Neverland
“Sir, Pepper Potts is coming to the lab.” Jarvis’ voice filled the space, causing Tony to jolt awake, rubbing his throbbing head. “Should I tell her where you are?”
“No, no Jarvis. Just give me a minute okay?” Tony groaned, dragging his hand over his face, groaning once again at the blinding light flooding his eyes.
“Sir, she is quite insistent.” Jarvis said once again, causing Tony to drag himself off the couch he had been sleeping, rolling onto the floor in his hungover state. “She is bringing young Peter with her.”
“Pete? What’s he doing up again?” Tony wondered aloud. His thoughts however, were interrupted when the lift doors opened and a small body came flying towards him.
“Daddy!” Peter shouted, throwing himself at his father. “Daddy look!” Peter pointed at the small LEGO building in his hand.
“Woah Pete! Did you make this by yourself?” Tony asked, trying to shake his incredibly visible hangover.
“No, Pwepper helped.” Peter replied, looking up at the women with eyes filled with pure love. Pepper returned his look, bending down to ruffle his hair.
“Hey Peter, why don’t you go and play with your cars over there hm?” Pepper asked softly, pointing towards the small mess of toys on Tony’s floor. Peter babbled and waddled away happily, picking up his cars and pushing them across the floor whilst making the accompanying sounds. Tony couldn’t help but stop and watch his son play, his smile growing wider at every squeal and small sound coming out of his mouth.
Finally breaking his trance, he turned to Pepper and asked “why is he up Pep?”
“Tony, it’s one o’clock in the afternoon, what do you mean ‘why is he up?’” Pepper looked less than impressed.
“What? No that’s not possible it was midnight last time I checked…” Tony trailed off when he noticed Pepper’s disbelieving glare.
“Tony, you got drunk last night didn’t you.”
“What? No of course not!” Tony tried to argue, wincing as one of Peter’s squeals reached his ears, reignited his hangover and headache.
“Tony don’t lie to me. I’m not mad Tony, you can chose to kill yourself in whatever way you want. I’m not going to stop you. But what I am mad about, is that Peter woke up alone, and you weren’t there to help him get up! You wanna know how he was this morning?” Pepper shouted in a hushed tone, trying not to alert the small boy playing near them. “Tony he had cried himself to sleep! He was so scared when he woke up this morning – he needed you and you weren’t there.”
Tony stood in shocked silence, trying to understand what Pepper had just told him. His son, his baby boy, had been so frightened, that he had cried himself to sleep, and Tony’s heart broke. His son had been alone and afraid because he had been stupid and turned to alcohol, back to old habits. Awful as it was, the news simply made him crave another drink. Turning away from Pepper, he walked towards Peter who was still enthusiastically playing with his cars. Leaning down, he noticed a small red mark just under his eye, a bruise that was yet to blossom.
“Hey kiddo. How d’ya get this then?” Tony asked, rubbing his thumb over the mark, careful not to push too hard in case he hurt the small boy. Peter just shrugged and kept his head down, playing with his toys once again. Tony asked again, only to receive the same reply. “Jarvis? Got any idea what happened?”
“Sorry Sir, I seem to have no record of the incident. All footage from Peter’s room last night seems to not exist.” Jarvis said, sounding too concerned for an AI.
“Huh. That’s strange.” Tony said as he continued to brush his hand through Peter’s curls. “what do you wanna do today then champ?”
“Play with you daddy.” Peter replied, his eyes shining.
“Sorry buddy, you know how busy daddy is right now…” Tony said, hating the way that Peter’s lower lip began to tremble as he looked away. “But I’m sure Rhodey is free for you to play with him right now.” Peter’s eyes lit up once again as he started to waddle towards Pepper, tugging on her skirt so she would take him to see Rhodey. Pepper threw one more distasteful look towards Tony before getting in the lift with Peter.
“Heya Champ!” Rhodey shouted as Peter waddled through the door, two fingers firmly stuck in his mouth.
“Rwodeee” Peter whined, making grabby motions to signal he wanted Rhodey to pick him up. Of course the older man obliged, and Peter snuggled his head into the space between Rhodey’s shoulder and neck.
