I've been asked when the changes from the original begin to appear, up until this point it has largely been me joining chapters together and changing the order of bits and pieces which does continue for another few chapters but once we get to chapter ten differences begin to show with chapter 11 and possibly 12 being entirey new material. I haven't written beyond there yet but I will probably move the Stark Wedding up as well which will also be new material. Sorry this is a shorter chapter the next few are longer and daily updates will be going down to a couple of times a week after today, I was just wanted to catch up to where I was on AO3.
-EmptyFridges
Being grounded sucked. Peter was halfway through his lab ban and bored to tears. He hadn't known at the time of his punishment but he was grounded as well as banned from the labs. To be fair this was the most trouble he had ever been in with Tony so it made sense he supposed and it was in the lab that he had gotten in trouble it would be poor par-…what no. Poor mentoring if Tony let him use the lab. When he had been grounded before he just did extra internship work or asked Tony to work with him in his private lab because he wasn't allowed to see his friends, use his Xbox or the internet, but this absolutely sucked. It was embarrassing too, Tony had told him he had to tell Gregor himself that he wasn't able to work in the labs for ten days, that was bad enough but then he had ran into the other interns who had become sort of cool older siblings to him. They had dragged him into their break room Saturday morning to quiz him on why he hadn't been there at 8am like he usually was.
Even thinking about it made Peter blush. He had to say out loud that he had been grounded by Tony Stark, he had been grounded by Iron Man! How humiliating. When he had been grounded before he just couldn't be Spiderman so it wasn't like the interns knew, this was the first time since he first met them he had actually felt like a child in their company. On the plus side Chloe did text him when they had breaks so he could go and join them, otherwise he would go crazy he was sure of it. After that first day they hadn't mentioned the grounding again which he was thankful for and he knew they wouldn't bring it up in front of others, they were cool like that. But it still sucked.
So here he was with five days left of his grounding, alone and bored. He had come in from school an hour ago and already completed his homework. Tony had told FRIDAY Peter could only use his laptop for school work so the AI would immediately turn it off and inform the man if he did anything else. Tony had also taken away the controllers for his Xbox. Ugh. So bored. This was undoubtedly the worst grounding he had ever received, he had been banned from Spiderman before and lost his laptop and controllers but never the labs too! It was so dull! He let out an angry sigh and just as he contemplated asking FRIDAY to put a film on his phone buzzed. He glanced down and grinned as the intern group chat lit up, they were all taking a quick break. Thank god! He grabbed his shoes and sprinted to the lift telling the AI to inform Tony where he was if the man asked.
He walked into the intern lounge to be met with the usual shouts of "Hey Junior" and "mini Stark". He rolled his eyes at the teasing but grinned slightly regardless, he wasn't sure who had started it but he was sure more people called him Junior than Peter now. He grinned at Chloe and dropped down next to her, he got on with all the interns but she was probably his favourite she had sort of adopted him as her quasi brother and he couldn't find it in himself to complain.
"Surviving?" She asked him with a grin.
"Hanging on by a thread I swear!" He said dramatically. "I'm so bored…one tiny thing and now I'm going to die of boredom!"
He heard a snort from the opposite side of the room and looked up to glance at Toby. The guy was pretty cool to be honest, he was extremely blunt at times and sarcastic but he was nice enough and also knew a lot about Star Wars, that alone sold Peter on him. "Any of us would have been fired or at least given a formal warning for doing unapproved work in the labs kid…forget about Mr Stark's private lab. Which by the way you're the only person I've ever heard of who can go in there whenever they want." The older boy told him. "A short ban is nothing."
Peter rolled his eyes at his words, he knew he was right but still. "It still sucks, this is the highlight of my day. I can't use my Xbox or laptop! Or anything! And I can't go in whenever that's what caused this in the first place."
This time it was Chloe's turn to laugh as she put her hand to her heart dramatically "Oh the hardship, no Xbox, no laptop. What will you do Pete? How will you survive? God it must be tough being Iron Man's kid."
Peter laughed at her dramatics until the final sentence when he stopped dead at her words. "You know I'm not his kid right…tell me you do know that, we aren't related in any way." He questioned her slightly worried. Did people think he actually was Tony's kid? Maybe he shouldn't have let the Junior thing go on so long? Did Tony know? He must do Gregor always said it…so did that mean Tony hadn't corrected anyone over it?
She simply rolled her eyes at him once again. "Family isn't blood Peter, anyway forget it tell me about your thoughts on how to improve my experiment."
Peter stayed with the interns for another twenty minutes before they all headed back to work and he went upstairs, there was no point sitting in the lounge by himself after all.
"I'll never go in the stupid lab alone again" he mumbled to himself angrily as he stepped out the elevator.
"Seems like your punishment is working then kid" A voice said from the next room making him jump up onto the ceiling in fright.
