I Don't Have to Leave?

Happy pulled up outside Oscorp to pick Peter up the next morning, ringing him from the car to let him know he was there.

Voicemail.

After trying three more times, Happy cured and parked the car and decided to walk in and talk to reception.

“Hey, can you do me a favour and ring up to the penthouse? I’m here to pick Peter Parker up but he’s not answering his phone.” He asked the women at reception and she nodded, picking up the phone and dialling.

“I’m sorry, Sir, it appears that Mr Parker has already left. I was told he made his own way home a short while ago and is no longer here.”

Happy scowled. He’d arranged with Peter to pick him up, and he’d gone off on his own plan again. He knew how important a plan was to Happy. Little shit.

“Alright, thanks for you help. Sorry for wasting your time.”

“Have a nice day.”

So Happy got back into the car to drive home, cursing Peter Parker the whole way back.

“This is Stark,” Tony accepted the call in his lab and the voice of one of his lawyers rang out across the room.

“Tony, I’ve got some good news.”

“Hit me with it.”

“We’ve got a date for your adoption hearing. The paperwork has been processed and accepted.”

Tony sucked in a deep breath. “Oh my god, really?”

“Really. Your hearing is next Thursday at 11am. Congratulations, man.”

Tony felt his eyes go a little glossy as they struggled to focus. Finally, Peter would be his son.

“Man, I—I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. Thank you, I appreciate you working so hard to get it rushed through.”

“Not a problem, Tony. I’ll send Pepper an email through with all the details so you don’t forget, alright? Talk soon.”

“You got it.”

The line cut off and Tony sat down, the chair wheeling back a little with the force. It was finally happening, they were finally going to be a family. There would be no more speculation about who they were; Tony would be Peter’s father, and Peter would be Tony’s son.

He tried to phone Peter and let him know the good news but he was met with his voicemail. He didn’t think much of it, assuming the kid was asleep in the car on the way back with Happy. He figured he didn’t get much sleep last night having been with his friend. Typical teenager. He’d talk to him when he gets back.

And that’s when Happy phoned him.

“Happy?”

“Can you tell the kid I don’t appreciate him wasting my time and if he was going to leave Oscorp this morning on his own, I would’ve appreciated the heads up so I didn’t have to drive all the way over there for the receptionist to tell me he’d left already.”

Tony was confused. “What do you mean? He’s left? Are you sure?”

“Positive. Watched her ring the penthouse myself.”

“That doesn’t seem right, he hasn’t told anyone where he was going. He’s done that so many times before he knows how much it makes me worry. When I called him just now it went to voicemail.”

“I called him like three times before I went into Oscorp. Didn’t pick up.”

Tony started to worry. “Oh god. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Hang on, let me track his suit. FRIDAY?”

Peter’s suit is in the penthouse at Oscorp, Boss.

“He’s still there. Something’s wrong. He wouldn’t leave without the suit. He’s in Norman Osborn’s house, this is not good.”

There was a slight moment of silence before a lot of horns and wheels screeching.

“I’m turning back now. I’ll meet you there. Bring whoever’s still at the Tower. I’ll phone Helen.”

Tony swore violently. The entire time was gone on a Hydra mission. How fucking convenient. Earth’s mightiest heroes and where were they when one of their own was in trouble? They were out of town. Wow. Fantastic. Not great for Tony’s cardiogram.

And then he remembered.

Bucky.

Bucky was still here because he couldn’t be anywhere near Hydra. He could still use Bucky.

“FRI, patch me through to the Manchurian candidate.”

“Tony? Why are you calling me I’m literally a floor away, just come downstair—”

“Shut up and listen. Peter’s at Oscorp and something’s wrong, he’s not picking up and they told Happy he’d left on his own but his suit is still there and I—shit, FRIDAY, does he have his watch on?”

He does, Boss. Peter’s location is still at Oscorp.

“Oh god, he’s still there—Barnes you better suit up and get your ass up here now. We’re the only ones left.”

“Shit, okay, I’m coming. I’ll be up in thirty seconds.”

“FRIDAY, what’re his vitals like?”

