When It’s Meant To Be

Tony could not get the smile off his face.

He knew he was a selfish horrible person for being happy that Peter was stuck as a two year old and that he would have to grow up like this but there was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it.

So there was no point in crying over it and getting mad at the reality of what it was.

Peter didn’t seem to care or have any idea as to what was going on. He was more focused on the pieces of cheese that Tony had put in front of him to distract him long enough to wrestle him into a shirt and some pants.

Once Peter was fully dressed, Tony stood back up and looked over at May who was doing all the things that Tony was complaining about earlier.

Tony tried to hold his tongue as to not say what he’s been dying to say.

Pepper was trying to calm Peter’s Aunt down while Bruce continued to try and explain what happened and try to get May to understand so she didn’t freak out over it.

Tony rolled his eyes at the scene as he walked into the kitchen to get himself a cup of coffee and get Peter his bottle of milk so he could watch some cartoons before he went down for his nap.

As Tony was getting Peter his milk, he thought about how this was no longer temporary. This life that he had with Peter was no longer just something that was eventually going to end. This was permanent now.

Tony thought about all the things that he had to get for Peter. He would definitely be needing more bottles and sippy cups as well as at least two more car seats so he could have one in Happys car and Peppers for when they had to drive Peter.

He then thought about Peter’s bedroom and how his teenager bed was still in there. Well, he wouldn’t be needing that so he would have to get rid of it and change Peter’s bedroom around.

“Daddy, wan’ milk” Peter said and Tony looked down to see his kid standing by his feet and looking up at him with his big brown eyes.

“I’m getting you your milk, baby.” Tony leaned down and lifted Peter up so that he was standing on the counter in front of Tony. “I love you so much, Peter. Do you know that?”

Peter cupped Tony’s face in his chubby hands and drool fell from out of his mouth but Tony ignored that, he was used to it by now. “Daddy.”

Tony pressed a kiss to Peter’s cheek and pulled him onto his hip as he finished with Peter’s bottle. He handed the bottle to Peter and grabbed his own cup of coffee then walked back out into the living room.

May walked towards him with an angry look on her face. Tony thought she would have punched him if he wasn’t holding her nephew in his arms.

“Tony, things are going to change now.” May started and Tony felt his heart drop. “This is no longer a temporary situation and so I think we need to set up times for you to see Peter. We can work it out between my schedule and yours-”

Tony cut May off. “Hold on, May. Are you saying that you’re taking Peter?”

May nodded her head like it was obvious. “Yes, Tony. He’s my nephew and it was only supposed to be you taking care of him when this whole thing was temporary but now it’s not. I was going to be taking Peter home with me either way today.”

Tony put his coffee down on the table and placed Peter on the ground so he could talk to May but as soon as Tony went to place him on the ground, Peter started whining so Tony sighed and continued holding him on his hip while Peter drank from his bottle.

“You can’t take him, May. He’s my kid just as much as he’s yours and I have a say in what happens to him too.” Tony felt his heart beating extremely fast. He held onto Peter just a little bit tighter because he didn’t want to let him go. He wouldn’t be letting him go.

May sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “Tony, you are not related to him! He is not yours in any way under the law! You don’t have a say in this and the only reason he stayed with you this whole time was because I let you! So no, you don’t have any say in this.”

Tony had been trying so hard to not lash out at May but he wasn’t going to take any of this from her. “I can and I will take him, May. I’ll take him as far away from you as possible and I’d like to see you try and find us. I was the one who changed all his diapers, gave him his baths, dealt with all of his many, many temper tantrums so don’t say that I’m nothing to him! I don’t fucking care what the law saids and you are not even related to him either. He was Ben's brothers kid.”

May shook her head at Tony and Tony was sure that she would be punching him even with Peter in his arms but she didn’t. “Fuck you, Tony. Fuck you! I’m taking Peter and I honestly don’t care what you do. Legally he is mine and so I can and will charge you with child kidnapping.”

Now that scared Tony. That was very true because by law he was nothing to Peter and May was his legal guardian. He knew that May didn’t adopt Peter but he was still hers under the law and if May really wanted to she could call the cops on him but since was he ever scared of the cops.

Before Tony had the chance to say anything, May was reaching forward and trying to grab Peter from Tony’s arms and as soon as May grabbed onto Peter, Peter dropped his bottle and started crying as he grabbed onto Tony by his shirt and started pulling.

Pepper stepped forward to try and gently get May's hands off of Peter as to not hurt either of them and Bruce tried to help calm May down.

