Outnumbered

Peter’s been watching Tony shuffle aimlessly around the house in pajamas for three days now, sees that he’s finally gotten his hands on an old gen StarkPad despite Pepper’s insistence that Tony do nothing but rest.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Peter asks, grabbing a handful of popcorn and m&ms from the bowl between him and Morgan on the couch. They’ve just started the original Jumanji, a collection of stuffed animals and dolls around them. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

Tony plugs the device in to charge, the screen coming alive with a blue glow. He grins.

“But Daddy!” Morgan whines. “Mommy said no working!”

“How about I promise to take you to Disney if you keep your lips zipped?”

“Disney?!” Morgan screams excitedly, eyes wide.

“You and I both know this isn’t going to end well, Tony,” Peter comments, shaking his head in disapproval before grabbing another handful of popcorn.

“Hey, who pays for everything around here, hmm?” Tony asks, Peter looking down at his pump in sudden embarrassment. He slows his chewing as Tony’s words sink in. “I’m…I’m so sorry, kiddo,” he starts, realizing he’s fucked up. “That’s not what I meant at all! I was joking about the popcorn, I promise.”

Peter nods, but the apology doesn’t take the sting away.

“Pete, look at me, please,” Tony begs, but Peter feels tears pressing and can’t get himself to look up. “I would never hold that over your head. It was a stupid comment that I should’ve never even made, okay?”

“Okay,” Peter whispers, nodding.

“Fuck,” Tony says, rubbing his temples.

“Sir,” FRIDAY says, “it’s not advisable to keep secrets from your spouse. Studies show that children who are placed in situations where—”

Tony rolls his eyes and sighs heavily. “Noted, FRI! I just need to get some emails out of the way!” The login screen appears, and in the midst of typing in his credentials, a box with a lock pops up.

“Access denied. Ms. Potts has enabled ScreenTime across all of your devices.”

Peter can’t help but snort.

Tony throws his head back and clenches his left hand in a fist. “I have a prototype for Northrop Grumman that I need to finish by Thursday! Override the ScreenTime limit, FRIDAY!”

“I need an appropriate code for that, sir.”

“Lima oscar golf india charlie.”

“Access denied. I’m afraid that I cannot override any Stark Industries devices or programs at this time.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Tony yells, throwing the StarkPad to the ground, shattering the screen.

“Daddy!” Morgan screams.

“What in the world is going on in here?” Pepper asks, appearing in the doorway. Her eyes narrow in on the StarkPad before coming back up to meet Tony’s. “Anthony Edward Stark, are you kidding me?”

“And here we go in 5, 4…” Peter whispers, raising his eyebrows and grabbing for more popcorn.

“I cannot believe… Wait, no, I can believe that you’d pull something like this because ’no’ isn’t in your vocabulary!”

“Hey Mo, why don’t we watch this in your room?” Peter whispers, grabbing the popcorn bowl.

Pepper turns on a dime. “Not so fast, you two!”

“I warned him!” Peter argues, putting the bowl down and his hands up in surrender. “I told him it was a bad idea!”

“Daddy said he’d take us to Disney if we kept it a secret!” Morgan beams excitedly.

Pepper licks her lips and shakes her head in anger. “Tony, I swear, I should be too used to your bullshit by now to have an ounce of shock in my body, and yet, here we are, in the same place we always end up in, every goddamn time!”

“In my defense—” Tony starts, raising a finger.

“I don’t want to hear another word out of you!” Pepper screams. “You and I know both know exactly why you need to be taking it easy! Bruce was clear about the why when he discharged you!”

“Pep, please, I just wanted—”

“What about what I want, Tony! What about what your family needs? What about the baby?!”

“Baby?” Morgan asks, confused for a split second before jumping off of the couch with joy. “Mommy’s having a baby?!”

Peter isn’t sure why, but suddenly it feels like all of the air has been knocked from his chest.

A baby?

He sits back down on the couch in shock and tries to take a few deep breaths.

“This is not how I wanted to break the news to the kids…” Tony trails, throwing his arms up.

“Mommy’s having a bay-by! Mommy’s having a bay-by!” Morgan chants, dancing around the room.

“Pete?” Tony asks, picking up on the change in the teen’s behavior.

“I’m good, just…need a second…” he explains, rubbing his face.

Why does he feel like he’s going to pass out?

“FRI, how much insulin did Peter take for the popcorn and candy?” Tony asks, sitting beside Peter. He grabs for Peter’s pump, but Peter swats his hand away.

“5 units, sir,” FRIDAY announces.

“Extended bolus?”

