Chapter Text
“Bye Mr. Stark!”
Tony barely managed to wave bye before Peter raced out the front door. Man, that kid was so excited for school, but then again it was his first day back after the whole…foster home debacle. Every time Tony remembered how Peter had been treated, he wanted to punch something. How in the world could anyone treat any kid that way, let alone a kid as bright as Peter?
Shaking his head, Tony tried to clear his thoughts as he made his way down to the lab, but he couldn’t push away the nagging doubts in his mind. Of course he couldn’t let Peter go somewhere else, the kid was terrified of any other home, but still, Tony knew he wasn’t really good parenting material. Sure, he had done okay when he kid had been there before, but if he was honest with himself, he never really thought it would last. But now it had to, there was no backing out of adoption. It was a commitment Tony had never thought he’d willingly accept. Heck, he’d been scared of some one-night stand coming back to haunt him with a kid and now he had willingly taken in Peter. But every time he told himself he was being an idiot, he would remember how Peter’s eyes lit up as he saw one of Tony’s projects, how the kid read science books for fun, and how tight he had hugged him. Yes, it was terrifying, but Tony could never talk himself out of it. Peter needed him, and he was going to do his best to be there for the kid.
Upon reaching his lab, Tony took a deep breath and refocused on work. Peter was at school now, Tony didn’t need to worry about him.
“Jarvis, drop my beat.”
Music started playing and Tony spun a screwdriver in his hand as he pulled up notes for one of his latest ideas – a self-sustaining power source using arc reactor technology. Within a few minutes, he was lost in the work, all thoughts of Peter vanished, until the music dimmed and Jarvis spoke up again.
“Sir, you have a call from a Harry Osborn.”
“Who?”
“My records indicate he is the son of Norman Osborn. He is also enrolled in Langley Prep.”
For a moment, Tony stared at the hologram in front of him, then it clicked. Peter had talked about his friend Harry a few times before. The only question was, why would Peter not be using his own phone? After everything that happened, Tony had made sure the kid would always have a way to contact him. Trying not to think about it, Tony leaned back from the desk.
“Answer.”
The hologram changed as Jarvis answered the call.
“Umm, Mr. Stark?”
Peter’s voice sounded from the other end and for a second, worry flashed through Tony’s chest, but he quickly pushed it away. The kid was talking, he was fine, right?
“Hey kid, something wrong? Why aren’t you using your phone?”
“Oh I uh…it died…so Harry let me use his.” From the other end of the phone, Tony could hear the embarrassment in Peter’s voice.
“Remind you to upgrade your battery…” Tony mumbled, it wasn’t the 1990s, batteries should last longer. “So, what’s up, something wrong?” Glancing at the clock, he saw that Peter should be done with school and heading home soon. “Is Happy late or something?”
“No, no! We just got out of the last class and well, me and Harry have a project to work on together so I was wondering if I could go to his house and work on it?”
A small frown grew on Tony’s face, and he quickly pulled up Norman Osborn’s information. He recognized the name and something about it unsettled him, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. It shouldn’t be a big deal, Tony knew that, but at the same time he didn’t like the idea of Peter going to a place Tony didn’t know, especially after everything that had just happened…
“Well, Happy is already picking you up, how about Harry comes over here?”
“Uh…” Peter’s voice quieted as his words were directed towards someone on the other side of the phone. “Do you think your dad would be okay with you coming over to the house?”
“I could come over there?!? Dude yeah, that works!”
Tony held back a chuckle as he heard the other kid’s reaction.
“Okay!” Peter’s voice was back full force on the phone.
“Alright, just let Happy know and I’ll see you in a bit.”
“See you!”
Tony could hear the grin in Peter’s voice and he couldn’t help but smile a little as he hung up. As his notes on the arc power converter came back to life in front of him, Tony found himself looking at one of the workplaces he hadn’t used for a while. A small idea started forming in his head.
Getting up, he started clearing off the table. The kid would need a place to work and down here would be better than the kitchen table, right?
“Kid if you keep bouncing like that you’re walking home.”
Peter forced himself to sit still at the words. While he doubted Happy would actually make him walk home, Peter didn’t want to risk it. “Sorry, Happy!”
“If anyone should be bouncing it’s me! Man, I can’t believe I get to see the Stark mansion!” Harry grinned at Peter before looking out the window, as if trying to take in everything about the drive.
“It’s great! Kind of big, but I figured we can just work in the kitchen, it has enough room.”
