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Tony Stark’s twin sister was never anything like him. She was humble, when he was loud. She was generous, when he was selfish. She had fun, when he went overboard. She was Maria’s daughter while he was, to his own miserable realization, Howard’s son.
When their parents died, May refused to take her share of the inheritance. She took enough to get herself an apartment in Queens, and worked hard to find a job for herself. She married young because she found love, and while Tony cynically admonished her for being a married 23 year old, he envied her. And May, being everything he wasn’t, simply rolled her eyes and never took his criticisms to heart.
May would do anything for Tony. When he called her drunk out of his mind, she talked to him until the phone went dead and he was uncomfortably passed out over his own toilet. When he crashed his car on the side of the FDR drive, she rushed out and brought him to a hospital. When Obadiah nearly killed him and Pepper, May flew out to Malibu and stayed with him for a week. They didn’t talk much, but Tony didn’t need words. He just needed to remember he still had a family.
May had a son, and Tony practically flooded their apartment with gifts. She called him repeatedly, insisting this was all too much because all she wanted was him to be around more . But how could he be around. He’s busy. Always busy. And May, being May, only ever sighed and gave him a weak chuckle along with, “I understand, Tony.”
Pepper was the one who took the phone-call. He knew something was wrong -- call it a twin thing -- and when he saw Pepper’s ghastly white complexion he knew. He just knew .
May and Ben Parker were killed by a drunk driver outside their Astoria apartment. To say Tony felt like he himself died in that moment would be an understatement.
“Are you sure about this, Mr.Stark?” The stern woman, whose name he regrettably has already forgotten, asks for the sixth time. She’s clearly sizing him up -- most definitely taking into account all the tabloid stories that have plagued his life since he was 15. Tony looked down at the contract in front of him. It was this, or foster homes.
May Parker would do anything for Tony. So without even a shadow of a doubt in his mind, he signed the custodial papers with a shaky hand. The woman nodded, took the contract back and started talking more about ‘specifics’, whatever that really meant.
Tony wasn’t listening. Over her shoulder a nine month old baby was squirming on Tony’s couch. The baby was chewing on his hand, and looking around with wide brown eyes at the room around him. Tony was 100% certain he was not cut out for this, but Peter Parker needed a home and Tony would sell everything in his name, and more, to make sure this kid had the life he deserved.