Chapter 5
Two months passed by with this same routine. Peter would call Tony every other Friday night, they would make plans for dinner the next day, and Peter would spend the whole dinner hiding pretty much every part of himself. Most of the time Tony and Steve would tell Peter stories about being heroes, or childhood stories, and Peter would listen and make sure they knew he appreciated the time they spend together. Then Tony would send trackers, people, drones, or anything that could find out any information about Peter, and he would have to get rid of them on his way home.
One particular evening, Peter had someone on his tail for twenty minutes until he finally shook them by climbing up a building down a dark alleyway. Other than that, Peter was actually pretty happy with how things had been going and he came to enjoy the little time he spent with Tony.
Tony had actually been going to some extreme lengths to try to find out where Peter lived. He had taken a picture and reverse searched it, to see if he could find any pictures of Peter on the internet, but the only thing he found was worthless and didn't get him any further. Peter hadn't taken the presents from Christmas, and Tony had just stopped asking and trusted that Peter would ask for them when he was ready.
After quite some deliberation with his therapist, whom he had reluctantly shared some crucial non-specific information with, Peter decided that he was going to keep meeting with Tony. There had been a moment where he thought about telling Tony he didn’t want a relationship, but that was really only for fear of having his Spiderman identity discovered. When he talked about it more, he did want to have a relationship with his father, and Tony very clearly wanted one with him.
He couldn’t have Spiderman getting in the way of getting to know his father. He had to pretend like he was a regular seventeen year old, just finding out his dad wanted to be in his life. But that was significantly hard to do when half his life was filled with his crime-fighting alter ego.
~~
“Why do you have to go?” Peter practically whined, not something he did often. Wade had been recruited by Charles Xavier for an important mission in Russia, and would be leaving for his mission in two days. It was getting a little warmer in New York City with the Spring months starting to brighten things up, but Peter did not necessarily like being alone for so long, and much to his dismay, was feeling pretty anxious about Wade leaving.
“You know how much I don’t want to go, but Chuck said he’d pay me out good. We need the money, and plus I’ve never been to Russia.” Wade was not usually the level-headed one that reasoned out of the pair, but Peter knew he was being a little irrational. Two weeks was a long time, though. Since they moved in together, he’d only be gone for a night or two. Peter chose not to respond, so Wade continued.
“I just wish May were around to keep you company. But I’ll call you everyday and let you know exactly what we’re up to.” There was a pause while Wade thought. “I’ll also take lots of pictures and make sure that I am back to you in at most two pieces.” That got a smile out of Peter.
“Why did she have to go on vacation now? I don’t even like her dumb new boyfriend.” Peter grumbled. May started dating an older doctor at work, part of the reason she was so easy to convince that Peter had a scholarship that paid for an apartment in Queens. They’d gotten pretty close recently and went for a two week long cruise in the Bahamas.
“Poor Petey.” Wade cuddled up to Peter on their bed. “By the way, we have to pay rent. I think we have just enough.” Peter had moved into the apartment at the beginning of the school year with Wade following closely behind after a two year long friendship with too much flirting turning into a relationship. Wade, in his words, was a gentleman to wait until Peter turned seventeen to ever do anything, and since then they’ve been together.
It was too hard to continue being Spiderman in the same house as May, especially with his newer involvement in the X-men. She was hesitant at first, saying he was too young, that he shouldn’t be living alone, but with the promise of a lot of visits and the vague idea that her boyfriend might be moving in with her, she let Peter go. She’d been paying a lot less attention to him anyway with how busy she was, so Peter didn’t feel too guilty.
Wade had never officially moved in, but after multiple nights spent at his place after patrol, Wade started chipping in for rent. Then he bought furniture, and an extra toothbrush, and started keeping all of his guns there. Peter didn’t mind, because being with Wade was easy.
But now Peter didn’t want to be alone, didn’t want to have to stay in the apartment by himself for longer than a week, and on top of that, none of his friends knew he lived alone so he couldn’t even have any of them over.
“What if you slept over at Tony’s one night?” Wade threw the idea out there, and Peter stopped for a second to think. Was that a good idea? With the whole present debacle and trackers being sent towards him, he didn’t think it was great, but he wouldn’t have to be alone and it would give Tony the time he wanted to spend with Peter. He could pick a Wednesday night, go over for dinner, and then sleepover in one of the million rooms he had. Then they could wake up, have breakfast, and then he’s out of there.
“That’s not the worst idea you’ve ever had.” Peter picked at his cuticles, going through the stuff in his head.
“It might get him off my back for a little bit. I’m scared, though.” Peter was being truthful to Wade and himself. He was scared to take this step.
