Avengers Family

Disappointing You (Irondad)

"And those pheromones from marine life could be applied to organisms in a terrestrial setting to enhance intraspecies bonds?"

Tony stopped slightly before the doorframe, listening to Peter question Bruce about his work. He smiled. When Peter had first met Bruce, he could barely contain his excitement. He nervously shook the scientist's hand before bombarding him with questions about his experiments and studies. Bruce's offer to give him a tour of the lab elicited the same enthusiasm as a child on Christmas morning.

Now, Peter was over the giddy awkwardness of meeting his idol and actually participates in some of his research. He's made himself at home in Bruce's lab, even if just to watch or ask questions.

Tony felt a swell of pride watching the kid keep up with Bruce's calculations and observations. He stood at the doorway for a few minutes before continuing on his path.

After Tony reopened his invitation to join the Avengers team, Peter revealed his identity to the heroes and moved into Stark Tower. His kind personality easily meshed with all of the individuals on the team and he was soon a vital part of team dynamics. Scenes like the one with Bruce were not uncommon.

Numerous times, Tony had walked in on Peter exercising his strength with Steve or pushing his flexibility with Natasha. Just last week, Thor came back to Earth and Peter day with him for hours attentively listening to every detail of his fantastical stories.

Tony loved that Peter was fitting in so well. He'd been a little upset when Peter rejected his initial offer, but he now realized that allowing Peter the time and space to grow had been the mature choice. He didn't get to see the teen as much as he had before, but he tried to think of it as a positive. It was good that Peter was busy and kept himself entertained. Even though Tony could still see the bubbly child within, he couldn't help but recognize the more adult traits Peter had acquired.

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Fury's debriefings were incredibly tedious. This one was especially bad because of all the complex details involving the alien technology. Steve, who usually advocated for debriefings and often lectured the team about their importance, was impatiently tapping his pen. Tony bit back a sigh as Fury flipped to the next slide on the projector. How can there be so much information from a three person mission? He knew the answer to that. Him and Steve had a tendency to take unnecessary risks and almost always had whole slides dedicated to their mistakes. The team supported them and both men stood by their decisions, so there was really no reason for Fury to keep up this tradition, but he did.

Sam, who was not at the end of Fury's wrath, bit back a smile from across the table. Instantly, he had Tony's attention. His mind was begging for anything of interest at this point. Sam's eyes were on the presentation, but they occasionally flittered back to something outside the window. He was just barely containing a laugh by the time they were released.

As soon as Fury left the room, Tony bolted to the window and glanced outside. Steve's eyes widened, quickly taking a defensive position in case Tony noticed something dangerous, but relaxed when Sam shot him a reassuring smile.

A few stories down, Tony could make out Peter and Clint on the grass in the private SHIELD outdoor training grounds. Just as he was about to ask Sam what was so funny about his teammate's training regiments, he saw nearly a hundred multi-colored water balloons fall from a nearby tree to drench Clint in water. Peter staggered a bit, laughing so hard he curled in on his chest. Clint didn't waste any time and immediately picked up one of the balloons that hadn't broken and slingshotted it right into Peter's face. Peter caught it, spidey sense and all, but the force of the balloon hitting his hand still resulted in the water spraying all over his face and hairline. He blinked rapidly in surprise.