not anymore.

-

While Peter spiralled down in the med bay, Tony was spiralling up in his lab.

He didn´t return to the med bay for the rest of the day. Despite the fact that it took everything in him not to. He had let Peter down. Magnificently! The kid had almost died because Tony had been selfish. He never should have let the kid get this close. People who got close to him ended up hurt. Tony had tried, at first, to keep the kid at an arm’s length. He really had. But, after the whole fiasco with his plane and the Vulture, Tony had felt bad and decided that one day with him in the lab might be a good way to say thank you (and I´m sorry). Peter was obviously a huge nerd, and the kid´s face when he´d walked into Tony´s lab for the first time had proven to him that the chosen gift had been a success. The kid´s face that day had also been his downfall.

Tony usually didn´t let people in very quickly. It had taken Rhodey almost two years to break down his walls – and they had been living together 24/7 too – and it had taken Pepper multiple years.

Despite this, the nerdy, superhero, spider-kid from Queens had needed an afternoon to break down Tony´s walls. One day on the lab – and that damn face looking at him in amazement and wonder – had turned into one day per week, which had turned into more and more and more. Pretty soon the kid had a room in the penthouse and stayed the weekend at least once a month.

Tony had received that one look from Peter – the one where he looked at Tony like he was the greatest thing in the whole world – and he´s selfishly decided that he wanted more of it. He should have realized that having that would hurt the kid, in the end.

Despite that – despite what had just happened – at the end of the day, Tony realized that he couldn´t give the kid up. Distancing himself was probably what was best for Peter, but Tony just couldn´t do it. He´d spent one day doing it and he was a nervous wreck. He needed that kid in his life. He wasn´t sure how his life would work without him in it anymore. Without meaning it, Tony Stark had become a father, and there was no way he would be able to give it up now. Even if it was selfish.

It was after midnight when he returned to Peter´s room in the med bay. He´d attempted to distract himself in the lab for a few hours, but nothing had been able to hold his attention for more than a few minutes. Just before 1 am, he´d given up, thrown his wrench away and stalked down to his kid.

The kid in question was dead asleep by the time he opened the door and walked in. Not that Tony was very surprised. He was still healing and on quite a few meds, the boy needed as much sleep as possible.

Tony sat down in the chair by Peter´s bed. The same chair that he´d occupied while waiting for the boy to wake up. The same chair that he always occupied whenever Peter occupied the bed in here.

Peter was curled up on his side. He had somehow managed to not get tangled in any of the lines or wires that was stuck to him in one matter or the other. His legs were up against his chest, and his curls hung over his eyes – which caused Tony to absentmindedly make a note to take the kid to get a haircut soon.

He let out a sigh and ran a hand over his face. He probably wouldn´t be able to do that, he realized. Their relationship would change drastically now. The world knew about Peter. A few paparazzi pictures of Tony walking into the station with the other parents, and a chatty police officer was all it took. By morning on day two, Tony´s and Peter´s face had been pasted on every gossip site and newspaper possible. They had dug up everything on the poor kid and run it for days. Things would never go back to the way they were for Peter, and Tony still hadn´t had the heart to tell him.

Movements from the bed dragged him out of his thoughts, and a few seconds later Peter opened his eyes. It was slow, and for a second Tony almost thought he´d go back to sleep. But soon there were two deep brown eyes looking at him, no sleepiness visible.

“Mr. Stark?”

Tony would never admit how much he´d loved to be called dad before, nor how much he hated that it had gone away.

He looked down at Peter. The kid hadn´t moved apart from opening his eyes. He seemed tense, and Tony got the urge to reach over and brush his hand through the boy’s hair. So that is exactly what he did. He had decided to keep being selfish with Peter, and so he wasn´t going to hold back.

Peter tensed even further as Tony´s had reached for him, but as soon as he felt fingers against his hair he relaxed. Tony couldn´t help but smile.

“Hi, kiddo. Sorry for waking you.”

Peter shook his head with Tony´s hand still in his hair.

“It´s okay.”

The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Tony could tell that Peter wanted to say something, so he simply waited for the kid to gain enough confidence to voice whatever it was that he had on him mind. This wasn´t the first time that this had happened, and Tony had learned that the best thing he could do was to wait it out.

At somewhere around the minute mark, Peter opened his mouth. The words that left him were quiet and hesitant. He refused to look at Tony when he spoke.

“Why are you here…?”

The question surprised him. Maybe not the question in itself, but rather the fact that it had taken him so much time to dare to voice it.

“What do you mean, buddy?”

Peter´s eyes flickered up to meet his for the fraction of a second before returning to his hands. They shook slightly as he played around with the blanket between his fingers. He took another few seconds to find the words. When he did, Tony could detect tears in his eyes.

“You said that you didn´t want me anymore, so I just thought…”

He never finished his sentence. He didn´t need to.

“Pete…”

The first tear fell then. Tony´s hand left Peter´s hair in favour of wiping it way. At the contact, Peter finally looked up and met his eyes. He pulled his hand back and leaned forward in his chair, resting his forearms on the bed.

“Of course I still want you!”

A sob tore through Peter then. Peter´s hands were shaking and Tony took them both in his, his thumbs running circles against the back of Peter´s hands absentmindedly.

