Chapter Text
New York City. The crown jewel of the nation. The city has so much to offer; so much opportunity. Times Square. Central Park. Wall Street. All examples of the American Dream.
It held the most diverse group of people in the country, offering opportunity to each and every one of them. Regardless of ethnicity, sexuality, or spirituality, New York City was full of the generous, the violent, the weird, and the fascinating.
This place was also home to Peter Parker: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman.
The suit clad teen could be seen all over New York swinging around buildings, helping old ladies cross streets, saving lost cats from trees, and stopping local thieves. He had the opportunity to help others everyday.
But today, the city had presented him with a much bigger, more specific opportunity: The Vulture.
A man who had inflicted great pain on numerous innocent people through his weapon smuggling operations. Not just any weapons either. These were the ones carefully salvaged from the wake of superhuman destruction and pieced together for recreation. His team was attempting to harness alien technology for personal gain.
Peter remembered the thrill of such a daunting task. The intrigue. The fascination. The honor.
But he also remembered how quickly those aspirations shattered. They crumbled alongside the warehouse on Homecoming night. They were the blocks of concrete weighing him down, the shards of glass digging into his skin, the thick dust burning his throat.
He could feel the strain of his muscles and the ache of his bones. His vision blurred from exhaustion. His head became lighter without air as his suit grew heavier with blood.
At one point, it all disappeared and went numb. No more aches. No more pain. No more concrete. No more glass. No more dust. No more blood. No more air. No more suit.
Peter woke up gasping for breath, tears streaming down his face. His currently regressed body could do nothing else but wail and shake. The city... the vulture... the warehouse... Then...
“You’re okay, bud. You’re okay.”
Peter frantically took in his surroundings. Through the blur of tears and racing thoughts, all he could find was a light. A familiar turquoise gleam that brought him back to reality.
“You’re okay, Peter. Look at me. You’re okay.” Tony coaxed, holding him close in his arms. Peter burrowed into the man’s chest, helplessly sobbing. Tony began to demonstrate exaggerated deep breaths for the panicking toddler.
The man had not been in bed long before he heard soft cries from Peter’s room. FRIDAY had reported an elevated heartbeat that made Tony nervous. When he found Peter crying in his sleep, Tony knew exactly what was happening.
When Peter eventually figured out how to follow his mentor’s breathing pattern, Tony spoke in that soft tone he kept reserved for Peter. “Good. In and out, in and out. You’re okay.”
”M’ster St’rk.” Peter tried to speak but all the memories flooded back into his mind. Overwhelmed, he couldn’t respond beyond continuing to ball.
“It’s okay to be scared.” Tony assured. He let the boy cry into him as he rubbed comforting circles into his back. “Nightmares can be scary.”
Peter sniffled a couple of minutes later, calmer but still emotionally distraught. “I’m so’ry. T’at hasn’t happen’d in a wh’le.”
“Don’t be, kiddo, you’re going through a lot right now. Does it happen a lot?”
Peter nodded and hiccuped pitifully. “Vu’tur’.”
“The Vulture, huh?” Tony already knew what happened on his Homecoming night. Even if Peter refused to admit it; he could tell it bothered the teen. The man just wished the boy would come to him when the nightmares bothered him most.
”Yeah, I was unde’ne’th t’e wa’ehouse aga’n. T’apped.” Peter’s voice wavered, the onslaught of memories threatening to come back. “M’ster St’rk.”
Tony thumbed away the couple of tears that fell down the boy’s cheek. “You’re okay. Just breathe for me, alright?”
“I didn’t mean to wak’ you.”
“That’s okay, I’m actually glad you did. Nightmares happen to everyone.”
“Not I’on Man.”
“No, Iron Man gets them too. Some don’t really go away, but they get easier with a little help.”
“I’on Man is a supe’he’o.” Peter protested weakly, raw emotions still lingering.
“Sometimes, even superheroes need a little help. I’ll wake up Pepper and she helps to calm me down. Other times, if I wake up, I’ll call Rhodey or talk to FRIDAY.”
Contrary to popular belief, superheroing is not all good-doing and glory. It has a long list of dangers and perils attached to it. While it took getting used to accepting the help, Tony did not want Peter to go down the same insomniac rabbit hole as he did.
“Not A’nt May o’ Ned ’n MJ. It’s too sca’y.”
“You’re right it’s scary, but wouldn’t you want to know if one of them had nightmares?”
“Yeah, I care abo’t t’em a lot.”
“They care about you a lot too, Pete.”
He mulled it over. “Does I’on Man get sca’ed in t’e day too?”
“Of course. Everyone has their fears.”
“‘ike w’at?”
“I don’t like space and am still a little scared of water. I’m terrified of losing Pepper, Rhodey, and, heck, even you.”
“I don’t wan’ to lose you, M’ster St’rk.” Peter wrapped his arms around the man’s neck in a loose hug. The mere thought of it made the three-year-old anxious.
“Me either, but I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon.” Tony returned the gesture. “C’mere, kiddo.”
Tony pats the clingy child’s padded bottom and carries him back to his room. He climbed back into bed and pulled the covers up, careful to keep Peter between him and a sleeping Pepper.
Peter kept his head on the arc reactor, the soft hum alongside the man’s heartbeat was reassuring. He let his fears slip away. He was safe now. The adrenaline slipped away too, leaving his body numb and heavy. His thumb made it between his lips, suckling unconsciously.
Tony cooed. He felt oddly comfortable with the boy curled up against him like this, allowing his own breaths to follow steady the rise and fall of Peter’s chest.
The man felt someone lightly squeeze his hand and looked up to see a partially awake Pepper.
“He okay?” She whispered
“Nightmare.”
Pepper hummed. Her eyes were on Peter and a small smile was on her face. “He’s something special.”