"Nat! Stop doing that to me, how can I not hear you even with advanced hearing? And if you're looking for Tony or Pepper they're both in meetings."
She just laughed as she jumped over the back of the sofa and settled herself down. "No I was looking for you. How's it going?" she asked as he dropped down next to her in the seat he had occupied earlier.
"I'm sooo bored. I have nothing to do, Tony and Pepper are in meetings until dinner, the other interns are busy and I can't invite my friends over or go out with them because I'm grounded and uncle Rhodey won't be back in New York until Friday." He whined sounding like the stroppy teenager he was.
"Sounds tough kid. I'm not busy though we could do something, get to know each other. That's why I came up…and Bruce is in the lab but still."
Peter looked up at her shocked "really? Thanks, that sounds so cool, I don't know what we can do though, I can't use the internet or my Xbox or the labs or go out."
Nat had already asked Tony what the kid was and wasn't allowed to do whilst grounded, she didn't want to get on the man's bad side so soon after getting home after all so knew she would have to do something inside the tower with Peter. Initially she had thought about sparring with him but that counted as 'spidermanning' according to Tony so was a no go.
"Can you cook Spiderman?" She asked, he was a fifteen-year-old kid it was highly unlikely he could but it was polite to ask.
"Ummm…not really, I can make scrambled eggs that's about it"
"I'll teach you then маленький паук"
Peter turned to look at her quizzically at her words but decided to simply let in slide, he didn't want to annoy her into not hanging out with him after all.
Nat decided to start out easy and set to work collecting the ingredients for pizza dough. While she got Peter to google them a recipe.
"Okay this looks easy enough" Peter muttered to himself.
Turns out it wasn't as easy as it looked. "Peter…how is it even possible to get flour on the ceiling? All you had to do was mix."
"Sorry…sorry, I just got a bit excited I'll try again."
Nat let out a brief laugh and measured out even more ingredients for the teen. "If Tony wasn't your dad I'm sure he'd be annoyed with the mess you're making"
Peter stopped what he was doing almost dropping the bowl in shock. "Tony…he isn't…he's not" he stuttered unsure if he actually wants to finish the sentence or disagree with Black Widow for that matter. Why do so many people think he's my dad? He's just a guy, he's just letting me stay because I'm Spiderman…but do I want him to be my dad? Maybe? He wasn't sure.
Nat watched as Peter's face cycled through emotions. She felt a bit bad she had just met the kid and now she had made him uncomfortable, she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder "don't worry about it маленький паук I shouldn't have said anything, it's not my place" she told him soothingly.
Peter nodded jerkily mind still racing. Maybe he is my dad? He does act a bit like one sometimes, a bit like Ben used to. He checks my homework, makes sure I eat healthily and punishes me like I'm his kid. You don't just wash any kid's mouth out after all. He couldn't help but think of the other times Tony had perhaps stepped beyond the mentor role.
Nat could see Peter's thoughts were spiralling and thought it was probably best to distract him lest he work himself into a panic. "Hey want to hear about the time I had a mission in Budapest with Clint?"
Peter nodded, he knew what she was doing but he did really want to hear her story.
ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ
Bruce walked into the kitchen twenty five minutes later and couldn't help but let out a gasp of surprise. Nat and Peter were standing shoulder to shoulder at the kitchen counter spreading tomato onto five pizzas, flour was on every surface including the walls and the ceiling.
His gasp interrupted Nat who was clearly telling an eager Peter about some sort of mission she had been on judging by the kids expression. "Better not let Tony hear you corrupting his kid Nat" he teased making Peter blush slightly.
"Pfft what can he do to me?"
Bruce shrugged conceding her point and rolled up his sleeves to join the pair. "So what are we putting on them?" He watched as Nat turns to look towards the teen, clearly they'd built up some sort of relationship in however long they have been making pizzas because the kid hardly spoke in front of her before today being far too star struck or perhaps just intimidated by her.
"I was going to make them all different so there's choices; Hawaiian, meat feast, vegetarian, chicken and then margarita because Tony is boring"
"Sounds great I'll get started on meat feast then"
ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ
Twenty minutes later they finished adding the toppings to their pizzas and Peter couldn't help but grin, he had been sure he would die of boredom before Tony or Pepper got back from work but here was just having made pizza with Black Widow and Bruce Banner!
"Only one of us can reach the ceiling so I guess that's on you to clean before Tony and Pepper get home Peter, I'll take the walls and Nat you good with the floor and counters?" Receiving a nod from the other two Bruce got to work happy to listen to their casual banter. It seemed Peter had the ability to charm anyone, Nat usually took months to be so casual people, then again Tony's relationship with the boy may play a large role, after all he doesn't trust easily either and Nat did trust the billionaire.