“You said – you said that you wish you hadn´t let me close. That you shouldn´t have and that you don´t want me and –“

Another sob broke off his rambles and he looked away again. Tony forced back another sigh. He´d forgotten about Peter´s hearing. Had forgotten that his comment hadn´t only been for himself and his own guilt and self-reprimand. It had also reached Peter. And if anyone was a good as Tony at overthinking and letting self-doubt take over, it was Peter. The comment had probably been festering in the boy´s mind all day.

“Peter. Bambino, I´m so sorry! I didn´t mean it like that.”

Peter looked at him with hesitant hope.

“Then what…?”

Tony´s shoulder´s fell with a deep sigh and he closed his eyes for a second before fixing them on Peter. The hope was still there. Tony decided to be completely transparent with the kid… for once.

“I´ve been selfish with you, Pete.”

Brown eyes looked at him in confusion, and Peter opened his mouth to protest. Tony cut him off before he got the chance.

“I have. People I care about get hurt – don´t try to argue, kid! Just look at what just happened to you!” Peter still looked like he could argue Tony´s statement for hours (Tony might love him even more for that), but he relaxed back into his bed, allowing Tony to continue. “And I knew that in letting you close you might get hurt too… which you did. But I was selfish, and instead of pushing you away – which I should have done for your sake – I didn´t… and I´m sorry!”

“I´m not!”

The statement came with no paus. No hesitation. Tony felt like he might cry. Because Peter was looking at him like he always did – with an assuredness that Tony was good, and kind, and nothing less than what Peter wanted and needed.

“Pete…”

“No! Now it´s my turn to talk!” The kid almost looked shocked himself about his tone, but he recovered quickly and set his eyes on Tony with a fierceness and conviction that would have made Pepper proud.

“You don´t get to make that decision. Not on your own. It´s my life too and I get to decide who I have in it and who I think is worth having in it. You don’t get to take that away from me.” Tears were beginning to fall, but Peter just angrily wiped them away before continuing. “If you don´t want me, fine! If I disappointed you and let you down, I get it. But don´t you dare throw me out and then say that it´s for my sake! You don´t get to do that! You don´t -”

His voice broke, and he furiously wiped away the tears that fell more heavily now. He looked scared, and broken in a way that Tony had never seen before. He felt his breath catch in his throat, unable to force any words out. The silence was loud around them as Tony´s mind ran at full speed, only to crash straight into a wall as Peter spoke again. The words pushed out through a sob.

“Please don´t leave me too!”

Tony´s heart broke.

Chapter Text

 “Please don´t leave me too!”

Tony´s heart broke.

From the first time he´d met Peter, the kid had always been happy. He never let through the pain that he carried due to his past, and because of this it was so easy to forget about it. Peter had lost three parents in his few years on this earth. And here was Tony, threatening to take away another.

“I won´t!” Tony whispered. Peter was still crying, but the words reached him clearly and it only took a second of two for their meaning to register with the kid. He took a choppy breath in and looked at Tony with hope and hesitancy – like he expected the man to take the words back while simultaneously unable to stop himself from hoping that he meant them.

Tony gave him a soft smile.

“I told you I´ve been selfish with you. I´m not planning on stopping now, alright.” He hesitated, but in the end, necessity won. He had to tell the kid before he left to tower, and according to Cho, he´d be able to do that soon. “Especially not now when the world knows how much I care about you.”

Peter looked at him with furrowed brows, his fear and sadness now beginning to be replaced with confusion. He reached up and wiped away the last few tears from his cheeks and looked at Tony with red eyes, asking him to explain. So, he did.

“You kids getting kidnapped… well, let´s just say that everyone loves a tragedy and the media´s been following the case every step of the way. That includes the fact that I showed up to the crisis meeting.”

Understanding washed over the kid´s features and he looked at Tony with uncertain eyes.

“So… does that mean that they´ve been writing about me?”

Tony almost wanted to laugh at his kid’s innocence. He gave Peter a sad smile.

“You´ve been their favourite subject for the past week, kiddo. Everyone wants to read about Tony Stark´s secret child.” He couldn´t help the frustration that leaked into the irony in his voice at the last part. Tony had grown up in the spotlight, and he was used to the public´s obsession and fascination with him. He´d mostly stopped caring. But, watching Peter get dragged into it. Watching every gossip site print everything they could get their hands on about his kid, it made his skin crawl and he had to force himself not to send his lawyers on the damn reporters responsible for invading his kid´s privacy like that.

Peter, naturally, didn´t react at all like Tony though he would. Instead of looking at Tony with fear and panic in his eyes, he just pulled a face and looked at his mentor with dread.

“Please tell me they haven´t used my school picture in any of the articles. I look insane in that!” He continued after a few seconds of thought, completely oblivious to Tony´s gobsmacked face. “Maybe they found my Instagram – did they? I have a few good ones there they could use…”

Tony barked out a laugh then, which earned him a smile from the kid. With laughter still on his lips, he reached over and grabbed onto the back of Peter´s head gently and pulled him into a hug. The kid went willingly and tucked himself into Tony´s chest.

“You´re insane, you know that right?” Tony laughed into Peter´s curls. The kid only gave him a cheeky smile when they pulled apart.

“I have to be, don´t I, if I want to fit in with you.” They both laughed at that. When Tony´s soaring heart had settled he looked at the kid properly again. He was back in the bed fully, with his head resting atop one of his pillows and he had a soft smile on his lips.

“You sure you´re okay with this? A lot will change now. I´m going to do everything I can to get them to leave you alone, I promise. But there´s only so much I can do.”

