When It’s Meant To Be

Pepper just stared at Tony with wide eyes. “You what?”

Tony looked over at her and then looked down at Peter who started driving his truck over Tony’s feet. “I can’t be Iron Man and be a father at the same time.”

Pepper was nodding her head but she didn’t say anything so Tony could continue.

“I just… being a dad is a full time job.” Tony smirked but then went serious again. “Peter needs me here with him. Alive. I don’t want him to have to worry about whether his dad is coming home to him or not every time I put the suit on. He doesn’t need that.”

Tony paused to gather his feelings and continued. “I don’t want to give him nightmares and-and make him live in constant fear and anxiety everyday so… it’s for the best. I’m doing this for him.”

Pepper tried and tried to get Tony to stop being Iron Man for the sake of her health and his life but she gave up after lots of failed attempts.

She couldn’t stop Tony from being Iron Man but Peter could.

“I’m glad, Tony. I was never able to but I’m glad that Peter made his way through that thick skin of yours.” Pepper playfully pinched Tony’s arm so he pinned her down on the bed and started pressing kisses to her lips.

“I love you.” He said to her and felt his stomach flutter when she said it back.

“I love you too.”

Tony sat you and looked down at Peter who was standing on his head now. Or at least trying to. “Time to get this little bugger into a diaper and into bed.”

Tony grabbed Peter’s bottle from off the table and handed it to Peter so he hopefully wouldn’t have to deal with anymore crying tonight. Peter grabbed the bottle and started drinking from it which allowed Tony to lift Peter onto the bed so he could get him ready for bed.

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The next day they had five house showings.

The plan was to wake up early and visit all five houses before Peter had to be put down for his nap since Tony and Pepper talked and decided that it was only fair if Tony didn’t leave Pepper to look at the house every time Peter acted up.

Tony was a bit nervous since he didn’t know how to handle Peter when he got in this temper tantrum moods so he just took him out of the area and brought him somewhere quiet.

Although now, Pepper and Tony had agreed that Tony would deal with it so they could look at the houses together without Peter controlling what happens.

And now was the worst time possible for Peter to get fed up and start to throw a fit.

Tony grabbed Peter and picked him up, setting him in his hip but Peter continued to fight him and start crying even louder.

“Stop it. We will leave soon.” Tony said to Peter but it fell on deaf ears.

Peter started throwing himself around in Tony’s arms, thrashing side to side so Tony gave Pepper a desperate look and went to walk out of the bedroom but Pepper shook her head at him and crossed the distance between the two.

She grabbed Peter from Tony’s arms and stood him on his feet. “Peter. All done. You can hold my hand if daddy’s hand but no more crying until we leave.”

Peter quieted down a bit and reached back up for Tony but then threw his head back so Pepper stood him up straighter again. “Then you’re holding my hand because you’re not listening.”

Pepper stood up fully and grabbed onto the toddlers hand. She continued on talking to their realtor as if nothing happened and Tony was looking on in amazement. He didn’t know how she did that.

He looked down at Peter who had his thumb in his hand and was whimpering occasionally but that was it. His temper tantrum stopped. Pepper really amazes him with new things each and every day.

After their house showings were done and Peter was asleep in Tony’s arms, the family of three decided to grab some food and lay out a blanket in a park in the field to talk about what house they wanted although Tony had a really strong feeling that they fell in love with the same house.

Tony cradled Peter in his arms and took a bite of his sandwich with his free hand. “So, you say what house you like first.”

Pepper stretched her legs out and smiled at Tony. “Well… I loved the one with the red doors. For so many reasons. I could just picture us living there and raising Peter together.”

Tony felt the same way. “Me too. It just… screamed home. Plus Peter really liked the red doors.”

Pepper laughed then took a bite of her salad. “I can picture a future for ourselves there and I know you can too so what do you say?”

Tony held up his hand to fist bump with her. “I say let’s call up our realtor and move in tomorrow.”

Pepper leaned forward to press a kiss to Tony’s lips and Peter’s cheek. “I can’t wait to get out of that hotel and finally have a place to call home. I’m going to order a bunch of furniture to the house tonight for tomorrow since we don’t even have a bed right now.

Tony nodded his head as he bit into his sandwich again then looked down to see Peter waking up. “Oh. Hi there, bud.”

Peter tried to sit up so Tony helped him up then reached for the diaper bag since he already felt that Peter needed a change when he was on his lap.

Peter smiled over at Pepper and then saw Tony’s sandwich and started reaching for it. “Daddy ‘bay’h and ball.”

Tony just nodded his head because he didn’t know what Peter was trying to say. “Yeah, Pete. Lie down.”

Peter tried to reach for Tony’s phone that was laying on the blanket but Tony forced him down so he was lying on his back in front of him. “Daddy mine.”

Tony pulled off Peter’s pants and pushed his phone away with his other hand. “That’s my phone.”

“Where mine?” Peter tried to sit up but Tony pushed him back down and undid the diaper straps.

