All The Stars Align

Everyone slept it late on New Year’s Day.

Tony slept so well. Peter was passed out the second Tony put him into the bed and stayed that way into late in the morning.

It was everyone’s last day here but Tony’s and Peter’s. Pepper was leaving a little bit after everyone else because she was flying to her parents house for a few days so even though Tony was sad to see her leave, he was excited to spend some alone time with his son.

Tony watched Peter eating breakfast outside with everyone else so he took this time to pull Pepper aside and talk to her about what had been on his mind.

“Hey, Pep. Can we talk for a sec?” Tony asked her, gently grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away from the window in the kitchen to talk to her.

“Yeah. What is it?” She asked and let Tony pull her away from the window.

Tony suddenly felt really awkward. “Okay so… last night was… amazing. I loved every second of it and you just, have no idea how long I’ve waited to do that but I don’t know if I can do it again.”

Tony didn’t think he had any room in his life for a relationship with Pepper at the moment, he had always been and always will be in love with her but the timing isn’t great.

Pepper didn’t look surprised, she looked sad but understanding. “Alright. I get it. You’re a dad now and I don’t want to get in the way of what you guys have.”

“I just don’t have any room in my life for a relationship right now.” Tony admitted. “Peter comes first over anyone and… with everything going on with him, the separation anxiety, sleeping together every night, throwing fits, and everything else I just… I can’t.”

Pepper grabbed Tony’s hands to hold in hers. “I know. You don’t have to explain anything to me. I know. I know that Peter is and always will be the most important thing in your life so I understand.”

Tony was falling in love with her even more. He didn’t deserve her but then again, he didn’t deserve Peter either. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Tony. I’ll always be here for you and Peter. No matter what you choose.” Pepper leaned forward to press a gentle kiss to Tony’s cheek and then let go of his hands and turned around to walk outside.

Tony stayed in the kitchen for a few seconds before following her outside. He walked over to Peter who was sitting next to Steve on the table chairs, “Stand up, bud.”

Peter did as he was told then Tony sat down and pulled Peter onto his lap. Peter turned around so his head was cradled in his dad's arm.

Tony smiled down at his kid, “What are you guys doing?”

Peter rested his head on Tony’s chest now. “Eating breakfast. Steve said he’s taking me swimming after we eat so he can throw me into the air again.”

Tony lifted up Peter’s shirt so he could pinch his stomach. “Did Steve willingly say that or did you force him to say that?”

Peter laughed and moved Tony’s hands away from himself. “Ah! He said it himself.”

“Okay then.” Tony shifted Peter so that he was sitting up more to eat his food.

The rest of the day went by just as quickly as the other days did and pretty soon it was the next day and Peter and Tony were saying goodbye to everyone.

Tony could tell that Peter was a bit sad to say goodbye to his new family after getting to spend a few days with them nonstop but he was okay because he still had Tony with him.

A few hours after saying goodbye to the team, they had to go drive Pepper to the airport. Tony could tell that Peter had gotten attached to her after the bonding that they did together.

Peter hugged her while Tony helped her with the bags. “Don’t leave. You can stay here with us until we leave later.”

Pepper cooed and hugged the boy back. “Aw, I wish I could but I have to go to my parents house.”

Peter didn’t know why she had to. His parents were dead and so were Tony’s patents. “Why are they still alive?”

Tony shut the trunk and walked over to them. Did he actually just hear that? “Peter. Don’t ask that.”

Pepper laughed. “It’s okay. My parents are still alive, Peter, because it just isn’t their time yet.”

Peter let go of her to go hug his dad now. He hugged Tony tight and waited for his dad to wrap his arms around him as well.

“I’ll see you… when I see you.” Tony said. He had no idea when he would be seeing Pepper next. Maybe she would be staying if their conversation went in a different direction.

“I’ll see you later.” She hugged Tony and kissed him on the cheek then pulled away. They watched her walk onto her plane.

“Looks like it’s just you and me now, baby.” Tony said to Peter who was clinging onto him tightly.

“I’m okay with that.” Peter admitted. As long as he had his dad then he was okay.

.
.
.

“Dad. Are you watching?” Peter asked from where he was standing at the edge of the pool by the deep end with a pool noodle between his legs.

Tony was watching Peter from the floaty bed that he was laying in. “I’m watching.”

Peter held onto the pool noodle with one hand and plugged his nose with the other then he jumped in and immediately floated to the top. He smiled and wiped the water from his face then searched for his dad. “Did you see?”

“I saw, Pete. Good job, buddy.” Tony clapped his hands for Peter while Peter swam towards him and grasped the edge of the pool floaty that Tony was laying on. “Do you want to come up?”

Peter nodded his head and forced out a ‘yeah’ as he lifted himself onto the pool bed and laid down on top of his dad with his head on his chest.

