Work Text:
"Remind me why we have to lie to our parents? Forget mine, lying to yours is a really bad idea." Ned complains.
Peter shushes him and closes Ned's bedroom door. "Because there's going to be alcohol and if Mom and Dad knew, I wouldn't be able to go to the party!"
"But we're not going to drink."
"Ned." Peter says flatly. "Have you met Dr. Strange? He already has this crazy sixth sense when it comes to my health. I can't even breathe in his general direction with something as stupid as a sore throat without him knowing."
"What does that have to do with alcohol at a party?" Ned asks with confusion.
"Dad might just tell me to be careful but Mom...he'll say I might give into peer pressure or something."
"...he would have a point."
Peter smacks his own forehead. "You're not helping!"
"Okay! Okay!"
Ever since they had heard about (and had actually been invited) to a classmate's party, Peter had been insistent that they use the cliche method of telling their parents they were at the other's house. It wasn't and wouldn't be a total lie. Peter was currently at Ned's an hour before the party was suppose to start, his friend would tell his parents he was going home with Peter, and after the party they actually would head back to the tower. Parties were usually no big deal but since alcohol was confirmed to be there, Peter knew he had to lie to his parents about it. Tony would allow it (maybe even some consumption of alcohol) as long as he was safe about it and called if he needed them, but Stephen...
...the man would shut him down faster than he could blink and have Levi wrap around him and take him to his room. Sometimes the sorcerer coddled him and Peter couldn't always live (and make mistakes) as a high schooler. Stephen's heart was in the right place, but it did tend to be suffocating sometimes.
"For the record, if Dr. Strange kills me, I will haunt you for the rest of your life." Ned grumbles.
"Dude, he's not going to kill you! We're just going to a party to have fun, alcohol free." Peter makes sure to stress when the other teen opens his mouth.
"This has bad idea written all over it."
Peter rolls his eyes. "Come on. We're going."
Peter didn't leave any room for argument so both teens headed out to the party after Ned told his parents they were going to the tower, and took the subway to as close to their classmate's neighborhood as possible. They had to hoof it the rest of the way for about twenty minutes, but it wasn't that big of a deal since Ned didn't have to pack an overnight bag. He was over at Peter's often enough that he left a few of his things over there in case of last minute sleepovers or situations like this.
Where they were lying to parents about going to a party...with alcohol...and Peter was pretty sure that Ned was still muttering under his breath about it.
He just pretended he didn't hear the mumbling and led the way into the house, where his senses flared briefly at the loud music and vibrations but settled. Peter had mentally prepared himself for this party since that helped when it came to the short time he was at Liz's. Mental preparation didn't always help but he had brought his iPod just in case. That never seemed to bother his hearing.
"Ned! Peter! You guys came!" Their classmate, Zack, shouts from across the room. "Drinks are in the kitchen!"
The two wave and head into the kitchen where Ned grabs a water bottle, and Peter grabs what looks safe enough to not have alcohol in it. He took a sip just in case. "Wow. Something hasn't been spiked yet."
"Which means it might be soon." Ned says.
"I'll be careful. We may not have been to many parties but we've seen enough movies." Peter holds his glass up.
He was careful. He and Ned hung out with some of their friends, they danced (until Peter tried to drag MJ into it and she pushed him into the pool), and wisely kept away from the truth or dare game some kids were playing inside. High schoolers these days were merciless with the game.
Then Peter made the mistake of putting his cup down and not watching it, because then someone grabbed his cup by accident and he grabbed theirs. When he took a sip, he grimaced. "My punch tastes different."
"Weren't you just complaining about accidently swallowing pool water?" A guy asks. "It's probably just residue or something. Wash it down."
Peter shrugs and downs the rest of the new drink. "It kind of helped. Maybe it was the chlorine."
And because he thought the weird taste was from the chlorine, he didn't realize his safe drink was no longer so. He would, in the future, kick himself for not paying more attention because he should have known it was alcohol, but he was having too much fun to care. Then he spiralled from tipsy to drunk incredibly fast that he was starting to slip up and do things Peter Parker (Stark) wouldn't be able to do.
Spiderman was starting to show, but Ned, still completely sober since he stuck with water, noticed immediately. Not all of the kids at the party knew about Peter's alter ego, so Ned stopped his friend, took away his drink, and pulled him away from the more sober curious glances. At least the more drunk kids wouldn't notice anything different.
He takes a cautious sip of Peter's drink and his eyes widen as he looks at the vigilante. "Peter! This has alcohol in it! You said you wouldn't drink!"
"I'm not! It's my safe drink!" Peter sniggers. "Hehe...safe drink."
Ned frowns. "Peter, none of that was funny. There was nothing in that sentence to laugh about."
"...do you think there are in between drinks? Like you can put alcohol in something and enjoy it but then pull the alcohol out?"
