There was a shatter of glass and Spider-Man swung swiftly into view through the window of the bank, making the bank robbers in question turn around and startle in their actions. Peter gave them a friendly wave. “Oh hey, don’t mind me, it’s just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!” He called out in greeting, stifling a slight yawn (which he then realised the robbers probably couldn’t see anyway.)
The trio gave him strange looks of confusion and after a slight hesitation, they tried to make a mad dash back out the doors, only to find that they were locked in. Peter crossed his arms, perched lazily, high up on the wall beside them and watched amusingly as they tried to break through the glass. The robbers hissed as their fists hit the thick barrier, bouncing right off without so much as a scratch on the window.
“Peter, there is yet another incoming voice message from Mr-“
“Mute. Karen, I’ll call him in a minute!” He murmured before turning his attention back to the men in front of him,
“Hey guys, mind if we wrap this up? It’s a school night.” He quipped again, before pinning the bank robbers back against the wall with his webs and an easy flick of his wrist.
Stuck and hearing incoming sirens outside, the bank robbers just stared up at Peter spitefully, grumbling their own annoyances under their breath whilst trying to wriggle out of the webs unsuccessfully.
Spider-Man only chuckled, “Has anyone told you those ski masks make you guys look like flies? Cause they totally do! Or is that cause you guys are caught in webs? Oh no, eww! Not that I would want to eatyou or anything! I’m Spider-Man... But I don’t eat flies! Or criminals! Don’t wo-“
Peter was enjoying his very one sided conversation before one man rudely cut him off, “Has anyone told you are incredibly annoying?” He aggressively barked back.
Suddenly Peter felt his spidey sense tingling and was instantly alerted to the guy, trying to reach out for his gun on the floor beside him. The determination of the man was a nice change of pace, considering how easy the fight had been. Honestly, Peter probably could’ve slept…. Totally done all this with his eyes closed… But tough luck for the bad dude, the weapon was quickly webbed away as well.
“Umm… annoying?” Peter tried to think back to the guys previous question, “I think I’ll leave the irritating buzzing up to you fly guys… Or maybe not, you’re already stuck in webs.” Peter snickered again, “How ironic? You know, it was fun hanging with you and all, but I gotta swing. Have fun in jail Mr… Criminals! Bye!”
And with that, Spider-Man was swinging back out into the darkness of the night, leaving the rest of the job to the cops, whose cars had just skidded to a halt outside.
The bright lights flashing in red and blue, only blinded Peter for a second as he swung up onto the roof of the building to check his 6 current lined up voice messages from his mentor. He knew he was slightly pushing his curfew, but you know what Mr Stark? Crime doesn’t sleep.
Peter lay back on the roof with a sigh. He knew he was in for a lecture whether he listened to the messages or not but he played through them anyway, lounging back comfortably, hands resting behind his neck.
/“Bedtime Spider-kid. Call me back.”/
/“Kid it’s past 10, get home now.”/
/“Kid I mean it, after giving this lady directions that’s it. Don’t think I can’t hear you yawning behind that mask mister!”/
/“That’s right kid, bring it in now. Call- No Karen!, god damn it! ITS A SCHOOL NIGHT?! Don’t make me send the iron legion out there to escort you back. Last robbery, that’s final! It’s getting late!”/
/“If you don’t answer I’m sending the suits kid. Don’t test me.”/
/“You’re testing me. You have one last chance to redeem yourself. Answer my call now kid. And come home!”/
Karen interrupted, “Incoming call from Mr Stark.”
Peter blinked a couple of times trying to process exactly what his AI was saying (not to mention Tony’s messages, which had basically already put him half to sleep)… The call was left unanswered, but Peter figured he would just text him in a minute anyway. Maybe he could just wait a couple more minutes for Karen to locate just one more crime so he could continue...
Whilst he waited, Peter kicked back his legs tiredly and looked up to the night sky.
“Karen, can you just send him a text message for me? Say: ‘I’m swinging home now, will be home in 15.’
It won’t take me as long as he thinks to get back… I still want more time.” He sighed almost languidly. “I’m kind of tired? But I’m not going to bed, Karen. Crime doesn’t sleep so neither will I. Wait… don’t tell Mr Stark that I said that…”
“Why not?” Karen asked almost teasingly.
“Well because he might like… I dunno, do something crazy Karen! Like fly out here to pick me up because he thinks I’m too tired to swing home on my own or something. M’fine… Just need a small break…”
Karen agreed and then it was calm and quiet for a moment. The slight rustle of the wind, police cars driving away and the crickets in the distant park, created the perfect ambience. Peter stared up at the peaceful night and vast blanket of stars. Everything felt perfect...
