Marvel/Peter Parker One Shots!

I Guess We're Brothers

A/N Written by @Lisa-Sina-912. This a three part story.

Dedicated to my_corner2k19.

Peter had always known who Tony Stark was. You might be thinking, 'who doesn't?' Tony Stark: a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, hero, and one (if not only) of the most successful businessman in the world - you've heard it million times before. Everybody knows it. But to Peter, the owner of Stark Industries was one more thing.

Well, maybe 'know' is a bit of a strong word. It was more of a suspicion than anything. It was just one memory of one night. Looking back, it was probably never meant to happen. His mother never really intended for little Peter to hear her. It just happened when it slipped out one night when alcohol took control of her mind and body - and Peter just happened to be there, waiting for her to return after work, when she staggered her way into their small apartment. That was the one time that she mentioned the name Tony Stark in front of Peter. He was six at the time.

Although Peter couldn't really say that he knew right away then and there, Peter could later come down to his own conclusion. Like any other ones, the memory of that night had distorted a little, with small details having been erased, modified, and maybe added, too. Yet, the incident itself was clearly stuck to his mind for him to use his high-functioning brains and deduct the story that his mother failed to fully explain before the plane crash that took her life. That was when he was thirteen.

So yeah, Peter knew - or believed that there was a possibility - that Tony Stark was the one who helped his mother bring him to this world.

Would you like to know what his reaction was?

So what?

No, don't get this wrong. Because that is not directed to you. That was actually what he thought about the matter. So what?

Of course, it wasn't his first reaction. His very first and raw reaction was a series of questions popping up into his head. Just how did Tony Stark come into the picture? Did Tony Stark know that he existed? If he did, then did that mean that Tony Stark intentionally neglected and abandoned him? Questions after questions were the only things he could think of. Unfortunately, by the time he came to that point, Uncle Ben and Aunt May have also passed away and Peter was in his fourth foster home.

And questions were one of the most unnecessary things in surviving through foster homes (Peter always found this notion funny - why did he have to 'survive' a 'foster' environment?). Unrealistic dreams about some billionaire somehow being his father and showing up to save him from the constant beatings and verbal batterings of the supposed caregivers did not really help fill his ever-so-hungry belly or protect him from the whippings and yellings. There was no time to find answers or wonder about the unknown part of his history. Dreaming about it didn't change the fact that he was still stuck in the reality of being an orphan that moves from one house to another. No matter who his biological father was, it didn't change his own reality. It just didn't suddenly bring his 'father' to the front step and look for him out of nowhere. It was not supposed to.

Thus, Peter closed this particular case of his mysterious father with a so what?

So, maybe you can imagine just how much it shocked him when the man actually knocked on the door of the worn-down house filled with parent-less kids in the middle of their temporary guardians yelling at them about dissatisfactory chores. How it shocked a certain Peter Parker, all the kids, and the guardians all alike.