A/n: I take requests! You can PM me them or leave them in a review
Peter stood outside Midtown, awkwardly waiting for Mr. Stark or Happy to pick him up. He had hoped they would be able to finish their work on Mr. Stark's suit early tonight so that he could join the Avengers in their movie night that they had every Friday.
But so far, that didn't seem possible, as he had been waiting here for over half an hour, and there was still no sign of any Avenger or anyone he knew that was here to pick him up. Ned and MJ had left a while ago, as Ned's Lola had picked him up, and MJ had something she had to do when she got home, so she started on her walk away from the school.
Peter thought he was stuck here alone, and was going to have to walk home when a voice brought him out of his thoughts, "Hey, Parker!" Peter turned around hopefully, only to be met with the grinning face of one Flash Thompson. His face fell as Flash walked over to him, "Hey Penis, what are you still doing here? Did your Aunt finally get tired of you and leave you, like your parents and Uncle?"
Peter clenched his fists, "I'm not in the mood, Flash."
Flash stopped walking once he was right next to Peter, " 'Not in the mood' Eh? Since when did I care what you thought, Penis?" Peter rolled his eyes at Flash, something he would never dared to do before he had been introduced to Tony Stark.
"But really, why are you out here?" Flash asked, pretending he didn't see Peter rolling his eyes, just this once. "I could ask you the same thing."
Peter turned towards Flash, realizing that Happy wasn't going to pick him up any time soon. "I was supposed to be picked up by someone today, but they haven't shown up yet." Flash looked at Peter with almost something akin to empathy.
"Why are you out here? I would think you would've ditched school as soon as it let you." Peter asked, turning Flash's question back on him. Flash looked back towards the road where cars were driving by, none of them turning towards Midtown, to pick either of the two boys up.
Flash didn't answer, instead letting his face go blank. Peter had never seen Flash without some emotion on his face, whether anger or just pure annoyance, so this was a bit off-putting.
Flash's arrogant expression returned when a car pulled up to the sidewalk in front of them, he immediately got in the car, rolling down his window as he said goodbye, "Bye Penis, see you Monday, of course, you won't ever leave."
Peter just ignored Flash, instead taking out his phone as Flash drove away to see if he had gotten any response from Mr. Stark, whom he had sent many texts, asking where he was.
(1:24 PM) Peter: Hey Mr. Stark! You're coming to get me after school today, right?
(2:06 PM) Peter: Can't wait to work on your suit in the lab!
(2:30 PM) Peter: Hey Mr. Stark, are you on your way to Midtown? I know you said that you were going to pick me up today, and I can't wait!
(2:32 PM) Peter: I can already think of all the cool stuff we're going to do today!
(2:33 PM) Peter: Hey Mr. Stark, do you think the rest of the Avengers will let me come to their movie night tonight? I know I'm not an official Avenger, but do you think they would make an exception?
(2:33 PM) Peter: What movie are you guys thinking of watching? Because Aunt May says I shouldn't watch anything that's rated R or M, but we can watch whatever!
(2:39 PM) Peter: You are coming to get me, right?
(2:43 PM) Peter: I'm starting to get worried... Is everything okay, Mr. Stark?
(2:44 PM) Peter: Hello?
(2:44 PM) Peter: Mr. Stark?
(2:45 PM) Peter: This isn't funny, Mr. Stark.
(2:47 PM) Peter: ...
(2:50 PM) Peter: Mr. Stark?
(2:53 PM): Peter: You know, if you didn't want to have to deal with me today, you could have canceled. That would be fine.
(2:55 PM): Peter: Mr. Stark, why aren't you answering?
(2:58 PM) Peter: Goodbye, Mr. Stark.
Peter closed his phone, he looked up and down the street one last time, to see if Mr. Stark, Happy, or any of the other Avengers were there to pick him up. When he saw no one, he started walking down the sidewalk, towards his and Aunt May's apartment.
He shouldn't have expected any better from Tony Stark, he was known to abandon others and treat them like trash before, why would Peter be any different? Peter kept walking down the street until he bumped into someone, quickly saying sorry, he didn't look up at them until he heard his name come out of the person's mouth.
"Peter?" Peter looked up and saw that the person he had bumped into was Rhodey. "Oh, hi Mr. Rhodey," Peter said, no real excitement in his voice. Rhodey raised his eyebrow, not used to Peter being this monotone.
"What's up, Peter?" Rhodey checked his watch, "Shouldn't you be with Tony by now? Don't tell me he started sending you out on coffee runs again." Peter shook his head, "No, he was supposed to pick me up today after school, but he never showed up." Rhodey shook his head, "That idiot... Here, I'll call him."
Rhodey took out his phone, but before he could call Tony, Peter spoke up, an urgent tone to his voice, "I texted him tons of times, but he never responded." Peter looked down at the ground, "But I wouldn't be surprised if he answered you. You're his best friend, after all."
Rhodey sighed and put his phone back in his pocket, "Hey Peter, how about we go inside and hang out for a bit?" Peter looked to where Rhodey was pointing and saw they were standing outside a Dairy Queen.
