Tony had waited till the last possible moment, till he was already decked out in his suit ready to get going. First, he had wanted to tell his boy the night before but then he couldn't. Hadn't wanted him to go to bed crying so he chickened out. He hadn't wanted to ruin breakfast either, so he had waited. And waited. And waited. Now he had not just his crying baby boy in front of him but also a pissed PA who'd have to deal with the wreckage Tony left behind. As usual.
"Said no work!"
"I know, baby. I'm sorry. I really am." Aiden was sitting on the couch in front of him, arms crossed, head turned away from Tony in protest. "I would cancel it if I could, Addy, but I can't. I'm sorry."
"Said all day! All. Day!"
Tony sighed as the boy pushed himself off the sofa and stalked towards Pepper. He slung his arms around her legs and buried his head in the fabric of her pants. She quickly bent to kneel and pulled the little guy close, eyes on Tony in a mixture of sadness and reproach.
This was on him. He had messed up. Messed up big time. Had confirmed the meeting with Obie and forgot to tell her. He never usually confirmed any dates but they had postponed this meeting three times already, which was why Obie had approached him personally in the first place. Tony had been sure that they had been talking about Friday in three weeks, not two weeks. Could have sworn he had said March not February. Pepper would have been able to fixed this, he was almost certain. If he hadn't forgotten to tell her, she could have likely fixed this. But now people had flown in from around the country, a couple even from Europe and Asia. Board members, department heads. By the time Tony realized the mistake, it had been too late to fix it.
Now his kid was crying on his birthday and this was the last thing Tony had wanted. He had wanted this to be the best day ever. Had wanted to spend all morning with his boy, play around the huge garden grounds of the club until his friends would arrive for the party in the afternoon. The only hope he had was that Aiden was young enough that he would simply forget what a huge disappointment his dad was. Tony's only hope was that he'd do better next time.
He walked over to where Pepper still comforted his son and sat down on the carpet in front of them. One of his hands came to rest on his boy's back and stayed just like that while Aiden still clung to her. It took less than a minute till the boy wiggled himself out of Pepper's hold, turned around and fell right into Tony's open arms.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I'll be as fast as I can be, alright?"
He'd never felt like a bigger asshole and he probably never had been a bigger asshole. What kind of father made his son cry on his birthday?
It took a few more minutes till Aiden calmed down and let Tony wipe the tears off his face.
Pepper had been observing them, but now checked her watch. "You have to go, Tony. You're going to be late!"
"I can drop you off at the club. How about that?" His attention was on Aiden and the boy's eyes widened at that idea.
Pepper was less impressed. "You'll hardly make it on time for that meeting as it is! The club is in the opposite direction."
"Please, Pepper!" Aiden had shuffled around in his arms, big brown eyes turned against her now, his bottom lip positively quivering.
"Yeah..." Tony did his best to copy his son's puppy dog expression. "Please, Pepper."
She raised her eyebrows at Tony and then made a point to crouch back down and talk to Aiden directly. "Here's the thing, honey. If your daddy is late for his meeting, he will have to spend some time to argue with Uncle Obie and then he has to stay at the office a lot longer and when he has to stay longer he might miss your party."
Aiden's jaw dropped. His head spun back around, eyes on Tony. "But Daddy... Don't... don't miss my party!"
Tony shot her a look, then planted a kiss on Aiden's cheek. She played dirty and she knew it. "Alright, I gotta run then."
His boy might have nodded but his arms pulled Tony closer, not willing to let go.
"I love you, baby. You be good to Pepper till I get there. I'll be fast and we can try out that bouncy house together."
Aiden let go of him at that, his eyes a different round filled with growing excitement. "Bouncy house?!"
"Ooops..." Tony tilted his head in mock alarm. "Did I say too much?"
"You better go and get your jacket, Addy, so we can get going." Pepper's eyes followed the boy as he made for the stairs, ready to walk up after him. "You better change too, Tony. Your shirt's all wet."
Tony grimaced and rubbed a hand over the wet spot next to his tie. "Shit."
"Just change at the office. There two white shirts in the closet and I'd say another maroon colored one."