From Peter’s StarkWatch I can determine that his pulse is weak, he most likely hasn’t eaten in a while or is experiencing significant blood loss.

Well that didn’t make him feel any better.

The Quinjet would take far too long to boot up, so he was going in the suit and Bucky was taking his motorcycle. Their ‘plan’ was that Tony would use FRIDAY’s tech to scan the building and find Peter, and Bucky would go after Norman. Tony had been conflicted in the start about not getting ahold of Norman himself, but Bucky was intensely furious with the idea of Norman using Peter’s blood, knowing that it would be for new soldiers. Tony figured he’d let him let loose, give him the reigns. As long as Osborn wasn’t breathing by the end and it was long and painful, he’d be happy enough.

Bucky’s motorbike hit the concrete the second Tony’s thrusters set off from the landing pad on the roof. He wove in between traffic and blew through red lights like nobody’s business. The closer he got to Oscorp, the angrier he got and the faster he drove. How dare he? How could he use Peter? A child? He’d lashed out at Tony when he found out Peter was Spider-Man, the things he was going to do to Norman Osborn, he couldn’t even say.

Boss?

“What is it?”

Remember that research into Norman Osborn you wanted me to continue? I think I may have found out some things.

“Fire away.”

Osborn’s work partner was fellow scientist, Richard Parker, deceased. His wife, Emily, also deceased, was killed in the same plane crash that took Parker and his wife, Mary. Richard and Mary are succeeded by a son, Peter, and Emily left behind a son, Harry. Osborn and Parker’s research into cross species genetics led to human trials. Upon expressing his hesitation, it is believed that Richard Parker’s death was in fact an attack by Osborn to eliminate him and his wife. Is it speculated that Emily’s death was accidental, and that she boarded the wrong plane.

“Holy shit,” Tony mumbled, his mind racing a mile a minute. Osborn killed Peter’s parents. Osborn killed his own wife. He wanted to continue the work he and Richard were doing, which is why he wanted Peter’s blood. But that would only work if Norman knew that Peter was Spider-Man. “Holy shit,” he repeated. Osborn knew Peter was Spider-Man, that’s why he was using him. That’s why Peter’s pulse was weak.

Tony had introduced Peter to Norman at the SI Gala on New Year’s Eve. He’d mentioned that Peter went to Midtown Tech. Norman had enrolled Harry into the same school to get him close to Peter. This entire thing was Tony’s fault.

Oh god, he needed to get to Peter, because Norman Osborn was about to kill him.

Tony was starting to wonder whether this was Osborn’s plan all along, maybe he’d even organised it so that the whole team was conveniently on a mission. Did this mean that he was in cahoots with SHIELD? Had SHIELD been infiltrated again?

Peter jerked away and found himself in a dark room strapped to a chair by metal cuffs. He immediately started tugging at them, wondering why he couldn’t break through them like he could with normal ones.

“I wouldn’t bother if I were you, Parker,” he heard a voice come from the darkness and a lamp was turned on. Peter waited for his eyes to adjust and he made out a figure standing a few yards away from him.

“What did you do to me?”

“Even if you were at your usual, what I’m assuming to be, super strength, you’d have trouble breaking through those bad boys. But since I’ve been taking your blood for the past ten minutes, you’re a little weaker anyway, kiddo.”

Peter started to panic and noticed the line in his arm that was indeed draining his blood into a blood bag.

“Why are you doing this? What did I do to you?” Peter was slurring his words a little and he tried to sit up more to steady himself.

Osborn took a few steps forward so that he could see him clearer. “It’s not necessarily what you did to me, but more what I can use you for. You see, when I met you on New Year’s Eve and Tony Stark announced you as his heir to the company, I realised that I could use you to get to him. The fact that you’re Spider-Man was an added bonus, of course, and now I can start a new like of super soldier, with extra enhancements. I can finally properly continue the research your father and I started together.”

Peter’s blood (or what was left of it) ran cold.

“My—My father?”

Norman smiled menacingly. “Oh yes, you didn’t know about that little tidbit, did you? Your father and I were business partners. He was the one to start this whole research project about spider genetics.”

