To Build A Home

Tony sat down next to Pepper on the couch.

No one said anything for the longest time but they were both thinking about the same thing. The same thing that they were always thinking about. Peter.

After what felt like hours, Pepper spoke. “How is he?”

“He’s… adjusting.” Tony answered because he didn’t really know what else to say. Peter was adjusting as well as anyone could imagine for the life that they lived.

“I mean… after I left?”

“Uh… well, he stopped crying. Um, I think it’s best that we do the whole bedroom thing tomorrow. He’s exhausted. I’m exhausted and I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing.” Tony stood you and started pacing. He felt like he was failing as a parent.

“You don’t think I know what I’m doing? This is harder than when we first became parents when we brought Harley home from the hospital.” Pepper shot back at him. “But we took it one day at a time. Some days were fucking hard and others were some of our best memories.”

Tony picked up a pillow and threw it. “You think these are going to be shit days and memories that we’re going to look back on when we’re old?” Tony asked with a dry chuckle. “He is calling his kidnapper fucking daddy! Right in front of me.”

“Lower your voice or you’ll wake the kids.” Pepper warned him so Tony collapsed onto the couch and sighed heavily.

“I swear to god, I will kill that fucking bastard.” Tony said in a low voice. He wanted to see that man dead. “He stole everything from us.”

“They will find him and he will go to jail.” Pepper reassured him but it wasn’t enough.

“I want him dead. I want him dead and as far away from Peter as possible.” Tony felt his eyes burn with what he lost. “He… he did everything. All the firsts. He… that man raised my son. He ripped him from our lives and… I can’t.”

Tony leaned forward with his head in his hands. He wanted to scream and just let it all out. He wanted to go back to the beginning and never take Peter to the park that cursed day.

He wanted his kid back.

Tony stood up and walked over to the basement door.

Pepper lived this night way too many times and she was not going to let her husband get drunk when Peter is under the same roof.

Tony opened the child safety lock and went down the stairs. Pepper was right behind him. “Tony, I swear to god if you open a bottle I will take all three kids and I will leave.”

Tony ignored her.

“I will leave, Tony. So help me god I will. If you open that bottle.” Pepper spoke with conviction but Tony was barely listening to her.

He opened the bottle of vodka, looked at it for a few seconds before pouring it down the sink.

He did the same with the other bottles of alcohol until all that was left was a bunch of empty glass bottles.

Pepper broke down crying and walked over so she was on the other side of the island. So placed her head on Tony’s chest and cried against him like so many times before although this time she was crying for a different reason. A much better reason.

“Thank you. Thank you.” She cried against him while Tony continued to hold her. He looked over at all his empty bottles and wanted them gone. He never wanted to see them again or get drunk under this roof ever again because now, there was no reason to.

After putting all of the bottles into the garbage in the garage to be taken care of tomorrow, the two of them sat down on the couch and cuddled up against each other, watching the tv that was playing some show on low volume in the background.

They heard the floor creak from the hallway and both of them expected to see Morgan making her way down for some late night cuddles or a snack but instead, they saw Peter.

Tony unwrapped his arm from around Pepper’s shoulders and leaned forward to see Peter better. “Hey, bud.”

Peter shifted closer but didn’t look at them. “Um… I can’t sleep.”

“Do you want to come sit here with us until you get really sleepy?” Pepper asked in a gentle voice. Watching Pepper become a mom, made Tony fall in love with her all over again.

Peter nodded his head and walked over to the couch. He took a seat next to Pepper instead of Tony and that hurt him a bit but he didn’t say anything. Peter moved himself closer so that he was pressed up against Pepper’s side.

She felt her heart beating faster because she couldn’t believe that Peter had willingly sat so close to her.

No one said anything for a few seconds. Peter was just enjoying being close to his mom. He always knew that he was never going to feel what it was like to be held by his mother but now he was and he loved it.

He turned so he was facing her and he reached out to her neck to play with her necklace. “What’s your guys’ last name?”

