All The Stars Align

The plan for today was to go grocery shopping with Peter to grab some things he might see so Tony could start introducing more of a healthy diet into Peter’s life instead of the same foods over and over again.

Steve of course was going to help with the shopping which they were going to do as soon as Peter woke up.

Then, Tony was going to have Steve watch Peter for a few hours while he goes down to Bruce’s lab to hang out with him and not have to worry about leaving Peter alone.

Next on that list was for Tony to have another talk with Peter about school because time was running out and he wanted to see if Peter was at least thinking about it but it was a huge decision so he would give him more time if he needed it.

Tony felt good.

He was sitting in his office feeling very productive since he just had two online meetings and got caught up with his emails and even after all that, he still found the time to make a mental list in his mind for what they had to do today, at least before Rose comes at seven.

There was a knock on his door so he looked up to see Steve standing there, looking ready and eager to leave. “Is Peter awake yet?”

“Not yet. He went to bed late so he’s only been sleeping for about seven hours and I want him to at least get nine.” Tony had done the research. He read multiple books for all ages as well as spoke to a specialist in the beginning when he first adopted Peter to make sure he wasn’t failing on basic needs. Peter needed ten hours of sleep but he knew that wasn’t going to happen for Peter, or any other teenager for that matter.

“Alright. I have nothing to do so do you need me to do anything? Wash clothes, clean up the kitchen?” Steve asked him and Tony beamed at that. He was always needing help with stuff around the penthouse.

“I mean, if you want to, I have a list of things that need to get done.” Tony didn’t think Steve would want to but he was asking so he started listing stuff off. “The laundry needs to get done. There’s a bunch of Peter’s dirty clothes in my room that are all over the floor and whatever’s on the floor in my bathroom. The kitchen is a disaster but Peter’s water bottles need to be hand washed to- Wait, I’ll just show you.”

Tony stood up since he wanted another coffee anyways. He grabbed one of Peter’s many water bottles and showed Steve. “All of these need to be hand washed because the dishwasher doesn’t get in there properly and I don’t want mould to start building up.”

Steve took the bottle from Tony and took the lid off. “Is this a sippy cup?”

Tony put his coffee on and looked over at Steve. “What? No. It’s his water bottle.”

“This part's rubber.” Steve touched the built in straw that didn’t look much like a straw at all.

“Yeah… he can chew on it while he falls asleep. I don’t know and I don’t care, all I know is that it puts him to sleep most of the time.” Tony grabbed his mug once it was done and he took a sip, burning his mouth in the process. “Oh yeah, there’s one on my bed from last night so if you see it, can you grab it? Thank you.”

With that, Tony was off.

Steve started with the kitchen by putting all the dishes from the sink and counters, into the dishwasher so that could wash while he did the water bottles that were definitely not sippy cups.

After that, he headed upstairs to grab the dirty clothes from the bedroom but also to check on Peter in the process. He enjoyed being around the kid and actually liked it when Tony trusted him with Peter because that meant he got one on one time with the boy and it was nice.

So he was definitely looking forward to later today.

When Steve walked into Tony’s bedroom, he immediately spotted Peter on the bed who was lying on his side with all of the blankets kicked off of him. He looked so comfy and cuddly it was taking a lot for Steve not to pick him up right there and cuddle him.

He did what he walked into the room to do, grabbing the dirty laundry off the floor and putting it into the hamper then going to the bathroom to do the same. He walked over to the bed to lean over Peter and see if he could find the water bottle but he found it tucked away under Peter’s leg and he didn’t really know if he wanted to wake him up by trying to take it so he just left it there.

A few hours later, Peter was waking up.

He first rubbed at his eyes and stretched his arms out to feel for his dad but the spot was empty. And he was upside down.

Peter let out a yawn and stared up at the ceiling.

“Hey, sleepy head.” Tony said, walking into the room. “Did you have a nice sleep?”

Peter pushed himself up and rubbed at his eyes again while staring at his dad who was feeling on the bed for some reason and pulling the blankets back. “What you doin’?”

Tony was happy that the sheets didn’t need changing. “You’ve been sleeping for ten hours, bud. That’s a long time so go pee pee, brush your teeth and get dressed then come eat breakfast.”

Peter slid onto his stomach off the bed until he fell onto the floor. “Steve’s coming with us so we have to hurry because he’s so excited to go.”

“Are we going grocery shopping?” Peter asked and looked between the bathroom door and the bedroom door. He didn’t feel like getting dressed by himself today.

“Yeah. So let’s go.” Tony picked Peter up by his underarms and brought him into the bathroom. At least Peter wasn’t crying. “Pull down your pyjama pants, come on.”

Peter looked down at the toilet seat but he didn’t feel like using his legs. “I want to sit.”

“Sit, stand, squat. Do whatever you want. I’m gonna go grab your clothes for the day.” Tony left the bathroom and walked into Peter’s bedroom since Steve had taken all of the clothes from his room to wash, not that Tony would dress Peter in dirty clothes although he has done that before… possibly more than once.

“Oh. I didn’t know you were still in here.” Tony said. He had no idea Steve was still cleaning up the penthouse but he was incredibly grateful for the workload he just took off of him. “Thanks for doing this.”

“It’s no problem, Tony. Anyway I can help you out with Peter.” He gave a weak but genuine smile to the billionaire and then went back to folding Peter’s clean clothes.

“Thanks. He’s up so I’m just gonna grab some clothes for him.” Tony quickly grabbed some warm clothes, still hot from the drier and then made his way back to his kid. “Are you rea- what are you doing, Peter? Give me that.”

Tony dropped the clean clothes onto the ground and grabbed his electric razor that Peter had turned on and was looking at. He turned it off and immediately put it away. “That isn’t for you to touch. You could have shaved your hair off.”

He grabbed Peter’s wrist and pulled him out of the bathroom. “I didn’t!” Peter told him and pulled his arm away from his dad. “You’re mean!”

“You’re being bad. Sit on the bed.” Tony grabbed the clothes that he dropped and placed them on the bed but Peter was still standing there. “Peter.” When he reached out to grab onto Peter, the boy threw himself onto the floor and kicked the bed.

“No! Noooo-”

“Shh. Stop it. Okay, come here. I’m not mad anymore.” Tony wanted to have a nice day which would lead to having a nice night and hopefully not too bad for Rose to witness. Hopefully.

Peter wiped at his dry eyes and looked at his dad. “Is-is Steve coming shopping with us?”

“Yeah. And he helped me clean the whole house while you were sleeping.” Tony reached onto the bed and grabbed Peter’s clean track pants. “Look, it’s still warm.”

“Let me see.” Peter grabbed the pants and rubbed his face against it. “Yeah. It’s so warm.”

“But you gotta put it on quickly so it doesn’t get cold so chop chop.” Tony grinned when it worked. Peter was dressed in a few minutes and then they were eating breakfast and buckled in the car, ready to go grocery shopping.

“Dad? Dad?” Peter kicked the back of Tony’s seat in the car. He forgot to do something very important before they left and now he was regretting that.

“Yes, Pete?”

“I need to pee.” Peter told him and tried to hold himself tightly.

Tony mentally cursed. He knew he was forgetting to do something before they left which was to remind Peter to go. There was nowhere to pull over since they were smack center in traffic in the busy streets of New York.

“You have to hold it until we get to the grocery store and then we’ll take you to a bathroom.” Tony looked back in the mirror and saw Peter looking down at himself. “Can you hold it?”

“No. It’s gonna come out.” Peter winced and tried to hold his legs together tighter but his bladder was throbbing. “Hurry.”

