"You're back early, Peter."
"Yeah, Aunt May wasn't in and nothing was really going on for once."
"Fair enough, kiddo. Nobody's going to be ready for another half hour." Tony murmured and smacked the stool beside him, "Want to help your old man out? I'm doing some improvements on my second to last suit. I'm trying to improve the repulsers, but I don't want to do it on my current suit because I don't think it'll work."
"Sounds fun!" Peter exclaimed dumping his bag and rushing across the large Workshop to his dad, the pair of Starks got to working barely even registering the minutes flying by.
—LINE BREAK—
Tony and Peter made their way up to the communal living room just over thirty minutes later. Everyone had gathered in the room and had found their spots on the couches and various other forms of chairs and beanbags. Tony took a seat next to Dr Strange as it was the only free space on a sofa and as much as the genius didn't like to admit it, he was getting older (and only becoming sexier mind you) and he couldn't handle sitting on the floor or a beanbag. A range of take-out sat on the coffee table; Chinese, Indian, Italian, you name it.
Peter's eyes narrowed as he grabbed a slice of Pepperoni pizza. He watched as the sorcerer leaned back, his arm going across the back of the couch as he turned to Tony, the two having a quiet conversation much like the other superheroes as they all waited for the final guests to arrive. The teenager began to think of a way to separate the two when a booming voice echoed throughout the compound. Thor had arrived.
"Uncle Thor!" Peter exclaimed bounding over to his honorary uncle like a puppy. The god laughed and picked him up, spinning him in a circle as the pair hugged,
"Peter! How is my favourite nephew? Managed to convince your father to let us go camping together, yet?"
"As I've said a million times, Thor. It just isn't happening. I have reason to believe that you aren't responsible enough to be entrusted with my son on what will probably be an entirely dangerous escapade." Tony stated, moving over to hug the big guy,
"How do you know I can't be trusted?" Thor shouted with a pout and the small man merely raised an eyebrow and directed his eyes to Loki, who was good now (well he was still mischievous) and everyone but Clint, Steve, Wanda (Loki threatened her), and Natasha got along with him.
"I have heard that most of your adventures end with near fatal wounds, almost missing limbs and a lot of other injuries." Thor considered his point and nodded, it was true. That's not to say that the god and the teen didn't then stare at Tony with their puppy eyes, "The eyes don't work. I practically invented them."
"It's true. The eyes are still effective as hell today, but back at MIT, Tony could've made Fury do his bidding." Rhodey commented with a chuckle.
Peter looked around as everyone but him found a seat and got comfortable.
Hope and Pepper sat on the three-seater with Carol, Thor and Loki took the couch next to them with Bruce between them (the trio had surprisingly become quite close -surprising because of Loki, not Thor).
Strange and Rhodey sat on the couch beside them with Tony in the middle whilst Scott and Sam had opted to sit on the beanbags between the two couches.
Carrying on, Natasha, Steve, Wanda and Clint shared the next sofa, Bucky had taken the armchair separating those two couches (it was totally not a move to be in the middle of Clint and Rhodey, the latter of which would fight Clint if the archer made a nasty comment, which was highly likely and hopefully with Bucky between them, it would be easier to sort out).
Finally, the Vision took the second armchair that sat between their couch and the couch with the three women on.
The teenager eyed the non-existent spot between the two egotistical bearded men and he moved in, quickly squeezing himself into the spot without giving either of them any choice.
"Any reason, in particular, you wanted to sit here?" Tony asked staring at his son with raised eyebrows whilst Stephen looked at the teen, he knew exactly what Peter was trying and successfully accomplishing.
"Just wanted to sit by you, dad." Peter answered,
"Uhuh. And you couldn't squeeze between your uncle and I? Or, you know, ask?"
"Nope!" Tony just shook his head and reached for some food.
Unsurprisingly, family night ended with Clint receiving a broken nose courtesy of Rhodey, Bucky, who had sat between them to try and dissolve any possible fights, actually leaned back so that the black man could punch the archer.
