Tony doesn’t think he has ever been happier than today. Sun is shining, birds are singing and the first summer seeds are starting to bloom. It all looks like a bad, romantic movie where the character is about to meet the love of their life. Not for Tony, though, who has everything he needs buckled up in a yellow baby carrier.
For the first time in Peter’s short life, he isn’t hidden in a baby cart, but tucked against his father’s chest with his head, arms and legs hanging out. It’s not cold anymore, the winter left behind, so Tony has chosen a short-sleeved onesie for Peter. It has spaceships and planets everywhere, and lets Peter’s feet free. Overall, it’s the cutest thing Tony has ever seen.
“You comfortable there, bubba?” Tony asks, watching as Peter can’t stop moving and looking everywhere. For safety and health reasons, he has his back to the world and his cheek smushed against Tony’s chest, but that doesn’t stop him from having his eyes open wide. “So many new things to see. I get it. What about naked feet? You won’t be losing any socks this way, hm?”
To emphasize his words, Tony tickles Peter’s tiny toes, and the baby breaks into a toothless smile. He uses the opportunity of Peter looking up at him to press a kiss at his bottom nose, which, of course, is a great offense. How dare his dad to block his view from the world. Peter shrieks and moves away from him, already pointing at something.
They walk down the street and towards the park, Tony always with his hand supporting Peter’s back. The baby babbles the whole way there. Since he discovered he can make noises with his mouth and that people are actually quite pleased when he does, Peter hasn’t stopped babbling. Tony can’t blame him. Maybe he takes after him, and likes to overtalk in any situation.
Besides, he doesn’t complain. He finds it very, very cute.
People stare at him from both sides of the hallway. Tony feels them, and hears their conversations as they walk by. Peter is not a secret from the world, because as soon as he was born, Tony announced his retirement from the weapons manufactory in favor of taking care of his son. Apart from that, he hasn’t really shared anything about Peter Stark. Has avoided questions about him just fine for nine months and a half, in which the baby has become the best part of his life.
“Uh, I’ve got an idea” he says as soon as he sees the ice-cream parlor. “Do you want some ice-cream, Pete? They probably have safe baby ice cream. You’re gonna love it”
Tony hops to the man in the counter, who looks like he would be anywhere but there. Peter, who has stopped babbling at Tony’s voice and the new pace, busies himself trying to grab his father’s nose, probably to put it in his mouth. By the time they reach the ice-cream parlor, Peter has realized his mission is fruitless and has resigned himself to suck his own fist.
“Hi” Tony greets the man, who gives him a side glance before realizing who he’s talking to.
“You’re – you’re Tony Stark” he blinks his way. “Tony Stark”
“Yeah, that’s me. Um, do you have… baby-friendly ice-cream?”
Tony is used to people staring at him, but he feels oddly intruded when the man stares at Peter. He drops a protective hand on his baby’s head and caresses his wild, soft curls. Peter doesn’t bother taking the fist out of his mouth, or pretending anything around him is interesting anymore.
“Sure. We’ve got – sure” the man chuckles, not believing who he’s talking to. “Here. Plain ice-cream. There’s… no additive or that. Nothing. Can we take a picture? My wife isn’t gonna to believe this. You’re Tony Stark! That’s so cool!”
He wants to tell him that he doesn’t know if being him is cool at all. While the man rambles behind the counter and prepares the ice-cream for Peter, Tony thinks about the picture. He never has any problem with taking pictures, as long as the person asking is polite. And the seller is being polite, maybe just a bit talkative.
But he has Peter in the baby carrier, strapped to his chest, and even if he managed to unstrap him, what would he do next? Just leave his son on the floor while he takes a picture? Let him crawl all over the nasty ground and eat rocks and dirt? He can’t leave him in a bench either, because Peter has taken the liking lately to throw himself off high surfaces.
Handing him to a stranger is immediately discharged.
Before he can think about something, he’s being offered the ice-cream and told it’s on the house. The man quickly jumps the counter and asks a random person to take the picture. She looks as surprised as them, almost dropping the phone from staring at Tony.
“Wait, I gotta – “
“Say cheese!”
“Cheese!”
Tony can’t move away before the picture is taken, and they don’t give him enough time to protest. Before he knows it, the woman has taken the picture and is giving the phone back, already asking for one too. Peter lets out an angsty cry, already noticing that his peaceful walk is no longer peaceful, quiet or nice.
Suddenly, another person appears by his right, and then one more. In no more than a minute, there’s a crowd around them. And Tony feeling overwhelmed is not even the biggest of his worries. The worst of it is that some of them want to see Peter. There are too many voices, faces and hands. Some of them are bold enough to sneak their arms between the crowd and try to move Peter so they can see their faces.
The baby, to protect himself has hidden his face against his father’s face, tucked his chubby arms and legs in the carrier. But still, he’s tugged and touched, and soon starts sobbing.