Peter gave him a nervous laugh.

“Wait, they´ll continue to write about me? Why? I mean, it´s over now, right?”

Tony stared down at the kid, who shifted in his bed but never broke off their eye contact. Tony let out a soft sigh.

“No, kiddo. Just because the kidnapping is over doesn´t mean that the world will forget about the fact that I have a kid that no one knew about. They´ll still be fascinated and they´re going to continue to write about us. About you.”

Peter mulled it over for a few seconds, his eyes fixed on a spot just left of Tony. He could practically see as the wheels turned in there while the kid put all the pieces together, and as he finally understood the impact that this all would have, his eyes widened and he met Tony´s waiting eyes again.

“But why? I´m nothing special… I´m just me, you know. What would they even write?”

Tony´s heart ached at the innocent and insecure question. Oh, buddy, he thought. If only you knew how special you were.

Peter melted into the touch, as Tony reached over and cupped the side of his face, yet his eyes never faltered from Tony´s. They´re even the same color, Tony thought absentmindedly.

“There´s so much to write about you, kiddo. They could start today and still not be finished in ten years’ time.” The kid blushed at the compliment, but Tony continued on. “You´re smart, and clever, and creative and just about the kindest person I´ve ever met. But even if you weren´t they´d probably still write about you, simply because of the fact that you´re connected to me. They want a story, bambino, and lucky for them I always seem to be a good topic. You just made the whole thing a bit more interesting.”

“But still… I´m just your intern… right?” Peter asked quietly while focused on his fingers that were playing around with the corner of his blanket, refusing to meet Tony´s eyes.

There was a question in there, deeper and more important than you´d realize at first glance. Tony knew that Peter was insecure – especially when it came to people. During the week that Peter had been gone, May had assured him countless of times that the love was mutual. That it wasn´t just Tony who loved the kid as his own. That Peter felt the same.

“You know, he´s called you dad in passing a few times while talking about you. I don´t even think he´s noticed it to be honest, but he means it, Tony. That kid loves you more than you realize.”

But, as Tony looked at the anxious kid in the bed before him, he remembered that Peter hadn´t gotten that assurance. Peter was just as Tony had been last week – scared that maybe – just maybe – the feelings were one sided. So here he was, desperately craving that insurance.

He pulled his hand back and let his arms rest on the bed again, giving the kid a fond but exasperated look. Not that he noticed, with him firmly avoiding Tony´s eyes.

“Hey,” At the soft tone, Peter finally left the blanket alone and gave Tony their full attention. “I know that you´re smart, remember. So, you can´t play dumb with me.” The kid blushed a deep red, but somehow managed to not give into the instinct to look away and hide from the intensity that Tony knew were in his eyes.

“Have you not spent the last week locked in a container because even outsiders could see that I love you like a son, huh? You might not share my blood, but just look at my family, Pete. Rodney and Happy are my brothers without a drop of shared blood. The Avengers are family too – hell, we even fight like one,” Tony reveled in the laugh that his joke had managed to get out of Peter before he continued, his voice still soft and gentle. “so why would you think that I´d care even the smallest bit about the fact that my son doesn´t share my blood either?”

There were tears in Peter´s eyes by the end of Tony´s declaration.

“I´m sorry.” Peter sounded small.

“No apologizing.” Tony reprimanded. It was a conversation they´d had many times. The kid apologized too much. Peter huffed in response and tried to fight the smile off of his lips. Unsuccessfully so.

The two sat in comfortable silence for a while. Enjoying each other´s company as they both worked through their conversation to themselves.

Peter broke the silence first.

“Can I still go to school like normal?”

Of course, Peter´s first concern was school.

Tony had gravely considered attempting to convince the kid to start getting home schooled. The thought of letting Peter go off on his own to an unprotected school every day made a chill go down his spine and Tony knew that he´d be facing hours and hours of worrying every time the kid went off.

But, he´d ditched the idea pretty quickly. Peter would be absolutely miserable if he´d been forced to stay at home every day. He didn´t have a big circle of friends at school (and he got bullied – yes, Tony knew about that), but Peter lived for those hours at school. He lived for the chatter and the mindless tasks and the time he got to spend with his group of friends in the cafeteria or at the back of class.

So instead, Tony had decided to work with what he had.

“Yeah, buddy.” He smiled at Peter´s happy face. “But they´re gonna have to make a few changes before you can go back. Happy´s already working on them and it should be done by next week.”

Peter looked at him with curiosity.

“What changes? Are they getting a panic room? Or will you install an EMP that will take out every reporter’s camera or something? Man, that would be so cool!”

Tony chuckled at the kid´s enthusiasm, but shook his head at his strange ideas. Peter didn´t seem to mind though. He just gave Tony a goofy smile.

“More like better gates to keep people off the grounds, and an increased budget for security guards to keep the reporters out.”

Peter´s smile grew.

“That makes more sense.”

Tony gave him a smile and enjoyed the warm feeling in his chest that Peter´s happy smile gave him. Man, he really loved this dumbass kid.

“You think so?” He asked with irony.

Peter pretended to think for a few seconds.

“Well…. I mean we could still do the EMP. At least a small one. That way I could mess up all of Flash´s live streams. That would be hilarious.”

Tony laughed at the glee that spread across Peter´s face at the idea.

“We´ll work on that, kiddo.”

Peter looked at him with hope.

“Together?”

Tony smiled warmly.

