When It’s Meant To Be

Tony didn’t mean to get Peter riled up before bedtime but the truth was that Peter has been funny all day and was funny around playing little jokes on Tony.

Peter would think that he was sneaky when he would reach across the table and steal Tony’s play car or his carrot sticks. It was funny and when Tony would catch Peter doing it, he loved the giggles that escaped Peter’s mouth.

Now, Tony is supposed to be getting Peter ready for bed but Tony decided to play a prank on Pepper with the help from Peter. He had no idea how it was going to turn out but it would be fun to try.

Tony pulled Peter into the hallway closet that was fairly big so Peter wouldn’t suffocate in there. He turned the light on and kneeled down so he was at Peter’s height.

“Do you wanna play a prank on Pepper?” Tony asked and Peter nodded his head excitedly. “Good. So you’re gonna stay in here and hide from Pepper. Even if you hear us calling you, you don’t come out because she’s going to think that you’re lost but I know you’re right here.”

Peter nodded his head and stomped his feet up and down in excitement. “Daddy stay?”

“No, daddy has to go pretend to look for you.” Tony picked Peter up to set him on his bum. He handed him one of his teddy bears and a bowl of crackers as well as his bottle of apple juice so it would keep him occupied. “I’m gonna go now but you stay here.”

“I come, daddy.” Peter went to stand up but Tony stopped him.

“No, Pete. You have to stay here.” Tony was starting to think that maybe Peter was too young for this prank. He would have to wait a year or two for him to understand it but Tony would give it a try anyways.

Peter nodded his head. “‘Kay! I stay.”

“Good job.” Tony waved bye to him and shut the door before he ran to get Pepper.

He walked into his bedroom where Pepper was changing the sheets and he didn’t say anything at first but he pretended to look for Peter. “Pete? Where are you, bud?”

Pepper stopped what she was doing and looked at Tony. “Where’s Peter?”

Tony walked into the bathroom as he answered her. “I don’t know. I thought he ran in here.”

Pepper put down the sheets and walked into the bathroom to look for Peter. “What do you mean you don’t know? You were supposed to give him a bath.”

Tony walked quickly into the bedroom and looked under the bed. “I know! I was taking off his clothes when I turned my back for a second and he was gone.”

Pepper started to panic, Tony could tell. She always had a calm personality even under pressure so he wasn’t expecting her to react all that much but he was wrong.

She opened the closet and started moving clothes out of the way aggressively. “Peter? Peter, honey? Where are you hiding?”

Tony walked out of the bedroom and checked the bathroom that was right across from their room. “Peter? Where are you?”

Pepper rushed out of the bedroom and looked at Tony. “Is he in there?”

“No. I don’t know where he is.” Tony ran his hands through his hair and followed Pepper who was running to Peter’s bedroom.

“Peter?! Where are you? It’s not funny to hide from us.” Pepper began pulling the blankets out of Peter’s crib and then moved to his closet and did the same.

She walked out and looked at Tony with a frantic look in her eyes. “Where is he, Tony?! You were supposed to be watching him!”

“I-I don’t know, Pepper. I was watching him.” He checked under the crib even though he knew the space was too small for Peter to fit under.

Pepper ran her hands through her hair as well which Tony has only seen her do a number of times before. “FRIDAY, where is Peter?”

Tony stood back up. “Fuck. She’s down for maintenance.”

Pepper shouldered past Tony and ran down the hallway. “Peter?! Peter?! Peter?!”

Tony chased after her. He did not expect her to have this reaction over Peter going missing. He was about to walk into the kitchen with her but then she ran towards the elevator. “He sees us use the elevator all the time. What if he went on it. Oh my god, Tony, he could be on any floor by now.”

She ran past him and started ripping the couch blankets off. “Peter?! Where are you?”

Peter let out a tiny sound and Pepper froze. “Wait. Did you hear that?”

They were silent for a few seconds and just as Tony spoke, Peter made another peep. “I think-”

“Shut up! I hear him.” Pepper followed the sound and walked closer to where Tony had hid Peter. “Peter?”

Another peep sound from the toddler had Pepper running towards the closet and opening the door. Peter started laughing loudly when he saw her and he clapped his hands together.

