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Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 28

Tony Stark tells Pepper and Peter that he went to India for Stark Industries business.

It’s not a complete lie, to be honest; Pepper can easily look up if there’s some business deal that needs to be worked out there, so it wouldn’t make sense to make it up.

It’s just that he’s been using India as an excuse to get some other business finished. Though, after Peter’s stunt of falling in the lake surrounded by a drowning parachute, Tony realizes he can’t stay here for too long, either.

The kid is reckless, probably even more so now that Tony knows about him. Now that he has the suit…

Tony often still wonders if it was the right thing to do to let him keep it. Peter searches for the danger, and never really avoids it. That’s what he’s gathered from watching him in the past. Where, at first, it had seemed like a good, strong quality, now all Tony can really do is continuously worry about him. He figures May doesn’t know it yet, otherwise she would never even let him leave the house.

Tony has been close to giving him house-arrest, too. But given Iron Man, that would be hypocritical of him, so he doesn’t.

Stopping the car in front of a secluded house – an address that was sent him anonymously through text, even though Tony can bet everything that it came from Romanoff – Tony takes off his sunglasses and pulls the flower crown from his neck. He’s been pretending to enjoy himself on the party, but now he doesn’t have to anymore. These people know everything – at least what they’ve known since before they left.

Tony steps out of the car, keeping his glasses close since it’s his only link with his newest Iron Man suit. Locking the car, he gives the hot sun another glare before walking up the stairs. It’s hot – extremely hot. It’s one of the reasons he’s chosen for a white suit instead of a black one.

He knocks on the door, using the code Romanoff gave him. Two quick knocks, three long knocks, five quick knocks. Then the door opens up, revealing none other than Black Widow herself, though she’s looking different than normal.

“Well, I preferred the red hair,” Tony says in honesty. Natasha looks back at him, unimpressed. Her once red curls now straightened out and bleached into a light platinum blonde. It’s been cut shorter again, and from afar, she would not be recognized. Probably, in combination with her identity mask, she can get away anywhere, despite being a wanted fugitive.

“Everybody’s a critic,” she then says, shrugging. “You’re alone?”

“What do you think? That I would bring my seventeen-year-old son with me when school’s started again?” Tony snaps. He should really hold it in, but he’s not really in the mood for that.

“Jeesh, you’re in a bad mood,” Natasha says, opening up the door to let him in. The moment Tony’s through, she locks it again, the tension in her shoulders disappearing again immediately.

“Yeah, you try having a teenager. They’re lots of trouble,” Tony mutters.

“What did he do?” Natasha asks. Tony shakes his head. Natasha doesn’t know about Peter being Spider-Man. Nobody does. Tony figures it’s his own job to tell them that.

“Nothing he can’t explain when the time comes. Who else is here?”

Natasha leads him through the hallway. She nods thankfully to the family that resides here, who have given her the permission to meet up at their house. Tony wonders how she came across them, but he decides he’s not going to ask. He’s not that interested.

“Wilson only,” she says.

“Rogers?”

“Wouldn’t come unless you asked for him,” Natasha says. Tony nods, glad for that. He did say that he didn’t want to see him for now. Natasha must have passed the message along.

To be honest, Tony wants nothing more than to see Steve. He misses him, so much that it constantly hurts the scar on his chest. He’s on a permanent feeling of suffocation, and at night the nightmares have become too real now that there’s no Steve there beside him.

But he knows that they’ll fight again. He knows that he’ll be weak, and he’ll cry, and he’ll then forgive him and they’ll pretend that nothing happened. But that’s not true; too much happened, and Tony can’t ignore that.

“Good,” Tony says, and Natasha sighs.

“Tony, he’s respecting your wishes even though he’s hurting. Are you ever going to give him another chance?”

Tony gives Natasha a long look before scoffing.

“Last I remember, you were with him during the whole fall of SHIELD. You, as much as he, could have told me anything.

Natasha nods, not lowering her head.

“I could have, but the state that you were in? The drinking? The destructive behavior? It just screamed ‘bad idea!’. So I chose not to tell you, and so did Steve. That’s my choice, and I stick to it.”