Tony loved how Peter was asking them questions. As simple as it was, it was huge to them.

“It’s Stark.” Pepper answered him as she watched her son.

Peter nodded his head. “Stark. That’s a nice name.”

Both parents were speechless. Peter was sitting so close to Pepper. And he wasn’t doing it in his sleep.

He stopped playing with Pepper’s necklace and let his legs hang off of the couch.

Pepper immediately missed the warmth and desperately wanted to pull Peter back against her side.

Peter swung his legs up and down and thought about what he wanted to ask them next when a question came to mind. “What are your jobs?”

Tony smirked at his kid. “Well, I own my own company called Stark Industries. Although I work from home now and I just go in from time to time.”

Peter continued on swinging his legs as Pepper spoke. “And I’m the CEO. I do a lot more work plus I take care of all the kids and the house which is a lot harder than running a company.”

Peter smiled a bit. “I’ve never heard of the company. What’s it Um, like what do you like do?”

“It’s a tech company. As well as other things.” Tony added, not knowing if he should get into everything tonight with Peter.

Peter looked over at him. “Harley said you’re smart. And that-that I got it from you because I like science. Is that true?”

Tony was overwhelmed with so much love and happiness. He hoped this would help them bond and let Peter go to them with more stuff. “Yeah. You’ve always been so smart so I can just imagine how smart you are now. One day I’ll take you to my tower and bring you down to one of my labs.”

Peter’s eyes went wide. “You have a tower? Is it like in Rapunzel?”

Both adults laughed at that but Tony shook his head. “No. My tower is a lot better than that pile of rocks.”

“Hey, Rapunzel is my all time favourite Disney movie.” Peter admitted but then thought about it for a second. “Actually, Frozen is my favourite movie but only because Let it go is my all time favourite song.”

“Oh! Don’t let Morgan hear you say that. She will make you watch it fifty times tomorrow.” Tony joked but he loved that he just learned two new things about Peter, as simple as they were.

Peter shrugged with a smile on his face. “Oh well. I’m okay with that.”

“You say that now but tomorrow, you’ll be begging me to turn it off.” Tony grinned at Peter and felt his heart speed up when Peter grinned back but then looked away and yawned.

As much as Tony wanted to stay up and talk to Peter all night, it was almost two in the morning so he had to get Peter back to bed.

Thankfully Pepper was thinking the same thing so he didn’t have to be the bad guy since bedtime in the Stark house was always the end of the world.

“I hate to say this but it’s time to go back up to bed, Peter.” Pepper told him but Peter’s smile dropped and he shook his head. “You can watch Frozen and sing along all you want with Morgan tomorrow.”

Pepper stood up to try and get Peter to follow her but Peter didn’t. He looked over at Tony and bit his bottom lip. “No. M’not tired.”

“I can tell that you’re tired so let’s go up.” Tony said and stood up to walk over to Pepper, hoping to get Peter to start walking up with them but he didn’t move.

Peter sat up on his knees and turned over so he could rest his chin on the back of the couch and watch the two of them. He didn’t want to go to bed because going to bed meant nightmares and no one to comfort him when he woke up.

“Let’s go, Peter.” Tony used more of a firm voice but he didn’t want to scare Peter. It was like they were walking on eggshells around him.

Peter gave a slight shake of the head and for a second, Tony debated letting Peter fall asleep on the couch and carrying him up later but he didn’t want to do that and risk Peter freaking out.

If it were any of his other kids, he would either force them up or drag them up but he couldn’t do that with Peter. At least not yet.

Pepper walked over to him and sat down on the couch. “It’s time for bed. It is almost two in the morning so if you don’t go to bed now then tomorrow you will be over tired and it won’t be a good day.”

Peter turned to look at her. “It’s already going to be a bad day.”

Pepper ignored that last part. “It’s time for bed so go upstairs.”

Peter looked over at Tony to see if he was going to help him get out of bedtime but when he didn’t make a move, Peter started to slowly get off the couch.

