Desc: Peter and Tony go to a fair. Theres a cornfield. Peter is bad at...being bad. This goes as well as you'd might expect. (Surprise fluff at the end!)
Word count: 4220
You are my da-ad, you're my dad! Boogie woogie woogie!
Tony groaned at the ringtone, courtesy of a certain Spider-Kid. Somehow Peter had hacked his phone and switched the ringtone from a civilized bell toll to the audio from some vine off the internet. Despite Tony's best efforts to un-hack it, Peter's code was solid, and thus the ringtone remained the same. And although he would never admit it, the sound always gave him a warm feeling whenever he heard it, and Tony may or may not have fixed it even if he could.
He swiped the bar, answering the video call, and raised the phone to his face.
"Hey, Mr. Stark!" Peter greeted cheerfully.
"Hey kid. You gonna explain to me why you're calling me at," Tony checked his watch. "6 am?"
"Oh, right. Sorry about that." Peter replied sheepishly.
"Its fine," Tony sighed. "I was already up and dealing with an early morning case anyway."
"Ah, okay," Peter said in an obvious attempt to appear nonchalant, relief evident in his tone.
"So...?" Tony prompted, somewhat exasperatedly.
"Right, right! Anyway, there's this little country area about an hour and a half from my house, and every fall they do this fair kinda thing! There's pumpkin picking, apple cider, hay rides, corn mazes, food, carnival games, and a bunch of other stuff! Usually I go with Aunt May, but this year she has work the same day it is and can't come. I would ask Ned, but he's scared of corn mazes, and MJ says its 'oppressive of small scale farmers and cruel to the animals' or something like that, and I was worried I'd forget to ask if I waited till tomorrow so I—"
"Get to the point, Underoos." Stark interjected.
"Yeah, right, okay. Uh—so, do you think that maybe, you'd go with me...?" Peter asked awkwardly.
Tony pondered this for a minute. "When is it?"
"Saturday! Tomorrow!" Peter replied excitedly.
"Fine. But only because I don't have anything going on and Pepper is sure to drag me into something mind numbing if I don't have plans!"
A high pitched squeal blasted from the phone.
Peter composed himself, just barely containing (or so he thought) shrieks of happiness.
"R-right, of course. Do you want me to swing by the Tower, or...?" He asked.
"I'll come pick you up."
Peter shook with excitement. Tony Stark was gonna come pick him up! Not a chauffeur, not Happy, Mr Stark!
"You still there, kid?" Tony questioned.
"Yes! Yes. Does 8:30 work?"
"Sure. I gotta be back here by 3:00 though, I have meetings and what not. That work for you?"
"Absolutely!" Peter jumped up and down slightly.
"Great, see you then."
Tony hung up.
"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!" Peter squealed. "I gotta tell Ned!"
Peters phone buzzed, a message popping up on the screen.
Maybe: Tony Stark
And don't tell that Fred kid.
I have to deal with enough fanboying from you as it is.
~~~~
Peter rushed his way through the school day, eagerness leaving him distracted and hyper. After all, how could one focus on Chem and geometry when a literal superhero genius billionaire was picking one up in less than twenty-four hours! He tried to focus, he really did, but Peter continually found his mind wandering and attention slipping, which nearly ended him in detention. Half way through lunch, Ned gave him a concerned and sceptical look.
"You okay, man?" He asked.
"Yeah, yeah! I'm fine! Great, actually!" Peter replied, bouncing his leg under the table.
"Are you sure? You've been acting really weird all morning."
"Ned. I swear I'm okay." Peter said seriously, forcing himself to focus on his friend for the time being.
"Whats going on then?" Ned demanded, not unkindly.
"I really want to tell you!" Peter groaned. "But I promised I wouldn't!"
"Promised who?"
"I can't tell you that either!"
"Peter."
"Okay. Ned. If you give me your word you won't tell anyone..."
Ned nodded eagerly.
"I'll tell you tomorrow." Peter finished.
"Aw, man! Seriously?" Ned complained.
"Its either tomorrow or never!" Peter shrugged. "Like I said, I promised."
"Alright." Ned grumbled good-naturedly, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"Great. Now, I'm starving, so if you don't mind I'm going to eat this at least somewhat burger-y looking burger."
"Cafeteria food sucks." Ned agreed.
~~~~
Tony woke up at 7:30, FRIDAY prompting him with the reminder of his plans with Peter. He showered and dressed quickly, ate a breakfast of pop tarts and coffee, kissed Pepper goodbye, and was out the door by 8:00.