“So what, you’re… you’re doing this… just because I’m his son?”

Norman shook his head slowly. “No. I enrolled Harry at Midtown and told him to befriend you and earn your trust. I was going to use you as leverage for something I was planning to get Stark back. But then, you see, Harry saw you one afternoon change into your little costume and so my plan changed a little. I figured I could still use you to get back at Tony, but I could also use you for research. It’s a win-win situation.”

Peter thought about how he could trying and get in touch with anyone to come and help him. Without being able to get through the cuffs, he was completely useless. He shifted and strained his neck to look at his watch. The red light was beeping, indicating a problem like his blood loss or heart rate. That was supposed to tell Tony something was wrong. Come on, please work. Please work.

“And do you wanna know the best part, Peter?” Norman asked and Peter narrowed his eyes.

“What?” He spat.

“Even if your little surrogate father does find out what’s happening. By the time he gets here, it’ll be too late. Because at the rate your blood is being taken, you won’t last a whole lot longer before passing out, and little Tony is all alone because everyone else is on a Hydra mission.” Norman smiled again and it sent shivers up Peter’s spine.

That mission was top-secret. SHIELD were the only ones that knew about it. How could it be public knowledge? Unless…

“That’s right, Peter. I orchestrated the whole thing. You see, I knew when Harry started school there’d be a few choice words said if anyone at home found out he was an Osborn. I couldn’t stop Tony, but I didn’t need everyone else there backing him up and wrecking my plans. So, I sent them all away on a stupid made-up mission to get rid of them. They’ve been chasing a dead end for the better part of a month, all the while leaving you and Tony at home by yourselves with no backup. And I might not be the face of Stark Industries and I might not have a suit made out of iron that I can use to hurt people, but I’m something of a scientist myself, and I shouldn’t be underestimated.” There was a noise and Peter’s head jerked to the other side of the room. He managed to make out a set of elevator doors and Harry stepped out.

Peter immediately scowled. His so-called friend.

Harry didn’t make eye contact with Peter at all, just walked to his father and delivered something wrapped in cloth. Norman took it and nodded.

“I need to check something upstairs to make sure everything’s running smoothly. Take this,” Norman pulled a gun from his waistband and handed it to Harry. “No messing around. If he tries to escape, you shoot. And no funny business. Remember, I can see you.” Osborn pointed to the corner where Peter could make out a security camera. Harry nodded silently and took the gun in his shaking hands. “Have fun, boys.”

“What the hell are you doing, Harry?” Peter spat.

“Shut up, Peter. You heard him.”

“I just don’t get it.” Peter sighed sadly. “I stood up for you, I—I was someone to you that I never had. Nobody ever stopped Flash from being an ass to me and I didn’t want anyone else being subjected to that so I helped you.”

Harry made a weird noise in his throat but didn’t say anything.

“And the thing is, nothing’s going to work out here because Tony’s gonna figure out something’s wrong and he’s gonna come and get me—”

“Don’t talk about that man.” Harry lifted the gun up and took off the safety, making Peter’s heart jump. Surely he wouldn’t shoot.

He thought their friendship meant more.

“What do you have against Tony?”

Peter could tell Harry was clenching his jaw. “He’s the reason my mother’s dead.”

Peter shook his head. “Whatever your dad’s told you about Tony, don’t believe it.”

“Why?” Harry spat. “Why should I believe you over my own father, huh?”

“Because he’s power-hungry and he’s willing to do anything he can to get what he wants. Trust me, he’s lying to you, Harry. What do I have to gain from telling you a lie?”

Harry scoffed. “I don’t know, maybe you think I’ll lower the gun and unhook you from the thing that’s draining your blood right now? I’m not that stupid, Parker. Give me some credit.”

“Look, your dad and Tony don’t have the best relationship, they never had. They’re rivals. They’re constantly trying to one-up one another. So leave this to them. This isn’t our fight. You shouldn’t have to be involved in this. It was wrong of your dad to bring you into it. If he wants to hurt Tony, let him do it. If he wants to hurt me to get to him, let him do it. This isn’t on you.” Peter pleaded, hoping that he could convince him before he passed out from blood loss.

