782 words of the Iron Family before Baby Stark is born. Set Post Infinity War, but AU.
Prompt: "Imagine Tony and Peter bonding over shared Italian Heritage/Mother Figures..." (From a legendofal tumblr post screenshot on pinterest.)
Written for my 2019 Summer Prompt Challenge on Ao3.
Favorite
Peter's in the lab when it happens. It's completely unplanned. It just slipped out when the circuit he's working on zapped him for the third time.
"Cazzo!"
Dum E started beeping immediately. U swung around, his camera lens widening. Peter mirrored him when he realized he'd said that aloud.
"Wow kid," Mr. Stark has a hand over his heart, "Such language!" Peter started stuttering out an apologize. Tony chuckled, "Stop! You know any other Italian words, of just the swears?"
Peter blushed, "I speak a little. Aunt May slips into it when she's nervous sometimes." Or angry. But Peter didn't think she'd want him sharing that with Mr. Stark.
Immediately, Tony started peppering him with questions in Italian. Peter blinked, but soon they were chatting away. Tony's smile was wider than U's lens. Peter felt his body warm under the approval.
It becomes their own secret code. No one else in the family seems to speak it. Pepper just rolls her eyes when they slip into it. Happy scowls. Peter likes having his own thing with Tony. Yeah, there's the superhero thing, but Tony mostly let's Happy manage everything beyond the suit.
"I want you to be the best superhero you can be," Tony says when he asks about Happy keeping tags on him again. Rhodey and Happy are pointedly watching the television.
"What does that even mean?!" Peter gestures out wildly, "You're Iron Man! Who knows more about superheroing than you?"
"Cap." Rhodey supplies between hand fulls of popcorn. "Thor." He snorts, "Definitely Sam."
Tony rolls his eyes at the first two, but nods approvingly at the last one. "Tell ya what, kid, you get the Falcon to let you shadow him for a few weeks - Happy'll take those weeks off."
"Vacation?" Happy's head swings around now, eyebrow arched, "Yeah, ask the Falcon."
Peter stomps his foot, very aware of just how childish he looks, "Why can't I shadow you for those weeks?"
"Because I am a billionaire turned superhero whose company caused most of the stuff he's trying to fix. Wilson's an experienced counselor and Happy's saved me more times than I can count."
Peter rolled his eye, swears under his breath. He never wins when Tony goes self-deprecating, which is always!
"Whoa! Language!" Rhodey stands suddenly, hands on his hips as he glares at Tony, "Tell me you didn't teach him that?"
"May, actually," Tony grins as Peter spins around to stare open-mouthed at Rhodey.
"You speak Italian too?!"
Rhodey raises an eyebrow, points at Tony, "You think I've hung around this dude for 30 years without picking up the curse words?"
Tony's standing there, looking vaguely smug. Peter can't stop his face from heating up. War Machine just heard him swear!
While Peter likes being the only person that Tony speaks to in Italian - minus Baby Stark, but technically he's talking to Pepper's stomach, so it doesn't count yet - there is someone he might be willing to share such a thing. Might!
"Why did you send me three Italian dictionaries?" Harley doesn't bother with a greeting when he calls. He never does though. "Are we going to Rome or something?"
Peter bounces on the balls of his feet, "Nope!" He starts pacing his room while on the phone, to burn off energy. "But you have to learn it before the baby's born so we're on equal footing."
"I have zero clue what you're talking about, Pete."
"Mr. Stark and I both speak Italian. Aunt May taught me and his mom taught him. It's like, our thing." Peter tried to keep his voice level as he explained. He still spoke a little rushed, but Harley was use to that! "But if he teaches it to Baby Stark, which he will, then it has to be all our things so there's no favorite."
Harley was quiet for a minute. Peter rocked back on his heels, bit his lip. Hopefully he hadn't overstepped. The whole pseudo-brothers thing was still new to him.
"Does this mean you're going to send Nebula dictionaries too?" Harley finally said, "Cause if so, I demand a head start, she has literal processors to speed up the acquisition."
Peter chuckled, "Head start, got it, but only six months!" He scratched at the back of his head, "The baby's due by then and we all have to know it before she's born."
"She, huh?" Harleys voice lowered a pitch, and Peter blushed. "Your spidey sense telling you something?"
"No, uh… I kind of just thought the baby should be a girl to, ya know, even the teams."
Harley burst out laughing, "The other team has Nebula, a literal space-assassin. We're always going to lose, dude."
Thanks for reading! Reviews Appreciated!