Tony
The first time the inventor even noticed the abundant amount of cupcakes showing up around his apartment, he had just binged a thirty six hour tech upgrade on FRIDAY. He had just finished configuring the update, ironed out all of the messed up coding that his tired brain had managed to slip in, and tested the firewall several times.
Because if Tony was anything, he was protective over his AI systems; Jarvis had been his caregiver emotionally for a longer time than he was comfortable admitting. Friday had taken to alerting Pepper when the man did something that was probably not the smartest. And Karen would alert him if Peter was in need, or if he had dome something so stupidly teenager-ish that he had reason to pause in his ministrations.
Such as the current time.
"Incoming transmission from Spiderling." Friday's voice buzzed through his lab. Her voice echoed on the vibranium walls, bouncing around Tony and covering him in a blanket that he always seemed to find himself missing at the worst of times. However, Tony could not, and would not, ignore the fondness that seemed to seep into her voice every time Peter was involved.
Even the artificial intelligence loved the kid.
Could he blame them though? It was hard not to enjoy Peter's positivity, and the energy that seemed to ooze from his pores. It was contagious, and often made everyone in the room around him giggle at the antics that seemed to get him into trouble.
Such as the flour that Peter was currently trying to dust off his hands as he pounded eggs into the batter.
"Crud," he whispered as the white powder flew back into his face, nearly covering the goggles of his mask. Luckily, it was the only part of the suit that he was currently wearing; which lead Tony to believe he was either using Karen for a recipe—as he had before—or because the lights and sounds of New York were too much and starting to get to him. Either option was plausible with the way that his hands shook as he forced the beater down into the batter. "Crud, crud." Peter whined softly stepping back and coughing at the plume that exploded into his face. "Karen!"
"Sorry Peter," The AI hummed in amusement as the hologram minimized itself. "I was under the impression you knew how to bake."
"I do know..." Peter huffed petulantly. Tony snorted from his position in the lab, a fond smile working its way to his face.
"Kid if you call that baking, then I'd hate to see your cooking. Because that looks like failure in a bowl." A spike in the teen's readings told Tony that he was very much heard, and the silence at the other end told him that he was very much being ignored. Nothing something that sat very well with the inventor who was known around the world for his mind.
Not at all.
"Kid..." Tony hummed, his lips pursing into a thin line as he watched the footage freeze on the bowl in front of the powder covered kid. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Peter muttered under his breath. In his vision, trembling hands settled the hand mixer on its base before jerking back.
"Don't lie to me." Tony sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. For his life, Tony loved Peter. He'd never admit it in front of the hundreds of cameras that were on him daily, but something about the never ending questions and the absolute awfulness of his klutzy habits, had grown on the older man.
"I'm just a little stressed is all, Mr. Stark." Peter's voice buzzed softly. The visual of his cam bounced erratically as the teenager pulled the mask off momentarily. "May...May is out on a date..." The petulant whine in his voice didn't fail to positively convey the adoration he felt for his aunt. "She's on a date, and asked me to stay in so she didn't have to worry. But I'm worried about her!"
"A date..." Tony pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to suppress a chuckle. He knew Peter was obsessively protective of his aunt. It was a trait shared, and dominated solely by the two people in their lives. "Kid...It's a date. Don't be surprised if she doesn't even come home tonight."
"What?!" Peter's voice easily hit ten octaves higher; it had hurt Tony's ears, leaving the older man to wonder how on earth Peter's ears didn't bleed on the regular from his tones. "No nonono! No, Mr. Stark, she has to come home! I have..." The kid keened at the back of his throat, and Tony so nearly laughed that it sent a pain jostling through his ribs.
The idea of May staying out of the house for more than seventeen hours was too much for the teenager to handle. His heart rate picked up significantly, and the powdered mess that was inside of the bowl exploded to cover the mask's lenses.
"I am so not paying for the dry cleaning if that gets stuck! Also watch out for the connectors! Your suite isn't made to handle whatever it is you're beating into that bowl!" Tony huffed, before guffawing as Peter visibly wiped the goop from the lenses. "What are you even trying to bake?"
"Brownies..." Peter sighed despondently—though there was nothing brownie or chocolatey about the concoction in front of him. Tony smiled fondly at the image before him. Peter had always been on hell of a kid, if the inventor did say so himself. He was overly affectionate, extremely hyper, and far too talkative. But it was all endearing to him really; it was pure.
"Kid...Doesn't brownies usually have chocolate?" Tony teased lightly, shaking his head at the exasperated groan that escaped Peter's lips. He was rewarded with an exasperated whine before the teenager slumped against the counter shoving his face into his hands. "Alright, calm down. I'll drop by the grocery...get some of those in the box things? Do you use those? I've never done them before...and we'll make them together."