She immediately sighed in relief and leaned down to pick Peter up. “How did you get in here… wait?”

Tony started bursting out laughing and Pepper stood up with Peter on her to glare at Tony. “Are you serious, Tony?!”

Tony leaned forward, holding onto his stomach as he tried to contain his laughter. Pepper looked back at all the evidence that proved to her that this was all planned.

She turned to Peter who was smiling at her. “You were in on this?”

Peter nodded his head and pointed to Tony. “Daddy!”

“Yeah, it was daddy’s idea?” She asked but didn’t wait for a response because she was walking away from Tony and taking Peter with her.

“Hey, Wait.” Tony contained his laughter enough and was following Pepper down the hallway. “Where are you going?”

Pepper ignored Tony and continued to carry Peter into their bathroom to give Peter a bath. She was mad at Tony for pulling that prank on her. It was not funny.

“Hey, Pep.” Tony knew she was mad at him but he didn’t care. It was too funny. “What are you doing? Are you ignoring me?”

Pepper sat on the bathtub step and placed Peter in front of her. She unstrapped the diaper and pulled it off of him, rolling it up and putting it into the diaper disposal.

“Come on, it was a prank. It was Peter’s idea.” Tony crossed his arms and tried not to laugh when Peter looked up at him.

“Oh really? The two year old came up to you and said ‘oh hey Tony let’s play a prank on Pepper. I’ll hide in the closet with my teddy bear’?” Pepper mocked and looked up at Tony with zero patience.

Tony shrugged. Okay maybe he messed up. “Well, not in those exact words but yeah.”

Pepper rolled her eyes and looked at Peter. “Peter,” Peter turned to look up at Pepper with wide eyes. “I don’t like what you did. It wasn’t funny and I’m very upset.”

Peter continued to stare at Pepper so she continued. “If daddy tells you to hide from me, you say no because it’s not funny. I was so scared.”

Peter looked at her and he could sense that she was mad at him so he turned around and walked over to Tony and lifted his arms up. Tony leaned down to pick Peter up.

“Pete and I didn’t mean to scare you, Pep. We’re sorry.” Tony sat down on the bathtub step with Pepper and held Peter on his leg.

She pinched his small foot and smiled weakly at Peter. “I thought he ran away and was down in the lobby or something. No one knows he’s your kid so they wouldn’t know to think ‘oh that’s Stark's kid’.”

Tony felt bad. He didn’t regret what he did but he felt bad. “We’re sorry.”

“Peter I forgive… you not so much.” She smiled and reached forward to take Peter from Tony’s arms and hold him herself.

Tony faked gasped but since he was currently being ignored by both of them, he turned the bath on and dumped some of Peter’s bath toys in it. “Do you wanna have a bath, Peter?”

Peter turned his head from where he was facing Pepper and looked at him. “Da bah!”

“Okay come.” Tony held his arms out for him and Peter reached forward so Tony could place him in the bath. Peter stood there, looking up at Tony like he was waiting for Tony to do something. Tony gently tried to force him to sit but Peter didn’t budge. “Sit, Pete.”

“Da duckie.” Peter pointed to the basket of bath toys that was there and started stomping in the water excitedly when Tony grabbed the pink duck from the basket for him.

“What do you say?” Tony said to him while he held the duck in front of Peter. He wanted to get that nice mannerism that Peter had when he was a teen.

Peter grabbed the duck and sat down with it. Both adults watched him place the duck into the water and then bite his beak. “Petey, What do we say?”

“Da duckie.” Peter lifted the duck up in his hands to show Tony it with a huge grin on his face.

Tony laughed, he wasn’t sure if Peter was doing that on purpose or he simply didn’t understand what Tony wanted him to say but he didn’t push it. He would just have to make sure that he kept saying it a lot in front of his kid so Peter would pick up on it.

“Daddy, I do t’at!” Peter yelled then started hitting his hands on the water. When the water splashed both Tony and Pepper he started giggling.

“Yeah, we see you.” Tony then grabbed the towel that Pepper handed him to put on the bathroom floor so they wouldn’t get soaked although that was inevitable to happen with Peter in the bath.

