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Peter was having a sleepover at the Stark Tower.
Well, he wouldn’t say it was a sleepover out loud, but that’s what he called it in his head and was super excited for it. It was the first time he was staying the night and there were so many things to do! He squirmed in his seat in his Aunt’s car, she was kind enough to drop him off before her shift, and did his best to not be too much of a distraction to her. Peter wasn’t too sure how successful he was.
“Remember to shower and brush your teeth before you get tired, okay?” May said as she parked the car. “And text me when you’re on your way home.”
“Yep, I will.” Peter said, bouncing his knee restlessly. “Can I go?” Aunt May laughed.
“Yes, go, have fun and be nerdy. Love you!” She called after him as he opened his car door.
“Love you too!” Peter replied, tossing his overnight bag onto one shoulder. Thankfully, he’d remembered to put his noise cancelling headphones on before getting out of the car, so the bustling city streets weren’t as disorientating.
Mr. Stark had invited Peter over for the weekend, saying it was a great opportunity to work longer hours together and get in some valuable bonding time. Peter had flushed happily at that and agreed almost immediately, unwilling to pass up the opportunity. He got Tony to himself once a week, something he was eternally grateful for, but this seemed like a step over the “mentor-mentee relationship” line and more into “parent figure-child figure relationship” territory.
Almost guiltily, Peter remembered the secret items stowed away in his bag, and it suddenly felt ten pounds heavier on his back. He nearly hadn’t packed them, feeling like doing so would be violating Tony’s trust, but he eventually decided what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Honestly, the pacifier, teddy bear, and rattle toy were pretty easily explained with the same excuse Peter had been using for years in case Ned discovered them during one of his sleepovers.
Oh these? Aunt May has been babysitting a coworker’s kid and I’ve been lending a hand, must have packed them by accident!
Peter entered the elevator that’d take him to the penthouse and tried to shake off the anxiety bubbling low in his gut. I did him no good dwelling on it and he really wanted to have a good time. Also, just thinking about his paci made him feel smaller and that wasn’t helpful at the moment.
When the elevator doors slid open, Peter stepped out to see none other than Pepper Stark sitting on a cream colored couch sipping a cup of steaming tea. At his entrance, she glanced up and smiled warmly.
“Hello, Peter. Tony told me you’d be here about now. Want some tea?” Peter shook his head in polite decline.
“Is Mr. Stark in his lab?” He asked, glancing around in case said man popped in around the corner.
“No, he’s actually setting up in the other room. Why don’t you take a look?” She gestured to a hallway leading down to what Peter knew was Mr. and Mrs. Stark’s bedroom and a few other doors he hadn’t looked into. Curious, he padded across the carpet and down the hall to see a door ajar on his left.
Peering inside, he was surprised to find a fully furnished guest room decked out in blues and reds. They weren’t the bright colors of his suit and instead softer, the walls a gentle blue and the sheets, embarrassingly enough, seemed to be children’s spider men sheets. A few posters covered the walls of various media Peter had mentioned liking, and a few boxes of legos lined the shelves. In the middle of the floor surrounded by nails and pieces of wood was Mr. Stark.
“Hey kid, I kinda hoped I’d be able to finish up before you go here but…” He guestered rather helplessly down at the mess. “Seems like modern furniture has bested me.” Giggling, Peter quickly joined the man to help put together a navy blue nightstand. “Jeez, I’m getting old.” Tony groaned when he stood up with cracking joints. Again, Peter could barely contain a giggle.
He had been fighting off a younger mindset for a solid thirty minutes, the juvenile decorations of the room and the safe presence of Tony making it dangerously easy to give into the childish thoughts quickly filling his head.
“So, what do you think, underoos?” Peter was nearly at a loss for words. The nightstand had a small lamp along with an Iron Man themed alarm clock on top.
“I love it.” He managed, feeling strangely choked up. “I-thank you, Mr. Stark.”
The man yanked Peter closer with an arm around his shoulders.
“Call me Tony, kid.” They both knew he wouldn’t.
The next few hours they spent tucked away in Tony’s lab, but far sooner than expected he was ushering Peter out and towards Mr. Stark’s personal theater room. Peter had barely contained himself from taking a running jump onto the cozy looking couches.
You’re a big kid, Peter reminded himself, you gotta act like one. At least until bedtime.
“What’ll it be, kid? Take your pick.” Tony said, handing him the remote. Of course, he had every streaming service imaginably and hundreds of options to choose from. Slightly, overwhelmed, Peter settled on Lilo and Stitch . He originally thought about putting on Star Wars, but he was feeling close to slipping and let the younger impulse win.
Thankfully, Mr. Stark didn’t comment on his choice of entertainment and instead settled down for the movie with a large bowl of popcorn in his lap.
Peter momentarily longed to go get his pacifier, but squashed the idea quickly when he imagined the look on Tony’s face when he saw it.
However, that didn’t stop a few happy stims during the movie, those were inevitable with Disney. That didn’t particularly help him stay feeling big.
The rest of the movie continued without incident, but halfway through Peter realized he was getting sleepy and he promised Auntie May he’d brush his teeth before night night.
“Be right back.” Peter mumbled, uncurling from his comfy spot on the couch.
