Work Text:
Pepper walks off the elevator and over to the penthouse's kitchen to find Peter sitting at the island, half asleep and lazily spooning cereal into his mouth. Tony was nowhere to be seen, likely down in the lab already, but Stephen was standing at the counter across from the teen making himself some tea and occupying himself with something on a Starkpad. The woman frowns when she notices Peter still in his pajamas, and walks over to him to brush away a few strands of hair from the teens forehead. Peter looks up at her sleepily before returning his attention to his breakfast, and Stephen raises an eyebrow at their visitor.
"Tony's down in the lab." His low baritone reverberates through the kitchen and Pepper smiles.
"Actually, I'm here for Peter."
The teen drops his spoon into his empty bowl and looks back up at the CEO as Stephen takes his dishes. "What for?"
"I'm assuming Tony didn't tell you I'm taking you to work with me today?" She asks.
Both Peter and Stephen furrow their brows. "No."
Stephen sighs. "Victor, get all of Tony's appointments and reminders on his schedule from FRIDAY from now on."
"Yes doctor." The AI responds.
"I should have had you do that as soon as Tony put Victor in the tower." Pepper says with an exasperated sigh and looks at Peter. "Go get dressed sweetie. Your regular clothes will be fine."
Peter nods and slides off the stool to go up to his room and change, and Stephen calls out to him. "Collared shirt and slacks." He smirks into his tea when a loud groan reaches them. "Coffee?" He asks the woman across the way.
"No, thank you. I just had some." She places a manila envelope on the counter. "Can you have that scatterbrained husband of yours look over and sign these?"
The sorcerer chuckles. "I'll see what I can do."
Peter returns in the proper attire, with a scowl on his face, and Pepper leads him toward the elevator after they say goodbye to the doctor. The teen still had no idea why he was following Pepper today, but he assumed Tony made up some sort of 'Bring Your Kid To Work' day just to torture Peter. They went through the tower first, and the teen kind of zoned out for that time because he knew how things were done and he had done walkthroughs with Tony on multiple occasions (and by himself). Pepper either didn't notice or she did and didn't say anything because she knew that Peter was aware of how things worked in the tower.
When they left the tower and took a car to another building though, Peter snapped out of his daze. Only to want to slip back into it. Pepper had taken him to a meeting and he wanted to die. He had to fight against all urges to twitch or fiddle with a pen and it was torture. He couldn't really tell anyone what the meeting was about, and when it was finally over and he and Pepper were out of earshot, did he finally ask the question that had been plaguing him for the past couple of hours.
"Uh...Pepper?"
The woman looks up from her desk. "Yes?"
"Why exactly am I here with you?"
Pepper regards him for a few silent moments, making the teen squirm under her gaze, and then cowers when it turns hostile and angry. Maybe that wasn't a good thing to ask? He didn't think she'd get angry if he asked a question, but he was obviously wrong. Was there something said during the meeting that was important for him to know? He doubted it. For all he knew, the people that had attended the meeting just thought Pepper was babysitting for Tony.
"He didn't tell you?!" Pepper huffs with annoyance. "It figures. Peter...if something were to happen to Tony, Stark Industries goes to you. I'm just preparing--"
Peter didn't hear anything after that. His train of thought had skid to a halt and he had frozen in place. The company went to him? That seemed like a terrible idea. It should go to Stephen or Pepper. Not only did he feel undeserving of the responsibility, he was also afraid that he would destroy everything Tony had built up. He was just an orphan from Queens that Tony Stark wouldn't have even given a second glance if he hadn't been bitten by the spider.
That thought had the blood draining from his face and his train of thought starting back up, just to derail from the main subject.
What if he hadn't been bitten? Where would he be when Aunt May died? In the system? He would have never known how much Tony actually cared. About everything. Peter would have never known whay family vacations were like, how protective Stephen was...oh god. He would have never known what it was like to have a Mama Bear. No soothing scents from his parents that made him think of home, no semblance of what a mom should be like (foster homes would probably never live up to what he experienced now) after Peter had practically forced the role onto Stephen, no pure and unquestionable amount of love.
He was starting to feel light headed. He felt like he had ten trains on three tracks going full speed in his head and it was making him shake.
"Oh my god." Peter feels himself being directed to and sat in a chair. "Peter...you need to breathe."
