Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Author's Note

• Mostly from Flash’s POV.  Flash and Peter are 16 and juniors (near the start of their junior year).
• I messed with the timeline a bit.  This is pre-blip, but Morgan was born much earlier than in the movies.  Morgan has just turned 5.
• What you’re in for: Angst, hurt/comfort, found family.  This is an Iron Dad fic, but seen through the eyes of Flash.  There’s also a little plot twist that throws Flash for a loop in the second chapter, and I enjoy throwing Flash for a loop in fics.
• Warning: A few curse words scattered throughout, in case you care.  Talk of the death of Flash’s parents.  Stay safe friends.

ONE - Hold On I Still Want You, Come Back I Still Need You

It had been twenty four hours, but it still felt like someone was sitting on his chest.  He could breathe, but it was hard.  It felt like his parents left this world and took all the air with them.  They took Flash’s whole life with them.  They were gone, and he was still here, and he didn’t know what to do next.

“Don’t worry Eugene, we’ll find your uncle.”  That’s what the hospital social worker had told him as he sat outside the hospital room where his mother had died.  His father had died almost an hour before, leaving him and his mother alone in the world.  Now it was just Eugene.  “Sit tight, we’re calling your uncle’s number.”

Uncle Henry was all he had left now, but that was only if they could find him.  His mother called Henry wild and unsocialized whenever Henry was brought up.  Flash didn’t think he was unsocialized, though he agreed that he was a little wild.  The life Henry led, moving from country to country, place to place, taking up work as an artist wherever he wanted was so different than the lives of his mother and father.  His father was a banker… had been, a banker.  He’d run a bank in Manhattan and pulled in over a million dollars a year.  His mother had worked with stocks and made almost as much as his father.  As far as his mother and father were concerned, making lots of money, living in a big house, and using all the manners at their disposal was the only ‘proper’ way to live.  Flash might have agreed if he hadn’t spent a summer with uncle Henry in France when he was eight.  It was the only glimpse he’d ever had into other ways people could live, and he’d never forgotten.

Where his mom was distant and his father always gone at work or on business trips, Henry had made an effort to take Flash everywhere with him that summer.  If Henry went out to paint a mural on the side of a building, Flash went with him.  If he went to the store, Flash went too.  He’d loved every minute of it.  They had moved to new apartments three times that summer, and once had spent two nights in a shady hotel just outside the city.  Henry had made him a blanket fort on his bed and told him it was a campout.  Flash never questioned him, and spent those two nights pretending he was an adventurer hunting wild animals in a jungle.

Then he’d returned home at the end of the summer to his mother’s quiet dismissal and his father’s constant words of disappointment.  “Don’t put your elbows on the table Eugene.  I swear, three months with Henry and you’ve come home a troglodyte.”

If they could find Henry, wherever he was now (the last Flash had heard was Brazil, but that had been six months ago), then he could stay with him.  He didn’t know if that would look like forts in shady hotel rooms or moving every few weeks to a new city.  He did know that Henry wouldn’t mind if he put his elbows on the table.

He reached up and rubbed his forehead hard, back aching from where he was slumped in the uncomfortable chair at Mount Sinai West.  His mom had been gone for ten hours, but it felt simultaneously like she’d been gone for months and was still alive, still fighting for her life just down the hall.

He’d been put in the hospital social worker’s office, brought a sandwich and a can of soda, and been told to sit tight.  The man had come back a couple times, once to tell Flash that his uncle’s phone number had been disconnected, and a second time to tell him that CPS was coming and that he had been assigned a social worker.  “It’s all going to work out son.  I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but it will.”

Flash wanted to believe him, but he couldn’t.

The door opened behind him and Flash turned to look, expecting to see the man that owned this office, but instead he found a woman who looked rushed and tired.

“Eugene?” she asked.

“Flash,” he corrected her.  Only his parents called him Eugene.  He’d always hated that name, and with them gone, thought it was best to drop the name altogether.  He much preferred the name Flash, which Henry had given him at five the one time he’d come for Christmas and laughed at Flash’s abundance of energy and how he ran around the Christmas tree to his parent’s annoyance.

“Flash,” she said with a sad smile.  “I’m your new caseworker, Jenny Lim.  I’ll be handling your file and placement.”

“Placement?”

“Yes, we were able to find emergency placement for you with a family.  You’re very lucky.  There’s a shortage of foster parents right now and we almost didn’t get you in.  I really didn’t want to take you to a group home.”

“But my uncle,” Flash said, feeling desperate.  “I’m supposed to stay with my uncle.”

“Yes, that’s still a possibility,” she said.  “We’ve been looking for a way to contact him since your parents-” she trailed off with a small frown.  “Yes… well.  His phone number is disconnected.  I’m going to keep looking for ways to contact him, but it could take days, or weeks to track him down.  After that we’ll need to verify that he’s fit to look after you before he can take you.  Until then, you’ll need a place to stay.”

Flash looked around the little office desperately, as though it might offer up a solution that wasn’t him going to stay with some random family he didn’t even know.

“I know this is scary,” she said, sitting down in the chair next to him.  “We’ve found a really good placement for you though.  The family lives in Manhattan in a big penthouse.  They’ll be able to provide transportation for you each day to Midtown so that you won’t have to switch schools.  We tried very hard to get you into a place where the quality of life wouldn’t be too much different than what you had at home.”

Flash’s eyes came up to meet hers.  “Manhattan?”  He wondered if maybe it was one of his neighbors.  He could end up living in the same building that his own home was in.  He and his parents had been living on the edge of Central Park for the last ten years in a nice building that was full of lawyers, doctors and bankers like his dad.  He’d rather not be put with a random family, but he could think of several neighbors right off the bat that he wouldn’t mind staying with for a few days.

“Yes, it’s very exciting actually,” she said.  “They’ve never fostered before, but I found their names in the system and knew they’d be a good fit for you.  They’re down on Vanderbilt Ave.”

Flash couldn’t imagine who might live down there.  That area was all skyscrapers and business buildings.  “Who are they?” he asked.

“Tony and Pepper Stark.”

Flash was sure he hadn’t heard right.  She saw the look of disbelief on his face and said, “It’s the truth.  I managed to talk them into taking you.  They weren’t planning on fostering at the moment despite being registered to.  They’re getting a room ready for you now.  I just need to go over some things with you and then we can head over there.”

“I don’t… what about my stuff?” Flash asked, because he didn’t know what else to say.  Tony and Pepper Stark?  He was going to be living with Iron Man?  It was such a fantastical thought that he really didn’t think it could be real.  His mind jumped around to a dozen other things instead, like his clothes, and his laptop, and the fact that he had a test on Monday and he hadn’t started to study for it yet.  Mrs. Greene was a real piece of work and he doubted she’d give Flash any leeway or give him any extra time to study, even though his whole life had just been snatched away from him.  His life felt like a jigsaw puzzle that had been all put together and perfect, but that had been thrown back into the box haphazardly and then shaken around until all the pieces were topsy-turvy.  Worst of all was that he felt like he didn’t have the picture of what that puzzle was supposed to look like so that he could put it back together again.

“Do you have your house key?”

He nodded and stuck his hand into his pocket, pulling it out to show her.

“We can stop by and get your things.  Do you have a suitcase or a trash bag you can put your clothes into?”

He gave her a bewildered look.  What did she mean a trash bag?  “Of course I have a suitcase.”  He had an entire set of luggage for when they traveled.  Hell, he could even use his dad’s suitcases.  His dad’s luggage set was a dozen times better and more expensive than his.  The thought of going into his dad’s walk-in closet to retrieve the luggage made his throat feel tight.  It shouldn’t, it was crazy that it did, because his dad was gone… Flash pushed the thought away.  He was going to stay with the Starks.  He was sure they’d look down on him if he used his cheap luggage which only cost a few hundred dollars.  He was just going to have to suck it up and go into his parents’ room to retrieve theirs.

“Good,” she said.  She pulled some paperwork out, asked Flash questions about his uncle and where he might be, and then questions about who Flash’s doctor was, and other details about his life.

“I know this is all new to you,” she said, finally tucking the paperwork away after twenty minutes.  “But there are some things I need to go over.”  She pulled out a business card and handed it to him.  “This is my number, keep it with you.  You can call me if you need anything, if you’re not being treated right, if you have concerns, or if you’re in some sort of trouble.  I’m your caseworker, so it’s my job to deal with things like that.”

Flash took the business card and stared down at it.  It had her name, her title, her phone number and a fax number.

“I’m really hoping this placement works out well for you,” she continued.  “But placements don’t always work out.  If it’s not working out, we’ll find somewhere else for you to stay, so that’s not something you need to worry about.”

He frowned, pulling his eyes away from the business card.  “What do you mean if it doesn’t work out?”

“Sometimes a family isn’t the right fit for a child, or sometimes a child and family just aren’t getting along.  Sometimes life events happen, like if a family moves and the foster family is no longer able to foster.  There are a lot of reasons it might not work out.  The only thing you need to focus on is doing your best, and you need to know that if it doesn’t work out, I’m still here and that I’ll find you a new placement.”

“And my uncle,” Flash said.  He hated how desperate he sounded.  His mother wouldn’t approve.

“And your uncle,” she agreed.  “I’m not going to give up on finding him.  As soon as I get in contact with him, I’ll call you.”

He let out a little breath.  His chest felt tight.  It had felt tight since the police had come to the school that morning (well, yesterday morning) and pulled him out of class to tell him about the freak car crash his parents had been in.  It had been a full 24 hours since then.  Flash rubbed his eyes again.  He’d gotten some sleep, but not much, and his sense of time and what day of the week it was felt warped.  He thought it was Thursday, but it could have been Friday.

She led Flash out of the little office and out of the hospital.  She took him to get a burger and fries, and then drove him to his building at the north end of Central Park.  It felt weird to be back in his home with a social worker standing behind him.

He went into the master bedroom and into his father’s closet and pulled out the largest of his suitcases.  This one light gray suitcase cost almost six hundred dollars.  He didn’t know how much of his stuff he’d be allowed to bring, but thought he could fit a good bit of it in here.

Back in his own room Flash began packing neatly folded clothes into it, along with his expensive laptop and his handheld game system.  He left his Playstation, not sure if he’d be allowed to use it or if there would be a TV in the room the Stark’s had for him.  Shoes, coats, and toiletries all went into the large suitcase.  His backpack with his books and homework was still at school.  He wondered if it was still sitting in the English classroom where he’d left it the day before or if someone had taken it to the office for him.

“Ok, this all looks good,” she told him.  “It looks like you have everything you need.”  She sounded pleased.

Flash couldn’t actually remember going back down the elevator and out to her car, or the drive to Stark Tower.  He was surprised to realize they were in the elevator moving up through the tower though.  He vaguely remembered talking to security at the front desk and being directed to an elevator.

“Do your best to behave,” she told him as they rose past the 80th floor.  “This is a one time opportunity and I’d hate to see you waste it.”

“I won’t.”  He cleared his throat.  “I won’t waste it I mean.  I’ll behave.”  He knew how to behave.  He wasn’t a heathen despite that his mother often insisted that he was wild like uncle Henry.  Proper manners had been drilled into him for the last sixteen years of his life, and there was no possible way to forget them.  He didn’t know what his caseworker thought he was going to do, but he wasn’t planning on anything.  Sit with your back straight, get good grades, don’t put your elbows on the table.  Follow all the rules, say please and thank you, speak when spoken to, don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.  There were dozens of rules his parents had had for him, and he was sure the Starks would be the same.

He wasn’t going to do anything wrong.  He wasn’t.  What he was going to do however was panic. He was about to face Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, the owner and CEO of the largest, most advanced tech company on the planet.  The genius inventor and billionaire that moonlighted as Iron Man and personally knew every Avenger.  Flash didn’t even know what day of the week it was.

“Wait!” Flash said loudly, eyes wide as he looked at his caseworker.  They were just passing the 90th floor.

“What is it?” she asked.

“What day of the week is it?”

“Thursday.”

He let out a breath.  He had no clue how to fix the mess that his jumbled up life had become in the last 24 hours, but as the elevator door opened to reveal the penthouse, and Mr. and Mrs. Stark waiting for him, at least he knew the day of the week.

“Miss Lim?” Pepper asked, and Flash’s caseworker gave a nod.  She stepped out of the elevator and held out her hand.  Pepper shook it, but Tony didn’t.  Flash didn’t know why, but the man kept his hands behind his back.  As nervous as Flash felt, he noted that both Mr. and Mrs. Stark looked a little nervous as well.

“Yes, thank you for agreeing to take him on such short notice.  This is Eugene Thompson.”  She turned and indicated Flash, and Pepper held out her hand to shake.  

He reached forward, feeling totally unequipped to deal with this, and took her hand in return.  “Flash,” he said.

“It’s nice to meet you Flash,” Pepper told him.  There was something about the way she pursed her lips, not quite like his mother, but it gave him the impression that she was a little wary.  He couldn’t blame her.  He was a stranger coming into their home.

“Your paperwork is all in order,” the caseworker said.  “And I can see that your home was inspected a year and a half ago, so I don’t need to do that now.”  Her eyes roved over the large, posh living room and kitchen as she said it.  “Do you have any questions for me before I leave?”

“I don’t think so,” Pepper said.  The caseworker pulled out her card and handed it to Pepper anyway.  “If you do, please call me.  Flash has everything he should need for now.”  She indicated his suitcase.  “I already called Midtown earlier this morning.  He’ll be expected back at school tomorrow unless you call him out sick.”

Flash felt sick and dizzy at the realization that people other than his parents were now in charge of every aspect of his life.  Apparently his caseworker had been busy in the hours he’d waited by himself in that office at the hospital.  Before she’d ever introduced herself to him she had been setting up a place for him to live and calling his school.  He should have expected that, but he didn’t, and felt like an idiot.

“Thank you again for agreeing to take him last minute,” she said.  She turned to Flash and gave him a look which Flash took to mean, ‘behave’, and excused herself.  Flash watched her walk back to the elevator, and then disappear behind its metal doors.  His throat was tight as Mr. Stark cleared his throat behind him and Flash turned back around.

“I’m Tony,” he said, “and you know Pep.  You’ll meet our daughter Morgan later on.  She’s with a friend right now.”  He motioned around them to the wide open living space and said, “You can use the living room and kitchen without asking.  The kitchen is always stocked with food.”

“Dinner time is a little chaotic sometimes,” Pepper said.  “It’s not always at the same time each night, so if you get hungry and can’t wait, feel free to make yourself something or have a snack.  If there’s something you’d like to eat that we don’t have, just let us know.”

“Thank you ma'am,” Flash said.

Pepper gave him a small smile.  “You can call us Pepper and Tony.  Why don’t I show you to your room?”  She motioned for him to follow her and led him across the living room to a closed door.  “I’m afraid it’s a little sparse, but if you have a poster or something you’d like to put on the wall, feel free.  If you need anything, just let us know.  We have extra blankets and things like that.”

She opened the door and led him into a room that was about the same size as his room at home.  There was a queen size bed and a nice wood desk with a rolling computer chair.  There were several large windows that looked out over the city, and a soft gray rug under his bed.  It was sparse, just like he’d expect a guest room to be.

Tony cleared his throat again from behind him and Flash turned and found him looking uncertain.  “What do you think?” Tony asked.

“I appreciate you taking me,” Flash said, and he meant it.  When he thought of foster care, this wasn’t what he had imagined.  “It’s very nice, thank you.”

Tony seemed to relax at that.  “Do you have a computer to do your schoolwork on?”

“I have an iPad and a laptop.”

Tony seemed to wince when he mentioned the iPad, but gave a nod.  “The tower is run by an AI.  FRIDAY, say hi please.”

“Hello Mr. Thompson,” came a female voice from the ceiling, and Flash startled despite that he’d just been warned about what was about to happen.

“FRIDAY keeps an eye on the tower for us,” Tony said.  “There are no cameras, but she knows what’s going on at any given time.  She reports any injuries or bullying.”

Flash frowned slightly.  Bullying?  He wasn’t sure why that was important enough to mention.  Did they think he was going to bully their daughter?  Wasn’t she only four or five?  He definitely wasn’t going to do anything that would make them call his social worker.  He needed this to work for however long it took to find his uncle.  He really hoped they could find his uncle in just a couple days, but with how much his uncle moved around, it could take a lot longer than that.

When Flash didn’t respond, Pepper said, “Have you eaten Flash?”

He looked up at her and nodded.  “Miss Lim gave me lunch.”

“Good.  Why don’t you take some time to unpack.  You look tired.  Miss Lim mentioned to us that you’ve been at the hospital since yesterday.  You can take a nap until dinner if you want.”

“Thank you,” he said, throat tight.  He didn’t want to think about the hospital anymore, or why he’d been there.  “She said I was supposed to go back to school tomorrow.  I have homework due but my bag is still at school.”

Flash was uncomfortable with how close of a looking over Tony was giving him.  It was like Iron Man was trying to look into his soul or something.  “No school tomorrow,” Tony said.  “You can go back Monday if you’re feeling up to it.”  He pointed and Flash let his eyes follow until they found his backpack against the wall near the head of the bed.  “We got your bag for you.  There’s a list of assignments you missed in the front pocket.”

Flash looked up at them, surprised.  They’d gone to the school to get his bag?  When had they even had time to do that?  His parents never would have- he tried to push that thought away and stuff it down deep.  It would be disrespectful to focus on his parents and the things they wouldn’t have done now that they were gone.

“Thank you,” Flash said sincerely.

Pepper smiled at him, looking a little more relaxed, and pointed to a door next to his desk.  “You’ll be sharing a bathroom with Morgan.  Her room is just on the other side of the door.  FRIDAY controls the locks on both doors.  You won’t be able to get in if she’s in there, and she won’t be able to get in if you’re in there.  We’ve put some things like body wash and shampoo in there for you in a blue bin.  Everything in the purple bin is Morgan’s.  If you need something else, just let us know or ask FRIDAY to add it to the shopping list.  We’ll let you rest for now.”

“Thank you.”  It was all he could say.  He was too tired to say anything else.

Tony and Pepper backed out of the bedroom and shut the door behind them.  Flash stood there for long moments in this room that wasn’t his, not really seeing what was in front of him.  It was several minutes before his eyes focused and he rubbed his forehead again.

He went into the bathroom and found the blue bucket they had said was for him.  It had shampoo, conditioner, men’s body wash, men’s deodorant, a fresh toothbrush and toothpaste.  He had all of these things in his dad’s suitcase, but was glad to know he wouldn’t have to ask for toiletries right away since they’d thought ahead to gather some things for him.

His eyes roved around the bathroom.  Morgan had two purple containers on the large bathroom counter full of things like bubble bath, hair brushes and hair ties.  Some of her things were scattered around the counter, including several My Little Ponies that looked as though they had gone swimming in the sink recently, and there was a hand drawn picture of Spider Man floating in a river taped to the wall near the shower.  He wondered what that was about as he used the bathroom and then went back to the bedroom.

He didn’t want to unpack his things, but he also didn’t want to live out of a suitcase.  He opened the closet door and found a large closet with hangers and a chest of drawers inside and started putting his clothes into it.  His toiletries he set on the desk along with his laptop and iPad, and then once his father’s suitcase… his suitcase, was empty, Flash sat heavily on the edge of his bed and fell backwards to stare at the ceiling.

He was in Tony Stark’s house, which was amazing, but his parents were dead, and all he could think was, I want my uncle.  No one was going to believe him at school that he was living with Iron Man.  He didn’t think he wanted to tell anyone anyway, because then it would mean explaining that he’d lost his home… his parents, and that he was an orphan.  He’d be made fun of just like Parker.

