#watched the time lapse of this for fun and it seriously felt like a sped up tape of the doctor and the photographer in the first Saw movie

[freakomania]

hawkins’ premier sweet tooths (sweet teeth?)

[starryknight09]

Unforeseen dangers Ch. 3

Summary:  As Peter recovers from his capture by Ross, a photo of him with Tony and the Avengers leaks and is splashed all across the media. Luckily, no one can figure out who he is and everyone thinks the buzz will die down. However, the public’s interest has been ignited. While Tony worries it’s only a matter of time before Peter’s identity is exposed, Peter isn’t as concerned. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen anyway?

Read on AO3.

________________________________________________________

Peter walked toward the Audi that was waiting in its usual spot outside the school.  Tony had relented with Bruce’s blessing and let him go back to school yesterday, so he’d at least gotten two days in before school let out for winter break today.  It was enough time to catch up with his friends and collect a huge chunk of make-up work to finish over the next couple weeks.  Awesome.

He tugged the passenger side door open and crawled in, unable to hide his surprise at seeing Pepper at the wheel instead of Happy or Tony.

“Hi honey.” She greeted him warmly.

“Hey Pepper.  Um, what are you doing here?  Not that it’s not like great to see you, but what I mean is—”

“I asked Tony if I could pick you up.” Pepper interrupted his nervous rambling as she pulled into traffic, avoiding the mess of cars seamlessly and without swearing like Happy usually did.

“Oh cool.” And it was, but Peter was still a little confused.  Pepper had never picked him up from school before.  Not that they weren’t friendly, but they didn’t have the same close relationship like he had with his dad and some of the other Avengers.  Maybe his visit a couple days earlier had inspired her to want to spend more time with him?

“Don’t worry.  He wasn’t suspicious.” Pepper said, glancing over at him.

“Suspicious?” Now he was really confused.

“I should probably explain, shouldn’t I?” Pepper said, catching her lapse.

“Um…yeah?”

Pepper shot him a bemused smile.

“I talked to our lawyers about your request and they got everything all squared away.” She explained.

“Really?  Wow, that was fast.”

“They’re very good at what they do.  All that’s left to finalize everything is your signature.”

Peter smiled.  “Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me, but you’re welcome.” Pepper patted his leg.  “So, where do you want me to take you to grab a quick bite?  I told Tony I’d feed you before I brought you back.”

Peter rolled his eyes.  “You don’t have to.”

“I want to.  Besides, I’m starving.  I skipped lunch for a finance meeting today.”

“Fun.”

Pepper laughed.  “So what’ll it be?”

“Um, do you like Indian food?”

“I do.”

“There’s this great hole in the wall place nearby.  We could go there?”

“That depends.  By hole in the wall do you mean at risk of being shut down by the food inspection service or more like a small family owned undiscovered gem?”

“Definitely the latter.  My friends and I go there all the time.”

Pepper smiled again.  “Ok, then I’m in.  Tell me where to go.”

Peter directed her the rest of the way.  The drive didn’t take more than fifteen minutes and the conversation between them flowed easily.  

Ten minutes later they were still looking for a parking spot, which wasn’t ideal, but Peter felt like they were bonding over it.  

“There!   There’s a spot.” He said, pointing as he spotted a car pulling out from a spot that looked like it would be a tight parallel park.

“I see it.  Good eyes.” Pepper said and sped ahead, easily fitting the Audi in the space without a second of hesitation.

“Wow you’re really good at this.”

“What?  Driving?” Pepper asked, amused.

“Parallel parking.  I probably would’ve hit one or both of the cars around us.”

“You’ll get it.  It just takes practice.” Pepper encouraged as she checked her side mirror to make sure a passing vehicle wouldn’t hit her before stepping out of the car.

“Maybe.” Peter said, not so certain.  He climbed out of the car and shut his door behind him.

