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Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 16

Nothing much changes after everything. Peter goes back to school, continues working at the internship, and still hangs out weekly with his aunt.

Being Spider-Man has taken a small moment of rest, until Peter’s all healed up again, but other than that, things are practically the same. Ned is still incredibly curious as to how the Avengers exactly are as persons, Michelle continues on staring at Peter with this huge distrust, Aunt May still seems to have this weird crush on Captain America (probably even more so now that she’s actually met the man), and Flash still seems intent on making Peter’s life a miserable hell.

The thing that has changed now, is Tony Stark himself.

First off, Peter can no longer get away with calling him ‘Mr. Stark’ or ‘sir’. The day after the surgery, when the man took a little walk with Peter sitting in the wheelchair, he kneeled down next to the teenager when they were outside, and put it to him simply:

“Listen, Peter, no more of this Mr. or Sir crap, alright? I know it’s probably early to go for the ‘dad’-title, but it’s either something like that or Tony.”

“Sure thing, Tony,” Peter had told him with a grin, glad that even Tony seems to understand that they’re not ready for the ‘dad’-card.

The other thing that’s changed is something Peter thinks only he is aware of. It’s what makes Aunt May’s small crush on Captain America a bit awkward as well, seeing as Peter is now absolutely and a hundred percent sure that Tony and Steve are in fact together.

They don’t show it, never when there’s someone else around, but Peter knows what he saw. And he’s glad for it; because he knows this is something that might help Tony, a lot. They’ve all been sad for such a long time, but now they can start being happy again.

Being excused from any form of physical education, Peter is seated on the sidelines doing some more homework he missed while his classmates are busy throwing balls at each other’s heads. Flash, of course, seems to be giving it his everything and shows no mercy at all, so it’s no surprise that Ned quickly comes to take place next to him.

“So do you have any idea how fast you were flying when Iron Man brought you back?” Ned asks, and Peter snorts. He’s been getting these types of questions for a while now, but Ned keeps on wanting to know more and more. It’s kind of hilarious, Peter thinks.

“In case you hadn’t noticed from what I told earlier, I was kind of bleeding to death on my way back,” Peter reminds him, and Ned’s mouth falls open in sudden realization before turning back around to look at the remaining kids on the field. When Michelle comes to sit by them, she doesn’t pay any attention to anybody, instead just scrolling down on her phone.

“Uh, you realize the coach can take that away from you if he sees that?” Ned asks, and Michelle shrugs.

“He won’t,” she says, sounding bored. “But I did want to show you this.” She shoves the phone in their direction, and puts the device on Peter’s lap. On it, a video starts playing. Though it’s shaky and pixelated, obviously recorded by a phone that zoomed in a lot, Peter recognizes what happens immediately.

It’s from when Harry attacked him. Peter can see the figure that is himself hanging in the air, held up by strong hands grabbing his throat and a fist slamming on his face again and again. He’s still bruised all over, which is probably why Flash has stayed clear for now.

“To me it seems like the guy has some sort of personal vendetta against you,” Michelle states while the video is still playing. Peter sees himself kicking Harry in the stomach before falling down. It looks much shorter than it felt when Iron Man grabs him and quickly flies him away from there. “Care to explain, Parker?”

Peter clears his throat and offers the phone back to Michelle before collecting his papers together and putting them into his bag. With his wound still stinging as he tries to get up, Peter attempts to get more distance between him and the girl who seems intent in finding out what exactly Peter is up to. What he wasn’t counting on was her following him the entire time.

“Hey, don’t ignore me! What does the Goblin want with you, and has it anything to do with the destruction of our hallway?”

Peter sighs but shakes his head.

“If the Goblin had been here, the school wouldn’t have been standing. A-and as to why he wants me, that’s none of your freaking business,” Peter tells her. Michelle shakes her head, her messy red curls swinging along with the movement.

“Wrong answer, Parker,” she tells him. Then she blocks his way, crossing her arms as she stares him down. Peter sighs and throws his arms up in the air.

