"You feel like home, and everywhere I've never been, all at once."
Aphrodite Harper.
My heart leapt out of my mouth and onto the pavement when I saw my favourite boys, and as soon as the gate opened, I jumped into Tony's arms, wrapping my legs around his waist.
"Hey, handsome." I whispered, kissing his cheek as he wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly.
"Hey gorgeous." He responded, and I jumped down, bringing Peter in for a hug, standing on my tip toes.
"Hey kid, Tony been treating you alright?" I asked, and he hugged me back happily, and nodded.
"Mr Stark has been great to me."
"I'm glad." I smiled, pulling away and looking back at the prison.
"Let's get out of here."
We got in the helicopter to take us back to New York, and I sighed of relief as I watched the disgusting walls of that hellhole disappear behind me.
Tony placed his hand on my thigh, rubbing circles in with his thumb, making me smile and close my eyes.
"I know you just got out and probably want to relax," Peter said, and I opened my eyes to look at him.
"But Aunt May died." He said, tears welling into his eyes, and I took his hand in mine since I couldn't properly hug him.
"I'm sorry Peter. I promise we'll figure something out." I said, and he nodded.
"Thankyou."
I could tell he didn't want to talk about it any further, so Tony cleared his throat, drawing the attention to him.
"So, Ross told me you threatened all of the inmates, care to tell me why you did that?" He asked, and Peter giggled.
I rolled my eyes.
Of course he did.
"An asshole tried to threaten me. I put him in his place." I said, making Tony smirk.
"That's my girl."
"What about you threatening all of the prisoners?" Peter asked, clearly curious, and I laughed.
"Thought I might as well mark my territory. I didn't know when you guys were coming." I answered, making him nod.
Tony chuckled, clearly proud of me.
"So, how did you convince Ross to let me out?" I asked, and I watched Tony and Peter share a glance.
"He agreed after I pestered him for long enough." He said, and Peter nodded, agreeing with him.
Sure you did.
"So what actually happened?" I questioned him further, and they shared another glance.
"Mr Stark paid for your bail." Peter said, and I thanked Peter for telling the truth, then turned to Tony.
"How much was it?" I asked, and he shrugged.
"It's not important, my love. You're out, that's what matters." Tony said, and I rolled my eyes, but I wasn't angry.
I just didn't want it to be that much.
I stayed silent, staring at him until he caved.
Peter shifted in his seat uncomfortably, and Tony looked between us.
"Just tell her Mr Stark!" Peter broke the silence, and I held back a laugh.
"You can just tell me, Pete." I said, and he opened his mouth to respond, but Tony butted in before he could.
"Don't you dare, kid."
Peter looked back and forth at us, not knowing which side to pick.
"I don't know what to do!" He exclaimed, and I smiled.
"I'll get you a big surprise if you tell me." I bargained, and Peter looked excited.
"Really?!"
"I'll be super disappointed in you, kid." Tony said, and Peter's smile dropped.
"C'mon, I'm not going to freak out." I said softly, and he started twiddling his thumbs.
"Ten million." He mumbled, and my eyes widened.
"Ten fucking million?!" I shouted, and Peter jumped in his seat.
"Kid!" Tony said, and Peter raised his hands.
"I couldn't take the tension, I'm sorry!" He defended himself, making me chuckle.
"Ten million dollars, Tony?" I asked, looking at him.
"It was the only way to get you out." Tony said, and I sighed, knowing he did it for me.
"Thankyou."
"It's alright, baby."
We eventually landed back in New York, and I almost kissed the ground.
Almost.
As soon as we got inside, I ran up to Tony and my room, and putting on more comfortable clothes.
I put my prison jumpsuit in the trash, washing my hands afterwards.
I'm glad that's over.
By the time I walked downstairs, Peter and Tony were having a casual chat about me being home, and I saw Tony's phone ring.
It was an unknown number, so I tilted my head at it.
"Tony, call from an unknown number!" I called to him, and he looked up to me.
"Can you get it?!" He exclaimed back, and I shrugged, picking up.
"Hello?"
"Oh, I believe I have the wrong number. Is this Tony Stark?" A woman asked, and my blood went cold.
Was Tony..?
No, he wouldn't do that.
"This is his girlfriend, Aphrodite." I said, and I heard a gasp on the other line.
"Oh fabulous! My name is Dolores, I work for Queens Adoption, Mr Stark called me earlier on about the possibility of adopting." The woman said, and I breathed a sigh of relief, but then widened my eyes.
Adoption?
"Oh, this is the first I'm hearing about this, could you give me a little more information?" I asked politely, and she chuckled.
"Of course. He called and said a sixteen year old boy had lost his parents and an auntie." Dolores said, making me smile to myself.
Tony wants to adopt Peter.
"Peter, absolutely, I'm sorry about that, I can be quite forgetful at times. What were you calling for, exactly?"
"I just wanted to inform Mr Stark that he does not need to undergo a background check, as his financial, living and relationship status are public. No investigation will be needed." She said, and I grinned.
"That is absolutely fantastic. Where do we go from here?" I asked, looking over at Tony and Peter to see they were still talking happily.
"You are back in New York, yes?"
"Unfortunately, yes." I said, and Dolores laughed.
"That's not a problem at all. I can send an electronic copy for both you and Mr Stark to sign." She told me, and I sighed of relief.