“Psh.”  Fucking Parker.  Flash had always called him a liar about having an internship with Tony Stark.  Now he’d be able to prove it.  That kid was a liar and it had always rubbed him the wrong way.  There was no way Tony Stark took high school interns, and there was no way he’d even give Parker a second glance.

Lying on top of the covers with his legs hanging off the end of the bed, Flash closed his eyes and was asleep in minutes.  He dreamed of his mom telling him not to mess this thing with the Stark’s up, and of his dad yelling at him for using his expensive suitcase.  He also dreamed of Parker, who just stared at him, his eyes trying to tell him something.  Flash didn’t remember any of it later when he woke up.

* * *

Morgan peeked out from behind her mom’s legs, giving Flash a look like she was curious about him, but too afraid to approach him.  She’d been sticking close to her parents ever since Flash had woken up around five and been asked to come out of his room to eat dinner.  Morgan had been there, staring at him, and hadn’t stopped staring at him since.

“Morgs, go sit at the table,” Tony told her gently.  “You’re gonna freak our guest out if you keep staring.”

Morgan hastened to obey, climbing up onto a seat next to her mother.  They’d ordered dinner in, and the table was laden with boxes of takeout.  Flash expected dinner to go like it always did at his house, but was surprised when dinner was anything but normal.

“Could you please pass the fried rice?” Flash asked, and Tony handed him a box Flash hadn’t been able to reach.  Flash knew better than to reach across the table for what he wanted.  Morgan on the other hand sat up on her knees on her seat and reached as far as she could to grab an egg roll out of a styrofoam box with her bare fingers.  Flash waited for her parents to scold her, or to tell her at the very least to be polite and say, ‘please excuse my reach’, but they didn’t.

Morgan reached for a second egg roll, and then a third before Pepper said, “Slow down sweetheart.  Have some vegetables too.”

“An eggroll counts as a vegetable,” Tony said, still putting food on his plate.

“Tony,” Pepper said, though her voice was light and not as chastizing as Flash was used to from his own mother.

“Morguna, put some veggies on your plate,” Tony said.

Morgan did as she was asked, and then settled back down, still on her knees on her chair, to stare at Flash across the table as she ate.  Flash frowned but tried not to stare back.

“So, Flash,” Pepper asked a minute later.  “Can you tell us about the clubs or sports you’re involved in at school?”

“I’m on the Academic Decathlon team,” he said.  He was only a backup, but the week before he’d actually been able to participate in one of the competitions because Ned had been out sick.  He’d answered seven questions correctly.  His parents had been too busy to be there or see any of it.

“Tell us about that,” Pepper said, and Flash looked up at her.  He wasn’t used to being spoken to at dinner.  Usually his mom and dad talked about work and ignored him.  He floundered for what to say for a moment.  He didn’t think they’d really care to hear about how he was a backup on the team, but it would be rude not to answer when he’d been asked a question.

“I’m a team backup.  I got to compete last weekend.  I earned seven points for my team.”

“Do you like being on the team?” Pepper asked.

No.  Not particularly.  “Yes, it will look good on my college applications.”  He had wanted to play baseball, but his parents had insisted on something that would look better to future universities.  He hadn’t been allowed to play baseball since the sixth grade.

“Are you part of any other activities at school?”

“No ma’am.”

“Would you like to be?” Tony asked, and Flash startled a little.  Mr. Stark had been pretty quiet since he’d arrived earlier that morning, and he wasn’t sure yet if that’s just how he was, or if he just didn’t care much to have Flash in his home.

“I’d like to play baseball.”

“Did you try out for the team?” Tony asked.

“I wasn’t allowed.”

“Why don’t you try out now?”

“Our team doesn’t really have tryouts.  Anyone who can play gets to join.”  Their school was far more competitive with things like Academic Decathlon than they were with sports.  The only sport the school actually held tryouts for was men’s basketball.  Flash had never been the best player of any baseball team he was on, but he was pretty good, and he loved the game.  He had no designs on being a star baseball player in the MLB, but baseball was one of the few things he’d been allowed to participate in growing up that was dirty, and rough, and not all proper manners and straight backs and keeping his elbows off the table.

Morgan had both of her elbows on the table, Flash noted.  Pepper and Tony didn’t seem to care, or hadn’t noticed yet to scold her.

Tony gave a nod.  “If you don’t have to try out, seems like you’ve got an automatic in.  Why not give it a go?”

Flash shifted in his seat, just slightly.  It was rude to sit at the table and wriggle around like he was nervous.  “I’m not sure how to go about joining.”

“We can call and ask,” Tony said.  He looked like he wanted to say something else, but was interrupted by his daughter, who was still staring at Flash across the table intently.

“Do you like My Little Ponies?” Morgan asked.

Flash looked over at her, and then gave a nervous look up at Pepper.  He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to talk to her after Tony’s comment about bullying earlier.  Pepper didn’t look upset, so Flash looked at Morgan and said, “Yes, but only if they like to swim.”

Morgan’s mouth dropped open.  “Me too,” she said softly, elongating the words, and then in a louder more excited tone, “My ponies love to swim!”

“Really?” Flash asked, leaning forward slightly, as though it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“I have one named Iron Princess and she loves to swim in the sink!  She’s too scared to swim in the bathtub because it’s deep like the ocean!  And Miss Pinky loves to hold tea parties in the bathtub, and Mr. Oats is the mayor of all the My Little Ponies, and he once fell into the toilet and had to be sanitized before he could rule the kingdom again!”

Flash never broke eye contact with her as she talked, because that would be rude.  He was in her house, so it was extra important that he be polite.  Aside from that, he remembered how his uncle Henry had made him feel that one summer in France, always listening intently to everything he said as if it was the most important thing.  It had made Flash feel like he mattered.  He didn’t know Morgan yet, and she was apparently allowed to sit on her knees at the table and reach for egg rolls with her bare fingers, but if she was growing up like him in any other way, he wanted her to know there was at least one person that was interested in what she had to say.  She rambled on about the rules of the pony kingdom, making a mess in the kitchen sink when they had a pool party, and how her ponies were banned indefinitely from wearing her mother’s makeup.  Morgan left no room for other conversation for the rest of the meal, though Flash didn’t mind, because he found it saved him from awkward questions from Mr. and Mrs. Stark.

After dinner was over, Flash offered to help clear the table.  Morgan followed him back and forth between the table and the kitchen until her dad scooped her up and told her that Flash needed a breather.  He was thankful for a break from the constant chatter as Tony carried her off to her room to get pajamas on, but once they were gone, found the silence left between him and Pepper awkward again.

“Thank you,” Pepper said, and Flash assumed she was talking about helping to clear the table.

“No problem.”

“Morgan was a little scared to meet you at first, but now that you took the time to listen to her, she’s comfortable around you.”

“Oh,” Flash said.  “I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.”

Pepper gave him a smile as he brought the last of the plates to the sink and she put the last of the takeout boxes into the fridge.

“We usually watch a movie before she has to go to bed.  You don’t have to join in, but you’re welcome to.  She usually wants to watch a Disney movie.”

“I don’t mind,” Flash said.  His parents never sat and watched TV with him after dinner.  Usually he went to his room to finish homework or play video games by himself.  He often spent long hours by himself scrolling Instagram or TikTok, so being invited to watch a movie, even one meant for little kids intrigued him.

Morgan and Tony appeared a few minutes later, Morgan in light blue pajamas with snowflakes on them.  She settled down on the couch right next to her father, and then was joined by Pepper.  Flash took a seat on one of the black leather chairs and tried not to stare at how close the family seemed to be.  He couldn’t ever remember climbing all over his parents like Morgan did, or sitting so closely to them on the couch.  What he could remember, and all he could bring to mind at the moment, was sitting in the hard plastic chair in the hospital room staring at his mother as she breathed her last breaths, assisted by a ventilator, her face bruised and hair messed up.  It was so unlike her to ever look anything less than perfect, never having a hair out of place.  She would have hated knowing how she had looked in her last few hours on earth.

“Flash.”  Tony’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.  He looked up and found Tony and Pepper both giving him a concerned look.  “Ok buddy?”

He frowned, confused for a moment, but then realized his eyes were wet.  He cleared his throat and used his sweater sleeve to dry his eyes quickly.  “Yes, thank you.”  The movie was playing already, but he hadn’t been paying attention and had no idea what was going on.

He didn’t turn to look at Tony again, who he could see from the corner of his eye was giving him a concerned look, and tried to focus on the plot of the movie.  When the song ‘Let It Go’ started playing, Flash asked if he could be excused to go to bed despite that it was only eight in the evening.

Pepper told him he didn’t have to ask, and Flash said, “Excuse me,” and tried not to look like he was hurrying away, trying to escape.  After his bedroom door was closed, he could still hear the song playing in the living room.  The girl in the movie was calling out, ‘let it go,’ but all Flash could think was, come back, I still need you.  He didn’t say it out loud.  His parents were gone, and wouldn’t hear him anyway.

* * *

They let Flash sleep until after eleven the next morning, which surprised him.  Even on days off he was never allowed to sleep in so late.  Tony looked like he was sorry he woke him up knocking on his door, and that confused Flash even more.  “I wouldn’t have woken you, but I have to head to work and I need to introduce you to Happy, our head of security.  He’ll be in the penthouse watching Morgan for a couple of hours.”

Flash asked if he could have a minute to get changed and freshen up, but Tony waved him out of the room like it didn’t matter that Flash’s hair was a mess from sleeping and that he was still in his plaid pajama pants and a rumpled t-shirt.

“You’re fine, it’ll only take a minute, and then you can shower and get changed for the day.”

Flash followed him to the living room, feeling completely out of his element looking like he did, and found himself standing in front of a surly looking man with broad shoulders and a stern expression.

“Happy, Flash, Flash, Happy,” Tony introduced.  “Happy will be taking you to school every morning.  You’ll be riding the subway home from school each day.  You’ve been on a subway before right?”

“Yes sir.  I usually take the train to school.”

Tony nodded.  “Great.  Pepper’s at work.  She’ll be home around five thirty.  I’ll be back in a couple hours.  I have a meeting I can’t get out of.  Happy will be here in the meantime.”

“It’s Friday Boss,” Happy said.

“Right, scratch that.  I’ll be back at four.”

“Daddy,” Morgan complained, reaching up like she wanted her father to pick her up.  “I wanna go too!”

“You have to stay so Flash doesn’t get lonely,” Tony said.  “We’ll be back before mommy gets home from work, promise.”

“Ok,” Morgan pouted.  “But you have to promise.”

“Promise,” Tony said, holding out his pinky finger to Morgan.  Morgan wrapped her pinky finger around his and Tony hurried to the elevator, leaving Flash alone with the surly bodyguard and Morgan.

“If you’ll please excuse me,” Flash said, taking a step back towards his room.  “I just need to get changed.”

Happy gave him a nod and Flash escaped into his room.  It was just after eleven.  He still felt uncomfortable being in the home of strangers, but he’d rather spend his whole day alone in his room and wait for Tony and Pepper to return than spend the day with the man that was watching Morgan.  What had Tony said his name was?  Happy?  The guy seemed anything but Happy.

Flash showered, being careful not to move any of Morgan’s things around in the shared bathroom, and then changed and plugged his laptop in in his room.  He might as well take the time to do some of his homework since he wasn’t at school for the day.  He got through both of his missing math assignments, history, and English, but it was difficult.  His thoughts kept getting dragged to his parents and Henry.

Henry didn’t keep an email because he wasn’t into electronics, and he often changed cell numbers because he hadn’t paid the bill or was moving country to country.  Usually Flash just waited for his uncle to reach out to him or his mom and dad to let him know what his new number was.  Sometimes that was every few weeks, and at other times it was up to a year.  It had been six months since Flash had last heard from him, so if he was lucky (which he didn’t feel like he could be at this point), he was due a call from Henry, who kept Flash’s number written down.  Flash thought it was more likely that he would hear from Henry before his caseworker would be able to track him down.

He was just pulling out his notes to study for his upcoming science test when Morgan knocked on his bedroom door and pushed it open before he could get up to answer.

“Flash, you didn’t eat breakfast, and my ponies are about to have a tea party.  Happy says you gotta eat something, and I said you should eat at my tea party.”

“Sure,” he said.  He wasn’t feeling up to a tea party, or ponies, but he was hungry.  He wondered if she would have tea or water or maybe cookies.  He was surprised when he followed her out and found barbies and ponies scattered around the kitchen table, as well as sandwiches cut into neat little triangles and other things like little cakes.  It was a full spread.  Happy must have helped her make it.

The man snorted when he saw Flash’s confusion and awe.  “Have a seat kid.”

“Next to Iron Princess!” Morgan shouted in glee, pointing at a chair.  On the table was a custom painted My Little Pony.  It was painted in red and gold and looked like it was wearing Iron Man armor.  The pony’s mane and tail was light pink.  The kids at school would never believe him.

Flash sat down, uncertain about what he was supposed to do, because he’d never been to a five year old’s pony tea party, but Happy slid a tray of sandwiches over to him and told him to take what he wanted.  It was both the oddest thing he’d ever taken part in, and the most relaxing.  The bodyguard seemed to have a soft spot for Morgan and Flash watched in awe as he held his pinky up in the air as he drank juice from a toy teacup and used prim and proper language that even Flash’s mother would have been proud of.

“If you’ll excuse me Miss Morgan, I would love another Pettifor.”

Morgan giggled and handed Happy half a Twinkie, which he also ate with his pinky held in the air.  Flash couldn’t hold back the laugh that slipped out of him.  Happy shot him an amused look before eating his Twinkie.

As he’d done the night before, Flash helped clean up after the tea party was over.  He didn’t retreat to his room again after.  If he was going to be here for a while he’d need to get comfortable being around these people he’d found himself in the care of.

He sat in the same black leather armchair as the night before and watched cartoons with Morgan for the rest of the afternoon.  He lost track of time and was surprised when four o’clock rolled around and the elevator door slid open.  He might not have even noticed that Mr. Stark had returned, except for the fact that Morgan jumped up off the couch and ran screaming in excitement towards the elevator.

“PETEY!”

Flash turned, wondering who she was calling out for, and froze when he saw Morgan fly into the arms of Peter Parker.

His blood felt like ice in his veins.  Everything had been going so well too.

What.  The.  Hell?

Author's Note: This wasn't what I sat down to write today, but it's what I ended up writing.  I know it's a little different than the fics I usually write.  I had this idea and dropped it as a prompt in the Iron Dad Discord server and then ended up sitting down to write it myself.  It will be 1-2 weeks until the next chapter is posted.  I'll get it up sooner if I finish sooner.  Chapter 1 was just setting the story up.  Chapter 2 is where all the fun stuff happens between Flash and Peter.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Chapter Text

Flash felt like the breath had been knocked out of him, and his thoughts were jumbled and incoherent.  Parker?  Here?  What was Parker doing here?

As Flash watched him hug Morgan, Parker’s eyes came up and found Flash gaping at him.  He looked wary, but it was only a moment before Morgan was demanding Parker’s attention and Parker pulled his eyes away to look at the little girl.  She was clinging to him like this was a regular thing.

“Morgan, why don’t you let him get settled for a few minutes?” Tony said, and Morgan turned in Parker’s arms to give her father a frown.

“No Daddy, it’s been sooo long since he was here!”

Tony rolled his eyes at her, but then stepped towards Parker and held out his arms.  Parker passed her off to Tony like this was also a regular thing.  It was only then, once Morgan was no longer in Parker’s arms, that Flash noted the backpack slung over the other boy’s shoulder.  It wasn’t the normal bag Flash usually saw him with at school.

“Pepper will be home soon,” Tony said.  “We’ll do dinner and a movie.  Pizza?”

Parker nodded, gave Flash another wary look, walked to the kitchen and then disappeared through a door beside the kitchen.  Flash didn’t know what was through there, and hadn’t even noticed the door until now.  He couldn’t imagine what was through there or what Parker would be doing in there.  Before he could see anything, Parker shut the door, and Flash’s attention was pulled back into the living room where Tony was talking to Happy.

“How’d it go, you staying for dinner?”

“Morgan had a tea party.  She was good.”

“No problems?”

“No,” Happy said.  Flash felt like that last question wasn’t about Morgan at all, and his stomach squirmed.  He was once again reminded what a foreign environment he was in, or rather that he was the foreign element in their environment.  He was the unknown to them, so it would make sense that Tony would ask Happy how things had gone with Flash there.

“Dinner?” Tony asked the bodyguard again.

“I think I’ll pass.  Thanks, Boss.”  Tony nodded and Happy passed by them, headed towards the elevator.  “Let me know if you need anything.”

“Yep,” Tony called out, setting Morgan down in front of the couch.  “Thanks Hap.”  When Tony looked back down at Morgan, he found her staring up at him, face scrunched up in a frown, arms crossed.  “What?”

“Daddy, I wanna play with Petey.”

“Go play with him then.  I just wanted you to give him some room to breathe.”  Tony sat down on the couch so he was closer to her level.  “You gotta let him get in the door and put his things away first, munchkin.”

Flash could practically see the wheels turning in her mind.  Her expression clearly said, He’s here, and his things are put away.

Before Morgan could go to the door Parker had disappeared through, the door opened and he came out, shutting it behind him again.

Morgan ran around the couch and launched herself at Parker again, who caught her and pulled her up into a hug.  She planted a kiss on his cheek and Flash was more confused than ever.  Had Parker just been placed in foster care too?  What would the odds of that be?  The caseworker had told Flash that they’d tried hard to get him in with a family that wasn’t too different from his own… but Parker lived in some dumpy apartment in Queens with his aunt.  Flash’s chest clenched for a moment at the thought that Peter might have lost his aunt, but when he looked up at the other boy, he found his eyes alight with Morgan’s chatter, which was filling up the space between them as he carried her back to the living room.  He didn’t look upset or sad.

When Parker and Morgan made it to the living room, Peter set her down and then met Flash’s eyes again.  “Hey,” he said quietly.  He didn’t seem surprised to see Flash there at all.  None of this made sense!

Flash itched to ask all of his questions… to demand that Peter tell him what was going on so he could make the random pieces of this bizarre reality he found himself in fit into place, but he didn’t get the chance.  Tony was watching him… not all the kids in the room, just Flash.  He realized his mouth was still hanging open and snapped it shut.

“Movie?” Tony asked.  He could clearly sense the tension in the room between Peter and Flash.

“Sure,” Peter said.  He sat down on the couch right next to Tony.  Not on one of the two free leather chairs, but next to Tony, just inches apart.  Morgan plopped down on top of both of them, using them both like one large chair to lounge on, and Tony picked up the remote.

“Frozen!” she insisted.

“Nope, Peter and Flash get to choose.”

Morgan’s face scrunched up in a frown again, and she crossed her arms, but she didn’t complain.

“I don’t care what we watch,” Peter said.

“Flash?” Tony asked.  Flash was the only one left standing.  He’d never felt so out of his element than in that moment.  Peter didn’t seem surprised at all that he was there, and Tony hadn’t made an attempt to introduce them.  Because Tony knows that we know each other, Flash realized, one piece of the odd puzzle fitting into place.  And with that puzzle piece, came another.  The comment about bullying from the morning before.  “FRIDAY knows what’s going on at any given time.  She reports any injuries or bullying.”  Peter had told Tony that Flash is a bully, and he’d probably assumed Flash would bully Morgan.  Before Flash had ever gotten there, Peter had been trying to screw this up for him!

Flash realized Tony was still watching him, waiting for an answer.  He felt behind him for the black leather chair and sat down in it, almost missing his mark and falling to the ground.  That would have been embarrassing.  “Whatever you’d like to watch is fine with me,” he said, forcing his tone to be calm… proper.