“Yes!” Peter says exasperatedly at the same time as FRIDAY. “I’m fine…just…surprised, is all. Not everything has to be about diabetes, you know.”

“Peter is currently 143 mg/dL and steady, sir,” FRIDAY adds.

“Noted,” Tony says, exhaling.

“Told you,” Peter grumbles. “It would be nice if you trusted me a little more.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Peter,” Tony says, but he stops there because he’s not sure how to explain without making things a million times worse. He already did it with the “who pays for everything around here” comment.

“Congratulations, Pepper,” Peter says, forcing a smile despite the anxiety swirling in his chest. “When are you due?”

“January,” Pepper shares with a soft smile and a hand on her belly.

How did he not notice Pepper’s very obvious baby bump?

Tony gets up and pulls Morgan into his arms to calm her down before she steps into the shattered glass from the StarkPad. “I’m sorry, Pep. I know I should be resting. That was really foolish of me. This whole thing is…a clusterfuck if there ever was one.”

“Daddy said ‘fuck’!” Morgan yells, Peter laughing from the couch at her innocence.

“You, sir, are going to bed early so that these two can finish their movie in peace.” Pepper announces, pointing at Tony.

“It’s not even six yet!” Tony argues.

Pepper gives him a stern look and puts a hand on her hip.

“Fine, but tomorrow I get access to my email back!”

“Deal.” Pepper nods.

“And my projects!”

“Don’t push it, Tony,” she warns.

X

Peter spends the next day purposely avoiding Tony. He knows Tony didn’t mean what he said about paying for everything, didn’t mean to put diabetes at the center of a really important family moment. He knows, maybe a little too well, why Tony is always so worried, and he’s convinced himself that suiting up and swinging around town despite what happened the last time he went on a mission is the best way to take the focus off of him for a while.

But first, Peter decides, he needs snacks.

He doesn’t realize Tony’s in the entryway scrolling through his StarkPad until he says, “Did you turn off Dexcom Share?”

“Maybe?” Peter answers, busying himself with filling his backpack with juice boxes and cracker packs.

“Maybe? What’s with the broodiness? It’s a yes or no question, Peter.”

He sighs, bites his lip. “I wanted you to have a break, okay?”

“From Dexcom?” Tony asks, confused.

“From me, Tony.” And Peter’s looking up at him with those glossy doe eyes, looks just about ready to shatter into a million pieces.

Tony’s first instinct is to yell, because safety, but then he remembers their last fight over Dexcom, the guideline that Peter can’t get in trouble for diabetes things, the way the kid crumbled in his arms in the hospital room, and he knows that raising his voice isn’t going to get them anywhere good. That, and Peter’s turned off Dexcom Share to help him, to give him less things to stress over, which means Peter feels like a burden.

Again.

“I wanted to give you some time to recover,” Peter explains, shrugging. “You’ve got a lot on your plate with Morgan and Pepper and… And I was afraid that if I asked to turn it off for a bit, you’d say no, even though we’d already talked about me taking Dex breaks. I didn’t want to make things any more complicated than they’ve already been. May can see my numbers.”

“You didn’t have to do that, but I appreciate you looking out for me, kid,” Tony says, coming over to ruffle his hair.

Peter pulls away and zips his backpack up, slips his arms through the straps and adjusts it on his back. “You’re just saying that because you don’t want to start a fight.”

“If I still wanted to yell, I would. Trust me, kiddo. But I’m not mad. I was just worried that something had gone wrong with Dex.”

Peter can feel everything from the last week building, his cheek muscles twitching as he works hard to keep his face from scrunching and the tears from rolling down his face.

He should have been there to protect Tony, would have if he didn’t have stupid diabetes and made such an ass out of himself during a mission. You could have been there, but you weren’t, and now look at what happened?

Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. On repeat.

And now, he’s suited up, has decided that he needs to get back into the game if he’s going to be strong enough to take care of his family, his team. Strong enough to not be the one everyone comes running for.

For the baby that’s about to take up nearly all of Pepper and Tony’s attention come January.

He’s got a little less than five months to take the SATs, apply to colleges, make the big decision, and figure out how to be Spiderman with type one, all without causing more of whatever it is the hell these last couple of months have been.

Tony narrows his eyes at Peter. “Text me when you get in?”

“Yeah, whatever.” Peter tightens the straps on his backpack and starts to walk away.

“Remember, exercise mode on the pump, kiddo.”

“Tony.”

“I’m—”

“Not helping.” Peter turns to give him one last look, pleading him to stop.

“I trust you,” Tony adds with a small smile, and Peter doesn’t want to admit it, but that little nugget of truth gives Peter the push he needs to shoot his first web into the night sky.