Chapter Text
It was official. The spiderkid would be the death of him.
Just when did the kid gather so much space in his heart? Was it his innocent smile that felt brighter than the sun? Or was it his big adorable doe eyes? All the darkness in the world wasn't enough to subdue the bright ball of sunshine that was Peter Parker.
Tony didn't trust anybody easily. In fact, he was the most sceptical person within the (now disbanded) avengers (except maybe Natasha). After the most recent bout of betrayal, he had wondered if he'd be able to trust anybody in his life, ever. As ashamed as he was to admit it, his distrust had even reached Pepper and Rhodey.
'What if they too decided that what I did was wrong? What if they left me, unable to handle me? Will they betray me next? Afterall, I'd once trusted Steve, and look how that turned out!'
All sorts of negative thoughts churned inside his mind.
Peter was his salvation. He forgot all his worries the moment he heard Peter's unceasing chatter. He knew that he was a bad influence on the child, but he couldn't stop himself.
He had tried. Oh how hard he had tried! He had done everything he could to keep himself away from Peter. He had acted cold and aloof (not really different from his press persona), he had tried to completely ignore him, but the kid tried to follow him like an abandoned puppy.
The homecoming fiasco had been an eye opener. Tony had understood that no matter how hard he tried, Peter would continue to look upto him. So he decided to welcome him. A child who was the embodiment of sunshine and rainbows and everything nice in the world would never be able to put up with his personality. Atleast that's what he thought. Afterall, he could count the number of people who knew him and still stuck with him on one hand and still have three fingers left.
He'd been proven wrong, though. And it was one of those few times he felt blessed for being proven so wrong. The kid clung to him like superglue, and he'd be a fool to try to dissolve that connection.
But really, he would probably get a heart attack one of these days. If he didn't have extremis, then he'd probably be in a hospital undergoing surgery, what with how much stress he's been having lately.
Now he knew how Pepper felt. He did not like the feeling of being helpless while watching his kid jumping from one life threatening situation to another.
However, he was still very proud of how that little spiderkid turned out to be. Normally, he felt inadequate as Peter's mentor, however there were times when he couldn't help but be proud of himself. If he was going to corrupt the child, then he was going to do it right.
When Peter gushed and complained about May getting a boyfriend, he'd been relieved. Most would say that Peter was being childish, but Tony begged to differ.
He'd always seen the kid so mature and selfless that he'd been worried that he'd be hurt one day. It hurt him to think about what Peter had to go through to have an attitude like that, to never complain, to bear all the burdens of the world while smiling. So he'd silently promised himself to always spoil, indulge and guide Peter and give him everything that he deserved.
If he felt proud that Peter trusted him enough to ramble and complain about things he wouldn't ever think of telling anybody, then it was nobody's business.
Then one day Peter had called him, freaking out. It was only after comforting him for ten whole minutes that he could find out the reason for his distress.
May's boyfriend was Flash Thompson's uncle.
Flash Thompson. Oh he knew him alright. How couldn't he? Afterall, he'd researched about every single person around Peter who could potentially harm him.
( No he wasn't a helicopter parent dad guardian mentor. It's just that he was concerned about his kid.)
Peter hadn't been worried about himself. He'd been worried about his aunt.
"What if she is hurt?"
"What if Flash's uncle is like Flash? I'm probably overreacting, but what if aunt May is duped? What if her heart is broken? I want her to be happy but I'm not sure if I can trust any relative of Flash. I'm being childish. Right, Mister Stark?"
Tony's heart had melted as he imagined Peter's big brown eyes filled with concern. He could feel him frowning through the phone.
So he decided to do his job as a mentor and solve his problems.
His 'solution' was, of course, a well written shovel talk.
Never mind the fact that he'd never experienced one of those, he'd learnt plenty of things from books and television. That was enough. Probably.
He'd taught Peter the wonders of shovel talk. But it was probably too much for the pure child. He probably shouldn't have given him a graphical description of castration.
Nevermind.
He had briefly wondered if he traumatized Peter with his knowledge. In the end, he ended the call by giving one last advise, which was probably the best advice he could've given him.
"You just have to be yourself. Remember, you are Peter Parker and you are also Spiderman. Just say what's in your mind without being shy or nice about anything. .....Or you could bring him to the compound for a 'demonstration' on what's waiting for him if he hurts May"
Peter's happy and relieved voice had been worth the long hours he had spent researching about shovel talks and castration.
Whether his kid gave out threats of death by dismemberment or torture, he had more than the means to follow through.
