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“So. I talked to your aunt and she agreed that I could sweep you away for the weekend,” Tony said with a grin, as he worked side by side with his favorite young adult. What had started as a simple conversation had turned into some last-minute plans and he’d been waiting for days to let Peter in on at least part of them. “How’s that sound?” he then asked, chuckling when the kid looked up at him with wide round eyes.
“That sounds perfect, Mr. Stark!” Peter enthusiastically replied. Tony had never offered to take him anywhere before but he could see the sparkle in the man’s eyes and it was making his entire body tingle with anticipation. “Where are we going?”
Not wanting to give too much away, Tony smiled ear to ear and pointed towards the ceiling. “North,” he simply stated and then went back to his task without further explanation.
“North? That’s all you’re giving me?” Peter amusedly sputtered. “Just- We’re going north?”
“Yep,” Tony replied with unwavering amusement and laughed outright when the response was met with a whiney rendition of his name. Keeping the destination a secret hadn’t been his original plan but the kid was making it entirely too much fun. Besides, he’d find out soon enough. Just a few more days.
When Tony arrived outside of his apartment early Saturday morning, the first thing Peter noticed was that he was driving a brand new Audi SUV instead of a sports car. The man had encouraged him to check it out and it didn’t take long for him to realize that the space in the back had been loaded up with an assortment of camping materials, including a two-man tent and a couple of sleeping bags, all still in their packages. “We’re going camping?” he asked in surprise and maybe a little bit of confusion, mostly because he simply couldn’t picture Tony ‘roughing it' in any capacity.
“May said you used to beg them to take you camping,” Tony said and all Peter could think was ‘No, only Ben, ’ but he didn’t say it, choosing instead to enthusiastically nod his head while the man continued his explanation.
“-and since that meteor shower you’ve been talking about hits its peak late this evening, I thought it would be a good experience,” Tony said, pausing for a moment to gesture towards the sky. “Hard to see the stars out here with so much light pollution, let alone a celestial event.”
After that, they climbed into the car and Tony began the drive towards the backcountry campsite that his GPS was pointing him towards while Peter practically vibrated with excitement the entire time. “This is so awesome! You know how to camp?” he asked a few hours later when the number of buildings they passed was beginning to dwindle allowing the trees to thicken into a dense forest.
“I know how to read instructions and I have a GPS. That should just about cover it,” Tony smirked, leaving out the part where he’d bought the book Camping For Dummies and had read it cover to cover before hiring someone to scout an ideal place for them to stay for the night. Somewhere that was easily accessible by car but still rustic and isolated enough to give them a good view of the sky.
“But have you ever done it before?” Peter dubiously inquired.
Tony huffed, shrugged his shoulders, and turned momentarily towards the teenager beside him. “No. But how hard could it be?” he asked with confidence before turning down a nearly hidden dirt road that would lead them to the middle of nowhere.
The moment they reached an opening in the forest, Tony parked the car and started pulling everything out of the back, starting with the tent. After tearing the box open, he dumped out the contents and unfolded the instructions. “Okay. Step one: Pick a location- that’s on you kid - Find an adequately sized flat area that is free of large rocks, branches, and indications of wildlife habitation- you got all of that?” he relayed, peeking up over the paper towards Peter who nodded his head.“Great, I'm going to start working on Step two.”
Peter searched the ground for a place that met the listed criteria while Tony unfolded the provided tenting. Once he’d settled on a spot, he laid down the additional tarp that the man had purchased as an added layer to go between them and the terrain. Then, together, they got the poles assembled, put everything together as instructed, and popped the tent up, all with very little effort.
“That ought to do it,” Tony said, as he took a step back to admire their work.
Peter stepped back too but as he did so, he saw that there was something else in the box and pulled it out. “What about this part, Mr. Stark?” he asked, as he reached inside to see what was left.
“We don’t need that. It’s just there to keep any rain from settling on the top and it's not raining,” Tony said before effectively taking a hold of both the box and the material to carry back to the car.
After letting the man remove the items from his hands, Peter crossed his arms over his chest and followed behind him. “What if it does rain?” he challenged despite the fact that the sky was mostly clear and there was a warm breeze gently blowing through his hair.
