Tony Stark survived the snap, but barely.
His survival was kept under wraps, so much so that nobody was told beyond his doctor and Nick Fury. His family was allowed to grieve, given only the arc reactor that was in his chest.
Tony Stark was in a coma for a long time, long enough for his family to move on. Long enough for Morgan to barely recognize pictures of him, long enough for Peoper to go back to being called Virginia, long enough that monuments to Iron Man had long since been painted over. Long enough for Peter to be looking at colleges, maybe in college.
When Tony Stark woke out of his coma, he spent a while trying to decide what to do. He could announce his survival, disrupt everyone’s lives, simply to make his own better. He could get a new identity, try to reintegrate into society, get a job and an apartment and learn to live outside the workshop.
Tony elected for the second and started his new life, comfortable in an apartment near where his old tower had been. He started a new job, he learned all he could about the time he had been out, he tried to avoid anything to do with his old life.
But he didn’t need to avoid mentions of Peter Parker, he soon noticed. the name wasn’t anywhere. Not on the MIT student list, not listed as a high school graduate, not at his old apartment… nowhere. Spider man was still around, but Peter? Nowhere.
And as much as Tony tried to avoid getting sucked into his old life, he wondered what had become of his pseudo-son. What happened?
Tony found out what happened when he came face to face with Spider-Man. And the hero stopped in his tracks. And Tony stopped in his.
Because Peter had just found out that Tony was very much alive, no matter how different he looked now.
And based on the stunned expression on his face and the first word out of his mouth being “kid”, Peter guessed that somehow, tony had evaded the grasp of the spell.
Because the spell dosnt work on people in a coma.
And Tony could never forget the son he died to save.