Work Text:
Peter was falling asleep.
It was Friday, and like every Friday, Tony had sent Happy to pick up the boy from school.
After everything that had happened with the Vulture, and May finding out about Peter's extracurricular activities, Tony had been quasi-forced by a furious Italian woman to give Peter some real lab experience that he could put on his college resume.
Not that Tony wouldn't bribe anyone necessary to get his son into any college he wanted to go to.
But it wasn't necessary. Peter was the smartest kid Tony had ever met, and that list included himself. He knew Peter would get into any college without Tony having to bribe anyone.
The thing was, in the months that Peter had been coming three times a week to play in the lab, Tony had grown very fond of the boy.
It was very difficult not to grow fond of Peter. The boy was a ray of sunshine, talking nonstop about everything he liked, school, his friends, and Spider-Man. Tony would never admit it, but he was delighted to spend time with the boy who had gradually become like a son to him.
So much so that, when he found out May usually had the night shift at the hospital on Fridays, he offered to let Peter sleep over at the tower.
Peter was thrilled with the news, jumping around Tony's penthouse living room. When Tony called May to tell her, the response was not what Tony expected.
“Well, it's good for Peter to spend more time with his father.”
Tony was speechless for half a minute, until he heard May laughing at him on the other end of the line.
Tony quickly snapped out of his reverie and thanked May before hanging up.
Tony shook his head as he remembered. He hadn't realized how much Peter meant to him until May rubbed it in his face.
But yes, now every Friday, Peter showed up at four o'clock at the tower to spend the day tinkering with Tony in the lab. Not before eating a sandwich, of course. Tony made sure to keep his baby spider's metabolism in check.
But now, it was almost midnight. They had eaten pizza a few hours ago, and Peter was tired. So much so that when Tony stopped modifying his thrusters and turned to look at Peter, the boy was asleep, his head on the table and a screwdriver literally glued to his hand.
Tony chuckled as he watched Peter drool on his own hand, which made Peter unconsciously complain about the noise.
Deciding that Peter would be better off sleeping in his bed, Tony got up from his seat and approached his son.
“Peter, wake up. You're falling asleep on your project, kid. We'd better get you to bed,” Tony said as he gently shook Peter's shoulder to wake him up.
Peter stirred in his seat but finally opened his eyes. “Mr. St’rk?” Peter asked, still half asleep.
Tony smiled at how cute his son was. “Yes, Underoos. Let's get you to bed,” he said before gently lifting Peter out of the chair and helping him to his feet.
Peter simply mumbled in agreement and, once he was awake enough, headed for the lab door.
“See you tomorrow, Mr. Stark,” Peter said goodbye.
“Don't forget to brush your teeth, kid,” Tony shouted before the lab door closed.
Yes, Tony loved his son very much.
Which had become a slight problem. For Tony, in all his infinite wisdom, had decided to hide Peter from everyone.
Not that it had been very difficult. Rhodey was so busy with his rehabilitation after the Civil War disaster that the most he had spoken to the man were their bi-monthly half-hour conversations.
Tony still feared that Rhodey was angry with him. And the man had every right to be. Tony had led him into a war in which he lost both legs, and even though Rhodey had never reproached him for it, Tony couldn't help feeling guilty about everything.
The other important factor was Pepper. When Tony returned from Siberia, half dead, Pepper hadn't said anything to him. She asked him what happened and stayed with him while he recovered. She supported him until he could stand on his own two feet again, but after Tony left the hospital, Pepper sat him down for a talk.
Ultimately, Tony should have seen it coming. Pepper was a strong person, but seeing your partner half dead as many times as she saw Tony couldn't have been easy. Even more so considering Tony's attempts to start drinking again after Siberia.
Steve's betrayal hurt Tony deeply. The man he considered his friend stabbed him in the chest with a shield while trying to protect his parents' killer. It's not something Tony could get over without a few drinks.
So when Pepper caught Tony with a half-empty bottle of whiskey on the hospital table, Tony should have seen their breakup coming.
He was also sure that, at some point, Pepper had told Rhodey about the incident, as his friend's calls took on a disappointed tone.
Happy was the only one who stayed by his side, but at that point, Tony didn't want anyone around, so he assigned him the job of babysitting Spider-Man.
That was one of the lowest points in Tony's life. On the verge of becoming an alcoholic again, with no friends, locked up in the lab all day.
The one who saved him was Peter. Peter and his habit of getting into trouble.
If it weren't for the boy, Tony was sure he would have completely returned to his drinking habits. But because of that boy's need to be rescued from arms dealers every other day, Tony couldn't afford to get drunk, in case he needed to put on a suit to save the teenager again.