Tony throws her a glare, but decides not to act on it again. They’re here to talk things through, not to start another fight. So he walks through the door Natasha’s pointing at, and sits himself down a chair without waiting for an invitation. He nods shortly at Wilson, before looking around a bit.

The room looks beautiful. Tony doesn’t know much about culture and religion in India, but he can recognize the small statues of the gods. There’s Ganesh, Shiva… The others, he doesn’t know by name. The table is made of a beautiful wood, and it’s covered by a sheet with tiny, detailed motives. The people here might not be the richest of the world, but Tony can’t help but admire the room they’ve made for themselves here.

“Stark”, Wilson greets him. There’s no animosity between them, which is alright by Tony. After all, Wilson didn’t know about his parents. The only thing the two of them disagreed on were the accords, and that exactly is why Tony is here, now.

“Wilson,” he greets back. “You got the copy with you?”

Wilson nods, holding up the book to show it to Tony. Last month, Tony passed along a copy of the Accords to Natasha, which she was to pass back along to Steve and his gang. It had been suggested by a few members of the UN – the ones who had pulled Ross off the whole business and assigned a new secretary of State. They haven’t been happy with how everything has happened, and they agree the Avengers are too important not to have by their side. Instead of wanting to prosecute the remaining members of the group, they want a chance to come to an understanding, an agreement on the accords. So they want to arrange a meeting with everybody.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. As a temporary solution, they’ve just come to the idea that Tony would pass along a copy, and that they would make their notes in there.

Which they’ve clearly done. Passing the book along to Tony, the engineer opens it up to cast a quick look inside of it.

“Who?” Tony asks, not bothering to ask the question completely. Wilson understands it, anyway.

“Steve, Wanda, Scott, Clint and me,” Wilson says. Tony looks up, only slightly.

“No Barnes?” he asks, a bit surprised for it. Then Sam shoots one short glance at Natasha, who is seated somewhere to Tony’s right. The look is quick, but Tony understands enough with it, remembering how, back in the hospital, she addressed the man as ‘James’.

“Barnes is… out of commission for now,” Sam admits. “His choice was to be put back under cryo until there’s a way to fix his brain.”

Sam shoots another small glance towards Natasha. Tony, too, gives her a quick look, finding her staring ahead without as much as an expression. She’s good at keeping poker faces, but right now, the fact that she’s putting one up is indication enough that she’s trying to hide something.

Just when Tony is about to call her out for it, Sam brings them back to the point.

“These changes we’ve made… it’s all or nothing. There’s no in-between. If even one thing is refused, we won’t sign.”

Tony clears his throat.

“You know it’s your freedom you’re playing with here, right?” Tony asks. He casts another short look, finding something in there that he doesn’t quite disagree with.

Underage, enhanced persons are not obligated to sign on the accords unless they’ve come to a legal age to be considered adults.

That has been lacking in the previous accords. And he knows they’re talking about Wanda, but it applies to Peter just as much.

Peter, who is really taking his chances by taking cases he shouldn’t be taking. If he keeps on pursuing these weapons… Tony doesn’t want him involved with this. Not at all.

“I’ll try my best to get it through them. If they agree on everything here, you’ll sign?” he asks. Sam nods.

“Yes,” he assures him. Tony clears his throat and nods then, too. He grabs the book closer and starts to stand up again before letting out another sigh. Then he leans back in his seat and shakes his head.

“Tony?” Natasha asks, suddenly worried.

“How is he?” he asks before he can stop himself. He doesn’t need to clarify who he’s talking about. They’ll know. Natasha closes her mouth, and Sam tilts his head forward a bit.

“Not really too well, though he doesn’t try to let it show. He’s much like you, on that front,” Sam admits. Then he takes a deep breath. “And he misses Peter, too.”

Tony snorts, but there’s no humor in it. He can only laugh at the idiocy in this whole situation. It suddenly sounds so simple, and for a moment Tony regrets not taking Peter along and inviting Steve to come. Right now, he doesn’t care about his own well-being. He just wants his son to get another chance at seeing Steve again.

