Chapter 2
“Tony, can you get Peter and tell him dinner’s almost ready?” Pepper shouted from the kitchen.
Tony got up from the couch, “Yep,” he yelled back and headed to Peter’s room where he was supposed to be doing his homework but instead found him sleeping at his desk with a pencil in his hand and drool over his paper.
Tony frowned because this isn’t the first time he’s seen Peter fall asleep in weird places lately, most of them doing homework. He approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder and tried not to startle him. “Hey Pete, time to get up and eat.”
Peter grunted so Tony shook him again. “Come on, your mother’s waiting. It’s spaghetti and meatballs tonight and you know how Morgan loves to watch us eat her homemade meatballs! I have to say, I think she makes them better than me now!”
Peter opened his eyes and rubbed at them. “Ugh, I’m coming, I’m coming. I’ll be there in a minute,” he said.
Tony looked at him with that worried look he gives him. “Why have you been so tired lately? Are you hurt and didn’t tell us? Are you not sleeping at night? Is it nightmares?”
Peter sighed because it was done of that. He couldn’t tell him the reason he was so tired was because he was stuck doing hours and hours of homework that wasn’t his to do! He barely went on patrol anymore because it sucked up all his time and he’d been going to bed past midnight most nights. He shook his head. “No, just a lot of homework this year. They are really giving us a lot. I thought last year was bad but it’s nothing compared to senior year!” he fibbed.
Tony leaned on the desk and crossed his arms. “I don’t think it’s responsible for them to give you guys so much homework. You kids need a life, to hang out, to have fun and be kids. Not sitting at a desk for hours doing assignments when you’ve sat in classes all day long. I might have to have a talk with the board of education.”
Peter started panicking. “No! No, please don’t do that. I can handle it. Everyone else does. Hopefully next semester will be easier with the classes I’ll be taking,” he said trying to play it cool.
“I still don’t like it. What are you working on anyways? You usually fly through this stuff. Do you need any help?” Tony picked up the book and closed the cover and gave him an odd look. “Astronomy? Since when are you taking that?”
Peter usually did fly through his own homework but when you’re not sitting in on the class and getting actually taught the material, he found it to be so much harder than he thought. He had no references or notes to look back on. He was flying blind on the classes he wasn’t in but had to do Flash’s assignments. He was teaching himself and depended on google research and even YouTube videos to find anything to help him through it which added on more time to finish everything. Flash threatened that he had to get nothing less than a B on everything and couldn’t just hand in any junk for him – or else.
Peter started freaking out because he didn’t know what to say. Tony knew all the classes he was taking so how could he explain he’s doing homework in a class he doesn’t even take! He had to think of a lie quick!
“Oh, I um, taking it as an elective. I switched one of my study halls for it but it’s too late to drop out now. I didn’t realize how much work they would give us.” He stared up at his father to see if he looked like he believed him.
Tony smiled and shook his head. “You’re such a nerd. Well, don’t take too long to get washed up, we’ll be waiting for you at the table.” Tony ruffled his hair before he left.
As soon as Tony was out of sight, Peter let out the biggest sigh of relief because he thinks he bought it. He’ll have to be more careful from now on. He loved his father but he was nosey beyond belief!
xXx
It didn’t take long for Flash to start making Peter do more things that he guesses could be worse but are still humiliating. For starters, he’s making Peter get lunch for him everyday and bring it to his table – in front of his friends which is so demeaning and embarrassing. Ned asked him why on earth would he do it and he couldn’t give him a good enough reason other than that he didn’t want to get beat up – which he knew Ned didn’t buy but he didn’t push it.
If Peter passes him in the hall, he has to let Flash trip him, push him into the lockers or say mean things to him in front of everyone knowing he can’t retaliate. The worst part is not sticking up for himself while Flash walks away laughing at him with his friends joining in. Now he doesn’t (can’t) even say a word to defend himself and all of Flash’s friends notice and sometimes treat him the same way. Now he’s known as the biggest wimp in senior class and people are treating him like shit. He liked it before when he was mostly under the radar and people didn’t notice him at all. These days, he’s getting all this negative shameful attention and it’s starting to take a toll on him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One evening, Tony knocked on Peter’s door before entering to check on him. Friday told him he was in slight distress and he was hoping Peter would finally open up to him since he keeps saying ‘he’s fine’ whenever they ask – which was a lot. When Peter didn’t answer he got nervous so he let himself in to find Peter crying at his desk over his homework again. It wasn’t the first time and he’s had it with that school.
He knows Peter is eating less again and has huge bags under his eyes from not sleeping enough because of all this stress he’s always under. He’s very worried about him and was hoping to God he wasn’t taking huge steps back with his progress that he worked so hard on in treatment but he could see his son slipping.