“Can you pass me one of his toys?” Tony asked Pepper because now Peter was reaching down and trying to pull his diaper off. “Woah, look at this.” Tony held the toy that Pepper handed him in front of Peter’s face.

“Me see.” The two year old reached for the toy to play with it while Tony took that time while Peter was distracted to lift his legs, wipe him and put a clean diaper on.

“All done.” Tony announced, wiping his hands on a baby wipe.

Peter kicked his chubby legs out at Tony so Tony grabbed his ankles and made Peter’s legs move as if he were on a bicycle. Peter started grunting at the action and tried to make his legs move faster.

“Daddy no.” Peter was laughing and then went serious, causing Tony to start laughing at his chubby face.

“Why are you saying no?” Tony asked his kid, fondly. He loved watching Peter process things since he could practically see the wheels turning in his head.

He still couldn’t believe that he got to raise this precious human being in front of him and teach him, and watch him grow and learn.

Peter stuck his tongue out and grinned up at Tony. “Daddy.”

The billionaire felt his heart flutter with so much love and happiness. For the first time, he could say that he loved his life and that he was genuinely happy.

Who knew that all it would take was a small human being.

“I love you so much. Did you know that?” Tony leaned down to press a light kiss to Peter’s bare tummy, tickling him at his sides in the process.

Peter squirmed and tried to get away from Tony, kicking him in the face in the process and if that didn’t show Tony that Peter loved him, he didn’t know what would.

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That night at the hotel, their last night at the hotel, Pepper was on her computer and buying a bunch of stuff to put into their new house and for it to arrive the next day for the movers.

Tony carried Peter out of the bathroom and wrapped in a towel with a bottle of milk in his hands since Peter just couldn’t wait until he was dried and dressed in his pyjamas.

“What couch do you think?” Pepper asked as she turned her computer around.

Tony sat down at the edge of the bed and cradled Peter in his lap. He looked at the options and laughed at one of them. “A white couch? That’ll turn black in an hour with this little one.”

Pepper looked at him then reached out to gently grab Peter’s foot that was peeking through the towel. “I can clean it easily.”

“Nope.” Tony didn’t think that was a good idea. He didn’t want to be afraid to sit on the furniture or scared to let Peter eat some crackers on the couch. “I like this one. It’s big.”

Pepper pulled up a grey couch that was an L shape and had room to lay down. Plus extra space for a toddler to run across and room for diaper changes.

“I like it too.” Pepper added it into the cart. “Sold.”

Tony smiled. He felt like he was on top of the world with his girlfriend and his two year old son, buying furniture for their new house that they were moving into tomorrow.

“Are you almost done?” He asked as he sat up and laid Peter down, opening up his towel to let him air dry for a bit before he puts him into a diaper and pyjamas.

“Not even close. There’s so much stuff I have to get but I’m just getting things like couches, coffee tables, carpets in the living room and around the house. We need a new fridge, oven…basically everything for the kitchen that’s all coming tomorrow.” Pepper stopped to think and Tony was glad that she was handling all of that.

Pepper continued. “I want you to order all of Peter’s stuff for his bedroom because I know you enjoyed that last time. Ordering his crib, changing table and stuff. Then we need our bedroom stuff and bathroom stuff plus all the other bedrooms we can’t leave them empty.”

Tony’s eyes went wide. The house wasn’t huge but it also wasn’t small either with five bedrooms and a total of eight bathrooms inside the whole house. He never really thought of designing the whole entire house but he knew that Pepper loved doing that stuff and was excited about it.

As long as he designed Peter’s bedroom, he was happy.

“Oh, and simple things like pictures for the walls, lots of artwork and picture frames for us to put pictures of Peter up around the house. I want to do a photoshoot with the three of us.”

Tony loves that idea. “Oh yes. We have to do that. Let’s do it in a week. After we get settled.”

“It’s a plan. I’ll book it after this.”

Tony was so freaking grateful for Pepper. He didn’t know what he would do without her.

He also didn’t know what he would do without Peter.

He looked down at Peter who was drinking his bottle of milk and looking up at him so Tony grabbed the diaper cream and went to go put it on Peter when he started to pee and it hit him, leaving a line all the way up his shirt.

Tony quickly covered Peter with a towel. “He just peed on me.”

Pepper put her computer screen down a bit to look at the scene going on in front of her. “Well… he has excellent aim.”

Tony rolled his eyes at her and uncovered Peter with the towel once he assumed that he was done. He looked up at his kids face and saw that he was grinning at him around his milk bottle. He raised his eyebrows at him. “Oh. I see how it is. You know exactly what you’re doing, don’t you?”

Peter kicked his chubby legs out and grunted at Tony.

“Silly boy. Silly silly boy.” Tony shook his head fondly at his baby as he put diaper cream on him and put him in a clean diaper and alligator pyjamas.

He lifted Peter up and grabbed RoRo and his baby blanket then placed him next to Pepper so he could fall asleep while drinking his bottle of milk. He liked it when Peter slept between them so it would be hard to get used to his baby sleeping in his own bedroom and own crib when they move into the new house and get everything settled.