“Oof. Ouch, move your knees.” Tony moved Peter’s legs to his side so he wasn’t digging into his crotch. Once Peter was in a better position, Tony wrapped his arms around him because he knew Peter would stay still for about five minutes before he was up and jumping into the pool again.

“My wild jungle boy.” Tony said and squeezed Peter closer to himself. He ran a hand through his wet curls and just appreciated the moment that he knew he would think about when Peter was at school and they weren’t together. “Let’s move here to an island together. Just you and me, buddy.”

Peter lifted his head up from Tony’s chest and smiled. “Yeah! We can move to an island and everyday we can go swimming like this together. And there can be one of those outdoor showers where you can shower outside in the garden.”

“Where did you hear about that?” Tony asked him curiously. He had never taken Peter somewhere that had that and he knew Peter didn’t leave New York before he met him.

“YouTube. I was watching a vlog and the family went to Bali and they all showered outside in this like outdoor shower in the garden.” Peter explained. He loved the idea of getting to shower outside.

“I feel like you would have more fun with that than the actual ocean.” Tony poked Peter’s side playfully. It was 100% true because Tony is sure that Peter was born to be an island boy, swinging from trees instead of buildings.

Peter laughed and tried to move away from Tony’s hands. “Yeah. Cause it’ll be fun. Can we go?”

Tony wanted to so badly. He could homeschool Peter and take him to an island with an outdoor shower but he knew what that would do for Peter’s separation anxiety. It would multiply by ten.

“We have to go back to New York, Pete. We have everything there.” Tony told him and hated how Peter’s smile fell. “One day soon. Maybe for your match break we’ll take a few weeks off and live the island life.”

“Together.” Peter nodded.

“Always.”

That was all the cuddles Tony was going to get from Peter because Peter was climbing over his dad and grabbing onto his pool node again to continue swimming.

.
.
.

“I know you’re tired but we’ll be on the plane soon.” Tony was starting to regret having the flight so late in the night. It was way past Peter’s bedtime and Peter already didn’t sleep well the night before since he couldn’t stop worrying about going back to school in only a few days.

“No! I want to stay here.” Peter was laying on the floor against the wall near the doorway while Tony was putting all the bags into the car.

“Well, we can't stay here so stand up and get in the car.” Tony was exhausted himself, having to coax Peter to sleep last night for over two hours.

Tony grabbed the last bag and carried it out to the car as his phone rang so he struggled to pull it out of his pocket and saw that it was Pepper. “Hello?”

“Hi Tony. I just decided to catch you guys before you got on the plane.” Pepper sounded like she was relaxing somewhere and Tony thought that he would give anything to be relaxing somewhere quiet.

“Uh, yeah well right now is not a good time.” Tony struggled to shove the bag into the car and then he shut the truck and started walking inside where Peter was crying.

Pepper must have heard Peter through the phone so she sighed sadly. “Oh, he doesn’t want to leave?”

Tony leaned over Peter. “Nope. And he’s over tired.” He said to Pepper and then spoke to Peter. “Stand up or I’m leaving you here. Let’s go.”

Peter shook his head. “No! I don’t wa-wanna g-g-go. I wanna stay.”

“Peter. Up.” Tony used one hand to grab him by the arm but Peter was deadweight. “I’ll leave you here.”

Peter started crying harder at that. “No. Stay.”

“I’m not staying and neither are you. Do you want me to carry you?” Tony asked him because that seemed like the only option.

“Yes.” Peter cried out so Tony sighed and handed him the phone.

“Alright. Hold onto my phone and say hi to Pepper.” Tony handed the phone to Peter and then lifted Peter up, almost breaking his back in the process since he was already so tired.

Tony lifted Peter in his arms and held him with one arm under his butt so he could leave the house and lock the door. Peter started crying harder once the door was shut and Tony wanted to rip his ears out so he didn’t have to deal with it and listen to the crying.

“No! No, I don’t wanna go.” Peter tried to reach for the door but Tony was already carrying him away and ignoring him.

He grabbed the phone out of Peter’s hand and put it to his ear. “Hey, Pep. I’m gonna call you when we land in New York.”

“That’s fine. I can hear you have your hands full.” That was an understatement but Tony agreed and hung up the phone, shoving it in his pocket.

He opened up the back door and put Peter on the ground but Peter was trying to push him away so he could get to the front seat. “No. You don’t deserve to sit in the front seat with the way you’re acting. Sit down.”

“No. I wanna-I wanna…” Peter didn’t finish his sentence.

“You don’t even know what you want. You’re overtired so get in the car.” Tony pushed Peter in and did his seatbelt up himself then made sure to put the child lock on the door so Peter didn’t try and open it again. He shut the door and sighed in relief at the temporary silence.

It was nice. He took a few seconds to stop the ringing in his ears before he was climbing into the front seat, starting the car and driving away.

Tony ignored Peter for the whole car ride and didn’t feel bad about it one bit. He could tell that Peter was already losing his fight with sleep and in under ten minutes, he was passed out with his head bent forward in an extremely uncomfortable position but Tony knew it was comfortable for Peter.