It was thanks to Peter that Tony hadn't touched a drop of alcohol in five months and counting. That kid was Tony's sunshine.
Still, Tony hadn't spoken seriously to Rhodey or Pepper since Pepper left him, so he wouldn't be surprised if they both thought Tony had started drinking again.
Pepper was still the CEO of Stark Industries, of course, but she was no longer Tony's secretary, reducing communication between them to brief meetings to exchange schedules and calls to yell at Tony for missing an SI meeting.
Not that Tony wanted to miss meetings (he did), but he wasn't going to interrupt his time with Peter for boring meetings where his presence or opinion wasn't even needed.
Thinking about his time with Peter, Tony sat back down in his chair as he turned to Friday's interface. Peter had fallen asleep, and Friday hadn't even bothered to notify him, so Tony decided to change the alert settings.
Opening Friday's scan and alert interface, Tony momentarily disabled the alarm while entering new commands to alert him when Peter fell asleep.
While he was at it, Tony began entering other commands regarding Peter. Tony didn't want his son to have a problem and not be notified.
Halfway through entering the commands, Tony got thirsty, so without looking, he kicked his chair back to grab his half-full coffee cup. Only for the chair to trip over the junk Tony had scattered on the floor, causing the billionaire to fall backwards and hit his head on the corner of the table, knocking him unconscious.
—---------------------
Tony woke up two hours later, disoriented and with a severe headache. He tried to get up off the floor, only to fall back down when his dizziness intensified.
He couldn't remember what he was doing in the lab. His thoughts were confused and clouded. The last thing he remembered was being with Peter and... Tony looked at the seat where Peter should have been, and when he didn't see his son, he panicked.
With a headache and dizziness, Tony grabbed a chair to clumsily get up from the floor and began looking around the lab. He couldn't find his son.
“P'tr!” Tony stammered, unable to coordinate his words.
Tony was going crazier by the minute. He couldn't remember where Peter was and had just woken up on the floor, so he feared his baby had been kidnapped.
Images of his Peter, his baby being scared and alone began to flash through his mind.
“BABY!” Tony shouted again, this time more articulately.
When Peter didn't answer, Tony decided to leave the lab. Hopefully his child would be asleep in bed.
With great difficulty, Tony managed to lean against the wall and make his way to the attic living room.
Only to find Pepper Potts staring at him with an angry look on her face.
------------------------------
Pepper was very tired.
She had just arrived from a 16-hour flight from Hong Kong, and the first thing she had to do was go to SI to see if Tony was still alive.
Pepper was no longer Tony's assistant, but let's just say that if the guy whose last name is in your company's name dies from alcohol poisoning, it's not going to look good on the morning news.
On top of that, that same man had promised to attend this very important meeting, but as usual, he didn't show up and didn't even bother to give an excuse.
The only thing Pepper could be happy about was that the meetings had gone so well that she was able to arrive in New York two days ahead of schedule.
Even so, the first thing she did after landing was to go see how her ex-fiancé was doing. Pepper had broken up with him. She knew it wasn't the best thing to break up with someone because they attacked you, but Tony's life was dangerous, and although she could handle being constantly worried about her partner, she couldn't watch the man she loved fall back into drinking.
When Pepper saw the bottle of whiskey on Tony's hospital bedside table, she knew she couldn't watch the man she loved sink into alcohol again. And she wasn't strong enough to pull Tony out of it.
So she didn't even try.
Pepper felt guilty for leaving Tony in his most difficult moment, so she made sure to see him in person every few days or, failing that, call him to see how he was doing.
To Tony's credit, Pepper never noticed if he was drunk when they spoke, so either Tony had learned to hide it better, or he wasn't drinking as much as Pepper feared. Most likely, he had developed a tolerance, Pepper thought to herself.
Still, she never asked Friday about Tony's personal life, fearing to learn more about her ex-fiancé's possible romantic entanglements. Pepper may have broken up with Tony, but she still loved him, and she didn't want to know how many women were occupying her side of the bed.
So when Pepper arrived at Tony's penthouse to reprimand him, she found exactly what she expected.
Tony Stark, at two in the morning, drunk and staggering around his living room, clinging to the wall to keep from falling to the floor.
Pepper looked at Tony with anger... or more than anger, disappointment. Tony didn't even seem to notice she was there, so she had to clear her throat to get his attention.
When Tony turned to look at her, Pepper realized that the billionaire was terrified, to the point of almost crying.
“Pepper, my baby. I can't find my baby,” the man sobbed as he took another step toward Pepper and toward his own bedroom.
When she heard Tony call whoever it was “his baby,” her blood began to boil.
She was angry, partly out of jealousy, which she tried to suppress, since she had no right to meddle in the man's romantic life, and partly out of annoyance, since now she would have to deal with Tony's new lover without alerting the media.
