Work Text:
Tony and Pepper both turned when they heard footsteps coming down the hall. Morgan was at school, and Peter was at college. Maybe Rhodey had flown in and not told them. They were both surprised to see Peter wearing a pair of Pepper pajama pants, Tony’s old MIT sweater, hair sticking up in all directions, bags under his eyes, and somehow only one slipper while the other foot remained bare.
“Sup.” Peter grabbed a mug and poured coffee into it. He took a sip of it, black, grimacing.
Pepper just looked at Tony, who looked at her and then back at Peter.
“Hi, kiddo. What’s that on the sweater you’re wearing?” Tony walked over. There was a splotch of something brown there.
Peter looked down, shrugging, “Could be anything really.”
Tony just nodded, not sure where to go from here, “When did you get in? You’re not on break.”
“Not sure. I need to work on homework.” Peter grabbed some snacks and his coffee disapearing to his room.
“Should we tell him how bad he smells?” Pepper crinkled her nose.
“He can smell it, right?” Tony wasn’t prepared for this.
“I mean, his shower isn’t broken, so I think he’s unaware.” Pepper started packing up her bag for work, “Please, make him shower and get him back to school. We don’t need him failing any classes. He won’t be able to handle the guilt.”
~
“Pete. Kid. I think we should talk.” Tony knocked on the door before coming in. Thankfully, the room was still clean, so he must have gotten in last night. Tony was worried Peter had secretly been rotting in his room based on the smell, and they just hadn’t realized it. Oh god. What must his dorm room smell like?
Peter was typing away on his laptop, “I have a paper due. Can it wait?”
Tony exhaled loudly, “No. It really can’t.”
Peter paused typing, glancing up, “What is it?”
“There is no easy way to say this. You stink. Bad. I think you should shower.” Tony sat on the edge of the kid’s bed.
“Later.” Peter went back to typing.
“Today, Pete,” Tony told his kid.
It was now 3 a.m. Peter was laughing to himself as he wrote. I’m a genius. He was going to ace this paper and all the rest of his classes, and everything would be great again. He looked toward his attached bathroom. Nah. It can wait.
~
“Peter. Your dad said you were home, and you need to emerge from this room to come say hi to your baby sister, who loves you dearly.” Rhodey’s voice called out later that morning.
Peter groaned, but did roll out of bed. He needed to eat something anyway. He made his way downstairs, finding his uncle making pancakes with Morgan, “Where’s dad?”
“He had a meeting with Pepper this morning.” Rhodey took a step back, shaking his head, “No. No. That smell. It burns.”
Peter ignored him and went over to Morgan, “Hug?”
She crinkled her nose like Pepper, “Petey. What’s that smell?”
“You all are being dramatic.” Peter threw his hands in the air, “So I missed showering for a couple of days. It’s not that bad.”
Rhodey flipped a pancake, “This is worse than a couple days. When did you last brush your teeth?”
Peter let out a laugh that sounded crazy even to his own ears: “I think—Wait. What day is it?”
“Maybe daddy forgot to buy him soap for college.” Morgan chimed in.
“Are those Pepper’s pants?” Rhodey passed a plate of pancakes to Morgan, “Where’s your other slipper?”
“No idea.” Peter shrugged, “I don’t think I know anything anymore.”
“Sit down, kiddo,” Rhodey told his nephew.
Peter just sat on the kitchen floor, pulled his knees up to his chest in a hug, “I’m fine.”
Rhodey looked to the heavens for help. This is going to suck. He sat down, ignoring the smell from what he assumed was weeks or longer of not showering or taking care of himself, and hugged his nephew, “Why don’t you go shower, and when you’re done, you can eat, and then we’ll figure out what you don’t know together.”
Peter didn’t move. “I don’t think I can.”
“He forgot how to use water.” Morgan offered, “And toothpaste.”
“He did not.” Rhodey told her before looking at Peter, “You didn’t, right?”
Peter laughed, “I’m so tired.”
“I know. Shower, breakfast, bed. You’ve got this.” Rhodey reassured.
Peter lay his head against Rhodey’s shoulder, “Can I stay here for just a minute?”
Rhodey pulled away, wrinkling his nose, “Fine. But only one minute.”
