When It’s Meant To Be

It’s been a few days since Peter’s de-aging serum failed and he’s been in his permanent body of a toddler. 

Tony felt like he was finally coming to terms with the whole thing and it was starting to set in. Him and Peter had been together the whole time, Tony only leaving Peter so he could take a shower himself. 

May on the other hand was becoming incredibly annoying and Tony was thinking about blocking her but he didn’t want her to call the phone on him for child kidnapping. 

She had called Tony’s phone eighteen times in the last few days. Tony knew he should be answering but he didn’t want to talk to her after what she did. 

Plus it was too early to call her today, he was busy all day with Peter and Pepper so he would have to call her tomorrow. As much as he wanted to, he knew he couldn’t ignore her for much longer. 

“Is Peter ready? Where leaving in thirty minutes.” Pepper asked as she walked into Peter’s bedroom while she was putting earrings in her ears. 

Tony has been struggling to get Peter ready. He was in a happy mood today which was good but he just wasn’t listening, not that he listened anyways but at least he would acknowledge Tony before ignoring him. 

“No he’s not ready. Look at him.” Tony complained and pointed to Peter who was lying on one of his teddy bears while he chewed on his book. Tony had tried to change his diaper but every time he went to pick Peter up the toddler would scream and he had a loud scream. 

“After you get him into some clothes then he’ll stop crying. We leave in twenty minutes now, Tony.” Pepper warned him then she turned and walked back to their bedroom. 

Tony rolled his eyes at her as she left. As if it was that easy. 

Peter had high demands. He basically owned Tony and whatever Peter wanted, he got and right now he wanted to lay on his teddy bear with a saggy diaper. 

“Peter. Please.” Tony begged. Peter was humming some sort of song that Tony was pretty sure he made up. “Can you come lay here so I can change you and get you dressed? I’ll be quick.” 

The toddler continued to ignore Tony so Tony grabbed all the diaper supplies and brought them over to Peter. 

He pulled the diaper straps off of him and tossed it to the side while he prepared for the screams to follow. 

Instead, Peter reached over for the dirty diaper that was just taken off of him. Tony was too distracting with wiping him so he didn’t expect Peter to whip the diaper right at him. 

“Peter!” Tony was caught off guard and dropped Peter’s legs as he heard the toddler giggling. He knew he shouldn’t have put the dirty diaper in reach with the grabby toddler but he didn’t even think about it. 

“I ga’ you!” Peter giggled and went to sit up but Tony pushed him back down. 

It was only seven in the morning and he’s already been slapped with a banana and a dirty diaper thrown at him while in the midst of changing the culprits butt. 

Peter was surprisingly well behaved while Tony changed him and got him dressed in black jeans and a blue T-shirt. He was in the middle of putting Peter’s socks and shoes on when Pepper walked in. 

“Are you ready to go?” She asked in a rush. 

Tony was trying to put Peter’s other shoe on but he was already taking off the shoe Tony had just put on him. He sighed. “Um,” 

Tony ran a quick checklist in his head. He had Peter’s diaper bag that had extra diapers. A lot. Wipes, creams, a bunch of bottles and extra clothes. He would be carrying Peter’s blanket and RoRo the rabbit out with him to the car. And apparently Peter’s shoes as well. 

“Yeah. We’re done. Can you carry the diaper bag while I get Peter and his thing?” Tony asked, already picking Peter up and his stuff. Pepper didn’t need to be told since she was already grabbing the bag. 

“So how far is your friends house again?” Tony asked when they got into the elevator. Pepper wanted to visit her friend who had recently given birth to a baby girl. She asked Tony if he wanted to come with Peter since apparently there was going to be a whole family visiting. A house filled with a bunch of babies, toddlers and kids. Fun. 

“It’s pretty far. About three hours but Peter will hopefully sleep along the way.” Pepper said just as they arrived to their new truck in the garage. 

Tony somewhat hated it. His whole life he’s driven cars but this was so different. Although it wasn’t about him, it was about Peter and his safety and his car seat that he had in his car just wouldn’t be able to fully protect him if they got into a car accident. 

Plus Peter loved his new car seat. 

“No! No! Don’ wan’ go in! No daddy!” Peter cried out and tried to grab onto the door of the car. So much for Tony thinking that Peter actually liked his car seat. 

“Pep, can you pass me his bottle and RoRo?” Tony reached across the seat and grabbed the items from Pepper. “Peter. Look. You want your milk and RoRo?” 

Peter nodded his head and grabbed his milk and rabbit from Tony and so Tony quickly placed him in his car seat until he was safely buckled in then they were in their way. 

They weren’t even thirty minutes into their drive when Tony looked in the rearview mirror and saw Peter making his poop face. “He’s going poo. I have to change him.” 

