Chapter 25
“So you’re worried about your dad going back to being Iron Man?”
“I almost lost him for good. He promised giving up Iron Man was nothing if doing so made me worry less. He said being my dad, being Morgan’s dad, that was more important.” You explain from where you sit curled into your aunt’s side. “But I guess his promise didn’t mean shit.”
“Could there be another explanation?”
“Another explanation for red and gold armor? Not really.” You shrug, looking at your feet and not at her. Her feet tap yours, getting you to look up at her.
“There’s always another explanation if you’re willing to listen. And if I were to bet on it, I would say there are probably two men sitting on the couch downstairs, if not outside your door, ready to explain everything to you if you’ll just listen.” Green eyes catch yours. “Will you give them a chance?” Before you can reply, Kyle goes off alerting you that you’ve dropped to seventy five. “Need a snack?”
“And a second to think, yeah.”
“What sounds good?” the voice you’re still not used to hearing asks.
“A PB&J.” You answer honestly. “But that means I have to traipse through the living room where you bet the two men who are going to hound me with questions are waiting.”
“They won’t hound you when you’re low. If anything they’ll be too focused on you being low.” Natasha gets off your bed and offers you a hand. “How do you feel?”
“Hasn’t hit me yet. Not low enough yet.”
“Well let’s fix it before that becomes a problem.”
“Can you…” You trail off feeling silly for even thinking of asking.
“Check that the coast is clear?” She finishes your question before nodding. “I sure can. I’ll even threaten to kill anyone who upsets my niece.”
“You’d kill two of the world’s favorite superheroes?”
“If they pissed you off? Sure. No one would ever find the bodies.” Nat’s face goes blank as if to show you how serious she is about this. But then she lets a little smile free. “I’m kidding. You might miss your boyfriend after a little bit.” You can’t help but roll your eyes. She opens the door a sliver and looks out. “Coast is clear дорогой.” You’re not sure what the word means, but it feels comforting. You step out into the hallway with her and she wraps an arm around you. Making your way to the stairs feels normal, mainly because of the fact that your aunt is back with you. However you know the minute you’re down the stairs, there will be people jumping at you like wolves. And you brace yourself for it as your blood sugar keeps dropping. “I’ve got you.” Natasha whispers as you make your way down the stairs, but as you step off the final step, everyone's eyes fall on you and your aunt. Her arm is already wrapped around your shoulder, but you’re unsure if it’s to steady you from dropping or if it’s protection from the men waiting. Peter, Tony, Steve, Clint, they’re all looking at you. “We’re just heading to the kitchen.” Nat says as if it’s no big deal.
“Y/N, give me five minutes, I can explain everything.” Your dad says, but you can’t even look at him without feeling sick to your stomach, but whether that’s the situation or your blood sugar, you’re not sure.
“Tony, not now.”
“No, don’t you ‘not now’ me. This is between me and my daughter. Not between you, me and her.”
“Tony, she is lo-”
“Nat, I’m really happy you’re back, but for five seconds let me be a father!” You try to blink away the blurry spot that has taken residency in your left eye, but it won’t go away. You can’t even fully tell if there’s space to step in front of you, much less process anything being said by your dad.
“Tony, I think we need to let her go for a moment.” Peter says, looking at how pale you’ve gone. “Babe, are you-”
“Will everyone just give me five minutes with my kid, please?” Tony says exasperatedly.
“Tony, she’s low.” Natasha spits out, before Tony can cut her off again.
“Enough. I don’t know what’s going on. But right now, Y/N need’s sugar. It’s pretty clear.” Pepper’s voice comes from the door of the cabin where she stands with your sister.
“Aunt Natasha!” Morgan runs over to where your aunt still has an arm around you. Morgan looks up at you, before glancing back at your mom. “Mommy, is Y/N sick?”
“Sort of. Natasha, can you help her to the couch? Tony and Peter go get her sugar.”
“But-”
“Now Tony.” Pepper cuts Tony off. She makes her way over towards you as Natasha helps you to the couch.