“Together!”

Chapter Text

Peter wasn´t allowed to leave the Tower for over a week. The world was watching, and the fact that Peter had been hurt had somehow spread. Because of this, Peter – and his fully healed face – would have to hide for a bit longer until a reasonable amount of time had passed for it to not raise suspicion.

He wasn´t complaining though.

His school had complete understanding (not that Tony and Pepper had given them much choice when they called to let them know of Peter´s absence), and had simply sent his homework over with Ned. Peter could tell that they were going easy on him though, because he finished the whole stack in a little under a day.

Instead, Peter spent his time in the lab with Mr. Stark, on the Avenger´s floor with the team, in Pepper´s office while she worked, with May in the kitchen as they baked (despite her being a disaster while cooking, May had managed to become a master at baking) or in his room with Ned while playing video games. The whole week basically felt like an impromptu vacation.

Apart from the nights.

Peter woke up almost every night from nightmares. He had read somewhere that soldiers only started to get panic attacks and nightmares when they got home from war, because when they were in it, their mind had to put all its focus on just surviving.

Now, Peter knew that what he went through was no way near what a soldier would go through, but the principle of the matter seemed to be the same.

He´d wake up in a cold sweat after tossing and turning in his bed, his mind stuck in the container with blood, pain, cold eyes and vicious fists.

Thankfully, he almost never woke up alone.

Mr. Stark had installed a new protocol that had Friday alert him whenever Peter showed signs of a nightmare. At first, Peter had found it a bit embarrassing to have someone see him like that. See him weak and afraid. But he soon came to depend on the strong and safe hands that held him until he calmed down, and the soothing words that helped him get there.

It was Friday night, and Peter was set to return to school on Monday. He was actually a bit excited for it. His mind seemed to have other ideas.

He woke up crying at around three in the morning. Callous hands caught him as he jerked himself awake.

“Hey! You´re okay, bambino. You´re safe!”

Peter buried himself in the man´s arms and cried.

“They were at school this time, dad. They came back and I couldn´t save anyone and you couldn´t get to me and –“ a sob ripped the words from his mouth. The man just hushed him and rubbed soothing circles over his back. No one commented on the fact that Peter had called him dad. The development had started the first night that Peter woke up to the calm and comforting figure of his mentor. He didn´t always call him that during the day, but the word was a constant at night. Tony was secretly loving it. So was Peter. After all, it wasn´t wrong – not anymore.

“No one will take you at school. You´ll be completely safe and so will Ned and Michelle. The men are all in custody, remember. They´re not coming near you again. I promise!”

Peter forced himself to take a few deep breaths and calm down. This nightmare was new. Usually he dreamt of the warehouse and the container. Of the kids that had been in there with him, and the beating that he´d been forced to endure at the hands of their captors.

This time though. This time the usually scenery had been changed to the halls of his school, and the other kids in the container had turned into his friends – hurt and scared as Peter was unable to save them. As his dad was unable to save him.

The fear probably came from a mix between going back to school, and the press conference that was scheduled for the next day.

Stark Industries, Tony, Pepper and Peter – they had all been bombarded with questions and demands for a statement for days now, and they couldn´t push it up any further.

Peter had been nervous as they´d all sat down a few days prior to discuss the whole thing. May had been there with Peter. A comforting presence by his side. Tony had been on his other side and Pepper right across from him. One of their PR specialist had occupied the last seat.

The had spent hours discussing what to say and how much to say. Obviously, Peter had to be introduced to the world, and they´d have to address his relationship with Tony. A relationship that had solidified a lot in the past few days. Both emotionally and legally.

See, May had thought long and hard about the implications of her nephew’s new fame. She was a simple woman, and she knew that the world that he´d just been tossed into wasn´t a world she knew, or could to be a part of. She had approached Tony with a proposition the day before the meeting.

“I want you to become his guardian.”

Tony had looked up at her in shock, and May could see the panicked argument coming in the expression on his face, just as it formed in his mind. She shook her head and raised one of her hand before he had time to voice it.

“Shared guardianship, Stark. Calm down.” The man did. Considerably. May shook her head again – fondly this time.

“He needs someone who can guide him through this new part of his life. Someone who can handle the legal aspect of it as well as the emotional. I can´t be that for him, no matter how much I´d want to.” May gave the man a cheeky smile then, before continuing. “You´re basically his dad anyway. Might as well make it official.”

The man had stared at May then, his mind in overdrive and his eyes emotional. He´s simply nodded, in the end, and walked over to give May a hug. When they broke the news to Peter, he´d given them a hesitant but happy smile and turned to Tony.

“You sure? Because you really don´t have to, you know. Like, don´t do it because you feel guilty or whatever. I don´t wanna –“

Tony had cut off his rambles quickly.

“I want to, kid. If you do, of course.”

The kid had looked at him then. Eyes wide and trusting.

“Yeah, I´d like that.”

Tony had given him a wide smile.

In the meeting the following day, they had crafted a simple but effective statement. Tony would go out first to introduce Peter as his son, and the circumstances of their relationship, and Peter would go up after to answer a few questions.

Peter had looked at the man at that point, his expression tense.

“You´ll stay with me, right?”

Tony gave him a comforting smile, causing the boy to relax.

“Of course.”

Peter was excited about the conference. He was! But it was also a really big deal and he was terrified that it would somehow ruin things. That maybe announcing their relationship to the world further would make him an even bigger target. His dad had chosen not to tell him that he technically wasn´t wrong.

