Did I add a ship in here not involving Peter or Tony? Yes, I did.
Do I feel bad about it? No.
:)
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The plant was named Hot Dog, and he was magnificent. The other Avengers didn't understand Peter's strange obsession with naming inanimate objects, but that's just how he is.
After Tony gave Peter the plant during a particularly tough week at school, Peter carefully chose the plant's name in a complicated, time-consuming, process. This process consisted of him listing off random words while he sat in front of the Cast Iron Plant. Eventually, he decided on one that sounded right, Hot Dog.
"You named a plant Hot Dog?" Mr. Stark had asked once Peter had told him the decided name.
"Yes," Peter said with a flat, serious face, "It's a perfect name for him."
"Him?" Tony asked, even more confused now.
"You can't judge me, Mr. Stark! You name all the robots you build!"
Tony backed up quickly, his hands raised in the air as if he was surrendering. He knew Peter only spoke the truth.
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Hot Dog soon found a home on the table in the corner on the lab. It was his table. Whenever Tony sat down papers or tools beside the plant, Peter made sure to move them off of the table. Until eventually, Tony knew not to place things beside the plant.
When Tony walked into the lab on Friday, that was where he found the teenager. Leaning over the table, watering the plant. The plant that Tony bought.
"Pete? Are you-are you watering the plant?"
"Yes?" The young superhero answered back in confusion, "That's what you do with plants......to keep them alive?"
Tony only nodded back at the teenager, moving his way back to the main table in the lab. He continued to work on the new robot he was making, all the while glancing over at Peter in confusion.
"You're going to grow into a big, strong plant Hot Dog," Peter whispered to the plant, "Just drink your water."
And Tony couldn't help but gaze over at Peter with a look of affection. So the engineer let the teenager continue to water the plant, it couldn't hurt.
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Rhodey didn't come into the lab often, in fact, he usually never came in. But today he did. Tony had invited him to add some upgrades to his armor.
"Hey Tones!" He said as he walked in.
"Rhodes!" Tony said looking up from his work, "Thought you would never show."
"I'm ten minutes early?"
"But you're usually twenty minutes early." Tony replies as he stood up walking over to the other man. Before he reached Rhodey to give him a handshake, the lab doors opened to reveal an excited, bubbly teen.
"Hey, Mr. Stark! Oh!" Peter stopped in his tracks once he saw Rhodey, "Hey, Mr. Rhodes!"
"Please, just call me Rhodey, kid," he let out a few chuckles as his friend's teenager stumbled his way further into the lab.
"Oh, come on, Platypus." Tony rolled his eyes, "Don't you know m-, the kid doesn't ever drop his 'formalities' for anyone."
"Hey!" Peter exclaimed with an indignant, offended yelp.
Tony let out a loud laugh and Peter made his way into his part of the lab, slipping his backpack off his shoulders.
"Come on, Underoos, don't be upset," Tony said as Peter continued to ignore him. With a groan of annoyance Tony turned to Rhodey, "Come on, Sourpatch, let's get working on those upgrades."
Tony and Rhodey gathered around the table littered with blueprints for the War Machine armor.
As the two were absorbed in their conversation Peter made his way over to Hot Dog's corner.
Rhodey looked up at Peter,the kid was watering his plant. Why was the kid watering the plant?
"Tony? Isn't that plant........?" Rhodey began to ask but was cut off as Tony threw a wrench at him.
"Ow!" Rhodey called out in pain.
"Ssssssshhhhhhhhh," Tony shushed him with a glare. Rhodey let out a loud guffaw once he realized just why his friend had hit him.
"......he doesn't know that," but Rhodey was interrupted by Peter as he was asking another question.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing kid, don't worry about it," Tony answered with a wave of his hand. Peter shrugged his shoulders and retrieved his backpack from the floor. The teenager opened the bag and began to slowly grab different items, arranging them around Hot Dog.
The two adults watched in confusion as the younger superhero took out a page of hot-dog related stickers and stuck them to the pot. He also seemed to take out two letters, and with squinted eyes the two Avengers could see the names 'Ned' and 'MJ' scribbled on the envelopes. Peter also got out his wallet and dumped out a handful of change onto the table, spreading out the pile around the plant.
"Pete.....?" Tony began to ask after a few moments, "What are-, what are you doing?"
Rhodey leaned over to his best friend, "I think your kid's broken, Tones. You might need to reboot him."
After a quiet shut up from Tony, Rhodey backed off.
"It's a shrine, Mr. Stark." Peter said said with an obvious tone of voice, "Hot Dog deserves the best, do you have anything to offer him?"
Rhodey quietly began to splutter broken sentences, but what silenced by Tony once again. "Sure kid," he said as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet and pulled out a five dollar bill.
Peter's eyes grew wide, "Oh! No, Mr. Stark! It's okay!" and he let out a nervous laugh, "It's just a joke!"
"Nonsense, kid. Now move out of the way and let me pay my respects." Peter could only nod as Mr. Stark almost shoved him out of the way.
Rhodey was in shock, how could his best friend change so much? He just didn't understand.
Oh well, he thought as he also pulled out five dollars, whatever makes his friend's kid happy.
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Eventually the shrine for Hot Dog began to grow, and Peter knew it was all Mr. Stark's fault. He had tried to return the money to the engineer but he only got the reply, "I'm a billionaire, kid. Where else is my money supposed to go?"
The others had written letters to Hot Dog too, which was very surprising. Bucky's was by far Peter's favorite.
Dear Hot Dog,
I do not understand you, you are not alive like the tree. But you are my mission assist's friend (?) .......my friend's friend. Therefore, I will write this letter.
