Growing Up

10 Years Old: Part 1

Peter was turning ten. Double digits meant double the party, as Tony had put it, but as soon as Peter had presented his idea, he had tried to disagree. Of course, Peter was successful in getting his birthday wish when he begged Tony with tears in his eyes, promising to 'never ever, ever ask for anything like this again! Pretty please?'. Tony knew he needed to get better at saying no, but he also knew he had no hope in turning Peter down if it meant the kid was teary-eyed and making impossible promises.

"Ready to go, Pete?" Tony yelled. Pepper had begun to bug him about missing meetings and Tony wanted to leave before she could bring up anything else this would interfere with.

"Tony, you need—"

"Pep, I need to go with my son on his tenth birthday," Tony interrupted and Pepper rolled her eyes, glancing down at her phone calendar. "You're CEO," he reminded her, "Tell 'em I'm sick or better yet, tell 'em I'm dead."

Pepper gave him a look but Tony turned away before she could object to the trip any further. Fortunately, they were interrupted anyway as Peter came hurrying down the hall, tugging his suitcase behind him. When Tony reached down and tried to pick it up for him, Peter insisted he could do it himself.

"Bye, Pepper!" Peter said, waving wildly. Pepper smiled and waved back, watching as Tony and Peter headed towards the launch pad where the Stark Jet was waiting.

Tony helped load Peter's luggage onto the plane then followed him on board. The first flight wouldn't be that long; they were just going to drop by the Avenger's compound to pick up the team. It was only once they had all the team's luggage on board and Peter was happily situated between Steve and Natasha that they took off for the three-hour flight to Orlando.

"So Peter, how's school been?" Steve asked.

Peter shrugged, swinging his legs underneath his seat to keep moving.

"It's okay," he answered. There were a few kids that tended to make fun of Peter during classes, but Peter had been trying to ignore them. "It's okay, though, because Daddy says they're just jealous I'm smart and they're not. He also said that when I'm older—when I'm in high school—he'll let me go to the smart kids' school in Creens."

"Queens," Tony corrected. Peter glanced at Tony with pink cheeks and nodded before corrected himself. That did not make Tony forget what Peter had told Steve, though. "You told me the mean kids had stopped bothering you."

Peter shrugged again, picking at the seat until he looked up and saw Tony still watching him.

"They did, but then they started picking on Ned so I had to stop them."

Tony sighed but wasn't too surprised Peter was now willingly being bullied to help out his friend.

"Well, let's not think about bad things today," Natasha suggested, running a hand through Peter's hair.

Turning to face her, Peter grinned and pulled his Stark tablet out of his entertainment bag.

"We should play a game!" he announced, unlocking his tablet and opening up a game. "Since I'm the birthday boy, I get to go first."

No one argued with him as he put the tablet to his head and scooted back so that even Natasha and Steve could read the tablet. It was a good thing Tony had agreed to pay for all the extra add-ons too because they ended up needing them.

* * * * *

Arriving at Disney World was more chaotic than Tony had expected it to be. They had rented a large SUV in order to fit everyone and as soon as Tony had pulled up to the parking permit booth, he knew they were in for a very long trip.

The man in the booth talked for nearly ten minutes about his admiration for the team before handing Tony his parking permit for the week. Begrudgingly, Tony took it and tossed it on the dashboard. With hardly so much as a wave, he pulled forward and parked the SUV in the closest spot he could find which unfortunately wasn't very close.

A few seconds after the car had found its spot, Peter was unbuckling his seat belt and trying to get to the door. Pushed in the very back with Clint, he had to scramble over Steve and Natasha to get to a door. In the front seat, Tony and Bruce were arguing quietly and almost didn't notice Peter come racing through the van. When his elbow collided with Tony's head, their attention was drawn back to Peter who was vibrating with energy.

"Alright, everybody out," Tony called as he turned off the car.

Natasha opened her door and Peter tumbled out of the car. Following Peter out second, Natasha kept him occupied while Steve and Tony searched through their backpacks in the trunk. They'd had the foresight to pack a backpack containing snacks, sunscreen, and even an extra jacket for Peter who was sure to get cold if they stayed past dark. Not surprisingly, Peter was very uninterested in what they needed to take with them.

"Can we go find Mickey Mouse first?" he asked, grabbing Natasha's hand and bouncing happily.

Natasha looked down at him and smiled as Clint tumbled out from the backseat onto the cement parking lot. Casting Clint a brief glance, Peter looked between Natasha and Tony excitedly.

"We'll see when he's making appearances," Tony replied. He grabbed his wallet and shoved it in his pocket. "I'm going to go purchase our tickets and fast passes," he told Bruce then turned to Peter. "Stay with Aunt Nat."

Peter nodded, giving Tony a salute. With a grin, Tony headed into the park to buy the passes they would need. There was already a long line, but with a little luck, they would reach the ticket window before the gates opened.

"Peter?" Steve called from behind the car, "Come get sunscreen."

Releasing Natasha's hand reluctantly, Peter walked over to Steve. Steve poured a sufficient amount of sunscreen in his hand then handed the bottle to Natasha. After thoroughly covering Peter's arms, face, neck, and legs with sunscreen, Steve let Peter go. Now free to grab Natasha's hand once again, Peter waited impatiently as Steve grabbed his backpack and after making sure everyone was set, they headed into the park after Tony.