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Peter yawned awake and glanced over at Amy, who was cuddling into his side.
“Hey there, bug,” he said, brushing her curls away from her forehead, and she gazed up at him, humming softly in response.
Putting his hands under her arms, Peter lifted Amy onto his hip and took her over to the kitchen, where he poured each of them some cereal.
“What do you want to do today, Ames?”
Amy swallowed a spoonful of cereal and tapped her finger on her chin and gazed off into the distance as Tony entered the room.
“Hey, kid,” he said, ruffling Peter’s hair as he passed by.
“Hey, any ideas on what Amy and I should do today?"
“How about the zoo? Morgan loves -”
“Zoo!” Amy cheered, jumping in her seat. “Wanna go to zoo! Wanna see seals!”
Peter grinned. “That sounds great, tinoket. Finish up your breakfast and we can head over, yeah?”
Amy bobbed her head and continued to scoop her cereal into her mouth, and in a few minutes, she was pulling at Peter’s sleeve.
“Okay, okay!” He laughed, pulling her onto his shoulders. “Do you like the view?” Amy giggled and nodded. “Bye, dad!” Peter said, holding onto Amy’s legs as they exited the tower.
On the way there, Amy entertained both herself and Peter by singing about anything and everything. Her compositions took about twenty minutes apiece to compose, but Peter was extremely impressed by her songwriting capabilities, and he tickled the bottom of her foot in praise.
A few minutes later, they finally arrived at the zoo, and Amy gazed at each animal in awe, insisting on visiting the petting zoo, laying her small hand on each animal, making sure Peter was watching, and telling him to take a picture.
It took quite a while.
By the time they reached the seal exhibit, they had already been at the zoo for a few hours, and it felt like even longer in the blistering heat.
“Hey, Ames, look at the seals!” Peter exclaimed, a bit distracted by the heat. Amy didn’t respond. “Amy?”
Peter furrowed his brow and pulled the toddler down from his shoulders. Her face was extremely flushed and her head was lolling to the side.
“Shit!” Peter exclaimed, mentally cursing himself. How could he be so goddamn stupid? Forgetting to pack water on a steaming hot day? “Hey, baby, can you hear me?”
Amy blinked her eyes open. “Tired, Daddy, it hot.”
Biting his lip, Peter hoisted Amy around his neck, where he had a clear view of her face, and rushed to find an employee. He wandered around the enclosure for a little while before finding a bored-looking teenager scrolling through her phone.
“Hi, hi!” He exclaimed frantically. “Do you know where the water fountains are? Or any place that sells water?”
The employee looked up from her phone and yawned. “Food court’s that way,” she said, pointing in the direction they had come from.
Peter nodded in thanks and ran a little faster than a non-enhanced human should be able to run, desperate to cool Amy down. After what felt like forever, Peter reached the food court, and ran over to the vending machine.
Shifting Amy to his hip, where she lazily threw her head onto his shoulder, he dug around in his pocket and frantically smoothed out a few bills, basically throwing them into the machine, and at last, it spit out two water bottles.
Peter exhaled, grabbed the ice-cold water, and sat Amy down on a bench.
“Okay,” he muttered, unscrewing the first one. “Amy, can you open your mouth for me?”
Amy whined softly.
“Please, baby.”
Amy sniffled.
Peter exhaled sharply, and took the next route of action.
“Keep your eyes shut for me, yeah?”
Amy gave a barely-noticeable nod of her head, and Peter cracked his knuckles, leaned Amy up against the back of the bench, and poured the contents of the first water-bottle all over her. She immediately relaxed and smiled, and once the stream ended, she opened up her eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Amy,” Peter said apologetically. “I’m a terrible father. I completely forgot water, and – here.” Peter unscrewed the next bottle and brought it to her lips, and she eagerly gulped down around half the bottle.
Once she was finished, Peter took a small swig, and brought the soaking wet toddler into his lap, clutching her tightly.
“Seals?” She asked after a little while. Peter really wanted nothing other than to take Amy home, give her a bath, and cuddle with her while watching a movie, but it was impossible for him to say no to those eyes.
“Okay, bug,” Peter said a bit reluctantly, pulling her onto his hip and retracing his steps to find the seal pool.
Amy cheered as the seals did flips, but her squeals of delight could hardly brighten Peter’s mood. He had failed his daughter.