He walked up the stairs as slow as he could possibly move but then stopped and sat down on the stairs, hanging from the railing. “I don’t want to go to bed.”

Tony, who was behind him, wanted to reach out to hold his kid but he didn’t. Instead, he sighed and pulled Peter’s hand from off the railing but that was the worst move to make. “No! I said I’m not sleeping!”

Peter turned around and laid his head on the stairs so he could pull his knees up and cry into the stairs, feeling like he had no energy to do anything.

Steve had always known what to do.

He was always there to hold him and comfort him whenever he needed it. Peter was always receiving hugs and kisses from his dad and now it’s been almost two days with nothing.

Tony turned around and looked at Pepper who looked like she wanted to join Peter and start crying into the stairs. He didn’t know what to do but Peter was being loud and would most likely be waking up the other kids.

“I’ll be right back.” Pepper said then walked past Tony and a crying Peter then disappeared down the hallway.

Tony just stood there, having no idea what to do.

If it were Morgan, he would have picked her up, thrown her in her bedroom and told her not to act like that but this was Peter. He didn’t know if by not doing what he would normally do would be harming their recovery process or not but he didn’t want to find out.

Harley appeared in the hallway and ran a hand through his bed head. “What’s wrong?”

Tony ran a hand through his own hair. “Go back to bed, Harls. Your mom and I are just bringing him to bed.”

Harley hesitated but he eventually turned around and left when less than a minute later, Pepper was walking back over to them and sat down on the stairs with Peter’s baby blanket in her hands which was now, just Peter’s blanket.

“I know you’re just over tired, Peter.” Pepper rubbed his back and tried to turn his head. Peter lifted his own head up and saw his comfort item then immediately grabbed it from Pepper.

The way he snatched it from her, caused both Tony and Pepper to look at each other with an amused look on their face.

“Alright then,” Tony said and patted Peter’s back. “let’s go up now. Halfway there.” Tony said but Pepper gave him a look that told him to stop.

Peter lifted his head up, whimpering sadly. He stood up and walked into the bedroom where he slept last night and collapsed onto the bed. Tony grabbed a throw blanket and tossed it over Peter so he was warm since Peter didn’t even bother getting under the comforters.

“I feel like…” Pepper whispered to him. “we have a newborn baby again.”

Tony chuckled but there was nothing funny about it. “Yeah. It feels that way. Only we can’t pick him up and cuddle him and I want to so badly.”

“Soon. He needs to adjust some more. We all do.”

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Tony was exhausted.

He hadn’t slept in two days. Pepper had gone and slept in the guest bedroom a little after they put Peter down but Tony went downstairs and did some work.

The media wanted to come and interview them since they wanted to create a story on the billion dollar child that returned to his family after seven years.

Tony didn’t want to put Peter in the spotlight like that. Not now, not ever.

He had twenty-four hour security around the house just in case Peter’s kidnapper tried to come back into their lives and take Peter again but so far, there was no sign of the man.

It scared Tony. He had no idea where Rogers was and if the man knew where Peter was.

It kept him awake at night. Along with a million other things.

So when Morgan woke up first, followed by Pepper, Tony was ready to pass out but he wanted to stay awake to see Peter.

“The Uh, the press wants to come over to do an interview.” Tony said to Pepper as she made herself a coffee and Morgan breakfast.

“Absolutely not. We are not shining any light on Peter. No way.” Pepper poured her coffee and walked over to see what Tony was looking at on his computer.

Tony rubbed his eyes. “That’s what I said. No one is coming here.”

“That would put all the attention on us and risk him finding us. Absolutely not.” Pepper placed her coffee mug rather loudly on the table just as Peter was rounding the corner, still dressed in his pyjamas.

Both parents' faces softened once they saw their child. “Good morning, Peter. You’re up pretty early after staying up so late last night.”

Peter gave Pepper a dirty look and sat down on the kitchen stool with his back to everyone else. Pepper ignored his look and opened up the fridge. “Are you hungry? I’ll make you some breakfast.”

