Chapter 18

The next day bright and early had Tony taking Peter out for his first driving lesson.

The whole morning Peter had been feeling sick and petrified. What if he crashed? What if he hurt his dad? What if he hit another car? Or he broke his dad's car? So many terrifying questions ran through his mind.

He assumed his dad was going to drive him to some empty parking lot where an old car would be waiting for him to try driving.

But he was met with a huge shock when Tony pulled up at the gates outside the Avengers Compound.

"Woah wait!" Peter held up a hand; "What are we doing here?"

"Your driving lesson." Tony said simply and turned to Peter after FRIDAY detected it was them and allowed them entry; "Where did you think I was going to take you?" He asked before driving inside, following the winding road up to the large building.

"I dunno some parking lot I guess."

Tony snorted; "And risk some idiot reversing into you. No way. Atleast here I can be sure there won't be any other idiot drivers around."

"Oh." Peter didn't think of it like that; "Ok."

Tony drove across the compound past the main building, and past another large building before stopping at one end of the building where there was a large open patch of driveway.

"Ok here we are."

Peter blinked looking around blankly; "What? Where's the car I'm going to use?"

"You're in it bud."

"No but...no not this car." Peter spluttered.

Turning in his head he frowned at Peter; "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing! But I mean, I've never driven a car before and you want to let me drive your thousand dollar car."

"It's actually a quarter of a million." Tony murmured and wished he hadn't, watching as Peter flipped out.

"Oh no no no." He scrambled to take off his seat belt and was jumping out the car before Tony could register what was happening.

"Peter? Kid?!" Tony said worriedly rushing after him, rounding the car as Peter was pacing away; "Wait buddy. What is it? What's wrong?" He was terrified of what he said.

"What's wrong?" Peter turned to him and laughed darkly; "That car is worth a quarter of a million dollars! There is no way I'm driving that car. I couldn't even afford the tyre on that car! There's no way I am risking crashing it. I'd never be able to pay you back."

Tony bit his tongue from blurting out that yes he could afford it, and a hundred of these cars. But remembered Pepper and May's warning that Peter wasn't ready to hear the truth about how much he was worth yet, or how much money he actually had. May and Tony managed to agree to an allowance to give Peter, something he would agree to, whilst Tony paid Peter a little more from his paid internship. It took some convincing to get Peter to accept the money, but once Tony explained it was a real internship, it always was, and that Peter was just getting paid for his work, Peter relented. The rest of his actual allowance Tony paid into a bank account for Peter for when he was ready.

"I don't care about the car buddy. I have like ten others at home. Now I don't want you to crash it, but if you did I don't really care. I can afford it."

Peter looked at his dad for a moment before turning away, he didn't get it.

It was at Peter's face Tony realised he had said the wrong thing.

"Look I'm sorry buddy." Tony murmured walking over to Peter, slinging an arm around his shoulder and pulling him into a hug; "I know sometimes I throw money around," Peter looked at him and with an eye roll Tony rephrased; "Ok a lot of times. I'm used to it, and I like to spend it. But sometimes I forget that other people aren't used to the luxury of spending cash whenever they like, they have a budget and have to be careful about what they spend. They work very hard for every penny they earn. Worrying about rent and stuff like that. Now I'm not going to apologise for having money, I worked hard for it too. But I do respect that you've grown up differently and are uncomfortable with spending lots of money. That's ok. That's just who you are. I'll try to respect that more and not be so flippant about it."

Peter nodded gratefully. It wasn't that he thought his dad was a snob, in no way did he think that at all. His parents and SI donated to lots of charities, and did work for the medical industries, for aid in poorer countries. They did so much good with their money. It was just a little strange for Peter. Like he said, he and May had worked hard for every penny they had. And you get pride from that. Over your hard work. It was just a little weird being around someone who was able to spend money on whatever they liked, without worrying about going into debt.

"But I will ask, would you rather I go and buy some heap of junk car for you to practice in, on the very very very low chance that you'll crash it?"

Now Peter saw his point. And he felt instantly better. His dad trusted him not to crash the car. He had faith in him.

"No." Peter admitted weakly.