“Okay. Okay, just hold it for one more minute.” Tony sped up a little faster and passed by some slow ass moving cars. It was more like ten minutes but Peter didn’t need to know that.

The worst part of it all was that Peter was wearing grey track pants so he wouldn’t even be able to hide any accidents.

Five minutes later, they were pulling up to the store so Tony parked in the front. “Peter, go in with Steve while I go park the car.”

Steve got out of the car and opened up the back door for Peter who was muttering something about not wanting to leave Tony.

Steve grabbed onto Peter’s hand and led him into the store and over to the back which was where the washrooms were. Why couldn’t they be at the front like a normal store?

“You’re walking too fast.” Peter complained and tried to keep up. “Your legs are like twice as long as my legs.”

Steve saw all the looks that they were getting and the odd picture being taken. Great. He had to focus on getting Peter into the bathroom first. “I know. I’m just trying to hurry.”

Peter gave himself another much needed squeeze and saw the bathrooms in view which made him all that more desperate. The two of them walked inside and Steve did a quick check but there was no one in there. He let go of Peter’s arm and gently shoved him in front of a urinal.

“Ew. I want a toilet.” Peter was already in the process of tugging down his pants as he entered a stall and pulled his pants and underwear down to his ankles to go. He had to sit down to go because he was out of breath from all that running.

Steve turned his back to Peter to give him some privacy and to watch for any men coming into the restroom.

Peter sighed in relief as he went. It was the worst feeling to have to hold it in the car. He saw the toilet paper roll and reached out to roll it while he waited for his pee to stop.

The door to the washroom was being opened but it was only Tony, looking extremely relieved to see Steve in there. “Is everything good?”

Steve glanced it at Peter who was looking at him so he stepped aside to let Tony check on him. “All dry?”

Peter smiled at his dad. “You came back.”

“Of course I did. I just had to park the car so you didn’t pee yourself.” Tony told him. “Why didn’t you go before we left?”

Peter shrugged his shoulders. “I forgot.”

“But you knew you had to go. You have to remember to go, Pete. I know you get excited but it’s important.” Tony knew now wasn’t the time to have this discussion. He was cringing that Peter was sitting on the toilet seat. “You all done?”

“Just my underwear got a bit wet.” Peter told him and made a move to stand up but his butt got a bit stuck to the seat. Nasty.

Tony knelt down to feel how wet it was but it was fine and as long as his pants stayed dry. “That’s okay. Pull them up so we can go shopping.”

“Can we get ice cream? And chocolate?” Peter went to walk out of the stall but Tony blocked him until he was done. “I want um, chocolate ice cream.”

“We can get that but you have to hurry up. Just pull them up, why are you taking so long?” Tony tried not to get involved and wanted Peter to do it himself but he was taking way too long.

“And maybe Oreo too.” Peter added onto his mental list.

“Peter.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go. Yank them up.” Tony didn’t understand what the hold up was. It wasn’t that hard to do.

“It’s all twisted. It’s always all twisted.” Peter struggled a bit more but he couldn’t get ice cream out of his head and what flavour he wanted the most right now. He whined and looked up at his dad. “I want ice cream.”

Tony laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. “We will. Okay, let me just,” He bent down to untwist it for Peter and pulled it up. “Was that so hard?”

Peter went to rub at his eyes but Tony stopped him. “Wash your hands first, buddy. You have so many germs on your hands right now.”

Peter looked up at Steve who was smiling at him. “What?”

“Nothing. You’re just so funny, Peter.” Steve shook his head, amusingly at the boy.

Peter put some soap onto his hands to scrub at them. “I didn’t say anything funny. You’re crazy.”

Both adults looked at each other and shared a funny look since they knew Peter was the crazy one. Tony had never met a kid like Peter, maybe it’s because he didn’t know a lot of people under twenty five, if any. Either way Peter was one of a kind.

They finished up in the bathroom and grabbed a shopping cart to begin their shopping. Tony was happy to finally be getting some healthy foods into their kitchen but the problem was going to be getting Peter to eat it which he was not looking forward to at all.

There was just something about Peter and healthy foods that never went together.

“I wanna sit in the shopping cart.” Peter said and went to grab onto the sides of the cart to get in but Tony didn’t let him. “Like last time. Please? I want to.”

“You have to help me put some food in there.” Tony walked into the fruits and vegetable area but Peter was more focused on the shopping cart so Tony picked up two containers of strawberries and handed them to his kid. “Can you put these in for me please?”

Peter put the strawberries in and looked at Steve who was pushing the shopping cart. “I’m gonna climb in.”

“No, Peter. You have to help you dad. Let’s get some potatoes. Can you put those in for me?” Steve asked and waited for Peter to lead the way towards them.

Tony came back and dumped a bunch of random healthy veggies into the cart so Peter went to go look at them. “You know when the water comes down on the foods? Let’s wait for that to happen.”

“I think we should grab some carrots, don’t you think?” Tony asked his kid who nodded and went to go look for that. Yeah, he could totally do this. Peter was simple since he was very easy to distract and turn his attention onto something else which he liked.

“Dad?”

“Yeah?” Tony continued to look at the fruits while Peter picked out some carrots next to him.

“Are these ones good?” Tony looked over to see Peter holding up a bag of baby carrots.

“Yeah. Toss them in.”

Once they moved on from the healthy foods, Tony took over the cart from Steve since Peter was walking up ahead too far so Steve went ahead to go with him so Peter didn’t disappear into a random aisle again and scare the shit out of him.

Of course, Peter led them down the junk food aisle so Tony followed along and watched Peter pick out anything chocolate. He hoped Peter didn’t find his chocolate stash but in all honesty, he didn’t know how Peter didn’t find it yet.

“Dad?” Peter asked again and ran up to him so he could stand in front of him. “Ice cream time?”

“We’ll make our way to the ice cream but we have to get a bunch of other things first, bud.”

Peter groaned. “But I’m tired now.”

“Well… I can’t do much about that.” Tony ignored the whine Peter let out and grabbed a box of goldfish to add in the cart.

“I can’t keep walking. I need a break.” Peter complained and Tony turned around to see Peter sitting on the ground with his legs stretched out in front of him.

“Get off the floor. You know how dirty it is.” Tony had to leave the shopping cart to grab Peter by the arm so he would stand back up. “We can relax when we get home but we still have to finish our shopping.”

“I wanna take a nap when we get home. I’m tired.” To prove Peter’s point, he yawned.

“How are you tired? You slept for ten hours.” Tony didn’t understand. He thinks it’s because Peter had been having a lot of naps throughout the days because he would sleep horrible and so now he thinks he actually needs one when he in fact does not.

“I’m just tired, dad.” Peter grabbed onto Tony’s arm to lean his head against him so they walked together like that for a bit before Peter spotted the dairy aisle and made a run for it, briefly disappearing from both Steve and Tony’s view but sometimes that was all it took.

Tony rounded the corner and saw Peter with a jug of chocolate ice cream and a huge smile on his face. He grabbed some milk and Peter’s yogurt drinks as well. They were actually quite good but he only had a sip of Peter’s once or twice.

“I’m tired, dad. My legs want to stop walking now.” Peter complained and bent down so he could brace himself against his thighs.

Tony tried to think about what else they needed. Mostly everything else he ordered to the penthouse and everyone else was in charge of placing their own grocery orders, he just paid for it all.

“I think we’re ready to go. Do you need anything else?” Tony asked both Steve and Peter but he wasn’t going to get an answer out of that kid.