“Mythbusters it is then,” Tony said.  He used the remote to navigate to an episode of Mythbusters and the show started playing.  It wasn’t long before Morgan slid off of Tony and Peter and ran to her room to get some toys, bored with the show.  Flash wasn’t bored with it, but he didn’t even try to pay attention.  His eyes kept drifting over to Peter and Tony.  They looked comfortable sitting there together, despite that Parker looked uncomfortable at the same time with Flash in such close proximity.

Flash’s mind went over a dozen different scenarios, but there wasn’t a single one he could come up with that would explain all of this.  No caseworker had come up with Parker, so he clearly wasn’t there to be fostered.  Parker wasn’t rich or famous, so there was no reason for him to know Tony Stark let alone be so comfortable with him.  The thought that Parker’s aunt might know the Starks and that they could be family friends crossed his mind, but he really didn’t think that was a possibility either.

Parker had said that he had an internship at Stark Industries… Ned had been under the impression that it was a personal internship with Tony Stark himself, but no one at school believed it, especially not Flash.  He let his eyes drift over to the couch again.  Now he wasn’t so sure, because clearly they knew each other.  Even if Parker somehow did have an internship with the man, it didn’t explain what he was doing there in the penthouse, chilling out on the couch and watching Mythbusters… or why he and Morgan were so familiar with each other.

Flash wanted answers, but it seemed like everything that happened for the rest of the evening conspired against him getting any.  They watched TV as a group until Pepper came home from work just after five.  There were times when Tony or Pepper left the room, but never at the same time.  There was always one of them in the room wherever Peter was.

They ordered dinner, started a movie which Morgan got to choose (Frozen again), and then when Pepper was getting Morgan ready for bed, Tony asked Peter and Flash if they wanted to play a board game.  It threw Flash for a loop, because he never played board games, but also because he wasn’t used to adults wanting to spend time with him.  The closest he came to that when Henry wasn’t around, was going to AcaDec, three days a week after school, or on various AcaDec field trips.  Mr. Harrington was always present there, and took an interest in the lives of the various team members, asking how his students were doing in school, if they had big weekend plans, and things of that nature.  Mr. Harrington frequently reminded Flash of uncle Henry.  While Tony still seemed a little wary of Flash, he was starting to remind Flash of Henry too.

“Erm, no thank you,” Flash said.  “I still have some homework to catch up on.  May I be excused?”

“Sure, you don’t have to ask,” Tony said.  Flash gave Peter another uncertain look, and then backed away from the dining room and towards his bedroom door.  Peter had been holding himself as though he were tense throughout the evening too.  Flash only realized that because the last glimpse he caught of the other boy before he stepped into his room was of Peter’s shoulders slumping a little, finally relaxing.

Flash pulled his bedroom door most of the way closed, but left it open an inch.  He could hear Morgan and Pepper in the shared bathroom getting Morgan ready for bed, but if he stayed quiet, he could also hear Parker and Tony in the dining room at the kitchen table.  He peered out of his room through the crack and watched for a few moments.  They weren’t pulling out a board game to play.  Instead they were just sitting there talking quietly.  He could hear Tony asking how Peter’s day at school had been, and about May, but couldn’t hear exactly what was being said.

Flash got ready for bed himself despite that he didn’t feel tired.  He sat down and tried to study, but couldn’t, and ended up pulling out his phone to scroll through TikTok videos and social media.  After an hour he looked back out his bedroom door and noted that Tony and Peter were no longer at the kitchen table, but on the couch watching Mythbusters again.  It was nine PM, and it was clear now that Parker was staying the night, even though Flash still had no clue as to why.

At ten, Tony disappeared, though Flash wasn’t sure if he’d gone to bed or left the penthouse.  Parker had gone too.  Maybe Tony had taken Parker home after all.

Flash came out of the penthouse and went into the kitchen on the pretense of getting a snack.  He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water to make his excuse for being out of his room valid, when really he just wanted to survey the penthouse and make sure that Parker was really gone.  He stared at the door beside the kitchen that Parker had disappeared through earlier, but didn’t make a move to open it to see what was on the other side.  That would be rude.  It was probably just a bathroom he reasoned.  He wasn’t going to get caught snooping and get in trouble though.  He didn’t want the Starks to call his caseworker and tell her that Flash was being rude.  That was the last thing he needed.

He went back to his room and flopped down on the bed.  He signed into his family’s Netflix account on his iPad and started watching an anime series he was in the middle of.  He lost track of time until he heard voices out in the kitchen.  His eyes flickered up to his bedroom door and then down to the clock on his iPad.  It was almost midnight.  He got up and went to his door to peer out.  Tony and Peter were getting a snack in the kitchen.

“What the hell Parker?” Flash breathed.

It seemed that Tony was on his way to bed.  Flash wondered what room Parker was going to stay in, but Parker opened the door next to the kitchen again and stepped inside, leaving it open this time.

After Tony had gone into the master bedroom, Flash crossed the penthouse and went to the open door next to the kitchen where light was spilling out.  It seemed like Parker was expecting him, because he looked up as soon as Flash came to stand in the doorframe, careful not to cross into the bedroom that was on the other side.

Flash’s eyes roved around the room for a few moments.  It was well lived in.  Unlike Flash’s room, the walls had posters, there was a gaming PC with glowing green accents on a desk by the windows, and clothes strewn out across various surfaces.

“Hey,” Peter said.  His voice was tight.

Flash wanted to say, Hey, back.  He wanted to ask what Peter was doing there, and who’s room this was, and how he knew Tony, Pepper and Morgan.  What came out was the first thought he’d had upon seeing Peter step into the penthouse that afternoon.  “What the hell Parker?”

Peter grimaced, but the expression disappeared after only a moment.  “I’m gonna head to bed,” Peter said.

It wasn’t what Flash had expected him to say.  The things Peter said were rarely ever what Flash expected him to say.  “What is this?  What are you doing here?”  Flash didn’t offer up the information of what he was doing there, but Peter either didn’t care to know, or he already knew.

“Getting ready for bed,” Peter said.  He hadn’t said it in a nasty tone, but his answer still aggravated Flash.

“Parker-”

“Don’t,” Peter said.  He sounded tired, but his voice was also cold.  He looked up and met Flash’s eyes.  “Don’t rock the boat.”

“What?” Flash wasn’t entirely sure what Peter had said, and when his mind finally heard the words, he wasn’t sure what they meant.

“Whatever you’re going to do or say, don’t,” Peter said.  “It’s not worth it.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Sleeping.”  Peter stepped towards him, and Flash took several steps back, back out into the dark kitchen.  Peter frowned at him, probably wondering why Flash had stumbled back like that.  Then he stepped forward again and gently shut the bedroom door.  Flash heard the lock click as soon as it was shut, and then he was left standing in the kitchen by himself, blinking in the darkness in confusion.

Why had he stumbled back like that?  As he walked back to his own room, Flash chastised himself for how stupid he’d been, and how stupid he had made himself look.  Parker was quiet, often timid at school, and had no muscles.  He left people alone, and when Flash picked on him, he often just took it without a word.  There was no reason at all for Flash to be scared of him, and the only reason Flash could come up with, was that his world was still standing on end.  He’d never been in a fun house, but he’d seen videos online of slanted floors and disoriented people unable to walk in a straight line.  That’s what he felt like, and he’d felt like that for days.

Not scared then, he told himself.  This was Parker, and there was nothing to be scared of.

As he went back to bed, the glow of TikTok videos lighting his face, Flash couldn’t help but feel scared though, and by the time he fell asleep an hour and a half later, he still couldn’t pinpoint why.

* * *

Don’t rock the boat.  That’s what Parker had told him.  Flash hated that it was sound advice.  Whatever this was that was going on with Parker and the Starks, the Starks already thought that Flash was a bully, thanks to him, and Flash couldn’t afford to make waves when he needed a place to stay until Henry was found.  Don’t rock the boat.  Knowing he shouldn’t, and putting that into practice were two entirely different things.

When Flash woke up Saturday morning, he found Tony in the kitchen making pancakes and Morgan watching cartoons.  Peter and Pepper were there too, but they disappeared into the elevator a few minutes later and didn’t come back until later that afternoon.  “Shopping,” Tony told Flash as an explanation as soon as they left, but Flash didn’t get anything other than that.

Flash spent a couple hours in his room playing a game on his handheld game system, and then agreed to play a boardgame with Morgan where he was pretty sure Morgan made up all the rules because they changed every few minutes.  Peter and Pepper came back around two in the afternoon, Pepper with several bags of what looked like clothes, and Peter with a single new hoodie, price tag dangling off the sleeve.

“I’m going down to the lab Pep,” Tony told Pepper a few minutes after she returned.

“Ok, but don’t be too long.”  They shared a brief kiss and then Tony left the penthouse.  

Flash thought about asking Peter again what he was doing there, but instead found himself observing Peter and Pepper, who also seemed to know each other.  Peter offered to help her make dinner, and she let him.  The two of them talked about random things, from work to school.  Peter’s aunt was mentioned several times, and from Peter’s answers, as far as Flash could tell, the woman was alive and well.

After dinner that evening, Peter and Flash were left alone several times, but only for a few minutes at a time.  Each time Flash came up to Peter and asked why he was there, Peter didn’t give him an answer.

Sunday went the same way.  Peter and Tony were gone from the penthouse before Flash woke up, and when they returned, a movie was turned on and Peter sat down next to Tony on the couch to watch, Morgan using the both of them as a lounge chair.

Then, Sunday evening, Peter came out of the room he was staying in with his backpack full of what Flash assumed to be clothes, and left with Tony.

“It was good to see you sweetheart,” Pepper said, giving Peter a hug.

“I don’t want him to go,” Morgan whined, stomping her foot and hanging off of Peter’s arm.

“You’ll have fun without me,” Peter told her.  He stooped down and hugged her, and then he and Tony got into the elevator and disappeared.

This time it was Pepper that Flash found watching him as he watched the family plus Parker.

“How are you doing sweetheart?” she asked.

Blood rushed in his ears for a few moments.  Sweetheart?  Had he heard that right?

“Uh, fine.  I’m fine, thank you.”  He tugged at the bottom of his polo shirt, trying to straighten it.
“Are you feeling like you’re ready to go back to school in the morning, or would you like another day off?”

“I’m ready for school,” he told her.  “I’m caught up on all of my homework.”

She nodded, frowned slightly, and said, “You’ve been through a lot in the last few days.  It’s ok if you need another day, or another few days before you go back.”

“I can do it,” he told her.  She was treating him like he was fragile… weak or something.  It wasn’t like Flash had been in that wreck with his parents.  Sure, he’d been confused all weekend, especially about Parker’s presence, but he was completely fine.  They probably expected him to get back to school as soon as possible so they wouldn’t have to deal with him hanging around the penthouse and could get back to whatever their normal routine was.

Going back to school would also mean Flash would get a chance to talk to Parker alone and ask him what the hell he’d just witnessed all weekend.

“If you change your mind, or you get to school tomorrow and decide that it’s too soon,” Pepper said, voice soft, “it’s ok to call us.  You should put our numbers in your phone… mine and Tony’s and Happy’s too.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.  The thought that he’d have Tony Stark and Pepper Pott’s personal phone numbers in his phone was weird.  He still wasn’t entirely sure that this wasn’t all some sort of crazy dream, because he was there in their home at the top of Stark Tower.  It was bizarre that they had signed up to be foster parents at all.  It was only lucky for him that they had.

* * *

Parker was avoiding him at school.  He rushed to each of his classes instead of lingering in the halls, disappeared entirely at lunch, and made sure there were no empty seats next to him in the one class they shared during fourth period.  Flash decided to stake out his locker at the end of the day, sure that he’d catch Peter there, but he never showed up.

Flash was frustrated, but did his best to brush it off as he headed out of school and to the subway station.  It had been nice that morning to have Happy drive him to school.  Usually he took the train to and from school.  Now he’d only have to take it back to the tower at the end of the day.

He took his time getting to the train, like he usually did on the way home.  Sometimes he didn’t go home for hours, and instead got off the train and wandered around Manhattan.  He was used to having a large allowance, and often went to get a snack or meal after school, or went to the Apple store to look at the new electronics they had for sale.  Sometimes he went to Central Park.  His parents usually didn’t get home until after six each night anyway, so it wasn’t like they missed him if he didn’t get home right after school.  He wasn’t sure if the Starks would want him back right away, but supposed that he’d find out.

He got back just after four, made it through security in the lobby ok, and up to the penthouse.  Morgan and Happy were there.

“Flash!” the little girl exclaimed happily.  She didn’t run to him or throw herself at him like she’d done to Parker, but at least she seemed happy to see him.  “Uncle Happy made snacks!”

Happy gave Flash a single upward nod of his head and then held out a plate with cut up vegetables and cheese.  Flash reached forward and took a celery stick and said, “Thank you.”

“The train ride go ok?” Happy asked, brow raised.

“Yes sir.”

“You have homework?”

“Yes.  I’ll do it right now.”

“You can relax if you want,” Happy said.

Flash frowned.  His parents would have told him to study until after dinner.  He was only allowed a break after they were sure he’d studied and was ready to get the highest possible grades that he could.

Flash went to his room and pulled out his schoolwork, but like the past several days, he was having trouble concentrating.  His mind kept getting pulled to Parker, his parents, the hospital, and the car crash.  He hadn’t seen it, but he’d overheard the doctors talking about it.  Apparently his parents’ car was nothing more than a pile of twisted metal by the time the paramedics had arrived.

Flash shuddered and re-read the paragraph he’d been staring at for over ten minutes.  Things had been difficult with his parents… strained.  They always had been.  That didn’t mean that Flash was glad they were gone though.  Far from it.  Them dying meant he was all alone.  Not the alone that he always felt, but really, truly alone in the world.  It had only been a few days, and he knew it would take time to get in contact with uncle Henry, but there was a thought at the back of Flash’s mind that was begging him to pay attention.  What if Henry wasn’t coming back?  What if he had died too?  What if he just didn’t want anything to do with Flash or his parents?

Flash ran his hand up the side of his face and then left it there, staring at his history homework.  There was no way he was going to be able to do this right now.  He had to though.  There was an assignment due in the morning and a test later in the week.  He’d spent all weekend catching up on his missing work and couldn’t afford to get behind again.  If his parents were somehow looking down on him from wherever they were now, they would be disappointed.  He could almost hear his father’s scathing remarks and his mother’s disappointed sigh.

He reread the paragraph a third time, not really taking any information in, and then read it again.  It was probably around his fifth time through it (staring off into space with his head in his hands), that there was a knock on his door and he startled.  He looked up, eyes aching, and found Pepper standing in the doorframe.

“Dinner will be ready soon.”

Flash swallowed, throat dry.  “I’ll be ready.”

“Flash?”  He lifted his eyes up to meet hers again, but didn’t answer.  “Can I come in?”  He nodded mutely and Pepper came into his room and stood next to his desk.  “How are you doing?”

“I’m good.”  It was a lie, and he had a feeling she knew it, but she didn’t call him out on it.

“You know…” she trailed off for a moment, taking her time to think about what to say to him.  Flash half expected her to just give up and walk away.  He wouldn’t want to deal with him either right now if he were in her shoes.  He was supposed to be perfect… supposed to not show weakness, and he was pretty sure at this point that he was crumbling.  It wasn’t fair.  He was here with the freaking Starks, and he  couldn’t pull himself together to present his best self to them.  He needed to make a good impression, and there was no way he could.  His parents would definitely be disappointed in him.  “Why don’t you come help me in the kitchen,” Pepper said.

Flash nodded and stood up.  He could redeem himself a little if he could help her out with dinner.  He didn’t know how to cook well, but he knew enough to help and lighten her load.  He got up and followed her out of his room and into the kitchen.  She already had something cooking in the oven, though he wasn’t sure what.  He hadn’t even realized that she’d come home from work.  It had been over an hour that he’d been sitting at the desk in his room staring off into space instead of getting his homework done.

“Will you chop up some vegetables?” she asked.  “Do you know how?”

“Yes maam.  I took home-ec.”  His mother had insisted he take it his freshman year.  She hadn’t wanted to take the time to teach him to cook, but wanted him to know how for when he went away to college.

She opened the fridge and brought out a bag of carrots, an onion, and some celery.  “I’ll wash, you chop,” she told him, and he nodded.  A cutting board and knife were already out on the counter, ready to be used.  She washed four or five carrots and then set them on the cutting board and he set to work chopping them up.

“How was school?” she asked, washing and peeling the onion.

“It was good,” he said.  He didn’t know if it had been good or not.  He’d spent time thinking about and trying to track down Parker, but otherwise his mind had wandered in classes.  If it weren’t for the teachers writing up the assignment on the board in each class, he wouldn’t know what was due or what to study because he hadn’t been paying attention.  He straightened his back up, trying to stand tall.  His mother didn’t like it when he slouched.

“How about the ride home on the train?  Did that go well?”

“Yes maam.”  He wondered again if he was required to come home right away, and decided to ask.  “Am I supposed to come back right after school?”

“Is there somewhere you were wanting to go after school?”

He shrugged, done chopping the carrots now, which he dumped into a waiting bowl.  She handed him the onion, and he started to chop it too.  “Sometimes I go to the library to study, or I sit and study in the park before going home,” he lied.  He had done those things before, but he usually didn’t study until he got home.  He liked being out and about on his own.  He still had a couple hundred dollars in his wallet, saved up from months of allowance.  He knew he wouldn’t be getting an allowance as a foster kid, and probably wouldn’t get one from Henry when he finally came back either.  If he came back.  But until then he had some money to spend getting snacks or other things he wanted if he wasn’t required to be back at the penthouse right away after school.

“You’re allowed to go out, but if you’re not going to come back home right after school, we’d appreciate a text.  You can text me or Tony and let us know where you’ll be.  Try to be home by six.”

“Yes maam.”

She pursed her lips.  He’d yet to call her Pepper.  It felt odd to him to do so.  At school he called teachers Mr. or Mrs. and at home he called his parents Sir and Maam.  Henry and Mr. Harrington were the only two adults that didn’t seem to care what they were called.  Some of the students in AcaDec called their teacher Roger if it was after school hours or they were out on a field trip or something.  MJ had started it, and when others saw that Mr. Harrington didn’t care, they’d started using his first name as well.  Flash and Parker were the only two people on the AcaDec team that didn’t use Mr. Harrington’s first name.

“Do you want help with your homework after dinner?” she asked, bringing his attention back to where he was and what he was doing.  He’d been staring off into space again instead of chopping vegetables.  He hurried to finish up with the onion so he could chop up the celery.

“No, thank you,” he said.  If his hands didn’t need to stay clean for a few more minutes to chop vegetables, he would reach down and straighten his shirt.  Instead he made sure he was standing up straight again and not slouching.

“If you want help, just ask me or Tony.”

Flash let his gaze wander around the penthouse for a few moments.  He didn’t see Tony anywhere.  Pepper seemed to know that Flash was looking for him and said, “Tony is in his lab right now.  He’ll be back for dinner though.  If I didn’t remind him, he’d be in there all night and forget to eat.”

“Where is his lab?”  Flash clamped his mouth shut as soon as he asked.  That was rude, he thought.  He was a guest, and demanding answers to satisfy his own curiosity was rude.  It was the reason he hadn’t asked them about Parker yet, and wouldn’t.

“It’s a few floors below us,” she said.  “There are dozens of labs lower in the tower, but he never uses those because he has a personal lab.”

