A/N: Marvel owning status is the same as last time. Meaning, I own no part of Marvel. At all.

This is a request from @tcnystarkhasaheart. Hope this is close enough to what you were thinking!

Trigger Warnings: Panic Attack

"No offense, Tony, but with all the sleeping around," Pepper scrunched up her face as if she was disgusted to emphasize her point as she continued, "you are bound to have a child somewhere out there."

Tony just shook his head. "As much as I hate the guy after the arc reactor thing, I'm pretty confident Obi would have told me."

Pepper just sighed and rubbed a hand over her eyes as her boyfriend turned back to the Mark whatever-the-hell-it-is-now. "Tony. Did you ever think what you would do if-"

Tony tensed up and cut his girlfriend off. "Yes. All the time."

Pepper glanced over to him, slightly shocked by his response. Tony set down the screwdriver he'd been using and leaned against the lab table.

"Pep. I've always wanted kids. If I knew that one of those kids out there in the world was mine, I wouldn't hesitate to take them in. And that's why I don't think about it. Because I know, deep down, that I'm not the best father-figure. I'm irresponsible, made horrible life-choices in the past and still do, and any kid in my life is bound to be hurt." Tony turned away so Pepper wouldn't see the unshed tears in his eyes as he thought about the kid in Tennessee that had saved him in more ways than one. That kid had gotten kidnapped after Tony left and tortured for information. Tony had searched everywhere for him, but by the time he found the boy, he was dead. "I'm no good for kids."

Pepper wrapped her arms around Tony's waist and laid her head on his shoulder from behind. "Tony. I know you. If you had a kid, you would be the best father. Even if you don't see it yet."

Tony turned around and pulled his girlfriend closer to him, burying his face in her hair as he cried to her about his failures.

Tony sighed as he remembered that day. That was the most heartfelt talk he'd had with Pepper. After that, something shifted. Pepper became annoyed with him more easily about simple things. She fought with him, and wasn't there for his panic attacks and nightmares like before. Tony wasn't sure why it had happened, what had changed, but soon enough they broke up. Pepper quit the CEO position, and he took it over himself, adding more work and stress onto his shoulders.

If he could think about kids before, he couldn't now. There was too much to do.

———

Tom Holland ran around excitedly, packing up for his first day at Stark Industries. He had been accepted as an intern, even though he was in high school, and was unbelievably excited about it.

"Tom! You have to leave now if you are going to get there on time!" The headmistress of the orphanage called, smiling kindly as the excited teen practically jumped off the walls.

Tom flinched slightly upon hearing his name, but ignored it in favor of being excited. He hated his name, mostly on account of the fact that he knew it wasn't his real one. His mom had left him at the orphanage without a birth certificate, so he didn't know his real name, birthday, or parents.

"I'm leaving! Bye!" Tom rushed out the door and ran all the way to the subway. He bounced up and down the whole ride, causing the old lady sitting next to him to grin and the man trying to read opposite him to scowl.

He rushed off at his stop and stopped in front of the building, letting himself calm down before he walked in and to the front desk.

"Hello! I'm here for an internship?" Tom smiled politely at the lady at the front desk. She returned the smile and asked him a few questions before handing him his badge and directing him to the elevator.

"Thank you!" He called over his shoulder as he left.

He scanned his pass to get into the elevator and startled slightly when the ceiling greeted him.

"Hello, Mr. Holland. Welcome to Stark Towers. I am FRIDAY, the AI that runs the tower. If you need anything at all just ask me. I will take you to the intern floors where someone will greet you and get you your first assignment."

"Thank you, Ms. FRIDAY." Tom responded politely. He hopped off the elevator when it stopped, and true to FRIDAY's words, was greeted by an intern who led him to a workstation and gave him a slip of paper with instructions to work on an idea to save the environment.

Tom immediately got to work. After drafting for a few minutes, he came up with an idea of a robot who filters the toxins out of the gas a car engine releases. He got to work on a prototype, and was done in half and hour.

"Excuse me." He turned to the intern sitting next to him, who smiled at him and waved for him to continue. "How would I turn this in?"