Some sort of alarm started going off and Harry’s eyes darted to the door and then up to the cameras. Peter could tell by his expression that this wasn’t in the plan, which meant that something was going wrong, which meant that there was an opportunity here.

The alarm quietened after a few moments, and Peter could see that Harry was getting more and more uncertain of himself.

There were a few moments of silence, and then there were rushed heavy footsteps, and Peter prepared for Norman to burst back through the door.

Except it wasn’t.

It was Tony.

And Harry whipped around, aiming the gun at his head.

“Peter!” Tony breathed out, racing to the chair that he was slumped up against and pulling the needle out of his arm to stop the blood draining out. He tore a bit of his shirt off to give to him so he could press it against his skin.

Peter let out a noise from his throat and Tony froze for a moment. “What?”

Peter’s eyes jumped to Harry and Tony seemed to realise that he wasn’t alone. He turned around and saw that Harry has his gun trained on his head.

“Oh,” Tony said, pressing his lips together. “Didn’t realise we had a little company. Hi there, I’m Tony Stark. I don’t believe I’ve ever had the pleasure.”

“K-Keep your hands up where I can see them,” Harry stuttered.

Tony shook his head. “Kid, I can tell you’ve never fired a gun before, and you’re not gonna start today. You’re Harry, right? Peter’s friend?”

He gave a quick sharp nod and Tony took a step forward.

“Harry, you seem like a smart kid. Do you wanna tell me why you’ve got a gun and why Peter’s being held here? I could throw you across the room with a snap of my fingers, but the point is that I’m not. I just want to talk.” Tony kept his hands in sight the whole time, not wanting to spook the kid and make him fire the gun.

“Because hurting Peter is how we hurt you.” Harry said, his voice as cold as ice, some of the confidence returning now. “Because you ruined my family.”

“Pete? A little context here?” Tony asked.

“Norman. He told Harry that you were the one that killed his mother.”

“Oh, kid.” Tony’s voice was filled with pity. A notification beeped on his watch and it was a message from Barnes: Override complete. “I’m sorry that you lost your mother, I really am. But I wasn’t the one to kill her. Actually, I just found out what happened to her. FRIDAY?”

The AI’s voice echoed throughout the room and Peter smirked, knowing that Tony had hacked into the mainframe of OsCorp. Freaking genius.

FRIDAY recounted all the information that she’d gleaned and told Tony on the way over. Harry’s hand started to shake a little, but the gun was still aimed at Tony.

“You’re lying,” Harry spat. “Why should I believe you over my own father?”

“You shouldn’t,” Tony said simply and Peter wanted to smack him upside the head. “You shouldn’t ever be put in the position where you can’t believe what your father says. He should’ve told you the truth, but that would’ve made you hate him. So he changed the target of all that hate onto me, someone he also hated. It was easier for him, it helped him cope with the reality that your mom was gone. It was someone else to blame. A shift in focus. I’m not surprised that your father told you I was the reason your mom died. I probably would’ve done something similar if I was in his situation, but I didn’t. Harry, I promise you, I didn’t hurt your mother.”

“Harry, please.” Peter begged and Harry’s eyes flicked back to him. He could see the conflict in his face. They were getting closer. “Please. I helped you. I got Flash off your back, I made you feel like you had a place at Midtown. I’m your friend, Harry. Your dad isn’t here right now, he’s not helping you, he’s not here. We are. It’s okay, you don’t have to do what he wants anymore. You can put the gun down.”

Peter’s words seemed to work and Harry’s arm lowered, the gun clattering to the floor. He looked completely drained and if Peter wasn’t so focused on staying conscious at the minute, he would’ve felt so sorry for him. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve a father like Norman. He was just a kid that had been lied to his entire life.

Tony had given Bucky a memory stick with strict instructions to hack into the building’s mainframe. He was supposed to find Norman, find his computer, and infiltrate the system so that FIRDAY could take over from there. Tony had even built in a secret compartment on his metal arm to house it as he stalked through OsCorp looking for Norman. They’d figured that they had to cover all their bases so they’d split up. Tony was going down to the basement and Bucky had to cover everything above ground.