“What do yo- what do you want from me, huh?” he asks in frustration. “W-want me to spill the beans? Well tough luck, I already have a therapist for that. Want me to talk about the fact that I almost fell to my death? You really want me to relive that memory that badly?”

Michelle’s face then falls, but only lightly. Then she takes a step back, and holds her hands up.

“I guess not,” she says, giving him once more the chance to get out of the room. Just as she opens her mouth to say something else, the coach calls out for her. They’re going to start over the game. With another stare, Michelle turns back towards the other students, and Peter exits the room.

He sighs when he feels his phone ring inside his jeans. Yeah, that’s another thing that’s changed since this week. Without looking at the screen, he picks it up.

“You really need to stop calling me during school hours, I’m fine,” Peter says while rolling his eyes. He walks through the locker room without needing to change, and hurries towards the door to continue working outside. After this, he still has biology before the school day is finished.

“And you need to stop picking up during school hours. This is me secretly testing you, and you’ve failed multiple times now,” Tony Stark’s voice says jokingly, and Peter once again rolls his eyes. Yeah, maybe one day he’d thought that having Iron Man as a father would be cool, but now he’s quickly come to realize that he’s not much different like other fathers – a huge dork, that is.

“Is there a particular reason for this phone call?” Peter asks, taking a seat at a bench underneath a tree and taking out the few pages of his homework there. As he continues the call, he starts tapping his pen against the paper.

“Yes, Steve seems to have made it clear to me that fathers do stuff with their kids, like playing ball or going to the movies or whatever,” Tony says. Peter nods.

“U-huh,” Peter hums out as he looks over the last few math-exercises. They don’t look too hard, really.

“And, I figured I have about sixteen years to catch up on being a good dad, so I thought we could, I don’t know, hang out? Maybe go watch a movie or something?”

Peter chuckles at the awkwardness he knows Tony must be feeling right now.

“Sounds cool,” Peter assures him. “We’re going to the theaters? Or at the Tower?”

“I thought about the tower, maybe? Then you can have a look at the room I prepared there for you? Of course, you’re free to redecorate it to however you wish, but then at least you have somewhere to sleep if you would ever want to, you know, stay over.”

Right, Tony said earlier that he would prepare a bedroom for Peter at the tower – not at the compound, since, according to him, it’s not really a safe place to stay at (probably with the fact that they've got Harry locked up there somewhere). To add to that, Tony also seems to have decided to move back, reclaiming his penthouse on the top floor.

“Yeah, sounds good,” Peter says, feeling a small thrill of excitement going through him at the idea that he’s going to have his own bedroom there. “Is Steve going to join us?”

Okay, that last part is just added to tease him a bit. He knows Tony is going to get flustered after this, and he can already hear him sputter on the other side of the line.

“Wh- uh, no! Why would he-? This is father-son bonding time! No Steve!” Tony gets out, and Peter starts laughing. Just as he writes down the answer to his exercise, the school bell lets out a loud ring to indicate that it’s time.

“I’m just messing with you. I’ll see you after school at the compound?” he asks.

“No, we’re going to work at the tower for a little while,” Tony answers. Peter starts packing in his stuff.

“Is somebody going to join us at the tower, then?”

“No, why?”

“In case you’ve forgotten, you’re still under watch. I don’t want to be the first son that has to remind his own father that he’s supposed to be nice to the babysitter.”

“You’re hilarious,” Tony answers dryly. “Though I don’t want Cap to kill me, so the Compound it is, and afterwards the tower.”

“No babysitter in the tower?”

“… crap. I’ll figure it out.”

“Alright, see you then,” Peter says, and after a quick goodbye from Tony, the two hang up again. Peter quickly hides his phone away in his pocket, and then starts heading back inside. The other students already start piling up at their lockers, always in a hurry to get to their next class. Peter ignores them all, instead searching for Ned and finding him rather quickly.

After biology finishes, Peter heads towards the math-classroom to hand in his extra credit work. The teacher just gives him a sore smile – still not over the fact that he tried to convince her Tony Stark has a bot named Dum-E – and packs it in with all her other stuff. Peter doesn’t waste too much time being nice to her, instead hurrying back to Ned.

