Through the gates of hell
Peter knew his dad was busy and his mom was busy as well and he knew him and Morgan wouldn’t be allowed to go to the park by themselves so he walked into Harley’s bedroom, not even bothering to knock like he knew he should have.
“Harley, take me and Morgan to the park. Now.” He collapsed onto Harley’s bed. “I’m bored.”
Harley turned in his computer chair. “Stop walking into my room without knocking. I could be naked or something.”
Peter sat up. “But we’re both boys.”
“That’s nasty.” He turned back to his computer. “No, I’m not taking you to the park. I’m busy.”
Peter stood up and stomped his foot but it wasn’t loud enough so he stomped it again and ran out of the bedroom to find his dad. He found his dad in his office and ran in, shoving his face in his dad’s chest. “Harley doesn’t wanna take us to the park and I wanna go.” He whined out in one breath.
Tony rubbed his back, only half listening to him as he finished what he was typing on his computer. “What? Slow down.”
Peter swung his leg over his dad’s knee and played with his necklace with a sigh so Tony stopped what he was doing to give Peter his full attention. “What’s up?”
Peter sighed again. “Me and Morgan wanna go to the park but-but Harley doesn’t wanna take us. I even asked him to.”
“I think he’s busy doing his own thing. I’ll take you guys when I finish work.” Tony pulled Peter closer so he could lay against his chest but Peter fought against it. “I have a lot of work to do. I’ll try to be done soon.”
“But me and Morgan wanna go now. Not later.” Peter whined out. Tony pulled out his phone to check that the locks on the door were in fact locked so Peter couldn’t try to get out. He patted his back again.
“Sorry. Harley doesn’t want to and I can’t. You can either find something else to do until I can take you guys or ask Harley again.” Tony tried to lift Peter off his lap but Peter clung onto him.
“No! I wanna sit here.” He rushed out, not letting his dad peel him off his lap. “Can me and Morgan just go then?”
Tony actually found that funny and the thought alone scared him. “Absolutely not. Don’t even try it.”
Peter frowned. He hated how he was fourteen and his parents didn’t let him do half the things his other friends were allowed to do. He did understand why though but he still hated it. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest then saw his dad's hand and grabbed it so he could bite into it.
“Ow. Peter,” Tony tried to pull his hand away but Peter was biting into it. “Stop. Are you a dog? When did we have two dogs instead of one. Stop. Biting. People.” He wiped the saliva off his hand when Peter let him go.
“I just wanna go to the park.” He bounced up and down with each word he said so Tony looked at his computer, debating if he should just take Peter and Morgan but Morgan rushed into the room with Harley behind her.
“It’s fine, dad. I’ll take them.”
Tony wasn’t so sure. “I’ll be done in about an hour-”
“No.” Peter covered Tony’s mouth. “Harley can take us.”
Tony grabbed Peter’s wrist. “Don’t cover my mouth when I’m talking.”
“I’ll lick you.” Peter grinned and Tony rolled his eyes. He would not be lying if he said he didn’t want at least an hour break from his kids. Between Peter and Morgan, he was going a bit crazy with Peter swinging off of him and putting his mouth on him and with Morgan asking him for something every other minute.
“Don’t lick me.” He stood up, placing Peter onto his feet in the process. “Okay. You guys can go but only for an hour and then you have to come straight back. Asier can come too.”
Peter ran towards the hallway closet to grab his shoes. “Yay! Morgan, wear your rain boots with me.”
“No, it’s not raining and rain boots will make you sweat. Put on shoes.” Tony kneeled down and pulled out a pair of shoes for Peter. “Wear these.”
Peter pushed them away after looking at them for a few seconds. “No, I wanna wear… these ones.” He grabbed a yellow pair of converse and put them on then stood up.
Morgan grabbed her bucket hat then one was being placed on Peter’s head but he threw it off. Tony tried. He knew how much Peter despised anything on his head. He always had. “Then you have to put sunscreen on your face. It’s hot out.”
Tony grabbed a bottle from the closet and smeared it on Peter’s face. “Stop moving. Wear this or no park.”
Once they were ready to go, Tony had to make the hard but necessary decision to let them go to the park without him. It was hard but he knew he had to, to help with Peter’s independence.
“Bye. Be safe! Call me if you need me, Harley!” Tony stood outside the front door, watching them walk away. He watched them until he lost sight of them, then his parental protective dad instincts kicked in and he was a nervous wreck.
Peter liked going places without his parents but equally hated it. He missed his mom and dad already but he knew he was going to have a lot of fun. He walked ahead of Harley and their dog with Morgan until they had to cross the road so Peter waited until Harley caught up with them.