“Very.”
They laid like that for the rest of the night. Between two of his favorite people, Peter’s nightmares never returned.
Tony woke up hours later, sunlight beginning to creep past the blinds and into his room. He had not slept like that in a long and even he had to admit it felt pretty good. The man yawned and began to sit up, careful not to disturb the sleeping toddler beside him.
“Morning, Tones.” Pepper came to sit on the bed next to him, already up and in fresh clothes, and exchanged a kiss.
“Mornin’.” Tony mumbled, leaning into his wife.
“Are you gonna be okay today?”
“It’ll happen regardless of what I do.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
After a moment, Pepper turned to the pint-size spider. She ran a hand through the boy’s hair and down his back. “Good morning, baby boy.”
His eyes fluttered open, hazy and unfocused. Peter stretched like a kitten, yawning like one too. He looked around, surprised by the lack of bars surrounding him before realizing exactly what happened last night.
But this time, he didn’t feel guilty.
He felt quite content actually. He reviled in the Starks’ sheets, so warm and soft. They smelled like a mix of Tony and Pepper. The hint of metallic lab residue. The remains of strawberry-scented shampoo. His cologne. Her perfume. All of it.
It was something Peter only felt around the two of them. It was something he couldn’t quite describe. It was also the same something that made him want to smile at them, even more so now since he had been regressed to a toddler.
“Morn’ng.”
“Did you sleep okay, Petey?” Tony asked, pulling Peter’s thumb out of his mouth.
The boy nodded. “No mo’e nigh’ma’es.”
“Good.“
“Let’s give Tony some time to get ready, hmm?” Pepper suggested.
“Okay.” Peter held his arms up in an unmistakable ‘pick me up’ pose.
Tony mouthed ‘thank you’ to his wife who smiled knowingly.
He got up and turned on the shower in their master bath. Ever since Peter had been transformed into a three-year-old, Tony really hadn’t gotten time to himself except for the few times the kid was asleep. But even then, he spent that time looking for a way to turn him back. Shuri had joined him in the investigation. Yet, he was no closer to finding a cure than he had been the last four days.
He stripped and let himself be engulfed by hot steam.
Tony didn’t mind the kid. He was sweet, polite, beyond intelligent, and honestly just fucking adorable. He knew the dependence and vulnerability bothered Peter. It’s not like the spiderling had a choice though. Tony hoped he could get the teen back to normal. But until then, they’d make the best of it.
That was the whole reason he had been revising the Accords up to this point, right? A temporary sense of normalcy until the next global disaster. Regardless of how he might have felt about the whole debacle in Germany, Tony knew the team needed to be reunited. If not for Avengers’ sake, then for the rest of the world’s.
He focused on the water and its warmth to avoid the neverending cycle of rumination his mind brought forth.
By the time he stepped out of the shower, Tony felt refreshed and ready to handle the morning. The afternoon was still up for debate.
Towel around his waist, he went about brushing his teeth and adorning a light amount of cologne. He felt a small tug and looked down to see a grinning three-year-old.
“M’ster St’rk!” He shouted. “Look! Look!”
“Inside voice, Peter.”
The comment went unnoticed.
“‘epper gave me a spide’s!” Peter showed off his shirt to Tony. It was indeed a white shirt covered in a black pattern of little spiders and webbing.
“Very cool.”
The toddler climbed onto the countertop, babbling on and on about how cool spiders were, as Tony continued to go about his morning routine.
Stark rinsed his face and covered it in shaving cream. He rubbed it in and reached for more, only to find the can had been abducted by the distracted toddler who was busy fiddling with the various bottles and containers in front of him.
Tony put a dollop of his remaining shaving cream onto Peter’s nose before stealing the foamy lotion back.
The boy giggled and tried to wipe it off, quickly learning that the white fluff refused to leave. It stuck to his hands and the front of his shirt.
Peter watched Tony expertly apply the rest of the shaving cream to his lower face. He did his best to mimic the man.
Let’s just say it didn’t go so well.
Tony rolled his eyes at the shaving cream-covered toddler. He styled his beard with a razor before rinsing the foam off himself and Peter.
Back in his signature 3-piece suit, Tony and Peter headed to the kitchen.
T’Challa and Okoye were talking amongst themselves at the center island. Something about some royal event in Wakanda next month. They waved at the two upon their arrival. Natasha was prepping another pot of coffee and Bucky hovered beside her.
It was crazy how fast the compound went through their coffee supply. Even more so now with the added company.
Peter claimed a seat next to Shuri who was stuffing her face with muffins. The three-year-old was lucky someone set aside one for him or Shuri would have eaten the whole dozen.
Pepper handed her husband his mandatory cup of joe.
“Did I ever tell you how much I love you?” Tony asked, blissfully gulping down the drink. He didn’t care if it burned his tongue anymore.
Pepper hummed.
“Coffee for me, ‘epper? P’ease."
"Sorry, Petey. Caffeine is at the top of the do-not-give-little-kids list. Especially with your metabolism. Can I get you something else? Want some milk with your muffin?"
Although he made a face at the colorful sippy cup, Peter accepted the milk. Nevertheless, sucked the cool, sweet drink with pleasure while holding onto both of the bottle's handles.
“Hey Stark,” Shuri spoke up, “I think I found something last night.”
“If you’ve waited all night to tell me then you can wait until you finish eating.”
“You sound like a dad.”
“Shut up.”
“How can you even argue against that at this point?” Shuri scoffed and pulled up an image on her kimyoto beads. “Anyways, take a look this.” She showed the man a long set of data points and intersecting graphs.
“I’ve only had one cup of coffee. I need at least three before trying to decipher your nonsense.”
“It’s one of Peter’s blood samples from before the...” She emphasized the last part with rhetorical quotation marks, “...incident."
