"Yo Paul! Pass to Rogers!" Peter yelled over the typical sounds of soccer. People cheering, players grunting, the slick noises of the grass. Peter used Steve's last name so that the opposing team would have no idea who he was talking to. They didn't know this team very well, but he didn't want to take any chances.

Steve was surrounded by three lanky players, but Peter figured with the right twist of his body he would be able to shake them. Paul had a clear line with the ball, everyone obviously thinking that they'd covered Peter's players.

Paul shared a quick nod and a wink with him before sharply passing the ball to Steve who ducked away from his guards, contorting his body so that he wouldn't slam into one of them and miss his shot. He skidded in front of the ball and then shot it straight at the goalie who reflexively flinched away from the ball, and Steve scored the goal. Time was called right after that.

"YEAH FUCK YEAH!" Quill basically screamed and clapped Steve on the back. Steve didn't even take the time to correct Steve, just smiled back at him.

"Petey, that is now a one hundred percent winning score." Scott said and slung an easy arm around Peter's shoulders, both of them damp with sweat.

"That's one game Scott." Peter said with a huff and a laugh. They walked off the field together, an easy air around the entire team. They'd won 1-0, which wasn't amazing but it was still a win, and Peter wouldn't deny that he was proud of that fact. It wasn't like he had given exceptional leadership or came up with a whole new strategy, they just played like they usually did, but this time they won.

"Don't play yourself down Pete." Scott warned and Pete just rolled his eyes at him. Scott dropped his arm from around Peter's shoulders as they came up on the locker rooms. "We doing anything for your birthday?" He asked and pulled his shirt off as they entered the room.

Peter thought for a moment, he'd been in and out of forgetting the fact that his birthday was on Monday and it was Saturday. "Naw, probably just hanging out with you guys." He said with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"Okay, first of all Peter, that's fucking lame. Second of all, we are definitely doing something." Scott said, giving him his best 'mother hen' look, but Scott was about as far from a mother hen as someone could get.

"Fine, fine, we can do whatever you want." Peter agreed and stripped down to shower off. It was hot outside for early December and Peter was pretty sure he'd even gotten a bit of a sunburn.

He didn't really care very much about his birthday, it was just something that would happen. It would make things a little easier for him and Tony, but otherwise not much would change. Aunt May had said she didn't feel well enough to drive down and the boys were really give and take for birthdays. They hadn't done anything special for Bucky's birthday, but last year they'd gone fucking wild on TC's birthday.

"Dude, we can't do whatever I want on your birthday. That's just sad." Scott chided and Peter rolled his eyes, stepping out of the shower with a towel slung around his waist and changing into his normal clothes.

"Whatever, surprise me." Peter finally said, balling up his soccer clothes and throwing them in his bad. He wanted to grab his phone, to see if Tony had sent him anything, but it would look suspicious if he just started immediately texting basically in the middle of a conversation.

"Man you hate surprises." Scott reminded and Pater gave him a sly smile and a shrug.

"Why don't we just have a party like usual?" Quill asked, joining into the conversation.

"I'm the only one with a house in town and my parents are in for the weekend." Scott said. That's where they always had off campus parties.

"We'd need to make the plans quick, can't have a party on Sunday night." Sam interjected and suddenly everyone was talking about the topic of Peter's birthday party, that was now apparently going to be tonight.

"We could do a local party. You know, like the public high school." Bucky suggested. They'd never done that before, gone to a house party of the nearby public highschool. Their soccer team came to their parties sometimes, but never the other way around.

"Does anyone even know any of them?" Quill asked and Peter nodded.

"Yeah, their midfielder, Logan or something. I have his number, I could ask." Peter offered and Scott slapped him on the back.

"See! You do want to go to a party." Scott exclaimed and Peter wished he could retract what he said.

"Shut up." Peter mumbled and pulled his phone out to shoot a quick text.

Sent: Peter 7:45 pm.

any partys tonight?