Tony shut the bathroom light off and climbed into bed with his laptop pulled onto his lap and his free hand going to rub Peter’s belly.

Pepper put her laptop onto the nightstand table and leaned over to pick Peter up and hold the toddler in her arms so she could feed him his bottle. Tony smirked. “You’re spoiling him.”

Pepper rolled her eyes at him and continued to feed Peter. “And you don’t? Face it, Tony, this baby is going to have all our attention whenever he wants it.”

Tony chuckled. That was very true. When Peter was a teenager he had always demanded all of his attention and got annoyed when he gave his attention onto someone or something else so Tony has a strong feeling that toddler Peter was ten times more demanding.

“I’m okay with that.” He admitted then went back to look at his laptop.

“What’re you doing?” She asked as she looked over at Tony’s screen.

“I’m finishing up with Peter’s story so no one can trace it back to us.” Tony answered her. He was emailing his lawyers back and forth, knowing that they would take care of it for him.

“What’s the story going to be?” Pepper asked and to be honest, Tony didn’t know. It was hard because even though Peter was very much alive and currently drinking his milk, Tony was going to be saying goodbye to the teen Peter that he used to love and know.

He wasn’t sure if Peter would grow up and be exactly like that again. Of course he most likely wouldn’t since he was going up in a stable home with a father and a mother so Tony knew that Peter wouldn’t turn out the same way but he hoped that Peter would still be his innocent and beautiful boy. Although Tony was certain that he would be.

“Uh… well, basically Peter Parker is going to die. That’s the story. Because our Peter is Peter Stark now so no one can trace it back to him.” Tony explained, hating using the word ‘Peter’ and ‘die’ in the same sentence.

“It makes most sense so no one goes looking for Peter Parker if I make him go missing or sent him to a long lost Uncle's house or something like that. It’ll be car closed.”

Pepper looked sad but then looked down at Peter in her arms. It was definitely a weird conversation to have but she was glad that they only had to have it once. “You’ll have to tell his friends the truth. What about Ned? Does he even know what happened?”

Tony didn’t know. He didn’t have any conversations with May about it before she got locked up. He liked to think that she took that into her own hands and at least told Ned that his friend was okay but he wasn’t going to see him for awhile. He wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know. Honestly probably not with the way that May acted. She probably didn’t even tell the poor kid.” Tony put that on his mental list to give Ned a call sometime soon and have a talk with him.

He didn’t think he could fly the fifteen year old out to Malibu and they weren’t going back to New York anytime soon so a FaceTime call might have to suffice.

“You should give him a call tomorrow if you have time. Do you think Peter will remember him?” Pepper asked and both adults looked down at Peter who was falling asleep in Pepper’s arms.

Tony shook Peter’s foot gently to get his attention. “Hey bud, do you remember Ned?”

Peter moved his eyes to look up at his dad and looked him up and down as if he was judging him and then he went back to drinking his milk with his eyes slightly closed.

Tony leaned down to press a kiss to his face. “I’ll take him. Tomorrow’s a big day for us so we better get a good night's sleep.”

Pepper carefully handed the half asleep toddler into his daddy’s arms and yawned. “We have to wake up early too.”

Tony groaned. He placed Peter in between them on the bed and laid down so he could gently rub Peter’s belly. One of his favourite things to do was to watch Peter fall asleep because he got to be close to him and take in everything while also having some well needed peace and quiet.

“Do you want to sleep in with Peter for a bit while I meet our realtor at the house? Or do you want to come with us?” Pepper asked him as he was putting cream on her legs and arms.

Tony watched her. “Uh… depends on how early we have to get up.”

She playfully rolled her eyes at him. “Seven and did you put cream on Peter?”

Tony groaned for both things. “Just diaper rash cream and it’s fine, I’ll wake up but Peter will most likely be in a bad mood. I call not getting him ready.”

Pepper finished putting her cream on and looked down at Peter. “Well if I do it now then I’ll wake him up so I’ll just remember to do it tomorrow night after his bath.”

“Yep. In our new home.” Tony replied with a smile.

They finally got to leave the hotel. Tony didn’t think he wanted to be in a hotel again for at least a few months. A week was too long. Plus with a toddler, it was not fun.

Pepper turned the lamp off and got comfortable. “Well, we are not going to have much in the house. We have to have painters come in tomorrow to paint some of the rooms to brighten things up. We’re getting new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms as well as the hallway upstairs. Plus after that then all the furniture comes in. It’ll be extremely busy. We might have to spend another night here.”

“Nope.” Tony couldn’t spend another night here when they now had a whole house to live in and make memories. “Some perks about being a billionaire is that you can have a house move in ready in just under a day.”

“Alright, Mr. Stark. We’ll see about that.” Pepper sat up to press a kiss to Tony’s lips then turned around to fall asleep.

Tony knew he would right. It would be a busy and stressful day but he would get it done.