But then Karen suddenly talked after the long stretch of silence, making Peter jolt upright. Her voice startled him for sure, but the way she spoke next was so familiar and sweet and kind, that all tension eased away very quickly…
“Peter, the legion is now being sent.” She said
Peter quirked his eyebrows and blinked a couple of times at the comment. Legion? What heck did that mean? What was a legion? Karen just said something about a legion being sent? The way she said it didn’t sound too serious… Maybe Karen was just talking about his text message to Mr Stark? Yeah that had to be it.
“Yep Karen. Send the legion and tell me what he replies with…” He sighed, before closing his eyes again, “Oh and Karen? Tell me if you see any more crime.” He added before curling up on himself slightly, tucking his legs further inward so that they lay more comfortably as he shifted over onto his side.
---
(A little earlier back at the tower…)
When May announced that she was going on a girls trip with her friends for the week, Tony was secretly ecstatic. That meant a whole 7 days with the kid; hanging out in the lab, driving him around to school and watching movies as Peter talked endlessly about what was happening on the screen. Whilst it could be exhausting at times, It gave Tony something to do and somewhere to be for a change. Someone to focus his attention around, especially since Pepper was out of the country.
Peter had been ‘his kid’ for a while now, so naturally the boy had been just as excited to live at the tower for a week long ‘sleepover’ of sorts as he was. Especially cause that meant hanging out with his mentor and the rest of the Avengers. Peter had his own bedroom at Avengers Tower and everything, but he usually only ever came over to stay during the weekends.
His weekday schedule of course would be slightly different. Tony knew he would have more responsibilities to take care of. After all, he would have to drive the kid to school and Peter did his spider thing after school, so he wanted to keep a close eye on that as well.
On top of all that, May also warned him that the kid’s routine would be easily thrown out of balance if he didn’t get enough sleep. That’s why they had set up a curfew in the first place, but apparently the kid wasn’t very good at sticking to it…
Based off the baby monitor footage, that’s exactly what was happening right now. The kid was getting careless and tired, it was close to 10 at night, a clear sign that it was definitely time to call it a day before something bad happened.
When Tony dialled the kid’s number the first time, the phone rang but went straight to message bank. It wasn’t really a surprise since it turns out Peter was currently busy getting someone’s cat out of a tree somewhere on Queens Boulevard... Tony listened in amusingly before leaving a quick voice message,
/“Bedtime Spider-kid. Call me back.”/
Sighing, Tony made his way to the kid’s room. He opened the door and double checked that the balcony doors were still unlocked, which they were. He then made his way to sit on the edge of the kid’s bed where he waited. The sky was dark and so was the room. Still, the picturesque sky and calming stream of moonlight through the windows did nothing to distract the man’s mind. Peter was still out there, by himself, alone.
10 minutes later and he was tapping his feet nervously. The kid didn’t answer the call yet again.
“Friday, push it though.” Tony had demanded, rubbing his head in frustration. The kid had now been way past his curfew and he wasn’t even thinking about heading home yet.
“Boss, it doesn’t appear that I can. That particular function has stopped working.”
Tony had quickly sat upright. He would be sure to check it out once he got the kid to bed. “That protocol should definitely not be malfunctioning Friday. Okay then, let’s leave another message…”
/“Kid it’s past 10, get home now.”/
After another 5 minutes passed by, Tony had his head in his hands. “Fri, where is he?” He groaned, as he looked up at the dark screened baby monitor footage.
“It is unclear Boss.”
Tony snapped upright again. That couldn’t be right. The tracker wasn’t working as well?! The kid must have removed it again! He raged internally.
“Is there anything else you wanted to tell me Friday?! What else did he disable or remove from his suit?!”
Tony’s anger was quickly building up.
“No sir. There doesn’t appear to be any other things altered. Only the intercepting call function has been turned off and the tracker has been removed.”
Tony sighed, “Remind me to put at least 4 hidden trackers in that thing later Fri.”
Tony looked back to the holographic baby monitor footage again. It was too dark to see anything, but he could hear the kid’s voice…
/“So then you turn left on the next street and you should be there...”/
Tony could hear the kid trying to stifle a yawn behind the mask as he spoke.
“Thank you Spider-Man.” A woman’s voice replied.
Ok, so he was giving someone directions. Time to leave yet another message:
/“Kid I mean it, after giving this lady directions that’s it. Don’t think I can’t hear you yawning behind that mask mister!”/
Once the lady appeared to be gone, Tony tried calling again but the kid wasn’t answering yet again. How in the world did May handle this?! Watching the footage, he left another message. Except the kid was off fighting more crime…
/“That’s right kid, bring it in now. Call- No Karen!, god damn it! ITS A SCHOOL NIGHT?! Don’t make me send the iron legion out there to escort you back. Last robbery, that’s final! It’s getting late!”/
Out of anything, why did it have to be a bank robbery? Tony thought. It was worse that he couldn’t even reach him, or know where the hell to find him if things started going south... If the kid kept this up, he was definitely sending his entire army of iron man suits to every known bank in Queens.