“I know you’re scared. You should talk to Samantha about it. You’re meeting with her today, aren’t you?” Wade reminded Peter that he had a therapy session today, and Samantha would probably help Peter make his decision.
“You’re right. Samantha will know what to do.”
~
The phone only rang once before Tony answered. Tony had been worried when he didn’t get his usual Friday night call from Peter, maybe something had happened, or he decided he didn’t want to see Tony anymore, but when his phone flashed with Peter’s contact info he was relieved.
“Hi!” Tony exclaimed, and Peter couldn’t help but have the sides of his mouth quirk up. “How was your week? Do you still want to come over tonight?”
“It was good! Can I come over on Wednesday instead?” Tony hesitated for a second, confused by the change of meeting time. However, he wasn’t one to complain and he continued on.
“Of course! Would you like to come for dinner?” Peter nervously played with the loose string from his bed sheet.
“Yeah, I was actually thinking maybe…” Peter trailed off, his heart beating hard in his chest. This was a big step for him, something he’d talked to his therapist about for almost the whole session yesterday.
“Yeah Pete?” Tony asked in an encouraging voice, and Peter swallowed the lump in his throat. He hadn’t imagined it being this hard to ask, but in the words of his therapist, both you and him deserve a chance at this relationship and the more you can give him the more he can give you.
“Maybe-um-maybe I can sleep over? Do you um… have a room I could sleep in?” Of course he had a room he could sleep in. He was a billionaire living in a multiple story high-rise. The stuttering in his voice made him cringe, but Tony couldn’t contain his surprise.
“Sleep over?” He repeated, and Peter nodded even though he couldn’t see him.
“Um.” Peter cleared his throat. “Yeah, sleepover. I… would come over after school, and have dinner and then go to school in the morning? If that’s okay with you?” Peter’s awkwardness made him shove his face into his pillow as Wade climbed back in the window with Peter’s iced coffee with almond milk. Tony responded quickly.
“Of course you can! I would love nothing more than for you to sleep over! I’ll set up a room for you today! It will be on the same floor as Steve and mine. Is that okay with you?” Peter pushed his face further into his pillow before lifting himself up to answer. Tony was getting better every visit with Peter’s boundaries.
“Yeah. That’s okay with me. I’ll see you on Wednesday after school?” Tony could not contain his excitement. He never thought Peter would do something like this, and he motioned for Steve to come over.
“That sounds good, Peter. See you Wednesday!” Before Peter could hang up, he heard Tony.
“Steve! He asked me to sleep over-” Peter hung the phone up and grabbed his coffee from Wade.
“I’m proud of you, baby.” Wade took a sip of his gigantic, sugar and cream filled coffee and Peter groaned.
“Damn you and your missions. Go get packed you idiot, you're leaving in thirty minutes.”
~
Peter stood nervously outside of Stark towers, duffle bag in one hand and his other hand nervously tapping his thigh. He took a deep breath, so deep it hurt his lungs. He knew JARVIS had definitely announced Peter’s arrival, and Tony was waiting up there.
He nervously fiddled all the way to the elevator and then all the way up to his father’s floor. When the door opened, he was greeted with the sight of Steve and Tony sitting on the couch and watching TV. Peter knew they were trying to act nonchalant, but when they saw him, Tony shot up off the couch and over to him.
“Hi Peter!” Tony gave him a quick hug, and Peter nervously smiled. “Your room is right over here, come on.” Your room rang in Peter’s head over and over as he walked over to the room that Tony had set up for him. It had a king size bed with white sheets and a dark comforter. Peter set his duffle bag and his backpack on the ground next to the bed, taking in a deep breath. One of the walls was floor-to-ceiling windows with retractable curtains, and there was a huge screen on the wall across from his bed.
“I hope you like it. Just let me know if there’s anything else I can get for you to put in here.” Peter turned and half-forced a smile at Tony. He was nervous, heart beating much faster than usual and the familiar dizziness setting into his head.
“Thank you, Tony. It’s great.” Tony beamed at him.
“Wanna go watch some TV? Or we can put a movie on, or are you hungry-” Peter cut Tony off.
“I think TV sounds nice.” Peter followed Tony out to the living room, where Steve turned and pretended like he wasn’t listening in on their conversation. Truth was, Peter was exhausted. His patrol last night had been particularly nasty without Wade’s help, with too many petty thieves and other random things. Peter desperately just wanted a nap, and watching TV actually sounded like the most relaxing thing to do right now. Peter plopped down next to Steve, and Steve eyed the remote.
“You wanna watch something else?” Steve asked as Peter watched the CNBC news channel go through the stories of the day. Something about the bank-robbers with alien tech came on, and Peter shook his head.
