I wanna live my life my way
Peter immediately ran upstairs to go shower.
He didn’t want to face his mom and the disappointed look that she gave him when he was bad so he decided that when he saw her he was going to pull out the puppy dog eyes and cling onto her like he knew she loved so much and didn’t get much of since he also preferred his dad when it came to cuddles.
He still loved his mom but his dad’s arms were bigger and stronger and his chest was more comfortable. Plus Tony had a magic touch. He always manoeuvred his body so he was most comfortable on the man.
Peter was nervous.
He didn’t know how his mom was going to react.
Maybe she was going to hate him? He hoped not. God, he hoped not.
Tony was telling her now so he was going to hide in the bathroom for as long as possible.
Once he was finished with his prolonged shower, Peter knew he couldn’t hide in there forever so he dried himself off and dashed into his bedroom to put on his StarWars pyjamas.
He then swallowed and slowly walked into his parents bedroom with his head down. He lazily chewed on his thumb and looked up at his mom through his eyelashes. “Are you mad at me?”
Pepper sighed. She was disappointed but not mad. “Come here, Pete.”
Peter didn’t hesitate to quickly climb onto the bed and crawl across it until he was pressed up against his mom's side with his head on her chest. He heavily sighed. “I’m sorry.”
She shushed him and ran her fingers through his baby hair. “I’m not mad at you but I still want you to know that what you did was not okay, baby. Fighting is never the answer.”
Peter nodded against her and wrapped his free arm around her stomach.
“Your dad told me what that boy said and that wasn’t very nice of him. Some people can be cruel but that’s only because they have a messed up life themselves and they take it out on good people.” Pepper continued to run her fingers through Peter’s hair. He shut his eyes.
She gently pulled his thumb away from his mouth before it entered.
“Sorry.” Peter blushed. He didn’t even know he was doing it sometimes. He woke up a few mornings with his thumb wet but he didn’t tell his parents he was probably back to sucking his thumb in his sleep.
“It’s okay.” She smiled down at her baby. “Do you wanna stay here for a bit or go downstairs?”
Peter thought about it. He was really comfortable in his mom's arms. “Stay here. What time is it?”
Tony spoke up from beside them. “1:30. You can take a nap if you want. Mom can wake you in two hours.”
Peter shook his head. He didn’t want to try and sleep right now. “No. I’m good.”
He stretched his legs out and put one leg over his mom to get more comfortable. “Can we watch tv in here?”
Pepper nodded. “Of course, baby. Just relax.”
.
.
.
Peter was counting down the hours until he went to bed.
He was exhausted. He fell asleep for about twenty minutes in his mom's arms but he woke himself up for no reason. Now, he really wished he stayed asleep.
On top of everything else, Morgan was being annoying.
“Dad. Tell her to leave me alone.” Peter ran into the kitchen and climbed on top of the kitchen counter to sit so he could watch his mom cook dinner. He felt like he was going to cry if Morgan didn’t stop annoying him and Tony saw that.
“Hey, stop means stop. Leave your brother alone and go entertain yourself.” Tony grabbed the bubble gun from Morgan and pointed towards the living room.
“Fine. He’s no fun anyways.” Morgan said then turned to walk away.
Peter rolled his eyes and pulled his knees to his chest. “Can I help you cook, mom?”
Pepper handed him a cutting board and a knife. “Be careful. Cut these into small slices.”
Peter grabbed the carrot and took a bite with a smirk while he looked at his mom. “Yumm!”
“You bugger.” She pinched his stomach and fondly shook her head. “C’mon. Chop chop.”
Once dinner was made, Peter helped Pepper set the table and made sure that his plate was next to his moms but after he grabbed his juice and came back to the living room to see Morgan sitting in his spot, he walked up to her.
“Move. I’m sitting there.”
Morgan shrugged. “Clearly I am.”
Peter groaned and pointed to his favourite cup. “No. See? I put that there so move.”
Morgan picked up Peter’s cup and placed it in the opposite seat so Peter wiped desperately at his eyes. He grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the seat but then Morgan was screaming and hitting Peter in the arm which had Peter screaming.
Tony grabbed Peter and roughly sat him in the seat. “You do not pull your sister like that. And Morgan, you do not hit your brother. He picked this seat so you can sit in another seat.”
