The art of publicity
Tony got off the phone with Rhodey and just stared at the wall.
He knew deep down that he should have never brought Peter to the park because it was too big of a risk.
Now the thing that Tony didn’t want to happen was happening.
Tony didn’t know what to do. He knew there were pictures of Peter and him all over the Internet and probably millions of evidence and conspiracies as to who Peter was to Tony was coming out and people believe what they hear.
Tony had no idea what to do. He was completely lost. He debated if he should call Pepper to try and clear things up with her or if he should call May to let her know that Peter’s picture got out.
Of course Peters picture has been out before with him being seen with Tony as a teenager but he was still underage so the pictures were always blurred.
Asides from that one time where Peter’s face was plastered on every news station and every magazine with the caption being who this mysterious child was hanging out with Tony Stark.
Tony quickly cleared everything up and got Peter out of the spotlight but that was because he had the help from Pepper because she knew it was Peter.
Now however, she did not know and she was extremely mad at Tony because she believed that he cheated on her and that Peter, who was the baby in the pictures, was a result of that.
Tony felt a tug on his leg and looked down to see Peter tugging on his pant leg. Tony doesn’t even remember when he put Peter down but he doesn’t really care so he picks Peter up and placed him on his hip.
“Wha’ w’ong?” Peter asked looking at Tony with his big brown eyes that Tony just realized now that Peter grew into them as a teenager because they were the same size as teen Peter.
“I don’t know, bud” Tony said honestly. He felt helpless and he knew what he had to do but he couldn’t help himself by not wanting to do it.
He knew he had to call Pepper and explain to her what was really happening and then for her to help him and stop Peters pictures from going all over the world even though they probably already had.
“I wan’ play” Peter whined clueless as to what Tony was feeling right now. Tony didn’t want to tell Peter anything because even if Peter could understand, Tony didn’t want Peter to worry about anything because that was Tony’s job.
And it always was Tonys job even when Peter was a teen. It was never his job to worry about certain things even though he would always try to be involved when it wasn’t necessary and worry about it anyways.
Tony was for once thankful that Peter was a toddler so he didn’t worry about this.
Although, if Peter wasn’t a toddler he wouldn’t have to worry about it because it wouldn’t be happening.
Tony carried Peter out into the living room so Peter could play with some of the toys that Tony ordered for him which included random baby toys.
Tony placed Peter on the ground while he sat on the couch and took out his laptop.
He decided to look up some of the pictures that got leaked and possibly who leaked them so he could end their career of taking sneaky pictures of famous people for their own benefit.
He hoped that at least Peters face was blurred out otherwise he was gonna have to call up his lawyers.
Tony didn’t like the fact that there were pictures of Peter out there but he needed to see them as well as read the headlines so he could see what he was gonna have to explain to Pepper.
Although, it would probably be the same story either way.
Tony looked at Peter who was chewing on a toy on the carpet. He was still in his diaper because Tony didn’t understand why he should put Peter in clothes when he was gonna have to take them all off to change Peters diaper again less than an hour later.
Tony watched Peter as he chewed on the plastic toy. Tony didn’t know what it was but Peter seemed to really like it.
Tony held off looking at the pictures while he just watched Peter. He didn’t even realize he had a smile on his face until Peter looked up at him and he went to smile but then realized he already was smiling.
Peter sat up so he was on his feet and waddled over to Tony then handed him the now wet with saliva toy that he had been chewing on like Tony never fed him.
Tony grabbed it from him then Peter made a weird baby sound and went to go sit back down with his toys.
Tony watched Peter for a few more seconds before he took a deep breath and looked at what the pictures were online of Peter.
Tony really hoped that they were either blurry because he didn’t see anyone at the park so they had to have been far away.
Tony saw the first picture. It was of him holding Peter on his hip getting out of the car and Peters head was turned away from the camera and it was kinda hard for it to tell if Peter was a boy or a girl so at least that was good.
Tony found more pictures but these ones were way worse.
It was of Tony picking Peter up and lifting him up onto the play structure and Peters face was turned to the camera but thankfully his face was blurred.
The person who took the pictures definitely didn’t wanna get sued by Tony Stark so they made sure to blur the pictures.
The rest of the pictures were just of Tony playing with Peter on the slide and that’s all so they must have somehow followed Tony from the tower somehow and took pictures right when they got to the park and then left so they wouldn’t get caught.
Tony had no idea how they missed that but he was just glad that there were no pictures of him changing Peters diaper because that would have not been good.
The captions on the pictures were basically the same under all of them which were ‘Is Tony Stark a secret dad?’ Or ‘Does Tony Stark have a secret love child?’ Or other like ‘Did Tony Stark cheat on Pepper Potts?’
All the captions were basically about him cheating on Pepper and that Peter was his child from the cheating that he did.
Tony didn’t entirely blame the media because he was never around kids so to be seen with a baby would only happen if the child was his. Which Peter wasn’t no matter how much he thinks otherwise and wants it not to be true. Peter is not his, biologically.
The same thing happened with Peter when he was a teen and was seen with Tony. Everyone freaked out because why was Tony Stark hanging out with a child so Tony quickly shut down the rumours.
The same thing was supposed to happen now so he could get ahold of it until it got too much out of hand but he needed Pepper for that.
He also needed Pepper not to be mad at him and in order for that to happen Tony had to explain to her what’s happening but he didn’t know how and he was too scared to call her and she not answer or hang up.
As if on cue, Tony’s phone rang.
He picked it up and looked at who was calling expecting it to be Pepper but it wasn’t. It was May.
That scared Tony a little bit more because he had no idea how she was gonna react.
Tony took a breath and then answered “Hey May”
“Tony, why are there pictures of Peter all over the Internet?” May asked right away before even saying hello.
