The Scattered Stories of Spider-Son and Iron Dad

The 'Father' Dilemma - Court Dates & Dad Hugs

Three weeks. Peter was vibrating almost constantly now. It had been a month and a half since his mom and Dad had told him they wanted to adopt him. Three weeks since a social worker had combed the penthouse for security and safety concerns. And approved the family to go forward with the adoption, of course.

Only Pepper and Rhodey had been there that day. May had the day shift and Peter was back in school that Wednesday morning. But Peter had ridden the elevator up to the penthouse first, instead of the lab, a bundle of nerves and apprehension.

He had practically burst through the sliding doors, only to stop at the sight of Pepper and Rhodey next to a teary-eyed Tony Stark. For a second he couldn't breathe. Then his dad had beamed at him, nodding as a couple of tears escaped. Peter had run, caught just in time as Tony stood with his arms out. The four of them sat in the living room together for a couple hours that afternoon, just being around each other and being excited for what was to come.

Now it was only three more weeks until their court date. And Peter had been floating on cloud nine since they found out a couple of days ago. He didn't know if he would ever get used to having a millionaire as a dad, or one of the most politically powerful men in the world on speed dial, but he was happy to reap the benefits for now. They all knew that Merlin had pulled a lot of strings to both expedite the process and keep it under wraps.

Now the only people outside of the Avengers and his immediate family who knew who he was getting adopted by were Ned and MJ. And hadn't that been a crazy conversation. A good one, but terrifying, nevertheless.

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"Dude! Your life is crazy!"

"Yeah! And now Mom is trying to sit me down and design my room... I'm trying to talk Dad into letting you stay the night next weekend. I'm gonna ask mom for a guest pass, so I can show you my office and my lab, too!"

"It's gotta be cool to call Pepper Potts 'mom'."

Both boys whipped around to look at Michelle so fast, Peter was sure that Ned got whiplash. They made eye contact in obvious fear, before trying--and mostly failing—to school their features as they looked back to their teammate. Peter noted that the three of them were the only ones in that corner of the cafeteria.

"And don't try to spin this like I don't already know Tony Stark is adopting you. But if I find out it's only because you're Spider-Man I—"

Peter had never moved so fast at school before, not only because it would be incredibly out of character for pre-bite-Peter-Parker, but because it was usually too crowded for him to move around the halls in anything less than a sort of aborted stumbling jog. But there he was, out of his seat and with a hand over MJ's mouth no less. He saw her eyes go wide like it was in slow motion and jerked away from her like he had been burned.

Just as suddenly he was a good three feet away, staring at her in wide-eyed horror. Ned was no better. He was still partially turned around on the lunch table bench, ready to catch flies that happened upon their surprisingly secluded little corner. And Michelle... Peter was suitably mortified, but more than that he was terrified.

"Please, don't..." He honestly didn't even know what he wanted to asker her not to do. Don't tell anyone about my parents. Don't say anything about me being Spider-Man. Don't hate me... He had no idea how he wanted, or needed, to end that sentence.

"Of course not."

Her look of affront was almost comical given the circumstances. And then she just turned around to pick up an apple slice, like he hadn't just assaulted her. Like she hadn't just announced that she knew the two biggest things about his life. His biggest secrets.