Tony immediately perked up at the implication. “There’s a coffee machine in the lab. Let’s go.”
“Labt’me!” Peter cheered.
“Nuh uh, squirt. That privilege is gone for a while. We’ll come and get you if we need you, ya?” Peter’s bottom lip wobbled as he looked at Tony with those damned puppy eyes. “You get to hang out with the others for a little while. That’ll be nice.”
“Oh Peter,” Pepper sympathetically hoisted the boy onto her hip. “I’m not that bad. We’ll see Tony later.”
The boy watched his science friends leave over Pepper’s shoulder. He whined pitifully. Pepper couldn’t tell what Peter was more upset about: not being in the lab or not being with Tony.
“Hey T’Challa, did Peter ever introduce you to Bear?” Bucky interrupted.
“No...” The king cocked his head in confusion for a moment, before playing along. “...but I would love to. Have you met him, Okoye?”
“No, I don’t think I have. Is he nice?”
“Bear is really nice.” Pepper tried to get the grumpy toddler engaged “Peter? Why don’t you go show T’Challa and Okoye your bear?”
“Bear is ju’t a bear.” Peter grouched.
“Hey, he isn’t just any bear. You told me he was a special bear!” Bucky held a hand to his chest in mock offense and had to support himself with the counter. “You lied? Of all the people in his place! Shame kid, shame on you.”
“Winte’!” Peter couldn’t stop himself from giggling at the soldier’s dramatic performance. “I’m not a l’ar.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire.” He sing-songed. “I don’t believe you.”
“T’en Bear can tell yo’ how spec’al he is.” Pepper let the boy scamper off to his room to retrieve his beloved stuffed animal. She turned to smirk at the metal-armed man.
Back in the lab, Tony tried to ignore DUM-E and Butterfingers ramming into his side for attention. The two bots had the attention span and energy level to rival Peter’s.”
He ran a hand through his hair as Shuri finished her explanation. “So you’re telling me he’s radioactive?”
“No, we already knew that.” Shuri gestured to the number of blue holograms FRIDAY had pulled up for her. “The drug he was injected with has long since catabolized as expected, right? So we can’t trace any of it. I figured since Peter’s blood mutated from radioactivity it’s possible the drug might of been mutated too. So I cross-referenced some of Banner’s research and found that the drug was most likely an alternative form of a specific enzyme inhibitor. Said chemical has been connected to late human development.”
“So a radioactively mutated drug for a radioactively mutated vigilante?”
“10 points to Gryffindor!” The Wakandan cheered.
“What can we do?
“So far we only know a few components of what we’re dealing with here, but with a little more time and research we could be reverse engineering the drug soon.”
“FRIDAY! Pull up Brucie’s relevant old research!” Tony exclaimed. He strode over to the nearest workstation, pushing everything off the side to clear it.
Shuri pulled up two chairs as FRIDAY transferred data onto a myriad of blue screens. They quickly fell into a comfortable silence. The bots whirred beside them and provided emotional support.
Tony paused. “So princess, what makes you think I’m a Gryffindor?”
When the duo remerged, hours later, they found Peter happily playing with his set of wooden blocks in the common room. Pepper supervised from the couch with a StarkPad in hand, answering emails from her infinitely filled inbox.
As Tony got closer, he could see the vague outline of a familiar New York skyscraper: Stark Tower. A near replica too. The three-year-old's experience with Legos and brick-building showed. The base had been completed and stood at about a foot tall with loose foundations for the extended balcony.
It was impressive to say the least.
The scientists were each given a plate of food and ate without question. Both Tony and Shuri were used to their respective protectors shoving food in their faces after spending time in labs.
“Have we solved world hunger yet?” T’Challa asked, finishing his own lunch. Okoye had followed Natasha and Bucky to the training room.
“No, but Peter is a few steps closer to being normal.” Shuri answered. “Then he can solve global sustainability issues for us as a thank you.”
“Get in line, Shuri.” Tony scoffed. “I already have a whole list of projects that I want the kid’s insight on when he’s a teen again.”
“Hogging my Science Buddy, Stark? Not fair.”
“He was mine first.”
“You already had one.”
“My Science Bro is currently a jolly green giant wandering around space.”
“And that justifies you taking mine how?”
T’Challa watched the billionaire and his sister go back and forth. Anyone who overheard the conversation might mistake it for a violent argument, but their expressions said otherwise. They were the very definition of a generation gap. Both had their own set of advanced intellect but both were equally immature.
He sought out Pepper in the next room over. The cat-themed hero settled in beside her, pulling up his own work on his kimyoto beads. “Any news on our old friends?”
“Their flight time was delayed an hour.”
“Is that going to impact anything?”
“It shouldn’t.”
T’Challa smiled as Peter carefully placed another block on top of his tower. “Thank you for hosting us given the circumstances.”
“Of course.” Pepper followed his gaze to the little boy who tried to hide a yawn. He had gone from excitedly building to simply fiddling with the wooden toys. It wouldn’t be hard to put Peter down for a nap within the next hour or so. “This place may be under the Stark name, but it’s not just for me and Tony. Besides, New York doesn’t need a bunch of superheroes running rampant.”
“I have seen your country’s news in the media. They’ll have a field day.”
“The freedom of speech can be a double-edged sword, my friend.”
“I suppose that does explain the sudden increase in communication experts among my secondary counsel.”
“Sometimes I think our PR and legal team are some of the only reasons Stark Industries still exists.”
“It concerns me how close you make running a multimillion-dollar company and governing a technologically advanced kingdom sound.”
“All I need now is a crown.”
“Perhaps a throne too. I will admit that adds to the experience.”
Pepper hummed in amusement, then, her attention turned back to the child playing on the floor. “Excuse me for a moment, my subjects need my attention.”