Received: L 7:48 pm.

yo, pete? never thought i would hear from you haha. uh wade has something going on tonight, a lot bigger than your guyses usual things

Sent: Peter 7:50 pm.

how big are we talking? (sorry for not texting you)

Received: L 7:54 pm.

i mean, wade is loaded and i think he knows everyone in the world, so it's huge. you want the address?

Sent: Peter 7:55 pm.

ya

The reply back had an address around the same area as Scott's house.

"So looks like for my birthday we're going to a giant raver." Peter said with an incredulous look on his face.

"Your favorite!" Scott exclaimed and Peter couldn't help but smile. "Dude Petey can we take the car?" Scott asked after the address had been spread to everyone and rides were being given out.

"What's the car?" Peter echoed as they walked towards the dorms so they could change into more casual clothing.

"You know, the one that you and Mr. Stark have been working on? I totally know you drove it back from Alexandria. You should ask him." Scott basically begged and Peter had to hold back a grimace.

"Scott that's not really a good idea, it's not like it's my car, I just helped him fix it." Peter tried to explain.

"Oh so you're telling my you don't have a spare key to it that I totally saw sitting on your desk?" Scott raised his eyebrows at Peter and Peter sighed. Stark would have gone home to his apartment for the weekend and it would be risky to send him a text and risk Scott finding out that he had a teachers number. "Pete come on it's your birthday!"

"Yeah, it's my birthday, so why would I give you a ride in the car?" Peter questioned.

"Because you wuv me." Scott pleaded with big puppy dog eyes.

Tony had given him the spare key and told him to use it for emergencies or with him... Peter really didn't want to break the mans rules but he had said it was 'their car' which meant that he should be able to use it.

"Yeah... Alright fine. But if we get even a scratch on it, you're paying for a fucking mechanic to fix it." Peter warned and Scott nodded.

"Gotcha. Meet you out there in twenty?" Scott asked as they stopped in front of Peter's room.

"Yeah, see ya."

Sent: Tony 8:30 pm.

hey r u awake?

Peter didn't get a response so he swallowed down the lump in his throat and grabbed the keys on his desk. He was actually wearing jeans for once instead of sweatpants, and paired a relatively nice soccer shirt with it. It wasn't like he had to look nice for a lame party, but it was apparently his birthday celebration.

Scott was down at the car, leaning against it and probably feeling like he was cool as hell. Peter jingled the keys in his hand and Scott fist pumped the air. "Fuck yeah." He said and Peter unlocked the car, sliding into the driver's seat, feeling a little anxious. He'd driven it for three hours on the highway and nothing bad had happened, so he figured he could handle a twenty minute drive through the city.

The car purred to life and Peter gripped and ungripped the steering wheel a few time before shifting into gear and heading out of the open front gates.

"I can't fucking believe you guys rebuilt this thing, like it was trashed first time I saw it in the parking lot." Scott emphasized and ran his hand over the perfectly clean dash, only thing there was a fine layer of dust. "You and Mr. Stark were hanging out like all the time when you were working on the car."

Peter didn't know how to respond, how could he respond. Oh yeah, kind of in a relationship with him actually, that wouldn't work out very well. But Scott was very attentive, Peter kind of worried that he might figure it out regardless.

"He just noticed that Erik was being a dick to me and he wanted to give me a way to vent." Peter said, which wasn't a lie.

Scott seemed to accept that answer and decided to fiddle with the radio as Peter drove. He found the house fairly easily and pulled into the spacious driveway. They were a little early so Peter got a front row parking spot, back far enough from the other car that he could pull out, he only hoped the person who parked behind him would be very careful.

The sun was just barely going down as Peter turned the car off and tucked the keys as deep into his pocket as he could get them, triple checking that the car was lock. The house was huge, bigger than Scott's, and most of the other cars in the drive were nice, but none of them were as priceless as the one he'd driven.

The house had a lot of people in it but didn't even look that full because of how huge it was.

"Dude! Peter!" He heard a voice coming from the middle of the room and Pete could see Logan's head over the crowd, making his way over to Peter.

