Winning Hearts September 21, 2019, 4:50 p.m.
Tony was sitting on the couch in the living room, surrounded by the returned Avengers.
He was trying his hardest to forget all the old grudges, but no matter how hard he tried, absolute trust and calm in their presence still had not come back.
Even after all the time that had passed since his almost-reconciliation with the Captain, and the year and several months during which Tony had relocated the whole merry company as far away from his tower as possible, he still could not fully relax around them.
Well, actually, the evening was not all that bad.
Natasha, Sam, and Clint were cracking pretty decent jokes, and the ale Thor had dragged in from, God help him, Asgard had turned out to be a rather pleasant addition to the evening.
Tony himself was drowning in a pile of pillows — Pepper clearly had a passion for them, because how else could anyone explain this many pillows on one couch?
— and throwing out sarcastic comments and periodically suggesting new ways to torture Steve with modern technology.
He simply had not been able to resist after learning that Rogers had, in fact, never played Mortal Combat in his life.
Distracted by the explosions of laughter and the battle cries coming from the game Rhodey and Steve had been hacking away at for the past hour and a half, Tony did not even hear the elevator chime softly as it opened into the general merriment.
Stark realized something was wrong only when everyone fell quiet and stared toward the elevator.
Tony followed their gazes, praying it was not Pepper, who could easily shut the whole party down if she happened to be in a bad mood.
Arguing with that woman was more trouble than it was worth.
But it was only Peter, who had obviously just woken up because of nightmares.
He sleepily looked around the room and, once he found Tony with his eyes, headed toward him, swaying slightly and adorably slapping his bare feet against the floor.
Tony, for his part, was torn between melting — because the kid looked unbelievably cute with his sleep-mussed hair and that ridiculous kitten pajama set he and Happy had given him purely because they had wanted to laugh, but who could have guessed Peter would like it so much?
— and worrying.
The Avengers watched him in shock, but Peter, still not fully awake, casually padded over to Tony and curled up against his side, burying his face in Tony’s shoulder.
Stark was already used to this.
Peter had nightmares fairly often, and once Tony had learned that Peter usually went to May after them, looking for safety, he simply had not been able to help himself.
First he had ordered F.R.I.D.A.Y.
to notify him about such things, and later he had simply started replacing the kid’s bed for the rest of the night.
“Hey, kiddo,” Tony whispered softly, gently stroking the kid’s back.
He would explain everything to the team later.
Right now, it was more important to find out whether Peter was definitely okay.
And who was he kidding?
Peter was always more important.
“Bad dreams again?
And when did you even get home, huh?” “A couple hours ago.
I heard music, so I didn’t come in,” Peter mumbled, wrapping an arm around Tony.
“Mhm.
Again.” “That’s starting to get concerning,” Tony drawled, not really speaking to Peter, who already seemed to have fallen asleep again.
“F.R.I.D.A.Y., book him an appointment with my therapist.
And why didn’t you tell me he was having nightmares again?” “I’m sorry, Boss,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.
said more quietly than usual, probably trying not to wake Peter.
“You asked not to be disturbed unless the situation was an emergency.” Tony snorted unhappily, shifting the sleeping kid into a more comfortable hold and wrapping his arms around him.
Stupid F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Stupid Stark.
“Add every situation involving Peter to the emergency list.” F.R.I.D.A.Y.
immediately carried out the order under Tony’s disapproving huff.
Mentally, Tony gave himself a couple of smacks upside the head for being so irresponsible.
He should have put Peter on the emergency list long ago, and booked him a doctor’s appointment back when Peter had first told him that in his nightmares he was falling into a sea of blood and seeing the dead bodies of his loved ones.
Tony tried to comfort himself with the fact that he was not exactly an experienced parent yet, but it did not work very well.
He was pulled out of the unpleasant chain of thoughts by Natasha’s voice.
Judging by everything, she was the steadiest of the whole group and the quickest to recover from shocks.
“Tony, who is that?” She seemed to have voiced what everyone in the room was thinking, because they were glancing at Peter as if they had seen a ghost.
And there was his second slip-up.
Apparently, he had forgotten to tell them he had adopted a child.
That probably happened to everyone.
“This is, uh, Peter.
He had a nightmare.” Tony carefully brushed a couple of strands of hair away from the kid’s face, understanding that Natasha had been asking something slightly different.
“He lives here.
Well, almost always.
I adopted him about two years ago.
Oh, and he’s Spider-Man.” On the one hand, it had been reckless to immediately announce his kid’s alter ego like that, but Peter probably would not have minded.
He got excited at the mere thought of working with the Avengers anyway, so he would not have kept his identity secret for long.
Besides, what was the point?
If they were going to get introduced, they might as well do it properly from the start.