Peter wasn’t in the mood anymore but Pepper walked into the dining room so he patted the seat next to him. “Sit with me. Please. Don’t sit next to Morgan.”
Pepper smiled and took a seat next to her youngest son. It wasn’t uncommon that Peter would switch between the two of them. He would have phases where he preferred his mom over his dad but nine times out of ten it was always Tony.
Peter took a sip of juice from his cup and rubbed at his eyes. He was exhausted but didn’t want to show it yet since he didn’t want to look like a baby and get sent to bed before his little sister did.
“Today at recess,” Morgan took a bite of her dinner and continued. “me and Allison built a fort in the forest. It was so cool.”
Peter missed elementary school. He was so nervous to go to high school after hearing such intimidating stories about it. He would love to go back in time and have recess again.
“Why were you guys in the forest?” Tony asked. The teachers shouldn’t be letting the students play in the forest. That was dangerous.
Morgan shrugged. “Because it’s fun and we build our forts in there…”
Peter stopped listening to the conversation.
He thought about his day and what happened at lunch time. He still felt guilty about leaving school without his parents permission and he didn’t plan on even telling them but after everything else that happened today, he knew he wasn’t going to get to fall asleep if he didn’t tell them.
“I went out for lunch today with Ned.” Peter said, looking down at his plate. All the conversation stopped to focus on him. “I know I’m not allowed but… Ned really wanted to. And-and Harley always went out for lunch.”
Tony unclenched his fists. That was the number one rule they had. Peter must never ever leave the school without asking permission first. Never.
“You know you’re not allowed to do that.” He said, putting his fork down. “Why would you even think about that?”
Peter simply shrugged. “Because I wanted to. A lot of other students do it. I just wanted to be like them and not to have to ask my mom and dad all the time.”
Tony chuckled but nothing was funny about this. “Don’t compare yourself to anyone else, Peter. It’s not healthy and it doesn’t benefit anyone. Especially not you.” Tony sighed. “You know you have different rules than other kids have, sometimes even Harley and Morgan and I know it sometimes-”
Peter didn’t care to listen anymore so he interrupted his dad. “There was this car there and I think he was following me.”
That had everyone at the table freezing and losing all the colour in their faces.
“What?” Pepper asked, turning to fully face Peter.
Peter looked up at his mom then looked away.
“What do you mean, Peter? Someone was following you?” Tony tried to remain calm. He couldn’t freak out right now since he didn’t even know if it was necessary to do yet.
“Well… there was this car in my school parking lot and then me and Ned started walking and I saw it in another parking lot and I thought I saw someone watching me but we kept walking and then Uh, then we got to the pizza place and I bumped into this old looking guy who was smiling at me all weird then-then later he came up to our table and asked for the ketchup but then as we, when we were leaving, I saw the same car out in the front and I didn’t say anything to Ned but I was a little scared and then-then when we were walking, the same car pulled up next to us and got out of the car to ask us for directions and it was the same guy from the restaurant.” Peter didn’t want to look at his parents' faces but as he was explaining to them what happened, he was starting to freak out again. He really messed up.
Tony stood up to grab his phone off the kitchen counter. “Why didn’t you call me, Peter?”
This was not good. This couldn’t be some coincidence.
Peter turned in his chair to look at his dad. “I don’t know! I’m sorry! I-I didn’t- I thought it was nothing.”
Peter turned to look at his mom and she looked scared as well. “Mom? What is it?”
Morgan got off her chair to run into the kitchen after her dad. “Daddy! What’s wrong? Are the bad men coming to take Peter again?”
Peter felt his heart fall into his stomach at those words. The bad men were coming. They were coming to take him away and he wasn’t going to ever see his family again. No.
“Stop it!” Peter yelled, tears falling down his cheeks. “You’re scaring me.”
Pepper pulled Peter against her chest. “Just breathe, baby. It’s okay.”
Peter pushed away from Pepper. “No! I’m sorry! I-I knew I shouldn’t have gone. I’m sorry. I-I’m sorry.”
Tony finished with his phone call to Natasha. He hasn’t spoken to her in almost two months and the longer they go without speaking is always a good thing but now she is going to be coming over again.
Peter wiped desperately at his eyes. “Dad! I’m sorry! I’m sorry. Please!”
