Chapter Text
“Dad. I don’t wanna go.” Peter said quietly.
Tony rubbed the aching spot between his eyebrows. “Peter, honey, we’ve been over this. The kindergarten says I can't keep sitting in with you anymore. You’re gonna have to power through like a big boy, okay?
“I don’t like Mr Thanos. He’s an alien.”
“He’s not an alien.” Tony sighed, turning the car into the road leading to Little Heroes Kindergarten. “I know what you’re trying to say, but you can’t keep shouting things like that in public, especially in this political climate-”
“He destroyed half the universe.”
“He said half of your class would go for naptime first while the other half went to the playground. That hardly counts as destroying the universe.”
“It was so lonely.” Peter whispered. “I thought I was trapped forever.”
“I feel like I’m trapped forever in a world where this conversation repeats every single day,” Tony muttered.
He put the car in park and turned to his son. Peter was staring at him with the puppy dog expression turned up to eleven, and Tony felt a twinge of guilt. The divorce had been tough on them all, and he couldn’t blame his son for being more clingy, even after the whole mess had been settled.
“Look...” Having his heart stamped on by his ex was rough, but Tony was trying and seeing his son stressed out by school made him feel like the worst kind of dad. “How about I take half of today off and we go get some ice cream together. Sound good?”
“Okay, I guess.” Peter said after a grudging pause. “But no grapes. I hate them.”
“Alright, buddy. No grape ice cream.”
--
Mr Thanos met them at the entrance of class 1A. “Hello Peter, how are you doing to-”
“I DON’T WANT TO GO!”
Mr Thanos sighed “It’s going to be another of those mornings isn't it?”
“I’d call this a good day, this time he actually waited till we got out of the car to start yelling,” Tony said, trying to juggle his grip on his wriggling son and backpack. “Okay, Pete. Daddy’s going to drop you off-”
“Say goodbye to daddy, Peter-” Mr Thanos said, reaching out his enormous hands.
“No! Don’t leave me with the alien!” Peter screamed as Tony set him down in the classroom. He tried to make a run for his dad but Mr Thanos blocked the way with one massive arm.
“It's okay, I’ll be back for you at one. Love you!” Looking more harried, Tony handed over Peter’s backpack, waved, and vanished down the hallway.
“Dad…” Peter stared in despair at the doorway, and then a large grip clamped down on his shoulder, heavy and inevitable as the hands of fate.
“Come on, Peter, it's time to start class.”
--
“We need a plan to take down Mr Thanos,” Peter hissed to Wanda. He had snuck over from the lego corner to the coloring table, where his only ally, Wanda, was working.
Wanda’s eyes lit up. “Yes. Good. When do we start?”
Other kids were scared of Wanda, but Peter thought was silly, because Wanda got along with him just fine. Sure, she liked things that lots of people found scary, like witches and ghosts and Halloween, but that didn't mean she was a scary person. Besides, Peter liked spiders and he knew lots of people were scared of those.
“He took Viz away from me,” Wanda said gravely. “And for that I'll never forgive him.”
Peter looked where she pointed; balanced perfectly at the top of the shelf, well out of reach of the tallest kid, was The Raft, a pirate ship-shaped box where favorite toys were to be imprisoned until the end of the day.
It was the cruelest sentence a toy could ever endure.
“I miss him so much.” Wanda gazed at the forbidding box, crayon clutched in one hand like a spear.
Peter looked at the bookshelf appraisingly. “If you distract Mr Thanos think I can climb up and grab Viz.”
Wanda shook her head, turning back to her drawing. “It’s no good. I tried to rescue Viz many times. I even asked my brother to help. And you know what Mr Thanos did?”
“What did he do?”
“Sent him to 1B.” Wanda gave a shudder. “I haven’t seen him for years .”
Peter’s eyes went round. So that was what happened to Pietro. Peter and him had been best friends, bonding over having the same name. Until the day Pietro disappeared. The tag bearing Pietro's name had been ripped off the wall and nobody talked about him in class anymore.
It was as if he didn’t exist anymore.
Peter put a reassuring hand on Wanda’s shoulder. “We’ll get Viz back. Your brother will be avenged.”
A humongous shadow fell over the both of them.
“What are you both working on?” Thanos smiled down on them.
Peter and Wanda looked at each other, the severity of the situation galvanizing their wills into action. Wanda nodded slowly.
Thanos crouched down beside the table. “That’s an...interesting drawing of a witch, Wanda. Looks like she’s, um, dismembering a robot. You certainly put a lot of detail into- ouch!” Thanos started as a yellow crayon flew up and hit him squarely in the forehead.
By the time he looked up Peter and Wanda were nowhere in sight.
“I don't get paid enough for this.” Thanos grumbled as he got to his feet, rubbing at the smudge on his forehead.
--
“Gather round, little heroes! It’s reading time!” Thanos said brightly. “Today we’re going to read about fruits!”
“NO! NO FRUITS! ESPECIALLY GRAPES!”