“Not hungry.” Peter mumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. He barely slept last night because they made him go to bed which he hated so now he was still tired and he wasn’t happy.

“... alright.” Pepper grabbed a glass and poured some apple juice in it before placing it in front of Peter who started to immediately push it away from him. “Let go. I’m leaving this here, if you want it, drink it but if you don’t want it then you leave it right here.”

Peter let go of it after that. Pepper walked away from Peter and looked at Tony. “I have to run down to the tower for a few hours. Are you going to be okay here? I can cancel and do it over the phone.”

Tony waved her off. He could handle three kids for a few hours. “No. You go. I’ll be fine plus I have Harley. Once he wakes up.”

Pepper leaned down to press a kiss to his lips before she was walking out of the kitchen, leaving him alone with a moody ten year old and a hyper six year old. He could do this.

After an hour had passed since Pepper left, Tony realized that he could not do this.

Morgan was crying in the corner about Tony giving her the red cup instead of the blue cup like she asked for and Peter was in the other corner, sulking. Very loudly in fact.

It was like they were working off of each other in a weird sibling bond kind of way.

It was always so hard for Harley and Morgan to bond with each other because Harley had already been ten by the time she was born so it was really hard. He was always her protector and older brother but they never got to really bond like Peter and Harley did for those short first few years of Peter’s life.

Although now, Peter and Morgan were a lot closer in age so they seemed to be bonding telepathically.

It was driving Tony insane so when Harley woke up and walked downstairs, Tony was so relieved. “Thank goodness you’re up. Do you want to take Morgan to the park while I stay here with Peter?”

Harley looked at the corner of the room that Morgan was in and the opposite corner with Peter then back at his dad. “Did you separate them like that?”

Tony rubbed a hand down his face. “No. They just went like that.”

Harley nodded his head then walked towards the kitchen. “Sure. I’ll take her.”

“Okay. Thank you.” Tony now got to spend some one on one time with Peter but his kid still hated him so this was going to be fun.

Harley grabbed a granola bar and walked over to Morgan. “Stop crying because I’m taking you to the park.” He held his hand out for her to take which she immediately did after she wiped her tears off her face and stood up.

Peter stopped his whining and sat up. He saw Harley taking Morgan out of the room but leaving him. “Where are they going?”

Tony sat down on the couch. “They’re going to the park for a bit.”

Peter rubbed at his eyes as he watched them get their shoes on at the front door. He was always left out of things. His whole life he was told that he couldn’t do what his friends were doing.

He wasn’t allowed to go over to large birthday parties or have group sleepovers. None of that. He always sat at home by himself while everyone else got to have fun. That was his life and he got used to it but not anymore because Steve couldn’t say no to him now. Right?

Peter stood up and walked over to Tony. “I want to go too.”

Tony hesitated. The last time he brought Peter to the park, he didn’t see him for seven years.

“I don’t know.”

Peter fell to his knees and grabbed onto the couch. “Please, Tony. I-I, my whole life I wasn’t allowed to do so many things and now I can so please.”

Tony’s heart broke. His poor baby was suffering for seven years, probably kept in the dark on so many days where he was supposed to be a kid and have fun but now, he could get at least some of his childhood back.

He looked over at Harley who was almost an adult although sometimes he acted like he was a full grown man because of all the hardships he’s been through in his life.

“Okay. Let’s go to the park then.” Tony said and stood up at the same time that Peter bounced up with a huge smile on his face.

“Thank you.” He then ran off towards the front door and looked for his shoes.

Tony followed him and looked at Harley. “We’re all coming.”

Harley looked up at his dad with a scared expression on his face. “What? Are you serious?”

“Yep.” Nope. “You got Morgan and I got Peter.”

Harley didn’t look like he wanted Peter to come but he didn’t say anything else.

“You have to change out of your pyjamas first, bud.” Tony ran a hand through Peter’s curls without giving it a second thought but Peter didn’t even react to it.

“Oh yeah.” Peter jumped up and ran upstairs.

