I'm so sorry for how long this took. In order to make it up to you I'm going to do both option 1 and 2. The second option won so I'm going to do that first. Here's option 2 and the other should be following shortly. Happy reading and thanks for voting!
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Peter made a full recovery. It took almost another two weeks after his mini coma before he was discharged but he still recovered back to his regular self. Tony refused to let the kid out of his sight so he had May and Peter move into the tower.
Housing arrangements weren't the only change in Peter's daily life. The arc reactor caused some difficulties. For one, he couldn't go through airport security without being tackled. But Tony would never let him fly on a public plane anyway since he had a mini fleet of private jets.
Another problem was the medication. Twice a day, Peter had to take special pills in order to prevent his body from shutting down and rejecting the reactor.
And then there was his leg. Some of the heart problems that caused the use of the reactor also resulted in the amputation of his right leg. That had been a big change in Peter's life but Tony had built him a special leg that allowed him to return to his Spider-Man duties so everything was okay.
All in all, it wasn't too bad. And even if Peter didn't like the reactor he kinda had to keep it. At least until Tony and the other doctors in the house found a fix so that he wouldn't die from shrapnel in his heart.
Probably the hardest change was school. After his three week stay in the hospital, it was decided Peter would be tutored for the remaining five weeks of school instead of returning. This was mostly caused by the doctors and mainly Tony wanting the teenager to have as much recovery time as possible. Being taught at the tower wasn't that bad. For one his teachers (ranging from Dr. Strange, Dr. Banner, Dr. Stark, Dr. Cho, and Dr. Rhodes) were very hands on and worked at his pace which was pretty fast if I'm being honest. Another reason was he got to hang out with his heroes and do stuff he could only dream about doing in college, let alone his sophomore year of high school. And Peter's favorite part was starting school at 9 a.m. instead of 7:30.
But eventually Peter had to return to school. The first day was rough. First he had to be awake before 7 in order to shower, eat breakfast, and drive to school. Upon his arrival at school, stares and whispers followed him around. People gossiping about his disappearance and whatnot. Probably the biggest and worst change was the actual lessons. Considering he had been bored at school before his accident, his return was worse. While at the tower, Peter had managed to finish lessons he would learn in his senior year at college. While at midtown, he was back to electron dot diagrams and Lewis Structures. Needless to say, it was a major downgrade.
After being bit by the spider, Peter had a hard time regulating his body temperature since spiders are in fact cold blooded. If the teenager got too cold, he would essentially begin hibernating. Thankfully that had only happened once which scared Tony almost to death. But because of his body heat problems, Peter usually wore multiple layers in an effort to prevent his deep sleep. What he had forgotten over his long summer was his English teacher enjoyed having the room set at an extremely high temperature.
So after a few minutes in the classroom, Peter began to sweat. So he did the reasonable thing and took off his thick blue sweater with the Midtown emblem on it. The only problem was Peter had forgotten that he was only wearing a thin white t-shirt underneath. Meaning everyone could see a blue glow emitting from his chest.
"Mr. Parker, phones are not permitted in class" the ancient hag named Mrs. Grunion scolded
Peter looked up from his book (Of Human Bondage) and tilted his head in confusion. "Mrs. Grunion, I don't have my phone on me. It's in the pouch on the door" he pointed towards the shoe hanging pouch thing English teachers always have for cell phones.
Mrs. Grunion did not appreciate Peter 'talking back' and made sure to vocalize her thoughts, carefully and clearly enunciating the threat of detention. Peter did not appreciate the teacher thinking he was lying so he stood up, walked over to the door, and grabbed his phone. Being proven wrong really enraged the withered teacher.
"Well then what is the blue glow from your chest?!" she screeched, pointing at the arc reactor visible through his shirt.
Peter looked down to see what the old hag was pointing so rudely at (didn't her parents teach her that pointing is rude?) only to notice his arc reactor was on view for his class to see. He glanced up with a nervous grin on his face, trying desperately to create an excuse. "It's a pacemaker...?" the teenager said in an unconvincing manner. He shook his head in defeat. "I'll see myself to the office."