He enjoyed the silence all the way to the airport and sighed in relief that Peter was sleeping so he didn’t have to worry about him causing a scene in front of the workers.

Tony shut the car off and turned around to check if Peter was still sleeping and thankfully he was.

He ever so quietly got out of the car and greeted the workers that walked up to him. “Can you please try to be as quiet as possible because my kid is sleeping and I really don’t want to wake him up.”

“Yes of course.” One of the men said and then started to help grab all the bags.

Tony opened up the back door and ever so carefully undid Peter’s seatbelt and then placed his hands under his armpits and lifted him up and out of the car.

Peter’s head rested on his shoulder with his arms hanging against his side which was so weird because Peter always grabbed onto his shoulder or wrapped his arms around his neck when he carried him but he knows that’s a good sign because it means Peter is passed out in dream land.

He caught the workers staring at Peter in his arms but he knew the whole world knew he had a son so he didn’t feel all that stressed about them looking at his kid.

Tony started walking towards the plane which was really loud so he just hoped it didn’t wake Peter up.

The workers went onto the plane first to load up the suitcases while he made his way over there and then they were coming out of the plane. One of them paused to look at Peter, “He’s either a really deep sleeper or he’s next level exhausted.”

Tony chuckled. “Try both.” Tony then switched hands from holding Peter so he could shake hands with the man. “Thank you.”

He carried Peter onto the plane and sighed in relief when he heard the door shutting. They were almost home meaning he could pass out for a few hours on the plane.

Tony gently laid Peter down on a seat and put the airplane seatbelt on him and sat down next to him, doing the same thing to himself.

He slept for the whole plane ride which just proved how tired he truly was. When Tony woke up, he saw that Peter was still sleeping as well which he sighed in relief at.

About twenty minutes later, the plane was landing and so Tony was standing up and lifting Peter out of his seat again to carry him out to the car that Happy was driving.

The plane door opened and Happy walked up the steps, his eyes softened a bit when they landed on Peter in Tony’s arms. Tony knew that Happy prefered to love Peter from a distance since he wasn’t a huge fan of children.

It was funny to leave Happy in charge of Peter occasionally but Tony tried to avoid that as much as possible since he didn’t actually trust Happy to keep Peter entertained one bit.

“How was the trip?” Happy asked, almost afraid to speak.

“Fun. I’ll show you pictures in the car.” Tony told him and started to walk down the steps but as soon as he was outside, the cold air hit him and he felt like an idiot for forgetting about how cold it was back home.

He turned back around to head back into the plane since Peter was currently barefoot and wearing shorts. “Can you grab a pair of track pants out of the red suitcase?”

Happy put the suitcase on the seat and opened it up to dig around for a pair of track pants. He pulled out a grey pair that was full of sand so he shook them out. “These are so tiny.”

Tony smiled. “Aren’t they? You should see his pyjamas at home.” He then gently laid Peter back down on the airplane seat and started to put his legs through the pants. He lifted Peter back up, “Can you pull them up?”

Happy pulled the pants up on Peter’s waist, Peter whining a bit in his sleep but not waking up. Tony held him back against his chest and moved his head so it was laying against his shoulder.

Happy carried the suitcases to the car, Tony grabbing only one since it was all he could carry. While Happy was putting the suitcases in the trunk, Tony put Peter into the car and checked his pulse to see if he was still alive because Peter was deadweight and didn’t stir at all even after all Tony was moving him around.

Inside the car, Tony sighed and melted into the seat. He was exhausted and just wanted to collapse into his bed. “You look dead. Kid wear you out?”

Tony chuckled. “Yeah. That’s a way to sugarcoat it.”

Tony was too tired to do anything so he just sat there and waited until they were at home. He was going into the backseat to carry Peter up then he planned on dropping into bed and sleeping.

Tony picked Peter up while Happy was grabbing the bags out of the trunk then they both headed up in the elevator. “Thanks, Hap. I’ll see you on Tuesday. I’m going to bed now.”

Happy left after saying goodbye and Tony was off in the direction of the stairs, thanking whatever was out there that Peter weighed barely nothing so he was able to carry his kid upstairs and into his bed.

Tony dropped Peter onto his bed and pulled his track pants off then pulled his shorts off as well. He debated doing the rest and putting Peter in his pyjama pants but he didn’t want to risk waking Peter up with more movement.

He quickly got ready for bed himself in the bathroom and then collapsed onto the bed and was asleep in seconds.

.
.
.

Tony didn’t know what time it was but the sun was shining through the curtains a bit so Tony assumed it was past 5am. He woke up because Peter had taken all the blankets off of him and had completely wrapped himself up and pushed himself up against the bed rail.

Tony’s eyes burned and begged for him to close them but he had to unwrap his kid before Peter suffocated. So Tony sat up in bed and pulled the blanket away from Peter until Peter was laying on top of them.