She kneeled down next to Peter. “Whatcha up to, sweetheart?”
“Bu’ldin’ t’e tow’r.”
“I can see that. For a moment, I thought it was the real deal.”
“T’e re’l tow’r is mu’h bigger.”
“You never know. I bet our friends in California could have snuck up and shrunk the thing.”
“L’ke me?” Peter giggled.
“Kinda.” Pepper picked up the boy and headed toward his bedroom. “You ready for a nap?”
“I don’t need a nap, ‘epper.” Peter protested weakly. “I’m sp‘derman.”
She ignored his whines. Pepper was one of the few people who could get the Tony Stark to nap after spending days on end in his lab. A fussy toddler was no challenge.
“FRIDAY, dim the lights please?”
“Of course, Ms. Potts. Enjoy your nap, Peter.”
After getting the complaining boy into a fresh diaper and soft pair of pajamas, she cradled him close to her chest and began to sing.
“Goodnight, goodnight, it’s time now to sleep, the moon’s watching over you and you dreams. Goodnight, goodnight, my sweet little one, tomorrow your eyes they’ll light up the sun. Goodnight, goodnight, sweet dreams for now, drift off to sleep on your pillow of clouds.” Pepper rocked the boy to the melody of the song. Her voice was soft and smooth. “Goodnight, goodnight, my sweet little friend, tomorrow’s adventures they will soon begin. Tomorrow’s adventures will soon begin.”
Peter was asleep before Pepper got to the second verse.
When Peter woke up, he was shivering. It started at the base of his neck, moved down his spine, and settled in his chest. The sensation radiated along his limbs and festered at the tips of his fingers and toes.
It was a feeling that made the boy want to screech and cower all at the same time. He couldn’t tell if it was good or bad or what on earth it was.
Tony had first learned about Peter’s sensory overload when, naturally, he volunteered to be the kid’s secondary emergency contact for times when May wasn’t available. A couple of days later, he got a call from the nurse at MidTown High about Peter and a migraine. Tony was pretty familiar with migraines and knew the sensitive mess he picked up at the school’s health office was much worse than that.
Ever since then, the billionaire made sure every inch of the kid’s bedroom was relatively desensitized. All walls had been soundproofed. All electrical now had dimmers. All windows were equipped with blackout curtains. All vents were negative flow.
No overbearing scents or sights or sounds.
It was an oasis for Peter, away from the chaos of the normal world.
But now, scanning his room from the inside of the crib, Peter’s heightened senses could clearly hear two heartbeats. That was not okay.
Peter pulled his blanket tight around him and Bear, trying to detect where the sound came from.
“M’ster St’rk?” He asked the empty room cautiously.
No response.
“‘epper?” Peter choked out as he clutched his bear tightly.
He could hear the second heartbeat speed up, not unlike his own. Then, the boy looked up and saw its owner.
A man with dirty blonde hair hung halfway out of Peter’s ceiling vent.
The three-year-old shrieked.
“Shit. No, no, no.” The man cursed and lowered the rest of himself down. Hovering by the crib, he watched the child hide underneath a blanket in fear. “Oh, don’t do that.”
Peter felt sudden tears run down his cheeks. He was helpless in this regressed state and no one was close enough to help. No Tony. No Pepper. No Natasha. No Bucky. No Okoye. No T’Challa. Heck, he’d even take Shuri at the minute. His body went into autopilot and decided to take the third option of fight-or-flight: freeze.
Peter covered his head as much as possible with his arms. That’s how ostriches hide right? Those flightless birds have been around for a while and they survived somehow.
However, Peter was not an ostrich.
“Hey there.” The man lifted part of the blanket to reveal part of the crying toddler. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Peter kept his wide eyes trained on the stranger as he continued. “I like the color of your room. Is blue your favorite color?”
Peter nodded hesitantly. “‘n red.”
“Red is pretty good too, but I’m more of a purple fan myself. My name is Clint. What’s yours?”
“Peter!” Natasha entered the room, gun at the ready. Peter couldn’t help but notice the safety was, in fact, off. “Jesus Christ, Clint? I thought Tony specifically told you this room was off-limits.”
“He did.”
“So what the hell are you doing in here?”
“I got curious.”
“That doesn’t explain going against the rules.”
“He never said the vents were off-limits.”
Nat slipped her gun back into the waistband of her pants before picking up Peter, blanket and all. She wiped away the remaining tears. “Did he scare you?”
“Uh huh.” The boy was relieved to be with someone familiar and cuddled up against her. “I’m okay t’ough.”
She turned back to Clint. “And what do we say to children who were scared awake from their naps?”
“I wasn’t lying when I said I liked the color of his room?” Barton humored.
“Good enough.” It was as close to an apology as Nat was going to get. “Do you remember me telling you about Barton, Peter?”
Feeling shy, the toddler beckoned Nat to come closer so he could whisper. “B’rds aren’t as sne’ky as sp’ders, right? Not as sc’ry e’ther.”
“Yeah. The bird is still learning, маленький паук.” The comment made Natasha grin. “But I promise he’s even less sneaky outside the vents.”
“Less sc’ry too?”
“Less scary too.” She confirmed.
“Hey, I’m still pretty scary.” Clint defended. “You should see me in my purple polka dot pajamas. Everyone screams when they see me.”
Peter smiled at the thought. “I would sc’eam too.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Peter. I’ll have to admit, you caught me a little off guard there.” Clint had the decency to look sheepish. Honestly, though, the last thing he was expecting to find tucked away in the depths of the Avengers compound was a child.
“So you want me to tell Tony you broke the rules or you?”
Clint frowned at Nat. “Can we just... Not mention it?”
“What do you think, Peter? Let him go with a warning?” She asked.
The kid looked suspicious. “W’at’s in it fo’ me?”
