Defense Squad
“Just to make sure,” Tony heard Peter begin as the two walked out of the Koch Biology Building together, “You really don’t have anything more important to do today, right? Cuz Ms. Potts is gonna kill you if you’re missing another meeting this week again.”
“I knew letting you shadow Pepper for a day would be a bad idea,” Tony muttered. “But for the record, no I do not have any meetings scheduled for today. And anyways, what could possibly be more important than taking my kiddo on a personal tour of his future university!”
Tony saw the kid flush and he couldn’t help but broaden his grin and wrap an arm around the boy’s shoulders. Geez, this kid could be too cute without even trying sometimes.
“You know I can’t even apply here for at least another year, right?” Peter rolled his eyes. “Who knows, I could always change my mind and choose, oh I don’t know, CalTech as my first pick instead.”
“Do that and you’re disowned,” Tony dismissed him, taking off his rose gold sunglasses to send the kid a glare. All Peter did was smirk. “What do you want to check out next?”
Peter quickly took out a worn MIT campus map from his back pocket to look at it. He cocked his head to the side before looking up, eyes narrowing towards the building across the courtyard. “Let’s check out that cool looking building over there, I think it’s called the Ray and Maria Stata Center.”
“You know I’ve never been inside there,” Tony commented as the duo made their way across North Court.
“You didn’t have any classes in there?” Peter asked as he took some pictures of the building’s funky exterior with his phone.
“This building didn’t exist when I attended here. Come to think of it, this center is where Building 20 used to be. That was where one of the first ever hackerspaces was founded here on campus, so I used to spend a lot of time with Rhodey in the space.”
“Cool!”
“It’s actually really weird to see Building 20 gone,” Tony admitted, taking in the main lobby area as they entered the building. “You wouldn’t believe half the shi- I mean crap that Rhodey and I used to get up to after club meetings in Building 20.”
“If I remember correctly, Antonio, you were the one always causing trouble while poor James was the one attempting to fix your messes,” a familiar but older voice drawled from behind them.
Tony turned quickly on his heels when he heard the female voice, already guessing who it was; not many dared to call him Antonio anymore. He was proven correct when his widened eyes were met with the elderly form of a well loved figure from his past. With quick steps towards the woman he exclaimed, “Professor Lebrenew! Is that really you?”
“In the flesh, dear Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew beamed as she shook hands with Tony. “A pleasure to see you happy and well.”
“Same to you, ma’am,” Mr. Stark replied fondly. For a brief moment it felt as if he were 15 again, still hopeful and naive and eager to learn from the genius in front of him.
The moment ended when Peter butted in excitedly. “Wait, Dr. Lebrenew? As in the Doctor Sandra Lebrenew, the woman who single handedly managed to revamp the whole robotics field while also helping to create the first AI? That Dr. Lebrenew?!”
“The one and only,” Dr. Lebrenew confirmed, eyes twinkling as she took in the youth behind Tony.
“Oh my gosh, wow! This is- wow,” Peter stuttered as he stared at the doctor. Tony’s grin grew as he watched his kid continue to flounder. “I can’t believe this! My school has a picture of you and everything hanging on the wall of fame! I’m pretty sure my robotics teacher thinks you’re like Jesus or something, he has a shrine of you in our class!”
Now Dr. Lebrenew laughed as she watched Peter continue to patter on in a combination of hero worship and general excitement. “I must say, it’s not often that I receive such praise and recognition from someone so young. Since you know who I am, it would only be fair for me to know your name, hm?”
“Uh, o-of course,” Peter stammered. “Uh…” Peter’s mouth moved but no sound would come out. Though Tony felt amused seeing Peter’s natural awkward enthusiasm come out, he decided to have some pity on the kid.
“This is Peter Parker,” He introduced as he clapped the teen on the shoulders. “He’s my personal intern who wanted a tour of MIT.”
