“I’m not as good as other possible agents- there are so many better candidates than me for this job. I’m not worthy to even be here- all I ever do is mess things up! I don’t understand why you waste your time with me Tony I really don't. You can just make another me, a better one, one that doesn’t fuck things up at every turn it’s you believing in me that made me do those all the cool things, I never could by myself. I’m a fucking pussy Tony seriously. Another kid could do better you don’t need me-“
“I do need you.” Tony yelled over the top of him suddenly, shocking himself from the amount of emotion evident in his tone- but he was done. Peter had been snappy and tetchy the whole afternoon and Tony had just been subjected to a twelve minute monologue all about why Peter shouldn’t be an agent; that had come from literally nowhere and was littered with insults directed towards the kid himself. One minute everything was fine, the kid just seemed a little tired and short tempered- but one broken filament had sent Peter spiralling into this self deprecating rant that he just wouldn’t stop.
Tony had been trying to talk him down for the past hour but the kid just kept on pushing- saying all the worst things he could think of. At first the man had tried to be patient, let him vent, hear him out; but Peter calling himself a fucking pussy was the last straw and Tony snapped. Peter had never used that kind of language in his presence before and why the man wasn’t opposed to the language itself per say, he realised that he hated hearing it from the usually mild mannered kid.
But Tony felt his resolve slipping, his calm mask was cracking and he had to dial it down a bit before he let on just how much it bothered him. “I need you to shut up for five minutes. In fact- go sit over there.”
“What?” Peter asked, his face going from one of frustration to confusion; with just a hint of amusement evident there too.
But Tony was dead serious as he pointed over to the desk. “You heard me. Go sit on the bench. I don’t wanna hear a peep out of you.”
“Are you...are you putting me in timeout?” Peter asked with a slight squeak in his voice; though a smug smirk was now present on his face that made Tony want to smack him. The cocky little shit looked way too much like him and he hated it. The fact that Peter had the audacity to take the situation lightly after everything that just came spewing out of his mouth mad eronys blood boil. Who the hell did Peter think he was- him? Oh yeah, the kid definitely needed some discipline and since Tony and already decided long ago that corporal punishment would never be an option with this kid, a ‘timeout’ was the next best thing. He wasn’t sure where this sudden bout of attitude was coming from but that shit was not gonna fly.
“You best believe it. Now sit.” Tony growled, making it very clear that he wasn’t messing around. The smirk very quickly dropped off of Peter’s face then, much to Tony’s satisfaction. He knew it was juvenile punishment but honestly he’d never had to deal with the kid in such a bratty mood before and he wasn’t sure how to handle it. He couldn’t yell at Peter, both for the sake of his own heart and the kid being too sensitive; but he was not about to deal with that level of sass. Uh uh. No way, he was nipping that shit right in the bud. He was the kids mentor yes, but he did not need the boy using his newly bestowed sarcasm skills against the man who gave them to him. Talk about bite the hand that feeds you. “You wanna act like a baby, you get treated like a baby. Do your homework. When you decide you wanna act like an adult you can do some more real work but I don’t wanna hear shit from you until then.”
“But wait, Tony can I-“
“Shut it. Not another word.” Tony said menacingly, with a finality that Peter couldn’t argue with.
So the teenager sulked his way across the lab to the desk Tony had gestured to, in utter disbelief that the man was being serious. He had half a mind to walk right out of the lab and go home but he didn’t. He knew he’d clearly pushed Tony a little too far and he doubted the man would take kindly to him storming off. Besides May wasn’t home and he was meant to be staying over at the tower that night and he really didn’t want to a; have to explain to her why he was home the next morning (that would be embarrassing) or b; have to spend the rest of the night with a very grumpy Tony.
Peter knew he was being a brat the entire afternoon and part of him had been trying to test boundaries; a subconscious part of him, yes, but he knew that was normal. He’d just never done it before and this certainly was not what he’d ever imagined Tony doing when he pushed too far. So he wanted to do as the man asked and complete the rest of his sentence in silence- but he had to pee.