“What do you want?”
“‘ookies.”
“Cookies?”
“T’e c’oco’ate ch’p ones. M’ster St’rk keeps t’em in t’e top cab’net in the kitc’en ‘n ‘epper only lets me have one w’en I have fru’t too. T’ey are t’e best ‘ookies ever.”
“Chocolate chip cookies. I can do that.”
“Na’as’a gets one too.”
Widow was pleased to be included in the negotiation. She had to hide the pride she held towards the baby spider.
“Fine.” Clint conceded. “So I was never here?”
Peter reached up to cover Widow’s eyes with his hands before closing his own. “I don’t see Ha’keye anyw’ere. Na’as’a?”
“No Hawkeye here.”
The man was surprised but shrugged off the use of his superhero title in favor of jumping back into the vents. Peter listened for the vent cover to close before letting Natasha see again.
“Why was t’ere a b’rd in my room?” The three-year-old asked suspiciously.
“He came to get a new supply of arrows. Barton won’t be here long.”
That wasn’t a complete lie. Clint did come up the compound every once in a while to restock his array of trick arrows. It was not unusual to find remains of his targets in the gym after one of his visits.
“Re’lly? I hav’ some new des’gns for h’s arrows t’at I got awhile ago. T’ey are in t’e lab but I t’ink C’int would l’ke to see t’em! Can I show him? P’ease?”
“You’ll have to ask Tony first.” She set the boy’s blanket aside and carried him out of the room. “I’m not opposed to it though. Barton likes to play with experimental arrows.”
“T’ey are supe’ cool!”
“I’m sure they are. Did you make them yourself?”
“Uh huh, but M’ster St’rk helped me get t’e right mat’rials ‘cause he’s made arrows l’ke t’is before.” Peter explained the best he could.
“What do they do?”
“One of t’em uses my web’s ‘n exp’odes w’en it hits a ta’get.”
“Like your web shooters?”
Peter nodded vigorously and continued. “Just l’ke my web shoot’rs ‘n t’ere is anoth’r one t’at...”
The boy didn’t notice where he was taken until he overheard Natasha call out to the ceiling, “FRIDAY, please request access to the lab and please let Tony know Peter is with me.”
The three-year-old spun around to see the large sliding doors of Tony’s private lab open. “Labt’me.”
“Sort of.” Natasha mumbled at a volume even Peter struggled to hear. He didn’t have much time to process the odd comment when he heard his mentor.
“Over here.” Tony shouted from the other side of the lab.
The woman deposited Peter onto a nearby table that was miraculously cleared off for him. Peter knew the lab got messy when Tony was halfway through an important project. The man called it organized chaos, but this, this was something else.
“Thanks for getting him, Nat. FRIDAY told me you were the closest when I got the distress alert.”
“Of course, he was awake when I got there anyway.”
“You okay, Pete?”
The boy nodded not trusting himself to speak. He still had to uphold his promise of silence if he wanted any sweets.
“I was on my way to help Barnes out of his room before this but I think everyone else is upstairs. Feel free to come join us when you two are ready?”
“We’ll be done here soon.” Tony said as Natasha turned to leave.
“Anythin’ new?” Peter asked hopefully.
“You want the good news or the bad news first, squirt?”
“Good.”
“Me and Shuri found away to get you back to your teenage self.”
Peter whooped with joy.“We need to call May r’ght now. I can be Sp’de’man aga’n! Oh, hav’ to tell MJ ‘n Ned t’at I can go ba’k to school too. T’ey will be so exc’ted-”
Tony positioned himself close to Peter when the boy decided to jump onto his feet. The three-year-old excitedly held both of the billionaire’s hands for support as he bounced, vibrating with excitement.
The man didn’t want to stop the kid’s so-called ‘happy dance’, in fact, he hated to be the one to see Peter’s happiness falter for even a second. However, creating false hopes was just as bad if there was more to the story.
“Slow down, kiddo. I haven’t gotten to the bad news yet.”
Peter paused. “W’at bad?”
“It’s gonna take awhile. The transition is going to have to be a multi-step process.”
“No.”
“The drug in your system mutated when it came into contact with your radioactive blood. That means a base for the antidote needs to be administered in doses so it can safely mutate too.”
“No.”
“Once there is enough, then it can be triggered with an additive in order for the antidote to work.”
“No.”
“Due to your unique body chemistry, we don’t exactly know when the additive can be added to activate the full reversal. We’ll have to measure the levels of base each day while we’re sure there’s enough.”
“No.”
“Too soon then your body will be overworked. Chances for organ failure are too high to even think about speeding anything up.”
“No!” Peter cried, now squeezing Tony’s hands in an attempt to ground himself. His feelings of hope and relief had quickly replaced by those of helplessness and dread. “No. No. No.”
“I’m sorry, buddy, but you know there’s not much more we can do.” Tony pulled the boy into him, ignoring how Peter’s hands continued to clutch his own. “New York will have it’s friendly neighborhood Spiderman back, but they’ll have to wait if they want him fully functioning.”
This could not be happening. He’d be stuck in a toddler’s body for who knows how long, dependent and a burden to everyone. Peter Parker was Spiderman. Peter Parker was not some crying little kid who needed people to supervise and clean up his messes. Especially in front of the Tony Stark.
“Not a t’ree-ye’r-old.”
“I know. Just a little longer.” Tony, although he tried to suppress his actions with much more success than Peter, had the same reaction when he and Shuri came to that same conclusion. “Do you remember what I told you last night, Peter? About the nightmares?”
“It’s okay to be sc’red.” Peter’s voice was weak and watery.
“That’s right. There’s a lot about this situation that we don’t know and that can be scary. We’ll get through this together. I promise.”
