All The Stars Align

After the two of them got back to the tower, Tony went ahead and started packing both bags for their trip the next morning while Peter went into a bath.

He sat on his bedroom carpet floor with both bags laid out in front of him, trying to determine what they were missing. Since they have been to their house in Miami so many times, a lot of their stuff was already there such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, sunscreen, some bathing suits and other stuff.

Now he was trying to figure out what they were missing because their bags were looking rather empty for some reason. “Pete, think of some more stuff we might need.” Tony called into the bathroom.

“Um… pyjamas.” Peter answered then flipped his action figure into the bath.

Tony checked to see if he packed pyjamas and wanted to slap himself for forgetting it. How could he forget practically the only clothing they would be wearing since they were going to be in a bathing suit almost all day.

“Thanks.” He called out and stood up to go get those from the laundry room. After it was packed, he walked into the bathroom to hang out with his kid for a bit before bedtime.

“Watch him do a flip.” Peter threw the action figure up into the air and it landed in the bath with a splash.

“Woah. That looks like fun.” He reached over to grab the shampoo bottle because it was getting late and Peter still hadn’t washed his hair. “Hair washing time.”

“No. I don’t want to.” Peter turned around face the wall so Tony grabbed the cup and dumped it on Peter’s head. “Hey. You got it in my eyes.”

“It’s just water. Wipe it away.” Tony grabbed a face cloth to wipe Peter’s face but there were still nasty stains all over him so he dipped it into the water to properly do it. “You have ketchup all in your hair and it looks like… some crusty blue stuff.”

“Crusty blue stuff?” Peter went to pick at his hair but Tony pushed his hand away so he could pour more water on Peter’s head. “I wanna feel.”

“It’s gone now. Your hairs all wet.” Tony grabbed the shampoo and poured it on his hands but his phone started ringing as he did that but there was nothing he could do about that right now. “Lean your head back.”

Peter shook his head and tried to move away from him. “No. I don’t want to wash my hair.”

“Yeah. That’s why I’m doing it now, lean back.” Tony ignored Peter’s protests and started to soap his hair up. “When was the last time you even washed your hair. It’s been like a week.”

“No. Not a week.” Peter sat up and reached for his action figure that he put on the ledge. “I wanna bring him with us on the plane.”

“You can if you want. Maybe he can come swimming in the pool with us.” Tony finished soaping up Peter’s hair and stuck it up like an Alfalfa. He looked so freaking cute.

“I wanna see.” Peter reached up to feel what Tony did to his hair. He pushed himself up so he could see himself in the mirror across the bathroom. “I have a mohawk.”

“Kinda like that. It suits you, doesn’t it?” Tony was proud of his work. It looked really cute and it reminded him of what Jarvis used to do to his hair when he was younger. Now he got to do it with his own son.

Peter tried to stick it up more. “Yeah, I like it. I wanna do it to your hair.” Peter went to reach forward but Tony pushed him back.

“No you will not. My hair is clean.” Tony heard his phone ringing again so he dried his hands off and saw that Pepper was trying to FaceTime him. “Hey, Pep.”

“Tony, what time is your flight at tomorrow?” Pepper asked and Tony could hear the slight panic in her voice.

“It’s at eight in the morning. Why?” He saw the concerned look she got in her eyes and he hoped so badly that she wasn’t cancelling on them. He was really looking forward to spending some time with her.

“Have you checked the weather? There’s a huge snow storm coming to New York in an hour and all airports will be closed. I think you have to leave now or you won’t be able to come for at least another two or three days.”

Tony had no idea the storm was going to get that bad. He clicked off FaceTime to check the weather and saw that Pepper was in fact right. Not that he thought she was ever wrong. “Oh shoot. Okay, um, Pete, you have to hurry up now.”

Tony went back into FaceTime and tried to pull Peter’s hand so he sat back down but he was too focused looking at his hair in the mirror and sticking it up more.

“I wanna show Pepper my hair.” Peter tried to lean towards the phone but Tony moved it out of view.

“Sit down and I’ll let you show her.” He waited for Peter to sit then turned his phone around so Peter could see Pepper.

“Do you like it? Dad did it for me.” Peter looked at himself in the corner and bobbed his head along with his moving hair.

“I love it, Peter. But you have to rinse it out now so you can come to Miami.” Pepper told him but Peter wasn’t even paying attention. He was too busy looking at himself in the camera.

“I wanna see it in the mirror again.” Peter went to stand up so Tony turned the phone back to him and pulled Peter down by his arm a little bit too rough because Peter slipped and hit his forehead on the side of the bathtub. “Ow! O-o-oooww!”

“Oops. I’m sorry, Pete. I’m sorry. You’re okay.” He dropped his phone down and rubbed a hand over where Peter just hit his head but Peter over exaggerated everything. “You’re okay.”

Peter reached his hand up to touch at his forehead then pulled his hand away to check if he was bleeding. “I’m bleeding.”

“You’re not.” Tony heard Pepper gasp on the phone so he picked it back up. “Pete and I will leave for the airport in an hour. We just need to finish up here and call Happy to drive us. I’ll call you on the plane.”