After threatening the receptionist, the building was put on complete lockdown until FRIDAY could override all the servers and take control of the tower. So, all the doors were locked and the elevators were out of use for the time being.

Good thing he was a super soldier who could handle stairs, geez.

Upon further interrogation of the receptionist, he found out that Osborn’s private lab was on the 86th floor. Instead of crawling up 86 flights of stairs, he used the wire that was attached to his belt. Prying open the elevator shaft, he shot the wire, feeling it latch on above him and he gave it an experimental tug. He’d never really used one of these before. They were implemented in Nat and Clint’s suits, but it was a first for Bucky and he wasn’t sure if they’d take his weight.

After having a word with himself, he finally lowered into the shaft, pressing the button on his belt that would reel it in, pulling him up. He kept an eye on the black paint at each floor that told him what level he was at, and released the button at level 86. After getting a little momentum, he swung himself to the painfully narrow platform that separated the empty elevator shaft from the doors to the 86th floor. It was just over half the width of his foot, so quite literally not a lot of wiggle room.

He prised the doors open with his metal hand and stepped out onto the eerily quiet corridor. There wasn’t much to hear besides the hum of electricity from the generators and Bucky went back into soldier mode. His flesh hand was resting on his gun and he pulled it out of its holster, holding it up in case there was a surprise attack.

The layout of OsCorp was completely different to SI, and Bucky found himself wondering how the hell anyone could figure their way around. The floor was like a maze of different labs and there were all sorts of things in said labs. Most of them were animals; the usual things that were used for testing like mice and rats, but there seemed to be a lot of insects too. Bucky didn’t like insects very much. They freaked him the fuck out. It was hard for him to admit that to other people; the image of a 6 foot super soldier with a metal arm cowering in the corner because he saw a spider on the lamp shade. It doesn’t exactly exude strength, y’know?

He suppressed a shiver walking past the spider lab, admittedly going a little faster now to try and put as much distance between himself and said insects. His super hearing picked up noise from further down the maze of labs and Bucky continued on, noting that it seemed barren. It was like everyone had gotten a heads up and had cleared out long before everything had started, long before the building was put on lockdown. He wondered if Norman knew about everything.

Almost as if he’d manifested it, a voice echoed across the loudspeakers, startling Bucky and almost blowing his ear drums.

Well, well, well, Soldier. I must admit, I forgot about you. Why don’t you come on down to my lab and we can have a little chat?

The voice of Norman Osborn rang through him and Bucky felt a cold shiver run down his spine. This was the guy that had cause all the shit for the past few months, ever since the attack with those weird genetically modified soldiers. Bucky wasn’t scared. Bucky was a super soldier, and Norman had hurt his family. Bucky wasn’t scared, Bucky was fucking angry.

He lowered his gun, finding no need for it since there were no other people on the floor, until he found the biggest lab at the end of the maze. He could see Osborn in the lab, tapping away at a computer, measuring the levels of something.

The door flashed green and it opened, meaning Bucky could step inside. Norman wheeled around in his desk chair and fixed him with a menacing grin.

“I must say, when I planned for your team to be distracted on a falsified mission with Hydra, I did forget about you, Barnes. It was very careless of me, of course. I should’ve known that they wouldn’t take you given your history with the organisation.” He slapped his hands on his thighs and stood up. “Nevertheless, you’re here. And you’re not proving to be any help, either, so that’s good. The real even is happening downstairs and you’re up here with me. Which means Tony is down there with my son who has been told to kill anyone that enters the room.”

“I think you overestimate a teenager’s capabilities.” Bucky grumbled and Norman smiled again.

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Wasn’t it you that was the one most surprised about young Peter’s powers? Wouldn’t you say you underestimated the teenager’s capabilities?”

“Your son has no powers. He is a human, and Peter is his friend.” He insisted, his face showing no emotion.