Thanos ignored the lone dissenter and opened the book. “Who can tell me what this fruit is?”
Without looking up from her book, a small girl with two buns in her hair spoke up. “It’s a pineapple. The one on the next page is a plum. And then a guava, mandarin, persimmon, asian pear, lychee, blood orange, banana, strawberry, and finally, a watermelon.”
“Whoa, how did you know all that, Shuri?” Peter asked, eyes wide.
Shuri shrugged. “I memorized all the books in the reading corner.”
Thanos gritted his teeth. “Thank you, Shuri, for that impressive display. But maybe you should give your classmates a chance to participate?”
“Nah.” Shuri turned a page of her book, tone of voice completely dismissing him.
“Viz makes me think of a watermelon,” Wanda said matter-of-factly. “He’s red, and green, and likes his yellow blanket-”
“Watermelons aren’t yellow, stupidhead!”
Peter shot to his feet. “Don’t call my friend a stupid head, Flash!”
A small boy raised a hand. “Is a knife a fruit?”
Thanos took a deep breath, feeling the buildup of another migraine. “No, Wade. Knives are not for eating.”
“You're a friend of a stupidhead, which makes you a stupider head!”
“Oh yeah? My dad could beat up your dad!” Wanda shrieked, lunging at Flash.
“I shouldn’t be in this class, I’m already reading at a 3rd grade level. My grades are probably throwing off the curve. Can you tell my brother I should be in a class with bigger kids?”
“I like knives.”
“Jesus Christ,” said Thanos, hurriedly shoving the book on a table. “Wanda, Flash, both of you stop trying to kill each other. Shuri, kindergarten doesn't have graded work. Wade, I better not catch you hoarding safety scissors again. Peter, your friend will get Vision back when it’s time to go home and not a second before, now stop climbing the shelves.”
Shuri turned a page, disgusted. “You’re all a bunch of babies.”
--
Tony was there at 1pm sharp with a big smile and open arms. “Hey there, squirt. I came back, just as promised,”
“Dad! I missed you!” Peter pushed past the other kids and threw himself at his father.
“I missed you too! All the time while I was doing boring grownup work, I was wondering how you were doing.” Tony swung Peter up and down, which made the small boy giggle. “But you made it through, didn’t you?”
“Yeah! We defeated the alien!”
“Huh. Well, I hope your victory doesn't involve me receiving another bill for property damage.” Tony picked up Peter’s backpack. “What else?”
“Shuri and I built a tower! She said it was scrumptiously sound!”
“I think the word you're looking for is ‘structurally’, but yeah, that's awesome. She's a good kid, can't imagine you'd get into much trouble with-”
“And I helped Wanda avenge her brother!”
Tony blinked. “Wanda? You mean the girl who gets into all the shenanigans-”
“Pietro! You’re alive!” A dark-haired girl barrelled past Tony’s legs, heading for an albino boy, who she enfolded in a tight hug. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“Daddy! Wanda’s back! I thought she was gone forever but she came back!” Pietro clutched his sister’s arm and looked tearfully up at his father, who was watching the dramatic reunion of his children with a weary sort of resignation.
“That’s wonderful, Pietro. Go get Wade and we can leave.”
“Kids, huh? It's pretty wild having to go through the same drama every single day,” Tony said as they watched the twins bolt away. “I don’t know how you can deal with three of them, Erik.”
“I ask myself that, too. When I married a teacher I thought I'd pick up some of his child-managing skills.” Erik groused, brushing off the chalk marks which had gotten onto his three piece suit. “Sorry to hear about you and Steve.”
Tony’s grip on his son stiffened. “Yeah, well, I’m sure he doesn’t miss me. We’ll be going now.” With Peter in his arms, Tony started walking them back to the car.
“Are we gonna get ice cream?” Peter asked hopefully.
Tony frowned, pretending to think about it. “Hm. I don't know, it sounds like you got into a lot of mischief today.”
“I didn't do it on purpose! I had to help my friends.” Peter insisted. “It's what you would do- it's what Pops would do-”
“Your Pops sure does care a lot about helping his friends-” Tony shook his head, trying to clear the bitterness from his voice. “And that’s a good thing, it's important that you and your friends have each others’ backs…” he trailed off awkwardly. In times like these, he felt completely unprepared to be a parent, let alone a single parent.
Peter yawned. “When is Pops coming back?”
Tony’s hands paused on where he was buckling Peter’s seatbelt. “Sweetie, he doesn’t live with us anymore, remember? You can still see him, just not every day. Remember that day when he packed up all his things in those boxes-”
“But he forgot his phone.”
“What?” Tony looked up, keys frozen halfway to the ignition.
“His phone. The one you keep under your pillow and look at sometimes-”
“Hey, does anyone else hear the sound of ice cream bells jingling in the air? Cuz I sure do.” With a roar, Tony’s car sped out of the parking lot. “How does a chocolate fudge sundae with extra marshmallows and mochi bits sound?”
“Yay! Ice cream!”