We're gonna be okay

After what was dubbed 'Infinity War' by the public, all Tony Stark could think about was the kid he failed. He could care less about everyone around him, so he ignored the team, those that survived. He ignored his fiance Pepper. He ignored May, well he tried to, but it was hard to ignore her when she came over because he was ignoring her calls. She had screamed in his face for an hour and cried. Tony couldn't even look at her in the eye, he kept his head down, too ashamed to see the face of the woman who trusted him with her baby. He failed. He shut out Rhodey and Happy, he shut out everyone and everything, he shut out the sun. He locked himself in his lab and drank away his sorrows. He did that for a whole month, of course this was after he got back from Titan and recovered from starvation. So technically he was a failure for two months.

Then one day Pepper snuck her way inside. Tony had just slept off some drunkness when she arrived and tried to shoo her away. But she didn't care. She held out a picture. Tony grabbed it.

"What?" Tony's voice was rough.

"Yeah." Pepper whispered.

"How- how far along?"

"Three months."

Tony looked up into her eyes.

"I was gonna tell you sooner, I was but..."

"But I'm an asshole right now."

"That. But you're grieving, you're grieving hard. He was your kid."

"Yeah," Tony let himself breakdown completely into a sob, "he was my kid."

Pepper placed her hand onto his. "Hey." Tony caught her eyes, "we're gonna be okay."

Tony silently nodded.

From that day forward he pushed through with Pepper by his side. They we're gonna be okay.

He got sober and left his dungeon of a lab. He apologized for pushing away Happy and Rhodey, he spoke few words to the remaining team just to let them know he was alive. He fixed himself.

Then came the hard part. May. He went down to the Parker residence and let himself in when noone answered. He found may crying in her bedroom. May had sobered up and rounded on Tony just from the sight of him. He knew he deserved it. He knew it. After another hour of threats and screaming and crying, May had tired herself out. He took that opportunity to tell her how he failed and how he knows he let Peter down and May down and himself down. Then they slowly started talking about May's boy, how brave he was. How caring and helpful he was. Eventually May referred to him as "Our boy, our beautiful boy." They cried and hugged, spent a couple hours watching Star Wars while continuing their discussion.

Tony took his family away from the city, not wanting his daughter, did he mention he was going to have a girl, to grow up in chaos. Six months on, Morgan was born and he shed a few tears of joy for his little girl. And he shed a few tears of sorrow for his little boy. But they were gonna be okay, right?

2 years on Pepper and Tony married. It was odd not having his mentee with him, he would've made jokes about Tony crying at the wedding. Screw it, he would've made jokes about how sappy he had become since the birth of Morgan. Tony was the happiest he had ever been since the snap, since the death of his son. Standing next to the love of his life, in front of his two best friends, his daughter, May and the avenger he let come because he wasn't vial. They were gonna be okay after this.

3 years on he sat on his porch when he got a horrific call from May. He had answered the phone to find out that it wasn't May, but it was Happy. They had been in a car accident and Happy had found her phone unscathed, but didn't see his own anywhere in sight. Tony had never heard the man so distraught. He had explained that they got into a car wreck when going out to brunch. Happy was driving through an intersection when a truck came barreling down the cross section, failing to stop at a red light and t-boned the passenger side. May had died on impact. Tony had screamed alerting his wife and they cried and held eachother for a whole week. Tony knew it was stupid, but May was the last connection that he had to Peter. So he sat and grieved the loss of the Parkers, the end of a bloodline, a bloodline that was too pure for the hurt of the universe. They were gonna be okay though.

4 years on Tony stood in his backyard, a giddy three year old on his hip, carrot in hand. "Okay now you gotta keep your hand flat." He placed the carrot on his daughters hand and she giggled as she felt the tongue from their Alpaca licking on her hand as he ate the carrot. Yeah he got an Alpaca and named it Gerald. He was questioned many times by Pepper why he got an Alpaca and he simply stated that it was the right thing to do, especially with all the land they had at the cabin. He also got questioned a lot on why he picked the name Gerald, in which he always responded with the same answer, "It's a goofy name." He would never tell anyone that he was repeating the same thing, when he had asked a similar question to a much younger boy why he wanted to name his future cat Gerald, which the provided response was, "Mister Stark, it's just goofy to name an animal with a very human name, why wouldn't I pick Gerald of all human names?" He smiled everytime he looked at Gerald. Of course they were gonna be okay.