“I’ll let you in on a secret.” Pepper said, slinging an arm around his shoulders and leaning in close as if what she was about to tell him was confidential.  “Your dad’s not very good at parallel parking either.”

“Seriously?”

Pepper nodded.  “But don’t tell him you heard it from me.”

Now that he thought about it, Peter realized he didn’t think he’d ever actually seen his dad try to parallel park.  Huh.  He laughed.

“So if you ever need any help perfecting your parallel parking technique, maybe ask someone besides him.” Pepper suggested gently.

“Got it.”

“Are you sure this isn’t too far for your leg?” Pepper asked, frowning when she saw they still had a couple long blocks to go before they got there.  She’d already offered to drop him off when they’d been hunting for a parking space earlier.

“No, it’s fine.  It’s practically back to normal.” That was a slight exaggeration.  It ached by the end of the day and certain movements made it twinge, but overall it wasn’t too bad.  He knew he’d be able to make it to the restaurant without much of a problem.

“Ok, but let me know if starts bothering you or if you need a break.”

“Pepper I’m fine.” He complained, sick of everyone babying him, his dad’s company’s CEO included apparently.

Pepper gave him ‘the look’, the one even his dad wilted under when he was on the receiving end of it, and Peter found himself quickly agreeing, “Ok ok.  I will.”

“Good.”

As they walked together toward the restaurant, Pepper kept her arm draped loosely across his shoulders, but she didn’t lean on him, probably not wanting to add any extra weight in case it hurt his leg.  But his leg held up and didn’t give him any trouble the rest of the way.

They walked into the restaurant and the hostess seated them at a table near the window.  The hustle and bustle outside was in direct contradiction to the near emptiness inside.  Peter glanced at his watch, the one Tony had given him and he’d worn every day since, as requested.  3:30PM.  To be fair, it was an odd time to eat.

“So what’s good here?” Pepper asked once the waiter had taken their drink orders and left them to peruse the menus.

“I always get the chicken tikka masala with garlic naan, but the vindaloo is good too.  That’s what Ned likes.  And I hear they have good biryani, but I’ve never tried it.”

“So everything’s good?” Pepper teased.

Peter smiled.

The waiter came back to take their order and Peter ordered his usual while Pepper ordered the palak paneer.  

“Before I forget,” Pepper said, pulling out a pen and a manila folder from her oversized purse, “I have the papers you need to sign.”

She flipped the folder open and placed it in front of him.  She handed him the pen and pointed to an area marked with a sticky note arrow on the form.  “You need to sign here.”

Peter did.

She turned the page and pointed to another arrow by a blank line.  “And here.”

Peter signed.

She turned to the last page.  “And here.”

As he signed again, his eyes caught another familiar signature on the line above his.  His dad’s.

“Perfect.  You’re all set.” Pepper said, reaching to take the papers away.

“Wait, I thought you said dad didn’t know about this.” He said in confusion, pointing to the signature.

“Oh he doesn’t.” Pepper smiled in amusement.  “I slipped these in with some other SI forms he needed to sign.  He never reads any of the things I put in front of him to sign.”

“He doesn’t?” It surprised him, but didn’t, at the same time.

“Most of the time, no.” Pepper said, taking the papers and readjusting them before closing the folder and carefully shoving them back into her purse.

“Isn’t that…kind of bad?”

Pepper laughed.  “It bodes well for me and the future of SI that you think that.  But don’t worry, he reads the things he really needs to.  The rest he trusts my judgement on.”

“Oh, I guess that’s ok then.” If Pepper was looking things over, it was fine.  She was more than trustworthy.

“I’m glad you approve.” She said, and Peter couldn’t quite tell if she was teasing or genuinely pleased, so instead of saying anything he just smiled.

“I’ll hand the papers off to the lawyers as soon as I get back and they’ll get them pushed through for you.  Once it’s official I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks Pepper.” He said and she waved off his appreciation.

They chitchatted while they waited for their food, which came out surprisingly fast.  Probably because there weren’t many other customers to wait on.