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Peter may have been an absolute idiot at life, but he was smart enough to give the office a fake phone number. Instead of Aunt May's office number, he gave the secretary Ned's. Thankfully, Ned was on vacation and answered on the third ring with a "what's up, kid?". While the secretary was busy calling Ned, Peter had discreetly texted his best friend to pretend to be his uncle. For whatever reason, the office decided not to check the teenager's file to see that his real uncle had died almost two years ago. But it all worked out in Peter's favor as he was sent home for the remainder of the day and only given one day of detention.
Since he had no ride to get home, Peter changed into his Spider-man suit semi-discreetly in an alley before swinging his way across New York to his apartment in Queens. He had debated on whether or not to visit Tony at Stark Towers but ultimately decided against it since he would have to explain why he wasn't in school.
The teenager reached his apartment in only ten minutes (a new record...not that he was counting) and climbed through the window. Aunt May was at work, Ned was in Cancun, and MJ was still at school so Peter flopped on the couch like a fish out of water to watch some TV. Halfway through season two of Bubble Guppies, the screen changed from mermaids singing about trucks to a news report.
This instantly got Peter's attention. He sat up on the couch and turned up the volume. The banner under the news reporter read "Tony Stark Missing". A chill ran through Peter's body followed by a sense of dread and panic and fear.
"-Stark was last seen leaving Stark Tower at 8:31 earlier this morning with two men whose identities remain unknown. Nearly three hours later, the police were called with a report of his disappearance. The security guards on duty at the time of Stark's vanishing were interviewed and said they 'thought those guys were colleagues of his or somethin'. We have protocols in place for these types of emergencies but he didn't follow any of the codes. If Mr. Stark is in danger, he was supposed to signal to us that he needed help but he didn't.'"
Peter turned off the TV and pulled on his suit again. Before leaving the apartment, he grabbed a pen and notepad before jotting down a quick note for May.
I'm going to find Mr. Stark
-PP
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Tony Stark was not having the best day. First, he had forgotten about a super important meeting that would really help with the next part of his plan to mass produce a new project. I won't bore you with the details but it would allow Tony to provide clean renewable energy to all of New York City at a much lower price than normal electricity. So he missed the meeting. So now he has to hope they will give him another chance. Then he got yelled at by Pepper for being an idiot and missing the meeting. And then he got yelled at by his fiancé Steve for not eating or sleeping or taking his medicine. After that he was kidnapped by some people that broke into his lab and threatened to kill Steve and Peter and everyone else he loved if he signaled for help or didn't cooperate. And then when he asked for Pepsi, they said "is coke okay?"
So it had been a pretty bad day.
In all honesty, this situation wasn't as bad as Afghanistan. It was still semi-bad but not full on bad. But Tony knew he would be able to escape hopefully without harm to himself or those he loved.
The kidnappers were pros. That much was clear. Despite the fact they were not wearing masks, they had managed to hide their faces from the security cameras in the tower and disguise their voices when speaking. Essentially throwing off anyone investigating the case. They also knew exactly what they were doing when they brought Tony to their lair. After the billionaire had stepped into the car, they had thrown a mask over his head and tied his hands together before hitting him hard on the head, causing him to lose consciousness. That meant Tony was unconscious for the trip to the secondary location and would be unable to find his way back to New York should he be able to escape.
Which brought on another problem and solution. The kidnappers wanted something from Tony but they hadn't told him what yet. Instead they had beaten the snot out of him until he was too weak to protest when they took out his arc reactor.
Tony tried not to panic. After all, he could survive for up to four hours without the arc reactor. But that also meant he only had four hours to be rescued and he didn't even know if anyone knew he had been kidnapped. In addition to that, his tracking chip had been disabled so whoever was looking for him would have to rely on other resources.
All in all, it wasn't looking good for the home team.
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The first thing Peter did was access Tony's tracking chip. Which failed since it was disabled. After that, he sat down and had a mini freak out about possibly loosing the closest thing he had to a father figure. And then he stood up and found the security footage for Stark Towers.