"Hey Logan, what's up man?" He asked, noticing that Wade was trailing just a bit behind Logan the entire time.

"Not much, just got here. You want a drink?" Logan was already offering him a plastic red cup and Peter took it without thinking. He trusted Logan at least far enough to not drug him.

"Yeah, thanks." Peter said and tipped the cup back at his mouth, the liquid was acidic and burned on its way down, but otherwise just tasted like normal alcohol.

"Heard you guys lost a couple of games this season." Logan remarked and the three of them moved off to the side of the room so they weren't in the middle of a throng of people, Peter leaned against a wall while Logan stood close to him, Wade even closer to Logan.

"Yeah, just a couple. I was uh, actually just made captain." Peter didn't want to brag or anything, but they were talking about soccer and they would figure it out sooner or later.

"Dude that's awesome!" Logan exclaimed but Peter felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket so he excused himself to another side of the room. It was loud, but he'd only received a text so Peter was able to respond.

Received: Tony 9:21 pm.

Yeah sorry, had my phone off, what's up kid?

Peter sucked in a breath and bit his lip. He could respond and lie, he should tell the truth. He didn't want to lie to Tony, he really didn't, but he also desperately didn't want to have to tell him what had happened.

Sent: Peter 9:28 pm.

i fucked up.

He sent that and then not thirty seconds later realized that it sounded bad and so sent off another one.

like not bad, i just think you're gonna be mad at me.

Received: Tony 9:31 pm.

What happened? You ok?

Sent: Peter 9:34 pm.

i took the car. and scott pressured me into it and it wasn't an emergency and i totally know that you didn't want me to take it unless it was an emergency i'm so sorry

There was about ten minutes before Tony send a response. Peter was just sitting on one of the couches, curled around his phone and his drink, the people next to him sitting way too close for comfort, but he could make out a group of maybe three of his team mates just across the room, so he didn't worry too much.

Received: Tony 9:45 pm.

where did you take it?

The response was clipped and Peter knew that Tony must be upset, he had every reason to be upset. Peter had made a terrible decision, he should have just gone home before even telling Tony, or better yet, not have take the car at all.

Sent: Peter 9:48 pm.

a party up on norco rd. with the soccer team

Received: Tony 9:52 pm.

Pete I gave you those keys so you could go somewhere if you had to, not to go drunk joyriding with your friends.

Sent: Peter 9:58 pm.

i'm sorry. i'll go back right now.

Received: Tony 10:01 pm.

have you had anything to drink?

Sent: Peter 10:04 pm.

just a little

But the drink was strong and Peter could already feel himself woozy and had a feeling if he stood up he would dizzy himself onto the ground. He'd drunk to fast, hadn't had anything to eat recently.

Received: Tony 10:08 pm.

i'm a block away from norco. what's the address? i'll be there in ten, pick up you and the car

Sent: Peter 10:11 pm.

1080 norco. i'm sorry

Peter stood up from his spot on the couch and stumbled a bit, his cup was empty, had probably been refilled at some point. He had to find Scott and tell him he was going to leave, but instead he found himself outside, leaning against the car and waiting, checking his phone every three minutes to see when Tony would be there.

The boys would probably just think that he was shacking up for the night with one of the kids from the other school, Peter would let them believe that. He didn't know what kind of lie he could tell Scott anyway. Scott probably wouldn't have let Peter drive like this either.

Exactly ten minutes later Peter saw a figure approaching from the edge of the driveway, as he came into the shine of the garden lights Peter could see it was Tony, carrying his skateboard loosely under one of his arms. He was wearing dirty jeans and a tee shirt that looked old. He hair was messy, he looked like he'd just been working in a shop. Peter waved his arm unenthusiastically at Tony and the man nodded.

Peter slid into the other side of the car, buckling his seat belt as Tony opened the other door and threw his skateboard in the back. If Peter was less anxious, he probably would have smiled at the fact that Tony had skateboarded to come pick him up.

