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elisaphoenix13 · 11 months

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This Family Is Forever

There was always this pleasant feeling of in between that Stephen enjoyed. Not quite asleep but definitely not awake. He was aware of Tony's warm body that he was curled up against, his spouse's soft snores and the rise and fall of his chest where he laid his head. Anything beyond that bubble was non-existent. The weight of Athena and Apollo never processed, no noises outside of their room…just their breathing. Just the warmth they shared. It was a pleasant limbo that Stephen had been enjoying for…however long he had swam into consciousness. If he was conscious. Sometimes the little bubble ended up being a very vivid dream that was eventually unceremoniously popped and he would find himself alone in bed. Alone with his ever loyal wolf still at his feet of course. Tony and Apollo would be long gone if the coldness of the sheets beside him were any indication.

This was real though, Stephen could tell. With just the slightest bit of adjustment, he threw one of his legs over Tony's, and the man instinctively responded by tightening his arm around him and rubbing his thumb along his shoulder. The motion died down after a few seconds and Tony would lie still. Stephen selfishly enjoyed every moment of the peace–

"Mom!" Stephen's eyes snap open when the door flies open, the sound of the rest of the penthouse–namely their children's daily noise–breaks that wonderful bubble and forces the sorcerer out of his stupor. Tony grumbles beside him because he was unceremoniously woken up from his own bubble.

"Nobody lives here by that name," Tony says for him.

"There is when William is being bullied at school!" America retorts.

Of course that immediately got their attention and Stephen was already sitting up. Tony took a few seconds longer, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"How did you find out about this?" Stephen asks as he slips out of bed to follow his newly adopted daughter out of the room. As she led the way to the youngest twin's room, the man mentally kicked himself for ignoring the signs. The boy had been more withdrawn than usual, staying in his room and declining to spend time with the sorcerer like he usually did, whether to read together, practice his magic, or to simply put together a puzzle.

He even openly avoided Harley and Valerie, making them very put out and hurt. If Stephen really thought about it, he could recall that William very gingerly ate his dinner the night before. The conclusion he came to caused him to see red but he stamped the anger down as he and America approached the room. The door was closed and Stephen at least knocked twice before letting himself in, fully expecting the boy to teleport away to escape the situation, but instead he found the boy sitting on his bed looking defeated.

He was clearly tired of hiding the truth or was aware Stephen would follow him to the ends of the earth to make sure he was okay.

The bruise on his cheek was a clear sign that he wasn't and Stephen's rage boiled in his chest.

"I caught him trying to cover it up," America explains before Stephen can ask. "He's been covering it up for days."

Considering the bruise was still rather dark and large, whatever caused it had to have happened at the beginning of the week. Even more concerning was the fact that Cassie hadn't caught on. She was, unofficially, their eyes on the twins while they were at school because they knew how the boys hid things. It had gotten better, but bullying was something they felt wasn't worth bothering their parents about. Stephen could understand to an extent. Schools had a no bullying policy but never really enforced it, or if they did, suspended both parties and washed their hands of it.

It was Peter all over again. Stephen would have to talk to Tony about the usual funding threat to get the bullying to stop like they had done for Peter. It seemed the only effective solution.

"William," Stephen says softly as he crouches in front of the teen. "What's going on?"

For a moment, William didn't make any indication that he would respond, but finally he said, "they said it's because my parents are both guys."

The words sunk in slowly before finally clicking. William was being bullied because he was gay? And on top of that, because they thought he was gay because of his parents? The notion was laughable considering Cassie had gay parents and she was very happily in a straight relationship with Peter and vice versa. Bullies really reach for a reason to ridicule someone.

"Let me see," Stephen says, reaching up to gently tilt William's head to examine the bruise around his cheekbone. The boy winced at the slightest touch, making the sorcerer frown as he sent some healing magic into it. The color lightened but his body would have to finish the healing itself. "America, will you go run and get some ice please?"

"Yup!" The girl rushes out in an instant.

"I want the names of whoever did this to you and your father and I will take care of this," Stephen tells William, smiling when the boy's eyes widen. "Quietly, I promise. This isn't our first rodeo. What I am curious about is how you managed to hide it from Cassie and Thomas."

"They were home sick the day it happened and you were out doing sorcerer stuff, so when I got home I was able to cover it with some of Cass's make-up," William says quickly, or as Thomas would call it, word-vomiting. "I didn't want to say anything because if you or dad or Harley freak out, then I freak out, and I didn't want you to worry about something so stupid–"

"This isn't stupid," Stephen interrupts sharply as he moves to sit next to William on the bed. "Nothing that hurts you is ever stupid. Even something as small as a paper cut isn't stupid…do you know why?"