"Uh, sure, yeah, why not?" Peter said, following Rhodey to the very back of the Dairy Queen, where no one else was. Rhodey sat down on a chair, so Peter sat down on the booth seat across from him.
"So Peter, how has school been going? Do you get good grades?" Peter sat there for a moment, registering the fact that Mr. Rhodey, an Avenger, was sitting here with him, asking him about school. "Uhm, school has been going well... uh, and I get good grades. I'm the top of my class in most of my classes."
Rhodey nodded, "That's good, do you have many friends?" Peter had to think about that for a second. The only two people he regularly hung out with were Ned and MJ, and even MJ most of the time just does her own thing. The rest of Peter's classmates aren't that close of friends to him.
With that in mind, Peter came up with the most accurate answer Peter could give Mr. Rhodey, "Yeah- yeah, I have lots of friends." Peter wouldn't even believe himself. I mean, it was obvious that he was a loner. Peter didn't have many friends and was sure Mr. Rhodey could tell.
Rhodey nodded, "That's nice you have so many friends. When I was your age, I never really had many friends. Not until I was out of high school."
They both sat there in awkward silence for a moment before Rhodey asked, "Do you want to get anything, while we're here?" Peter looked at the menu that had already been on the table. "Uh, sure." Peter flipped the menu over and read the options. "I'll just take a small, chocolate blizzard."
Rhodey nodded, "Good choice, I'm going to go order, I'll be right back." Rhodey walked up to the counter, and ordered the ice cream, then when they came out, he took them back to Peter. "Here you go," Rhodey placed the medium-sized chocolate blizzard in front of Peter.
"Oh Mr. Rhodey, I ordered a small blizzard, you didn't have to get me a medium one." Rhodey shook his head, "Don't you have a huge metabolism, since you're that Spider guy." Peter nodded his head and began to eat his ice cream.
"Now, tell what happened this afternoon again," Rhodey said, turning to face Peter completely.
"Well, I've been texting Mr. Stark in between classes all day because I was excited to work with Mr. Stark in the lab today, but he never responded. I didn't think much of it throughout school, but after school, I kept waiting for him to pick me up, but he never did. Not even Happy showed up."
Rhodey hummed and said, "Well, there's no use sulking about Tony, he's forgotten about me loads of times, eventually you get used to it."
This didn't seem to help, as Peter only slouched and hung his head more than before. "Oh Peter, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. And Tony should have responded to you and picked you up today. There's no excuse for Tony not doing those basic things."
Peter looked up at Rhodey, and Rhodey ruffled his hair, "How about instead of hanging out with Tony at the lab, we hang out today? I have been out on missions a lot recently, so I haven't been able to spend time with my favorite nephew."
Peter smiled, "Nephew?" "Yeah, I mean, Tony's like a brother to me, and you're basically his son, so you're like a nephew to me." Peter was still smiling as Rhodey said, "But you'd be like a nephew to me even without Tony."
"So, after we finish our ice cream, what do you want to do?" Peter thought about it for a moment, "Hmm, we could go to the arcade, it's just a couple blocks down the street." Rhodey nodded, "Sounds good, I'll get to see if you're as good at games as you are at school."
Peter smiled and finished his ice cream.
Once Peter and Rhodey finished at the arcade, they decided to go to the mall and shop for a bit. They were having so much fun that neither of them bothered to check their phones...
At the Avengers Tower, the Avengers were panicking. Earlier, Tony had thought that Happy was going to pick Peter up from school today, but when he asked Happy (in person, because he had accidentally broken his phone earlier in the day, and hadn't replaced it yet) where Peter was, Happy was confused because Tony was supposed to pick up Peter today, not Happy.
"Are you positive that I was supposed to pick up Peter today?" Tony asked, already starting to walk to his garage to get one of his cars, "Yes, Tony, I'm sure. Today's June 23rd, today was the first day you were supposed to pick up Peter because May was going on vacation."
"You weren't just supposed to pick up Peter because you guys were working in the lab today. You were supposed to pick up Peter so that you could surprise him that he was going to stay at the Tower for the next couple of weeks." Tony sighed, now he remembered. May had specifically entrusted him with Peter, not Happy.
Tony had previously suspected that this was a test for Tony, in some way or another. However, May would never use Peter for any test without Peter knowing what to do if Tony failed.
When Tony went to get Peter (he definitely ran at least seven red lights...), he got to the school only to see that no one was there. In a panic, he drove to May's apartment and knocked on the door, only for no one to be home.
Eventually, after Tony had knocked open the door and searched the entire apartment, only to not find Peter, Tony drove back to the Tower and enlisted the rest of the Avengers to find Peter, as at this point no one had seen Peter for two hours.
"Alright, Wanda, Pietro, I need you two to search the city, and find out if anyone has seen Peter."
"Steve, Bucky, go to Fury, and see if he contacted Peter about any mission."
"Nat, Clint, go use your spy skills."
"Bruce, stay here in case Peter shows up, keep trying to contact him."
"Vision, see if you can track Peter's phone."
"Thor, go- well, uh, use your godly skill and go search for Peter."
"Sam, go fly around and see if you can spot Peter."
