Little Flame

Chapter 14

For about 3 years now, Tony and Steve had been looking for a little one to care for. They'd seen several files, been to a few little homes, even Fury had tried to set up personal meetings for the couple with littles he personally thought they'd click with.
Nothing.
3 years
And nothing.
Had Peter been a little this whole time?
No. That can't be right. His classification was neutral. It said it on all of his forms, Tony had checked all of them personally. So why the hell had Tony not noticed Peter needing or even having padding?
Peter nuzzles into Tony's side with a small whimper and his eyes still shut. He kicked his legs a bit, obviously uncomfortable.
This snaps Tony into action, bouncing Peter and making a shushing noise as he walks the two of them to Peter's room. Once he lays Peter onto the bed, his eyes crack open with confusion before widening in absolute shock. "Hey! Tony, did I fall asleep on the couch? You didn't have to carry me to bed, really," The shy boy stammers as he quickly pulls himself into a sitting position while squirming as close to the head board as he can. Tony inwardly groans. Shit. He must've snapped out of it.
"Kid, calm down." Tony said in a light tone "I don't mind. But- Uh- I do think we need to talk about something."
And Peter grew pale at the last part of Tony's sentence. Tony instantly took notice and was quick to try and calm the boy. "It isn't anything bad, Pete. I promise." His tone was light hearted as he made sure to put a comforting nickname to help ease his mentee.
Peter took a few deep breaths, not knowing what to say while he looked up to meet Tony's gaze.
Tony inhaled.
"I think you need a change."
There,
He got straight to the point.
And thanks to that, Peter grew red in the face as tears built up in his eyes. "N-no....God damn it." Peters voice broke as he spoke.
"Peter—"
"No! You w-weren't supposed to find out!" Peter rose his voice a with sobs breaking his speech.
Tony could feel his heart break. Peter was hiding this from him?
Tony slowly made his way to sit next to the sobbing boy so they could be eye level. Peter curled into himself a bit more and looked up at Tony with fear in his bloodshot eyes. Tony put a hand on the trembling boy's shoulder to rub up and down on his arm.
He made shushing noises to easy Peter. "Calm down Pete." His voice was low, and this cause Peter to snivel to try and silence his sobs. Tony maneuvered himself under Peter and placed the poor boy in his lap and proceeded to rub his back gently.
With a small 'thump' Peter had stuffed his face into Tony's chest and continued to sob. Tony kept up the shushing noises as he let his mentee cry it out before moving forward.
It took about 10 minutes before Peter was just hiccuping and sniffling, looking up at Tony. Tony gave a sincere smile at the smaller boy in his arms. "All better?" Peter nods with a meek 'mm hm'.
Tony hugged the boy a little closer. "Good. Now would you mind if I get you cleaned up or do you want me to leave you to do that by yourself before we talk?" Peter looked down in thought. He knew he'd have to talk about the whole situation, so why not now?
"I got it." He said in a very soft tone. He didn't want Tony to know about the rash that had developed through this past week.
Tony offers a smile before stepping out of the room to give Peter some privacy.