To keep up, or rather keep down, appearances, he wore unusually casual clothes (red cardigan, grey overcoat, and black sweatpants, much to Peppers amusement) a baseball cap with a random hockey teams logo on it, and dark sunglasses. Hopefully no-one would recognize him as the cocky, show off, suit wearing billionaire they had come to know as Tony Stark.
He also drove the beat up car he'd used to drive the rest of the Avengers around in. It was an old Ford pick up truck, its once bright red colour faded to more of a rusty orange. Memories filled his head as Tony slipped into the drivers seat, although a surprising amount of them were good ones. Many an easy laugh, wide grin, and spilled taco and been shared here. He shook his head slightly, bringing himself back to the present.
He slid the key into the ignition (God, it had been a long time since he'd used a real key) and turned it. The car rumbled to life, its age showing only in its slightly shaky engine. Right, Tony monologued to himself without thinking. Dad Mode: Activated. The moment the thought materialized he shook it away, shocked such a sentence had come so easily to him. Putting his slip up to the back of his mind, he backed out of the garage and joined the morning traffic rush.
~~~~
Peter hopped up and down on the balls of his feet. His backpack hung loosely from his left shoulder, filled with homework (for the trip there), his phone (for obvious reasons), an extra jacket, snacks, and his Spider-Man suit. Even he realized he tended to get himself in sticky (pun absolutely intended) situations more often than not.
He checked his phone. 8:26 am. Mr Stark would be there soon. He scrolled through his social media restlessly, noting another video of himself as Spider-Man saving a kitten from drowning in a lake a few days before. Soon enough, head lights broke the early morning dawn, and Peter glanced up eagerly.
The old orange (red?) pickup rolled to a stop beside him, and the passenger side window slid down. He stared for a minute, taking in the sight of his normally suit-clad mentor in a cardigan and loose black pants.
"Well, kid?" Tony raised an eyebrow from the drivers seat. "What're you waiting for?"
"N-nothing!" Peter replied, pulling open the door and hoping lightly into the cars faded brown seat.
"Fantastic," Tony dead panned, shifting the car forcefully out of park. "Lets hit the road."
He took off with a screech, and Peter rushed to close his door before it hit the neighbours trash can. Pulling his seat belt on gently (he'd snapped many of them in the past when he hurried, much to May's exasperation) he slid his backpack off his shoulder and on to the floor with a soft thud. Peter sat for a moment, catching his breath and staring at an unidentifiable stain on the dash.
After the silence stretched almost uncomfortably long, he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything Tony beat him to it.
"So," he asked. "Wheres this place at?"
"Oh, uh, just drive down the main highway for a while, there's a turn off about half an hour away from here," Peter answered. "I can point it out when we get there!"
"Sure, Spider-Boy. Don't you have some, I don't know, homework or something to do? Or whatever it is kids do these days." Tony asked dismissively.
"Oh, actually I do!" Peter reached down, pulling his chemistry notebook out of his bag.
"Why don't you read out what you have there. Studies say things stick with you better when you say them out loud." Tony said.
"R-really? You wouldn't mind? I don't want to bother you, Mr Sta—"
"Yes, really. But I suggest you start before I come to my senses."
"Okay!" He lifted his notebook, finding the first line. "'Stoichiometry: Simply put, it deals with the number of moles, or mass, in the reactants and products of a chemical reaction..."
~~~~
An hour and 37 minutes later, they pulled into the fair. Tony opened the door with practiced indifference. Peter, shall we say, did not. He leapt from the truck with enough enthusiasm to put a puppy to shame. Dashing to the other side of the car, practically vibrating with excitement, he asked Tony, "Isn't it awesome!?"
And as Tony looked around, he had to admit it was pretty awesome. While modest, the fair grounds had a certain charm to them. Rows of food stands lined the area to his left, a corn maze stood in the distance, a wagon filled with hay and children pulled by a pair of brown horses trotted its way through the fields, a patch of large orange pumpkins were situated in a far corner, and carnival games of all types were clustered to his right.
Peter looked up at him, waiting for a response.
"Its okay." He said finally.
"Aw, come on," Peter said with a lopsided grin. "You love it!"
Tony grumbled something unintelligible, then looked back to Peter. "So, what's fir—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Peter jumped in.
"Alright, so, me and May have a tradition! Every year we do everything in this exact order: Corn maze, carnival games, food, hay ride. Buuuut, since this year I'm here with you instead, I was thinking we could do it backwards!"
"Why not," Tony shrugged. "So, we're doing the hay ride first then?"
Peter nodded vigorously.
"Lead the way," Tony said.
~~Time Skip. 3 Hours Later~~
"Exactly how much cotton candy have you eaten, kid?" Tony asked sceptically.