“I have an advanced AI that gives me the weather report every single morning without fail and a phone capable of telling me what the temperature is in nearly every city worldwide,” Tony scoffed in return. “Do you really think I would take us camping if there was rain anywhere in the forecast?”
Peter looked up at the sky. The sun was just starting to trend towards the horizon but it was still hours until the meteor shower started and all that was left to do was to throw the sleeping bags into the tent and pull the cooler out of the car. They would still need a fire but Tony had said they wouldn’t need to worry about that until closer to dusk and he wasn’t sure what he was meant to do in the interim. “What are we going to do after this?” he asked once he’d finished the bottle of water that had been thrust into his hands.
“Well, we could go exploring,” Tony suggested, thankful that the man who had found the camping site for them had also geo-tagged a few nearby points of interest and a path that would lead them to an open field that would give them an excellent view of the meteor shower later in the evening. “There’s a lake and a few trails nearby.”
“What if we get lost, Mr. Stark?” Peter asked before he’d really had time to think about who he was asking. Though the look of indignance on the man’s face made it worth it.
“GPS. Remember, kid?” Tony replied with a roll of his eyes before grabbing the kid by the arm and tugging him in the direction of a small creek that would eventually feed into a large lake. They spent a good bit of time by the water, skipping rocks and admiring the scenery. The leaves were green, there were birds chirping in the distance and the banks were lined with sunbathing turtles and frogs that were eager to leap into the water the moment they approached them.
”It’s starting to get dark,” Tony quietly observed as he leaned against a tree trunk and watched Peter trod through the shallow water with his jeans rolled up to his knees. “Should we head back and put together a fire? I packed some hotdogs and marshmallows,” he said, successfully gaining the teenager's attention. “You hungry?”
“Starving!” Peter returned with a smile and then sloshed his way to shore so that he could dry his feet and put his shoes back on.
The hike back to the camp was tricky but building a fire didn’t take terribly long. A portable fire pit, as well as the wood to go in it, had been purchased and Peter was only slightly disappointed that he didn't have to go collect rocks and sticks as they did in the movies. When he told Tony such, the man laughed and told him he could still collect sticks if he really wanted to but he’d declined in favor of popping open a can of soda and sitting in one of the small folding chairs.
Between the two of them, five hotdogs were burnt to an inedible level of crispness but Tony had packed plenty allowing them to laugh at their own failings. The sun had set completely by the time they had finally got the hang of it. As they stacked food onto their plates, Peter talked about stars and meteor showers the whole time, quoting articles and emphasizing the more interesting facts that he’d learned over the last few weeks. To the point that he was spending more time happily rambling than he was eating. Though at some point, he realized what he was doing and stopped mid-sentence. “I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. You probably don’t really care about any of that stuff,” he sheepishly stated and dropped his gaze towards the ground.
“ You seem to like it. Does talking about it make you happy?” Tony asked with a friendly tilt of his head.
Peter sighed and shrugged his shoulders, still paying more attention to his tennis shoes than the man who was addressing him. “Well, yeah but-” he began to carefully respond.
“-then I care about it,” Tony said with a smile and then reached across the width of the cooler that was between them to pat the kid on the knee. “Tell me more, Pete. I want to hear all about it.”
And Peter did tell him more. He talked and nibbled at his food until the breeze picked up, leading him to look up at the sky. “It’s getting cloudy,” he casually stated, his head still tilted backward and leaning on the back of the chair.
“It’ll pass,” Tony replied without missing a beat but the kid continued to look upwards.
“It doesn’t look like it's going to pass,” Peter said after a few seconds of watching the clouds rolling across the sky with such density that the moon was no longer visible.
Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket and gave it a quick look before playfully rolling his eyes. “And since when did you become a meteorologist, hmm? The weather report is still clear,” he said before skewering another hotdog onto one of the provided rods and holding it over the fire.
Not even five minutes passed before there was a quiet rumble of thunder in the distance and a drizzling rain began to dampen them. Tony could see the pinched expression on Peter's face and sighed heavily. “It’ll pass,” he repeated mere seconds before the bottom fell out and the rain began to fall against them in sheets.