“Y/N, Mommy is going to make you feel so much better. Her kisses fix everything.” Morgan sits down next to you. Finn is sitting at your feet, refusing to go anywhere, the scent of you being low catching him and making him worry about you, a low whine leaving his lips.
“‘Hanks Momo.” You slur out. Pepper unclips Kyle from your side and taps the screen three times to unlock the screen.
“What was your number when it was first alerting?”
“75.”
“It’s saying you’ve dropped to 60.” She reaches to the drawer in the coffee table. “Can we do a manual check?” You nod your head, the words feeling jumbled in your mouth. Pepper takes the test strip and loads it into the meter. “Finger?” She asks and you give her your left pinky. You don’t do very many manual checks but even so you rotate fingers when you do. She pricks your finger and gives the meter the sacrifice it demands. After the meter beeps, she rotates the screen to show you the fifty five it’s showing.
“What’s her number?” Tony’s voice comes from the kitchen.
“55.”
“She’s still conscious?”
“Like you care.” You mumble. Tony walks over with an assortment of things for you to pick from. Juice, crackers, even candy and cookies. He tries to not be struck by the words that left your mouth, but they feel like the Hulk has gut punched him.
“What sounds good kiddo?” You scrunch your face at all of it, but take the juice, refusing to meet his eyes.
“I’ve got this.” Natasha makes her way into the kitchen and starts pulling the supplies she needs out of the cabinet and is back within a few minutes, PB&J in hand. You smile and take the sandwich from her, biting into it within moments.
“How did you-” Tony starts to ask bewilderedly.
“Assassin secrets.” Natasha deadpans as you smile to yourself while working to ingest the sandwich and the juice, knowing you have a bit to come up and you still have insulin on board, even if your basal is cut off. Peter stands across the room, his arms crossed, his eyes only on you. You can’t bring yourself to look at him. Today was supposed to be about jokes and pranks, but it turned into something more explosive- something more damaging. Something that you’re not sure how you’re supposed to come back from it.
“Morguna, can you go upstairs and play for a bit?” Morgan shakes her head and wraps her arms tighter around you.
“Y/N is sick. She needs cuddles.”
“I’ll be ok Momo. Go play. It’s more fun anyway.” You know your dad is going to have this discussion whether or not Morgan is here, so might as well let her have fun. Morgan looks up at you with her thinking face for a moment before leaning up and whispering in your ear.
“If you tell Daddy you don’t feel good still, he might let you have a juice pop.” You pull your sister in for a hug.
“Thanks Momo.” Morgan hugs you back before skipping off towards the stairs. Finn follows her up the stairs and you hear the door of her playroom shut before everyone in the room turns to look at you and Tony. You say nothing as you take another bite of your sandwich.
“I think this conversation should be between Y/N and me.”
“Not happening. You ignored the fact she was low because of your own feelings. I’m staying.” Pepper says, sitting on the couch next to you.
“I played a part in it so shouldn’t I be here too?” Peter asks, quietly.
“Fine, but the Avengers aren’t staying for it. Nat happy to see you back. You’re all welcome to stay for dinner, but this needs to be a more private convo for a few minutes.”
“We’ll wait outside.” Steve says, walking towards the door of the cabin. Clint and Nat follow suit. The room goes quiet as you and Pepper look at where Tony and Peter stand.
“So what the hell happened?” Pepper asked.
“Dad’s a fucking liar who can’t keep one single promise.” You say around a mouthful of peanut butter. “And Peter’s just walking alongside him in the lies.”
“I doubt that’s what’s actually happening.” Pepper says, looking towards the two men who love you dearly.
“Y/N, I’m not lying to you.” Your boyfriend says, but you won’t even look at him.
“What you saw in the lab isn’t what you thought it was.” Your dad starts but you cut him off before he can continue.
“So you just happen to be building parts for an Iron Man suit, red and gold blatantly sitting there, and you expect me to be stupid enough to believe more lies? I may not be smart enough to understand science stuff, but I’m not stupid enough to swallow your lies.” You leave your low snacks and start to storm out of the room when strong arms wrap around you, one who could rip buildings down if he needed, but gently holding you towards him in fear, not to be in control.