Flash wanted to ask if that’s where he worked on his Iron Man suits, but kept his mouth shut.  He finished chopping the celery and she took all of the chopped vegetables and put them in a hot pan she had waiting to go, and started seasoning them.

“Do you like garlic?” she asked.

“Yes.  I’ll eat anything,” he told her.  There were things he definitely didn’t like.  Several French foods he’d tried that one summer with uncle Henry floated to mind.  But his parents had drilled into him the necessity to be polite, not to complain, and not to make a nuisance of himself.  There was no way he was going to complain about or turn down anything the Starks made for dinner.  Not even if it was on Flash’s list of top ten most hated foods.

“What’s your favorite food?” Pepper asked, stirring the vegetables as they cooked.

He relaxed a little.  That was something he could answer without fear of being rude.  There were plenty of things he liked to eat.  “Fried rice.”

“Anything else?  Favorite dessert?”

“Pumpkin pie.”  It was one of the few foods his parents bought or made for him around the holidays that was just for him.  Neither of them liked pumpkin pie, and neither did uncle Henry, so when a pumpkin pie was set out each Thanksgiving and again at Christmas, that was all for Flash.  His parents hadn’t often said things like, ‘I love you’, but he had felt it in those moments when a pumpkin pie had appeared.

“Oh, you and Tony will get along well at Thanksgiving,” she told him, and Flash’s eyes came up to survey her face.  She was smiling a little as she looked down into the pan and stirred the vegetables again.  “He loves pumpkin pie.”

She went on to ask him about other foods he liked, including snacks, his favorite type of pizza, and his favorite candy.  By the time she was pulling their dinner out of the oven, Flash was feeling relaxed.  More relaxed than he’d felt in days.  He tensed up a little again when the elevator doors opened and Tony came out.  Flash wasn’t even sure why at first.  Tony didn’t look angry.

Flash took in his face, and the way he held himself.  Tense, Flash decided.  Tony looked tense… wary.  The only reason Flash could think of that the man might feel tense and wary was that Flash was still a stranger staying in their home.  Bully.  The word came to mind in Parker’s whiny voice, and all of his frustration and anger and curiosity about the other boy came flooding back to him.  Parker had told them that Flash was a bully, and now they were wary of him.  It might not even matter if Flash could pull himself together enough to make a good impression on them if that was hanging over his head the whole time he was there.

“How was school?” Tony asked.

It took Flash’s mind long moments to realize that Tony was talking to him.  He looked up at him and found the man leaning on the kitchen counter, watching him.  “Good sir.  I still have some homework to do.”

“Need help?”

Did they think Flash was stupid?  What else had Parker told them about him?

“No sir.”  And then because he needed them to know that whatever else Parker had said about him was a lie, he said, “I’m top of my class in several classes.  I have one hundred percent in almost every course.”  Parker was the top of the class in most of his classes, including the one class they shared.  Flash would get one hundred percent, and Parker would often be sitting at one hundred and one percent.  One time, Flash didn’t know how, Parker had gotten a hundred and five percent in a math class they had shared their freshman year.  Flash had done all the extra credit that Parker had done, but hadn’t managed to get up to one hundred and five percent.  It still rankled every time he thought about it.

“Well, if you want help,” Tony said.  He pointed to himself and a small smile came over his face as he said, “Genius.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Pepper said.  She handed Flash a bowl of food to take to the table, and then handed a stack of plates to Tony.  “He’s terrible at English essays.”

“I don’t have to be the best at English essays when I’m the best at everything else,” Tony said, unbothered.  “Morgan!  Dinner!” he called.

Morgan’s bedroom door opened and she came running out, wearing a sparkly pink tutu and dragging an equally glittery pink stuffed bear in her hand.  Flash would have never been allowed to dinner wearing something like that.  He was quickly learning that the Starks were pretty lax where it concerned Morgan however… something Flash was glad of.

As Flash ate his dinner quietly that night, listening to Tony and Pepper talk about their day, and listening to Pepper ask Morgan about her day, he tried to relax again, but couldn’t quite manage.  It was hard to relax in a space that wasn’t his, around people that were wary of him.  It made him feel like he’d mess things up no matter what he did and prove to the Starks that he was everything Parker had told them about him, despite that Flash didn’t know what all that Parker had said.

Later, as he sat in his room trying to focus enough to finish his homework, he thought about Pepper.  He liked Pepper.  He liked all of them, but Pepper he thought, was a little bit like uncle Henry.  He could let himself relax a little around her, and hoped that she’d be around to make dinner the next night as well.

* * *

Flash fell against the closed locker right next to Parker’s locker heavily, making the metal of the locker clang as his shoulder hit it.  Peter’s eyes flickered up to him, and resignation came over his face.

“Hey Flash,” he said dully.

“What was that this weekend?” Flash asked.  He’d been unable to find Parker all morning Tuesday, and the kid had disappeared during lunch again.  Flash wasn’t going to waste this chance to get the answers he wanted when he’d finally caught Parker at his locker.

“What was what?”

“Don’t play with me.  You know what I mean.”  Flash’s voice was tight… cutting.  He didn’t care.  He needed to know what Parker had said about him, and why he’d been there over the weekend.

“I told you I have an internship.”

“Right, an internship,” Flash scoffed.  “And that means you get to just hang around their penthouse all weekend why?”

Peter pressed his lips together, jaw tight.  “That’s my business.”

“Yeah, well I’m the one living there, so it’s mine too.  I know you told them I was a bully.  What else did you say, huh?”

Peter frowned.  “I haven’t said anything.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Peter looked like that statement didn’t bother him any.  “You never believe me,” he said, and closed his locker door.

Flash moved to step in front of him, but was surprised when Peter squared up his shoulders, like he was getting ready to fight.  “Look,” Parker’s voice cut across.  “I’m not interested in fighting with you.  It’s not worth it.”

Don’t rock the boat.  Flash let him move around him and disappear into the crowd of students making their way to their last class of the day.  He clenched his jaw for a moment.  He hadn’t gotten any answers at all, and thought that maybe the encounter with Peter had left him with even more questions than before.

After school that day at AcaDec, Flash watched Peter as he sat with Ned and MJ and studied at the edge of the stage in the auditorium.  He was only distracted from his thoughts by Mr. Harrington, who came to sit with him for a few minutes just to check in.

“I know things are rough right now,” he told Flash.  “If you need something, let me know, even if it’s just to talk.”

“Thanks.”

“Are you staying with family?”

Flash shifted in his seat, feeling nervous.  He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to tell anyone that he was staying with the Starks, and even if he was, he was sure no one would believe him.  “They’re looking for my uncle.”

“I see.”  Mr. Harrington gave him a sad look and Flash wished he wouldn’t.

“I’m fine.”

“Ok.  But if you’re not, that’s ok too, Flash.  I’m here, ok?”

Flash clenched his jaw again and nodded.

As soon as AcaDec was over, Parker raced out of the auditorium like the place was on fire.  Flash assumed it was because he wanted to avoid being questioned again.  Flash took his time getting to the train, and then took his time getting back to the tower when he got off the train in Manhattan.  He stopped in at a coffee shop and bought a big soft cookie, and walked back to the tower in the chilly October air.  No one was there when he got up to the penthouse, despite that it was nearing six.

“FRIDAY?” he asked.  He hadn’t really interacted with the AI yet.

“Yes Mr. Thompson?”

“Erm… are they-” he wasn’t sure what to ask.  Are they coming back?  Of course they were, he scolded himself.  It’s their house.  When he didn’t finish his question, the AI decided to answer anyway.

“Boss is in his lab.  Mrs. Boss is finishing up a meeting that ran late.  Morgan is with Mr. Hogan picking up dinner.”

“Right… thanks.”

“My pleasure.  I estimate that Mr. Hogan and Morgan will return in approximately thirty minutes, and that Mrs. Boss will be done with her meeting in the next hour.”

Flash tried not to let himself be disappointed that Pepper wasn’t around and that he wouldn’t be able to help her with dinner that night.  He went to his room and sat down to do some homework.  He didn’t have a lot of it to get through that night.

Just as FRIDAY predicted, Happy and Morgan came back to the penthouse around thirty minutes later with bags full of burgers and fries.  Flash came out of his room as soon as he heard them return.

“Hey, dinner’s here,” Happy said.  It had been explained to Flash that Happy was head of tower security and a bodyguard, but he also seemed to be a babysitter to Morgan at least part of the time.

“Is Mr. Stark coming?” Flash asked.

Happy looked at his watch as he pulled a burger out of the bag and handed it to Flash.  “Not sure.  Pepper should be back soon though.”  He’d barely finished saying it when the elevator door opened and Pepper came in.  Morgan hurried over to her, burger half unwrapped in her hand and mouth full of french fries.  “We got burgers mommy!” she said, mouth full of food.  Her hand looked sticky but Pepper reached down and took it anyway.  She was dressed up in expensive business clothes, but didn’t seem to mind that they were about to get covered in ketchup from Morgan’s burger.  Maybe they just had so much money that they didn’t care.  Flash’s parents had had plenty of money, but insisted on everything being spotless.  It was one of the reasons Flash hadn’t been allowed to keep playing baseball.  His mother couldn’t stand to see him coming home with dirt up the front of his pants and shirt from sliding into bases, and dirt on his cleats.

Pepper and Morgan came back to the kitchen, she thanked Happy for watching Morgan and picking up dinner, and then turned her attention to Flash.  Before she even asked him how his day went, a smile came over his face, though he didn’t realize it was there.

* * *

His first week with the Starks passed uneventfully, aside from Parker staying that first weekend.  Flash’s stomach twisted as Thursday came and went.  One week since his parents had died and left him all alone.  Tony wasn’t around the penthouse much during the week, and Flash rarely saw him except in the morning before school, but Thursday evening he seemed to make it a point of sticking around the penthouse, and was there when Flash returned from school.

“You want to watch a movie?” he asked Flash.  Flash just stared at him, surprised, backpack still hanging over one shoulder.

“Sure,” he said, throat tight.  He put his bag in his room and came back to the living room.  Tony sat down in the middle of the couch and Flash stared at the empty spot next to him where Parker had sat over the weekend.  Flash took the leather chair.  He still didn’t know what right Parker had to sit there, but Flash definitely had no business sitting next to the man.  He was just there temporarily… just a guest in their home.

“Preferences?” Tony asked.  The man was eying him warily this time… or maybe not, Flash thought.  The look wasn’t quite wary… sad maybe.  Flash wondered if it had anything to do with his parents dying that day the week before.

He shook his head.

“You good with Mythbusters then?  Or how about The Martian?  Seen that yet?”

He shook his head again.  “Whatever you want to watch,” he said.

Tony turned on The Martian and they settled in quietly to watch the movie in silence.  Twenty minutes in, Happy brought Morgan home from wherever they’d been, and Morgan came to the chair Flash was sitting in and climbed up on top of him… like she’d done to Parker and Tony over the weekend.  She stuck her knees and elbows on his legs and stomach.  It hurt but he didn’t complain.  He gave a look to Tony to see what he thought of this, silently asking if this was ok.  Tony didn’t seem bothered by it though, so Flash tried to relax as Morgan got comfortable.

“I had a bad day,” she whispered up to Flash a few minutes later.

He kept his eyes on the movie, as he whispered back, “Why?”

“A girl at school pulled my hair.  She was mean.”

“Why’d she do that?”

Morgan shrugged.  “All the girls had a braid today, but I didn’t.”

Flash frowned.  He knew Tony or Pepper did her hair every morning and got her ready to go to the private Kindergarten she attended in Manhattan.

She looked up at him and asked, “Do you know how to do a braid?”

“Yeah,” he lied.  He’d never even touched a girl's hair before, let alone practiced braiding.

“Can you do one for me?”

He froze, and finally pulled his eyes away from the TV to look down at her.  She was looking up at him expectantly.  He was a guest there, not part of their family, but she was looking at him like he was… expecting him to help her so she didn’t get her hair pulled the next morning at school.

“Yeah,” he said.  She smiled and relaxed against him, back against his chest.  He felt totally screwed, and couldn’t concentrate on the movie as it finished, despite that he’d initially been interested in it.

After dinner, he excused himself to his room and ignored his homework in favor of looking up YouTube videos on how to braid hair.  It didn’t look difficult on the videos, but he had no way to practice.  His best hope was that Pepper would braid her hair in the morning and that he wouldn’t have to.

He was both dismayed and full of pride the next morning when Morgan knocked on his locked bedroom door before breakfast.  He opened it and found her waiting for him, holding up a hairbrush and hairband.  He didn’t think the Starks would let her go into his room, so he stepped out and knelt down next to her just outside the door.

His first attempt at a braid wasn’t anywhere near passable.  Neither was his second attempt.  Morgan waited patiently for him to finish though, and on his fifth attempt, there was a mostly neat braid resting on her back.  She turned and grinned at him.  “Is it pretty?”

“Yes,” he said, despite that he thought his work wasn’t good enough.  He knew better than to tell a little girl that her hair wasn’t pretty.

“Daddy!” she shouted, and ran off.  Flash held his breath for long moments, afraid he’d done something wrong and that he was going to be scolded.

Tony came out of his bedroom and Morgan threw up her arms, expecting to be picked up.  He pulled her up into a hug and she said, “Look at my hair daddy!  It won’t get pulled now ‘cause I have a braid!  Flash did it for me and it’s so pretty!  My hair is pretty isn’t it daddy?”

Tony’s eyes came up and searched the room for Flash.  He found him still kneeling by his bedroom door, looking nervous.  Then he looked at Morgan’s braid and said, “It’s super pretty munchkin.  Best braid I’ve ever seen.”  Tony set her down because she was squirming to get out of his grip, and she ran into the bedroom to find Pepper to show her.

Flash expected Tony to tell him what a crappy job he’d done braiding her hair, or to tell him not to do it again.  Instead he smirked and said, “You’re screwed, you know that right?”  Flash’s throat tightened, but in the next breath Tony said, “She’s going to expect you to do that every morning now,” and Flash let his muscles relax.  “Good job kid.”  The man disappeared back into his bedroom again because it looked like he wasn’t quite ready for the day or to come out and have breakfast yet.

Screwed?  Flash didn’t think so.  For some reason Morgan had put her trust in him, and thought that Flash had done a good enough job.  It was a stupid thing to feel good about, but he was walking on a high that morning as he entered Midtown, and felt halfway decent for the rest of the day.

* * *

Flash was feeling so good Friday at school, and Parker had worked so hard to avoid him all week, that Flash had started to chalk the previous weekend up as some kind of fluke.

His stomach fell and his jaw dropped when Peter and Tony walked into the penthouse Friday evening twenty minutes late for dinner.  Peter had a bag of clothes with him again.

“PETEY!”  Morgan ran across the penthouse, just like the weekend before, and launched herself at him.  He dropped his bag and knelt down to hug her.

“Hey Mo.”  Peter touched her on the tip of her nose and she giggled.

“Petey, I had the best day at school today, and when uncle Happy picked me up, he bought me a donut for a snack, and mommy said she’s gonna watch Frozen with me the next time you and daddy and Flash want to watch Mythbusters and-” she rambled off a dozen more things about her week, Peter giving her his full attention.

Tony headed straight for the box of pizza on the counter, and Peter carried Morgan over to it too.  Peter didn’t acknowledge Flash’s presence, probably just because Morgan was still rambling to him.  Tony however pushed the box of pizza towards Flash and asked if he’d had enough.

“Yes, thank you, I ate.”  He, Pepper and Morgan had eaten while waiting for Tony.  He guessed now that they had been waiting for Peter too.

Flash tried hard not to glare at Parker as he sat Morgan on the counter and started pulling slices of pizza out of the box to put on a plate for himself.  Parker didn’t live here… was here for some reason on weekends, but this wasn’t his home.  It wasn’t Flash’s either, but this was all Flash had, so he supposed it was his home for now.  Tony and Pepper were his foster parents, not Peter’s.  That made Morgan his foster sister.

Flash had played ponies with her earlier that week.  Flash had comforted her after a bad day at school as they watched a movie the evening before.  Flash had braided her hair that morning.  He was her foster brother.  But she still threw herself at Parker every time he came through the door.  She never did that to Flash.

Just like in school, Flash couldn’t compete with Peter.  But the worst part?  He didn’t even know why.

* * *

Flash kept to himself all weekend, even when Tony and Peter left the penthouse for hours on end to go do who knew what.  It was clear to him that there was no way he was going to be able to win Morgan or Tony over when Parker was around.  He didn’t know why, but that was the way it was.  Fine.  He could deal with that.  He just needed to keep his head down, make sure he wasn’t making a fool of himself, and get through this until his social worker could find his uncle.

He called her Monday morning, using the number on the business card she gave him.

“Is everything ok, Eugene?”

“It’s Flash. Yes, everything is fine.  Have you found my uncle yet?”

“No.  We’ve checked with the last three addresses we could find to see if anyone knows where he went.  We believe he might be in Spain, and have contacted authorities there to see if they can track him down.”

“Spain,” Flash said, voice flat.  He’d always loved hearing about his uncle’s adventures… his travels around the world.  Now he wished his uncle was a normal guy who just stayed put in one place, just so they could find him.  It wasn’t fair, none of it.  “Thank you.”  He didn’t give her a chance to say anything else and hung up on her.

He fully intended to keep himself shut away in his room throughout the week, but Pepper was having none of it, and neither was Morgan.  Because Peter wasn’t there during the week, she wanted to play with Flash.  She came to him a few mornings that next week and asked for a braid, and in the afternoons after school, asked him to watch cartoons with her or to play with her or to have a tea party.

Parker had played with her over the weekend.  She’d barged into his room a dozen times that weekend and demanded that Peter play with her, read to her, or play video games.  Parker had a PS5 in his room, though Flash didn’t know why.  He seemed to have a lot of belongings there, though it didn’t make sense why he would when he lived with his aunt.

“Flash?” Pepper asked Monday evening just before dinner.  Tony still wasn’t back to the penthouse yet.  Flash wasn’t sure if the man was just a workaholic and frequently missed dinner, or if he was staying out of the penthouse as much as possible to avoid Flash.  Tony seemed to make it a point to be around when Parker was there on the weekend.

“Yes maam?”

“Can I talk to you?”

Flash pushed himself away from his desk and gave her his full attention.  Anything less would be impolite.

“I noticed you spent a lot of time alone this weekend in your room.  Can I ask why?”

“Just-” he cleared his throat.  “I had a lot of homework to do.”

“I see.”  He scrutinized her face, watching for any hint that she was upset with him.  She only looked worried however.  “I want you to know that we want you to spend time with us.  You’re welcome during the week and on the weekend to spend time in the rest of the penthouse with us watching movies and playing games, talking, things like that.”

“Yes maam.”  So this was about Parker then, though she didn’t come right out and say it.

“I know you and Peter don’t get along, but you’re still welcome to spend time with us when he’s here.”

Damn it, there it was.  She was calling him out on it.

“I just had a lot of homework,” he repeated.  Don’t rock the boat.  Just hunker down and get through this.  Just hang on til they find Henry.  The problem was, he didn’t know if he could.

“Is Park- Peter coming back this weekend?”

“Yes,” she said.  She was watching him, looking closely for him to slip up.  He wasn’t going to let that happen.

“He has a Playstation.”

That response seemed to surprise her.  “He does.”

Flash shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, like he wasn’t bothered by Parker at all.  “Maybe he and I can play it this weekend.”

“I think-” she paused, only for a moment before she finished, “he’d like that.”  Flash doubted Parker would like it at all.  He doubted Pepper thought he would like it either.