William swallows thickly, only looking up when Tony walks in with some ice instead of America, and winces when the older man gently applies it to his face. Tony only let go when William held the ice under his own power and moved his hand to place on top of the boy's dark hair.

"Because you deserve better," Tony answers, having obviously heard what Stephen had said and been updated on the situation by their daughter. "All of you do. Every kid does, really. You and your brother had to take care of each other for a long time because no one else would, but you have this whole new family that would take a bullet for you. Hell, there's even a god downstairs that would blow up the school if you asked him to."

Stephen snorts. "Quill's not going to blow up a school."

"The point," Tony rolls his eyes fondly, continuing. "Is that he would. And if we had you when the snap happened, I would have worked that much harder to get my boys back. Losing Stephen, Harley, and Peter like that…I still have nightmares. And you know what? I have nightmares that it happens to all of my kids. You and Thomas, America, Cassie, the girls…" Tony sighs quietly. "Something that may seem stupid to you, won't be stupid to us. You are our kid and we love you. We want you to be safe, happy, and validated. We want you to feel comfortable calling us if you decide to go out partying without telling us and you end up in some kind of trouble."

William's shoulder slump. "I'm sorry. I just…even after all this time…a part of me is still worried that one little thing will ruin everything."

Tony lifts his head up by his chin and smirks at him. "I told you before and I'll tell you again kid. We're in this for the long haul. There are plenty of actual stupid things Peter and Harley have done that made us want to tear out our hair but they're still here. We still love them. Making mistakes is all a part of growing up. Or, in this case, telling your parents when something not so great is happening at school. Capire?"

William nods. "Yeah."

"Is there anything else you need to talk about or tell us?" Stephen asks.

"No," the teen shakes his head this time. "It's just that, I swear."

"Alright. Do you think you can handle pancakes with some strawberries and whipped cream?" A nod from William sends Stephen out the door to make breakfast, but a near collision with Valerie makes him stop.

"Liam better?" She asks quietly and Stephen smiles and brushes her hair back.

"I think so. Maybe if you ask nicely, he'll play with you until breakfast is ready."

It was enough to make the little girl perk up with a smile before hurrying into William's room, almost running into Tony while doing so. The man was fortunately able to move out of the way and snorted in amusement.

"I'm pretty sure if we did try to get rid of him, your daughter would have something to say about it," Tony jokes and Stephen huffs as he turns and descends the stairs to the kitchen.

"My daughter? Just like Lucy is my daughter when she gets into trouble you put her in?" Stephen challenges.

Tony laughs. "In my defense, Lulu climbs those shelves by herself. She doesn't need any help from me."

"After you taught her to do that, you mean."

"I plead the fifth."

Stephen snorts again and sets about making breakfast while Tony goes in search of their youngest. She was found in the living room watching TV with Diana and America, but was eager to be held by Tony, who returned to the kitchen with her in hand. Lucy was happily rubbing her hands along Tony's goatee with her typical gleeful babbling or an actual English word, and the rest of the kids were slowly leaving their rooms. Probably enticed by the smell of pancakes.

"Quill would blow up the school if it were Cassie," Tony suddenly says.

"Quill would find a way to disintegrate someone with lasers from his eyeballs if someone so much as sneezes in her's or Scott's general direction," Stephen responds flatly.

"Don't give him any ideas," Peter yawns, and plops into a seat at the breakfast counter. "He already gave some guy at her school the side eye when he had to go pick her up when she was sick. Like you said, the poor guy just sneezed."

"Was he sitting next to her?" Tony asks.

"I think so. They were both in the office."

"Then he probably silently accused him of making Miss Sass sick," Tony says. "Quill's planning his demise as we speak."

Stephen rolls his eyes and tunes the two of them out as he finishes breakfast, but keeps an ear out when he hears Harley talking to William. He couldn't hear much of what his oldest was saying, but it was clear that he was fussing over his boyfriend and irritated at whoever hurt him. He was surprised to hear Valerie reprimand Harley for upsetting William because of the fussing.

"If you think Quill's bad, I wouldn't want to get on Valerie's bad side when it comes to William," Stephen says to Tony and Peter. "I'm sure she's ready to push Harley out of the room."

"Val?" Peter gawks and gasps dramatically when Stephen smirks. "What is this world coming to?!"

"I saw a stare down between her and Sam when he tried to talk to Will about something that was obviously upsetting him," Thomas adds nonchalantly as he joins them. "She didn't even glare or anything. Just stared. Sam left."

"Seriously. What's this world coming to?" Peter mumbles and Stephen chuckles.

The twins weren't the only ones learning and growing up it seemed.

#mama bear au #stephen strange #tony stark #william kaplan #thomas shepherd #supremefamily #ironstrange #peter parker #america chavez

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