Iron Dad One Shots (mcu)

Under the Hood

A/N: Requested by @Swimmer_09. On the off chance you're still waiting for this five months after you requested it, uh, here. Sorry it took forever to get to.

Anyone who knows what the title is a reference to gets free cookies for a dollar.

Also: sorry if Peter seems a little out of character in this.

———

Peter was back. Fresh from the soul stone, after years of being in a strange limbo state, he had returned. He couldn't be happier.

His reunion with Tony had been one of pure joy. Tears, embraces, forehead kisses, ruffled hair and absolute bliss. The two were practically connected at the hip, never wanting to leave each other again.

They also had a lot of catching up to do. Peter had realized that, after he saw Tony's wedding ring and a new blue-clad four-membered team stationed in New York City.

Still, Peter couldn't be happy enough to welcome the new changes.

At first.

***

"Peter, there's someone I want you to meet." Tony had said.

Peter had smiled, overjoyed just to hear his voice again. "Yeah?"

"She's been so excited to meet you. I always tell her about you."

Peter couldn't hide the way his face lit up. He knew Tony and Pepper were married now, but he didn't say anything about...

"Mr. Stark... are you saying...?" Peter was already floored. Tony Stark might have a kid! A little girl! Peter might have a little sister! How crazy was that?

"No, don't get too excited." He laughed, reading the 'new baby' look on his face. "But she's just as special."

So, as it turns out, Tony hasn't had a kid yet. He actually wanted Peter to meet his new intern. Which was underwhelming, to say the least. But Tony kept going on about her, how she was at the lab working on her own Iron Man suit, that she's been working on it every weekend for months. How much she reminded Tony of him, she loved the Harry Potter movies and they watched on every Friday.

Peter tried not to let the familiarity of it all bother him. Because this was a good thing. And Peter should be happy.

"You're gonna love her, Pete, I swear." Tony beamed.

Peter smiled back. "I'm sure I will."

Something bothered him about the whole thing. But he couldn't understand what. This should be a happy moment. He was meeting a good friend of Tony's, years after thinking he'd never see him again. He was probably just upset that he missed out on so much.

Peter felt a wave of nostalgia going up the elevator. "I can't wait to work with you again, sir." he whispered in awe.

"Actually, Pete, I was thinking of letting you get settled back in your own home. You know, get back on your feet, maybe get back to Spider-Manning. I already have all the help I need here."

He could only reply with a simple "Oh."

His heart felt heavier suddenly. He thought things would go back to normal easily, that he could get back into his old rhythm, but... apparently not. Disappointment washed over him and he slouched a little. Tony didn't seem to notice the dampened mood.

They got to the lab without much more chatter, Peter wasn't really in the mood to talk anymore, and Peter noticed another person in the lab. Right, the new worker. She hadn't seemed to notice either of them yet.

The brunette blinked.

"Who's this?"

Tony flashed a smile. "This is Riri. The girl I was talking about. She's my new intern."

The African-American girl reached up and took her goggles off, allowing for Peter to see her full face. She couldn't have been older than 16.

"Peter Parker, yeah? Heard a lot about you. Nice to meet you." The girl threw her hand out for Peter to shake, leaning against the workbench casually.

Peter just stared. And finally, finally, Peter understood what bothered him so much about this whole thing.

"You replaced me?"

Tony's eyes widened. "What—? No, of course not. Riri isn't your replacement."

He steeled his face. "Right, right, she's just your new fifteen year old genius intern-slash-protege that works with you in the lab on weekends and has movie nights with you on Fridays and—"

Tony looked absolutely shocked. "Peter, it's not like that! You were gone, I needed someone—"

"Someone to what? To mentor? To be in control of? To make you feel less guilty about what happened? Or—or what, to forget about me?" He was fuming now. Riri seemed uncomfortable being in the middle of this. She looked like she wanted to interject, but stayed silent.

"Dammit Peter you know that isn't why! I never wanted to forget about you, how could you think—?!"

"No! Of course you didn't! Which is why you just completely replaced me with someone, what, better? Someone who could get more shit done?"

"Pete, you've got it all wrong, Tony never—" Riri started, but froze under Peter's glare.

Peter could be scary when he wanted to. Sometimes Tony forgot about that.

He put a hand up. "You know what? Forget about it. Have fun with your new fucking intern, Stark."

"Peter—!"

But he was already gone.