“What’s up buddy? You wanna play aeroplanes again?” Rhodey was rewarded with a very enthusiastic nod from Peter, who squealed as he was placed on Rhodey’s shoulders and the man began to run around, making pew pew noises as he went. Pepper watched the happy scene unfold in front of her as she typed away on a Stark Tablet. She was trying to be happy, trying to focus on the large smile plastered across both of their faces, the little squeals and gurgling sounds Peter was making, but her eyes kept coming back to that now purpling mark on Peter’s cheek. It hadn’t been there the night before when she had bathed him and set him down to sleep, reading an endless amount of books because Peter kept claiming he wasn’t tired yet. It worried and unsettled her that Jarvis didn’t know what had happened, but what kept coming back into her head was how little Tony seemed to be worried about it.
Maybe there was something more than just his alcohol problem plaguing Tony, she thought however, her thoughts were quickly interrupted by Obadiah walking into the room.
“Can we go to the beach?” Peter asked, his smile fading from his face as the man walked into the room.
“I’m sorry Pete but I need to stay here today, ask if Pepper is free?” Rhodey replied, already distracted by somethings flashing up on his phone.
“No need” Obadiah cut in, noticing how Peter flinched away at the sound of his voice. “I’ll take you Pete. I feel like I’ve been missing out on some time with you lately.”
“But you were with me last nwight?” Peter asked innocently, brown eyes full of confusion.
Obadiah laughed slightly, stiffening up and glancing at both Rhodey and Pepper’s faces to see if they had noticed. When he was satisfied they hadn’t caught on, he turned back towards Peter. “Well maybe I just want to spend more time with you.” Peter’s bottom lip trembled slightly but he began to walk back out the door, motioning to Pepper so she could change him into a swimming diaper and a rash top. 10 minutes later, a sunscreen smothered Peter emerged from his bedroom and walked toward Obadiah hesitantly. “Come on Pete. You don’t want to waste any time at the beach now do you?” Peter shook his head, eyes on the floor and held out his hand for Obadiah to take.
~~~~~
After arriving at the beach, Obadiah set out all of Peter’s toys in front of him, and sat down so he was eye level with the toddler. “What you pulled earlier, was not okay.” He said maliciously, subconsciously bringing his hand up to the bruise on Peter’s cheek, revelling in the knowledge that it was himself that had put it there.
“What?” Peter asked, two fingers once again finding their way into his mouth. Obviously, this was not the right answer. He screamed as Obadiah reached forward suddenly, grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head closer.
“Don’t play dumb Peter, I know you’re a smart boy. You’re a Stark for crying out loud, you basically get born with a degree. I was talking about what you said to James Rhodes about us spending time together. Do you want your father to find out how naughty you’ve been?” Peter tried to shake his head as best he could, but Obadiah’s grip remained firm. “Clearly you didn’t get the message last night, so maybe I need to show you again.” Peter flinched as Obadiah picked up a small stuffed bear, one of Peter’s favourites, and held it in his hands after releasing his harsh grip on Peter’s hair, leaving the small child a shaking, sobbing mess, clutching his curls with one hand and reaching for his toy with the other. Obadiah took the head of the bear in one hand, pulling it away from the body in one swift movement, his lips curling up into a smile as he saw more tears begin to make their way down Peter’s face as he stood there in shock.
“Tut tut –what a silly boy you’ve been Peter! You’ve ruined your favourite toy. Your father won’t be impressed to hear about this.” Obadiah said, openly manipulating the boy. Peter continued to look at the ruined bear which had now been carelessly dropped in the sand. “I think behaviour like that deserves a punishment, don’t you?”
~~~~~~~
“Peter! What happened to your toy?” Pepper asked, her face filled with concern as the toddler looked down at the ruined toy and then back up to Obadiah, who was crouched down to his height, his hand firmly clamped on his shoulder. Tears began to run down Peter’s cheeks as he made those cute grabby motions again towards Pepper, anything to get him away from Obadiah. “Peter what’s wrong? What happened to your bear?” Pepper asked again.
Looking over her shoulder Peter saw the glare he was getting from Obadiah, and answered “I brwoke it.” He could still feel the bruising grip on his arm and in his hair, the feel of Obadiah hitting him over and over again. Beginning to cry again, he tucked his face into Pepper’s neck and let her carry him out of the lounge and into his bedroom where Tony was waiting for him.