Like, he really had to pee. He had been about to go before Tony cut him off in the middle of his ranting. Yelling obscenities about yourself for ten minutes makes one rather thirsty, so he’d downed the rest of the juice he’d bought at lunch and it was very quickly catching up to him. Surely Tony would let him go, right? He knew the man was upset with the way he constantly talked down on himself but come on, this was excessive.
Although, Peter had made him pretty mad..mad enough to call him a baby which he would never usually do. Okay in fairness he said Peter was acting like a baby, but still, his mentor knew how much that got to him so he must’ve been pretty pissed to have said that-
‘Ugh don’t think about the word pissed.’ Peter cringed slightly and shifted on the bench he was seated on, fighting the urge to hiss under his breath.
Maybe Tony already knew he had to go and this was his way of proving a point.. No. No, Peter immediately scrapped that idea (well the logical side of his brain did anyway), Tony would never do that. The bathroom was never off limits, the man had drilled that into him since the first time he…*ahem* anyway- so surely now was no different?
Then again, this whole situation was a little different. Usually Peter wasn’t told to sit silently and do his homework- which he was struggling to focus on due to the constant pounding in his lower abdomen. It was getting dire, he hadn’t been to the bathroom since he first got to the lab and that was well over an hour ago- pushing two, he was usually due for a pee break right around then. Remembering that fact only made the feeling intensify as he recalled the bottle of water he’d drank in the car on the way over too, which was now screaming to get out of him.
One saving grace about being on the other side of the lab was the fact that Tony couldn’t see him fully. He could see his top half, and the man kept periodically glancing at him (whilst also trying to act aloof like he didn’t care, a balancing act Tony had perfected thanks to the troublemaking teen) to make sure he was following instructions; but his bottom half was completely hidden thanks to the box like desk he was seated at, that allowed fully coverage when Peter had to suddenly cross his legs as a leak threatened to escape him.
Oh god this was getting bad. It had been a while since he’d been this desperate in the lab, to the point of actually leaking. Sure pee dances were a daily occurrence but he hadn’t (or rather Tony hadn’t) let it get this dire for months now; and the last time had been due to an intricate project, not purely because Peter was too shy. He really didn’t want to break his dry underwear streak all because he’d picked the wrong day to wind Tony up. Why did he decide to push all the man’s buttons today, when he’d already consumed way too much liquid?
Peter bit his lip. He knew he should just get up and go and should Tony question why he was out of his seat he’d just say he was going to the bathroom- easy right? Practically any other fifteen year old would do just that; but what if Tony didn’t believe him? What if he thought he was just trying to get out of timeout?
Well Peter’s rapidly dampening underwear was testament to the fact that he wasn’t just trying to avoid persecution. He had to go and he had to go now; as soon as he felt another leak dribble out of him when he momentarily lost concentration, he knew he was nearing the point of no return. He felt ridiculous for letting it get so bad in the first place but he knew either way- if he had to dash to the restroom or if he...didn’t- he would end up embarrassing himself in some way.
But breaking the deafening silence was nerve wracking and Peter suddenly felt like he was in detention (which had only happened once before and was awful). He had the embarrassing urge to raise his hand and ask if he could go but even he knew that was ridiculous. Besides, he couldn’t even do that in school when he had to- and suddenly, he didn’t have a spare hand to raise. One was shakingly gripping a pencil as he attempted to write about the Bay of Pigs, whilst the other was buried deep in his crotch as he tried desperately not to think about bays. Or oceans. Or any body of water in general.