Around ten minutes passed with Amy glued to her father’s side, wide-eyed, watching the seals.
“Ready to go?” He asked, bouncing her with a fake sense of cheeriness.
Amy scrunched up her nose. “Stuffie?”
With a sigh, Peter followed her gaze to the gift store across the zoo, on the way to the exit.
“Okay, we can get you a seal stuffie, and then we’re going to go back home and give you a bath.”
“No bath!”
“Then no stuffie.” Peter raised a challenging eyebrow and Amy caved.
“Okaaaay.”
Peter was silent as he made his way to the gift store, and barely even cracked a smile when Amy fawned over the super-soft seal stuffed animal. He handed over the necessary cash, packed up the plush, and tightened his grip on Amy.
On their way back home, Amy continued to make up her songs, most of them mainly consisting of her screaming various words, but Peter couldn’t think of anything other than Amy’s bright red face, staring up at him.
They arrived at the Tower, Amy said good afternoon to FRIDAY, and they arrived at the penthouse.
“Hello, Parker children,” Tony said, but Peter only set down the bag containing the stuffed seal and brushed past his father, heading to his bathroom.
Amy didn’t seem to notice anything unusual, and pouted as she watched the tub fill up with water, but she did that every time. Tears filled Peter’s eyes, but he turned away from Amy and blinked them away, furious at himself for hurting her.
He made sure the water wasn’t too hot, undressed Amy, and set her in the tub.
Bath time took a bit longer than usual, probably because Peter refused to let go of Amy, and that complicated things. But, eventually, he pulled her out, dried her, and pulled her Spider-Man nightgown on.
“Daddy Spider!” She said, like she did every time she wore it. Peter refused to meet her gaze. He didn’t deserve her love. What kind of parent forgot water for their child?
Peter attempted to tame her curls, and failed, as always, but each of her winces sent daggers directly into Peter’s heart.
“I’m so sorry,” he muttered.
“Okay, Daddy,” Amy said, jumping into his arms. “Movie?”
“One second,” Peter said, eager to get out of the clothes he had been wearing. After he changed, he picked Amy up, and headed to the penthouse’s living room.
Amy fell asleep shortly into Hercules, and Peter brought her back to their room, tucking her in and singing an extra lullaby. Not trusting himself to not disturb her sleep, Peter left the room and found his father looking expectantly at him.
“What?” Peter said, pouring himself a glass of water and chugging it all down.
“What’s up with you?” Tony asked.
“I’m a fuck-up,” Peter said, throwing the glass against the wall, not bothered by the way the glass splintered against the brick.
“Hey, what the shit, Parker?” Tony asked, gaping at the broken glass. “FRI, can you clean that up for us?”
“Right away, Boss.”
The machine controlled by FRIDAY immediately zoomed into the room, cleaning every shard of glass, and Peter watched it angrily.
“Pete,” Tony began, much softer. “What happened?”
And Peter broke. He threw himself at Tony, sobbing into the man’s shoulder, feeling the burden on his back lighten just a bit. Peter cried for around a half hour, Tony comforting him and whispering soft assurances in his ear.
When Peter pulled away, he wiped at his red eyes and looked away from his father.
“I fucked up today, dad,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I forgot to bring water. We got to the seal exhibit and Amy fucking -” Peter’s voice cracked and he swallowed hard. “She looked so weak. I failed her, dad.”
Tony pulled Peter into another hug, carding his fingers through his hair. “Nobody is perfect, bambino. We all make mistakes. Amy’s still here, still healthy. You made a mistake, but you fixed it, and that’s your job.” Peter sniffled. “When Morgan was three, Pepper was at a meeting, and I didn’t really trust anyone with babysitting her, so I brought her to the meeting Pepper insisted I be at. She kept trying to get my attention to tell me she was hungry, and I didn't notice until she threw a full-out tantrum. We all make mistakes, Pete. You’re doing so, so, well.”
Peter starting crying again, so Tony brought the boy over to the sofa and resumed Hercules, draping Peter over his legs, and soon after, Peter fell asleep.
Smiling to himself, Tony carried his son over to his room, and set Peter down on his bed. Tony watched the two Parkers sleep for a little while, until he had to go make dinner. He decided not to wake them up; they had both had rough days.