Flash followed her out of his room and ate dinner with them.  He tried not to shut himself away in his room for the rest of the week despite that he wanted to.  If there was one thing he was truly good at after living with his parents for sixteen years, it was pretending that everything was just fine… that everything was perfect.  He could do that at the very least.  For this, he thought as the week wore on, and Thursday rolled around again, marking week two of his parent’s deaths, for this, mother would be proud.

* * *

Flash didn’t want to play video games with Parker.  He had no desire to spend time with him at all, but he’d said that to Pepper, and felt like he had to follow through.  He was pleased when he managed to throw Parker for a loop however Friday evening when Parker showed up at the penthouse yet again with Tony.

“What?” Peter asked, mouth hanging open.

Flash pointed towards the bedroom door just off of the kitchen.  “Playstation.  Do you want to play Park- Peter?”  Flash made sure to keep his hands where Parker could see them, out in the open and not balled up into fists.

“Uh…” Parker looked to Tony, as if asking if this was ok.  Flash didn’t see what Tony’s nonverbal response was because the man was behind him.  After a moment of floundering, Parker waved Flash towards the bedroom door, opened it, and let him in.  He left the door open.  That was fine by Flash.  The last thing he needed was for Peter to complain and have the Starks just believe him.  The annoying kid would probably tell Tony and Pepper that Flash had threatened him or hit him or something.

The room was a mess.  It was a disgrace, Flash thought.  For whatever reason, they were letting Peter use their guest room on weekends (Flash wondered if maybe Peter’s aunt worked long hours on weekends or went out of town every weekend for work), and he was trashing the place.  There were a few dirty socks on the floor by the bed, a hoodie thrown over the back of the desk chair, and dirty clothes spilling out of a hamper by the bathroom.  Flash was interested to see that it looked like Parker had his own bathroom that he didn’t have to share with anyone.  He bet it was just as dirty as the guest room.  The bed Parker slept in wasn’t even made.

“Erm… you can sit on the bed, or the floor,” Peter said.  “Or the desk chair.”

Flash opted for the floor at the foot of Parker’s bed since the TV was right across from it.  It was a big screen TV, the Playstation hooked up on a shelf underneath.  Parker looked like he didn’t know what to do and stood there dumbly for almost a full minute.  Finally he grabbed a PS5 controller and handed it to Flash, before taking a second one for himself and sitting down on the floor several feet away.

“Do you- wanna play a racing game?”

“Sure.”  Flash tried hard to keep his voice light, knowing anyone in the kitchen would be able to hear them.  He had to show the Starks he wasn’t a bully, or a problem.  He knew he couldn’t win at this… couldn’t win against Parker, who was always one step ahead, but it didn’t stop him from wanting to try.  He was competitive by nature.  He couldn’t help that.  One of these days Parker was going to slip up, and Flash would be there to step in just in front of him, taking the spot at the front of the pack that he had earned.  Then it would be Parker trying to play catch up.  On that day, there was no way Flash would ever give up his lead.

Looking unsettled, Peter moved to put a racing game into the console, and then sat back to play.  Peter chose a course, they both chose cars, and then they played, never speaking another word to each other.  Morgan came in halfway through their third game and flopped down on Peter’s bed.

“This is boring.  Why are boys so boring?” she asked.

“Boys aren’t boring,” Peter said, eyes on the screen.  Flash had already beat him for the last two races and was feeling a bit proud of himself.  He had this game at home… back in his own room, and frequently played it by himself.

“Big kids are boring,” Morgan said, changing her tune.

“Morgan, are you bothering your brother?” Pepper called in from the kitchen where she was making dinner.

“Nooooo,” she whined.  “But they’re being so boring!”

Flash’s heart raced a little.  Pepper had asked Morgan if she was bothering her brother.  His chest felt warm.

Pepper came to the bedroom door and said, “Why don’t you come help mommy in the kitchen?”

“Noo,” she whined again.

“Uh oh,” came Tony’s voice from the living room.  “Someone’s whining and must need a nap.”

Pepper left the doorframe and Tony walked in without asking and picked Morgan up off the bed.  “I’m going to kidnap you for a while.  I haven’t seen you much this week.”

“Daddy,” she giggled as he tickled her.  He carried her out over his shoulder and Flash and Peter were left alone again.  He noted that Peter was tense beside him.  Flash felt like he was successful in throwing Peter for a loop.  The kid clearly hadn’t been expecting Flash to ask to play games, or to sit peaceably with him.  For the first time since Parker had walked into the penthouse three weeks before, Flash felt like he was on equal footing with him instead of on unsteady ground.

Pepper called them for dinner, and Flash set the PS5 controller down on the shelf under the TV.  “Might wanna clean this place up,” he said, giving the socks on the floor a look of disdain.  He strode out of the room, leaving Parker behind, mouth hanging open.

After dinner, Flash didn’t ask to play video games with him again.  Instead he asked Morgan if she wanted to play My Little Ponies.  She squealed in delight and dragged Flash off to her room, where she had buckets of ponies.  He was aware that Parker was watching some sci fi movie with Tony and Pepper in the living room.  He’d rather be watching a movie than playing My Little Ponies, but this was worth it.  Morgan would feel valued, and Parker- Flash smirked later on when he came out of Morgan’s room after the movie was over, and found Parker giving him a wary look.  Another step ahead, Flash thought, happy with himself.

Flash wasn’t sure where Tony and Peter went during the day on weekends for a few hours at a time, but that weekend, whenever Tony seemed to want to leave, Peter said he’d rather stay in the penthouse.  He offered to play with Morgan a few times, and as a result, Morgan ended up having Peter and Flash both to play with.  But Parker would be going home Sunday night, and Flash would be there for the rest of the week to play with her all week long.

For once, he thought, he was going to win one.

* * *

What was that saying?  One step forward, two steps back?  That’s what Flash felt like.  He felt like he’d been punched in the gut.  He’d taken several steps forward over the weekend, but also felt like he was suddenly 20 steps back.  Parker was in the lead by a mile.

Flash had thought that he had an advantage because he was there all week long, and Parker wasn’t.  It turned out he was completely wrong.  Flash was in the penthouse all week, because he was living there.  But while Flash was in the penthouse with Morgan and Pepper, Parker was down in Tony’s lab, working on Iron Man suits or whatever it is the two of them did down there.  As it turned out, Parker really did have an internship.  He hadn’t been lying.  Flash had come to that conclusion, because it was the only thing that made any kind of sense, but it still felt like a punch in the gut to find out that it was true.

When Tony was late to dinner on weeknights, or sometimes didn’t come back for dinner at all, it was because he was in the lab with Peter.  Flash’s gut churned with anger.  He really hated that kid.  It was like Parker wanted to make Flash’s life just that little bit more miserable than it already was.

It was Wednesday when he found out, and only then because Peter and Tony got too hungry to continue working in the lab and came up to grab a bite to eat before going back to the lab to work.  Flash had been confused at first, wondering if he’d got the days wrong and it was really Friday since Peter was there.

“Hey you two,” Pepper greeted them.  “I wondered if you’d forgotten about me and decided to order dinner to the lab again.”

“Nope, I could hear the kid’s stomach growling from across the lab though.  I needed to feed him before he passed out.”

Parker helped himself to food like he wasn’t a guest.  He got a bowl out of a kitchen cupboard and went straight to the boxes of takeout to start serving himself without even asking permission.  Then he opened the fridge and pulled out a Sprite.

Flash had noted that the foods he’d told Pepper that he liked were now being stocked each week and it had made him feel special… wanted… like pumpkin pies did.  He’d wondered why there was Sprite in the fridge since he hadn’t seen anyone else drinking them.  Now he knew.  The Sprite was for Parker.  Flash suddenly didn’t feel special or wanted after all.  The Starks were just considerate, that was all, and Flash was still, somehow, after four weeks there, just the outsider looking in.

“Are you done for the night?” Pepper asked.

“No, we’re gonna head back down for another half hour before Happy takes Pete back to Queens.”  Tony leaned over to kiss Pepper on the cheek and then filled up his own bowl with food.  Pepper gave Peter a hug, Peter went into Morgan’s room to give her a hug, and then Peter and Tony took their food to the elevator and disappeared, leaving Flash behind watching them go with a frown.

“Parker works in the lab with Tony?”

Pepper nodded.  “Yes.  Five days a week after school.”

“And on weekends,” Flash said with realization

“Sometimes.”

“He’s an intern?”

She grimaced, only for a moment, but it had been there.  “Yes, an intern.”

Flash helped Pepper clean up after dinner, sat mindlessly through a game Morgan had made up, and then disappeared for the rest of the evening into his room to watch Netflix on his iPad.  He noted that Tony was gone for a lot longer than half an hour.  It was after nine thirty when he came back up to the penthouse and settled in on the couch next to Pepper to watch some TV series they were in the middle of.

Parker was an intern, and Flash was nothing to the Starks.  Just some kid the social worker had placed there.

* * *

He called his social worker three times that week, asking about his uncle.  She sounded sympathetic each time he called, and sad each time she told him that they had no new information for him.

Flash felt like he was just walking around like a zombie for the next couple of days.

Thursday he came back up to the penthouse and found Tony and Morgan waiting for him.  Thursday was the only day that Tony seemed to be in the penthouse consistently and not working in his lab with Parker.

“Movie?” Tony asked.

“No thank you,” Flash said.  He went to the fridge to pull out a soda and then grabbed a granola bar out of the snack drawer that was kept stocked for him and Morgan… and for Peter, he thought with disgust.

“Want help with your homework?”

“No,” Flash said, trying not to snap at him.  It came out sounding short anyway as he made his way across the penthouse and to his room.

He dropped his backpack on his bed and sat down at his desk.  He wasn’t even going to attempt to do his homework until he had some time to wind down.  The Starks didn’t seem to care anyway so long as it got done, so he pulled his phone out and started scrolling through TikTok, volume turned down low.

A few minutes passed before there was a knock on his bedroom door frame.  He knew it had to be Tony, because Morgan never knocked.  She usually just came barreling in, so Flash had to make sure to keep the door locked when he was changing.

“Hey, you ok?”

Flash looked up at him.  The man didn’t look wary like he normally did.  He looked worried.

“Yes sir, I’m fine.”  He was about to open his mouth and say that he had homework, but he couldn’t use that excuse since he was clearly wasting time watching videos on his phone.

“Bad day at school?”

Flash shook his head.

“Mind if I come in?”

He looked back up at him and said, “I don’t mind.”

Tony crossed the room and went to lean against the wall next to Flash’s desk.  “So, you wanna talk about this?”

“Talk about what sir?”  Flash tensed up.  Tony didn’t sound mad, but whatever he wanted to talk about was clearly something Flash was going to be in trouble for.  He wasn’t even sure what he’d done wrong, but that was usually how things went with his father too, or, had gone with his father before he’d died.

“Whatever it is that’s had you sulking around for the last few days.  It’s me, isn’t it?  You clearly don’t like my new sneakers.”

Flash frowned, totally lost.  “Your- uh… your sneakers?”

Tony lifted his foot up and Flash looked down at brand new white, very expensive sneakers.  “Knew I should have gone for the red and gold pair.  Those are my colors, don’t you think?”

“Uh…”

“Relax, I know you like my shoes.  I could make loafers look cool,” Tony said, giving Flash a little smile.  “You’ve been riled up about something though.  Whatever it is, I’ll listen.”

Flash really didn’t think he would.  If he did, he’d just be upset with him for not liking the golden boy Parker.  He searched for anything to say to the man at all, but all he could think about was Parker working in Tony’s lab.  What the hell made Parker so special that would make Tony freaking Stark take an interest in him?  In the end, he didn’t mean to ask, but it was on his mind so he blurted out, “Why don’t I get to work in your lab?”

Tony stood up straight a little.  Flash recognized the move, because Flash always stood up straight when he wanted to make a good impression, or was feeling nervous, or feeling like he was messing everything up.  "Sit straight, don’t slouch!  You’re a young gentleman, not a heathen."  Not a heathen.  Not uncle Henry, even if he wanted to be.  Flash wondered for the first time if maybe Tony had heard some of the same things in his life… if he knew the same rules of decorum that had been drilled into Flash.

“I didn’t realize you wanted to,” Tony said, bringing Flash’s attention back up to him.  “Have you ever worked in a lab before?”

Flash fidgeted with his phone for a moment.  “I’m in robotics class.”

“Do you share that class with Peter?”

“No,” Flash cut out.  He had history with Peter, but that was all.  He’d shared a few other classes with the kid over the last couple years, but was lucky this year to only have to suffer through one class with him.

“You know how to solder?” Tony asked.  He was apt to believe that the man was going to start listing reasons that Flash wasn’t cut out to help him in the lab, but his tone was even… curious maybe.

“No.”

“Want to learn?”

Flash looked up at him again, fingers stilling where they’d been fidgeting with his phone.  “Yes.  Sir,” he added.

Tony pulled out his phone and looked at the time.  “You going to be ok sharing a lab with Pete?”

“Yes,” Flash said.  Tony sounded like he might actually be considering letting him go down there with him.

“Come on then.”

“Right now?”

“Sure, unless you’re busy watching videos.  What is it you kids watch these days?  TikTok?”

Flash set his phone down on his desk to show that he’d rather go to the lab.  Tony smiled at him.  It had been four weeks… today was four weeks since his parents had died and left him reeling, sitting in the hospital by himself.  Four weeks since he’d come to stay with the Starks.  But today was the first time he let his muscles relax and didn’t feel like Tony was wary of him.  It felt for a few moments like it was Pepper there in the room with him instead of Tony.

“Come on then.  I’ll teach you to solder.  I’ve got a bunch of old broken PCB’s you can practice on.”

Flash jumped up, too excited to care about looking overeager, and followed Tony out of his room and across the penthouse to the elevator.

“Just a few rules,” Tony said.  “You break them, you don’t get to come back to the lab.”

“Ok.  Yes sir, I’ll follow them.”

The elevator doors slid closed and Tony hit the button to go down to the 90th floor.

“First, you wear safety goggles if you’re working.  Soldering, screwing stuff in, I don’t care.  Goggles go on.”

Flash nodded.  They had similar rules in shop class and the robotics lab at school.

“Second, no dangly strings.  If you’re wearing a hoodie, the strings have to be tucked in.”  Tony indicated his neckline, and Flash nodded again.  He was wearing a long sleeve shirt that day instead of a hoodie, so he wouldn’t have to worry about it.

“Third, you don’t go into the lab without me.  FRIDAY wouldn’t let you in anyway.  Also, you don’t use any tools or touch anything that you don’t have permission to.”

“Yes sir.”

“Last thing.  There’s a lot of proprietary Stark Tech in there.  You can’t tell anyone about it.  Don’t tell people you’ve seen the suits, or the internals of the new Stark Phone, or even what tools I have in there.  Got it?”

“Yes sir.  I won’t tell anyone.”

“Good.”

The elevator doors opened up to a long hallway.  On one side there was a glass wall looking into the lab.  Flash took note right away that Parker was inside by himself working at a metal workbench.  He had been told specifically that he wouldn’t be allowed in the lab without Tony, but Peter was in there by himself.  He wondered if Peter would get in trouble, but when Tony punched in the keycode to get in, he didn’t say anything to the other boy about it.

“Hey kid, mind if we join you?”

Peter watched warily, eyes on Flash.  Flash smirked at him, though he was too excited to be in Iron Man’s lab to put any more effort than that into riling the other boy up.

“Come over here,” Tony said, and Flash followed him to a different metal workbench than the one where Peter was working.  Tony reached into a drawer underneath and pulled out a pair of safety goggles.  “Put these on.”  While Tony rummaged around in a few cupboards and then in a cardboard box of what looked like scrap metal and old motherboards, Flash looked at Peter’s workbench and tried to figure out what he was working on.  He had no idea.  There were all kinds of circuits and wires, but nothing that Flash could get a clear ID on without asking or going up and getting a closer look.

“Flash, over here,” Tony said, and Flash turned back to the metal workbench as Tony dumped an armful of things onto it.

“So, if I take apart any electronic device that has a circuit board of some kind, the components inside are all attached using soldering techniques.  Soldering is how you join two electronic parts together by melting solder around the connection between them.  The metal alloy that’s used creates a strong electrical bond between parts when it cools.”

Tony turned on the soldering iron and set to work showing Flash how to solder.  After each thing he showed him, he asked Flash questions to be sure he understood and then let him try what had been demonstrated.  Flash was so focused on what he was doing… on doing everything right and not messing up, that he forgot Parker was even there, back behind him at another workbench.

“There you go, that’s it,” Tony said.  He left Flash to finish what he was doing, and came back a minute later with a handful of PCBs.  “These are all broken.  You’re not going to mess them up.  You can practice on these.  Once you think you’ve got that basic technique down, I’ll show you another more advanced one.”

Flash took the broken boards he was offered and went to work.  He was going to perfect the first technique Tony had shown him, hopefully by the end of the day.  He had to show Tony that he was worth his time in the lab.  If Parker had done it, then so could Flash.

Tony pulled out his own project to work on.  Flash had no idea what it was, but he didn’t have much time to look up at it when he had his own task to complete.  Soldering was kind of fun, maybe just because he was learning to do it in Iron Man’s lab with a row of Iron Man suits lined up behind him against the far wall.

Tony looked over every once in a while and told Flash he was doing a good job, which made Flash feel good.  He usually didn’t hear things like that unless he was at school.  Mr. Harrington was pretty free with giving praise, to Flash and to others.

At some point Tony walked away to go stand at the other workbench to talk to Peter, though the two talked in low tones, and Flash was too busy to turn around so he could see them.

They spent an hour in the lab before FRIDAY notified them that dinner had been ordered and would be there in 20 minutes.

“You staying for dinner Roo?” Tony asked.

Flash frowned, not sure who he was talking to at first, but then Peter responded and said, “Sure.  May’s not gonna be home til’ late.”

“Come on, let’s put everything away then.  You do your homework kid?”

“Yeah, got it all done.”

“Good job.”

Flash wanted to tell Tony that his homework was done too, but it wasn’t.  He hadn’t even started it yet.

Tony showed Flash where to put everything away, gave a final look over some of the boards Flash had been working on, and told him his technique was coming along nicely.  “Another day of this and you’ll have that technique down and then I can show you the next.”

Flash wanted to ask if he was going to be allowed to come back, but didn’t want to ask in front of Parker.

Parker was quiet as they went up to the penthouse for dinner, though Morgan was clearly pleased to see him like she always was, and Pepper seemed pleased to discover that Tony had taken Flash down to his lab.  She asked what Flash had worked on, and Flash smiled and pulled his shoulders back when Tony told her that he’d almost mastered the first technique to soldering in just an hour.

If Tony let him go back to the lab the next day, Flash was going to work twice as hard.  Maybe the man would even take him to the lab on the weekend with Parker instead of leaving Flash in the penthouse all weekend.

* * *

Tony came up to the penthouse to collect Flash on Friday afternoon after he got back from AcaDec and took him down to the lab.  Peter was already there, pulling out his own project to work on.

Tony stood beside Flash and asked him to show him the technique from the day before, and then started to teach him the next one.  “This one’s a little harder, but not that much different.  Master this one and I’ll teach you the next.”

Tony turned on music, which started to play over the lab speakers, and then told Peter to bring his stuff over to the workbench Flash was working at.

“Let me see what you were talking about with the capacitor,” Tony said as Peter brought a mess of wires and other components over to the workbench.  Tony and Peter stood shoulder to shoulder, hunched over the device, whatever it was.  Flash was distracted watching them, and kept looking up from the circuit board he was working on.  He messed up several times, and almost burned his finger on the soldering iron, but forced himself to pay attention to what he was doing.  He kept expecting Parker to go back to the other workbench after Tony helped him figure out whatever the problem with his project was, but Parker stayed for the entire two hours they were in the lab.  Flash did get practice with what he was doing, but felt angry with himself for letting himself be distracted so easily, and that he hadn’t mastered the second technique by the end of the day.