Tony was getting impatient. He needed to hear the kid’s voice. He tried calling again…
/“If you don’t answer I’m sending the suits kid. Don’t test me.”/ He snapped.
Tony tried calling again directly after.
/“You’re testing me. You have one last chance to redeem yourself. Answer my call now kid. And come home!”/
Tony watched on with bated breath then as Peter webbed up the robbers. But one of the men in ski masks reached for his gun. Just as he managed to get a slight grip of it, Peter webbed it away. Thank goodness.
Now that the kid was out of any imminent danger and out of the bank, Tony tried calling him again only for the kid to ignore him once more on the rooftop.
2 minutes later all he got back was a text message. A text message wasn’t good enough…
/“I’m swinging home now, will be home in 15.”/
Well that was a complete lie! The baby monitor footage definitely said otherwise. He could even hear Peter admitting to Karen that he was tired and had no intention of going to bed! This was getting ridiculous and Tony had had enough of this game… Honestly, how did May cope?
“Friday get me my suit and send out the entire legion. All my armours. Find my kid and bring him home. Search every bank in Queens if you have to.”
Tony glanced at the footage one more time, trying to pinpoint the exact location before he left, only to hear his kid chatting to his AI again:
/“Yep Karen. Send the legion and tell me what he replies with…”/
“Wait Fri? Did I just hear right? He actually had the audacity to say ‘Send the legion’. Is he trying to challenge me Friday?!”
Just as Friday was trying to figure out if that was a rhetorical question or not, Tony was talking again, “You know what? Never mind… If he wants us to make a scene, we’ll give him a scene.”
“One of the suits has just located the bank sir.”
“Good. Ok Fri, give me coordinates and send the whole iron legion over. Every suit.”
And with that, Iron man and his army was taking to the skies.
---
Peter slowly blinked his eyes open again when he heard the noise. It was loud and getting closer. But what really woke him up was the tingling sensation down his arms and legs. A sort of low and annoying buzzing that forced him to sit up suddenly. Peter rubbed at the eyes under his mask,
“Kar’n m-I in danger?” He slurred tiredly.
“No Peter,” She replied, “You are very safe.”
“Very safe? That’s weird, wha-?”
Peter slowly removed his hands from his eyes, confused… before he saw them. He was suddenly wide awake now and jumping to his feet. Right there in front of him were an entire army of iron man armours, pretty much every single one that Peter had ever seen his mentor working on. All surrounding him and flying around the building at every angle.
“Wh-What is going on? Karen? Friday? M-mister Stark?”
To Peter’s surprise his mentor stepped out of one of the more recently made armours, walking towards him.
“Don’t act like you don’t know kid.” Tony snapped, “You missed your curfew by almost an hour and you asked for it-“
Suddenly Mr Stark was staring to sound a lot like he did after the Ferry incident… Was this déjà vu?
“No, what do you mean Mister Stark? Didn’t you get my message?”
“Yes I got your message.” Tony hissed in response, “That was not good enough kid. I called you a hundred times and not once did you even think to call me back. That’s not good enough-“
“But-“
“I don’t care. You weren’t allowed to be out this late. You know curfew is at 10, did you really think I wasn’t going to check that?”
Peter shuffled his feet, May barely ever checked that… Usually she was out working at the hospital and he had until at least 11 to come home before her. His aunt had no idea that he ever stayed out later, cause he had never been caught.
“Yeah…But May never did this.” Peter waved his hands around to all the iron man armours around him, “Don’t you think this is a bit much Mister Stark?”
Peter could already feel his cheeks heating with a blush.
Tony crossed his arms angrily as he continued to approach him, “I was watching the footage kid. That guy almost shot you, he grabbed the gun-“
“I got him! I webbed him up!”
“You were yawning the whole time! Heck, you even told Karen you were tired and had no intention of coming home!”
“I didn’t say that…”
“You hacked a multimillion dollar suit, again and I had no idea where you were. When we finally located you, I come down here to find you asleep, sans mask on the roof of a bank, instead of asleep in your bed.”
“Karen! Why didn’t you warn me about all this?! Mister Stark! I’m not letting you come all this way just to come pick me up. No way! Especially not with this much… attention-“
“In case you haven’t noticed kid, I take this whole safety thing with you very seriously.”
“Well that’s an understatement.” Peter grumbled under his breath. Tony ignored him.
