Peter thought he would be thrilled when his grounding was over but he wasn't so sure he was. He was sitting on the couch in the lounge bored. His grounding had been lifted the previous evening and he had one final day before he had to go back to school but he didn't know what to do. He had wanted to go down and see the other interns but it was getting towards the end of the college year so they were either doing work on projects in the lab or writing essays or dissertations so he didn't want to disturb them. Bruce and Nat were away for the day god knows where, his mom was in her office doing some prep for an important meeting tomorrow and his dad was in the lab, he didn't want to interrupt them. He had spent two weeks with them he didn't want to annoy them after all, they were probably sick of him. When that last thought crossed his mind he stopped to consider his punishment….maybe they wouldn't be too annoyed actually.

Sure the first week of his grounding was pretty terrible when he was doing his lines and that horrific essay but after that his dad started giving him projects to work on. He had looked into improving the amount of energy solar panels could provide by using modified arc reactor technology, that had been pretty cool especially as his dad had been so proud. Sure May had been proud of his accomplishments but when it was science related she often didn't understand just what he had achieved, but his dad did and his praise meant the world to him. Tony Stark praising him! Calling him smart and innovative, it was crazy! Also it was great to just be able to hang out with his parents, he had no idea how much work his dad put in every day, he may not be CEO anymore but as head of R&D he was still busy and the avengers stuff added to his workload. His mom as well, he knew she was working almost all the time she wasn't in the penthouse but the amount of responsibility she had was mindboggling. It was no wonder his dad hadn't wanted the position, if he was in his dad's shoes he wouldn't either.

Hanging out with his mom was fun too, he had spent an afternoon with the marketing team, it had been the first time he hadn't been forced to work quietly in the corner and it had been brilliant. He had been thinking about asking if he could go down and join them occasionally, he had been given an open invite and he found it interesting. He had also got to go on a full tour of the building, sure he'd already been nearly everywhere but his mom was showing some investors around and he had discovered things he had no clue were even there. There had been a small museum on the history of SI which had been pretty cool and he planned to go back down and spend some time there now he was no longer grounded.

He had spent a lot of the time with both his parents and after the first couple of days he began to think they had maybe engineered it that way. Sure his parents had meetings together sometimes but not six in one week! He was sure there was something going on there, he'd even seen the head of HR open his mouth to say something on it before he was glared into submission by Pepper. It was the look she gave Peter or Tony when they were about to do something stupid and he couldn't help but be thankful it wasn't aimed in his direction, it was terrifying. He wouldn't admit it to his dad because he didn't want a repeat of this punishments, it was sooo embarrassing having to follow his parents around like a little child but he felt much more secure now, his parents had never complained or brushed him off or acted like he was an inconvenience despite the fact he was with one of them every hour of the day. So maybe going to see what his dad was up to in the lab wouldn't be annoying.

ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ

"Dad, what are doing, can I come in?"

Tony looked up at his sons questioning silencing his music with a wave of his hand. He couldn't stop the soft smile that spread across his face, he'd been worried Peter would keep his distance now his punishment was over, he wouldn't blame the kid after all but he was thrilled Peter had sought him out so soon, it hadn't even been twenty four hours yet.

"I'm just tinkering. We can try out your solar panel idea if you want?"

Peter's face lit up at the suggestion and the teen scrambled over asking FRIDAY to bring up his designs as he did so. It was the first time he had been back in the lab in two weeks but it felt like no time had passed at all as he and his dad fell into an easy rhythm and comfortable silence. He loved working with his dad and he was sure there would never come a day when he would turn down an offer to work in the lab with him.

After twenty minutes Tony broke the silence. "Peter, I got an email from your school this morning. Is there something you should have told me about?"

Peter looked up at his dad with an eyebrow raised, he knew there wasn't an issue with his grades or it would have been brought up at the beginning of the holidays. "Um…no? I mean…I don't think so." He replied racking his brains for anything he had done or anything coming up at school.

Tony sighed at his son's words and put down his screwdriver to look at him. "You didn't tell me your decathlon team was in the state final."

Peter shrugged "oh that" he thought it was something important his dad was talking about "it's no big deal."

"Peter." Tony said slowly making sure he had his son's full attention "It is important, it's amazing, I'm proud of you son. Why didn't you mention it, the final is in two weeks?"

"I didn't know you'd want to come." Peter shrugged again.

Tony was brought up short at the boys answer. Peter looked genuinely confused, "Peter, this is big, why wouldn't I want to come? Tell me what's going on in that head of your kiddo"

"Well we got through just before the Easter Holidays, Abe's was sort of a celebration…" he stopped unsurely at that but continued when his dad just waved away the comment "right…so yeah it was a celebration but I didn't really think about it you're busy and mom's busy. May was usually working when I had competitions so it didn't really cross my mind that you could even come. Why would you want to come though? It's just a stupid competition, you'll know all the answers anyway"

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose when his son stopped speaking. "C'mon let's go back to the lounge and we can discuss this."

Peter nods unsurely, was he in trouble? What's the big deal?

Soon enough Peter was sat on the couch fidgeting nervously and Tony perched on the edge of the coffee table so he was at eyelevel with his son and their knees were almost touching. "Peter. This isn't just a stupid competition. I know decathlon means a lot to you so it means a lot to me too. You're my son and it doesn't matter if I know the answers already, I don't want to go for the knowledge, I want to go to cheer you on. I want to go and see other people see how smart you are. I know you realised by the middle of the first week your mom and I had organised to have more meetings together, we did that so we could spend time with you Pete, even though you were in trouble because you are our boy and we want to be there for you underoos. I know May had to work a lot to keep you guys afloat and I'm thrilled she did that for you but we are not in that position. Pep and I will happily take an afternoon or a day off, heck even a week if we need to to support you. We want to come to your meets, I want to be the dad cheering embarrassingly loud whenever his son answers correctly. Okay?"

Peter blushed and looked at his knees as he nodded. "Sorry, I'll get you tickets first thing tomorrow. I promise." He grinned as his dad ruffled his hair affectionately as he sat down next to him turning on the TV as he did so.

"Star Wars then Spiderling?"