Peter took a deep breath in and tried ignored his beating heart, before pushing out of the comforting embrace.

“What if it´s a bad idea. Maybe we could just skip the conference tomorrow? Let people wonder instead.”

Tony had been prepared for the suggestion. He´d watched Peter fidget every time the conference had been brough up during the day.

Tony remembered his own first press conference. The first one he´d held without his father at his side. He´d been 15, and was announcing his acceptance into MIT. His father had demanded that Tony used the opportunity to assure the public – as well as SI´s many investors – that the company would be in good hands even after Tony took over. After all, nothing said brilliance like a 15-year-old going to college.

Tony had been terrified the entire time on stage. And he saw that same fear in Peter´s eyes now. Only, Tony wouldn´t force his son to face the mob of reporters alone like he had.

“You´ll do fine, kiddo. I´ll be there the whole time, remember. You don´t even have to answer any questions if you want either. Just say the word and we´ll end it after my statement. You can stand with me while I speak and then we´ll leave.”

The kid thought for a few seconds at his suggestion. The tears had stopped trickling down his cheeks, and his breathing was calmer. Give him a few more minutes and his eyes would begin to droop again. Tony had learned the ins and outs of his kid´s nightmares by now, and thankfully they didn´t last long. As soon as the adrenaline of the dream had trickled out, he usually fell back asleep again.

“No… no, I wanna do it. I think.” Peter gave him a hesitant smile, but he seemed determined as he chose to face his nerves about the next day. Tony gave him a proud smile, and ran a hand through the kid´s curls. He heard Peter sigh in content.

“I´m really proud of you, you know.”

Peter looked at him then. With a shy but curious look in his eyes. Tony just continued to smile at him before pulling him in for another hug. The kid fit perfectly into his arms and he let out a soft breath.

He continued to hold his kid close as he spoke again.

“No matter what you chose tomorrow, I´ll still be proud.”

Peter shifted in his arms, but didn´t tried to break away. He settled his cheek against Tony´s shoulder and let his finger´s tangle into Tony´s worn out t-shirt.

“Yeah?” He asked in a low voice.

Tony placed a soft kiss on top of Peter´s curls.

“Yeah.”

Chapter Text

Peter couldn´t stop pulling at his collar as they waited just outside the door of the conference room. He could hear the chatter and movement as the reporters trickled in and took their seats.

Somehow, he´d been tricked into wearing a suit. He felt absolutely ridiculous in it, but both May and his dad had told him he looked fine. He still thought that a t-shirt and a pair of nice jeans would have been fine.

“Stop pulling at it, kid.” His dad reprimanded him in a fond tone and walked over to correct his tie for him. Five minutes of tugging had left it crooked. Peter stood still and let the man fuss over him. His dad was hiding it much better than Peter, but he could tell that he was nervous too.

The door opened and Peter could hear clicking or heels and scraping of chairs much more clearly for a second before it closed again. Pepper was walking over to them with a hurried expression. She ran a hand through Peter´s curls when she reached them, and turned to her fiancée.

“They´re ready for you.”

Peter could feel his heart in his chest as it beat faster. He reciprocated his dad´s smile, but it probably looked as stressed as he felt. The man just put his arm over Peter´s shoulder´s and lead him towards the door. They stopped for a seconds before opening it, and Peter could feel the man glance at him.

“Just breathe, Pete.”

Peter took a deep breath, gave his dad a nod and braced himself for the onslaught of noise that would greet him as soon as the doors opened.

His dad held a comforting hand on his upper back the whole way – through the door, over the floor and up the few stairs to the stage. Peter tried to ignore the cameras that started clicking as soon as he was in their view. He tried to ignore the countless of eyes following his every move. He tried to ignore the words that the reporters whispered to each other.

He just focused on that hand against his back. Letting it ground him.

When he finally let his eyes run over the crowd, he found it much smaller than expected. Probably Pepper´s doing, he thought. He´d have to thank the woman later.

Peter stood just left of the podium. His dad had let his hand leave Peter and settled next to the microphone.

The room grew quiet as soon as his dad cleared his throat. All eyes were on the duo at the front.

“I´m gonna keep this short and sweet.” He glanced at Peter and gave him an encouraging smile, before turning back to the masses of reporters. “You´ve all been printing assumptions and theories for the past two weeks. Digging up my kid’s entire life in the hopes of finding a connection. A hidden birth certificate with my name donning the bottom, a connection between Peter´s mom and me or maybe a secret adoption. Well,” he let out a sigh, “I have to at least commend you on your dedication.”

A few hesitant chuckles were heard across the room. Peter could tell that most of the reporters weren´t sure if the last bit had been meant as a joke or a jab. Peter wasn´t actually sure himself to be honest. You never could know with his dad.

The man ignored the noise and continued.

“The truth is that Peter Parker showed up on my radar over a year ago as he impressed me enough with his skills and intellect to gain himself a job as my personal intern. But, as you´ll all soon come to see,” he looked at Peter again, warmth and love in his eyes, “this kid can, and will, make everyone love him.” Peter couldn´t help but blush. He´d never seen the man this open and emotional in front of the press before. He wasn´t sure if he should be honored that the man had chosen to make his affection for Peter an exception to the rule, or if he should be embarrassed over the obvious dad move that he´d just pulled.

His dad just gave him a wink before turning back to the front.