Breathe? He couldn't. His chest was tight, and whenever he did try to breathe it just felt shallow. It didn't fill his lungs, it just made black spots dance across his vision. Then he heard Pepper trying to coach him through long deep breaths, and it helped once his brain focused on her words. He was able to breathe through the tightness in his chest and that as well as the black spots in his vision went away.
"There you go. Keep doing that." Peter obeys silently and vaguely notices her stand from her crouch in front of him, and she disappears from his sight briefly before coming back with a bottle of water. She unscrews the cap, hands it to the teen, and he takes a few gulps as he allows himself to adjust back into reality. "Are you okay now?" Pepper asks carefully.
"Y-Yeah...sorry Aunt Pepper." The teen stammers out.
"It's okay. That was all I wanted to drag you through today anyway. If I had known that Tony didn't say anything, I would have waited."
Peter drinks the rest of the water and Pepper returns to her desk to straighten it up. "How about we got out to lunch before I take you home?"
"Really? You're not too busy?" Peter asks.
"Nope! I'm also pumping you full of sugar as punishment to your father." Pepper says with a smirk but the teen just rolls his eyes.
"Dad would just pawn me off on Mom or something."
"I won't let that happen, and neither will Stephen." She turns back to Peter. "So where to?"
Peter smiles. His previous thoughts forgotten.
___________________________
Tony had just finished going through the paperwork that Pepper had left for him, no thanks to Stephen sitting with him in the living room to make sure he actually did it, when she and Peter came back. It took all of a millisecond for the engineer to realize the teen was on a sugar high and he immediately glared at Pepper, which she returned tenfold much to his surprise. He finished the paperwork so he had no idea what he did to garner her fury.
"Don't look at me like that Pep. I just finished--"
"You didn't tell Peter that he's your heir?!" The female interrupts, almost shouting.
Tony and Stephen look at each other, then back to the raging woman. "I thought that went without saying." The engineer defends. It was a very poor attempt.
"Obviously not or he wouldn't have had a panic attack when I told him!" Stephen frowns, worry evident on his face as he moves to stand, but Pepper points at him. "No. Sit down. Peter is fine now but I purposely fed him sugar so Tony can deal with him."
The moment Tony stood up to hand over the paperwork was all the motivation Peter needed to jump into his back and draw a startled grunt out of the man. The engineer knew better than to try and dump the hyperactive teen on Stephen at this point, because Pepper was one person the sorcerer almost always listened to. If she told Mama Bear to step back and relax and make Tony handle Peter alone, he would do it. Unless Peter was in immediate danger, then Stephen would ignore her and go to Peter's aid, but she would never tell him not to help if that was the case.
"This is cruel and unusual punishment." Tony grumps.
"Hey, Dad...Dad...Dad..."
A heavy sigh. "What Underoos?"
"I think I know a way to make my web fluid stronger! Can we go down to the lab?"
"I guess...even though it goes against my better judgement. Now thank Pepper for your sugar overload." Tony says as he hands over the paperwork while simultaneously trying not to fall over with Peter on his back.
The teen grins at the woman. "Thanks Pepper!" She smiles in response and Peter points toward the elevator. "To the secret lab!"
Tony makes his way to the elevator. "I'm cutting you off from Disney movies."
Peter gasps as the elevator doors close. "Don't you dare!"
Once the elevator doors open on the lab floor, Tony walks over to the teen's personal workbench and pries the boy off. Luckily, Tony didn't have to do much watching after that because Peter was hyper-focused on making stronger web fluid, and he only glanced over from his own workbench every once in a while to make sure Peter didn't blow anything up. This was something else he and Stephen would have to use in the future whether it would be for a sleep deprived teen or a sugar high one. Especially since the crash came an hour later. Tony looked up from rewiring his suit to find that the teen had passed out on top of his work table, completely sprawled across it and drooling on a page of formulas.
"You know, I'm pretty sure this is what it's like to have a toddler." Tony grabs the blanket off the couch on the other side of the lab and throws it over Peter. "Sleep tight kiddo."
"That looks extremely uncomfortable."
Tony looks toward the door to the lab and finds his husband standing with his arms crossed. "He's young. He'll be out patrolling the moment he wakes up."
"He probably takes naps on rooftops." Stephen walks over to the couch and stretches out on it.
The billionaire grins. "I have picture proof that he takes naps hanging upside down. As Spiderman."
The sorcerer closes his eyes with a smile as Tony returns his attention to his armor. "Tony?"
"Yeah babe?"
"We have a weird kid."
"Normal is overrated anyway." The engineer snorts.