Time to Make a Call
Tony's POV.
It's been a while since we've heard from Peter. By that I mean we haven't gotten a call from him in about a month and if he didn't return his father's calls soon then I'm going and picking him up from school and bringing it back home because I have to hear Steve worry about him.
Listen, it's not like I don't worry about Peter being off in another country without us. I really do and it's been stressful having him depart so suddenly but I'm trying to respect him taking his own journey and attempting to find himself. Key word is trying, cause soon enough I'm going to crack and go looking for him throughout Europe.
"You just have to relax. He's fine. He has texted us that he is fine and I'm sure he'll return your calls soon. He's just busy with school." I tried to reassure him but at this point it seemed rather pointless as I wasn't going to get anywhere.
"I'm not saying that we should launch a full scale investigation. I'm all for him doing what he feels he needs to, but when someone calls you the polite thing to do is answer or at least return the call. I thought we raised him better than this." Steve leaned back against the island counter in the kitchen.
"This isn't 1930s when people would just answer the phone and be neighborly all the time." I tell him and pull blueberries out from the fridge as well as the milk.
"You're right Tony. It's much easier to answer your phone when you can carry it in your pocket with you 24/7." He retorts and moves to the coffee machine, popping the top open and shoving a pod into the slot.
"Hey easy with that." I rolled my eyes. "He's a kid, he doesn't want to spend all day talking to his parents. He's got classes and a job and I'm assuming friends since he's so busy." I pull to mugs out of the cabinet. "Why don't you just try giving him another call. It's just about 7 here so it should be like 1 or 2 pm for him... It'll also keep you from accidentally breaking the coffee machine again." I swear if this kid doesn't answer I was going to fly there myself and get him on the phone.
Steve paused for a minute and let out a sigh before nodding. "You're right. I should just call again to check in and if he doesn't answer I'll just cut his line." He says and takes his phone out.
"Do you even know what that means?" I asked him and placed the one cup under the coffee machine and pressed the button for it to start making the first cup of coffee.
"I'm not that old Tony." He stopped and corrected himself before I could interject about him being older than old. "I'm not that out of the loop. It's easy to pick up on." He pulls out his phone and scrolls towards Peter's contact.
I hummed and watched as the coffee started to pour into the mug underneath it. "Sure you are."
It took a minute, and I didn't think Peter would answer with the amount of rings that went by but soon there was an answer.
It sounded like Peter was out of breath as he was answering. "Hello?" It didn't seem like he knew who he was answering the phone for.
"Peter? You okay?" Steve asked with concern. "Is your asthma acting up?"
There was a brief pause before he took a breath. "Hey Pops!" His voice cracked, sounding more awkward than anything. "No... No. I'm fine. I was... Just jogging." Well that wasn't convincing at all now was it. "What's up?"
"Just checking in bud. You know you haven't called home in a while and we were just starting to miss you." I tell him before taking a sip of my coffee and placing the other mug under the coffee machine to make Steve his cup.
"What have you been doing? I've called you several times with no answer or no return message." Steve didn't let anytime pass before going right into things.
"I think what he's trying to say is that we miss you and a simple phone call isn't going to kill you every now and then." I added.
Peter seemed a bit flustered. "Oh um... I've just been busy. Classes and work and all. I'm sorry..." He sighed softly, seemingly trying to calm down after the initial shock of hearing us. "How have you guys been?"
"We've been good Pete. All has been pretty quiet in the world so we've been just kickin back and living life." I tell him.
"And by that he means he spends almost every waking second in his lab working like he always does when he is off." Steve rolled his eyes. "Maybe we could fly down to you for a week and visit. We haven't seen you in over a year now."
"I don't know Pop... I wouldn't want you to fly all this way and then I get stuck working or having a project." He tells him.
"Come on kid. I'm sure your professors and boss will be understandable when we show up." I opened the packet of blueberries and started to eat them.
"I'm sure they'll be awfully confused since I'm just plain old Peter Parker here." He tells us, Parker being the name of the family that would look after Peter when Steve and I would be off on a mission, things were definitely rough with that for a while but that's not a story for right now.
There was a bit of silence before he continued, "It's not that I don't like being a Stark or a Rogers but I just like being me, without people trying to get stuff from me for being who I am."
"Yeah we get it Pete. You don't need to explain." I tell him. "Being your own individual is just as important as being a family."
"We don't blame you for wanting to have some normalcy in your life, I think we all do in some way or another." Steve tells him. "If anything we're proud of you for finding it somewhere, even if it isn't here at home."
It was silent on the line for a minute.
"Pete?" I asked, "You still there?"
There was a reply shortly after, "Yeah, Yeah I'm here." He took a breath. "I'll try and keep better contact and answer the phone more often... I do miss you guys."
"We miss you too." Steve tells him.
"I have to go, I have to be at work soon." He tells us. "I swear I'll call more."
"Get going kid. We'll talk with you soon." I tell him.
"Alright... Bye." Peter says and hangs up.
We kinda sat there quietly for a minute when the call was over.
"I bet he'd show up if we got Thor back on Earth." Steve says.
"We are not dragging him all the way back here to get Peter home." I tell him. "It's absolutely true but I'm sure there are other ways to see him again. We just have to give him more time." Maybe calling PointBreak wasn't such a bad idea... No I'm not dragging him all the way out here to get Peter to come home, Peter would spend his whole time back drooling over the 'god'. Maybe I will have to schedule a discrete visit out by his school on a so-called 'vacation' with my husband.