Warning: There is talk and mention of corporal punishment in this chapter, but no actual CP.

Chapter 9

Happy had sent Tony a message to meet him at the back of the compound, and when Tony and Peter did Happy had the car ready and waiting for them. Peter had already drank through half of the water bottle Tony had given him, which means that Rhodey had probably been correct in his assumption of the child being dehydrated. The billionaire was not at all surprised at Peter's affronted face when he saw the car seat in the back of the limousine. The kid hadn't taken too kindly to the idea of getting him a car seat when it was discussed the other day, and seeing as he'd been barely conscious the last time he sat in the seat, it was most likely that he didn't remember that incident. Meaning in his memory, this was his first time seeing it. "Do I have to sit in it?" the boy asked in a whiney voice.

"Afraid so kiddo. Safest way to drive in your shrimpy form," Tony responded in a teasing tone, making the boy pout even more. The man had expected more of a fight about it, but Peter did not give anymore protests. He was very compliant of climbing into the tiny seat, and getting his seatbelt on.

When they started driving, Tony found out why Happy had wanted to meet at the back of the compound as opposed to the front. The whole front of the building was surrounded by dozens upon dozens of reporters, waiting for him to show up. When the saw the limousine drive by, many of them held out microphones and attempted to ask questions despite all the vehicle windows being rolled up. Tony was thankful for the tinted windows, so none of them could actually see the billionaire inside with Peter. He couldn't make out any of their questions. "Move!" Happy shouted, honking the horn as about 15 people were blocking his way.

At a glance over at Peter, Tony saw that the kid looked terrified. Apparently he had not seen this part of his life up close before. It took five full minutes for Happy to honk and inch his way past the reporters, and when he finally had a clear path, he gunned the engine and took off. Some of the paparazzi tired running after them but after a few minutes they had lost all traces of them. Happy chose to take an alternate route to the store, in hopes of not being followed. Tony was starting to understand Rhodey's disapproval of him going anywhere with the kid.

The first half of the drive was fairly uneventful. There was no conversation. Tony spent the time going over his 'to do' list for the day, while Peter finished off the rest of his water bottle. It was silent except for the occasional sniffle that came from the child. He had to be coming down with something, and the billionaire debated on getting some cold medicine to try and dowse it out of the kid. The silence was suddenly broken by Peter, "Mr. Stark- I mean Tony. I need to go to the bathroom…"

"What!" Tony wasn't sure why he sounded so surprised. The kid had just drank a 16oz water bottle in about 20 minutes. He just assumed with the kid being dehydrated and all, that it would take longer to go through him. Unless… "Do you need to go number one or number two?"

"Number one…" Peter replied with a blush.

Tony couldn't help but feel a little bit a relief at hearing that. That was a lot easier of a clean up. But he supposed that the ultimate goal was to have him not go in the diaper. "Um… can you hold it till we get to the store?"

The child shook his head, blushing even deeper. Tony held back a frustrated sigh, knowing that it wasn't the kid's fault, but seriously they would be at the store in less than ten minutes. Could he really not hold it for that long. He even considering just telling the kid to use the diaper- but no he couldn't do that. Not when the kid was trying so hard to not use the diaper. Not to mention that he didn't bring any extra ones, so he'd have to wait until the they were back at the compound before getting him back in a dry diaper. And sitting in a wet one was sure to make his already bad rash even worse. "Happy pullover," Tony knocked on the privacy window that was separating them.

Happy immediately did so, but as soon as the car had slowed to a stop, he rolled the window down and asked if everything was ok. Tony chose not to respond to his friend, and instead unbuckled the kid's seat belt and opened the door for him. "All right kid, go do your business. Don't get it on the car."

Tony kept his head turned away so he could give the kid little bit of privacy. Hopefully they had lost all the paparazzi at this this point. The last thing they needed was for something to take of picture of Peter taking a leak on the side of the road. The man turned his head back when he heard the distinct sounds of the boy crawling his way back into the car. "All good again?" Tony asked, and the child only nodded in response, flushing a deep shade of red.