“Mm,” Peter whined. “No school.” He grumbled in his sleep but Tony didn’t say anything.

Peter started whimpering the more Tony moved him and then he was sitting up and crying in his sleep. Tony reached forward to push Peter back into a sleeping position and drag him closer to himself.

Tony finally collapsed back against his pillow and fell back asleep in just a few seconds.

The next time Tony woke up, he was feeling a lot more awake and rested. He looked over at Peter who was still passed out with his arms above his head in his signature baby position that Tony liked to call it.

He checked the time and saw that it was 10:34am so he could let Peter sleep for a little bit longer. He got out of bed and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day then used his child free time to spend it in the lab.

Peter woke up an hour later without his dad in the bed. At first he thought he was still in Miami but then he looked at the window and didn’t see the ocean so he angrily kicked the blankets off of him and sat up in bed.

It was January sixth and he had to go back to school in only two days and he really didn’t want to go. He wanted to be back in Miami but he had no idea how he even got back home.

Peter kicked his underwear off and went into the bathroom to go pee and brush his teeth. He then walked out of the bathroom and dug in the pile of clothes for something to wear.

He found some track pants and clean underwear so he started putting that on when Tony walked into the room. “I have a meeting in my office so I’m gonna be in there for about two hours.”

“I wanna sit with you.” Peter looked up at Tony with desperate eyes but Tony shook his head and went into his closet to put on a dress shirt to look a little bit more decent.

“No, bud. It’s a video call.” Tony didn’t want to do this but he was back from vacation so that meant back to work and back to school.

“I wanna say hi to everyone.” Peter followed Tony into his closet on the floor since he was too lazy to stand up.

Tony took off his tank top and put a new one on. “They don’t want to say hi to you.”

Peter frowned. “That’s mean. Why?”

“Because they just don’t like kids. They’re a bunch of old men whose kids already have kids.” Tony explained to Peter as he put his button up shirt on. It was true, all the men he worked with absolutely hated kids and Tony used to agree with them before he met Peter but they didn’t change.

Peter kicked the wall with his food. “Rude. Tell them I hate them.”

Tony chuckled and then stepped over Peter to leave the room. “I will definitely be telling them that. Put some clothes on and go eat breakfast.”

“I am wearing clothes.” Peter said to Tony but he was already walking out of the room. Peter kicked the wall again and stood up to finish getting dressed and then go downstairs to eat some breakfast.

Peter made his way downstairs and made himself some breakfast which was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but he ended up getting a bunch of sticky handprints on the fridge and counter but he didn’t care.

He jumped onto the counter to eat his sandwich and then made himself another one because he was still hungry.

He basically continued to eat for the next hour but then he wanted to go see his dad so he quietly walked to his office and listened on. He could hear his dad talking to someone on the other side so he quietly opened the door and crawled into his office.

He knew his dad probably saw the door open but if he stayed low to the ground then he wouldn’t notice him. Peter heard his dad continue to talk so he knew he was in the clear.

Peter crawled to the side of the desk and peeked his head out but he saw that Tony was looking at him with an unimpressed look on his face.

He pointed a hand at the door but Peter shook his head. “One second, my kid just came into my office.” Tony said to whoever he was on video call with and then he was standing up to get Peter out of the room.

Peter shook his head. “No, I wanna stay here.”

Tony grabbed him by the arms. “Stop it. They can all hear you.”

“I wanna say hi.” Peter tried to sit up but Tony was grabbing him by the arms and standing him up so he could leave. “No. Dad.”

“Out. Give me one hour.” Tony shut the door in Peter’s face after he put him outside in the hallway. He had less than an hour left and Peter couldn’t even keep himself entertained for that long. Tony sighed and finished his call.

.
.
.

It was Monday night and Peter had school tomorrow which neither of them were looking forward to.

After Tony’s business call, he spent the whole day with Peter, playing with legos and watching movies which carried into Monday as well which was why it was so hard for Peter to go to bed.

“One more movie.” Peter begged Tony while he was tucking him in.

Tony shook his head. “No more movies. It’s time to sleep.”

Peter felt his eyes burn. The thought of going to school tomorrow and spending all day without his dad scared him and he didn’t want to do it.

“No. I don’t want to go to school tomorrow. I wanna stay here with you and build my lego and sleep with you.” Peter cried out and lifted the blankets off of him but Tony put them back on.

“Shh, it’s okay. We can do that after school. Close your eyes.” Tony rubbed a hand over Peter’s face to try and relax him. It hurt him as well to see Peter like this and to have to send his kid to school. It was hard.

“No school, dad. Please. I-I can’t go and-and be without you.” Peter looked at Tony and gave him his best puppy dog eyes.

Tony sighed. “How about this, you stay for period one and two and I’ll pick you up right after that? We can get McDonald’s and do something fun together.”

Peter nodded his head and rubbed his eyes. “And then I stay home with you on Wednesday?”

