Chapter 19
Even in the dark (although there were lights like streetlights around to keep it from being truly dark, of course) Peter could see Carlos frown. Confused.
“What do you mean?”
“Peter’s dad is Tony Stark,” Ned repeated, excited to see the reaction once Carlos figured out what he meant. “Ironman.”
The boy who already looked a lot like a mini-Bucky looked a little more like him when he scowled.
“No way. You’re lying.”
Ned was undeterred. He looked at Peter.
“Tell him your last name.”
Peter hesitated. He hadn’t been told to keep his name a secret, but he did want to stay away from all the attention that it would end up bringing him. He’d seen it before when he played football, after all, and it had taken the team a month to act normally around him. He was only going to be at camp for a week. Ned was looking so excited though.
“Stark.”
“And your dad is Tony Stark?” A little more awe but not quite as much disbelief. “Ironman?”
“Yeah. He adopted me last Christmas,” Peter added. “SO he’s not my real dad.”
“But you live with him?”
“Yeah.”
“And the avengers?”
“No. They live at the avenger compound,”
“You’ve been there?”
“I’ve been there loads,” Ned told him, unable to be quiet. “Peter goes even more than me. He has his own room, there.”
“Wow…”
Carlos turned and headed for the hill that led to the cabin.
“Where are you going?”
“To tell everyone else.”
Peter looked at Bucky and Ned ran after his new friend, eager to see the reactions.
“Don’t look so worried,” Barnes said, putting his hand on the little boy’s shoulder. “It’s not unexpected.”
“They won’t like me.”
“They like you fine, buddy,” Barnes assured him. “It won’t change. Just because of your dad. But let’s try to keep it just in the cabin…”
“How do we do that?”
“Come on,” Bucky told him, heading up the hill, too. “We’ll talk about it on the way.”
OOOOOOOOOOOO
“Well that didn’t take long…”
Pepper frowned.
“What happened?”
They were in the living room, simply enjoying the others’ company as they relaxed and handled whatever was needed before they went to bed. Pepper was reading some emails and Tony had been looking through some specifications for the new suit.
“JARVIS just told me that Ned told his cabin-mates who Peter is.”
She frowned.
“How does he know that?” A pause but not nearly long enough to give him a chance to answer. “Did you bug him?”
“What? No. Of course not.”
“Tony…”
“I didn’t bug him. JARVIS can hear him through his watch.”
“I thought that was just to monitor his health?”
The watch wasn’t bulky because Peter had a little wrist, but there was a lot of tech involved in it. Tony had told Pepper (not Peter) that it was mainly to keep an eye on Peter’s biorhythms and to make sure that if something was going on with him and no one happened to be close at hand, JARVIS could make someone else aware or if.
“It is,” he assured her. “But I can’t help that JARVIS wants to listen in on what’s going on around him.”
“That’s an invasion of his privacy, Tony,” Pepper told him, clearly not approving.
“He’s nine, Pep,” the billionaire pointed out. “When he’s sixteen I’ll give him his privacy.”
She gave him that look that he was so familiar with, but there were other things to talk about first.
“What happened with the other kids?”
“I’m not sure, yet.” He held up his tablet. “Do you want to listen in?”
She hesitated, well aware that he was inviting her to invade Peter’s privacy as well.
“Yes.”
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
By the time Peter and Barnes reached the cabin all of the boy’s (and Ross) had been told who Peter’s father was. Ross already knew, of course, but the campers in Peter’s cabin were all looking at him with various looks ranging from excitement to disbelief, and a little awe.
“Is it true, Peter?” Greg asked from where he was standing by his bunk. “Are you really Tony Stark’s kid?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow.”
“Have you met Captain America?”
“Yeah.”
“So have I,” Ned added.
“Prove it.”
Not too surprised, of course, Peter looked at Bucky, as if asking for permission. Barnes nodded, giving him silent approval.
Peter didn’t have his phone which had plenty of pictures of him and Tony – and Pepper, and all of the avengers and even many SHIELD agents he knew – but he had a photo album with him. Tony and Pepper had been told that the campers weren’t allowed to keep their phones on them (which they agreed with) so Pepper had made sure to make Peter a digital photo album. He went to his bunk and pulled out the album, which was a simple tablet-like device that was only capable of displaying the photos that were uploaded into it. Which was why he was allowed to keep it.
He turned it on and the boys all gathered around. The first picture that came up was Peter and Tony. The billionaire superhero was sitting in a chair at the Avenger compound (although there wasn’t anything in the background to show it) and Peter was on his lap. Both of them were wearing Batman shirts.
“No way!” Carlos visibly had to stop himself from taking the tablet away to look at it, and there were several excited sounds from the other boys. “Show us another.”
Peter clicked the next button and it was him, Pepper, and Tony at the side of the pool.
“Is that your mom?” one of the boys asked.
“Yeah.”
“She’s pretty.”
“Yeah.”
Peter smiled at the compliment and clicked the button, again. The next photo was another that drew a lot of attention from the boys in the cabin. It was a photo of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, sitting on the wooden fort that Steve had built for Peter.
“Wow…”
“Find one with me, Peter,” Ned said.
Peter flipped through a few and then found one of him and Ned standing with Tony and Eric in front of the tower. There were more murmurs of excitement.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Morgan asked. “I would have told everyone the first chance I got.”
“I can’t wait to tell everyone,” Carlos said.
“I don’t want people to know,” Peter told them all. “I want people to like me because of me. Not because of who my dad is.”
“Oh.” A slight hesitation while they all thought about that response. “That makes sense.”
“I’ll make you a deal…” Peter told them all. “If none of you tell anyone about who my dad is, I’ll introduce you to him when he comes to get me.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“And we can get pictures with him?”
Peter nodded.
“As many as you want.”
“Wow.”
“Do we have a deal?”
Peter looked at all of them, and one by one they all nodded.
“Deal.”
“Think Captain America will come?”
“I can ask.”
“Wow.”
“Okay guys,” Barnes said, holding up his hand to keep the boys from asking more questions. “It’s bedtime. Get into your jammies and brush your teeth.”
There were plenty of groans, but no actual rebellion.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
Pepper smiled over at her husband.
“You’re going to be very much in demand when we go pick up our son.”
Tony scowled at that, but then he shrugged and smiled. Peter had done a good job of handling things, and he was grateful that Barnes had come up with such a good proposition.
“I suppose.”
“Call Steve and ask him if he’s going to be able to come with us when we go pick Peter up from camp.”
“Do I have to do it tonight?”
“No.”