He hung up the phone after she said bye and put it on the bathtub ledge. “Let me rinse your hair because we have to go like right now, Peter.”

Peter moved away from him. “No. I don’t like it.”

“Don’t like what?”

Peter pointed at the cup. “The water in my eyes.”

Tony sighed. “Then how do you shower? Water gets in your eyes. It gets in your eyes when you go swimming as well.” He poured the water over Peter’s head anyways because they didn’t have time.

“Ow. It’s in my eyes.” Tony sighed at Peter’s whining.

“Then lean back so I can do it without getting it in your eyes.” He gently pushed Peter down and used his other hand to cover Peter’s forehead so they could hurry this up.

He was not spending another three days in cold New York when he could be relaxing at the beach with his two favourite people in the world.

After all the soap was rinsed out of Peter’s hair, he pulled the plug and grabbed a towel to wrap Peter in. “Hurry. We have to go to the airport now.”

“I always wait for the water to drain out after.” Peter said and made no move to get up so Tony groaned and put the towel down.

“I’m gonna finish grabbing everything that we need.” He announced before leaving the room to go back into his bedroom and double check that they had everything before leaving. He was going to grab clothes for Peter to put on but knew that Peter was going to fall asleep on the plane and hopefully stay asleep the whole way to the house so he grabbed a pair of warm pyjamas for him and laid that out.

Peter ran into the bedroom with his towel wrapped around him and crawled onto the bed. “No, Peter. We don’t have time to watch tv.”

“No. I stay in my towel until you go to the bathroom.” Peter sat up and explained to him but Tony was shaking his head and pulling Peter by the ankles. “Noo!”

“Peter. Did you hear what Pepper said on the phone?” Peter shook his head. “A big storm is coming so we have to leave now to beat it and if we don’t, we can’t go to Miami for another three days.”

Peter gasped. “Oh no. When’s the storm coming?”

Tony pulled Peter up by his arm. “It’s coming any minute. I don’t know, we might already be too late so we have to go quickly.”

Tony pulled the blow drier out and plugged it in. He had to dry Peter’s hair because he knew if he brought Peter outside with his hair soaked, it would freeze and Peter would become incredibly sick.

“Stand here so I can quickly dry your hair.” Tony pulled Peter to stand in front of the sink and handed him the brush so he stopped trying to get back to the bed. “It’ll take like five minutes.”

By the end of it, Peter’s hair was curlier than Tony had ever seen it. He had curls sticking up at every angle but it made him look impossibly younger. “All done. Go get dressed. Hurry hurry.”

Peter ran into the bedroom to do that so Tony quickly cleaned up the bathroom and shoved the dirty clothes into a hamper. He had a maid come to clean the penthouse almost every other Friday when they left the house and it took a long time to find someone he fully trusted but he did.

He once had a maid that would steal his underwear and that was weird.

When he walked back into the bedroom, Peter was sitting on the floor and slowly putting on his socks. “Faster, Peter. Happy's waiting for us in the garage.”

“I’m tired.” He whined and threw his other sock so Tony picked it up and quickly put it on Peter then grabbed his teddy bear and blanket off the bed so they could start going. He didn’t know if they were going to make it.

“You carry that and I’ll bring the bags down.” Tony told him as he grabbed both suitcases to carry those downstairs and over to the elevator. Before he forgot, he grabbed Peter’s boots and told them to get them on while he went into the kitchen to fill up Peter’s water bottle with some apple juice.

When he turned around, Peter was following him. “No. Go get your boots on.”

“I want my apple juice now.” Peter tried to grab it from him and that was why Tony didn’t want Peter to see him get it.

“No. Give me your foot.” He bent down and slipped both boots onto his feet so he didn’t have an argument start between the two.

After the two of them were ready, they went into the elevator and headed down to the garage. Tony pulled out his phone to check the time but it was already much later than he would have liked.

“Are you sure you even want to try and make it to the airport?” Happy asked once the elevator doors opened and he started helping put the bags into the trunk while Tony got Peter into the back. “The storm is gonna be really bad. It already is.”

Peter turned his head to look out the back towards the garage doors. The wind could be heard through it and it was loud. “It’s too loud, dad.”

“It’s fine.” Tony shut the car door and walked over to the passenger seat just as Happy climbed in.

“I’m just saying-”

Tony cut Happy off and gave him a look that said shut up. “No, it’s fine. I’m not getting stuck in New York when we could be on the beach.”

He knew Peter was listening and was scared and he didn’t want him to start freaking out about the storm so if all the adults remained calm, he would remain calm.

The garage door opened and Happy started backing out but the wind and snow started hitting the car immediately, making Peter cry out. “The snows too bad.”

“It’s just a little storm, Peter.” Tony reassured him and reached his arm into the back seat so he could rub Peter’s knee. “Hey, what is the first thing you want to do when we wake up tomorrow morning?”

Peter looked out the window, but all he could see was snow. It was so bad and the wind was even shaking the car. “Um…” He tried to focus on his dad. “Maybe… swimming. In-in the pool together.”

“Yeah. I wanna do that too. What should we have for breakfast?” Tony tried his best to distract Peter all the way to the airport which took twice as long to get to because of the bad weather.