Pepper looked up from her book. “What? How? We’re in the middle of the highway?” 

“I’ll pull over and quickly change him then we’ll go right on our way again.” Tony explained before he carefully pulled over on the side of the highway. They weren’t on a popular highway since they were headed into the country and not the city so thankfully it wasn’t that busy. 

They were surrounded by forests so Tony just hoped a bear didn’t come out of the woods right now. 

Tony opened up the back door and had to get into the car and go to the other side so he could take Peter out of his car seat. Once he got Peter, he laid him on his back and reached into the trunk to grab the diaper bag. 

Peter was still making his poop face and Tony wanted to wait till it was all out before changing him otherwise this whole process would be counterproductive. 

“Are you done?” Tony asked as he picked Peter up and stood him on the ground so he could lay out a changing mat, he’s glad he bought one. And brought it. 

He was careful to hold Peter with his foot so he didn’t make a run for it. Peter went to sit down but Tony stopped him. “No. Don’t sit. Did you poo?” 

Peter shook his head making Tony laugh. “Why are you gonna deny having pooped when you’re literally looking at me while pooping.” 

Pepper laughed and opened her car door to look at the two. “Ugh! I can smell it.” 

“Yeah. It’s gross.” Tony took a big breath and pulled Peter’s pants off then pulled down the front of his diaper. Pepper peaked over and then gagged. “Oh come on. Why are you gagging? I’m the one who has to clean this- no Peter don’t touch!” 

“Pepper! Give me a wipe!” Tony yelled desperately because Peter reached his hand down there and now he had to wipe Peter’s hand before it ended up in his mouth or on the car or anywhere else. “Another one! More.” 

“We need more wipes. There’s no way two packs are going to last us all day, night and all day tomorrow.” Pepper observed as she looked in the diaper bag. 

Tony should have known better. “Shit. And I forgot his pacifier.” 

“I’ll look up the closest store.” Pepper began looking on her phone while Tony was tasked with cleaning up Peter’s butt. It took a lot of wipes but soon enough, Peter was back in a clean diaper and in his car seat. Tony didn’t bother to put his pants back on since he knew he would be changing Peter again. Thankfully it won’t be another poop. 

Tony checked to make sure all the cars were gone before getting into the driver's seat and driving away. Pepper placed her phone on the stand. “It’s a good thing we’re not too far out yet because there’s a store on the next exit.” 

It only took five minutes to drive to the store. It was right off the highway when they exited it which was great since that meant that they didn’t have to drive too far. 

Tony pulled into a parking space and turned around to look at Peter. He had his thumb in his mouth and was looking at Tony but Tony didn’t want to bring him in since it would be a lot easier and faster to do it without him. 

“Can I leave him here with you while I go inside and get everything?” Tony asked Pepper but Peter was answering for her. 

“No! Wan’ go with daddy!” Peter yelled which Tony didn’t want anymore of so he agreed. 

“Okay, Pete. I just have to put some pants on you first.” Tony got out of the car and opened the back door to unbuckle Peter but as soon as he was free, Peter was reaching his arms out for Tony. “Not yet. Where’s your pants?” 

“No pants.” Peter shook his head and tried to reach out to Tony again but Tony ignored him since he saw his jeans on the car floor. He reached down to pick it up and put them on Peter but then Tony thought about his shoes. 

“Do you want to wear shoes?” Peter nodded his head but Tony has a feeling that they wouldn’t stay on Peter’s feet for long. 

After getting Peter ready to go, Tony placed him on his hip and shut the door. Pepper was busy reading her book which was about some romance boring stuff. 

Peter pointed to the shopping carts as Tony was walking over to it. He didn’t necessarily need one but it was better to have one just in case. 

When Tony went to place Peter in it, he started kicking his legs and screaming. “Okay! What do you want then?” 

“Ba na!” Peter pointed to the ground and mumbled something that Tony didn’t understand. 

“Do you want to walk?” Tony asked as he had already started pushing the buggy into the store. It wasn’t a Walmart but it looked as big as one. It was quiet with barely any people which Tony loved. 

“Uh huh.” Peter was nodding his head so Tony put him on the ground. He really would rather have Peter sitting in the buggy but he knew that wasn’t an option. 

“But you have to stay with me, Pete.” Tony kept a close eye on Peter but he didn’t have to worry about him getting lost since there were no people around besides from the odd two or three getting food. 

Maybe he should move Pepper, Peter and him out into the country. That would be nice and quiet. 

Plus Peter was keeping close to him and running ahead but then stopping to make sure that he was still there. Tony smiled at his kid as he walked ahead of him. 

