"Mr Stark, I believe that Peter is having a nightmare," F.R.I.D.A.Y said and Tony sat up worried. Pepper took his hand sadly.
"You sure you don't want me to go?" She asked, but he shook his head.
"You've got important meetings in the morning," He told her.
"Technically it is morning," She reminded him, gesturing to the clock which was at one o'clock. "And you have the same meetings as me." Tony chuckled at that.
"Yeah, but everyone expects me to either be late or not turn up, you've got a reputation to uphold," He laughed and Pepper smiled slightly at that.
"You know you should stop being so unreliable, it's a bad example for Peter," She told him.
"Probably," He said, slipping out of their bedroom. "Pete," He whispered once he was by his son's bed. "Peter, wake up spiderling." He shook the wriggling, sweaty teenager softly until he opened his eyes.
"What?" He asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Tony smiled fondly down at him. He looked so young like this, it was easy to forget that he was spider-man. Peter saw it was still dark outside and he groaned.
"You want to talk about your nightmare?" Tony asked, sitting down beside Peter who rested his head on his shoulder, shaking it. "Kiddo, they aren't going to go away if you ignore them." There was a slight pause between them and Tony wasn't sure whether he should push it or not.
"Can we talk later?" Peter asked him and Tony nodded. The kid probably should get some sleep, he was starting school again tomorrow, or rather today.
"Sure thing," Tony smiled. "I'll pick you up and we can grab a coffee or something together." He offered. Peter smiled at that idea, before frowning.
"You are not picking me up from school," He said, pulling away from Tony. "I'm not five." Tony looked offended by that.
"Everyone will think that you're so cool if you have me pick you up and drop you off though," He argued, ignoring Peter's stony expression.
"I want to drive myself," Peter objected.
"You don't have your license," Tony reminded him. "Besides, you don't have much experience at driving right in the city. If you really can't cope with having someone as cool as me dropping you off or picking you up from school, I guess I could pick you up a few streets away." Peter smiled at that and Tony ruffled his hair. "You're gonna have an earlier start than you're used to, so we need to get you back to bed." Peter groaned at that.
"Can't I just skip tomorrow?" He asked. "It won't matter that much cos I've been home schooling anyway." Tony arched his eyebrow at Peter's avoidance techniques.
"You're going to school tomorrow, whether you like it or not," He said. "Now, come with me."
"Where?" Peter asked confused. Tony rolled his eyes at the question and stood up. Deciding not to give him a choice, he picked the squirming teenager up and took him through to his and Pepper's room.
"Oh hi Tony," Pepper said sleepily as he walked in. She sleepily rolled over in the bed as Peter was clumsily dumped on the bed.
"We've got a spider sleeping with us," Tony informed her as he rolled into bed, hugging Pepper as he tried to sleep, Peter further down the bed, between the two of them.
"Are you sure you have everything?" Pepper asked placing a plate of pancakes, maple syrup and bacon in front of Peter.
"Uh huh," Peter nodded, diving in.
"I can make up more if you want," Pepper told him. "I don't want you going hungry on the first day. I've made you up a big lunch so you shouldn't but I don-"
"I'll be fine," Peter rolled his eyes slightly at her worrying. "It's not like it's really my first day at school. I did used to go there... I just... took a break." Pepper nodded, smiling sympathetically.
"I just want you to be happy," She told him. "Now where is Tony?" She asked, pouring a cup of coffee. "He insisted that he was going to drive you, but if he's not here soon, I'll have to do it. Honestly, he's less organised than you, and you're the kid." Peter began smirking then narrowed his eyes.
"I'm nearly an adult," He protested as Tony came into the room and took the cup of coffee that Pepper had just been about to drink from. He took a gulp and Pepper smacked his arm, making him help and spill coffee down his crisp white shirt.
"Hey!" He yelped, trying to get the hot coffee off himself. "What was that for?" He asked, glaring at his wife.
"That was my coffee," She told him.
"Sorry," He smiled sheepishly and she rolled her eyes as she went to make herself another cup. "Anyway, what's this about you 'nearly' being an adult. You're 16 kiddo, and if my math is correct, which it is because I'm a genius, you've got another two years until you're an adult." Peter sighed, annoyed.
"That's practically an adu-"
"No it's not," Tony interrupted. "Now hurry up eating," He told him. "You don't want to be late on the first day back."
"I've got ages til I need to be at school," Peter whined, though he quickly shovelled another forkful of food into his mouth.
"Did I forget to tell you?" Tony asked and Peter looked confused. "We've got a meeting with your headteacher." Peter groaned dramatically at this. Could Tony get any more embarrassing?
"You don't nee-" But once again Tony interrupted him.
"It's your first day back," He reminded him. "And you've been away from school for a while, I just want to make sure that everything's sorted. We need to make sure all your contact details and stuff are sorted." Peter rolled his eyes at that.
