Peter was worried about May. She had been working extra shifts for the last several months but in recent weeks she was working seven days a week. He'd noticed money was tight several months after Ben died, how could he not? With one less wage coming in their income fell considerably. When Ben was alive they struggled sometimes but struggling then just meant they didn't go out for an ice cream or on a day trip for a few months…struggling now was much different. Struggling now was them trying not to turn lights on unless it was essential, taking two-minute showers and he didn't remember the last time the TV was on in the apartment. But it was getting worse, they had never had issues getting food on the table before but now it was a totally different story. He knew May was stressed about it but there was nothing that could be done, she had added him to the free school lunch programme just after the summer which helped somewhat and he had started showering at the tower whenever he could as well as eating there often. One less meal he ate at home was less money May had to spend.
Peter never told Mr Stark or Pepper how difficult things had become and he knew May hadn't either. Although he was sure she would swallow her pride had she been aware of his increased metabolism, he had kept that piece of information from her to stop her worrying even more, as it was she often skipped dinner to make sure Peter ate. He hated it. He had taken to pretending to have had dinner while on patrol, he would claim someone gave him a burger in thanks or an old lady bought him a sandwich just so May would eat dinner. They planned their meals for the week when he got back from the tower on Sunday nights. May knew he ate at Tony's on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays so that eased the pressure somewhat.
As they sat planning for the week ahead he turned to May nervously, "Aunt May…I think perhaps it's time I got a job after school or something." The amount of money they actually had to spend this week was lower than usual, the bus fare had increased suddenly for May to get to work which cut their budget substantially.
Her sigh and murmur of agreement made him realise just how desperate they had become, he had suggested the idea not long after Ben died but she told him to focus on his studies, adamant that they could cope they would just have to make some sacrifices, clearly things had changed.
"I'll start looking tomorrow" he promised before going back to his bedroom and writing up a CV.
Monday turned to Tuesday which turned to Wednesday and he still had no job to call his own, not for lack of trying though. He had heard back from one small shop who said they would be willing to take him on two evenings a week and all day Saturday, he had a week to respond. He knew he would have to accept, he had no choice, he would have to just bite the bullet and tell Tony he wouldn't be able to come round on Saturdays anymore. His room was only decorated a few weeks ago and this was the thanks he was giving the man he thought to himself ashamed. Tony had done so much for him and now he was going to cut the man out, he had to though, he didn't have a choice in the matter.
Tony was worried about Peter. The kid had arrived an hour ago, wolfed down some cookies and chips like a starving man and hardly said anything but a mumbled thanks. He looked across the lab at the boy who was chewing nervously on his lip. Tony knew that look, he had seen it several times before when Peter wanted to tell him something but was worried he would get in trouble. He knew the boy would tell him sooner rather than later so continued his tinkering, he knew it wasn't Spiderman trouble the boy was in, he had Karen give him updates after every patrol and personally checked the logs weekly so it had to be something else.
Three hours later they had eaten dinner with Pepper and were now relaxing in front of the TV and Peter still hadn't shared. He would give him another half an hour to speak up before he asked Tony thought to himself.
Twenty five minutes later Peter turned to his mentor looking upset. "Umm…Mr Stark…Tony….I'm really sorry but I won't be able to come over on the weekends anymore" he stuttered.
Woah, woah, not what I was expecting, Tony thought panicked but tried to mask it. He turned to look at the boy slightly hurt "Do you not like coming here anymore Peter?" he asked.
"NO!" Peter almost shouted back, "It isn't that, not at all, I love coming here. It's just…I need to find a job, money is tight and the one I found wants me to work Saturdays, no one will hire fifteen year olds, it's my only option."
Relieved Tony relaxed back into the sofa "Peter there's no need for that I can just give you and May some money, how much do you need?" He asked taking his wallet from his pocket.
"No Mr Stark! No! We won't accept charity." The boy insisted holding his hands up in front of him.