5 years on he was enjoying his life, he didn't have to worry about saving the world because his whole world was right in front of him eating breakfast. Later that day he went outside with Morgan to play with her. That's when he was approached by the remaining avengers. They wanted to go back in time and fix the snap. It made him want to throw up on the spot, he didn't want to be reminded of his failures. But as he was cleaning the dishes later that evening he saw a picture of a boy with a goofy grin. He knew that he would risk everything for him, because although his world was under the roof of his cabin, it wasn't the entire world if a stubborn boy wasn't there in it. Eventually they were gonna be okay.

He had done it. He had gotten everyone back and he had brought back his boy. He was thankful when Carol Danvers blew the final snap, killing Thanos and his army.

He was over joyed when he got to hug Peter, although Peter was stiff in his arms. This was the second hug Peter had gotten, since coming back, from Tony.

"Mister Stark, are we really there?" Tony had looked at Peter like he had two heads, he shook his head solemly

"Kid, we were there way before any of this happened. I was just too stubborn to admit it."

Peter gladly accepted a third hug.

Tony had to rip apart Peter's heart once they got checked out for injuries. He had to tell him about May. Surprisingly he had taken it really well.

"Happy was with her?" Peter had said quietly.

Tony nodded, "Yeah, Happy was with her. She went quick, no pain." He thought adding that would help.

"I'm just really glad she wasn't alone." Peter had finished, letting a single tear slide down his cheek.

It was a hard adjustment coming back 5 years into the future, Tony had explained that Peter was going to live with him and Pepper. Tony had introduced Morgan as soon as he could and Peter didn't even bat an eye. He allowed himself to be a child's jungle gym, as Morgan threw herself onto him and refused to let go.

Tony and Pepper were with Peter as he grieved and grieved, and eventually he got used to his new normal.

Tony had bought back the tower in order to be closer to Peter's school, of course he told Peter it was because he wanted Morgan going to good school in the city. Peter had a hard time accepting things from Tony. They got used to the newer normal as school started again and Tony and Pepper got back to work at SI. Peter started Spider-manning again, slowly starting out with cleaning up the city. He was still a good kid.

They were gonna be okay.

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

"I think if we drew the names out of a hat and watched them in that order it would be fun."

"No way Ned, you're just messing up the entire timeline, it would not be fun."

"Think about it Peter, we've seen the films 3 million times! If we watch it in a random order it wouldn't even matter because we know it by heart. Besides maybe that way we can figure out a fake story line."

"Hmm, fine. But no need to pick it out of a hat, we can just have Friday jumble up the movies and do it that way."

"You're so right! We can also- Peter? Whats that on your arm?" Ned pointed down to Peter's arm that was laying on his desk.

Peter looked down at his arm quizzically. He noticed a couple light purple dots that were most definitely not there yesterday.

"Huh? I don't know. I probably did something last night to it."

"You should tell your dad, he'll probably know what it is." Peter rolled his eyes at this.

"First off Ned, Tony isn't my dad. Second, I'm not telling him, it'll probably be gone by the time we get to decathlon."

"Uhm Peter, you're literally adopted by him, which makes him your dad-"

"He is not." Peter talked over Ned.

"-and if it's not gone by the time we are in decathlon, you have to promise me you're gonna tell him."

Peter sighed, "Fine, I'll tell him if it's not gone by then- but, you gotta stop calling him my dad."

"You called him dad last time I was over-"

"Hey! That was an honest accident! It's the same as accidentally calling the teacher mom." Peter said with a pout. He cannot believe that Ned had just outted him, even though noone else was listening.

"Ned! Peter! Pay attention," their spanish teacher, Señior Vargas alerted.