"Pepper, please tell me that he's winding me up," He moaned. Pepper shot Tony a glance. They never really had to deal with Peter in a strop before. She was unsure how to handle it.
"Peter honey, it's just one of those things you have to do," She told him. "It won't be long, and Tony will try to look as inconspicuous as possible so people don't crowd you for being with him." Peter rolled his eyes at this and shook Tony off as he tried to ruffle his hair.
"Fine," He conceded, pushing his empty plate away. "I need to get dressed." He walked out of the room quickly and Pepper looked at Tony, smiling sadly.
"I guess we officially have a stroppy teenager on our hands," She sighed. He chuckled slightly at that.
"We'll be fine," He reassured her. "He's nowhere near as bad as I was at his age."
"No one was as bad as you," Pepper laughed, walking over to him and giving him a quick kiss. "And remember to turn up to our meetings on time, or I will kill you." She said, smiling sweetly despite her authoritative tone.
"There's just one more thing to discuss," Morita said, putting the file of Peter's paper work into a cabinet. Peter rolled his eyes at this before Tony glared at him.
"Yes?" Tony asked, hoping that it wouldn't drag on for too much longer. The bell had already gone and he didn't want Peter to draw any more attention to himself than he already would by the fact that he had been adopted by The Tony Stark.
"I just want to go through Peter's grades," Peter bit his lip nervously. "Obviously with everything that's happened and all the adjustments, we don't expect them to be where they normally are, but before... Peter left, his grades had begun to jump about a bit." Tony gave Peter a look and he shifted in his seat uncomfortably at this.
"Can I see?" Tony asked and Morita passed him a sheet of paper with Peter's grades on from the past few years.
"There was a slight dip there," He pointed at where he was talking about. Peter leaned over and looked at what he was talking about.
"That was when... Ben..." He explained to Tony, who nodded understanding.
"His uncle died around then," He told Morita. "A dip isn't surprising."
"No of course not," Morita said quickly. "His grades went back up, but there there was another dip here." He told him. "And we aren't aware of anything happening at home that may have caused it." Peter looked uncomfortable at this. He knew that it was because he started going out as spider-man more. Tony looked at the date and saw that it was around the same time as he had taken Peter to Germany. He hadn't realised that the kid had been going out as spider-man so much that his grades were being affected. "It went on for quite sometime, and none of his teachers knew why. They did improve eventually, but they never reached the level that they were before all the dips." Morita explained. "Is there anything that we can put in place to support Peter?" Tony paused thinking, and looking hard at Peter who squirmed slightly.
"I think we should be alright," He said. "But I'd like weekly reports on his progress so if there's any problems I can catch them early." Peter opened his mouth to protest at this but he saw Tony's expression and quickly closed it again.
"Of course," Morita said, scribbling a quick note as the second bell went. "I think that wraps everything up. Thank you for meeting with me Mr Stark."
"Thank you," Tony said, shaking his hand, whilst standing.
"Here you go, have you got your timetable?" Morita asked Peter, handing him a hall pass so he wouldn't be in trouble for being late.
"Yes sir," Peter said, opening the door for Tony to leave out of.
"Have a good day," Morita told him as he and Tony left. Peter cringed as the door closed behind him and Tony gave him a slight glare.
"We'll be having a talk about those grades later," He told him.
"But you said that we could go out for coffee later?" Peter said, trying to get out of it. He knew Tony would be annoyed about the grades. He couldn't say anything about spider-man in front of Morita, but he knew that Tony knew that it had been the reason for his bad grades.
"We'll still have time to have a chat," Tony told him. "And you can expect a lecture from Peps, she won't be happy either." Peter groaned at this. He began walking away from Tony to his first lesson, but stopped when Tony spoke again. "Pete?"
"Yeah?" He sighed, turning back.
"Have a good day," Peter returned Tony's smile before rushing off so he wouldn't be any later than necessary.
"Peter amable de su parte a unirse a nosotros[nice of you to join us]," His teacher said.
"Lo siento [ I'm sorry]," Peter apologised, passing her the hall pass.
"Toma asiento [take a seat]," The teacher said, gesturing to the empty chair in the front row. Peter quickly sat down, looking around. He noticed that he had never really spoken to anyone in the class. He had hoped that someone that he was friendly with before everything would still be around, but apparently not.
"How was it?" Tony asked as Peter chucked his backpack into the back and took the passenger seat next to Tony. He shrugged.
"Okay," He replied quietly. Tony could tell by his tone of voice that he was lying. He didn't press him further though. If he didn't approach it in the right way, Peter would just clam up immediately. "I'm starving." Peter said, changing the subject.
"I'm sure we can find a place that does cake as well," Tony smiled. "Though, I wouldn't eat too much, Peps was saying earlier that we're gonna order out for pizza tonight."
