Hiding

"Sir, you have an incoming call from Peter Parker." 

I looked up from my work, my suit took some damage after fighting some bad guys in New York and I was fixing it quickly before thinking about making more efficient arrows for Barton. 

I took a sip of coffee and spit it out quickly when I realized it tasted like motor oil. I'm really thinking about giving Dum-E to a charity if he doesn't stop trying to poison me.

"Okay J. Answer the phone."  

"Hey Peter, what's up?", I asked while going to the coffee machine.

"Hm H-Hello Mister Stark ! So this is kinda awkward but I may have found an unconscious bleeding kid in the streets and he said he didn't want to go to the hospital so I was wondering if you could maybe help me." 

I thought the kid couldn't surprise me anymore by his lack of common sense after he decided to adopt a stray kitten even though he knew he was allergic to cats but I guess I was wrong.

I sighed, feeling a headache coming quickly. 

"Wait, so you mean you found an unconscious kid in the streets and you thought it was a good idea to call me instead of an ambulance because the kid asked you to not go to the hospital ?"

I heard some movements from the kid who answered after a few seconds.

"Hm yep… But he looked so scared…"

I massage my forehead, slid a hand in my hair and sighed again. 

"-Okay kid we will take care of him at the tower, just bring him here quickly.

-Oh thank you Mister Stark, I'll be here in five minutes!". 

Once the call ended, I left the workshop and went to look for Bruce at his lab. 

As I approached the lab, I could see Bruce holding tubes filled with chemicals. Usually I would love to surprise him but I thought it was better to avoid blowing up the tower so I stopped at the glass doors.

"-JARVIS, inform Bruce that I am waiting at the doors. Tell him it's important"

I waited a few seconds and saw the doctor calmly place the tubes down and turn to look at me. A soft smile appeared on his face, and now that he was aware of my presence I opened the doors and entered the room. 

"Hey Bruce, are you busy right now? I really hope not because in like two minutes Peter will join us with an unconscious child who has an head injury so I hope maybe you could help me…" 

I couldn't finish my sentence as I was interrupted by Bruce. 

" Tony, I'm not that kind of doctor and you know that, I know chemical formulas and how physics work but you can't expect me to fix a head injury without at least giving me some time to prepare myself." 

I was ready to argue with Bruce, and even to ask him gently if I really had to but Peter chose this exact moment to barge in the room with the small unconscious child tightly held in his arms and wrapped in bloody clothes. My headache was getting stronger and I pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to make the pain go away. 

I looked at Bruce and saw his skin getting a little green and I hoped that the Other guy would not make an appearance in the lab because I still have not finished to fix the damages made by his last outburst. 

He slowly took a long breath and his skin became normal again, just a little paler than normal. 

"-Who would do that to a small child?" Bruce asked softly and none of us had an answer to that so he just took the kid from Peter’s arms and walked to the back of the lab to put the child on the firm mattress of the bed that was waiting there. He started to look closely at the head wound and grimaced. He then went to get some medical supplies in a cupboard - wait, should I be concerned about the fact that we are in my tower and that I didn’t even know that we had so many bandages and drugs in that cupboard ? - and started to take care of the head wound. I have been hit on the head quite a lot of times but the hit the kid received must have been really strong considering how painful the injury looked. 

My thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of Peter’s phone who quickly left the room to answer it. As Bruce was doing his best to heal the child, I thought that doing a full medical check up could be helpful. 

“-JARVIS, do a full scan of the boy, tell me if you find his name or anything about him that could help us to know where he is from.

-Alright Sir, the scan should be finished in approximately 30 seconds.

-Thanks J.”

As I waited for JARVIS to finish, I went closer to the boy and took some time to look at him. He was a small child, maybe six or seven year old. Some strands of his dark hair were stuck together because of the dried blood due to the injury. He was floating in clothes that were way too big for him, they looked like they belonged to a teenager as it was totally the kind of sweatshirt that Peter would wear. 

“-Sir, the scan is finished, I did not find anything about this child.

-What do you mean nothing ? You are not supposed to find “nothing”, JARVIS. 

-I am sorry Sir, I tried my best but - 

-You tried your best  ? Do better then because there is no way that this child is totally unidentifiable. 

-Sir, with all due respect, the child is unidentifiable, I looked at all the databases I have access to and the child is not in any of them. Moreover, there is not anyone looking for a child that would fit the description of the one lying in this room.

-Okay, thanks JARVIS. I guess that’s a problem but we can’t solve it right now, we will have to wait until he wakes up.”

After talking with JARVIS, I went to Bruce who was now washing his hands. He stared at me with a tired look for some seconds and said : 

“ I cleaned the wound and put some bandages on his head, he will be alright for now but we will have to wait for him to wake up to know if there is any lasting damage I couldn’t see.” 

I was going to answer but JARVIS cut me off. 

“Sir, Doctor Banner, the child is showing signs of regaining consciousness. I thought you would want to be aware of that to avoid scaring him.”

“Thanks J. We will try not to freak him out but I’m not sure we will succeed,” said Bruce quietly as we looked at the child from across the room. 

The little boy moved a bit and woke up. He sat up slowly and looked around with confused eyes. As he took in his surroundings, his eyes stopped at his reflection in the glass walls and his breath seemed to get faster. Bruce and I tried to get closer to calm him down but he suddenly got up and ran to the door which did not open thanks to JARVIS. Once he realised he could not go out he pressed his back against the glass doors and looked at us with frightened eyes. 

“Hello kid, a friend found you in the streets, can you tell us your name so we can find your parents ?” asked Bruce as he kneeled down near the boy. 

The boy just stared at us, I know that kids this young are not usually too smart but he should at least know his name. Just as the boy opened his mouth to talk, the glass doors slid open and the child fell backwards. Before he dropped to the floor he was caught by Peter who then entered the room. 

“Hi, it’s great to see you are awake !” Peter said with a smile. “I’m Peter, but you already know that !” He then pointed at me and at Bruce. “They are Mister Stark and Doctor Banner, they are really nice men, they are the ones who healed you ! We should get you back to your parents quickly, I’m sure they are worried. Can you give us your name, it would really make it easier for us to help you !” 

The child looked at us with caution and seemed to think. He opened his mouth a few times and finally said in a shaky voice “My name is Conan Edogawa”.