"Y-you don't have to," Peter whispered softly.
"Kid...With the mess you're making...I think I should. I'm worried that if I let you continue baking you'll accidentally recreate the Blob." Tony chuckled as he jumped from his chair. If he were honest, he was probably looking for a reason to get out of his lab. Which was saying something; the inventor was notorious for locking himself inside the lab on any given day, for hours, sometimes days, on end. It was one of his guilty pleasures.
But the kid was a close second.
Tony found himself enjoying the time he was able to spend with Peter, and the kid's little quirks were always of amusement. He was falling head over heels for the teenager, and would want nothing more than to keep him in his life. The fact that it hadn't started out that way was of no difference to the man.
"Be there in like..ten. Where do I even buy the boxed stuff? FRIDAY?" Tony turned towards the roof glancing up at the receptor for his AI.
"At any corner store, boss." The AI almost giggled at the prospect of her creator swaying into some unfortunate store to pick up the boxed mixture. She would have to share the idea later with one Bruce Banner and James Rhodes. The message was up and off before Tony even thought of it.
"Lifesaver. Also, keep an eye on whatever gunk it is that the kid is making. I'm pretty sure if we leave it be long enough, it'll have it's own heartbeat." Tony hummed as he grabbed his hoodie from the coat rack, followed by one of the random car fabs lined up along the same piece of wood.
"Of course, boss! I'll alert Karen." FRIDAY hummed as she opened the elevator doors. Inside the metallic box, ACDC was already blaring, leaving the inventor with a pleased smile.
He didn't even make it to the corner store before some kind of tragedy struck. And not the tragedy as in someone died; but as in Peter called to alert him that he didn't have to go because…
Well, by that point Tony had stopped listening. The kid had been under the impression that Tony was forcing himself to hang out with him because of duty. Not true at all.
Tony had been bored in his own home; creator's block had settled in earlier in the day, and his mind couldn't even formulate the proper way to code the newest AI he was fiddling with. It was a small project that he and Peter had taken on together, but that Tony would work on in his spare time just to see the kid's eyes light up when he realized how far they were advancing.
"Mr. Stark, you really don't have to-"
"Kid...I am about to do the most embarrassing thing of my life. I am currently walking into...Dollar Tree? Seriously? That's a place? The dollar tree?" The kid chuckled on the other side. Tony could almost imagine him biting his lip as he tried to keep his giggles under control. "Anyway...to pick out some kind of brownie mixture because I can't cook, and apparently neither can you."
"I can too!" Peter squawked on the other side of the line. "I was doing just fine! I even added chocolate, so it's fine now!"
"Have you tasted it?"
"No...But Aunt May says it's not healthy to, because of the raw eggs!"
"Kid...That thing almost has a heart beat...I'm pretty sure I even saw egg shells in the mixture. Like..You cannot bake and wear the mask and not expect to mess up!"
"Egg shells!?" Peter squeaked. Tony guessed he was probably glancing down at the mixture I front of him. "No way," He whispered pathetically.
"They add texture," Tony scoffed softly as he grabbed several boxes from the shelf of the store. Ignoring the looks he garnered, he rushed to the front of the check out. The computers that served as registers made the genius cringe. It was as if he had stepped back in time to the early eighties. He was pretty sure his beeper actually had better RAM than whatever the miserable teenager in front of him was dealing with.
"Fifteen twenty-six," The kid sighed unamused with the technology in front of him. His fingers tapped across the keyboard, before the small verfione lit up in blue light. "Swipe." Tony simply nodded, sliding the magnetic strip of his card through the slot before following the prompts. The cashier arched his brow, handing him the reciept, never really sparing him a glance.
Tony was only slightly offended.
"Alright Underoos! I'm on my way," Tony hummed as he stepped out onto the busy sidewalks of New York. He was more than pleased to be swallowed by the buzzing chatter of the citizens as he pushed his way down cement walk ways towards the small apartment structure a few blocks down.
"I...Thank you Mr. Stark..." Peter mumbled into the mask. Tony could hear the embarrassment on his voice, and a warm feeling fluttered in his stomach.
This kid.
This kid was his.
"Hey kid," Tony hummed rapping his fingers on the door.
And he would be damned if he let anything happen to him.
Peter opened the door, shoulders slumped forward, head hung in defeat. Flour and lord only knows what covered his chest and t-shirt. A bark of laughter erupted from his throat as Peter keened slightly.
"Let's try and fix this, yeah?"