Peter
Tony hates the fact that he’s leaving Peter behind in the penthouse for a while on their Saturday to go to a SHIELD meeting of all things, but the kid was right, it’s not exactly worth the risk of getting on the government’s bad side.
He gets through the meeting as professionally as possible and he’s pretty proud of himself. He still gives as few details as he can get away with, of course, but Steve vouches for Peter as well and his word is definitely worth a lot more than Tony’s in their eyes.
He books it out of there as soon as they’re done and heads back up to the penthouse.
He strolls out of the elevator doors once they open up onto his floor. He wanders into the living room, assuming Peter is still on the couch watching TV where Tony left him, but the TV isn’t on. He doesn’t see Peter’s curly hair sticking up over the top of the couch either.
“Pete?” He calls out, walking around the couch to make sure he’s not just napping where Tony can’t see him.
Tony makes his way down the hallway to the bedrooms next, and the door to the room he put Peter in last night is cracked open. He pushes in the rest of the way, but there’s no Peter in here either.
Huh. He must’ve decided to go down to the lab after all.
But when Tony gets down to the lab, there’s no sign of Peter there either. Maybe he went to patrol for a bit while Tony was gone?
“Hey Friday, where’s the kid?” He asks, realizing that’s probably what he should’ve done first instead of just wandering around.
“Peter is in the gym with Captain Steve Rogers.” She responds quickly.
Peter is in the gym with Steve? A jolt of panic spikes through him as friday says the man’s name, but he forces himself to take a breath and think about things logically. Steve isn’t hurting Peter. He’s been helping Natasha train him the past few months and that’s all that’s going on now. It doesn’t stop him from walking there as quickly as he can manage, just to make sure.
When he finally gets there, not nearly as quickly as he would’ve hoped, he stops in the antechamber and lets out a relieved sigh. They’re just on the sparring mats getting some practice in, just like he expected.
Although, now that he’s looking a little closer, it looks like they’re fighting pretty hard for just a sparring match. He doesn’t get a chance to watch much more before Peter suddenly has Steve on the ground and is crouching over him. Peter looks like he’s saying something to Rogers, but he has his back to Tony so he isn’t sure what exactly the kid is saying. Probably bragging about winning.
Peter turns around and sees Tony through the window, smiling at him as soon as they make eye contact. He jogs over and through the door to the windowed room.
“Hey Mr. Stark!” He calls. “How was your meeting? Wow, I’m starving. Let’s go back up to the penthouse for some food.”
“Kid, hey, wait.” Tony says fruitlessly as Peter grabs onto his arm and practically drags him to the elevator.
“Okay, what’s the big hurry?” Tony asks once the elevator doors close, trying not to sound accusatory, but Peter is acting a little strange.
Peter shrugs noncommittally. “No hurry. Just want to get upstairs and get some food. I think have had enough training for today.”
“Yeah, I saw that.” Tony tells him, not bothering to hide the concern in his voice. “Are you…is everything okay?”
He sees Peter’s jaw clench, and his arms cross in front of his chest defensively. “Of course I’m okay. I won.” He replies tersely.
“Yeah, you did.” Tony agrees with a nod. “And I’m not saying it wasn’t impressive. I just thought it looked a little intense for a practice match and wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything going on with you that I should know about.”
Peter looks at him suspiciously and shrugs, but he loses the defensive posture.
“I just wanted to see if I could beat him, and I can.” Peter says with a sense of finality. “You know, just in case the team ever starts fighting or something again.”
The elevator reaches their floor and the doors slide open, rescuing Peter from any more questioning. The boy bounds out of the elevator and towards the kitchen. Tony sighs and follows him. Being around this kid with endless energy really reminds him how old and tired he is now.
When he gets to the kitchen, Peter already has a box of disgustingly cheap macaroni out on the counter and a pot of water on the stove. Tony shakes his head at the sight. He can’t believe Peter talked him into buying that crap. He strolls over to the fridge and pulls out a bag of baby carrots.
“Eat a vegetable if you’re going to eat that artificial crap.” He says, tossing Peter the bag.
