Peter
"So what do you want for your birthday party?" Darcy asked Peter when they were working together in Tony's lab. It was three weeks before the big day.
"Which party?" He had planned just to go out with his old friends. They hadn't seen each other for a long time.
"The surprise party Tony wants to throw you, of course!"
It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the gesture, but... "Does he need an excuse to throw a party?"
"C'mon, your dad just wants to make up all the years he didn't know you existed."
"Ha, ha." Peter regretted nothing as much as telling Darcy that he was adopted! That just fueled Darcy's claim about him being Tony's bastard child. "Oh, I let my stepmother decide." And of course, that just encouraged her more too.
"Good boy knows to respect his parents", his 9 years older than him co-worker grinned. "I try to get him limiting the guest list under 200."
Tony had taken him under his wing the way that rose some questions. He wasn't any kind of proper father figure, but he was definitely more than just a boss. A mentor. And a close friend. And Darcy teased them about it relentlessly. Maybe Mr. Stark had seen his younger self in him and wanted to give all the guidance he would have loved to have too. Peter didn't really know. Sometimes he wondered the parent thing himself, too. It was true that he was capable to follow his thoughts easier than it should have been possible and that maths and physics had always been easy for him. But he didn't look like him and they had really different personalities. Peter loved being alone or in a small company and hated the big crowds Tony needed time to time.
"That can come from your mother's side", Darcy had explained when they had talked about it.
"Do you want this to be tested?" Tony had asked. Like what the hell, now he had started to believe that crap, too?!
"No, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard from you two. I mean why would a chick who bears Tony Stark's child would just give him to adoption instead of trying to get all the cash out of it?"
"Maybe she didn't know whose it was…." Darcy helped.
That was quite insulting for his biological mother! "You say my mother was such a slut she didn't know who was banging her? Thanks a lot!"
"C'mon Peter, I didn't mean it like that. It can happen to anyone!"
"My beloved wife, I want to hear all of your experiences of the matter but somewhere when there aren't underages around", Tony cut in. "So you're sure about no paternity test?"
"I'm absolutely sure. Can we just drop the subject, like for forever?"
"I'm not making any promises…" his stepmother had said and kept her word.
It wasn't that Peter didn't want to know. He just didn't want to be a Stark. Not after what he had seen happening to Darcy "I married Ironman" Stark, who couldn't leave the tower without at least two bodyguards. And all that shit she got in social media! No thank you, even if people would be kinder for a person of his gender.
The closer his birthday came, the more he thought of his biological parents. He knew that he was adopted with such terms that when he was 18, he could know their names if he wanted to. And he was going to ask as soon as he could. Just out of curiosity.
But first, he had to turn 18 and suffer through Tony's extravagant party.
The party wasn't that bad. Most of the guests were Tony's acquaintances but he had all his few old and many new friends there too. It was weird to be in the cool kids' gang now. He worked for SI and knew Tony Stark and that was social currency among his new student friends.
He got all kinds of presents. Ned gave him a funny t-shirt, Tony and Darcy a watch hand-made by Tony.
"Of course it has an AI installed."
"Tony was going to give you a plushy animal but I told him not to."
Pepper Potts gave him an envelope filled with pictures of classy houses and apartments. "I own those places and you are welcome here as my guest whether or not I'm there myself. So when you feel like getting out of the lab, just leave a note for my secretary, she will find flights for you and your friends - paid by me of course."
"Wow, that's very generous of you, Boss Lady." He didn't know what to say. Sometimes Pepper was kinder to him than he could understand. "Thank you."
"Well, I think you need to get out of the lab more. Some of my friends use the places too, but you already know Wanda and Natasha, so don't hesitate to use the offer."
Michelle gave him a gift just by showing up. He missed her but hadn't wanted to work less and spend more time with her which had come between them. How stupid of him! But then he had been so excited about his new job. He had wished they could stay friends after the break-up. She didn't have a new boyfriend. Maybe they could even try again? He spent most of the night planning a world tour with her.
The day after the party he drove to the adoption agency. He asked his papers and sat down when he read the lines. His father was marked as "unknown", of which he wasn't really surprised. But when he read his biological mother's name he almost fell down from the chair.