Tony put on his own shoes and pulled his phone out of his pocket to call Pepper. She answered on the second ring. “Hey. So uh, we’re all going to the park.”

Pepper was silent on the other end for a few seconds. “All of you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Are you sure that’s the best idea? I mean last time we took Peter we… it’s not, I don’t know, Tony. Maybe let them go swimming for today.” Pepper spoke and she sounded scared but Tony was scared too although he knew everything would be okay.

It also didn’t help that he had no idea what Steve Rogers looked like.

Natasha wanted to show them on that first day they got Peter back but they both refused. They would see a picture of him in two days when she comes next though. He was not ready to see the face that Peter knew as dad.

“It’ll be okay. I will not take my eyes off of him and Harley has Morgan. We’ll go to a quiet park. It’ll be okay.” Tony reassured her while also reassuring himself.

Peter ran down the stairs and climbed over the baby gate. “Why is that even up? There’s no babies in the house.”

Tony looked at Peter and smiled. The outfit he picked out was cute and did not match in any way. “I have to go. We’re leaving now but I’ll keep you updated. I love you.”

After Pepper said goodbye, Tony put his phone in his pocket and walked over to his kids. “That’s because it’s for Asier.”

Peter started laughing. “Oh. That’s funny. Can he come with us?”

Harley was already grabbing the leash which caused Asier to start running from down the hallway. Peter leaned down to pet his fur and lean his head against him.

As cute as the action was, Tony had to get three kids ready which was already taking them a lot longer to leave. “Put your shoes on, Peter. Morgan, did you go potty first?”

Morgan gasped and ran off to the closest bathroom and then Peter was gasping as well. “I gotta go too.”

Peter ran upstairs even though there was another bathroom on the main floor that he was most likely unaware of.

Tony glanced at his oldest and started laughing. “Do you need to go potty?” He joked then Harley playfully shoved him.

It took a total of five minutes for them both to be done and finish getting ready. Peter looked around for his shoes. “Where are my shoes?”

Tony placed a new pair of shoes in front of Peter that they brought him after throwing out his other shoes because they wanted nothing in their house that Rogers had gotten for him.

Peter sat down to put his shoes on and then stuck his foot out for Tony. “Can you tie it please?”

Tony didn’t know why Peter was asking him. He was ten and should know how to tie shoes. He kneeled down to tie up his shoes anyways. “I can do that. Did you learn how to tie shoes before?”

Peter shook his head and stuck his other foot in front of Tony. “No. My dad never taught me because he always said ‘you take too long so I’ll just do it’.” Peter made his voice go lower to try and imitate the man.

That made Tony’s blood boil. Peter was ten and was never shown how to tie his own shoes because the one person that was supposed to show him was too fucking lazy. Ass hole.

“I’ll teach you how. As you can see,” Tony gestured to Peter’s tied shoes. “I’m a shoe tying expert.”

Peter smiled weakly but didn’t say anything else then there was another foot being placed in front of him. “Daddy. My shoes too.” Morgan had said.

After all the shoes were tied, all four of them left the house and to say that Tony was nervous was an understatement.

He walked behind his kids on the sidewalk and kept looking around for any strange looking people. Harley had Asier’s leash so he didn’t have to worry about that but he was paranoid. He learned first hand how evil this world could be and it just didn’t matter.

They passed by a park that Morgan started running for, followed by Peter but the park was way too big and busy for Tony’s liking. “Hey, no. Morgan and Peter! Come back!”

Both of his youngest stopped and turned around to look at him. “We aren’t going to this park because there are too many people so we’ll go to the park a few blocks down.”

Peter was slowly walking back over to the sidewalk and looking up at him with his mouth partly open as if he was waiting to get yelled at more. Tony wondered what that man did to his baby.

“We just have to walk for a few more minutes.” Tony told Peter who nodded his head and continued walking in front of Harley with Asier and Morgan.

Tony kept an eye out. He wished he didn’t have to be so paranoid but this was just the world that they lived in.