Another leak shot out of him suddenly and this time he half stood up, having to lean over the table as both hands flew to his crotch once again; sending his pencil flying under the desk which caused Tony to look over and eye him suspiciously. This was Peter’s chance to ask and-
No it wasn’t. Because Tony was on the fucking phone. Peter hadn’t noticed because he was too focused on the dam that was slowly breaking in his abdomen but the man had been in the middle of a business call since Peter had been put on the proverbial naughty step. God damn it-
Why now? Why, when Peter needed the man to be annoyingly observant and notice the second he started squirming, did he decide to take a phone call? Peter couldn’t ask verbally now and Tony had already turned back in his seat after giving the boy a dirty look; which only made Peter feel worse, thank you very much Mr. Stark.
God the look he’d just given him, like he thought Peter was about to get up for some reason and that was out of the question. Ugh- but the man hasn’t set any parameters for this stupid timeout thing! All he said was sit down and shut up and do your homework- he hadn’t even said how long Peter had to sit there for! Just ‘until he wanted to be an adult,’ whatever that means- right now Peter wanted to use the bathroom like an adult- and he felt like he was mere minutes away from doing the exact opposite; he risked glancing down at his pants and to his horror under his hand there was a small, golf ball sized wet patch on the light fabric. Why had he decided to wear light denim? In fact why did he own jeans that light, that was only asking for trouble. It wasn’t much but it was honestly way too symbolic of the situation Peter was currently in and it made him want to cry.
Or maybe he was so full of urine his body was just trying to find a way to evacuate some of liquid in his body- he didn’t know. All he did know was he was going to wet himself if he didn’t speak up soon.
But how could he when Tony was on the phone? Well duh, go with his first plan and just get up, only answering to the man if he questioned him; but by now the anxiety had built up too much and he felt completely frozen to his seat. He really, really didn’t want to get yelled at but he was going to get yelled at even more if he peed on the man’s floor (again) especially for no good reason.
Another shot of urine escaped him, much longer this time lasting a few seconds and Peter wasn’t sure he’d be able to stem the flow. It made him groan embarrassingly audibly; and he was surprised that Tony didn’t turn to give him a look again but the man was deep into conversation. Oh god, again, now that Peter wanted the man’s attention Tony was making what seemed to be a conscious effort to avoid his gaze. Peter tried twice to wave over to the man but each time he did Tony turned back around in his chair and Peter could’ve screamed. In fact he would have if he could’ve gotten his vocal chords to unfreeze and if he was sure that the exclamation wouldn’t have caused his bladder to release. Though in fairness, he was pretty sure that it was about to anyway- he couldn’t hold it anymore.
But he didn’t know what to do. He genuinely couldn’t believe what was happening, that things had gone wrong so quickly and he had let himself get into such a mess in the lab, no less. One of the places he felt most comfortable in the whole world, where the bathroom was ten steps away. He could practically hear the pipes groaning, teasing him and he couldn’t think about anything other than just how desperately he wanted to run across the room and make use of the facilities. But he couldn’t, his brain kept telling him he was gonna get in trouble- not dissimilar to how it had on the first day of kindergarten where the teacher hadn’t explained that they were allowed to just go, so a four year old Peter had stayed stuck in his seat until the inevitable happened. Which a shudder as he recalled the incident, Peter blushed deeply as he realised he felt exactly the same as he had in that moment. He didn’t know what to do, what was allowed, he felt stupid and he was gonna wet himself if he didn’t do something.
His brain was full of pee and it was altering his thinking. Why he ever thought it would be a good idea to make a paper airplane with a note on it he’ll never know- but he sure as hell won’t do it again. Ever. Because the second the paper hit Tony in the back of the head (he wasn’t aiming there, he swears, but Tony slicked his chair at the wrong moment, putting himself in the firing line) the man whipped around in his chair with such fury on his face, had Peter not known Bruce was the only one who could Hulk out he would’ve assumed Tony was about to.
The man’s voice instantly dropped into a low growl, his eye contact with Peter unbrekaing as he abruptly ended the call. “Yeah, sorry to interrupt you there Harris, but I need to call you back. I have something to deal with.”