The intern looked at him for a minute. Tom fidgeted uncomfortably under their stare.

"Aren't you new?" The intern asked, titling their head to the side curiously.

"Yes. This is my first project." Tom smiled shyly.

The intern, who had being drinking from a water bottle on their desk, immediately started choking. Tom hurried to help them, rubbing their back until they stopped coughing.

"Sorry. It's just-wow. Okay. I'm taking you to Happy, and he'll tell you what to do." The intern, who Tom saw was named Riley, grabbed Tom's arm and pulled him and his bot to a large man standing at the door.

"Ms. Riley? What's wrong?" Happy Hogan glared at the college-aged intern.

"Nothing's wrong, but I thought you'd want to hear this. Kid?" Riley turned to Tom and gestured for him to start talking.

"Oh. I just wanted to know where to turn in my project?" Tom glanced at the girl who had dragged him here curiously.

"It's his first project, totally ingenious, and he did it in half an hour." Riley smirked in satisfaction as Happy's eyes widened.

"I'm sorry. Did I do something..." Tom was cut off by Happy taking his arm and dragging him to an elevator.

"I'm taking you to Tony. He'll want to see this." Happy dragged him into the elevator, and stayed silent for the entire awkward ride up.

"Okay, kid. To get in the lab, you have to do a DNA test of sorts. It's just to check if you have any diseases or conditions that you don't know about, but could be aggravated by something in the lab. It also does a brief background check, but that's standard for employees in any lab."

Tom was a little scared. He did have spider DNA after all, but he figured Tony Stark was the best person to find out about him being Spider-Man. After all, he was an Avenger. He had to understand. So, Tom nodded nervously and followed Happy's instructions.

"Okay. Here we go, results are..." Happy suddenly cut off, his face going blank. "FRIDAY. Get Tony out here. Now."

Tom fidgeted. This was probably because of the whole spider DNA thing. He wondered if he'd made the right choice in letting them take his DNA.

The more he thought about it, the more he got into his head. His breathing sped up, and he didn't even notice his childhood hero come out of his lab. He didn't heard Happy show the man his DNA tests. All he could think was about how he was going to die. He couldn't breathe.

"-id. Just breathe. You can do it. It's okay. Nothing's wrong." Tony Stark slowly came into view as Tom blinked away his panic.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. I can't stop being-" Tom cut himself off as he started to cry.

"Kid. It's alright." Tony wrapped an arm around the confused and crying boy and looked at Happy. "Happy, does he know?"

Happy shook his head. Tom looked up, more confused than before. "Know what?"

Tony sighed. "Look kid. I don't know how or why this happened, but..." Tony smiled reassuringly at the boy, refusing to panic in front of the boy who had just broken down a second ago. "You are my kid. Biological and all that."

———

Tom just stared blankly at the papers he was holding.

Name: Peter Stark
Parents: Mary Parker and Tony Stark
Notes: Mary Parker died in childbirth. Attempted contact with Tony Stark, was unsuccessful. Obidiah Stane sent Peter to orphanage. No further background.

Tom-no Peter- was confused, but also extremely happy. He finally knew who he was.

Tony was also confused and happy, but he was nervous. He didn't think he'd be good for the kid.

"Can I- Can I call you Dad?" Peter asked timidly.

Tony's head shot up as his heart melted. "Only if you come love with me."

Peter smiled and grabbed his dad in a tight hug. "I'd love that... Dad."

"Now don't think you are off the hook with this Spider-Man stuff. I won't make you stop, but we are going to have to set a curfew or something..."

———

Tony slowly learned as he and the kid grew closer, that for all his fears about being an awful dad, he was making a pretty good one for his new son.

Okay. That felt a bit rushed. I'm sorry if it seemed that way, I don't know why it seems like that because I pretty much took longer on this than anything else I've ever written. (The whole panic attack thing was awful and rushed because I can't accurately write about something I've never had, so sorry about that, but I honestly hope I never have one to base my writing off of.)

I hope that lived up to your expectations, @tcnystarkhasaheart.

I might be posting something after this? I'm not sure yet. I have to solidify some ideas before I try to write.

Bye!