Sighing in annoyance, she approached Tony first to calm him down.
“Don't worry, Tony, I'll get your baby out of your room and you can say goodbye,” Pepper said as she forced Tony to sit on the sofa.
Pepper didn't want to see the woman who would now take her place in Tony's bed, but even though it wasn't her job, she would do it for the good of the company and Tony.
But Tony refused to sit down. Despite his instability, he fought Pepper and continued toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms.
“You don't understand, Pepper. I have to see my baby. I have to make sure my baby is okay.”
Pepper almost started crying at that moment.
Tony had fought for her with the same intensity, and now another woman occupied Tony's heart. She couldn't take it.
Suddenly, the door to one of the rooms opened, and Pepper could hear footsteps approaching the living room. Pepper noticed Tony relax his grip slightly, now calmer knowing that his “baby” was fine.
Pepper didn't want to look. She didn't want to see the face of the woman who had stolen her place. Even if she was the one who had thrown him first.
But she had to. Pepper had to throw away this woman so she wouldn't further damage Tony's reputation, and she would be lying if she said she didn't feel at least a little satisfaction in doing so.
Thinking about how she was going to kick out this slut, Pepper looked up from Tony only to find... a child.
A teenager who looked no older than 16, dressed in Iron Man pajamas and Spider-Man socks, was standing in front of them.
Pepper could only watch as the half-asleep boy's gaze shifted from confusion when he saw her, to a mixture of concern and love when he looked at Tony.
Tony quickly got up from the sofa again, making him dizzy and almost fall again, at which point the teenager ran to hold him up.
“Mr. Stark, are you okay?” asked the boy, keeping Tony upright. An effort that must have been tremendous for a child.
Tony smiled when the boy held him, and quickly wrapped his arms around him, leaning more of his weight on the young man.
“Baby, my baby,” Tony murmured as he buried his face in the young man's hair.
Pepper couldn't believe what she was seeing. Tony Stark was willingly hugging someone. What's more, that someone was a child.
What was a child doing in Tony's attic at this hour?
But Pepper's questions went unanswered.
Tony turned his face, still buried in the boy's hair, and turned to Pepper with more love than Pepper had ever seen on Tony's face.
“Look, Pepper, this is my baby,” declared the billionaire, hugging the boy tighter, who blushed at Tony's words but did nothing but smile and snuggle closer to the man's chest.
Pepper considered pinching herself to see if she was dreaming. The boy before her cringed under Pepper's scrutinizing gaze, prompting Tony to turn them around to hide the boy from her view.
“This is my baby, Pepper. You can't have him. He's mine... and a little bit May's... but mostly mine.”
Pepper had no idea who this May was, but what she did know was that Tony apparently had a teenage son.
And how come she hadn't heard about it? As far as Pepper knew, Tony hadn't left his lab in months. There was nothing about Tony Stark in the news, so Pepper assumed Tony was keeping a low profile with his romantic adventures.
But standing in front of her was a boy with Tony's eyes, Tony's hair, and Tony's short stature, hugging a man who was clearly his father.
Because the look in Tony's eyes when he looked at the boy could reflect nothing but paternal love. Pepper's whole world had just been turned upside down.
The boy, oblivious to Pepper's stress, pulled away slightly from his father's embrace, which Tony clearly complained about.
“Mr. Stark, are you okay? You're acting strange,” the boy asked, clearly concerned about his father's drunkenness.
Pepper couldn't believe the boy hadn't seen his father drunk until now, but since he seemed to call him “Mr. Stark,” perhaps they hadn't had much contact yet. Or maybe Tony only got drunk when the boy was asleep.
Either way, Pepper had to take care of this situation. She didn't want the boy to lose whatever trust he had in his father.
“Kid, I'm sorry, but your father is a little... affected. Why don't you go back to your room while I take care of everything?” Pepper suggested.
The teenager looked at Pepper skeptically until he understood what she meant. And then his brow furrowed.
The boy hugged Tony tighter, at which the man smiled and turned him away from Pepper's view.
“I don't know what you think is wrong with Tony, but I assure you that Mr. Stark has been completely sober for five months.”
Pepper was surprised by the coldness of a child who, until two minutes ago, had been behaving very shyly.
Ignoring Pepper, the boy asked Friday, “Friday, what's wrong with Mr. Stark?”
The AI did not answer, which only made the teenager frown more.
“Tony, could you look at me, please?” the boy asked kindly.
Tony, who until then had had his eyes closed and his head resting on the boy's shoulder, sat up as best he could and looked at him.
“Of course, kid,” Tony said.