Tony shook his head. “No, baby. We’ll talk about that later. Shut your eyes and sleep.

.
.
.

Tony could tell that Peter was holding in his tears and doing everything to not cry. He hated seeing his son like that. It hurt him because he knew he could prevent that by keeping Peter home but he had to send him to school.

Peter held onto his arm the whole car ride and watched the rain drops race down the windows on the drive to school. It was a cold and dark day which made it even more depressing for the father and son.

Tony pulled up to the front of the school, twenty minutes late like they usually were so he got the chance to say bye to Peter without being rushed.

“No. I don’t wanna go.” Peter tried to reach across the seat to grab onto Tony but Tony grabbed his hands.

“Breathe, Peter. You know the drill. If you really need to come home then call me but I need you to try to stay. Put your tears away.” Tony wiped some tears but more tears kept falling.

“I really don’t wanna go.” Peter said sadly. His heart was hurting him. “I feel sad today.”

That broke Tony’s heart to hear that. He didn’t know what to do. Before he even had the chance to decide, Tony recognized the school’s psychologist, Mrs. Vans, walking out of the school and towards the car.

Peter looked out his window to see Mrs. Vans walking towards them. She knocked on Peter’s window so Tony rolled it down from his side.

“Good morning, Peter. I looked out my window just in time to see pull up but I didn’t see you come out so I came to check up on you.” She smiled warmly at him but Peter looked away from her and back at his dad.

Tony thought it was a bit odd for her to come out to get him but he already knew the woman had a soft spot for Peter, whether it be because Peter is his son or for other reasons. Either way, Tony was grateful for her coming out to help.

“He’s just having a hard time this morning.” Tony said because Peter was saying anything.

She smiled sadly. “Can I open the door?” She asked Tony who said yes and then he unlocked it.

Peter eyed her.

“Are you ready to come inside, Peter? You can tell me what you got for Christmas and everything that you did.” Mrs. Vans spoke to Peter in a happy, almost relaxing voice.

Peter shook his head. “No. I’m not going to school today.”

“Are you just coming to say hi then? It looks like you’re ready.” She laughed but it sounded fake.

Peter continued to stare at her so Tony undid his seatbelt. “Go with Mrs. Vans and tell her what we did. You can tell her about how we went swimming together and what you got for Christmas.”

Peter started panicking when his seatbelt was taken off so he whined out and tried to put it back on. “No. No, I don’t want to.”

Mrs. Vans held her hand out for Peter. “Do you wanna hold my hand and walk in?”

“No. It’s too cold. Close the door.” Peter tried to close it but Mrs. Vans held it open with her leg. Tony appreciated that because it was nice to see that she knew what she was doing. “Close the door.”

Tony reached on the back seat to grab Peter’s backpack. “It’s time to go, I’ll see you later. Are you gonna take your bag or is Mrs. Vans?”

Peter didn’t answer him so the psychologist reached out and grabbed it from him, Tony gave her an appreciated look.

Tony saw the tears and snot that was dripping down his kids face so he grabbed the pile of McDonald’s napkins and held it up to Peter’s face. “Let’s wipe your nose and your tears off.”

Peter wiped his nose on the napkin from his dad and then used his sleeve to wipe his tears away.

“Let’s go, Peter. Come on, your dad has to go to work now.” Mrs. Vans started walking away a bit and waited for Peter to follow her.

“I need-I need to hug you first.” Peter leaned over to hug his dad but Tony only gave him a quick hug otherwise he knew Peter would never let go.

“I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Peter went to leave but then he stopped. “Wait! You have to give me a kiss first.”

Tony couldn’t believe his kid. He grabbed his head and kissed Peter on the forehead. “See you later.”

“And run your hand through my hair.” Peter told Tony so Tony sighed and ran a quick hand through his hair.

“All done. I love you.” Tony said to Peter he climbed out of the car.

“I love you too.” Peter said to him then he turned around and saw his dad in the car. He didn’t want him to leave. Mrs. Vans shut the car door which was it for Peter, he broke down crying and tried to reach for the door. “No. Don’t leave.”

“Come, Peter. Let’s go talk about your Christmas break in my office before you go to class.” Mrs. Vans was already leading Peter away from the car and thankfully Peter listened.

“I’m-I’m only staying until a-after second period.” Peter told her and tried to wipe his tears away.

“That’s okay. Are you going to do anything after?” Mrs. Vans asked and held the door open for Peter. Peter walked in, hating that he was back in school.

“Um, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll watch a movie with my dad or play with my lego.” Peter followed her down the hallway and into the office that led into her office.

“Well, that sounds like a fun day. Especially because it’s raining outside, right?” She asked and gestured for Peter to sit down in one of the bean bag chairs. She sat in the one across from him and set his backpack on the ground.

“Um, yeah.” Peter got comfortable in the chair. He liked the way it felt.

“What did you get for Christmas? I’m sure it was fun.” She asked him and put her head on her hand so she could turn sideways.