And that was only the beginning of Bucky's letter, and Peter loved every single line of it. So yes, it seemed Hot Dog was causing Peter to be in a good mood. This good mood however, had to come to end sooner or later. And today, was that day.
"Six months!?" Every individual with enhanced sentences recoiled into themselves as they heard the teen screech from another room.
"Kid-, wait-! Let me explain!" Tony backed up into the main common room quickly, everyone could tell the man was nervous.
"Six months!?" Peter called as he stepped menacingly towards Tony. This was a new, sudden side to Peter many of the Avengers had never seen.
Sam leaned closer to a Bucky, "Peter's been spending too much time with you, just look at him." Bucky didn't say anything but instead he glared at Sam, though he couldn't stop the proud glint that entered his eyes. He was shaping Peter to become a perfect prank partner.
If it was possible, Sam leaned even closer to Bucky, "You're not getting him on your side, Barnes," he whispered to the other super-soldier. Bucky, for once in his life, couldn't think of a response, but luckily he didn't have to.
"Six months?!" Peter called out again.
"Wait-! Bambi-, let me explain!" The two had fully made their way into the view of the others. Wanda seemed to focus her gaze onto Peter, attempting to discover what had made the kid upset, before she let out a loud snort.
"What's wrong?" Bruce asked as he also entered the room.
"You let me water a fake plant! For six months!?" As Peter said this, multiple heroes let out slight chuckles. How the kid had just figured this out, was unknown to them.
"Okay, but didn't Hot Dog make you happy?" Tony tried to appease the teenager, "So what if he's fake?"
"So what if he-, so what if he's fake?!" Peter spluttered out, "I cared for him! I watered him! Where did the water go, Mr. Stark?!"
Tony seemed to freeze, "I may have.....built a pipe system into the bottom of the pot."
"You built a pipe system into Hot Dog instead of just telling me he wasn't real!?"
"I'm trying at least! You would have killed a real plant, Pete!" Bucky and Sam both let out a snort as Tony said this, great way to make him happy Tony.
But at that moment Peter turned towards them, "And you! You let me care for Hot Dog too!" Bucky saw Tony's eyes glance towards the door, he was plotting his escape.
"How you gonna get out of this one, Barnes?" Sam's breath hit Bucky's neck as he leaned in closer. Bucky met his gaze in a competitive manner.
"Peter, I only did it to make you happy, actually Sam threatened me." Sam let out an indignant 'hey!' but Bucky continued talking, "Look, паук." Bucky nodded his head towards Tony, who was almost halfway to the exit.
Tony looked up, he felt betrayed. He knew Barnes couldn't be trusted.
"Mr. Stark!" Peter turned towards the older engineer, "You're trying to leave?!"
Tony frantically looked towards the others for help, but they offered him none. He finally let out a big sigh, resigning himself to the fate he had chosen, "Okay, kid. Let's go buy a real plant."
"Yes!" Peter cheered as he happily bounced out of the room, Tony following slowly behind, though the engineer couldn't keep the smile off his face.
Bucky sat back further into the couch, he would get Peter to help him prank Sam another day. Maybe they could also prank Tony. He nodded to himself, he was sure it was a good idea. Bucky turned his head slightly towards the left and flinched back as he saw Sam's face right in front of his.
"Sam....?" Bucky asked quietly.
"Hey, guys! What's going on?" Steve asked as he walked in. Bucky jumped away from Sam, his hair covering his face, he felt embarrassed.
"I-, uh. I'm off to train." Bucky rushed out of the room, leaving Sam sitting frozen on the couch. The other Avengers had not been paying attention to the pair who were sitting on the couch, but now they were confused as to why the Winter Soldier had left in such a rush.
"Did I do something?" Steve asked confused, watching one of his best friends leave without even saying bye. He was even more confused however when Sam leaped up to follow Bucky and rushed out without saying anything to him either.
"Okay, then." Steve said as he sat on the couch, confused, but he was not going to follow them if they were just going to argue, which he assumed what was going to happen.
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The table that was once solely dedicated to Hot Dog, now was home to two plants. Hamburger and Hot Dog, the dynamic duo. One real, and one fake.
Of course, even though Tony couldn't take care of himself most days, he made sure to take care of both Peter and Hamburger. He figured the fake plant could figure life out for itself.
The other Avengers even wrote letters again, this time for the real plant, and the shrine around both of the plants grew.
Peter was happy, he was happy with his little makeshift plant family. Hamburger, Hot Dog, and their grandpa, Tony.
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"Mr. Stark!" Peter yelled as he quickly stumbled his way into the lab. His cheeks were flushed and he looked like he had just ran all the way here from the bottom floor. Actually, that's exactly what happened. Friday had alerted Tony once she realized Peter's heart rate was much higher than normal.
"Kid? What's wrong?" Tony asked, trying to hide his panic as he rushed over to his kid.
"You have another grand-child, Mr. Stark," Peter said, completely frozen staring at him.
"I-. What-? Another?" Tony asked confused, "I'm a grandpa?"
Peter reaches into bag to pull out a small, green cactus with a light yellow flower on top, "It's Mustard." Peter said with wide eyes, and Tony would be lying if he said he didn't have Friday put this footage into the file 'my son' later.
"Oh....of course. My grandchildren," Tony gestured toward the table in the corner. Peter nodded and walked over to place Mustard with the two others.
Tony shook his head fondly at the teenager. He was so happy he met him.
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Words: 2201
Haha, WinterFalcon or SamBucky, whichever you prefer. I didn't plan on adding them in but it just happened. :)
I hope you enjoyed reading!