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“Peter Benjamin Stark! My answer was no earlier. It’s still no. You need to stop asking.” Tony finally snapped at his sixteen year old son.
“BUT—“ Peter started to argue.
“Peter. Keep pushing me. You’ll end up staying home all weekend instead of one night.” Tony warned.
“Well it won’t matter after tonight because I’ll have missed all of the fun anyway!” Peter pouted.
“And I’m sorry about that, but you’re not going out tonight. You promised to watch Morgan. Pepper and I have a business dinner that I can’t get out of. When you make a commitment you need to keep it.” Tony finished tying his tie and turned to face his son.
“Fine. Whatever. This is so dumb.” Peter yelled and stormed out of the room. Peter flopped onto his bed and then got a thought.
He texted, “Any chance someone else can watch Mo? I got invited to a party and I never get invited to school parties.”
Pepper, “I’m sure I can call her normal sitter! GO have fun. Make sure that dad knows the change of plans before he leaves to meet me here though.”
Peter grinned. Now he would just need to get his dad out of the house before the sitter got there and make sure he arrived back before his parents did.
~
“Just go. We’ll be fine!” Peter reassured his dad for what felt like the 100th time.
“I guess I’m concerned at the sudden mood swing. You’re not mad about the party any longer?” Tony asked grabbing his keys from the hook by the door.
Peter needed to be careful. His dad could smell deception from a mile away, “I’m still a little upset, but I’m feeling a lot better.” There we go! He thought. Still honest. No lies there. He was feeling a lot better since Pepper had said he could go.
“Well I appreciate you having this change of attitude, Bud. Maybe we can work in the lab tomorrow?” Tony offered.
“Sure, thing! I’d love that!” Peter grinned.
~
Peter exhaled once his dad was out of the drive way. Now he needed to go change and fast before the sitter got there, “Mo? Just watch cartoons or something, okay?”
“I already watched cartoons and mom said no more today.” Morgan followed him upstairs.
“Mo, I asked. She said it’s fine.”
Morgan gave him the same look that his dad did when he didn’t believe him with her hands on her hips like Pepper, “You swear?”
“I swear!” Peter nodded.
“Oh! Yay!” Morgan jumped up and down with glee before running off to watch her favorite show. Peter couldn’t keep track of which one it was anymore.
Morgan never even questioned when her sitter walked in. She was just overjoyed to have someone to play with. Peter snagged the keys to one of Tony’s cars from the hook by the door. He was grateful that he had gotten his license or pulling this off would be nearly impossible.
~
Peter was having such a good time at the party that he hadn’t even realized what time it was. He groaned. He would need to race home if he was going to beat Tony and Pepper there.
Peter was pushing 48 in a 35 zone when he saw the lights and sirens behind him. He groaned. There was no way he was going to beat his parents home and on top of that he was going to have to hope that he had learned something from his dad about talking his way out of tough situations because there was no way coming home with a ticket was going to go smoothly.
The office came up to his open window, “Do you know how fast you were going?”
Peter handed over his license and hoped that his last name would go a long way, “I don’t, but I know I was matching traffic.”
“You were going 13 over. It’s also after curfew for minors.” The officer reminded,
“Do your parents know where you are?”
“My dad’s wife does.” Peter mumbled.
“I’m going to need to call them.” The officer told him.
“Do you have to though? You don’t understand my dad’s—“ Peter was interrupted when the officer held up a hand to stop him.
“—I saw your last name. It’s not getting you out of trouble.” The officer raised a brow.
“No. I was going to say crazy. My dad’s crazy.” Peter sighed.
The officer gave him a look of sympathy, “I think we all feel that way at some point in our lives.”
Peter rattled off his dad’s number. He would have given Pepper’s number but at this point they were already home and he was already in trouble anyway. He might as well just face all of the trouble at once. He was also kind of hoping that his dad would let it go to voicemail.
That wasn’t what happened.
~
Peter walked into the house. Pepper was sitting on the couch. Morgan wasn’t around and Peter assumed she was asleep. Peter sat down on the couch and expected Tony to start yelling but Tony just tossed the keys to his car and the car Peter had driven onto the table and went to the lab in the garage.
“So do I just wait for him to come back and yell?” Peter asked Pepper.
“I think you should go get ready for bed.” Pepper told him.
“But no! This isn’t how this goes! He yells. I yell. You tell us to calm down. We talk it out. I get grounded. We hug it out!” Peter stood up and followed after his dad into the garage.
“Pete! I’d give him some space.” Pepper yelled but Peter ignored her warning.
Peter walked into the lab and sat on the stool. Tony glanced up but didn’t say a word. He just went back to work.
“Dad, can you just yell at me already?” Peter asked.
Tony didn’t give any reaction to this.
“DAD!” Peter yelled.
This time Tony just walked out of the lab. No response.
Peter groaned and decided to give him some space like Pepper had suggested and he went upstairs and got ready for bed.
~
The next morning Peter went downstairs and found Tony sitting at the table with his coffee and tablet.
“Dad, can we please talk now?” Peter sat down.
Tony didn’t say a word. He just kept scrolling on his tablet.
“Fine. Whatever. I’m leaving.” Peter grabbed the car keys and waited for Tony to yell. He didn’t. He took a sip of his coffee. Peter made a noise of frustration and walked out of the house.
~
“When are you going to give up on this silent treatment?” Pepper asked as she made lunch for Morgan.
“Don’t know. He didn’t really care what I had to say yesterday.” Tony explained.
“I care about what you say, Daddy.” Morgan hugged his legs.
“Well thanks Mo Mo.” Tony smiled down at his youngest.
“He’s a teenager, Tony! And overall we got pretty lucky because he’s a really good kid.” Pepper cut the apple into slices and scooped some almond butter onto the plate to go with Morgan’s sandwich.
“Fine. I’ll talk to him.”
“Not yell at him.” Pepper raised a brow.
“I’ll do my best.” Tony snatched an apple slice from the pink plastic plate before Pepper handed it over to Morgan for lunch.
~
Peter walked into a quiet house later that night after spending the day at Ned’s. He kicked off his shoes and went to the kitchen for a soda forgetting that Pepper had decided they all needed a break from soda. He sighed and settled for a Bubly.
He turned around to take a sip and jumped when Tony was standing in the doorway, “Noise! Make noise when you know someone doesn’t know you’re there!”
“I thought we should talk.” Tony told him.
“Now you want to talk? I tried talking to you twice. I’m going to bed.” Peter rolled his eyes and tried to walk by.
“Stop.” Told told the teenager, “I know I reacted poorly, but you were wrong too.”
Peter looked at the floor, “I know.”
“So now what do we do?” Tony asked.
“Hug it out?” Peter suggested shrugging.
“Aren’t you missing something?”
“Grounded?”
“You used Pepper against me even though I had already given you an answer and then you got a speeding ticket. Of course you’re grounded.”
“In my defense I wouldn’t have gotten a speeding ticket if I hadn’t been worried about you figuring out that I used Pepper against you.” Peter pointed out.
“So nothing good comes from that is what I’m hearing,” Tony went and grabbed his own Bubly, “2 weeks.”
“Dad! That’s a really long time!” Peter argued.
“Do we need to discuss the fact that I’m now paying off a speeding ticket for you and my insurance is going to go up because of it?” Tony took a sip of his drink.
“Fine. I guess it’s fair.” Peter agreed.
“Hug it out?” Tony held out his arms and Peter walked right into them