Because He Loves Me

Chapter 14: Back to Square One

21 days until KCM (Kassidy Comes Home)

Peter was calling Kassidy for the thirteenth time when she picked up. Kassidy was breathing extremely heavily, and Peter could sense her exhaustion through the phone.

"Peter, what is it? I have to go, I only have a one minute break." Kassidy said.

"I wanted to make sure you're okay." Peter said. Kassidy sighed and there was Russian yelling in the background. Kassidy yelled back in Russian.

"I can call you back tomorrow...or maybe some other day. Look, I gotta go, Sergei is really mad now." Kassidy said quickly.

"Sergei? Who's- wait, Kassidy!" but she had hung up. "Kassidy?" Peter shot out of his room and sprinted down the stairs into the lounge. It was a miracle he didn't fall and hit his head.

"Dad? Dad! DAD!" Peter yelled. Tony walked into the lounge.

"What is it, Peter?"

"T-t-they're abusing h-her! In Russia!" Peter stammered, suddenly unable to talk.

"What? No, no." Tony said on high alert.

"I just got off the phone with Kassidy!! She was breathing so hard, there was banging in the background, they were screaming at her in Russian and she only got a one minute break!" Peter said. Tony's worried expression faded and an understanding smile appeared instead. 

"Aw, Peter, they aren't abusing her. She's in a drill, she got a one minute break and she used it up. In a war, there aren't any breaks. They're making her training hard so she won't get hurt in the real thing. Besides, Natasha's with her. If they hurt Kassidy Nat will bring her straight home." Tony said. Peter's breathing had become normal again, but his heart was racing. 

"B-but the banging...?" 

"Gun shots, Peter, they have target practice." Banner replied. 

"Oh." Peter gave up. He wasn't going to bring Kassidy home, not like that anyway. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know, I was scared...." 

"Peter you have nothing to apologize for, you were worried about your sister and I'd be lying to say I wasn't doing the same." Tony said. 

"I want her to be home, daddy." Peter said without realizing it. A quiet murmur broke out among the Avengers in the room, and one male voice said, "Did he just call Tony 'daddy'? Isn't that what babies call their dads?" Peter whimpered. Tony got ready either to drag a furious Peter from the room, or to carry out a crying Peter. Neither happened, however. Instead Peter just moved away from Tony, seemingly unfazed by the comment. It surprised Tony, until he saw tears forming in the corners of Peter's eyes. 

"Peter, why don't you go upstairs and I'll be right there." Tony said. 

"Okay, Mr. Stark." Peter said. And if Tony weren't so angry with whoever made the comment, he might've broken in tears himself. 

5, 369 miles away. Russia. 

If Peter hadn't called Kassidy, she probably would've begged Nat to fly her home the next day. But knowing that at least one of her family members was missing her, Kassidy was able to make it through the first day. When they had arrived, the Russian trainer, called Sergei, had seemed to remember Natasha, but had ignored her while he gave Kassidy a brief tour. The entire first day Kassidy had spent in a lineup with thousands of other girls. Kassidy stuck out, since she had long black hair and almost all the others were redheads. Natasha seemed grateful for her newly bleached hair, her platinum seemed rebellious against her childhood. Kassidy and two other inky haired girls were called to a different room. Kassidy didn't see either of them come out. But all it was was a two-exit room. Kassidy was seated in a chair, where they seemed to be playing with her hair. There was no sound of scissors, so Kassidy relaxed. She must've fallen asleep,  for when she woke up she saw her own face in the mirror, but a long, red braid was trailing her back. Kassidy might've screamed, but she knew better than to do that here. Instead, she left the room with her redhead held high. Kassidy had known she would be different when she returned home, inside and out, but she never would've guessed it would happen on her first day. 

20 days until KCM

Peter had stayed in his room for the entire night. When his mother or father came in to talk, he pretended to be asleep. He skipped dinner, and now he was very hungry. With no interest in seeing anyone just yet, Peter kept to his electronics for nearly the entire day. It was only in the afternoon when there was a knock at the door. And before Peter could take off his headset and  jump back into his bed, the door opened and his parents stood there. Peter was frozen in the middle of the room, but the first thing he did was read his parents faces. Both of them looked upset. Tony seemed angry, but Pepper was only sad. She ran to her son with opened arms, and he fell into them. Landing gentle kisses all over her son's face, she brought him to his bed where they sat down. Tony sat on the opposite side of Peter, right behind Pepper. 

"Peter, we want to talk about what happened yesterday." Pepper said. Peter nodded. 

"I figured that's what you came for." 

"Well, Peter, we wanted to tell you that we are not going to allow you to call us "Mr. Stark", "mrs. Stark", "Ms. Potts", or anything except for dad, mom, daddy or mommy." Tony said. Peter blushed pink. 

"I-I'm not calling you daddy or mommy anymore." Peter said shyly. Pepper smiled sadly. Both parents knew their son would soon return to calling them by those titles. 

"Okay Peter, you don't have to." Tony said. "But if you decide to, it is not for babies. Whomever said that was out of line." 

"Who did say it?" Peter asked curiously. Pepper ran a hand through his hair lovingly. 

"We're not going to tell you, love. We don't want you to be upset with him." Pepper said. Peter frowned, but Pepper pressed another kiss to his forehead and his face softened. Peter leaned into his mother and let her run her hand up and down his back soothingly. 

"We have to go now Petey, do you want to come?" Tony asked. Peter shook his head. Pepper smiled knowingly and took Tony's hand in her own. She ran her hand through her sons hair one more time, then gave him another kiss. It was his usual signal that said "you can cry" but Peter was not interested in crying that day. 

"We love you, Peter."

Pepper and Tony left the bedroom, but not before they heard soft words leave their sons lips; 

"I love you too, Mommy and Daddy."