In all honesty, he was a bit scared to get in the plane as well. Well, he was a bit scared to be in the car right now for Peter’s safety since it was next to impossible to see out the windows while the wind was howling at the car. He couldn’t imagine how Peter was feeling so he wanted to keep him distracted.

Forty minutes later, they arrived at the airport and since the runway was an open space, the wind and snow was so much more stronger, Tony was actually scared that Peter was going to blow away.

“I’ll come around to open your door, Pete, so just wait a sec.” Tony said to Peter who had pulled his feet up onto the seat and taken off his boots.

Happy got out first to grab the bags so Tony shoved his phone into his pocket and got out right after to grab Peter. The cold air hit him immediately which sent shivers through his body and sucked the air out of him for a split second.

He turned against the wind so he could walk around to the other side of the car and open up Peter’s door. “Come, Pete. We just have to get on the plane.”

Peter shook his head but there were already tears pouring down his cheeks. “No! It’s gonna crash.”

“No, baby. The plane isn’t going to crash.” Tony reassured him but his heart was breaking for his kid. He couldn’t even imagine what Peter was feeling right now. “I’ve been on a plane in even worse weather. I promise you we’ll be okay.”

Peter whimpered. “No. I’m scared. I don-don’t want to!”

Tony reached into the car to undo Peter’s seatbelt. “Don’t be scared. I’ll be with you the whole time.” He tried to grab Peter’s foot to put his boots back on but Peter was kicking him and trying to crawl across the seat. “Peter, we have to go now. I know you’re scared but it’ll be okay.”

“No! I-I don’t wan’ to!” Peter shook his head and choked on a sob. Tony didn’t want to force Peter but he also didn’t want to drive back home.

“Petey, we’re gonna go on the plane and it will fly us up and above the clouds, above the storm.” He explained to the terrified child but Peter wasn’t having it.

“But through.” Peter tried to explain.

Tony didn’t know what he was talking about. “What through?”

“Through the-the storm.” Peter tried to explain better and Tony just hushed him then looked down at the suitcase where he put the apple juice so he grabbed that out and gave it to Peter.

“Hold onto that and your bear then I’ll carry you on.” Tony lifted Peter out of the car, forgetting about his boots since he wasn’t going to be walking and he didn’t need them once they got to Miami.

Peter immediately whimpered and buried his face into his dad's neck to try and hide from the snow and wind as much as possible. He didn’t like how he could feel the strength of the wind and the sound of it screaming in his ears so he tried his best to cover the ear that wasn’t pressed against his dad’s chest.

Tony could feel Peter shaking, whether it was from the cold or the fear or both, he just wanted to get onto the plane and up in the air.

Happy followed behind them and carried the suitcases up on the plane. “Thanks, Hap. Drive safe.”

Happy was patting Peter on the back and then leaving. “I will. You guys be safe too. I’ll see you in five days.” With that, Happy left and the plane door was shut, completely blocking out the cold and the sound of the wind.

Tony sighed in relief and sat himself down on one of the seats to get Peter to calm down. He knew Peter wouldn’t want to but he had to get Peter in his own seat with his seatbelt on since the take off was going to be a bit bumpy.

“You have to let go of me for a second, Peter.” Tony tried to pry Peter from off of him but he was sticking on like an octopus. “Pete, just until we're up in the air.”

“No.” Peter whimpered and tried to cling on tighter so Tony grabbed his legs to get him on the seat and then bent down so he could get Peter to let go of him. “No!” He cried in defeat once Tony had fully untangled him.

Tony quickly put his seatbelt on since the plane was starting to take off. “I’ll hold your hand, okay? Hold your bear too.”

He covered Peter with his blanket and tucked the bear under his arm and then sat himself down, quickly putting his own seatbelt on and reaching out to hold Peter’s hand. “It’s okay. Stop crying, Pete. You’re just tired.”

Despite feeling tired, Peter shook his head in defeat.

Tony knew it was only a matter of time before Peter fell asleep and the rumbling from the plane flying through the storm actually helped to put Peter to sleep, surprisingly.

It gave Tony time to have some peace and quiet to himself but he didn’t know what to do for the rest of the flight without Peter keeping him company.

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By the time they landed, he had taken off Peter’s seatbelt and his winter coat since they wouldn’t be needing that anymore then he carefully lifted Peter into his arms, never understanding how Peter could stay asleep during all the movement.

He sometimes didn’t even try to keep Peter asleep but somehow, he never woke up.

Tony got Peter buckled into the backseat and waited for the workers to put their bags into the truck before he was off.

The warm weather was something that made all of this worth it. He loves New York for many reasons but he definitely likes it a lot more in the warmer months.

Part of him wonders if he should move Peter and himself down to Miami and have Peter do his online schooling from there. He knows the two of them will enjoy it but he wasn’t really sure it was the best choice for Peter.

Sure, in a month they would be happy but what about in a year? He doesn’t think separating Peter from everything he knows in New York will be that beneficial for him right now. Maybe one day when he’s older.

So for right now, he’s going to enjoy his time with his son by the pool and beach.