Tony sighed, of course the kid wouldn't accept charity, the boy was too proud and he was sure May would say something similar. "How about you work for me then?" He asked, "You could become a proper intern, I'll speak to Pepper and May and get it set up"
"You can't just give me an internship Tony!" Peter said scandalised.
"Pete…I'm not giving it to you, you've earnt it, you're the brightest kid I know" Realising the kid still looked unsure he continues "okay…how about you do a trial, this weekend come and try out I'll have someone watch over you and they can decide if you become an intern, okay?"
Looking more comfortable Peter nodded gratefully "thank you Tony, I'll be there"
Grinning Tony ruffled Peter's hair, "good man," looking at his watch he blinked, wow time did fly when you are having fun. "It looks like it's time for you to go Underoos, Happy is downstairs, I'll send you the details, see you Saturday kid"
Grinning Peter waved as he left the penthouse a bounce in his step as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Which to be fair it probably had
As soon as Peter left the room however Tony's smile vanished and was replaced with a worried frown. Suddenly Peter's strange behaviour was making sense to him, that time he claimed to have forgotten to eat after fainting during training, his thinning figure despite the boy's assurances he was fine and his insistence of showering at the tower before going home. He immediately grabbed his Starkpad and began composing an email to his head of Interns and personnel. He knew Peter was smart enough for an internship but he was sure Gregor would kick up a fuss about some random kid coming in, hence the trial thing, he was certain Peter would have the man eating out the palm of his hand within an hour. He certainly had himself doing so he thought ruefully. He could have just told the man Peter was hired and left it at that but he didn't think the boy would have been too pleased with that, he wanted to be hired on his own merit not through nepotism after all.
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Saturday came both too soon and not soon enough for Peter, Tony had called him the evening before and told him he would be collected from his apartment at half past seven. May had already left for work so the boy was alone standing in front of his bedroom mirror desperately trying to tame his flyaway hair. When his phone pinged he grabbed his backpack and with a last look to make sure his tie was straight left the apartment wringing his hands nervously.
Tony had to admit it was rare for him to be awake at half seven in the morning but for Peter he was happy to, he'd probably happily do anything for that kid to be honest. He had decided to collect the boy himself for his first day and planned to stop so they could have breakfast beforehand. When the passenger door opened he looked at the boy and grinned as the kid's jaw dropped, he was clearly expecting Happy.
"Mr Stark! What are you doing here?" Peter asked confusion clear on his features.
"Am I not allowed to take my favourite intern in for his first day?" He replied with a grin.
"I'm not an intern, I'm on a trial Tony" The boy muttered he would not count his eggs before they hatched.
Tony ignored his comment entirely and headed towards his favourite breakfast place.
Peter was nervous, he mechanically ate the giant breakfast Tony had ordered for him but he could hardly taste it. He'd never done anything like this before, he had never even had a job interview, why did he think he could do this? Before he could stop it his worries came tumbling out his mouth. "What will I be doing? What if they don't like me? Will I still be able to come over if I don't get the internship?"
"You'll be fine Peter, I promise. You'll be helping in the labs, talking science that sort of thing. You're good at that kid, just imagine we're in my lab that'll help. How could they not like you underoos? You're great, you're smart, you're thoughtful, funny. They'll love you Pete." Tony assured the visibly nervous boy "and if you don't get it? Which by the way you will, of course you are welcome at the tower, even if I have to drag you round every Wednesday for the rest of your life kiddo. You can't get away that easily."
The tension left Peter's shoulders at the older man's words as he exhaled in relief. "Okay, I got this. It's cool I can do this" he muttered to himself earning him an amused look from the man opposite him. Looking up at his mentor he asked the question he had been thinking about ever since Tony brought up the idea "Tony you won't force them to take me on will you? I want to earn this or get rejected for me. I don't want to be taken on because you made them."
Tony put down his coffee and looked the boy in the eye. "Pete…I don't get to choose if you are employed okay? And I promise not to interfere, I'll stay away all day, but you have to be up in the penthouse for dinner okay? It's still Saturday and lasagne is on the menu. Also we have a guest coming over."