“Why wou’d you p’omise t’at to me?” Peter’s voice was weak and watery from the mix of guilt and sadness. “I don’t dese’ve t’at.”
“Please don’t say that.” Tony wrapped the kid in a tight hug. “You know it’s not true.”
Peter failed to control his emotions and allowed himself to cry into the billionaire very expensive suit. The man merely murmured a mantra of ‘you’re okay’s and ‘shh’ed his lament.
Peter felt fingers card through his hair. Ever comforting and ever calming, the boy had felt similarly fingers do the same in the past. The only difference was the previous fingers all belonged to Parkers.
“I love you, Peter. Never forget that.”
“I love you too, M’ster St’rk.”
They remained like that for awhile. Simply holding onto each other like a lifeline. Whatever walls the two of them set up around themselves had been broken long ago. Finally, Tony and Peter accepted the roles they had stepped into.
Peter barely registered Tony leaving the lab until he saw the blue walls of the pseudo-nursery. A knob of soft plastic was pressed to his lips, causing the boy to up look at the man.
“I didn’t think you want it since it’s pretty childish and not necessary, but FRIDAY recommended it while we wait.” Tony explained, holding up the iron-man themed pacifier. “It’s supposed to be calming.”
Calming was an understatement. As soon as the rubbery tip was in his mouth, Peter felt all of the tension leave his body. It numbed the overwhelming emotions tightening in his chest and dulled the scary thoughts that crept into his mind.
Tony was happily surprised to hear Peter hum in satisfaction within moments of sucking on the pacifier.
The man moved Peter onto the nearby changing table and began to undo the toddler’s pajamas. “You like it?”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m glad it helps. Let I said, we’re gonna get though this together.” Tony was getting better at the whole care-giving ordeal, even if it was a little bit embarrassing for the both of them, and had Peter in a clean diaper within seconds. “Now, what about some real clothes? Whatcha got in mind?”
“Can I hav’ t’e sp’d’rs t’at ‘epper-” The pacifier fell out of his mouth as he tried to answer. It rolled behind his head, making Peter try to turn around to find it.
Tony put a hand on the boy’s side to keep in place, moving around was only going to elongate the tedious dressing process. He reached for the pacifier and handed it back to Peter.
The boy examined it for a moment. Now that Peter wasn’t overrun by emotion, his teenage side seemed to be in debate with his toddler one over the pacifier. Tony didn’t know which side won but the soft plastic ended back up in the boy’s mouth.
“We can put your spiders back on if you like.” The billionaire offered.
While Peter wasn’t fond of the idea of continuing to need help getting dressed, he was quite fond of his spider shirt. The three-year-old nodded making the ring of the pacifier tap quietly against the plastic mouthpiece.
“Dinner will be ready soon.“ FRIDAY chimed from above. “Pepper is requesting your and Peter’s presence in the kitchen.”
“Almost done, girl.” Tony finished pulling a pair of black pants over Peter’s hips, adjusting the waistband to cover as much as the bulky diaper as possible for the boy’s sake. “You ready to say hi to everyone?”
Peter merely raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking for more details. Tony continued as if he had responded verbally. Stark had known the kid long enough to pick up his subtle social cues and unmistakeable facial expressions.
“I think you know everyone already, but they’re not in costume this time so I believe a round of introductions are due. Not everyone is here though. Apparently one of them has a family on the West Coast and the witch and the robot wanted to keep to themselves.”
Peter’s expression didn’t change, neither did his level of confusion.
“I really did want this to happen so soon, bud. They’ve agreed to be civil and keep personal questions to a minimum but it’s still not the situation I had hoped to put you in. We’ll do our best until this is all over, but if you get overwhelmed just say something.”
Their entrance into the common room resulted in a good deal of head turning. They were met with a mix of quiet surprise, utter bewilderment, and complete fondness among the large ground of people in the kitchen.
Tony was right, Peter knew all of them. The Wakandans, Bucky, and Natasha were there. He recognized Clint in the back of room, but there were three others that looked only vaguely familiar.
“Hello everyone.” Even with a child clinging to his side, Tony somehow retained the appearance of the ever confident owner of a multibillion dollar company he was. “This is Peter.”
“Ha! Finally!” A dark skinned man wearing silvery leg braces stepped forward, arms raised in celebration. “After hearing so much about him, I finally get to meet my nephew.”
“Slow down, honey bear. You already know it’s temporary.”
Peter had always felt anxious around new people. Nearly every Gen Z kid seemed to have ample amounts of social anxiety. Peter was no exception and felt his fist clench a part of his mentor’s collar. However, Tony seemed relaxed and gave no notion of danger towards this man.
“Hey kiddo.” Said man reached forward and poked at the boy’s round cheeks playfully. Peter hesitantly allowed him to do so. “No one ever told Uncle Rhodey you were so cute.”
“Stop, you’re smothering him.” Tony teased.
“He’s probably used to it by now.” Peter’s attention to the rest of the new arrivals when another dark skinned man spoke. “Let Rhodey have his fun, Tony. I haven’t seen him this excited since he broke Steve’s Wii Fit record on the hula hoops.”
“I’ll have you know, Sam, that through all the blood, sweet, and tears, it was the greatest achievement of my life.” Rhodey defended. “That gold medal is mine.”
“Have you checked the leaderboard recently?”
“Oh no Shuri, you didn’t.”
“You’re right. I didn’t.” Shuri jabbed her older brother’s side getting a hit over the head in return.
“Really... T’Challa?” Sam didn’t know whether to laugh, honor, or mock the king for taking his rightfully earned place on the leaderboard.
“Well, Steve, the Wakandans are coming for your title as America’s Ass.” Clint commented dramatically. “What is this world coming to?”
Steve’s quiet grumbles at the profane nickname went ignored.
“Oh, you have to see him in action.” Shuri insisted.
