Melancholy Hope {Spiderson&Irondad}

Chapter 12

Peter's POV

It's finally the 6 month date.

Were going to a nearby court with only a few of Mister Stark's lawyers just in case their necessary. Apparently, my social worker is worried, but she wouldn't say why when she called. She's been a decent social worker so far. She only got assigned to me after I got out of juvie recently. And she had no choice with the group home and then Tony Stark went to her not the other way around.

I'm nervous to say the least. This is the best home I've ever had and I don't want that to go away. I'll get it if Tony doesn't want to keep me around for whatever reason, but I don't want to be taken away.

If they find out that I ran away and Tony didn't immediately alert the police and get me back, he could be considered a bad foster parent and be suspended.

Or if they ask me to lift my shirt and they see the bruises from Flash, maybe they won't believe it and think it's from Tony and consider him a bad foster parent.

"It's going to be fine," Tony says, resting his free hand on my knee to still the bouncing, other hand focusing on driving.

"I want to stay... with you. Like this. I don't want anything to change," I say, frowning, a little bit of pink dusting my cheeks as I look at the floor.

"I know you do, kid. And you will be. The only way they'll be taking you away is if one of us decides you don't want to stay, which we won't. It's all going to be just fine," Tony reassures, taking his hand off Peter's leg so he can turn the corner.

"Oh, hey! I was wondering if you would get me a camera? I've still got a job with a newspaper for photography and it's hard to take pictures when I don't have a camera, you know? If you don't want to, it's cool, I can quit whenever," Peter says, losing his confidence part way through his  question.

"Oh yeah definitely. I'll ask Bucky. He knows some about cameras. Why'd you wait until now to ask?"

"I found a camera at Wade's and started taking pictures again. Normally I'm not allowed to have a camera in foster homes so I had to reapply for the job. I forgot about it until they emailed me back a few days ago."

"Well, consider it done."

*

We walk into the courtroom and this feels so normal for me it's almost sad. The difference is, i normally walk in here feeling heavy. Normally, I know it's the end of another home, good or bad. This time, I think it's a prolonging.  The judge will have to make the decision, but it's not really a tough choice to make to make me a long term foster kid of Tony. The only way he'd say no is if somebody else objected or if he thought Tony wasn't a good parent. Neither of which would happen, though so I try to calm my nerves as much as I can. I just don't want to say something that'll screw up our chances. It'll only be really difficult if Tony decides to go through and adopt me. Then he'll  need a background check and to make sure he's a fit parent and all this other stuff that goes along with it.

We sit side by side at one of the front desks and Tony offers me a reassuring smile. Soon enough, the judge walks in along with my social worker and Tony's 3 lawyers.

"So what were we thinking with this one?" The judge says, totally used to cases like this one, and probably having read Peter's file to know this isn't his first home.

"We agreed. We both want Peter to stay with me," Tony says, one of his carefree smiles on his face as he pushes on some sunglasses.

"And? Do you think this house is suited for Mister Parker?" The judge says, turning on my social worker.