"Good." Tony rubbed his arm proudly, and guided him back to the car. Peter went with him, but hesitant before getting into the driver seat.

"The engine isn't on. You can't do any harm." Tony promised; "And if you don't want to drive today that's fine. We can just sit in the car, look at all the cool features, and then I'll take us home. We can huddle up and watch a movie. Sound good?"

Peter nodded blowing out a sigh of relief, the weight instantly lifted of him.

"Thanks for understanding dad."

"Of course spider baby. Whatever you need."

Peter slowly climbed into the driver seat, and stiffened for a moment still afraid to touch anything.

"Hello Peter." FRIDAY's voice rang out, and Peter jumped forgetting how FRIDAY was built into the car.

Tony slid in smiling comfortingly at him.

"Hey FRI." Tony greeted; "We're just going to sit for a while ok."

"Very well. Please let me know if I can be of assistance."

"Breath Underoo." Tony smirked at him; "You can't break anything. I swear."

With slightly shaky hands Peter reached out to grab the wheel, exhaling heavily when nothing happened.

"See. Very safe." Tony paused for a moment watching Peter start to relax, but still eye everything warily.

"Peter look at me."

Letting go of the wheel Peter turned to him hesitantly.

Tony paused rubbing a hand over his face; "I'll be honest bud, I'm still finding my bearings with being a dad. I'm trying to do everything right by you. And trying to teach you in the best way I can. When I was a kid, my dad took me out to drive once which did not end well." He grimaced and shuddered.

"What happened?" Peter asked curiously.

"Well...he refused to let me drive one of his cars, ranting and ranting that I would just crash it." He rolled his eyes; "So he borrowed Jarvis' car and had me drive that. We barely made it out the driveway before he was yelling at me about what I was doing wrong, it scared me so much I jerked the wheel and crashed into my mom's birdhouse. My dad flipped out said I was grounded for months, and could never drive again."

"Woah." Peter's eyes widened; "That's harsh."

"Yeah tell me about it." Tony remarked dryly; "And not only that, he made me repay Jarvis for every penny to cover the damages of the car. Now mind you I didn't have a job at the time and was at MIT, so I had to go out and get a bartending job for a couple of years to pay him back. Thankfully, Jarvis understood and didn't mind, he even cut down on the money I owed him. My mom didn't care either, said she hated that bird house anyway. My point is, I don't ever want to do that to you. I want to be a good dad to you, I want to be better than my father."

Peter just smiled at him; "You already are dad. Now I know I didn't know Grandpa, but from the stories I heard. You are nothing like him. At all. To me you are the best dad ever."

Tony grinned his heart swelling; "That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me buddy."

Then Peter reached over to cover his dad's hand confidently; "I do mean it dad. What you're doing, all of it, is right. This too. Taking the time to talk it out with me, understanding, being patient. It all helps and makes me feel better."

"Good. I'm glad. Because I never felt I was able to talk to my dad. But I want you to feel you can come to me. Voice anything you're feeling. Anything I might be doing wrong, or you wish I might do better."

"Ok." Peter nodded seriously, seeing how much it meant to his dad. And he liked that they could talk like this, he was a good dad; "Can you go through all the features and stuff with me?"

"Yeah bud I'd love to." His cleared his throat; "Ok so first of all..."

For the next hour or so Tony and Peter just talked, going over all the workings of the car and Peter getting a feel for it.

Surprisingly, Peter asked to try a little bit of driving just to see what it was like. So they turned on the engine, and Peter attempted to push his foot on the peddle.

"Remember Underoo push lightly on the gas peddle. Don't just push your foot all the way down." He said chuckling lightly.

Peter pushed his foot down and the car shot forward. In a panic he slammed on the brake.

"Sorry. I'm sorry."

Tony just laughed, straightening up; "It's ok kid. Don't worry. We're fine. See look there's no one around. We're in a wide stretch of road. I'm here to help, and FRIDAY is built into the car. She can stop the car if it becomes dangerous. You're doing great. Just take a breath and try again. This time, let the car roll forward and brake slowly."