As expected, Peter followed them up to the penthouse, this time with a bag of clothes, and went to the room he was staying in since it was Friday.  Because Flash expected it since it was a routine now, he wasn’t upset.  He was still curious about why Peter was there, but knew he wouldn’t get an answer if he asked again.  He knew because he’d asked Peter about it several more times at school already, and still hadn’t been given an answer.  Flash didn’t know what the big secret was, but it was driving him crazy.

He eyed Peter sitting on the couch in between Tony and Pepper that evening as they watched a movie, but didn’t feel quite as jealous as he usually did.  He’d done good in the lab, and Tony had praised him again that night at dinner for how well he was doing learning to solder.

* * *

The next morning, Flash woke up and came out of his room, showered, dressed, and ready for the day.  Pepper and Morgan were in the kitchen cooking pancakes.  It looked like Tony and Peter were still sleeping, because he didn’t see them anywhere.

“Pancakes?” Pepper asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

She gave him several blueberry pancakes, and he ate as he watched a plastic My Little Pony dance across a sea of syrup on Morgan’s plate.

“Morgan sweetie, don’t play with your food.”  Pepper held out her hand and Morgan put the syrup drenched pony into it.  She took it to the sink, rinsed it off, and set it back on the kitchen island next to Morgan’s plate.  It was one of the first times Flash had heard her parents give her a rule to follow at meal times.  They didn’t seem to have any of the rules Flash’s parents were so adamant about.  Not letting a toy pony dance in syrup seemed like a reasonable rule to have though.  Flash realized that his elbows were on the counter and quickly slid them off, looking up to see if Pepper had noticed.  She hadn’t.  It had been a while since someone had told him to keep his elbows off the table.

They finished breakfast and Flash frowned, looking at the closed door of the guest room Parker slept in on weekends.  He still hadn’t come out even though it was almost nine thirty.

“Was Peter up late last night?” Flash asked.

“He’s in the lab with Tony,” Pepper said.  The pancakes he’d eaten earlier suddenly felt heavy in his stomach, like rocks.  “They went down early this morning.”

“Oh.”

Maybe Flash had been stupid to think he’d be invited over the weekend.

“You can go down there and join them if you want,” Pepper said, turning around and seeing the hurt look on Flash’s face.  Flash schooled his face blank.

“That’s ok, I have a big test to study for.”

Later that afternoon when Parker and Tony came back up to the penthouse, and seemed ready to stay there for the rest of the day, Peter asked if Flash wanted to play games on the Playstation.

“No, Parker,” he said, not even turning to look at him from where he sat in his room, back to the door.  “Playing games with you is the last thing I want to do.”

He didn’t catch Peter’s confused look, but heard the other boy shuffle away a few moments later.  Flash kept to himself for the rest of the weekend, only coming out of his room to play with Morgan when she asked him to and wasn’t busy hanging out with Parker.

* * *

Flash was having a hard time keeping up in the lab.  He hadn’t been invited back on Sunday, but Monday while he was riding the train back to the tower, he got a text from Tony that simply said, ‘Lab?’

‘Sure.’

‘Come straight to the lab when you get here.’

Flash had sighed and looked out the train window at the dark subway tunnel, trying not to let himself get excited about being invited back to the lab.  He had no idea what he’d done wrong to keep from getting invited over the weekend.

Now he was in the lab again, and felt like he was falling behind.  Parker had his own workbench that seemed to be just his, and Tony gave him tasks to do.  Everything from using the CNC machine to make a new part, to using the holotable to fix a design flaw, and rewiring what Flash was certain was a piece to one of the Iron Man gauntlets.  Peter was allowed to do all of that without supervision, not to mention being allowed to be in the lab without anyone else in there.

Meanwhile, Flash wasn’t allowed to use the tools by himself, and was still stuck just learning to solder on broken PCBs.

He could have no idea as he kept his back to Parker and worked on soldering, that Parker was watching him, jealous of the attention Tony had been giving to him while teaching him to solder.  Flash had no reason at all to think that anyone would be jealous of him for any reason, because just like his father and mother had told him time and again, he was nothing special.

* * *

Parker was in big trouble.  Normally that sort of thing would have made Flash smile, but at the moment, it only confused the hell out of him.  Parker was a goody two shoes and never got in trouble.  He never bullied other kids, always got good grades, and was respectful to teachers.  The worst Flash had ever seen Parker do was be late to a few classes, and skip out on that one AcaDec field trip to DC, claiming he was sick.

So Flash had no idea why Parker was shouting at Mr. Harrington, of all people.  Mr. Harrington was Flash’s favorite teacher, and he thought he was probably Parker’s favorite teacher too.  Yet there Parker was, shouting at him in the hall.  Mr. Harrington looked just as confused by the outburst as Flash was.

“Peter, why don’t we just take a breath and calm down.”

Parker opened his mouth to shout again, but slammed it shut.  He’d cursed at Mr. Harrington, and shouted loudly.  Now the silence in the previously loud hall sounded too loud to Flash’s ears.

“Ok, better,” Mr. Harrington said.  He let out a breath, glad that Peter had calmed down.  Then he looked around at the students that were watching instead of getting to class and said, “Everyone get to class, the bell is about to ring.”  People began to disperse, but Flash lingered, eyes darting between Mr. Harrington and Peter.  Peter looked pale… almost like he was going to be sick and throw up there in the hall.

“Peter, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m here if you want to talk about it.”

“Just forget it,” Peter mumbled.  “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“That’s not like you Peter.”

Peter nodded, like he knew.  “When do I have detention?”

Mr. Harrington pulled in a deep breath.  “Why don’t we just start with what’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on.”

Parker was a terrible liar, Flash thought.  The bell rang to signal the end of passing time, and Mr. Harrington looked around and found Flash standing nearby.

“Mr. Thompson, get to class,” he said gently.  Flash didn’t want to, but he moved away slowly.  Just before he went into his math class a little ways down the hall, he heard Mr. Harrington telling Peter that he was going to take him to the nurse’s office.

Flash sat down in his seat in math class, but when the teacher started lecturing a few minutes later, he couldn’t pay attention.  What the hell had that been about?  Flash wasn’t worried about Peter, but he was curious about what was going on.  He doubted Parker would tell him, because they weren’t friends.  They were barely even acquaintances, even though they spent every weekend together at the Starks, and recently some days in the lab as well.  Flash still wanted to know though.

“Mr. Holm?”

The teacher looked up at Flash’s raised hand.  “Yes?”

“Can I go to the bathroom?”

The teacher pointed towards the door and nodded his head.  “Be quick.  We’re starting a new unit in ten minutes.”

“Yes sir.”

Flash got up and hurried out of the room.  He made a beeline for the nurse’s office, wondering if Parker was still there, because it had already been half an hour since Mr. Harrington had sent him there.

Flash wasn’t sure what he was going to say to Parker, if anything.  For now his plan was just to stick his head in the door to the nurse’s office and see if he was in there.  As he approached, he could hear a familiar voice coming through the open door however.  Tony was in there.  Flash frowned.  Why was Tony here?

He pulled up just short of the door, unable to see Tony or anyone else inside, and peeked around the corner.  Parker was sitting on the cot, head hanging down, mumbling something too quiet for Flash to hear, Tony kneeling down on the floor in front of him.

“I know buddy,” Tony said as Flash pulled his head back around the door and just listened.  “And I know you know better than to yell at a teacher.  You’ll be lucky if you don’t get detention.”  Peter mumbled something again, and Tony said, “Yeah.”  He sighed heavily.  “We’re gonna figure all of this out.”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, executive decision.  You’re done for the day.”  Tony sounded tired.  Flash expected the man to sound disappointed.  This must have been bad for the school to call him in given he was Peter’s boss, so Flash expected Tony to be angry, or to tell Peter he had screwed up.  None of that happened though.  “Come on kid, let’s get you home.  You look like you could use a nap.”

Flash heard Peter stand up inside and stepped away from the door quickly.  He went around the corner and back down the hall towards his class.

Flash sometimes got into trouble at school, for bullying or occasionally for other things.  His father was usually the one that had to take time off of work to come get him, and he was always angry, even if Flash hadn’t done anything wrong and was just sick and needed to go home for the day.  Tony wasn’t Peter’s father, but he’d come for Peter anyway.  Did that mean if Flash did something bad… shouted at a teacher, that Tony would come for him too?  That he’d talk to him calmly like he had to Peter?  He was Flash’s foster father.  Flash didn’t plan on causing any trouble at school, but if something happened, he hoped Tony would come, and that he’d tell Flash that it would be all right… that they’d figure things out.

It was only Wednesday, but it didn’t surprise Flash when he got back to the penthouse and found Peter there, napping in the guest room off of the kitchen with the bedroom door slightly ajar.  He wondered if Tony had just brought him back here since it was a lab day and he and Peter would likely be in the lab later anyway.

“Hey,” Tony said, bringing Flash’s attention to him.  He was sitting on the couch, working on his tablet.

“Hey.”

“School go ok today?”

“Uh… yeah,” Flash said, voice quiet.  He didn’t think Tony would give him an answer, but Flash decided to give it a try anyway.  He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder towards the room Peter was sleeping in.  “Is he ok?”

Tony met his eyes and seemed to be searching for something, though Flash wasn’t sure what.  It felt like the man was scrutinizing him.  His face softened after a moment though and he said, “Yeah buddy, he’ll be fine.  Rough day, that’s all.”

“Are we going to the lab today?”

“I think we’ll hang around here for the afternoon.  Want to watch a movie?”

“Sure.”

Parker slept through the afternoon and didn’t get up until dinner.  Flash wondered if Tony had brought him back to the penthouse to yell at him in private.  After he woke Parker up for dinner, it didn’t look like he planned on yelling at him though.  He and Pepper both treated him with kid gloves, almost like if they didn’t that Peter would snap at any minute.  It reminded Flash of how gently they’d treated him the first day he’d come to the penthouse, and how Tony spoke to him every Thursday when Flash came back to the penthouse and found him waiting for him.  Flash paused at the thought, aware for the first time that they were treating him gently.  As they finished dinner around the dining table, Flash stared at Pepper and then at Tony in awe.  He was being treated well… better even than at home with his parents.  He expected that, getting to come stay with a family like the Starks.  But to be treated gently… with consideration after what had happened to his parents?  He’d never expected that from anyone but uncle Henry, and had never received that before from anyone but Henry.

Tony took Parker home, back to Queens after dinner, and was gone for quite a while.  Flash still didn’t know what had happened at school, or why Parker had just snapped like that, but he was glad that Tony hadn’t yelled at him.  Not that he wanted to see Parker or anyone else get yelled at, but he was glad that it hadn’t happened.

If Peter wasn’t going to get yelled at for what happened at school, and Morgan wasn’t going to get yelled at for syruppy My Little Ponies, then Flash thought he probably wasn’t going to get yelled at for failing to have the best decorum.

The next morning, he put his elbows on the table, and waited for anyone to notice… for anything to happen at all.  No one said a word, and Flash let out a breath of relief… one that it felt like he’d been holding since he’d been there… or maybe even for years before that.

* * *

Flash should have known better than to relax too much.  He’d let himself be lulled into a false sense of security just because Parker had been given unexpected leeway and because Flash had been allowed to put his elbows on the table and to come out of his room in the morning wearing pajamas, and looking less than perfect for breakfast on weekends.  Parker wasn’t their foster kid though.  Flash should have known better than to believe the two of them would be treated the same.

To be fair, Flash hadn’t been trying to be defiant, or to cause trouble.  Trouble was everything the opposite of what he wanted right now given that they still couldn’t find Henry, and there was no better place for him to go than the Starks’ home until they could.  But he’d let himself grow comfortable, and had forgotten two of the ‘few’ rules the Starks had laid down for him.

He’d decided to stay out after school.  He’d taken the train into Manhattan like always after school, but then had decided to go to the Apple store to check out the new tech on display.  He didn’t have enough money left to buy anything, but he still liked to look, and he’d been in there frequently enough that some of the employees knew him.

After the Apple store, he stopped in to a coffee shop and bought a hot chocolate and a big soft cookie, and sat and just watched the rain through the window.  He pulled out his homework at some point after he’d ordered a second hot chocolate and sat at the little table to complete it.  He got through his math, English and history homework.  He supposed he’d lost track of time, because he didn’t notice what time it was until an irritated barista came up to him and asked if he was going to order a third drink or just keep taking up space at the table.  He blinked up at her, and then looked at the time on a clock on the wall.  It was after seven.

“Shit.”  He jumped up and started stuffing books and papers back into his bag.  “Uh, sorry,” he said, because cursing was rude and his parents never allowed him to do it.  Usually when he cursed it was at school and only then to other people his age.  He’d cursed at Parker pretty frequently up until a month and a half ago when Flash had moved in with the Starks.

The barista glared at him as he grabbed his coat and ran out of the coffee shop and into the rain.  It was dark out.  He should have been paying attention.  He didn’t want to waste any of his dwindling money on a taxi, and it was at least a twenty minute walk back to the tower, even if he hurried.

He pulled on his coat, arms already slick from rain, and then fumbled in his pocket for his phone.  It was still on silent from school.  There were four missed messages from Pepper, five from Tony, and two missed calls.  Shit!  He was going to be in so much trouble.  They probably thought he’d run away or else was just being defiant.

He thought about Parker and how gentle Tony had been with him in the nurse’s office, and then later that evening as they had eaten dinner.  But Parker wasn’t their kid, Flash was, sort of.  At the very least, they were responsible for Flash.  Parker had probably gotten yelled at by his aunt when he’d gone home that night two weeks before after he’d yelled at Mr. Harrington and gotten detention.  Stupid, stupid!

Flash’s anxiety was high as he hurried through the rain back towards the tower.  He didn’t know what he was going to tell them.  He doubted they’d believe that he’d lost track of time.  It was a stupid excuse anyway, one his parents never would have accepted.

It was almost 7:30 when Flash raced into the tower and past the front desk, who knew his face by now.  He repeatedly pressed the button for the elevator, hoping it would make it come down faster, but knowing that it probably wouldn’t.  He was surprised when it opened a few minutes later and revealed Peter.  Peter reached out and grabbed him by the front of his wet coat and pulled him inside.

“Hey, get off me!” Flash said loudly.

“Shh, be quiet,” Peter scolded with a frown.  “Give me your phone.”

“What?”

“The elevator takes three minutes to get up to level 80 where I’m getting out.  Hurry up and give me your phone, we don’t have time to argue.”  He held out his hand and made an impatient motion.  Flash didn’t know what was going on, but his chest was still tight and his mind too jumbled to fight with Parker at the moment.  He reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone.  He was dismayed when Parker pulled out a flat plastic tool and wedged it in between the two halves of Flash’s phone, prying it apart.

“Hey!”

Peter ignored him, and pulled out the phone’s battery.  He stuffed it in Flash’s coat pocket, snapped the two halves of the phone together, and handed it back to him.  “They’re pretty upset,” he said.  “They kept texting and calling you when you didn’t show up for dinner.  You’re supposed to tell them when you’re staying out late.”

“Shit, yeah… I forgot.”

Peter pointed at his phone.  “Your phone died… you forgot to charge it last night.  I doubt they’ll ask to open your phone and look for a battery.  But you can pull the phone out and show them that it’s dead.  Gives you an excuse to not have texted them or to have gotten their calls.”

“What-”

“Tell them you were at a study group at a friend’s house.  Make a friend up.  Tell them it was in Brooklyn or something and it took you a long time to get home.  Big test,” Peter rambled out.  “Say it’s a big test for History and I’ll tell them the same thing if they ask me tomorrow.”

Flash opened his mouth to question Peter, to ask why he was doing this, but Peter was staring at the ceiling talking to FRIDAY.  “We’re good FRIDAY, right?”

“Yes Peter.”

“No one’s getting hurt, we’re not breaking any protocols, and Flash is home, so you have no reason to tell them about what just happened in the elevator right?”

“Bros before bosses protocol is in place,” FRIDAY said.

Flash was gaping when Peter looked back down from the ceiling and caught him staring.

“Just tell them what I told you,” Peter said.  They were just passing the 70th floor and Peter reached forward to press the button for 71, like he was going to get out there.

“Wait!” Flash reached out to stop him, panicking.

“What?  I’m supposed to be on my way out.  It’ll look suspicious if I go back up there with you.”

“But- uh… they won’t… they don’t-” Flash swallowed hard.  Peter scrutinized his face, searching Flash’s eyes.

“They won’t what?”

“They won’t… beat me or anything, will they?”  Flash hated how his voice broke… how he sounded small.  If Parker wanted to, he could use this against him… get back at Flash for all the shit he’d thrown Peter’s way at school since freshman year.

Peter’s face softened in understanding.  “Hey, no-” he put his hand out, like he was going to touch Flash’s arm, but then thought better of it, and pulled back.  “They’re not like that,” he said.  He looked down at his feet, deep in thought and then back up at Flash.  “I’ll go back up with you if you want.”

Flash took a deep breath, held it, and then shook his head and let it out.  Tony had gone easy on Peter, and he’d yet to see them treat Morgan like his own parents had treated him.  Peter seemed to believe that the Starks weren’t going to hurt Flash, and despite that he hated the thought, Peter knew them better than he did.

“Why are you helping me?” Flash asked when the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened at the 80th floor.

Peter shrugged, and didn’t answer.  “Good luck,” he said, stepping out of the elevator.  Flash looked at Peter, who gave him a little nod, and then took a deep breath and hit the P for penthouse.

Flash hated Parker.  He didn’t get him.  He didn’t know what made Parker so special, or why Tony wanted to spend time with Parker but not Flash in the lab on weekends.  He didn’t understand why Morgan liked Parker better than her own foster brother.  But he wished in that moment that Parker was going the rest of the way up to the penthouse with him, if for no other reason than to help Flash keep his story straight.

When the elevator doors opened, and Flash stepped out, Tony’s eyes found him immediately.  Flash stepped out into the penthouse but then stood still as Tony strode quickly towards him.  Every muscle tensed up, waiting for a blow like his father would have given him.  Tony didn’t look angry, only worried.

“Hey, where have you been?  We’ve been calling you.  Are you ok?”

“Uh…” he was shaking.  He was soaking wet, his hair plastered to his face from walking in the rain, and his arms wet under his jacket.  He supposed that gave him a reason to shake, though he wasn’t shaking because he was cold.

“Flash?” came Pepper’s voice, and she came out of the master bedroom and hurried to where he and Tony stood in front of the elevator.  Flash was still tense when she wrapped him up in a hug a moment later.

“You’re soaking wet honey, what happened?  We were so worried.”

“Uh…” it was all he could get out.  She let go of him and took in the scared look on his face.  “Phone,” he managed to get out.  “My phone died.  I had to go to a study group, and I couldn’t text you because my phone died.”

It was a flimsy excuse and he didn’t expect it to work.  He doubted they bought it.

“A study group?” Tony asked.

“There’s a big history test.  It- the study group was in Brooklyn.”

Tony and Pepper exchanged a look Flash couldn’t decipher, and then Tony looked back at him and said, “Ok.”  He let out a breath and his voice softened.  He suddenly sounded like he did when he’d been talking to Peter in the nurse’s office.  “Look, we’re responsible for you buddy.  If something happens to you, that’s on us, ok?  We need to know where you are.  If your phone dies again, borrow a phone from a friend.  Hell, you can even text Peter and ask him to call us, ok?  For a study group or something that’s going to run late, we’ll have Happy come pick you up so you’re not taking the bus or subway or walking in the rain.”

