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When Mary Parker came to his doorstep in Malibu, carrying a small bundle of blankets with a frantic and demanding look on her face, Tony never expected to have a baby thrust into his arms. She didn’t stay long, not leaving him enough time to argue. He had watched the car speed away, feeling small beads of sweat rolling down his forehead from the heat.
Tony didn’t know how long he stood there, shocked and frozen. Scared. His past had finally called, but then he heard the smallest giggle and looked down. Big, brown eyes stared up at him, a small smile plastered on the little boy’s face. In that moment, he didn’t know what he was going to do, but he knew that this baby was his, and that’s how it would stay. Forever.
Now, sixteen years down the line, his son’s in his second year of high school. They have a happy relationship together and Tony couldn’t imagine anything different. They had gone through their bumps and figured things out, they always did.
But, as all good things in his life do, he knows the next bump isn’t something he’s going to be able to fix with a hug and a movie.
Peter’s gay. He knows this, he’s ok with this, the problem is Peter hasn’t come out to him yet. Tony’s asked people what he should do about it. Pepper said to let Peter come to him on his own time. Don’t rush things. Rhodey said to make sure Peter knew he was loved and that he would be perfectly happy with whoever Peter ended up with. Tony’s decided he would take both of their advice.
It started out with them talking about the general media. During a late dinner, Tony nonchalantly mentioned how awesome it was that Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple came out as gay, “What do you think about that Pete?”
When Tony didn’t get an immediate reply, he glanced up from his plate, Peter was smiling down at his lap, “Yeah... It’s good,” he shrugged. Tony counted the boy’s smile as rewarding and jotted down his own bonus points.
The next day, Tony had been picking up Peter from school when he decided to continue his small acts and planned to ask him about any crushes. He made sure to not specify any genders and used ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she.’
As Peter climbed into the car, a bright smile ghosting his lips, Tony grinned, allowing his son to get situated before proposing his questions and began with, “How was school?”
“Good,” the boy started and shoved his backpack between his legs and on to the floor, “Um, how was work?”
Tony glanced at him, watching Peter scroll through his phone, “It was fine.” He waited a few minutes for the final show down, “So, do you have a crush on anyone?”
Peter’s face grew red, his scrolling momentarily halting, “Uhm… no? M-maybe?”
The elder smiled, “Ohhh, who’s the lucky person?”
At this point, Peter looked at him slightly confused, probably from him saying ‘lucky person,’ rather than ‘lucky girl.’ Nonetheless, he continues, “Just someone from my chemistry class…”
“Yeah? They must be smart if they’re in an honors class with my boy?” Toy gave him a cheeky smile, watching as Peter grew a few shades redder, “So, what do you like about them?”
“Just, stuff, you know?”
“Okay, but, like, what?”
Peter avoided his gaze, “I don’t know, they’re funny, I guess,” he shrugged, and Tony decided to drop the conversation at that, but just then he chimed in,
“Well, whoever it is, they should be lucky to have you as a boyfriend,” Toy’s answer was an embarrassed groan and a role of the eyes.
At the dinner table the same day, while they were eating and had a couple minutes of silence, not much had been said until Peter finally exclaimed, “Dad?” Tony looked up, “ I actually wanted to tell you something in the car, but I was afraid you’d get into an accident…”
Toy looked him straight in the eyes and could see he was thinking about something and all he could think was, oh my god, this is it. “I’m… gay.”
Tony looked at him and couldn’t help himself from smiling, “Bud, you know I love you so much… Right?” And he got up and gave Peter a huge hug. The boy even started to cry into his shoulder, causing himself to shred a couple of his own tears.
Afterwards, they continued their dinner and Tony couldn’t emphasize enough how much he loves his son, regardless of which gender he loves. Following dinner, they both changed into pajamas and laid on the sofa, watching through the Star Wars movies.
It turns out, Tony can fix things with hugs and movies, and if Peter brings that boy home from chemistry class and introduces him as Harley Keener, he just can’t help tease the boys about leaving the door open a couple inches and makes them promise, “No funny business!”