Once they had all cleared up Peter went back through to the lounge and began to flick through the channels as Nat (he couldn't help but grin at that, he was allowed to call Black Widow Nat!) and Bruce went downstairs to change. He quickly settled on Westworld, Ned had been raving about it, hell even MJ mentioned it and she hated almost everything.
After several minutes he was jostled as another body leapt over the sofa to sit next to him. "Hey Nat" he said without needing to double check who it was. He also saw Bruce at the same time she jumped the couch so it wasn't exactly a difficult guess to be fair. Within moments the two were settled at the other end of the couch Bruce's arm over he shoulder and the three sat in comfortable silence as they watched the show.
ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ
Tony was eager to come home, back to the penthouse and his family, he had been stuck in meetings all day and had only had time to text Peter once during the kid's lunch break. As he stood in the elevator arm around his fiancée he couldn't help the slight guilt he felt as he predicted the scene that would await him in the lounge. Since grounding Peter on Friday he had come in each evening to see the boy bored on the couch, once or twice he had a book in his hand but he was always alone and always always bored. He knew Peter deserved to be grounded but he still felt bad, god paren….mentorhood was hard.
"Tony, you know he deserves it, stop feeling guilty, he only has five days left anyway and you'll be here for two of them"
He nodded at Pepper's words the guilt in his stomach easing somewhat as he tapped his foot impatiently, eager to get home to his boy. His phone pinged and he fished it out his pocket, to check what was going on hardly looking up as they reached the penthouse and he stepped out the elevator. Hearing the TV however his head snapped up and he ran across the room snatching the remote up and turning it off before turning to face Nat and Bruce who were sitting dumbstruck on the couch.
"What the hell Nat?...No we don't watch those kind of shows with a child present….PG only. And you Bruce, I thought you would know better. You're an actual adult!" He ignored Nat's glare he could feel burning into his skull at that comment, she had no right to glare anyway right now.
"Tony….that's so uncool, it was just getting to the good bit. I'm fifteen not five!" Peter burst out outraged, he had been enjoying that, he totally understood why everyone was raving about it now.
"No…nope…no. No kid of mine is watching that, you'll be influenced by it, it'll ruin you!" he cried dramatically as the kid sighed in annoyance. "Pep back me up here."
Pepper sighed, she did not want to be dragged into this at all she had had a long day. Deciding leaving was probably the best option she just left the room and headed towards the kitchen which smelt amazing, which was surprising she was almost certain Peter couldn't cook.
ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ
"So what's it like being grounded by Tony Stark?" Peter's head jerked up at the question, he just shrugged at his friend who had clearly been trying to ask for a while.
"Ummm…what? Being grounded is being grounded Ned. No Xbox, no phone, nothing fun! It's pretty much torture."
"Duuuude. You know what I mean did he go all Iron Man on you for disobeying him? My parents would kill me if I went in somewhere I wasn't allowed and then swore at them."
"What! No Ned course he didn't…"
Ned didn't catch the end of the sentence due to his friends mumbling. "Sorry Peter did you just say apart from the gauntlet? Dude…did you get spanked by Iron Man?" He lowered the volume at that last question honestly shocked. "What else happened?"
Peter fidgeted on the spot slightly uncomfortable but he always shared everything with Ned, they knew everything about each other so he tried to speak quickly as if that would make it less embarrassing. "He washed my mouth out and made me stand in the corner to cool down."
Ned's jaw dropped as he stared at his best friend. "Oh my god. That's such a dad move. Peter Iron Man is your dad. He is Iron Dad." He told him excitedly.
Peter dropped the burger that was halfway to his mouth to look at his best friend. "No he isn't…he's umm…he's my…He's not my dad Ned."
"Peter he's your dad. Think about it. How many people have sworn at Tony Stark and lived to tell the tale? Not just tell the tale but be allowed back to see him again? You call his best friend uncle Rhodey for god sake! And he made you turn off the TV when a sex scene came on that is pure dad."
"Hey! He didn't tell me to call him that, that was all Uncle Rhodey he wouldn't answer to anything else and I can't not speak to War Machine Ned!" Tony is just Tony, he couldn't explain it not even to himself but Tony is everything he needs him to be. "And the TV thing….well…"
Ned scoffed shaking his head at his friend. One day Peter would realise Mr Stark is his dad. He decided to let the matter drop Peter was clearly uncomfortable so he picked up his own burger and continued eating swiftly changing the subject to discuss the possibility of an Obi-Wan prequel movie.
ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ-ʘ
It wasn't until several hours later when Peter ran his conversation with Ned through his mind again that he realised what Tony had said when he turned off Westworld the night before….no kid of mine…no kid of mine….so does he see me as his kid? Oh my god, Tony Stark is my dad. It hit him all at once, he makes Dad jokes in the lab, makes sure his homework is done and correct before he can do anything fun, makes sure he eats his five a day, he even carried him to bed that one time he fell asleep in the lab. He had somehow accidentally got himself a dad…how was that even possible?