"Yessss," Peter grinned happily at this news. "Can we get pepperoni?"
"I expect so," Tony smiled, amused by Peter's excitedness.
"Can I have a hot chocolate?" Peter asked Tony a while later as they walked into the cafe.
"Let me guess, with cream and marshmallows?" Tony asked and Peter smiled in response. "So, talk to me kiddo," Tony said once they had placed their order and sat down. "What was that nightmare about?" Tony asked, cutting straight to the chase. Peter sighed, shrugging.
"I was at school," He said after a small pause. "And all my friends were there... Ned... MJ..." He continued. "But then..." He broke off, not wanting to relive the dream. "They started saying that it was my fault that they weren't really at school. And then they... they just disintegrated." Tony squeezed Peter's hand comfortingly.
"You're a kid," He reminded him. "Nothing that happened was your fault. It was stupid politicians and their bureaucracy and agendas." They paused as the waitress bought over their order. "Thank you." Tony said to the waitress as Peter took a sip of his hot chocolate and smiled contently. "Besides, you know MJ and Ned. Do you honestly think that either of them would blame you for what happened?" Peter paused, chewing the inside of his cheek, knowing the answer, but still feeling guilty about it. "Peter?" Tony said, wanting him to answer.
"No," He admitted quietly. "But it doesn't feel like it when I have a nightmare."
"I know," Tony told him. "It's the same for me."
"Really?" Peter asked.
"Would I lie to you?" Peter smiled at this. "Now eat up kiddo, that looks like one good piece of triple chocolate fudge cake."
"Thanks," Peter said, diving straight into the huge slice that Tony had bought for him.
"Now, we need to talk about grades," Tony said and Peter groaned at this.
"Do we ha-"
"Yes," Tony interrupted, giving Peter a slight glare. "I completely understand the dip when your uncle died, we don't need to worry about that, however, that dip the same time I took you to Germany and the months after... you're a smart kid, spiderling, what happened?"
"You were the one that said homework didn't matter," Peter protested.
"That's not exactly what I said," Tony argued. "It was a bad excuse for not coming to Germany. One weekend in Germany should not have caused such a dip in your grades and it continued for months."
"It's not my fault that crime was bad so I was out patrolling more," Peter argued and Tony raised his eyebrow.
"Or you were trying to impress me so you were ignoring your schoolwork and taking unnecessary risks," Tony said and Peter blushed slightly, knowing that he was right. "Kid, you don't need to do that stuff to impress me. You're my kid, I'm gonna be proud of you no matter what."
"Really?" Peter asked, perking up at this.
"Of course," Tony smiled. "But you cannot let patrolling affect your grades again. I know that you'll want to go out as spider-man, but we will ground you if we don't think you're doing your best at school." Peter groaned at that.
"How was school honey?" Pepper asked as Peter and Tony walked into the apartment.
"Fine," Peter said shortly. Tony looked surprised at that. He had been in such a good mood when they had been driving home. Pepper looked at Tony who shrugged helplessly. "Dinner will be at six." Pepper told Peter who nodded and went to his bedroom. "Do you wan-" She began, but the door slammed behind him. "What's up with him?" Pepper asked turning to Tony.
"I don't know," He sighed. "He's clearly upset about something, but he wouldn't say anything when we were out."
"Did he talk about the nightmare?" Pepper asked, taking a seat on the sofa.
"Yeah," Tony nodded. "That's something at least. It was to do with his old school friends. I figured it wasn't really the time to push it because he was already getting annoyed about his grades."
"We can try over dinner," Pepper suggested. "Or maybe he'll open up to his counsellor." Tony nodded.
"Maybe," He said. "Oh and I told him we were having pizza and he wants pepperoni."
"Doesn't he always?" Pepper laughed and Tony smiled. "I was thinking if he gets all his homework done before dinner, we could watch a movie tonight." Pepper smiled at the idea. She loved it when the three of them had time to spend together.
"He might want to go out on patrol though," She reminded him, knowing how much Peter loved spider-man.
"I was thinking it may not be a good idea for him to go out this week," Tony said.
"He won't like that," Pepper told him and he nodded.
"I know," He sighed. "Just until Friday so he can get back into the swing of school. It's only a few days."
"I agree," Pepper said. "I still don't think he'll be happy though."
"He doesn't have a choice about it," Tony shrugged. "And if he has an issue with it, we'll just extend it so he can't go out at the weekend."
"Good idea," Pepper nodded as he stood behind her and began massaging her shoulders. "Thanks." Pepper smiled happily, leaning into Tony's touch.
I might just change the update day to Thursday because it keeps end up being Thursday. I hope you guys are all staying safe. I had so much fun with this chapter because I've not really explored this side of Peter because he's only now feeling more at home and is testing boundaries. I hope you enjoyed and please let me know what you think.