Ten minutes later, Happy pulled into the parking lot of a nearby foodmart. The limousine attracted attention to many people who were standing nearby, making Tony think that he probably should have just taken one of his Audi's. A limo attracted so much more of the attention they were trying to avoid. They might as well be shouting to the whole parking lot, 'Hello! Here is someone very famous, get pictures. "All right kid, let's try and make this fast," Tony announced already sporting the sunglasses and fedora hat that Rhodey bought for him yesterday. As soon as this was all over, he'd be burning that hat.

The air outside was just as biting cold as the air had been yesterday when they were in Queens, and probably did nothing to help the cold that Peter was obviously starting to come down with. Seriously, if that kid sniffled one more time he'd probably lose it. Tissues had slowly moved up on the mental shopping list he was keeping in his mind on the car drive over.

Either teen Peter's mind was starting to come back to the forefront of the kid's mind, or he was just tired of getting carried, but Peter had insisted that he walk into the store on his own. Happy got a car for them, and Tony took a moment to examine the child seat in the front. Peter was definitely small enough now to sit in the cart's child seat, and not wanting to waste any time by walking a slower pace for the child, Tony bent down and picked the boy up. "All right kid, here's the perfect spot for you-"

"No, no!" the child protested, stiffening his legs so that they wouldn't go through the seats leg holes. Tony looked at the child's face, and saw that he was blushing with embarrassment again. "Please Mr. Stark… I can walk myself, really!"

"No Pete," Tony left no room for argument, and forced the kid's legs to bend so he could sit in the cart. "We're on a time crunch and I can't have you getting lost in the store, so you're going to stay where I can see you." Peter pouted in the cart with his arms crossed but made no other arguments to Tony's relief. There also wasn't time for debating with a sixteen year, two year old.

The billionaire pushed the cart through the store entrance, having the uncomfortable feeling of looking like a dad. Happy followed a couple feet behind, falling back into his security role. "All right kid, before you got turned into a child, what did you eat?" Tony asked as they started down the canned food aisle.

"Um… usually whatever my aunt bought…" the boy mumbled stilling looking a bit put out from having to sit in the cart. Tony didn't know what the kid's problem was, it wasn't much different from sitting in a car seat. Though that was at least out of the public eye.

"So what did she buy?" The billionaire could feel the beginnings of frustration creep in on him. "Was there anything special that she had you always eat?"

The child shrugged, "Not really… it was pretty much normal food."

Tony could no longer hold back his sigh of frustration. "Come on kid!" his voice snapped, and he took a breath to try and gain control of his thinning patience. "I'm trying to figure out why you're having stomach issues and digestive problems. Is there anything you can think of that would help me figure that out?"

The spiderling's blue eyes suddenly widened as if a sudden realization came over him. "Mr. Stark? Did I ever tell you that before the spider bite I was gluten intolerant?"

Hearing this made Tony halt the cart suddenly, and he stood in the middle of the canned food aisle staring at the young child like he was wondering if he should strangle the kid. "No! You didn't tell me that. But shit, that might have been helpful to know a long time ago! Why am I just hearing about this now?"

Peter shrank back a little bit at the mans frustrated rant, making Tony feel a bit guilty. Biting the kids head off wasn't going do any help. "W-Well it went away after I got my spider powers, and since I still had some of my powers, I didn't really think I would start having problems again…" the boy said in a timid voice. "I'm sorry…"

The billionaire swore loudly. "This is going to be fun to adjust to! Isn't gluten in like everything?" Besides the little he learned from when Pepper tried to go gluten free a few years back, Tony knew practically nothing about a gluten free diet. Pepper had only done the diet a couple of months, and the billionaire could still recall all the gluten free waffles he ate during that time, and how much he kept telling himself how much better waffles with gluten were.

"It's in wheat," Happy supplied unexpectedly. "That's all I know."

"It's ok Mr. Stark, I still remember what I could and could not eat."

"I thought I told you to start calling me Tony?" The man had suddenly realized that the kid had fallen back into this habit.

The child looked down a bit ashamed. "Oh yeah… sorry Mr- Um… I mean Tony."