“I think we’re good.” Steve looked over at Peter. “Do you need anything, Peter?”

Peter groaned and lifted his arms up to Steve. “I need to be carried to the car. My legs are tired and so are my eyes.”

Tony didn’t know why he was so tired. He just woke up after sleeping for ten hours. He really hoped Peter wasn’t coming down with anything but he just assumed that it was Peter being extra and lazy. He knew Peter loved to be carried at every chance he got and that he was incredibly bored right now.

Steve lifted up Peter anyways so they could leave. A lot of people were staring at them and Tony knew pictures were being taken which he hated but that was what he had to expect when he went out in public and when he had Peter with him.

Those pictures of Peter were not allowed to show up anywhere without his face blurred since he was underage but still, random people were taking pictures of his kid. He hated it.

“Let’s go pay so we can leave.” Tony said and started pushing the shopping cart towards the cashiers. He looked at Peter who was making funny faces at Steve while being carried as if he were a king. The sight was humours.

Once everything was paid for and bagged up, Tony grabbed Peter’s jacket that he took off and went to go hand it to Peter who was no longer being carried. “Put this on because it’s cold out.”

Of course, Peter refused. “It’s not. I’m hot.”

Tony didn’t want to have a scene in the store. “Put it on, Peter. I’m not asking you again.”

Peter glared at him. “No.”

“Okay. I’m gonna go put your ice cream back-”

“No! I’ll put it on.” Peter grabbed the jacket from his dad and quickly started putting it on while looking at Tony to see if he would take his ice cream.

Tony watched him and leaned down so he was closer to Peter’s level and only he could hear him as he spoke, maybe Steve as well since he had super hearing. “I shouldn’t have to threaten to take your ice cream away. When I tell you to do something, you do it.”

Peter zipped up his jacket and nodded his head so Tony grabbed his hand to force him to hold onto the shopping cart because he knew Peter would run otherwise.

The three of them walked to the car but it was snowing heavily out which got Peter smiling and jumping by the cart. “Dad! Can we go to the park and play in the snow like last time?”

“I have to do some work when we get home but maybe Steve can take you.” Tony said before he even realized what he was saying. He forgot to tell Peter he had to leave him for a few hours.

He looked down at his kid who was looking up at him with watery eyes. “No. Where’re you goin’?”

“Just in my office, baby. But Steve is going to watch you.” Tony looked over at Steve but his attention was on Peter.

“No! Just you. I just want you to stay with me.” Peter let go of the shopping cart to grab onto Tony’s arm with both hands. “No, dad.”

“Shh, it’s okay, Petey. It’s gonna be so much fun.” Tony felt bad. He should have brought it up when they got home but he totally forgot.

“Stay.” Peter leaned his head against his dad and whispered so for now, Tony decided to agree with him.

“Alright. Get into the car.” He gently ushered Peter into the car and then helped Steve load the truck up but Peter was taking off his seatbelt and peeking his head over to watch them.

“Hi. Can I eat my bear paw on the way home?” Peter asked but he was already reaching into the backseat for it so Tony let him.

“Yep. Grab it but only one because lunch time is soon.” He warned him.

“No lunch.” Peter grabbed the box and sat down in his seat so he could start eating it. It was good.

Tony didn’t know what this phase was. Was Peter testing boundaries with him? He didn’t know. It sure seemed that way since he could tell Peter to fold a blanket and it’s the end of the world. Maybe he should ask Rose.

Once the three of them got home and settled onto Steve’s floor, Tony decided that now would be the best time to say goodbye to Peter for an hour or two and leave to hang out with Bruce and to get some work done.

He didn’t want to go but Peter seemed to be having a fun time with Thor who was currently tossing Peter into the air as if he weighed nothing and Tony imagined that he did weigh nothing to the god.

Of course Peter was fairly light even for him, light enough to pick up and maneuver him around but not light enough to toss him in the air.

He tried to push down the panic every time he saw Peter go up but he knew the god would catch him and he didn’t want to put an end to the giggles.

“Thor, can you pause for two seconds?” Tony asked just before Peter was thrown into the air again.

Peter looked over at his dad with rosy cheeks from running around and laughing so hard. “Hey baby. You having fun?”

“Uh huh. Did you see how high Thor threw me?” Peter asked and lifted his arms up for emphasis.

“I did see. You’re going to stay here and hang out with everyone because I have to go do some boring work but I’ll be back in two hours.” Before Tony even finished, Peter was reaching out for him in Thor’s arms and scrunching his face up.

“No. Stay. Stay with me.” Peter tried to grab onto his dad so Tony pressed a kiss to his sweaty face and pulled away. “No. Daddy.”

“I’ll see you soon. You play.” Tony loved it when Peter called him that but he wished he did it more often and not when he was crying out for him.

Tony waved bye to him and walked towards the elevator but Peter had already started crying for him. As horrible as he felt thinking that, but it wasn’t his problem now. He needed a well deserved break now.

Peter reached out weakly towards where his dad left but Thor wasn’t letting him go so he smacked the god and laid his head on his shoulder to get the comfort that he desperately needed.

“Your father will be back soon, Young Peter.” Thor reassured him so Peter nodded against him and lifted his head up when Steve walked over, looking rather happy to take Peter from him.

“Hi Peter. How about we go do something fun while your dad goes to work?” Steve offered so Peter let himself be transferred into the man’s arms. Thor was bigger but Steve was warmer so Peter wrapped his arms around his neck and sighed. “What do you want to do?”

“Go see dad.” Peter mumbled, brokenly. He just wanted his dad.

“I was thinking we make some winter crafts.” Steve began and carried Tony’s kid over to a room down the hall where he kept all of his art supplies such as paper, pencils, paints and so much more. “Can I put you down?”

Peter shook his head and laid it back on Steve’s shoulder so he was forced to hold him.

“Alright.” He hoisted him up higher and used his free arm to grab some of the things they needed which was white paint and construction paper. “Can you hold this for me?”

Peter took both items from Steve and looked at them while he was carried back into the living space and over to the dining room table. He loved doing crafts since he got to get messy and use his hands with no rules and no one telling him he couldn’t.

“We’re gonna do finger painting. So we can use our fingers to cover the trees we cut out which will be the snowflakes.” Steve explained and let go of Peter so he could sit in a chair. He’s so grateful that Tony has a kid so he has someone to do this stuff with.

“And I can use my hands too?” Peter asked, remembering that one time in school where the grade nines weren’t allowed to touch the paint and had to let the grade twelves do it for them. He was so upset that day.

“Of course. Roll up your sleeves.” Steve set up the paper and then went into the kitchen to grab scissors so they could cut some trees out and glue it onto another paper.

“I’m gonna make one for my dad.” Peter grinned. He couldn’t wait to see his dad's face when he showed him. He rolled up his sleeves and started cutting out his tree then got to his favorite part which was the painting.

After a few finger dips, he got a bit carried away and dipped in all of his fingers so he could spread it all over his tree but when he looked over at Steve’s, it looked a lot better than his. “I like yours better. It’s pretty.”

“Thank you but I like yours better. Look how amazing that is. Your dad is gonna love it.” Steve looked over at Peter’s. He had more fingerprints on the table than on the paper but it was fine.

“Thanks.” Peter brushed the hair from his eyes which caused some paint to spread across his forehead.

Once that was done, Steve made lunch but Peter refused to eat any of it because he wanted to watch his show for a few minutes which resulted in him falling asleep on the couch.

There was nothing that Steve could do about it because he knew Peter had been asking for a nap in the grocery store so he guessed it was just a matter of time before Peter passed out.