His plan was to carry Peter in and put him in the bed then come back down for the suitcases but just as he lifted Peter out of the car, his phone rang.

As he tried to pull his phone out of his pocket while holding a sleeping child in his other arm, he accidentally smacked Peter’s head on the car but Peter didn’t wake up so he rubbed the spot while mentally sweating the whole time.

“Hello?” He said into the phone while walking up to the front door. He was sweating and having Peter’s sweaty body pressed up against his wasn’t helping. Why did Peter have to sweat so much when he slept?

“Tony, I’m just wondering if you got I’m okay.”

Tony unlocked the door and walked in. He missed this place so much. “Uh, yeah. We’re actually just getting in right now um, Peter’s sleeping so I’m just carrying him up to bed before I get the bags.”

“Oh perfect. Just checking. I’ll see you guys tomorrow night.”

Tony didn’t know the times and stuff since technically they weren’t supposed to come until tomorrow morning so they just got an extra night there basically. “Tomorrow night? Okay. What time?”

Pepper was silent for a few seconds. “Tomorrow evening actually. My flight lands around seven so I’ll see you after I get to the house. Let’s say eight.”

Tony got to the top of the stairs and walked into their bedroom. “Sounds good. Listen, I gotta go now. I have to put Pete to bed so I’ll see you then.”

He threw his phone onto the bed after Pepper said her goodbyes and hung up. Getting Peter into the bed was easy because he was already sleeping so he didn’t have to worry about any potential screaming and crying, refusing to go to sleep.

He was so grateful to be there.

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Peter woke up to the sun shining on his face.

He rubbed his eyes and tried to remember where he was. The last thing he remembered was being carried onto the plane and crying himself to sleep because he was so scared but then he never woke up meaning that Tony had carried him all the way from the plane to the bed.

A faint smile appeared across his lips so he stretched and rolled over on the bed so he could see his dad who was sleeping, facing away from him. Peter grinned while pushing himself up onto his hands. “Wake up. Wake up wake up.”

Peter shook his dad and leaned over him so he could open his eyes which resulted in Tony pushing him away. Peter stuck out his bottom lip in a pout and slid off the bed so he could go look outside.

All he ever saw outside was snow now and he was kinda sick of it but now he saw the sun shining and the beach. He just wanted to get outside and swim but his dad refused to wake up.

“Dad, I wanna go in the ocean. Wake up.” Peter shook his dad awake again and tried to climb on top of him. “Ocean ocean ocean. Wake. Up. Ocean.”

Tony groaned. There was no way he was going to be able to sleep in with Peter shaking him like that and Peter wasn’t going to stop unless he woke up so with another groan, he opened his eyes and sat up. “Yep. I’m up. I’m up.”

It didn’t take long for the two of them to get ready with their bathing suits on and get ready to head outside. Tony had sent an order of fresh food to the house so they had all of that ready to be eaten.

“Breakfast first.” Tony had opened up the fridge door but Peter pulled his arm. “Stop, Pete. We have to eat breakfast first so what’d you want?”

“Ocean.”

“Hmm, sounds like a pretty salty breakfast if you ask me.” He teased the boy and pulled out some yogurt and granola.

“No. I wanna go to the ocean.” Peter whined again and stomped his feet so Tony grabbed his arm to get him to stop.

“Stop this. We are going to eat and you still have to put sunscreen on and let it sit for about ten minutes. The ocean isn’t going anywhere.” He got two bowls ready and handed them both to Peter. “Take this outside while I go get the sunscreen.”

Peter did as he was told and Tony was returning a few moments later with the sunscreen bottles, ready to plaster it all over Peter. “Come stand in front of me so I can put this on you.”

Peter grabbed his bowl and did as he was told. “I’m so happy we’re here. Then we get to go in the pool after. With my new floaty.”

“Yeah. Stop moving. Just… stand still for two seconds.” Tony struggled. Peter was squirming around like how Tony would imagine a newborn baby would be like to hold.

Once he was done, he wiped his slimy hands on the towel and announced it. “All done. Did you finish your breakfast?”

Peter was standing there and staring towards the ocean. “Not yet. I don’t want it.”

Tony stirred up his and shrugged. “Oh well. Then you’ll be hungry later.”

With that, Peter picked up his bowl again and started eating it without any complaint. Tony mentally congratulated himself. He took that from Rose and how she got Peter to eat the last time she was there. It seemed to work.

Usually he would have told Peter he had to and push the bowl forward which resulted in head shakes followed by tears and crying. He had to remember that for next time.

After Peter was mostly done, he started standing up again and looking towards the ocean. “Can we go now?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” They both started heading towards the beach that they had all to themselves. It was definitely Tony’s favorite places to be, well, one of them. Basically anywhere with Peter was his favourite place to be.

He had no idea what he would do without his baby and didn’t know how he survived without him for so long.

Peter ran ahead but stopped once he reached the edge of the water. “Ahh! It’s warm!” He turned towards his dad and then turned around so he could walk more into the water. “I want you to hold my hand.”

Tony’s heart melted. He reached out to hold onto his kids hand and walked further out to the ocean with him. It was already past Peter’s hips but wasn’t quite there yet on him so every time a wave would come, it would knock Peter back a few feet.