“I´ve seen him as a son for a while, and the events that occurred have simply solidified it. He is my kid in every way that matters – emotionally and legally.”

Peter knew this already. Despite that he couldn´t help the warm feeling that spread through his chest, nor the smile that fought its way onto his lips. He turned his head down towards the floor in the hopes of hiding it, but he wasn´t sure if he was very successful.

He soon had to look back up though, because his dad´s next words reminded him that it was his time to face the masses.

“Pete will be answering some of your questions now. Behave!” His dad added the last bit after a few seconds of paus, a mock-stern look on his face. Peter joined in on the laughter the erupted from the crowd.

Peter stepped up behind the microphone. His dad stayed just a few inches away, on his right.

Hands shot into the air and Peter hesitantly gestured towards a woman in the front row. She stood and met Peter´s eyes.

“Angela Presley, New York Times. What exactly did you do to catch Tony Stark´s interest at the beginning? I can´t imagine that he´s an easy person to impress.”

Peter let out a breath. This wasn´t so bad. They had discussed this question beforehand – couldn´t exactly tell the truth, now could they – so Peter was prepared and felt some of his nerves die down as he answered.

“I actually wrote to him about one of his papers. We´d been discussing the subject in school and I had stumbled across the paper while doing my own research. I found a few areas of improvement and decided to write to him about them.” Peter chuckled and glanced over at his dad who was looking at him expectantly. “I didn´t actually expect him to read it, let alone answer. But a week after I sent the letter, I came home to find him on my couch, offering me an internship. It was pretty wild actually.”

Pretty wild was an understatement about that day. Because Tony Stark had turned up at his apartment and offered him a kind of internship. Only it hadn´t been followed by lab days and equations, but a private plane to Germany and a fight against the Avengers. Thankfully, the team had fixed things since then, but that first meeting wasn´t something that Peter would ever forget.  

The questions kept coming after that. A few questions about himself – favorite subject in school and where he envisioned himself to go to college. His dad had answered for him on that one – “Kid is going to MIT, thank you and next question!” – Peter had laughed along with the reporters on that one and rolled his eyes.

Other questions were harder to answer.

“Prisha Lal, The Huffington Post. We´ve heard very little about what it was like for you kids during your week in captivity, as well as the rescue. What can you tell us about it?”

Peter could feel his dad tense up next to him, and he almost feared that the man would lean over and take over the question. He didn´t, in the end – which Peter was thankful for.

Peter understood the interest coming from the public. This case was unlike anything they had seen before, and almost nothing had been shared about the details. People were curious, and Peter almost couldn´t blame them. Still, it wasn´t a subject he wanted to dive too deep into.

“The whole thing was scary. Especially in the beginning. Our relationship,” Peter gestured between himself and his dad. “wasn´t common knowledge, and I definitely felt like the odd one out. Thought maybe they´d made a mistake and taken the wrong kid. But after the first day, it was mostly just waiting. I know that many people probably expect that the whole thing was filled with action and daring attempts at escapes, but in reality, we mostly just tried to wait it out.”

“But you were injured, weren´t you? What happened?”

Now it was Peter´s time to tense up. That beating wasn´t exactly a moment he liked to think about. He´d been hurt before, but those were all different. Those time he´d been able to fight back. But to be completely at someone’s mercy and not be able, or allowed to fight back… Peter still shuddered at the helpless feeling that had accompanied him during that moment.

Peter took a few seconds to just breath and calm his racing heart down before answering the woman. His voice was low, but the microphone carried his voice out the room.

“I tried to fight back. They didn´t take too kindly to that.”

The room was solemn and many of the reporters looked at the kid in the front in a new light. For many of them, they´d only been able to imagine the events that he´d gone though in an abstract sense. Never actually understanding what he´d gone through – what all the kids had gone through. But the vulnerable and scared look on his face when asked to relive that moment in captivity, and the strain on his voice as he tried to hurriedly get through the question, was enough for most of them to at least begin to imagine the horrors of that week.

Prisha Lal sat back down, and if you looked close enough you could spot a slight pull of guilt in her features. Being a reporter was sometimes a straining job. You had to navigate the thin line between not pushing too far, while still getting a good story. Sometimes, that line was difficult to spot and it wasn´t uncommon for someone to go too far. By the looks on Prisha´s face, she definitely feared that she´d done so this time.

Tony Stark leaned over and whispered something in his son´s ear, which earned him a timid smile from the boy. Many of the onlookers felt relieved. The man had been right, there at the beginning of the press conference. Peter Parker did have a way of getting people to love him, and in the 30 or so minutes that he´d been answering their many questions, more than one reporter had started to care for the kid.

“Last question.” Tony Stark had leaned over and spoken into the microphone again.

Peter scanned to crowd and finally settled on a reporter in the far back. The man stood and cleared his throat.

“Andrew Paxton, USA Today.” The man took a deep breath and looked around the room before settling back on the duo on the stage. He gave Peter a smile. “Stark Industries is one of the biggest and most revered companies in the world, are you excited about one day taking over and do you already have any ideas for what you might want to achieve when you do?”

Peter looked at Andrew with big eyes and let the seconds tick by in silence. The whole room was looking at him now, but the boy in question turned to his dad with a panicked expression. Tony Stark just smiled at his son and gently pushed him to the side so that he was once again in front of the microphone. He let one of his hands stay on the boy´s shoulder.