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

By the time decathlon rolled around the spots on Peter's arm were not going away, that much was clear. In fact they looked a bit darker than they were in spanish. Peter quickly grabbed a jacket from his locker and put it on, no way was he going to Tony about some random dots on his arm. He wasn't a baby.

Peter sat on stage waiting for everyone else to file in.

"Glad you could make it loser."

Peter looked up to see Mj staring at him, it almost looked like she was smirking. Not quite though.

"Yeah, thanks."

"You cold?" Mj cocked her eyebrow at him.

"Oh- yeah, freezing," he lied.

Mj hummed in suspicion, but kept her thoughts to herself. He watched her as she got some note cards out of her bag.

"Wow, you really like her." Ned whispered so only Peter could hear.

Peter jumped slighlty, "Jesus Ned, don't sneak up on me."

Ned put his hands up in defense, "thought I couldn't because of you know who."

"Kay."

"Show me your arm."

"What? No Ned, leave me alone." Peter crossed his arms.

"Dude! Are you serious, it's not gone is it?" Peter was silent. "Is it?"

"Nope," Peter gave in.

"Oh man, this isn't good."

"What do you mean? It can't be that serious."

Ned looked guiltily at the floor. Peter hit Neds arm, lightly of course. "Dude, what?"

"I may have googled it," Neds voice came out as a high pitched squeak.

"Okay, okay. Well, what did it say?"

"Well it could be anything but I read, a skin condition, lesions, blood clots, and even cancer."

"Cancer? No way dude, I'm enhanced," Peter said confidently.

"True, but it could be the other things, you should get it checked out." Ned was looking around as everyone was now coming into the room and taking their seats.

"Ned even if it is the other things, my body will handle it, I swear."

"Okay everyone, let's begin," Mj started.

That was the end of Peter and Neds conversation. At the end of the practice Peter practically ran out towards Happy's car in order to avoid Ned's hounding. He was surprised to see Tony's car. It wasn't odd he was picking him up, it was just rare. He slammed his door shut and buckled himself in.

"Hey Underoos, you in a rush?" Tony had a bit of laughter caught in his voice.

"No?"

"Why were you running then?"

"I... wasn't?"

Tony cleared his throat, "Hey Fri was Peter runni-"

"Okay! Stop! I was running, but it was because Ned was nagging me. I didn't want to hear it again!" Peter looked out the window as they passed building after building.

"Hmm. Wanna tell me why you were running... from Ned?"

Peter took a minute to think, did he really want Tony to see his arm. He's freaking Spider-man, a hero wouldn't complain about some weird colored spots on his arm. It was totally nothing. Which means it doesn't matter if he told Tony because there was nothing wrong.

Peter pulled back his jacket sleeve, "he wanted to talk about this," Peter gestured towards the spots.

Tony snapped his head over getting a glimpse at his arm. He was driving so it wasn't like he could inspect it. "What is that?"

"Just some purpleish spots, it's nothing really."

"Like bruises?"

"No, not bruises, they're just spots. It's literally nothing Tony."

Tony took another quick glance at it. "How long has it been there?"

"Uhm- Ned noticed it in 2nd Period, so 10 in the morning?"

"Weird. Hey Fri, be a doll and scan his arm."

"Of course boss," came Friday's soothing Irish A.I. voice.

Tony pulled into the Towers private parking.

"It appears to be petechiae, which is caused by bleeding underneath the skin."

"Ok? Fri, what causes that?" Tony had a hint of worry in his voice.

"It can be caused by a minor trauma or blood-clotting."

Peter thought about what Ned googled, he got the blood clotting thing right he supposed.

"Okay, we're gonna head to med-bay to check that out Pete."

"What? No! It's gonna heal on its own!"

"Peter this isn't up for dicussion, it's been there practically all day. Your powers would've taken care of it by now. So, we are getting it checked out."

Tony and Peter got to med-bay and Peter refused to even sit on the bed, he wasn't gonna act like a patient. He was fine.