“So I was wondering if you might want to hang out?” Ned asks, holding up his phone to show Peter a picture. “I got this amazing Star Wars puzzle that I thought we could put together!”

Peter grabs the phone and looks at the picture.

“Whoa! 1000 pieces! That’s awesome!” he exclaims. Ned nods enthusiastically.

“Yeah, we can go at my house, or maybe yours? You can choose!” he says, but Peter shakes his head sadly and hands the phone back.

“I- I can’t,” he admits. “I have the internship now, and then Tony wanted to watch a movie together – you know, the awkward ‘we’ve just discovered we’re related and now we want to bond’- bonding time.”

“Oh, alright,” Ned says, obviously disappointed.

“Let me tell you what, I’ll ask Tony if you can come along to the compound one day, alright? That way I can introduce you to all the Avengers!”

His face lights up again after that and he nods enthusiastically. They give each other a high five before Ned hurries towards the bus, and Peter makes a run for the back of the parking lot, where Happy is waiting for him in his most unnoticeable car – which is still pretty noticeable, of course.

“Hi Happy!” Peter exclaims loudly, the way he always does. Happy just nods at him and starts driving. He’s never been the most talkative towards Peter, but he doesn’t try to let it get to him. He’s sure it’s nothing personal.

The drive is silent as always, so Peter busies himself with texting Ned and Aunt May while reading through his literature text for tomorrow. It’s three boring pages of ancient English that he can’t for the life of him understand, but he’s sure he can bullshit his way through it like he always does. As long as he finishes the questions that go along with it.

The sun is shining high in the sky. It’s mid-April now, and spring is full in swing. Peter’s already left his coat at home, now daring to only walk outside in a thin sweater above his t-shirt. Knowing that there won’t be any crime-fighting for the following month, Peter isn’t bothering to put on the suit in the morning.

After Happy drops him off, the chauffeur opens the door for Peter and starts walking away again without saying anything to him. Peter just shakes his head before grabbing his bag and throwing it over his shoulder. It rained a bit earlier, so the grass is still wet.

Outside, he can see Steve and Sam sparring together. It seems like a lost cause for the Falcon, though Peter thinks the Captain is taking it easy on him. He decides not to interrupt him and just walks them by.

“Well well, if it isn’t Stark Junior,” somebody behind him suddenly says. Peter turns around to see Natasha sitting there on the ground, her hair put up in a messy bun, though a few strands are stuck against her sweaty face. She’s in training clothes as well, which means that she’s been working out as well. There’s an empty bottle of water at her feet, and another one in her hand.

“Hi Natasha,” Peter says, happy that he got the permission to call everybody with their first name here. Wanda, he would have done so anyway, but the others? No, he waited for permission on that one. “You’ve been working out?”

Natasha snorts and empties her bottle over her head.

“You know your father used to throw me that line as well, though of course you don’t mean anything by it,” she jokes, and Peter frowns.

“Oh, please, don’t tell me about that!” he complains, and Natasha laughs as she stands up.

“Now, if you’re ever interested in getting some self-defense classes, you come to me, okay?” Natasha reminds him. Peter nods. “Of course, not immediately. First see that you get that wound in your back all healed up!”

In truth, the wound is already more healed than it should have been in the past week. Since Peter’s at the compound almost daily, Dr. Cho looks it over right before he gets to Tony, and since she’s not allowed to share anything about it, Peter’s pretty sure nobody is going to ask questions.

Well, except for her…

“Will do, Nat! Now I need to see the doc!”

“Run along, then!” Natasha calls out after him. Peter waves at her before running back inside. Then he starts a slow jog, nodding at all the people he sees inside. There’s Dr. Selvig – who still doesn’t really seem to know who Peter is, and sometimes just mistakes him for another intern (which he actually kind of is…) – and Jane Foster, followed by Darcy and that guy called Ian. Peter hasn’t really spoken a lot to them in the past, but he’s sure that, if he would ever get the chance, they might end up in an endless discussion about science.

Peter loves those kinds of discussions. They are the best – mostly because he learns a lot in them.