“Ahh! When it reaches my stomach it’s colder.” Peter shivered although it wasn’t even that cold. He let go of his dad’s hand to reach down and try to grab some sand but a wave came just in time to plow straight into him.

Tony started laughing at the scene because he was there and knew Peter was okay but he reached into the water anyways and grabbed an arm to pull Peter back above the water.

He wiped the hair off Peter’s face and looked down at him. “You’re okay.”

“I got water up my nose.” Peter complained even as he rubbed at his eyes. Tony wiped Peter’s nose, knowing that it won’t actually help but Peter would think that it did. “And I didn’t even grab any sand.”

“You have to time it with the waves. Go under after a wave so you have time to grab some sand.” Tony told him and waited for a wave to pass. “Okay, go now.”

Peter went to go down but chickened out at the last second. “No. I got too scared.” He grabbed onto Tony’s arm and swung from it. “Pick me up.”

Tony didn’t hesitate to lift Peter into his arms and squeeze him. “You’re so cute, Petey. I love you so much.”

Peter tried to pull away from him to turn around so he could look out at the waves coming at them. “Woah. Look at that big wave there.”

“Oh, I see how it is. The love only works one way here.” Tony faked his sadness so Peter immediately turned back to him.

“No! I love you too! I just wanna see the waves.” Peter didn’t want his dad thinking he didn’t love him although he was certain they were way past that now.

“I’m just teasing you, Pete. Let me put you back down so you can swim in the waves.” He placed his hyper kid back on his feet but picked him up by his arms every time a wave would come.

They continued that for the next little bit then Peter was venturing off to the shore. He liked the feeling of the waves hitting him then retreating back into the ocean and taking the sand with it, causing him to sink a bit. It was the best feeling.

Peter sat himself down so the water was up to his waist and leaned against his dad when he sat himself next to him. “Let’s sink together. Who do you think will go down first?”

“Last time I won so I’m thinking you will win this time.” Tony knew he would win. He was way heavier and there wasn’t any way he could just let Peter win. It didn’t necessarily work that way.

“I think so too.”

Tony ended up winning in the end, as expected. Peter took his losing anger out on him by jumping onto his lap and wiping sand all over his chest. He pulled at an extra long chest hair and grinned. “Would it hurt if I pulled it out?”

“Yes. Don’t do that.” Tony didn’t understand how Peter came up with these questions.

“But then it’ll grow back. Right?” He had asked and let go of Tony’s chest hair to put his hands on his own chest.

“Yeah. It’ll grow back but don’t pluck my chest hair out.” He playfully pinched Peter’s leg and smiled.

“I don’t have any chest hair.” Peter pointed out as if neither of them knew that.

“Wow. I had no idea. I didn’t even notice.” He teased his kid and received an eye roll in return so he playfully pinched Peter’s still chubby leg again. He hoped he never outgrew that baby chub but he knew it would happen eventually.

“Ahh! That hurts.” Peter bucked his hips and rolled off his dad and into the sand to try and crawl away from Tony only for Tony to pull him back and pin him down so he could attack Peter’s exposed belly with tickles. “Ah-hhh! D-d-dad! Th-that tickles! It-it tickles!”

Tony didn’t stop. “Oh yeah. Oh no. I don’t want it to tickle.” He listened to Peter’s weak pleas to stop then finally gave in and sat Peter up to let him outrun his tickles aftermath.

“Silly boy. You should never trust a tickle monster.”

Peter pushed himself up to try and grab his hands. “You’re the tickle monster.”

Tony gasped. “Who me? I’m not the tickle monster.”

“Yeah you are.” Peter laughed out while trying to pin Tony’s hands down.

“No. I saw him go that way.” Tony pointed towards the ocean and grinned when Peter actually turned his head to look in that direction. “He’s gone now but I have a feeling he’ll come back.”

Peter bursted into a pile of giggles and fell over, getting a face full of sand in the process.

Tony could live in this moment for the rest of his life.

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“And I like the blue one too. That’s cool.” Peter explained as he laid on top of his dad and floated in the pool on a pool float. He was getting tired but was trying to stay awake for Pepper since she was arriving at any moment.

Cuddling with his dad with the sun having set and the water acting like a calming rocker, he didn’t stand a chance to stay awake but he was trying.

Tony knew it was only a matter of time before Peter fell into unconsciousness and got put to sleep but he was enjoying every second of it. He could stay like that for hours, the warm weight against his side from Peter and knowing that he had his kid safe in his arms was extremely relaxing.

He would think of these moments back at home when times were hard. He lived for moments like this.

“What about the red one? With the horn.” Tony asked, combing another hand through Peter’s hair.

Peter thought about it. He looked at the pool floaty they were now talking about and nodded. “Yeah. I like that one too.”

Tony hummed. He could tell that Peter was going to pass out any second. He wasn’t surprised when he got a call from Pepper a few hours ago saying that she was going to be arriving a few hours later so now they were just waiting for her to show up to say their hellos and goodnights until tomorrow morning.

