Growing Up

7 Years Old

"Hey, Tony?" Happy asked over the phone. Tony hummed in reply. "Did you have someone pick Peter up from school early?"

"No, why?" Tony asked, pausing his work and paying Happy only slightly more attention.

"The teacher says some guy came in earlier and took him home."

Tony's blood ran cold and he dropped his pen.

"He's not here."

"Keep his teacher there," Tony said, picking up his phone and hurrying out of his office. Pushing his way to the lift, Tony said, "I'll be there in five minutes."

Arriving at the penthouse, he hung up on Happy and raced down to the lab. He suited up in record time and shot out of a window instead of the door.

He arrived at Peter's school exactly five minutes later. The school was still emptying and kids were wandering the halls, but they stopped when they saw Iron Man. Not paying them any attention, Tony hurried down the hall to where he knew Peter's classroom was. When he walked inside, he saw Happy staring down at Peter's teacher who was sitting in the chair behind his desk.

"I'd like to know," Tony said, walking over to Happy and Mr. Adams, "Why the hell you let someone take my son other than Happy and who the hell it was."

Mr. Adams looked up in shock, clearly not having expected Iron Man to appear. Stumbling to his feet, he rushed to explain.

"He just came in and said he was here to pick up Peter for a doctors appointment," Mr. Adams said, wringing his hands.

Tony frowned. Peter would have been suspicious of the guy, too. Before he'd started school, Tony and Pepper had made sure Peter knew not to leave with anyone other than Happy unless one of them told him otherwise. He also would have known that he didn't have a doctor's appointment.

"Did he go willingly?" Tony asked. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Adams shook his head.

"No," he answered, "Peter didn't want to go—he even tried to fight the guy. I assumed it was because he didn't like the doctors' office."

If Tony had any less self-control, he would have turned Mr. Adams desk into wood shavings.

"That wasn't suspicious?" Tony yelled. When Mr. Adams jumped, he didn't apologise. Instead, he snarled, "Show me the security footage."

* * * * *

Huddling in a corner of the room, Peter stared at the man in front of him and tried not to cry. He didn't want to be here. Why did he have to be here? It was scary and the people were rude to him. He would rather be in Miss Letts' English class than here and he was certain she was a witch.

"Are you scared, little boy?" the man taunted.

Peter frowned. He was seven; he wasn't a little boy.

"I'm not a little boy," he replied, "I'm a big boy. And I'm not scared because I know my Daddy is gonna come get you!"

The man rolled his eyes and Peter frowned. Did he not know his Daddy was Iron Man? Iron Man always got the bad guys and Peter knew he'd come get him. When he did, this man would wish he'd never stole him.

"Stupid kid," the man mumbled.

Upset at being called stupid, Peter got up from his corner and ran towards the man. Surprising the man, Peter kicked his shin before the man grabbed him and roughly threw him back into the corner. As his head hit the floor, he whimpered. His arms were skinned up from sliding on the cement and his head hurt now, but when he looked up to see the man glaring at him, Peter curled back up in his corner.