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“Hey,” Tony says as Bruce kisses the back of his shoulder, “How was your morning?”
“Wonderful. I love going out with him. And yours?”
“Productive. Is he napping?”
“Yeah, poor kid passed out in the car. I don’t know why he’s been so tired lately.”
“Maybe he’s been staying up at night after we put him to bed.”
“Mm, maybe. Jarvis, can you keep an eye on him tonight, let us know if he wakes up?”
“Yes, sir.”
They spend the next two hours tinkering in the lab until Tony’s feeling restless, and he gets up, stretching. “What do you think about eating out tonight?” he asks, coming over to Bruce and winding his arms around him.
Bruce leans back into his embrace, shrugging. He rubs a hand over Tony’s forearm before saying, “I don’t mind. Any reason?”
“Dunno, it would be nice. We haven’t gone out in a while, the three of us. We could get ice cream after, Peter hasn’t really tried that yet.”
“Oh god, can you imagine? It’s going to end up all over his face. Remember the spaghetti incident?”
Tony laughs, ducking down to kiss Bruce’s jaw. “He looked like a serial killer, there was sauce everywhere.”
“And yet, it’s one of his favorite meals. Go see if he’s awake and if he wants to do something in the meantime.”
“I love you,” Tony murmurs, kissing his cheek this time before he stands.
“I love you more,” Bruce says as he’s walking away, and Tony just shakes his head at him, smirking.
He takes the elevator down to their floor, humming Led Zeppelin as he goes, and he stops in the kitchen first to grab an apple, biting into it as he continues through their floor, quieting as he gets to Peter’s room. He opens the door slowly, careful not to let it creak, and he smiles as he comes in and finds Peter still asleep, curled up on his side, facing the wall.
Tony goes over, leaving his apple on the nightstand before he sits on the edge of Peter’s bed, and he’s about to touch his shoulder when he notices the tarantula on Peter’s face. “Holy fuck,” he hisses, jumping back up off the bed and flapping his hands. He stares down at the spider, trying to make himself inch back toward the bed, and then one of its legs moves, and Tony makes an incredibly unattractive noise and turns away, squeezing his eyes shut.
He takes a moment before turning back around, sticking his tongue out. “Okay,” he mutters to himself, looking around, “Okay. There’s a fucking spider on my son’s face, this is awesome. Sure, Peter, spiders are way cool.” He settles with a wide book with a somewhat thick spine and inches toward Peter’s bed, carefully sliding the end of the book along his ear and over to his cheek. The tarantula settles one leg on it, testing it, and then it’s crawling forward, and Tony waits, making a ridiculous face, until it’s entirely on the book before he drops it on the floor and jumps back, swearing.
Peter stirs, making a little sleepy noise, and Tony starts to go back toward him, but the book is still on the floor, and the tarantula is still on the book, so he makes an angry face at the spider and stays where he is. “Bruce,” he says as quietly as he can, “There is a very large tarantula in Peter’s room. Why is there a very large tarantula in Peter’s room?”
“Oh,” Bruce comes over the earphone, “Well. I may have forgotten to tell you about that.”
“You—oh my god, it’s moving.”
“Are you afraid of spiders?”
“I am not afraid of spiders, I just prefer snakes. Good god, it’s huge. Why the hell would you get him a tarantula? You couldn’t have got him a nicer-looking spider, seriously? I’m feeling claustrophobic, Bruce.”
“Oh my god, Tony, you are a giant compared to this thing. You’re also Iron Man, you whimp. It’s just a spider.”
“It’s a very large spider. Can I squish it?”
“No, you cannot squish—Tony, I swear to god, if you kill that spider, I will annihilate you.”
“But it’s—”
“His name is Cooper. He’s Peter’s new pet.”
“He’s a pet? You actually spent money on this thing, you didn’t just find it in the street?”
“I told you I’d been talking to Hank McCoy, and that he worked at a pet store, and I thought it would be good for Peter to have a pet.”
“I’m pretty sure I wasn’t listening, and now it’s walking toward me, I’m going to scream.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Bruce says, and Tony stops moving at the sudden amusement in Bruce’s voice.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Absolutely. Stop dancing around Cooper and wake up Peter.”
“Asshole,” Tony says before tiptoeing around the tarantula and dashing toward Peter’s bed, sitting on the edge and sighing. Peter rolls onto his back and squints at Tony. “Hey, little man,” Tony says, smiling down at him and reaching forward to push the hair from his forehead.
“Hi dad,” he says sleepily, closing his eyes again and yawning, “Can I have my glasses?”
Tony reaches over to his nightstand, plucking the glasses off and fitting them on. Peter stretches, freezes midway, and sits up, gasping, “Where’s Cooper?”
“Your—tarantula?” Tony says, making a face, “He’s on the floor.”
“Dad,” Peter whines, and Tony sighs, groaning before he gets up and goes over to where Cooper is exploring. “Just pick him up,” Peter says when Tony stalls, and he looks back at him, gaping. Peter laughs at his expression before kicking his blankets back and sliding off his bed, toddling over and scooping Cooper up. He lets him crawl up his arm and settle on his shoulder. “I think he knows I’m like a spider,” he says, looking over at him, “He likes me.”
“That’s awesome, Peter. Does Ollie like him?”
“He’s a little scared, but he’s an elephant, so he’ll get over it. Do you like him?”
“Yeah, not really, but that’s just cos I like snakes more.”
“Snakes are cool, too, but I like spiders better. You don’t have to hold him if you don’t like him. Daddy told me to keep him in his cage, but I wanted to cuddle with him,” he says even as he goes over to the bay window where a tank now sits, already embellished for Cooper.
“Did daddy get all of that today?”
“Yeah, Hank let me play with Cooper while he helped daddy find everything.”
“You know what would be even cooler?” he says, coming over and sitting on Peter’s bed, watching him put Cooper in his tank with careful hands, “You should start a collection—spiders and reptiles.”
“Like turtles and snakes and frogs and maybe even a—a scorpion!”
Tony just laughs, holding out his arms. Peter pads over, letting Tony scoop him up and hold him close. “Sure, even a scorpion.”
“I’d need to get more tanks, though, and I wouldn’t even have enough room for them. It would be so much fun, though. We could all play together all the time, and we would be best friends. Can we do it, dad, please?”
“We’ll talk to daddy about it when we have dinner, okay? And you can’t get them all at once. You have to prove you can take care of Cooper first.”
“Okay!” Peter exclaims before looping his arms around Tony’s neck and hugging him tightly, “I’m excited. I’m gonna have the coolest pets in the world!”