Peter makes a mocking face at him, but acquiesces to the request.
Tony has to stop the panic rising up in his chest as he takes in the sight of Peter sitting on his kitchen counters munching on carrots that Tony is forcing him to eat. Wow. He really is acting like a dad. How has he not noticed this whole time? Has it always been like this?
He pushes the feeling back down and changes the subject back.
“So, you’re saying you’d take my side in Avengers Civil War part 2?” Tony asks, mostly joking until Peter looks up at him from his yellow goop in a pot completely seriously.
“Of course I would.” He responds, with a confused scrunch of his eyebrows, like he doesn’t know why Tony is even bothering to ask.
“Wow…uh, thanks kid.” Tony barely manages to respond through the lump forming in his throat, but Peter’s attention is back on making his food.
He’s starting to feel like he’s struggling to breathe again. He needs to get out of here now before the kid notices.
“I’m going to go change out of this suit and into my lab clothes.” He comes up with the excuse quickly before rushing to his bedroom and shutting the door behind him.
He takes a moment to control his breathing before mentally going through everything.
Okay. Peter thinks of him as a father. He knows that revelation came yesterday and he thought he was coming to terms with it, but this might be something that takes him more than 12 hours to accept. Peter thinks of him as a father. He’s acting like Peter’s father. Peter just beat Steve Rogers in a fight just in case Tony needs him if the avengers ever start fighting again. Not that Tony would ever take advantage of it, but the kid basically just declared his complete devotion to Tony no matter what the cause they’re fighting for even is, no hesitation.
He slumps down to the floor in front of his door and buries his head in his hands.
How did he go from the playboy partier to someone who puts a teenager to bed and makes him eat vegetables? He doesn’t even remember any in between.
He drags himself up off the floor and into his closet to actually do what he said he was going to do. He has a kid in his kitchen relying on him and he isn’t going to let him down. For better or worse, Peter chose him, and he’s going to make sure he does this right.
“Okay, Pete.” He announces with a clap, strolling back into the kitchen. “You ready for lab day?”
Peter is still sitting on his counter top, eating mac and cheese straight from the pot with a fork, bag of baby carrots long forgotten on the other side of the kitchen.
Peter nods enthusiastically, quickly rinsing out his pot and sticking it in the dishwasher before putting the carrots back in the fridge. He’s at Tony’s side in an instant to walk down to the lab. Tony has to chuckle a little bit at Peter’s pure unadulterated enthusiasm.
He throws an arm over Peter’s shoulders as they walk down. Peter leans into his side slightly and Tony thinks that maybe, just maybe, he can handle this.
They spend the whole day in the lab, working on different projects and brainstorming new ones. Tony makes Peter do some practice equations in any free time since he’s still not convinced that high school is challenging the kid at all.
“Hey, kid.” Tony calls across the lab over the softly playing rock music. He used to blast his music when he was working, but Peter’s hearing is pretty sensitive and the last thing he wants is Peter getting a headache during their lab time. Peter glances up at him from the computer screen he’s completely engrossed in. The kid still needs a little work on his coding skills and Tony needed to get some paperwork done, so he assigned Peter to fix some bugs that he’s noticed in the AI in the spider suit and they can look at it together later.
“Are you getting hungry for dinner? It’s getting a little late.”
Peter pulls out his phone and looks at the time, surprised look appearing on his face when he realizes it’s already the evening.
“Wow, I had no idea it was getting so late.” Peter says. “Dinner sounds good if it’s no trouble, Mr. Stark, but I should probably get back to the Patterson’s house pretty soon.”
Tony frowns. Back to the Patterson’s house?
“I thought you said they weren’t coming back until tomorrow.” He questions.
“They aren’t, but I can sleep there still. I really don’t want to impose on you another night.” Peter states uncomfortably, looking at the ground.
“Peter, stop.” Tony interrupts, holding out a scolding finger towards the boy’s chest. “What have we been talking about regularly for months now?”
Peter rolls his eyes. “That I’m not a bother.” He replies reluctantly.
“And?” Tony prompts again.