“Babe, no one is calling you stupid. But please, eat the stuff your blood sugar needs. I don’t want you to collapse.” You want to shove away from him, push him away and call him every awful name you can think of. But you know he’s doing this because he cares. “Please.” He whispers the word.
“He’s right, Y/N. You probably haven’t come all the way up yet.” Pepper says from the couch. Tony’s uncharacteristically quiet as he stands across from Pepper. Pepper doesn’t know what your dad has been working on, but she prays to every god in this universe and others that he hasn’t been lying to you, at least not about this. This would ruin you. She remembers Tony telling her about you collapsing into him during your panic attack at the mere idea of him being Iron Man again. If he was working on a suit again, that would probably break you, no matter how strong you like people to think you are.
Peter walks you back to the couch, sitting down next to you. You don’t mean to, but you lean into his side as you eat more of the PB&J and down more of the juice. Tony at least relaxes seeing you acting a bit more like yourself around the boy he knows you love. Peter places a kiss in your hair, needing to show you that he loves you.
“Talk.” Pepper says, looking at her husband. “Explain what the hell you were doing that has clearly upset our daughter.” You’ve never called yourself stupid, because you’re not, so whatever this situation is, she wants it over. She wants the explanation that there has to be. Tony wouldn’t hurt you on purpose, right?
“I’m- we’re,” He motions to Peter with his left arm, “making a prosthetic. Similar to Bucky’s. That’s why there’s all the metal you saw Y/N. I’m not making another suit. I’m not trying to be Iron Man. I just want to be able to do things with two arms. I want to be able to hug you all with two arms, be able to invent without needing Peter here all the time, be able to hold you and Morgan at the same time. I want to feel a little bit more normal. Red and gold just happen to be my colors.” Your dad looks towards you and you meet his eyeline after hearing what he said to you. “I made you a promise. I’m not going back to the front lines of being a superhero. I won’t go back on that. I never want to hurt you. In fact I want to keep you from hurting as much as I possibly can because I love you so goddamn much.”He hopes that somewhere inside you know that this is the truth. That you’ve seen it in all his actions and that your words of hatred were actually just fear in disguise and nothing more.
“I know you do.” You say softly, because you know it’s true. Peter moves over so your dad can come sit next to you. You set your food aside and wrap your arms around your dad. “I love you too. I just don’t want to lose you Daddy. I can’t.” The word slips out as his hand comes up to rest in your hair as he holds you close.
“If I have any say in anything, I’ll be around for a long time. Make sure Pete treats you right for as long as he’s around for.” His hand smooths your hair. “When I make you a promise, I’m going to try my absolute hardest to keep it. Anything I can possibly do to keep it, I will do as long as it's as close to legal as possible. And even then I’m willing to push some boundaries.”
“I know. It just hurt to think that Iron Man might have a bigger pull than being your daughter.”
“Not even possible.” Your dad pulls back to look at you. “Iron Man is something I built. Replaceable in every sense of the word. But you,” his hand runs down your cheek, “you are part of me. A one time, non-replaceable part of me that I would destroy heaven and earth to keep you happy. You will always take precedence over anything I built because I can never create a second you. And I never would want to, because I happen to love the original that I have.”
“Even if I’m stupid with science?” You ask.
“Where is this coming from?” Pepper asks, not able to stop the question from leaving her lips.
“Second what she said.” Your dad agrees while Peter nods in agreement.
“One of the guys in my chemistry class said something about a grade I got on my pop quiz.” You said shrugging it off.
“I’ll fight him.” Tony says.
“It’s nothing. It was mean. Clearly it was just supposed to get under my skin.”
“Why didn’t you mention it earlier?” Peter asks, wondering why this is the first time he heard of it.
“So that Spider-Man and Iron Man can come and attack a fifteen year old for saying something rude? No thank you.” You shrug.