“May, just let go. Peter doesn’t want to leave Tony, okay. Can’t you see that?” Pepper tried to reason while May continued to grab Peter out from Tony’s arms and Peter continued to kick and scream, right in Tony’s ear.

“May, stop. Look at Peter. He doesn’t want to go with you.” Bruce tried as well but May still didn’t stop.

She had a tight grip on Peter and Tony was terrified that if one of them didn’t let go soon, Peter would be getting hurt and it didn’t seem that May noticed or cared enough so Tony let go of Peter and carefully pried his tiny fingers from off his shirt.

May held the screaming and kicking toddler in her arms as she tried to get a good grip on him. She began walking to the elevator with Peter but she lost her grip on him and dropped him on the ground.

Peter cried out and tried to run to Tony but he fell on his face in the process. Everyone held their breaths and waited for Peter to lift his face up and when he did, there was a tiny drop of blood dripping down from Peter’s lip and Tony was immediately rushing forward.

“Daddy! Daddy!” Peter cried out. He raised his arms up to Tony and once Tony reached him, he immediately picked Peter up off the ground and cradled him in his arms.

He went to walk away from May but he turned around first. “This is on you, May. Look at his face. He doesn’t want to stay with you.”

Tony turned and walked towards the hallway so he could take Peter into his bedroom to calm him down and clean him up so he didn’t see the way May sighed in defeat.

May watched Tony leave with her nephew and there was nothing she could do about it.

She knew that Peter didn’t want to go with her but she hated that he would rather stay with Tony because she was the one who had originally raised Peter and now he doesn’t even want to see her.

Pepper stepped towards May. “I’m sorry that Peter doesn’t want to go with you but you are not helping this by trying to take him away from Tony. Look at what you did to him, his lip is bleeding now and you scared him. You need to leave now.”

May nodded her head. “Okay. Just-just tell Peter that I’m sorry.”

Pepper sighed. “He doesn’t understand, May. He’s not gonna know what that means. You would have to make it up to him but Tony isn’t going to let you see him for awhile now and I fully support that so you need to leave before you make things worse.”

Pepper waited until May stepped into the elevator and left before going to follow Tony to see how Peter’s doing but Bruce stopped her.

“Pepper, I’m gonna go now but if you need me for anything then you know where to find me.”

“Thank you for everything, Bruce.”

Bruce looked down, ashamed. “I just wish it worked.”

Pepper nodded her head. “It’s okay, Bruce. It’s gonna be okay.”

Pepper smiled weakly at Bruce at then made her way to Tony’s bathroom. Before she even walked in, Pepper heard Peter crying and her heart broke at the sound.

“Look, it’s all gone now, Peter.” Tony said as he showed Peter a wet washcloth that he was using to wipe the blood off of his face. It was a little drop of blood but Tony knew that Peter was scared about the whole situation rather than the blood.

“It da’re” Peter cried out. He was sitting on the counter in front of Tony with his face flushed red.

Pepper chose this moment to walk in and both males looked at her. “How is he?”

Tony saw that it was only Pepper and turned his attention back to Peter. “He’s scared. What the hell is wrong with May? She can’t be acting like that.”

Pepper walked over to Tony and leaned against the counter. “I agree. She’s gone now though.”

“She left?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Tony could relax now that May was gone and wouldn’t be hurting Peter or threatening to take him away again.

“Daddy.” Peter whimpered out. He tried to reach up for Tony and so Tony put the cloth in the sink and picked Peter up.

“It’s okay, baby. Daddy’s here.” Tony walked past Pepper and carried Peter into his own bedroom so he could change his clothes and calm him down enough to sleep.

Pepper followed Tony to Peter’s bedroom and sat down on his old bed as Tony laid Peter on the floor and grabbed a onesie to dress him in.

While Tony was pulling off Peter’s shirt and his pants, Pepper spoke. “What are you going to do with his bed. And his dresser with all of his old clothes in it?”

Tony looked towards Peter’s closet as well. He moved most of his teenage clothes into the closet so he had more room for his new baby clothes but they were still there. He knew he had to eventually move them out and either get rid of them or save them for Peter when he’s a teen again. That was so weird to think about.

“I Uh, I don’t know yet.” Tony checked Peter’s diaper to make sure he didn’t need a change and once he saw that it was still dry he began putting him into his onesie. “I have to clear all of his old stuff out of his room and maybe paint it and definitely get some more stuff in here. Since this is no longer temporary.”

