Tony Stark : Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist and...... Father?

Chapter 8

Tony and Peter stayed on the common room floor for the rest of the day.

Peter seemed to be thoroughly enjoying making new friends with the Avengers.
He had shown them all his favorite toys, his happy babbling filling up the silence.

Right now he was standing on the couch, holding onto Tony's shoulder for support and swinging a toy car around.

Tony had a protective arm around his smaller body, making sure he wouldn't topple off the couch, since the little guy had a tendency to randomly topple over.

Toddlers really were just small drunk adults...

They were sharing their old mission stories, laughing at some of the ridiculousness they got up to.

...

A few hours of joyful playing later it was around the time for Peter's nap, also made clear by the little kid's droopy eyes and sluggish movements.
He reached a small hand out towards his dad, from where he was sitting on the couch. Tony handed him his binky, before hugging the boy suckling on his binky, closer.

Tony grabbed the soft baby blue blanket from the back of the couch and picked Peter up. He leaned back on the couch while the other's conversations continued, pulling Peter close to his chest again. He tugged the soft blanket around the kid, pressing a gentle kiss on his soft curls.

Soft dark eyelashes tickled the round cheeks, eyes slowly fluttering shut. Peter tugged moo moo under his chin, his other hand closing in a fist around Tony's shirt. The little guy was fighting sleep and looking around at the Avengers despite sleep tugging at him. The binky was bobbing up and down, while his breathing slowly got deeper and his body relaxed.

Tony started rocking Peter in his arms slowly, helping the kid fall asleep similar to the night before. It wasn't long before the kid was asleep, safely tucked away in his dad's arm. Little sniffling sounds meeting everyone's ears.

JARVIS automatically lowered the lights a bit. No one seemed bothered by the kid sleeping in the room.

"I didn't bring a travel crib with me and I don't want to wake him up right now, so I'll just hold him for the time being, if that's alright. His morning naps usually don't take long anyway, and getting him to sleep in the first place is usually a problem, so I'm just glad he is sleeping in the first place." Tony said softly.

"Don't worry about it man" Clint replied smiling softly, almost knowingly. The so far exciting day had absolutely exhausted the boy.

"So Tony-" Natasha started, when she was sure the kid was asleep. "Where was he during the attack on New York? I mean none of us had any clue you had a kid until yesterday" She asked reluctantly.

Tony stared off in the distant at her question. The others leaned forward in anticipation.

"Peter he-" Tony bit his lip nervously. He hugged Peter a bit closer. New York was a sensitive topic for the man. Now though even more understandable since the seemingly cold man had been a loving father all along.

"Peter and I have both been living at the tower since he was born... Once I realized a threat was looming I called my friend Rhodey to help start making plans for any type of situation that might arise. Rhodey had been there for me since college and stood by my side all these years. I knew that I lived, live a dangerous life and couldn't just hide with Peter when there were so many people counting on me. Even though I wanted nothing more than to run away with my baby and ignore the state of the world..." Tony explained gloomily.

Everyone listened on patiently. Giving the man all the room he needed to tell his part of the story.

"Rhodes, Pepper and I, we... We thought of basically any possible outcome. We of course only had limited information at the time so we had no idea what was going to happen. We even had a foster family ready... A foster family ready for when things really turned south" Tony continued, his voice trailing off in hurt. His voice cracked a bit at the word 'foster family' and what could have been a reality.