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Pepper cringed as doors slammed in two different directions in the Lake House. This whole week had been nothing but arguments between Peter and Tony. Tony and Pepper hadn’t hesitated when May had asked them to take Peter for the summer so she could visit a friend from high school and get a much needed break from work and finally use her PTO that always went to waste. Pepper hadn’t known at that time that Peter was going to be a normal teenager rather than the overly hyper ball of sunshine they normally got.
Pepper made her way upstairs and walked into their bedroom. Tony stood in the middle of the room taking some deep breaths, “He wants you to get on his level. If you stay calm then he’ll calm down.”
“He’s been like this for a week Pepper. We keep assuming something is wrong, but I think Peter’s just being a moody teenager. He doesn’t get to act this way. I’m done.” Tony threw his hands in the air.
“So what do we do?” Pepper asked sitting on their bed and hugging a pillow to her chest.
“I don’t know! You always have the answers.” Tony raised a brow.
“I think we’re going to have to do something drastic.” Tony finally said when she didn’t offer a solution.
“Like what?”
“I think I’m going to ground Peter Parker.” Tony sighed.
“He’s going to hate that.”
“I know. I will too.” Tony nodded.
~
Peter stormed out of his room as Morgan was coming out of her room.
“PETEY! You wanna play a game.” Morgan asked.
“No. I don’t want to play.” Peter tried to walk by but she stepped in his way again.
“But Petey, PLEASE!” Morgan pleaded.
“I said, no!” Peter sighed in frustration.
“But I want to play tea party with my dolls and you…” Morgan held up her doll to show him.
Peter grabbed the doll and threw it back in her room, “GO PLAY DOLLS THEN.” He stormed past ignoring Morgan’s cry and walked right outside.
~
He knew Tony was approaching. He could tell by his heartbeat. He also knew the sound of his walk. He could also hear him mumbling under his breath about just wanting to take a damn nap because being a parent was difficult. Peter knew he shouldn’t have thrown Morgan’s doll, but he had tried telling her he hadn’t wanted to play and had finally lost it.
That’s just it—Peter had lost it. He was tired of being well behaved. Where had that ever gotten him in life? No where. It had only led to trauma on top of trauma in his life. He was going down a different path now.
“Peter. Did you really have to throw her doll?”
“Did you have to come out here?”
“I’m trying to be patient.” Tony ran a hand through his hair.
“I’m trying to be alone.” Peter raised a brow.
Tony exhaled slowly, “Peter. This is not acceptable behavior.”
“Listen, I’m not in the mood for a lecture from someone who made way worse mistakes when he was younger.”
“I also didn’t have parents who cared enough to put me on the right path again.”
“And I do?” Peter shrugged, “I don’t see them here. Oh, wait. They died.”
Tony’s face softened, “Listen, Kid—“
“No. You listen. I don’t want to be here. Call Aunt May.” Peter crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’ve already talked to her. We’re on the same page. You’re staying, and I know you’re dealing with a lot and aren’t ready to talk about it, but you are grounded. You can’t keep treating the people in your life like this. I suggest you find a way to be kind. I’d also like you to apologize to Morgan.” Tony told him.
“Well I’m going to call Aunt May too.”
“Go ahead.” Tony nodded.
Peter pulled out his phone to have a conversation with his aunt.
“Peter? What’s going on with you?” May asked.
“Nothing—Just nothing. I don’t want to be at the lake house any longer though. Can you come home?” Peter asked.
“I don’t think it’s nothing.”
“Can you just leave it be? I just want you to come home!” Peter wanted to know why all of the adults in his life wanted to talk things to death. It was irritating.
“No. I want you to listen to Tony and Pepper. Be the kind kid that I know you are. Talk about what’s going in that head of yours.” May told him.
“He just told me I’m grounded May. It’s not fair!”
“I would have grounded you sooner and you know it.”
“—BUT”
“—NO buts. Figure it out, Peter. You’re so smart. You already know the right thing to do.”
“So basically I’m stuck? I’m not talking to him any longer.”
“Well at least the lake house will be quieter then.” May teased.
“Or you.” Peter said and hung up.
“PETER! That was rude. Call her back and apologize!” Tony told him.
“Why? Why should I do anything you say? You aren’t my dad.” Peter reminded him.
“Give me the phone.” Tony held out his hand.
“It’s mine!” Peter held onto his phone and refused to hand it over.
“No. The physical phone is mine and May pays the bill so it doesn’t belong to you in any way. We let you borrow it.” Tony kept his hand out.
Peter gave him the phone and walked away, “You suck and I never really liked you."
“Don’t go too far.” Tony told the retreating teenager. He wasn’t going to fight with him anymore.
“I’ll do what I want.”