A tense silence fell over the room, quiet enough that Peter’s soft breathing could be heard.
The Avengers were trying to digest the news that Tony apparently had a son he had forgotten to mention for two whole years.
Peter, meanwhile, shifted and sneezed thunderously, waking up completely.
Yeah, with his heightened sensitivity to smells, it was hard for him to sleep in a room full of people whose scents he was completely unused to.
Tony imagined how surprised he would be when he saw a room full of Avengers and bit his lip, trying not to laugh.
Peter unhappily pried his eyes open and sat up.
Clearly, he had been hoping to sleep on Tony for a bit longer.
He swept his gaze around the room, falling into confusion for a second as if he had not noticed anyone’s presence, but literally a moment later his eyes became focused and he jerked sharply, bumping his back into Tony.
He stared distrustfully from one person to another, then turned to Tony and said something completely unexpected.
“Be honest.
On a scale from one cute puppy to ten, how badly did I mess up my first impression?” And that was when Tony could no longer hold back his laughter, playfully shoving the kid in the shoulder.
“I’d say one hundred cute puppies out of ten.” Peter puffed up in offense, getting up from the couch.
“F.R.I.D.A.Y., save that recording.
I have to show Pepper!” “Traitor,” Peter grumbled.
“Hi, um, Avengers.
I’m going to go back to sleep and hope that embarrassing myself in front of a whole crowd of my childhood idols was just a bad dream.” Peter was already about to scamper toward the elevator to hide his rapidly reddening ears, but Tony had an ace up his sleeve for dealing with all kinds of little spiders.
“I’ll send the recording to Ned if you abandon me to explain things to them alone,” Tony immediately declared, gesturing toward the team and making Peter freeze mid-step.
“You’re bluffing,” Peter drawled suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.
“And M.J.,” Tony said maliciously.
“Oh, damn it.” Peter puffed out his cheeks, came back, and flopped onto the couch at a run, under Tony’s victorious smile.
“You got me.
But don’t think I don’t understand that you’re going to send it to them anyway.
I’ll hack F.R.I.D.A.Y.
again and delete it from her archives — no offense, Gorgeous.
By the way, am I understanding correctly that you didn’t bother telling your so-called friends that you picked me up?
In all the seventeen months I’ve been hanging around here?” Tony muttered something about Peter not using the words “picked me up” about himself because he was not some homeless puppy, but only Peter heard him.
In response, Peter simply rubbed his head affectionately against Tony’s shoulder instead of saying anything.
“Exactly, Tony!” Rhodey immediately picked up.
“Seventeen months?
I ask you every week what’s new.
You sent me news about a cat that climbed into a drainpipe in the neighboring building, but you forgot about adopting a child?” “Actually, he was just hoping he’d manage to get rid of me before you found out,” Peter immediately cut in, making Tony choke on air indignantly.
“What, you and Pepper aren’t planning to ship me off once I get annoying?” “Shut up, brat.” Tony shoved him in the side without any real malice.
“He’s just joking.
It’s just that Pep and I decided to adopt him very spontaneously.
And anyway, spend even a couple of days around him and you’ll understand for yourselves.
He sort of integrates into your life on a cellular level, and you start seeing him as an inseparable part of it, like that’s how everything was from the very beginning.
Brat, quickly give me some smart metaphor.” “Like a blood transfusion.
I just took,” Peter immediately supplied, smiling sweetly.
The Avengers barely suppressed their fond sighs, because in theory they were supposed to be offended, but when things this cute were happening, it was hard to cling to wounded pride, however performative.
Peter became the center of attention instantly.
He settled comfortably in his father’s arms, cheerfully answering all the Avengers’ questions and asking his own nonstop.
Peter somehow managed to meet and befriend everyone at once, get their phone numbers, take a group selfie, tell them quite a lot about himself, his work as Spider-Man, school, his friends, and even how it had happened that Tony Stark himself had adopted him.
If one had to choose a poetic name for what the Avengers’ party had turned into, it could be called “Peter Wins Hearts.” And he probably would have kept talking if Pepper had not suddenly appeared from the elevator and sent him to bed, because, actually, someone had to get up early tomorrow.
Peter yelped when he heard that and immediately dashed upstairs.
Pepper wanted to kick everyone else out too, but she could not, because questions about their child immediately started raining down on her, and Tony even made F.R.I.D.A.Y.
replay Peter’s appearance in the living room.
“I never doubted him for a second,” Pepper said with a warm smile.
Then she kicked the Avengers out too.
Because there was no reason to be sitting around this late.
People needed to sleep.
Keep a proper schedule.
If anyone should carry the title “Captain Morality” after that, it definitely was not Steve.
No, Michelle and Ned absolutely had to see this.