“Clearly it hurt you.” Your mom says looking at you. You can’t stop your shoulders from rising and falling again.
“Maybe he was right.”
Tony opens his mouth to say something but Pepper speaks before he can. “What did he say?”
“That clearly I don’t have the grades to be at MSST, so it must be Daddy’s money that got me in.” Your eyes are focused on the floor as you say it. “My science grades are clearly not to MSST standards so you probably did pay for me to make it in.”
“Did no such thing. You were in before I even knew you were my kid.” Tony says, trying to catch your eyes but the floor is apparently too interesting to you. “But if it will prove it to yourself, I’ll let you comb my financial records from the year you started there to prove it. The only money I paid them was your tuition cost. Not a penny more.
“Y/N, science isn’t the forefront of our school-” Peter tries to say but you cut him off.
“It’s literally a school of science and technology neither of which I’m good at.”
“But you could write circles around this kid. You also probably read more books than he does in an entire year. Just because science isn’t your thing doesn’t mean you don’t have gifts of your own.” Pepper states. “If he’s an insolent fool for thinking he’s better than you for one quiz, he’s sorely mistaken.”
“But what’s the world going to think if Tony Stark’s kid can’t pass a Chemistry quiz? Much less every chemistry quiz.” The adults are starting to get the picture, that this has been going on for awhile. And Peter starts connecting too many dots that make him wonder why you wouldn’t be honest every time he asked about chemistry.
“Why would the world know about that?” Tony asks.
“‘Cause I think he snapped a photo of it and I wouldn’t put it past him to post it online or sell it to the gossip pages.”
“What’s his name?”
“Does it matter? If he’s done it, it’s already happened.”
“I meant so I can talk to the school about the blatant bullying.”
“Dad-”
“Y/N, I’m not letting this one go. If he’s going as far as to posting your grades online or to sell pictures of your grades to the press, that's too far.”
“I have to agree with your dad.” Pepper voices her thoughts. “That’s too far.”
“His name is Keiron Garrison.” You mumble after a few moments, noticing Peter tense out of the corner of your eye.
“I’m going to speak with the school about him.” Your dad says before Pepper tacks on something.
“We’ll set up a meeting with the principal.”
“You’re both going to talk to him?” You question, the idea of both of them showing up to the school being a big deal if the paparazzi catches wind of it.
“Someone messes with our kid, we fight back.” Pepper says definitively.
“Can you at least schedule the meeting so the paparazzi won’t be there to see you? Both of you coming into school will be a big fucking deal to them.”
“We’ll do our best.” Pepper makes no promises though. You take the last bite of your PB&J, sip the last bit of juice and check Kyle to see that you’re moving in the right direction.
“I think you guys have some guests that are waiting outside. Peter and I will go work on homework until dinner.” You say, wanting to have a moment with Peter to figure out why he tensed up at the mention of Keiron. Peter was usually pretty good with most people at school, apart from Flash, so his tensing at Keiron’s name wasn’t a good sign.
“You don’t want to hang out with the Avengers? More importantly, the aunt that I know you like to spend too much time with?” Your dad asks, confusion painted on his face.
“I have all the time in the world now to see Aunt Nat. My homework however is due tomorrow.” You take Peter’s hand in yours and pull him towards the stairs.
“Door open.” Your dad calls after you.
“Obviously.” You yell over your shoulder. Peter follows you up the stairs rather quietly. There’s no pep in his step like there normally is. You sit on your bed, looking at Peter who sits down next to you, but isn’t really looking towards you. “What’s going through your head Parker?”
“What didn’t you tell me he was bullying you?” He mumbles after a few moments.
“It wasn’t a problem you needed to deal with.” You reach for his hand, but he pulls away.
“A guy is insulting my girl. How is that not my problem?” Peter says, anger filling his voice. “I should have known it. I should have sensed that there was a problem.”
“Because what would you do, don the Spider-Man suit and show up at his house? Babe, I didn’t really want to deal with it myself. I just figured if I didn’t do anything the problem would go away. But I ignored it and it just got bigger and bigger until it was something I couldn’t handle anymore.”