Tony walked out of the elevator shortly after Peter fell asleep and his eyes immediately landed on his passed out kid. “How was he?”

It was nice to have some alone time. It was much needed and he was very productive. Since Steve had cleaned the house this morning, Tony was going to spend an hour doing work in his office but now he could do that after Peter falls asleep later tonight.

He had some much needed alone time and then spent the rest of the time with Bruce. Definitely needed.

“He was good. We did some crafts that he will want to show you later.” Steve told him and turned the volume down on the tv a bit.

Tony smiled at his kid and sat down. Peter was sleeping on his stomach with his legs tucked under his chest and his butt up in the air which was always his go to sleeping position but Tony loved it. It was so cute.

“How long has he been sleeping for?” He asked, not knowing if he should wake him up or not. He was obviously napping because he was tired.

“About forty minutes. He fell asleep after lunch.” Steve told him which got Tony’s hopes up.

“How did he eat?”

“He ate nothing. I made chicken wraps with egg salad and fruits and he picked at the chicken wrap then refused to eat anything else.” Steve explained to him and stood up to grab the plate so he could show Tony.

Tony sighed. Peter was impossible to feed and he knew he was light because of the spider bite but he did the math. For someone Peter’s age, height and size, he was seven pounds underweight and Tony hated that.

It was because Peter was impossible to feed unless it was pizza or McDonald’s.

Steve walked back over with the plate so Tony took it from him to see what Peter ate. Absolutely nothing. He could see that the wrap was picked at but that was it. “Wow. He barely ate breakfast as well. He had like two bites of waffles and he’s already underweight.”

“Talk to his therapist about it. She’s coming tonight, isn’t she? Maybe she knows how to get Peter to eat.” Steve said and it was worth a try. Tony had to tell her so she could help.

“Yeah, I’ll do that but with his fast metabolism he has to eat double someone his age. And that’s now. What about when he’s my age? He’s gonna need to eat like ten times as much.” Tony didn’t want to think that far ahead. That was crazy.

“It’s a phase. He’s at the age where everything is disgusting unless it’s junk food.” Steve placed his hand on Tony’s arm. “It’ll be okay. It’ll pass. Whether that be a year from now or five years from now.”

Tony laughed dryly. He had mixed feelings about these phases passing because part of him wanted them to end but part of him didn’t so he was stuck between the two.

“Yeah. We’ll see.” He looked down at Peter but then remembered something. “Did he go pee before he fell asleep?”

Steve tried to remember. “I sent him to the bathroom to wash his hands before lunch but I don’t know if he went.”

Tony knew Peter wouldn’t have gone. “FRI, when was the last time Peter went pee?”

“Peter last used the bathroom at 10:47am when he woke up this morning.” FRIDAY told him and so Tony knew that the last time was at the grocery store. Shit.

He knew Peter should go by himself but he didn’t. He forgot or didn’t feel like getting up to go and held it until he absolutely couldn’t hold it anymore.

With another sigh, Tony started to shake Peter awake to get him to use the bathroom and to eat his lunch.

“Wake up, Pete. No more napping for you. It’s time to wake up.” Tony shook him a little bit more and then Peter was moving his legs from underneath him and whining. “Hey, bud. Open your eyes.”

Peter sat up and rubbed at his eyes. “I’m still tired.”

“No, you can sleep at bedtime.”

“N-noooo-”

“Hey.” Tony cut him off. “I heard you made some stuff with Steve. Can you show me after you go pee?”

Peter rubbed at his eyes some more before nodding his head and sliding off the couch to go to the bathroom as if he had just realized he needed to go. When Tony looked at Steve, he looked impressed. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s just… you seem to know what he’s going to do before he even does it.” Steve had said.

Tony shrugged. He’s been doing this for long enough and he knew Peter better than Peter knew himself. Whenever Peter got in a bad mood around nighttime but didn’t know why, Tony always knew why. He knew everything about his kid. “Yeah, well… he’s pretty predictable once you’ve been with him everyday and every night for months on end but… I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“It’s good. What you guys have.” Tony smiled at what Steve said. He knew what him and Peter had was special, they were extremely close in such a short amount of time and he loved that.

Peter took that time to run out of the bathroom and over to the couch to get Tony to follow him. “Come. I wanna show you.”

“Okay. I’m coming.” Tony stood up and followed Peter into the dining room where he saw all the white paint everywhere and a bunch of papers covered in it.

Peter picked up one of the papers and shoved it in his face. “Look! This one's mine. I made it for you. Do you like it?”

Tony held the painting in his hands and saw how it was so Peter. He could see where he started out and then got carried away with the paint and started putting his hands all over the page. “I love it, Pete. And this is all mine?”

Peter nodded his head. “Yeah! It’s for you. And that one is Steve’s but it’s not for you and these ones here are also for you but not my first one.”

Tony looked at the other papers that were equally as amazing. He loved being a father so freaking much. It was his favourite thing ever. “Oh my goodness. I love them all so much, Peter. These are going on the fridge. I want to look at these everyday.”

Peter smiled. He was glad that his dad liked them.

“We’re gonna up back upstairs soon but I heard you didn’t eat your lunch.” Tony told Peter and reached out to rub the white paint off his forehead.

Peter picked up his painting to show his dad again. “Did you see this one?”

Tony took all the paintings in his hand. “I did and I love it but I’m gonna hang them up when we go upstairs.”

“Yeah. Wait, I wanna show you something else on it too.” Peter grabbed the paintings back from his dad so Tony left to go heat up Peter’s food while he watched Peter lay out all of his paintings again.

When he walked back to the table with Peter’s food and his drink, he sat himself down on a chair and pulled out one for Peter to do the same thing. “Lunch time. Again. Since you didn’t eat before.”

Peter sat on his knees on the chair but pushed the plate away. “I’m not hungry.”

“You are hungry so eat. Peter, you last ate at breakfast and you didn’t even eat that much then.” Tony grabbed the paintings and pushed the plate back in front of Peter. He picked up his fork and knife to cut the chicken wrap up in hopes it would want Peter to eat it. “Eat some.”

“No.” Peter sat down fully and leaned back in the chair. Tony thought back to when Peter first came to live with him and the boy refused to eat anything so he had to put Peter on his lap to get him to eat. Were they really going back to that?

“It’s so good. Let me try it.” Tony stabbed a piece of the wrap with the fork and took a bite, exaggerating the taste. “Hmmm. That’s so good.”

Peter watched him and he wanted to taste it like his dad did so he took the fork from him and took a bite. “Hmmm.”

“Isn’t it so good?” Tony asked. He tried not to smile too hard that he got Peter to eat it. He was proud of himself for that.

“Yeah. Your turn now.” Peter put his fork down and waited for Tony to grab it but Tony sat back and shook his head.

“No, I’m so full. I already ate lunch while you were with Steve. So now it’s your turn.” Tony told him although he did eat, it was just junk food. Not that he would ever tell Peter that.

“Oh. What did you eat?” Peter asked and put down his fork to sit back up so Tony grabbed it while he answered him.

“Just some sandwiches. Boring. Did you try the egg salad yet?” Tony scooped some up on the fork and tried to hand it to Peter but he was moving his head away. “Just try. Please.”

Peter leaned back as far as he could in the chair to move away from the egg salad heading towards him. It smelt bad and it was cold. He hated the way it looked.

“No. Go away.” Peter tried to move his head away and lifted his arms up to turn his head into them but it didn’t work since Tony held the fork to his mouth so some of it got in.