Tony knows what’s done is done. Peter disobeyed them and made a mistake and they can’t go back and change that now so he wasn’t going to hate Peter for it.
He walked back into the dining room and pulled Peter off the chair to hug him tightly in his arms. “It’s okay, baby. Shhh. It’s okay.”
It didn’t take Natasha long to arrive. She always came within minutes when it was needed.
Peter couldn’t stop crying. He hated that he hated Ned for making him go.
He was sitting on the couch between his parents with Natasha sitting in front of them, a position he’s been in all too many times.
“Can you tell me what the car looked like, Peter?” Natasha asked, writing everything down.
Peter tried to think back. “It was blue. Dark blue with a lot of rust and-and it had a sticker on the back. That’s how I knew it was the same car.”
“What did the sticker say? Do you remember?” Natasha asked him patiently.
Peter shut his eyes to try and think. “Uhhh… something about imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Natasha wrote that down. “Good. Can you tell me what he looked like?”
Peter shook his head and leaned against his dad. He was horrible with faces. He couldn’t remember anyone’s faces after just seeing them once or twice. “I don’t know.”
“That’s okay. Take your time. Was he young or older?” Natasha asked but Tony had to rephrase that question because young to Peter is a baby and old is a sixteen year old.
“Was he like Harley’s age or my age? Maybe older than me?” Tony asked him, rubbing at Peter’s arm to encourage him.
Peter groaned. “Ummm… older than you. Maybe he was your age. He had Umm… black hair and… lots of hair on his face. I don’t know what else.”
Natasha wrote that down. “What did he say to you?”
Peter thought about it. “Nothing. I just bumped into him and said sorry and he said it’s okay kid and then he asked for ketchup and then later he asked where fifth street was and that his GPS was broken.”
“That’s not nothing, baby.” Pepper rubbed his arm. “That’s a lot of conversation between you two. He shouldn’t even have been talking to you at all. Especially not pulling his car over to talk to you.”
Peter rubbed at his eyes and buried his face in his dad's chest. “Please. I wanna go to bed. I-I wanna sleep with you and mom tonight. Please.”
Tony pressed a kiss to Peter’s hair. He had an extremely emotional day. “Okay, baby. I’ll take you up and you can sleep with us tonight.”
Peter relaxed at that.
He needed to be with his parents tonight.
It took an hour for all three of them to be in bed. Natasha spoke with Pepper for a little bit longer then joined her boys in bed.
Peter was latched onto Tony’s side so when Pepper walked into the room and climbed onto the bed, he turned over and held his hand out for her. “Are you guys mad at me? And don’t say you’re disappointed because that’s somehow worse.”
Tony rubbed his stomach. “We’re worried. I told you that we would never be mad at you but we will be worried and sometimes, like this evening, our worry can look like anger but that’s just because we love you so much and want you to stay safe.”
Peter chewed at his thumb. “I know. I just… I’m sorry.”
Pepper reached out to pull his thumb away from his mouth. “Don’t do that.”
“I want to.” Peter admitted quietly. He tried so hard for his thumb not to end up in his mouth but it was so hard sometimes. Especially lately.
“I know, baby, but you don’t want to start that habit again.” Tony caressed his cheek. He’s gone to check on Peter in the middle of the night sometimes and found him with his thumb in his mouth. He told Pepper and they decided not to tell Peter since they were sure he did it in his sleep and didn’t even know.
Peter turned into his dad’s chest. “Tickle my back.”
Tony smiled and went to do just that until it eventually put Peter to sleep. Tony was too worried to sleep. His mind was racing way too much.
He was just grateful Peter asked to sleep with them tonight so he didn’t have to pull Peter into their bed by himself just to have his baby close.
.
.
.
Tony worked it out with the school.
Peter was suspended for two days which basically gave him a four day weekend and Tony was already going to keep him home on Thursday and Friday so it worked out perfectly for them.
Tony demanded that this Flash kid get charged with what he said to his kid but because the bastard child was underage, he was only suspended for five days. Not good enough for Tony but he would accept it.
The parents also decided to keep Morgan home with Peter so they could relax and be with each other. Especially what happened on Wednesday.
The Stark family needed it. The only person they were missing was Harley and he wasn’t coming until Wednesday of the next week.