Peter nodded, a grin spreading across his face as they pulled up around the corner from the tower. When the car stopped around the corner from the tower he climbed out and looked at his mentor in surprise when he did the same. Tony walked round and gripped the boy's shoulder's lightly to look Peter in the eye. "Good luck kid, you've got this, don't stress" he told the boy as he ran his fingers through his hair in a soothing gesture. It always calmed the boy down.
"Toooony" Peter whined batting the man's hand's away, "I just got it tidy"
"That hair will never be tidy Pete, it's fine you look cute they'll love you"
With that Peter turned away squaring his shoulders as he left shouting back at the older man that he isn't cute. He's practically a man and men aren't cute.
Tony watched him go already planning on going straight upstairs to watch a live link of Peter's first day through FRIDAY's cameras.
Gregor stood in the main foyer of Stark Tower waiting for the new intern. He had no idea why Tony had forced him to take him on let alone lie to the boy! The teen thought he was on a trial but he was under strict instructions to take him on in some capacity regardless if he was just to be making coffee. How have I been left babysitting some snot nosed kid? He thought to himself trying to keep up his calm façade as he eyed those coming into the building. That must be him, he realised as he saw a young man around fourteen or fifteen entering the building looking nervous. Well at least he dressed for the occasion he thought taking in the shirt and tie, his hair could have been tidier but he supposed the more doting types in his labs would love it. Actually on second thought it did make the kid look sort of cute.
Peter started when a tall man in a lab coat shouted his name, steeling himself he promptly met him with a firm handshake and a smile introducing himself. "But of course you already know I'm Peter, you just said my name…sorry…I'm rambling Tony says I do that a lot" He looked down blushing, he had been here all of two seconds and already made a fool of himself. Great.
Gregor bit back a laugh, storing the titbit about Tony away, clearly this isn't just some random kid then if he knew the big boss by his first name. He led Peter towards an elevator briefly explaining where most the labs are located, he opened his mouth to give his access code for the elevator and was promptly taken aback when the boy started a tongue twister. "emmm…kid what are you…?" he started but was immediately shocked into silence when they begin to ascend.
Peter looked down once again blushing, "sorry habit, I won't do it again" he muttered to the older man. His head shot up once again when he heard the man laugh softly "it's fine kid, unexpected but fine, plus I try to avoid using my own where possible I just didn't expect you to have one." Unsure what to respond to that Peter just nodded trying not to fidget too much and followed the man out as the reached the eighty fifth floor.
"Well I don't really know where to put you yet so I want you to sit here for the next three and a half hours and work through these workbooks okay? I don't expect you to finish, they get progressively harder so you'll probably get stuck before I'm back anyway. Once we have the results I'll know where to put you." Gregor told the boy, he felt slightly bad, the boy looked terrified, but he had to treat him the same as he treated the others. God what was Tony thinking? College kids struggled with this test, was it even ethical to give it to a child?
Peter nodded and settled himself down at a table in the small conference room he had been led to, taking a pen out of his backpack he thanked Gregor as he gave him a stack of booklets and quickly started to flick through them. The first appeared to just be chemistry so he got to work quickly confident in his abilities. He breezed through the first several pages of questions to test his knowledge and makes easy work of the equations that follow, about two thirds of the way through the workbook he began to run into problems though but looking at his watch he decided not to dwell on it. He could always come back to them. Setting the book aside he grabbed the next one and got started. He followed the same process with the biology and physics books but couldn't stop from sighing to himself when he began struggling slightly earlier with both of them than he had in the chemistry booklet.
He knew chemistry was his strongest of the three subjects though so tried not to dwell on it and slip into negative thoughts. By this time two hours had passed he reached over to the final book entitled coding and robotics with a grin on his face. He may be good at chemistry, but robotics was his thing and he had got much better at coding recently.