Peter was in the midst of his last bite, polishing off his entire meal without any difficulty, when Pepper’s phone rang.

She checked the screen and frowned.  “Sorry.  I have to take this.”

Peter shrugged.  “It’s fine.”

“Hi Melanie.” Pepper answered, then listened as whoever was on the other line spoke.  As Peter watched, Pepper’s frown deepened.

“I’m sorry, what?” Pepper asked suddenly, although it didn’t actually seem like a question.  Pepper’s eyes met his across the table and he could see real anger there intermixed with worry.  She looked away and listened for another few long seconds.

“Yes, I hear you.  No.  No, don’t do anything yet.  Don’t make a statement.  Just…sit on it for now.  I know.  I’ll explain when I get back.  I’m away from the office but I’m coming back right now and we’ll talk.” Pepper sighed wearily.  “Yes, believe me I understand.  Yes.  I’ll talk to him.  I’ll let you know.  Ok.  Thank you Melanie.  Bye.”

Pepper hung up looking more flustered than Peter had ever seen her before.  “I’m so sorry Peter but we’re going to have to cut this short.  I have to get back to the office.”

“That’s all right.  Is everything ok?”

Pepper’s lips thinned.  “Not really, but I’m going to try to fix it.”

Peter appreciated that she didn’t lie to him.

“Anything I can do?”

“Not right now honey but if there is, I’ll let you know.” Pepper said, a small smile breaking through the stress on her face.

Pepper stood and Peter hurried to follow, watching as she pulled a crisp $100 bill out her wallet and dropped it on the table.  Apparently it wasn’t just Tony that tipped extravagantly.  “Let’s go.”

“Ok.”

As they walked back out to the car, Pepper’s phone rang nonstop.  She didn’t answer it, but her expression grew more and more grim with each call.  He hoped whatever was wrong wasn’t too serious, but he had a bad feeling it wasn’t good.

“Tony we have a problem.” Pepper announced as she barged into his workshop.

“One sec.” He said from under his car where he was in the middle of replacing a part.

“No, now.” Pepper said sternly and he could tell she meant business.  “It’s about Peter.”

Tony rolled out from under the car, wrench still in his hand.  “What?  Is he ok?” He asked, sitting up and glancing around, not seeing his kid.

“He’s fine but—”

“Didn’t you pick him up from school today?”

“I did but—”

“Then where is he?”

“I assume he’s upstairs.” She answered.

“He didn’t want to see me?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe he had homework.  That’s really not what’s important right now Tony.” Pepper sighed becoming visibly frustrated.

“Fine.  What’s wrong?”

“Have you seen the news recently?”

Tony raised an eyebrow at her.  She knew he wasn’t the type to stay up to date on the nonsense the media spewed out.

“Sorry.  Stupid question.” Pepper rubbed her forehead.  “But you’re going to want to see this.”

She rummaged over his desktop and found the remote buried under a stack of papers.  

“I just got done talking with Melanie and she agreed we need to come up with a plan for how to approach this.” Pepper spoke as she picked up the remote and aimed it at the television in the corner of the workshop, turning it on.

“How to approach what?” He asked, standing while he wiped his greasy hands off on a towel.

Before Pepper had a chance to answer, the television reporter’s words caught his attention.  He spun around and stared at the screen.

“And we have a photograph we’re going to show you viewers.  Something that’s sure to get everyone talking.” The TV anchor said dramatically.  “It was taken last week at the Accords amendments signing by a government aid in the room the Avengers went to after the signing.”

A somewhat grainy photo popped up on the screen.

“As you can see, the quality of the photo isn’t great, but you can definitely see Tony Stark sitting on the couch in the background surrounded by some of his closest friends.  In case you don’t know who they are, we’ll identify them for you.  Pepper Potts the CEO of Stark Industries is standing right behind him.  You can see the head of Stark’s security, the man who used to be Stark’s personal bodyguard before he became Ironman, who goes by the name Happy Hogan, sitting in the armchair across from Stark.  Colonel James Rhodes, also known as War Machine or Iron Patriot depending on your preference, who is Tony Stark’s longest standing friend, is standing next to Hogan.  But the big question here, the question everyone’s going to be asking, is who is this kid sitting on the couch with Tony Stark?”