Oh god he was mad. No he was like, really really mad and Peter’s bladder couldn’t take it. Both his hands disappeared under the desk but apparently that just made him look more guilty- like he was trying to pretend he hadn’t thrown the paper aircraft, when in reality he was just trying not to pee.
Tony sighed deeply through his nose, closing his eyes momentarily as he prayed for the strength not to scream at the child. His prayer was only half answered because he felt his voice raising anyway. “Really kid? How old are you?”
“W-wait Tony I-“
“What Peter? I saw you do it- or are you gonna try and blame it on DUM-E-“
“No sir I-“
“What part of sit quietly didn’t you understand? You couldn’t even do that for twenty minutes-“
“I did but you wouldn’t-“ Peter groaned. He didn’t have time for Tony to yell at him, he didn’t have time for- oh god no- “Just read it!”
Now Tony took in the boys red face and realised something was wrong. Before he’d just assumed Peter was being a brat or was angry at the babyish punishment he was being subjected to- but now he’d taken a step back he noticed the signs, and they were all wrong. He hadn’t noticed before but Peter was practically shaking and as Tony crossed the room he noticed Peter’s homework barely had a dent in it; the whizz kid would usually have had that while essay done and polished in that amount of time but instead he’d written the same sentence three times consecutively. Well fuck.
Tony had been too wrapped up in his own head thinking over what Peter had been saying to notice the odd body language. As soon as he opened the airplane up he cringed. In shaky scrawled handwriting were the words; ‘Can I go to the bathroom, please?’
He sighed, more out of frustration towards himself than anything, as he ran his hand tiredly through his hair. “Christ, Pete. Of course you can, you don’t have to ask.”
Peter blinked up at him with hurt and confusion. “But you said-“
“I know, I know. But the bathroom never counts, we’ve talked about this. Never off limits. I’m never gonna tell you no unless someone’s life is in danger. Go on.” Tony sighed again and waited for Peter to move, but he didn’t. Instead the kid sat stiffly, bolt upright in his seat as he had been since Tony turned around; but now Peter was resting his head in his hands on the table, covering most of his face that by now was beet red. Tony felt a severe stab of guilt now that was weakening his resolve against the tactic he’d used to punish the kids behaviour. “Pete it’s fine you’re not in trouble anymore.”
Again the boy didn’t move at all. His breathing was shallow and had Tony not known better he would’ve said the boy was on the verge of crying. Okay, this has gone way too far. He was starting to get seriously worried now, maybe he’d triggered the kid in some way he didn’t know about; after all the kid had some rocky experiences due to his extreme shyness and bladder size, he wouldn’t be surprised if Tony had just replicated an incident the boy had in school or something- which made Tony feel awful now that he was thinking about it. He really ought to have been more considerate of the sensitive kids possible quirks but he had just been so mad he hadn’t thought too much about it. The man was most concerned about the state of the boy’s bladder though, now he realised that that was likely what the boy had attempted to ask him about before he sent him to sit down- when he’d said wait andhe’d told the kid to shut it- and fuck did that idea make Tony feel bad. Then the boy had been desperate enough to try and get his attention whilst he was on the phone but now he wasn’t moving- even with expressed permission. “Peter?”
“Hm?” Peter finally answered, albeit almost silently in a monotone- but at least he was acknowledging Tony now.
Tony allowed himself to resume a more abrupt tone now he was being answered. “You gonna go or what?”
“In a minute.” Peter muttered under his breath. He still had yet to move an inch and now Tony was going from concerned to angry again.
“Kid just go.” Tony sighed snappily, thinking Peter was just trying to make a point.
“I will in a minute just..go away.” Peter mumbled again, this time his monotone breaking ever so slightly- but Tony was too hett up to notice.
“Okay, I get it, timeout was a bad idea. But you were being an asshole kid, I ain’t used to you acting like that. I didn’t know what else to do-“ Tony cut himself off when he heard the kid gulp slightly. He thought that Peter was just pissed at him but now it sounded like he was about to cry. How was he consistently reading signs so terribly wrong this afternoon?Jesus, he’d messed up- but he couldn’t fix that while the kid was still sitting in a bursting bladder. “Will you just go to the bathroom so we can talk?”
