Discovering Fatherhood (Irondad / Spiderson)

Chapter 25: Peter Meets Rhodes

Peter was sitting on top of the roof of his house, his arms resting on his knees and his head raised, contemplating the full moon and the stars while Tony, who was sitting next to him, was still wearing his Iron Man suit, except for the helmet and was having a conversation with his best friend through a call that F.R.I.D.A.Y. had initiated, the millionaire was asking Rhodes to bring him the sensors that had been left in the laboratory in the Tower.

"Okay Tony, I'll be there in a bit." The colonel let him know and he walked, with the cell phone resting on his ear, towards one of the elevators of the luxurious floor in which he was, luckily for his best friend, he was right in the Tower so it wouldn't take long to bring him the sensors.

"Thank you, Rhodey." Tony thanked him with a pleasant tone.

"Call ended." F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s robotic voice announced to its creator, respectfully.

"Thanks girl." Tony said to his AI kindly.

"I'm here for whatever you need, Mr. Stark." The artificial intelligence responded cordially.

There was a silence after that call that was only interrupted a couple of times by the chirping of some crickets that were among the bushes in the garden, Tony looked to the side, fixing his attention on Peter, the boy had a pensive face and kept looking at the sky.

"Well..." The tycoon stammered, unsure, he didn't know if Peter wanted to talk, perhaps he preferred to be quiet since they had arrived at the house, he hadn't uttered a word, then Tony remembered the subject of the sensors so he called Rhodey to make sure he had them before Cap arrived. However, now that the call was over, Peter hadn't tried to speak, he was still silent and Tony didn't know what to do, whether to talk to him or leave him alone. The situation was becoming a bit awkward for the tycoon, he didn't understand what was happening to the boy, his behavior at that moment was contradictory since before, when they were flying over the neighborhood, he laughed heartily and talked happily, what's more, he wouldn't shut up. Tony had already realized that Peter was very talkative but now... Now it was different, he was very serious and quiet. "Let's wait a while until your parents arrive, okay?" Tony suggested to break the ice.

Peter just gave a little nod in response, said nothing, Tony sighed and held back from saying anything else, deciding to give the teenager his space, maybe he needed it, maybe he was behaving like that because his parents were coming over and they had had a rather heated argument, if that was the reason it was understandable in the millionaire's opinion.

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Tony was willing not to talk to Peter, he really was, but when he saw a tear slide slowly down the boy's cheek, he screwed his will to keep quiet.

"What's wrong, Peter?" The tycoon inquired with an extremely serious expression, resting his hands on the french tiles of the roof and scooting a little to the side to sit closer to the teenager.

Peter gave a little hop in place at being discovered.

"Ah?" The brown-haired boy stammered, turning his head to look at Tony, he quickly wiped away the tear that was on his cheek with the back of his hand, then looked straight ahead, to escape Mr. Stark's intense gaze and lied shamelessly. "Not... nothing."

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Tony asked kindly as he put his arm around the teenager's shoulders, then gave him a light pat on the shoulder, as a sign of comfort.

"Of what exactly? Lots of things happened." Peter replied and let out a wry laugh, looked at Tony's iron-armored arm draped over his shoulders, grabbed his hand and pulled it away, then looked at Tony with a frown. "The most recent? you giving me an embarrassing moment in a restaurant." He said with a bad tone and pointed at him.