"Great, when will that come through?" I asked, and she typed on her computer for a second before answering.
"I can send it through right now if you give me your email?" She offered happily, and I almost jumped.
I gave her my email, and after a moment of typing, she responded.
"I'll send that through to you, you should get it within the hour. Send it back with yours and Mr Stark's signatures as soon as you can." Dolores said happily, and I grinned.
"Thankyou, Dolores."
"No worries at all. Enjoy the rest of your day."
"You too." I said, hanging up the phone and walking over to Tony and Peter.
"Who was that?" Tony asked, and I smirked at him.
"I think you know who it was." I responded, and he smiled softly at me.
"Anyway," Tony said, taking his phone out of my hand and standing up.
"I'll leave you two to talk, I'm going to go downstairs."
"Suits?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Yeah, see you guys later." Tony said, kissing my cheek and walking downstairs.
Peter turned and looked at me, seeming overly excited.
"I just got an idea!" He exclaimed, and looked at me happily.
Oh no.
This is either going to be fantastic, or terrible.
"What is it, Pete?" I asked, sitting in front of him.
"You should get a pet." He beamed at me, and I smiled.
"What kind?"
"A fish, or a turtle!"
Having a pet around might make him feel better.
"We should get an aquarium!" I exclaimed, and Peter started jumping up and down.
"Yes!"
Sometimes it's not good that I'm in the middle of Peter's and Tony's ages, because if Peter has an idea, good or bad, I'm more than likely to go along for the ride.
"We can have a school of fish and a turtle!" I said excitedly, and Peter looked like he could explode from happiness.
"Should we ask Mr Stark?" Peter asked, and I shook my head.
"Friday, can you tell Tony that Peter and I are going to the store? We'll be back later." I said, and grabbed my purse.
"Of course, Miss Harper."
I opened the front door after taking a set of car keys, and Peter got in the passenger seat.
"What kind of fish should we get?" He asked, and I shrugged.
"Let's see what the store has."
•••
"I wanna get a huge tank." I said to the store attendant, who I could tell did not want to be here at all.
Peter on the other hand, was ready to set up a tent and live here.
"My partner doesn't know about this, so maybe just a medium size? But we want heaps of fishies." I said, grinning at Peter who was making faces at the fish.
"Sure thing. What kind of fish are you thinking about?" The clerk asked, looking at me.
"Some fish have different water and living conditions. I can help you choose ones that can live harmoniously."
"That would be great. This was kind of spontaneous, we don't know much about fish." I said to the boy, and he looked over at Peter, who accidentally scared a mouse.
"Well let's have a look then."
"What kind of fish should we get if we want a turtle too?" I asked the clerk, and he gave me a few types.
We looked at all the fish, and decided on a bunch of goldfish and koi fish. They could both live happily with turtles.
The only problem is that koi fish can grow to be big, so when we looked at tanks, we settled on a reasonably large sized one, so that the fish and turtle could have space, and if the koi fish got big, it wouldn't be a problem.
I asked Peter what theme he wanted for the tank, if he wanted a bunch of plants, or a shipwreck, or even broken buildings, but he said he wanted a castle in there.
'A big castle' he said, and that is what I did.
I bought a few rocks and plants as well, because I wanted to make sure the fish and turtle would be happy.
I know that they can get bored in a tank if it wasn't decorated properly.
We ended up buying the tank, the decorations, food, two turtles, ten goldfish and ten koi fish.
They would all fit well.
The clerk educated us on proper tank maintenance, as well as what food best fit the fish and turtles.
I wrote it all down, and we left the store, feeling happy with ourselves.
I had no idea what Tony would say, though I was sure he'd be fine with it, since there's plenty of room in the house for this kind of thing.
"Let's get them back home and set up the tank." I grinned at Peter, who was holding the fish and turtles in bags, while the tank, decorations and food was in the backseat.
I drove us home, and we quickly got out the car, bringing everything in.
There was an empty table in the living room, and I decided that would be a great spot for the tank, so I placed it ontop.
Peter made sure the turtles and fish were okay while we put rocks and fake grass along the bottom of the tank, and tall bits of grass around the interior.
I carefully placed the castles into the tank, grinning at Peter when I took a look at the tank in all of its glory.
It looked great.
I put the filtration system in place, and carefully filled it up.
Once is was ready to go, Peter and I eased the turtles and fish into the tank, noticing they all seemed excited to explore their new surroundings, and seemed to get along perfectly fine.
I high fived Peter, and he gave me a side hug.
"Thankyou for this, I feel better." He said softly, and I grinned.
"Anytime, kid. Wanna name them?"
After twenty minutes of pondering, Peter had a good list of names for the new pets, and I was happy with them.
I wrote the names on a piece of paper, and put it on the table next to the tank so we could remember them all.
Cute names for even cuter pets:
Boy turtle: Squirtle.
Girl turtle: Flippy.
Boy goldfish: Cheeto, Finley, Snapper, Jonah and Zeus.
Girl goldfish: Sushi, Boba, Ariel, Nibbles and Lucky.
Boy koi fish: Leo, Magikarp, Booboo Sousa, Finn and Yoshi.
Girl koi fish: Lily, Luna, Angel, Tango, and Rainbow.
Every family needs pets, and this is starting to feel like a pretty great one.