Tony wasn't sure what to do.
Peter had woken from his nap asking for Pepper again, Tony knew that Peter was getting increasingly more and more frustrated at not seeing her when he asked but Tony knew she was in a meeting. She wouldn't finish for another hour and Peter was not waiting for that. The toddler had begged, pleaded, cried and had a flat out tantrum to have Pepper or at least hear her voice and Tony was willing to hack in just to get him to calm down. But he knew better.
"Peter. I know you're frustrated, I know you want Pepper but I can't just-" Peter gave another heart and soul crushing sob and looked at the man with tear filled doe eyes from his spot in the walker.
"'epper" He plea's and Tony sighs shaking his head.
"I can't Peter, She's really busy right now. I promise in one hour I will call Pepper and we can say h-" Peter whimpered again.
"Wan' Mama" He said clearly and snapped his mouth shut, raising his hands to his mouth his face blazed in embarrassment. Tony felt his heart stop and immediately got his phone out, snapping a picture before gathering the boy in his arms and hugging him.
"Oh Pete, I think she'd love to hear you say that." Tony mummers into his hair and Peter relaxes into him. "I promise an hour ok? Until then me and you can urm....do some arts and crafts." He suggests watching Peter's nose crinkle he tries to save it. "Not the baby stuff like putting your hands in paint and making hand prints, though I do want to do that too- I mean making things like slime or houses out of felt or masks?" Peter looked intrigued and he grinned a bit. "Could make a mask for Clint to say your sorry about yesterday?" He asks and Peter immediately nods. "Cool I'll get the supplies and then get the table ready. You....practice walking" He says smiling and putting him back in the walker. Peter whines loudly and huffs a little as Tony walks off.
'How do I get out of this?' He wonders to him self and manages to walk towards his old bedroom. The walker unfortunately was too big to get through the door, Peter tried though. He pushed and pulled and struggled to get in and all it got was a camera flash and Tony cooing at him.
"Oh Pete look at you." He coo'd turning Peter's walker around and crouching down in front of him he pinches the boys cheeks. "Look at you. Is my little genius stuck?" He teased as Peter growls a little at him. "I mean I could leave you here. Let you look at your big boy room whilst we wait for Pep to finish but I think someone needs a change" He teased a little more, loving how red Peter's face went.
"No!" Peter argued but squeaked as Tony lifted him out and felt the material between his legs.
"No? hmm...I think the Adult here says otherwise. Don't you want out of that? Don't want a nasty icky rash" He teased a bit more before walking towards the nursery. He made the change quick and then headed towards the front room. A gasp from his arms had him chuckle a little. "I know right? How cool is this?" He says spreading his free arm out.
The entire front room had been converted for Peter and Tony to use happily as an art studio. Tarp covered the floor and furniture and Paint laid on the table along with every other craft item imaginable. Tony had totally prepared for a toddler and paint.
Tony was so not prepared.
****************
An hour later and the entire room was a paint war zone. The walls thankfully were saved but the tarps were covered in paint, glitter and macaroni. The sofa's were now 90% glitter and Tony was pretty sure he'd some how lost Peter in the pile of felt and straws as the boy stood with almost everything sticking to him.
"Ok...Bath then phone call" He said to him self and picked the boy up who squeaked and squirmed.
"Nu....mama, mama!" He complains and Tony melts at the sound of Peter asking for Pepper.
"I know but don't you think she'll want to see you, the clean you, rather then this?" He twists a paint covered strand and smiles as Peter lets out a happy laugh.
"Ni, bat' the-then Play? Bat' then Mama an' play? Yeah? p'ease?" Peter asks, trying to get his words out in an excited babble. Tony just nods as he plops Peter on the floor of the bathroom and starts running said bath. He puts some bubbles into the water and gets some toys out as well. A smirk played on his lips as he heard Peter squeal excitedly and reached his hands up to Tony who just laughs a little.
"Ok ok, calm down and let me get you naked yeah?" He says softly as he starts to undressing the boy and then plops him into the bath. Peter gives a squeal and starts splashing the water excitedly. "Hey big guy not so fast I need to give you a proper wash ok then you can play" Tony tried and failed to get the squirming boy to hold still. Peter was just too full of energy so Tony let him tire out in the bath. "Fri, record Pete's Bath till I say stop" He orders and watches Peter pick up a duck and hold it to Tony.
"Play" He demands and Tony just grins.
"Ohhh I'm a pirate duck am I?" Tony asks attacking Peter in the face with the plastic duck. Peter squeals a little and holds up his own duck, it was one of Steve's custom made ones that he did just for Peter, it was a spider duck.