They got to a main road that they had to cross and Tony was getting nervous again because he didn’t know how Peter was. When Harley was his age, him and Morgan used to just run out at any time so he didn’t know if Peter would do the same.

“Harley, can you grab Morgan’s hand?” Tony said and watched as the light turned red but Peter and Morgan were still walking.

Harley grabbed both of their arms and pulled them back. “Hold hands when crossing the road.” He said so Morgan grabbed onto Harley’s, as always.

Peter hesitated before reaching over to hold onto Tony’s hand and Tony wanted to cry happy tears at the action. It was so simple yet it meant so much to him. Peter initiated the contact between the two of them and he wasn’t even mumbling and complaining about it.

After they crossed the road, Morgan let go of Harley’s hand and started running across the field towards the park while Peter did the same thing. Tony missed the contact but he was happy to watch Peter run in the field like the child he was.

Harley let go of Asier’s leash which he always did when they got to a park.

Tony walked across the field, not taking his eyes off of Peter the whole time. He looked at everything around the park but it was surrounded by fields and a forest after that.

There was another boy at the park who looked about four and his mother. Tony would still keep an eye on her around Peter because he didn’t trust anyone. Not anymore.

He walked over to Peter who was about to start swinging from the monkey bars while Harley was climbing up to the slide with Morgan.

“Can you swing across the whole thing?” Tony asked Peter who was preparing to reach out and jump onto the bars.

“Yeah.” Peter stuck his tongue out in concentration and jumped up to reach the bars. He let out a scream and started to kick his legs out once he got on but he didn’t make any move to keep swinging.

“Swing on them, Pete. That’s the only way to get across.” Tony told him but Peter still wasn’t making any move to swing.

“No! I’m scared!” Peter lost grip on one hand and went to reach for it again but he couldn’t so Tony walked under him without even thinking about it and caught him in his arms, holding him up on his side.

Peter looked down at his hands that were all red and burning now. “Ow.”

Tony didn’t want to let go of Peter. He was holding his kid. He had Peter in his arms and he didn’t want to let go of him. It was his first time picking Peter up since the day he last put him down, seven years ago.

Peter looked back up at the monkey bars as if they had personality offended him then he started wiggling to be put down.

“Do you want to try again?” Tony asked him but Peter shook his head. Tony put him back up on the ledge anyways. “Just try. You have to keep swinging your arms when you get on so you don’t lose your momentum.”

Peter rubbed his hands together. “But my hands hurt.”

“Yeah. That’s part of it. You just gotta suffer through it to get to the end.” Tony told him and went to go stand to the side just in case Peter needed him again.

Part of Tony wanted to pick Peter up again and part of him wanted Peter to get across the bars.

Peter looked unsure of it but he looked at Tony then jumped and immediately tried to reach for the bars but he couldn’t grab it. “I can’t… reach it!”

Tony moved to stand under him and lifted him up by his legs to give him a little boast. “Yes you can. Reach again.”

This time, Peter grabbed the next bar and immediately swung onto the next bar and just when Tony thought that Peter was going to reach the end, he missed the bar and slipped off but Tony caught him again and walked back over to the beginning.

“One more time. You got it this time.” Tony clapped his hands to encourage Peter to get across but he was shocked when Peter leaped out to the middle bars instead of grabbing onto the one closest to him.

He immediately slipped off so Tony rushed under him and caught him, holding his kid on his side. Peter screamed through his teeth in frustration and then Tony looked behind him to see Harley and Morgan cheering for Peter.

“You can do it, Peter!” Morgan cheered while Harley clapped his hands and watched with a proud smile on his face.

Peter smiled shyly and Harley took out his phone to snatch a few pictures.

Tony placed Peter back on the edge and Peter went for it again but he fell once again. Peter threw his head back and started whimpering in frustration while tears filled his eyes.

“Hey, why are you crying?” Tony asked him, still holding Peter in his arms because he didn’t want to let him go just yet.

Peter rubbed at his eyes. “Because I can’t do it. It’s too hard.”

“But you almost did it. Try again.”