He passes Rhodey with a nod, gives Vision a high five – he’s been the lucky person to teach the Android how to do that – and receives an apple from Clint without asking for it. Enjoying the sweet, fruity snack, Peter knocks on the door of Dr. Cho’s office, and waits for her word to be taken inside.

She always opens the door personally, giving him a wide smile and pointing towards the chair. Peter nods at her, raising his hand with the apple in it and follows her instructions.

“How are you feeling, Peter?” Dr. Cho asks. Peter makes himself cozy on the chair and clears his throat.

“’m feeling fine. Time to take the stitches out, right?” Peter asks happily. He’s glad to be rid of them, since they itch a bit. His wound is literally too healed up to keep them in.

“That’s about right, yes,” Dr. Cho says with a smile, though there’s something in her expression that Peter can’t place. Confused, Peter frowns in a sudden fear that she’s going to bring him bad news. “Just take off the shirt and I’ll take care of it right away.”

Peter nods and does as he’s told, before lying back down on the bed. There’s a wound on his back, but also one on his stomach. The last one is a result of the immediate surgery he needed when they had to stitch up his spleen. It’s a small price to pay for not bleeding to death.

He doesn’t feel anything of the removal of the stitches, and before he knows it he can turn around again. Once he’s on his back, he sees how Dr. Cho works. It’s interesting, how quickly she can work on it. With a small knife, she cuts the strings open on one side, and with a pincer she pulls them out on the other. It doesn’t hurt, only tickles a bit.

“You’ve made a surprising recovery, Peter,” Dr. Cho starts. Peter nods in agreement, trying to pretend not to know anything about it. “The bruises on your face have faded already more than they should have in just a week, and this wound… The stitches could have been removed three days ago, I think.”

“Means you did a good job, right?” Peter suggests, and Dr. Cho just hums. Once she finishes with the last stitches, she moves up to throw everything away before cleaning her hands again, turning her chair back towards Peter.

“Let’s not fool anybody here, Peter. I know who you are. I’ve seen your blood before, and I recognized it immediately when I saw it again,” she says calmly. Peter bites on his lower lip, wondering if he should run away from this room. “I needed to do some more testing for the blood transfusion we had to give you during surgery. That, and the anesthesia wore off too fast. That was indication enough that you weren’t exactly normal in your fysiology.”

But then Dr. Cho gives him another smile and shakes her head.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m not telling anybody, nor are my fellow surgeons or nurses. Though I am interested in knowing how exactly Tony Stark’s son ended up becoming Spider-Man? Or how you even got Tony’s blood in the first place?”

Peter blushes a bit at that.

“Uh, bitten by a radioactive spider at Oscorp is all I can give about my superhero origin-story,” Peter shrugs. “But if it’s alright with you, I need to head back towards the workshop; still need to work, even if my boss is my father.”

Dr. Cho raises an eyebrow at him, clearly unimpressed. But then she nods towards the door.

“Alright then, you can go.”

Peter shoots up, already on his way out when suddenly he stops in his tracks. Then, without saying anything, he pulls out his wallet, opens it up, and takes the small glass test-tube he’s taken to always carry around with him.

“This is the little sucker, in case you want to know more,” Peter says, handing the tube with the dead spider still inside. Dr. Cho’s mouth falls open in surprise, but then she takes it from him. With a smile on her lips, she nods towards Peter in thanks. After that, Peter hurries out of the room, running to the workshop as fast as he can. There, he can see Tony already in an argument with Dum-E while Wanda is seated further away, reading a magazine.

Looks like it’s her turn, today! Peter doesn’t mind at all!

“Hey Tony! Hi Wanda!” Peter says, throwing his bag at his desk before running towards where his father is standing. The man just waves lightly, but Wanda waves back. She drops her magazine and walks to Peter, already holding out her arms.

“Hello, Peter,” she says before wrapping him in a strong hug. “You look well.”

“Feeling well,” Peter says in confidence. Wanda just smiles at him.

“You’re late, Peter,” Tony adds to it. Oh, he doesn’t sound all too happy, today? What happened with the good mood he had on the phone?