They continued walking through the store, with Peter naming off different foods he knew that he could eat. Since they were about to leave for a week, Tony mostly picked up non perishable items, like gluten free crackers. Tony quickly realized as the child continued listing off foods, that he was going to have to start doing real cooking for the kid. Most the pre-made food, and boxed dinners had some type of gluten product in it, and he also had to feed the boy something for lunch today. He couldn't just give the kid crackers and call it a meal. They'd probably have to order special meals while on the trip. In the blink of an eye Tony's life had suddenly gotten ten times more complicated. Thanks spider kid… "So what do you want to eat for lunch today?"

The child just shrugged. "Not that hungry to be honest…" this was followed by a loud sniffle, which reminded the man that they'd need to pick up some kind of cold medicine before leaving.

"Pete you got to eat something. I think we figured out what's causing your stomach troubles, so it should probably get better once you start eating the right type of food," Tony stopped the cart in front of the refrigerator section. "How about eggs? Eggs don't have gluten in them right?" he looked questioningly at Happy who just shrugged. Peter gave a shake of his head though, so the billionaire put a dozen in the cart. "Ok kid, your lunch today will consist of eggs, cheese, and how about yogurt?" Tony grabbed a pack of babybell cheese, then turned and looked at the yogurt section.

Satisfied that they had enough food to make it through the rest of the day, Tony took a turn down the medicine aisle. He was once again out of his element, as taking medicine in general was beneath him. Not to mention that it all tasted nasty, it didn't matter what flavor you tired to cover it up with, all medicine tastes bad. But just because he never touched the stuff didn't mean that he wasn't going to shove it down the kids throat. "What are we down here for?" Peter asked with a frown.

"Getting some medicine for you, because it sounds like your starting to get sick…"

"M-not getting sick," Peter said with annoyance in his voice, and then as if wanting to prove the child wrong, this was followed by a couple of coughs from the boy.

"Mmm-hmm," Tony hummed sarcastically, and stopped in front of the cold and flu section of the aisle. Peter give him a mild glare but didn't argue his point any further. Tony stared helplessly at the dozens of cold medicine he could choose from. "Should I get a children's brand?" he asked Happy who continued giving unhelpful shrugs being just as lost as Tony was about all this.

"I don't think the children's stuff will help," Peter spoke up. "The few times I've had to take medicine, I'd have to take double the recommended amount for adults for it to work on me."

"That was when you had all your powers. You don't this time, so we're not chancing it," Tony replied and grabbed a liquid bottle of Children's Tylenol Cold and Flu, and tossing it into the cart.

They began making their towards the checkout stands, having gotten everything they needed from the store. Peter who had been playing with the child straps attached to the cart, suddenly looked up in alarm and made a squeak. "Oops…"

"What is it?" Tony asked with concern, but he didn't need to hear the answer after a couple of seconds because the sudden putrid smell was answer enough. "All shit… really kid? Right now?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Stark- I mean Tony…" the child looked down and blushed in shame. "It just happens so suddenly…"

"You better hope going gluten free fixes this problem, otherwise I'm going to start making you change yourself." It wasn't a real threat, that was more of Tony's frustration getting the better of him. "I mean serious. I don't have any clean diapers on me, and having you sit for extended periods of time in a dirty diaper will only make your rash worse…" the man had lowered his voice to almost a whisper so that people wouldn't overhear their conversation. Even if he was in a disguise right now, he really didn't want anyone over hearing him talk about soiled diapers, and diaper rashes.

"You should really just get a diaper bag-" Happy started to suggest before Tony quickly interrupted him.

"I do not need a diaper bag!" the billionaire was offended at the very suggestion. Suggesting that he get a diaper bag was like suggesting he carry around a purse. It's just not something that men do, especially Stark men. He'd never seen any male figure carrying around something as demising as a diaper bag. "I just need a… holder I can carry around that can hold a diaper or two and some wipes, maybe a-"

"Like a diaper bag?" Happy asked looking like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

Tony's response was an intense glare. "Ok fine, maybe I do need a diaper bag. But he need to come up with a better name for it. Something more manly like… Damage Control bag."

