Chapter 1- The Lonely Child

In the space of a few weeks, Tony Stark went from being a carefree bachelor to the father of a child.

It all started when his sister, Elizabeth and her husband Burt, died in a freak car accident that would be the talk of the country for the following few months. The trial of the drunk driver in the other car was nationalised and everybody watched with bated breath as his prosecution fate was announced.

What was often touched upon in the reports was the fate of their son, Kurt.

Kurt was used as a weapon by the lawyers and Tony had witnessed the entire thing, horrified by their actions. Kurt was eight going on nine and he was being exploited for his status as an orphan. Tony could relate, he was the same. Howard and Maria had died quite some time ago, but the feeling of being an orphan was always there, lingering away in the back of Tony's mind, hidden behind the assurances that he had no problems at all.

Elizabeth had left behind a will, detailing that all of her assets go to Kurt, the monetary side to go into a college fund. The total would allow Kurt to go anywhere he desired without the burden of student loans on his back after graduation.

In what shouldn't have been such a shock, Kurt had been left to Tony, his uncle and official godfather.

Redeemed playboy Tony Stark was enlisted to care for a child of nine years old.

Boy was he screwed.

Tony knew nothing about children. He hadn't really been around while Kurt was growing up, so they would have to completely build a new relationship, all while dealing with their respective grief. Tony had lost his sister and that was awful and he didn't even know how to begin to deal with that, but Kurt had lost both of his parents at the same time. Tony knew firsthand that nothing would ever compare to the horror of that.

So when he was to pick Kurt up for the first time, he wasn't going to pretend like he wasn't nervous. A lot of the time, Tony concealed his true emotions from everybody, mostly because of his celebrity persona that he had built; the cocky, arrogant asshole who secretly did good things for the environment under the guise of charitable contributions to enhance his image.

Now he was the guardian of a nine year old orphan.

Oh how times had changed.

"Hi, Uncle Tony," Kurt muttered as he saw Tony waiting, leaning against the side of his car. He had brought one of the low key cars for this excursion just so less attention would be drawn to it.

Tony put on his best smile as he appraised the boy.

He looked thin, thinner than Tony remembered from pictures. It looked like he wasn't eating and there were thick, dark circles underneath his eyes that gave away his lack of regularity in his sleeping pattern. Tony almost winced at how rough he looked but, given the circumstances, it was understandable.

Despite that, Tony was surprised at how pretty Kurt was. Pictures portrayed him as a normal pale kid with an interesting shine in his eyes and a big smile on his face. Kurt had always been a happy child and Tony felt sick that the world had taken that away from him.

"Hey, kid," Tony muttered nervously. He was taken by surprise when Kurt ran up to him and held him tightly, his height meaning that his head crashed against Tony's stomach, just above his bellybutton.

Holding Kurt close to him, Tony was stunned at the gesture. He and Kurt were not close by any means, but they were still family. Elizabeth had always told him that Kurt was extremely averse to physical affection unless it was with his parents, so the touch confused Tony. Had Kurt adapted truly this quickly? Tony didn't think that was humanly possible, although it made sense that dire situations called for necessary adaptation.

"Uncle Tony? You can let go now."

Tony cradled his head tighter. "No, I don't think I can," he whispered.

He felt Kurt chuckle against his body and it was in that moment that Tony Stark knew that he was going to be fine.

Tony tapped his fingers on the table. This is the part he was not very good at. Emotional communication. The dreaded 'E' word.

Emotion had been something that his father had drilled out of him. Tony didn't think it was wholly intentional, it had just happened. All of those years being told he wasn't enough, being compared to Steve fucking Rogers had conditioned him to shrivel up when the faintest chance of emotional confrontation presented itself.

It's not that he didn't have emotions, of course he did. Despite what modern media tried to paint in their sorry attempts at expositional journalism, he actually felt things that weren't about himself. He just hid them spectacularly well a lot of the time. Pepper knew exactly how to see through him, though, and she was just about the only person alive who could. Elizabeth had an uncanny ability to get him to say how he was feeling without him really realising.

But she was gone now.

And that ached more than he could've imagined.

Tony had to work out a way to push his grief all the way down so that Kurt would be okay. Kurt was his main priority now.

Speaking of, the boy was sat opposite him, fingers drumming on the edge of his glass of water. He hadn't drank anything since he had arrived at Tony's mansion. His head was down and he seemed to be in a world of his own.