~
Peter emerged from the shower in his own sweatpants and sweater, “Happy?”
“Do you feel better?” Rhodey looked over from the couch where he was on his phone. He had called in Happy to drive Morgan to school so he could help his nephew get back on track.
Peter sat down, “Food.”
Rhodey frowned, “Please?”
“Food, please.” Peter corrected.
Rhodey went to warm up some pancakes. He brought them back, but Peter was gone. Dammit. I need him to do three things. Shower, eat, bed. Then we problem solve, but does he listen? No. Rhodey made his way to Peter’s room and found him back on his computer. He sighed, “Pete.”
“I have to. It’s due.” Peter glanced over.
“You need to eat. Bring the computer with you.” Rhodey tilted his head toward the door.
Peter closed the laptop, “Fine. Only because I’m actually starving.”
~
“How is he?” Tony hadn’t wanted to leave this morning, but Pepper had insisted Rhodey was capable of taking care of Peter since he had taken care of Tony in college.
Rhodey had been working on making some sandwiches for lunch, “I’m about to go wake him from his nap. I promised him I would only let him sleep for an hour.”
“How long ago was that?” Tony asked.
“Three hours ago.” Rhodey shrugged, “He needed it. Sometimes it’s better to beg forgiveness.”
“I’ll go. Did he—“ Tony left the question open-ended.
“He showered. Why do you doubt? I got you through college, didn’t I?” Rhodey put the sandwich on the plate next to the apple he had already cut up and the chips he had piled high.
“Thanks.” Tony took the plate and headed to Peter’s room, knocking lightly. He opened the door and found Peter sleeping soundly, “Pete. You want lunch.”
“Yeah.” Came the mumbled response, “Pasta.”
“It’s a sandwich.” Tony rolled his eyes.
Peter rolled to his side to look at his dad, “What time is it?”
“Time for lunch.” Tony held up the plate he had already mentioned.
“I have a paper due at 11:59 tonight.” Peter sat up, “I slept too long.”
“How far along are you with the paper?”
“It seemed really good at 3 a.m.” Peter laughed.
Peter grabbed his computer and passed it to his dad, who started reading.
“I’ll read, and you eat.” Tony started adding comments for edits, “Did you mean to talk about unicorns in a scientific paper?”
Peter paused mid-chew before shaking his head.
“Just going to highlight that section in red then.” Tony kept reading, and soon the room was quiet.
~
The family sat together for dinner.
“You smell better.” Morgan told Peter, “I told my teacher you smelled like garbage, and she said that wasn’t kind, but it was true.”
Peter rolled his eyes, “It wasn’t that bad.”
Everyone laughed.
“I almost died.” Rhodey scooped more corn on his plate, “That was worse than Tony's sophomore year.”
Tony threw a piece of corn at his best friend, “I never smelled that bad.”
Peter took a bite of the chicken Pepper had made, “You guys have no idea. I think college is tougher now.”
“You didn’t tell us what’s going on beyond the normal stress.” Pepper reminded him of coming to his rescue.
“I have a group project.” Peter explained.
“Yikes,” Rhodey took a bite of mashed potatoes. No one likes group projects.
“No one is reliable, so I’ve been doing all the work, so I haven’t had time to take care of myself or focus on other homework, so I’m just—“ Peter looked at his food, not knowing what else to say.
Rhodey reached over and squeezed his shoulder, “It’s okay. We have a plan. Tony emailed your professors from your account to say there was a family emergency and that you had to come home. We’re going to work together to get homework caught up, and we’ll road trip back with you and take the suits home.”
“Thanks uncle Rhodey.”
“And dad,” Tony added.
“And dad.” Peter smiled before going back to eating, “And Morgan, you’d better tell your teacher I normally smell great.”
Morgan giggled, “I can’t lie. Daddy says it’s wrong.”
“Dad!” Peter whined, “Make her tell her teacher I smell good.”
“Morgan, tell your teacher that Peter smells wonderful tomorrow.” Tony appeased.
“Fine. But if he smells bad on Christmas break, I’ll tell on him again.”
“I’m never living this down.” Peter groaned.
“Sophomore year,” Rhodey whispered.
“You and me both.” Tony groaned.