Peter smiled at the memory of his first Christmas with his dad. “Yeah. It was fun. Our tree is so big. It’s still up but dad says it has to come down today because Christmas is over. Maybe we’ll take it down but I think maybe Steve will.”

“Oh yeah. That sounds so cool. But what did you get?” She asked once again.

“Um…” Peter pulled up his jacket sleeve to show her his new bracelet that was practically invisible. “My dad got this for me. He made it.”

Mrs. Vans gently touched it. She was amazed but it didn’t surprise her since she was talking to Tony Stark’s son. “Oh wow. That’s amazing.”

“Yeah. And I got my lego sets. Me and dad were building the-the Star Wars one yesterday. Wanna know something I got him?” When she nodded, Peter continued. “I’ll tell you one of the things. It was this plaque that I like you say what you want to go on it and then the guy puts the words on and I said all the reasons why I love my dad. Well, not all the reasons but some of them.”

“He must have loved that. That’s really sweet of you, Peter. Are you and your dad really close?”

Peter smiled. “Yeah. He’s my best friend. One day we’re gonna move to an island together. Just me and him.”

“Wow. I bet that’ll be fun. Did you have fun in Miami? I bet it was nice to swim in the ocean.” Peter nodded his head at her question.

“Yeah, we have a pool there which is my favourite since the ocean was a bit cold and my dad doesn’t like the cold water. And the bathroom there is huge, it’s bigger than the one in my dad's bedroom at home but I still like the one at home better.” Peter told her excitedly. He missed the pool a lot and now he learned how to swim a bit better than the last time he went.

They ended up talking all through the first period but Peter had to go to second period which wasn’t that bad since he knew he got to see his dad right after.

.
.
.

Tony picked Happy up after he dropped Peter off and drove to the car dealership.

He had been planning on getting an suv for the past few weeks especially since it would be safer for Peter and more spacious which was extremely important.

He had been looking at a few online but needed to see them in person before he picked one out.

Today was a perfect day to do that since he didn’t have to pick Peter up for a whole two hours.

He got out of the car with Happy and walked into the dealership which immediately had the attention of all the workers in there since they knew he was there to buy an expensive car.

A man practically ran over to them. “Mr. Stark, Mr. Hogan. How can I help you?”

“Uh yeah, we’d like to check out any black Audi SUV’s you’ve got.” Tony told him and looked around the car dealership for anything that caught his eye.

“Oh yes. Of course. We got some models over here for you to look at, if you’d follow me.” The man led them over to the back corner where there were quite a few different models for the SUV’s. “This one here is next year's model. It has leather seats on the inside which is great for kids because it’s easy to clean.”

Tony needed that especially with all their McDonald’s trips.

“Does it have TVs in the back?” Tony asked the man as Happy walked around to the driver's seat to sit inside.

The salesman opened the back door to show Tony. “It does. On each seat in the back and there’s tons of room for car seat space for your kid.”

Tony laughed. “Oh, no. My kid isn’t in a car seat.”

The man nudged his arm which Tony didn’t like. “My bad. Booster seat I mean.”

Tony looked at Happy in the front seat who was laughing at what the man was saying. Tony didn’t know if he thought Peter was a lot younger than he is or if he’s seen pictures of how small Peter is and is assuming Peter sits in a car seat.

The man continued to explain all the features of the different cars to Tony and Tony ended up getting the first model he was shown which was a black Audi suv; he couldn’t wait to see the look on Peter’s face when he picked him up.

Tony had Happy drive his old car home while he took the new truck to go pick Peter up from school.

Tony: Hey bud. I’m outside so come out when you’re ready

Peter: yaaayy I just need to go to my locker

Tony: see you soon

Tony put his phone away and waited for Peter to run out of his school which he always did. He didn’t have to wait long before Peter was running out of the school with a huge smile on his face.

Tony watched as he ran down the steps and paused to look around for his old car. Tony felt so bad for not telling Peter where he was but he wanted to watch him to see what he did.

Peter looked around for him some more and then Tony saw him wiping his eyes. He was scared that Peter was crying so he sent him a text.

Tony: Come to the black truck you see

Tony watched Peter pull his phone out of his pocket and check the text message and then he was cautiously making his way over to the truck. The windows were tinted so Tony rolled down the passenger seat one.

“What do you think?” Tony asked him.

Once Peter saw his face, his eyes lit up and he ran over to the car. Tony laughed since Peter could only reach up to his forehead while looking in.

“Open the door and come in. Tell me what you think.” Peter opened the door and looked inside with wide eyes.

“Woah! Is this yours?” Peter asked excitedly. He couldn’t believe how big the truck was. He’s only been in cars his whole life besides for Ben's old work truck.

“It’s ours. Do you like it?” Tony asked him again, he knew that Peter did.

Peter nodded his head. “Yes! I love it.” He struggled to get in since it was quite high up but once he did, he sat in the seat and bounced up and down on it. “It’s soft.”