"Alright. Thanks for this, Pep."
She didn't answer, just gave him a look as she went after Aiden.
"Bye, baby!" He called up the stairs. "I'll see you in a couple of hours."
"BOUNCY HOUSE!" Was all Aiden bellowed through the house.
Well, at least that Tony had gotten right.
###
The blood in his veins ran cold as Tony stood frozen, Pepper still firmly in his arms. Standing so close to her he had not noticed that her eyes had been fixed on the entrance behind him.
"I..." She cleared her throat. Her hand quickly rubbed across his cheeks, then her own face. "I'll be checking on something I left in your office." She looked right at him, her jaw set, giving him a slight nod. "I'll... I'll be right back."
Slowly, Tony turned around. A shiver ran down his spine when he saw the boy standing in the doorway.
"Mr. Stark, I..." he looked down to his hands, where his fingers were nervously picking at each other.
"Peter." Tony's heart was pulsing all the way up in his throat. His heart rate spiked so suddenly that even without his spider-senses the boy would have surely been able to hear it hammer away.
"Is..." The boy blew out a deep breath. "Are you... is... is everything okay, you—"
"Everything's fine," Tony lied. He turned his eyes away again just so he could breathe, quickly rubbing his own hand over his face in an attempt to get rid of all evidence of emotion. "What... what are you doing here? I... I told you to wait for Helen."
The lab was dead-silent. The only sound was the nervous shuffle of the boy's feet behind him. "I just wanted to... I wanted to... I... I'm sorry. I... I know I let... I let you down and I never—"
"Don't. Just... it is what it is, alright. You just... There's no need for this."
The boy let out a frustrated grunt, his voice thin. "But I am. I am sorry. I just... I don't know what's happening and what... I just wanted... I don't want you to hate me. I'm sorry."
Tony did turn back around to face him at that, shaking his head. "I don't hate you, Peter. I could never. You just... you should go home."
The boy's hand shot up and dabbed at his eyes, a red flush crawled over his face. Tony rested his hands on the backrest of his chair, gripping it tightly, desperate for his body not to shake. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that Pepper was gone, had walked up the stairs to his office. They really were alone.
"You never call me that," the boy sniffed.
"What?"
"You never call me Peter. You always call me 'Kid' or 'Pete' or 'Spiderling'," he rambled. "But never Peter."
"It's... it's your name."
The boy shrugged. "I guess... but you, you never..." He swallowed the rest of his sentence as Tony himself was battling his own nervous energy, willing his heart rate to slow down.
"What are you even doing here? You just insisted on going home and I told you to wait for Helen!" The words just blurted out of Tony, his frustration flaring up. He hated this. He hated himself for this and the fucking universe for putting him in this situation in the first place.
The boy's eyes shot up at him. He took a couple of breaths, visibly pulling himself together.
"I... You never said... never said what was going to happen. What I'm supposed to do about... about my... about that DNA stuff. Will you... will you tell May? Does she... does she know?"
"No, she doesn't and I won't. I told you to forget what you saw and I meant that."
The kid shook his head slightly. "But... but, why?"
Tony tightened his grip on the chair, fighting the urge to let his frustration seep into his voice. "Because it doesn't change anything."
The boy's forehead twitched in confusion, his hazel eyes shifted from left to right before he looked back up at Tony. "It... it changes everything."
Tony turned his glance away from him, another wave of frustration rushing through him. He'd just had this discussion. He'd just argued his way through this whole mess. The kid should have never even found out. This made everything just so much worse. He'd been a damn fool to leave that stuff lying around, to print out any of it at all. Reckless, stupid, selfish idiot. Tony's temper bubbled up inside his chest, his emotions all over the place.
"And what good do you think is gonna come from this? Or telling her? Do you want her to give you up, hand you over? Leave everyone you know behind?"
The boy took a step back, closer towards the door, his eyes wide. "I... No..."
"No?" The knuckles on Tony's hands turned white, his grip on the chair as intense as he could muster so he wouldn't move. "Do you want me to force you to stay here? I could try. If she doesn't hand you over voluntarily, should I threaten her with the authorities? Do you even understand what telling people about this would mean for you?"
