Chapter 1
“Yeah, we’ll be there to collect you at 4.30. Are you at the airport?- You sure you don’t want to use the private jet?- Okay, okay! Jeez, you’d think I wasn’t a billionaire or something.- Right, I’ll see you later today. I’m collecting Pete after school so he’ll be there as well. He’ll probably be half asleep though.- Okay, see you then.”
Tony hung up the phone with a huff, that kid would be the death of him. Steve looked over his newspaper and grinned at his husband.
“How is Harley? He seemed excited.”
Tony rolled his eyes. Harley Keener was 18 and a giant pain in Tony’s ass.
The kid had recently gotten into MIT and had been hounding Tony to come over to the tower since.
He wanted to use Tony’s lab and pick his brain about MIT before he went.
Tony supposed it was a good sign since he was footing the bill for him to attend.
Harley wanting tips was smart, Tony would help him out as much as he could but he wasn’t going to tell him everything.
The kid had to learn a few things for himself.
“Yep, he sure is. He was just ringing to make sure I’d be there for when his plane got in. I’m going to have to collect Pete a bit early so we can get to the airport.”
Steve stared dubiously at Tony. “You sure bringing Peter is a good idea? Do you not remember last time?”
Tony grimaced, the last time Harley came over Peter went between being super excited to have him there to being super clingy with Tony.
It got so bad last time that when Peter went to bed Tony had to go with him to bed and wasn’t able to move until the next morning.
They wouldn’t even mind if Peter was being bratty about it because they’d be able to deal with that, it was how heart-broken he seemed whenever Tony told him no or didn’t pay attention to him.
Steve, Tony, and Harley all knew it was out of jealousy but they didn’t think that Peter knew that.
Every time one of them asked him about it Peter would pout and say that he just wanted his Mama.
Whenever Peter said that Tony couldn’t resist letting Peter cling to him the rest of the day.
Other than the jealousy when it came to Tony, Peter loved Harley.
To Peter, Harley was the coolest person on earth. It helped that Harley found Peter endearing and didn’t mind Peter following him around and asking question after question.
“He’ll be fine. He’ll be way more upset if I don’t bring him. I can deal with a little bit of jealousy. He’s not even jealous in a normal way, he just clings more.”
Steve rolled his eyes, “You love it when he clings to you. There’s a reason he calls you Mama.”
Tony scoffed and looked away, “Hush you.”
Steve noticed he didn’t say anything to deny it though.
***
Peter glanced at the clock, ugh, he had another 2 hours of classes and all he wanted to do was go home and play with his Lego set or his switch.
He wondered if he could get uncle Happy to collect him without letting his parents know.
Nah, Happy would be straight on the phone to them and then he’d be in trouble for no reason.
He may just stick it out and hope the rest of the day was more interesting than history.
He was just contemplating taking a quick nap when there was a knock at the door.
Everyone looked to it to see who it was as it was the first exciting thing to happen in the last 20 minutes.
Peter’s face broke out into a smile when he saw it was his Dad.
The rest of the class gasped. While everyone sort of knew that he was Tony Stark’s kid, there was still many that didn’t believe him, mostly because they hadn’t gotten around to doing a press conference.
Every time they went to arrange it, something came up.
Once it was Papa having to go on a mission, the time after that Dad got the vomiting bug which then a week later gave Peter it after that was the annual Stark Industry gala which was taking over the news.
Peter couldn’t say he was too upset over it though, he didn’t like camera’s going off in his face all the time.
The longer it took to arrange the better in his opinion.
“Hey, I’m Peter’s Dad. I’m here to take Peter out early, he’ll be back Monday.” Tony grinned at the stunned teacher and handed him the note that he was sure needed to go to the office and not to the poor history teacher.
Peter wasted no time packing his bag and racing to the front of the class, his cheeks stained red from the number of people that were going between looking at him and his Dad.
He gave a quick wave to Ned and grabbed his Dad’s arm as he passed, effectively dragging him out of the class and out of the spotlight.
Of course, his Dad was laughing the whole time.
“Now they can’t say you’re not my son,” Tony said as they walked towards the school doors, taking Peter’s bag from him and throwing an arm over his shoulder.
Peter leaned in to his Dad, rolling his eyes at how happy he sounded. “True, but now I’ll be the talk of the school and you just know reporters will have my picture before the end of the day as well.” Peter thought of something that would annoy the media to no end,
“Maybe I should post it first on my twitter so they lose the shock of the ‘first picture!’?”
Tony threw his head back and laughed, he couldn’t wait to tell Steve this. Their sweet innocent Peter was already getting the best of the paps. It was a proud moment for him.
“Sure baby, let’s take a photo together and post it. Let me see what your caption is before it goes up though.”
Tony dug Peter’s phone out of his pocket and handed it to the boy.
He always kept Peter’s phone during school hours so he wouldn’t be distracted, he knew that Peter could use the laptop he brought with him every day but it was monitored by FRIDAY, unlike his phone which was monitored by KAREN, who was way more inclined to cover up for Peter.
Peter turned it on and opened the camera on it, turning it to selfie mode. Both of the stopped just outside the front doors of the school, Peter held the camera up, giving a huge smile to it while Tony was kissing his curls. The caption read ‘Collected early from school, thanks, Dad!’