He walked over and Peter just looked up at him and started crying harder. He pulled him up off the chair to give him a hug and led him to the bed so they could sit. “Pete, I know school is important to you but at what cost? Look at you, you’ve been a wreck since school started. You need to drop some classes, or maybe we can get you a tutor. What’s been going on Pete? You need to tell me, I hate watching you suffer like this and if this keeps up we’re going to have to talk about more therapy again.”
Peter was at the end of his rope. He knows he can’t keep it up either. His relationship with MJ is almost nonexistent now because he doesn’t have a spare minute to spend with her outside of school and because of his mood he hasn’t been that pleasant to be around. Ned and MJ keep asking what was bothering him and that’s all he tells them over and over is that senior year is more stressful than he thought but he’s ‘fine.’ He knew they didn’t believe him because they didn’t seem to have the same issues he has and are taking the same classes.
Peter just looked at his father with those big brown eyes that were shedding tears he couldn’t stop. He’s going to dodge that question and ask about what’s been driving him nuts ever since Flash put it in his head. He can’t stop thinking about why they wanted to keep his adoption a secret and he was driving himself crazy with so many negative thoughts so he finally blurted it out. He was also hoping if it wasn’t a big deal then they could finally announce it and Flash would have nothing to blackmail him with anymore and his life would go back to normal. He was very close to a breakdown!
“Um, can I ask you something?” Peter asked sniffling.
“Yep, you just did.” Tony said playfully but Peter wasn’t smiling. “Sorry, bad dad joke. You know you can ask me anything,” and put an arm around him.
“I was just wondering, why is it that the adoption was sealed and private? Why don’t you want anyone to know? Is it because, um, are you a-ashamed of me or something?” he asked so softly and he couldn’t look him in the eyes until he felt Tony take a finger under his chin to lift his face up.
“Oh Pete, God no. I’m so proud to be your father that if I could, I would stand on top of this tower with the biggest megaphone and amplifier they made and shout it to the world that Peter Parker is my son! Where did that come from anyways, kiddo? Have you been questioning that this whole time?” and he could see the hurt and worry in his father’s eyes and hates he caused that.
Peter just gave him a slight nod and a shrug wiping at some tears. “Yea, I just don’t understand why nobody can find out and everyone at the hearing had to sign NDA’s. I mean, I know you love me, I do, but I can’t help feeling like you don’t want anyone to know because you’re embarrassed or something or maybe you don’t want people to think I’m a charity case.”
Tony looked at Peter with hurt in his eyes. “Jesus, Pete. It has nothing to do with that at all. Not even in the same ballpark. I’ll tell you the god’s honest truth which I should have told you at the very mention of adoption a long time ago and I’m sorry it never came up. The reason I want to keep it a secret is because I want to protect you, mostly your privacy.”
Peter wasn’t expecting that angle at all and it made him feel a tiny bit better. “But what about it? I mean everyone knows you have a daughter. Why can’t they know about me?”
“There’s a big difference. When Pepper became pregnant and started showing, obviously we couldn’t keep it a secret any longer since every other hour there was a new photo of her on the internet circling her stomach with questions including accusations that the kid wasn’t mine. So, we put a stop to it and held a press conference confirming the rumors were true and we were expecting. Once Morgan was born, we put out a statement asking for privacy and threatened to sue anyone that so much as publishes a picture of her – especially because it’s illegal to take or sell photos of celebrity children. We knew we couldn’t keep it all off the internet but it did keep it down to a minimum. So unfortunately, being a Stark, she grew up in the spotlight and she really doesn’t know anything different but we try to shield her as much as we can from it.”
That confused Peter even more and almost sort of confirmed his feelings of them being ashamed of him. “Then why don’t you just do the same for me then? Give a statement and then tell everyone to leave me alone.” he said sniffling.
Tony sighed and squeezed his shoulder tighter. “Listen, I have a lot to say so hear me out, ok?” and he waited until Peter nodded. “If word got out that we adopted you, it would be the end of your private life for good – forever, plain and simple and I don’t want that for you since you’re anonymous right now. You’re older and people would take advantage of that and not respect your privacy or boundaries at all, even if I threaten to sue them, just like they don’t mine or Pepper’s. Just imagine it Pete, every single time you take a step out of this tower you would be followed by paparazzi and have cameras in your face. People would want to know every little detail about your life and they would start poking around in your past, where you go to school, about your family and friends. I wouldn’t put anything past them. Your alter ego secret identity might even be at stake, too. People are crazy out there and the money they get for selling those pictures just adds fuel to the fire. They would stop you in the street asking for pictures because you’re suddenly famous. You would be on every celebrity news outlet out there including all the social media sites. They would criticize every move you make, what you are wearing and what you look like down to what brand of shoe you had on that day or your hairstyle.” Tony stopped for a quick second to take a good look at Peter who was staring at him looking scared, like deer caught in headlights.
