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Peter's eyes were huge when he entered Tony's lab. "Welcome, Mr. Parker," FRIDAY said."Oh, um, thanks." Peter looked around."Mr. Stark has been delayed. Make yourself at home.""Wow." Peter walked forward and gently touched the metal of the Iron Man suit left on display. The red metal was smooth and Peter would never admit to tearing up a bit at being able to touch the actual Iron Man suit. Then, he saw all of the hollographs. They were about his suit. "Hey, FRIDAY? What are all these statistics for?""They're from your AI, Peter, she's reporting on the few hours you've spent in your suit, so Mr. Stark can best determin how to make the Mark II.""Her name's Karen." Peter said fondly. The suit was amazing. It moved with him no matter how he had to bend. It didn't restrict his ability to stick to things and the read-outs Karen had for him were super cool. "Karen." FRIDAY commented. "Yes, it seems she's very pleased with her name. How do you like your suit?""It's amazing, not quite right on the eyes, but...it's really cool and super smar-""What's wrong with the eyes?" Tony's voice was concerned.Peter nearly jumped out of his skin. He could normaly hear people in the next building, let alone walking into the same room as him. The lab was amazing enough to make him simply stop paying attention. "Oh, nothing, it's just...I have a lot of information to process, you know, and they don't tone it down as much as mine do. It's not anything wrong, really, it's just not what I'm used to.""If it bothers you, we can fix it. That's what we're here for. Just how good are your senses?""Um, good." Peter nodded, not knowing how to describe them."Very in-depth analysis." Tony laughed. "What bothers you in the suit?"Peter thought for a minute on how to describe it. "The world's too bright. I can see so much and in a lot of detail, but when it's all so bright all the time it get's hard to focus and I get these massive headaches.""Okay, we can start there. I don't want you having problems. Better safe than sorry." Tony walked forward. "I'm sorry I was late, I thought that meeting would get out sooner. Pep has this thing about making sure I go to my meetings.""Sounds dull.""It is." Tony nodded as he stretched up and pulled the mask down from the mannequin. "I'm going to give you a bit of a test. FRIDAY, do a test on his eyes, I want to know how well he can see.""Of course, Sir." The room filled with holographs. Peter looked around. "Can you read everything, Mr. Parker?"Peter let his eyes dart around to all of the fine print. "Uh, yeah. My coding is a little rough, but I think the smallest line is a program for checking for damage, like hardware damage.""Very good, Mr. Parker. And now?" Peter closed his eyes for a second. "That color is a little bright." When he opened his eyes again, the holograms had changed colors and he sighed. "Yeah, all that's cool too, I can read it all." Peter took test after test, all of them changing from pictures to words, to shapes and colors. FRIDAY even lifted some data Karen had apparently taken of his eyes during his patrols. "Yeah, that last one was hard to see, I was probably guessing more than seeing at that point. By the way, there's this mosquito in one of the vents and it's annoying, just in case you want to know about other senses.""Boss, his eyesight is better than Captain Rogers or Mr. Barton's. It would also seem that certain wavelengths on the visible spectrum cause his eyes to strain. It also appears there are certain things on the non-visible spectrum he can perceive, whether he is conscious of it or not. I have compiled the data for you as well as some possible solutions to keep him from getting distracted by all of the input.""Thank you, FRIDAY." Tony turned and looked at Peter. "Damn, kid, that's got to be rough.""Sort of. It's normal now, I guess." Peter looked up at the Iron Man suit. "So, can I just say that I'm a bit freaked out that my suit is in the same lab as the Iron Man suit? Like, is it normal for me to be freaking out a bit? Like. I'M in the same room as the suit. Like, holy shit.""Language," Tony said, then started laughing. "Sorry, you'd've had to be there. Captain Morals decided he wanted to become Team Dad and scold us for our foul language. It was...God, it was funny." He shook his head. "No, kid, I think it's cool. I freaked the fuck out when I first met Bruce Banner, internally of course, I couldn't let him know that I thought he was brilliant. I have an image I have to uphold, you know?"Peter laughed. "I would lose my mind if I met him. He'd probably be able to help me a lot, with what happened to me. I mean, he basically owns the corner on radiation."Tony nodded. "So, what did happen, if you don't mind me asking?""Oh, my class went to Oscorp, for a field trip, and they had this display of spiders. They were doing radiation experiments or...whatever, I don't remember much because of what happened. Apparently one got out. I remember it bit me and I killed it." Peter itched the spot on the back of his neck. "Then I was like sick...real sick for about two days. When I woke up I didn't need my glasses and I was super fit. Things were sticking to me... It took me a little bit to figure out how to control it, but I've got a handle on it now. I still want to know why it works, you know? I think he could probably figure it out.""He would be better suited for that." Tony nodded in agreement. "But, I think you and I can handle a suit. Wanna help configure these for you?" Tony held out the mask to Peter."Yeah, let's do it." Peter grinned.