“Yeah, just came back from Dr. Cho. She took out the stitches,” Peter explains. Tony looks at him the, all of the sudden, eyes wide again.

“Right, I forgot. I’m sorry, I’m a bit… annoyed…” Tony admits. Peter shakes his head and shrugs.

“It’s alright. Dum-E’s been working on your system? I can give you plenty of reasons why you should donate him to an orphanage, you know,” Peter jokes. Tony laughs as well, but Wanda seems shocked, immediately hurrying towards Dum-E and shielding him away from the two.

“No, it’s mostly that friend of yours. She came into the office to get a job, claiming that I’m stealing you away from her,” Tony mutters then, sitting back down on the chair. He rubs his forehead while looking to the side.

“Who, Yaël?” Peter asks in confusion, and Tony nods. “What kind of job did she want?”

“She wanted to water the flowers, of all things. We don’t even have flowers here, right?” Tony turns to Wanda, who just shrugs.

“We have an amount of three hundred and seventy-six flowers at the tower, and one hundred ninety-four here at the compound, sir,” FRIDAY adds in. Peter and Wanda start laughing, but Tony just groans.

“Anyway, since she came storming in without an appointment, security dragged her away before I could even give her an answer – which would have been ‘no’, of course,” Tony says. Peter snorts once more before shaking his head. He takes another bite from his apple, and then throws it into the bin with perfect precision.

“You don’t really seem to like her, do you?” Peter asks curiously. He leans towards the desk and takes the small holographic projection that is floating above the desk and starts toying with it to have a look. It looks like some more things for the suit, and Peter is almost wondering where they’re going to fit it all. He hasn’t seen the final result of it, only the parts that he’s helped make. Tony always said that he would see what it looks like after the person it’s meant for will wear it.

“It doesn’t really matter. Let’s just get to work, alright? We’re almost finished with the suit!” Tony says, trying to lighten the mood with a sudden enthusiasm Peter isn’t entirely feeling. He decides it’s better to just ask Yaël about it later on.

As usual, they work together. Wanda stays at Peter’s side to help him out, but she’s relieved by Steve after a while, who doesn’t take his usual place at the couch but comes where Wanda had been seated. Peter doesn’t mind the extra hands he’s offering, so he’s not saying anything about it.

Neither is he mentioning the thousands of subtle glances the two adults here are giving each other. They’re like lovestruck teenagers, and Peter is almost ready to run out of the room from the frustration they’re creating.

Two hours later, after getting another positive feedback-form from Tony, it’s about time to head out at last. While Tony is out taking a quick shower, Peter hurriedly calls his Aunt to warn her that he won’t be coming home tonight. She assures him that it’s okay, since she has a night-shift at the hospital anyway. They make arrangement for tomorrow, and then Peter puts his phone aside again.

Steve is still here, awkwardly looking around the workshop. Peter gives him a short glance before sighing.

“So how is it going to go? Are you going to join us?” he asks. Steve startles at Peter’s sudden question, eyes open wide.

“Uh, I don’t know, I was thinking you two might want to be alone, but there’s still the watch-duty going on,” Steve explains carefully. Peter nods then, crossing his arms while he leans against the wall. The lights are already dimmed a bit. Steve is just busy grabbing his drawing-materials, so it seems.

“You can join us, I don’t mind,” Peter says with a shrug, because it’s true. He doesn’t mind at all. “B-but please, don’t try to pretend like there’s nothing going on, because it’s driving me crazy. I’m not going to cry if you two want to smooch it up a little bit.”

And the blush that shows up on Steve’s face is gold! He looks so flustered that it’s almost impossible to remember he’s the fearless Captain America. His Aunt should see the man right now.

“I, uh-“ Steve starts, but Peter holds up his hand to shut him up.

“Please, I might have been high on drugs back then, but I know what I saw. And if you two are happy together, don’t… don’t hide it from me, alright?” Peter asks. Steve shuts his mouth, stares for a few seconds, but then nods.

“Alright,” he says. A small smile forms on his lips, and Peter, too, starts smiling.