“What do you think?” He asked his Dad, turning the phone to him. Tony gave it a quick glance before nodding his approval.
“Amazing. Post it and see the world lose their minds. I may text your Papa before he kills me.”
Peter posted the photo and locked his phone, he would look later to see what the response was. He had learned the hard way that spending too much time on his phone got it taken off him fairly quickly.
Tony sent off his own quick text to Steve before ushering Peter to the car, opening the back door for him.
“Awh, Mama, do I have to? Papa lets me sit upfront with him.”
Tony raised an eyebrow at Peter’s whining. “Well, I’ll be having a word with Papa over that. I want you safe when we’re driving and this is the best way to do that. So hop in.”
Peter glared at the seat that his Dad wanted him to sit in.
It was pretty much a car seat but for someone his size. His Dad, being the genius that he was, took out the single seat in the car and replaced it with a ‘Peter proof’ one.
It was the same size as the other seats in the car but also had a headrest that came out at either side, padding all along it, armrests and a five-point harness that would come undone for anyone that wasn’t Peter. No matter how he looked at it, all Peter could see was a cleverly disguised car seat.
Peter huffed but sat down into it. It was really soft. He’d give his Dad points for that; it was way comfier than regular seats in the car.
He sat back and watched as his Dad put his arms through the straps and connected it to the lock, tightening the straps when he was done.
Peter smiled when he got a kiss on his forehead.
“Thanks, bug.”
“It’s okay Mama.” He knew his Dad was just looking out for his safety.
He had been paranoid over it since they were in a crash years ago and the doctors told his Dad that the only thing that saved Peter was his car seat.
Since then, whenever his Dad was in the car with him he had to sit in it.
Peter made a token protest every time but if it made him feel better that Peter sat in this seat, then he would do it.
It belatedly hit Peter that his Dad was driving them and hadn’t gotten Uncle Happy to like he usually did.
“Mama, why are you driving?” He asked it wasn’t that he minded him driving but when Uncle Happy drove his Dad would normally sit in the back with him.
“Because I promised Harley I wouldn’t take a driver to collect him.”
Ah, that made sense, Peter nodded in agreement before it dawned on him what his Dad actually said.
“Wait, Harley is coming?!” He asked excitedly, he loved when Harley came over.
He was the coolest person Peter knew! He would always help him with his projects and played lego with him, he would even stay in Peter’s room instead of another guest room.
To top it all off he was super popular as well but didn’t think Peter was lame at all.
Peter always begged him to move in with them but he always said he couldn’t leave Tennessee.
Now he was moving to Massachusetts which was so much closer! He was sure his Dad would let him visit way more now! Maybe he could even stay in their house for the summer and winter break.
“He sure is, bug, and he made sure to tell me that you better be at the airport with me or else.”
Peter giggled, he loved Harley, always demanding and never getting in trouble for it.
When he demanded he either got corner time or spanked if he was really bold.
“Is he staying for good this time Mama?”
Tony sighed when he heard the question Peter asked every time Harley came to visit.
He thought the Harley should move in and be adopted by them because Peter saw him as a big brother and didn’t get that Harley had a mother and sister back in Tennessee to go back to.
His response every time was to move them all out to New York.
Steve always scolded him for it but Tony could see where he was coming from.
They were rich, they could afford it.
“I don’t think so baby but he will be staying until Sunday night. He’s starting MIT soon so he’ll be spending a lot of his weekends here with us.”
Hmm, that was a good enough compromise for Peter, he supposed.
It meant he could see Harley a lot more.
Facetime just wasn’t the same.
“That’s good enough for me. How long till we’re there?” Peter asked, gazing out the window as they drove through Queens.
“Lucky for us we’re only a half-hour away from the airport. Papa made you a snack and told me that we’re not to get any airport junk while we wait for Harley. I think we can hide some chocolate from him though, what do you think?”
Peter’s eyes widened in disbelief, his Dad was letting him have chocolate? This must be his lucky day!
“I think so too Mama. What did Papa make me?”
Peter fist-pumped the air when he saw what his Dad was handing back to him. Yes! He loved apples and peanut butter! Harley needed to come over more often, he was getting all of his favourite things today!
Tony smiled at the happy boy in the back of the car, eagerly munching on his apples and peanut butter.
Peter didn’t know it but they were trying to stop the jealousy from arising by giving him his favourite things today, like an unhealthy lunch (or as unhealthy as Steve was willing to go) and having some chocolate.
If nothing else the smile on his face was worth it because Tony knew their son.
As much as Peter loved Harley he just wasn’t used to sharing his parents with anyone else, in particular, Tony, which made him jealous.
Peter being Peter though, it didn’t come out in conventional ways because he was just too pure-hearted for the typical kind of jealousy.
Privately Tony could admit that he liked how clingy Peter got with him, never wanting Tony to be out of his sight.
Harley and Steve always found it hilarious and Peter was always innocently oblivious to it all.
Mostly Tony just loved watching the boys together.
It was extremely sweet how much Peter looked up to Harley.
Harley was excited to see Peter as well, even going as far as making Tony pay for a larger suitcase for him so he could bring a new lego set for Peter that they could build together.
Somehow Tony knew he’d be roped into it as well.
He tried to find it in him to care that he’d have to spend hours building lego but really couldn’t.
It sounded like an ideal day to him.
Just him and his boys.