Work Text:
“Boss, Peter Parker has just entered the building.”
Tony looked up from his lab table confused. He glanced at the monitor in front of him, searching for the date. It was a Wednesday, yes, but he was fairly sure that this was an off week. However, Peter being here suggested otherwise, so Tony figured he may as well ask FRIDAY for confirmation. “We don’t have lab time scheduled today, do we?”
“No, sir.”
Alright, well at least he wasn’t so focused on work that he managed to skip a week, which of course had never happened before. Unfortunately, that meant the list of reasons Peter might currently be in his tower were… not great.
“Okay,” Tony sighed, preparing himself for the worst, “is he currently dying or otherwise severely injured?”
“Mr. Parker appears to be in fine health, sir.”
Not the answer Tony was expecting, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain about it. So maybe Pete just stopped by to hang out. It had happened before, albeit not a lot, and granted he usually at least texted first, but maybe Tony’s whole ‘mi casa es su casa’ thing had finally gotten through to the kid.
“It may be of note that he appears to be accompanying Miss Potts.” Or maybe the kid was a little traitor out to break his heart and destroy his soon-to-be marriage.
“FRIDAY, pull up the live feed.”
His monitor came to life as it showed the video from a security camera in one of the elevators. There stood Peter Parker, undoubtedly focused on Pepper, hanging off her every word as if it was that of God. Well, Tony couldn’t really blame the kid, Pepper had that way about her.
Tony focused in on the woman, and though she looked gorgeous as ever, she also looked far too pleased with herself. “What are you up to?”
It was meant to be a rhetorical question, muttered to himself as he attempted to work out the exact nature of his fiancée's betrayal, but FRIDAY, ever helpful, spoke up, “They appear to be on their way to Miss Potts’ office, sir, shall I alert them that you’re looking for them?”
Tony sighed, “No, FRIDAY, that’s not necessary,” He turned back to what he was working on before the interruption. “But keep them up on the monitor and tell me if they start doing anything nefarious.”
“Nefarious, sir?”
“Yeah, you know, evil, diabolical, plotting my demise, that sort of thing.” Tony didn’t even bother to look up as he spoke, focusing instead on the blueprints in front of him. “I’m pretty sure there’s a dictionary somewhere in your coding, keep up.”
“I’m not sure I understand, boss. Miss Potts has never displayed any worrisome behavior, nor has Mr. Parker. In fact, on several occasions you have referred to Mr. Parker as, quote, ‘too good for this world’. Has something changed that I need to be aware of?”
Tony put down his pen, his head falling into his hands. He rubbed his forehead as if the mere act of talking to his AI was exhausting. “Just keep an eye on them and tell me if they do anything weird.”
“Of course, boss.”
----
It had been two and a half hours. To be fair, Tony had managed to focus himself for the first hour or so, but then FRIDAY alerted him that the miscreants were off to a meeting, and when he saw the look of absolute joy on Peter’s face at the prospect of sitting in on a bunch of stuffy adults talking about logistics and profit margins, he almost lost his mind. The hour and a half since then? Well, he had definitely spent that time in a productive manner and not staring blankly at the work in front of him in between glances at the monitor that held the security camera footage of Pepper and Peter. He most certainly had not been debating with himself that entire time about whether or not listening in on their conversation was an invasion of privacy, coming to a conclusion he didn’t like, doing it anyway, and then almost immediately turning the sound off again because he felt bad about it. No. None of that had happened.
So, when he happened to glance up (because he definitely wasn’t just watching the monitor at this point, glaring at it as if the people on the other end would somehow be able to feel his judgment) at the same time that Pepper laughed at something Peter said and then looked directly into the camera, he just about threw himself out of his chair. They were conspiring against him, Tony was sure of it.
He was halfway to the elevator before he even realized what he was doing. He stopped. What was his plan here? Burst into Pep’s office and accuse her of attempting to turn his intern against him based solely on the evidence he gathered whilst he spied on them? Yeah, that wouldn’t go over very well - even if he was positive that Pepper knew he was watching, that was the fifth (fifth!) time he had caught her looking towards the nearest camera. No, he needed an actual, not creepy, reason to go down there.
He looked at the clock: 6:27 pm. He could work with that.
“FRIDAY, how long to get Thai here?”
“It would take approximately 35 minutes to get Thai food delivered to the tower from the nearest restaurant.”
Perfect.
“Put in Pete’s regular order and let me know when it gets here.”