His legs were screaming for him to pace, but he couldn't give in. The boy was frozen in his spot and Tony wasn't going to undermine himself by nervously running back and forth.
"CPS will probably collect you, put your Aunt in the slammer, 'til they figure out how she plays into my 2-year-old son's disappearance. They'll probably keep you under observation at a safe location for a couple of weeks, maybe a month or so while they try to figure out how I found out about all this, which might lead them to a few dead kidnappers in Massachusetts. That's of course if they aren't clever enough to run a thorough DNA test on the samples I gave them in 2005 right away, only to realize that you have mutant chromosomes."
There would be no avoiding that evidence. Anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of DNA would clearly see the mutation. Case in point, Sallic and his asshole crew. "If you're lucky, they might realize that yours is a mutation that occurred in the last few years and with some fighting and probably a bunch of favors that have to be paid on my part, they might surrender you to my custody. But you wouldn't be able to go back to your friends or to your school, ever. And your neighborhood crime-fighting? Say hello to the Accords." He bit the inside of his cheeks at the thought of his son's fate lying in the hands of the authorities, of these crooks who had every motive to use the threat to his son's well-being against Tony. Who'd have a field day if they realized Iron Man and Spider-Man were at their mercy.
"Of course if it happens to be a particularly dimwitted detective or judge, they might determine that the DNA just doesn't match and that you can't be my son, well at least not Aiden, mostly because there is no evidence to show that your mutation occurred recently. So, they will register you as a mutant and being underaged they might just put you in some kind of conversion therapy home or who knows what if you're lucky, solitary confinement if not until I find a way to convince them to give me custody. Either way, your identity, you being Spider-Man will be everywhere. Everyone will know who you really are. All of that just wonderful options!"
The kid still just stood there in the middle of the lab, rooted to the spot with his eyes on the ground in front of him. Finished with his rant, Tony finally saw the boy. His body shivering, arms wrapped around himself, tears falling on the tiled floor in front of him.
He was a fucking asshole.
Tony shot another glance towards the stairs. Still no Miss Potts and at this point he was almost relieved that she hadn't witnessed this particular low point. He ran his hands over his face and through his hair before his gaze came to rest on the boy again. He cursed under his breath and took a few hurried steps towards him. His hands were only hovering over the kid's shaking shoulders at first unsure what to do. He had taken this too far, that much was obvious, so far over the line. He needed the boy to lay low, to make sure he would stay away from danger but he never meant to break him like that. Regret and sorrow were bubbling underneath his skin, reluctance to touch the kid in case that would be another misstep. With a deep breath, he blew caution to the wind and lightly let his hands settle on the kid's small frame, steadying him.
Like he had flipped a switch on the boy, his arms reached out towards Tony and the kid pulled himself close to him with a force that knocked the breath out of both of them. Surprise non-withstand, like an instinctive need his own arms curled around the boy, held him as he shook. There was something so inconceivable about the thought that this boy was his boy. Aiden. That the kid he could never even imagine as anything but that two-year-old toddler he had lost was right there in his arms, after all this time. Had been so close for so long.
One of Tony's hands came up and ran through the kid's hair, as his chin came to rest on top of his head. He could still feel a little bump on the back there, where it had been smashed into the concrete floor by one of these assholes. The assholes that had been drawn to his boy because of him. Tony managed to suppress the sob that was trying to escape his throat but not the tears that fell down his lashes into his son's hair.
This was the moment, wasn't it? The Moment. Years, he'd been hoping and dreaming, wondering if he'd ever hold his son again. If they would ever be reunited. Hope had turned into despair with every passing year. All the anguish of not knowing what his boy had suffered, if he could have done something to keep him safe. Tony turned his face, nuzzling his kid's hair, and firmly pressed his lips onto his son's head. He couldn't dwell on all of that right now. Later, there would be time to fall apart, to wrap his mind around the fact that if he wanted to keep his boy safe he'd have to give him up. He pushed the thought aside.
Not now.