Gregor was surprised when he returned to the room after the allotted time is up to see Peter not looking upset in any way, nervous sure but not upset. He had given these books to prospective interns hundreds of times and a good third of them are either close to tears or already crying by the time he collected them, Peter is the youngest by far to have done this so he's shocked he looks okay. He collected up the workbooks and led Peter up several floors so he could have lunch with the other interns. On the way he stops by four different labs dropping off the books for marking so he can decide what to do with the boy after lunch.
Peter gaped as he was led to the intern's casual floor, it looked a little like he imagined a college social room might in dorms. He was told to grab a seat and help himself to food so does so with relish taking several slices of pizza for himself and a huge pile of fries. He had been there mere seconds when a group of six young adults wandered in all chatting amongst themselves.
"Hey, kid. Are you lost?" One of the girls asked slightly confused, she had never seen anyone younger than twenty one in here and this kid looked like he had just hit puberty. Ugh she didn't have that long a break and she didn't want to waste it giving Mr Hogan every detail of the boy, people shouldn't be able to just wander all the way up here after all.
"Ummm…no…Gregor took me here told me to help myself then left, said he'd be back after lunch" Peter replied uncomfortable under the gazes of the interns.
Shrugging and deciding not to question his presence any more the college students included him in polite conversation as they helped themselves to food.
Half an hour later Peter was feeling slightly more relaxed amongst the others, they all shared their own experiences of the workbooks and told him how surprised they were he was given them, most of their content was college level after all. That came as quite a surprise to him, sure they got quite difficult but the first half or so of each one he could manage easily. Conversation had quickly become much more relaxed however and he found himself debating which Italian Restaurant was the best in New York. Peter jumped a foot in the air when a very familiar voice sounded from the door "Romano's is the best, no competition."
Tony grined, he just couldn't help himself, he wanted to see the kid. Gregor had called him not five minutes ago saying Peter was some sort of tech genius. Well duh…he already knew that, as if his kid…..the kid…the kid…he had to stop doing that, wouldn't be a genius. The six interns gaped at him, he supposed it made sense they only saw him occasionally maybe once a month or so, he did make sure to meet each of them personally every few months but that was it. They would never have seen him on their floor.
"Mr Stark…what…" Chloe gaped, unable to form a coherent sentence in surprise, the pizza halfway to her mouth forgotten.
Tony simply smiled at her before he wandered in and helped himself to a slice flopping down next to Peter as he did so, "Don't mind me, just pretend I'm not here."
Soon conversation picked again amongst the students, but Chloe quirked an eyebrow when she heard the young boy, Peter's, words. "I thought you were going to leave me alone? I'm meant to be doing this myself. I don't need you here stalking me."
"Oh are you embarrassed by me Petey-pie." Tony asked ginning. "Am I not cool enough for you?!
Peter blushed at the nickname as Tony simply laughed at him and ruffled his hair once again. "Toooony" he whined sounded much younger than his actual age "stop, leave me alone. Why are you even here? Don't you have work to do?" Seconds later he heard the clicking of heels against the hardwood floor of the corridor and turned to see Tony pale. He knew that sound and couldn't stop a grin from spreading across his face. "You're not?...oh my god, you're hiding aren't you?"
The other interns all turned to stare at Tony as Peter's words got louder. They couldn't believe a child was getting away with speaking to the man like that but they couldn't deny the boy seemed to be onto something as Tony didn't deny his words and in fact seemed uncomfortable all of a sudden. A sharp U-turn from the teasing look he had sported moments before. The footsteps outside seemed to be getting closer and as they did Mr Stark looked more and more ill at ease.
Pepper couldn't believe her fiancé, he was a fully-grown man but acted more like a child than the actual child that practically lived with them. She had meetings pretty much all day and on her only break she had just sat down to eat her lunch when FRIDAY told her Tony hadn't gone to his meeting and was instead on the Intern's floor. Which he had also promised to stay away from what with Peter being there.
The interns had all met Pepper Potts before and knew she wasn't a woman to cross, everyone with a head on their shoulders knew that. But on the occasions they had met her she had been the height of professionalism and easy to get along with, but this Pepper Potts that had just walked into the room was terrifying. "Tony you are supposed to be in a meeting, like right now! You promised not to skip this one, you promised me" They all turned to see Tony Stark, actual Iron Man! Go white as he frantically tried to appease his fiancée with no success.