Peter was walking on wobbly chubby legs and kept tripping over his feet every couple of steps but it was adorable to watch. 

“This way, Pete.” Tony called out as he turned into the diaper aisle. Peter turned around and saw where Tony was going so he ran towards him while making gurgling noises. 

In the aisle, Tony looked at the wide selection of diapers. There were a lot. Pampers, Huggies, some other random brands that Tony didn’t know about. He usually just ordered pampers online so this would be hard to pick out. 

“Hey, Pete. Which ones do you like?” Tony asked Peter who had pulled a package off the shelf and was sitting on it as he chewed on something. 

The first thing Tony thought was this lazy child. He’s always sitting on something but he didn’t remember Peter bringing anything into the store with them so what was he eating. Tony took a step towards Peter. “What are you eating?” 

Peter quickly got off the package of diapers and started running in the opposite direction of Tony. Tony caught up to him in a few steps and pulled the toddler in his arms. “What is that…?”

Tony tried to grab whatever it was, out of Peter’s grip and it was hard to get tiny fingers off of the thing. “Is that… Peter. Seriously? When did you even grab this? I had my eyes on you the whole time.” 

Tony pulled a cherry out of Peter’s hand. He didn’t even remember passing the cherry section which means that Peter found it on the floor and put it in his mouth. Gross. 

Tony tossed it back on the floor because he didn’t know what else to do with it. He looked over at Peter who had a grin on his face. “You are going to cause me a lot of trouble, aren’t you?” Tony joked as he kissed Peter’s cheek and placed him back on the ground. 

As soon as Peter was on his feet again, he ran in the direction of the dirty floor cherry but Tony grabbed his arm. “Nope. Come with me and help me pick out some diapers.” 

Peter shook his head. “No. Don’ wan’!” 

“They’re for you anyways so I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to pick which picture is going on your butt.” Tony held Peter with one arm as he tried to show him what one he might want. “How about the one with the animals?” 

Peter shook his head. “‘Da’re ‘tad one.” He lifted his hand up and pointed to one that had Elmo on it so Tony grabbed two packs and tossed them into the shopping cart. 

He tried to think if they needed anything else from this aisle but probably not since he already had the creams and wipes. Just in case, Tony grabbed some extra diaper cream and wipes, tossing them into the shopping cart. 

“Okay, baby. We’re done now.” Tony began pushing the shopping cart and held his hand out for Peter to hold which he did but as soon as they exited the aisle, Peter was running ahead again. 

Since Tony didn’t see any people around, he let Peter run ahead. It wasn’t like he was actually getting anywhere far because his legs were too short to actually run fast. 

Peter stopped running and dashed into an aisle and Tony felt his heart jump into his throat as he lost sight of Peter. 

He ran ahead without the shopping cart and into the aisle that Peter ran into. He spotted him at the end of the toy aisle, trying to climb onto the shelf to reach for something. Tony took a few calming breaths now that Peter was in his sight again. 

He walked over to him and kneeled down, picking Peter up off from the shelf and holding onto his hips so he could talk to him. “Peter, we don’t do that. You scared daddy.” 

Peter put his thumb in his mouth as he looked at Tony. “You sca’ed?” He spoke around his thumb and Tony nodded his head. 

“Yeah. You scared me. Stay in my sight, okay?” Tony brushed back a loose curl from Peter’s forehead. “Let’s go now.” 

When Tony stood up and tried to pull Peter along with him, he was surprised for Peter to pull back with a scream. “No! I wan’!”

Peter ran back to the shelf and grabbed a fire truck from the shelf and hugged the hard toy to his chest as he looked up at Tony with puppy dog eyes. 

“I wan’, daddy.” Peter said and walked closer to Tony, holding up the toy slightly.

Tony was getting annoyed and he was tired and just wanted to be back in the car so he said no but then immediately regretted it. “No, Peter. Put it back.” 

Peter hung his head and went to go put it back but Tony felt his heart breaking. Why did he say no? “Wait, Petey. You can get it if you want it. Do you want it?” 

Peter turned around with a huge smile on his face and nodded his head. “Uh huh!”

Tony smiled because his kid was happy. He loved seeing that goofy smile on his kids face and it was adorable to see him carrying the toy fire truck in his arms as he walked next to Tony. Tony has to slow his pace just so Peter could keep up with him. 

Along the way to the cashier, Tony grabbed two pacifiers and some more snacks for Peter just in case Peppers friend didn’t have some of the things that Peter liked. 

“You gotta give me the toy so I can pay for it, Pete.” Tony told Peter at the cashier but Peter shook his head and went to run away but Tony quickly grabbed his arm before he could get anywhere. 

