#I always figured Mrs. Pepper is the silent anger type

[peppers-of-paradiso]

Mrs. Pepper is non-vocal when she’s really frustrated/angry, but you can tell when she is cause she goes dead silent and her looks could kill. Usually one word will be uttered, typically in Spanish, but otherwise she is silent.

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (58/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

Masterpost

Chapter Fifty Seven

Getting back to normal life after the crazy time in Germany with Mr. Stark and then the days spent at Avengers Tower made everything feel like a dream. Except that he now had a father and he had a suit that surpassed anything he could have ever come up with on his own even if he’d had the money to develop it. He was also sort of upset at May and that just wasn’t ever fun.

After Mr. Stark left, Peter had avoided having a conversation with May for about five minutes before she showed up at his door and he had known that he wouldn’t be able to avoid dealing with it.

“So, you know the truth now,” she said, not bothering to dance around the topic.

Peter nodded and couldn’t make himself look at her.

“Are you okay?”

May moved closer and lifted his chin up so that he would look at her. There was a concerned frown on her face, the kind that she usually wore when Peter was sick or not feeling well. It almost made Peter less angry except that how could she ask that when Peter clearly couldn’t be okay. He wouldn’t be okay for a little while at least while he was still trying to process everything.

“No, May, I don’t think I am,” Peter said, voice louder than usual and May took a step back.  “And I don’t think you can explain this away because no explanation will just make this okay.”

The more he had thought about it in the time between leaving the tower and Mr. Stark leaving his room, Peter had realized that there was something extremely important that May and Ben had taken from him. It didn’t diminish that they were his parents in a lot of ways, but he could have had more. He could have had his father alive and well and had more than a few letters with Mr. Stark over the years. He would have had more than just a hero that he could admire from afar. All that time was lost to them now with no way of getting it back.  

“We were protecting you,” May said. “It’s all Ben and I wanted -- to keep you safe.”

Peter closed his eyes. He didn’t want to fight and he just hadn’t realized how much it had actually hurt him because it wasn’t just anger. May had lied to him. He guessed that in the moment it hadn’t felt like that, at least not until he came to the realization that Mr. Stark hadn’t just swept his existence under a rug to be forgotten but had had to do that in part because of who he was, but also because his aunt and uncle hadn’t wanted him to be in Peter’s life. To think about Uncle Ben as this barrier between him and his father was painful, but Peter couldn’t ignore it.

“You could have found a way to tell me even if I didn’t get to meet him right away,” Peter said and he turned away from May.

“Peter, I’m--”

“May, can we not talk about this right now?”

May sighed and nodded and yet she still walked towards him and kissed the top of his head.

“I love you, Peter. I know this is hard, but that’s the truth.”

A part of Peter hated her a little bit for saying that because it made him feel like the bad guy getting upset because May and Ben just cared for him and wanted what was best for him and somehow to them him meeting Mr. Stark back then hadn’t been the best thing.

Trying to write to Mr. Stark after everything that happened was hard too. Difficult in a way that it had never been before because this Peter just didn’t know what to write because suddenly everything seemed too boring to write to Mr. Stark about. It also seemed weird to reach out to him now that the whole thing with him being Peter’s father was sort of hanging over his head.

Going out as Spider-Man seemed like the best escape and it was enough to just get the new suit on and swing around Queens. He hadn’t run into any kind of trouble lately either, which meant that he just got a chance to really get to know his new suit a little better and it was as amazing as any Stark tech could be. Everything felt better when he was Spider-Man. He didn’t have to deal with the sad looks that May gave him or try to come up with a reason to contact Mr. Stark and Peter rather liked the lack of pressure and how free he felt while in the suit.

It was a couple of weeks after the whole airport thing and finding out Tony Stark was his father — did that make him Peter Stark? — when Mr. Stark finally reached out to him.

Peter, I am your father: hey, kiddo, just checking in since I haven’t heard from you in a bit. How’s the spider thing going?

Peter hadn’t looked at the contact name that Mr. Stark had put himself under just because the easiest thing for him to do was avoid facing it especially after the number of hours that he probably lost just staring at Mr. Stark’s email, so he burst out laughing when he read it and somehow all the pressure that he’d been putting on himself over it fell away.

Peter: going well. Not much to report on.

Mr. Stark was quick to respond.

Peter, I am your father: hmm...well you’ve been all over Queens lately. I was just…

Peter, I am your father: I figured I’d check and see how it’s going.

Peter, I am your father: And hey, that’s an idea, how about we do some daily reports when you go out as Spider-Man? Remember we talked about low profiles.

Peter, I am your father: I suppose it could even give Happy something to do so you can send them to him if you want. Or me. Whatever -- whatever you want to do.

Mr. Stark texted fast. Faster than anyone Peter had ever texted before. Peter had barely tried to get a word typed in before another text of his came in followed by another before Peter had even finished reading the last.