Tony knew a losing battle when he saw one and simply sighed, he would definitely pay for this later he knew, ugh she would probably tell Rhodey at dinner, and then he would gloat. Maybe Peter would be a good shield from it, he would be a great distraction. He was brought out of his musings by a sharp cough from Pep. "Sorry, Pep, love of my life. It won't happen again, I'm going now, I just thought I'd check on our wonderful interns." He said as he left the room waving goodbye to the stunned students still eating their pizzas.
Pepper sighed in frustration at his antics. "Sorry you had to see that." She said to the room as a whole before turning to look at the only teenage in the room. "How's it going Pete? You know we're having people over for dinner right. So you can go out after you're finished here today but you need to be back by seven," She gave the boy a soft smile as he nodded blushing under the confused gazes of the others in the room. "Good boy," she told him ruffling his hair ignoring his half-hearted grumbling. As she left the room what she had done hit her. She had embarrassed the boy like a mom did her child, oh my god. And she had told Tony not to embarrass him. She had fallen under the boy's spell as well, she would have to apologise to him at dinner.
Peter shifted nervously under the gaze of the others for a moment before they all began peppering him with questions at once. He opened his mouth to try to answer when Gregor re-entered the room. Thank god.
Gregor looked at the room in confusion. All the interns had crowded around Peter who looked extremely uncomfortable being surrounded like that. "Oi, what are you all doing? Can't you see he's uncomfortable. If you have nothing better to do than interrogate teenagers you better get back to work." He had to suppress a grin as the interns practically sprinted out of the room under the force of his glare.
"Thanks." Peter muttered once they had all left.
"No bother kid." The man replied as he started walking back towards the elevator beckoning for Peter to follow.
Peter's nerves had returned ten-fold by the time they reached the small room from before. He slid himself into the same seat as Gregor took the one opposite, his workbooks in hand.
"So Peter. I've had these all looked over and it's clear although you know a fair bit about biology and physics it's not really for you, you know much more than the average high school student but your chemistry is well into the second year of college level despite a few gaps, we can work with that."
Peter nodded thrilled trying not to let his grin get too wide, he appeared to have done it! He had earned himself an internship.
"Your tech work though, I got that cross marked to ensure there wasn't mistakes in the marking. Peter, you could probably get a job with your knowledge in plenty of companies. Your robotics and tech work is amazing, it's the highest score we've ever had on the test and you're the youngest by several years to take it!"
Blushing again Peter looked down unsure what to say.
"So I've spoken to Mr Stark and you've got the internship, consider the trial over, you've passed. We expect you here, Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday morning, that okay? You will work under Dr Stephens he heads the tech labs, we will also put you up with Dr Youngson in chemistry from time to time."
A smile split across Peter's face as his words sunk in. "Thank you, sir!"
"You've earned it kid" Gregor smiled. "No time like the present and all that, you're here until five so may as well get you introduced to the rest of the team. We also need to sort out your pay and fill in some paperwork and you're ready to start."
Peter's grin stretched from ear to ear as he nodded and followed the older man from the room, a bounce in his step.
He didn't know it but his grin was mirrored on Tony's face who was watching the entire exchange in the penthouse on the lounge TV.
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Several hours later Peter was swinging between the buildings of Manhattan having changed immediately after leaving the internship. He had two hours until he had to be at the tower for dinner so he thought he may as well patrol, there was no point going back to Queens just to return again.
Ping
He quickly stopped his lazy swings and landed gracefully on a rooftop so he could answer his phone. Mr Stark got a bit testy if he didn't answer within a minute or two without good reason and after being grounded from patrolling for ignoring three calls from him because he was having too much fun showing off to pedestrian's front flipping while swinging between buildings he always made sure to answer as quickly as possible.