Tony put the fork down proudly. Peter took a bite, rather forced but he took a bite and he was about to mentally congratulate himself when Peter was spitting it out of his mouth and the egg salad going all down his chin and down his shirt.

He sighed. “Peter. Why are you spitting it out?”

Tears started leaking from his eyes so Tony sighed again. “I don’t like it. I wanna go upstairs.”

Tony didn’t know what to do. He put his head in his hands and knew that he had to order whatever Peter wanted because this wasn’t healthy. He wasn’t eating.

He had never met a pickier eater in his life. Peter was frustrating at meal times. He wants what he wants and if he doesn’t get that, he doesn’t eat.

The thing was that Peter had always been like this. Ever since he was a baby. He knew that. When he first met Peter, he learned on one of the very first meetings that Peter was picky and he talked to May about it who had given up a long time ago and just gave Peter what he wanted, whether that be KD for the fifth time in a row with hot dogs or take out.

It was difficult. And now he didn’t know how to deal with it. He can’t let Peter go hungry but he doesn’t want to give into what he wants although he has no other choice.

“Okay, Pete. What do you want to eat?” Tony asked and lifted his head up to look at Peter who was a mess. He had egg dripping down his chin and paint on his forehead with tears running down his cheeks.

Peter wiped at his face and sat up. “McDonald’s.”

“Okay. I’ll get you McDonald’s. Let’s go get you changed and washed up first because you’re all messy.” Tony grabbed the plate and cup to bring it into the kitchen.

No one else was there so he just left with Peter following behind him. The two of them headed up in the elevator and into Tony’s bathroom. “Take off your shirt. Look at all those stains.”

Peter looked at himself in the full body mirror that was in the bathroom. “Yeah. Some of it is paint though.”

“Yeah.” Tony wasn’t even listening, he grabbed a facecloth and soaked it then turned around to wipe Peter’s face but he still hadn’t taken off his shirt yet. “Shirt off. C’mon. Your head is in the clouds, Pete.”

“It’s not.” Peter pulled his shirt off and tossed it onto the floor then moved to his pants.

“You don’t need to change your whole outfit.” Tony sat on the edge of the bathtub and waited for Peter to finish.

“I don’t want to wear pants anymore.” Peter tossed his pants onto the floor and went to go look in the mirror again but Tony grabbed his arm and tugged him over because he had lost all patience now. “Do you think they can give me an Iron Man toy in my food? They did one time.”

“Maybe.” Tony wiped the paint off of Peter’s face and then the egg while Peter played with his necklace. “Do you need to pee before we go downstairs?”

He was glad Peter looked decent now. If there was one thing he hated to see was when he saw kids walking around in public with dirt all over their face. He now knew how often it happened but still, he didn’t want his kid looking like that.

“No. McDonald’s time.” Peter pulled away from him and so Tony followed him downstairs to order their food.

Twenty minutes later, the two of them were seated on the couch watching Peter’s cartoons and eating McDonald’s. Tony was just glad that Peter was eating even if it was McDonald’s.

Peter shoved a bunch of fries into his mouth and laid down so he was lying over Tony's lap with his arms over his head. “You’re gonna choke. Sit up.”

Peter lifted his legs up so he could do a back roll over his dad’s legs and sat up. “Did you see?”

“How could I miss it. I almost got your foot in my face.” Tony playfully poked Peter in the stomach and took another bite out of his burger. “Eat your chicken nuggets.”

Peter looked at Tony’s burger and pulled himself up to get a better look. “I wanna bite of yours.”

Tony was so happy. His burger had ‘healthy’ options on it that Peter always picked off so he was so happy that Peter was asking for a bite. “Yeah. Try it.”

He shouldn’t have been surprised. A bite from Peter was the size of a hamster bite but at least he got a nibble of a tomato. “Is it yummy?”

“No. I need chicken nuggets to get the taste out of my mouth. That was poo poo.” Peter grabbed a chicken nugget off the couch and took a bite while Tony ruffled his hair. Peter made his life so bright and worth living for.

After lunch time was done and all the food was gone, Tony wanted to talk to Peter about the school situation that had to start within the next few days. He didn’t know how to bring it up since he had no idea whether or not Peter had been thinking about it.

He finished cleaning up the kitchen and walked into the living room with two bowls of ice cream. He had chopped up strawberries to put inside as toppings so at least Peter ate something healthy.

“Here, bud. Chocolate ice cream for you and me.” With his bowl, Tony sat down on the carpet with his kid who was building his legos.

“Yummy.” Peter took it and looked inside. “What is that? Are those strawberries?”

“Yeah, look,” Tony showed Peter his bowl. “I have them too.”

With a content nod, Peter shoved a spoonful into his mouth.

“So, Pete,” He began. “remember we talked about all the different options for school?” When Peter nodded, he continued. “So I was just wondering if you thought about it at all or if you want to talk about it with me?”

Peter put his bowl on the table so he could stir it and avoid eye contact. “Umm…” The truth was that he didn’t think about it. He kind of forgot but at the same time he was scared to start something new.

He didn’t know what to do. He still hasn’t even told his friends that he left school. He knew he was being horrible. It had almost been a week and he hadn’t even checked his phone since he had no reason to. He played games on his dad’s phone and the other half of the time he didn’t even want to be on a phone.

The saddest part was that all of his friends had to have expected that he wasn’t going to respond to them so they probably weren’t even worried.

Tony sensed Peter’s unease. “How about we talk about it?” Peter nodded his head and Tony saw him become less tense. “Well, I was thinking that we can do a little mixture of everything. You can do online school which will be four hours a day. One hour per class. I can help you with your biochemistry if you need any help and you can do that down in the lab with me if you want.”

Peter turned to him with a huge smile on his face and was nodding his head excitedly. The sight made Tony smile while he continued. “And… if you need help with your English, we can have a tutor come once a week for like an hour.”

Peter’s smile fell a bit at that but he was excited nonetheless. “Yes. I like that idea. Because then I can still be with you all the time.”

Tony tucked a curl behind Peter’s ear. “Remember we talked about this? Of course if I’m here I can still be with you but sometimes I’ll have to go to work then I can’t be with you. And school still comes first. You have to do your classes and any homework and assignments, do you understand?”

“Yes.” Peter nodded his head. “I understand. What’s the times for the online school? And how does that work?”

Tony didn’t know all the details of online school just yet but he knew the rules were quite lenient. “It’s four hours a day so you would start at let’s say ten and do two hours then you can take an hour break and finish the next two hours.”

Tony already planned it in his head. Peter wouldn’t be able to sit still for four hours straight, he didn’t know any kid his age that would be able to and two hours was still a long time so maybe they would have to work out fifteen minute breaks in between each class. He didn’t know yet but he wanted to have a strict schedule that worked around Peter’s schooling for a proper routine.

He also planned on making Peter’s biochemistry class his third class so that after his hour break for lunch, Peter could come down to the lab with him so it wouldn’t be that hard for Peter to go back to class.

“Four hours. That’s so long.” Peter thought it would be like one or two hours a week. Not four hours a day. That was crazy long.

“It’s not that long, bud. Plus we can make it work for us. It’ll take a little bit but it’s important for us to get into a routine.” Tony knew they desperately needed this.

Peter shrugged. “I guess. I just…”

Tony waited for Peter to finish but he never did. “What, bud? You just what?”

Peter shrugged again and laid his head on the table. “I guess… I just don’t want us to change. Because-because I like how everything is now and if I start online school then… then maybe you’ll go back to work and I’ll go back to being sad all the time and missing you and I don’t want that.”

