The Devil With The Face of an Angel | Irondad, pepperony

Chapter 11

Peter looked at the paper that lay on the table in front of him, and when he found his work to be faultless he put his pencil down happily. He looked at his father sitting at his desk, watching something on the hologram in front of him. There was a focused expression on his face that disappeared as Jarvis spoke: "Miss Potts is upstairs."

"Well, we're screwed up, munchkin," Tony murmured, glancing at Peter, who was still sitting where he had been seated when they came to the lab this morning.

"You're scared," Peter accused him. The older he was, the more he noticed that his father was often nervous around Pepper. Which he did not understand. Pepper has always been so nice and good! At least to him. As for Tony...

"Scared? I'm not scared!" Tony protested, unwittingly starting to play with a screwdriver. He wasn't scared. He was just slightly nervous. Pepper was supposed to be at work, so his little problem shouldn't be revealed. But she was at his house now, and he could hardly hide what he had done.

"But she likes you, Dad," he announced, putting the paper, on which he had worked all morning, on his desk.

"That doesn't mean she's not going to be upset."

"Then you give her a kiss and she will forgive you," he said as if he had just figured out all the problems in the world. And before Tony could even recover from what his son had told him, Peter was already running out of the lab. Pepper had a lot of work lately, and Peter had seen her last time a week ago when she had taken the morning off and accompanied him with his dad to school on his very first day.

"Pepper!" he exclaimed enthusiastically as he finally reached the living room, where he found Pepper sitting on the couch with a tablet in her hand.

"Peter?" she spoke, slightly puzzled, and turned toward the door where the young Stark really stood. "Shouldn't you be at school?" she asked with a small frown. She checked her watch to see if it was too early, but the hands showed it was ten o'clock.

"The school is boring," he replied, sitting down beside her on the couch. He didn't hesitate for a moment, holding her in an embrace. He missed her so much!

"You are going to first grade... Peter, school is important," she said in a reproachful voice, but Peter didn't listen to her and just enjoyed being in her embrace.

"I have missed you," he muttered.

Pepper forgot about school when she heard him. Her heart warmed, just like every time he said such things. "Honey, I missed you too. It was crazy at work now, but I promise it was rare. What if we had a movie night on Friday? I'm sure Tony won't be against it," she suggested, kissing his hair. She had become so used to his presence in her life that when she had to be separated from him for a long time, her heart burst with sadness.

"And will we watch Star Wars?" he asked with a big smile on his face. Pepper never shared his enthusiasm for these films, but she still agreed to watch them every time. Because how could she deny him something he loved so much?

"Dou you have to even ask?" she teased him.

"It's family night," he said happily and Pepper frozen smile on her face. She understood where the desire for a normal family came from. He was just a child. But her presence in the life of the two Stark men gave Peter the wrong idea that she and Tony were more than just friends.

Shortly before the start of his first school year, he came to her and asked her if she had ever felt lonely when she had no boyfriend. Pepper was surprised at this question. Not knowing what to say, she decided to tell him the truth. She told him she never felt lonely because she had him and Tony. Also, the constant pegging between work and Tony and Peter did not bring her much time to date. Peter seemed satisfied with her reply and told her that when she will be with Tony, she won't have to find time to date. After this announcement, Pepper lost her words and later that day she dropped it all out of her head.

"Pepper, what a nice surprise!" Tony greeted her, finally joining the couple in the living room. Taking the courage to face the redhead took him longer than one would have thought.

"Tony," she said, "do you want to tell me why Peter isn't at school?" she asked in a dangerously calm voice.

"I can explain," he began, swallowing hard. Could he explain it? This was Pepper, how could he just explain it to her without her getting mad at him?

"Go ahead. Tell me," she said when he was still silent and was saying nothing.

"Do you know what they're doing in the first grade, Pepper? They learn to write and read, and Peter already knows all this. He's tired of it. They take primitive addition operations like one plus one and do you know what Peter does in his spare time? He draws a periodic table of chemical elements!" he said, waving in front of her with the paper that Peter had placed on his desk before leaving him in the lab himself.

"Tony, I know very well that Peter is a little genius. How would he not be with all the genes he has? But that doesn't mean you won't put him in school. We discussed this, remember? You said you wanted Peter to have a normal childhood. This is part of it," she explained carefully. Part of her understood that the school was probably unnecessary for Peter. Or at least first class when he was so much ahead. But she also knew Peter had to go to school.

"Can't he have a home school?"

"You wanted him to find friends. It's hard to find them at home. Peter has to start socializing with children of his age. You can always talk to the teacher to give him more work, or we can find a school that has been scientifically focused from the first grade, but I'm not sure there is one," Pepper replied in a more resolute voice. Nothing else worked for Tony at times from times.

"All right then. Peter, buddy, you heard. You'll have to go to school," Tony finally gave up and sat down on the couch.

"That's okay," Peter murmured, shrugging. He didn't really care. Moreover, he knew that he had to survive only this early period and then he will learn a lot of interesting things.

"Periodic table? Where did you learn that?" Pepper asked with admiration as she finally took the paper from Tony.

"I read it in one book. It's nothing."

"It's nothing? Want to hear a secret? You did it a few months earlier than I did," said Tony, smiling. He couldn't be more proud. The school always seemed boring to him, but as Pepper correctly reminded him, he wanted Peter to have a normal childhood. So no skipping classes.