While Peter was playing with his bath toys with Pepper and showing her what ones he liked the best then giving her the extra ones, Tony grabbed the shower cup to wet Peter’s hair and then started to soap up his hair with his apple scent baby shampoo.

“No… don’ wan’.” Peter attempted to push Tony’s hands away from his head but Tony kept going.

“You have to have clean hair, Pete.” Tony said as he continued to soap up Peter’s hair. He ran his hands through the soapy curls and laughed when Peter stuck his neck back and made a funny face.

“Na Uh, Daddy. Is c’ean, daddy.” Peter tried to explain but Tony shook his head and grabbed the cup again to rinse all the soap off.

“Can you lie down now? I’ll hold your back.” Tony switched positions with Pepper so he could have a better angle and was leaning over the tub and threatening to fall in. Tony held onto Peter’s back and slowly lowered him back into the water so he could rinse his hair out. “You gotta close your eyes so no soap gets in, remember?”

Peter nodded his head while still trying to sit up. “Uh huh. I close.”

“Good job. Keep them closed.” Tony quickly rinsed all the soap out and sat Peter back up. “Look, now you have clean hair!”

Peter grabbed onto the side of the bathtub and stood up so he could climb out but Tony stopped him since he wasn’t done with his bath yet.

“Look, Peter,” Pepper said and held out one of the yellow giant ducks. “your duck.”

Peter grabbed the duck and sat back down. Tony loved how well behaved of a kid Peter was. He listened so well and rarely complained about anything.

While Pepper distracted Peter again, Tony washed his face with a washcloth from the tap water since he didn’t want to use the now dirty bath water on Peter’s face. He then gave that cloth for Peter to chew on and play with while he lathered his hands in baby body wash and stood Peter up so he could clean his body.

“‘Dare.” Peter threw the soaked cloth at Tony and started laughing when it hit his shirt, soaking it.

Tony stopped cleaning Peter’s leg that he was currently working on to look up at Peter. “Oh. I see how it is. You think this is funny?”

Peter nodded his head and grinned. “Yeah!”

Tony looked over at Pepper who was laughing as well but doing a much better job at concealing it than the toddler was. Tony raised his eyebrows at her. “You think this is funny too? All I’m doing is trying to help my kid and I get attacked.”

Peter reached forward to pat Tony on the head. “I don’, daddy.”

Tony looked at him. He wasn’t sure what Peter was saying but he loved him so much. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek then finished cleaning his body and rinsing his soapy hands before sitting Peter back down to rinse his body to get all the soap off.

“You’re gonna smell so good now, baby.” Tony smiled at Peter who kicked his legs out in the tub. The truth was that Peter already naturally smelt good. Tony wasn’t sure if it was a baby scent or just because Peter was his kid but he always smelt good, unless he had a dirty poopy diaper.

“Here’s his towel.” Pepper said from behind Tony, holding out a large towel.

Tony started cleaning up all the bath toys out first but then he looked at Peter who was making a face that Tony knew all too well. “He’s making his poop face.”

Pepper dropped the towel in her arms. “What?”

“He’s gonna poo in the tub.” Tony dropped all the bath toys that he was holding and went to grab Peter but it was too late. Peter grinned up at him and then Tony saw the evidence. “You little bugger.”

Peter continued to grin at Tony so Tony quickly lifted him out of the tub so he wasn’t sitting in there any longer and handed him over to Pepper who immediately wrapped him up in the towel.

“I’ll take him while you deal with that. Have fun.” Pepper said and Tony watched her carry Peter away. After bath time was so much fun because Peter was always so cuddly and was so cute so Tony quickly grabbed the rest of the bath toys out and stared at the poop for a few seconds while he thought about what to do with it.

Without thinking anymore, he reached in with his hand, picking it up and dumping it into the toilet then flushed and pulled the bathtub plug out. He washed his hands with extra soap but it wasn’t the first time he got Peter’s poo on him so he was used to it.

After that, Tony walked into the bedroom and found Peter standing on the, facing away from him. Tony stood behind him and gently pushed his back but it was enough for him to lose his balance and fall forward.

