Yay for more cheesy one-shots!

The rain lashed against the window, blown horizontal by the wind. Thunder and lightning flashed around, but Tony paid the weather little attention as he made his way through the compound. The billionaire mentally ran through a list of things he needed to finish before the day was over. Pepper needed to sign off on a few expenses, there was that press conference at four that he needed to be at, his teenager was sitting in front of one of the TVs, he had to-

Tony stopped, then backtracked, just to double check. Sure enough, Peter was sitting in front of a TV, a controller in his hand.

"Kid, what are you still doing here?"

With a jump, Peter turned and stared at Tony for a moment. "Hey Mr. Stark! Sorry, I just-No!" Peter turned back to the television just in time to see his animated character fly off a brightly colored bridge, sinking into the starry expanse below. His character was quickly resurrected by a turtle on a cloud, but Peter hit pause before he could fall again or lose the race entirely. When he was sure the game was paused, the teenager turned back to his mentor.

"I thought your training with Romanoff ended hours ago?"

"Yeah, no, it did. I couldn't find Happy for a ride, so I was just gonna swing home, but …" The teenager made a wide gesture to the stormy weather outside.

"Makes sense, I guess." Tony sniffed, and Peter sat there, a little awkwardly. "I didn't even know we had this … getup," Tony added, gesturing to the TV.

"You didn't know you had … TVs?"

"Yeah, okay, smart aleck, I knew we had the TVs, just not the … Wii? Is that a Wii? Aren't those things outdated? I didn't even know they still sold those things in the store?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing like that, this isn't new. I've had this console for years. Yeah, this was actually the last thing my uncle got for me." Peter looked down. "I'd been begging for months to get one. Ben and May, they saved for almost as long as I'd been asking, and I came home from school one day to find this sitting on my bed. That was right before the spider bite," the teenager finished, looking at the screen with a distant look in his eye, like he was reliving his life before everything changed.

Tony knew Peter didn't usually get this nostalgic, at least not in front of people. Something must have triggered him, or set something off inside to make him start talking like this.

"Anyway, sorry, Mr. Stark. I know you're busy, so I'll just stay here until the storm calms down a little, and-"

"Nah, not really a lot goin' on today," Tony interrupted nonchalantly. The billionaire came around and sat on the couch. "Just as long as your aunt knows you're still here? I don't really need to be yelled at today."

Peter chuckled. "Yeah, she knows. I texted her when I decided to stay here."

The two of them sat there, more than a little awkward. Tony finally glanced around, spotting a second remote sitting by the TV.

"'Kay, well, you're gonna need to grab me that remote then," Stark said, nodding towards the TV. Peter looked to where the older man was looking, then glanced back at Tony.

"You wanna … you're … are you sure you don't have other things to do?"

"You don't want me to play with you?"

"Oh, no, that's not what I meant, I just know that you're super busy and everything, so-"

"Whatever else I've got going on today, it can wait. I'm gonna show you how to really play this game."

"You're gonna … do you even know what Mariokart is?" Peter's cheeky grin earned him a shove from the billionaire, and the teenager couldn't stop himself chuckling as he moved to get Tony the remote.

"Who do you think helped design and build this game?" Tony asked. Peter stopped in his tracks and looked back at Tony.

"You … wait, are you serious?"

"Nope, definitely messing with you. I have no idea how this works. Show me."

Peter spent the next few minutes explaining how to play, how to work the controllers, and helping Stark pick a character.

Peter stuck with his original character, Yoshi, and Tony chose Waluigi. "Okay," Peter said after they'd chosen their characters and vehicles. "We'll start with the first track, just to get you used to the controls and everything, so-"

"Nuh uh," Tony cut in. "Let's go to that last one you were racing."

Peter's eyes widened a little. "Rainbow Road? You wanna start on Rainbow Road?"

"I don't start off easy, kid. Besides, it's a game. How hard can it be?"

0-0-0

Pepper stared at her phone, waiting for a reply from Tony. He'd disappeared, which wasn't necessarily unlike him, but the fact that he had a press conference in thirty minutes, and no one had been able to get ahold of him for a few hours made her a little antsy. Friday confirmed he was still on the compound, but apparently the billionaire had instructed the AI not to give his exact position away. Pepper had no idea why Tony would do that, but she now had to search the compound for him herself, especially since he wasn't answering his phone.

As she made her way down one of the hallways, she suddenly heard voices coming from inside one of the rooms. Silently, Pepper poked her head inside the room and came across a sight that made her heart melt.

Tony was sitting on the couch, and Peter was on the floor in front of him. They were playing a video game while talking loudly over each other.

"You're cheating. There's no way you keep coming in first," Tony argued.

"I swear, Mr. Stark, I'm not cheating!" Peter cackled as he zoomed past Tony, lapping him.

"Well then, your head is blocking the sensor from my severely outdated Wii remote, and that's why I keep falling off."

"That's not why you keep falling off, Mr. Stark," Peter assured his mentor. Peter raced across the finish line, and the screen flashed, alerting Tony that his character had come in last place.

"You're just blocking my sensor on purpose," Tony insisted.

"Here, I've got an idea that'll show you how I'm really not," Peter said with a laugh. The teenager got up, and with a flip jump, stuck to the ceiling with his sticky feet. "Now I have to play upside down and backwards, so you'll see that I'm not cheating. I'm just better at this game than you!"

"That, Mr. Parker, sounds like a challenge."

"It'd only be a challenge if you were any good at this game."

"Start the race, kid. I'll show you just how good I can be."

Pepper watched in silence, amused, as Peter selected one of the races again. The countdown started, but as the small animated figures took off, a black cloud appeared over Tony's character, and he got a later start than the rest of the racers.

"You keep pressing two too early!" Peter said from his spot on the ceiling. "Gives you a false start."

"Yeah, yeah, just drive."

The race took less than five minutes. Tony fell off the track at least once per lap, and Peter ended up lapping him again.

While Tony loudly exclaimed that somehow, Peter was indeed cheating, Pepper turned and walked back down the hallway.

"Friday?"

"Yes, Ms. Potts?"

"Cancel Tony's press conference today, would you?"

"What should I say is the reason for the cancellation?"

Pepper paused as Tony let out a curse as the redhead assumed they started another race. "Just tell them he's taking a personal day."

0-0-0

"Let's do that Bowser's Castle again," Tony said, determined to not fall off this time.

Peter hesitated, glancing at the billionaire. When the screen didn't show the opening credits for the race, Tony looked up at the teenager and caught him staring. "What? Come on, let's go. I'm getting better, I got eleventh last time. And don't think I didn't notice you slowing down for me a couple races ago. No gimmes."

Peter let a small smile light on his face. He wasn't going to tell Mr. Stark, but exactly a week from today would be the anniversary of his uncle's death. That was why he'd broken the Wii out again. He and May had something special planned for the day of, but Peter had his own tradition. Mariokart had been the last game he and his uncle had played, a week before Ben died. Playing the stupid racing game always made Peter feel a little closer to his uncle. And now, playing it with his mentor, somehow made him feel closer to Ben. As if playing with Tony reminded him of what it was like to have a father figure.

Finally, Peter selected the Bowser's Castle he knew Tony was talking about, and the two of them waited for the race to start.

Thoughts?

Like I've said before, one-shots are not my forte, and they always end up really cheesy and probably OOC, but hey. It's making me branch out in writing more. Lemme know what you guys think?