Peter shook his head. “No. I want to stop.”

Tony didn’t want Peter to give up after he already came so far. “No. You’re a Stark and Starks don’t give up that easy.”

“Not a Stark.” Peter mumbled under his breath.

Tony didn’t take that to heart. He placed Peter back on the edge. “We’ll see about that. Try again.”

Peter grabbed onto the metal pole and shook his head in defeat. “S’too hard. My hands hurt.”

“Oh well. So you’re gonna make your hands hurt for nothing?” Tony asked him and Peter nodded his head with a tear slipping out. “Crying isn’t going to get you across those bars. Try again.”

Peter gave Tony a dirty look before he prepared himself to jump. He swung another arm out and then another until it was the last bar. Tony knew he had it. Peter looked over his shoulder for him to catch him again but Tony didn’t move. Peter then swung his last arm out and pulled himself up to the other landing pad.

“Look! I did it!”

Morgan and Harley started cheering for Peter while Tony clapped his hands and watched his kid with the proudest smile on his face.

He guessed that Peter was really a Stark. He just needed a little push.

Peter jumped onto the ground with a cheer and gave both Harley and Morgan high fives.

Tony watched all three of his kids laugh with each other and knew that they were always supposed to end up like this. It was always supposed to be this way.

He wasn’t included when all three of them ran off and climbed up on some other play structure but he watched on anyways. As much as he loved all of his kids, he could not take his eyes off of Peter.

The way he laughed and would stick his tongue out in concentration when he climbed up something rather difficult. Tony loved how well all of his kids were bonding.

If anyone were to see them, they would have no idea that Peter had been raised by someone else for the last seven years. He just hoped that the happy moods lasted.

Peter went down the slide so Tony stood at the bottom of it and pulled his phone out to snap a few pictures of him smiling widely while he was laughing at something that Harley was doing.

As Peter ran off, Tony stood back up and looked at the picture on his phone.

It was the first picture of Peter that was taken since he got back to them. Well, after the pictures that Harley had taken of the two of them at the monkey bars.

Tony smiled down at his beaming child and sent it off to Pepper quickly so she could see that they were having fun. He then looked up and his eyes landed on Peter at the top of the slide again.

He spent so many years looking at pictures of Peter and crying and now he could look at a picture of Peter then look up and look at him in real life.

Tony walked over to the park bench so he could let his kids bond and play together while he still watched them, with most of his attention on Peter and any newcomer walking into the park.

After about twenty of him watching all three of them, Peter was running over to him and sitting on the bench on his knees. “I need to go pee.”

Tony wasn’t expecting that. He looked around and didn’t see any public restrooms. “Okay um…”

Peter waited for him to decide what to do

“Are you okay with peeing in the forest?” Tony asked him, already trying to decide what to do if Peter says no.

“Uh huh. Yeah.” Peter said, standing up with Tony and following him.

“Harls, I’m taking Peter to the forest to go pee. Stay with Morg.” Tony told Harley who nodded his head and continued to push Morgan in the swing.

“We’ll go over to the forest and be really quick.” Tony told him as they walked across the field which was quite a distance away from the park.

“Okay.” Peter said and continued to run to keep up with Tony who was walking really fast. “You’re walking too fast.”

Tony slowed down a bit. He forgot about little legs. “Oh. Sorry, bud.”

When they got to the edge of the forest, Peter hesitated. “I don’t want to go all the way in.”

Tony didn’t want him to do that either. “That’s fine. No one can see you anyways so just go here.”

Peter went to pull down his pants but they got stuck so he struggled with it for a few seconds, starting to panic a bit because he was getting desperate. “Help. My pants are stuck.”

Tony looked down at Peter’s pants that were tied up in a huge knot. “Did you tie it like this this morning?”

“Yeah.” Peter said as Tony tugged on his pants but the knot was way too tight. He didn’t even know how Peter managed to tie it like this.

“This is really tight, Pete.” Tony struggled again. Pepper was always best at undoing knots. “How… how did you even manage to do this?”