Morgan grabbed onto his hand but he pulled away. “Stop.”
“Then you have to hold Harley’s hand.”
Peter gave his sister a dirty look. “No I don’t. Leave me alone.”
He walked over to Harley’s other side and continued to walk next to him but after they got across the road, he began running towards the park, followed by Morgan and Asier soon after.
Peter beat Morgan to the park and ran over to the monkey bars, bringing back so many memories from when he attempted to climb them when he was ten. He easily made it across and looked back at Morgan. “You do it. I’ll help you.”
He jumped off the platform and went to try and pick Morgan up but he couldn’t. He was a tad taller than her but she was heavier than him, he knew that. “You’re too heavy.” He grabbed her arm to lead her over to the double slides. “Then let’s go up here. We have to go down at the same time.”
Harley stood at the bottom and took a quick picture, sending it to his dad, knowing he liked to receive pictures of them when he wasn’t there to see it.
Peter went down, beating Morgan to the bottom so he turned and attempted to climb up the slide, slipping on the plastic.
“Go up and help me up,” Peter instructed Morgan so she ran back to the top and tried to reach down for Peter but she couldn’t reach him so Harley pushed him up by his butt. “Ahh!”
Peter cheered once he was up and went back down again.
He continued doing that for pretty much most of the hour but once it was time to go home, Peter refused to go.
Harley grabbed Asiers leash and walked over to Peter who immediately climbed onto the platform so Harley couldn’t get to him. “It’s time to go home, it’s been an hour.”
“No.”
“Morgan, it’s time to go home.” Harley told his sister so Morgan ran over to him, waiting to go. “Come, Peter. Let’s go. Dad said an hour and it’s been over an hour.”
Peter squatted down and looked at Harley through the bars, not saying anything.
Harley sighed. “I’m gonna call dad if you don’t come down.” Peter still didn’t move or say anything so Harley pretended that he was leaving. “Let’s go Morgan. Peter can sleep out here tonight by himself.” He began walking away but Peter still didn’t follow.
“We can’t leave him.” Morgan insisted.
“We’re not. We’re just pretending to so he comes.”
“He’s not coming.”
Harley groaned then pulled his phone out of his pocket to call his dad who picked up in the second ring. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah but Peter refuses to leave the park.” Harley told his dad as he walked back towards Peter who was still at the top of the platform.
“Put him on the phone. I’ll talk to him.”
Harley walked over to Peter and held the phone up to him but Peter didn’t take it. “Dad’s on the phone. Take it.” Peter shook his head. “He doesn’t want to.”
“Okay. I’m coming. I’ll drive over and I’ll be there in three minutes.” Tony said before hanging up the phone and grabbing his keys.
Harley put his phone into his pocket. “Dad’s coming to get you. And you’re probably gonna get in trouble for making such a big deal.”
“No. I’m not.” Peter stood up and walked towards the slide, sliding down it and running back to climb up the stairs. “Watch me!”
Morgan climbed back up to play at the park some more too so Harley gave up and let Asier continue to run around. He turned around and saw his dad walking towards them with sunglasses on and he knew his dad wasn’t going to yell at Peter but he sure did look intimidating.
Peter saw his dad show up just as he was about to go down the slide so he stopped.
Tony didn’t see anyone else at the park and was grateful for that. “Peter, why aren’t you listening to your brother?” Peter stared at him. “Come down. It’s time to go home.”
“I’m not being bad. I can stay.”
“No, you are being bad. Get down now.” Tony walked towards the platform Peter was on and tried to grab his hand. “Get down now.”
“Ahhhhhh!” Peter screamed then crawled towards the slide.
Tony pointed at Morgan. “Push him down? Morgan. I’m not playing right now.”
Morgan refused. “No. He doesn’t wanna go home. He wants to play.”
“Peter,” Tony looked at his kid who was being difficult. “If I have to come up there to get you, you will go to bed early tonight.”
Peter thought about it but he wanted to test his dad and see if he was actually going to so he shook his head. “No!”
Tony took off his sunglasses and walked over to the stairs, skipping a few steps and walking across the bridge to get to Peter. He ignored the screaming Peter was doing and kneeled down to grab his arms and speak to him. “I should not have had to come to the park, you should be listening to Harley. Let go.” He picked Peter up no problem and carried him like a sack of potatoes but Peter was screaming and trying to grab onto the bars so Tony couldn’t take him off the playground so he had to hold Peter against his chest until he was on the grass.
Morgan followed him. “I still wanna walk home. I don’t wanna drive home.”
