Growing Up

5 Years Old: Part 2

The Avengers meeting wasn't going very well. Tony had stopped worrying about Peter pretty early on when Captain Freedom began to get on his case about not paying attention to important things like the current meeting. While it had worked for a while, they were now running ten minutes late and it didn't look like things would be finishing up soon.

Fury was in the middle of telling them there would be another meeting tomorrow when the door flew open.

Spinning in his chair to see who had entered, Tony was hit by a small ball of familiar energy. Leaning on Tony's legs and giggling, Peter smiled up at him. In the doorway, Maria held Peter's backpack and looked rightfully guilty for interrupting Fury.

"You'll never guess what we did, Daddy!" Peter exclaimed. Tony was sure he couldn't. This was SHEILD. There were too many things to do.

"Hold up," Clint said, holding up a hand. "Daddy? You have a kid?"

Ignoring Clint and the rest of the team, Tony helped Peter climb into his lap.

"What'd you do, kiddo?" Tony asked. He glanced at Maria who had slipped over to apologise to Fury, but it looked like Fury was more interested in Peter.

"Miss Maria took me down to see all the planes and then she let me fly in one!" Peter said, bouncing and nearly toppling off Tony's legs.

Tony raised an eyebrow at Maria who rolled her eyes.

"Did she?"

Maria walked over to Peter and handed his backpack to Tony.

"I'm glad you had fun, Peter," Maria said, ruffling Peter's hair. "I have to go, but next time your dad has a meeting, I'll show you the weapons room."

"Or you could not," Tony muttered.

Jumping off Tony's lap, Peter hugged Maria tightly before waving goodbye as she walked out of the room. When he turned back around to tell Tony more about the planes, he realised there were more people in the room. He gasped when he saw Steve, then covered his mouth when he saw all the Avengers.

"Oh yes," Tony said, pulling Peter back up on his lap. "Peter, that's Steve, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, and Fury. Everyone, this is Peter."

"I need some more explaining," Bruce said, looking curiously at Peter.

Tony rolled his eyes and turned his chair to face the rest of the team, Peter still on his lap.

"I don't know what else there is to explain, Bruce," Tony said.

"Is he adopted?" Steve asked. Tony screwed up his face and shook his head.

"No, he's all me," he answered. Natasha raised an eyebrow and Tony corrected himself, "Fine, he's half me. He's the half of me that wants to go home and watch Disney Channel, so we're gonna go now."

Gently nudging Peter off his lap, Tony stood up. He tossed Peter's backpack over his shoulder then grabbed Peter's hand.

"We have another meeting tomorrow, Stark," Fury reminded, but Tony was already out of the room.

He followed Peter out of the room and into the lift, but while they were waiting for it to arrive, Tony noticed Peter was completely barefoot.

"Where are your shoes?" he asked. Peter looked down at his feet as if just noticing as well (which wouldn't really have surprised Tony).

"In the car," Peter said, "I never put them on but I didn't mind."

"I know you don't, but you will when you step on something pointy," Tony told him.

Peter just shrugged then held up his arms. Without further instruction, Tony picked him up and Peter grinned.

"Can't step on something pointy if I don't walk!" he exclaimed, causing Tony to shake his head with a smile while Peter grinned victoriously.