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to worry you.”  He really hadn’t, that much was the truth.

“Come on,” Pepper said, and put her hand on his back.  “Why don’t you take a hot shower and change into dry clothes.  We saved you some dinner.  I’ll heat it up.”

“Thank you.”  He was having trouble getting the words out.  They weren’t mad, but his muscles were still tight, and his hands and arms were still shaking.  He needed this to work, and Parker had helped him make it work.  He couldn’t afford to get kicked out… for this thing with the Starks not to work out.  He hoped they hadn’t called his caseworker to complain about him already.

He had to do better than this… be better.  He didn’t know how he was going to do that, but he had to try.

* * *

Flash didn’t thank Peter.  In fact, the next day at school, they ignored each other altogether.  Flash shot him looks throughout history class, and at lunch as Peter sat with Ned and MJ across the cafeteria.  He wondered if Peter had told his friends that he’d helped Flash, or how scared Flash was that he was going to get hurt.  He kept waiting for Ned or MJ, or any other kids Parker might have told to come up to him and make fun of him, but it didn’t happen.

It didn’t happen the day after that either, or the day after that.

Parker hadn’t told, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t in the future.  It sort of pissed Flash off as the days passed.  Parker had something to hold over him now.  Not that it mattered, there was nothing that Flash could do to retaliate anyway while he was staying with the Starks.

That weekend, when Parker came to stay on Friday night, he asked Flash if he wanted to play video games again.  They’d only played the one time.

Flash shook his head and looked at Parker like he was crazy.  Peter looked disappointed, only for a moment, but Flash had seen it.  Peter left Flash alone for the rest of the weekend, and spent even more time than normal out of the penthouse with Tony.  Flash asked FRIDAY if they were in the lab Sunday morning, but FRIDAY told him that Tony and Peter had left the tower, though to do what, the AI didn’t know.  Tony didn’t come back until late Sunday evening after dinner, without Peter.  Flash assumed he’d taken Peter back to Queens.  He didn’t ask, and Tony and Pepper didn’t offer up the information.

* * *

Flash wondered if Peter had decided not to come to lab days, or if he’d gotten in trouble at home with his aunt and had been grounded, because Peter didn’t come to the lab on Monday night.  Flash thought that Tony and Peter were down in the lab without him, but when he asked FRIDAY, she said that Peter’s lab day had been canceled and that Tony was out.  Flash wanted to ask Pepper, but she had left that morning for a business trip in Tokyo after Flash had gone to school.  Instead he asked Happy, who came up to the penthouse with Morgan in tow a few minutes after Flash got home.

“Boss is working out of the tower today,” was all Happy had told him.  He’d looked and sounded perturbed though, like this was outside the norm.  That evening Happy made them dinner and put Morgan to bed.  Tony came back around eleven thirty and relieved Happy.  Flash was still awake and poked his head out his door when he heard Happy and Tony talking.  Tony wasn’t wearing business clothes.  He was wearing what looked like a sleek tracksuit of some sort.  Flash caught the word, “Iron Man,” and realized that Tony had been out at his other job.  Freaking cool, had been his first thought.  He wondered if he’d been out doing Avengers business or taking down bad guys.  Tony looked tired, but none the worse for wear.

“Kids have been fed, and Morgan went to bed at eight thirty.  Flash is still up.”

“Thanks Hap.”

Flash was quick to step back into his room so he wasn’t caught eavesdropping.  Tony came in a few minutes later.  Flash was lying on his back on top of his covers scrolling TikTok and trying to look unbothered and uninterested.

“Hey, you good?” Tony asked.  Usually he asked Flash how school had gone, or if he needed help with his homework.  He looked too tired at the moment to muster up the energy for those questions though.

“Yes sir, I’m good.”

“Don’t stay up too late,” Tony said, pointing at Flash.

“I’ll go to bed now,” he said.  He hit the button on the side of his phone so the light went off.

“And you’re going to plug that thing in, right?” Tony asked, pointing at the cell phone.

“Yes sir.”  Tony or Pepper had been asking him every night since the incident the week prior, just to make sure his phone was getting charged.

“Good man.  Night.”

“Night.”

Tony left and Flash reached over to plug his phone in.  That evening had been a break in routine, but not a bad one.  Pepper was gone on a trip, but Happy had been there to take care of Morgan.  Tony had been out doing Iron Man things, again, so freaking cool, but he’d still come back and made sure to check in on Flash, like he meant something in the grand scheme of things to the man.

Flash laid back and closed his eyes, envisioning Iron Man kicking ass somewhere out on the streets.  He hadn’t seen anything come over socials about a big fight in New York, so it was possible that Iron Man had been out somewhere else.  He knew the Iron Man suit could fly pretty fast, from what Flash had read online and from the few questions he’d mustered up the courage to ask when he was allowed to work with Tony and Peter in the lab.  He supposed it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Iron Man had been in Europe or Asia or some other far flung corner of the world all day, and had flown home to check on Morgan and Flash, and to be there when they woke up in the morning.

* * *

Tony wasn’t there when Flash woke up in the morning.  Happy was, and had breakfast ready as well as two lunches packed and ready to go.

“Chop chop,” Happy said, sounding more tense than usual.  “We’ve got a schedule to keep and I have things to do.”  He was even a little terse with Morgan when she insisted on zipping up her coat herself and wouldn’t let Happy help.  “Morgan, come on, we have to go.”

“But it’s early,” she whined, still fiddling with her zipper.  Happy reached down and zipped it up without her permission which made her glare up at him, put her hands on her hips and stomp her feet.

“Yes, it’s early, you’re going to school early.  I have something I have to do.  Don’t fight me this morning, Little Miss.”

Morgan stomped all the way to the elevator, forgetting her bag and her lunchbox.  Flash grabbed them both for her.  He wondered if Happy had just gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, or if he had some impending meeting that was stressing him out.  Flash wondered for the first time what all Happy’s job actually entailed, and what kinds of things would stress him out this much.

“Where’s Tony?” Flash asked as the elevator carried them down through the tower towards the private parking garage.

“Out.”  It almost sounded like Happy was talking through his teeth.  Iron Man stuff then, Flash thought.  It must be top secret if Happy was being so tight lipped about it.

All day at school Flash wondered about what Tony was off doing.  Like a lot of kids at school, he knew random facts about the Avengers.  The Hulk had always been his favorite, but Iron Man was in the top three.  Flash had often admired Tony Stark far more than Iron Man himself, because he was a successful business man… everything his own father had told Flash was important to become in life.  He dressed well, he had lots of money, he was famous and influential.  It had all been a bit of a shock for Flash to move in with him and find that Tony didn’t walk around the penthouse in expensive suits.  More often than not he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, or sometimes sweat pants and a pullover.  He thought back to the number of times he’d seen the man in an actual suit.  Five, he thought.  Maybe five times in the almost two months that Flash had been with them.  Flash’s own father, who dressed sharply even on his rare days off, never would have believed it.

Like Peter, Flash stayed after school for AcaDec that afternoon.  He wondered if Peter was taking the train to the tower on lab days, because Flash never saw him, but then again, Flash didn’t always hurry to get to the train.

“Are you going to the lab today?” Flash asked him when practice was over.  It was one of the rare occasions that Flash approached the other boy at school without the intent to insult him, so he didn’t blame Peter for looking wary.

“No, it’s canceled.”

Flash nodded.  He knew why.

“Tomorrow?” he asked.

“I don’t know, why?”

“You coming Peter?” Ned called from the open door of the auditorium.  Peter lifted up a hand to let Ned know that he’d be right there.

“I just wondered if you were taking the train to the tower.”

“I get a ride.”  Peter shifted nervously for a moment, and it clicked for Flash that he was getting a ride from Happy.

“From Happy?”

“No.”

Flash frowned.  Who else would drive him?  Flash didn’t know of anyone else.

“Tony drives me.”

Flash should have known that.  Tony spent a lot of time with Peter on weekends, in the lab, and just in general.  He should have known that Tony was coming out to Midtown five days a week (well, not Thursdays) to pick Peter up from school and take him back to the lab.  Flash didn’t know why the man couldn’t pick Flash up while he was there.  They’d made a point of telling Flash when he went to stay with them that he would be taking the train home.  Still, a little fiery coal of anger fell into the pit of his stomach, and he glared at Peter.

“See you,” Parker said.  He hurried to meet Ned, whose head was lolling back like he was about to die of boredom because Peter was taking too long.

Fucking Parker, Flash thought.  It was an old thought that had mellowed some in the past couple of months, but it was still there, the flame waiting to be rekindled in the pit of his stomach.  Fuck him and all the attention he was getting from Tony and Pepper and Morgan.  Just- Flash shook his head.  Just fuck him.

He heaved a frustrated sigh and left the auditorium.  He took his time getting to the train, longer than he normally would have, and then took his time between the train and the tower despite that he didn’t stop off for coffee or anything else.  It was after five when he got back to the tower and it was mostly dark.  As the elevator carried him up to the penthouse, he still felt sullen and angry, not just with Peter, but with Tony too, because what the actual fuck did Flash have to do to be held at the same level as Parker?  He didn’t know and felt like he never would because he’d been asking himself the same question for a long time… for the last two years.

As soon as Flash stepped out of the elevator into the penthouse, he was greeted by Happy, who was more agitated than usual.  “There you are.  Listen, I have to go.  You need to watch Morgan.”  His voice was serious, all business, but there was a nervous energy about him that wasn’t usually there.

“What?”

“Watch her,” Happy said loudly, pointing back at Morgan.

He passed Flash, hurrying to the elevator.

All of the angry, sullen energy he’d had all the way back to the tower dissipated in an instant and was replaced with worry.  “Hey, what’s- what’s going on?”

Happy stepped into the elevator, turned around, looked guilty for a moment, and took a single step back out, one foot still in the elevator.  He leaned towards Flash and said in a low tone, so Morgan, who was watching TV wouldn’t hear, “Tony got hurt.  He’s in the med bay.  I have to get down there.  Watch Morgan.”

“Wait, he’s hurt?  What’s- is he going to be ok?”

Panic rose up in him.  The image of his mother on the ventilator, breathing her last breaths as Flash sat by her beside, helpless to do anything came back to mind.  The image of his father, face too bruised and swollen to recognize in his last hours was seared into his brain.  Any anger he'd had at Tony minutes ago was long gone, an imagined image of him unconscious, bruised and bloody invading all of his senses.

“Hey, hey,” Happy said, snapping in front of Flash's face.  Flash looked up at him, breathing hard.  “He'll be fine, but I have to go.  Breathe and watch Morgan.  Call me if you need something.”  Happy didn't give Flash a chance to panic again, got back into the elevator, and was gone.

Flash turned and looked at Morgan.  She wasn't crying, just watching TV, and he wondered if anybody had told her about her dad yet.  He decided that if no one had, then he wasn't going to.  It would just make her upset, and she didn't deserve that.  Also, he had no confidence that he could calm her down if she broke down in tears and started crying.

Ok, think Flash, think.  Keep her entertained, make her dinner, and tell her a bedtime story or something before bed.  That was the routine right?

There was no time available during that plan for panic.  Pepper was supposed to be gone for another two days still, and he wasn't sure if Happy was coming back, so that meant it was all up to Flash to keep it together and take care of her.  He'd never been responsible for anyone else, but he could do this!

“Hey Morgan, what are you watching?”

“My Little Pony.  It's my favorite episode.”

“Did you get a snack after school?”

She nodded and pointed to a few goldfish crackers left in a bowl on the table.

“Need anything?”

She shook her head.

“Are you hungry for dinner?”

She finally turned to glare at him and held a finger up to her lips.  “Flash,” she whined, elongating his name, “you're not supposed to talk when the TV’s on. It's a rule!”

“Yeah.  Yeah,” he said again, “silly me.”

That seemed to satisfy her, and she turned back to the TV.  He sat down beside her and stared off into space.  If she needed something, that would keep his mind too busy to panic.  But she was fine, and Tony was hurt bad enough to be in the hospital and for Happy to need to go take care of him, and Pepper was gone and-

Morgan nudged him with her elbow and he sucked in a deep breath.  “You're bein’ funny,” she said, “like daddy and Petey.”

“What?”

“They do that sometimes too… get a funny look and breathe all funny.”

Flash was feeling overwhelmed and anxious.  He couldn't see Iron Man having a panic attack, but his mind drifted to Parker shouting at Mr. Harrington in the hall, and Tony not being upset with him at all for it… speaking to him in soft tones and trying to keep him calm.  Flash hadn't realized then that Parker had been having a panic attack.  He wondered yet again what that had all been about that day at school.

They sat there for a few more minutes, Morgan watching cartoons, and Flash trying to remain calm when the elevator doors opened again.  Flash turned, expecting to find Happy, but was surprised and dismayed to find Peter.  He had a dark look on his face.  Someone must have told him about Tony.

Flash got up off the couch, but before he could say anything, Peter came straight to the couch and picked Morgan up, holding her close.

“Petey,” she said, “I’m watching TV.”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, pressing his face into her hair.  Flash wished he would stop.  Parker wasn’t supposed to be there.  It was only Tuesday, and without Tony and Pepper there, there was no reason for Parker to be present.  Plus, it was Flash’s job to protect and take care of Morgan, and he didn’t like Parker acting like the two of them were family… like he had any right to just march in and pick her up and hold her close.

“It’s only Tuesday,” Flash said.

Parker looked past Morgan, still holding her close, and met Flash’s eyes.  He didn’t say anything for long moments.  When he finally did speak, all he said was, “Yeah.”

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

“I came to take care of Morgan.”

Flash felt rage bubble up inside him so quick that he was surprised.  He did his best to tamp it back down before he spoke, but his words still came out sharp and angry.  “It’s my responsibility to take care of her.  I live here, you don’t.  Go home Parker.”

Peter ignored him and carried Morgan towards the kitchen.  “I’m going to get dinner.”

“Parker!  Go home!  You don’t belong here!”

“I’m not going to fight you about this,” Peter said calmly at the same time that Morgan looked over Peter’s shoulder at Flash and said, “This is Petey’s home.”

Flash huffed.  He’d fight Parker, but he wasn’t going to argue with Morgan.  She was young and confused because Parker was around often.  This wasn’t his home, but there was no point in arguing with the little girl about it, especially when he was trying to keep her calm because her father was in the hospital.

Peter set Morgan down on the counter and pulled open a kitchen drawer full of takeout menus.

“Parker, I’m serious, get out of here.  I’m in charge right now, and this isn’t your house.”

Morgan opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again when Peter put his hand on the top of her head.  Flash didn’t notice.  He expected Parker to argue with him despite that he said he wouldn’t, if for no other reason than that Flash had raised his voice to him and had his hands balled into fists at his sides.  He didn’t argue though.  He simply looked up at Flash and said gently. “He’s going to be ok.”

“What?” Flash cut out.  He was still angry, and wasn’t sure what the hell Parker was talking about.

“I checked in with the doctor in the med bay.  He’s going to be ok.  He’s got a concussion and he’s unconscious, but he’ll wake up.  He’s mostly just bruised.  He’ll be back by tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon.”

Flash didn’t know what to say to that.  He opened and closed his mouth several times, a dozen thoughts running through his head, but no words coming out.  He clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides, but all the fight had left him.  Tony was going to be ok?  He’d wanted the doctors and nurses at the hospital to say that about his parents… about his mother and father, but they hadn’t made any move to reassure him that his parents were going to make it.  They were in too bad of shape to make guarantees.  Peter seemed certain that Tony would be fine though, despite that he looked upset and tired himself.

“Can we go see him Petey Pie?”

Peter looked down at Morgan and said, “After he wakes up, ok Mo?”

“Mommy would let me see him.”

“Mommy said to keep you here and make sure you went to bed and didn’t eat too much sugar,” Peter countered.  Morgan crossed her arms and pouted but Peter said, “You can make a blanket fort in your room.”

“Yay!” she shouted.  She climbed down off the counter and ran past Flash and to her room.

In Morgan’s absence, Flash and Peter stood in silence for long moments.  Peter pulled his phone out and started scrolling, before pulling his wallet out and a black credit card with his name on it.  It looked just like the one Tony used.

“What are you doing?”

“Ordering dinner.”

“You have money for that Parker?” Flash scoffed.  Flash certainly didn’t.  He’d blown through almost all of the allowance he had saved up.

Peter ignored him and hit dial on the phone.  Flash was quiet as Peter called a restaurant and asked for ‘the usual’, gave his card number, and then hung up.  Peter shifted uncomfortably under Flash’s scrutinizing gaze for a moment, and then turned to start pulling plates out of a cupboard.

“I don’t get you,” Flash said after a moment.

“Yeah, can’t say I get you either,” Peter mumbled, opening a drawer to get out forks and spoons.

Flash huffed.  “Seriously, who the hell are you?  If you’re just an intern, why do you get to come up here and stay the weekend?  Why do you have your own room here?  What kind of intern has his own room in the boss’ house?  You walk in here and act like you own the place.  I’m the one that lives here, but Morgan treats you like you’re her brother, and I’m just a stranger.”  Flash tried to watch Peter’s face for any hint of an answer to his questions, but there was none.  Parker just stared at him, face blank for long moments.  Like a lot of things when it came to Parker recently, Flash wasn’t expecting the answer Peter gave him.

“I am her brother.”

“No,” Flash said, irritation leaking through his voice again, “you’re not.  I’m her foster brother.”

“You’re her foster brother,” Peter said, voice flat.  “I’m her brother, brother.”

“Yeah, fine, don’t tell me.”

A look of frustration came over Peter’s face for a moment.  He motioned towards his bedroom door and said in a cutting tone, “That’s my room.  Not my part time room, or the room I use on weekends.”  For all the times he’d tried to rile Parker up, or expected him to get upset and only gotten calm responses over the years, Flash thought the kid was making up for it now.  Parker was usually so quiet and meek that hearing him angry all of a sudden made Flash want to take a step back.

“Tony is my dad and that’s my room.  This is my house.  I was just his intern, and then like a year and a half ago, we found out that I’m actually his son.  I moved in here.  I was living here full time until CPS called and asked if they would foster you.  They forgot they had even registered to be a temporary placement until CPS called, because it was something they’d done before they realized I was actually family.  They’d registered to foster in case anything happened to my aunt, so they could take care of me.  Then CPS called and said they needed temporary placement for a rich kid, but that for some reason, they can’t have this many kids in the house full time all at once.  When they told me who they were being asked to foster, and I realized I knew you, I said I’d go back to live with aunt May for a while since this thing with you was only supposed to be temporary.  But I’m not just gonna stay away just because you’re here, so I come home on weekends, and we went back to my old intern schedule of coming to spend time with my dad in the lab five days a week after school.”  Peter rushed through all of it, voice rising to nearly a shout during some points of it.  Now that he was done, his breath was heaving, and Flash noted that all of Peter’s muscles were tensed up, like he was ready to fight.

Flash felt like he’d been slapped, and before he realized what was coming out of his mouth, he said, “You’re lying.”

“Whatever.  Believe what you want, you always do,” Parker huffed, turning away from him.

“You want me to believe you’re Tony Stark’s son.”

“I don’t want you to believe anything.  You asked, and I told you.  I didn’t want you to get stuck in some crappy foster home,” Peter cut out, turning back to face him.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Flash shouted.

“Stop yelling, you’ll scare Morgan!”

“You hate me Parker,” Flash said, lowering his voice, though his tone was growing more frantic.  “I call you names and pick on you in school.  Now you want me to believe this BS that you were just looking out for my best interest?”  Part of Flash felt like it was true though, because Parker had helped him when he’d come home past curfew.