“Sister, please don’t do this to me.” T’Challa said under his breath.
“It’s true, his hips don’t lie.”
Okoye rolled her eyes as T’Challa put Shuri into a headlock only causing Shuri to sing the infamous Shakira song even louder. Her job was to protect the siblings from others, not themselves. As far as she could see, there was no reason for Okoye to ruin the perfect source of entertainment in front of her.
Pepper appeared next to Tony moment later. “Who named you guys ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ again?”
Tony shrugged and cleared his throat to gain everyone’s attention before they started putting bets on which royal would last the longest. “Peter this is another reason only certain adults are considered adult supervision for you. Anyways, meet Rhodey, Sam, Clint, and Steve.”
Each of them waved or said some variety of ‘hello’ when their names were mentioned. However, it did little to distract the kid from down right scowling at the patriotic super solider.
“Dinner’s ready.” Pepper announced. “Help yourselves in the kitchen before you sit down.”
They congregated in the dining room and took their seats at a long table. Peter rarely ate in this room, even as a teen. He’d normally be at the stool by kitchen island or on the couches in the living room or some part of Tony’s lab not covered in experimental material.
When he did eat in the dining room, it was usually with multiple people besides his mentor and they would claim a couple of chairs at one end of the table. However, this was the first time Peter had seen the table completely full and all of the chairs occupied.
Given the company, someone had been pulled over a barstool for Peter so the toddler could join them.
No one commented on the way people sat beside their associated teams. Regardless, Peter was grateful to have the Starks on either side of him and Steve far away.
Dinner was a traditional, albeit American, home-cooked meal none of the Rogues were opposed to after being on the road for so long. It was simple and had enough variety for everyone to enjoy. Tony gently pulled the pacifier out of his mouth as Pepper set a plate of cut-up pieces of lightly seasoned chicken and steamed vegetables with mashed potatoes in front of him.
The small talk continued. T’Challa discussed a bit about Wakanda’s outreach programs and Bucky talked about his goats. Steve teased Sam with stories of them living together on the run and Natasha added with her own stories of Clint.
Peter was happy to listen throughout dinner. With so many voices, it was a little hard to keep up so spend most of his time simply smiling and giggling in the joyous atomsphere.
“Mama Rogers was not happy to see us when I dragged you to her doorstep mid-asthma attack.” Barnes pointed out.
“The fact that the majority of Bucky’s childhood memories consists of your stupidity is not surprising to me.” Shuri added.
“Okay not my best moment, but I had a plan.”
“And how did that turn out for the Star Spangled Man with a Plan?” Tony sing-songed.
“I knew what I was doing.”
“You had no idea what you were doing.”
“We were sixteen, Buck.” Steve exasperated. “Like you knew better.”
“Correction: you were sixteen, I was eighteen.”
“By definition that makes him an adult in this country.” The king said.
“T’Challa, what about being an adult makes them more qualified to make decisions?” Okoye questioned.
“Rite of passage, maybe? Personally, I think we were all still pretty clueless at eighteen.”
“Excuse me, Rhodes. Why are you making direct eye contact with me? What did I do?” Tony asked.
“What didn’t you do?”
“Peter, whatever comes out of their mouths next are lies. All lies.”
“Your college days have their own table of contents on Wikipedia.” Natasha explained. “He’ll find out eventually.”
“He looks a lot like you when you were that age. I think Howard and Maria would of liked him.“
“I would to like think so, but we’ll never know.” The table suddenly stilled at Tony’s comment. “Thanks Cap, but right now is not the best time for this conversation.”
“I was close to your parents too, that’s all.” Steve tried to sympathize.
“Howard did like to spend time with you.” The billionaire decided not to mention resulting neglect that came with working with an American icon.
“I was devastated when I heard two good friends had passed, I can only imagine what their son must of felt.”
“Imagined that he wouldn’t be able to handle the truth?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Tony had kept his suit footage of the battle after the airport in Leipzig from Peter. However, he had quite a few guesses as to what happened. Whenever the boy brought it up in the lab or casually over dinner, Tony would shrug and change the subject.
Peter knew this was a touchy subject for the man, but didn’t expect the palpable tension that filled the room. The sheer heat of the argument was intimidating. None of the other Avengers dared to speak up.
Since Peter had met Tony, there were only a handful a times the man actually got mad. However, this was a whole new level of anger that started to scare Peter.
“Your pity means nothing to me.” Tony words were bold and his tone was dangerously sharp. “You withheld any closure left this information could ever provide.”
“There were other things that needed to get done first.” Steve was losing his patience. Every fiber in his body was asking, no begging, for him to reach across the table and finish what the two of them had started in Siberia. “Bucky is the closest thing I have left for a family and you nearly killed him. I had ample reasons to justify my actions.”
“Bucky is not the problem, it’s the Winter Solider program inside of him. The winter solider already killed many more than just my parents. You were doing nothing to neutralize the situation than controlling those murderous actions onto someone less fortunate.”
“You are too arrogant and self absorbed to see it any other way!” Steve accused. He slammed his fist onto the table making the group’s silverware and dishes rattle. “You’ve not had to watch your best friend be turned into puppet, used by madmen in any way they see fit. You’ve not seen how everyday was a battle to live his own life. You’ve not had to deal with the trauma it’s caused.”
Tony slowly stood up, evidently trying to control the fiery rage inside of him. He raised his voice threateningly. “My best friend is currently paralyzed from the waist down because of this. I’m the one who has to explain our situation to rest of the world calmly to avoid World War III while you and your team illegally parade around Europe. I don’t see how I am the one causing all the damage.”
“You stay perched on top of your tower, with all the resources in the world at your fingertips, simply watching the violence and unrest below. Bucky was just the tip of the iceberg, by sidelining me and the rest of us, you’ve stopped any hope as heroes we had to stop that.” Steve was practically yelling to get his point across and into Stark’s thick skull. “What makes you and your team heroes?”