Tony started the car, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. "Tony, I'm really sorry, I wasn't thinking." Peter tried to apologize as they drove to a location that Peter didn't recognize, he distantly wondered if they were going to Tony's place, but he almost didn't want to hope for that.

"No, you weren't." He agreed and then let out a long sigh. "I put a lot of trust in you with this car Peter, and I know it's nice for you to finally have a car, but you have to understand this isn't just a car. Driving this to a house party is like wearing a wedding gown to the grocery store, it's obnoxious, ridiculous, and something bad is bound to happen."

Peter thought on his words for a moment, leaning back into the beautifully redone leather seats. They'd messed up on the upholstery on the bottom so there was a loose seam that would have to be fixed at some point, the cords of the speakers were a mess in the body of the car since they hadn't wanted to deal with it, there was a small dent still on the left side passenger door, 'Peter P' was written in sharpie above the gas pedal, 'Tony S' was scribbled on the side of the engine. It was their car. Tony even told Peter if he was going to take it out, and Peter hadn't extended the same courtesy to Tony.

"What can I do to make it up to you?" Peter asked, looking over at Tony's silhouette, illuminated by streetlamps as they drove by. The night was brisker than the day, and Peter wondered if they were going to get their first snow tonight. Soccer season was basically over until after Christmas break anyway.

"Just don't do it again, please Peter." Tony answered in return and Peter reached out his hand to hold loosely around Tony's own, flashing him a smile.

"I won't, I promise." He responded and Tony chuckled, Peter wondered what he said that could have made the man laugh.

"Here I am, accepting promises from a drunk kid." He explained and squeezed Peter's hand, taking a right turn and then pulling into a garage as the door slowly opened automatically.

It was less of a garage than a full mechanics work space. There were at least five cars, all in different stages of disrepair, all of them extremely nice, and then just machine upon machine that Peter didn't recognize. Schematics taped up onto the wall, tools everywhere, and a sofa sitting along the far wall. Tony parked the car in a space that looked built just for it, surrounded on each side by tool shelves and what looked to be spare parts.

"This is your garage?" Peter asked, getting out and feeling that the air was kept at a perfect temperature for preserving cars.

"It's my work area yeah. It's kinda sparse because I just moved in at the beginning of the year." He explained and Peter looked around in wonder at everything around him. He approached another car, looking to be in perfect condition. It was sleek and red with yellow trim. "That's my lambo, basically the only car in here that I didn't rebuild." Tony explained.

"Tell me again why you're working as a freaking math teacher?" Peter questioned and traced his fingers ever so softly against the spoiler of the car.

"I was a depressed alcoholic with some severe ptsd from the war. Think Natasha actually saved my life with this job." He said and leaned against the oldest looking car in the garage that Peter was honestly worried would fall over, but it didn't. It was silent for a moment and Peter wondered if he should respond or if Tony would continue talking, finally Tony continued. "I was basically obnoxiously rich and all I did all day was work on cars, I would sleep in my garage in New York, rarely leave it. I would have food delivered there. Natasha just wanted to get me something to do, and it worked, this is perfect for right now. Next year I'll probably try and find something different, but it's not a big deal. I could live off of royalties pretty comfortably for the rest of my life."

Peter didn't want to lean on anything and risk breaking it, so he just put his hands in his pockets. He was less dizzy now and was standing just fine. "You're not going to teach next year?" He questioned.

"I don't think so. I'm a pretty shitty teacher." He joked.

Peter laughed but shook his head, "you're not a bad teacher at all."

"The student standing in my garage at 10 on a Saturday night should beg to differ." He responded and Peter chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah fair point." He agreed and Tony took a step towards him, Peter took a step as well so that they were standing closer to each other. They weren't toe to toe or anything, just close, comfortable.

"I could give you a ride back to the school, not to the party though. Or, uh, well I guess you could stay here for the night. You can borrow some clothes, I have an extra tooth brush and what not. If you want, no pressure." He rambled out and Peter had to bite back another laugh.