He looked down at Peter from the angle he was at and could see his eyes still blinking, meaning he was awake. It was adorable how hard Peter was fighting to stay awake and in all honesty, if Peter didn’t move around so much in his sleep, Tony would just fall asleep like this with Peter safely in his arms while they floated in the pool.

It would be relaxing but not for long considering Peter would probably end up flipping the pool float they were on.

He heard a door open and close and tensed up a bit because he wasn’t 100% sure that was Pepper even though she was the only other person to have the key to the house. Her and the maid.

“Hello? Tony? Peter?” She called out and Tony relaxed since he knew it was in fact her.

“We’re outside.” He called back and heard her high heels clicking against the floors until she was walking outside and smiling at the two of them.

“Aw. Is he sleeping?” She whispered and leaned down a bit to get a better look at the two. Just as Tony was about to answer, Peter was lifting his head up and rubbing at his eyes. “Hi Peter. Guess what. I have a surprise for you.”

Peter smiled and pushed himself up more. “Really? What is it?”

Pepper looked between the two boys then settled back on Peter. “How about I show you tomorrow? You look really tired now.”

Peter nodded his head and laid his head back down on his dad’s chest. Tony knew he was exhausted because he wasn’t even fighting it anymore.

“Thanks.” Tony whispered to Pepper and patted Peter’s butt. “I’m gonna get him up to bed but I’ll see you first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Do you need any help with him? I can help.” Pepper stood up fully and straightened out her skirt. Tony could tell that she came immediately from work so he could only imagine how tired she was.

“I’m good.” He patted Peter’s butt again and sat up. “Hey, Pete. Let’s go up to bed now. We can swim all day tomorrow.”

Peter liked that idea. He was too tired to do anything else.

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Just as Tony thought, Peter was the last one to wake up so he took that time to go talk with Pepper and spend some alone time with her in the pool.

It was nice having a grown up conversation but he missed Peter. He always felt so on edge when his kid wasn’t with him, like he didn’t know what to do with himself without Peter.

He always found himself counting down the hours until he got to see his kid again but now, he wasn’t sure when Peter would wake up.

Tony was lying on the same floaty that he and Peter were lying on the night before but he missed his other half cuddling up against him. He looked over at the back door and smiled when he saw Peter walking out, already dressed in his bathing suit and still looking sleepy. His favourite type of Peter since he was extra cuddly, not that Peter wasn’t cuddly at any other time.

“Come, Pete.” Tony held his arms out for Peter and watched him slowly make his way over as if he was shy. “Hurry.”

“Good morning, Peter. Did you have a good sleep?” Pepper asked and swam to the edge of the pool.

The fourteen year old nodded his head and bent down to touch the water and that’s when Tony realized he was wearing his new bathing suit. “Woah, Pete. I like your new bathing suit. It looks so summery.”

Peter looked down at it and smiled. “Yeah. It’s comfy. Look at my bananas, Pepper.”

Tony almost choked on his spit. “No. That’s… okay. His bananas on his bathing suit.”

Pepper looked at Peter’s bathing suit and turned to Tony as she spoke. “I love it Peter. They’re nice and innocent and don’t need comments like that.”

Tony raised his hands up in surrender. Peter’s comment caught him off guard a bit. “Just come here, Pete. I haven’t seen you in like three hours because you decided to sleep for so long.”

“S’not my fault. I was tired.” Peter leaned forward a bit but he still couldn’t reach his dad.

“Come around to the stairs and I’ll pick you up on my boat.” Tony told him but Peter shook his head.

“I wanna sit in my unicorn floaty. It’s comfy.” Peter got up to walk in through the stairs but Tony wanted at least one hug first.

“Come, Pete.” He realized he sounded exactly like Peter. Woah. It was definitely true about what everyone was saying about them rubbing off on each other and acting like one another a little bit more each day.

Peter walked into the shallow end and walked over to Tony who had already gotten off the pool floaty so he could hold Peter. “My pants are bubbling up.” Peter told his dad as he got lifted into his arms.

Tony looked down at them. “That’s because your other ones are skin tight and shorter so it doesn’t do that. Basically like Pepper’s bathing suit, minus the top half.”

Peter looked over at Pepper and shrugged. “I need my life jacket.” He demanded, squirming in his dad’s arms to let him go.

“But I’m here. I’ll teach you how to swim.” Tony had to let Peter go because he was kicking too much and he really didn’t want to get a kick in his manhood. “Fine.”

Peter climbed out of the pool and ran over to the shed so he could grab his life jacket out. Once he got it on, he ran over to the deep end and jumped in, splashing Tony and Pepper in the process.

When he floated back up to the top, he started swimming over to his dad. “Did you see me?”

“I did. You’re getting so good at jumping in, bud. You didn’t even hesitate.” Tony grabbed Peter by the life jacket so he could lift him up and throw him into the water.

Peter came back up, laughing and demanding that he do it again. He had no idea what he just started but thankfully Pepper was there to take the attention off of him.

“Peter, remember last night I told you I had a surprise for you?” Peter turned to her and aggressively nodded his head. “Come with me to come get it. It’s in my suitcase.”

