Chapter Text
It had been nine months since the funeral. Peter was happy. At first, he felt guilty. Aunt May died and as a result, Peter moved in with the freaking Avengers. It was hard, those first weeks, every time he smiled or laughed he felt guilty. But, after Pepper convinced him to go therapy, he stopped feeling guilty and he knew that May would want him to be happy. And luckily, after coming to that realization, he could be.
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“Peter give it back!” Clint screamed as Peter ran around him holding his beloved bow just out of arms reach. “Just grab it you big baby” Natasha teased from her position perched on the back of the couch. “Of course, well, it would be easier to catch him if he wasn’t oh, I don’t know, on the ceiling!” Clint squawked lunging for the bow. Peter giggled, pulling the bow away again. Clint and Natasha were the only ones at the tower that weekend, meaning there had been a constant flow of pranks and teasing between Clint and Peter, which Natasha happily watched but never took part in.
The elevator door opened and Pepper walked out, reading emails on her phone. “Peter honey, get off the ceiling, you know you aren’t supposed to mess around up there.” She said without even glancing up. “Sorry mom” Petter quipped before climbing down and tossing the bow to Natasha. “Why does she get it and not me?!” Clint demanded, hands on his hips. Natasha smirked, “it’s a spider thing” She replied in a light tone.
As Clint continued to complain Peter walked away, following Pepper into the kitchen. “How was your day sweetheart?” She asked as she peered into the fridge. “Pretty good, since it’s the last week of school we didn’t do much” he answered hopping up on the counter. Pepper smiled, “makes sense”. Grabbing some parmesan cheese, she turned to face Peter. “Clint and Natasha are going on a super secret mission tonight” she said. “So a date?” Peter asked laughing. Clint and Natasha had been not so secretly dating for a couple of months. Pepper smiled and nodded. “Since they’ll be gone I was thinking family dinner, just the three of us?” She asked making her way to the elevator. “Yeah that sounds great,” Peter said following her, “can I help?”. Peter loved cooking with Pepper. Cooking was not Aunt May’s strong suit so most, if not all the home cooked meals Peter had had, had been from Pepper or Steve. It was a pleasant change, to say the least. “Of course you can, you know I love it when you cook with me”. The Elevator opened onto their floor and Pepper walked into the kitchen.
When Peter had first moved into the tower he had been given his own floor, but Tony quickly moved him to his personal floor. Peter tended to have Nightmares more often than not, and it was easier for him to crawl into bed with Tony and Pepper when his room was just across the hall.
Peter hurried to wash his hands asking, “What are we making?” as he dried them on a towel. “I was thinking Pasta, The Italian kind that Tony likes” Pepper replied setting a pot of water on the stove. “Mmmmmm sounds great” Peter said getting to work. Peter helped make dinner often and the two were the perfect mother/son duo. As Peter cut up onions, pepper got to work on the dough for homemade breadsticks. Peter put the onions in a pan with some mushrooms. “Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y. could you play the ‘what’s cookin good lookin’ playlist?” Peter asked, adding beef to the sauteed onions and mushrooms. “Certainly” F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied as the music began to play. “Is that actually what your playlist is called?” Pepper asked adding noodles to the now boiled water. “Yep” Peter replied with a grin. “Of course it is” Pepper said with a laugh. “You become more like Tony every day”. Peter’s grin grew impossibly wider as he stirred the tomato sauce.
As Peter went to set the table he started to sing along to the Taylor Swift song with no shame.
“Our song is a slamming screen door,
Sneaking out late tapping on your window”
With a laugh, Pepper joined in setting the pasta on the table.
“When we're on the phone and you talk real slow,
'Cause it's late and your mama don't know”
Together they belted the chorus dancing around and making finishing touches to their meal.
And that’s how Tony found them five minutes later solemnly performing a concert to ‘Hello Darkness My Old Friend”. He stood watching from the elevator as his little family danced around singing to invisible fans. “Have they been doing this long Fri?” he asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt the song. “Miss Potts and Mister Peter have been singing for approximately eight minutes sir” F.R.I.D.A.Y. responded, loud enough to break Peter and Pepper from their trance. F.R.I.D.A.Y. took the liberty of turning off the music.
“Dad! What the heck! Have you just been watching us?!” Peter screeched turning bright pink.
“Yep basically” Tony replied kissing Pepper and moving to sit down.
“At least he didn’t try to hide it this time” Pepper pointed out.
As the small family ate they talked mindlessly about Peter’s school and Tony’s new suit upgrade. As the Topic of summer came up Pepper and Tony shared a look.
“Hey Pete, Pepper and I wanted to ask you about something important” Tony said.
Peter looked up, a look of concern on his face, “Did I do something wrong?” He asked his voice small.
“Of course not baby, this is good news, hopefully” Pepper reassured him.
“How would you feel about us moving out to the compound this summer?” Tony asked setting his fork down.
“That would be awesome!” Peter said, “Everybody else lives there anyways! Then we could hang out with them like all the time!”
“Yeah, we could” Pepper laughed, smiling at Peter’s enthusiasm.
“When are we moving!?’ Peter asked bouncing up and down in his chair.
“We would like to move as soon as you finish school, around next week. There’s just a slight problem.” Tony said.
“What is it?” Peter asked, confused.
Tony looked at Pepper, who gave a reassuring nod.
“Well, Since the compound is so far away you would be moving fostering districts,” Tony started. Peter turned his head to the side, a look of confusion displayed on his face.
“Uh technically, in order for us to move, and bring you with us, you would need to be adopted.” Tony finished.
Given how hard May’s death hit Peter, Pepper and Tony opted not to worry Peter about being officially adopted. They didn’t want to overwhelm or add to the guilt Peter already felt about moving in with them.
“If you aren’t ready for that yet, or ever I suppose, we can always have Tony’s lawyers yell at some people to get them to allow you to come” Pepper hurridly said, not wanting to pressure Peter to do anything.
“No, it’s okay! I- I want to be adopted. I mean you guys are already like parents to me and I mean I call you mom and dad, it would make sense to make it official right?” Peter asked.
“If that’s what you want” Tony said, trying to hide the tears in his eyes.
“It is” Peter hurried to say, not wanting them to think he didn’t want to be a part of their family.
“That’s wonderful Sweetheart! I’ll call the adoption agency after dinner, see how quickly we can do this thing yeah?” Pepper said ruffling Peter’s hair.
“Yeah” Peter said unable to keep a grin off his face.
They were officially going to become a family. He was going to have a real family.