In his room, he fumbled with the zippers and shuffled through his things in search of his toothbrush. It somehow got buried at the bottom and he had to pull out his teddy to reach for it, accidentally dislodging his pacifier. Grumbling, Peter turned to see it’d rolled across the floor near the door. He started to stand to retrieve it when he noticed the pair of socked feet standing in the doorway.
Fearfully, Peter slowly looked up to see Mr. Stark standing there looking down at the stuffed bear in the teen’s hand and then at the soother on the floor. Peter froze, the excuse he kept tucked away disappearing like mist in the sunlight as his jaw fell open in horror. Red hot shame flooded his face and he made a sputtering sound as he desperately tried to make his mouth work to fix this. He was suddenly too small and tears prickled in his eyes to his mortification.
Tony leaned down and picked up the paci, turning it over in his fingers. It was clear he recognized it was larger than one made for real babies.
“What’s this, Pete?” Tony asked, voice carefully neutral.
Peter burst into uncontrollable sobs.
He dropped his stuffy and brought his hands up to his face as if it could cover the tears. Peter couldn’t seem to escape the swirling thoughts of being caught and how bad he’d been to bring his little things and that Tony would hate him now.
“ Suh-sorry! ” He cried, not seeing the startled look on Mr. Stark’s face. Peter had more he wanted to say but the words clogged up in his throat and morphed into bawling whines before leaving his mouth.
Arms carefully wrapped around his shoulders and he was gently pulled into Mr. Stark’s side, a large hand cupping the side of his head pulled him down onto a warm shoulder. Sniffling, Peter peeked out from between his fingers to see that he wasn’t being kicked out and instead was being hugged.
“Hey, shh shh, what’s with the tears, kiddo?” Peter had never heard the man’s voice so soft or kind before, and he couldn’t help the way he relaxed into him. “Why are you sorry?”
He rubbed at his nose, more smearing the snot and tears than wiping them up. Slowly, he was able to calm down his erratic breathing and hiccups enough to speak.
“Sorry for…for bein’ w-weird ‘nd bein’ a baby.” Tony sighed and carefully steered them towards the bed, sitting them down side by side without releasing Peter.
“Hey, none of that, okay?” Peter glanced up through teardrop covered lashes, but his vision was obscured by a thumb sweeping over his eyelids. “Listen, kid. You’re not weird or whatever for this, everyone copes in different ways. If it helps you, then you don’t have to apologize for it.”
Hope blossomed in his chest despite the anxiety that continued to boil in his gut. It was okay? Mr. Stark didn’t think he was strange for wanting to be a baby?
“Ruh-really?” Peter asked, leaning further into Tony.
“Really.” He replied, a small smile on his face. “I will be honest, I don’t fully understand everything and I definitely think we should talk about it once you’re in a different headspace, but yeah kid it’s totally okay.”
Now the tears that slid down his cheeks were a mix of relief and happiness. Peter felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He wished he’d been able to tell someone on his own time, instead of having it discovered suddenly, and he definitely didn’t feel ready to let anyone else know, but the relief that someone knew and they weren’t judging him felt so nice.
Without realizing it, Peter slipped completely and a lot of the Big Kid thoughts melted away. He let out a soft sigh and curled closer into Tony’s arms.
“You wanna finish the movie, bud?” Tony asked, still using that soft soft voice.
“Uh huh.” Peter mumbled around the thumb he’d subconsciously sucked into his mouth. Tony pulled the digit away and replaced it with Peter’s blue paci, which he accepted with a happy little hum.
Standing with a soft groan and spine crack, Peter was hefted up into Tony’s arms and settled on his hip. Wrapping his arms around his neck, the binky bobbed between his lips as Peter sleepily clung to his mentor.
He felt so safe and warm he didn’t even consider that Pepper might have seen Mr. Stark walking by carrying his teenage lab assistant like an oversized toddler. No, Peter was too busy with his soother and the sensation of being held.
They settled back down on the couch, the cartoon still paused exactly where they’d left off, but now they were in a much different position. Peter was laying sideways across Tony’s lap, head tucked beneath his chin feeling the slight tickling of his goatee against his forehead if he looked up, and Tony had both arms around the kid’s waist.
“You ready, bubba?” Tony asked, pulling a blankie over the two of them.
“Uh huh.”
After the movie was finished and Peter was almost entirely in dreamland, he was put carefully to bed with the covers tucked around him and his teddy resting in the crook of his arm.
“Goodnight, Pete.” Tony whispered.
Peter clung to consciousness long enough to slur, “Night, Dada.” before succumbing to sleep.
Finding himself oddly choked up, Tony smoothed out the blanket one last time and leaned down to press a kiss to Peter’s forehead. No one had to know about the last part, though. He flicked on the lamp to its lowest setting, about as dim as a typical night light, and watched the rise and fall of Peter’s chest for a long moment. His pacifier slipped out slightly from between his lips and Tony reached out to gently push the soother back into place. Peter just huffed sleepily and resumed suckling.
As he walked out, heart seemingly stuffed full of an unfamiliar warm and fuzzy feeling, Tony took extra care to close the door quietly to not disturb the little one snoozing away.