“Grab the chips and stuff, kid. We’ll carry it into the tent,” Tony shouted, once the initial shock had worn off. Then he tossed the remainder of the hotdogs into the cooler and grabbed a couple of drinks before following the kid across the campsite and into their shelter.
Being as it was only meant for sleeping and a portion of the space was being taken up by rolled up sleeping bags and a pile of rescued food, there was very little room inside of the tent. As such, the pair were left to sit side by side, so close together that their elbows and knees periodically brushed up against one another.
Tony jolted a little when he felt a drop of water land directly on top of his head. He looked up to see where the water had begun to collect on the unprotected, water-resistant roof and moved the bedding to an area that it would be less likely to get dripped upon. Then the wind picked up again, shaking the walls and causing one of the corners, that hadn’t been secured as well as the others, to lift ever so slightly. That was enough to have his confidence waning and he started to wonder if the unexpected storm would pass quickly enough for them to continue with their original plans.
“Guess we’re not making any s'mores tonight, huh, Mr. Stark,” Peter asked as he happily ripped the large bag of marshmallows open and popped one into his mouth.
Tony lifted the flap that covered one of the small mesh windows and peeked out to see that the fire had been washed out and that a large puddle had formed beneath it. ”I guess not, Buddy. It’s pretty wet out there,” he said with a deep sigh and then looked towards the kid who was reaching back into the bag of marshmallows, still smiling.
Because his mouth was full, Peter shrugged his shoulders and tried to hurriedly swallow down the confection with a large gulp of soda. “It’s not a big deal. These are good like this too,” he said, tossing another one into the air with the intention of catching it with his mouth. Except he missed and all it did was bounce off of the tip of his nose and into his waiting hand. “What one?” he asked through a mouthful of marshmallow.
“Sure, kid,” Tony chuckled and wasn't surprised when he had not one but three marshmallows thrown in his direction.
Later, after the marshmallows had been abandoned and the rain hadn’t let up, Peter drew in a deep breath. “We’re going to miss the meteor shower, aren’t we,” he solemnly assessed.
And even though he was sure he knew the answer, Tony decided to check his phone one more time only to realize that what he’d been looking at- what he’d based the entire trip around - was the weather of a city with the same name but within a completely different state. He pressed his lips together to hold in the curse that was right at the tip of his tongue and typed in the correct location, angry with himself for making such a careless mistake. Once the results had been rendered he read through them twice before closing his eyes and swallowing thickly. There was an eighty percent chance of thunderstorms all the way through until morning. “Yeah, Bud. I think we are,” he forced himself to say.
“Oh,” Peter replied, his voice tinged with disappointment but he was quick to try and hide it under a tight yet somehow genuine smile. “That’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Tony all but snapped but he was frustrated with the situation and really- himself. “That’s the whole reason that we’re here!”
At those words, Peter deflated slightly and stared down into his lap. “Yeah, I guess it is,” he said, trying to bury the sadness that he felt in the pit of his stomach. He’d really thought that the trip was, at least in part, about Tony wanting to spend time with him. Kind of like Ben. He had to turn his head to the side to pretend that he was watching the trials of rain that were starting to run down the inside of the tent in order to prevent the man from seeing the tears that had formed in his eyes.
However, after a minute or two, Peter could feel Tony scooting closer to him and he wondered if he was being at least a little bit unfair. He knew the man cared about him. Of course he did, he wouldn’t have gone camping for any other reason. The entire weekend had been for him but before he could do or say anything else, he felt a hand fall onto the back of his neck.
“Pete,” Tony breathed out in remorse. “I know how much you wanted to see that meteor shower and I really wanted to make that happen for you. I’m so sorry, Buddy. I really am,” he apologized as he gave the boy’s neck a gentle squeeze.
“You're right. I was excited about the meteor shower,” Peter replied and then pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth, choosing his next words carefully. “But- but that’s not what I was the most excited about.”