This made Happy snort, "Two many syllables. That will never catch on."

"Fine then we'll shorten it to the DC bag."

Happy rolled his eyes, "Fine whatever. I guess we'll add a DC bag to our list of stuff to get from the department store."

"Speaking of which, since we don't have a DC bag yet we need to go back to the compound first. And to save on time, why don't you drop us off and I'll give you a list of items to get." Going by the look on Happy's face at the suggestion, the other man was getting tired of being the errand boy. "What you want to trade tasks?" Tony asked giving him a look. "Fine, when we get back then you can change the kid, and I'll go out to the store."

It took Happy approximately two seconds to process this. "So, what was the list of things you wanted me to get."

Peter was now back at the compound, sitting at the kitchen table, slowing peeling the shell off of a hard boiled egg. After four separate failed attempts at scrambling eggs, it became clear that the only type of edible eggs that Tony Stark could make without burning them were hard boiled. "All right, eat up kid," Mr. Stark- wait he was supposed to start calling him Tony. God that was going to be hard to get used to. The man set a bowl of mixed fruit and yogurt on the table in front of the child, and then went to find something to eat for himself.

"Thanks T-Tony," the boy said awkwardly. The name sounded foreign on his tongue. Calling Tony Stark by his first name, seemed way too informal for their relationship. It was better than dad though… He still felt a squirm of embarrassment every time he thought about that incident. It was slowly getting harder and harder to control his toddler instincts, and it got worse anytime his mentor showed affection for him. He would have to be very careful in the future, and make sure he contained his toddler side so he didn't accidentally call him dad again.

Having finally gotten all the shell off, Peter took a bite of the egg. It tasted a bit on the rubbery side, meaning that the eggs had been cooked a bit too long. "Your a lousy cook, you know that?"

That caused the man to turn away from the open refrigerator and look at him with raised eyebrows. "That's a pretty ballsy thing to say to someone who just made you lunch."

"I could have made a better lunch with my feet." Peter had meant it as a joke, but the words came out more rude then he intended.

Mr. Stark frowned deeply, clearly not seeing it as a joke. "Well it certainly sounds like you'll be taking a nap when we're done eating."

The child's blue eyes widened slightly, and he began to back peddle. "No! I'm sorry Mr. Stark. I didn't mean that…" Peter was against taking a nap for multiple reasons. One because it was humiliating to think that he needed to take a nap everyday, when he hadn't had to do that since he was five. But the main reason was because if he fell asleep he'd probably have nightmares about being buried alive. What had happened yesterday was still too fresh in his mind.

"Just eat your food brat…" the billionaire spat, turning back to the refrigerator and began pulling out sandwich items. Peter felt a tightness in his chest as being called brat, and looked down at his plate of food, with a small pout forming on his lips.

The boy sat like that, making the occasional glance up at his mentor as the man made himself a turkey sandwich. The sandwich certainly looked more appetizing, filled with lettuce tomato slices, avocado and smothered in honey mustard, compared to his yogurt with fresh fruit, babybel cheese and overcooked hard boiled eggs. After going back on gluten for almost two years, Peter had forgotten how much the gluten free diet sucked. It wasn't until Tony had finished making his sandwich and sitting at the table as well, that he man noticed Peter had not eaten anything since there little spat. "Come on kid. You need to eat that, I did go through the trouble to make it for you."

That caused just enough guilt to setting in the child's chest to get him to start eating the less than appetizing food again. He finished off the egg he had started eating, and then started on the yogurt. While eating, Mr. Stark tried to make a phone call, but whoever he was calling didn't seem to answer because after a minute he muttered, "Damnit!" and slammed the phone down on the table so hard, it was a wonder that it didn't break. Peter wisely chose not to ask who he was trying to call.

The food certainly did help with his stomach ache, but his head was still feeling a bit fogged. Probably also the result of the gluten he'd consumed. Peter recalled that the main symptom he got any time he accidentally had gluten while growing up, was the feeling of not being all the way present mentally. His aunt called it brain fog. Along with the many symptoms that came with being gluten intolerant, Peter's nose was constantly running like a faucet. The child made a loud sniff as he took his last bite of yogurt. The sudden noise caused Mr. Stark to glance over at him with a frown, "I better give you that medicine before you go down for your nap," he commented wiping his face with a napkin.