“Peter misses him, too,” Tony says. Then he stands up after all. He shouldn’t be here for too long, it’s not safe. “Tell, uh… tell him Peter’s doing okay.”

Then Tony heads out again, not able to stay here for much longer. He makes his way back to the front door, but right when he wants to open it again, Natasha stops him by putting a hand on his arm.

“Tony,” she says. “Stop hurting yourself like this.”

Tony lets out a deep sigh. Then he turns around.

“Were you ever going to tell us? About you and Barnes?”

Natasha pulls away as if Tony’s skin is suddenly burning. With eyes open wide, she stares at him, her mouth fallen open. Just when she’s about to ask how he knows, Tony shakes his head.

“I might have been knocked down back at HQ, but I heard you when you were fighting him. You two knew each other in the past, didn’t you?”

Natasha closes her mouth. She doesn’t respond otherwise. Tony takes a deep breath.

“Looks like we’re both hopeless when it comes to the matters of the heart,” he says, copying Natasha’s words. The thing she told him when Pepper was going to break up with him. The sentence Tony thought was about Bruce, while in fact he now knows better.

It was Barnes. It was always Barnes.

Leaving a shocked Natasha behind him, Tony exits the house at last. Speeding almost immediately, Tony hurries away from the road, wanting to be away from here as quickly as possible.

He receives the file the day he arrives at the tower after his trip in India. There’s no sender, nothing to tell him who it comes from. Not that he needs it; the first page is explanation enough.

“Romanoff, you sneaky girl,” Tony mutters with a smirk. “When exactly did this arrive?”

“Peter brought it up about an hour ago before he left,” FRIDAY says. “Though who gave it to him isn’t exactly clear.”

Tony pulls up the security footage of when it arrived, seeing a figure standing handing the file to Peter, who doesn’t seem like he’s suspecting anything. He couldn’t even say it’s Natasha he’s talking to. Poor boy.

“Couldn’t even give him a hint, couldn’t you?” Tony mutters to himself. He, of course, recognizes the blonde haircut and is aware Natasha owns the face-mask. “Where’s Peter now?”

“He’s at his Aunt for the next few days,” FRIDAY tells him. Tony nods.

“Alright, let’s read through this, then,” he mutters, opening the file and starting at the very =https://archiveofourown.org/works/12954996/chapters/29614500beginning.

Despite it only being October, Peter finds that the Decathlon team is always busy. With weekly practice sessions, in which he’s barely been paying any attention to be honest, he’s already given along the news that he wouldn’t be joining them to Washington.

Isn’t it his luck that he would need to be in Washington, then?

Flash wasn’t happy that he would rejoin them after all. But that’s mostly because Flash only got Peter’s place in one of the seats. He had been on reserve after all, since even Peter knows he’s the smartest on the team. He can understand why Gwen was with them, once.

The coach invites him back in with open arms, and before Peter knows it, with barely any baggage with him, he’s on the bus on his way to Washington, being questioned by Liz who is trying to keep everybody sharp.

He’s actually feeling excited right now; knowing all of the answers. Everybody is on a roll – except for Flash, who isn’t really all that great at all. Ned is somewhere in the back with the excuse to be reading a very fascinating book. In fact, he’s just making sure that the guys they’ve been tracking haven’t just started moving again.

Michelle doesn’t pay any attention to him, but Liz does. A bit flustered when she passes along her questions from her cards, she barely even dares to look at him as she expresses how glad she is he’s back. Peter lets out a small breath and nods at her.

“Glad to be back,” he says. He comes to realize that, if he’d been a normal kid that would never have gotten his powers, this is probably something very exciting that would be happening in his life. Of course, he’s Tony Stark’s son and also has kind of been living with the Avengers for a few weeks, so normal isn’t really something he can relate to, anymore.

Feeling a sudden vibration in his pocket, Peter snatches out his phone from his pants. On the cracked screen, a picture of Happy shows up – one Tony once took for him. With sudden panic, he realizes he’s being called. In the meantime, Liz is asking another question.

“Hey, uh, I’m going to take this real quick, okay?” Peter asks. Barely looking at Peter, Liz nods.