Tony tried to place Peter on his feet but by now Peter was crying, knowing that he lost the fight and had to go to bed early that night. Tony wiped his forehead, already sweating. “Okay. You guys can walk then.”
Peter looked over at Morgan. “I wanna walk too!” He cried out.
“No, you lost that chance now because of the way you’re behaving.” Tony tried to stand Peter up but he wasn’t having it. “I’ll see you guys at home then.” He said to his two other kids then lifted Peter up, carrying him to the parking lot to put him in the car.
Peter squirmed in his arms. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”
“Yeah yeah yeah.” The words hurt. Tony knew Peter didn’t mean them but it still hurt a lot. He opened up the car door, ignoring Peter mantras of ‘I hate yous’ and placed him into the back seat.
“I wanna walk with them!” He cried, reaching to get out.
“No, why should I let you when you’re acting like this.” Tony slammed the car door and got in, trying to block out the screaming. He turned around to look at Peter. “Are you tired? You’re acting like you need a nap? Are you gonna go home and nap?”
That only upset Peter further. “Noo! And-and I’m being good! Don-don’t say I’m bad!”
Tony drove home in under two minutes and got Peter out of the car and carried him into the house. “Are you tired? Can I bring you upstairs to sleep?” He asked as he took off Peter’s shoes and had to lay him down on the front carpet since Peter wasn’t standing up himself.
Pepper walked over to see what was going on. “Why’s he crying?”
Tony tossed the shoes. “He’s being dramatic and I think he’s overtired. Just leave him be.”
Peter rubbed at his eyes as he watched his parents walk away and then the door was being opened and Asier started licking his face so he pushed him away.
“Ignore him.” Said Tony before Morgan started giving Peter attention. “He’s just having a temper tantrum.” He felt bad to ignore Peter but he wasn’t going to give comfort to him for behaving badly.
Morgan ran into the kitchen to wash her hands and grab a snack out of the fridge while Harley grabbed a freeze and went into the backyard.
Tony sat on the kitchen stool so he could still see the hallway to watch Peter. After a few minutes, the crying got quieter and then it stopped so Tony waited a few extra minutes then stood up to go see what was going on. He found Peter asleep on the floor and couldn’t help but coo even though it was super stressful for him.
Pepper walked down the stairs with the laundry basket. “Is he sleeping?” Tony nodded. “You were right. He’s tired.”
Tony didn’t know how Peter managed to fall asleep on the floor but he wasn’t questioning it since it didn’t surprise him. He easily lifted Peter up and carried him into the living room to let him sleep on the couch. “If he doesn’t wake up, we’ll wake him up in two hours? Is that good?”
Pepper began folding the clothes on the couch. “Two hours is too long. Then he won’t go to bed tonight.”
“An hour and a half?”
Pepper thought about it. “Fine. I just don’t want him relying on naps. He needs to sleep at night. He’s going to go back to school soon and he can’t be getting overtired in school.”
Tony nodded. That was a problem they couldn’t worry about yet. Peter wasn’t going to school yet, they didn’t know when he would but there was no rush. Rushing into it would make things worse with his recovery. “I know. I don’t want to worry about that right now. He has his meeting with the therapist in a few days, maybe we can talk about it then.”
They left Peter to sleep, at least for a few hours and hoped he woke up in a better mood.
Morgan ended up following Harley out in the backyard and was sitting on the pool chair with him. Tony wanted to join them but he didn’t want to leave Peter so he sat next to him on the couch even though the position wasn’t all that comfortable.
Pepper announced that she was going outside to sit with the kids so Tony gently lifted Peter up and held him on his lap, getting Peter situated and comfortable on him. He was going to take full advantage of getting to cuddle his son before Peter thought he was too old and too cool to sit on his lap. Harley stopped and thought he was too cool at three or four years old and Morgan never wanted any physical attention like that, she always squirmed away from it while laughing so Peter was their only kid who actually liked it, Tony was taking full advantage of that.
He felt Peter wake up a bit so he patted his back and then Peter was relaxing into him. Tony never wanted to leave that spot.
He didn’t have his phone or anything on him but he was grateful for that so all of his attention was on Peter, not that it ever wasn’t.
Surprisingly, Peter barely slept for an hour.
He woke up about forty minutes after Tony lifted him onto himself and rubbed at his eyes, his neck falling back. “Hi, sleepyhead. Did you have a nice nap?”
Peter fell back against his dad, still rubbing at his eyes. “Mmm.”
“No more sleeping. Otherwise you’re gonna be up all night.” Jokes on Tony since Peter was going to be up all night anyways. Especially after that nap.