Peter groaned with a pout. Now medicine was added on to the nap. His day was just getting worse and worse. "I don't need a nap Mr. Stark."

"I'm sorry who?"

"I- I mean Tony… look I'm really sorry for what I said about your cooking. It's really good see," Peter peeled the wax covering off the cheese and took a bite of it. "I'm eating it."

"Nice try kid," Tony smirked at him, and stood up from the table. "We're going to be traveling later, and I can't have a cranky toddler on my hands." The billionaire began digging through the shopping bags they had just got that morning, until he pulled out the bottle of Children's Tylenol. He stared at packaging for a couple of moments before letting out a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?" Peter asked and popped the rest of the babybel into his mouth, and then cracked the shell of his other hard boiled egg. He eyed the packaging, trying to see if he could figure out what the problem was just by looking. He noticed that the flavor of the medicine was grape, and he grimaced at the thought of taking the medicine. Grape flavor wasn't as bad a cherry, but he preferred orange flavors. The citric taste tended to mask the medicated flavor better than anything else.

Mr. Stark shook his head before answering, not looking two happy with himself. "Nothing…" the man set the medicine bottle down on the counter and began rifling through drawers; it seemed that he wasn't going to share the problem with the kid, and Peter didn't have the energy to push the subject. The boy just peeled the shell of his egg, and watched as the billionaire pulled a spoon out of the drawer and go back over to where the medicine bottle sat. The man opened the bottle and carefully measured a small dose of the liquid into the spoon before pouring the dose into the small cup that was provided with the bottle. Apparently his mentor was going to give less than the recommended dosage. Peter had stuffed the rest of the egg into his mouth when Mr. Stark set the medicine in front of him. "There you go, bottoms up."

Peter turned his nose up to the dark liquid, and waited until the egg was swallowed before answering. "I don't want it…"

"Tuff… you're starting to get sick, so you need to take some medicine."

"I'm not getting sick…" and then on cue, Peter gave another loud sniff.

Mr. Stark's frustration seemed to have reached a peak, because the man unexpectedly slammed his hand down on the table making the child jump and everything that was sitting on the table juggle. "I'm not arguing about this with you. So stop being a little shit and take your medicine before I force it down your throat!" Peter glared at the man, very close to picking of the cup of medicine and throwing it at his mentor. That's certainly what toddler Peter wanted to do. But he still wanted to try and get out of taking a nap, and throwing things would certainly not help his case. So with a deep steadying breath, the child picked up the cup and downed the liquid, grimacing at the taste.

Ten minutes later, Peter regretted having listened to the man, and wished that he had just throw the liquid at his face. This was mainly because he was currently being taken back to his room to be put down for a nap. "I don't want a nap! I'm not tired!" the child had been protesting the entire way.

It seemed that Mr. Stark had gotten tired repeating himself, as he was no longer giving the boy responses but remaining firmly silent. They arrived at Peter's room a few minutes later, and his mentor plopped him on the bed without ceremony. "Friday play some soft music…" the man asked his A.I. and a moment later a soft classical song started playing through the room's speakers on a low volume. "Good night kid," Tony rolled back the covers so Peter could slide between them.

"It's not nighttime dumbass…" the boy growled surprising even himself at the response, and pulled the blankets over himself.

The billionaire gave the child a glare, but didn't offer any other response to what he said, instead saying. "Dim the lights Friday," and then stalking out of the room.

Peter lay on the bed, in the semi dark room listening to the soft music, and silently fuming over how unreasonable Tony Stark was being. He didn't even feel tired at the moment, just a bit cranky from feeling a bit under the weather. But that was no reason to be shoving medicine down his throat and forcing him to take a nap. Well two could play at that game. The boy decided at that moment he wasn't going to take a nap just to spite the billionaire, and sat up looking around the room. He needed to do something that could occupy his time for the next couple of hours, that was quiet enough for the man to think he was napping. Reading a book seemed to be the best choice.