Peter was silent for a long moment, his breathing picking up speed again in a way that was indicative of a panic attack. Just as Tony opened his mouth to prompt Peter into going again, the boy spoke in quiet broken sobs that tiny almost didn’t hear. “I did.”
“What?”
“I did.” Peter said a little louder that time and that was when Tony noticed the small pool of liquid trailing out from underneath Peter’s chair. Oh fuck.
“Oh Pete..it’s okay. Look, just go shower and change I’ll deal with the mess-“ Tony trailed off because Peter was panting too loudly to possibly be able to hear him, and for once Tony fully understood what was making the kid panic. He wanted to give the boy a hug to try and bring him out of it, like he usually would but he knew that would be too much for Peter in that moment. “Breathe kiddo it’s not a big deal-“
“Yes it is! You made me do that!” Peter snapped, sitting up again and despite the tears rolling down his face he looked furious. Now Tony couldn’t say he was exactly happy that Peter looked mad, but he had to admit it was marginally better than the kid looking sad and blaming himself. For once Peter was being pretty open in admitting that it was Tony’s fault not his own; and whilst Tony was proud of him for that fact, his own defence mechanisms kicked in.
“I didn’t mean for you to- I never said you couldn’t go to the bathroom!” Tony snapped back defensively. He’d already established that with the kid and reiterated it just before Peter decided to water the floor. The bathroom was right there and whilst yes he understood his kid and his weird aversion to people knowing he had to pee come on. It wasn’t his fault Peter didn’t just get up.
“It was implied!”
“I literally just said you could go and you didn’t!”
“Yeah! You said I could go a-after you already started yelling at me- when I w-was just trying to get your attention and you were ignoring me- you yelled and I just..” Despite being furious, Peter couldn’t bring himself to admit that Tony had essentially made him pee his pants out of fright. It was mostly the desperation’s fault yes, but being yelled at when he was just trying to get permission to go- to avoid getting in more trouble- didn’t help. His bladder wasn’t known for behaving when Peter was startled; hell he still knew better than to use the toaster if he had a full bladder, the sudden noise from that was sometimes enough to cause an incident.
Tony was torn between frustration and guilt but all he knew for sure was that they’d only be able to resolve the issue once Peter got himself cleaned up and they’d both had a minute to calm down. “Go shower.”
“Yes, sir.” Peter huffed quietly as he stood up, grimacing as he felt rivlets of rapidly cooling pee run down the back of his legs and into his shoes- what could only be described as the grossest feeling in the world.
“Stop that.” Tony sighed but there was no bite to his tone. For once he elected to allow Peter to be the angry one.
“Stop what?” Peter scowled pointedly at his mentor; he knew damn well what and he wanted Tony to know damn well how upset he was to boot.
“Calling me sir.”
“Yes Mr. Stark, sir.” Peter growled as he stormed off towards the bathroom; snatching his backpack violently off of the man and by god- if he could’ve slammed that bathroom door he would have. Instead he settled for blasting music whilst he cleaned off in Goose it would both piss Tony off and drown out any possible sobbing.
Peter look a while in the shower and Tony didn’t blame him. The time to think was good and it allowed the man to clean up what was admittedly a rather large puddle, at least from a kid Peter’s size, as well as go through the motions. He was still angry with Peter for his outbursts earlier and the way he was talking about himself; but now Tony had gone overboard with the whole timeout thing and ultimately taught Peter nothing- well, nothing except that his mentor was a complete idiot, inept at dealing with children or high levels of emotion and was willing to make him piss himself just to make a point.