Tony gave out orders to the rest of the team, and no one protested. They knew how stressed Tony was, and how guilty he felt about not remembering to pick Peter up. Tony felt this was completely his fault.
An hour later, everyone grouped back up to report their findings. "So, what has everyone found?" Tony asked, looking around the room. Pietro stepped forward first, "Some people in a Dairy Queen near Midtown reported seeing someone who looked like Peter, and a man was with him."
Tony looked at Pietro in alarm, "What do you mean a man was with him? Could you get the security footage?" Tony walked over to a table in the corner of the living room in the Avenger's Tower, where Tony could access Friday and search for the security footage manually.
"They wouldn't allow me to see it, but I saw there was a security camera around where the employee said they were sitting." Tony kept searching for the Dairy Queen while the others reported their findings. Natasha spoke up, "Clint and I found out that some people saw Peter around an arcade, also with a man."
This just made Tony work even faster, and within five minutes, Tony had access to the security footage. Tony quickly shifted through the footage, speeding it up until he saw a brown-haired teen enter the store.
He let the footage play out and saw a familiar-looking man sit down with the teen that they could now confirm was Peter, as he sat facing the camera. "Doesn't that guy look familiar to you?" Steve asked, still looking at the footage to see if they could catch a glimpse of the man's face.
When the man ruffled Peter's hair as the superpowered teen smiled, Tony furrowed his eyebrows in thought, 'Peter must know the man that's with him... or he just got on Pete's good side quickly.'
"Can you find out where they went after they left?" Sam asked, leaning in closer to see the security footage better as Peter and the man left the Dairy Queen, and saw that the man was looking back and talking to Peter, so they couldn't see the man's face.
Tony went back to working on the screens that popped up in front of him, "Well, they either were at the arcade before or after that, so I'll look into the arcade's security footage." The team continued watching Tony work until eventually Tony found Peter again in the security footage of the arcade.
"Ugh, this is a terrible angle for the security cameras, but it'll have to do." Tony shifted through the footage and saw that Peter and the man were at the arcade after they left the Dairy Queen. "Alright, we've tracked their movements so far, but I still can't quite get a good picture of-" Tony stopped as he paused the security footage.
He now had a clear image that showed both Peter and the man. The man who just so happened to be his best friend James Rhodes. "Call off the search. Peter's alright, he's just with Rhodey." Tony said, an annoyed edge to his voice.
"What? This entire time mini Stark was just with the other Tony?" Clint asked, "Did anyone even try to contact him and ask if he had seen Peter before we started this whole thing?" Steve shook his head, "No, we had no clue he was back yet. He had been deployed on missions for some time now."
Clint shook his head, "Well I'm going back to the training room. You guys will have to tell me all about what happens when we regroup for movie night tonight." Clint walked out of the room, Natasha, Wanda, Pietro, Vision, Thor, Bruce, and Sam following.
"At least Peter's safe," Bucky commented, walking out of the room with Steve, both leaving Tony to call Rhodey and get Peter back safely to the Tower. Tony shook his head again, "I can't believe it..." He whispered, why hadn't he thought of talking to Rhodey? Usually, he goes to Rhodey about all his problems...
Tony just shrugged, he would think more about that later. For now, all he wanted to do was get in contact with Rhodey and see his spider son again. And apologize for not picking him up.
With that in mind, Tony picked up his phone and dialed Rhodey's number. It rang a couple of times before Rhodey picked up. "Hey Tony, what's up?" Tony sighed in relief, he was glad that Rhodey had at least picked up.
"Hey Rhodey, is Peter with you?" Tony didn't want to flat-out say that he had tracked Peter down until he found that Rhodey was with him, but he needed to know if they were still together. "Yeah, he's with me, why?" Tony sighed, "I need to apologize to Peter, I forgot that I was supposed to pick up Peter from school today instead of Happy."
Rhodey's side of the line was silent for a moment until Peter's voice spoke up, "I'm here, so you can apologize now." Tony went on and apologized for everything, for every time he was late, for every time he forgot something, and for every time he had disappointed Peter in the past.
Peter and Tony had a connection, and even if there were bumps on the road they were taking, they still stayed true to each other.
Later on, when the Avengers were all gathered for movie night, Clint would ask just what exactly happened to Peter that afternoon.
"Well, I stood outside Midtown for a while until I gave up and decided to head home. I was on my way to May and I's apartment when I bumped into Uncle Rhodey-" Peter started to explain until he was cut off by Tony, "Uncle Rhodey?"
"I can't even get you to call me Tony and yet you can call Rhodey Uncle?" Tony exclaimed, disbelief in his voice.
Peter just shrugged, a cheeky grin on his face as he said, "You've never bought me ice cream, taken me to an arcade, the movies, and shopping all in one afternoon." Tony just shook his head and huffed, "Guess I just can't compete."
Peter turned around, still grinning as he went to sit next to Rhodey on their small couch, "I just like Uncle Rhodey more."
Tony rolled his eyes but sat back on the couch as the movie started playing. He looked over at Peter and smiled, 'At least Peter had fun today, even if it wasn't with me.'