"Uhhh, like four or five cones...?" Peter replied, pulling another chunk of pink fluff off and popping it into his mouth.
"Jesus—Peter, you can't just eat ten metric tons of sugar and expect not to get sick!" Tony huffed.
"I beg to differ," Peter said smugly. "I totally can. Super metabolism, remember? I'll be hungry again in an hour."
Tony sighed. "Right."
Peter grinned. They had already done almost everything, and despite the fact the Tony tried to keep his indifferent act up, Peter was pretty sure Tony was enjoying the day just as much as he was. He'd even won a stuffed spider (curtesy of Halloweens fast approaching date) at one of the carnival games for Peter. Tony had said it was 'too full of irony to pass up', but Peter thought Tony had noticed him eyeballing it earlier in the day. And, much to Peter's surprise, no-one had recognized Tony yet! The day just couldn't get any better.
"Alright, Underoos. Whats next?" Tony asked.
"Uhmmm," Peter squinted in an effort to remember. "Corn maze!"
"Lets go then. And enough of that cotton candy!"
Peter rolled his eyes, but dumped the rest of it into a nearby trash can.
"C'mon, Mr Stark! It's this way!" He pointed off in the corn fields' general direction.
Tony let himself be dragged away by the spider-ling, and before long they stood before a rather impressive corn maze.
"Huh," Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Ready?" Peter asked eagerly.
Tony opened his mouth to answer, but a flash of movement caught his eye.
"You go ahead, kid," he replied, distracted. "I'm gonna check on something... I'll meet you there in a minute."
"Everything okay, Mr Stark?" Peter asked, concern etched in his face.
"Yeah, nothing to worry about," he gave Peter a reassuring smile, not wanting to destroy the kids cheerful mood. "Just gotta check in with Pepper. You know how she is."
"Yeah, definitely!" Peter replied (he didn't). "I'll meet you in there. Don't worry, I won't go too far!"
Tony nodded absently, and at that the teen dashed head long into the waving corn. Once he was out of sight, Tony made his way around the side of the maze at a slight trot. It took him longer than expected, it was actually quite large, and by the time he reached the end his breathing was edging on heavy.
Wiping the sweat that was beginning to collect on his forehead off with the back of his hand, he turned the corner of the carefully measured corn. A group of teenagers, a little older than Peter, were clustered around an opening in the corn maze labeled 'Exit'. They all held a couple stalks of corn, and were chortling loudly to each other.
Tony raised an eyebrow as they began digging holes and placing the plants in front of the exit, blocking it from sight, and effectively trapping any poor, non-cheating souls inside. He moved to stop them, then hesitated. A certain poor, non-cheating soul happened to be in there at that very moment. Tony suppressed a smirk. This would be the perfect way to get back at Peter for the ridiculous ringtone. And, to top it off, there was zero chance of injury! He didn't want—that is, Aunt May would kill him if his—if her kid got hurt. Backing away slowly, he walked back to the entrance of the corn maze, straightened his cardigan, tried his best to stop the mischievous smile from spreading on his face, and walked in to meet Peter.
~~~~
"Agghhhh," Peter groaned, staring another dead end in the face. "Its been over an hour and we still haven't found the exit! I demand to see the manager!"
"Not sure the corn maze has a manager, Pete." Tony said unsympathetically.
"How are you not annoyed, Mr Stark?" Peter asked suspiciously. "You threw a smoothie at Rhodey that one time when he commented on your hair."
"That was different. I spent three hours styling my hair for an important gala and I wasn't about to let some bald guy diss it. And how do you even know about that? You weren't there!" Tony asked incredulously.
Peter pointed to his ear, a slight blush on his face. "Super hearing." He explained sheepishly. "I was at the tower to get some more web fluid, and whatever room you guys were in was close enough to the lab for me to hear."
"Right." Tony face palmed. "Well, I'm about at my walking-through-corn limit for the day. You coming?"
"What do you mean?"
Tony, raising an eyebrow and smirking slightly, began to back into the corn.
"Mr Stark!" Peter hissed. "Thats cheating!"
"It's only cheating if someones sees you," Tony deadpanned. "C'mon, I'm going to be late for my meeting." He slid further into the corn and turned around.
"Mr Stark!" Peter said nervously.
"Can't hear you! Corn!"
"I-I, Mr Stark! I can't cheat! That would be—would be—"
"Cheating?" Tony cut him off.
"Yeah." Peter sighed. "Y'know what? You go. I'll stay here, get out of the maze, keep my conscience intact..."