"Of course I want to stay here with you, I haven't gotten the grand tour yet anyway." Peter pointed out and Tony slung an arm around his shoulders, leading him towards the door that connected to the rest of the house. They went up a short flight of stairs and then they were standing in a huge living space, windows covering most of the wall furthest from them.

"JARVIS can you get the lights?" Tony asked to the air and then the lights were coming on, illuminating the perfectly clean room they were in.

"Your house is run by a robot?" Peter questioned, raising his eyebrows and looking up at Tony.

"Not a robot, just an advanced voice recognition software I designed. Not like it can talk back or anything, but who knows, maybe in a few years..." He trailed off and Peter could tell he wasn't joking. Tony was passionate about all things science and mechanical, Peter just hadn't realized that extent of his expertise. Tony didn't really exude an aura of 'smart' he was more confidant and laid back, but from seeing this, Tony might be the smartest man Peter had ever met.

"That's insane." Peter said and walked further into the room. It didn't look very well lived in, the garage looked more cozy than the main part of the house, but Peter appreciated it all the same.

"Not insane, just science." Tony responded cheekily and came up behind Peter, holding him around the waist and pressing a soft kiss to his neck Peter smiled at the feeling of security washing over him as he was held.

"Can it dim the lights?" Peter asked, leaning back into Tony's embrace just a little bit.

"Yeah, go ahead, you ask him." Tony encouraged, Peter recognized that Tony had referred to the AI as a he, and would mean to ask if there was a significance behind that later.

"Okay, uh... Dim the lights?" He asked into the air, but nothing happened.

"It's kind of like Simon Says, you gotta get his attention first." Tony guided him through it but Peter could barely pay attention because Tony's lips were trailing softly over his neck and up to his ear lobe, taking it between his teeth.

"Yeah, right, uh JARVIS dim the lights, please?" And then the lights went down to about half brightness, basking them in a warm glow instead of a harsh ray. The world felt quiet in Tony's house. There were no noises from outside, no stress, no nothing. It was all just safe and warm, and Tony was with him, Tony could be with him in his house without worrying.

"It's late, do you want to get in bed?" Tony asked and Peter nodded against his shoulder. He followed Tony down a hall to an equally impressive bedroom, this room however had clothing strewn on the ground and a few empty liquor bottles sitting suspiciously close to the bed. Tony pulled open his closet and dug around for a moment before pulling out a pair of flannel pants and handing them to Peter. "Here, you can wear these. You can change in the bathroom-" But Peter was still a little tipsy so he pulled his shirt off plainly in front of Tony before moving down to undo his shoes, kicking them off and then shucking off his pants. His boxers were still in place underneath, it was only when he had the pants on that he realized Tony was staring at him. Peter turned red and looked down away.

"You're so fucking hot." Tony mumbled, mainly to himself, and then went back to his closet to pull out a pair of pants for himself. The same way Peter had done it, Tony pulled his clothing off until he was left in just his underwear, before pulling the pants on.

Peter was left staring at Tony's gently defined chest, his eyes drifted out from the center, ghosting over Tony's muscular shoulders, down around his nipples and the dark hair that covered some of the top of his chest, his stomach wasn't tight but it wasn't fat, it was as lean as Peter would have expected. On Tony's right shoulder, however, there was a knot of scar tissue that Peter raised his hand up to, but Tony caught it. "Uh, sorry." Peter mumbled.

"No it's alright, I just, I forgot to tell you I had that." Tony said and Peter studied it for a moment longer. The skin around it was a silvery color, reflecting off the lighting in the room. It didn't look bad, it looked sexy if anything, and Peter pulled his hand from Tony's grip, continuing forward so that he could run the pad of his thumb along the tissue.

"What's it from?" He asked, taking a step forward and looking up at Tony. They were basically chest to chest to it was an uncomfortable angle, but neither of them would step away.