"You's bad guy! I gotsa beat you!" Peter says through some giggles and Tony gasps playing along. He wasn't a hundred percent sure on the story but what he gathered was this.
The evil pirate duck called Quack McBread beard wanted all of the bubbles for him self, SpiderDuck was saving the civilians by returning all of the bubbles to them. It was an epic battle, Quack had almost one but SpiderDuck had stolen most of them back. Quack would of one if SpiderDuck hadn't ordered in a giant toddler to take all the bubbles and throw them at Quack in one clean wave of bubbles. Ending the fight.
In other words, Peter made Tony take a bath.
"Again!" Peter squeals and Tony just shakes his head laughing.
"Nope. Time to get that off of you" Tony brought the cloth down quickly on the boy who wiggled and squirmed under his hold, laughs echoing through out the bathroom. Tony glanced up "Cut the recording and send to P.Potts Fri" Tony asks as he gets to washing Peter's hair. It was a quick process the boy was squeaky clean by the end and Peter looked ready to sleep for another two days. He wrapped the boy up in a fluffy towel and carried him to his room. A quick change and into some pajama's for the rest of the day Tony pulled out his tablet and put up the big screen as he waited for Pepper to answer.
"Tony my god that was the cutest video I've ever scene" Pepper's voice rang out and Peter perked up immedatly.
"I've got SpiderDuck here to talk to you. Misses his mom" Tony teased and Pepper rolled her eyes, waving to Peter she coo's.
"Hey baby boy, what's going on? Did you like your bath because that looked fun" She coo'd and Peter's tired eyes crinkled with the ever growing smile on his face.
"Mama mama!" He reached his hands out to the scene and Pepper froze for a breath of a moment before she coo'd a little. "Mama Mama! Made lo'ds of stuf' an' an' made Ni ta'e a b'th ca'se he sm'lly!" Tony looked at Peter about to object but melted as Peter finished with a small "M'ss youuuuu" It took Pepper exactly 30 seconds to recover from the cuteness in front of her before she spoke,
"Oh Pete I miss you to, I'll be home in 2 days. Can you be a good boy for your daddy and get him to shower more? he's defiantly smelly-"
"Hey I smell amazing!" Tony argues, Pepper and Peter both look at him in silence. "This is bullying!" He complains and Peter giggles squishing his cheeks a little.
"Silly Ni! Silly!" Tony smirks and tickles the boys side making him laugh loudly and squirm.
"Oh I'm the silly one huh?" Tony teases and chuckles as the boy giggles more. "Ok you can play with some toys whilst I finish talking to mommy" He sets the boy down and watches him run off to the building blocks.
"What the hell Tony?" Pepper asks confused and Tony shrugged. "How long has he been like that? Did he start calling me that after I left?" Tony just shrugged again and smiled a little.
"Bruce said once he calmed down and stopped stressing he'd start behaving more the way he looked then what he was but he still has his brains...mostly." He grinned then placed a hand on his heart. "He refers to you as Mama now but still Ni for me. Do I not get a dada or daddy?" He swoons. "But I can wait. Maybe when he's back to normal" He mutters and Pepper grins at him.
"On the bright side two days of this and you have enough black mail and embarrassing pictures to cover the whole tower in baby Peter images." Tony grinned right back and sighs.
"Do you have to be away for two more days?" He whines and she gives a shrug.
"I could post pone...I mean it is only a few meetings with Peter's school left and that can be handled later." She says with a shrug. Tony bats his eye lids at her and she chuckles. "I'll see what I can do. Get him down for nap, he's late" She scolds and clicks off before he can retort.
"Bully" He mutters and goes over to where Peter was, a smile on his face as he found the boy asleep on the floor, thumb in mouth and snoring softly. "Oh Petey pie" He lifted him up and took him to the nursery and doing the usual routine.
He almost jumped when he turned to find Bruce leaning on the doorway, a small smile on his face.
"Hey Tony" He says and chuckles as the man looks a little sheepish. "Sorry for scaring you but I have something you'll want to see." Tony followed him straight to the front room and sat waiting for Bruce to talk. "...So I can change him back....but it'll take a 4 days" Bruce says softly Tony goes to interrupt but Bruce stops him. "It'll take 4 days to make the chemical. it needs to ferment and then we'll have teenage Peter back. He can go back to school and everything" Bruce says smiling
"ok..so 4 more days of baby Peter? I guess we better plan the 4 days then? I'm thinking Disney land, Beach, swimming and of course going to the park" Tony starts listing things off and Bruce just chuckles leaving him to it. He'll let the mother hen work for now.