Everyone began arguing at once, shouting over one another to be heard. Tony. Steve. Bucky. Natasha. Sam. Clint. T’Challa. Shuri. Pepper. Okoye. Rhodey. All of them.
“Not all of us can go running into the night and wake up the next day like nothing happened.”
“We can’t pick and choose the people we save. Money and social status should have nothing to do with it.”
“What happens during the battle is out of our control. We need to help afterwards which needs to be established beforehand.”
“There are others who are able to help like we do. We need to allow them to get involved.”
“There is no point in helping others if we are not able to help ourselves first, it will be a burden to everyone.”
Peter buried his head in his arms as everything became too much all at once. The remains of dinner made his stomach churn. Every thread and seam of his clothing rubbed his skin the wrong way. His eyes burned from the fluorescent spotlights above that had once been ambient evening light.
In the end, it was the sound that sent him over the edge. All of the voices yelling at once. No matter how hard he shut his eyes, covered his hears, or pulled at the tags on his clothes, there was too much stimuli.
Peter could hear screaming in the distance and, one by one, the voices around him miraculously stopped.
It took him awhile to realize he was the one screaming.
“Now is clearly not the best time for this conversation.“ Tony said as he scooped up the crying boy and left the room of irritable Avengers to their own devices.
Peter had always been a touch-oriented person. Meaning, physical contact was important for him. The spider would much rather hug over wave and kept his personal bubble much smaller than most. However, as May had warned him, Tony found out Peter became an octopus when he was emotional: like an absolute cuddle lychee.
When Iron Man got shot down mid-fight and had to stay overnight in med-bay afterwards, Tony woke up to a sleeping Peter attached to his side. When movie nights at the compound explored the horror section of their films, it was not uncommon for Peter immediately latch onto his mentor at the first jump scare. Even when Peter just seemed to have a rough day at school, the kid would simply brush shoulders with Tony in the lab.
Tony didn’t mind Peter’s closeness. In fact, he was happy it was a way he could provide his mentee with some level of comfort. He knew the boy already faced more tragedy than most adults would in their lifetime to warrant it.
This was why Tony was surprised to find the three-year-old version of Peter fighting to be held, pushing against his arms and kicking at his torso. The man was lucky he didn’t drop Peter on the way to the boy’s bedroom.
Peter bawled the entire time.
“Peter, you’ve got to calm down. You’re gonna hyperventilate if you keep this up.” Tony coaxed. “Just breathe for me, alright?”
He set the boy on the soft carpeted floor, watching Peter go between pulling at his hair and grabbing at his clothes. The man had to gently hold Peter’s hands together to stop the boy from hurting himself. His actions did nothing to stop Peter’s thrashing; if anything, they made it worse.
Suddenly, all of Peter’s frantic behavior made sense.
Tony set Peter loose from the fabric restraints of his spider print clothes as the boy writhed. He reached into the kid’s closet, pulled out the softest blanket he could find, wrapped Peter up like a burrito, and began to rummage through the rest of the room.
Peter’s rational mind had lost the battle to his emotional one a long time ago. However, by the time he could feel the rim of his noise-canceling headset over his ears and opened his eyes to look through specialized dark film, Peter was able to calm down enough to take control of himself again.
His brain wasn’t quite able to supply Peter where he was, who he was with, what he was doing, or how he got there. But when Peter looked up, with both hands holding onto the big and bulky sensory equipment, and saw Tony, he knew he would be okay.
“Sensory overload?” His mentor said just below a whisper, adjusting the now coherent boy in his arms to face him.
Peter nodded and mumbled in return. “Sor’y I didn’t tell you soon’r, ev’rybod’ was talkin’ so loud ‘n I didn’t know-”
“That’s okay, kiddo.” Tony interrupted before Peter got into another round of tears. He could only take so much crying for one day. “I should’ve recognized it before it got this far and, yeah, we did get pretty loud.”
“Loud’r t’an a bunch of rh’noc’r’ses.”
“Really Pete? How do you even know what a bunch of rhinoceroses sound like?”
“T’ere was a document’ry at school ab’ut Af’ica wit’ a bunch of t’em.”
“God, what are they teaching kids these days?” Tony was relieved to see the kid give a watery smile before wrapping his arms around the man’s neck.
“Thank you.”
“Any time.” Tony happily returned the gesture, having to hold back the urge to aww when Peter pulled away to rub at his eyes. “It’s been a long day. You ready for bed, bud?”
“Uh huh.”
“Feeling up to trying on pajamas?”
“No.” Peter yawned as Tony set him down in his crib, blanket and all.
The man was about to leave when he hear a quiet whine behind him, looking back to see Peter reaching a hand out between the crib’s wooden bars. “Need something else, Pete?”
“I’on Man.”
He chuckled a bit, taking the boy’s outstretched hand. The kid was clearly delirious with sleep after his sensory episode. “What for.”
“Wan’ M’ster St’rk.”
“They’re one in the same and he’s standing right in front of you, kiddo.”
“I’on man ‘ikes to p’otect but no mor’ n’ghtmar’s wit’ Mi’ster St’rk.”
Tony paused, unsure of how to react. That was not the response he was expecting and could feel the insecurities towards his superhero persona bubble up inside of him. The man was well aware that Peter was practically obsessed with Iron Man, but little did he know that Peter was actually obsessed with Tony Stark.
“Stay... p’ease?” Peter continued when the billionaire failed to respond. “J’st until I fall as’eep.”
The man spoke without hesitation. “Of course.”
And that’s how Peter drifted off to sleep: one hand in his mouth and the other holding onto the person who would do anything to protect him.