“Yeah. Shut the door and see how cool it is when I drive.” Tony loved having a kid. It was fun to watch Peter get excited over everything even if it’s the simplest thing.

Peter shut the door and took his backpack off to put it in the backseat but he saw how cool it was back there so he sat up on his knees to look. “Woah. It’s so cool back here. It-it looks like um, like what do you call those? A limo!”

Tony laughed at that but then he saw something on his kids butt and reached for it. “What’s this?”

“What’s what?” Peter tried to move to see but Tony stopped him.

“Stop moving so I can see.” Tony picked what looked like a piece of candy off of Peter’s butt. It was still on there but he got most of it off. “Did you eat candy today?”

Peter tried to remember. “No.”

“That’s nasty. Take those off when we get home.” Tony told him and then waited for Peter to sit down and put his seatbelt on before he was taking the car out of park and driving.

“It’s so cool. I love it. Can we go for a drive at midnight to enjoy it?” Peter asked him with a grin.

Tony rolled his eyes. “We’ll see. Tell me how school was? Were you sad for long after I left?”

Peter’s smile dropped. “I was crying. But then me and Mrs. Vans went into her office and talked.”

“Oh. What did you guys talk about?” Tony asked curiously. He had already been thinking about getting Peter a therapist to talk to but he didn’t know how Peter would react to that and he didn’t know if he trusted anyone with his kid.

“Um, we talked about you. She asked me about Christmas and Miami.” Peter told his dad and tried to think about what else they walked about.

“Did you like talking to her?” Tony was curious to know because he knew Peter needed some help that he simply couldn’t give him.

Peter shrugged. “She’s nice I guess. Can we get McDonald’s now? You promised.”

Tony couldn’t help but smile. That was the plan. He made a mental note to call Pepper later to ask her opinion on getting Peter a therapist.

When they got home, Tony wanted to get Peter somewhere comfortable to start doing his homework because if he was going to be at home and not at school then he was going to do his homework.

They got out of the elevator and Tony grabbed Peter’s backpack from him. “Go get changed and then you’re going to sit at the kitchen table and do your homework to get caught up.”

Peter looked at Tony like he was slapped. “What? No way. I’m not doing any homework. I’m way too behind.”

“You have three out of four classes to get caught up on. You have your assignment you have to do in your biochemistry class which I can help you with and you have some homework questions from your math teacher and as for your English teacher, well, I don’t want to swear in front of you but she is the C word.” Tony said to Peter and watched his face scrunch up in confusion.

“C word? What’s that? I know the F word and the B word and… that’s all the swear words.” Peter shrugged.

Tony ruffled his hair and walked past him to go into the kitchen to wait for Peter. “Those are all the swear words. You’re right now get upstairs.”

Tony placed Peter’s backpack on the kitchen stool and grabbed a cup of apple juice for Peter. He made himself a cup of coffee because he knew he would need it plus more for what he’s about to go through.

Peter came down dressed in the same shirt but with black track pants. He ran past Tony to open the fridge. “What are you doing? Your backpack is over here.”

“I’m thirsty.”

“I poured you a glass of apple juice here.” Tony told him.

Peter turned around to look at the glass. “I mean I’m hungry.”

Tony sighed. This was going to be a long day. “No you’re not. We just ate.”

Peter shut the fridge and started to dig around for something in one of the cupboards. “What are you doing, Peter?”

“I want my apple juice in the cup that I had when I was sick. I like it.” Peter told him and continued to look.

Tony wanted to rip his hair out. Maybe he should homeschool Peter so he could go. So he could go by his own rules and routine. “How about I get it for you after we finish one subject?”

Peter stood up and made his way over to the kitchen stool. He pushed his closer to Tony and climbed on it. “Just one question.”

“No. Not one question. Okay, how about we start with some math? Take that out first.” Tony handed Peter his backpack and then Peter was opening it and digging inside. “You have about ten questions that your teacher wanted you to complete so he could bump your mark up.”

Peter pulled out the package and set it on the table. “That’s a lot. I’ll do five now and five another day.”

“No. You’re going to do all ten now. Pick your pencil up.”

Peter groaned loudly and opened up the first page. The unit that he missed was exponentiation which he used to be really good at but he hadn’t done it awhile so he didn’t know how to do it now. He groaned again.

“I don’t know any of this.” Peter complained.

Tony pointed to the first question. He knew the answer just from looking at it. “Yes you do. Let’s do it together. Okay you have your negative exponents and your power of a product so now what?”

Peter tried to look at the question but he couldn’t focus. He wanted to go play or watch tv or something. He stared at the page and thought about playing with his legos. Last night he had to go to bed but he was about to build the roof of one of his houses. He wanted to do that instead.

“I need to go poo. Really badly.” Peter looked at Tony with a pained look on his face and slid off the chair.

“Okay. Go.” Tony watched Peter run off. He put his head in his hands and shut his eyes. This was his first real time actually sitting down with Peter to do his homework. He’s helped him with a few questions here and there but that’s it.

