It's About Time

Ch. 2

It took three days before Pepper got an answer from the lawyers.  She had tried explaining what they wanted very thoroughly, but up until the last 24 hours they hadn't understood correctly.  When she finally got an email back explaining that it was possible although difficult to do, she forwarded the email to Peter and Tony.  She read it three times to make sure she had it all right.  They would have to go to court, but they had good enough lawyers they could keep it secret.  They had done it multiple times without the press finding out, so she didn't have to worry about that.  They would have to get copies of the legal documents to change all of Peter's information like his passport, birth certificate, etc.  It sounded like a fairly long process, but it didn't sound difficult.  Their lawyers were good and she had no doubt they could get it all done under the radar of the press.  As it turned out, they didn't even need someone with Peter's new last name to sign on as a guardian.  He could change his last name to 'Safendorp' and he would be fine as long as both Pepper and Tony allowed him (they wouldn't).

When Pepper and Tony both returned from work, they were surprised to discover Peter wasn't in the living room with Ned and Michelle watching TV.  They both knew his friends had come over after school and their regular activities usually involved hanging out in the living room ("It's close to the kitchen").  Tony glanced at Pepper who just shrugged.  He went down to the lab and Pepper went to check Peter's room.  Sure enough, the three of them were hovered around Peter's computer looking at something online.  Pepper couldn't see what it was, but it didn't seem like a movie.

"What are you three working on?"  she asked.  They all jumped and spun around to face her, grinning innocently.  That made her suspicious.  "Should I be concerned?"

"No,"  Peter said.  He moved aside from the computer and presented her with what looked like a list.  "I told them we were gonna change my last name so I could go to school with them and we were looking for good names."  Pepper smiled.

"Did you find any?"  she asked.  Peter nodded.

"We liked Parker,"  Ned answered.  "Peter Parker sounds good."

"It does,"  Pepper agreed.  "Well, if you guys get hungry just let me know.  I'm sure we have chips or something somewhere."

"Okay,"  Peter said.  "Bye, Mom!"

"Bye, Aunt Pepper!"  Ned said, waving as she walked back down the hall and into the living room.  They went back to their research, but didn't find anything they liked as much as Parker.  By the time Michelle and Ned had to leave, they had happily presented the name to both Tony and Pepper.  Tony agreed with Pepper, it sounded good.  He just wasn't too fond of the idea that it made Peter no longer a Stark.

"We can change it back once he's out of school,"  Pepper promised.  Tony still didn't like it, but he didn't argue any more.  Instead, he and Peter went down to the lab to work on some things before dinner.

* * *

Since it was Wednesday night, it was movie night after dinner.  Peter washed the dishes while Pepper picked out a movie and Tony wiped down the table.  Pepper came into the kitchen to make popcorn then went back into the living room.  Tony was the second one to join her and Peter was last.  He turned off the kitchen light and dove over the couch.  Pepper yelped then scolded him as he lay on the ground, his head bent at a funny angle as he groaned.  He had over calculated how fast he needed to dive and ended up hitting the floor with his head.  Tony was nearly in tears from laughing so hard when Peter had let out a string of curses.  Pepper was now scolding both of them.

"You better not do that again!"  Pepper told him.  Peter gave an awkward salute from his position on the floor then twisted around so he could sit upright.  He climbed on the couch and sat down beside his dad.  Once Pepper was sure both Peter and Tony were settled, she hit play on the movie.

"We've seen this movie four times!"  Peter complained, grabbing a blanket to bury himself in.  Tony rolled his eyes and passed the popcorn bowl to Peter.

"It's a good movie,"  Pepper said as the Jurassic World theme ended.  Peter grumbled about it getting boring and predictable at this point so Tony moved the popcorn bowl.

"Hey!"  Peter said.  Pepper shushed them, hitting Tony's knee as the movie begun.

"You don't deserve it,"  Tony whispered.  Peter rolled his eyes and reached over his dad to grab more popcorn.  The entire movie, Pepper got after them for talking.  Peter made a point of quoting as much as he could just to prove it was too predictable.  Tony made commentary the entire time.  When it was finally over, Pepper gave them both a lecture on being disrespectful whenever it was her turn to pick a movie.

"You choose that one every time,"  Peter said.  Tony agreed and Pepper groaned in frustration.

"If I don't chose that one will you watch it quietly?"  she asked.  They both promised they would, but she didn't have high hopes.  She passed the empty popcorn bowl to Tony and told him to go wash it.  He rolled his eyes but kissed her cheek as he got up.  She then sent Peter to bed, reminding him that she and Tony wouldn't be home the next two days and that Natasha was going to be staying with him.

"Awesome!  Is she bringing Steve and Bucky?  Cause then we can have our capture the flag ninja game!"  he cheered.  Pepper looked confused and concerned, but Peter told her not to worry about it.  "It's safe.  Natasha's already taught me how to shoot, so it's not like I'll hit something in the house."  That did the exact opposite of calm Pepper down.

"Maybe I'll just have Rhodey come over,"  she said.

"No!  I was just kidding about the shooting and the game!"  Peter exclaimed.  He was lying and they both knew it, but Pepper had already asked Natasha and Rhodey was currently deployed, so they were stuck with what they had.

"Don't get hurt,"  Pepper told him.  Peter grinned.

"I won't!"  he promised.  He kissed Pepper's cheek.  "Goodnight!"

"Goodnight,"  Pepper replied.

"Goodnight!"  Tony shrieked, his voice many octaves higher than it normally was.