Tony felt like he was ready to call it a day, ready to go back home to his beautiful wife and child and just hold them both as he drifted off into sleep. But he couldn't do that, he couldn't ever just call it a day when it came to his job. The moment that he even thought of creating the suits, he knew that he'd never be able to just throw in the towel.

The world -his family- needed Iron Man now, he didn't have time to be thinking of what Tony wanted. Tony just wanted to teach his son how to work in his labs; his ten-year-old son was a little genius that was already working on projects that Tony started when he was older. He wanted to see his son look up at him when he put his suit on, with those sparks of excitement and happiness and pride that no one had ever turned his way before. But in order to see that look on his son again, he needed to finish his job first.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point-"

"That is the point," Tony waved his hand around as he thought, pushing off of the railing he was leaning against, "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart?" Steve shrugged as he turned and watched as Tony passed by him.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?" The genius scratched the side of his head, his eyes darting around. "That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

Steve nodded, "Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, but that's just the preview. This is opening night." Tony had a small smile as he dove into the mind of their enemy, his analytic mind whirling, "And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered..." He trailed off, his analysis starting to sound very familiar.

Tony looked at Steve, his excited smile turning into a frown. "Son of a bitch."

~*~*~

"Has anyone seen Peter?" Mary asked as she quickly ran through the living areas, frantically asking anyone she passed for her son.

Tony had called a few minutes ago to evacuate everyone, telling them that Loki would be headed their way and that the tower would probably be very dangerous for a while. But through the chaos of the announcement, Mary lost Peter.

"Peter! Peter, where are you?" Tears started to build in Mary's eyes as she entered the last room and didn't see her son anywhere.

"Peter doesn't appear to be in the building, Miss Mary. I cannot find his signature anywhere." Jarvis spoke up, a hint of worry lacing through his professional voice.

"Then where is he? Traceback through all security feeds until you find him!" She pressed her back against the wall and placed a hand against her heart that was trying to beat out of her chest. Where was her son?

"There is a device on the roof that is impairing my servers, I am unable to access the video files."

"On the roof...?" Mary's eyes drifted upward to the ceiling before taking off to the stairs, kicking her heels off along the way as she raced to the roof, praying that her son was and wasn't there at the same time.

Once up there, Mary saw an older man crouching around the device that Jarvis was probably talking about. To the man's right was another male, much scarier looking than the first. But Mary's eyes caught sight of the small boy on the other side of the elder...

"Peter!"

The boy looked up at his mom, smiling brightly as he waved at her. "Mom, come look at this! It's amazing!"

"Peter, get away from there!" Mary raced forward, panic filling her as the evil man -Loki, she assumed- looked up at her and smirked. She was suddenly being restrained, pressed back against a hard chest.

"Mom?" Peter started to stand up, his face filling with confusion as he saw Mr. King Loki holding his mom. "What's going on?"

"Don't worry about it, young Peter," Loki smiled at him, "just keep helping Erik. Your mother and I just need to talk."

Peter watched as fear flashed across his mother's face, his interest in the technology next to him no longer holding his attention. Peter had to protect his mom, either from loneliness while his dad was away or from strange men that appeared on his roof, he would protect her like he promised his dad. And right now, his mother needed protecting.

"Let her go."

Loki sighed as he shook his head slightly. "This is horrible. Everything was going just fine until you came," He looked at Mary before letting her go and walking back to Peter. "Now I'm going to have to kill him and it's all your fault."

"What?"

"Mr. Loki?"

Peter started to back away from the approaching man as he lifted his scepter, stumbling a bit as he tripped over the wires he was obsessing over minutes ago.

"I'm really sorry to have to do this, kid." Loki shrugged as he aimed at Peter, "But I have to do this now."

In the distance, the sound of something very familiar caught the attention of Peter's ears. A small bubble of bravery grew in him as he glanced back at the edge of the roof and proceeded to jump over it.

He could hear his mother screaming his name from her place on the solid surface, and the very audible gasp from Loki as he fell, but he wasn't scared. He knew that he'd be saved. He was always saved and with his dad so close now, there was no doubt in his mind.

"Peter!" The call of his name came right before strong, metal arms wrapped around him. "Are you okay? What were you thinking? Are you insane? Why did you jump off the freaking roof?"

Peter looked up at his dad, his proud smile turning into a frown as he took in the dents and scrapes on the suit. "Are you okay, dad? You look hurt!"

Peter could faintly hear the exasperated sigh leave his father. "You're the one that jumps off a roof and you ask if I'm alright..."