Wanda was sent through a portal by Strange, Loki actually looked on with a grin and a brief shout of "Yes! That's how it feels!" …Tony just managed to stop the sorcerer from sending Loki through one simply because Stephen and Loki had an odd relationship.
Steve attempted to calm the chaos by using his Captain voice, but Carol instantly shot him down with a fierce look. Natasha had stood up, fingers purposely touching her weapons, to try and defend Clint but that only resulted in Pepper glaring hard at the spy. Never let it be said that Pepper was a woman to mess with.
After the madness, everyone walked away to their rooms, the Rogues (which everyone continued to dub them as) left muttering angrily under their breaths save for Sam, Scott and Bucky, who were the trio that the New Avengers actually liked and willingly spent time with.
—LINE BREAK—
A few days had passed and it was dark out. Tony wandered into Peter's room, knocking gently on the door until he heard a faint "Come in". He took a seat on the end of the teenager's bed and watched as Peter swivelled round in his desk chair.
"Are you alright dad?" He asked before taking in the burgundy suit the older man was wearing, "You off out?"
"I wanted to ask if you're alright. You've been acting funny these last few days. I've noticed you haven't been getting along with Dr Strange." He asked ignoring the questions Peter had asked him,
"You noticed."
"You're not exactly discreet, kid. You were glaring holes into his head at breakfast the other day-"
"You saw that?"
"Well, now you've confirmed it, I thought it was just my exhausted mind playing up. But then there was the other day at family night. You want to tell me what's going on?" Peter said nothing, he just stared stubbornly at the wall behind Tony. The older genius sighed and stood up. "I've got to go now. Don't wait up and don't think this conversation is over, kiddo." He kissed the top of Peter's head before leaving.
—LINE BREAK—
Tony stumbled into the Compound at the incredibly early hours of the morning. The genius had his blazer thrown across his left shoulder, his right hand was loosening his tie as he yawned and entered his room. He threw his blazer on the closest armchair in his room, his tie hastily followed. His fingers began to unbutton his white shirt as he walked into his bathroom. He was down to his boxers by the time he came to a stop in front of his bathroom sink. He folded the clothes despite the fact that they'd need to be washed and dumped them in the corner of his bathroom before he brushed his teeth. As he walked back into his room, he put the folded clothes on top of his blazer and tie before grabbing his blue pyjama bottoms and throwing them on.
"Come in." He called as he grabbed an incredibly old t-shirt, AC/DC could faintly be read on the black top, his door opened as he put the top on and Peter took a seat on the edge of his bed. "Peter, it's two in the morning. You have a test tomorrow, what on earth are you doing awake?" He asked when he looked at the teen.
"I don't like him." Tony turned to look at his son with confused eyes,
"Who?"
"Dr Strange. I don't like him." Tony didn't know what to say to that,
"I…why don't you like him? Has he done something to you?"
"Nothing…it's just, I don't like him. At all." Tony stared at Peter before sighing softly,
"Okay kid, do you want me to stop hanging around with him?" He asked quietly not wanting to really get an answer, but Peter nodded and hugged his dad before heading to bed.
Peter didn't know that when he left, Tony was barely holding his emotions in.
Peter didn't know that Tony gave up on sleep, he so desperately needed, to go and work his emotions out by building something.
Peter didn't know that Tony had just had the time of his life on a date with Dr Stephen Strange.
Peter didn't know that his dad was falling for the sorcerer.
Peter didn't know that his dad had almost blurted out an "I love you" to Strange on their first (and what now appears to be their last) date.
Tony didn't know that his son had walked away to his room with his head lowered in utter shame.
Tony didn't know that Peter had knowingly manipulated his dad's love for him so that Peter would get what he wanted.
Tony didn't know that Peter felt incredibly guilty and not at all happy like the boy had thought he would.
Here's my tumblr if you're interested, it also has the story collages: anxious- - -soul (no spaces between the dashes but sucks and wouldn't allow the dashes without spaces)
Anyway,
Thank you for reading,
Hope you enjoyed this,
Please review,
No hate -don't like, don't read
Bye~