“Intern?” Dr. Lebrenew echoed, raising a fine grey eyebrow at Tony. “My, how times change, I remember when you were still my student and you swore up and down that you would never have any interns or assistants when you were in charge of Stark Industries.”
Tony shrugged. “What can I say? This kid right here is probably a lot smarter than I was at his age, and a lot more respectful, so the least I could do was offer him an internship at my labs.”
“High praise coming from a man like Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew commented as she smiled softly at Peter. “Considering MIT as your future university of choice, young man?”
“Yes ma’am,” Peter answered feverently. “I’ve been wanting to go to MIT since I started kindergarten.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll get in with no problem seeing that you’re such an intelligent and respectful young man. It also helps that you have a personal connection to Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew shot a smirk at Tony.
“Trust me, professor,” Tony shook his head, “Pete won’t need any of my help to get in, MIT will practically be breaking down his front door to give him an invitation. Give him a couple of years and he’ll be doing much greater things than I could have ever done at his age.”
“Mr. Stark,” Peter hissed, cheeks red as he glared embarrassedly up at Tony.
“What? It’s true and you know it,” Tony replied, ruffling the teen’s already unruly hair, earning an annoyed groan from Peter.
“You really have changed, Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew chuckled, obviously delighted. “We do need to catch up with one another, are you free at all any time today? Possibly after giving your intern a tour?”
“Sorry, doc, the kid and I need to start heading back to New York City by at least 4, he has school in the morning,” Tony apologetically frowned.
“Drat,” Dr. Lebrenew sighed. “Oh well, there is always next time I suppose.”
“Wait,” Peter protested. “Mr. Stark, why don’t you just go get some coffee with Dr. Lebrenew right now?”
“And what about our tour?” Tony asked, turning to the kid.
“Well, getting some coffee won’t take long, an hour tops, right? It’s a quarter to 11, you could catch up with your professor for like an hour while I could just hang around and see some of the sites and then we could meet up somewhere at 12.”
Tony scrunched up his eyebrows before he shook his head. “Your Aunt would literally kill me if I left you on your own in a new place.”
“Isn’t MIT one of the safest campuses around?” Peter asked, turning towards Dr. Lebrenew.
“It is,” the professor confirmed. “Especially during summer semester. There’s less students and campus security is everywhere. However, I have an even better idea. How would you like to see my personal labs up close and work with some of the very best graduate students that MIT has to offer while Antonio and I catch up?”
Peter’s jaw dropped, staring at Dr. Lebrenew with shock. “Ar-Are you serious? Me? Labs? Wait what!”
“Jesus kid,” Tony groaned out good naturedly.
The kid turned to stare at Tony, face pale and eyes wide. For a moment Tony worried the kid was about to keel over in shock before Peter’s face broke into a wide smile that could probably light up the whole New York City skyline. “Mr. Stark! Oh my gosh did she just offer to let me see her labs?! This is the best day of my whole entire life!”
Tony couldn’t help but frown. “Uh kid, what about the day you met me.”
Peter waved a dismissive hand as he smirked at Tony. “Eh, not even in my top five, sorry.”
“You little-” Tony mock growled, pulling the kid in to tossel his hair.
“Mr. Stark,” Peter whined, “You’re embarrassing me!”
“Then you shouldn’t have sassed me,” Tony counted, but did let the kid go.
The whole time Dr. Lebrenew stared at the pair with an amused expression on her face. “So gentlemen, is that a good enough plan for the two of you.”
“Yes!” Peter practically screeched. Tony just rolled his eyes at his kid’s antics but did offer his former professor a nod of assent.
“Perfect, then let us all take a trip up to my labs. Please follow me.”
Dr. Lebrenew’s labs were in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory wing of the Stata. While they could not rival Tony’s own personal labs, he did have to admit that for a university, these labs were a beautiful scientific and technological landscape for students and professors alike. Tony himself would have been giddy to enter this space when he was a student at MIT.
“Awesome,” Peter gasped, eyes roaming the lab.