Tony flew back up to where the small group was and picked Mary up as he flew off to a safer place for them. "I thought I gave you a fair enough warning to get away from the tower? How come you're both still there?"

"Your son was playing with the enemies and their fancy technology."

"Peter, we're the good guys!" Tony chuckled, though his heart was in his throat at the idea of Loki anywhere near his kid. "We aren't supposed to fraternize with the enemy except to kick his a- butt!"

"But I know how to turn that machine off!"

Tony blinked as he looked down at the kid. He knew that he was smart, but could he really be this much of a little genius? Was he playing with Loki just to get info on the Tesseract? There was no way...

"Mr. Loki's stick can go through the barrier around the machine and turn it off!"

Tony set his wife and son down on the outside of the city, placing a hand gently on Peter's head. "That's my boy. I'll be back soon, stay safe over here."

"Go get 'em, dad!" Peter yelled as Tony took off, the man smiling as he left. When his son cheered for him and had such a strong belief in him, there was no way he could disappoint him by failing. And they now knew how to turn the machine off, so that would probably make things so much easier for them. Soon, everything would be back to normal again.

Tony spotted Loki still on the roof of the tower, a smirk on his lips as he started walking inside. Oh, he would enjoy taking this guy down.

A/N: Does it seem like there's not enough IronDad and son going on here? This chapter kind of annoys me... I feel like my chapters are stretching away from the family genre that I wanted... I'm probably going to fix this one soon...

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The Avengers sat in the small food joint, Thor and Bruce the only ones that were really eating despite the amazing smell that was coming from the food in front of everyone. Tony slowly chewed his shawarma as his mind was still catching up with the fact that they actually fought aliens and survived. It could have been a whole other story if it hadn't been for Peter telling them about Loki's scepter being the key to turning the machine off and closing the wormhole.

"Dad...!"

Speak of the devil...

"Peter?" Tony sat up a little straighter as he searched the area for the owner of the voice. Just as he saw the mop of brown hair flying at him, two thin arms wrapped around his side and a face was buried just below his armpit. "Oh kid, trust me, you don't want your face anywhere near there. Where's your mother?"

Peter ignored him, holding on even tighter. Tony sighed as he took a breath in and lifted the child up to sit on his lap, wincing in pain slightly but doing his best to cover it up in order to comfort his son.

"I'm so glad you're alive..."

Tony wrapped his arms around Peter and held him closely, ignoring the looks he was getting from some of the Avengers.

"It's okay, kid. I'm alive, I'm here..."

"You could have died..."

"But I didn't." Tony pulled Peter back slightly, placing a hand under his chin and lifting his face up to look into his eyes. "I didn't die, I'm right here with you. Everything's going to be okay now. Okay?"

Peter nodded slightly as he leaned forward and rested his head against Tony's chest again, Tony gently patting his back while whispering comfort to him.

Tony had seen videos of soldiers who came home to their crying kids, he'd heard how hard it was to keep doing a dangerous job when their family would cry and beg them not to, but Tony never expected the strong emotions that coursed through him as he held Peter's crying form. The child didn't beg him to stop fighting powerful aliens or to give up being Iron Man, but Tony never wanted his son to cry so hard again that he was almost ready to swear off superhero-ing right then and there.

Until Barton opened his big mouth.

"Damn, I knew you had a kid, but I never expected you to act like that around him."

Peter seemed to finally notice the others at the table, his eyes going wide as he saw all of the Avengers sitting near his dad. His eyes locked on a blond man on the other side of the table that looked like he was about to fall asleep but offered him a kind smile.

"Oh my, God, you're Captain America! We were just talking about you in history yesterday! It's so awesome to meet you!" His eyes seemed to be drawn to the other end of the table before they lit up even more. "Dr. Banner, sir? Is that really you? I've read some of your books! I'm a huge fan!"

Bruce blinked as his mind registered the sudden change in demeanor of the child, taking in the new info. "Um, how old are you?"

"Almost eleven!"

"And you've read my books?"

Peter nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! I loved the one on nuclear physics!"

"Wait," Tony frowned as he looked at Peter, "Hold on. You've never been this excited around me before. I'm supposed to be your favorite Avenger."

"But, dad," Peter looked up at the man with a smile, "It's Bruce Banner! And Captain America, and Mr. Thor, and Mis- Miss Natalie?" Peter quirked an eyebrow at Natalie from Legal, taking in how much her appearance had changed. She didn't look like she did the last time he saw her at the Stark Expo...

"Okay, I think that's enough for today." Tony started to stand up, lifting Peter up on his shoulder. "Where's your mother at?"

"I don't know, I didn't get on the boat with her."

"Peter...!"