Peter watched as Tony calmly walked out the door and ignored the protocols of signaling for help. The teenager thought for a second before retracing Tony's steps into a conference room. He turned on the sound, but it looked like the villains had deleted the audio that went along with the video. Thankfully he was an awesome hacker and managed to solve that problem.
The footage began with Tony and two men in a conference room. One of the bad guys was considerably taller than the other and they bore resemblance to Harry and Marv from Home Alone.
"If you try to signal for help, we've got guys that can find Steve and Peter and anyone else you love and take 'em out like that" bad guy #1 snapped his fingers to demonstrate his point.
Tony nodded, clearly worried for his family but trying to show courage.
Bad guy #2 grinned. "What are you waiting for then? A written invitation?"
The trio walked out the door with Tony flanked by his kidnappers. The billionaire began chatting as if they were business partners, easily fabricating a story about considering going into the hotel business. It really was genius how Tony managed to pull off his regular charm and charisma while actively being kidnapped.
The footage ended with the group stepping into a black Jeep. Peter was just able to make out the license plate number and quickly asked FRIDAY to find the owner and possibly trace its whereabouts. Being the super awesome AI she is, FRIDAY also sent the plate number to multiple news and police stations across a tri-City area.
After that, Peter hacked into the surveillance cameras stationed across the city to trace the car's path. It worked until they turned onto a dark street and left NYC. Since there were no cameras located outside of city limits, Peter had to find a new way to find his dad/mentor/billionaire.
Being an avid watcher of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Peter knew he would have to travel to the last known location of the car to search for clues. Which is exactly what he did. He swung across New York in full Spider-man suit, totally not humming the theme song from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Ok, he totally did.
In only a few short minutes, he arrived at the unlit street where the car had disappeared. There didn't appear to be any other streets to turn off to, so Peter decided to follow the path and see where it led. For the first part, the teenager was able to use the neighboring buildings to swing himself along the road. After a mile or so, the buildings disappeared, leaving Peter to walk the remainder of the way. He would've run considering his mentor/father-figure was in trouble but he was unsure of how long it would take to reach a building. So he conserved his energy.
He continued speed-walking along. The road had turned to dirt a few miles back, leaving dust to kick up and get into Peter's lungs. Still, he powered on, wanting to find Tony as soon as possible.
Little did he know that Tony was still almost tn miles away.
—————
Tony was trying not to panic. Because panicking leads to anxiety attacks. And anxiety attack's lead to trouble breathing. And he was already struggling with the absence of his arc reactor. Plus he didn't have anyone nearby to talk him down.
So basically panicking lead to a faster death. Or at least it would feel like it.
He was tied to a chair but his captors had left almost twenty minutes ago. Tony had managed to wiggle his left hand out meaning he could at least check the time. It only occurred to him a second or two later that he could now try to escape. He was still weak from his beating and of course not having his arc reactor, but the ropes were fairly loose so it would only take a little bit of effort to release himself.
Despite having just checked the countdown to his inevitable death, Tony found himself feeling bored. As in, 'can someone hurry up and rescue me or at least play some music?' kind of bored. Surprising but considering this wasn't Tony's first time being kidnapped and tortured and left without his arc reactor, it kinda made sense.
But unlike the last time he had had reactor stolen, there was no other one for him to crawl towards. There was no DUM-E nearby to push the present towards him and no Pepper to gift him the present.
And unlike his kidnapping in Afghanistan, there was no Yinsen to help. And unlike the Mandarin situation, there was no boy from Tennessee to help him and definitely no super smart CEO-girlfriend to rescue him. The only person actively searching for Tony was Peter. But Tony didn't know that.
So he powered on and continued wriggling out of his bonds. While his captors had been pros during the kidnapping, they certainly were amateurs when it came to tying ropes. Even in his condition, it only took Tony a few minutes to release himself from the ropes.
The first thing he did was check his watch. After a quick and super easy math problem, Tony deduced that he had just over two hours before he would die. #RIP. But considering how smart and resourceful Tony is, it would probably be more than enough time. Probably.