“How long has this been going on?” Peter asks, his eyes finally leaving the floor to look at your’s.
“Since I came back to school?” You say before correcting yourself. “Or actually when we got our first grades in Chemistry. He sits next to me. So he would see that I didn’t do well on tests and quizzes but would do alright on lab reports and homework.”
“So you don’t test well. That’s not something to be ashamed of.”
“According to him it is. He said if my daddy paid more, maybe my test grades would be better.” You repeat the words Keiron has told you multiple times even though they hurt to repeat. “He said that if my daddy actually cared, he would pay.”
“That’s nowhere near the truth. You know that. Tony loves you so much. And maybe Keiron thinks how much a parent spends on their kid is how much their love is, but you can say something that no one else can.” The confusion coats your face as you look at Peter. “Your dad loves you so much that he perfected time travel to bring you back. He saved half the universe, just to get you back. No one else can say that about their parents, except for maybe Mr. Hawkeye’s kids.”
“I’m fine being one of four people who can say their dad saved the universe to get them back.” You lean into Peter’s shoulder and his arm wraps around you as he places a kiss on your forehead.
“Next time someone is being an absolute asshole, please don’t keep it from me.”
“You deal with enough already babe.”
“I’m never dealing with enough that I don’t want to know about something that’s hurting you. That’s part of loving someone. You always have space for them.” Peter says before placing another kiss on your forehead. “I will always have space for you and anything you need or want to tell me.”
“You know it’s the same for you right?”
“Of course. But besides from when I was forced to not tell you about Spider-Man, I don’t think there’s anything I haven’t just straight up told you about.”
“Well there was the not telling me about your feelings. I had to find out from my father of all people.”
“To be fair, he did tell me I wasn’t allowed to date his daughter. Do you think he’s still in that same mindset?”
“I think he’s ok with it now.”
“You think?” Peter teases, thinking back to the events that started this whole mess.
“I know he’s ok with it.” You correct your statement. Then you find yourself asking, “But why did you tell him instead of just telling me?”
“I don’t think I had intentions of telling him. It just kind of came out mid argument.” You lift your head off his shoulder to look at him. “I guess I never told you the full story. He was getting on me about DC and how I almost used Spider-Man as a party trick. He was trying to figure out where my head was at I think. He basically was going on about how I wasn’t acting like the person who just cared about helping the little guy any more- which maybe he was right. But I said he seemed to only care about my intentions when they involved you. To which he replied that that was because you were his daughter. And I basically blurted out that I happened to like you a lot and all he cared about was keeping you to himself, that he wanted me to keep a million secrets from you, but hurting you was where I drew the line. And then I stormed out of the lab.”
“Wow, one for the dramatics I see.”
“Yeah, but to be fair I was up against the most dramatic person I know. I am Iron Man.” He quotes your dad.
“Very true. Were you going to tell me how you felt?”
“There were so many times I almost blurted it out. I was so close to asking you to Homecoming as just a friend just so no one else could ask you. I probably would have told you how I felt at Homecoming if none of the events that ended up happening had happened.” You think about it for a few moments, trying to picture how that would have been. “What?” Peter asks, seeing the look on your face.
“I like how our story is. I wouldn’t change how it happened.” You lean over to place a soft kiss on his lips.
“I’ll second that.” He mumbles into your lips, his hand wrapping into your hair, holding you closer to deepen the kiss. You only pull apart from him when a throat clears from your doorway.
“Your dad wants you to know dinner is almost ready, so you’ll need to take a study break.” Your aunt says with a smirk. “I’ll let him know you were studying hard.”
“Thanks Aunt Nat.”
“You’re just lucky it’s me that came up instead of him, or worse Steve.”
“Don’t worry. We already had to watch his ‘so you’re thinking of being sexually active’ PSA at school.”
“Yeah but you would have gotten the real life version.” Your face scrunches at the idea of it.
“I’ll pass.”