The screen zoomed in to show the blurry profile of a teenage boy with brown hair, looking at Tony with a smile on his face as Tony said something to Rhodes.

“Shit.” Tony swore.

“Exactly.” Pepper agreed.

The news broadcast continued to play.

“Who is this kid that he gets admittance to the room housing the Avengers after the signing?  And not only that, but he’s also clearly gained acceptance into Tony’s Stark’s closest inner circle.  And is sitting next to Tony Stark himself?”

“And you can see the way Stark’s facing him in the image even as he talks to Colonel Rhodes.” The co-anchor commented.  “We actually had one of our body language experts analyze the photo and according to her, since Stark’s shoulders along with his hips are angled toward this boy, it’s an indicator that to Stark, this boy is the most important person in the room.  The one most deserving of his attention.  In a group of his closest friends.  It sure makes you wonder…”

Tony shook his head.  What was wrong with these people?  How did they have so much time on their hands that they could analyze his body language in a blurry photo?

“It really does John.” The original anchor commented again.

“So the big question on our minds and soon to be on everyone else’s is…who is this kid?”

Pepper turned the TV off again.

He turned toward her, lips pressed together in a thin line.  “So…”

“It’s playing on every network.  We need to figure out how to approach this and we need to figure it out now before it snowballs out of our control.” Pepper said.

“Dammit.” He threw the towel down in anger.  This was the very last thing he wanted to happen, for Peter’s relationship with him to become public knowledge.  “How’d they even get that photograph?”

“I don’t think how they got it is really that important right now.”

“I think it’s very important.  Someone got close enough to us to take that photo and sell it.  Someone with obviously less than honorable intentions.  They shouldn’t even be able to use it!  Peter’s a minor.”

“They don’t know that.” Pepper answered reasonably.  “They don’t know who he is.”

“I don’t care.  It’s still illegal.  I’m suing.” Tony complained, trying find an outlet for all the anger bubbling up in him.

“Before you start,” Pepper held up a hand, “we need to go over our options.  Melanie and I already discussed some before I came here.”

“Melanie?”

“Our head of PR?  Melanie.” Pepper sighed again.  “Honestly Tony, sometimes I wonder how you can be so smart and still not remember a single member of your staff’s names.”

“I know your name.” He countered.

“That doesn’t count.”

“It should.”

“Can we focus please?” Pepper cut off the argument before it could devolve any further.

“Right.  Yes.” He plopped down in his desk chair and looked up at Pepper standing in front of him.  “I’m listening.”

“First option, we could hold a press conference and confirm the truth.  That Peter’s your son.  That you adopted him this past summer after an unfortunate accident left him without any family, and then ask for respect and privacy given that he’s a minor.  The minor status will at least afford him some protection legally.”

Tony made a face.  “Got to say, I’m not loving that option.”

“Me neither,” Pepper agreed, “but it’s an option.”

“What’s option B?”

“We lie and say he’s an intern for Stark Industries.  That he’s a minor.  Request privacy and respect.  Same sort of thing.”

Tony ran a hand through his hair.  He didn’t love the idea of lying when it came to Peter, but that sounded better than admitting to the world who Peter really was.  He could only imagine how the paparazzi would hound the poor kid endlessly if they knew.

“And option C?” He rubbed his forehead, already feeling a headache forming.

“We say he’s my nephew or Happy’s nephew or keep it more nonspecific and say he’s a family friend.”

“They’re not going to dig that up and find out it’s a lie?” Tony twisted his face into an expression of disbelief.

“It’s a possibility.” Pepper sighed.  “But harder because he’s a minor.”