Nodding, Peter processed all that before trying again. The car crept forward at less than 5 miles an hour, before Peter slowly braked the car to a stop. He grinned at Tony so proudly it made Tony smile. He was such a cute kid.

"Did you see that dad?"

"I did bud. Well done. Now we're on a roll let's keep going. This time try going a little faster."

By the time they got home, Peter was exhilarated. He had just driven a car! Now yes he had only driven in a straight line, and then in a circle. And at less than 20 mph but he had driven a car! For the first time! And hadn't crashed! It was awesome. And the best part was how fun it had been. His dad had been so patient, giving him reassurance and praise, and they had even been doing some casual bantering which put Peter at ease.

As Peter rushed into the house, he spotted his mom sitting at the glass table in the living room on her laptop.

"Hey mom!"

"Hey sweetie." Pepper instantly turned to him studying his face expectantly; "How did it good?" But she could already see from his smile it went well.

"Totally awesome! I drove a car! It was so cool." Peter rambled as Tony strolled in behind him, moving over to Pepper to kiss her as Peter continued; "I got to drive in a straight line and then in circles. It was so much fun. Dad's a great teacher." He finished grinning at Tony.

Pepper felt Tony squeeze her shoulder, and see the love and pride on his face. She knew that what Peter said meant more to Tony than he knew. All Tony wanted was to be a good dad.

"That's amazing honey. I'm so proud of you." Pepper moved to stand and pulled him into a hug; "And I'm glad you had fun."

"See. Driving's not so scary once you get going." Tony murmured joining them to ruffle Peter's hair as they pulled back from the hug; "And you seem like a natural buddy."

Peter beamed so happy; "I've got to go tell May! Can we go out again sometime?"

"Of course buddy. Whenever you want."

"Cool!" Then Peter hugged Tony quickly; "Thanks. I love you dad."

Then he was racing off to his room, either to climb out the window to go see her or phone her they had no idea. But they trusted him. He would be back either way.

Pepper turned to Tony wrapping her arms around his neck smirking at him.

"What?" Tony asked eyeing her as he grabbed her waist.

"You were worried over nothing it seems. Sounds like you did a good job teaching him to drive. He learnt and had fun. That's really great Tony."

"Yeah it was fun actually." Tony admitted looking into space as he played it over again in his head; "We had a little issue to begin with. He refused to even get in the car, but we talked. I admitted about my own terrible driving lesson with my dad, and it seemed to help him. We cleared the air and he relaxed. It didn't feel like a teacher student thing, but a father and son activity. It wasn't like I told him what to do, but we talked. I helped him when he needed it. And he did real good Pep. He started out a little hesitant, but he was great when he got into it. I think he'll be a great driver."

"Well I'm proud of you honey." Pepper said leaning forward to kiss him.

"Proud of me?"

"I know you were nervous, and it had to have been really hard for you to relive the difficult memories with your dad. And you were there for him. I'm glad you both had fun."

"Yeah well I guess I realised something. When I told Peter that story, it didn't hurt as much as it used to, remembering back then. Talking about it. It's different with him. I don't know it's like ever since my parents died something has been missing from my life, and I spent years trying to fill it with drinking, girls, partying, money, but nothing did it. Then I met you, and now I have Peter. It's you. Both of you. You are what was missing from my life."

"Aw honey." Pepper said caressing his cheek.

"I hate my dad for the way he treated me, but I guess in a way if I had the option to change it, I'm not sure if I would." Pepper tilted her head curiously, and Tony just looked at her for a moment in pure love, and the looked towards Peter's room softening; "If things had been different I may not have you. Either of you. And I hate to think of what my life would be without you two. No I know what my life was like, and it sucked. Being with Peter today made me realise that. Things were hard for me as a kid, but they made me who I am today. And I wouldn't change any of it because of where it led me. Here. With my family."

Tony reached up to brush some hair behind her ear, and then rested his forehead against hers. Just relishing being in her presence.

They kissed and then Pepper looked at him for a moment causing him to frown; "You're staring again."

"Sorry." Pepper chuckled; "It's just. You really are a different man from the man who hired me all those years ago. And yet also the same." She sighed lovingly; "It feels like I fall more in love with you every day."

"I feel the same way Pep."