So, it is agreed that Steve joins them on their movie-night. Once they’re at the tower, the decision is quickly made to watch Man of Steel together. Tony brought in big buckets of popcorn, and Steve brought the drinks. Peter takes place on the left side of the couch. Tony is next to him, leaning against Steve as the two share their popcorn together.

At some points in the movie, Peter turns his head to watch his father there. The staring sometimes lasts a few long seconds, as he takes in the laughing-wrinkles his father has whenever he’s smiling, or the nervous tick he has with his foot whenever he’s been sitting still for too long.

Somehow, during the movie, they’ve shifted on the couch until Peter is lying with his head on Tony’s lap, eyes closed as he’s falling asleep. He’s only vaguely aware of Tony’s fingers going through his hair, or Steve gently picking him up from the couch to bring him to the bedroom he actually still hasn’t seen.

He falls into a deep slumber after hearing Tony wishing him a good night.

“He’s asleep,” Tony says after returning to the living room, where Steve is busy cleaning up their mess. The movie is still playing in the background. As far as they can see, the Kryptonians are creating huge messes in the city. Tony wonders how anybody would even be able to survive that! And what’s the deal with the dubstep?

“Good,” Steve says then. He quickly carries the bowls of popcorn back to the kitchen, followed by Tony who takes along the empty glasses.

“Just leave it there, it’ll be taken care off tomorrow,” Tony assures him, but Steve shakes his head.

“No, we can do this just fine,” Steve tells him. Tony sighs but follows suit. He takes a towel, and waits for Steve to clean the bowl before he can dry it. There’s a strange, domestic feeling about this that Tony hasn’t felt in a little while. In his mind, he’s reminded of the time where Pepper insisted on doing the dishes, but he quickly finds that there’s no more pain in his chest. There’s nostalgia, yes, but looking at Steve is enough to counter the sadness immediately.

Steve notices him staring. Immediately, he frowns.

“Is there something wrong?” he asks. Tony just smiles and shakes his head.

“No, everything’s fine,” he answers. “Everything’s great, even,” he admits. Steve, in turn, curls up the corners of his lips as well before lifting up his hands from the water and throwing some drops towards Tony.

“Hey! Don’t be a jerk, Rogers!” Tony quickly yells at him. Then Steve, without warning, lifts Tony up from the ground and throws him over his shoulder. Tony starts to kick his legs (gently) in an attempt to break free, but he’s unsuccessful.

A small ‘oof’ escapes his mouth when he’s thrown on the couch. Steve then leans over him, lips only millimeters apart from each other. The two men are smirking, only vaguely aware that Peter is sleeping in the room a bit further away. They can’t make too much noise.

“So, am I making a good dad already?” Tony asks in a whisper. Steve lowers his head until his lips are on Tony’s neck. Tony gasps lightly, holding on to Steve’s back with his two hands.

“You’re doing great, Tony,” Steve whispers back, kissing his skin with such a tenderness that makes Tony feel light in his head. “I’m sure Peter already adores you.”

“Ahh,” Tony gets out, turning his head to the side. The sensation is so much. “We can’t make too much noise, Peter-“

“We won’t make any noise,” Steve promises him before reaching up and kissing the breath out of Tony. For about ten seconds, the two make out on the couch, Tony’s hands lowering down to Steve’s hips and already teasing the pants down a bit.

“Better we- uh- better we move to the bedroom?” Tony suggests, and reluctantly, Steve pulls his lips back and drops his forehead on Tony’s shoulder. The two start chuckling nervously. “Or do you want to finish the dishes, first?”

“Forget the dishes,” Steve suddenly mutters, jumping up from the couch and, without warning, picking Tony up again. A small shout escapes the inventor, before he, again, starts swinging his legs.

“You really need to stop doing that,” he complains. Steve ignores him, instead carrying him back into the bedroom and dropping him down on the bed. Then, Steve drops down next to him with a small grunt, eyes never leaving Tony’s.

“I’m all yours,” Steve says, holding up his hands in surrender as he gives all the control to Tony. He, in turn, starts grinning before sitting up again.

This is going to be fun.

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