Tony didn’t know how to explain that “I messed up, May. I took Peter to the park because he was bugging me to go and I knew I shouldn’t have”
Tony heard May take a breath and at first Tony thought that it was gonna be okay and she was gonna say that it was okay but that was it what happened.
“Yeah, you shouldn’t have, Tony because now Peters all over the Internet but in a baby’s body” May said and Tony knew she was angry.
Tony’s had many times where he was yelled at by May when he’s done something with Peter that he shouldn’t have like when he fed Peter candy before bed or letting him stay up past his bedtime.
This felt different however, Tony really knew that he messed up and he didn’t like that. He wanted to fix it. He wanted to fix this so badly.
“May, I’m sorry but I’m gonna fix this. I will” Tony said desperately because he needed to and he hated the fact that everybody he cared about was mad at him. Except for Peter. Peter seemed to be out of it but Tony was sure that if he told him then Peter would probably be mad at him too so because of that Tony decided not to tell him.
At least for now.
“Fix it, Tony. I can’t have Peter out there like that on the Internet with people making up rumours about who he is to you” At that May hung up.
Tony couldn’t help but feel hurt at what May said. It hurt because Tony was pretty sure that she was implying that she didn’t want people thinking that Tony was Peters dad.
It really hurt him to think that May would not want that because he wasn’t really sure about Peter but he saw Peter as a son and had to stop himself from telling Peter or telling anyone else but he was also kinda sure that Peter thought of him like that as well, as a father figure type thing to Peter and Tony would be more than happy to take on that role for Peter but now it didn’t seem that May would approve.
The fact that May was still in charge or Peter, she was the one who raised Peter asides from Peters Uncle Ben before he died and his parents in the first four years of his life, she could say what Peter does and doesn’t do because Peter was technically hers.
Also, she was the one who changed his actual dirty diapers when he was actually a baby. Tony didn’t know if he could count what he’s doing as actually... well, yes he was actually changing Peters diapers but that still didn’t give him the right to say what Peter does because May still had that power.
Tony looked down at Peter who was still playing with his toys but Tony could tell he was getting bored and it was also getting late so Tony decided to get Peter ready for bed.
“Hey Pete” Tony said moving to kneel on the ground next to Peter who was lying on his stomach kicking his chubby legs behind him as he played with a bear stuffed animal.
Peter rolled onto his back and kicked his feet up so that his knees were pulled to his chest and he smiled at Tony and then mumbled something that Tony couldn’t understand.
“You ready for bed now?” Tony asked but he didn’t know why he was asking because it was like baby Peter would put up a fight like big Peter and start trying to argue with Tony about staying up for another hour.
The most baby Peter would do would be cry and kick until Tony settled him down enough to put him to sleep.
Tony reached down to pick Peter up under the arms and held him to his chest as he made his way into Peters bedroom.
Peter placed his head on Tony’s shoulder and it was Tony’s favourite thing that Peter did. One of his favourite things.
Tony put ahold trying to call Pepper for now because right now he needed to get Peter ready for bed.
Tony walked into the bathroom and started the bath while still holding Peter in his arms. Thankfully Peter was only wearing a diaper so it wouldn’t be too hard or take too long to get it off.
Once the bath was filled with warm water that wasn’t too high up for Peter to go under, Tony put Peter on the ground and slid the diaper out from under him and tossed it into the garbage can.
“I wan’ play wif toys” Peter said looking up at Tony with wide eyes.
Tony hoped that Peter would be too tired to play with any bath toys because he just wanted to get him cleaned and then get him in the bath.
“Not tonight, buddy” Tony said then lifted Peter up and placed him in the bath.
Peter didn’t whine or complain so Tony could tell he was actually tired which Tony was thankful for.
Peter looked miserable the whole time in the bath while Tony washed him but Tony wasn’t in the mood to cheer him up because he knew he would be putting him to bed really soon.
Once Peter was cleaned off, Tony dried him in a towel and laid him down on his changing table quickly putting on a clean diaper and getting Peter into one of his onesies.
“Sleep good, bud” Tony said softly while putting Peter down in his crib.
Peter immediately lied down and got comfortable. Tony watched him for a few seconds because he was so small and adorable and it made Tony’s heart burst with something he didn’t really know every time he looked at Peter.
He hoped Peter stayed asleep all night as he walked out of the bedroom leaving the door open a bit.
Tony now knew he had to call Pepper or at least try to call her. He didn’t really know if she would pick up because he knew she was most likely pissed at him.
Tony didn’t really blame her for that but he still really wanted her to pick up so he could explain and maybe she could help him with Peter a bit or at least see him.
Tony sat down on the couch staring at his phone for about ten minutes before he actually hit the call button.
He waited one ring, two rings, three rings, he waited until it went all the way to voicemail and so he hung up feeling hurt and called again.
Tony sat there feeling awful.
Everyone was mad at him and they weren’t even giving him time to explain everything.
Just as Tony was about to say screw it and go to bed his phone rang and it was Pepper.
Tony answered on the third ring “Pepper”
Pepper was silent for a few seconds before speaking “Are you calling to apologize for cheating on me and lying?”
Tony shook his head before speaking “No, I mean, I’m calling to explain, Pep. I didn’t lie or cheat on you”
Pepper said nothing. Tony continued “Let me explain”
Tony heard Pepper sigh “Fine. Explain to me”
This time Tony’s sighed “I don’t, I can’t do it over the phone. Can you come to the tower”
“Tony I can’t-“
“Please Pep. Please come so I can explain” Tony begged.
“Alright. Fine. I’ll take a flight first thing tomorrow morning and I’ll be there around noon” Pepper said then hung up.
Tony was grateful that he was finally gonna be able to explain but he was still scared for her coming.