“Option D?” He asked.

Pepper just stared at him.

“That’s it?” His eyes widened and he shook his head.  “Those are the only three options you could think of?”

Pepper sighed again and dropped her head, rubbing her eyebrows with her thumb and pointer finger.  “If you have any other bright ideas I’m all ears.”

Tony rapped his fingers on his desk as he considered it.  “What if we do nothing?”  

“Do…nothing?” Pepper echoed as if she couldn’t comprehend it.

“Yeah, just no comment.” He said, slicing his hand through the air horizontally.  “That kind of thing.”

“You’re serious.” Pepper stared at him as if he’d suggested murdering the president.

“Yeah why not?”

Pepper closed her eyes and shook her head with a look of frustration Tony was all too familiar with.

“Why not?” She repeated.  “Because that’d be the worst possible thing we could do.  It’d add so much fuel to the media fire frenzy.  They’d know they were onto something and they wouldn’t stop until they figured it out.  Is that really what you want?”

That was…probably true.  But on the other hand…

“We’ve both seen the picture.  I can barely tell it’s Peter and I know it was him.  How is Joe Schmo off the street going to figure it out?  You’re right.  The media buzz will probably get worse before it gets better, but eventually it’ll fizzle out when they can’t figure it out.  Because they won’t find anything.” He said certainly.

Pepper pursed her lips, but he could tell she was at least considering it.

“I don’t want to do anything that outs Peter’s identity to the media.  That seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons, even if we lie and say he’s my intern or a family friend or whatever.  People will still know who he is and that he’s close to me.  That’s one thing the picture makes obvious enough.  And we both know what happens to people close to me.  They get a target painted on their backs.”

Pepper’s eyes softened and he looked away so he wouldn’t have to hold her gaze anymore.  They both knew he was talking about her.

“Tony.” Pepper said sadly as she reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder.

He shook his head and glanced up at her.  “I’ve got enough to worry about when it comes to the kid without adding that to the mix.”

“At least he’s Spiderman.” Pepper offered, trying to reassure him.  “He can take of himself.”

Tony scoffed.  “He shouldn’t have to.  That’s my job.”

Pepper squeezed his shoulder.  “So you want to say nothing.”

Tony nodded.  “I want to say nothing.”

“Melanie’s going to love that.” Pepper said, her smile in direct opposition to the thick sarcasm coming from her mouth.

“That’s why she gets paid the big bucks.  Hey, if she gives you too much grief you can always remind her how much tamer I’ve grown in my old age.  I haven’t had a good scandal in ages.”

Pepper rolled her eyes.  “I’ll be sure to remind her.”

Tony smiled and Pepper started walking out, presumably to go talk to Melanie.

“Hey Pep.” He called after her.

She paused and turned toward him.

“We say nothing for now, but if by some completely unlikely chance they figure out who Peter is, we will have to make a statement.”

“I know.” The smile Pepper gave him was sad.  Neither of them wanted that to happen.  “But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  And hopefully we won’t need to.”

“Hopefully.” Tony agreed quietly.  For as confident as he’d been about no one being able to figure out Peter’s identity, he sure had a terrible sinking sensation that it was only a matter of time.  Like a ticking bomb.  The interest was out there.  People would probably find out sooner or later, but he really hoped it’d be later.  Like when the kid was already in college or even later.  He wanted Peter to be able to be a kid for as long as he could without the added pressure of growing up with the media watching his every move.  Because that was what would happen as soon as the world figured out Tony Stark had adopted a son.  Everyone would go crazy.  And Peter would have to kiss his privacy good-bye.  And Peter was such a private person.  He’d hate it.  It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Tony hung his head in his hands and swore.