"A bomb, metal shrapnel. Every doctor told me it was inoperable, yadda yadda, but here I am." Tony explained briefly and Peter could sense that he didn't want to go into detail. Tony traipsed Peter along with him towards the bed and everything they were doing just felt so domestic. It wasn't sexually charged, it was just them being together.

"So how'd they get it out?" Peter asked, sitting up against the pillows of the bed, looking over at Tony who was laying on his side, his head propped up on his hand.

"Finally found the right surgeon. Strange took it out, right before his accident, you know with the hands and everything. I think I was his last patient actually." Tony said. Most kids at the school knew the story of Dr. Strange, the school doctor who used to be a surgeon then had his car accident. The mans hands still shook a bit, but they were steady enough when he needed to use them, just not enough for the surgery he used to do.

"So he saved your life?" Peter asked, darting his hand out again to brush his fingers over the scar.

"I guess, I mean I was onto something that would have kept the shrapnel from getting to my heart. Magnets and arc energy, never got that finished though, and Strange swooped in just in time."

Peter leaned forward and pressed his lips quickly against the scar, just a peck, before sitting back up. "Well, I'm glad you were saved anyway." Peter mused.

They were silent for a long while, Peter eventually shifted down so that he was laying facing Tony, but neither of them felt the urge to get intimate at the moment. Peter was still a little too tipsy to feel comfortable doing much, and Tony just seemed tired.

"Are you going back to stay with May for winter break?" Tony asked and rested his hand on the almost invisible curve of Peter's hip, his hand fitting almost halfway around Peter's body.

Winter break was the week after next and everyone was getting ready for it. They were off for almost three weeks, the 17th through the 3rd. They made up for the long break with extra days at the beginning and end of the year, but no one minded since it was such a nice break. "Yeah, she's gone until Christmas to visit some friends across the country though." Peter said and moved his hand to rest over Tony's.

"Do you want me to spend part of it with you then?" Tony asked and Peter thought that today must be a dream, because everything had been going so perfectly. He'd never expected Tony to ask him something like that, but now that he thought about it, it would be perfect.

"That sounds awesome. Would we spend it here?" Peter questioned, referring to Tony's mansion.

"No, this place sucks. I like your apartment much more, if that's okay?" He questioned and Peter almost started laughing, there was no way his apartment was better than this place.

"That sounds perfect." He agreed, and not twenty minutes later, both of them were asleep.

Received: Tony 3:45 pm.

your birthday present is in the parking lot.

Sent: Peter 3:50 pm.

I told you not to get me anything!

Received: Tony 3:52 pm.

I may have gotten this for you before you told me that :)

Sent: Peter 3:55 pm.

alright. thank you tony.

Peter was on his way to the soccer field, so he turned around and headed back. He wondered what could be in the parking lot, maybe it was a package in Tony's truck, he'd stopped bringing the Toyota to school. Tony had said it wasn't because of what Peter had done, that they simply didn't need it at school anymore, but Peter had a small feeling that it was about him.

The parking lot was mostly empty except for the cars he recognized. He walked towards Tony's black truck and saw a car that he didn't recognize next to it. It was blue, pretty but nondescript and very new looking. There was a note under the windshield wiper that said 'PETER' in messy letters. Peter picked the note up and pulled it open.

Pete,

So I know you're probably going to be upset about this gift, but I really wanted you to have a car. You need a way to get home, and to get places (like parties) without taking the Toyota. And don't worry, I didn't go out of my way or spend a ridiculous amount of money, someone owed me a favor and I got this car out of it.

I hope you like it Petey, I know how important May is to you, and now you can see her on the weekends if you need/want to. Maybe you can even drive me up to Alexandria in it for winter break.

Yours,

Tony.

And Peter wanted to rant and rave about how ridiculous the man was, about how this present was completely unacceptable, that he could not take it, but he knew he would never get through to Tony. The man had wanted to give him this car, and so now it was Peter's, and he couldn't help but smile, just a little, about the thoughtfullness of Tony Stark.