#6--April 19, 2019
It was the only way
Tony frantically looks around him, spinning around as people appear around him. He’s in Wakanda with the rest of the Avengers, all of them awaiting the return of their loved ones. Tony spots Strange walk out of the Wakandan forest and his panic lessens now that he won’t have to travel all the way back to Titan because he freaking hates space goddammit.
The wizard spots Tony and walks in his direction. “I told you it was the only way, Tony,” Stephan says, stopping a few feet away from the man. “You were the key to winning this." Tony just rolls his eyes. In truth, though, he was the one to wield the gauntlet that brought everyone back. It now sits by the dead Titan’s body, a little mangled.
Tony’s left arm hurts and parts of his suit is a little mangled, though nothing else is wrong with his arm. Just a few burns here and there. Tony just nods at the good doctor as he meets up with the other wizard, Wong? Yeah, Wong.
Tony spots Sam walk out of the forest, looking a little worse for wear, Bucky walking behind him. He spots Steve stop in the distance before they’re all running to each other. Wanda soon walks out and as soon as Natasha spots the little witch, they’re running towards each other, too. Tony keeps his eyes on the skyline, even when Rhodey stands beside them along with Bruce who’s no longer the Hulk.
That Quill guy walks out of the forest, followed by that big guy, Drax?, and followed by the chick with antennas He spots the talking raccoon, Rocket, run after them as a tree with arms and legs and a face walks out of the forest. The group collapse in a hug and the woman who helped Tony return home, Nebula, joins them.
Warriors dressed in Wakandan garb walk out with T'Challa leading them, causing a frantically crying princess to run towards him, followed by her mother and the Dora Milaje. They all shout something in Xhosa and then cross their arms over their chest in a salute.
Tony walks towards the forest as he doesn’t see the kid, his kid, follow after them. Son after he’s calling out the spiderling, "Peter?" He looks around and can see the rest of his team catch notice of his frantic calling. Tony sees Scott with a little girl in his arms and some other people, along with Clint and the rest of the family. But none of them are his kid.
"Pete!?” Tony says, panic seizing his chest as he stumbles towards the treeline, followed by his team.
“Tony?” Steve asks, gaining the man’s attention. “What’s wrong?" Only a few of the team knew that Tony lost someone though they didn’t know who he was.
Tony just shakes his head. "I can’t-I can’t find him. I can’t find him, Steve!” Tony says, turning around and eyeing the forest again. He can practically feel the pity rolling off the people as Pepper walks up beside him. “I can’t see him, Pep!”
Pepper wraps her arms around Tony, dressed in her own iron man armor. Tony frantically looks around as everyone begins to call out for the boy. But he doesn’t answer. Then finally:
“Mr. Stark?" Tony whips around and freezes when he sees his kid finally walk out of the forest, those tear tracks still etched into his skin. It feels like the breath has been pulled out of him at the sight of his kid, still dressed in that stupid iron spider suit that he made. The one that was supposed to keep himself safe.
"Peter,” Tony says, the word coming out as a soft breath. And then he’s running. And Peter’s running. They’re both running. And the boy throws himself at his father figure and Tony wraps his arms around his kid. “Oh, my God, Peter! Peter!" Tony feels tears welling up in his eyes, but he doesn’t care. Because his kid is back.
"Dad,” Peter whimpers into the man’s neck, making the two of them cling to each other even more. Tony grabs the back of the kids head, running his fingers through the slightly knotted curls. “I thought I’d never see you again, Mr. Stark.”
“Peter,” Tony says because that’s the only word that he can say. “Peter." The two cling to each other even as the team walks towards them and Pepper and Rhodey stand beside them. "You’re okay." The two slowly release themselves, though Tony doesn’t remove his arm from around the kid’s shoulders and Peter doesn’t remove his face from the man’s chest. "I missed you, kiddo,” Tony finally says, squeezing him.
“I missed you, too, Dad,” Peter says, sounding like he’s not aware that he even said the words. “I missed you so much." Tony just holds him tightly as he faces the baffled expressions of his team.
"You have a kid?” Clint says slowly from where he stands, surrounded by his wife and kids. “How did we not know that you have a kid?" Tony can tell that Peter didn’t realize that they weren’t alone by the way he stiffens.
He turns around with wide eyes as he looks at his heroes. He looks over at Tony and then back to the Avengers. "Holy, shit!”