Now that main problem was getting out of the building and finding a way back to New York City before the lack of an arc reactor killed him.
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Peter was slowly growing tired. The only motivation he had was finding Tony. Since he had a long walk ahead of him, the teenager decided to pass the time creating plans for rescuing his mentor/father-figure.
So far, all he had was Step 1. Find Tony Step 2. Rescue Tony
As you can see, the plan was going great.
It took a lot of thinking and problem solving and critical thinking and basic thinking and just thinking in general, but Peter managed to come up with twenty-six plans in total. A-Z. He was very proud of himself for creating so many different back up plans just in case something unexpected happened or didn't happen. Or if the building was one story or five. Or if the bad guys had guns or knives. Or if the bad guys left their car at the building or not.
Peter did a lot of thinking on the long walk as you can tell.
Even with his advanced speed, Peter had still only managed to walk six miles in an hour. Normally it takes roughly fifteen minutes for a non-genetically-mutated-superhuman human to walk a mile. With the help of the spider bite, Peter could walk the same distance in only ten minutes. Peter tried to do the math to figure out how much time he had left before he reached Tony but had to stop when he realized he had no idea how much distance there still was to cover. The thought of not knowing irritated Peter even more so he quickened his pace, wanting to find Tony as soon as possible.
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Looking around the room, there wasn't much to look at. There was a single door with three locks and a barricade on both sides. On top of that, Tony had no way of knowing how many people were waiting for him on the other side of the door or if there were any at all or if they were bad guys ready to kill him or good guys trying to rescue him. There were a lot of unknown variables with the door so Tony decided to try his other options.
On the opposite side of the room, was a single window five feet off the floor with thick bars covering the glass. There was enough space between the metal poles that Tony would probably be able to squeeze through. That only left the problem of getting up there and breaking the glass. The billionaire began searching around the room for a loose brick in the wall. It took a while, but Tony found one and somehow managed to wriggle it out of its place.
Now that he had a glass breaking weapon thing, all he had to do was climb up to the window, break the glass, and climb through the bars. Tony used the chair to hoist himself up struggling to pull himself onto the window's ledge. With the brick, he punched the glass repeatedly before running it along the edges to remove any shards still remaining. Using what little strength he had left, Tony gripped the bars tightly and lifted himself onto the small ledge before squeezing through the bar's.
Before jumping off, Tony smartly glanced down to see where he would be landing. He was on the second floor apparently and the building was surrounded by dirt. Thankfully, there was a single tree three windows down from him. If Tony could safely shuffle across the outside of the building, he could use the tree to safely lower himself to the ground instead of jumping and hoping to not break any bones.
Tony paused and gathered what little strength and courage he had left before shimmying his way to the tree. It took almost ten minutes, mainly because Tony kept stopping to say 'you can do this' . But eventually he was in front of the tree. There was a small gap between the side of the building and the nearest tree branch, so Tony would have to jump and catch the tree before he fell. Without a second to think about his actions, Tony yeeted himself at the tree, just barely managing to grab the branch. With a small victory 'whoop whoop!' Tony began to climb down. The second he reached the ground, he took off running like a madman.
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Almost three miles later, Peter saw something in the distance. It could just be a tree or a bush or something, but the shape kinda resembled a building. With all the energy he had reserved from walking, Peter took off running, hoping and praying Tony was there.
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About half a mile away from the building, Tony began to slow. He was tired and he needed his arc reactor. It took all of his remaining strength to continue putting one foot in front of the other. The billionaire knew he couldn't be close to an arc reactor. His last spare was adapted for Peter, meaning Tony would have to make a new one or he would die. No pressure.
The thought of going through all this work and still failing and still dying and still not making it home scared Tony. But mostly, it demotivated him. What was the point of trying when the chance of success was so slim? When the chance of survival was so slim?
He checked his watch. One hour til death.
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Peter ran as fast as he could. His legs and lungs were beginning to burn under the strenuous exercise but the teenager couldn't care less. He was so close he could almost taste it.
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Tony didn't know how much longer he could continue. He was almost out of time. He knew his death would be slow and painful. But unfortunately there was nothing around for him to put himself out of his misery. So all he could do was continue walking and hoping and praying.