“Yeah, fine,” she says, without trying to pay too much attention to him.

Peter hurries to the back, heading towards Ned who looks like he’s asleep. On the other side of the line, he can hear noises.

“I got a blip on my screen here, you left New York?” Happy asks. Peter pulls his phone away, suddenly remembering Tony telling him there’s a tracker on his suit. Crap, how could he have forgotten about that? Of course he would know where Peter is!

“Uh, yeah, no, it’s just a school trip,” Peter quickly explains. “It’s nothing- look, Happy I got to say; you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy.”

That’s when Ned looks up at him, unimpressed, and points towards the tracking device.

“That’s different,” Peter whispers at him.

“What’s different?” Happy asks, obviously having heard that.

“Uh, nothing, look; I- it’s just the Academic Decathlon. No big deal!”

“Hey, hey, hey! I’ll decide if it’s no big deal,” Happy warns him. Peter rolls his eyes and leans back against the wall of the bus, giving Ned another look with an eyeroll. Ned only snorts shortly. “Sounds like it’s no big deal, but remember I’m watching you!”

“Why are you even interested? I thought you didn’t like me that much?” Peter asks then, trying to get something out of Happy now that he’s actually gotten a few words out of him.

“I’m not interested; Tony is. I’m not going to be the one to tell him I lost his kid,” Happy counters.

“Hey, man, I’m seventeen, you know?”

“A seventeen-year-old with a super-suit who crawls on walls. I’m not keeping my eyes off my screen until Tony’s back home and I can pass this little job back along to him.”

Then Happy hangs up, and Peter rolls his eyes again. He leans a bit to the side to check along on the holographic map coming from the device.

“Hey, uh, Ned. Any chance you brought your laptop along?” Peter asks, trying to sound casual about it. Ned frowns.

“Why?” he asks. Peter bites his lip.

“I’ll explain later, okay?”

Of course, once they’re in their hotel room, and Peter has dropped the suit on the bed with multiple little tools lying around, he hands Ned the cable that will connect the suit to the computer.

“Peter, why are we removing the tracker from your suit?” Ned asks. Peter, with a flashlight in his mouth and a screwdriver trying to get a few things loose. Trying to answer Ned’s question, he takes the light from his mouth, but continues turning the screw around.

“Uh, because I got to follow these guys to their boss before they’re moving him, and… I don’t really want my Dad to find out,” Peter admits. Ned gives him a confused stare.

“So… you’re lying to Iron Man now?” he asks, not understanding. Peter sighs again.

“No, I’m not lying. He’s just too worried about me to really know what I can do yet,” he assures him. Then, with his pincer, he picks up the tracker, finding that it comes loose easily. With a smirk, he puts it on the lamp. After spending months building this suit, he knows pretty much how it works, but he can’t recall agreeing with Tony to put a tracker inside of it. He’s sure it wasn’t Tony’s intention to be stalking him, but more in case of emergencies.

And in one hand, he realizes that he might regret this sooner or later, but right now… he can’t really have Tony interfering again. Whatever his reasons are not to want him pursuing this man, he’s severely underestimating Peter’s powers. How does everybody seem to keep on forgetting the Lizard or Electro?

Maybe it’s the fact that Harry keeps on trying to kill him, and has almost succeeded at it three times already… It’s probably that. But Peter’s had training now. Not for long, granted, but enough that Widow taught him the good tricks. He’s better in hand-to-hand now than he’s ever been!

“There’s a ton of other sub-systems in here,” Ned says, smirking a bit. “They’re all disabled, though. It’s called the ‘Training Wheels Protocol’.”

What? Peter jumps up to take a look at the screen, frowning immediately when he sees what Ned is talking about.

“Turn it off!” Peter almost orders him, only getting a headshake from Ned in return.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I mean, they’re probably blocked for a reason?” Ned points at the multiple programs, all of them disabled. Peter suddenly starts to understand where all of the other ideas for the suit might have gone to. After all, he’s been working for such a long time on this; it’s only logical that there’s much more to offer?