“The future of SI isn´t something we´ve discussed yet. Peter will take over when the time comes, but it´s not something that we´ve started to actively plan.” He looked over at his kid and his smile widened and he even let out an amused huff. He turned back to the reporters. “I don´t even think the kid had realized that he´d been taking over one day.” Laughter rolled across the room, which seemed to snap the kid out of his panicked state. His blush was deep enough for even the reporters in the very back to see.

Tony Stark continued.

“When that day arrives I´m sure we will hold another one of these and you can grill my kid however much you want about his grand plans. But until then – thank you for your time today.” With that final greeting, he turned and led his kid off the stage and through the back door.

Chapter Text

Going back to school again felt surreal. It had only been about two weeks since he´d last been there, but it felt like months.

“You got everything kiddo?”

Peter rifled through his bag, making sure he had all of his supplies for the day. His dad was actually awake, despite the early hours.

“I think so…” He gave up his search and closed the bag. If he´d forgotten anything, it would have to stay forgotten. Instead he slung the bag over his shoulder and looked up. His dad sat on one of the barstools over by the kitchen island. There was a big cup of coffee next to him.

“I gotta go, or I´m gonna be late.”

Peter made for the elevator, but was stopped after just a few steps by his dad´s protest.

“Hey, hey, hey! You´re telling me I dragged myself out of bed in the middle of the night just to see you off, and I´m not even gonna get a proper goodbye?”

Peter rolled his eyes and tried desperately to fight off the smile that was pulling at his lips. He did turn back though and gave his dad a look.

“It´s not the middle of the night, dad. It´s literally normal morning hours.”

His dad gave him a huff in response and beckoned him closer. Peter came without hesitation.

“Normal? Never heard of that.” His dad gave him a teasing smile. Peter rolled his eyes again. At this rate they might get stuck there soon.

“Trust me. I´m aware.”

“Hey!”

Peter laughed as his dad reached over and roughly ruffled his hair. Peter ducked away half-heartedly.

“Seriously, dad. Happy´s gonna give me the glare for making him wait.”

The hand in his hair stilled and settled on the back of his head, before pushing him forward and into a hug. Peter didn´t hesitate to hug him back. He felt the deep breath in that his dad took, and subconsciously took one himself.

“Call me if you need me today. Get picked up early or just wanna talk. You got it?”

Peter smiled against his dad´s shoulder.

“Got it.” He whispered, and then pushed back. School was waiting, and so was Happy. And he didn´t necessarily feel like starting his day with one of Happy´s famous I´m annoyed glares.

His dad had offered to drive him on his first day back. Countless of times. Peter had declined every time. It wasn´t that he didn´t want his dad there. He just didn´t want Tony Stark there. Yeah, he knows that it doesn’t really makes sense. But at the same time, it does. Coming back to school again would be hard enough as it is. He didn´t need another thing to draw people’s attention.

He knew that Flash would be coming back to school again today. Weirdly enough, they had actually coordinated. They figured that going back on the same day might make it easier for the both of them. Divide the spotlight. Happy would even make a stop and pick up the other boy on the way. It had even been Flash´s idea. Peter wasn´t sure how to feel about the new development between him and Flash, but he couldn´t say he minded it much. The boy was actually pretty nice… you know, when he wasn´t being a bully.

When they finally arrived at school, it took the two boys almost a whole minute before they left the car. The windows were tinted in the back, so they felt relatively safe from curious looks in there. Happy, for once, didn´t rush Peter.

“We should probably go.” Flash said. His voice sounded a bit uncertain though. Peter gave him what he hoped was a confident smile. Flash´s face confirmed that he failed. Still, Peter pressed on.

“Yeah. Don´t wanna be late. Mrs. Jacobs really doesn´t need another reason to hate me.” Peter tried to joke, and actually managed to get a snort out of Flash.

“Well, you could try to stop falling asleep in her class. Might help, Parker.”

Peter blushed at the comment and tried to ignore the disapproving glare he could feel coming from the front seat. Instead he grabbed his bag from the floor by his feet and shot Flash a smile.

“As soon as she stops being boring, I promise I´ll stop falling asleep.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let´s just go, man.”

Peter took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Unexpectedly, the two of them stuck together during the day. At least somewhat together. The idea to divide the spotlight seemed to work. And Flash´s unwelcoming attitude and snarky comments to anyone who approached them actually saved Peter from a lot of questions about his dad as well as the kidnapping. Had someone told him a month ago that he´d been grateful for Flash´s rude comments, he´d have called them crazy. As it were, he just let his friends shield him from the crowd. MJ and Ned had joined the pair before they even entered the school building, and hadn´t left his side at all. It was actually rather surreal – how fast the four of them fell into rhythm.

Funny enough, the other students weren´t the worst part about going back. Nor the teachers – even though they kept sending him pitying glances whenever he was in their sights.

No. It was the reporters.

His dad hadn´t been joking when he said that they´d have an interest for him now. The added security that Happy had helped get up for the school was doing its job, sure – but it wasn´t enough. No reporters were able to get onto school property, but thanks to Peter´s enhances senses, he could hear them waiting outside for him to show his face. Not only was it distracting, but the constant buzz of his spider sense made it impossible for him to relax.

He made it halfway through lunch before he couldn´t take it anymore. It felt like his skin was crawling and he was exhausted after being on edge for hours on end. He excused himself with an apologetic (and tense) smile before hurrying from the table. Ned made to stand and follow him, but Peter quickly waived him off.

