You can trust now, Peter darling

20

"There they are! How was school, kid?" Tony asked Peter once they arrived at the compound. The man put his arm around the boy's shoulder as they walked towards the living room.

"Really good! I had Spanish, Chemistry and History. All of them were quite easy." Peter said and Tony smiled down at him.

"That's great, Peter. And what about that guy? Ted, was it?"

"Ned?"

"Yeah, Fred."

"Uh...yeah, he's my friend." He said, deciding not to correct him again.

"That's awesome, Pete. How about we celebrate? Ice cream and Star Wars?" Tony asked him.

"Only if it's The Waffle Cone." Peter said and Tony chuckled.

"Of course."

Peter and Tony went to The Waffle Cone pretty much every week. Ever since the day of the adoption, it had become a tradition.

"Can we invite Nat and Steve?" Peter asked.

"If you want, kid." Tony sighed. Peter smiled and turned around to ask them if they wanted to come, but his face immediately turned red as he witnessed them both making out with each other.

"Once you guys are finished eating each other, do you wanna come to The Waffle Cone with me and Tony?" Peter called out to them, causing them to pull apart and smile at Peter. He heard Tony chuckle from behind him.

"We'd love to come, Peter." Nat replied.

"Great, let's go!" Peter said with the biggest smile on his face and rushed towards the elevator.

Tony smiled at his son. He was the luckiest guy in the world.

————————————————————————————————————

Peter eventually met the girl Ned had been talking about. MJ, her name was. And he was right, she was extremely intimidating and scary. But she was also really cool, so it leveled out.

She didn't try and get Peter to talk like others did. She didn't try and push him out of his comfort zone. Peter felt safe around her. So he decided to join the Decathlon team like Ned suggested, that way he would be with his two friends all the time.

Decathlon was awesome, in Peter's words. He could answer all the questions, and he also made new friends, such as Abraham and Liz. But most importantly, he grew a lot closer to Ned and MJ.

Ned was still the only person who knew about him being Tony's adopted son. Peter was yet to tell MJ about it. He didn't want to her to think of him any differently. It was also kinda nice, her not knowing. It showed Peter that—

"Oh, I know your Tony Stark's son."

"...What?"

Peter heard MJ scoff from the other side of the phone.

"You and Ned aren't exactly quiet when you're talking about it. I suspected it anyway. I'm extremely observant."

"Thank God! I wasn't sure I could keep it a secret any longer." Ned let out a relieved sigh from the three way call.

"Dammit...MJ, no one knows about this so—"

"Yeah, yeah. I know the drill."

"Cool, thanks." Peter said, running a hand down his face as he sat at his desk in his bedroom. He glanced at some of the papers on his desktop while Ned and MJ talked about Peter's living situation. Most of them were to do with schoolwork, but the one at the very bottom of the pile wasn't. Peter pulled it out and let out a shaky breath.

It was the drawing of the man from HYDRA. He finished drawing it a few days ago and didn't know what to do with it.

"Peter!" Ned called from the phone. Peter jumped and let go of the piece of paper and it drifted to the ground. Peter didn't know how long his friends were trying to get his attention, so he quickly replied.

"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry." Peter cleared his throat.

"We were just saying that maybe we should actually meet up soon instead of calling every day. We don't really hang out unless it's at school." MJ repeated.

"Oh...yeah, that sounds good. I know a great ice cream place." Peter said and smirked to himself. "Me and Tony go there all the time."

"Alright, we'll go there then. We can meet at the park at 4pm tomorrow and then walk there together?" MJ suggested.

"Sounds great." Peter agreed.

"Awesome! I'm gonna go to an ice cream store that Tony Stark goes to!" Ned exclaimed. Peter let out a laugh and he could practically hear MJ rolling her eyes.

"Listen, I gotta go. See you guys tomorrow." Peter said, hanging up once they both said goodbye.

As if on cue, someone knocked on Peter's door before opening it. The boy already knew that it was gonna be Tony.

"You know, there's no point in knocking if you're just gonna walk in anyway." Peter said without looking up from his desk.

"I don't think I like your attitude, mister." Tony said, walking further into the room. Peter laughed and looked at his dad.

"Just checking in on you, haven't seen you much today." He said, placing a hand on Peter's shoulder.

"Just having a quiet day." Peter shrugged.

"Anything you wanna talk about?"

"No, it's fine. Nothing serious."

Tony nodded and glanced around Peter's room. His eyes then fell to the piece of paper that was face down on the floor.

"I really hope that this piece of paper isn't the start of a bigger mess." Tony said, picking it up. Peter suddenly felt a shot of panic and tried to take it off the man, but he had already seen it.

Tony's face fell as he scanned the paper. The drawing of the middle aged man with a scruffy beard and daunting eyes. Peter registered the look of sadness in Tony's eyes as he looked back over to him.

"Oh, Pete..." Tony said softly, rubbing his forehead. Tony knew who the man was, since he was the one who put him in jail after rescuing Peter.

"It's nothing, Tony." Peter mumbled, eyes glued to his desk again.

"Don't give me that, kid. This is definitely something." Tony said, waving the paper around.

"No it's not!"

"Peter...you've drawn the face of a guy who tortured you." Tony said as he crouched down next to the kid to meet his gaze.

"Actually, he wasn't the one who tortured me. He was just in charge of the torture." Peter muttered, he tried to use humor to cope, but he could feel the tears prickling at his eyes.

"Peter, this is serious. Please...just be serious with me for a second." Tony said as he placed the paper down on the desk. "Just tell me what it's about."

Peter sighed and looked at the drawing, his vision blurring. "I-I just needed an outlet. That's all." He finally answered. Tony's face saddened even more and he stood up.

"In that case, do you want to set it on fire?" Tony asked. Peter smiled and looked up at him, nodding. He wiped a stray tear that had escaped and stood up, drawing in hand.

Tony walked them out onto one of the balconies, lighter in hand. He handed it to Peter. He didn't particularly want the boy to be holding something like that, but he knew this was something he needed to do.

Peter stared at the paper for a few seconds before finally bring the lighter up to it. He brought the flame up to the bottom right corner and watched as it slowly burnt the paper, making its way up to the top. He stepped closer to the edge of the balcony and let go of it. He watched as the burning paper made its way to the ground, ashes flying off it.

Peter felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest and he smiled.

Never again.