"You do realize I'm your ride." Tony asked.
"I'll call Aunt May. She should be done work by the time I get out of here, right?" Peter said weakly.
"Y'know what? Sure, Underoos. Who am I to tell a crazy spider kid what to do? Good luck with the whole 'getting out of the maze' deal," Tony waved, then began walking off through the corn.
"Wh-what? I-I'll get out of here! You'll see! I'll be swinging by the Tower before you know it!" Peter protested.
"Whatever you say," Tony called over his shoulder.
Peter narrowed his eyes good-naturedly. He had to get out of the maze now. For justice!
"Justice, huh?" Tony's voice called from the distance.
Peter blushed. "I-wha—did I say th-th-that out loud!?" He spluttered.
"Sure did, Batman!" Tony's smirk rung through his voice loud and clear.
~~~~
"Hey, Tony. Want a sandwich?" Pepper called from the kitchen.
"As long as I don't have to make it," he replied.
She gave him a raised eyebrow and a ham sandwich.
"Thanks, Pep," he gave her a peck on the cheek, then pulled his phone out of his pocket.
As he dialled a number, Pepper asked, "Who're you calling?"
"Peter. I left him in a cornfield yesterday," Tony answered, putting the phone to his ear.
"You left him in a cornfield?" Pepper asked, her already raised eyebrows lifting higher.
"Not really. He said his aunt could pick him up. Now shush!"
The ringing tone echoed over the line, playing six times before shutting off. Tony frowned.
"Thats odd," he murmured. "Usually Pete answers right away."
"Maybe he's with his friends?" Pepper pondered.
"Even if he is, he'll usually answer anyway," Tony said.
"So, you call him enough to know when he'll pick up, huh?" Pepper teased. "I was right. You do care about him!"
"I know lots about Mr Parker. His birthday, friends, habits, school schedule," Tony said breezily, trying to backtrack. "Just in case I need him for Spider-Man stuff."
"Oh, and since when did the great Tony Stark care about other peoples schedules?" Pepper pointed out.
"I do care about peoples schedules! Just only certain people," Tony grumbled. "But that doesn't matter!"
He turned back to his phone, dialling another number. This time, it only rung three times before the person on the other end picked up.
"Hello?" May greeted. "Who is this?"
"Hey, May. Its Tony," he responded. "Listen, have you seen Peter today?"
"What?" She asked, alarmed. "He called me yesterday and said he was staying with you!"
"Well, he's not," Tony groaned. "He told me you were going to pick him up at the fair!"
"Oh, jeez," May muttered under her breath, voice tense and rising in volume. "Why on Earth would he lie about something like this? He's usually such a good kid! Maybe he was coerced into it. What if someone found out he's Spider-Man? Oh god, what if Peter got kidnapped, Stark!"
"May, its okay. Just breath," Tony prompted, forcing himself to calm down as well. "You're probably overreacting. He might have been planning on calling me and asking if he could stay at the Tower, and his phone battery died or something."
A loud huffing sound sent static through the line as May took a deep breath.
"Yeah, you're right," she said after a pause. "Okay. Okay. What should we do?"
"I'll trying calling him one more time, just to be sure, and if he doesn't answer I'll head over in the suit and see if he's still where I left him." Tony said.
"Sure. I'll try texting him to, in case there's something wrong with his phones signal," May replied.
"Good idea," Tony agreed. "I'll call you back if anything changes."
"Thank you," May said gratefully. "I appreciate it."
"No problem," Tony said. "Bye, May."
"Goodbye, Stark."
Tony hung up, then turned to an expectant Pepper.
"Whats going on?" She asked.
"I may or may not have abandoned the kid in a cornfield," Tony replied.
"Of course you did," Pepper said, exasperated. "Well, I'll go ask Happy if he's seen Peter."
"Thanks Pep."
He once again punched in Peters number, but this time (after four long rings) he picked up.
"Peter? You there, kid?" Tony demanded.
The screen showed blue sky and clouds, but no Peter. Suddenly it swung around, and focused on the kid's panicked face.
"Heeeey, Mr Stark!" Peter said awkwardly.
"Yeah, hey. Why aren't you answering my calls? Or your aunts, for that matter!" Tony challenged.
"Uh, no-no reason!" Peter held the phone closer to his face, hiding his surroundings.
"Peter. Where are you?" Tony demanded, voice deadly quiet.
Peter averted his eyes, avoiding Tony's gaze. But in his haste to look away, he shifted the camera and Tony caught a glimpse of the area he stood in.
"Tell me I didn't just see corn, kid," Tony said exasperatedly.