Tony’s brows stitched together with puzzlement as he looked Peter over. “It’s not?” he asked when he couldn't readily decide what was going through the teenager’s head. He knew that the kid had been eager to go camping but he’d assumed that the clear view of the meteor shower would be the biggest appeal and he couldn’t fathom what else they were perhaps missing out on.
“No,” Peter replied before turning towards his mentor, his mouth quirked into a small half-smile. “I was, well, I was most excited about just- being with you .”
Tony leaned to the side while simultaneously pulling the kid into a firm side-hug. The new position had drops of cold rain dripping onto his shoulder and trailing down his back but he stayed as he was. “You know I’m always happy to spend time with you, right, kid?” he asked before taking the embrace a step further and leaning his cheek onto the side of the boy’s head.
“Yeah, but this was different,” Peter said, blinking back the renewed mist to his eyes. “Camping is something that I had always imagined doing with Ben and when I lost him I didn’t think I’d ever get to. I mean, May would have taken me if I had asked her but it wouldn’t have been the same as-” he began to explain but stopped abruptly when he realized that he didn’t actually know how to properly express the difference. “-Well- this ,” he finally stated, waving hand haphazardly between them.
“You wanted it to be a boy’s trip, huh?” Tony chuckled in return.
“Something like that, yeah,” Peter mumbled as he ran his hands up and down his face, in an attempt to surreptitiously dry his eyes. Part of him wanted to correct the man and tell him that there was more to it than that. But he just wasn’t sure he was prepared to have that particular conversation.
Tony silently nodded his head and thought back to the way May had looked at him when he’d said he could show the kid the stars and take him camping while he was at it. Then, suddenly, the pieces all clicked together making his heart skip a beat. “You wanted it to be a father-son bonding kind of trip,” he murmured and was slightly taken aback when the teenager looked at him with red-rimmed eyes.
“Yeah,” Peter said with a shaky breath. Then guilt took over causing his gaze to fall from the man’s eyes and back down to his lap. “I’m sorry. I know you’re not-" he said, pausing just short of saying ‘ my dad’ but continued without filling in the blank, “-not really.”
‘I wish I was’ Tony thought as he positioned himself and everything around him so that he could sit more in front of Peter than beside him. “Maybe not,” he said, with a small smile. “But don’t be sorry. Because you’re my kid, Pete, and- I’m happy to do those kinds of things with you,” he pressed, leaving the words ‘I love you' to hang in the air between them.
There was water falling from the ceiling in large drops, spreading across the floor and dampening their clothes but as Peter leaned in to rest his head on Tony’s chest, neither of them cared. They were content with each other's company and stayed in that position until Peter noticed that the patterning of the rain on the tarp had slowed significantly and the wind was no longer trying to tear the tent apart. “I think it’s slowing down,” he said, pulling out of the man’s hold so that he could listen more closely.
Tony leaned backward to peek out the window, noting that the kid had been right, the rain had been reduced to a soft sprinkle but there were still large patches of dark clouds obstructing their view of the sky. He decided to check the weather once more, it still didn’t look good but that was okay. He had a deck of cards with him and if he laid the seats down in the SUV they could spread the sleeping bags out there and figured that, combined with some friendly conversation, would probably be enough to salvage the trip. “Should we move this camp out to the car? It’s less leaky in there,” he suggested, hoping to get their things moved before the rain picked up again.
Peter ran his hands through the knots in his hair where the humidity had turned it into a tangled mess of curls. “Yeah. Dry sounds good, Mr. Stark,” he said, blowing out a breath as he got onto his hands and knees so that he could crawl towards the tent’s exit.
With the two of them working together, they were able to quickly arrange the back of the SUV into a nice enough place to spend some time. With the back hatch open, the breeze could blow past them bringing the smell of damp earth and fresh rain along with it. They played cards and snacked on chips for a while, laughing and telling stories the whole time. But at some point, Tony noticed that the rain had stopped altogether. He craned his neck to get a good look at the sky and found that it was miraculously clear. “It stopped raining,” he said with more surprise than he’d meant to but he’d expected it to be, at minimum, cloudy for the remainder of the night.