"You not thirsty, kid?"

Kurt's head snapped up. The blankness on his face made Tony flinch slightly. He looked unlike himself. "What? Oh, sorry. I was…could you repeat yourself, please?"

Tony tried not to smile at how much Kurt reminded him of Elizabeth when they were growing up. The politeness, the desire to appease everybody at the expense of herself. The signs were all there: Kurt was going to grow to be a remarkable man.

"I was just wondering if you were actually thirsty or just humouring me when I offered you water."

Kurt swallowed. "I...I wasn't thirsty then. I just didn't want to seem rude. It's your house and you're letting me stay here."

It was only then that Tony realised that for all of Kurt's emotional maturity and politeness, he was still very young. He still had a lot to learn. Tony knew that he was intelligent; Elizabeth would email him copies of some of Kurt's assignments and they were vastly more advanced than the average level of his classmates. He was more advanced than even Tony himself was at that age.

"Kurt, you're family. From this point on, this house is as much yours as it is mine. I want you to feel comfortable and safe here."

Kurt nodded slightly, looking down at his hands which were now on his lap, probably intertwined.

"Kurt-."

Tony was interrupted by a voice that reverberated across the room.

"Mr. Stark, you have a call waiting on Line One. It's Ms. Potts."

Tony sighed and waved a hand. "Thanks, J. Tell her I'll call her back later tonight."

Kurt stared at him from across the table.

Tony smiled. "That was Jarvis. You probably don't remember the last time you were here, do you?"

Kurt shook his head.

"You were three and everyone was here for Christmas. Your mom had…" Tony trailed off, not sure how this would play out.

Kurt bit his lip. "You can carry on, if you want. I need to get used to talking about them."

Tony nodded. "Your mom had made a big fuss about how dinner needed to be cooked just right and that I should just have let her prepare everything. But this was the first time that Christmas had been at my place and I wanted to do it all. Your dad was in the living room pretending to be interested in what Jarvis was saying to him about the architecture of the house.

"You were playing with the remote control helicopter that your dad got for you. You were bored easily with that one, so you moved on to the Sailor Moon action figures that I got for you."

Kurt let out a small laugh and Tony realised it was the first outlet of positivity Kurt had displayed since arriving. "That certainly sounds like me."

Tony matched his laugh. "You were caught up in that wild imagination of yours. You were basically writing a screenplay.

"Anyway, I had your mom breathing down my neck the entire time, making sure I didn't fu- mess up the dinner."

"And did you?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

Tony shook his head fondly at the memory. "All over the place. Your dad pretended that it was the greatest meal he'd ever eaten just to be gracious, but you and your mom had things to say about it. I mean, not so much you because you didn't really know how to express what you wanted to say. Your mom was not happy with it. The turkey was fine, but everything else went to shit."

Tony sighed. "Sorry. Just slipped out. You know not to use bad language, right? I'm sure Lizzie would've taught you that."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "I'm not six, Uncle Tony. I know most of those words. A lot of the parents of the kids at my school have no problem cursing in front of the entire playground."

"It's good to know you're not following their example."

Tony and Kurt talked for about an hour before Kurt expressed his desire for food. After the Christmas story, Kurt was in no hurry to be treated with Uncle Tony's cooking skills again. Tony, with some help from Jarvis, ordered pizzas for them both and showed Kurt around the house while they waited, explaining that he could go anywhere he wanted except for the lab. Tony wasn't stupid and he knew that a curious mind like Kurt would have a field day looking at all of his various contraptions and gadgets that he was working on. The Iron Man suits were firmly locked away from everyone but himself, but there were still things lying around that Kurt could harm himself on.

After they ate, Kurt retired to his bedroom for the night, wanting to settle in as soon as possible to make the transition easier for both of them. Tony remained in the living room, a glass of scotch in his hand, flipping through the television channels and not really paying much attention to much of anything.

He thought about Kurt and how strong he was being, keeping everything together for whatever reason. Maybe he was just that emotionally secure. It was with a wince that Tony realised that no kid should ever have to be that resilient. From what Lizzie had told him, Kurt hadn't had the easiest childhood, being different from his peers in every single way. He was smarter, more emotionally mature, had different interests and generally preferred his own company than that of others. Tony made a note to ask Kurt if he had any friends. Even to somebody as independent as Kurt needed friends. It was crucial to a child's development and helped shaped them into the people they were when they grew up.