She got out of the pool and grabbed a towel for Peter and herself but Peter didn’t take the towel after climbing out of the pool. Tony watched them leave. “Alright. I’ll just stay here by myself.”

When Peter stepped into the house, he almost slipped on the floor but Pepper caught his arm. “Oops. I almost fell. Where’s your suitcase?”

“It’s upstairs.” She answered and let Peter walk ahead of her.

“It’s upstairs? Is it in your bedroom?” Peter asked, turning around on the stairs to look at her.

“Yeah, it is. Careful because it’s slippery.” She grabbed the back of his life jacket just so he didn’t fall down the stairs. Once they got to the top, Peter ran into her bedroom and waited for her to follow him in.

She sat down on the floor in front of her suitcase to open it up with Peter following her and doing the same. He waited patiently for her to open it up and see what it was.

Pepper pulled out a wrapped up rectangular box and handed it to him. “Let’s go open it outside with your dad.”

“Yeah.” Peter looked down at the wrapped present in his hands and grinned. He liked Pepper since she always gave him good gifts but also because he could sense that she genuinely cared about him and that felt good.

Once they got back downstairs and outside, Peter ran over to the edge of the pool and sat himself down so he could open his gift in front of his dad. Whatever it was, it was quite heavy.

“Woah. Lucky you. Open it up.” Tony told him and swam to the edge to be closer.

Peter dug into the wrapping paper, excitedly ripping it open to see what it was. Once he unwrapped it, he lifted it up to look at what it was. “Diving toys.”

Pepper sat herself down next to Tony's son. “Yeah. It’ll help you learn how to swim. You just toss them at the bottom of the pool and swim down to get it.”

Once Pepper explained it to him, he was excited to try it. “Yeah! I love it so much. Thank you, Pepper. I’m gonna try to now.”

Tony watched her get up to help Peter open the plastic and his heart swelled. It always did whenever he watched Pepper interact with Peter. She was always so gentle and warm with Peter. He loved that about her.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when Peter ran over to him holding the torpedoes and diving rings in his hands. He threw one of the rings into the pool then jumped in.

“You have to take off your life jacket if you want to swim down to get it.” Tony told him and went to undo a buckle but Peter screamed. “Yikes. Okay.”

Peter held the diving torpedo that looked like a shark and Tony chuckled at it. He grabbed it from Peter to show Pepper. “Hey, Pep. Look familiar?”

“Hey? That’s mine. You just grabbed it from me.” Peter whined but Tony ignored him.

Pepper rolled her eyes at Tony’s inappropriate comment. “Absolutely not. Stop it, Tony.”

He continued laughing but handed it back to Peter anyways. “Go dive.”

“No. I like him. He’s cute.” Peter looked at the yellow and blue shark and swam with it over to the stairs so he could play with him over there. Tony watched him and then went under to grab one of the rings. It was such a cool design.

“Want this?” He swam over to Peter and asked. Peter sat on his knees on the lower pool step so he could use the step in front of him to play with his diving toys.

“Yeah.” He took the ring from his dad and made the shark jump through it.

Pepper climbed into the pool and swam over to Tony. “Sorry. I took your kid away it seems like.”

He shook his head. “I like that he still has an active imagination. I can see his mind working a mile a minute when he plays with his legos.”

Pepper smiled and leaned her head against his chest briefly. “That’s cute.”

He hummed. “It’s nice. I never had an imagination like that at his age. I was too busy thinking about other, stupid stuff. I can’t even remember.”

“At least you get to watch Peter grow up now. You get to be the father you never had but always wanted.” Pepper had said and it hit him a little bit too deep. He knew it wasn’t intentional but he thought about that often.

“Yeah. I wanna take a video of this.” Tony swam over to the pool edge to grab his now soaked phone off the side and started recording Peter. It wasn’t much since it was the back of Peter’s body but it was the memory and catching it on camera that mattered to him.

Just something to look back on in the future with Peter.

He recorded for about a minute and then put his phone back on the edge of the pool to go back to what he was doing. “He’s so cute. I just want to hold him all the time. When will I ever stop wanting to do that?”

Pepper smiled fondly. “Never. You’ll probably be feeling this way when he’s twenty five even.”

Tony tried to imagine what Peter would be like at twenty five. It was unlikely that he would be living at home still and that thought scared him. The world was an evil place and he didn’t want to send Peter out in it but he knew it would be unfair to Peter to keep him hidden from the reality of things his whole life.

Although Tony didn’t have to worry about that right now since Peter was living in his own little world and letting his imagination run wild.

He turned around with the shark torpedo in his mouth as he chewed on it then dipped it back into the water and put it back in his mouth.

“That’s nasty. Why’re you doing that?” Tony asked him, trying to figure out why Peter was doing that but he had a strange child, he was aware of that.

“I’m drinking the water from it.” Peter explained to him and dipped it back in to put it back in his mouth to chew on it.

“That’s pool water. It’s not clean and has a bunch of chemicals in it. Don’t do that, Pete.” Tony walked over to Peter in the shallow end and gently made him stop. “Dirty.”

“No but… I like it. My teeth wants me too.” Peter moved away from his dad so he could continue doing what he was doing.