No, they definitely needed to sit down and talk about what had just transpired as opposed to ignoring it like Tony so desperately wanted to. What he would’ve gives to have just pretended that never happened and moved on with their evening, but he’d already learned that wasn’t the way to deal with Peter. It would only lead to growing animosity, resentment and ultimately fear that would lead to the kid jumping every time he even looked at him again- and Tony didn’t want that. The man now realised he probably should’ve had the sit down talk with Peter earlier- but the whole point of the timeout was to give the kid a moment to calm down and collect his thoughts- to make way for a constructive conversation. Wow, how that had backfired.
Peter emerged from the bathroom eventually, which Tony took as a good sign. He hadn’t received any texts from Happy or May announcing the boy’s departure so he figured Peter was at least willing to hear him out and spend the rest of the evening with him. Even if the kid still had a face like thunder when he came out it was a start.
“Now sit.” Tony said calmly when Peter sulked his way toward him.
“Do I get a treat if I give you my paw?” Peter spat venomously. Okay maybe the extended shower hadn’t given the kid time to calm down but allowed his bitterness to grow. Fantastic.
“Peter.” Tony said warningly, adorning his newly discovered ‘dad voice’ that he found to be absolutely foolproof. Now was no exception, despite still looking exorbitantly grumpy Peter did sit up to show he was paying the man his full attention. “Not playing games right now, so enough of the lip. I’m gonna show you respect-“
Peter huffed a small sarcastic laugh then but Tony continued despite the itching he suddenly felt in the palm of his hand. “-and I expect you to extend me the same courtesy.” Tony paused before continuing, waiting for Peter to make eye contact with him. “I shouldn’t have put you in timeout. That was stupid, I get that now, but I didn’t know how else to deal with you.”
Upon hearing that Peter’s mask broke slightly; indignance making way for sadness as he heard his mentor admit he was struggling to handle his behaviour. Peter knew he was being awful, he didn’t know why he was doing it. He figured it was something to do with hormones or something; but that wasn’t an excuse and he knew that. He’d been experiencing some severe cognitive dissonance all afternoon as he picked at Tony, deliberately pushing all his buttons with this constant beration of himself; he kept doing the one thing Tony asked him not to. Seriously, the man was the most lenient adult he’d ever met, he let Peter ask questions about all manner of things, would let him stay up late and eat junk food (within reason) and would let him do cool shit like- oh I don’t know- be a fucking superhero; now Peter had spent the whole day with the man deliberately making him mad- but that wasn’t him. He didn’t know why he was doing it and he had deserved to be reprimanded, he fully agreed with that. He wanted to understand his behaviour also- but he just hadn’t deserved to be made to pee himself- though admittedly that was mostly his own fault-
“I am really sorry that you felt like you couldn’t go when you needed to. I’m gonna say this now, even if I say ‘Peter don’t move from that spot’ unless we’re working with explosives, if you have to pee you can go. You always have permission. You’re right, I didn’t make that clear when I said sit down and shut up- and I should have.” Tony apologised sincerely, making Peter’s angry facade complete melt away, disarming the teenager entirely; just as Tony had predicted. “For the record- and I’m not saying there’s going to be a next time- but if you’re in time out or I’m on the phone or whatever, if have to go, you can go. You don’t have to ask. I’m sorry Pete.”
“It’s okay..” Peter mumbled quietly, casting his eyes towards the floor looking much more like the kid Tony knew and loved.
“It’s not, but you’re back into ‘it’s okay’ mode so that’s a good start. Now we’ve gotten that out of the way- what’s been up with you today?”
“Why didn’t you ask that before you shoved me in a corner and told me to shut up? That’s slightly counterintuitive don’t you think? I’m hardly likely to open up to you after that.” Peter replied matter-of-factly, which Tony had expected and he certainly didn’t disagree with the sentiment.