Norman raised his eyebrows. “Oh, friend? Soldier, I can’t believe you’d be so naïve. This was my plan all along. I just knew that when I saw Tony at SI’s New Years Eve gala and I met Peter that I had a chance to bring him down. The mention of Peter’s school was just the cherry on top and I enrolled my son not a week later. You think Harry would choose Peter, a boy he has known for little over a month, over me, his father?”

“It’s not about choosing sides, it’s about what each side is asking the other to do.” Bucky said sternly. “You ask your son to shoot, to kill. Peter asks him to lower the gun, not to shoot. I tell ya, it’s a hell of a lot easier to just put the gun down. Saves him a lot of trauma after the deed’s done.”

“Oh, and you’d know all about that wouldn’t you, Soldier? Hydra had you wrapped around their little finger, didn’t they? I wonder just how long it took for your mind to come back. Maybe it’s still not all there right now. Maybe if I just said the right words…” Norman trailed off and Bucky’s heart rate soared. No, he couldn’t know the words. He just couldn’t. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. “But where’s the fun in that? We’re enjoying ourselves right now, I’ll come back to that later.”

“Why are you doing this? Why are you going after an innocent young boy? He’s done nothing to you. He’s worth nothing to you.”

Norman hissed, whipping his head to stare at Bucky until it made him uncomfortable. “Nothing? That boy is the only proof that my research was ever successful. That boy is the only one in the world that can show everyone that I am the greatest scientist that ever lived. That boy is the only living thing tying himself to his own father’s life’s research.”

“So, what? You’re going to take his blood and make more of him? Use a child to make soldiers?”

The grin was plastered back on his face. “Oh, not just that. I plan to use him on our younger generation. You see, all my human trials with adults failed, but ever since little Peter Parker was bitten by one of my spiders, his powers have flourished. I’m led to believe it’s because he was not fully developed when he was given the spider DNA and so that’s my chance, that’s my golden ticket.”

Bucky’s fist clenched. Everyone knew he wasn’t a fan of people making child soldiers. “Why are you telling me this?”

Osborn shrugged his shoulders. “Because, dearie, I don’t plan for you to leave this room. And I’ve been dying to tell someone.”

“How fucking dare you use an innocent kid to make child soldiers. There’s a special place in hell reserved for people like you, and I’m sure as shit gonna make sure you get there.”

It was like someone switched Bucky’s brain off. It was like he’d been triggered again and turned into the Winter Soldier. He couldn’t remember anything that he was doing, all he knew was that he had a target, and he had a mission. The splatter of blood was huge, and given the glass walls of the lab, it felt like it was caving in on him, red everywhere. Bucky’s flesh hand held onto Osborn’s hair, steadying him as his metal arm came down, hit after hit after hit. It wasn’t until he heard the deafening crack of bone splitting that he stopped to look at the state of Norman Osborn.

He released him and watched as his body slumped to the floor. Bucky’s eyes came back into focus and he clenched and unclenched his metal hand, noting the sheer amount of blood that was on it. For a moment, he was transported back to his missions for Hydra where things had ended similarly. It felt like someone had thrown a bucket of freezing cold water over his head. But then he shook his head. No, this wasn’t Hydra. Bucky’s metal arm had killed a lot of people over the last 90 years, and he’d suffered a lot of trauma over it. But today? Today, Bucky’s arm had protected his friends. It had saved the people he called family, and because of that, it couldn’t all be bad, right?

Bucky took a few deep breaths to steady himself and make sure he was okay. He avoided looking at the body at his feet, but FRIDAY assured him through his earpiece that he wasn’t breathing, which was good enough for him.

He stepped towards what he assumed was the master computer, taking out the device from behind a panel in his arm. He slotted the stick into the computer and let FRIDAY take over. The green bar filled steadily until it flashed 100% and he took it out, storing it safely again.

“FRIDAY? Send a message to Tony that it’s done.”

Certainly, Sergeant Barnes. May I direct you to the nearest bathroom so you can locate a towel to clean your arm?

Bucky smiled. “That’d be great, thanks. Don’t need to traumatise any civilians on my way out. Where are Peter and Tony?”

They are in the basement. I’ve got the elevators back up and running again so I’ll take you down if you’d like?

“Sounds good to me.”