Tony blinked at him. “Your teeth want you to?”

Peter nodded. “Yeah. My back molars hurt me.”

That made a lot of sense. Peter just lost a tooth and was about to lose another one and now that tooth was growing in and was probably a bit painful or uncomfortable. He was so glad he was done with losing his teeth.

“Oh yeah, Pep, come look at Peter’s missing tooth.” Tony still couldn’t get over the fact that this whole time he knew Peter, he had baby teeth and still does. He loves that so much.

“Let me have a look.” Pepper waited for Peter to open his mouth and looked at where he was pointing to. “Woah. I can see that. Does it hurt?”

Peter nodded his head and started biting on the plastic again as if there was no tomorrow. Tony let him just because he felt bad. He wished he could take the pain of growing a tooth away for Peter but he couldn’t. The least he could do was to let him chew on a torpedo.

Later on the evening, the three of them were eating some dinner but Peter wasn’t in the mood.

He was enjoying spending some time in the ocean and collecting shells when all of the sudden Tony had dragged him to the outdoor dinner table to eat. He wasn’t even hungry! He was annoyed and now he didn’t want to eat.

“Take a bite, Pete. You have to eat. You ate junk food all day.” Tony told him and pushed Peter’s plate towards him.

Peter shook his head and tried to push it back. “No. I’m not hungry.”

“Well… you’re not getting any snacks tonight if you don’t eat.” Tony told him but he had no intentions of putting Peter to bed hungry. He would give in eventually. He always did.

Peter stared ahead. “Well… then I’ll stave.”

“Stop it. Eat your dinner that I cooked.” Tony grabbed Peter’s arm and pulled him up on his chair so he was no longer slouching then picked up his burger and handed it to him. “Eat. Just take a bite.”

Peter screamed through his teeth and slid down all the way onto the floor to start crying. Tony put the burger down so he could put his head in his hands. He tried to calm himself down and remember that Peter is going through a lot and he’s only a child so this is his way of dealing with everything.

He looked over at Pepper who had a sad look on her face. “Maybe he just needs some space.”

He nodded. She was probably right but it was hard to tell what Peter truly wanted. He moved his chair out and stood up to grab Peter by the arms. “Come, Pete. Let’s go sit on the pool chairs over here for a bit.”

Peter fought him at first but eventually stood up and let Tony lead him over to the pool chairs to sit down. Tony kneeled down in front of him. “Stay here until you’re ready to come back to the table.” He said then stood up and left without saying another word.

Tony felt bad because he didn’t know what was wrong but he could tell it was more than just a temper tantrum Peter was having. He’s dealt with a lot of those before but this was something else.

He tried not to think about it as he sat back down and tried to eat the rest of his meal with Pepper but it was hard while he listened to Peter crying sadly in the background.

About ten minutes later, Peter was rubbing at his eyes and walking over to his dad to get some comfort because he couldn’t take it anymore.

Tony moved his chair back so he could allow Peter into his arms. “Come here. What’s wrong?” He just knew something was wrong. Peter’s dad just knew.

Peter choked on his saliva and rubbed at his eyes while continuing to cry. “Are you hungry?” Tony asked to try and narrow the problem down.

Peter shook his head. “No! My mouth hurts.”

That helped a lot but Tony still didn’t know what the real issue was. “Did you bite your tongue?”

Peter shook his head again and cried harder at having to explain it. “My back teeth.”

“Oh. His tooth is pushing up against his gums and it hurts, Tony.” Pepper explained to him and he wanted to punch himself for not realizing sooner and for making Peter eat.

“Oh baby. Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Tony cooed and wiped his hair from off his face. He felt awful.

Peter didn’t answer him and instead, laid his head against his shoulder to try and calm down but it was hard.

Tony didn’t even notice Pepper left but she was walking back out with a wet face cloth, rolled up. “It’s soaked with cold water and I put ice in it for him so hopefully it’ll help the pain.”

“Yeah.” Peter took it from her and immediately started to chew on it which silenced the crying. Tony sighed in relief and looked up at Pepper.

“Thank you.” He didn’t know what he would have done without her.

“Of course. You stay with him, I’ll clean up and wrap his food up for later.” She began grabbing everything from the table for them so Tony stood up with Peter in his arms and walked over to the pool chairs to get comfortable.

“Do you wanna watch a movie? I have my computer already here.” He was laid stretched out of the extremely comfy chair with Peter tucked against his chest with the sounds of his sucking heard every so often from the cold cloth.

Peter nodded his head and watched Tony put on the lego movie. It was a simple choice and since they had already seen it, Tony didn’t have to worry about Peter trying to focus so much on the plot.

A few minutes later, Pepper walked out with a bowl filled with ice cubes to replace in the cloth with. Tony didn’t know how to tell her how incredibly grateful he was for her.

He placed his hand on Peter’s forehead to check if he was hot but Peter was whining and pushing his hand away from his face. “Okay. Sorry.”

They went back to cuddling and watching the movie while Peter sucked on his ice. Tony was glad it was working.

It was hurting him to see that his kid was hurting and not being able to do anything about it but try to make him feel safe and comforted.