“Noted. But I apologised which is rare- and I admitted I was wrong. So cut me some slack here.” Tony smirked when he got Peter to smile just a teensy but with that. “I’m new to this dealing with tantrums thing, especially from you-“
“It wasn’t a tantrum I was opening up to you about my feelings of inadequacy and you told me to shut up-“
“No- I wasn’t disregarding your emotions, don’t play that card. I’d never do that, I’m more than happy to talk to you about that kind of thing any day of the week. In fact I do, most days of the week.” Tony said sternly. Peter talking badly about himself wasn’t the issue it was the degree he took it too and the fact he outright refused to even attempt to calm himself; not matter how many times Tony practically begged him to. And what the man wouldn’t tolerate was the swearing and downright name calling. That was never necessary. “What I got mad about was the derogatory language that you were using towards my kid. And when I asked you to stop, you refused. You weren’t listening to me so I got pissed. See the difference there, Hm?”
“You didn’t specify that.” Peter sniffed and crossed his arms over his chest, looking more like a pouty toddler than Tony had ever seen him.
“Well I’m specifying it now.” Tony said sternly, patience beginning to wear thin again. “Cut the bullshit act with me Peter, I know it’s a defence mechanism because you don’t wanna talk- I practically fucking pioneered this routine. Drop it now because it doesn’t suit you.”
“I’m sorry..” Peter said quietly, finally acting like himself again. “I-I’m sorry for yelling at you..even if it wasn’t like at you I-I know you don’t like it and I should’ve stopped and I’m- I’m really sorry Mr. Stark I don’t know why I didn’t..”
“Thank you. Now there’s my kid.” He could handle Peter crying and wanting comfort- unfortunately he had a lot of practise dealing with the boy in such a mood. He could cope with this, as emotionally taxing as it was, he knew what to do; what he didn’t know how to deal with was the boy ranting and raving and cursing. “Talk to me Pete. I’ve never seen you like this.”
“I-I’ve never been like this I don’t- I don’t know why I- I just didn’t wanna talk and I thought if I came in all sad and stuff you would make m-me and-“ Peter trailed off, attempting to clear his throat of emotion, shaking his head. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have been an asshole.”
“We’re all assholes sometimes kid. Hell I just made you piss yourself.”
“Y-Yeah you kinda did.” Peter sniffled but he laughed. “It’s not your fault. I should’ve just gone.”
“Yeah, well we’re working on that aren’t we? I should’ve been more mindful of that.” Tony sighed as Peter nodded, both being content to leave the peeing part of the incident there and never mentioning it again. “And I’ll never make you talk unless you want to. Yeah sometimes I’ll try and prompt you to open up, but if you really don’t want to you can say so. I won’t force it out of you. I’m not Steve.”
“Usually I do wanna talk but sometimes that's..just not what I need you know?”
Tony nodded understandingly. “So long as you don’t bottle it up that’s fine. Gotta find some balance in there or you’ll turn into me. Or Steve- Captain Overshare. And there’s already one too many of each of us in this world.”
They ended up having a lengthy conversation about why Peter was stressed in the first place and why he hadn’t wanted to talk. A combination of a lot of factors (that had been topped off by one of his peers at school breaking his phone, but don’t worry Tony will deal with that) had lead to an emotional overload that the young teen didn’t have the capacity to verbalise yet; and Tony being the closest to him ended up bearing the brunt of it. Which in a way made Tony feel great. Of course he didn’t want to deal with an agitated little brat but if that meant the kid was finally comfortable around him he was more than happy with that.
With that being established, the pair ended up having a really good conversation about boundaries and ground rules when it came to dealing with high levels of emotion; and it was obvious that by the end of it Peter was feeling a lot better because his mannerisms changed entirely.
“Now next time can we have a talk like this before you annoy me so much I tear my hair out and put you in the corner until you pee?”
“Yeah sounds like a good plan.” Peter giggled slightly despite the blush that rose to his cheeks.
“I love you kiddo, even if you are a little prick sometimes.” Tony sighed as he stood up, ruffling the boy’s hair roughly before gesturing for the kid to follow him out of the lab.
“I learn from the best.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem.”