"I'm sorry, buddy." He pulled his kid closer, willing him to stop shaking. "None of that is going to happen to you. Nobody is gonna touch you, alright? You'll go home and things will just go back to normal. Everything will be fine. You'll be just fine. You're safe."
The kid was sniffing and sobbing in his arms. He'd make this better. He knew he could make him feel better. His thumb lightly ran up the side of the kid's head, trying to stay away from any spot that might still be tender, from anything that could hurt him even more. He rubbed small circles over his temple like he had done before for Peter. For Aiden.
"It'll be alright. Nobody will know. Nobody will find out. You'll be safe, alright?"
He would make sure of that, no matter the cost. Eyes closed, he gave in for just a moment. The one moment that was his to hold his son, to comfort him. He concentrated on his kid's pulse, could feel his heartbeat on his chest, the fast but steady rhythm. The kid's fists were holding handfuls of his shirt, still pulling Tony close and the sting of the bullet wound on his chest didn't even matter. He told himself, a few more breaths, just another minute then he'd be ready to let go. Just a bit longer. A little bit longer.
It would never be enough. Never. He could stand there until the end of time when the earth beneath them would crumble as the universe imploded and it still wouldn't be enough. It was on him to be stronger than that, on him to be the grown-up and get his own emotions into check. Tony ran a quick hand across his face, swiped the tears away then clasped the boy by his shoulders and pulled him out of their embrace, waiting for the kid to look up at him.
"I talked to your aunt. She thinks you were here all weekend for a workshop thingy. She won't give you any grief about anything. She doesn't know and it will stay that way." If anything May Parker would be relieved that Tony would keep his distance. For a second, Tony contemplated telling him more about that conversation he had had with May Parker, but after everything that would likely end up completely pulling out the rug from underneath the boy.
"You'll meet with Helen from time to time and she'll make sure you're okay. She'll let me know if you're not. If there ever is anything that you think might get dangerous for you, you'll tell her, but there won't be, okay? You'll just... just move on. Go back to... to your life and everything will be just fine."
The boy's eyes widened in surprise. "But..." he sniffed. "When will I see you?"
Tony willed his face not to fall, his eyes not to stray from the kid. "You won't, buddy. Potts and I are going back to LA."
"No..." he whispered. "You... you can't go."
"I have to. I can't stay. Not now."
The boy just stared at him, open-mouthed, tears still running down his cheeks.
Tony swallowed hard. "Maybe... maybe Vision can go on patrol with you from time to time, bring the suit for you. At some point, when... when things quiet down. Some time... some time down the road." When he was a little older. The world might think that Peter Parker was 15, but he knew better. 13. He had taken his 13-year-old son into the middle of a fight amongst the Avengers. He would never forgive himself for that. Never.
The kid blinked a couple of times. Of course. He wouldn't have even considered that yet, the real-life implications that this revelation had for him, but then he just shook his head in protest, mouth working, but unable to utter a single word.
"Don't. Don't argue. You can't be out there on your own anymore. It was a hard push to let you do this when you were a random teenager. But you're not. It's not gonna happen." The boy wouldn't stop crying and it took everything Tony had to pull himself together, to not just break along with him as the kid's world went out of its hinges right in front of him. "It was dangerous before but this..." Tony sighed and pointed a hand back and forth between them. "This puts a different kind of target in your back and that's my fault and I... I'm sorry, kid. But even if I were here to back you up, it's just impossible right now. But... I'll come up with something. Somewhere down the line, I'll... I'll figure something out."
"But, no, I... I'm still the same. Please. I... That's not fair!"
"No, it's not. It's not fair." Tony tried for a small smile. "But that's what's going to happen."
"Please... please, don't! I can still—"
"No. It's not going to happen!" He fought to keep his voice leveled, not to be too harsh. His hands were balled up into fists just to keep them from shaking, to keep a lid on that frustrated energy. "Do you hear me? Just this once you will listen."
The boy looked away. He didn't really acknowledge what Tony had said but at least he wasn't arguing anymore either. That was good enough for now and without the suit, or rather the web-shooters that were safely stored at the Tower, there was considerable less trouble the kid could get into.