[107thin1995]

First Week of the Dog Year

First week of 2018 went pretty alright. I attended two job interviews, and later found out that I didn’t make it to the next recruitment process. But I’m not going to talk about that. This week was about embracing the new year while saying good bye to my new favorite, 2017. We stayed up late on New Year’s Eve and only managed to sleep at 3.40 am after binge-watching horror movies that we found quite disappointing. I guess we’re no longer that scaredy cats who would scream over each jump scare in the movie. We climbed to the rooftop to see the fireworks, and I kind of froze during that moment. Somehow everything that happened in 2017 started playing back in my head, it sped up until it resembled a time-lapse video. It showed both the good and bad sides of 2017. I didn’t really think which one outweighed the other. After that, we went back to my bedroom. On January 1, I didn’t do much. My head felt a little light and in the evening I got down with cold. I decked myself out in sweater, a pair of lounge pants, and a pair of fuzzy socks. I turned off the AC, and when I woke up at 2 am on January 2, I realized I had drenched in sweat. The second day of the year, I got back to work. The city wasn’t as crowded, the road wasn’t as jammed, and it felt good to be driving in that morning. After I was finished with work, I met him to eat at one of our favorite street food. Sate Padang. If I wanted to be dramatic, I’d say it as ‘our first sate padang in 2018′. We didn’t do much afterwards, I dropped him off at his friend’s place, and off I went home. The next day, I didn’t come to the office because I was attending this interview. I flunked it baby. I almost cried because for a moment I felt like a loser, but I told myself, “hello, you can’t be like this.” so I erased the thought of crying and started blasting my favorite song seconds later. I turned my frowns upside down, I did that on my own. I decided to get myself two books. I remember the saying that we need to reward ourselves accordingly, and I realized that all this while I had been too hard on myself. It’s not always a good thing. So I got two books, both written by Indonesian writers. I met my sister again after that failed interview, before picking him up at the office. He said I looked beautiful that day, and that I didn’t look so ‘sleepy’ with makeup on. I actually hoped he meant it. We had pizza. He mentioned how fun it was to have pizza after work, and it made me realize how nice it is to be grateful over something quite simple. I couldn’t finish the whole slice, so I decided to wrap it up and bring it home. I wanted to it for breakfast on the next day. Before making it to the pizza joint, we drove around the business district since we couldn’t locate the place. And we spotted this skyscraper that was blinking in colors. It was a beautiful sight, and I wish I could replay it over and over whenever I feel down. I went to his place afterwards, and I got to play the game that he’s been obsessed with. But it involved monsters and fighting. I love the fighting part, but games that involve monsters lurking around kind of scare me, and it is for the stupidest reason. As I drove him to this coffee shop, I thought of how many more months, weeks, days, or hours would this arrangement between us last? Would I miss him? Would he miss me? I thought hard of how I didn’t want to be in a relationship for the time being. It could mess a lot of things up. The next day, I took a day off again because I had yet another interview. It wasn’t anything interesting to talk about, so I’m going to pass. But after that, I drove around my favorite part of the city with my sister. We had chicken noodles, our favorite, and we also stopped by the oldest skyscraper in the city. I loved that day. I can’t believe how my sister and I still laugh over the stupidest thing, and I guess it’s not going to change in the near future. I hope it stays that way. And then came the weekend. The so called ‘quite’ weekend. He was a way for a short vacation with his family-his mother and sister- and I was in town, as per usual. I had a relaxing Friday night. I had homemade food within my reach, and Friends on my television. On Saturday, I had shiatsu session from which I learnt that I need to drink more. I thought I had been hydrating my body well enough this whole time. I met a couple of friends for lunch, and we played this board game. It was my first encounter with the game, and I freaking won. Okay, that’s pretty unbelievable. Fast forward to Sunday, here I am, typing down this very word. just finished the first few chapters of this compilation of personal essays. Good read. Good tool to help me wander and wonder. I seriously look forward to my next solo trip, which I haven’t really planned for, but I feel it coming in the upcoming months. I hope. I’ve been receiving beautiful postcards too from him, and it made me miss being at the beach. I hope. 

I hope you’re well, and I’ll talk to you soon.