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Peter squinted his eyes. Could that small little dot on the horizon be a person? Could that small little dot on the horizon be Tony? It's still unclear how, but Peter quickened his pace, moving himself as fast as he could. His only motivation was finding Tony. He pushed himself further and faster, moving at an inhumane pace. Despite the ache and burn in his lungs, Peter began screaming as loud as he could "Tony?! Tony?!" The small little dot was becoming bigger. It began to take the shape of a human. As he continued running as fast as possible, Peter could see the small little dot grow larger until it became Tony.
"TONY?!"
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"TONY?!"
Tony's head whipped up. "Peter?" he whispered.
Despite the fact he couldn't really see the human running towards him, Tony felt no fear. The thought of one of his kidnappers returning to capture him once again didn't even cross his mind. Tony would recognize that voice anywhere.
Ignoring his dry throat, Tony screamed back. "PETER?!"
The running person got closer and closer until Tony could see it really was his kid! Despite how tired he was, Tony began running, trying to close the distance. He was almost there. Only a few feet away when he collapsed.
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"NOOOOO!!!!" Peter screamed as he saw Tony collapse on the ground.
He kneeled beside his small, frail, tired body. Tears began streaming freely down his face as he saw how pale and battered his mentor was. Gently, Peter turned the billionaire until he was laid on his back. Peter propped Tony's bloodied head on his lap, lightly brushing the hair out of his face.
"Tony?" Peter's voice sounded so frail, so small.
Tony opened his eyes, just slightly. He smiled up at Peter. "I knew you'd find me, kid" he croaked out. "I'm sorry it had to be like this. Listen, when I go-"
Peter shook his head violently. "No! You're not going to die!"
"when I go" Tony protested, "there is a will in my beside table. Everything is split between you and Steve. May will hold onto your money until you turn eighteen and then it's all yours. I never had any kids, so you're the closest thing I have to an heir. I just want you to know, I have always loved you as a son. my son. And I always will"
Peter could barely see Tony through the tears. "NO! Please Tony please don't go! You're like a dad to me. You are my dad. Please! Don't go!"
Tony smiled and gently placed his hand on Peter's cheek. "Tell Steve I love him. And remember that I love you"
The teenager gave a weak smile back, the only smile he could manage with his tears. "I love you, too, dad"
With one last smile to Peter, Tony closed his eyes and waited for the sweet release of death. Peter continued crying until he realized he could stop it. He could stop Tony from dying. As gently as he could, Peter shifted Tony's head onto the ground and ripped open his shirt. Seeing the absence of the blue light in his chest made Peter want to start crying again. But he didn't. But he couldn't. If he started crying again, there was no way he would be able to save his mentor.
Peter lifted his own shirt this time and took a deep breath, before pulling out his arc reactor. While it had been modified slightly to work for Peter, it should still be able to work for Tony. At least until another reactor was made. Peter knew he could survive for roughly two hours before he would die without the reactor, so he would have to work quickly. While the teenager knew both in his heart and mind that he would be willing to die for his mentor, there was no way Tony would be able to live with the guilt. So Peter knew he would have to work hard in order to ensure both him and Tony survived.
He quickly installed the contraption into Tony's chest, sighing with relief when he saw the blue light shine once again. Tony still didn't open his eyes though but it was obvious the reactor was working from the way he relaxed and took a deep breath. With a sigh of relief, Peter stood before pulling out his phone and calling Bruce.
"I found him"
"You found Tony?!"
"Yep. Listen, I need you to make an arc reactor for him and hurry. We only have about two hours until disaster."
"I'm on it!"
And with that the call was ended. Peter smiled, happy that Tony would have a new arc reactor. He sent a quick text to Steve saying I found him before calling Rhodey and asking for a ride back to the tower. He gave the colonel his coordinates before ending the call. All that was left to do was wait.
In less than fifteen minutes, Rhodey touched down beside the two with an old Iron Man suit and the Iron Spider suit trailing shortly behind. Rhodey looked tense as he stepped out of his War Machine suit, but visibly relaxed as he saw his best friend still alive.
