Discovering Fatherhood (Irondad / Spiderson)

Chapter 10: Tony And Rhodes Talk About Peter

Tony placed an empty and gleaming glass on the bar in front of him, poured ice into it, then uncorked a bottle of Vodka and poured some into the glass, then grabbed a bottle of orange juice, opened it, and finished filling the glass. He grabbed his alcoholic drink, moved the glass a little with his hand, mixing the contents and finally took a sip.

"Could you start talking that you make me nervous?" Rhodes asked, he had been looking impatiently as Tony prepared the drink, in his opinion he was very slow. Rhodes already had a glass ready in his hand since 5 minutes ago.

The colonel couldn't wait to hear the tycoon's arguments as to why he thought he was Peter Parker's biological father.

"I was preparing my drink." Tony defended himself, seeing the bad look Rhodes was giving him, he decided to speak. "Okay, okay, I'll start." He warned his friend, leaving him calm. Tony took another sip of his drink before starting. "What leads me to believe that Peter is my son are several things, one of them is that the boy was born with a superior intelligence, he loves to make things, build inventions, you should have seen the prototype of my suit that he put together, how I didn't take a picture of it?" Tony lamented as he brushed his black hair with one hand. "It was the same as mine but in miniature, he imitated each piece of the suit to perfection, which he achieved with only having seen it, he didn't have detailed plans of the pieces of the suit, he impressed me." He admitted and smiled proudly.

Rhodes was surprised because Peter, a boy barely 15 years old, had managed to impress Tony Stark with one of his inventions, which wasn't very easy to do. Obviously the boy had been born with a superior intelligence, as Tony said, perhaps he had inherited the tycoon's intelligence, of course, in case he was his son.

And another thing that surprised the colonel was the smile that Tony had on his face when talking about the teenager, you could tell that he was very fond of him, which Rhodes thought was kind of cute, he liked seeing his best friend happy, he hoped that Peter was his son and finally Tony could exercise the role of father, something he had wanted for years, from his point of view Tony deserved it, he deserved to be a dad.

"Wow." Rhodes muttered as he placed his drink on the bar. "I have to admit that's not very normal, I don't know anyone like you, Tony, until now that you're telling me, you have a very..." He was silent for a few seconds, searching for the rights words. "Particular taste." At this Tony raised an eyebrow, Rhodes sketched a nervous smile and decided to clarify himself. "No one thinks of building the things you build, no one is as smart as you."

Tony stopped glaring at his friend and flashed a smile of appreciation for the compliment.

"Thank you."

Rhodes drummed his fingers on the wood of the bar and looked expectantly at Tony.

"What else do you share apart from intelligence and the taste for building inventions?" He was interested to know.

Tony took another drink of his juice with Vodka before answering the question.

"The same favorite food." He counted, shrugged and said with a smile. "We're both big fans of McDonald's hamburgers."

"Hum... you have another point in your favour." Rhodes acknowledged with a hand on his chin, then withdrew his hand and made a gesture with it, encouraging Tony to speak. "What else?"

"The panic attacks, unfortunately Peter also has them, just like I had them when I was young." Said the tycoon with regret, he was sorry that Peter had to go through that, why couldn't he inherit only the good things from him?

"Poor... I'm sorry that he has to go through something as ugly as that." Rhodes commented, saying just what his friend had been thinking. "I still remember yours, Tony." He added looking at him with pity.