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"It makes me sad to think Robin quit. Now that I was... properly getting into the whole superhero sphere, with an armor and all, I wished we could have been partners. Somehow."
Tony granted his kid a comprehensive side smile.
"Worry not, Kitten. I'm sure you will find another nice vigilante, closer to your age, with whom you'll get along."
The boy nodded quietly.
"Probably..."
In their customized suits, the two of them perched on top of a building, eating doughnuts and watching life in the city below, this sunny yet a tad cold afternoon.
Shortly after Edward got his own version of an Iron Man suit, with an adapted ARK directly embedded onto the chest plates instead of being a mechanism cutting through his flesh above the heart like Tony's, reportings declared Batman's sidekick had been spotted throwing his cape and most of his equipment at his mentor's face one dark night and hadn't reappeared since then.
Whereas Robin must be eighteen / nineteen while Ed is fourteen, he remains the first hero roughly his generation he interacted with, during one of their visits in Gotham. He would have appreciated teaming-up with him in his new costume, to... practice common bonding activities. Like saving people, investigating cases and arresting bad guys.
The kind of stuff teen superheroes engage in daily with their buddies.
Tony smiled with pride when they arrived home and his boy performed an expert landing next to him. Iron Man and Sphinx will switch to their 'civilian selves' for a cute evening at the Stark villa together.
He showed everything to his kid: how to move in the armor, how to activate the thrusts to fly, how to use the energy stored in the metallic hands as weapons... Edward helped him conceive Iron Man's outfit from day one, so he knew about the functioning already even though a difference lingers between the theory and the practice.
Adjusted at his measurements, Eddie's version of the costume observed the main design of Tony's, at the difference the plates were green instead of red and the helmet, thighs plus forearms were purple instead of golden. The top of his helmet is complemented by pointy ears making it resemble a cat shape, little golden question marks are printed in regular lines on the legs and arms and stylish drawings applied on the plates of his back imitate feathers plastered into the titanium.
A cat with wings. Only the best for him.
《♢》
People started gossiping. Of course, that's all that motivates them: talking about interesting persons to try to balance the fact their lives are utterly dull and boring.
They gossiped, they chatted, they gave their opinion while nobody asked them to, they started making far-fetched theories... Until the day, barely a couple of weeks after Sphinx's appearance in the Game, this started to go out of hands.
"What on Earth is this supposed to be?!" Tony spat aggressively when Natalie Rushman, Edward's assigned psychiatrist who follows his case, introduced them to a handful of documents signed by various lawyers including officials in charge of child services.
"Complaints," the doctor exposed in a calm tone, minding the billionaire's incoming burst of rage and the teenager's growing unease. "From people who underline a fourteen years old's place is at school, not playing flying hero into the airs. It's been co-signed by jurists who want to study your affair."
"What do they want to study?" Edward shifted uncomfortably on his chair. "Everything about me has been written down in my file already."
Not that this was especially rejoicing, to know he's been analyzed by doctors, first to treat his wounds then to make a diagnosis about his mental state plus traumas. Notwithstanting this, at least it means they shouldn't be bothered by that type of complications.
Besides, who would think of requesting a 'normal life' for Tony Stark's ward he adopted after saving them both from Afghanistan?!
"That makes no sense," Iron Man translated their feeling about the ridiculous situation. "Those people are a cluster of pathetic, jealous idiots who just want to attract attention by trying to create a problem where there is none. What do they even want?!"
"They want social workers to pay you regular visits to see whether or not Edward grows up in an healthy environment."
"I grew up in terrorist camps and caves. Before that, with a man who only remembered I existed when he beat me up then in an orphanage where I was invisible except when I got bullied. And those people are trying to imply Tony is the problem?!"
The psychiatrist sighed.
"It's not me you need to convince," she offered them an apologetic smile. "They reunited enough demands to open an actual investigation. Indeed, it's orchestrated by people who try for years to incriminate Mister Stark for something; now that you welcomed a minor under your roof, they found a new angle of attack by bringing child services into the picture."
"Some persons have zero dignity," Tony muttered. "Can't I..."
"No, Mister Stark. You can't buy your way out, you'll have to play it via the official way. Edward, if you were eighteen, or even sixteen that would suffice, they wouldn't have been able to pull together that kind of file. They probably rejoice you are in age to attend obligatory schooling, it gives them an excuse to morph into those despicable vultures."
"... Sorry for not being one year and a half older."
Both Tony and Natasha under her therapist cover smiled at this sincere apology. Iron Man ruffled his kid's ginger hair with affection to promise it's no troubles.
"Alright," Tony concluded thereafter. "So... what's the deal?"
"The deal," the agent answered patiently, "is to persuade a jury you are a good father, Mister Stark, otherwise they will try to take the custody away from you."
Predictably, father and son protested: Tony by letting out outraged angry remarks, Ed by exposing the reasons why this is a dumb prospect then looking horribly scared by the possibility.
"It's fine," Natasha comforted them both, suddenly feeling like the sole adult in the room. "All you have to do is to prove you didn't simply make him your sidekick."
"That shouldn't be an issue," Tony growled menacingly. "He is not my sidekick. He is my son."
Eddie cuddled next to him. He was a bit scared, but... he trusted his dad, for this like for everything else.
It's gonna be alright.