Chapter Text
As Peter folded his clothes and stuffed them into his suitcase, he kept an eye on the cracked door. He’d left it open in hopes that Tony would wander in and they could talk.
Footsteps pattered in, lighting the smile on Peter’s face as he turned to look at who he’d thought was Tony. His smile faltering when he saw it was Rhodey who had entered. Peter internally berated himself for not realizing that the footsteps had been louder than Tony’s.
“Be careful underoos, and remember to call Tony. He’s afraid, and he needs you kid, but you’re an Avenger now. You’re doing a good thing, and I don’t think Nat or Scott would fair well without you. But that being said you need to be careful,” The older man warned. And Peter nodded, accepting the advice and the responsibility.
Peter’s body perked up, recognizing the new steps approaching, a hopeful look igniting when Tony came in. The Avenger took a step back when he saw Rhodey in the room.
“Bad time?”
“No!” Peter replied in a hurry before Rhodey could. Rhodey took this as a sign to leave the two alone and headed out. Peter looking at Tony expectantly. He really wasn’t sure what he was waiting for the man to do, just something.
“Are you sure about this?” The man asked and the tone that colored his words was one that Peter didn’t think the man was even capable of. He was pleading, with an ounce of hope that Peter would say no and stay right here where it was safe.
“People are going missing,” Was Peter’s simple response and Tony closed his eyes, head falling forward. The boy was just too good, he’d always been that way and Tony couldn’t help but think they were all in this business for the wrong reason because Peter seemed to be the only one in it for the right reason.
“And if you do to?” Tony asked, pulling himself together and looking down at the boy. Peter smiled weakly and moved forward, Tony’s arms opening to pull the child close and Peter accepted.
“You’ll save me,” Peter’s voice had never sounded so sure to the billionaire’s ears.
“Damn straight,” Tony grumbled, tangling his fingers in the boy’s hair and pressing a kiss to his hairline.
“Tony?” Peter questioned, looking up at the adult, “When you said, um, ‘my kid’ did..”
“Yeah kid, you’re mine,” Tony stated, pulling Peter back into his arms and Peter hiccuped a sob at the sentiment.
“Shhh, I know,” Tony understood the tears, understood how since Peter lost his aunt he’d been a little lost. He even knew Peter had issues with abandonment, and he knew how Peter had unconsciously viewed him as a father figure. Tony had wanted to return and affirm those thoughts but hadn’t known how, but he had today and Peter could finally react.
The teen sobbed, hiding in his guardian’s chest. The boy who’d longed for a vice, for something that had been missing for so long, was finally sated and he didn’t want to let it go. Tony in no way was alright with Peter going on this mission, but he knew Peter was doing the right thing and he couldn’t stop the boy even if he wanted to.
Tony’s hands came up and cupped the boy’s face, his calloused thumbs wiping away his tears before speaking, “Why don’t I help you pack?”
Peter nodded, the two moving and sitting on the bed and folding clothes before Tony expertly set them into the suitcase.
“I found a good house, with a nice big room for you. I already have tech being set up, so when you head out tomorrow it’ll be ready,” Tony smiles but it’s not convincing, “Karen’s equipped on your phone and I expect you to call me every day,”
“I will,” Peter promises, head turning towards the door when he heard the loud and boisterous footsteps of Scott who tripped in the doorway, hitting the floor with a noise causing him to erupt in laughter.
Peter laughed too, unfurling from his position and moving off the bed and helping the older man up. Tony watched with guilt sloshing around in his chest, he may not be overly fond of the man being the one to protect his son. And it hurt his heart to imagine Peter having to call this man ‘dad’ but Tony couldn’t help but loathe that sometimes it made him sick to think of Peter calling him that.
Peter shouldn’t look up to someone like him, and Scott may have done some bad things but he wasn’t as broken as he was. It’s what cut his heart into pieces. Peter might notice this and truly think Scott was a better father figure.