“I’m allowed in your penthouse whenever I want.”
“Yes, perfect!” Tony praises. “See? Genius.” He pokes Peter’s side jokingly, getting a small smile from the boy.
“Now,” Tony continues. “I won’t force you to stay here if you want to sleep in your own bed tonight, but you’re welcome to if you don’t want to sleep in an empty apartment.”
Peter glances up at him again, looking thoughtful.
“If it makes you feel better, I like having you around.” Tony says after a few moments of waiting for Peter to give him an answer.
“Really?” Peter looks up hopefully.
“Of course!” Tony exclaims. “We can have extra lab time, plus when you’re around I actually make sure we eat real food and stick to a routine instead of living in the lab for 72 hours straight.”
Peter snorts at Tony’s poor habits out of knowing the truth in his statement.
“I guess in that case I better stay here another night, for your sake.” Peter says with a smile.
Tony rolls his eyes fondly before pushing himself up from his chair. “Let’s order some dinner and put a movie on then. I’m done with the lab for today.”
Peter’s eyes immediately shoot back to his screen. “Just a few more minutes, Mr. Stark. I think I’ve almost got this figured out.”
“Nope, spider babies need regular meals. We can come back to it tomorrow.” Tony swipes Peter’s holographic screen away with a hand.
“Mr. Staaaark.” Peter whines. “I’m almost finished!”
Tony tugs gently at Peter’s arm until the boy stands up and follows him to the elevator. “It’ll be easier to figure out the problem with a fresh set of eyes. Trust me.”
Peter sighs dramatically, but doesn’t argue.
“Penthouse, Fri.” He commands once they’re in the elevator. “What do you want for dinner tonight? Something healthier than the slop you had for lunch.”
Peter rolls his eyes again. These teenagers and their sass, geez.
“Kraft mac and cheese is delicious, Mr. Stark. If you would try it, you could find that out.”
“That stuff is an insult to pasta everywhere and it’s not coming anywhere near my advanced palate.” Tony replies, making a mocking face at the boy.
Peter laughs. “You’re so snooty! One day I’ll convince you to try some Kraft or some cup noodles or something. Vegetable curry sounds nice right now though, and that’s healthy.”
“You heard the kid, Friday.” Tony says, glancing up at the ceiling. “Put in the order. And get us some naan and some bhindi masala as well.”
The doors slide open and the two wander into the penthouse as Friday gives her confirmation.
“Why don’t you go take another shower while we’re waiting on food?” Tony suggests. “I’ll throw another set of clothes on your bed while you’re in there.”
“Sounds great, Mr. Stark. Thanks.” Peter says before rushing off back to his bedroom. Tony finds him another set of clothes out of his own closet that he hasn’t worn in a long time and drops them off in Peter’s room before changing his own messy clothes and retiring to the couch. By the time he chooses a movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off this time, Peter loves movies from the 80s so he can make fun of how old they are, the food has arrived. It comes up to him on the elevator and he sets it all up on the coffee table in front of the TV.
“Wow, Mr. Stark. It smells amazing in here.” Peter says with a wide smile as he comes strolling back into the room, dressed in some sweatpants and one of Tony’s old MIT T-shirts from when he was Peter’s age, his hair still wet and sticking up all over the place from his shower.
“Come on and eat then. I’m hungry too. And I picked a movie for us that I’m positive you’ll like.”
Peter hurries over to the food and doesn’t waste any time plopping down on his side of the couch and digging into his food. Tony joins him and turns on the movie. Peter finishes his food way too quickly as usual and falls back into the couch with a dramatic groan. Tony chuckles before clearing the coffee table so Peter can put his feet up and getting a blanket to throw over the kid’s legs.
Tony sits back down in his spot on the couch and gets comfortable. They make it most of the way through the movie before he can tell that Peter is getting tired. By the time the credits are rolling, Peter is firmly asleep with his head tipped over onto Tony’s arm.
Tony looks down at him with a smile. This is such a far cry from the boy he met months ago who jumped away every time anyone came near him. Tony reaches his other arm across to run his hand through Peter’s hair.