Right then, Tony felt himself growing angry about the way the world had treated Kurt.

As Tony felt his rage grow, he heard a pattering of footsteps descend the stairs.

"Uncle Tony?" Kurt came into view, dimly lit by the television lighting. Kurt rubbed his eyes and sniffled. Tony's heart sank.

"Hey, buddy. You alright?"

Kurt exhaled raggedly. "I know it's stupid, but I had a dream."

Ah. It was that kind of night. Tony had had dreams like that before, starring Howard and Maria. Mostly his mom, but Howard was more of a supporting character.

Tony patted the space next to him. "You want to talk about it?"

Kurt nodded and sat down, bringing his knees up to his chin. Tony was just glad that Kurt was willing to open up to him about it. That took real strength. Many thought that the 'grin and bear it' technique was the trademark of a strong human being, but self-expression was much harder.

"It was that night. I was pleading with them not to leave with me with the babysitter. He really didn't like me at all. They said it was going to be fine and left for their date. Suddenly, the dream changed and I was driving the car that killed them."

Tony's eyes fluttered closed as he placed a tentative hand on Kurt's shoulder. He didn't know how Kurt was going to react to physical contact. As Tony should have suspected, Kurt flinched away.

"Sorry. I just...don't really like being touched."

Tony immediately withdrew his hand. "Gotcha. No touching."

"Thanks. Anyway, I was heading towards them in the car and...I sped up. I wasn't in control, the car just kept going until it hit them! They were looking at me through the window and they were crying, screaming, saying it was all my fault."

Tony blinked. "You know it wasn't your fault, don't you?"

Kurt looked up, tears blotching his pale skin. "Yes. But maybe if I hadn't have argued with them about leaving the house, they wouldn't have been in that place at that time. They would've been here today, maybe."

Tony turned his body to face Kurt. "Kurt, that's not your fault. The only person who is at fault is that asshole who decided to drink and drive. You played no part in this. A completely indescribably awful thing happened to you and it's natural to self-blame. Trust me, I went through the ringer with that one."

"Your parents…" Kurt trailed off.

Tony nodded, sighing. "We're in the same boat, kid. Well, that's actually not true. Both of your parents loved you more than their own lives. I'm going to give you time to grieve however you want to. If you want to see someone, a professional, I'll be happy to set that up. If you want to fill a room with smashable objects and just have at it, that can be arranged. The one thing I won't allow is you blaming yourself for what happened. You got me?" Tony hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but the emotion inside of him had burst to the forefront, controlling his words.

If Kurt detected the coldness of his tone, he didn't acknowledge it. He simply dipped his head into a nod and wiped his eyes. "I know it's not my fault, Uncle Tony. The rational part of me knows that. There's just that one part in the back of my mind that…"

"That thinks you could have stopped it somehow if you could just do it over again," Tony finished for him, because he knew that was exactly what Kurt was about to say.

"Yeah. I know it's stupid and I shouldn't waste time thinking like that, but I can't help it. I'd give anything."

"I know, kid. Me too."

Kurt looked up, tears gone from his eyes. "Do you mind if I hug you?"

Tony frowned. "I thought the no touching thing…"

Kurt shifted. "It's fine if I initiate it, I guess."

Tony opened his arms and let the sniffling boy crawl into them, laying his head on Tony's chest.

Tony only meant for the hug to last a few seconds, but he soon realised that Kurt had fallen asleep on him. The soft, light sounds of the boy's breathing soothed him almost to the point of drifting off, too. He shook his head and secured Kurt in his arms before lifting the boy, alarms bells ringing inside his head at how light he was. Sure, he was a small, thin nine year old boy, but this was something else. Tony made a mental note to investigate the issue further as he carried Kurt to his bedroom.

Laying the boy in his double bed, Tony sighed, thinking about how these fleeting moments of peaceful unconsciousness were proving to be the only moments in Kurt's life where pain didn't follow him. And even then there were the nightmares.

As Tony closed the door, he brushed a hand down his face. This was certainly a new development for both of them and would be the harshest test of their respective characters. Sure, they would likely fall over some of the hurdles, but as long as they used each other to get back up, then maybe things would sort themselves out given some time.

Maybe they would be okay.