-Tony loved working with Peter. He was so happy and so smart. He wasn't afraid to get anything wrong. It was so unlike Tony's childhood. Tony had always been afraid to get things wrong, to try something and have it fail, because his father didn't like having a failure as his son. Peter, when he tinkered, he did so with whatever idea popped into his head and when it went wrong he shrugged and asked how to make it right.Tony had learned that he could grow more from trying and failing than only staying in what he could guarantee. He was glad that Peter was that way, that he didn't feel the pressure to always get it right, to always be the star. He wasn't afraid to learn from others and it made Tony happy. It didn't take too long. Peter pulled on the mask and looked around the room. "Hey, uh, could you turn the lights up real bright?" Peter asked.Tony nodded and FRIDAY reacted. The lights flared up even enough to make Tony cover his eyes. Peter didn't even react."Um, did you turn the lights up?" Peter wondered. "Wow, really?" He asked before Tony could answer. "This is awesome, Karen! So...wow." He pulled off his mask and instantly collapsed. "Yup, I like the mask, can we not do the lights now?""Lights at fifty percent." Tony gently touched the kid's shoulder when the lights dimmed. "You're alright now."Peter sat up and blinked. "That mask is amazing. I would have never known how bright it really was in that.""Maybe we could get you some contacts to help you out in the day-to-day. That looks rough."Peter rubbed his temples. "It's not especially fun, no. Made me really dizzy. Thanks...for all of this. I mean, really. The suit's amazing.""It's no worry. If you notice anything else that needs an update, let me know." Tony said. It hadn't been long enough. Tony didn't want the, HIS kid to leave yet. "I've been working on something for the Iron Man suit, I could use a second pair of eyes."Peter smiled. "Wait, me?""You." Tony nodded.Peter's grin grew and he seemed jittery with energy. "Yes!" Tony worked with the boy on the arms of the suit. The kid was damn good. His suggestions were always smart. Peter could understand the complex systems that operated Tony's suit to a point, whenever he seemed lost though, he asked a question. "Shit..." Tony frowned. "Hey, Peter, can you grab the tool kit on my workstation over there, could you grab it? It's the small Velcro one by the corner.""Yeah, sure." Peter bounced up.Tony smiled as he pulled the casing open. He'd have to mend the wires from the last fight. The left fucking arm, every time. Tony blinked and looked up. "You get lost, kid?" Tony wouldn't be surprised. He got lost in his lab too, for hours and days...there was just so much in it to do and see."No, um, what's this?"Tony got up and saw what Peter saw.-Peter paused when he reached for the toolkit. Under a magnifying glass was the rocket. The rocket from the videos, the one that Tony meant to be a present for him. It had been damaged, dented. Peter could tell because he could see the repairs. To anyone else the metal would have looked smooth and perfect, but Peter could see it, the way that the metal had been fixed and the paint painstakingly redone. Peter brushed a finger over the toy. It would've made any kid happy. Even as a teen, Peter had to admit that it was cool.Peter shot straight up when he heard Tony step behind him."That's...a long story." Tony picked up the toy and turned his back, walking away.Peter looked down at his hands. 'He's not going to tell me... Should I...?'"Peter, can we talk for a moment?"His heart raced in his chest. Peter looked up and saw Tony. The older man was leaning against a desk that faced a sofa, his left arm was cradled across his chest.Peter swallowed. "Um, yeah.""You, uh, might wanna sit down, kid." -'Please don't leave, please hear me out. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.' Tony thought as Peter sat down in front of him. "The rocket." Tony fiddled with it in his hands after a few moments of silence. "It was damaged when Ultron decided to use my own suits against this place... I built it for...someone special to me."Peter swallowed. "It's cool.""Um...I uh." Tony swallowed. "You know what, never mind.""No, you were going to say something." Peter sat up straight and took a deep breath. "It sounded important?""It is, the most important, but I..." Tony closed his eyes. He looked down at his hands. "I've made a lot of mistakes and this is the biggest fucking one..." Tony took a deep breath."If you can't say anything then...it-it's okay.""No, it's not." Tony straightened up. "Peter, I had a relationship with your mother a long time ago. It was one of the few healthy, good things I had back then. I cared about her, now I wasn't exactly anywhere near a good person back then, specially not for her." Tony wiped his face. "She left...when she..." Tony's left hand shook and he held it tightly. "She left when she found out she was pregnant. I think she knew she could handle my...problems, but I don't think she could trust me around a kid. And I should've fought or done something, but she was-""Wrong." Peter shook his head.Tony went still, but