A Different Kind of Family

Chapter 3: A Surprise

The dinging of the elevator brought everyone's attention to the now opening sliding doors. First Bruce exited followed by a Tony who was being bear hugged by the boy they had found on the balcony. The first one to laugh was Clint who was now rolling on the ground laughing. "Oh God! Oh God! Someone take a picture, please!" he wipes a tear away from his eye, "Oh this is precious!" The next one to notice the strange sight is Natasha and she can't stop the smile that sneaks onto her face. 

"Screenshot captured master Clint. Sending you the picture now," replied Friday. Clint quickly bursts back into laughter after his phone dings with the picture.

"Oh that is too good! The kids are gonna love this!" 

"Yes, yes it's very funny but can someone get this kid off of me, please?"

Clint only continues to laugh which draws Steve out from his gym on the floor below, "What's going on?" And then his eyes land on Peter who is still asleep and stuck to Tony. He chuckles and sits down on one of the bar stools, "I think he likes you Tony," he chuckles again into his hand.

"Aww not you too Capsicle..."Ignoring the laughter once more Tony walks over to his own bar stool and sits down, Peter's back now against the island. He simply sits there and watches as Pepper finishes making herself some toast and buttering it. The minute she sits down and sets her plate down Tony steals one of her pieces which causes her to look up. Her jaw drops slightly and she quickly goes to pull her earbuds out.

"Umm, Tony?" she gestures to Peter in his arms, "Care to explain?"

"Well see I was comforting the kid when he fell asleep in this position and he's kinda stuck to me.." he trailed off as he also snatched her coffee cup and took a big sip of it.

Pepper sighs and shakes her head, "I'm talking about who the kid is and how he got here," she slightly glares at her husband as she drinks away what Tony left her in the mug, which wasn't much. 

"It's easier if I just show you. Friday, can you?"

"On it sir," and with that the big flat screen TV played for the avengers what had just played for Tony down in the lab. There was a slight gasp from Pepper as the feed cut out and the TV went back to it's black screen.

"Oh, the poor thing. How old is he?"

"15. And to put the cherry onto everything that was the last family member he had left so I was thinking. I don't want this kid to go through the system so I thought of a plan down in the lab."

Pepper rose her eyebrows, "Which is?"

"Simple. We adopt Peter."

This brought the whole room into silence. This caused even Steve to choke on his coffee as well and he just simply turned and stared at Tony in shock, "Ad-adoption? I mean I know we were thinking of a kid but-but what does a 15 year old even need? Is this even a safe place to raise a kid?"

Tony simply waved his hand, "This is the safest place for a kid. He's literally surrounded by the world's greatest heroes not to mention this is my tower and my AI and such. This is the safest place for anyone to be at."

Once again everyone simply stared at the millionaire as if he had just sprouted two heads. "It's either that or he gets tossed around in the system," Bruce finally broke the silence. "And think that kids pretty capable of handling himself if danger were to occur..." the doctor trailed off as he sipped his own coffee. 

Pepper sighed and ran her hand through her blonde hair, "I mean-I guess, I don't see why not. How do we even go about adopting him in the first place?"

"Actually, I've already had Friday pull up all the papers we need to fill out..." and with a flick of his wrist the holograms and the papers showed up in front of the couple. Most of the papers had already been filled out. 

Pepper raises her eyebrows again and slightly chuckles, "It seems you were already set on adopting him rather I said yes or no," she couldn't help but smile.

"Well..if you did say no I was just going to let him stay here anyone and I was hoping the kid would grow on you that you'd finally agree but this is much simpler," Now Tony was the one smiling. But before anyone else could say anything Peter's head moved and slowly he opened his eyes. The exhaustion and sadness were clear as day in his brown eyes. He already had bags forming underneath his eyes along with the black eye Flash had so kindly given him. As he fully awoke he slowly realized where he was and who he was sticking too. He quickly unsticks himself from Tony that he barely has time to blink before Peter is falling to the floor. 

"Oh-umm I'm so sorry about that.." Peter trails off as he rubs the back of his head fidgeting on his feet. His face had gone from pale as a ghost to red as a tomato. "I'm not sure what came over me.." 

Tony simply waves his hand again, "It's no problem. By the way," he spins around on his bar stool, "Me and Pepper are thinking of adopting you, you alright with that kid?"

Peter's head whips up from where he had been hiding his face, "Wa-wait what?!" 

"Well we didn't want you to go through the system..but if you don't want to we can take down to the station if you want-"

"No no! No not at all-I'm, I'm just shocked is all.." he goes back to rubbing the back of his head again.

"Well then it's settled," he gets up from his bar stool and puts both of his hands on the boys shoulders, "Welcome to the family kiddo. Now let me show you to your room..we'll also have to go shopping and no offense but you kinda need a shower.." their conversation trailed off as Tony practically dragged the boy down the hallway. The Avengers still sat there completely baffled into silence.