One whole side of the lab was made up of floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing natural sunlight to filter in, while the rest of the walls were covered in shelving and scientific tools. The middle held various lab benches, hoods, and laptops. Around one particular laptop were a group of a people, most of whom were most likely in their mid to late 20’s. They all turned to face the incoming trio, and some gasped and began to mumble when they saw who had entered the lab.
“Students,” Dr. Lebrenew called out, clapping her hands to gather their attention to her. “I wanted to introduce all of you to two guests who I have invited today. As you might have already guessed, this is Dr. Anthony Stark and right behind him is his personal intern, Peter Parker. Antonio, Mr. Parker, these are some of my personal graduate students.”
“Hey there,” Tony nonchalantly waved at the awed group of students while Peter stuttered out a greeting.
“Dr. Stark and I will be heading out to discuss some things, however Mr. Parker will be staying and working with you all for the next hour or so. From what Dr. Stark has told me, he has already worked within Stark Industry Labs on personal and professional projects, so he will be able to keep up with you all. Please make him feel welcomed, and Annette,” Dr. Lebrenew turned towards a young woman with dark skin and curly hair, “Since you are team leader today, please go over the basics of the current project with Mr. Parker.” Once Annette nodded Dr. Lebrenew smiled at her students. “Alright then, carry on, I will be back within an hour.” With that she turned to head back out the door.
“Are you sure you’ll be fine here?” Tony couldn’t help but ask, running a critical eye over the kid.
Peter was still grinning maniacally and bobbed his head quickly. “Oh my gosh yes, Ned won’t believe this when I tell him!”
“Come along Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew beckoned from the doorway. “Your intern will be fine, my students will treat him like a member of their group, and I for one am dying to regale you with tales of some of my more idiotic freshmen.”
“If you need anything, call me,” Tony said, quickly ruffling Peter’s hair before the teen could protest. “Be good! And have fun.”
“-and so, instead of handing in his group’s project, the moron hands in 2 hours worth of pornography! And not even live action pornography, no it was cartoon pornography!” Dr. Lebrenew chortled gracefully while Tony almost dropped his coffee because of how hard he was laughing.
“I would have died of embarrassment,” Tony said as his chuckles died off. “Did you let him re-submit the correct project?”
“Eventually,” Dr. Lebrenew answered, a devious smirk on her face. “After he came to my office blubbering and begging to let him hand in his group’s project. I told him I would allow it, if he cleaned my labs up every Friday for the rest of the semester.”
“You’re going soft, doc,” Tony laughed. “If I would have done that back when I was still a student, you probably would have made me clean your labs until the day I graduated.”
Dr. Lebrenew shrugged. “Most likely, but with all the trouble you caused in your time here, you would have deserved it.” She continued to stir her coffee gently as she glanced out the window.
The two were about a 5 minute drive from the campus, having decided to just go to a local Starbucks. Luckily the shop was mostly empty, which meant that no one had even noticed that Tony Stark was sitting with a professor, enjoying coffee as the two traded stories.
The pair lapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment, before Dr. Lebrenew glanced back at her former student over her pair of glasses. “Speaking of getting soft, what finally made you cave in and get in intern? And such an exceptionally young intern at that.”
Tony tried to shrug off the question. “Saw him at a local science fair, and I dunno, he just had a different quality than everyone else in the room. Unfortunately he comes from a low income background, so I thought it would be fair to at least give him a shot in the big leagues. Plus he’s slowly gotten over his adorable little hero worship with me, so he’s a lot sassier nowadays.”
Dr. Lebrenew cocked her head to the side and narrowed her dark brown eyes at Tony. Once again Tony felt like a young student again, and he resisted the urge to squirm under the doctor’s scrutiny. “That boy is much more than just an intern to you, isn’t he, Tonio?”
Tony blinked at her. “What, you think he’s my son or something? Because let me tell you, everyone always gets that idea and-”
“No, no,” Dr. Lebrenew interrupted him. “That boy is not your son, the world would have known that from the start. But I would take a guess and say that while he may not be your biological son, he might as well be, hm?”