"You—you didn't, just see corn...?" Peter trailed off.
"Pretty sure I did."
Peter's face fell.
"Are you seriously still in the cornfield?" Tony sighed.
"Maybe...?"
"I'm coming to get you."
"No-no-no!" Peter cried. "Its fine! You don't have to do anything, really Mr Stark!"
"So I should just leave you there in the middle of nowhere, huh?"
"Yes...?"
"Definitely not. Have you talked to your crazy aunt recently? She's practically calling SWAT to come 'rescue' you!" Tony finger quoted.
"I'll just...walk back!" Peter said desperately.
"Oh, no. You're not getting out of this one. We're going to have a long talk about personal responsibility and just what exactly your train of thought was when you decided to stay in a corn maze for the night!"
"Really, Mr Stark! I-I'm fine! Just—"
"End of conversation," Tony said, then abruptly hung up.
This kid, he thought with a groan.
~~Time Skip. Half Hour Later~~
A loud thrum filled the air, and Peter stood unceremoniously to his feet, nearly falling over as his unused legs cramped. Tony, decked out in his full Iron Man suit, landed with a slight thud in front of Peter. The face piece dematerialized, revealing a peeved looking Tony Stark inside.
"H-hey Mr Stark!" Peter greeted hesitantly.
"Lets cut to the chase, Spidey. What in Gods name were you thinking!?" Tony demanded.
"Um, well, you know me! S-somebody put a lot of effort into this corn maze, and it would be really rude to just plow through without giving it my best shot," Peter explained. "Besides, it was only a day!"
"Only a day, huh? When was the last time you ate?"
Peters stomach growled despite his attempts to silence it with sheer willpower. Tony looked at him pointedly.
"I ate something!" Peter said defensively. "Well, I kind of did. At first when I got hungry I tried some of the corn, but it was just awful and tasted nothing like it does when you cook it, wait, do you cook corn? Is that what you say? It doesn't matter, anyway so then this guy came up to me and was like, 'Hey kid you want the rest of this hotdog?' So I said, 'Don't you want it?' And he said his girlfriend just broke up with him and he had an extra one that was supposed to be for her and he looked actually really sad about it but I didn't want to be rude so I took it and ate that. For some reason he had mayo on it, like what the heck who even eats mayo on a freaking hotdog I mean—"
"Okay, I get it!" Tony interrupted, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "So you're telling me you stayed here all day, ate nothing but a half finished hotdog for twenty four hours despite the fact you are well aware you need way more food than that with your increased metabolism, scared your aunt half to death, didn't answer your phone, and slept in a corn maze—"
"Uh, I uh, actually just, didn't sleep," Peter muttered meekly.
"Just because you didn't want to hurt the feelings of some guy you don't even know, who is unlikely to ever find out you cut through the maze in the first place, and probably doesn't even care?" Tony finished in a near shout, brow furrowed.
"...yeah?" Peter squeaked.
"You're going to be the death of me, kid," Tony said in a tired voice.
I'm sorry, Mr Stark," Peter said quietly, after a pause. "It just...didn't feel right, y'know?"
"Yeah, I do," Tony nodded slowly, his lip twisting up slightly. "You care about everyone so much, you'll hurt yourself if it means sparing them." He let out a breath, eyes shining slightly. "Its one of the things I admire most in you."
Peter's eyes widened at the praise. "R-really?"
"Really," Tony confirmed.
Peter stared at his mentor for a minute, unsure how to react, but bursting with pride and happiness. After a minute a massive grin spread on his face, and tears pricked in his eyes. Giving in to impulse, he rushed forward and wrapped Tony in a hug. The older mans suit was cold against his flushed face, and the metal was hard in his arms, but he didn't care.
Tony glanced down in surprise, biting back a sarcastic retort. After a moments hesitating, he swallowed his pride and slowly hugged the boy back.
They stood there for a minute, awkwardness giving way to comfort, before Peter reluctantly pulled away.
"Mr Stark?" He wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve, a smile still on his face.
"Yeah, Pete?" Tony replied, voice softer than Peter had ever heard it.
"I think I'm ready to go home."
Tony smiled. "Me to, kiddo."
"...hey, Mr Stark?"
"Yeah?"
"Can we get a burger or something on the way back...?"
"Sure, Pete," Tony said with a laugh.
Fin.
Thank you so much for reading! I just wanted to remind y'all that I do requests, so if you have any ideas be my guest and tell me about them. (This is my way of begging for inspiration XD) and I also wanted to say if you know of any good Peter Parker/Avengers fan fiction on Wattpad,
P L E A S E
tell me what they're called so I can read them too!