Rhodey and Peter did their secret handshake before grabbing Tony and encasing him inside the Iron Man suit. It was only when the older man noticed Peter's lack of an arc reactor that he started panicking.
"What were you thinking?! We have to get you back to the tower right now!" Rhodey screamed, freaking out at the thought of the youngest unofficial Avenger dying.
Peter gave a pathetic attempt at a laugh, trying to defuse the situation. "Don't worry, Uncle Rhodey. I'm fine. I still have ninety minutes until it becomes fatal. By that point, Uncle Bruce will have finished with the new arc reactor I'm having him build and then I'll take my reactor back and Tony can have a new one."
Rhodey didn't look convinced but it was obvious he didn't want to waste any more valuable time arguing about Peter's stupidity and reckless self-endangerment. The two suited up and quickly flew away without another word.
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Peter was right when he said Bruce would be done with the reactor when they arrived. Of course Bruce also had a freak out when he saw Peter didn't have his arc reactor in. That caught the attention of the other Avengers who had rushed into the med bay as soon as they heard Peter and Tony had safely returned. Peter ended up getting like twenty lectures about being stupid and whatnot and how it was a very brave but stupid thing to do.
During all those lectures, Bruce managed to install the new arc reactor into Tony's chest. The others had been so busy reprimanding the teenager that nobody noticed Tony wide awake and alive until Tony spoke up.
"Peter did what?!"
The team looked over and instantly began talking at once. Some saying they were glad to see he was okay, others wanting to know what had happened, a few asking how he was feeling, and then of course the others ratting Peter out and telling Tony about how stupid Peter had been.
"Wait wait wait wait wait. Hold up. Peter saved me and then gave me an arc reactor?"
The group nodded.
"And then Bruce made me a new one which is currently in my chest?"
The group once again nodded. Bruce spoke up, "Peter called and told me to do it. He only gave me two hours to do it so it might not be the best quality. If I had known you already had a temporary arc reactor in I would've taken my time a bit more so that it would be a bit better but this will work long enough for us to make another one."
Tony made a puzzled face. "Wait. Peter, why would you give Bruce such a small deadline to create a new reactor?"
Peter, who was leaning against a table for support, hesitated to answer. "Well. you see. When I found you, you were like ninety percent dead. And we had a nice conversation where you told me what to do after you died. And I didn't want you to die so I gave you my arc reactor. I can live without it for about two hours before I die so I figured Uncle Bruce would make you a new one and then I'd take my reactor back and then we'd all live happily ever after."
The entire room looked shocked. Tony was the only one who dared to ask "how long do you have left?"
The teenager checked his watch. "About fifteen minutes. so we should probably get a move on and get that thing put back" He clapped his hands. "So, where is my reactor?"
Bruce quickly grabbed the life saving contraption and held it up high in the air like it was Excalibur and he was King Arthur. "Found it!" In less than three minutes, the arc reactor was safely residing in Peter's chest where it belonged.
After Bruce ran health checks on both Tony and Peter, the two sat down quietly on a pair of surprisingly comfortable hospital chairs while the remaining heroes left. It was silent for a minute or so after the other Avengers vacated the room, but neither Peter nor Tony minded. The silence was comforting. There was a lot that needed to be said, but neither wanted to start. Eventually, Tony turned to the teenager and said "thank you"
Peter was a little surprised and it must have shown on his face because Tony elaborated. "I want to thank you because you found me and saved me. Not many others were searching for me, but you went above and beyond by actually following the trails and clues to find me. And on top of that you gave me your arc reactor. Thank you for saving my life. But you can't do something like that again. I never would've forgiven myself if you had died because of me. Okay?"
The teenager nodded. "I only gave you the reactor because you were out of time and I didn't want you to die right in front of me. Plus I knew Uncle Bruce could make a new one for me before I died. You probably know this but I was willing to die for you and I still am. I only made sure to save myself because I knew that if I died you would never forgive yourself and then you would come kick my butt in hell for saving your life but not mine."
