No More Lonely

Ch. 1

Tony was exhausted. He'd had seven meetings that day and none of them had gone well at all. At this point, all he wanted to do was go fly around New York for an hour or so and just relax. Unfortunately, Pepper had other ideas. There was a list of things Tony needed to take care of before JARVIS would grant him access to his suit, so he was stuck in Stark Industries for another several hours.

As soon as Tony completed the last task, he was out of his chair and telling JARVIS to get the suit prepped. Three minutes later, he was shooting out of his lab and out across New York.

He didn't usually keep an eye out for crime, but he did let JARVIS scan the streets below for anything that looked like it needed more than just the local police. Every now and then, something would catch his eye when he was out flying and he'd make a quick stop to take care of it, but usually Tony let the police handle neighbourhood crime. However, when JARVIS pointed out a small kid getting beat up by an older man, Tony was on the ground in seconds.

"I'm sorry," he said, dropping down behind the kid. The man looked up from where he'd been about to hit the kid again. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Get out of here, Stark," the man sneered. The kid, seeing his opportunity, tried to run off but the man grabbed his arm. "This kid stole from my shop for the third time this week. He needs to learn respect."

The man turned back to the kid and kicked him roughly. The kid fell to the ground with a cry of pain and Tony frowned.

"Alright, that's enough," he said, reaching out and grabbing the man.

The man stumbled and tripped over a crack and Tony shoved him back. When Tony raised a repulser at him, he scrambled to his feet and fled. Once he was certain the man was gone for the moment, Tony turned to the kid who was still crying on the sidewalk.

Kneeling down in front of him, Tony raised his faceplate and said, "Hey, kiddo. Where are your parents?"

The kid sniffled and looked up from where he had buried his face in his knees.

"I don't have any."

Tony frowned. Surely the kid had some kind of parent somewhere, right?

"Where'd they go?"

"My mommy was hurt by a bad man when we were trying to sleep behind his restaurant," the kid said. When Tony asked about his dad, the kid's bottom lip quivered. "Mommy said he wasn't a good person and so we had to stay away from him."

Okay, so the kid really didn't have parents.

A plan quickly formed in his head and although he could already hear Pepper scolding him for it, Tony knew he was taking this kid to the Tower. He was alone on the streets of New York City. The least he could do was get the kid checked out by a doctor and notify social services.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked.

"Peter." He held up one hand and showed Tony four fingers. "I'm four."

God, the kid was tiny. How long had he been without a mom? It was a miracle he was still alive at this point.

"Hi, Peter," Tony said. Peter waved and Tony waved back. "I'm Tony. How about you come stay with me while I find a safe place for you to live?"

Peter's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Mommy said not to go with strangers."

That was an issue. If Peter didn't want to go with Tony, that was likely to cause problems when he tried to take him off the streets.

Trying a different angle, Tony asked, "You've heard of Iron Man before, right?" Peter nodded and pointed at Tony. Tony smiled and nodded as well. "Yeah, I'm Iron Man. Iron Man is a superhero, right?"