Today was the day, Tony decided, that he would introduce the team to Peter. To say he was nervous was an understatement.

First off, he would have to introduce him as both Peter Parker, his intern (this isn't a cover up any more, he is actually an intern) and adopted high school son, but ALSO as Spiderman, the 16 year old kid he dragged to a different country, that cap had dropped an airport terminal on.

Luckily the Avengers were back together and had made up, or this would be 4 times as difficult.

"You ready kid?" He asked to his adopted son, who was pulling on his mask. The first thing he would do was introduce Peter as the kid half of them beat up.

If that didn't shock them, then he'd drop the bomb that he's sixteen.

Then he'd tell them Peter's his son.

Obviously nothing would go wrong.

"Yeah, Mr. Stark. I'm ready" Tony considered telling the kid to call him something other than "Mr. Stark", but decided against it.

The rest of the team had assembled in a lounge room area in the new tower. Everyone already knew and respected the kid a little bit, hearing the story of how he stopped the Vulture from interfering with the tower moving.

"Then let's go, Pete" Tony said, leading his kid along to where the group was.

The moment he walked in, everyone, who had just been in small conversation, quieted.

"Meet the newest addition to the team, Spiderman" he said, nudging Peter forward. The kid awkwardly waved and smiled, though no one could tell through the mask of his suit.

"The guy you brought with you to Leipzig? And who helped protect the tower when it was being moved?" Steve asked. Tony nodded, and Spiderman answered.

"Yeah. I did" He said, and a few looked worried.

"Stark, how old is this guy?" Natasha asked.

"About that-" Tony quickly replied, only to be drowned out by "he sounds too young"s, and "did you bring a kid into this?"s.

"I'm 16, almost 17" Peter said, while taking his mask off. The team immediately gasped, and fell silent. It was a brutally quiet moment, and everyone stared at Peter, before blame was once again directed at Tony.

"How could you drag a CHILD into this?" Was one blow heard amongst the chaos of shouts.

Peter did not like it one bit, and it was obvious, seeing his recoiling. Tony, of course, noticed.

"ENOUGH!" He shouted, his voice ringing through the room, halting everyone in their turn at the blame game. "This kid's senses are dialed up to 11, so your shouting isn't helping his heightened hearing" everyone looked confused at this point, but nobody said anything.

"I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and then I got powers, and made this web fluid" Peter explained, then demonstrated his shooters, by hitting the wall with it.

Bruce gasped (because he's totally there, along with Thor. Ignore the fact that they didn't actually come back after Ragnorok).

"You MADE that?" Even Natasha looked impressed.

"With how it handled at the airport, I thought Stark made it for you" Peter shook his head at Nat's statement, and he was bombarded with questions from Banner, and praise from everyone else.

"Take a seat son" he said, leading Peter to an empty couch. Tony sat next to him, and faced the rest of the Avengers.

"Did you just call him son?" Steve asked the question everyone was thinking. Tony didn't usually do petnames, especially ones that show you really care.

"Which brings me to my third announcement" Tony said, clapping his hands together. "Peter here is my adopted son" this, once again, earned a heavy silence. This time, though, it wasn't followed by an endless stream of questions.

Just one.

"Say that again, Tony, I think I misheard you" Clint said, and usually that would earn a bucket of laughs, but not this time.

This time it was dead silent.

"Do they not like me?" Peter whispered into Tony's ear, thinking nobody else could hear.

"No, Peter, you're great, we're just..." Wanda tried to explain, her hair being braided by Vision distracting her a bit. "Shocked, is all" this seemed to do the trick, because Peter went quiet again, which was quite out of character for the teen.

Tony draped his arm over Pete's shoulder, hugging him closer to his body. Peter embraced the hug, worried about what the heroes, HIS heroes, thought of him.

"Why, Tony?" Steve asked, on the edge of his seat.

"Tragic Backstory™ is unlocked at Acceptance Level 5. You guys seem to be stuck at 1" Tony said, trying to add humor into his basically saying "why are you guys rejecting my child?" 

"We're sorry, Tony, it just caught us by surprise" Rhodes explained, and looked at Peter. "Nice to meet you, Peter. I'm Rhodes, or War Machine" He said, reaching his hand out to shake Peter's.

"Oh I know that" Peter said, shaking Rhodey's hand. "I know all of you guys. You're my heroes. I still have Captain America sweatpants" He said, with such childhood innocence that it shattered Cap's heart just a little bit.

"Well Peter, welcome to the family" Steve said, opening his arms like he wanted to be hugged.

"Is this a hug?" Peter asked, to the amusement of Tony. "Because before we were like CLOSE, I went to hug Mr. Stark because I thought he was hugging ME, but he was just getting the door for me" he explained, and a few were laughing.

"It's a hug, kid" Steve said, and Peter stood up, and embraced his second favorite superhero (Ironman his obvious first).

The only thing Peter could think of was "oh my god I'm hugging CAPTAIN AMERICA" and "Ned is going to be SO jealous"

"So you guys have met my son. Woo hoo! Anything new in anyone else's lives?" Tony asked, trying to make it seem like it was a perfectly normal day, that just oh so happened to include his newly adopted son.

"Yeah. I went to a salsa dancing lesson, and I hated it" Clint said, and multiple people laughed at this, suddenly feeling more comfortable around the 16 year old son of Tony Stark.

~~~

In the end, it turned out WAY better than Tony thought it would.

"Goodnight Peter" Tony said, as he slowly walked out of Pete's room in the tower, shutting off the light in the process.

"Goodnight Dad" Peter's soft voice filled the room, his tiredness evident.

"Love ya, kid" he said quietly, trying not to betray his calm demeanor with his excitement of Peter calling him Dad.

"Love you too"