He found himself in the music room. The door locked with an audible click and he sank down next to it, with his back against the wall. His hands felt numb as they dug into his pocket and fished out his phone. He clicked his way to his dad´s contact in a blur.

Only two seconds passed before his dad picked up.

“Hey kiddo? How´s the first day going?”

His dad´s voice was light, and Peter took a deep breath, already feeling himself calm down just by the sound of it.

“Umm, it´s fine.” Peter tried to put on a layer of calm and collectedness to his voice.

“What´s wrong?”

Alright, so he failed at that…

He took another deep breath and let his head fall down against his chest.

“I am fine… it´s just…” He closed his eyes and tried to force the tears back. “I can hear the reporters outside. They won´t leave, dad. How am I supposed to leave the school when I know that they´ll just start screaming at me as soon as I do?”

He heard his dad sigh on the other end and he pressed the phone closer to his ear. Tried to force his brain to focus on the phone and nothing else. Not the chatter of the reporters outside. Not the buzz of the students and the teachers in the school, or the cars driving by on the street. Only on the feeling of metal pressing into his cheek and the soft sound of his dad´s breathing.

“You want me to come and get you?”

“No!” Peter was quick to answer. He didn´t wanna go home. Not yet. Running out now – halfway through the day – would only make things worse. He´d give them a story then and if he did that, they´d be sure to keep coming back. So, no. Not going home.

He opened his eyes again and tried to focus on the carpet he was sitting on. There was a small smudge by his right heel.

“I just… I don´t know.” He started to pick at the smudge on the carpet. His fingers shook slightly.

“You want a distraction?” His dad asked him and he almost cried at the relief. He couldn´t even see Peter, yet he knew exactly what he needed.

“Please?”

He spent the rest of his lunch period listening to his dad talking about a modification he was making to the iron man suit. Peter would jump in occasionally to ask questions or give suggestions, not once thinking about the reporters outside or the noise of the students inside. When the bell rang, signaling that lunch was over, he was more relaxed than he´d been all day.

“Thanks dad.”

“Always, kiddo.”

The rest of the day passed much easier. He was still tense, but his friend’s presence around him was calming and when it started to get too much, he forced him mind to start dissecting the modification his dad was doing, and if there was anything Peter could think of to make it better.

Still, he had to brace himself before leaving the safety of the school building after the last bell rang. He knew that Happy would be picking him up, and that he was waiting outside already. But he still had to get from the front doors down to the pick up lane, and that was at least 30 seconds out in the open where he knew that the reporters just outside the gate would have a clear sight of him.

“I can totally cover your face with my jacket if you want. You know like how they do it in movies.” Peter looked over at his best friend and couldn´t help the smile that broke out. Ned actually looked a bit excited about the idea. Getting to play bodyguard and all. Peter shook his head.

“I´m good. Thanks though, bro!” He laughed.

“Just let me know if you change your mind.” Ned answered as he shot Peter a wide smile. MJ stood next to Ned, and Peter could see the tug on her lips, even though she didn´t actually let the smile break out. Peter laughed though, and smiled warmly at his friend.

“Don´t worry. You´ll be the first I call if I ever need a professional jacket holder.”

“Sweet.” Ned smiled and held out his hand for their regular handshake. Peter took it.

The few steps out in the open weren´t as bad as he´d expected. He was prepared for the shouting and the flashes to completely overwhelm him, but in the end they were nothing more than a big annoyance.

Still, he practically jumped into the car when he reached it, and quickly shut the door. He let his head fall back against the headrest and closed his eyes straight away, and didn´t even try to hide the sigh that left him as soon as the peace and quiet surrounded him.

“That bad huh?”

“Dad?!”

He hadn´t even noticed his dad sitting in the backseat next to him, but now that he though about it he could clearly make out his dad´s unique heartbeat.

Peter let himself fall sideways into his dad´s embrace and let out another sigh. This one of comfort as he was wrapped up in his dad´s arms.

“You know, actually no. The second part of the day wasn´t nearly as bad as the first one.”

His dad rubbed his arm and Peter melted into the embrace. He felt the car roll out of the school grounds and into traffic. Thanks to the tinted windows, he didn´t let the reporters that he could hear just outside stress him out at all.

“I´m glad.” Was all his dad said, but it was spoken with such warmth that Peter could still hear all of the other things hidden in there. I´m glad. I´m relieved. I´m proud… I love you.

Peter just burrowed deeper in his dad´s arms.

His life had been completely upturned by the events of the past two weeks. And his future would definitely change because of it. The world knew him in a way that he never though they would, and he now had the legacy of Tony Stark to live up to.

But somehow, he wasn´t too worried.

Because he knew that he would always have his dad´s comforting embrace and strong guidance to help him though whatever may come next. And he wouldn´t have it any other way.

Chapter Text

You guuuuys!!!! This fic was nominated for the Irondad Creator Award 2022!! I still can't quite believe it, but I just wanna say a massive thank you to the incredible person who nominated me (you seriously made my year!!) as well as everyone who read, commented and left kudos! The other fics nominated are soooo well written and just so good, but if anyone wants to go and vote for me then that would seriously be incredible! 

You can check out more info about the Irondad Creator Award, and vote on their Tumblr - @irondad-creator-awards

Will take this chapter down soon, but I just wanted to express my gratitude and just have somewhere to word vomit my excitement, lol!!

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!!