The ‘Bug’ team had become very close, the three often went off on adventures to god knows where. He even distantly recalled a time when Peter apparently had a panic attack and it had been Scott who helped him. But that same night Peter had also called him ‘dad’ so maybe, just maybe, he was still just above Scott in Peter’s heart.
“You done packing?” Scott wheezed, the air returning to his lungs after the fall had knocked it out.
“Almost,” The boy concedes, and Scott reasonably calms a little when he sees Tony putting the boy’s socks together and stuffing them into Peter’s red suitcase.
“Give us a minute Peter,” Peter’s eyes open a little wider in surprise but nods and exits the room, leaving the two alone as he made his way down the hall.
“I’m sorry for what I said earlier,” Tony apologizes with a dry mouth, he was not entirely used to apologizing and cleared his throat.
“It’s alright,” Scott accepts, “I’m a father too, I get it. And because of that, I’ll take care of him the best I can,”
“Thank you,”
“No need, I know if Cassie had to do something like this and you were around, you’d take good care of her too,”
Tony nodded, remembering the first time he’d met Scott’s child and she called him Uncle Tony.
With nothing else to say, Scott excused himself, letting Tony finish the boy’s packing. As Scott brought himself down the hall he found the Black Widow’s door open and Peter sitting on her bed as she pulled out her pre-packed bags from the closet.
“So I can keep being me, and I just have to change my last and middle name?” Peter asked and she nodded.
“I know you’ll likely have a tough time if we don’t call you Peter, so you can keep being Peter, just without a middle name and I begrudgingly promised Scott earlier that he could pick the last name for us,”
Scott stepped in and nodded, and chuckled embarrassedly before rubbing the back of his neck, “Yeah that’s kinda the reason I ran into your room,”
“So what did you pick?” Nat questioned, truly dreading what might the man had saddled them with.
“Atlas!”
Natasha’s head dipped sideways, eyebrows raising for a second. She knew it could have been much worse, and didn’t seem to care as much as she would if it had been anything else.
“Scott your new name is Adam Darren Atlas, and I’m Diana Farrah Atlas, Peter’s still Peter,” She let him know, the printer in her room suddenly starting up. Peter had thought it was a printer, that is until she pulled out fake IDs from the machine and handed it to them both.
Of course, Peter’s was simply an identification card, while they both got driver’s licenses, passports, and identification cards of their own.
“What’s the rest of our backstory?”
“You’re a sports writer from Chicago and got an offer up here for more writing work so you moved us up here, so you get to work from home but occasionally do go out with other writers to games and such,” Scott nodded, simply grateful that Sam had gotten him into sports after the accords.
“And you?” Peter questions, interested in the facade.
“Well my story is I used to be a dance teacher before I got my doctorate in psychology, and met ‘Adam’ at a baseball game when on a date with a jerk and ‘Adam’ and I ended up spending the rest of the game with him explaining the sport and then on we got married and had you,” She motioned to the boy, and they smiled enjoying the story.
“Do I get anything cool?” Peter spoke up, hoping for some cool backstory.
“Oh you know, you’re just our child genius,” She smiles and Peter sighed expecting more.
“Don’t worry about it Peter, you just be you and that’s not a bad thing,” Scott assures, and suddenly Peter was more relieved than disappointed. At least now he wouldn’t have to remember any intricate background or worry about slipping up.
“Now Peter, all you have to do now is remember to call us Mom and Dad,” Nat informed him, and Peter blushed at that.
“Well I did say you guys could be my superhero parent’s, well besides Iron-Dad but you know for the bug team it works,” Peter adds, and they nodded as well.
“Dinner’s ready!” Came over the intercom from Sam, who in his own words was ‘going to cook his ass off’ in making them a goodbye dinner and then breakfast.
“Woo! Wait, will we have to pose for wedding photos?” Scott suddenly asked, and Nat shook her head.
“We’ve already edited some family photos and wedding photos but they’re in the moving truck with all the other furniture Tony had ordered,”
“Sam and Bucky offered to dress as moving men and help get everything in the house, of course, we’ll take some of it in since the neighbors seem to be friendly enough that they’ll introduce themselves when we get there,” Natasha continued as the three walked out into the hall and headed for the kitchen/dining room.