----
To say that Pepper seemed annoyed at Tony busting in on her little powwow with his intern was an understatement. He wouldn’t say that she was scowling per say, she was far too well put together for that, but the look she was giving him definitely gave off a ‘I will kill you in your sleep’ sort of vibe.
“... then I took Pepper to Delmar’s, or I guess she took me, anyway, they’ve rebuilt it, it looks really nice now. Oh hey, Mr. Stark, maybe you could join us next time! That’d be awesome! We could even…”
God, Tony knew Pete wasn’t the best at reading a room, but it had been 20 minutes and somehow this kid still hadn’t realized he was holding up a conversation that was supposed to have three people in it all by himself.
“Uh, Mr. Stark?” Okay, maybe he was slightly more perceptive than Tony gave him credit for, or maybe this was just the first time he looked up from his food long enough to notice the way Tony was glaring at Pepper.
Tony turned to Peter, his face softening instantly, “Yeah, bud?”
“Is, uh, is everything okay?” Peter was looking back and forth at the two adults, clearly picking up on the fact that something was going on here that he wasn’t aware of.
“Of course, Pete, why wouldn’t it be?” Charisma and a smile, he was Tony Stark, he could charm a fish into believing they could walk; he would be able to convince Peter that nothing was off about this situation.
“It’s just, uh, well…” The boy was stuttering, vaguely pointing at Pepper and then back at Tony, obviously trying to get a point across but having no clue how to do it or how much he should say.
Tony was just about to put him out of his misery when Pepper spoke.
“Why are you here?” She didn’t sound upset necessarily, more just confused and exasperated.
Tony narrowed his eyes at her, “Why so suspicious, honey?” He schooled his features into a relaxed smile. “FRIDAY just alerted me Peter would have metabolized his last meal by now and I didn’t want our poor Spider-baby -”
“Hey!”
“- to go hungry, that’s all.” He sat back in his chair with an air of practiced nonchalance.
Of course, Pepper hadn’t fallen for his tricks in about twelve years, “Yes, because you’re such a saint.”
“I’m glad we can agree on something.” She had to have known she set him up for that one. “Ya know, speaking of sainthood,” Tony sat forward, leaning his arms on Pepper’s desk where he sat across from her, “it was so nice of you to invite our little Spiderling ‘round, I’m sure business proposals and marketing meetings are exactly a 16-year-old’s idea of a fun playdate.”
“Feel like I sho’d be ‘ffended righ’ now.” How Peter managed to talk with that much food in his mouth, Tony wasn’t sure.
Tony turned to Peter and gave the boy a disgusted look, “Chew and swallow, Pete, don’t talk with your mouth full.”
“Yes, listen to your father, Peter.” Pepper smiled at the boy, clearly holding back a laugh.
Peter, who was used to jokes about Tony acting like a dad, just rolled his eyes. Tony’s eyes, on the other hand, got comically wide. He looked Pepper in the eyes and mouthed, ‘I am so going to kill you’.
She smirked back, ‘Try me’.
Tony leaned forward again, right on the edge of his seat. He attempted to glare back at Pepper, but he couldn’t help the small smile that formed on his lips when he looked at her. Pepper’s returning smile was mischievous, and Tony could feel his features softening at the sight of it.
He was about to bite back with some undoubtedly witty remark when a cough interrupted the moment. “Uh, this has been fun and all, but I think I’m gonna go now.” Peter stood up awkwardly, grabbing his backpack from the corner of the room.
This snapped Tony back into reality. “What? No, are you sure, bud?” It was almost 8 o’clock now and the kid probably wanted to get home, or at least go out and patrol, but Tony couldn’t help the selfish part of him that wanted Pete to stay.
Peter looked back and forth between Tony and Pepper, “Yeah, you two have fun doing… whatever this is.” He waved his hand vaguely between the couple.
“Let me grab my bag, I’ll drive you home.” Pepper moved to stand, ready to accompany the boy out.
Tony waved his hand dismissively in her direction, “None of that, go down to the garage, pick a car, I’ll have Happy take you.”
Pepper looked like she was about to argue, but Peter was already backing his way out of the room.
“Um, that’s okay, I’ve got my suit with me, I’ll just go change in the lab and swing home. Maybe I can even stop some crime on the way.” He gave the pair a clumsy two-fingered salute as he turned and all but ran out the door, but not before he called back over his shoulder, “See you guys next week!”
The teen left a silence in his wake that was stifling.
Tony cleared his throat, “Good job, you scared him off.”
Pepper looked like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to laugh at him or smack him. “Me?!”
It was going to be a fun night.