Tony knew how Peter was feeling because he was feeling the exact same way. He held his arms out for his kid so he could hold him and reassure him. “Come here.” Peter didn’t hesitate to climb into his father's lap and wrap his arms around his neck.

“Change is good. I know it may not seem that way right now, and it may take a little while for you to understand but I promise you will.” Tony rubbed his back and let Peter pull away from him so he could sit on his legs and play with his necklace like he always did. “This is so important for us but I promise you that we will never change. We’ll still be together everyday, even if I have to leave for a bit or if you have to take a test or something.”

Peter nodded. “Okay. It’s just… I’m still scared. To like, start something new I guess.”

Tony cupped his cheek. “That’s totally normal. No matter what, it’s scary to start something new but it’s going to be so worth it. And… on your first day, I can sit with you for all your classes. We can do them together. Does that sound fun?”

Peter beamed at that. “Yes.”

Tony knew how important it was for Peter to be excited about and look forward to this new change and what better way to do that than stay with Peter the whole day and do some online classes with him.

“Good. Now, I think we should do something fun before Rose comes in three hours. You pick.” Tony waited for Peter to decide what to do. He loved spending one on one time with a happy kid.

“Umm… maybe we can…” Peter bit on his finger to look around the room and think about it but his dad was pulling his finger out of his mouth. “Can we go down to your lab?”

“I was hoping you would say that. Let’s go, but first, you need to put clothes on.” Tony lifted Peter off of him so he could stand up and bring the bowls into the kitchen, smiling that Peter ate all the strawberries.

“I’m wearing underwear.” Peter defended.

“Sorry, kid. That tiny bit of material isn’t allowed in my lap.” Tony washed his hands and turned to look at Peter. “Let’s go up to change together since I have to change my shirt.”

“Fine. But did you see it?” Peter tugged on the lego man on the front of his underwear.

“Yeah, I saw it before.” Tony looked down at the lego man but he already saw it about fifty times that day. He walked into his closet and took off his top to change into a tank top. “Do you want your green or blue shirt?”

“Blue.” Peter told him and walked into the closet with his dad. He squatted down to look at all of his shoes since it always amazed him just how many shoes his dad has. It’s crazy.

He moved his tongue around in his mouth at one of his teeth that had been bugging him lately then he tasted a bit of blood and stuck his fingers into his mouth to feel around.

His back molar, one that he had yet to lose, was wiggly so he pulled at it and stuck his tongue under the tooth until it came out.

He pulled the tooth out of his mouth and looked at it. He loved losing his baby teeth but he hadn’t lost one in a few months now. Maybe even a year.

Peter held his bloody baby tooth up to his dad to show him. “Look, my tooth came out.”

Tony almost choked on his spit. He looked down at Peter and saw his hand holding something white and a bit bloody. “You what? What is that?” Tony walked over to Peter and looked at what was in his hand.

“My baby tooth at the back.” Peter told him, proudly.

Tony didn’t understand. Peter was too old to be losing teeth, right? That stopped happening at… an age. He hadn’t actually thought about the fact that Peter still had baby teeth because he just assumed that he already went through that phase but… apparently not.

He took the tooth from Peter and examined it. It was in fact a tooth and judging from its size, it was a baby tooth. “Wow, Peter. This is… a nice tooth. I didn’t, woah. I didn’t even know you were still doing that.”

Peter looked up at him. “Still doing what?”

Tony kneeled down and cupped Peter’s cheek. “Losing baby teeth. Open your mouth. Let me see.”

Peter opened his mouth and tried to point at the back to the spot where the tooth once was. Tony tried to determine if Peter had any other baby teeth but he had no idea.

“I can see it. Aww, Pete.” Tony looked down at the tooth in his hand and smiled. He wanted to cry. He never thought of the possibility of this ever happening because he always assumed Peter lost all his teeth and at most was still growing his adult teeth but here he was, this whole time with a baby tooth, possibly more and Tony had no idea.

He got to experience something with Peter that all other parents got to experience with their kids and He was so freaking happy. He was going to frame this tooth and keep it forever.

“I love this tooth so much, Petey. It’s perfect.” Tony pulled Peter in for a hug. “I love you so much.”

Peter hugged his dad back but he didn’t know what the big deal was. It was just a baby tooth. He already lost like a hundred teeth before. “It’s just a tooth, dad. My baby tooth.”

“Not just a tooth. It’s your baby tooth.” Tony couldn’t get over this moment. He got to experience this with Peter. He was so happy.

Peter stuck his finger into his mouth to play with the spot where the tooth once was. It felt weird. It was his bottom tooth at the very back so he was going to be playing with that for a while.

“FRIDAY,” Tony wanted to know more. He planned on doing a lot of research tonight on baby teeth. Who would have thought. “How many baby teeth does Peter still have left?”

“Peter has two more baby teeth remaining. He has his second molar on his lower teeth and one of his canines on his lower teeth.” FRIDAY replied and Tony felt his heart skip a beat. He didn’t know why he found that so cute.

He looked at Peter who had his finger in his mouth and a bit of bloody spit dripping out. “Let me see your teeth.”

Peter bared his teeth at his dad so Tony could see his canine at the bottom that did look smaller than the rest but not noticeable so unless you were looking for it or a dentist, he would guess. “Are those ones wiggly?”

Peter moved it with his finger but they weren’t wiggly at all. “Nope. I already lost all my other teeth though.”

“You still have two more to go, bud.” Tony was excited. Now that he thought about it more and really looked at Peter’s teeth, he could see that his top canines were still growing in. Not that he didn’t notice that before but he was just so used to it over time.

Peter nodded. “Yeah. I have two more.” Peter put his finger back in his mouth so Tony pulled it out.

“Let’s go wash your hands and rinse your mouth then we can go down to the lab where I’m going to frame this beauty.” Tony looked down at the tooth in his hand. He wanted to remember this moment forever.

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.
.

Tony was counting down the time.

It was 6:53pm and Rose was coming at seven to watch their bedtime routine.

He knew that she was just coming to observe and take notes on how they do things so she can correct and help them but he wanted Peter to be at least a bit on his good behaviour but now all that was gone out the window because Tony had cooked him dinner instead of ordering McDonald’s.

“Nuggets.” Peter pouted and sat down in the chair with a pout on his face.

They had been sitting at the table for an hour. Tony didn’t want him to go to bed hungry but he was not eating. At all. At this point he was tired and so was Tony.

“No nuggets. I cooked dinner.” Tony picked up Peter’s fork and stirred his food around a bit. He made pasta salad with broccoli, chicken and a bunch of vegetables inside. Then Peter wanted roasted potatoes so he cooked that too but now Peter didn’t want roasted potatoes.

Peter pushed his plate away and tried to slide down at the table but Tony pulled him back up. “You have to eat dinner.”

“Not this dinner. This is yuckie.” Peter looked at him and Tony could see the exhaustion in his eyes. He still had to do bedtime routine.

“Boss, Rose is requesting access onto the floor.” FRIDAY had told him.

Tony nodded his head. Finally. “Yes. Let her up.” Tony knew he couldn’t go greet her because if he left the table then Peter would get up and it would be hell to bring him back.

Peter looked towards the elevator doors with a frown on his face but Tony ignored that. He barely got to eat his own dinner so he took a bite of his while offering Peter his fork but Peter moved his head away.

His eyes were glued on the elevator doors from across the penthouse and when they opened and Rose walked out, Peter turned to look at Tony with panic written all over his face.