Just as Tony was about to turn away, the boy took hold of his arm "This is... You're leaving because of me?"
Tony swallowed. "I'm leaving, because of me."
"Bullshit," the boy sniffed.
"Hey!"
"You're doing this because you found out about... about all this." The kid's hand mimicked his, gesturing back and forth between them. "About me. I don't... I don't understand... Why would you... Why would you—" he struggled through the words, his grip firm on Tony's arm.
"I can't stay, Peter."
The kid shook his head with a quick and minimal motion. "You were looking for... for Aiden... for me... for... for years and now you found... you found... found out about... about this and you don't want..." he paused for a deep breath, but his voice came out shaky and weak nonetheless. "You don't even want to... to stay anymore?"
Tony bit his lip, desperate for his own voice to stay level, "You're not Aiden."
The boy flinched back at that, his brow furrowed in confusion. "But... the test... You said that—"
"What I said doesn't matter. You're not Aiden Stark. You're Peter Parker." He hurried along when the boy's face started to fall. "And that's... that's great. You're a great kid. You're perfect, buddy. But I was a fool... I was dumb and selfish. You should have never even found out about this. I..." His voice wavered. He was slowly but surely losing his grip on himself. "I always thought that when I would find my son, everything would just fall into place. My life came to a halt when Aiden disappeared and I always thought... I always thought we'd just be us again when I would find him. You." He blew out a shaky breath. "When I would find you. But you already have a life. You have friends and people who love you."
"You... you wouldn't have even told me? You... you don't want me, because—"
"Of course I want you." He worked the boy's hand off his arm and cupped both of his hands in his own. "Of course I do."
Of course, he did. More than anything. His eyes lingered on the almost faded bruises around the kid's wrists before he slowly let his own hands drop, taking the kid's down with him. As Peter's arms now loosely hung next to his body, Tony let go of them and cupped the kid's face ever so lightly, tilting his chin up.
"But..." He cleared his throat fighting his rising emotions. "But this isn't just about what I want. It's about what's best for you."
"That's not—"
"No, you listen to me." He huffed, frustration making his insides burn. "You're Peter Parker now. I have no right to take you. No right to keep you no matter the consequences and there would be consequences. Not if I can't keep you safe. They..." Tony fought not to look away, to let the reality of the situation sink in. "They snatched you twice, kid. You've been back in my life for only a handful of months and they took you, hurt you, and threatened to do worse, just to get to me. Without even truly knowing about... about this." He bit his tongue not wanting to scare the boy again. "I need you to be safe and I need you to stay out of Manhattan. Maybe... maybe when you're older. In a few years we could—" Tony shook his head. Now wasn't the time for that. "I hate this. I do. This is not what I want but I need you to be safe so I need to stay away. You'll stay in Queens. Stick to the ground."
A couple more tears fell off the boy's lashes. "Please, Mr. Stark. I just... I didn't pay attention. I can be better. I can be more careful. I'm sorry, I swear, I'll never touch anything you don't want me to again. I swear I won't and... and I don't have to be Peter Parker when I'm with you. I don't care! I can... you can call me whatever—"
"No." Tony put as much determination into his words as he could muster and let his hands fall down to the boy's shoulders. "We're not doing that. This is not... this is not because of anything that you did, alright? None of this is your fault."
"But I..." The kid swallowed hard. "I am sorry. I shouldn't have—"
"You're forgiven, okay? It's..." To think how mad he had been at the kid just a week ago and now... now none of that even mattered. "That's all in the past now."
Tony let go of him, preparing himself to get this over with but Peter reached for his arm once more.
"Mr. Stark, please... please, don't go."
But Tony couldn't drag this out any longer or he might give in after all. This was the time to be the grown-up and stick to the hard choices. He turned away, glanced over his shoulder and there she was, back at last. "Pep, do you want to say goodbye to the boy before he leaves?"