“Come on, kiddo. Let’s get you to a real bed.”
Peter’s eyes scrunch in displeasure, still closed.
“No thanks. Comfy here.” He says sleepily, burying himself deeper in his blanket.
Tony snorts a laugh before shifting to stand up, taking away Peter’s makeshift pillow.
“Too bad. I’m too old to be sleeping on the couch. My back will be aching in the morning.”
Peter looks up at him grumpily before relenting and letting Tony pull him up off the couch. Tony guides him into his room with a hand on his shoulder, then pulls down the blankets on his bed for him. He nudges Peter to lie down, and the kid is asleep again before Tony can even pull the covers over him. He turns off the light and shuts the door before stumbling into his own bed.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Tony wakes up earlier than usual the next morning and actual feels pretty okay for an early morning. He gets himself a cup of coffee before deciding that Peter needs breakfast. Did he feed Peter breakfast yesterday? He can’t even remember.
By the time Peter comes stumbling out of his room, bleary eyed and tired, Tony has a big stack of pancakes waiting for the boy. Peter sits down and starts digging in with no complaints after absolutely drowning the food in maple syrup. Tony finishes picking up before pouring a completely moderate amount of syrup over his own much smaller stack. He takes one bit and almost spits it out in surprise. Peter looks up from his mostly eaten plate at Tony’s noise of disgust.
“You like these?” Tony asks Peter, surprised.
Peter shrugs noncommittally. “They’re not the worst I’ve had.”
“They’re so…chewy.” Tony decides.
“Did you mix the batter until all the lumps were gone?” Peter asks him.
Tony scoffs. “Of course I did. I know that much. No one likes lumpy pancakes.”
“That’s your problem.” Peter replies, taking another bite. “You’re supposed to leave pancake batter lumpy otherwise you over mix it and they come out dense and chewy instead of fluffy and nice.”
Tony groans. “I give up. I’m never making any baked goods again. You’re in charge of them from now on.”
Peter chuckles. “Alright Mr. Stark. I’ll make pancakes next time if you make me some more pasta soon.”
“You have a deal, Mr. Parker.” Tony replies before throwing the rest of the pancakes in the trash and settling for some toast for breakfast instead.
“Can we go back and work on the coding you forced me to quit halfway yesterday?” The kid asks.
“So dramatic.” Tony tells him with a shake of his head. “But yes, we can if you want.”
“Yes!” Peter exclaims. He jumps up and drops his plate in the sink before running out of the kitchen.
“Meet you down there, Mr. Stark!” He calls once he’s out of sight.
Tony sighs and shakes his head fondly. This kid.
They spend the whole morning in the lab. Tony goes over the coding with him and Peter has done a great job. There were some things that he missed, but overall a ton of improvement from where he started.
After lunch, Tony assumes they’ll go back to the lab, but Peter hesitates.
“Actually, Mr. Stark, I was hoping to go on patrol today before the Patterson’s get home. Is that okay?”
“Of course it’s okay, kid.” Tony replies.
Peter practically skips back to his room and comes running back a few minutes later wearing his suit and towing his backpack with him.
“Be safe out there, kiddo, and call me if you need anything, okay?” Tony asks him, following him to the penthouse balcony.
“I’m always safe, Mr. Stark.” Peter says with a smile. “Thank you again for letting me stay here for a few days. It really means a lot to me.”
“Anytime, Pete.” Tony replies completely honestly. Before he can even process what’s happening next, Peter rushes forwards and wraps his arms around Tony’s torso in a hug. Tony has just enough time to tentatively put a hand on Peter’s back before the boy is gone and out the window.
He watches Peter free fall before catching himself and swing away, trying to control the panic rising in his chest that happens every time he sees Peter jump out of the tower windows. That kid is seriously going to give him a heart attack someday, but he can’t find it in himself to really mind.
He heads back down to the lab once the kid is out of sight, and laments on how to lab is just a little too quiet by himself now. It used to be his sacred place to be alone, but the longer Peter is around, the lab just feels a little lonely when he’s gone.