With this in mind, Peter quietly crawled out of the bed, and over to the bookshelf. He spent a good five minutes scanning the books before finding a physics book that looked interesting. It was also about half his size and heavy, as he almost fell over after picking it up. After managing to stay upright, the child lugged the book back to his bed and began reading it. This lasted probably ten minutes before the music in the background was suddenly cut and Friday spoke. "Mr. Parker, Mr. Stark would like me to remind you that you are supposed to be taking a nap right now, and not reading."

Darn it… of course Friday would rat him out. "Tell him to f- off," the boy snapped not really thinking about the consequences that may come with having the machine tell his mentor that, as he was still very upset with his mentor.

"Mr. Stark would like me to remind you of what happened last time you refused to go to sleep, and that he can come up and give a repeated performance," Friday replied after a few moments.

This caused a tingling sensation to run up Peter's spine as he recalled his mentor giving him a couple of swats that last time. Not wanting a repeat of that humiliating experience Peter quickly looked up in alarm. "Tell him I'm going to bed now!" the child then closed the book, pushed it aside and laid down with his eyes closed. He spent a few minutes like this, listening intently for sounds of the man coming up to the room. When nothing was heard for a few moments Peter began to relax, but he still didn't want to go to sleep.

Peter spent another five minutes rolling back and forth on the bed, torn between not wanting to go to sleep, but knowing that if he didn't soon than his mentor would come up and spank him. The debating battle of which outcome would be worse became too much for his tired little body to handle, and tears began to well up in his eyes and were soon overflowing down his cheeks. Two minutes later, he was sobbing snot and tears into his pillow. A jolt ran through his body when he heard the bedroom door open. At sparing a glance at the door, the child saw that Mr. Stark had entered the room. Oh no! Mr. Stark had come to spank him for not going to sleep, and this knowledge caused the child to cry even harder.

Burying his little face into the pillow, Peter braced himself and waited for it to come. However what actually happened was unexpected, and surprised the child. He felt an arm snake underneath his body, causing the boy to flinch, and the next thing Peter knew his body was crushed against Tony's chest in a tight hug. "Shh… shhh calm down…" the man whispered into his ear and gave very gentle pats to the kid's back before they turned into slow soothing circles. "What's wrong Pete? Why are you crying?"

The child took a shuddering breath before stammering, "I-... I d-don't want to… ge-t sp-spanked..."

Peter felt the man give a deep sigh, and the large hand that was rubbing his back soothingly moved up to card through his hair. "Relax kid… I'm not going to spank you." Peter's body deflated in relief at hearing these words. "But if you keep using that bad language I might just have to," Tony added, and the child couldn't help but think that the threat was somewhat hypocritical considering how often he heard those words out of the man's mouth. But he knew better then to mention that.

The two stayed like this until Peter's sobs slowed down to the occasional hitch of breath, and then Mr. Stark asked. "So why don't you want to go to sleep? It's painfully noticeable how tired you are kid…"

Peter broke eye contact with his mentor, ashamed to admit what the real problem was. "When I go to sleep, all I have is nightmares…"

A look of understanding passed through the billionaires eyes, and he gave a couple of slow nods. "Oh… so that's what the problem is. Look kid, take it from a guy who's had to deal with a lot of nightmares, and knows from experience- Refusing to sleep is not going to help- in fact it was actually make it worse. I'm not going to try and tell you some bullshit about how it's going to get better- I mean it will get a little better, but the nightmares will always be there."

His mentor's rambling wasn't making him feel any better, and Tony must have known it also because he suddenly stopped his train of thought ran a hand over his face. "Look… what I'm trying to say is, as much as it sucks, the nightmares aren't going to go away. But you still have sleep. You just need to come up with a list of things you can do that will help you feel better after waking up from a nightmare. For example when I wake up after a my weekly night terror I go down to my lab and tinker. It's something I like to do and it makes me feel better. You just need to figure out what you can do."