“We’re in the dining room, Rose.” Tony told her but she was already making her way over. “Sorry we couldn’t greet you tonight.”

Rose walked over to them and placed a gentle hand on Tony’s shoulder in greeting. “Of course. How are you Peter?”

Peter ignored her but continued to stare.

Rose didn’t take it personally. “Are you eating dinner now?”

Tony knew she was asking Peter but he wasn’t going to answer so he spoke. “We never really eat this late but we’ve been sitting here for an hour and Peter refuses to eat.”

Rose nodded, already knowing what the situation was when she walked in. “What’s for dinner, Peter?”

Peter continued to look at her with a permanent frown. “Peter. That is disrespectful.” Tony grabbed his wrist but Peter pulled away.

“No.” Peter sat up on his knees and put his elbows on the table to rest his head in. “I want McDonald’s.”

“We had McDonald’s for lunch.” Tony told him then looked at Rose who had pulled up a chair and sat down at the table, across from Peter. “He barely ate breakfast, didn’t eat his lunch so I ordered McDonald’s and now he won’t eat his dinner.”

Rose nodded and looked at Peter. “Peter, if you don’t eat your dinner then your dad will take it away and you’ll go to bed hungry.” Rose looked at Tony since Peter wasn’t looking and shook her head, silently telling him that Peter wasn’t going to go to bed hungry.

Peter sat up and pushed his plate away again. “No. It’s all yuckie.”

“What don’t you like about it?” She asked him. Tony sat back to watch, knowing she wasn’t going to get Peter to eat. It wasn’t that easy with his kid. He wouldn’t blame her though.

Peter brought the plate closer to himself to look inside. “Ummm… the veggies. And I don’t like this fork. It doesn’t have the plastic on the end like my other ones.”

“Vegetables are healthy for you so it’s important for you to eat them, even if they don’t taste the best.” Rose calmly said. “And what about you go get the fork that you like. You can pick it out yourself.”

Peter pointed at his dad. “You go get it.”

Tony didn’t move. “If you want a new fork then you can get it yourself.”

Peter looked at Rose then pushed himself off the chair to go into the kitchen to grab the fork that he wanted that had plastic grips on the end. He sat back down and stabbed some food onto it.

Tony held his breath to wait for Peter to take a bite. When Peter let go of the fork and sat back, he sighed. He knew it was too good to be true.

Rose didn’t look defeated though. “Is that fork better?”

Peter nodded his head.

“Show me how it’s better. Let’s see.” Rose held her head up with her elbow on the table and Tony watched on curiously.

Peter picked up his new fork and grabbed some food then shoved it into his mouth. “It has a better grip. See?” He showed the end of the fork to her while he chewed.

Tony’s jaw dropped. He had been trying to get Peter to take a bite for the past hour and Rose comes in and gets Peter to take a bite with no tears within five minutes. Woah.

“Hmm, I still don’t think so. The other one seems better to me.” She told him but Peter shook his head and grabbed more food, but ignoring the vegetables.

“No. It’s better. Hmm. And it tastes better too!” Peter took another bite and another bite after that.

Tony didn’t know what to think. Was it because Rose was still a stranger to him so he felt like he couldn’t say no? No, Peter threw a temper tantrum in the middle of a store once, he wouldn’t be afraid to do the same with Rose.

Rose was an angel. That’s the only explanation. An angel to help them.

After about fifteen minutes, Peter had eaten almost all of his dinner without a single tear. He just left all of the veggies which Tony still needed him to eat so he picked up Peter’s fork and grabbed a piece of broccoli. Maybe he should have let Rose do it.

“Good job, Pete. You ate so much. I’m so proud of you but look, you left all your veggies so you need to eat them.” Tony tried to hand him the fork but Peter didn’t grab it so he held the fork up to Peter’s mouth but he turned his head away. “Open. Just try. One piece.”

Peter pushed his hand away and shook his head with watery eyes. “No. I don’t like it.”

Tony sighed. At least he tried. Now, bedtime. Fun.

“Alright. Well, then it’s time to get ready for bed now.” Tony announced which had Peter looking at him. He turned to Tony with his face scrunching up, telling Tony that he was about to start crying which he did. “Don’t cry, Pete. Remember how tired you were today?”

Peter shook his head and stood up to walk over to his dad so he could hold him. “Not tired.”

Tony pulled Peter against his side and rubbed his back while Peter clung to him. “By time you get ready for bed you will be, baby. Come. I’ll help you.”

Tony let go of Peter so he could bring the plates into the kitchen so he didn’t have to deal with that later. The table was covered in food like it always was whenever Peter ate so he grabbed a dish cloth so he could wipe it down before going upstairs but Peter tried to stop him from doing it.

“No. I don’- I don’t want you to.” Peter cried out to try and get Tony to not wipe the table down. Tony knew he was tired and was finding any excuse to cry over something.

“I have to. It’s dirty.” When Tony started to wipe the table down, Peter started crying harder and leaned over the chair to cry into it. Tony looked at Rose who was now watching the whole thing, she didn’t look like she was judging them at all and he knew she wasn’t.

He finished cleaning up the table and the floor then washed his hands and rubbed at Peter’s back. “Stand up, bud. We’ll go up together.”

Peter shook his head. “I’m not tired!”

“Yes you are. That’s why you’re crying so let’s go up together.” Tony grabbed Peter’s arm and pulled him to his feet so he could tuck the chair in. “Stand, Peter. C’mon.”

“Are you coming to bed too?” Peter asked. He stood up and grabbed desperately into Tony’s hand to hold.

“Yeah. We’re all going up.” Tony told him for what felt like the fifth time.

He practically had to drag Peter up since he was moving so slow but they eventually got to the top of the stairs where he pulled Peter up the last step and sighed. He expected Peter to be crying or something by now but he wasn’t and that shocked him but it always might have something to do with Rose being here since Peter kept looking back at her.

“Do you wanna shower or take a bath?” Tony asked him since it was later than he wanted but it was still quite early so if Peter wanted to have a bath he could.

“Shower.” Peter answered while Tony pulled him into the bathroom and turned the shower on to set it to the right temperature. “And after I wanna watch my show.”

“Yeah. You can watch one episode after you’re all ready for bed.” Tony opened the closet door in the bathroom to grab a towel and turned back to Peter who was digging in the bathroom drawer. “Take off your clothes. Close that, Pete. You don’t need anything in there.”

Tony placed the towel on the bathroom counter and pulled Peter away from the drawer. “I’m gonna leave to get your pyjamas but when I come back I want you in the shower.”

With that, Tony left the bathroom and closed the door halfway. He sighed and looked at Rose. “Well… at least he’s not crying.”

“Does he usually cry before bedtime?” She asked him.

Tony bent down to pull out some clean pyjamas from the laundry basket. “Uh… it depends I guess. I don’t know what it depends on but it just does. He gets overtired and the longer it takes, the harder it is.”

He stood up and leaned against the wall. “I usually just wait here to give him time to get into the shower then I go in and see if he actually went in.”

“What happens if you open the door and he’s still not in the shower?” She asked and Tony laughed dryly.

“Then it’s gonna be a long night. So I hope he went in by himself.” He replied and took a calming breath before knocking on the door, giving Peter time to tell him not to come in which he never did.

He opened the door and found that Peter was sitting on the bathtub steps, fully dressed. “Peter. What happened?”

Peter looked up at him and smiled. “I was waiting for you.”

Tony put the pyjamas on the counter and walked over to Peter. “But I told you to take off your clothes and get into the shower while I was getting your pyjamas.”