Pepper stood at the bottom of the stairs, arms crossed, glaring at him. As she came closer her eyes traveled from Tony to the kid, who still looked crestfallen, but had stopped to argue now that Pepper was back. She pulled the boy into a hug right away, one hand slowly stroking his hair, while he tentatively raised his arms and put his hands on her back, hugging her back. Her shoulders shook with stifled sobs and Tony placed his own hand between her shoulder blades. His hand softly rubbed her back until she seemed to have regained somewhat control over her voice. It came out low and charged with emotion, piercing Tony through and through.
"I love you, Addy."
She broke off the hug and cupped the boy's face with both her hands before she placed a kiss on his forehead, her thumb stroking his temple. She let go of him and without another look at Tony, she walked out of the lab.
Peter was quiet now, eyes avoiding Tony's again and he deserved that, he knew. He should have been more careful, should have been able to protect him from this mess. All he could do now was do better.
"Come on, buddy. We're gonna get you back to your room."
With a hand between Peter's shoulder blades, he pushed him along the corridor towards the medical unit. It wasn't the struggle he had imagined it might turn into. The kid was quiet, lost in his thoughts as he followed along just next to him. Helen Cho was waiting for them at the entrance to the med wing.
"There you are, Peter." She sent a quick look at Tony, then reached for Peter, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "Well, it's good to see that you regained enough energy to take a stroll, huh?" She shot another quick look at Tony, but he only gave her a short nod as she led the boy down the corridor.
Tony just stood there for a moment and watched them walk away. Peter's head hung low, his shoulder's hunched. He didn't turn to look back and that was a blessing in disguise. Tony turned on his heel. He couldn't stare at the boy walking away any longer. It would do nothing than just torture him some more. He couldn't dwell on how much this sucked, there were other things to think of now. The boy would be safe for now, but the biggest question still remained: Who was responsible for taking his son in the first place?
The boy might be safe for now but would never truly be protected unless Tony would find out who was responsible for all this. There was a shadow that suddenly shifted to his right and he was pulled out of his thoughts and almost physically jumped up the wall.
"Jeezes. What the fuck..."
"Someone's gotta keep you on your toes." Natasha's eyebrows shot up as Tony was trying to catch his breath.
"Yeah, my life's been so cushy and stress-free recently. Would hate to let that routine fester."
She nodded. "Right. The fuck are you doing?"
He groaned and kept walking towards the lab. "What does it look like?"
"It looks like you're being an idiot."
He swallowed hard. "Please, do enlighten me with a better approach."
She huffed out a shallow breath. "Not being an idiot?"
He stopped and turned on her. "Drop him off in Queen, Nat. Please."
Her eyebrows drawn close, she studied his face. "Come on, you can't be serious."
"I need him to be safe." He sounded like a broken record, annoyance flooding his veins.
"With the lady?" She shook her head at him, frown still in place. "Are you sure about this? What's she gonna be able to do if trouble comes to call?"
"Nobody's gonna come to call. You did agree that she's not a criminal mastermind."
Natasha pulled an unconvinced grimace. "Well, I mean, she isn't that, but still..."
"Just drop him off there. Make sure he goes inside."
She huffed out a dry laugh. "And how will I do that? Drag him in by his ear?"
Tony didn't even dignify that with a reproachful look. "There shouldn't be much dragging required. He wants to see his... his aunt." It physically pained him. All of this. He hated all of this.
"You don't have to do it like this, Tony. You can keep him close. He can't be safer than he is with you."
"History begs to differ."
"Tony—"
"Stop. Just... just once can you stop contradicting everything I say and just do me the favor I ask?" He tried to breathe through his anger, get his emotions into check which seemed to be slipping after the events of the last days, all the emotional and physical stress and no rest. "You think I came to this decision lightly? It's what's best for him and I'm done discussing it!"
Natasha didn't answer right away, didn't contradict him again. Not that he was looking for that. He needed them all to just stop humoring this unrealistic fantasy that any of this could end in a happily ever after. This was real life they were dealing with and Tony was enough of a grown-up to face that reality. He had to be, for his son.
"We'll keep an eye on him."
Tony almost choked on his breath. "You think I want Rogers anywhere near my son? I don't want any attention to be drawn to him. That's the whole point of... of all this."