“Oh, c’mon man, I don’t need training wheels!” Peter complains. He jumps on the bed as he swings his arms around, feeling too active to just be lying down there. Ned still hesitates, though. “I’m sick of him treating me like a kid all the time, it’s not cool!”

“But… you are a kid?” Ned offers.

“Yeah a kid who can stop a bus with his bare hands!”

“Peter, I don’t think this is a great idea,” Ned continues, looking actually uncertain about this. “I mean, what if this is illegal?”

Peter then gives him a dry stare.

“Ned, this is my suit. I’ve built it with my Dad a few months ago. I think I get to have say in this, don’t you think?” Peter then throws himself from his bed, back on the ground. “Please, this is my chance to prove myself to him.”

Ned looks for a moment longer, but then sighs.

“I mean, even if I wanted to, I can’t. This is Tony Stark we’re talking about. I’m just a kid, I can’t bypass his systems?”

And Peter suddenly feels extremely bad. Not in a sick way, but in a bad way. His insides turn from it at the idea of even doing this, but on the other side it gives him an immediate thrill as well.

“If, uh… If I give you the code to bypass them, will you do it?” Peter asks. He’s just being polite here, because even if Ned will refuse, Peter can just do it himself. Ned holds up his hands in surrender.

“This really isn’t a good idea,” he says, but then he motions for Peter to go on.

So Peter cites him the override code, and there’s another thrilling wave going through him after it’s finished.

But at the same time, he feels like he’s close to puking, too.







Tony Stark doesn’t sleep.

He figures it’s guilt, but by now he doesn’t even know what he’s feeling guilty about anymore. Is it the fact that he’s been finding it difficult to talk to Peter (because he chased Steve away from their lives)? Or is it because he chased Steve from their lives? It could be because he’s been a complete asshole towards the few friends he has left, though of course ‘friends’ should be changed into ‘friend’, and maybe just be limited to ‘Natasha Romanoff’, who surprisingly didn’t kill him on the spot, but instead provided him a look into her past.

One he doesn’t know he would have wanted to know.

After having caught up with the news about what Peter did in Washington, Tony wants to call him. There’s much he wants to tell him; that he’s proud, that he knew he would become someone great. But he finds it harder than he’d expect.

Having never really gotten on the receiving side of compliments given by his father, Tony hasn’t much to go on when it comes to parenting. Sure, his mother has been there a small bit for him, but mostly it’s been Tony chasing after Howard and always ending up with a door slammed in his face.

No wonder he turned to Jarvis and Aunty Peggy after a while.

Sharon is looking at him with raised eyebrows. Tony knows he’s looking horrible, but he wouldn’t have thought it’d be this bad. They’re at the table. Sharon brought food, Tony provided the drinks, and they’ve been talking about something for the past hour.

But what was it about?

“Tony, are you alright?” Sharon asks, putting down her knife and fork and adjusting herself in her seat. Tony blinks a few times before looking to the side, seeing a few empty chairs around them, but only two that matter.

“Uh, yes, I’m okay,” he lies. He knows he’s not okay, but what is he going to say? He can’t explain it all to Sharon now, can he? Not when Steve made such a big deal of it already when they were still together. “Just… Peter hasn’t called yet, and I’m a bit worried.”

Sharon reaches up her hand until it’s covering Tony’s. Her friendly, brown eyes give him a sympathetic look.

“I’m sure he’s fine. You said he was on his way back, right? Who’s picking him up?”

“Uh,” Tony mumbles, looking down at his plate. “May said she would do it. She’s been worried sick.” He remembers his call with her, how scared she’d been on the other side of the line. Tony wouldn’t take away her chance to pick him up if it gives her a sense of comfort.

“That’s not all that bothers you, is it?” she asks, because she’s all knowing – something she shares with Aunty Peggy.

“It’s… nothing, really. Peter and I… we took a beat. I don’t really know how to act around him anymore, and it’s not his fault, it’s my own,” Tony admits, clutching too tightly to his glass. Then he downs it all at once, swallowing the sweet taste of the wine. It’s a good one, he chose well this time.

