Prompt fill. Again. Another jealous!Peter. Poor baby.
Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers, Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Thor Odinson, Bruce Banner, Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, or Nick Fury. That was a mouthful. I do, however, own Stephanie Barton. So back the fuck off~
Stephanie Barton. The daughter of Natasha and Clint, Black Widow and Hawkeye. The reason Peter sat on the couch all alone, arms crossed and shoulders slumped. Ever since the little had been born two months before, everyone was fawning over her. Like everyone. The press, the fans, Bruce, Thor, Clint, Natasha, Steve, Tony, Maria, Phil, even Fury was wrapped around her tiny pinky.
And Peter? Well, everyone had apparently forgotten about him.
Which was why he was left sulking on the couch while all the adults crowded around Stephanie. What was so special about her, huh? What gave her the right to steal all the attention from him? To be the favorite? To make it so no one loved him anymore?
It wasn't fair, but really, what could a little six-year-old do about it? Despite his anger and jealousy, he didn't want to actually talk about it to anyone. It wasn't like they'd understand. Or listen. Or care. They were too wrapped up in Stephanie, remember?
So maybe… Maybe he needed to make them notice him. Obviously just sitting there hoping they'd pay him any mind anytime soon wasn't working. At all. So maybe he needed to something that would force them to pay attention. But what could he do? What would work? Two things never failed to get him attention before, whether or not they were intentional, and those were getting hurt or breaking the rules. Since Peter really didn't want to intentionally hurt himself, it would still hurt, maybe he could find something bad to do. Besides, bad attention was better than not attention at all, right?
With this new plan in mind, he slid off the couch and plodded down the hall of the mansion unnoticed, looking to do something his parents were sure to get angry about. Break things. And the best place to do that?
The lab.
—-
"Sir." Jarvis interrupted Natasha's story about something silly Stephanie had done a couple days before, pulling everyone's attention from the baby.
"Yeah, Jarv?" Tony prompted the AI, winking at Stephanie before swirling the contents of his glass around idly.
He must have done something right while programming, because the British, robotic voice sounded vaguely worried, "Peter has found his way into your lab, sir."
It takes him a moment to process that, but, when he finally does, he takes off running.
—-
"Peter!" As soon as he entered the laboratory, Tony spotted his son on the floor with, oh dear God, a gun in his lap. A new one that really didn't look exactly like a gun but was really, really effective and deadly and holy shit, Peter had it pointed up towards himself as he played around with it, "Peter, get the fuck away from that!"
Steve rushed in behind him then, taking one look at the weapon in Peter's hands before moving again, "Peter, put it down right now!"
It worked. His plan worked. His fathers were both seething, by the looks of it, but they were finally, finallypaying attention to him. Except he hadn't expected them to be that angry with him. He hadn't expected them to yell that loud or sound so scary… Now he remembered why he didn't break the rules that often. He got upset whenever his parents were mad or yelling, even if it wasn't at him, and now his Daddy was stomping towards him and shouting and looking angry and holy cow, he was in so much trouble, wasn't he? "I-I'm sorry, Daddy!" Peter whimpered, the shiny thing he had originally picked up to ruin clattering to the floor in front of him.
"What were you thinking, Peter?" Tony snapped, appearing beside Steve and plucking the gun off of the floor, "You aren't allowed in here alone! You know that!"
"I'm sorry…" Tears began to slowly run down his cheeks as he directed his gaze to the floor, not wanting to see their angry expressions any longer.
Steve allowed a sigh to escape his lips, voice softening as he fell to his knees next to Peter, "We're just worried, buddy. Papa has a lot of stuff in here that's dangerous and could hurt you. We were scared, okay? That's all…" The only thing that bothered him, and Tony, for that matter, was why their adopted son would do something wrong. He knew this rule well, too, so it wasn't like the kid had just forgotten. He'd been punished once for it before and, like always, once was enough. One time was all the incentive Peter needed to just stay out. All three of them knew that, so what happened? "Can you just tell us why?"
A sniffle came from the boy, who still refused to meet either of their gazes as he whispered, "Just wanted someone t'care 'bout me… No one loves me no more. Only loves Stephie!"
Oh. Oh. That's what was wrong. Peter felt unloved, forgotten, abandoned. Like everyone liked Stephanie better than him. And with their adoration for the little girl, Steve and Tony probably hadn't helped. Oh, the poor thing…
Sharing a slightly worried look with the philanthropist, Steve scooped Peter into his arms and stood. The only thing they could really do at that point was try to comfort him, "Peter, no… You've got it all wrong. We love you very much, everyone does."
"Stephanie doesn't change anything," Tony agreed softly, taking the boy from Steve and balancing him on his hip, "Sure, we might've paid a little more attention to her than we needed to, but we're your daddies. You come before anyone else, okay? We love you. A lot. As for your uncles and aunts, they still love you, too, and no less than they did before. Stephie is just the new girl, but soon everyone will get used to her and it'll be back to normal."
Peter fidgeted in Tony's arms and hid his face, "But…"
"No buts, kid," Tony pressed a kiss to Peter's forehead, "We still love you. In fact, we'll never ever stop, no matter what happens."
"Promise?"
"Promise." The husbands assured in unison, Steve ambling over to wrap his arms tightly around the two of them.
Click.
Natasha smirked, staring at the picture she had sneakily taken from the doorway, "Oh, this is so going in the family photo album."
Hope you liked. R&R?