The door burst open again and everyone jumped. Peter worried that it was Norman coming back and things were about to get a hell of a lot worse, but it was Bucky instead. He was wiping his hands with a ragged old cloth, panting slightly. Everyone fell silent and he looked awkwardly between Harry, Tony, and Peter.

He cleared his throat. “Everything okay here?”

Tony nodded. “Come on, let’s get out of here. You wanna help me out? Someone needs to carry Peter and we need to take all that blood with us. Nobody’s getting their paws on that.”

Bucky tucked the cloth into his waistband and lifted Peter into his arms and over his shoulder like he was a bag of sand. Tony was clean-up crew, gathering the bags of blood that Osborn had taken from Peter and he cringed, realising for the first time just how much the kid had lost. How was he still conscious? Fucking weird spider DNA.

Harry was just stood, frozen still. Tony felt sorry for him. He really did. He didn’t as for Norman to be his father, just like Tony had never asked for Howard to be his. None of this was his fault. He dug into his back pocket and handed the kid his card.

“A lot of things are about to change, and you’re still so young. If you need anything, anything at all, you call me. I’ll always pick up, and I promise I’ll try to help you as much as I can, alright? You’re not my enemy, Harry.”

Harry seemed a little taken aback by the gesture, nodding slowly. He didn’t say anything, and Tony left him in the room, following Bucky and Peter up to the main floor so they could leave.

“You took care of him, right?” Tony asked once they were out of Harry’s earshot.

Bucky scoffed. “What do you take me for? You think it was oil I was cleaning off my hands just then?”

Tony smiled and shrugged. “Didn’t want to assume, y’know? Also didn’t want to ask in front of the guy’s kid. Traumatic experience and everything.”

“Well, let’s just say he won’t be bothering anyone in the near future. Oh, and Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“I think you better look into shutting down some of those labs up there. There’s some freaking weird shit that nobody should be messing with. He was playing God, and that’s not okay.”

Tony nodded. “Noted. Thanks, Barnes, for everything.”

Bucky sighed. “Just another day at the office, my friend.” He heard the man snort behind him.

“Better fucking not be just another day at the office. Like hell am I doing this again. This is the last straw, I swear.”

They got Peter back to the Med-Bay at the Tower and Cho tended to him. She hooked him up to lots of fluids and started pumping back in the nutrients he’d lost. Tony stayed by his side the whole time, sitting in the chair next to his bed.

“Hey, no more taking in strays under your wing, okay? Cause one of these days it’s gonna backfire and you’re gonna die,” he warned, only slightly joking.

A smile spread across Peter’s lips. “Ditto.”

Over the next few days, the rest of the team came back from their ‘mission’ and Peter started to recover from the injuries he’d gotten at OsCorp. Tony hardly left his side, camping out in his room in the Med-Bay and making all the phone calls he needed to right next to Peter. He took the opportunity to tell him about the adoption hearing.

“Now we don’t have to do it right away if you don’t want to. I want you to be 100% before we go do this, I don’t wanna be worried about you passing out on me in court. Doesn’t exactly look great on my behalf if the kid I’m trying to adopt is close to death. We managed to keep your little trip to OsCorp under wraps but it won’t be long until they formally announce Norman’s death. And according to Bucky… well, I don’t think it was pretty.” Tony said, still a little concerned about a lot of stuff happening in not a lot of time.

Peter shook his head. “No, I want to do this. I know—I know that a lot of stuff’s going on at the minute, but I’ve wanted this for ages. We should take the date they’ve given us. I just wanna move on.” He let out a sigh, resting his head in the pillows. He stared up at the ceiling, a thoughtful look in his eyes. Y’know it’s been a year since the accident?”

Tony let out a deep breath. “Wow. It feel like it was both years ago and yesterday.”

“I know,” he murmured. “I guess a lot has happened over the last year. Like, way too much.”

Tony laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. I’m ready for a couple of boring years, you?”

“Oh hell yeah.”

The following week, Tony and Peter had their adoption hearing at the courthouse. It was a very private affair, only themselves, Pepper and Happy there for the actual legal bit. Peter decided to change his surname to Stark too so that his certificate was right.