“No! No, I wan’! Mine!” Peter cried as Tony pried the fire truck from his hands and handed it to the cashier so she could ring it through while Peter sank down to the floor and started crying very loudly but maybe it just seemed extra loud because the store was echoing the cries and Tony wasn’t alone since the cashier was right there. 

She handed Tony the toy instead of putting it in a bag which he was grateful for. Tony then kneeled down and grabbed Peter by the arm so that he was standing on his feet again. “Look, I told you I just had to pay for it.” 

Tony didn’t know how to act in that situation. He wasn’t sure if he should be giving Peter what he wanted or not but he wanted the crying to stop. 

Once Peter saw the toy, he immediately stopped crying and hugged the toy back to his chest. “Mine.” 

“Yes, Peter. It’s yours.” Tony was so tired. 

He placed the bags in the shopping cart and lifted Peter onto his hip. Peter thankfully didn’t protest since he was mostly admiring his new toy. 

They walked quickly to the car and Tony had never been more thankful to be driving for multiple hours. He hoped Peter napped along the way so that he wasn’t cranky when they got to the house. 

He opened the back door and put Peter in his car seat. “Hi guys. I thought you got lost in there, you were gone for so long.” Pepper joked as she turned around in the front seat and looked at the two boys. 

“Peter had a temper tantrum at the cashier.” Tony explained as he started buckling up the straps on the car seat. 

“Daddy bad.” Peter explained his point of the story and pointed to Tony which caused Tony to roll his eyes and Pepper to laugh. 

“Well you have fun telling Pepper that while I put this in the trunk.” Tony shut the door leaving Peter to his story. 

Pepper laughed. “What did your daddy get you?” 

Peter showed her the truck and smiled. “Mine.” 

“It’s a nice looking truck. You should be nice to your dad for getting that for you.” Pepper told him then turned back around in her seat. 

“No. Daddy.” Peter corrected her but she didn’t respond since Tony was getting into the car. He glanced back at Peter who now had his thumb in his mouth and was looking at Tony with wide eyes. 

“Where’s RoRo?” Tony asked to which Peter pointed to the pile of toys and blankets next to his car seat in the middle seat of the car. 

“We drive on the highway for about forty more minutes and then it’s an hour and a half through the country until we get to her house.” Pepper told Tony as she held up her phone to show Tony the map of the route. 

The drive went by pretty fast. 

Tony was happy that Peter wasn’t napping but he was quiet for most of the car ride. He was sucking on his thumb while he looked out the window and would occasionally grab one of his toys and hug them to his chest. 

Tony looked over at Pepper who was reading her book contently. He couldn’t have been happier in this moment. He knew his family was safe and Peter was with him. 

Everything was good. 

“I think this is the road.” Pepper looked up and put her book down. It was getting dark out and even though Tony loved driving with his small but perfect little family in the car, he would prefer to not be driving on a dark country road at night time. Especially with a toddler in the back who would need a diaper change soon and there wasn’t any place to do that. “It’s the one with the red mailbox, right there.” 

Tony then pulled into the long driveway with the red mailbox. The driveway was tight, it was one way so he really hoped that no one was coming out while he was going in. There were trees on either side and absolutely no lights so the only light that was coming from the car. 

“Daddy dark.” Peter said as he kicked his socked feet against his car seat. 

“Yeah, Pete. I bet you there’s animals watching us from in there. Can you see any?” Tony smiled and looked over at Pepper while Peter started giggling. 

Tony reaches his hand behind the seat and grabbed one of Peter’s chubby legs that got a bunch of giggles leaving his kids mouth. Tony loved that sound. 

Then they pulled up to the house. It was actually beautiful. It was an old white Victorian house that had a red door that stood out in the front. It looked really cozy and so unlike what Tony was used to but he was actually excited to be spending the next few days here. 

There were about ten cars parked around the house which only made Tony wonder exactly how many people were inside. 

“How many people are here to see the new baby girl?” Tony asked. He couldn’t imagine being in the mother’s position and having everyone want to hold and look at your new baby. 

“No family. Just friends which are basically considered family so lots but they’re not just here to see the baby. The mom and baby will probably be together most of the time anyways. Away from everyone else.” Pepper explained as she took off her seat belt and opened the car door. 

“Good. And I’m not sharing Peter. He’s mine so no ones picking him up and taking him from me.” Tony just wanted to put that out there. Peter was his baby so he would not have a bunch of people take him and pick him up. No way. 

Pepper rolled her eyes. “It’ll be nice for Peter to find some toddlers and play with them. All the kids are under five years old so this will be fun. Maybe Peter will make a new friend.” 

Tony had no idea how Peter would react to another two year old running around with him but he was excited to see that.