Tony shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, doc. I’m not good with kids, and even if I were, I would be a terrible father. I’m pretty sure I would make the worst father figure in the history of fatherhood.”
Dr. Lebrenew sighed, reaching forward to clasp Tony’s right hand. “Oh Antonio, although I may tease you about all the trouble you caused when you were young, that was never your biggest fault. No, your biggest fault was always your lack of self confidence.”
“Uh doc, have you met me? Some people would argue that I’m too confident,” Tony chuckled mirthlessly.
“That’s just the persona you’re trying to portray,” Dr. Lebrenew said, waving a dismissive hand in the air. “And while you may have gotten better at only showing the world what you want them to see, I’ve known you for far too long to be fooled by your tactics.”
She took a long sip of her coffee while Tony attempted to think of a way to steer this conversation away from such personal details. Before he could change the subject, however, Dr. Lebrenew continued speaking. “I don’t blame you for your need to hide behind masks. In fact, most people in your position probably would have coped worse than how you did.”
Tony couldn’t help but scoff at that. “Honestly I’m probably the poster kid of the worst coping mechanisms possible. I mean, how many times was I charged with either drug possession or underage drinking back in my playboy years?”
“And I firmly blame your father for that.”
“I thought you and dad were good friends?” Tony asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Oh we were, I would even dare say Howard was one of my closest friends. But even I have to admit that Howard had many faults, paramount being his treatment of you.” Dr. Lebrenew sighed deeply as she stared out the window. “I’m sure you could guess that Howard wasn’t exactly jumping for joy when he found out Maria was pregnant. In fact, I don’t think Howard ever really wanted children, his main goal in life was always to find out what had happened to Steve Rogers.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Tony bitterly muttered. All his childhood was spent competing with a missing man for his own father’s affection. It should have been no surprise that he would have grown up to also become an asshole.
Dr. Lebrenew briefly glanced back at Tony before returning to gaze out of the window. “I don’t blame you for hating him, Antonio. Howard was never fit to become a father, he had gone through so much during the war, and losing Steve was hard on him. Believe me, I am not trying to justify him, but just to provide some clarity on why he was the way he was.”
Tony turned his eyes to see what the doctor was staring at. Across the street from where they were sitting sat a little boy with an older man that was most likely his father. The boy was only around five or six years old, and was having trouble eating his snowcone while his father attempted to help him.
A year ago such a scene would have stirred some sort of bitter emotion within Tony, but now all he could feel was a sense fondness. The scene reminded him of the time that he took Peter to that Mets game a couple of weeks ago, where he and Peter had eaten ice cream in the stands until Peter was practically bouncing in his seat because of the sugar rush. That memory brought a smile to Tony’s face, and he turned back to face Dr. Lebrenew.
“I don’t hate him,” Tony admitted softly. “I did when I was younger, but I don’t hate my father anymore. Howard was never meant to be a good dad, and even though I wish we could have resolved our issues before his… death, I don’t want to be stuck in his shadow anymore by hating him.”
Dr. Lebrenew stared at Tony in slight surprise before her face morphed into understanding. “I’m glad that having a child of your own has helped you heal over your father’s shortcomings.”
“Not my kid, doc,” Tony rolled his eyes.
“I would beg to differ, that boy looks at you as if you hung all the stars in the galaxies.”
“He does not,” Tony protested. “I try my best with him, but I’m pretty sure that most of the time I fail spectacularly. He probably respects me and all that fun jazz, but I’m the last person that kid would want as a father figure.”
Dr. Lebrenew raised an eyebrow. “Do you listen to him when he has any problems?”
“I mean duh, of course.”
“And do you try to help him fix his problems?”
“Well yeah.”
“Would you do everything in your power to make him as happy as he could be?”
“Without hesitation.”