“I don’t know but hurry.” Peter weakly begged him and Tony knew that he wasn’t going to get the pants off any time soon so he grabbed his keys from his pocket and started to cut the string off. “What are you doing? You’re gonna ruin it.”

“Would you rather pee your pants?” Tony asked him then cut the string and pulled it out. “It’s okay. Pepper will fix it and if not, we’ll just get you new pants.”

Peter tugged his pants down and Tony looked around to see if anyone could see them. “Pete, you don’t need to pull everything down all the way, just…”

Peter finished relieving himself and looked over at Tony. “It’s easier this way anyways.”

Tony didn’t argue with him. He just hoped Peter wasn’t doing that in public places that wasn’t a field.

Peter pulled up his underwear and pants and stumbled towards the park again. Peter went to run ahead so Tony watched him run but then his pants fell down and caused him to trip and land face first into the grass.

Tony immediately wanted to run over there to make sure that Peter was okay but he knew that he had to let Peter get up on his own since Tony could see that he was in fact okay.

And now that he saw that Peter was okay, he started laughing because the whole thing was funny.

He got to Peter’s side and kneeled down to wipe the dirt and grass off his face without even thinking about it. “Are you okay?”

Peter pushed himself up and sat on his butt. “Yeah. My pants just fell and tripped me.”

Tony reached down to help the pant situation while he was laughing. “Yeah. I can see that.”

“Hey, stop laughing at me.” Peter pouted so Tony continued to laugh but looked up at Peter’s face and saw the tiniest of smiles.

“I’m not the only one. Your brother and sister are finding it pretty funny as well.” Tony said, not even thinking about it first and neither did Peter because he was looking over his shoulder to see both of them laughing at him. “Hey, stop moving so I can get this on properly.”

Peter straightened his legs out and let Tony fix his pants to adjust the size then Tony was standing up and pulling Peter to his feet to finish adjusting them so that didn’t happen again.

Peter let Tony adjust his pants and then looked over and saw Pepper walking towards them. “Pepper!”

Tony looked up from where he was bent over Peter and saw his wife walking towards them with a huge smile on her face. He loved her so much.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Morgan ran over to Pepper and hugged her around her waist. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, little miss. What are you guys up to?” Pepper asked and walked over to Tony and Peter who was standing in his underwear. “What’s going on over here?”

“My pants tripped me. And um, Tony’s helping me.” Peter said and smiled shyly at Pepper.

“Do I even want to know how that happened?” She asked, amused by the situation either way because Peter was actually willingly letting Tony help him.

Peter pointed towards the forest behind them. “I went pee and Tony ripped my string off my pants.”

Tony finished what he was doing and pulled Peter’s pants up for him. “He tied those way too tight so it was either that or… wet pants.”

Peter shrugged and walked towards the park again where Morgan was already back to playing. Tony watched him and went to press a quick kiss to Pepper's lips. “We had fun. I’ll tell you about it later.”

Pepper followed him into the park. “What did you end up getting Peter to eat for breakfast?”

Tony’s eyes went wide. “Fuck. Um, he didn’t eat anything.”

“Tony. It’s one in the afternoon. Did you pack lunches for them?” Pepper asked but when Tony didn’t answer, she sighed. “It’s fine.”

“Hey, to be fair, this was a last minute decision.” Tony tried to defend himself but he knew it was worthless.

“Yeah yeah.” Pepper said with a smirk then walked over to the play structure to get Peter’s attention. “Hey little monkey, you didn’t eat anything today. Are you hungry?”

Peter put his legs through the bars. “Um, yeah.”

“Mommy! I’m hungry too. Daddy never feeds us.” Morgan yelled from across the structure and Tony gasped.

“Alright. I’m gonna go run across the street to grab some pizza, I’ll be right back.” Pepper pinched Peter’s still chubby leg, causing Peter to giggle and pull his legs back through the bars.

Pepper walked over to Tony. “I’ll be like ten minutes then we can have a picnic in the grass or something.”