Irondad Oneshots

Adopted Nerds - Irondad

Pepper's POV

"Hell no," are the first words that leave my mouth when I walk into Tony's personal lab.

I've been gone for a few weeks because of press conferences in other countries and busy SI stuff, but I didn't think Tony would go this far.

There's 4 people bustling around the lab, my fiancé being one of them. The other 3 are kids. Looking somewhere between 12 and 16.

Tony absolutely lights up when he sees me from across the room.

He takes me by the waist and pulls me out into the hallway. He kisses me softly and smiles into it when I kiss him back. I think I've gotten pretty used to his crazy at this point, this is what I signed up for.

"Who are those kids, Tony?" I ask, rolling my eyes at him. Of course he decides to take in a whole bunch of random kids.

"They're the best, Pep. They're all so smart, absolute geniuses. Come meet them. They're staying the night. I ordered pizza already," he gushes, leading me back into his lab.

We walk into the room and the three kids instantly drop what they're doing and wander over to me.

"This is my fiancé, Pepper Potts. Pep, these are my interns," he introduces, but I know for sure that they aren't interns, he already probably feels like they're his kids.

"Hi, I'm Harley," The youngest of the group starts.

"I'm Shuri," the girl says.

"And I'm Peter."

I smile. This is just like him. I should've known he would've adopted some kids just for the fun of it.

"Hi. You're interns here? How did you meet Tony?" I ask, wanting to roll my eyes again.

Peter speaks up, voice soft and high, obviously nervous. "Um, well sort of. Shuri lives in Wakanda, so she can only stay for little bits of time. Back and forth between the two. I'm from Queens and Harley's from around the area too."

"Okay. Well it's nice to meet all of you. I have some things to do, but I'll join you for dinner later. Tony, can I talk to you in the hall for a second?" I say, nodding out.

The kids immediately disperse, heading back into the lab to continue whatever they were working on beforehand.

Tony follows me out for privacy.

"What the hell, Tony?" I exclaim. I'm not really mad. They all seem like really nice kids, but still. One of them's from a different continent.

"I know. It's pretty crazy. But they're all really smart and it's nice having some people around when you're gone. Shuri is only visiting, this is only like Peter having a sleepover more or less."

"Peter having a sleepover in our house?"

"Well Yeah. His aunt works late most nights and he doesn't like sleeping in his empty apartment, so he comes here after school instead. Its for him, not for me. He's a really sweet kid, I swear."

"But what's his story? How'd you find him in the first place?" I demand, knowing there must be something off about all of this.

"He's Spider-Man, Pep. I know, I know. It's bad. Its stupid. It's awful. But he deserves to have someone who knows and who can help with the whole superhero thing. But he doesn't want his aunt to know, and I don't want him to go through this by himself," he explains, eyes falling to the floor.

"And Harley?"

"I met him a couple years ago. Him and his parents moved up around the area not too long ago so he hangs around sometimes. He's like a genius and Peter sort of thinks of him as a little brother. It's real nice. He's a little tech genius, or at least will be now that he has a better education here," Tony explains. I can see the sparkling happiness behind his eyes, one that I've only gotten to see occasionally.