“Oh Tony,” Dr. Lebrenew grasped his hand again. “You don’t realize it, but you already love that boy like your own.”
Tony blinked at her and realized that she was right. In a way he had always known that he cared about Peter greatly, but he never wanted to admit it himself that he truly loved the kid like his own son.
Tony had never had the best track record on loving people. First were his parents, who more often than not were absent in his life. There were the various flings of his youth and adulthood, but those never lasted very long. There had been Edwin Jarvis, but he too was gone now. Obadiah Stane had ended up betraying him, leaving another hole in his jaded heart. And even the Avengers had left him, bitter and depressed.
But even through all the betrayals, deaths, and abandonments he could finally admit to himself that he did have people that he loved, and who loved him back. There was Rhodey, whose friendship with him spanned decades. Happy had just been an employee, but after everything they had been through the two had become good friends. There was also Pepper, most likely the love of his life, who had stuck with him even through the most dangerous moments of his life.
And of course, there was Peter now. Peter, whose eyes lit up whenever he so much as saw the older man. Peter, who would jabber on about his latest patrol to Tony as the two ate pizza while watching a movie. Peter, who had finally learned to come to him with problems to fix and for advice on even the most mundane of things. Peter, who was so good and innocent and who would end up better than all of the Avengers combined one day.
In a world as dark as they lived in, Peter Parker was one of the last good and innocent things that Tony had left in his life, and he would rather die than let something happen to his kid. But more so than that, Tony realized that he wanted to live for the kid, to see him grow up and become a better man than what Tony ever could have been. So that’s what loving someone unconditionally feels like.
Throughout his whole mini revelation Dr. Lebrenew sat back and watched Tony with fond amusement. “You understand now?”
“Yeah, I think I do,” Tony said, glancing back at the doctor with a newfound determination.
“And what are you going to do now with this new information?”
“Well that’s easy,” Tony answered, getting up to get ready to go. “I have to make sure that my kid realizes that I love him.”
Dr. Lebrenew just smiled softly as she too got up.
“I really can’t thank you enough, doc,” Tony said as the two walked through the lobby of Stata.
“You really don’t have to,” Dr. Lebrenew chided gently. “I can tell that this boy has greatly improved your mood lately, especially after the mess the Accords created for you. I’m glad to see you happy once again.”
“Trust me, I’m happy about that too,” Tony chuckled as they almost reached Dr. Lebrenew’s lab doors. “I just can’t believe it’s taken me this long to admit how much I care about the kid. I mean, it’s like- What the Hell?!” Tony cut himself off harshly as the lab doors opened and he saw what was going on inside.
On one side one of the students had bloody knuckles and was attempting to get free from the hold of two other students. Directly across from him was Peter, and Tony noticed with building rage that he was holding up a shaking hand to his bloody nose. A female student was hastily trying to check his nose while another student was rubbing soothing circles onto his back. Hearing Tony’s exclamation everyone in the room turned towards the door and froze.
“What in God’s name is going on?” Dr. Lebrenew yelled, a thunderous expression on her face.
Immediately all the students began yelling at once, but Tony did not even attempt to listen for an explanation. Instead he quickly strided over to Peter, who was staring at Tony with wide eyes.
Tony gently grabbed the teen’s chin, trying to take closer look at his bleeding nose. Peter winced but quietly said, “I’m fine.”
“Like Hell you are!” Tony growled. Turning around to stare down at the student with bloody knuckles he all but snarled, “What the Hell did you do to my kid?!”
“Mr. Stark,” Peter hissed as he attempted to stem the blood flowing from his nose. “Just forget about it, I’m fine.”
Tony whirled around again to face Peter. “What. Happened.”
Peter did not answer, instead opting to stare down at his shoes. Tony looked up and across to Dr. Lebrenew, who was still attempting to quiet her students. Seeing his face, she called out, “Antonio, towards your right there is a set of doors which leads to my office. Attend to your intern in there while I try to find out what happened.”