Peter tried to see who pushed him down but Tony was grabbing his ankles and dragging him on the bed towards himself. Peter squealed loudly and kicked his legs.

“What are you kicking your daddy for?” Tony asked, amused and turned him over so Peter was facing him. “Hi baby.”

Peter laughed. “Daddy!”

“Where did your towel go?” Tony asked him. Peter pointed to the floor so Tony cranked his neck to look where Peter was pointing to.

“He threw it on the floor after I dried him off.” Pepper put her phone down and said.

“Well we can't have that.” Tony leaned over Peter and looked down at the giggling toddler under him. “Why did you do that Mr?” Tony asked, pretending to be angry.

He made a funny face and Peter laughed harder under him so Tony placed his mouth on Peter’s stomach and blew a raspberry.

Peter screamed and bursted into more laughter but it was Tony’s favourite sound in the whole entire world so he kept going until Pepper was stopping him.

“Okay, I think that’s enough you boys. If you don’t stop then you’re gonna get peed on, Tony.” Pepper warned and placed the diaper and cream on the bed.

Tony lifted his head up and looked at Peter. “Are you gonna pee on me?”

Peter laughed and nodded his head. “I pee!”

That got Tony to stand up fully. He grabbed the diaper cream that Pepper put on the bed for him and dipped his finger in it to put it on Peter. He couldn’t wait until the rash was fully healed so he wouldn’t have to keep putting the cream on Peter. It wasn’t that he didn’t like putting it on but putting the cream on meant that Peter had a diaper rash and was in pain which he didn’t like at all.

After the cream was on, Tony fastened a diaper onto Peter and picked him up. Peter grabbed onto the back of Tony’s shirt as Tony walked down the hallway and into Peter’s bedroom where a pile of his clean clothes were on the floor so Tony placed Peter on the ground and watched him run over to the pile of clothes and push it over.

Peter patted his belly and grinned up at Tony as Tony sat down on the floor. “That wasn’t very nice, Peter. Pepper folded all your clothes for you.”

Peter frowned. He picked up a onesie that was now unfolded on the ground and he put it on top of the pile that he knocked over. “I put ‘dare.”

“Thank you, baby. Do you want to pick out what you’re going to wear?” Tony asked him and Peter hesitated. He squatted down and looked up at Tony. “Pick something, Petey.”

Peter picked up a white and yellow striped bodysuit then stood up and handed it to Tony. “This is so cute, Petey. You want this one?”

Peter nodded. “Ba’ puf ‘ellow.”

Tony stared at him. He didn’t understand what Peter was saying. “What did you say?”

Peter lied down in front of Tony and lifted his legs up. “Ba’ puf ‘ellow, Daddy.”

Tony still didn’t understand what Peter was saying. He didn’t think that Peter was actually saying anything at all since it didn’t resemble any English words. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Daddy. It ba’ puf ‘ellow in ‘dare.” Peter tried to say again but Tony still had no idea what he was saying.

Tony puf Peter’s head through the bodysuit, “Okay, Pete. I get it now.” He lied.

Peter, satisfied that he got his sentence across to Tony, reached for the pile of clothes and grabbed a pair of pants. He swung them in the air while Tony grabbed the piece between the legs and struggled to button it up.

“All done.” Tony announced and Peter smiled.

“All done!” The toddler repeated, rolling onto his stomach then he crawled over to his toy pile. Peter picked up an elephant and screamed to get Tony’s attention.

“Ow, I can see that, Pete. Can you bring him to me?” Tony lied down on his side and held his head up with one arm while he reached towards Peter with his other arm for the elephant.

“I bring, dada.” Peter struggled to crawl over to Tony since he refused to stand up and walk and had the stuffed animal in one hand.

Peter lied down next to Tony so that his back was pressed up against his dad's side. Peter turned around to face Tony and before Tony even had the chance to move away, Peter stuck his tongue out and liked Tony on the nose.

“Wha- hey. What was that for?” Tony wiped the wetness off his face while he laughed at what just happened. He looked down at Peter who was laughing at him.

And that’s pretty much how the rest of the night went.