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“Huh… this is new.”
“What?” Peter asks.
Tony is raising an eyebrow at his very advanced Stark Phone.
“... ‘Irondad’.”
Peter nearly chokes on his drink, almost making a mess in the extremely expensive kitchen, so he swallows as much cappuccino as he can to hide the fact he’s literally shaking and feeling like he’s going to die.
“Whoa! That sure is weird! Hahahaha!” He laughs hysterically. “Hahaha… haha… ha.”
Tony, however, doesn’t even bat an eye at him as he’s concentrated on his phone, merely shrugging and not suspecting anything.
“Eh. I’ve seen worse.”
Peter casually tries to lean onto the counter, or else he might fall.
“So… that’s a good thing?” He wonders, trying not to sound like a kid wanting approval.
Tony seems to scroll down the Tumblr blog – why the heck is Iron Man doing on Tumblr of all places? –, carefully analyzing each post like it’s a precious suit of armor.
“Definitely better than a tabloid, I’ll say,” he comments. “It’s just a blog.”
In silence, Peter paces a little in the kitchen, when he hears Tony laughing from the couch and breaks him. The teen wants to hide his tomato face from the world and drown his sorrows in the cappuccino, so he gets more and more and takes it all in one sip.
“Hey, try not to take too much caffeine, buddy,” the older man observes in concern.
Peter manages to scoff jokingly. “Look who’s talking.”
“I’m not the one who has the Peter Tingle.”
“I’ve told you to stop calling it that!”
Tony smiles, then it drops quickly.
“Kid, you seem tense,” he notes. “Do you want to sit?”
“No, no, I’m fine.” Peter sounds like he’s about to cry, just hearing Tony laughing just now. Laughing at the pathetic Irondad blog.
“Peter, I think you should sit down. You look like you’re going to fall.”
The boy can’t even stop him, so he’s already on the couch when Tony grabs the remote.
“I’ll get you water instead, okay?” The latter says softly. “You want me to turn on the TV?”
Peter nods frantically, anything to distract his anxious mind. Tony puts on a dumb sitcom that neither of them know, but it seems harmless.
The day goes by, and Peter can at least hide it better with the TV.
Tony doesn’t question anything, either.
At night, Peter finds Tony contemplating, as if he’s seeking the answers to the universe.
“What’s up, Mr. Stark?” Peter asks.
Tony blinks, having been distracted.
“Oh. I was just thinking…” he suddenly laughs. “Irondad has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
Of all things, Peter definitely wasn’t expecting that.
“You mean… that blog you found earlier?” He recalls, in fake innocence.
Tony nods, still grinning. Peter has never seen him smile like that.
“But… don’t you think it’s weird?” No. What is Peter saying. What is he doing . “I-I mean, some… random person calling you that? Posting about you like that?”
Tony looks back at him in confusion, and Peter wants to punch himself hard.
“Why would that be weird?” The hero questions.
Peter should shut up. Forever. Everyone (enemies included) and their grandmas agree.
“A-Ah, I dunno… Don’t you find it creepy?” He asks anyway.
“Kid, I’ve gotten more than used to people and media all around the world talking about me, spreading things that are absurdly untrue.”
(The boy’s heart aches again.)
“But that blog? It’s so… authentic. It’s just a little someone who wants to share their thoughts with other little people. No ill intentions at all. At least that’s what I’ve seen so far.”
Peter relaxes, but he also wants to cry at how flattered and honored his mentor sounds because of a mere Tumblr blog.
Looking down, he tries to disguise his relief, only for Tony to hum and approach Peter, tapping his phone.
“Alright, kid, I thought we could go for pizza tonight,” he suggests. “Sounds good?”
Peter nods. “Y-Yeah, okay. Pizza is good.”
“Great. Same order?”
“You know me.”
“Alright.”
Tony spends a little while on the phone, as Peter disguises his relief and pays attention to the room instead.
“I’ll go take a shower and we meet in the living room, okay?” The man tells him, Peter turning his attention back to him. “Please don’t start the movie without me.”
“Okay, Mr. Stark.”
Tony rolls his eyes. “You can just call me Tony, kid.”
“Okay, Mr. Stark,” Peter smirks.
The hero groans. “ Anyway .” And he walks away, pretending to be offended, as Peter snorts to himself.
Finally, the teenager sits on the big couch to look at his cell phone, which he left on mute. Peter finds a couple messages from Ned and the Decathlon…
And some from his secret third thing.
One new follower.
therealhero started following irondad
Huh.
“The real hero?” Peter mumbles it out loud.
It’s the only user that has liked… literally all the posts.
When Peter visits the profile, he sees it’s an empty blog, the background light gray but the font dark red. The profile picture is a hand holding an Iron Man helmet like it’s the skull from Hamlet. It doesn’t seem like a random photo or art taken from the internet.
Besides the title “The Real Hero”, it only says in the bio:
You know the one. TS
…
Peter can’t contain it anymore.
“HE’S FOLLOWING MY IRONDAD BLOG?!”