Tony gave her a grateful nod as he wrapped an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “C’mon, kiddo, let’s check your nose.”
Peter was quiet the whole way to the office, and once inside he sat down on a nearby couch. Tony grabbed tissues from the desk and knelt in front of Peter, gently cleaning up some of the blood from the boy’s chin and lips. The whole time Peter refused to look at his mentor in the eye, instead staring silently towards his left side.
“Well, it doesn’t look broken,” Tony said softly. Peter just hummed disinterestedly.
Tony sighed deeply. “Peter, can you please look at me.” Peter hesitantly moved his eyes to stare into Tony’s eyes. “Kiddo, what happened?”
“Nothing,” Peter muttered, glancing back towards his left.
Tony frowned deeply. “So what, did you punch yourself in the face to make your nose bleed?”
“Why do you ask if you already know what happened?” Peter snapped, getting up to pace.
Tony took a calming breath, trying not to let his frustration get the better of him. It wouldn’t help matters if he fought with the teen now. “Pete, I just walked in to see my kid with a bloody nose while another, much older student was fighting tooth and nail to attack you again. I’m concerned here kid, please help me out.”
Peter bit his lip as he sat back down. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“Ok,” Tony slowly said. “How about you start all the way from when Dr. Lebrenew and I left.”
Peter sighed as he wrung his hands nervously. “I mean, everything was cool at first. Anette was explaining their whole project to me, and it was super interesting. They’re like trying to build an AI that can detect change in the mental health of patients more easily, which is of course an awesome thing and the code behind it is so beautiful, Ned would-”
“Pete,” Tony interrupted the boy’s rambling. “I’m sure the project is great and all, but I don’t need a run down of it right now. Just tell what led to some asshat attacking you.”
“Right,” Peter blushed. “Sorry. Um ok, like I said everything was cool and the students were nice enough. We just worked on the code for like 40 minutes, and then Annette said we could take a break. We all sat down and ate some snacks, and they all started asking me how it was working at SI and for you. I, uh, tried to give them vague answers ya know? But this one Jason, he just started being an asshole all of a sudden…”
Peter trailed off and clenched his fists tightly. Tony gently pulled the kid’s hands to him and unclenched the fists before Peter could draw blood from himself. “How exactly?”
Peter pursed his lips and shook his head sharply. “Doesn’t matter, I’m used to it.”
“Pete,” Tony groaned out as he gripped the kid’s wrist firmly. “Tell me, I need to know the whole story.”
Peter blew a breath out sharply. “Fine. He, uh, started asking how’d I get an internship with you. I told him our cover story about the science fair, but he said that it was BS. I dunno, we just started going back and forth because he couldn’t believe that, and I quote, ‘some poor skinny piece of white trash could get the most lucrative internship in the world without some sort of underhand deal.’”
Tony could feel himself shake with anger as he spit out, “That little asshole.”
“Yeah I know,” Peter laughed bitterly. “That wasn’t the worst part though, No, he like started to imply that I, um, did stuff for you.”
Tony blinked. “I mean you do help me in the lab, so-”
“No, I don’t mean like assisting you and stuff like that,” Peter cut him off. He flushed deeply and refused to meet Tony’s again. “He started saying that I, um, well…” Peter closed his eyes and whispered with a flinch, “That I did… sexual stuff for you. He said that was all that I was good for in life probably, just ‘spreading my legs and taking it’, and that that was the only reason you kept me around.”
Tony stared at Peter for a moment, both anger and horror pooling in his stomach. “What?!”
“Please don’t make me repeat it,” Peter pleaded, staring at Tony with teary eyes.
“That fucking piece of shit,” Tony seethed, getting up to pace around the office. “Oh I am going to absolutely kill him! How dare he, fucking dumbass idiot!”
Tony was so livid that he couldn’t help himself, he blindly punched a nearby wall. He could feel his hand throb in pain but he did not care, how dare someone imply that Peter, sweet innocent Peter, was only good for that, that Tony would dare take advantage of someone that he viewed as a son? Oh that dumbass was going to pay.