“Yeah, because I know what it’s like to be stuck in a crappy foster home while you wait for them to find family for you to stay with.  I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”

Flash stood up straight and frowned.  “What do you mean?” he asked with a frown.  “You were in foster care?”

“My mom and step dad died when I was five.  It took them two weeks to track down my aunt and uncle and get the paperwork figured out so I could stay with them.  I spent two weeks in a shitty foster home in Chicago where the paint was peeling off the walls, and the lady taking care of us was always drunk and telling us to shut the hell up and to not eat so much and that she was going to throw us out and make us sleep out back in the shed or in the snow.  So yeah, I didn’t want you to have to do that, ok?”  Peter was yelling again by the end and breathing hard.

“Petey?” Morgan’s quiet voice called out, and they both turned and found Morgan standing in her bedroom doorway, uncertain.  Flash wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there, watching them face off.

“It’s ok Morgs, sorry I yelled,” Peter said, trying hard to lower his voice as he reached up and ran a hand through his hair.  “Dinner’s gonna be here soon, ok?”

She gave a nod, though she still looked uncertain.  “Can I call mommy?”

“Before bed.  I’ll call her for you,” Peter said.

She came out of her room, crossed the large living space into the kitchen, and then wrapped her arms around Peter’s waist.  He let out a breath and then relaxed a little, wrapping his arms around her.

“It’s ok, I won’t tell mommy and daddy that you said a bad word,” she said.

Peter reached up and rubbed his forehead hard.  “It’s ok, you don’t have to lie.  I don’t want you to.  Being honest is important.”

“Ok,” she said.  She didn’t let go of him though.  After a moment Peter asked if she’d made a blanket fort yet, and she told him she was waiting for help.

“I’ll help,” Flash said quietly, and Morgan let go of Peter to look at him, her face bright.  She ran around the kitchen island, grabbed Flash’s hand, and dragged him away towards her room.

“We’re gonna make it so big!” she said with glee.  “Then we can watch movies in the fort and I can call mommy and tell her all about it!”

As Flash helped Morgan string blankets around her bed, he thought about Peter and what he’d said.  Everything Flash had feared about going into foster care, Peter had been through.  It had only been for two weeks, but Flash thought it sounded awful.  He wondered if there were more things that had happened there in those two weeks that Peter hadn’t told him about.  There probably were.

If Peter was telling the truth, and he was actually Peter Stark… Flash couldn’t even imagine a child of Tony Stark’s having to live like that, even for two weeks.  He cringed thinking about Morgan having to go into foster care and live in a house with peeling paint, or her being threatened or not being fed enough.  Peter had lived through it though, and then he’d gone to live with his aunt and uncle, not even realizing he had a dad that was not only rich, but famous as well.  This was all assuming of course that Peter was telling the truth.  As Flash helped Morgan hang up one more blanket, he decided that Peter probably was.  Despite always calling Peter a liar, Flash didn’t think he actually was one.  Not anymore.

Peter had been in foster care.  He’d gone to live with his aunt and uncle, and then his uncle had been shot and killed right in front of him.  And then he’d found out that his dad was still alive.  It seemed like a lot to go through for one person, and the more Flash thought about it all, and how he’d treated Peter since their freshman year of high school, the more his stomach started to churn.

He felt even worse for yelling at Peter tonight when his dad was in the hospital.  Flash was worried, and had been trying to keep Morgan calm, but then he’d gone and yelled at Tony’s son… made him so angry that he yelled and cursed when he normally didn’t.  Flash felt like a total jerk.  He’d told Peter that Morgan was his foster sister.  But if Peter was Tony’s child too, then that made Flash and Peter foster brothers.  Happy had told Flash to take care of Morgan, because he was her foster brother.  He should have been taking care of Peter too, and he’d failed.  He’d failed worse than he thought he’d ever failed before.

Flash was starting to feel like his father.  He’d much rather be like uncle Henry.

Peter came in and got them a few minutes later to tell them the food had arrived, and then the three of them sat around the kitchen island, Peter and Flash eating in silence, and Morgan talking about all the movies she wanted to watch in her blanket fort before bed.

Peter had lost his mom and step dad, gone into foster care, and then moved in with his aunt and uncle.  Now Flash had lost his parents, was in foster care, and they were still searching for his uncle.  The parallels between the two of them were mind boggling.

After dinner, while Peter was loading their dishes into the dishwasher, and Morgan was off playing in her blanket fort in her room, Flash sat in silence at the kitchen island, deep in thought.  “Why wouldn’t they let you stay if I was here?” he asked quietly.

“What?”  Peter turned and dried his hands on a dish cloth.

“You said you couldn’t live here if I was here.”

“I don’t know.  When they filled out the paperwork to foster they only listed Morgan as living in the home.  They didn’t update the paperwork after that. They said after you leave they’re going to unregister as foster parents.”  Flash’s face fell and Peter said, “It’s not because of you.  You’re fine, they like you.”

“Yeah right.”

“They didn’t want to do it,” Peter said.  “They weren’t going to, because they didn’t want me to have to move back to May’s apartment.  I told them I was ok with it and that you and I were friends.”

“Us?” Flash scoffed.

“Yeah, dad didn’t believe it for a minute.”

“But- they still took me anyway…”

“Because I packed up a duffle bag full of clothes and put it in the elevator and said I wanted you to stay.”

Flash had never felt like more of an ass.  He didn’t know how to stop feeling like one either.  “I’m sorry.”

Peter looked wary, but after a few moments said, “Thanks.”

A quiet tension hung between them, but was broken a moment later by Peter’s phone ringing.  He pulled it out of his pocket and hit answer as soon as he looked at the caller ID.  “Mom?”

Flash couldn’t hear what Pepper was saying, but he could gather that Morgan had used FRIDAY to call Pepper from her room based on Peter’s responses.

“No, no I’m ok.  Yeah, I promise.  No, I didn’t realize she had FRIDAY call you.  I told her she could call you before bed.  No, we’re good, I promise.  We ordered dinner and I made sure she ate a bunch of vegetables.  Flash helped her make a blanket fort in her room and she’s going to watch a movie.”  Peter was quiet for a moment, listening to whatever Pepper was saying on the other end of the line.  “I love you too- I promise we’ll be fine.  No, I don’t wanna bother May, she’s working until ten tonight.  Uh… Flash?  Yeah, ok.”  Peter looked up at Flash and held out the phone to him.  “She wants to talk to you.”

Flash felt like his stomach was falling.  Peter hadn’t told Pepper that they’d fought, but he had a feeling that Morgan had.  He wondered now how much trouble he was going to be in.  Knowing now that Tony and Pepper hadn’t wanted to actually foster him, that they’d only done it because Peter had convinced them, he suddenly felt as though he was on thin ice.

Flash accepted the phone and held it up to his ear.  “Hello?”

“Hi sweetheart, how are you doing?”  He was surprised by her sympathetic tone of voice.  She didn’t sound angry with him.

“I’m good.”

“You ate dinner?”

“Yes maam.”

“I want you to know that I talked to the doctor in the Med Bay.  Tony is going to be fine, I don’t want you to worry about him.  He’s been hurt worse than this before and he usually bounces back just fine.  After Morgan goes to bed, you can go down and check on him if you want to, but you don’t have to.”

“Ok, uh… thanks.”

“Morgan called and said you and Peter were both upset.”

“Everything’s good.  I didn’t mean to cause any trouble, I promise.”

“I understand.  It can be hard to process things when someone you care about is hurt.”

“I just- we’re good,” Flash said, eyes coming up to Peter.

“Good.  I’ll be back in the morning.  I’m taking a late flight out tonight.  You can still call me if you need me, even if it’s late, ok?”

“Ok.  Thanks.”

“Have a good night, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, I will.”

She hung up and Flash pulled the phone away from his ear, giving it a bewildered look.  He handed it back to Peter, who put it back in his pocket.

“She wasn’t even mad,” Flash said.

“Why would she be?”

“Because I picked a fight with you and made you curse in front of your sister.”

Peter huffed a laugh.  “Dad says way worse things in front of her sometimes.”

The thought he’d had a dozen times already, that the Stark’s were held up in the media as such perfect people, yet their family was so imperfect, came back to him once again.  Flash’s parents tried to uphold the image of a perfect, loving family, yet the home had been filled with emptiness.  Tony apparently cursed in front of his kids though, and when Flash picked a fight with Peter and pushed Peter into cursing, both of them were forgiven and reassured by Pepper that everything would be ok.  He’d been filled with trepidation at talking to Pepper on the phone, but after the call he was filled with warmth.  Perfection didn’t equate to love or happiness, but imperfection sometimes did.  Maybe that’s why he loved his uncle so much.  His uncle didn’t care what people thought about him.  He was wild and free in a way Flash had never been allowed to be.

“Petey, are we going to watch a movie or not?” Morgan called from her open bedroom door, and Peter pulled out his phone.

“My battery is almost dead.  I was going to let her watch a movie on it.”

Flash pulled out his phone.  “Mine’s full.”

The two of them made their way across the living space and into Morgan’s room, and climbed under a hanging blanket and onto Morgan’s bed.

“FRI, turn the lights down to twenty percent,” Peter said, and the lights dimmed.

“What are we watching?” Flash asked, opening up Netflix on his phone.

“Frozen,” Morgan said with glee, bouncing on her knees on the bed.  Flash noted she had already gotten into her pajamas.  Pepper must have told her to change when Morgan had called her.

Flash pulled Frozen up and then handed the phone to Morgan, who flopped face first onto the bed with it to start watching.  Flash had no desire to watch Frozen for the twentieth time, and it looked like Peter didn’t either, but they both sat on either side of her in the blanket fort and watched anyway.

Morgan passed out about an hour into it and Flash slipped the phone out of her hands and pulled up The Martian.  He held it up so both he and Peter could see, Peter watching over the sleeping form of his sister.  They could have gotten up and gone out into the living room to watch on the big screen, but they didn’t.  Flash didn’t know why, but being in the blanket fort with Morgan and Peter felt… safe.  It felt good to be there with the two of them when he was still worried about Tony, and when thoughts were still flying through his head and circling about the things Peter had revealed earlier.

In the morning, when Pepper came up to the penthouse at five AM, fresh off the plane, she pushed Peter’s bedroom door open but found his bed unslept in.  She crossed the living space to Morgan’s room and pulled back a blanket to reveal Peter, Morgan and Flash all asleep, spread out across the bed.  Morgan had worked her way sideways and had her head on Peter’s chest and her legs across Flash’s legs.

Pepper pursed her lips in a small smile as she looked down at them.  She didn’t know if Morgan had just needed the comfort of having both of her brothers sleep nearby when Tony was hurt, or if it had been the boys that had needed the comfort.  Regardless, they were all safe and together, and that was the best she could have hoped for.

* * *

Flash stood awkwardly in Peter’s doorframe, fidgeting with his fingers.  He wanted to hang out with Peter, but wasn’t sure after everything that had happened between them if he would be welcome.  They weren’t friends, but for the first time since Flash had met Parker, he thought that he might like to be.

Peter came out of his private bathroom, hair wet because he’d been taking a shower, and found Flash with his eyes right away.  “Yeah?” he asked.

Flash pointed awkwardly at the Playstation, words refusing to come out.

“Sure,” Peter said.  He retrieved both controllers and then turned to find that Flash was still just standing at the door.  “Might be kind of hard to play if you don’t come in.”

Flash huffed and stepped inside.  “Whatever Stark.”

Peter grinned, and when Flash saw his face, he looked away.  He felt like a jerk, but he didn’t want to be.  Henry would be upset with him for being such a jerk to Peter… foster brother or not.  And they were foster brothers, even if they weren’t friends.  Flash sat down on the floor in front of Peter’s bed, and Peter sat down beside him.

Flash didn’t know what his mother and father would think of this… of him and all that he’d done, but he knew what uncle Henry would think.  They still didn’t know where Henry was, but when they found him and Henry came home, Flash wanted his uncle to be proud of him, not disappointed.  Flash wanted to not be disappointed in himself.

“Racing?” Peter asked.

“Yeah.  You know I’m going to beat you.”

“I know,” Peter said.

“I have this game at- back at my old room.”  Home.  He’d had it at home.  But he wasn’t sure anymore if that place was home.  He’d lived there.  His parents had lived there, but just like when he’d spent a summer with Henry when he was eight, he’d learned some things staying with the Starks.  He’d seen that life… home could be different than anything he’d experienced before.  Maybe when Henry came back, they could turn that apartment he’d shared with his parents into a home.  Flash hoped so.

“I figured.  I usually play other things.  I could beat you at Fortnite.”

“There’s no chance Stark,” Flash said.  He didn’t have to look to know that Peter was still grinning.  Flash didn’t know what his deal was… why he didn’t go by the name Stark at school.  Tony seemed to love him, so Flash didn’t think it was Tony’s doing, keeping Peter’s identity hidden from the public like that.  Being called Stark… recognized for who he was, seemed to make Peter happy though.  Trying to make him happy was something Flash had never done before.  The only people he had ever tried to make happy were his parents, and the Starks.  Peter was a Stark.  He knew that now.  Maybe he should have focused more on trying to make people happy before this… not being such a jerk to Peter all the time at school.

They started to play, and Flash won several races in a row.  “Fortnite?” he asked.  He didn’t know if Peter was better at Fortnite than he was at racing, or if he was all talk, but for the first time, he thought he wouldn’t mind Peter being better at something than he was.

Peter exited out of the racing game and loaded up Fortnite in split screen.

“You never told your friends that I was living here,” Flash said.

“Yes I did.”

He raised his brow and looked at Peter as the game loaded.  “They didn’t say anything.”

“Why would they?”

“What did you tell them?”

“That my new foster brother kind of hates my guts.”

Flash’s stomach squirmed.  “I don’t,” he said quietly.

That made Peter smile again.  “See?” Peter said after a few moments.  “Dad should have believed me when I said we were friends.”

Flash stared at him, open mouthed for a moment, but Peter pointed at the screen, ready to play.

Brothers, but not friends.  Not yet.  But someday, when Flash had worked hard enough for it, they would be.

They would be.

* * *

Seventeen Thursdays after Flash’s mother and father had died in the hospital, on a chilly day near the end of January, uncle Henry came home and found the apartment near Central Park empty and covered in a thin layer of dust.  He’d come back when he couldn’t get ahold of his brother and sister in-law because their numbers had been disconnected, and he’d lost Flash’s number.  The apartment was clearly unlived in… and something was wrong.

Henry panicked for almost five minutes before he thought to check with the neighbors to see if they knew where his family had gone, and had been told about the car crash.  The neighbors didn’t know where Flash was, only that he’d probably gone into foster care.

He spent another ten minutes panicking after that as he waited on hold with CPS, pacing back and forth in the lifeless apartment.  He was sent to seven, seven different offices over the phone before he finally found a person that was willing to talk to him and confirm that Flash was indeed in the state’s custody, and living with a family in Manhattan.

“Do you have his phone number?  I lost it.  I need to talk to him.  I need to see him!”

“Mr. Thompson, we can’t give you that information, and you can’t contact him unless the foster family he’s with approves it.  I’ll pass your phone number along to his foster family however, and I’ll let Flash know that we’ve found you.  He calls in frequently asking if you’ve been found.”

“Good, ok,” Henry breathed in relief.  “And then what?  What do I need to do to get him back?”

“Do you have a place to live?”

“Yes, his parent’s home.  They owned it, so it belongs to Flash now.”

“And do you have a stable job?”

“I just got back into the country.  I’m an artist.  I’ll find a job.  His parents had money though.  They have a lot of money saved up.  More than enough for his care and keeping.”

“I know you’re anxious to be reunited with him, but we have steps we have to take.  I can assure you that he’s with a stable, loving foster family at the moment, and that he’s doing very well there.  When I last spoke to his foster mother, she said they were working on getting him onto his high school baseball team.  Come down to the office here and we can start the paperwork for re-unification.  After the paperwork is filled out, I’ll contact his foster parents and see about setting up a meeting so you can see him while the paperwork is processed.”

“Thank you,” Henry said.  He ran his hand through his hair.  He loved that kid like he was his own son.  He should have been there when his parents died.  There was a reason he had stayed away though… a reason he traveled and only came back for some holidays.  It was too hard to see how Flash was being treated by his mother and father.  Henry would have continued living in New York… had tried that once, but his brother and sister in-law had made it clear that they didn’t want him and his ‘negative influence’ around Flash more than was strictly necessary.  He’d spent three months in New York after the summer Flash had spent with him in France, but in that time had only been allowed to see his nephew a handful of times.  After that, he couldn’t handle being there but not being allowed to see him.  He also couldn’t handle seeing how sad his nephew looked each time he saw them.  His brother had always been a piece of work, and it pissed him off that he’d married a woman that was just like him.  They were Flash’s parents, but that didn’t make them deserve to have him.

Henry should have been there when they died.  He wasn’t, but he was going to do everything he could to get Flash back, and to give him the life he deserved… to make the apartment he’d shared with his parents a home.

Flash deserved that much at least.

* * *

Flash fidgeted nervously, fingers wriggling subconsciously down at his side.  It had been months, and Henry was finally back.  Pepper put her hand on Flash’s shoulder and he calmed some.

“Nervous?” Tony asked from beside him.  The three of them were waiting in a conference room down on the second floor of the tower.  Henry was supposed to arrive any minute, but Flash was worried that he wouldn’t show.  He was a nomad, or at least that’s what Flash’s mother had always said.  Flash worried that Henry wouldn’t want to be tied down to one spot, and that if they couldn’t work it out with CPS for Flash to be allowed to travel around with him, that Henry would give up and wash his hands of him.

“The caseworker said he’s anxious to see you,” Pepper said when Flash didn’t answer Tony.

Flash looked up at her.  She looked and sounded sincere, and he trusted her.  He trusted both of them.  The Starks had been good to him in the almost four months that he’d been with them.  They all had.

The conference room door opened, to reveal a security guard, and then Henry.  Flash stood still, waiting, uncertain, but it was barely a breath before Henry had strode across the room and had Flash wrapped up in a crushing hug.

“I’m so sorry,” Henry breathed.  He sounded like he was in shock… disbelief.  The Starks had been contacted three days before saying that Henry had come back and had started paperwork to get custody of Flash.  Those three days had been nerve wracking.  Flash didn’t know why, because here in Henry’s arms, he remembered that he was loved… remembered that Henry had always been good to him.  “I love you so much buddy,” Henry said, tone low.  He still hadn’t let go of Flash.  Flash gripped the back of Henry’s coat like it was a lifeline.  Henry had been that for him at first in the hours and days after his parents had died.  He’d been the one lifeline Flash had… the one assurance that he wasn’t going to go into the system and be forgotten about.  Then he’d discovered the Starks and the warmth of their home.  He’d discovered a sister, and a brother he hadn’t even realized he had… had discovered a friend: his first in a while.

“I missed you.”  It was all Flash managed to get out.

“I know.  I missed you too.  I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”

“I knew you’d come back.”

“Yeah.  For you buddy, I always come back.”

Flash didn’t let go.  Even if he didn’t, Henry didn’t look like he was going to let go anytime soon.  Behind them, Pepper felt beside her for Tony’s hand, and took it in her own.  They’d done their own background checks on Henry, and talked to Flash about his uncle, not entirely trusting CPS to do a good job.  Watching Flash and his uncle now, a smile came over Tony’s face.  This felt good.  He felt like this was going to work out.  And if it didn’t?  If it didn’t, Tony and Pepper had already updated all of their paperwork with CPS so that if Flash needed them, they’d be there waiting.