Peter: That sounds like a good idea

Peter, I am your father: Excellent.

May didn’t know what to do. She wished more than ever that Ben were at her side dealing with it all too, because she just couldn’t do it. She couldn’t handle Peter being upset with her and the way that he was still sneaking out and rarely ever home.

Worse was not knowing exactly what Peter was thinking or how he was dealing with such a huge change in his life because he wouldn’t talk to her. At least Tony Stark had left them both alone for the time being but it wasn’t going to be for long if the whole internship thing paned out and May was sure that it would because Tony wanted to spend time with Peter and he would find a way and that was currently the easiest one and May didn’t think that Peter would protest spending time with Tony.

Tony was his hero after all -- and after all that time that Peter had spent looking up to him this was more than he could have expected or hoped for.

May had considered reaching out to Pepper and finding out what had happened from her, but it had felt just a little too pushy and May had never wanted to be that parent. Her own parents had been too nosy and always in her business, never content with what May wanted to share and too quick to take issue with her choices. Knowing who Peter was and how sweet and smart her boy was made her believe that Peter would be alright and that he would talk about it all with her when he was ready to. Still, she couldn’t help but worry. That was just what being a parent meant.

May tried not to think too hard on it, especially since she knew that Peter wouldn’t stay too angry or silent on the matter for very long. It wasn’t in his nature. She just hoped that he would listen and understand their reasoning behind keeping the secret.

Tony eventually did have to take Ross’ calls. He had been putting him on hold every time he called or transferring him over to Friday who would then claim that Tony was out. It was fun, especially since Tony’s voicemail always seemed to be mysteriously full when Ross tried to leave a message. But, he had always known that his fun wasn’t going to last.

Pepper and his lawyers had made sure to make it clear to Ross that what he’d done in putting Sam, Clint, Scott, and Wanda in The Raft was unconstitutional and that it was a human rights violation. The UN council that was set up to oversee The Accords agreed with that assessment and because the public was entirely unaware of most of what happened since The Accords were ratified, Ross really had no leg to stand on. But, that didn’t make them any less fugitives because they had all still broken the law -- multiple laws and gone against The Accords directly. The UN was still trying to figure out what the right way to go about bringing them in and putting charges on them which meant that there were long meetings happening and no one was in pursuit.

The UN was talking about putting each of them on trial for their crimes, but Tony suspected that a trial against Captain America and the others wouldn’t go the way that anyone asking for them to answer for their crimes would want it to go. They had all done too much good to be chastised like criminals. It was just a matter of letting the matter lie and letting some time pass before they reappeared by which point Tony hoped to have The Accords looking entirely different and more accommodating to Steve and the others.

Barnes was a whole other issue. Tony didn’t even want to touch all that there would be to deal with there because just thinking about the other man made him remember how he killed his mom. Tony still had nightmares about it and sometimes when they were really bad even Steve made it into them and he stood to the side of that car telling Tony that it wasn’t Bucky. Those were the nights when Tony rushed to the workshop and tried to fix or create something.

On the afternoon when he finally picked up Secretary Ross’ call, Tony had been working on a brand new suit. One whose idea had made itself known to him in the middle of the night after waking up screaming.

“Oh, Secretary Ross, I am so sorry for all those times I never picked the phone up, but I’m a very busy man, you see, and I have no real team to speak of at the moment so I…”

“Cut the shit, Stark, you know where they are. Tell me where they are.”

Tony had known that’s where it was going to go.

“I’m going to prove you had something to do with them escaping,” Ross pressed.

“Tut, tut, Ross, my best friend was shot down from the air and he’s learning to walk again which is currently my main concern so I don’t really care where they are. I’ve been busy with that and trying to figure out if Vision and I are enough protection against any alien threats because I rather think not, but the rest of the Earth’s defenders are in hiding because you chased them away and didn’t listen to me when I brought evidence about the real culprit of the bombing. It is not my fault that the UN has taken you off the council due to your poor leadership. I have not been in contact with any of them.”

“Not even Barton,” Ross said,

Tony didn’t like that particular line of questioning because he knew where Clint was supposed to be which was the farm. A safehouse that no one knew about and that no one could know about. He had to wonder about Ross asking after Clint specifically.

“No, not even Barton.”

No one knew about his wife and kids either, so at least Ross wouldn’t have a way to use them as collateral. Ideally, if Clint decided that he would go back into retirement he would be the easiest to clear of all charges and then Ross really wouldn’t be able to touch him.

“Hmm. You really are no help, Stark, not even when you do pick up the damned phone.”

“I do try,” Tony said and then hung up.

The thing about Thaddeus Ross was that he was a man that wouldn’t give up. Tony didn’t trust that he would ever stop looking for Steve and Bucky and the others, but Tony wasn’t going to let him find anything. More importantly, he was not going to let Ross figure out that Tony had a son and that said son was running around Queens in a suit of Tony’s making with actual superpowers.

Chapter Fifty Nine