Remember I've got a friend coming over for dinner. Seven o'clock kid, don't be late. Keep safe underoos. – Tony
Peter grinned as he fired back a quick response assuring him he would be on time. He wondered who was coming for dinner, he should have asked earlier when he saw Tony in the Intern lounge but it had slipped his mind, Tony called them a friend so it probably wasn't someone in Stark Industries. One of the board members came over for dinner once and it was the worst. Soooo boring, he had thankfully been excused as soon as he had eaten dessert by Tony, ugh surely he wouldn't have to go through that again, that man could put anyone to sleep. A scream in the distance pulled him from his musings and he swung in it's direction to offer his help.
"Karen, what've you got?"
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Peter was late. He had told the kid seven and he had promised he would be on time. He asked him to do one thing! Terror quickly overtook Tony as he realised the boy hadn't sent a text since the last one hours before, oh god…maybe he was hurt. The man stood and began to pace nervously running a hand through his hair. "Pepper have you heard from Peter recently? He's late and hasn't sent me a text."
Pepper walked into the room hairbrush in hand clearly halfway through getting ready. "Not since I saw him this afternoon, no" she replied Tony's fear quickly affecting herself. She watched her fiancé turn impossibly paler and rushed over placing a calming hand on his chest, "Tony, Tony…look at me, take a breath, I'm sure he is fine it's only just seven now let's give him until quarter past and if he isn't here by then you can track him."
"Pepper! Anything could happen in fifteen minutes, what if…"
"Tony, we both know you have hundreds of protocols on that suit, Friday alerts you when Peter skins his knee, he is fine, you would know immediately if anything happened to him! Just sit down and take a breath. He's a teenager, he's probably just forgotten or something."
Dammit! Peter thought to himself as he swung as quickly as he could towards the tower, he had fallen asleep on a rooftop and woken at a minute to seven. Tony was going to kill him. He dropped down into an alley around the corner from the tower and quickly changed into the clothes he had hidden there, Tony had told him to avoid being seen entering the tower too often as Spiderman, he didn't want him becoming a target to get at Iron Man after all. He was probably already in trouble for being late, he didn't want to get himself in even more.
Throwing his suit into his backpack he sprinted round the corner dodging round people with muttered apologies as he raced towards the tower. Deciding the front entrance was probably quicker he raced in.
Colonel James Rhodes stood just inside the entrance of Stark Tower, he wasn't required to use the public entrance of course but he was early so decided to, he liked to just sit and watch people go about their lives. He had been chatting to Happy and Gregor for several minutes when someone sprinted past them. He turned to follow them with his eyes curious as to why no one seemed to be stopping the person…wait teenager? That was certainly no adult. He turned back to Gregor shocked when he heard him shout out to the boy "running late kid?"
"I prefer to call it a slightly mistimed arrival" The boy shot back still running as if his life depended on it, responding to the odd greeting as he headed towards the elevator. Rhodey positively gaped as the notoriously stiff Happy let out a snort, "he's not gonna be pleased with him that's the second time this month" Gregor nodded in agreement with a wry smile of his own.
"Sorry who is that child? Am I missing something? Who won't be pleased?" Rhodey asked somewhat impatiently as the elevator doors closed taking the boy from view.
"You know what, I'd head up now James" Gregor told him still smiling, "I'm sure Tony will be able to tell you, I really must get going anyway" he continued with a glance at his watch. Rhodey watched the two wander away leaving him alone still confused with everyone's relaxed attitude over the boy but looking at his own watch decided it was probably a reasonable time to head up to the penthouse anyway. Tony would be able to clear whatever this was up.
When the elevator reached the penthouse Rhodeys mouth fell open and he had to double check he had actually come to the correct floor. He stood frozen because there in the lounge was Tony and the kid, arguing.
"Peter. No, you have no excuse, you should have gone home or come here if you were tired…"
"But…"
"Sorry did you just try to interrupt me? No…you don't get to do that, the adult is talking. You could have at least set an alarm so you would be here on time. You promised me! You young man are grounded for a week, and the dishes are all yours tonight."