“No, I haven’t seen the news today yet.” Tony came in from the kitchen with a ginger ale and a bottle of water.
“I brought you these, Pete. I didn’t know which one you wanted so I brought you both.” Peter smiled up at Tony, reaching his hand for the ginger ale.
“Ginger ale’s my favorite.” Peter did not divulge information like that normally, and Tony’s stomach did a flip. Peter mostly talked about school or technology with them, not so much personal preferences.
Tony sat next to Peter, and took a mental note to remember that he should always have ginger ale in the building.
The next thirty minutes passed quickly and with every minute, Peter relaxed a tiny bit. There was small conversation made, nothing too deep, and it was actually quite nice. Peter’s eyes were starting to feel heavy after watching the news, and Steve looked over at him.
“You tired?” Steve asked in a kind voice, and Peter nodded. Steve got up and grabbed a blanket and laid it over Peter. “Thank you.” Peter’s voice was small, and quiet, but this time it wasn’t due to discomfort. He was overworked and sleepy. He hadn’t gotten a good night of sleep since Wade had left, and for the first time, he felt comfortable enough around Steve and Tony to be a little sleepy. His eyes drooped and before he knew it, he was asleep on the couch.
Tony looked over and saw that Peter had fallen asleep, leaned back against the couch. He smiled, and went back to watching the news. Tony and Steve were quietly doing their own things when Peter shifted, leaning his head onto Steve’s shoulder. Steve stiffened up, trying not to move a muscle and Tony’s heart practically melted. For the first time, Peter looked like a kid - his kid. Asleep on the couch, peacefully resting next to his husband.
Tony had to take his phone out and take a picture. He could never forget what this looked like. They let Peter rest until the news cycled around and Steve gently woke him up, saying that they were going to get some dinner.
“Hmm?” Peter asked, eyes still shut, leaning against Steve. Steve chuckled a bit, and shrugged his shoulders a little bit.
“We’re getting dinner, Pete, what do you think you want?” Peter sat up, deeply blushing as he realized he was laying on Steve. He never did that, never fell asleep like that in a different place, especially on Tony’s couch.
“So-sorry Steve, I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.” Steve shook his head and almost scolded him.
“You were obviously tired. Please do not be nervous about that.” Peter shyly smiled and rubbed his eyes.
“What are the dinner options?” Peter asked. He rarely ate out, even when he worked at the deli. Sometimes May would send him meals, or Wade would find money for dinner, and other times Wade and him would scrounge for groceries. Sometimes Peter just wouldn’t eat.
“Pizza, hamburgers, chinese, halal-” Peter interrupted Tony. “Halal for sure. I haven’t had that in forever.”
Dinner was lovely, and Peter was glad that he got the opportunity to eat something like it. Peter went to grab and clean up all of his stuff, but Tony put a hand out.
“No need to clean up.” Peter blushed, and set his things back down. He wiggled his fingers, trying to think of something to say.
“I-I… got A’s on all my midterms.” Peter tried to make any conversation, and Tony smiled brightly at him. His second round of midterms had just happened and he was getting ready to start his final semester in high school.
“That’s my boy. Knew you had to be as smart as me. What’s your favorite class? Beside biology, of course.” Peter blushed at Tony's remembering of their first conversation and rubbed his wrists with his fingers underneath the table. Peter never really told Tony about specific classes, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt.
“AP physics 2. Or chemistry.” Peter answered quickly, before he had the chance to regret telling him.
“I remember you saying this, but AP physics 2 in your Junior year? Wow.” Tony whistled, clapping his hands while Peter cleared his throat.
“Senior year.” Peter stupidly corrected him, getting lies mixed up and forgetting, and for a second he didn’t realize his mistake until Tony gave him a look. Oh my god, I'm such a fucking idiot ran through his head. Peter drew back, genuinely surprised at his misstep. He was usually much more cognizant around Tony, and it was truly just a dumb thing that he said. Alarms rung in his head, how could he be that idiotic? He’d been trying to hide that from Tony as a safe factor, and here he was, just blurting it out for no reason.
“You’re a senior? I… thought you were a junior.” Tony asked, then drawled off, confused about where Peter was going with this. Peter had lied earlier, telling Tony that he was a junior, and guilt bubbled in his stomach at the sound of his father’s voice.
“I’m younger for my grade. Skipped ninth. I took physics my sophomore year, computer science A and B junior year along with bio, and now I’m in physics 2. Just wasn't…” Peter cleared his throat again, trying to get that anxious lump from inside his throat. “Comfortable telling you I was a senior. Now I am.” That stopped Tony in his tracks. He had been searching New York City’s high school databases for Peter, a junior. It had never occurred to him that Peter might have been a senior, but now Tony wanted to smack himself for being that naive. He would absolutely be able to find Peter now, just with a little extra work.
