𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆, son of t. stark

1.5

RYDER WAS NERVOUS. Not a usual occurence for the younger Stark as he had inherited his father's uncanny gene of staying confident. However, as the clock ticked closer to 12 pm, his palms became sweatier.

Why, you must be asking.

Because, after Ryder had talked with his father yesterday, he had mustered up enough courage to actually pick up his phone and call his friends. He had explained ( insert : tried to ) to them how Tony Stark had come to be his dad and why he hadn't let anyone know.

Since he had told them the day prior, the initial shock had watered down to various ranges of emotions such as concern for his well being, complete and utter fangirling, sadness for the fact he didn't trust them enough and anger, for the fact he didn't trust them enough.

That is why he had decided to invite them over to his house ( read as : mansion ) to hang out for a couple hours and clear the general air. He was pretty confident during the call yesterday but now sweat dripped down his forehead despite him turning up the air conditioning. 

"Hey J, makes sure when dad comes home he doesn't know I have people over. Please." 

"Sure, sir."

"Not sir, J. Come on." But then the doorbell rang.

They were here.

--

He was expecting them to awkward. He was expecting himself  to be awkward. And in the initial couple of minutes, it was but once they overcame that, they were back to the previous dynamic.

"You guys want some popcorn?" He questioned, as they set up a couple of blankets and turned the tv on to watch a movie.

A chorus of yeah's and yes' rang through the air and he headed to the kitchen to pop the microwave open.

He whistled a distant tune as he waited for the timer to beep. He was interrupted, however, by Jarvis.

"Sir, I think you should head back to your guests."

"Yeah, just a sec. Just gotta wait for the popcorn to finish." Ryder gave a wave of his hand as if he was talking to an actual corporeal body.

"Well, if you think it is safe for you father and friends to be in the same room, then sure sir." Jarvis' sass was not appreciated by Ryder who in complete panic and forgetting the popcorn ran towards the room.

Now, Ryder doesn't know what he was expecting but the image of his father sitting between his friends and flicking through movies was definitely not it.

Before Ryder could completely process the scene in front of him, his dad spotted him.

"Hey kid ! Did you get the popcorn?" Tony handed the remote to Nolan who was sitting beside him.

"What are you doing here?" Ryder ignored his question, instead choosing to hit him with a question of his own.

Tony looked around at his friends, sharing a few glances with Scarlet and took a short breath. "Watching movies, obviously. Do we need to get your eyes checked out?"

Ryder felt a warm feeling creeping up his neck as his friends gave him a teasing smile. "I meant," he gritted out, "what are you doing here at home."

"Oh, yeah i finished work, and when i asked Jarvis where you were, he didn't wanna tell me, so I came here," he splayed his arms and gathered his friends in a side-ish hug, "and found these kids, who are great by the way."

His expression must have showed how ticked off he seemed to be because Margaret, bless her heart, interrupted his dad's rant about his friends and why he doesn't bring them around more often ( you know exactly why dad! ).

"You dad's really cool, Ry. He was just showing us his movie collection." She gave him a small look that definitely served its purpose of cutting off the path of destruction he was about to go on.

Now, you might be thinking why he was so angry. It's not like it's a bad thing that his dad was trying to be more 'dad like' but this did not seem like a  appropriate time to Ryder.

He had just gotten back from being kidnapped by a terrorist organisation and he was acting like everything was fine when it wasn't. He was going around, always muttering and stewing about some project of his ( read as : Mark II ) but had only let Ryder know the bare minimum.

And on top of that, they had talked a total of two times after him coming back, both of which had been initiated by him. And of those two, one was about what he takeout to order, so forgive him, if he wasn't so keen to be bonding with his father.

But he could contain himself for now, because his friends seem to be enjoying his dad's company and no matter how angry he was with him, it still felt good to see him smile again, even if it would be for a short while.

"Ryder," Zane, the one he was closest to in the group, called out, "The popcorn?" He didn't really care about the popcorn, not as much as Ryder ( atleast he hoped so ).

"Yeah, I'll go and get it."

The echoing laughter of his dad and his friends was enough to soothe his heart, for now.

***
[ 19.11.23 ]

A short chapter compared to the others, I knowwww. But all my emotions were drained after watching the aot finale because the anime hits different even after reading the manga.
Hope you all like it, go ahead and comment anything you'd like to see.