~
Tony walked back to the house and Pepper looked over at him, “It didn’t go well.”
“Why?”
“I’m the only one who should get to say things like, ‘I do what I want.’” Tony sat down next to her on the couch.
“What do you think is causing this mood?”
“You think I know?” Tony laughed but it was humorless.
“Well we were fine one day and suddenly everything exploded. What triggered it?” Pepper asked.
“His age and teenagers need to defy logic?”
“Dig deeper.”
“I don’t know! We were in the lab. I was talking about the weekend and our plans and—“ Tony paused.
“What is it?”
“Dammit.”
“What?” Pepper demanded rolling her eyes.
“I hate this.”
“HATE WHAT?”
“He gets the right to be pissed at me and I know why he wants to go home.” Tony sighed.
“Why?”
“I went on and on about father’s day with Morgan previous years while Peter was—“ Tony cleared his throat, “—Away and I told him about our family tradition which—“
“He had no part in.” Pepper finished.
“He’s pushing me away to feel safe.”
“SO go fix him.”
“He’s not a car.” Tony sighed getting up, “I’m not chasing after this kid any longer if this doesn’t work. He can live in the tree house after this attempt.”
Pepper smiled because Morgan would probably be jealous if Peter really did live in the tree house.
~
Peter was angry. He was so angry that he really wanted to punch someone. Nothing was fair. He hadn’t been given an easy path in life. No one understood so why bother talking about it. He just wanted to—Peter paused. What did he want? He sighed. He wanted his parents back. He pushed all of the sad that came with that thought aside and replaced it with anger. Stupid Tony. Stupid Pepper. Stupid Morgan. Their whole perfect family—Was just…STUPID! Peter sat down by the tree having lost the energy to keep wandering the property.
“Kid. I’m sorry.” Tony said approaching.
Peter just looked at the ground. He didn’t know what Tony was sorry for, but he didn’t want to be around him right now, “Leave me alone.”
“No.”
“Tony. I don’t want to be around you.”
“Because I remind you of what you think that you don’t have.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. For a genius you sure are dumb.” Peter muttered.
“You do know, and I know that you’re using that mean attitude to hide something worse right now.” Tony sat down next to him.
“What?” Peter asked before he could stop the question from slipping out.
“Pain.” Tony told him kindly.
Peter closed his eyes as a new wave of pain crashed over him. NOT GOOD. ABORT. ABORT! GET OUT OF THERE. Peter jumped to his feet, “Leave me alone. You don’t know anything and once May is home—I’m never coming back.” Peter walked away again.
Tony looked at the sky, “Mr. and Mrs Parker—-I’m so tired of chasing your damn kid. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME HERE?”
Tony walked after the teenager and yelled, “You know how much I hate testing the fitness portion of my Stark watch!”
“THEN LEAVE ME ALONE!”
“Fine. I will.” Tony changed tactics.
“What?” Peter paused.
“You’re right. You can live by yourself in May’s apartment. Let’s go pack.” Tony pointed toward the cabin.
“You’d really let me leave?”
“If it’s what you want?” Tony nodded.
“I’d be alone?” Peter asked.
Tony nodded.
There it was again. Pain—That crashed over Peter. Pain at the thought of being alone. Pain at the thought of being replaced. Pain because he no longer knew his place in Tony’s life. Pain at having missed five years. Pain of not having parents. Pain, pain, pain. Peter tried to push it away. He tried to bury it under his anger, but his anger was deflating and he didn’t know who to fight if Tony wasn’t willing to argue with him any longer.
“I’m already alone.” Peter mumbled quietly.
“Never.” Tony shook his head.
“You have Morgan and Pepper. You have your family.” Peter shrugged looking at his tennis shoes.
“And Peter. I have my whole family again.”
“I’m not your family. I’m a charity project.” Peter kicked at a stone on the ground.
“Would I have fought so hard to get you back if you were a charity project?” Tony asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
“You do what you want.” Peter mumbled.
“AND I wanted you back in my life so I did whatever it took to make that happen.”
“I don’t fit in any more!” Peter protested.
“OF course you fit in.” Tony argued.
“Where?” Peter demanded.
“You fit right here.” Tony pulled the teenager into his arms and Peter finally rested his head against him.
Tony felt his kid finally relax and drop his guard. He sighed in relief when he realized that he had finally done something right. He had finally helped Peter for the first time since his summer vacation had started.
“You smell like cheese.” Peter told him.
“Why do you gotta keep being mean?” Tony pushed him away playfully.
“Well I mean you’re old and old people smell like cheese.” Peter teased.
“You can live in the tree house.” Tony told him.
“RENT FREE?” Peter grinned his eyes dancing with humor.