“Cool. So…what project you want to do?”
Peter dug through his backpack and pulled out the list of projects they could choose from. “Umm…how about…a potato gun?”
Harry didn’t reply and Peter quickly looked up to see his friend looking at him as if saying “are you sure?”
“Or…umm…the volcano?”
Rolling his eyes, Harry shook his head. “Oh please, everyone does that one.”
“Okay, which one do you want to do?” Peter asked, looking at the short list – there weren’t enough for everyone to do something different, which made choosing a little harder.
“How about the potato battery?”
Frowning, Peter looked at the last item on the list, it didn’t exactly sound…amazing. “I mean…we could…hey what if we make a potato gun powered by a potato battery?”
“Isn’t the potato gun supposed to work without power?” Harry asked, looking at the list again.
“Oh…yeah…well, maybe we could do both?” Peter wasn’t sure if the teacher would approve, but maybe it they found a way to incorporate the projects together, it would work out okay.
“Hmmm…sure, we can give it a shot, though we will probably have to go buy some potatoes, unless Mr. Stark has some?”
Opening his mouth, Peter was about to say that of course there were potatoes at the mansion, but then he froze as he realized that he hadn’t actually seen any. “We can ask?”
Harry shrugged. “If not I can just ask Bruno to pick some up for tomorrow, no biggie.”
“Sounds great!”
However, the thought of buying potatoes vanished as soon as they got to the mansion.
As Peter walked into the house, he saw Mr. Stark and grinned.
Tony smiled back and Peter quickly turned and pointed at Harry. “This is Harry Osborn, his dad is a famous scientist too.”
Harry laughed. “He’s got nothing on the Tony Stark, but he gets by. Uh…hi sir, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Kid, only Jarvis calls me sir, you can call me Tony.” With a wave of his hand, Tony headed inside. “Come on, I have a surprise.”
Peter was still thinking about how he only called him Mr. Stark, but at the mention of a surprise he dismissed that thought. What could he possibly have in store? Peter didn’t need anything, he had everything he could ever want at the mansion, and he had everything he needed for school too…
Glancing at Harry, he saw a question in his friend’s eyes but he just shrugged and quickly followed after Mr. Stark.
They headed downstairs to the lab, which only made Peter even more excited. Maybe Tony had come up with a new invention and wanted to show it to him before anyone else! Or maybe he wanted Peter’s help with something. But when he walked into the room, Mr. Stark was standing behind a clean table, there wasn’t even a screw on it.
“Surprise.”
Peter had never seen such a smile on his guardian’s face before, and he tried to match it.
“Woah, this lab is awesome!” Harry was looking around wide-eyed at everything in the room. “My dad never lets me see what he’s working on.”
“Well you can look but don’t touch, unless it’s on this table. I figured both of you would need a place to work on your project.”
As the meaning behind the words settled in, Peter found his mouth falling open. “I can work…in your lab?!?”
A small chuckle escaped Mr. Stark and he nodded. “Yup, though make sure I’m down here before you work on anything.” He gestured to the table, “And this is only for today. I’m thinking of blowing out that wall there so you can have your own little work place.”
Peter stared at Tony, barely processing the words. “My…my own lab?”
“Yeah, I figured you usually work down here anyway and this way you don’t have to work at that tiny table. What…what do you think?” There was a slight nervous hesitation to Mr. Stark’s voice, nothing quite like Peter had heard before.
“I…thank you. I…I’ll work super hard and I won’t touch any of your stuff I promise!”
“Dude, you are sooo lucky, can I come and work here like every day?” Harry, who had been listening quietly, piped in. The awe in his face clearly showed how amazed he was.
“Sure! I mean, if that’s okay, Mr. Stark.”
Tony shrugged. “Fine by me. So, what’s this project you are working on?”
The next few days were amazing. Peter and Harry worked on their potato project and to Peter’s surprise and elation, Mr. Stark even gave them a few pointers and helped them with some of the tricky parts. In the end, they made a potato that heated up before being shot out of a pressurized potato gun. Not only was it fun to make and shoot, but Mr. Martin was impressed and they got an A+. Another highlight was having Harry come over almost every day. Sure, having time just to himself was nice, but it was fun getting to hang out with his best friend outside of school. Most of the time they just did homework, but a few times Mr. Stark would let them watch him work on something or he would set aside work and they would all play a game together. It wasn’t perfect, but Peter was so glad to be where he was, away from horrible foster families, with people he cared about and, who he figured, might care about him too.