Chapter 6
"Do you think we should throw Mr Stark a gender reveal party?" Peter asked his boyfriend, they were laying in bed together after a heated make out session and were simply making pillow talk.
Harley snorted, "That's a great idea, darlin'. If Tony was one of those basic Pinterest parents."
He frowned, brown eyes wide. "A baby shower then. C'mon Harls, we have to do something after everything Mr Stark's done for us."
The Tennessean boy smiled softly, "Baby shower sounds good to me. Should we get Steve involved in this or shall it be a surprise for everyone?"
Peter smirked mischievously, "Everyone loves a good surprise."
"Even super assassin Avengers with insane reflexes?"
"Are you doubting me, Mr Keener?"
"Oh I wouldn't dream of it, Mr Parker."
"Keep it that way." Peter whispered against his boyfriends lips.
"Fancy goin' for a round two?" Harley snarked.
The young spider smacked his arm playfully, "Horndog. Come on we've got a baby shower to throw."
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"Excuse me, Miss Cho?" Peter asked shyly, knocking on the door of the med bay.
"Peter, my favorite patient!" Helen greeted, "How can I help you? You haven't gotten shot again, have you?"
He laughed nervously, "No no, nothing like that. I was just wondering if you had the record's of Mr Stark's last scan?"
She looked at him quizzically, "What on earth do you want with those?"
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Depends on what it is."
"Well, Harley and I wanted to throw Mr Rogers and Mr Stark a baby shower and do a gender reveal but we kinda need to know the gender to do that." he laughed nervously.
Helen smiled at him, "That's very sweet of you both. But I'm afraid I can't give them to you."
Peter sighed, "I knew it was a long shot because it's confidential but I just thought-"
"Peter." Helen interrupted. "I can't give them to you because I don't have them."
... "What?"
She shrugged, "I've only got one scan on record for Tony and that was when he first found out he was expecting. I scheduled another one for him last week but he didn't show up, you know he's stubborn."
Peter struggled to find the words, "But-But the baby?"
"The baby is fine." She soothed, "Do you honestly think I would let his behavior put their child in danger? Absolutely not, FRIDAY gives regular scans of both Tony's and the baby's heart beats."
"Oh okay. Good, that's good. So FRIDAY knows the gender?"
Helen pursed her lips, "I'm afraid the AI can't do that, I will still need to perform a scan to get that information. Of course if you could convince Tony to-"
"I'll do it."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. I'll get Tony in here by the end of the day."
"See there's a reason you're my favourite patient." she winked at him, "Off you hop, I'll see you later."
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It took all of three minutes to find Mr Stark. He was, of course, in his lab working on Clint's arrows.
"Hey kid," The man greeted as soon as the teenager walked through the door, his back to him.
"How did you know it was me?" Pete asked, walking over.
Tony turned to wink at him, "Guess it was just my Peter tingle." he sassed before turning his attention back to his work.
"I'll never forgive May for letting that catch on." He joked.
The dark haired man chuckled, "Hey Pete mind passing me that drill?"
"Yeah sure I- wait what?" Peter asked incredulously, hand frozen in mid air. "Mr Stark please tell me you haven't been drilling and using all these tools when you're pregnant."
Tony rubbed his eyes tiredly, "Oh god you sound like Steve."
"I just want you and the baby to be okay!"
"The baby is okay, kid." He said, massaging his temples, "I'm okay, the baby is okay. I know I'm not the most responsible and trustworthy person but I thought you would all know by now the last thing I would do is put my kids in danger."
Peter suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. Tony had always been very insecure and unsure over wether he was a fit enough father figure and now it was happening again, only this time those insecurities were voiced by the people he loved the most as well as the voices in his head.
"Sorry kid," Tony apologised, after an awkward beat. "I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just...-"
"I'm sorry too," the spiderling replied immediately, "You're just... What?"
The man looked at the young man he viewed as a son and his eyes softened, "Don't worry about it, Pete. Here wanna help me with this?"
"I absolutely do." Peter said, taking Clint's arrow from the genius, "After you tell me what's going on."
"You're not going to drop this, are you?"
"Aw you know me so well."
Tony sighed, "I don't like people... Fussing over me."
Peter nodded, shuffling closer to him and sitting down on a stool. "Why?"
"You're not a therapist, kiddo, we shouldn't be talking about this."
"Well we're talking about it, so get used to it, Mr Stark." The teenager sassed.
"You know I could have FRIDAY lock you out of here."
"Stop trying to divert my attention, why don't you like being fussed over?"
Tony shrugged, "Not used to it."
"Yes you are."
"I- huh?"
"I've seen Mr Rogers fuss over you when you get migraines, and when you broke your leg in battle I've seen the entire team fuss over you. So try again."
Tony shook his head, "I'm just scared, SpiderBaby. Before you came in I didn't even realise using a drill was a bad idea. I don't know anything about being a parent and I'm constantly reminded of that."
Peter shook his head. How could this man not see he had one of the biggest hearts out of anyone he'd ever known?
"When I was fifteen you gave a kid you hardly knew a millionaire dollar suit to keep him safe. When a young boy from Tennessee found you in his garage you gave him engineering supplies so he could grow his passion. When that boy from Tennessee became so smart regular school wasn't cutting it for him anymore, the first thing you did was invite him to New York and get him into Midtown. You've stayed up with me all night watching Star Wars movies because of my nightmares, you helped Harley when he was being bullied, when we both got food poisoning from Thor's Asgardian food you didn't leave our sides until we were better. You may never have been pregnant or had to take care of a baby before, Mr Stark, but you've been a parent for a while."
The brunette gave him a watery smile, "Was that last part your way of calling me old?"
Peter frowned, "Mr Stark-"
"Oh I'm kidding, kid! Get over here."
Peter threw himself at the man, minding the baby bump of course, and buried his head in the crook of his dad's neck. He smiled the biggest smile when Tony whispered in his ear,
"Love you, kid."
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After their talk, Peter also convinced Tony to go see Helen Cho. So when Steve got back from his latest meeting that was the first place they headed.