“I don’t mean to overwhelm you but it’s a brutal world, Pete. The public, they have no mercy, especially with millions of people out there leaving comments at their free will. They’ll make up stories that aren’t true but they’ll believe anything that they read on the internet and it will go viral. Not to mention all the students in your school would be snapping pictures of you all day long. Then suddenly, you have all these people interested in you that never gave a damn about you before. Sometimes only to get to me. You wouldn’t know if someone really wants to be your friend because they like you for who you are or because you’re “Peter Parker Stark” now. Imagine going to the park with Ned or MJ and having people hiding in the bushes with zoom lenses taking your pictures without even knowing. Then they would start looking into who your friends are and getting their privacy smashed to hell too. So, do you see why now? If it wasn’t for us being famous and in the public eye, I would tell the world Bambino, in a heartbeat but I don’t want any of that for you. I’m trying to protect you from all of that, especially because I know how sensitive you are and self-conscious.”
Peter sat there letting all that sink in. That was a lot to hear and he didn’t like any of it. He was relieved it had nothing to do with them being ashamed of him though but the alternative wasn’t any better either. He’s already had his picture taken with Tony on several occasions but thankfully his face wasn’t shown and he was always a “mystery boy” in the articles but it never went further than that.
His life would never be the same again if Flash posted the adoption papers and it only made him more upset that he had to go along with it, knowing there’s no way out. If it did get out, it would be hard but he’d try to live with it. What he couldn’t live with was his friend’s private lives being taken away from them because of him.
Peter finally spoke up after a while. “Shit, that doesn’t sound great at all. You had to deal with this your entire life, huh? Because of your father?”
“Yep. Thankfully I grew up in the 80’s though so there was no internet or cell phones. Once in a while I’d see my picture in a gossip column in a newspaper or a tabloid magazine and back then I thought that was invasive. That was nothing compared to what celebrities go through today. People get bored fast and then move on to something else like the next big thing but they always seem to come back every now and again. I don’t know how I would have handled growing up if cell phones and Twitter were around back then since I already didn’t have a handle on my life as it was. I’ve had the practice so these new celebrities or famous people have to learn to live in a world where people think they don’t deserve a private life and that they are intitled to it only because they are famous which is bullshit.”
Peter couldn’t stop thinking about how he himself follows some stars online that he’s interested in and always sees pap pics of them eating at restaurants, walking down the street or shopping at the grocery store. Doing everyday things normal people do but because they are famous everyone thinks they don’t deserve privacy. He’d hate that to be him. Especially when people just make up stories and it starts going viral when none of it is true. He wouldn’t want to jeopardize his friend’s private lives like that. He’d never be able to take MJ out to dinner without pap pics all over the internet or go to the movies with Ned or even simple things like ride the subway again. Now all these images of celebrities he’s seen were swarming in his head and he didn’t want that to be him or his friends! So that put the nail in the coffin. There’s no way he could let Flash post those pictures. Not after hearing all that. His life would be over and he’d never want to leave the tower again.
“Pete?” Tony called which sounded like it wasn’t his first time. “You ok, bud? You’re shaking.” He said as he held him tighter and rubbed his arm. “I didn’t mean to scare you but I needed you to know what would happen and why it’s a sealed adoption with NDA’s signed. I hope you understand that it has nothing to do with us being ashamed of you, that’s your self-esteem talking there, kiddo. You have to fight that part, ok?”
Peter nodded and wiped at some tears. Tony just unknowingly gave him more crippling fear to oblige in whatever Flash wanted. He was beyond overwhelmed but mostly devastated that he really didn’t see a way out. “I get it, it’s just a lot to think about and I’d hate for that to happen. I appreciate you wanting to protect me from it. It really does sound awful.”
“Hey, why don’t we go and tinker in the lab? We haven’t done that in a long time because you’re always stuck doing your homework.” Tony offered and he knew he wanted to cheer him up which made him smile but then he remembered…
“I can’t, I have a report that I have to do.” He said deflated.
“Pete, you do nothing but homework all the time and you need a freaking break, kiddo. It will help you clear your mind and when you get back to it, I’m sure you’ll fly through your homework. Come on, let’s go. I have some ideas for some suit upgrades.” Tony said as he got up and started pulling Peter up with him and he let him.
Peter would just have to make up the missed hours later tonight to finish his homework. He was usually going to bed at 1:00am so what’s another hour? Right now, he needed his dad’s comfort and was glad for the distraction even though he knew it wouldn’t last.