“Heya Bambi.” He said, ruffling Peter’s hair as Peter reached forward, wanting his dad to pick him up. “I’m gonna give you a bath and then put you to bed is that okay?” Peter nodded, and let his dad carry him towards the bath. Once the water had filled up, Tony set about taking off the swimming diaper and rash top, stopping when he noticed the strange bruise looking markings on Peter’s behind. Worry filled Tony as he carefully placed Peter in the bath and began to rub soap all over him, careful to avoid his eyes. “Kiddo what happened to your butt?” Tony asked softly, running his fingers through Peter’s wet curls.
“Fell over.” Peter mumbled, his hands playing absentmindedly with his toy boat which was floating in the water between his small pudgy legs. Tony sighed, not entirely believing the story but also not wanting to open a can of worms this close to the kid’s bedtime.
“Come on kid, let’s get you into bed.” Tony pulled Peter out of the bath, careful of the bruises and placed him back on the changing mat after drying him off. He helped Peter pull on another diaper, and then carefully placed all his limbs into the softest Stark Industries onesie he could find. Pointing at the small embroidered words on the front of the onsie, Tony lent down and whispered in Peter’s ear. “You’re my little engineer Pete, and I love you so much.”
“Love you too Daddy.” Peter whispered back, wrapping his soft arms around Tony’s neck. Tony took this as an opportunity to lift the small boy up into the air and back onto his hip, moving towards the star covered bed.
“What book do you want tonight then baby?” Tony asked as Peter waddled towards the small bookcase which stood in his room. Peter returned with a bright green book with a cartoon skating cat on it. Tony looked towards it sceptically, laughing a little when he read the title. “Leo le Chat comes to play.” Peter just smiled and giggled, getting under the covers and snuggling closer to his father’s side.
“Look, there’s Leo. Let’s talk to him. But he only speaks French, so let’s talk to him in French.” Tony rolled his eyes as he looked at his son. “Did Pepper buy you this by any chance?” Peter once again smiled and giggled, and Tony took that as a cue to continue. “Bonjour. Hello. Let’s ask him to come. Viens, Viens ici. Leo says D’accord – do you know what that means Peter?” Peter shook his head, his attention solely on the picture of the blue cat, now standing on a pile of books. “It means ok. Let’s ask him if he wants to play- tu veux jouer? Leo says oui, which means yes. Now listen Leo. Ecoute, ecoute leo. But Leo says non!” Peter gasps dramatically as he traced his hand over the picture, the blue cat now beginning to skateboard fast. “Wait Leo! Attends, attends Leo! But Leo says non again! Be careful Leo! Attention, attention Leo!” Peter again looks over at the photo, his mouth hanging open slightly as he took in the slight of the cat who had now fallen off his skateboard and onto his bottom. Tony continued reading. “Tu as mal? Have you hurt yourself?” He directed this towards Peter, looking intently at his angelic face. “Leo says un peu, which means a little.”
“Un peu.” Peter replied quietly, subconsciously bringing his hand up to rub his head from where Obadiah was gripping.
“Ou? Where? Fais voir – show me.” Tony continued on with the book, but his attention was solely on Peter now. “La – there.” The cat was holding it’s tail and pointing at it’s leg.
“La.” Peter copied, pointing at his behind. Tony’s eyes deepened with concern, but he carried on the story nevertheless.
“Qu’est-ce qu’il y a? – What is the matter Leo? J’ai soif – I’m thirsty. C’est pour toi – this is for you.” A small mouse handed Leo a glass of water, and Tony noticed Peter’s eyes beginning to droop. “Au revoir Leo.” Tony said, as he pressed a small kiss to Peter’s forehead and left the room.
Back in his lounge, Tony thought about the bruises, and what Peter had said. There was no way they could have come from him simply falling over. The thoughts continued and spiralled until he found himself at the bar, a drink in hand.
Once again blacked out on the couch, Tony forgot the entire conversation, the drink in his hand his only fascination.
~~~~~~
For his third birthday, Obadiah gave Peter a beautifully detailed, personally illustrated copy of “Peter Pan.” Peter took it, thanking him as best he could, but obviously not well enough as it still earned him a slap across the face for being so ungrateful.
As Tony was reading the story to him come his bedtime, filled with cake but also an underlying fear, Peter listened to the story, thinking about all the different characters.
Most little boys want to be Peter Pan, having adventures and never growing up, but not Peter. Peter wanted to grow up as quickly as he could, desperate to get away from the man who hurt him no matter what he did. He had tried telling Tony, but after nothing had happened, Peter had accepted the fact that there was nothing to be done.
This happens to all three year olds, doesn’t it?