The Scattered Stories of Spider-Son and Iron Dad

The 'Father' Dilemma - Peter

Peter had known that something was up for a while. If he had to pick an exact time, he would have said it had been at least a month, but probably a little more. It had started with Mr. Stark being weird around him for a little bit, and Col. Rhodes and Ms. Potts keeping a bit better track of him as well. Then May was looking at him differently, and that had really told him something was up.

Now, none of it added up to anything bad, as far as he observed. If anything, everyone seemed a lot happier, though there was an underlying tension he couldn't quite describe. But the weekend before last had really been what set him off on the hunt to discover what had changed. Not only were Mr. Stark and Col. Rhodes—Tony and Rhodey, at the compound, Pete—being more attentive or watching him more. No, now it was the entire team. Now, if it was Steve or Nat being more mindful of how he was moving or Bucky just listening to him ramble on about some new piece of tech he was trying to fabricate, then it would have fallen within the realm of normal. But no, it wasn't just them, it was Sam and Vision, Wanda and Pietro, and Christy and Merlin, too.

But none of it was pinging his spider sense, not as dangerous; instead he was just slightly more aware of the staring and sudden cut off sentences and questions over the weekend. At first he was worried he did something wrong. But that didn't last long as a theory considering how normal everyone was being in spite of the weird, and how happy they all seemed? No, nothing was wrong, technically.

But something had changed. Peter had theories, though none of them were close to the truth. Not that he knew that, of course. With everyone being weird over the last couple months, he didn't find it at all weird when Tony invited him and May over for dinner the Friday, he got out of school for spring break. If anything, it was the most normal thing to happen in ages.

May always insisted on bringing something whenever she came to the tower, so they had been a bit late. She begged Happy to stop as they came up on one of their favorite Italian restaurants. She had hopped out, run inside, and come back in less than five minutes with enough cannoli cake to feed a small army. What had really made them late was trying to merge back into traffic. But everyone and everything made it to the tower in one piece.

Dinner had been nice, just the four of them. Conversation had been fun, ranging from shenanigans in upper management to whatever stories HIPPA allowed May to tell from the ER. And Peter knew nothing was wrong, but something had felt off the whole time they were eating. But the invisible line of tension had risen exponentially when they all moved to eat cake in the living room.

The mounting fear must have been plain on his face, cause Tony chuckled and smiled softly. He crossed his legs, saying, "Relax, Pete. Nothing's wrong."

His words might have made Peter feel a little better, but that didn't stop the tingling from slowly crawling up his spine. Tony might not have meant to do anything bad—it could even be really cool—but Peter had this feeling that something big was about to happen. The pointed looks between the adults, especially Tony and May, didn't really help matters.

"Okay... So, Peter... Your aunt and I have been talking about some things the last few weeks. Things that involve you, and we'd like your opinion on them. Obviously... I mean you'll be 16 this summer, and-I mean you're not an adult, but that doesn't mean you can't make decisions and have opinions. You're a genius, so your input would be appreciated, regardless--"

"—Tony..."

Pepper was kind enough to cut off his rambling with a hand to his knee and a soft voice. She was smiling, but she looked at Peter with a dramatic eye roll and some sympathy in her eyes. May was shaking her head softly, but she was still smiling, too. That, at least, helped Peter to fight the still rising feeling of unease. But nothing could have prepared him for what he would hear next.