IronDad/SpiderSon One-shots

Celery

Third Person POV:
Word Count: 1,083
Spooktober 2022 Day Six: Alien

"Peter." Peter's head shot up from his book bag, looking at Tony from across the lab. The man's face was filled with confusion and slight panic. "What the actual fuck is that?"

Trying to be all nonchalant about it, Peter slid the stole in front of the view of his book bag. "What's what?"

Apparently, Peter hadn't been as nonchalant as he thought he had been the entire time he had been here, because Tony shook his head and pointed to him. "What the hell did I just see in your book bag?" Tony shook his head and started walking towards Peter.

Panic flooded through Peter's entire body. He scrambled off the stole and grabbed the book bag. "It's nothing." He clutched the book bag to his chest tightly and started to walk backwards. He was not letting Tony see this. He would freak out. No, he wouldn't just freak out. He would probably have a whole heart attack. Literally. Peter was trying to not be the reason the man had a heart attack.

"NO, nono," Tony said quickly. He looked like he was panicking. He stopped walking towards Peter, which made Peter stop too. "We can do this the easy way, which is you show me whatever is in your book bag so I can deem it not a threat." Tony paused for dramatic effect. "Or, I can chase you around the lab like a buffoon until I get fed up and just call May, who would throw shoes at you until you showed us." Again, Tony paused. This time, it was to watch the horror and confusion cross Peter's face. "You're choice, kid."

Peter paused, thinking over his choices. He knew it was a losing game either way. So, he sighed, and set his book bag down onto the stool he was sitting on. "Can you-" Peter paused. "Can you just promise you won't get mad?"

That was never a good sign. Tony just looked at Peter for a moment. The kid looked genuinely panicked, just like Tony felt. Whatever the kid had in there, which Tony had only seen a glimpse of, couldn't have been good. Still, he wouldn't get mad at the kid. He was never mad at the kid. Sometimes he got mad and projected it onto the kid, but he was never mad at the kid himself. "I promise I won't get mad. Just show me what's in the book bag."

There was a few seconds of hesitation before Peter started unzipping his book bag. He did it very slowly, refusing to make eye contact with Tony the entire time. When the book bag was finally unzipped, Peter slowly, very slowly, pulled it apart. He looked into it and smiled, the panic slowly leaving. Well, partially.

Tony watched as Peter reached in, pulling out what looked like a giant blue glob of slime. Except, it wasn't slime. Because, last time Tony checked, slime didn't have a mouth, eyes, or antennas. Despite the fact Tony was pretty sure he was on the verge of passing out, he thought that whatever slime thing Peter had was cute. It really was, but it could be dangerous. "What even is that?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Peter set him on the ground. "I don't really know. Some alien thing. I found him when I was patrolling the other night and just decided to keep him." The slime didn't roll around or anything. It just stayed where Peter put it, staring up at Peter. His eyes looked almost cartoonish as he did. "His name is Celery."

Tony stumbled towards a stool, sitting down. "Please tell me you're joking right now." Reminding himself to take deep breaths, he decided to focus on that. Obviously, the slime wasn't much of a threat. But, that meant nothing. Just because it wasn't a threat right now didn't mean it wouldn't become a threat.

"No, I'm not. I named him celery because that was one of the only things we had in the fridge last night so I fed it to him and he really liked it. He ate a whole head of celery by himself. I think he liked it, but May didn't like that the celery was gone in the morning. I just lied and told her that I ate it, but hey, it's okay. It was worth it because Celery has been a great companion." Peter squatted down, petting Celery. Celery inched closer to Peter, what looked like a smile crossing the slime's face.

Whatever Celery was, he wasn't part of this earth. Peter might not remember, but he had some pretty shitty luck with aliens. Really shitty luck. Tony knew that Peter couldn't keep Celery forever. It just wasn't right to do so. Celery probably had a family. If he didn't, well, Peter did. Tony didn't want Peter to wind up dead because of some adorable slime.

But, still. Peter looked so happy with the slime right now. It wasn't that the kid wasn't normally happy, but what the kid did took a toll on him. There were days that Peter came in here and Tony's heart just shattered. The kid definitely carried the weight of the job. He would help the kid as much as he could through it, but sometimes, Tony couldn't really help Peter. Those days were the hardest. Watching Peter leave with a sad look on his face left Tony sick to his stomach. He did everything he could to make the kid happy.

So, if this weird slime wasn't posing a threat right now, he wouldn't bother it. It was obviously making Peter happy. Plus, the kid did always say he wanted a pet. Figures his first pet would be an extraterrestrial being rather than a rabbit. That was just Peter.

Sighing, Tony got up and walked over to the slime. He patted it on the head twice, which it seemed to like. "Well, I guess you can keep him until we can find out where he is from and send him back."

Peter, no joke, let out a squeal and hugged Tony. "Thank you thank you thank you!" Peter reached down, picking up Celery. "You hear that, Celery? You get to stay with me!"

Despite knowing that it would be really hard to get rid of the slime, especially since Peter named it, Tony knew they would find his home planet. Until then, he would just have to stay with Peter. Maybe that wasn't the worst thing.

Just maybe.

That's it for this chapter! Remember to drink some water, eat something, take medicine (if you have to), and rest today. You did a good job and I am proud of you :)
Till next time
- Storm