Behind the foggy mirror

Chapter 14

Peter quickly got used to calling Tony dad. Sure, sometimes he still called him by his first name, but more and more often he called him dad.

A week had passed since the day of the adoption, and everything was going their way. Peter and Tony were still getting used to their new roles, and the Avengers were helping them. When Tony had to leave for an important meeting Steve or someone else took care of Peter until Tony returned. That's what happened today, too, with Peter playing video games, Natasha, Clint and Bucky watching, while Steve cleaned and cooked. At first the boy wanted to help, but after he spilled a bag of flour, set fire to the pasta and fell climbing on the countertop he was banned from the kitchen.

"Are you sure you don't want me to help you, Steve?" called out Peter, because he felt guilty watching Steve clean up without doing anything himself.

"Yes, thank you," Steve smiled at the boy, while sending virulent glances to the others, then continued scrubbing the sink.

Some time later Peter was bored with the game, so he got up from the couch stretching his limbs. He thought he could test the new phone, since he hadn't actually even used it yet, and maybe he would text Ton.... Dad. He turned on the phone admiring it for a moment, then moved on to contacts. In fact, he had never used a phone before, so he didn't quite know how to use it. He only relied on what he picked up from Aunt May. Finally, he clicked Dad's contact and texted:

"Hi Dad, what are you doing?"

He then sent a picture of himself with a silly face. He hoped it would make his dad laugh during a boring meeting.

There was no response for a while, until a stranger texted him.

"Hey honey, it's me, Tony. My phone just died :(."

Peter was a little surprised that his dad introduced himself as: Tony, because the man tried to use "dad" when referring to himself. Hm, maybe he forgot.

"How long will you be at the meeting?"

Peter asked in a text message. He immediately got an answer.

"I'm already done, waiting in front of the tower, but I have some heavy boxes for you with a surprise ;). Could you come out in front of the tower for a while and help me? Come alone."

Peter was already getting up to leave. He attracted a few watchful glances with this.

"Where are you going, young man?" Natasha asked.

"Nowhere," said Peter, but his squeaky voice and blush betrayed him.

"Oh yeah? Then why did you get up?"

"I'm going to the library," lied Peter. Dad asked him to come alone, he couldn't let him down.

"Should we go with you?" Clint asked him from the couch.

"No, that's okay," Peter pressed the elevator button. He was lucky that the library was on another floor. He could pretend that he was going there, in fact going all the way down to the lobby.

"I don't believe it. Show me the message after which you stand up so quickly." Peter entered the elevator and was about to close the door when Natasha held it with her hand.

"No!" cried Peter stomping his foot like a child. "It's daddy. He reminded me that today I have to extend the period of borrowing a book."

"Peter, Tony is the owner of the library. You won't have any trouble."

"Daddy told me to pretend to be a usual boy. He has not publicly announced that he has adopted me yet" Peter himself was surprised by his excuse.

"In that case, I'll go with you," Natasha said, entering the elevator, and the door behind her closed automatically. Her tone of voice indicated that she would not argue with him. The mission had failed. Peter screwed up.