“The sooner the better. It’ll be good to get comfortable and start working on a schedule.” Pepper was always the most logical one out of the two.

Tony looked at her confused as he picked Peter up and set him on his hip. Peter had his thumb in his mouth and Tony knew that he would fall asleep after he gave him his milk bottle and some cuddles.

“Schedule?” Tony asked confused but continued walking into the kitchen.

Pepper followed him. “Yes Tony. This situation is no longer temporary meaning that pretty soon you have to go back to work and Peter is still a baby. He needs a babysitter, do you know any babysitters? I’m guessing not.”

“What? No. Absolutely not. Peter is my kid and I’m not gonna have some… babysitter raise him.” Tony felt offended that Pepper would even suggest that. “You know Howard just threw me to babysitter after babysitter so I’m not doing that to Peter.”

Pepper sighed. “That’s not what I mean and you know it. A babysitter doesn’t raise your kid, Tony. They just watch them and take care of them when you can’t and I think it’s very important for you to get at least two of them to have on call just in case you need to be somewhere.”

“Here.” Tony handed Peter his bottle of milk and he took it but wasn’t drinking it, Tony would have to feed it to him.

He listened to what Pepper was saying but he thought that the idea was ridiculous. No way was he going to hire a babysitter to look after Peter. If he couldn’t look after him then he would make time and look after him. The responsibilities of a father, right?

“And what about Iron Man? It’s pretty dangerous what you do and you didn’t stop for me but can you stop for Peter? Can you give that up for him?” Pepper asked with a hint of anger in her voice but also concern.

Tony didn’t even think about that. He was lucky enough to not have to deal with any Iron Man related situation up until now with Peter being a toddler and everything but he knew he would have to go out eventually.

Tony stayed silent but Pepper continued. “Because when you’re a parent you no longer live for just yourself anymore. You live for yourself and your kid so you can continue to be there for them and protect them. Are you really gonna let Peter grow up without you, Tony?”

“What are you even talking about? I’m not dying and I don’t plan on dying anytime soon so what are you talking about?” Tony snapped. He didn’t mean to but he hated this conversation.

Logically he knew that Pepper was right. She always was but he hated talking about that, especially in that particular moment.

“I’m talking about you. And Peter and your future as his father, Tony-”

Tony cut Pepper off. “Okay. Can we just not talk about this right now. Or ever. I’m gonna put Peter to bed.”

Tony grabbed Peter’s bottle from his hand and walked into the living room where he sat down, put his feet up on the coffee table and positioned Peter so that he was lying on his lap with his head in the crook of his arm.

Peter immediately reached for the bottle so Tony held it to his mouth and watched as Peter started sucking on it and his eyes slowly shut closed with sleep.

Part of him felt guilty for being so happy in that moment. He didn’t know and would most likely never know if Peter was happy the way he was or if he hated it and wanted to be a teen again.

Tony hoped that he doesn’t stay feeling guilty for very long because he knows that feeling this way isn’t going to do anything to change the situation. As long as Peter stayed happy then that’s all that mattered.

He looked down at his baby asleep in his arms and held him tightly. Peter spit the bottle out of his mouth, signifying that he was done with it so Tony placed it on the side table next to where they were sitting.

Peter, as if on cue with his bottle being out of his mouth, placed his thumb in there instead so Tony looked around for his pacifier and saw it on the coffee table in front of them.

He didn’t want to lean over to get it since he would wake Peter up so he carefully held Peter tightly as to not jostle him too much. He grabbed the pacifier and gently took Peter’s hand away from his mouth then quickly replaced it with the pacifier.

Now that that was done and Peter would be sleeping for at least an hour, Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket and started looking through his emails and answering some of them.

He only got through about ten because Peter was starting to move in his arms and started whining. Tony put his phone down and put his attention on Peter. “What’s wrong, bud? You okay?”

Peter spit his pacifier out and started crying so Tony picked him up so that he could rub his back. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”

Peter wasn’t calming down so Tony stood up with Peter in his arms and walked into Peter’s bedroom so he could grab a toy for him. He picked up a stuffed rabbit and showed it to Peter. “Look! Your rabbit. Want it?”

As if a switch had been turned off, Peter reached for the rabbit and held it in his arms. “Ro Ro.” Peter said and hugged the stuffed animal to his chest.

Tony smiled at his baby boy and hugged Peter to his chest the same way that Peter hugged his stuffed rabbit.

Tony loved Peter more than anything and he couldn’t wait to watch him grow up.