He'd been happy to be of any help to his spiderkid. He had slept with a content smile on his face.
Only to be faced with a school shooting the very next day.
Tony was an atheist, but he prayed to all the gods he could, just for the safety of his child.
The terrorists had wanted his head. And he would've happily given up everything if he hadn't known how these terrorists worked.
He knew that Peter was strong. But he was also self sacrificing. He'd probably give up his life if he could save just one more person.
He'd seen and heard everything through the cameras. He had cursed and lamented about his inability to do anything. He just needed one chance dammit!
When he saw Peter being held as a hostage, he felt as if his heart was going to come out of his chest. May had called him in tears, begging him to do something, anything. Neither of them had wanted to lose the only son they had been blessed to have.
He had just needed to have one opening to get into the hostage area. And just as he had felt his hopes crashing, he'd gotten his wish.
He'd felt both proud and tearful watching Peter wade through the swarm of hostiles like a graceful fish in water. Teaching Peter about weapons and martial arts had been one of his best decisions so far.
Then he'd reached the target area. Peter had done his best, now it was his turn to clean everything up. He took the tired teen back and managed the situation.
It was only later that he learnt how affected Peter had been. The blood and the gore wasn't much of a shock, the true culprit was the gun.
He had cursed himself for being so thoughtless, but what could he do? He was so selfish, he couldn't bring himself to really regret teaching Peter about weapons. If anything he did helped his kid live longer, then he'd gladly take all the blame and burdens.
"Mr Stark! Let's have pizza today!"
"Sure, I'll place an order for a truckload of pizza asap" Tony answered jokingly.
"Misterrrr Staaarkkk you shouldn't mock a hungry spider!" Peter complained, embarrassed. Then he looked at Pepper, who was engrossed in her magazine in a rare moment of self indulgence. Her workaholic nature was 100% Tony's fault, so he didn't comment on the parenting magazine she was reading.
"You shouldn't tease a hungry spider" Pepper said dutifully, with a smile on her face.
Tony loved these small moments more than anything in his life. He had the love of his life and his son mentee right beside himself. None of them were going anywhere, Peter was there to stay for a week and Pepper was there was the weekend. Life was good.
He raised his hands in surrender and then beckoned Peter-
"Come select the toppings"
"...huh?" Was the reply he got
Well, versed with his spiderkid's adhd nature, he shook the teen and asked again.
"Pepperony...." Peter mumbled with an odd face.
"...... Didn't you hate that topping?" Tony asked, confused.
"...huh?.." was the teen's reply again.
".....if you don't answer me properly within 10 seconds then I'm gonna put pineapple over every single pizza" Tony threatened, knowing full well that Peter hated pineapple pizza with a passion.
"NOOOOO YOU CAN'T DO THAT MR STARK!!" Peter screamed with wide, fearful eyes. He was probably remembering the time when Tony had pranked him by making him eat pizza which had pineapples disguised as other toppings. That was the day he had finally understood that trusting Tony to order you pizza was the. Worst. Decision. Ever.
Peter still had nightmares of that day.
"Then place the order and tell me what's this about pepperoni"
"Uh... It's just that people call you and pepper 'pepperoni'.... They even have memes of your faces on the pizza with the caption 'how can you not love pepperoni?'....personally I find it pretty cute.....and creepy...."
"Why did I never hear about this from the PR department?" Pepper frowned.
"Does it matter? People think we are likeable as a pair" Tony hurried to cajole Pepper, thinking that she would raise a storm in the PR department, again. Not that he treated those poor souls any better. He just didn't want Pepper to think about work when she got a rare moment to relax in the weekends.
Pepper shrugged. She didn't really care about what people said as long as it didn't affect the company. However she didn't like the fact that the PR team neglected to tell her about something which had apparently gone so viral.
She turned her head, just to get hit with a full blast of twin puppy dog eyes. Did she seem like such a workaholic that both Tony and Peter would look at her so pitifully, just to stop her from 'storming into the PR Department after work hours' for such a silly little thing?
It made her both amused and exasperated.
She treasured her hard earned holidays, thank you very much.
She briefly wondered whether she should tease them a bit, but decided otherwise after bearing the full brunt of their "attack". Her to be- husband and pseudo-son were both so cute.
In the end, all she could do was smile disarmingly.
The mentor and mentee looked at each other with a relieved sigh. Hurricane-Pepper was stopped for today.
All was well.
Now it was time for the pizza party.
"Boss, the pizza has arrived" chimed Friday.
Perfect.