Rhodey watched the young man open his mouth to sass back then clearly think better of it in the face of Tony's raised eyebrow. God that was intimidating, who knew a single eyebrow could be so scary?
With a sigh Tony opened his arms and the boy fell into them for a brief hug with a muttered apology. He watched as his friend smiled and propelled the boy towards the guest room "have a quick shower, Pepper has laid some clothes out, I want you back here in ten Pete."
Tony turned running his hand through his hair again as he took a deep breath relaxing now he could see the kid was safe and sound. He jumped almost a foot when he saw Rhodey standing in the elevator mouth wide open staring at him.
"Are you broken Honey-Bear?"
Rhodey came back to himself with a start "Who…What…."
Seeming to grasp what he was asking Tony gestured for him to take a seat and started talking. "That's Peter, Peter Parker, my…um… protégé? I really wanted him to meet you, it wasn't really the first impression I was going for to be honest. He's a great kid, smart, kind…"
Rhodey took a second to register what Tony was saying, "so you are what to him?"
"His mentor" Tony replied quickly to be met with a snort from Rhodey and muttered "right"
"Hey what does that mean?" The younger man squawked indignantly.
Rhodey was saved from answering however with the entrance of Pepper who greeted him with a friendly hug and praise on his new bionics. Talk quickly turned to his new legs but he couldn't help but notice Tony checking his watch every now and again, clearly timing the kid. How did I miss Tony becoming such a dad?
Pepper watched her fiancé from the corner of her eye. "Tony go and check on the lasagne would you? And get Peter." She smiled fondly as he jumped up to do as she bid then turned her full attention to Rhodey. "Sorry he's a bit jumpy when Peter is involved, we're hoping he'll calm down a bit soon, he doesn't even realise it half the time."
Seconds later Tony re-entered the room his hand on the kid's…Peter's shoulder. "So this is who I wanted you to meet, had you actually been on time you would already know but…" At this the boy looked down blushing slightly. Deciding to save him from further embarrassment Rhodey stood up and extended a hand.
"Hey Peter, I'm James Rhodes, you can call me Uncle Rhodey." Three heads snapped up to stare at him at his words and he grinned. "I won't answer to anything else kid." The boy raised his eyes to look at Tony and was met with a shrug.
"Once his mind is made up there's no changing it underoos."
Peter smiled nervously and reached out to grip Rhodey's hand…Uncle Rhodey's hand. Oh my god…this was War Machine. He opened his mouth to start peppering him with questions but was quickly stopped by Pepper telling him to leave the interrogation until they are at least sat at the table. Peter dropped into his usual seat and waited as Pepper served herself. He was about to reach out to take some for himself when his plate was taken from him.
"Sorry underoos, I don't remember that rule changing" Tony scolded lightly batting the kid's hand away as he dished up the boy's meal.
Blushing Peter looked down and dug into his food silently. How could Tony do that to him, in front of War Machine…so uncool!
Rhodey looked at the boy sensing exactly what he was thinking and went to reassure him. "No need to be embarrassed Peter, I dished up Tony's meals right through college I even had to feed him once" He grinned as the boy forgot his embarrassment immediately and turned to look at a now blushing Tony.
"Playtpusss…not in front of the kid. He still thinks I'm cool. Don't make me revoke uncle status" He whined.
Pepper laughed lightly, "Tony you are so far from cool."
"Ugh, my own family" Tony sighed dramatically acting wounded "how could you betray me so?"
Conversation flowed freely after that with Rhodey's question of what college Peter wanted to go to being met with a "I don't know" from the boy and "MIT, he's going to MIT" from Tony. After dinner Rhodey insisted he help the boy with the dishes "if I'm to be your cool uncle may as well start now, eh kid?" he said with a wink.
Several hours later Tony had sent the kid half-asleep off to bed assuring him his uncle would still be there in the morning.
"Being a dad looks good on you, never would have expected it but well done Tones."
"He's not…we're not…I'm not…" Tony tried but a raised eyebrow from his friend made him stop and just give a sincere thanks.