“What happened between you two, Tony?” she asks, eyes still full of worry. Tony looks up slightly, feeling extremely guilty at the idea of keeping everything quiet. But it’s what Steve would want, no?

But, why does he keep on doing what Steve would want? He didn’t care enough about him to tell him the truth. What’s holding Tony back to just announce their past few months together to the whole world?

Oh, right, he’s not that much of an asshole.

“The team, everything. They were family, and now they’re gone. And it’s been hard on both of us, because Peter was actually friends with Wanda, and Natasha’s gone, too, and then there’s Steve-“

Then he stops, eyes meeting Sharon’s, who is trying to act like the name doesn’t bother her. Tony hasn’t heard from the kissing experience on her side, but then again, she wouldn’t exactly go to him about it all. She has her friends to do that with.

Besides, who would want to talk about kissing a guy who ends up sobbing because of it?

“Listen, Sharon, I need to know; did they give you any trouble?” Tony asks, and Sharon bites her lips before she looks down again. Because it can’t be that she got away with bringing Steve and the others their weapons. They would know somebody did it, and given that she was seen talking to him at the funeral, her bosses will only assume.

“Uh, actually, I’ve lost my job,” she says, trying to chuckle it away. The wetness in her eyes indicates that she’s trying her best to hide the tears, but Tony knows her too well for that. He remembers the few times she came to him, in tears because her boyfriend from that time dumped her, and she didn’t have any sisters or brothers to go to. “It appears somebody saw me. They’re not going to arrest me or anything, but I was fired immediately.”

Tony reaches out his hand and rests it on her shoulder. This is wrong; this shouldn’t have happened. Sharon deserves better than that.

Then, with actual tears in her eyes, Sharon turns her head to the side to hide them away.

“Can you believe it? I risked my job… because of a stupid crush,” she says, hollow laugh following suit. Tony feels something heavy in his throat, because that’s exactly what he did, too. Only he didn’t get caught.

Or maybe they knew about it? Maybe his trouble will come, eventually?

“Hey, Munchkin,” Tony says softly, squeezing her shoulder. “Steve’s just got that effect on people. It’s the eyes, I tell you.”

With his other hand, Tony rubs his scar. He’s been doing that too often, lately. At least the bruising from the shield is gone, but in the end, Tony will always feel it.

“I’m sorry, Tony. I didn’t know you two were together,” Sharon then says. “You never told me.”

Tony pulls his hand away immediately, as if touching her burned him. He clears his throat before dropping his gaze. What- how- how did she know? Tony never told her? He’s pretty sure Peter hasn’t been meeting up with her in secret!

“He- uh… he told me, after I- you know,” Sharon admits. “Said that you were together, that he couldn’t do it to you. Then he started crying, because he thought he lost you.”

“He did lose me,” Tony says, lowly. “He did all that by himself.”

Sharon takes a breath and rubs her eyes. Then she shakes her head, opening her mouth to speak but thinking better of it. “I got contacted by SHIELD. You know how they’ve been getting it back up since the HYDRA-disaster?”

Tony nods.

“Well, I was approached by one of their agents. Asked me if I wanted to get back in. They’ll give me a clean slate, making it as if I never left SHIELD,” she says. Tony reaches to take a drink, but one look at the wine-glass makes him change his mind. He shouldn’t be drinking.

“You’ll be Agent 13 again?” he asks. Sharon nods.

“SHIELD’s legal again. They’ve erased all trace of HYDRA within themselves. And there’s a whole lot of trouble with all this talk about Inhumans and whatever else. Remember the fish-pill disaster?”

Tony does. All the Avengers had been in tension about it, but there was just nothing they could do about it other than apprehend a few of the people who suddenly ended up super-powered. Not that they were all bad, but they just didn’t know how to control everything yet.

“Sharon, if you think that this is the right thing to do, then you should do it. If you say SHIELD’s back, I believe you. Of course, I’m going to keep tabs on them, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Sharon says, grinning.

The two give each other a wide smile, and then they continue their dinner. Tony doesn’t touch his glass at all, his mind on Peter each time he eyes the red wine inside of it.

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