Helen Cho walked in and greeted them, "Hello Tony, hello Peter. Friday informed me about your arm. I'm just gonna take some blood samples, it doesn't seem like a big concern at the moment." She took Peters arm and examined it, once she was satisfied she put it down and told him to put his other arm up so she could get the blood.

After she was done she left the room. Then in walked Dr. Banner and Peter sighed. He didn't wanna be seen so pathetic in front of Bruce Banner.

"Hey kid, Helen sent me in to ask you some questions."

Peter nodded annoyingly, this was stupid, "Okay."

"Have you been having any weird symptoms lately? Anything at all, even if it's as small as feeling the tiniest bit dizzy."

Peter looked confused and then shook his head, "No... I'm fine Dr. Banner."

"Okay, that's good to hear." Bruce wrote something down on a clipboard. "Helen just wants to check everything off her list," Bruce added when he got a weird look from Peter and Tony.

"Thanks Brucie Bear."

"Of course." Bruce stood up and left the room.

"This is really stupid Mister Stark."

"Aye, bambie, don't you dare revert me back to Mister Stark. I'm Tony. To-ny. Say it with me."

"This is really stupid, To-ny," Peter corrected mockingly.

Tony rolled his eyes and slapped his hand down onto Peter's kneecap, "your health isn't stupid."

"My health is fine!"

Tony and Peter both snapped their heads in the direction of the door when Helen walked in. Her face looked somber and sympathetic.

"What?" Peter said through his nerves.

Helen took a seat and rolled her chair to be directly infront of Peter and Tony.

"I looked through the tests and they are indicative of Peter having  acute lymphoblastic leukemia." Helen gave it to them straight, she knew her patients. She knew they didn't like when she danced around to soften the blow.

"Leu-kemia.." Peter rolled it on his tongue, "Uhm- Dr. Cho, that's cancer?"

Tony stared straight through Helen.

"Yes Peter, I'm really sorry. You have cancer."

Peter shook his head and let out a laugh void of humor. "Uh- I'm spider-man though."

Tony swallowed thickly, "I thought it was just blood clots?" Tony said at the same time as Peter spoke.

"I know this is very difficult to hear, but we have amazing staff. We have doctors here who have treated cancer and their patients are thriving today. I would like to start treatment as early as tomorrow as leukemia is very fast to progress and I'll need some time to get everything in order as we have no medicines in this facility for that at the moment."

Tony snapped out of his daze when he looked at Peter's confused face. He needed to be the parent. "Okay, thank you Helen."

"Of course, you are free to go I'm not going to keep you here, but tomorrow he will be admitted."

"Yeah- thank you." Tony stood up and took Peter's hand to stand him up as well.

Tony guided Peter into the penthouse and sat him on the couch. "Hey buddy, it's gonna be okay."

Peter smiled at Tony, god what did he do to deserve this kid. "Yeah, okay."

Tony hugged Peter. Pepper walked in with Morgan on her hip.

"Hey honey, oh- what's wrong?" Pepper set Morgan down and came to sit on the couch beside her boys.

"Uh Pepper," Tony began, he was unsure how to even get the words out without vomiting on his shoes. "Pete- he uhm-"

"I have cancer," Peter blurted out.

Pepper smiled and huffed, "what?"

Tony stepped in, "Pete he had some spots on his arm, I had Helen check it out. I thought, I don't know, blood clots? That's what Friday said. But then she took some blood and came back and told us he has uhm-"

"Acute lymphoblastic leukemia," Friday provided.

"Yeah, leukemia. Our boy has leukemia." Tony swallowed again.

Peter started crying, he tried really hard to hold it in but he just wasn't strong enough. Was he ever?

"Oh god," Pepper put her hand to her mouth.

"Petey is sick?" Morgan made her presence, they may have forgotten she was standing around.

"Yeah, Morguna Peteys a little sick right now, but don't you worry we're gonna be okay."

Tony hugged Peter close, Pepper joining in a second later. Morgan scrambled onto Peppers lap squeezing into the hug.

"We're gonna be okay," Tony repeated into Peter's head of curls.