About ten minutes later, Peter still wasn’t back yet which was weird considering that Peter went to the bathroom really fast. “FRIDAY, is Peter okay? Does he have a stomach ache?”

“Peter is in his bedroom playing with lego, Boss.” FRIDAY said.

“What?!” Tony stood up off the chair and rushed up the stairs. He was pissed. He walked into Peter’s bedroom and saw him sitting on the floor playing with his legos. His face dropped when Tony saw him as if Peter thought he could get away with what he was doing.

Without saying anything, Tony grabbed the lego roof Peter was building and walked out of the room with it. He ignored Peter yelling and begging him not to break it as Tony walked into his own bedroom and put the lego roof in his closet on the top shelf where Peter couldn’t reach.

He knew Peter could climb up and get it but if he did then Tony would break it. “Get downstairs and sit your ass on that chair. You are doing your homework.”

Peter rubbed his eyes which told Tony that he was about to start crying but Tony didn’t care. He grabbed Peter by the arm and started walking with him back downstairs.

“Ow! No, let me go! You’re mean. Get off of me. No, I’m not doing my homework. No!” Peter had to run to keep up with Tony but Tony ignored all of his protests.

He sat Peter on the chair and tucked him in so he was looking at his homework. “Let’s do it together. Ten questions then a break then we’ll start your English.”

Peter tried to get off the chair but Tony held him with his leg. “Ten questions. Pick your pencil up.”

Peter struggled some more but he gave up once he saw that Tony wasn’t going to budge. He let out a frustrated scream and smacked the table then looked up at his dad.

“Scream all you want. I don’t care.” Tony felt a bit guilty but Peter couldn’t come home from school and expect to watch movies and play with his legos all the time.

“I want- I want my water bottle.” Peter said desperately and reached out to nowhere.

“If I get that for you, will you do your homework?” Tony asked him and Peter nodded so Tony was getting up to get Peter his apple juice in his water bottle that he loved for some reason.

He handed it to his kid who was taking it with one hand and picking up his pencil with the other hand. It took about forty minutes in total to answer all ten questions which Tony couldn’t have been more happy about when it was done.

Tony also noticed that Peter knew how to answer all the questions but he kept pretending like he didn’t know just so he would help him which Tony thought was odd but he didn’t say anything.

“I’m done. Yay!” Peter grabbed his water bottle and went to run away but Tony grabbed him by his arm.

“Wait.” He took his phone out of his pocket and showed Peter him setting a timer. “I’m gonna set this timer for fifteen minutes. After it rings I want you sitting back at this table.”

Peter nodded his head and then was running off into the living room to spend his fifteen minutes there.

Tony used his fifteen minutes to make another coffee, chug it and then make another one. He wanted so badly to talk to Peter about some potential homeschooling but he didn’t know how that would work out.

Before he knew it, his phone was ringing and Peter was running over.

“English time.” Peter sang and pulled his English binder out of his backpack then climbed up on the stool.

Tony didn’t know how much of a help he could be with this since English was never his strong suit in school. He loved maths and sciences.

Peter pulled out the article that he had to read and answer the questions on but he handed it over to Tony to read it. “I’m not doing it, you are.”

Peter kicked the kitchen island wall. “No. No you have to because it’s too hard for me.”

Tony knew he had to be careful because Peter was in quite the mood. He didn’t know how to say something without upsetting Peter. “Okay. How about I read a paragraph out loud and you read the next one?”

Peter stuck out his bottom lip in a pout but agreed. “Okay. Fine. You read the bigger one.”

By the end of reading the article, Peter was crying because he was over stressed with all of his English work. Tony understood how he felt because his teacher had given him an almost impossible task to complete to bump his grade up since she was a cunt and Tony wanted to get her fired.

“It’s okay, bud. It’s okay.” Tony rubbed Peter’s back while Peter cried into his chest. “Let’s put this to the side for later. Don’t worry about it right now.”

“H-how am I not gonna w-w-worry about it when-when I’m gonna fail?! I can’t do this.” Peter cried even harder into Tony’s chest.

Tony held Peter tighter. “You’re not gonna fail. You won’t. You’re way too smart to fail and I know you can do this. You just gotta try a little bit harder.”

Peter shook his head. “No. I will f-fail because I’m too stupid!”

Tony hated hearing Peter say that. Peter was one of the smartest people that he’s ever met and he’s met a lot of smart people in his lifetime. “Hey, look at me. You Peter Stark are not stupid. I don’t ever want to hear you say that about yourself again.”

Peter wiped his face which ended up dragging all the snot up his cheek. “Then how c-come I can't do this?”

“Because it’s hard. It’s okay to not be good at everything and have some trouble sometimes.” Tony said to him.

Peter wiped his face again. “Well I hate it.”

“I know. It’s okay.” Tony tried to reassure him. “We’ll do it together.”