“You were basically sleep swinging, so of course I’m picking you up. There’s no way I’m letting you swing home after all the trouble you have caused tonight. Besides, you asked for the legion kid! You wanted to challenge me and that’s what you got. Now I’m taking you home, not buts-“
“What?” Peter responded, scrunching up his eyebrows in confusion and frustration. Why would he ask for a text message?
“Kid, what on earth is there to be confused by?”
“I didn’t ask for a text message…”
Tony stepped a little closer, eying his kid down suspiciously. Was Peter sleeping or something because he didn’t remember saying anything about a text message…
“Text message?” Tony crossed his arms.
“Yeah, I mean- Karen said she sent the legion? At least, I think that’s what you’re talking about?!“
Tony seemed to shift emotions quite quickly after he realised what exactly what was going on here.
To Peter, the man almost looked quite… amused??
He carefully took a hold of Peter’s shoulders to get his attention-
“Wait, hold up, what?! I know I should be mad at you but… Kid, really?”
Tony kept laughing and Peter crossed his arms. He couldn’t for the life of him see what was so hysterical. He waited as his mentor continued to try talk through fits of laughter,
“That’s- that’s why you said send the legion! Kid!”
Peter grumbled and blushed self consciously, looking away, “You’re embarrassing me Mr Stark…” He responded almost shyly… Maybe it was just the tiredness.
Next Peter watched as his mentor release his shoulders, gesturing widely to the iron man suits floating in the sky around them.
“Kid, this is my iron legion. My army of iron man suits.” He presented, “Iron legion, this is my kid. There, now you’re all introduced. I know you’ve seen them before Pete. Also just to be clear, you not knowing what a legion means, isn’t going to get you out of missing curfew kid.”
Peter looked around again. There had to be at least 50 of them surrounding the bank and flying around. Being escorted home wasn’t going to be fun but he guessed he probably deserved it.
“I’m sorry Mr Stark. Just… when Karen said a legion was being sent, I honestly thought she was talking about my text message.”
Tony had to muffle a laugh again. “No. I’m sorry kid, that’s not a legion. That’s just… hilarious.”
Tony watched as Peter blinked slowly back up at him and started unknowingly leaning into his side. Tony smiled back fondly. He also didn’t miss the way the kid rubbed at his eyes again and held back a yawn. Each action somehow had all Tony’s previous anger melting away. How on earth did the kid have this affect on him? He really honestly should be mad… Why wasn’t he as mad anymore?
“What you did was wrong kid…” Tony explained with a sigh, laughter now all eventually gone, he needed to be serious and teach the kid a lesson, “But I promise I will let you off the hook without telling May this time, if you promise to never break curfew again. If you do, you know I will send the entire iron legion to find you. I’m not kidding. Also, no taking out the trackers or disabling my call function. You know what kiddo? Just leave it all alone. Or I will find out. And I’ll definitely tell May-“ Tony added pointedly. May could be scary and the kid looked like he already knew it.
“Ok, but I can swing home?” He pleaded, looking around to the other armours nervously. Tony seemed to sense his embarrassment in being escorted back home, but there was no way he was risking the kid dropping off mid swing,
“No way. You’re hitching a ride with me tonight spiderling. But… I guess I could send the iron legion back home just this once. But be warned kid!” He snickered as he watched his protégés mortified expression and red cheeks slowly ease back to normal.
Yeah, it’s fair to say Peter wasn’t thinking about ignoring any more phone calls or breaking curfew again…
“So what now?” Peter asked, trying to change the topic. Tony motioned him over to sit down on the ledge of the bank beside him.
For the next few minutes they sat in comfortable silence together, watching the iron legion fly back to Avengers Tower like an array of shooting stars.
Tony wrapped an arm around Peter’s shoulders, “Now, we wait here.” He replied soothingly, watching in amusement as his kid progressively started relaxing even more of his weight into his side at the sound of his voice. Tony hugged Peter’s smaller frame to his side more securely before continuing, “Then, you finally let me take you home to bed... Huh? Kid? Are you still with me?”
“Mhm…” Peter nodded slightly but it was very clear to Tony that the kid was already half asleep against him. Carefully, Tony shifted the both of them back, safely away from the ledge so that he could lift his tired kid up and fly them back home. It didn’t take long before Peter was seemingly lulled to sleep in his mentor’s iron hold.
“Sweet dreams Underoos.” He whispered soon after they landed back on the balcony and Tony tucked the kid into bed.
“G’night dad...” Peter hummed back quietly in response. Tony blinked back in slight suprise at the name before his eyes softened at the sight of his sleeping spider-baby. That word never ceased to melt his heart…
THE END 💕