“Look at him, just like his father!” someone says when they managed to see Peter’s face. “Mister Stark, he’s so cute! What’s his name? How old is he?”
“And where is his mother? Don’t they carry the baby carriers?”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen a man in one” another voice agrees, and Tony feels suffocating. “But that’s okay, Mister Stark!”
When he feels one hand touching his elbow and another flash going off, he snaps out of his shock and moves away from the crowd. Tony starts pushing people out of the way, keeping his head down and protecting Peter with his whole body. Drool covered fingers are gripping the hem of his tee tightly, making him move faster.
He starts running when the crowd moves with him, and doesn’t stop until the penthouse’s doors close behind him.
-
“I hate them so much. I hate them” Tony repeats for the thousand time, not caring if he sounds like a kid having a tantrum. He’s seconds away from tears. “They have no right. They’re monsters. Why do my privacy matter so little? Why can’t I just walk with my son without being attacked?”
“Tony, we’re pressing chargers. There are a few security cameras around that have footage of the park. Stop worrying” Pepper says, although there is a sharp edge on her voice. “They’re not gonna walk away, I promise”
To him, they have already walked away.
Because right now, they’re in their houses, talking with their families about how they’ve seen Tony Stark, how the man has ran off and is not how media portraits him. If they’re kind enough, they won’t talk about Peter. If they aren’t, they will.
And Tony is cradling his sniffling son, who has scratches all over his arms and legs.
What Tony has mistaken for fearful sobs, had actually been painful ones. He hasn’t noticed until they arrived to the penthouse, until Pepper found them in the kitchen room sitting on the ground. Tony had been in the middle of a panic attack, and Peter was just crying miserably on his father’s chest. At Pepper’s surprised yelp, Tony has looked up. He was ready to pass out right there and then, but then he has noticed she was looking at Peter. When she practically fell to her knees in front of them, he looked down.
Peter’s arms are covered in tiny, red lines. Some of them are irritated, some other barely there. There is dried bloom from the ones deep enough, that has stained Tony’s tee and Peter’s cute outfit.
Those – those monsters, because Tony refuses to call them anything else, has hurt his son. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t need medical attention or if the kid has almost forgotten about it, now sucking on his Dino pacifier.
Tony can’t just shake the image of Peter bleeding in his arms, the panic clawing at his throat when he took Peter out of the carrier and found more scratches, under the onesie’s legs.
“I already wrote a statement. For the press” Pepper breaks the silence. She’s pressing wet pads to the scratches, with her high heels off to be more comfortable. “They have some pictures, but none of them show Peter’s face. That’s good”
“It’s not. It’s – I can’t just pretend everything is fine! We were walking, Pepper! Walking! And they attacked Peter, they wanted so bad to see his face that tried to pry him off the carrier!” Tony screams. When the baby whines in his lap, he shushes him and takes a deep breath. The last thing he wants is to upset him more. “Sorry, Pete. I just – it’s not fair. It’s so not fair”
“I know. But you’re not alone, Tony. People know that what has happened today isn’t right. Look” Pepper leaves the pad and unlocks her phone. “Look at the tweets”
Tony gives her phone a side-glance, expecting to see pictures of him and Peter or trash talk about the incident. Instead, he finds people defending him.
The more Pepper scrolls, the harder the comments are. Tony notices most of them are men, although there are women too. Apparently, there’s a video of the conversations of the incident. Someone recorded it, and was dumb enough to post it. It’s an unfocused video of the ground, that doesn’t show Peter or his face.
But you can hear the comments about Peter’s mother, about the baby carrier. And people in twitter are attacking them without mercy. There are thousands of dads posting pictures with their kids in a baby carrier, with the hashtag #MenAlsoWearCarriers. Famous people are talking about it too, and Tony can’t help the smile when they find Rhodey’s tweet in between.
“I posted the statement in Twitter too. Informed them about what has happened, about Peter’s scratches and asked them to take down any picture” Pepper explains. “It’s gonna be fine, Tony. I promise”
Tony thinks about the ice-cream, and wonders what would have happened if Peter actually ate it. If he would have pulled a funny face, or stuffed his mouth full. Maybe he would have cried because it’s cold. He guesses he’ll have to wait, but he longs for those moments.
A soft snore comes from under him, and Tony finds Peter asleep on his chest. He still has the pacifier on his mouth, partially hanging out. Pepper sneaks a hand and puts it back into Peter’s mouth, who keeps sucking happily while sleeping. If he looks long enough, he focuses on the scratches on his arms and legs, on the dried tears of his face.
But now, he lets Pepper sit closer and drop an arm around Peter. He looks at his son, long lashes creating shadows on his cheeks, and smiles.
Maybe, they won’t get to have a normal life, and Peter will live with the constant breath of paparazzi and crowds behind his neck. Tony promises right then to be there while that happen, and make sure that his baby never drops the smile.
No matter what.