Discovering Fatherhood (Irondad / Spiderson)

Chapter 24: Tony and Steve Plot Against Peter

The sound of the repulsors from Tony's Iron Man suit made Peter's hair stand on end, how did he think of taking flight in a restaurant? It was a crazy and insane act since there wasn't much space, in the end he could run but... fly? that was going too far in the boy's opinion.

Peter felt his heart in his throat, he was so nervous about the possibility of being captured that he didn't think about it much, he turned and wanted to run away at full speed, not caring if he exposed his powers in front of MJ and the curious people who were there. Peter ran straight towards one of the tables that were against the wall of the premises, with the intention of jumping on it, opening one of the sliding window panes and jumping out, well... at least that was his intention but he didn't succeed. The brown-haired boy felt a firm and cold iron grip on his wrist, then he felt he stop abruptly, then he felt a tug and he was rising into the air, the next thing he knew he was looking the floor face down, the reason? he was carried on one of Mr. Stark's shoulders "what a humiliation!" thought Peter ruefully.

"Put me down!" The teenager yelled as he rested the palms of his hands on the back of Mr. Stark's armor and pushed himself up, trying to look ahead, he heard exclamation sounds among the customers, who logically were surprised by what was happening. Peter swallowed and felt his cheeks hot from embarrassment, unfortunately MJ was one of the people who at that very moment was looking at him in that pathetic position. "I told you to put me down!" Peter insisted to his mentor as he kicked his feet in a tantrum, Tony let out a mischievous laugh and with one of his arms tightened his grip on the back of Peter's knees, this caused the teenager to enter a state of despair since he couldn't move, his legs were immobilized. "No! Let me go! Let me!" He complained and tried to kick again but he couldn't, he felt powerless so he slapped the iron armor, causing a metallic sound due to the force he had used, however it wasn't the force necessary to break the Iron Man suit, which was very resistant. "Put me down!"

Tony ignored Peter's protests and focused his attention on the people in the restaurant, most of them had gotten up from their tables when they saw him wearing the Iron Man suit, even the waiters had stopped working and the saleswoman had left the service sector and had come closer to be able to better appreciate the atypical scene. Tony looked at MJ, Peter's friend, the curly one was with her arms crossed and was looking at him with half-closed eyes.

"I know I don't owe anyone explanations, but I'll talk anyway so there won't be any misunderstandings." The tycoon said with a serious look, he noticed that people kept looking at him with their mouths open, this didn't matter to him at all since he didn't care what people might think of him, however he was willing to lie to protect Peter, he would do it for him because he was aware that the boy did care, Peter worried a lot about things as banal as those, he didn't like to attract attention and although Tony thought it was an excessively shy and stupid attitude, he would cover him since he partly understood him, Peter wasn't famous like him, perhaps that was one of the reasons for his shyness, also the fact of being a bit of a nerd and low profile, everything could influence. "I'm not kidnapping this boy, he is my student in an internship on technological materials that I offered a few days ago and at this moment I only intend to take him home because his father asked me to." Tony explained, saying partly the truth and partly not, however what he said relieved the teenager he had slung over his shoulder, well... a little.

Speaking of Peter's feelings... the brown-haired boy was still very angry with Mr. Stark but if he had to be honest with himself... he found what he had just done cute, a small smile played on his lips, a smile that was hidden from the sight of his "possible" dad. Peter felt touched because Mr. Stark had tried to explain the situation and just to make him feel better, the chestnut-haired boy knew that it had been because of that, since he could bet that Tony didn't care in the least what people thought, he had already shown it to him.