Rough Waters • Peter Parker

SIX

vi. the crew™

***

"IRON MAN?"

Bianca's shrill screech reached my ears as soon as I opened her video call. "I saw it on tv and I was like amazed 'cause he has the metal body and he can fly but then I find out he's your dad? Oh my God!" she babbled. She was speaking a mile a minute and getting all high pitched and squeaky which was kind of unsettling. I opened my mouth to say something but then I imagine Pepper calling me out for being rude so I shut my mouth and just smiled.

"On another note!" she went on. It was almost like she was talking to herself. She didn't need a response from me to continue on. We could be doing this for hours and she wouldn't even notice. "Dad said you were going to Arya's too which means I'll get to see you more often!"

I blinked. "Who's Arya?"

Bianca stopped midway through starting another sentence. "My-" she paused, correcting herself. "Our teacher!" she said enthusiastically. "My Dad said your Dad was sending you to Arya with me because he's too busy with the Iron Man stuff to like, homeschool you like he used to and he thought Arya would be a better choice than his assistant!"

"Pepper would be too busy anyway," I mumbled because I had nothing else to say. This was news to me. Dad had promised to never send me to a school and Dad didn't usually break his promises. 

I turned to Bianca who noticed that my face had fallen and she stopped talking. "Dom?" she asked carefully. "Don't worry, Arya's great!"

My head shot up. I had forgotten about her for a second. "I gotta go, talk later!" I screeched ending the video call and trudging downstairs to the workshop. 

Dad was instantly aware of my presence as soon as my feet touched the floor, the sound of my stomping dragging him out of whatever project he was immersed in.

"Okay Mr. Tempest, what's up with you?" he said, closing a hologram file Jarvis had opened.

"I was talking to Bianca," I grumbled crossing my arms, aggressively taking a seat on a rolling chair.

"And? Did you get tired of her already?" he asked, smiling and sliding out a pen from behind his ear.

"No," I mumbled, "but she told me something."

"What did she-" realization dawned on him. "Oh." 

He grabbed the back of my chair and rolled it closer to him, turning it so that I was facing him as he leaned against one of the worktables. Grease stained part of his forehead. He had been tinkering constantly and it had been just a couple of days since he had announced his identity as Iron Man. "Kid," he began slowly trying to muster some form of an explanation.

I don't really know what got into me at that very moment and now, I really regret it. It was bad, it was so, so bad. Dad already thought he was a horrible father and I really wasn't helping.

I turned sharply, jumping out of my chair. "Yeah, I get it, you're too busy for me now," I murmured. Ouch.

"Dominic," he tried again, but he didn't move. He seemed to be frozen in place.

"Jarvis, remind me to actually go, Bianca's expecting me and I don't wanna let her down." I threw the comment over my shoulder as if it didn't matter at all but I knew it meant everything to him. I was being cruel.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. It was a dumb thing to say and it was a really bad time to say it too, but my dumbass child brain thought it would be appropriate (it was definitely not). I disappeared into my room without a word and slammed the door as hard as I could.

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I didn't actually hate the 'school'. Sure, it was strange that it was in someone's living room but Arya, true to Bianca's words, was actually pretty great. She was awkward, sure, and a bit strange, but she was nice and she taught in the way Dad did, with dumb stories and frankly worrying experiences. 

There wasn't a lot of people like I'd expected there to be. There was Arya, me, Bianca and a girl named Iris. She was about a year older than Bianca and I were but she was adorable and had a thing for honeybees. 

We were all kids of billionaires and genius so it was in our genes to be smartasses but Arya was so unnaturally smart that it was freaky sometimes. 

We made a good team.

When Happy dropped me off at home that night, Dad was slumped over his worktable, probably having passed out of exhaustion. I didn't want to wake him up so I wrapped my arms around his shoulders for a few seconds before dashing up to my room. 

Everything was changing. Iron Man was leading world peace, Pepper and Dad had this weird thing going on and I actually had friends. Change was scary sometimes, of course it was. Everything you had ever known was shifting into something unknown and unexplored.

But for once, change didn't seem so bad anymore. Maybe, just maybe, we could make it work.

***

- okay so my 'update schedule' has been thrown out the window, sorry about that I have nothing to say for myself

- This is really short because I'm working on a long chapter for IM2 but this is a bit of the family dynamic I guess? The next chapter will, of course, take some time but I'll try my best to have it up as soon as I can!

-  he is really young but he is also v e r y smart so it was kind of fun incorporating a childish aspect to him!

- also, I was gonna let someone figure it out themselves but I just like it too much to not say anything about it but notice the difference between how Dominic describes Tony as a child and how he describes himself even though they're both around the same age when the scenes take place. its because he's not very good w/ emotions and putting himself in other people's shoes and so he doesn't really know how anyone thinks but himself!! 

- okay I'm done stay tuned for chapter seven and for dom to meet mommy nat!!! I'm really gonna enjoy this!

x sumi