Peter hummed in response, more focused on dealing out the next hand of cards than anything else but after a second or two the comment processed and he looked out the window. “Huh, I guess it has,” he said and then tipped his head in consideration. “I wonder if it’ll be dry enough to start the fire back in the morning or if we’ll have to just go out and find the closest Starbucks. I think they still have the S’Mores Frappuccino on the menu and it's not a proper camping trip if you don't have at least some kind of s'mores, Mr. Stark,” he teased, pulling a small chuckle from the man across from him.
While Peter prattled on about marshmallow topping and chocolate ribbons, Tony looked down at his watch to assess the time. It wasn’t as late as he’d assumed it was and gasped when he realized what that meant. “Come on kid,” he said with urgency as he began to tug the teenager out of the back of the car by his elbow. “The show’s still on! Let’s go!”
The trek to the open hillside was short but it meant pushing through wet foliage and tromping through the mud. As such, by the time they had reached their destination, they were already fairly wet. That being the case, Peter opted to go ahead and sit down on the grass. Tony followed suit, cringing as the wetness of the ground immediately soaked into his pants. Then he looked upwards for only a moment before taking a breath and laying back, resting his head in his hands, and urging the kid to do the same.
“We’re going to be so gross when we get up,” Peter laughed, having felt one of his feet slip on the mud and sopping grass when he'd begun to lower himself fully onto the ground.
“Probably,” Tony agreed, laughing a little when the kid rubbed his face, leaving a smudge of mud on one of his cheeks. “It’ll be worth it though,” he said and turned his head back to the sky just in time to see a fine light trailing above their heads. “Look.”
Peter followed the man’s gaze spotting the brilliant streak just before it faded away. “Oh wow,” he said in awe, repeating those same words over and over as the meteors continued to dance across the sky. “This is amazing, Mr. stark. I can’t believe how many there are!” he said, as scooted himself closer to Tony, making it so that their heads were touching.
They lay there until the glittering bands began to slow and Peter let out a deep yawn. At that point, Tony checked his watch, not surprised to see that it was well after midnight. Admittedly, he too was running out of steam. They’d spent a good portion of the day driving and had immediately followed that up with a several miles long hike. With a tired sigh, he pulled himself up into a sitting position and could feel the way his shirt was uncomfortably sticking to his back. “You tired?” he asked while trying to knock some of the mud off of his hands.
“A little bit,” Peter replied mid-yawn.
Tony ran his hand through the back of his hair, scratching were grains of dirt and sand that had worked their way down to his scalp. “Hey, Pete? I know you were all excited about camping out but I was thinking that, given the circumstances, we could just head to a hotel for the night,” he suggested because he couldn’t imagine climbing into a sleeping bag while wet and covered in so much grit.
“That makes sense,” Peter said as he sat up and pulled his knees to his chest causing his shoes to squelch against the damp ground. Then he reached over his shoulder to scratch his back where the wet grass had poked through his t-shirt making him itch. “I feel pretty gross anyway. A shower would be really nice,” he admitted even though there was a small part of him that was a little bit sad about not being able to finish their night outside.
“You know this doesn’t mean we can never try camping again, right, kiddo?” Tony asked as he pulled Peter to his feet. “We could write this one off as a learning experience and try again sometimes over the summer. And if that doesn't go the way we want then we can try again in the fall too- third times a charm and all that,” he said with a smirk.
“That would be great, Mr. Stark,” Peter said, leaning into the man as he wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Buddy,” Tony replied, giving the kid a light squeeze before leading them both towards the path that would take them back to the car and the drenched campsite. He’d already had FRIDAY track down a place for them to stay and as it were, there was a really nice lodge close by. One that would offer them two dry beds and a nice hot shower but most importantly, it had room service.
Once they had everything packed up and Tony was sitting behind the wheel, waiting for the kid to return from his last-minute jaunt to the treeline, he looked up their accommodations and chuckled. Right there, listed at the top of the breakfast menu was ‘ S’Mores Pancakes’ and he couldn’t think of a better way for them to start the next morning. Mostly because he was sure it would make Peter smile and anything that made his kid smile made him smile too. That and the boy had been right, it wouldn't be a proper camping trip without s'mores.