Tony's son seemed to study his father's eyes carefully, until he found what he was looking for. Then he proceeded to touch Tony's head, causing the older man to hiss in pain and pull away, leaving the boy's hand stained with blood.
The boy quickly panicked, in a way so similar to Tony that Pepper wondered how they could be so alike.
“Mr. Stark, you have a head wound. You need to go to the hospital,” the boy explained to Tony, who clearly wasn't lucid enough to take him seriously.
Pepper now felt terrible. She had thought her ex-fiancé was drinking and had a woman at home, when in fact he was spending the weekend with his son and had hit his head.
But, not letting guilt get the better of her, Pepper put her feelings aside and sprang into action.
“Tony, your son is right, you need to go to the hospital,” Pepper said, moving closer to the pair.
The boy looked at Pepper in surprise, as if she had said something crazy, but he didn't refute anything.
“This lady is right, Mr. Stark. You need to at least go to the medical bay.”
Tony, even with the two people present pressuring him, shook his head.
“No, I need to be with my baby. My spider baby needs me.”
Pepper didn't understand what he meant by “spider baby,” but it was more urgent to get Tony to see a doctor.
But Tony had always been stubborn when it came to going to the hospital, so Pepper didn't know what to do except physically drag him there.
But apparently the boy knew what to do.
“Mr. Stark, I don't feel very well. I think I've hurt my hand,” said the young boy, clutching his right hand and grimacing in pain.
Instantly, Tony went from denial to concern, gently taking the child by the hand and beginning to examine his “injury.”
"Pepper, the baby has hurt himself. I have to go to the hospital. Nothing bad can happen to the baby!“ Tony shouted, then took the child by the shoulders and ”dragged" him to the elevator, which was more like the child walking with Tony leaning on his shoulders.
By the time they both entered the elevator, and Peter pressed the button for the medical floor, Pepper was already overwhelmed by the surprise of the whole situation.
The last thing she heard from the two men was Tony.
“Don't worry, baby, Daddy will take care of you. Nothing will happen to you.”
Pepper couldn't believe it, but her ex-fiancé was a father. And a very good one at that.
------------------------
It was Helen Cho's night shift.
Before the Avengers split up, there was always someone in the medical bay waiting for the arrival of a badly injured Avenger.
Now, the only thing that happened at night was an employee with a headache from overtime... or Spider-Man, always accompanied by a concerned Tony Stark.
So when a clearly disoriented Tony Stark appeared leaning on the shoulders of a child, Helen expected the worst.
She quickly got up from her seat and approached the pair.
“What's going on?” Helen asked, her tone backed by years of professional medical experience.
Before the boy could answer, it was the disoriented Tony Stark who spoke.
“Helen, my baby is hurt. You have to heal my baby. I can't lose him,” pleaded the clearly injured man.
The child next to him, whom Helen assumes was the “baby,” shook his head. Clearly, the child was not injured and only said that as an excuse for Tony to drag him to the infirmary.
Helen had treated many people with concussions, so she tried to de-escalate the situation as best she could and get Tony help.
“I'll take care of the child now, Tony, but you need help first,” said Helen, taking a flashlight out of her pocket and shining it in Tony's eyes, who closed them in pain.
Tony still shook his head.
“No, no, I'm fine. Help my baby first,” Tony begged.
Helen had to disinfect the wound she could see on the back of Tony's head, so she dragged them both to the bed.
“Sit here, Tony. Your baby can stay with you.”
It was not very professional to let a patient have another person on their lap, but Helen had to do her job, and anything that keeps Tony calm without sedating him was welcome.
Once Tony was seated, the boy sat down next to him and rested his head on the billionaire's lap.
“Don't worry, Mr. Stark. My hand doesn't hurt anymore,” said the boy, wiggling his wrist.
Tony relaxed at the boy's words, making it easier for Helen to start treating Stark's wound.
While Helen treated the wound, Tony began to stroke the boy's hair, who gradually fell asleep in the man's lap.
When Helen finished, Tony settled himself more comfortably on the bed and the boy snuggled up next to him.
"Helen, look at my baby. He's my little spider baby. I love my baby so much," Tony boasted, still stroking the boy's hair.
Helen looked at her boss, who was completely absorbed in his son.
“Your baby is very cute, Tony,” Helen said.
Tony smiled at the compliment, as if it were meant for him.
"My baby is not only cute, he's very smart, and good, and kind, and the best. I have the best baby in the world, Helen. And I'm very lucky to be his dad. I'll make sure nothing happens to my baby," said Tony, hugging the child tighter and burying his face in the child's hair.
Helen just smiled as she watched Tony fall asleep.
“I know you will.”
Tony and Peter fall asleep with smiles on their faces.