Of course, knowing Tony Stark, there was a huge celebration going on back at the Tower. He’d talked to caterers and rental places and balloon companies before Pepper had told him to chill the fuck out and just have a simple party with the team. Tony had reluctantly agreed, but only because he didn’t want it getting out that Peter was adopted straight away. He needed a little time for things to die down, and Norman Osborn’s death had made quite the impact across the city.

Everyone had flown out for their little party, thought. Scott came with Cassie, Thor was there, and Clint had brought his family, not really knowing what the party was for.

“I—I don’t get it.” Clint stuttered when Peter held up the official adoption certificate. He pointed to Peter, and then to Tony, and then to everyone else. “I—why is there an adoption certificate? You guys told me Tony had strong genes, I—the kid looks just like him—” everyone snickered and Clint narrowed his eyes at Nat. “You let me act like a complete fool thinking that Peter was Tony’s biological son this whole time.”

Nat held her hands up in surrender. “Hey, in my defence, you weren’t here on Christmas Day and you didn’t hear Peter asking Tony to adopt him. If you’re not here, you don’t get the news right away.”

Clint spluttered. “Right away?! You flew out to spend the week with us straight after! You couldn’t find one spare moment in seven whole days to tell me?!”

The spy shrugged. “Figured the time had passed. I wanted to see how long it would take you. We might have made it your whole damn life, Barton.”

“I swear to god,” he shook his head, flinging his arms about. “I’m always the last one to know everything!”

Tony saw Peter drift off to his room out of the corner of his eye and figured he’d leave him for a minute before going to see if he was alright. Bucky sidled up to him to have a chat in the meantime.

“Hey, Tony?”

“Hm?”

“I was wondering if I could maybe ask you to make me a new arm?” Tony’s eyes snapped from the now empty hallway to meet Bucky’s.

“Sorry, what?”

Bucky shrugged and gestured to his metal arm. “I guess, I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of bad memories attached to it for obvious reasons and I think it’d do me good to start fresh with something new.”

“You don’t—”

“I’ve made my peace with it now. For 90 years all it did was bring me trauma, but when I used it the other day to kill Norman, I—it saved a member of my family. I’m grateful that I had it there to protect Peter, but I would really appreciate it if I could get something new.”

Tony gave him a soft smile. “It’d be my pleasure, Bucky. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for Peter since you got here, and I promise you I’m gonna make the best multi-functional arm you could ever imagine.”

Bucky thanked him. “Just one thing, it absolutely has to be magnetic.”

Tony furrowed his brow. “Why?”

He shifted nervously from one foot to the other. “Cause Peter always used to put magnets on my arm like I was the refrigerator and I—”

“It’s alright, Barnes. I got it. One kick-ass magnetic metal arm coming your way.”

Tony milled about the rest of the group, chatting briefly with everyone. At one point, Thor slapped him on the back and he lost three years of his life right there.

He decided to go and check on Peter to see if he was okay after slipping away earlier. Nudging open the door, he found him sat on his bed with the photo album Tony made on open on his lap. He thought he might be upset, remembering May a year after the accident, but he wasn’t crying. He was smiling instead, looking through the memories and remembering the story behind each photo.

“You okay, kid?” Tony asked and Peter turned around to see him, a small smile on his face.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“We were about to start making dinner if you wanted to help out?”

He nodded. “Sure, I’ll be out in a minute, Dad.”

Tony smiled warmly, tears threatening at his eyes. He can’t remember ever being this happy before. “Okay, kiddo.”

Peter wandered into the kitchen a few minutes later to find his father pouring over Nonna’s old recipe book to make an authentic Italian pasta dish. They had help from Steve, but miraculously, Pepper’s kitchen stayed intact and nobody was burned too seriously. They plated everything up and put the food in big bowls on the table so that everyone could help themselves. Everyone sat around the extended table, chatting and laughing with each other and Peter sat down next to Tony.

“How’s your pasta, Peter?” Steve asked and Peter smiled at him.

Peter looked up and down the table at his family. “It’s great,” he said. “Every—everything, it’s—really really great.”

Fin.