Chapter Text
A month later, after all the paperwork has been finalized and May has faded into June, the Parker family borrows their neighbor’s car and they make the drive out to Montauk with all of Peter’s belongings piled into the trunk. They make it to Tony’s home a little before noon. Peter stares up at the house in awe, amazed that this is where he was going to be living. “Wow,” Peter tells his aunt, “this is incredible.”
May hums her agreement, “It sure is.”
“You’re telling me!” Ben exclaims as he appears beside the pair, laden with Peter’s bags. Ben gives his wife a thankful smile when she takes a couple out of his hands and slings them over her own shoulders. Peter pulls his stuffed Iron Man bear closer to his chest and strokes its head to ease his discomfort. He then carefully opens his backpack and places his bear inside for safekeeping. When they approach the door, Tony throws it open and ushers them inside. He leads them through the house and they plop the bags inside of Peter’s new room.
Tony looks around the blank room with its stark white walls and grimaces, “I wasn’t sure what you wanted to do with the room, so I left it a blank slate.”
Peter looks around in curiosity, “You mean I can do whatever I want to it, Mr. Stark?”
Tony holds back a wince at being called ‘Mr. Stark’ and instead snorts and says, “Within reason. Nothing too crazy that’ll get us in trouble with your aunt or Pepper.”
Tony leads them back out into the main area and gives them a few minutes of privacy for them to say their goodbyes. “Oh, honey, we’ll miss you,” May gushes, “I know we’ll see you several times before you start school again but we’ve grown used to seeing you and having you get under our feet all the time.”
“Aunt May…” Peter trails off, fidgeting in place.
“You have IronBear?” May asks, causing Peter to blush.
“Aunt May,” Peter whined.
May rolls her eyes, “You’ll be sorry if you don’t have him because you didn’t speak up and you left him in the car.”
“Fine, yes, he’s in my backpack. I triple checked,” Peter replies. Tony raises an eyebrow and looks over at Ben, who shakes his head with a grin.
Ben pats Peter on the head, “You be good, okay sport?”
Peter hugs his uncle, “Of course I’ll be good, Uncle Ben! And I’ll miss you both, too.” May joins the hug and they’re all reluctant to let go.
Finally, they pull away and May sighs, “We have to be getting back home, Peter. We promised Mrs. Rodrigez that we’d have her car back before this evening and it’s a three-hour drive.”
Peter swipes angrily at the gathering tears and lets his aunt and uncle leave with one last hug and several waves goodbye. While Peter’s distracted by staring at the door, Tony picks up Peter’s bag and looks for the bear. Finding it, Tony slowly approaches his son. Peter stares at the closed door for several minutes and doesn’t hear Tony walk over to him.. Tony kneels down next to Peter and offers his son the Iron Man bear. Peter takes it and cuddles it close to his chest. Tony places a hand on Peter’s shoulder, “I know it’s a lot to adjust to, but you can call them as often as you like. We’ll make the best of it, you and I.”
Peter surprises Tony when he throws his arms around his neck. It takes him a few seconds, but Tony returns the hug and places his nose into his son’s hair. The pair remain like that for several minutes until Tony scoops Peter up in his arms and playfully swings them around. “Now, what are we going to do for lunch? I don’t know about you, squirt, but I’m starving!”
Peter giggles as Tony swings him on the journey into the kitchen. Tony plops Peter onto the barstool and looks expectantly at the kid. “Um, can you make mac’n’cheese, Mr. Stark?” Peter carefully arranges IronBear on the barstool next to him.
Tony gives Peter a pair of finger guns, “That, I can actually make.”
“I’m going to starve, aren’t I?” Peter snarks, surprising Tony with his unexpected, but not unpleasant, bout of sassiness. Tony thought it was a rather adorable look on the kid because, so far, most of the time he was pretty quiet and shy around Tony unless they were talking about science.
Tony rolls his eyes and jokingly replies, “Who thought it was a good idea to have a mini-me. You and me kid, we’re going to cause so much trouble.”
“I’m sure Miss Potts will be absolutely delighted to hear that, sir,” A British voice cuts in.
Peter jumps in fright, looking around the room for the disembodied voice. Tony smothers the laugh threatening to burst from his chest. After taking a second to compose himself, Tony tells Peter, “That was JARVIS. He’s an AI that runs the entire house.”
“An AI? That’s super cool, Mr. Stark!” Peter exclaims, “Does he help you with the Iron Man suits too?”
Tony nods as he rummages through the cabinets for a pot and fills his with water, “He does.”
“So, is ‘Jarvis’ his name? Or does it stand for something?” Peter asks, setting his elbows on the island top and leaning forward, “And where are his speakers? Does he have cameras?”
Tony grins at the boy as he leans across the island, “You’re awfully curious, aren’t you? JARVIS is an acronym for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. He has both speakers and cameras all over the property.”
“Oh. Well, JARVIS is super cool.”
“Thank you, young sir,” JARVIS cooly replies, sounding pleased with the praise. Tony ruffles Peter’s hair before turning back to the food.
After they had demolished the food, Tony leads Peter back to his new room with a StarkTablet in hand. Tony sits down on the bed and pats the space next to him. Peter curls up next to Tony and looks at the tablet in curiosity, “What’s that for?”
“Well, we’re going to get you some things for your room so it’s comfortable for you. We’ll have to go shopping later this week for some more clothes,” Tony pulls up a couple of websites tailored specifically for kids, “Now, go wild.”
Peter grins as he takes the tablet out of Tony’s hand and starts browsing through the different categories, occasionally adding something to the shopping cart. Peter hands back the tablet after a few minutes and tells Tony, “Thank you so much, Mr. Stark.”
“Of course, kiddo, I want you to be comfortable here. Do you like the wall color or do you want to change it?”
Peter takes a moment to look around the room and wrinkled his nose, “Can we make it blue?”
Tony grins, “Sure we can. Choose a shade and we’ll get some painters out here to change your room when we’re out clothes shopping later this week.”
Peter throws his arms around Tony and hugs him, “Thank you, thank you!”
“Anything,” Tony promises into Peter’s hair as he wraps his arms around his son.
“Anything, anything?” Peter confirms.
Tony raises an eyebrow, “Reasonably speaking.”
“Can we paint my room?” Peter looks up at Tony hopefully, “Last month I helped our neighbor repaint his living room and it was super fun!”
Tony looks doubtful but dutifully replies, “If you really want to kiddo, then I guess we can do it ourselves.”
Peter grins and hugs Tony again, “This will be awesome! Can we start today?”
Tony shakes his head, “It’s getting pretty late. I’ll have JARVIS order paint tonight and we can get it delivered tomorrow morning. If we start early enough tomorrow then everything should be dry for the day after that when your furniture arrives. That sound like a plan?” Tony looks at his kid expectantly.
Peter sighs, but agrees to the plan, “So, what are we gonna do for the rest of the night?”
“I thought we’d watch a movie. Get changed into your pj's and I’ll que something up for us on the tv,” Tony shooed Peter off towards his closet. A few minutes later Tony and Peter are snoring on the couch with “Back to the Future” playing in the background.