Peter stuck his thumb back into his mouth, content to just lie there on his dad for the rest of the day but he heard people talking in the backyard so he lifted his head up and pointed out there.
“Yeah, mom, Harley and Morgan are outside. Do you wanna go hang out with them? Or stay in here?” Tony already knew what Peter wanted, people were having fun without him so he knew Peter needed to go see what they were doing. Peter pointed at the back door so Tony gestured to his thumb. “Take this out. I don’t know what you want?” He did know but he wanted Peter to say it.
Peter whined and shook his head, speaking around his thumb. “Mm. Outside.”
With a grunt, Tony stood up and carried Peter outside, placing him on his feet once Peter spotted Morgan and wanted to join her. He squatted down and pulled the shovel out of her hands, keeping his thumb in his mouth. “My turn.”
Morgan normally would have complained that Peter was taking her things but she just wanted to play with someone so she let him. “I’m building a mud castle.”
Peter started piling some more mud onto her pile with one hand and stood up to fill the bucket with water from the pool but he got distracted as he was doing that. He had to pull his thumb out of his mouth to fill up the bucket but decided to walk into the pool, soaking his socks and his pants. He laughed at that then jumped into the pool.
Tony was watching him and expecting that. He stood up and walked towards the edge of the pool. “Are you having fun?”
“Look! I jumped in with my clothes on.” Peter swam to the edge and pulled himself up. “You jump in too. And we can swim in our clothes.”
“It’s not that warm out, bud. I don’t want you to get sick.” Tony felt the water, it wasn’t too cold but it wasn’t the warmest plus with night time coming up and the sun setting, it would only get colder.
Peter gave him puppy dog eyes. “Please.”
“I’ll give you ten minutes then you have to get out and change into warm clothes.” Tony set a mental reminder in his mind but thankfully Peter was getting out before that and running inside so he didn’t have to argue with him to get out.
Of course, Peter ran into the house and slipped, falling onto his butt. “You’re okay. Stand up and walk.”
Peter slowly stood up, grabbing onto his butt. “Ow.”
“See, that’s what happens when you run with wet feet. Walking feet upstairs please.” Tony warned him but he knew it was going to happen. Peter was crazy and had too much energy most of the time.
Peter ran into his parent’s bedroom and peeled off his wet clothes, his head getting stuck in his top so he almost ran into the wall before his dad pulled it off.
He got dressed in cozy clothes just as Morgan walked in, holding a pink case in her hands. “Want to play with me, Petey?”
Peter stood up. “Yeah.” He followed her into her bedroom, leaving their dad so Tony cleaned up a bit then went downstairs. Peter sat on her floor and looked curiously at the pink case. “What is that?”
Morgan excitedly sat down next to Peter. “Mom’s makeup bag. She told me I’m allowed to do your makeup.” Morgan opened the bag up and dumped all the makeup out so Peter looked at everything.
“You’re not doing my makeup. I’m a boy.” Peter grabbed blush and opened it up, touching the powder. “I’m gonna do your makeup first. Then you can do mine but only after.”
“Fine. I’m gonna grab my headband.” Morgan stood up to search for her headband, putting it on and sitting back down. Peter had no idea what he was doing but he was having fun anyways. “Can I look now?”
Peter shook his head, his tongue out in concentration.”You can’t look until I’m done. Plus I’ll give you a hint, so I’m turning you into a dragon that breathes fire.”
Peter found an orange colour in the makeup and began adding it to her cheeks but got distracted and began putting it on his arms. “Look. It looks like I can shoot fire out of my arms.”
Morgan grinned then reached for some of the makeup. She opened it up and it fell onto the carpet, spilling everywhere. “Oh no.” The two of them looked at each other. Peter then tried to scoop the spilt concealer up but it only made it worse.
“We can dab the brush in here and it’ll get out of the carpet when we’re done.”
Morgan hesitated. “But wouldn’t that just mean it’ll go deeper into the carpet.”
Peter shrugged. “Make me look like a dragon first too. But I don’t wanna breathe fire, I wanna breathe water!”
Morgan got to work, working on Peter’s face and trying to add the scales along his face but it just looked like a pile of makeup on his face. Harley opened the door to see what was going on but he froze when he saw the looks of his siblings faces and the carpet. “Uh… what’re you guys doing?”
They both snapped their heads to look at him. “Nothing. We’re just doing makeup to look like dragons.”
Harley slowly nodded. “Okay. Have fun.” He shut the door and left, walking downstairs and into the living room where his parents were. “Do you guys know what Peter and Morgan are doing?”