Tony chuckled, happy to be with his kid. "I know you don't want to talk about this but we do. Did you really mean what you said back there? In the field when I was dying?"
"Well that depends. Did you mean it? I don't want to sound clingy or needy." Peter responded in a joking manner. He grew serious as he continued. "Of course I did. I really do see you as a dad but I just never said anything because I didn't think you thought of me like that."
"Of course I do. You're like a son to me. You are a son to me. I just didn't say anything because I didn't want to pressure you or make you feel obligated or scare you away. Why do you think I made you a room in the tower and have Happy pick you up? I do it because I care, Peter. I want you to be safe and happy. I'm not mad at you for giving me your reactor. I really am thankful. I'm just worried because I don't want you to die because of me."
"Can I call you dad?"
Tony nodded. "You already did but yeah. I'd love it if you called me dad."
Peter laughed. "Okay, dad"
"Okay, son" the two sat there in silence with smiles on their faces. Well, they did until Peter started talking again.
"So I had some thoughts on new safety precautions"
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In the end, Peter did such a good job coming up with new ideas for added safety that Tony added him as assistant head of security. Happy wasn't too happy about that. Or so he said. Everyone in the tower knew that he had a soft spot for the arachnid. Together, Peter and Tony created new arc reactors that were unable to be removed, even after death. This would ensure no one else would try to steal the reactor.
Speaking of stealing a reactor, the kidnappers were caught and sent to prison. It turns out, they were scientists from Hammer Industries trying to replicate the arc reactors in an effort to drive Stark Industries out of business. Which was a stupid plan because Tony had a patent for his invention. Besides, the billionaire had already released the plans for free to hospitals so that other patients could be saved with the invention like Peter was. So it was a very stupid plan.
Tony was just thankful he and his kid were okay. With Aunt May's blessing, Tony and Steve were allowed partial guardianship over the teenager. Peter had cried along with Tony, Steve, May, and all the Avengers when he received the news. It was pretty funny though how they broke the news to him.
------Flashback-------
Peter, Tony, Steve, and May were all sitting in Tony's office since May and Peter had been called in because Tony and Steve had big news to share. The youngest of the group was almost bouncing off the walls in excitement. He loved surprises.
Tony cleared his throat. "So. I bet you're wondering why I called you in today."
Peter shook his head. "Not really. You told us you had big news to share."
The billionaire gave the kid a look. "It's an expression."
Once again, Peter shook his head. "No, it's just common sense."
Tony let out an exasperated sigh. "Whatever. I'm sure you're wondering what the big news is." He turned to Peter. "Better?"
"Better"
"Steve and I are adopting a kid!"
Peter jumped out of his chair. "I'm going to be a big brother?! Or a big sister?!"
Steve (and everyone else in the room) gave him a weird look. "That's not how it works. You know that right?"
"Whatever"
Tony spoke up. "Okay I can't wait anymore." He slammed a pile of papers on his pristine desk. "Steve and I have been granted partial guardianship over you by May. We're kinda adopting you"
Everyone in the room began to cry, starting with Peter. He had gone from no parents to three in such a short time. May was thankful that he had such a loving family. She was of course concerned about them dying since they had a particularly dangerous field of work, but they were the Avengers. They were like immortal or something. Needless to say, everyone in the room was happy.
Especially once the other heroes walked in and demanded to be called 'Aunt' or 'Uncle'. Peter had to remind them that he already called them those titles but they still insisted because now it was actually true. So he had to give a mini lecture about how they weren't actually related to Tony so therefore they were still only Aunts and Uncles by name. But nobody really cared that much.
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It had taken a lot of paperwork and time, but eventually the court granted Tony Stark and Steve Rogers shared guardianship of Peter Parker with May Parker's approval and consent. It was a very happy day for everyone involved and those who weren't too. MJ and Ned had been invited to the after party thrown following the adoption ceremony thingy in court and neither could contain their joy at seeing Peter hugging his new dads.
And just like Peter said when explaining his reasoning behind almost dying to save Tony, they all lived happily ever after.
The end.