“Wait, is it you that put that Yankees jersey on my bed?” Scott questioned, and Natasha nodded.
“Wear it tomorrow,” She ordered, noticing they were the last to dinner.
“C’mon I made this for you guys especially!” Sam shouted across the room, and Peter made his way to the seat beside Tony, seeing that Tony had already piled his plate with food.
“Thank you,” he told both Tony and then Sam for making the meal.
“You’re welcome!”
“Ooh! Thank you bestie!” Scott cheered, and Sam rolled his eyes.
“You’re welcome short stack,” And Nat only sent him a nod but he understood.
“Are you guys ready for tomorrow?” Steve’s looked at them all with wondering glances.
“We were just talking about our aliases, I’ll explain the plan on the car ride over tomorrow,” Natasha informed, cutting her food as Scott nodded buttering his bread.
“This is practically a bug team get away, I’m more than ready,” Scott spoke up, deciding he had finally put enough butter on the now unrecognizable piece of dough.
“And you Peter?” Bruce spoke, and Peter looked up from his meal. Peter swallowed his jello and looked at Tony, noticing Tony expecting an answer too.
“I mean Scott’s right, It’s not like I’m going alone or anything. And with Nat in charge, I think we should be able to figure everything out and have fun at the same time,”
“That’s good,” Bucky spoke up, he knew what Peter had meant. He’d seen that Peter did get along well enough with the other Avenger’s but the ‘bug’ team were a better choice than having him go with say Vision and Wanda or anyone else besides Tony except maybe Thor, who was out visiting someone named Valkyrie.
“So did Wanda or Vision call yet?” Nat asked keeping up the conversation so they didn’t sit in silence.
“Yeah they made it back to Edinburgh,” Tony spoke up, and the team smiled, happy for the couple.
“Well don’t eat too much, I have some chocolate cake waiting,” Sam warned, and the mood only grew brighter.
“Bring on the cake,” Scott chanted banging his fist on the table. While Tony sat back in his chair, his arm sliding around the back of Peter’s. Peter smiled, scooting his chair closer and leaning into the man’s side.
They set the cake on the table, and all the pieces were evenly cut, while Steve helped pass out the slices until there was none leftover.
“After this, I say we all go on a vacation,” The colonel spoke, and they all hummed in agreement.
“Any suggestion as if to where Tony?” Rhodey asked, and Tony looked up thoughtfully.
“Pepper had wanted to check out Italy if you guys are up for it,”
“That seems like a couples vacation for you two to take,” Bruce spoke up, and the others agreed.
“I’ve never been to Brazil,” someone spoke up, and Tony looked down at Peter.
“Do you have anywhere you’d like to go?”
“New Zealand?” Peter asked more than answered, thinking it was a nice place but he didn’t mind going anywhere as long as if it was with the rest of the team.
“We’ll figure it out,” Bucky added, and the team agreed.
“Plus we’ll have to call Wanda, Viz, and Clint, get their opinion.”
“Are we allowed to bring our families on this vacation?” Scott broke in, wondering if Cassie and hopefully Hope could come.
“I was going to bring Pepper so I don’t see why not,” Tony concluded and the other’s cheered before stacking their plates and saying their goodnights.
Peter had gotten progressively tired throughout dinner, which he was grateful for, knowing that if he’d been a little more awake the anticipation for tomorrow would keep him up all night.
Tony lead the boy back to his room, Peter noticing his suitcase placed neatly beside the door as Tony gently tucked the boy in. Peter fell asleep the second Tony placed the blanket over his body.
“Goodnight kiddo,” Tony whispered, running a hand through Peter’s fluffy hair before heading to his room where Pepper was waiting. She opened her arms and he fell into them.
Her soft voice assuring him that his adopted son would be okay, and loved him to no end.
She did this until the inventor fell asleep, and then some.