Chapter Text
“So people are just disappearing?” Tony spoke aloud to the empty room, sorting through the data on his tablet and the manila file that had been left on his desk. It was a nice neighborhood, nice decent sized homes: upper middle class at best. All occupants held decent jobs, many of them either had children or were lucky newly weds settling into a real house to call their own for the first time.
The missing persons varied, around twelve healthy and average children had been taken, all around the age of thirteen. While seventeen adults had been taken. Tony frowned at the photos provided of the missing persons, eyes glued to the page meanwhile his mind drifted to what exactly Fury had asked that he do about it.
The man had stopped working with SHIELD after god knows what happened with the Hydra infiltration, but occasionally he did send a letter asking for some sort of help. He may be an intimidating man, but he did care about people’s well-being.
“FRIDAY get everyone in here, we may have something,” Tony ordered softly, eyes focused on the files and cringing at the victim’s ages.
“Yes sir,” the AI replied, and in the next few minutes the Avengers all trickled in. Tony couldn’t help but notice how big their once little team of super-heroes had grown, especially when his gaze fell on the youngest member of the team: Peter.
Peter’s eyes were in their usual large and happy states, a whole new round of fondness invading them when he noticed Tony’s stare.
Tony handed the files to the Captain himself, the blonde man’s brow furrowing as he scanned the documents. Peter rose on his tiptoes trying to read the fine print only to be pulled closer to his guardian. Tony hadn’t wanted for Peter to see the disappearance of victims so close in age.
May had suffered an accident on the way home from work and hadn’t made it home, leaving Peter to wait up for her all night. Tony, of course, had been informed and Peter had stayed with him ever since. It was the only plausible solution to the situation.
“An undercover operation,” Steve concluded handing the file to the spy in the room. Natasha’s shoulders rose a little in peaked interest as she took the file and sauntered over to a chair.
The younger spider looked up at his mentor to ask why exactly they all needed to be called in for this. Peter knew most of the original Avenger’s were pretty recognizable other than Bruce, but in most cases, Nat and Clint weren’t recognized so Tony, Steve, and Thor definitely couldn’t go.
“We get to be spies!” Scott shouted happily only for Sam to scoff and throw a pillow at the man.
“We don’t know that yet,” Sam followed up, the team then turning to the Captain for guidance.
“Natasha I think it’s best you take the lead on this, you know how to better handle this than we do, we can probably see if Clint’s able to-“
“That won’t be necessary,” Nat spoke up, eyes still glued to the file but they all saw she was deep in thought.
“So the plan is to be a married couple?” Tony asked, wondering if Wanda and Vision were the ones for the job, but they had just gotten married and were leaving for their honeymoon the very next day.
“No, I was thinking Scott, Peter and I all go,” Natasha spoke, finally looking up. Peter and Scott jumped in surprise.
“Really! You want me to go with you guys?” Peter asked in disbelief. His eyes dazzled, but it quickly faded at Tony’s words.
“Spider-Man does not work out of uniform,”
“That’s why he should go, it’s not likely he’ll get taken in comparison with me or Scott,” she argued and Peter watched his mentor’s body tense in a retort before Scott cut off whatever he had to say.
“Bug team mission!”
Both Spider’s head’s turned to the Ant, and in perfect unison, they called out, “Spiders aren’t bugs!”
“You two know what I meant,” Scott replies his face blushing as he fell back onto the room’s leather couch.
“Peter can’t go,” Tony broke in, and Rhodey who had been silently watching his friend in worry. He could see Peter looking at him and he put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“You can outfit the house, I doubt they’ll be able to get in to grab any of them before we’d have caught them,” Sam offered, but it still didn’t sit well in Tony’s gut. His anxieties were overcoming him and Peter seemed to sense this and hugged Tony’s side before looking to the red-headed assassin.
“Maybe it should just be you and Scott that go,” the teen’s voice was soft, and Tony’s strong arms wrapped around the boy’s back keeping him close tangling his fingers in the boy’s hair protectively. Tony’s stance on the matter was clear.
“Peter, you realize if you go, there is a chance of something happening and you won’t be able to use your powers to escape,” Steve spoke up, and he instantly felt Tony’s hard stare on the back of his head. Peter, feeling Tony’s heartbeat quicken, nodded, snuggling further into the man’s chest in hopes he could convince him otherwise.
“He’s my kid, and I said no,” Tony reiterated as if they hadn’t heard him the first time.
“He’ll be with us,” Scott tried only for Tony to cut him off.
“Yeah, I want my kid in the hands of a petty thief,” and Peter pulled away from his grasp, looking up at Tony pleadingly, hoping to diffuse the situation.
“Tony my spider-sense will go off if something’s wrong, I’ll know if I’m in danger and I will call you right away. And you can watch on whatever security cameras- I’ll call you every day,” Peter rambled and Natasha nodded.
“You’re not going without me being there, not when you’re classified as a civilian,” Tony instructed again, and Sam groaned.
“I think Spidey is in good hands Stark, outfitted with your tech. It’s like you’ll be holding his hand the whole time,” The inventor looked away at that, jaw almost as tense as the air in the room (maybe even more so).
“Tony,” Peter tried one last time with a soft plea, flaunting his large fluttering eyes. Tony lifted his head unable to look at the boy in front of him any longer and stared at the assassin and thief daring to threaten them. The others were surprised he threatened Natasha, something they all knew not to do.
“My kid better not end up on one of those reports,”
Peter had been surprised this whole conversation, being called Tony’s kid over and over again was jarring. But Tony getting physically and mentally upset over the thought of him being hurt or in danger without him around is what left him dizzy. Sure Tony was his guardian but he never thought he’d ever be the man’s kid. For a poor boy like Peter Parker it was as foolish a dream as touching the stars, and yet it had happened before his very eyes.
“Wait, so we get to be your parents!” Scott cheered and Nat rolled her eyes at the man’s excitement. She turned her chin to hide her smirk. Rhodey was the only person in the room who noticed Tony’s disgust at the man’s words.
He squeezed his friend’s shoulder a bit harder. Tony now was not only worried about the boy’s safety, but also mentally torn that for this mission Peter would have to be another man’s son. Tony really didn’t know how to handle that, nor did his poor longing heart.
“Well it’s settled, we buy a house and outfit it to our needs. Natasha, I’ll let you sort out what you’ll need and the aliases. But for now Scott, Peter, go get packed,” Steve declared, the bug and Spider set off to their rooms. The two practically buzzing with excitement, as they left the room. The black widow rose from her seat and followed them without a word.
The billionaire’s eyes followed them out, only to look back to the Captain’s sympathetic blues.
“He’ll be alright Tony,”
“You better hope so,”