With wide brown eyes Peter jumped to his feet. “I swear I defended you Mr. Stark! I told him that you would never ever dare do that to anyone, that you’re a hero so you would never! I can’t believe someone would actually think that you of all people would actually do that, I mean that’s crazy, how could-” Throughout his small rant Peter’s breath had rapidly gotten faster, until he was forced to cut himself off when he was practically hyperventilating.
“Peter!” Tony cried as he caught the kid right before he fell to the floor. He sat down on his legs as he held the boy close. “C’mon kid, just breathe, follow my breathing.” Tony made sure to over exaggerate his breathing so the kid could follow.
It took a few minutes but Peter finally regained control of his breathing. His cheeks were tear stained and pale but he sat back to look straight into Tony’s eyes. “I am so sorry Mr. Stark, I swear I told him to go to Hell because you would never do that.”
“Oh kiddo,” Tony breathed. “Thank you for that, but did you even try to defend yourself?”
Peter frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Kid, that asshat said some terrible things about you,” Tony started slowly. “Did you even say one thing against what he was saying about you.”
“Well no,” Peter answered as he got up to start to pace the room once again. Tony quickly got up too. “Who the Hell cares about what he said about me, how dare he say that about you!”
“I do!” Tony practically yelled. “I care, he should have never said that about you.”
Peter stared at Tony a moment before he shook his head. “Mr. Stark, I’m just a nobody from Queens. In the grand scheme of things I don’t matter, but you do. You’re a hero Mr. Stark, you don’t deserve for people to say that kind of crap about you.”
Tony wanted to rip his hair out in frustration because this kid was such a hard headed self sacrificer. “Sorry kiddo, that’s where you’re wrong. Peter Parker is just as important as Tony Stark, maybe even more important.”
Peter stopped pacing to frown at Tony. “I mean, Spider-Man just deals with the small stuff, you-”
“Nope,” Tony interrupted. “I don’t mean as Spider-Man, I’m talking about just Peter Parker.”
Peter continued to stare at Tony. “Honestly fine, whatever. My point is that how dare he say that about you, you’re so good, you’re a hero, my hero, and you’re like my-” Peter froze and snapped his jaw shut.
Tony blinked at the boy. “Like what kid?”
“Nothing,” Peter replied quickly, turning to look out a nearby window.
Tony frowned as he walked to stand directly behind the kid. “Just tell me kiddo.”
Peter quickly turned on his heels to look up at Tony, determination in his eyes. “You’re like my dad ok! I haven’t had a dad in a long time, my real dad died when I was so little, and Uncle Ben was like my dad my whole entire life but he died too, so all I have left is you, and I’ll be damned if I let someone insult you in front of me! I don’t care what anyone says about me, I don’t care if Flash or Jason or anyone insults me everyday for the rest of my life, but I refuse to listen to anyone ruin your reputation!”
Peter was practically shaking when he finished his outburst, either from anger or determination Tony wasn’t sure. All Tony could do was stare down at the kid because holy crap, he did not deserve to have someone so good like Peter in his life. It both humbled and saddened Tony.
It seemed that Tony’s lack of reply made the kid uncomfortable, because he started to say, “Oh God, forget I said anything, I just made this weird, I know you probably don’t see me as your son, I am so sorry Mr.-”
Peter was cut off by a tight hug from Tony. “Kid don’t take this the wrong way, but shut up and just listen to me for once. I do see you like a son, I wish you were really mine. But I am so glad you’re in my life. You are such a good and kind and special and amazing boy, anyone would be proud of having a son of you. Hell, I’m proud of you every minute of every day!
“But kiddo, you didn’t need to defend me, trust me a lot worse has been said about me for years. I would rather you defend yourself because you don’t deserve to hear the things that asshole said to you. You are so freaking good, kiddo, I wish you could see how important you are. I don’t deserve to have you in my life but I am so thankful that I do! And fuck it, if I have to constantly remind you that you’re important for the foreseeable future then I’m perfectly fine with that, you deserve to hear it. Trust me Peter, I will always be proud of you and…” Tony took a deep breath and hugged Peter tighter, “I love you kid, no matter what.”