"I'll keep an eye on him then."
Tony shot her a sideways glance at that. Maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to have her look out for the boy's sake. No matter what had happened between them, he had no reason to suspect that Natasha would take it out on his son.
"Rogers and Barton still in Toronto?"
She didn't answer just looked down at her hands.
He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm still surprised you got Wilson to separate from Rogers. For the past couple of year, they were attached at the hip." He chuckled. "I guess Wilson was in for a rough awakening now that Rogers' BFF is back in the picture, huh?"
"You're mad. I get that."
"I'm not mad, I'm disappointed," Tony said, taking a swing at his best Captain America frown.
She shook her head. "You're mad. And you're scared." She turned her eyes on Tony again. "You're scared of Steve."
"I'm not scared of—"
"Show me the video."
That did make him swallow his own tongue. "Wh-what?"
"I want to know what happened."
"You... you already know." He shuddered at the absurdity of that idea. "I told you."
"I want to see it."
Tony tried to shake off the chill as memories of that Siberian bunker flashed in front of his eyes. He pushed down the panic that it automatically raised in his bones, pushed away the feeling of defeat.
"I get that you like to watch how I get my ass kicked, Nat, but you'll have to settle for all the other times you witnessed it first hand."
"Just show it to me, Tony."
"It's not for viewing, okay?" His breathing only came in painful short puffs. "It's not for viewing for anybody."
"Your boy saw it."
"Yeah, and I kicked him out to the street after I found out." His temper was running away with him and he was painfully aware that it wasn't a good look. He forced his voice to come back under control. "We fought. I lost. There's nothing more to see than that."
Natasha stayed quiet for a bit. She was either waiting for him to crack and just go with it or thinking of a new strategy to break him. Both were unsettling prospects.
"He talks to him every day, you know." She shrugged. "Well, almost every day. Sometimes the missions mess with the timezones. Tells him about his day, a story about the future, another one about the past."
"I really don't give a shit what Rogers does with his boyfriend," Tony snarled.
"Of course you do." She shook her head. "What he did was wrong. He should have told you. He should have de-escalated instead of... well, of what I assume happened and ended with you injured. Still, Barnes is why he did it, not you. He still trusts you, Tony."
A dry snort that wouldn't stay bottled up any longer bubbled out of Tony. "Don't try that bullshit on me, Nat."
"It's not—" She stopped, looked away from him. "We can't afford to have the two of you drag this out indefinitely. We have to find a way through it."
Tony shook his head, eyes back on the ground. "Please, don't tell him. About... about Aiden. I don't... I don't want him involved, okay? It doesn't concern him. It doesn't concern anyone. He doesn't need to know."
"Tony..."
He looked up at her, unashamed about the pleading in his voice. "The kid deserves to be left alone. To grow up in peace. Please, Nat. I don't want him tangled in all this bullshit."
She tilted her head at him. "Tony, Clint's the one who found those files in that basement, remember? They... Clint and Steve, they already know who Peter really is."
Tony's face went numb. He'd forgotten about that. The last 48 hours had felt like several days if not weeks of stuff happening.
"They will not do anything with that information. Come on, Tony, I know you're worried but they'd never go after your kid. Not for anything."
He crossed his arms in front of himself, pulled them close to him, physically braced himself against the panic in his bones, hoping it would ebb away.
"Tony, I swear if Steve would ever even think of using Aiden for anything let alone threaten him, I would personally kick his ass. So would Clint, but he would never do that."
"Yeah, well, I used to be sure that he wouldn't do a lot of things." His voice was low, his eyes on the ground. He'd have to live with them knowing then. Nothing to do about it. He gave a nod and pressed out a low "thank you" before he turned around.
"Where do I find you after my errand then?"
"You don't."
"What if I want to? Might need some dinner!"
She didn't follow, just called after him. It was a coy game she played. She knew how to find him, master-spy and all. It wouldn't surprise him if she found out about his LA plans already.
"Say 'Hi' to Canada for me," he called over his shoulder. He needed Pepper, then the Tower, then... well. A clear cut.