Tony and Pepper were enjoying the quiet. Maybe they should have known that the quiet in their house was a sign of disaster. Tony placed his water on the table and sat up. “No… what are they doing?”
Harley laughed but shrugged. “You should go see for yourselves.”
Both parents looked at each other then quickly walked upstairs, scared to see what their youngests were up to. They followed the giggling to the end of the hallway where Morgan’s room was, feeling a tad better that they were laughing and weren’t hurt.
Tony opened up the door and walked in, gasping at the faces that turned to look at him. “Ah, oh god. What happened?”
Pepper covered her hands over mouth. “Oh my gosh. Peter, Morgan, why did you guys do this?”
Peter held up the mascara that was in his hair and eyebrows as well as Morgan’s eyebrows. “We’re just doing art. Who’s the better dragon?”
Despite the situation, Tony laughed because he knew these were precious moments that he would look back on one day and miss it. He also had a really hard time getting angry or upset over anything Peter does because he knows what it feels like to grieve for him and to miss him so badly he considered suicide just to be with Peter again but the only thing that kept him from killing himself was the hope that one day he would be with Peter again. So now, he couldn’t get mad at anything Peter did.
He also knew he had to at times to be a parent and teach Peter right from wrong but this was too funny.
Tony kneeled down to take away the mascara from Peter’s hands. “I don’t think this is how you’re supposed to use makeup.”
Peter looked at him with wide eyes. “And we accidentally spilled it on the carpet.” He pointed to the liquid makeup and looked at his dad for his reaction. “Morgan did, I just watched.”
“You guys seem like you were busy.” Tony commented while Pepper was still trying to get over the fact that most of her makeup was just destroyed, in hindsight, she should have never asked Morgan to bring the bag into her room.
“Can you guys put all my makeup back? I’ll get my makeup remover so I can take it off your faces.”
Tony took his phone out of his pocket to take a few pictures, feeling bad for Pepper’s makeup but not caring about it that much. The memories they were making were always worth it, even if they didn’t see it in the moment at times, especially the stressful situations.
Pepper picked up all her makeup while Peter was still trying to add some to his face. “Hand me that. You guys, go to the bathroom so I can take the makeup off and next time, don’t use my makeup.”
Peter looked at the mess on the carpet. “I didn’t. We just made a mess but we didn’t mean to.”
Morgan stood up to listen to their mom. “Actually, Peter only made the power stuff mess. I made the other mess.”
“No.” Peter didn’t want to get in trouble so he crossed his arms over his chest with a pout.
“It’s fine, Pete. Let’s just go to the bathroom to wash your face. Come.” Tony held his hand out for Peter and led him into the bathroom with the girls. “Do you use soup to get this off or…?” Tony asked Pepper, completely clueless.
Peter grabbed a pack of the baby wipes. “These.”
Pepper snatched the baby wipes from him. “Are you wiping your bum? No. You use these,” She handed Peter a pack of makeup wipes remover.
Tony shrugged and took the package from him, pulling a few out. “You were kinda right.”
He began wiping the makeup off Peter’s face, rubbing it but it was hard to get off, either way, the situation was funny and at the end of the day, when Peter’s and Morgan’s face were all cleaned off and the carpet was cleaned, it was another memory they made together.
.
.
.
Peter got out of the bathroom and yawned, barely having enough energy to put his pyjamas on. He did manage to and then crawled over his dad to get into the bed. “I’m tired.”
Tony patted his butt. “I know. You sleep, buddy.” It had been a night since Peter asked for his bottle so both parents were expecting him to ask for it again.
Peter stuck his thumb in his mouth and looked up at his dad, offering a tiny smile behind his thumb then he sat up and patted the pillow so he could lie on his dad’s chest.
Pepper walked out of the bathroom with a pile of dirty towels. “I’m gonna do some laundry. We barely have any clean clothes for tomorrow so I’m gonna try and get it all done tonight since there’s no distractions.”
Tony was so tired already. He helped out a lot around the house but he didn’t mind the mess, Pepper did so she did most of the cleaning because of that. “Alright. You know where to find us.”
Pepper dropped the towels into the laundry basket and sat on the edge of the bed. “I love you, Peter. Sleep good and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek then kissed Tony.
Tony looked at Peter. “And I’ll see you at midnight when you wake up.” He joked but he wasn’t actually joking, Peter woke up a lot throughout the nights.
Peter nodded, his eyes barely able to stay open. He waited until his mom left the room and all the lights were off then he cuddled up closer to his dad, speaking around his thumb. “M’sleeping.”
“I know. I love you.” Tony closed his eyes. No bottle tonight.