A silence fell between the two, while Peter processed everything that Mr. Stark had said. What could he do that would make him feel better after a nightmare. Normally when that happened he was so consumed with fear that he couldn't focus on anything else. What was something he really enjoyed doing that could be an anchor to bring him out of the terror that filled his waking minutes after a nightmare. He had enjoyed the ten minutes he had read that physics book, that was his favorite subject. Perhaps he could start doing his physics homework. "How about I warm you up some milk hm?" Mr. Stark asked bringing the child out of his mental thoughts. "Would that help you sleep better?" Peter just nodded his head, and then his mentor gently lay him back on the bed and pulled the covers back over him. "All right, I'll be back in a minute. You're getting a cup with a lid this time though." With that the man left the room.

The child nodded again, face flushing at the memory of when he spilled the milk all over himself. He really needed to keep his toddler instincts in check. But boy was it getting really hard to do that. It was getting to the point where he almost forgot that they were happening. He was slowly losing himself to his toddler side. Would he completely lose his 16 year old mentality if he stayed in this form for two long? Peter dwelled on this uncomfortable thought until Mr. Stark came back into the room. "This was the closest thing I could find to a cup with a lid," the man announced upon entering the room and held up a baby bottle full of milk.

Peter eyes widened at the object. There was no way in all hell he'd be caught drinking out of a baby bottle. He didn't care how tired he was, or what Tony Stark insisted on. It was not happening. He would learn how to sleep without his nightly glass of warm milk. The child began to shaking his head in earnest. "No- No! It's ok Mr. Stark… I can pass on the milk."

"Come on kid, don't make a big deal out of this," the man said with a roll of his eyes and then approached the bed. This caused the boy to back up against the headboard, terror in his eyes as if the man was wielding a knife rather then a baby bottle. You need to go to sleep, and you already told me that warm milk helps you sleep. Next time I'm out I'll find some sort of sippy cup for you."

To be honest a sippy cup wasn't much of an improvement over a baby bottle. Peter just wanted to drink out of a cup like a normal person. The boy squeaked in protest when his mentor lifted him up into one arm, and used his other hand to put the tete of the bottle into his mouth. The child reached his hands up the push the bottle away, but as soon as the rich warm liquid touched his tongue he instinctively wanted to drink more and his hands instead grabbed the bottle so he could hold it himself. Peter was lost in his toddler side a good ten seconds before coming back and pulled the bottle away from him. "N-no Mr. Stark… I don't need it…"

The billionaire sat back down on the bed and cradled Peter in his arms. "Yes you do Pete, now stop talking and drink your milk." With that said the bottle tete was pushed back into the boy's mouth.

With his little body very tired, being held in Tony's arms, and the rich creamy liquid tasting so good. The brief battle that went on inside Peter was easily won by his toddler side, and he stopped struggling and just took the bottle with blushing red cheeks. Before the milk was even half gone, Peter's arms began to feel so heavy that they dropped to to chest and Tony had to hold the bottle up to his mouth so he could continue drinking it. The child stared at his mentor with sleepy half lidded eyes, he'd be falling asleep very soon. When the milk was all gone, Peter was in a floating half conscious state. Still aware of the man's arms holding him, but unclear of who's they were. It had to be someone that loved him… no one that didn't love him would hold him with such affection.

Peter felt the tete of the bottle leave his mouth, and he turned his face into the chest of whoever was holding him, and snuggled deeper into the shirt. A large hand started rubbing his back, and the last thing that went through the child's mind before sleep claimed him was that this man had to be his dad, because with how loved he felt right now, that feeling only came from a dad.

Oh darn… Jerkwad Tony has reared his ugly head in this chapter. But we just need to smack it down like we do in those arcade games. Truthfully he'll probably make the occasional appearance throughout the whole story because let's be honest; he's still Tony Stark and people don't completely chance in just a few days. Just look at where the man started way back in Ironman, and where he is now in Infinity Wars. That took 8 to 10 years folks.

Giving a two year old cold medicine is not recommended.

A child should be well off the baby bottle by the time their two, but for the purposes of fluff and cuteness for this fic I'm adding it in.