Irondad Oneshots

Long Road Home - WWII AU

Requested by: @PingGal15

A/N: A lot of you were really kind on the last chapter when I said my mental health hasn't been doing great so I think I'm going to take a little break from updating here. It won't be forever, just like a week or two until I'm feeling a little better. To those who have requested things that I haven't written yet, I will get back around to doing them as soon as I'm back! Thanks for understanding. For now, have this chapter that I started writing like weeks ago and finally finished! -Lyss

Also in advance, none of this is going to be historically accurate, don't expect it to be lol I tried my best

*

1941

The war is on the horizon. It's more than on the horizon. War has been waging in Europe for months, years even. The conscription is being finalized and nobody has a choice anymore but to go fight in the war.

Eighteen-year-old, Peter Stark, had no choice but to apply for the war. His birthday had just past on the day the conscription was finalized. Everyone between 18 and 45 without health or religious complications would be forced into joining the war.

Forty-three-year-old, Tony Stark, was unable to join no matter how much he wants to make sure his kid is safe due to a heart condition he's had since the first world war.

Peter's mother had died at Peter's birth, leaving Tony to care for the child in the changing United States. Canada was finally developing into its own country, not just another country to join the UK, the states were evolving into something better, slowly but surely.

The last thing Tony wanted was to let Peter go to war like this one. A war this dangerous. He had seen the horrors of the first world war as a naïve eighteen-year-old. He had seen it happen. The only reason he didn't kill himself with the debilitating PTSD, was his baby.

He met Mary in the war. She had been a young, beautiful nurse, but one who could fight for herself. One that didn't need a strong man to protect her. One that could wield weapons better than some of the soldiers. He got hit while in the trenches and the only reason he survived was thanks to her. She saved his life and he could never thank her enough for it.

They kept in touch through letters during the war as he had no one else to send the letters to, and after the war ended, Mary moved in with him. And soon after, he proposed and not long later, they were married and she was pregnant.

Obviously, this didn't go as planned. Mary died during labour and the baby was left in the sole care of Tony.

There was lots of stigma around Tony being a single father. It never happened in these days, but his father had been a huge company in making weapons for WWI, and when he died, Tony got all the money. Tony no longer had to work to survive and with his heart conditions, couldn't be forced into work.

So instead, he spent his days caring for his child and being a housewife. He didn't have many friends, no one who could be angry at him for his choices. All he had was Rhodey who had lost both his legs in the war and is now permanently in a wheelchair. He lives in the neighbouring house, constantly being visited by Tony and Peter.

But now Peter is eighteen and the US is joining the second world war, and Peter has no choice but to enroll.

*

"No one even knows you exist. No one knows to come searching this way for people hiding from the conscription," Tony argues for the thousandth time.

Today is the day Peter's officially leaving and going to begin his training for the war.

"I can't just pretend I don't exist, Dad. This isn't something I can run from. People know you and they'll find out about me sooner or later. They probably won't even send me to battle. I'm a scrawny kid. They're not going to put me anywhere near the front lines," Peter says, rolling his eyes and pulling his white t-shirt over his head.