“Yeah. I need help though.” Peter told him and moved to try and kick Tony’s legs.

With a sigh, Tony tried to decide what to do. He didn’t feel comfortable with Rose standing by the door like that but Peter apparently didn’t care. He didn’t know if he would be rude to shut the door on her just so he could get Peter into the shower but surely she would understand, right?

“You don’t need my help, Petey. You can do it by yourself.” Tony pulled Peter up and took the spot Peter was just sitting in. “I’ll untie this,” He reached out to untie Peter’s pants and pulled his shirt up. “You do the rest.”

“Nooo. I can’t.” Peter threw himself into his dad’s arms, causing Tony to have to grab onto the edge so he didn’t fall over. “Help me, please, dad.”

“Okay. What do you need help with?” Tony asked, trying to see what Peter would say. He obviously knew that Peter didn’t need his help and liked the comfort and safety that came with it.

Peter shrugged and tugged on his shirt, silently telling Tony he needed help with that so Tony stood up and pulled it off of Peter then tossed it in the laundry hamper and went to leave the bathroom.

“Where’re you goin’?” Peter asked him suddenly. Tony turned around and saw the broken look on Peter’s face. He felt so bad, he couldn’t just leave him like this.

“Are you sure you need my help?” Tony asked him because he was getting dad guilt. He felt so bad because Peter was giving him those puppy dog eyes and he tried so hard to resist them but he couldn’t sometimes.

Peter looked at him sadly. “Yeah. Help me.”

“Okay. Quickly though because you have to shower.”

Tony shut the bathroom door, telling Rose he would be a minute and quickly helping Peter so he got no tears then made sure Peter was doing what he was supposed to do before leaving the bathroom. “Sorry. He asks me for help and I know he doesn’t need help but if I don’t help him then he cries and throws a fit and I end up helping him either way.”

He shrugged. That was the sad truth. Peter ran things around here. Iron Man was getting bossed around by a child. Who would have ever thought.

“You’re his safety net. He knows he can do it himself but he feels safe and comforted when you do it. And he knows you’re going to give in so he puts up that fight.” Rose told him and even though he already knew all that, hearing it from her was more of an eye opener for him.

“Last night was so hard. I said no so he cried and cried until I eventually gave in.” Tony admitted. It was not fun last night. At all.

“It’s easier for you to just give in. He wants something from you and you say yes because you’re scared of the tears and screams that are going to follow.” Rose shrugged. “That’s parenting. You have to learn to say no to him and that doesn’t make you a bad dad. You’re saying no for him. So that Peter doesn’t depend on you so much.”

Tony felt so selfish. He liked it when Peter depended on him.

“So that you aren’t helping him get changed out of his clothes when he’s twenty years old. Yes, he’s still young and he’s been through a lot in his short life and some ways you would go about it differently if Peter were a child that didn’t lose so much in his life, I’m going to help you work with him. So that you aren’t having tears and crying every single bedtime. It won’t happen overnight but it’s a start.”

Tony really appreciated Rose's little pep talk. To know that things will be okay. He wanted Peter to do these things on his own, of course he liked helping Peter, especially after he missed out on it his whole life but Peter had to learn that he had to do certain things by himself and that he was still safe.

It would be hard work but all worth it in the end.

“That’s nice to hear. I’m still having mixed emotions about everything but I know it’s what’s best for Peter which is all that matters.” Tony rubbed his eyes and felt Rose squeeze his arm for reassurance.

He then stood up and knocked on the bathroom door before pushing it open to walk in. “Are you done, bud?”

“Yeah.” Came the small voice from the shower.

Tony grabbed the towel and waited for the water to shut off so he could wrap Peter up but that never happened so he looked in and saw Peter scrubbing the shower floor with a body sponge. “Have you been cleaning the floor instead of yourself the whole time?”

Peter shook his head. “No. I’ve already cleaned myself with my body wash. Now I’m cleaning the floors with the other body wash.”

“Thank you for that but it’s all clean now. Come out before it gets cold.” Tony held the towel out for Peter to cuddle into it then he was reaching in himself to shut off the water and hugging Peter tighter so he was warm. “Are you warm?”

Peter chewed on the end of the towel. “Uh huh. It’s not Miami so I have to cuddle into my towel after shower time.”

Tony chuckled. “Yeah. That’s true.”

He handed Peter his pyjamas but Peter shook his head and walked out of the bathroom to climb onto the bed. “Pyjamas first tonight, Pete.”

Peter shook his head. “I always stay in my towel while I watch my show. Then pyjamas.”

Normally, he would allow that but not with a visitor over. “Not tonight. Come into the bathroom to brush your teeth and get your pyjamas on then you can watch your show.”

“FRIDAY, put on Craig of the creek.” Peter said, ignoring Tony and getting comfortable in the bed.

“FRIDAY. Off. And keep it off until Peter does as he’s told.” Tony stood by the bathroom door and stared at Peter who sat up and crossed his arms. “Come here.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No!”

Tony walked over to Peter, made sure his towel was covering everything then lifted him up and carried him into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him since he knew whether Rose was here he would have had to do that so Peter didn’t run out.

“Put your pyjamas on and brush your teeth.” Tony grabbed his pyjamas and held the bottoms out for him to hurry up the process so he could go get Peter’s water bottle for tonight.

Peter stepped into his pyjama pants and watched as Tony grabbed his toothbrush and got it ready for him. “Brush brush while I go get something.”

He started it for Peter so he wouldn’t come up and find Peter still standing there then he opened the door and went downstairs to grab his water bottle.

Rose stood up from where she was sitting on the window seat and she leaned against the doorframe. Peter turned to her and stared while he continued to brush. He didn’t know where his dad went but he said he had to get something so he wondered what that was.

When his dad came back up, Peter spit and rinsed his mouth with his cup then went to go see what his dad brought up. “I wanna see.”

“You wanna see what?” Tony asked him and pulled back the blankets.

Peter tried to grab his hands to see. “What you brought up. What is it?”

Tony reached onto the nightstand table and held Peter’s water bottle in front of him which Peter immediately grabbed and started drinking from it. He gently pushed Peter onto the bed to get him on it so he could settle him in time for him to get ready for bed but he would be doing that after Rose leaves.

“FRI, put one episode of his show on.” Tony told his AI and sat down next to Peter to brush the curls from off his face. “I’m gonna say goodnight to Rose and then I’ll come back up.”

Peter pulled his water bottle from his mouth and shook his head. “Stay. I wanna cuddle now.”

“I know but I have to say goodnight to her first, Petey.” He pressed a kiss to Peter’s forehead but didn’t make a move to get up. He knew Peter would become distracted with his show soon so he brought his water bottle up to his lips and let Peter’s attention fall onto his cartoon.

After a few minutes, he stood up with Rose following behind him. “To be fair, that was a rather easy night. It’s not always like this.”

Rose and him walked down the stairs and headed to the elevator. “Bedtimes are always hard. I can even tell that he’s exhausted but trying to stay awake.”

“Yep. I don’t know why he won’t just admit that he’s tired and go to sleep.” He chuckled. It was funny when he thought about it.

“Kids are funny things.” She put her jacket on and grabbed her bag. “Next time I come, I want to try and get you to leave the room for a bit so I can see how that goes and so I can have some one on one time with him.”

Tony nodded. “Yep. That’s going to be fun.” He was half being sarcastic. “Thank you so much, Rose. I’ll see you next time.”

He said his goodbyes and waved bye to her before the elevator shut then he was going back up to get some well needed cuddles with his kid.