crackle the crocodile
Tony quickly accepts the thumb sucking as simply a part of life with Peter. It confuses him at first but he loves Peter, it feels strange to love someone as young and gentle and perfect as Peter, and he will accept every single part and facet of his kid.
Peter spends a lot of time crying over his Aunt and a slew of shitty things in his past. The boy has bags under his perpetually red rimmed eyes that look like violets growing under his skin and whenever he cries his thumb finds its way into his mouth. The combination of the tears and soft messy hair and thumb sucking makes Peter look like a small child and Tony wants nothing more than to scoop him up into a hug and cradle him to his chest. He loves Peter, god he loves his kid so much, and can deal with a little infantile thumb sucking.
However, he learns that the thumb sucking is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Peter’s childish behavior. Seemingly overnight a stuffed crocodile appears and Peter never lets go of the damn thing.
The crocodile is propped up on the counter when Tony slides a plate of scrambled eggs towards Peter, it’s next to him on the couch when he watches TV, he swears he sees Peter bringing it to the bathroom with him and he even caught Peter sleeping with it on the couch one day. One arm was cuddled around the stuffed toy, while the other had his thumb half inside his open mouth.
It confuses Tony greatly. He doesn’t understand what is so important about the stuffed animal and when he sees Peter crying, thumb in mouth and crocodile tucked against his chest, he feels like he is watching a little boy trapped in a teenagers body. One day he even finds himself treating Peter like a far smaller child than he is and it scares him that neither of them seem to mind the treatment.
“Hey kiddo,” Tony nearly cooed at the child. “You’re going to have to unhand the crocodile if you want to help with the pancakes, because something tells me the croc is flammable.”
Peter stared at him from where he was sitting at the counter. He had promised earlier that the boy could help him with the pancakes and Peter was excited, it truly doesn’t make sense that the boy looks like he’s about to cry.
“What does flammable mean?” He asks innocently and wow, that should be the first sign that something is wrong. Peter is a fifteen year old genius, he should know what the word flammable means.
“It means the crocodile may light on fire.” Tony responds regardless, not wanting the boy to be confused.
“Oh.” Peter replies simply. The boy’s lip quavers and then there are tears falling down his pale face and his thumb is already in his mouth.
Tony wants to scream out in confusion. Why is Peter crying because he has to unhand a stuffed crocodile? It doesn’t make sense to him. Nothing about Peter makes sense right now.
Tony sighs, he isn’t even sure he trusts his kid around fire right now anyways. Peter resembles a toddler and he certainly wouldn’t let a three year old near an open flame, so maybe he shouldn’t let Peter near it either. Tony probably shouldn’t be comparing Peter to a three year old, but when he looks over at the crying boy, thumb in mouth and stuffed animal and all, well it’s easy to compare the boy to a toddler.
“Alrighty then,” Tony claps his hands together, smearing pancake batter over his callouses. “You can sit and cuddle the crocodile and I’ll make the pancakes instead.”
Peter looks like he is going to complain, but doesn’t have it in him. Tony is glad the boy doesn't want to fight, because he doesn’t want to explain why he doesn’t want Peter near the fire. It’s weird to compare your fifteen year old to a three year old and he doesn’t want to scare him away.
“Ok…” Peter chews his thumb softly as he stares at Tony with intense eyes.
The griddle sizzles as Tony pours about half a cup of batter onto the burning hot surface. He adds a handful of chocolate chips to the sizzling batter followed by a larger handful of blueberries, as he asks Peter a silly question. “So what’s the crocodiles name?”
Peter bites his thumb slightly harder and Tony wants to grab the boy’s hand and stop from hurting himself. He hates when Peter hurts himself in any way. It makes him feel helpless, like he is spiraling and out of control and Tony wants nothing more than to protect Peter.
He continues to wonder how he got this parental. He feels like Peter somehow found the key to his cold heart, opened it, crawled in and made himself at home in there. He’s in control of Tony’s heart strings and Tony is willing to do anything to make him happy.
“How about Crackle?” Peter asks around the thumb in his mouth, “Like the dragon from Sofia the First!” He adds more excitedly.
Tony has no idea what Sofia the First is. It kind of sounds like some sort of princess for little girls, but that only makes him feel more confused. However he doesn’t care if he gets the reference or not, because he simply wants to make Peter happy.
‘That sounds like a great name kid!” He smiles, flipping a stack of pancakes off of the griddle and onto a plate in front of Peter.
He pours a generous amount of syrup onto the plate and watches the kid with a soft smile. Within a minute the boy and Crackle the crocodile are both covered in sticky syrup and Tony wants to pin the kid down and scrub him with a warm washcloth while popping the stuffed animal in the wash.
Tony shakes his head, confused. He doesn't understand how he got this parental and he really doesn’t understand why Peter shares mannerisms with the vast majority of toddlers in the world. But he doesn’t have time to be confused and he focuses only on the affection and unwavering love he has for the perfect kid in front of. Thumb sucking and stuffed animal loving and covered in syrup and all, Peter Parker is the light of Tony’s light.