All My Life

7| Denial

Tony's pov.

"Sir, Ms Romanoff has Master Parker at gunpoint." I fix my tie in front of the floor-length mirror, not quite registering the abrupt statement. When I did register, my hands froze as I tried to decide if there was some glitch in Jarvis' codes.

"Jarvis, could you run that by me, again. I think I misheard you." I say in disbelief.

It's too early for this crap...

"Ms Romanoff is holding Master Parker at gunpoint currently in the living room," Jarvis confirms and I sprint towards the door without a second thought. I make it to the destination in record time only to be greeted by a scene that makes my heart drop. I see a certain redhead holding my supposedly brand new intern at gunpoint as the kid struggles to breathe.

"Natasha! Put the freaking kid down!" I yell in panic making Natasha loosen her grip and turning towards me.

"You know him?"She asks as her narrowed gaze settles on me. "He's my intern but won't be for long if you continue choking him!" I exclaim in exasperation and she puts the kid down.

"You ok, kid?" I ask, unsure of the response I will get. "Yeah Yeah.." The kid breathes out and I turn to Natasha as I feel an unexpected burst of fury bubble in my chest. "What the hell, Nat! You can't just choke someone like that." I snap at her and see a glint of amusement in her eyes which is soon masked away.

"I didn't know who he was." She says nonchalantly and I feel the fury subside in me, replaced by surprise. It is unusual for Natasha to not know things, she knows everything that goes around her.

"You're a SHIELD agent, Nat. Aren't you supposed to know everything?" She simply shrugs and turns away making me shake my head.

"Well, that wasn't a very smooth start now, was it, kid?" I say turning towards the brown-haired boy who stood silently during the entire interaction. I finally get a good look of the boy, shaking his head full of messy curls.

"No, but I think being in the presence of Ms Romanoff makes up for it, sir." I chuckle at the kid's statement as I feel a strange feeling bubble in me.

Is that affection?

"Come on, kid. We got some work on our hands today." I put my hand on his back and guide him towards the lab before punching in the code making the glass doors open up. The lab lights up as I clap my hands and I notice the kid freeze at the doorway, making me bite back a smile.

"It's good to have you back, sir." I am greeted by Jarvis. "I am sure it is, J" I quip back, half expecting some sarcastic remark from my ever so loyal AI. "You gotta step inside if you're gonna help me, kid." His eyes widen and his cheeks turn red in embarrassment and I hold myself back from adding some witty remark.

"Uh y-yeah, Mr Stark." Peter stutters as he rushes towards me. "Jarvis, pull up the main reactor's blueprints." I receive an affirmative response before the holograms pop up. I feel amusement as I see Peter look at the holograms with extreme fascination.

"So, I'm assuming you know that this baby runs the entire tower," I say pointing towards the reactor model and get a quick nod in response. "Well, I was thinking, it might as well need an upgrade. You know how it works?" I turn to the boy, expecting an answer.

"Fusion Energy Division?" I nod in response and shift the hologram in front of him, so that, it's easily visible. "Any ideas?" He goes silent and I almost see the wheels in his head turning around before his hazel eyes light up.

"Since the flow of energy depends upon the rate at which the high energy particles collide, we could increase the strength of the magnetic field, so that, we can easily curve their motion path making them collide much more quickly!" I feel a sense of pride on hearing the answer but shake it off.

I gotta focus up!

"That's a pretty good idea, kid. How about you calculate the required intensity while I work on regulating the field?" He nods excitingly and a small smile creeps on my face before I could stop myself.

Damn, this kid is a freaking ball of excitement...

"Well, make yourself at home. You can use the whiteboard or holograms, whatever you want. Tell me when you're done, okay?"

"Yes, sir." He nods and I frown at the formal address but drop it. I walk towards the other side of the room and start with my part of work.

Every few minutes, I find myself checking up on the concentrated kid who kept on scribbling complex equations on the board. I watch as he stares at a particular equation with a small pout making me smile in adoration. His eyes light up and he pushes a strand of brown curls out of his face before continuing to scribble.

He got my hair...No! Focus up!

I shake my head in irritation. Each second making it harder for me to deny the fact that this certain child genius was indeed my own kid.

You can never have him...

*****************************

"Mr Stark!" I put the tools down and turn towards my intern on hearing the excitement in his voice. "Yes, Peter?" I question him, knowing that he solved the equation, just to hear him rant as if it was the best thing that ever happened to him.

"I got it! You know, there were so many complexities with the number of field lines and the values of the variables kept on altering and then there was this infinite error but, I finally got it!" I walk to stand beside him in front of the whiteboard and check out the insanely accurate calculation.

"Good job, kid." I pat his back with a proud smile.

That's like my boy...

"I think, this is enough for today," I say checking the time as I receive a deflated look from the curly-haired boy making me chuckle, "Sorry, kid. I got a meeting in 5. We'll continue with it tomorrow, okay?"

Damn you, Rogers!

"Yes, sir." I feel a pang of hurt because of the title but I suck it up. Sir, wasn't the title I would have wanted him to use, far from it. "Okay then. See you tomorrow, kid."

"Bye, Mr Stark!" I get a cheery reply and I smile, again. This might as well be the most I have ever smiled genuinely.

This kid is something else...

"Okay, Jarvis. Shut it down." I order and the lights go down behind me as I shrug off the suit jacket and make my way upstairs. I make my way towards the living room to get myself some coffee to endure the ever so fun meeting.

I am greeted with all the avengers looking up at me when I enter the room while Pepper gives me a pitiful look, leaving me as confused as ever. "Pour me some coffee, J" I request before moving towards the people that were now, practically, my family.

Priorities...

"So, who are we waiting to interrogate?" I go to sit on the couch beside Pepper and she nudges me in the ribs. "Ow! What was that for?" She turns straight to the group and I frown.

"So, when were you going to tell us?" Clint asks in a dead-serious tone and I turn, only to be pinned down by each person in front of me staring with powerful intensity.

Clint and the serious voice? Seems like shit's gonna go down...

"Tell you what?" I ask, still not able to understand the situation. I turn to pepper for some explanation but freeze on Natasha's statement.

"That you have a kid."

A/N

Yay! We crossed a hundred reads!!!!!

So, our favourite heroes know the super-secret now...