Hearing that made Peter hug Tony back harder, and with a touch of his superhuman strength, but Tony couldn’t find it in himself to care.
“Thank you, Mr. Stark,” Peter whispered against his shoulder.
“No problem, kiddo,” Tony said, stepping back to let the kid wipe the tears from his eyes.
“And just saying, I love you too,” Peter smiled up at him.
“You better, or I’m taking away your Netflix account,” Tony snarked, ruffling Peter’s hair.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Peter mock gasped. “Aunt May would literally hunt you down and kill you.”
“Yeah you’re right, I would not want to go up against Aunt hottie,” Tony shivered as Peter giggled. “But kid, I don’t think you’ve finished your story.”
“What?” Peter asked. “I thought I did.”
“Nope, you still haven’t said why that dickwad punched you.”
“Oh yeah,” Peter said with a chuckle. “Um, when he started saying that stuff and I started arguing back, I kind of said that he would know all about that sexual favor stuff because that’s probably the only reason why he got into MIT.”
Tony blinked at the kid in shock before he bent over and started to wheeze with laughs. “Holy crap kid, good comeback! I am so proud of you!”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to be proud of me for saying something like that,” Peter said with a grin.
“Too bad, I am! I can’t wait to tell Rhodey about this.”
By the time Peter and Tony exited the office only Dr. Lebrenew remained in the lab. She was working on a laptop but quickly closed it when she saw the duo enter the lab area.
“Antonio!” She cried out. “I am so incredibly sorry!”
“Not your fault that you had a dick for a student, doc,” Tony replied as he allowed the doctor to hug him. She also went to hug Peter, who awkwardly accepted the hug.
“Well trust me, Tonio, Jason is in a mountain of trouble, both with me and the school. He’s officially banned from my labs for the rest of semester, and he’s facing disciplinary action from the school safety committee. I promise you that he will receive the harshest punishment possible for assaulting your intern.”
“That’s not necessary, Dr. Lebrenew,” Peter hastily said.
“Sorry kid, it is,” Tony rolled his eyes. “You’re 16, and that asshole should have known better than to insult and attack a minor.”
“He’s right, Mr. Parker,” Dr. Lebrenew added. “MIT holds itself to the highest of esteems, and we do not tolerate behavior like that shown by Mr. Hertals.”
Peter frowned but didn’t say anything else.
Dr. Lebrenew turned back to Tony and spoke. “I really am sorry for all of this, Tony, please forgive me and my labs.”
“Like I said, not your fault,” Tony replied.
Dr. Lebrenew nodded tightly. “I hope that you will still one day visit again, I did enjoy our talk over coffee.”
“I did too,” Tony confessed. “Trust me, I’ll be back again, but for now me and my kid need to head out, we still have stuff to see and places to be,”
“Of course,” Dr. Lebrenew smiled, She hugged Tony again. “It was wonderful seeing you again.” Turning to Peter, she continued, “I truly am sorry young man, I hope this does not ruin your view on MIT. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and please take care of yourself and your father.”
Peter shook her hand and nodded seriously. “Trust me, Dr. Lebrenew, I promise I will.”
From next to him Tony just smiled.
“Alright kid, so now what?” Tony asked as they walked out of Stata.
“Hm, I dunno,” Peter replied with a shrug. His eyes light up a second later. “Hey can you show me where you lived?”
“Eh, why not,” Tony answered, wrapping an arm around his kid’s shoulders. “How bout we also stop and get some ice cream on the way?”
“Yes!” Peter grinned. “Thanks dad, you’re the best!”
Tony didn’t even blink as he replied, “No problem kiddo, you deserve it. Love you Peter.”
“Love ya too dad.”