then looked at Peter. "You don't look surprised. How long have you known?""A few days.""How?" Tony asked after a few seconds. He'd been careful, hadn't he? Had he given any signs?"JARVIS.""He's dea..." Tony winced. "He's gone, weeks ago.""I got a bunch of messages from him. He probably shouldn't have sent them, they were personal, but he is an AI so I don't think he understood etiquette, at least not human etiquette.""You were never supposed to see those." Tony stopped leaning against the desk, standing straight up with a rigid posture. "That...that was mine. You shouldn't've seen. That wasn't for you that was for me and...you shouldn't have to deal with my shit." Tony squeezed his eyes shut. "JARVIS...you well-meaning idiot...of course he is, I programed him. Of course he did stupid things.""She was wrong. You were trying, for me, to...to do better.""Kid, I was drinking and partying and doing all sorts of bad things that don't even deserve to be mentioned, a kid should never be exposed to that shit."Peter stood up. "May doesn't know I'm Spiderman. You're the only one who knows. Do you know why?""Because you want to keep her safe.""Because my powers already got my uncle killed."Tony felt like ice snaked down his spine. 'Does he really think that? Shit, he looks so serious.' Tony never wanted to hug anyone more in his life."I, I don't want to get into it, but I know...I've seen some things. So this guilt...this...whatever you felt I...I could understand. And yeah, those videos were fucked up and I probably should have never seen them, but part of me is glad I did. I knew since middle school that Richard Parker wasn't my dad. Teach a kid about blood-types and he'll figure it out real quick. I'm guessing you're Type-O too.""Yeah. I am." Tony sighed. "I'm sorry that all of this turned out this way. I wish I could've told you a long time ago or been in your life more. I wanted to be there, but there was always something then...I couldn't just let you go swinging around out there though, once I found out I knew that this," Tony gestured between the two of them, "would be inevitable. I just didn't know how to tell you.""Well, I don't know how to deal with it either, so I guess we're in the same boat."Tony laughed and looked at Peter. "Is it sinking?""No." Peter shook his head. "Look...this isn't fixed. This isn't even.... I don't know what to say."Tony winced."All I know is things can get better and we don't know each other, but we can. We can talk and stuff." Peter said. "I shouldn't have found out, but JARVIS thought sending all the things you had on me to me could keep me safe. We can't fix that. What's done is done. I know and you know, so...""Only way now is forward." Tony nodded. "I'm glad you're capable of acting like an adult right now, because I feel like a panic attack is coming on." "Can I do something?" Peter asked shyly."Um...yeah.""It won't fix everything and we're going to have to start from the beginning, but I think...we both need this." Peter walked forward and got close to Tony. Then he stopped. Peter bit his lip as if he didn't know what to do next, then he lifted his head and looked, sure. Stepping into Tony's space, Peter wrapped his arms around him.Tony froze, then, gently, wrapped his arms around his son for the first time. He clung to the warmth of the boy. He could smell the shampoo Peter'd washed his hair with. There was the smell of grease and sweat and...Peter. Tony closed his eyes and pressed closer. 'I love you. I love you. I love you.' Tony thought to himself. He felt Peter press his face closer to his shirt. Was there wetness there?-Peter held on to his father, because he was his father, even if he wasn't his dad. Maybe someday, he'd be 'dad', not yet though. But this...this felt nice. Uncle Ben had never been one big on hugs, but this felt nice. Ben had never been much of a hugger and Peter couldn't remember much about Richard. This...it was like having a father, one that wore rock t-shirts and smelled of grease, oil, and spicy cologne. Peter felt a tear slip out of his eye and down his face. It was all going to be a mess. They'd have to figure out everything that was going on between them, but this bit here. This had some hope to it. This warmth. Peter had only felt this way with May. This sort of hug was one that was full of love. Peter, for the first time in a long time felt so very safe.It was scary and exciting.Peter nuzzled a little closer when a hand ruffled his curls.-Tony sighed and thought to himself. 'I love you, Peter. I'm sorry.' He ruffled the kid's hair and smiled when he pressed closer before pulling away.Peter pulled away and spoke. "And the rocket? I called it the Valiant. One of my favorite stories as a kid was Narnia. Lucy was my favorite."Tony smiled. "Good name." They had a lot to do to have a good relationship or even a familial one, but this seemed like a good place to start.-Peter didn't stay at the lab long after that. Instead of taking the offered ride, he took the suit and swung towards home. He stopped a few crimes on the way and walked a few people home. When he got home there was a rocket outside his front door. On a fin, the word 'Valiant' was painted neatly in blue paint. There was a little note on it. 'I made this for you. If you want it, it's yours. -T.S.'Peter smiled. The rocket and Piglet.... He didn't have a lot, but it was a good start.