"That doesn't even make sense." Ned pushes an unopened bottle of water into Peter's hands. "Drink this. It's a really safe drink. Where's your phone?"
Peter blinks at his best friend after fumbling with the water bottle. "Dunno."
"I'm finding it and calling Dr. Strange."
"Nononononono!!" Peter grabs Ned's arm when the boy moves away, accidentally splashing some water on his shirt. "Sorry...but you don't have to call him! I'm fine! I'll drink a couple bottles of water and everything will be fine!"
"Oh. Guess I shouldn't have been a couple steps ahead of you losers." MJ says as she turns the corner to the side of the house where Ned had dragged the drunk teen, holding out Peter's phone.
The phone's owner stumbles away from the side of the house as he reaches for it. "You called my mom?!"
"No, she called Dad."
Peter freezes when Tony comes up behind the teenage girl and slowly pulls off his sunglasses. An accessory he wore as a habit now, not only because of paparazzi or for their actual use, but also because he connected FRIDAY to them.
"D-Dad..."
"We've been calling you for the past two hours with no answer, and just as I was about to use your tracker and call Ned's parents, Miss Jones here called me and told me you were at a party...drinking."
Peter was pretty sure this would be the fastest he ever sobered up. "I-It was an accident. I swear."
"Ned, do your parents know you're here?" Tony asks calmly.
Said teen shakes his head. "They think I'm at the tower."
"MJ?"
"Yes." MJ knew not to sass the billionaire right now. This was not Tony Stark the sarcastic smartass, this was Tony Stark the concerned parent.
"Okay. Peter and Ned, let's go." Tony puts his sunglasses back on and looks at the lone female among them. "Thank you for calling me"
The girl nods and the genius gently leads his tipsy son by the nape of his neck. Ned follows close behind in silence as Tony takes them back into the house, out the front door and a little down the street to one of his black, less flashy cars, and opens the passenger side doors for both teenage boys. Peter meekly climbs into the front seat while Ned slides into the back, and Tony drives off once he gets into the driver's seat and they all buckle in.
The drive to the tower was silent, complete with the suffocating awkwardness, and was only broken when Tony pulled into the garage and asked Ned to go up to Peter's room. The teen barely stammered out a 'Yes, Mr. Stark' before he was out of the car and taking the elevator up to the family floor. It left Tony and Peter sitting in silence again.
"I'm sorry." The teen finally says after a couple of minutes pass, fiddling with the label on the water bottle he still held.
Tony sighs heavily and removes his sunglasses once again to look at Peter. "Peter."
On no. He used his name. This was bad.
"I don't care that you were drinking at a party. Ok, I do, but you're a high schooler and I'm not the greatest role model for--" Tony groans and rubs his eyes. "You lied to us kid. I'd rather know you're drinking at a party with no adult supervision then wonder if you're bleeding in a ditch somewhere. I thought something happened to you. Why did you lie?"
Peter nervously rips the label off the bottle and crumples it. "Mom." He says quietly.
His father sighs again. "Underoos...you can't do that again. What if something happened?"
"I know. I get it. I messed up. I just...we were actually invited to a party for once instead of in passing like before and..." Peter trails off and stares at the half-full clear bottle in his hands, the label abandoned.
"It was nice to be thought of for once." Tony finishes.
"Pretty much."
"From now on, you at least talk to me. I know Stephen is a little more strict about things like this, but he cares. We both do." The engineer reaches over and affectionately ruffles the teen's hair. "I adopted you but I also may as well have drawn a target on your back. You and Stephen already had incidents where people have tried to use you to get to me." He then pulls Peter into a hug and rests his chin on top of brown waves. "I have to protect the two things that I can't live without. You're one of them."
They sat there for a couple of somewhat comfortable minutes (keeping a hug across the middle console wasn't ideal) before Tony moves back away and looks the teen in the eyes.
"I won't ground you under the condition that you never pull this stunt again and you apologize to Mama Bear in the morning."
Peter nods slowly. "Okay. I'm sorry Dad."
"I'm just glad you're safe. Now, go upstairs, make sure you drink some water, and go to bed. You and Ned can watch one movie if the alcohol keeps you up."
Tony kisses Peter's forehead before letting the teen get put of the car, and the teen sluggishly makes his way to the elevator and takes it up to the family floor. Peter goes into his room, finds Ned already in his own pajamas and sitting on the bed playing on his phone, and the vigilante changes before heading into his bathroom to chug down a couple glasses of water. When he finally collapses onto his bed, Ned looks over at him with a frown.
"How grounded are you?"
"I'm not. Wanna watch Star Wars?" Peter asks.
"Sure. I'll just pretend you don't have awesome parents."
Peter grabs his pillow and hugs it to his chest after asking Karen to turn on a movie. "Yeah...they really are awesome aren't they?" He states quietly.
"You lied to them about a party--"
"That was a rhetorical question Ned."
"Oh."