“You’re graduating this year? Do you know what college you’re going to?” Peter nervously worked his lip, and nodded. Tony was going to figure it out at some point, but he could keep the college secret.
“I’m going for a biophysics degree. Already have a full ride.” Tony gawked at him.
“Where?” Tony asked, and Peter gave him a look. Tony retreated a bit, giving a knowing nod but his lips were in a straight line. He didn’t even know where his kid was going to college. Steve intervened.
“We’re so proud of you, Peter. It must have been hard to get into a college for that.” Peter was glad for the change, and he smiled at Steve.
“Yeah, not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I wanted to start somewhere like that.”
“Is the college in the city?” Tony couldn’t get off of it. Peter glanced over at him and could tell he was upset. Peter nodded, lump in his throat.
“I have an apartment lined up.” He was trying to keep everything vague enough that Tony knew he was going to be safe and close, but not tell him anything else.
“You can always live here.” Tony almost blurted out and Peter’s chest twisted into a thousand knots. Steve gave him a disapproving look.
“Don’t pressure him.” Steve said in a low voice, but Tony grabbed his glass of whiskey to move over to the couch. Peter took a deep, shaky breath and stood up to go over with him. The tensions died down a little after that, and before Peter knew it, it was late enough that Steve was asking when he was going to bed. Tony and Steve walked Peter to his room, asked if he needed anything-- anything at all, Tony added-- and finally Peter was asleep, in bed, unbothered.
The morning came quickly and Peter woke up at 6am. He wondered if anyone else was going to be awake, but the question was answered as he opened the door and saw Tony and Steve rushing around, setting up a big breakfast on the table. Peter smiled, stretching his legs as he stood in the door frame.
“Can I help?” Peter’s voice was soft, but it startled Tony.
“I didn’t know you got up this early. We were going to surprise you with breakfast. What time do you need to be at school?” Peter came into the room and grabbed the utensils out of Steve’s hand and set the table.
“I need to be there at 8:30. It’s a late day, usually I have to be there at 7:15.” Tony put that in his mental schedule just to know when his son goes to school. Every late day, his school had an assembly so he had to “look forward” to that today. Usually he just doodles more inventions or sleeps if he’s being honest.
“Do you want a ride?” Tony asked hopefully, but was shot down by the look both Peter and Steve gave him.
“Do you like pancakes?” Tony re-asked a question with the same tone, and Peter smiled a little at him.
“Yeah. I do.” Peter answered simply, and Tony ran back to the kitchen and grabbed a whole plate of pancakes.
Breakfast was really nice, actually. Peter had one of the best cups of coffee he’s ever had, Tony said it was from some special place in Brazil, and they laughed and talked about the briefing they just went to in Wakanda. They told Peter some helpful stuff, including some possible threats coming in the direction of the city.
They watched the morning news with another cup of coffee that Peter had politely asked for. Tony gave him the whole bag of coffee beans and said he would get him a coffee grinder. Peter tried to refuse, but Tony really was not letting him. Once it was 8, Peter was almost a little sad that he was going. Almost. He was still unnerved being there, because it was weird to think of Tony as his father. Tony looked sad when Peter went to pack up his things in his room, and when all three of them walked to the door, Tony paused before opening it.
“I… would really like it if you came back to sleep over. You are welcome here anytime.” Peter smiled, thinking for a second. Tony opened the door, and waited for his response.
“Yeah. I think we can do that. See you later, Dad.” Peter hadn’t meant to call him dad, he really hadn’t. Wasn’t even really thinking about it. It just kind of happened. Shock crossed Tony and Steve’s faces, as well as Peter’s. He really was blurting out all kinds of things this visit.
The look on Tony’s face was worth it, though. He’d never seen a look like that from him. Peter waved and stepped outside of the room to the elevator and his heart was beating fast.
He could hear Tony yelling something at Steve in a happy voice. On his way to school, he called Wade and told him every single detail, how he'd accidentally told Tony he was a senior, how Tony had gotten angry when he told him about the college. That they had halal for dinner, which Wade was jealous of, and that he’d fallen asleep on the couch and cuddled with Captain America. Wade laughed and laughed and laughed and Peter couldn’t help the blush that rose to his cheeks. Then Wade said Steve was lucky to see how cute he is when he sleeps. He'd pointedly left out the fact that he accidentally called Tony dad, because that was something Wade wouldn't drop. All the while on his way to school, he was ensuring that Tony hadn't sent anyone or anything after him, and once he got to school, he said his goodbye to Wade and continued his day.