Chapter Text
Sometimes, when Jonah gets really overwhelmed with everything, he’s glad that he’s deaf and that he can take off his processors to drown out the world around him. Today is one such day. It’s been a week since he’d become Jonah Richard Stark instead of Jonah Richard Parker, and things have been crazy ever since. They’re in the process of moving everything back from the Compound to the Tower and everything has been chaotic and loud and overwhelming since Noah’s birthday over the weekend. It’s why, when his tutor is distracted helping Noah, Jonah slips his processors off, and sneaks off to find somewhere just to breathe.
He ends up in his dad’s workshop, he’s never actually been inside except to get his Dad for dinner or if Mama’s looking for him, but he’s never been told he wasn’t allowed in there, so he slips inside and looks around. His attention is drawn to a pile of mechanical parts on one of the worktables and he starts fiddling with them curiously. He’s gotten the skeleton of a small spider robot built when the lights on the table blink red as he reaches for another part and he freezes before slowly reaching for a different part, the lights blink again and he narrows his eyes in confusion, the lights blink again, but this time there’s a message written on the table top, “Hey kid, just your dad. Turn around.”
Jonah turns around and sees Tony standing a few feet away with his arms crossed and a strange look on his face. Jonah grimaces and signs, “ Sorry, I shouldn’t be in here.”
“No, buddy, it’s fine.” Tony replies, “ You’re allowed to be down here. Next time, just let me know you’re down here, okay? Your tutor is worried about you.”
“I needed a break,” Jonah motions to his ears and then to everything, “It was all too much, Daddy.”
“Does that happen a lot, bud?”
“Not as much anymore.” Jonah shrugs, “But with everyone here to move us back to the tower and the media outside, it’s just been bad. I had a headache and just wanted somewhere quiet.”
“Isn’t everything quiet with your processors off?”
“I mean, I guess so. But I needed everything to be still too.”
“What are you working on?”
“A Spider Robot,” Jonah grabs the skeleton and shows it to his dad, “ I want it to help Peter somehow.”
“That’s a good looking robot there, kiddo,” Tony walks over to stand next to Jonah, “ Can I help you with it?”
“Sure.” Jonah nods, “ I’ve never actually made a robot before. But I like building things.”
“I like building things too, so does your brother.”
“Peter?”
“Yep,” Tony nods, grinning. He walks over to a corner of the room and pulls out a broken robot that looks kind of like R2-D2 from Star Wars and carries it over to the workbench, “ Peter made this when he was about Noah’s age. He and I need to fix it, it got destroyed when my house fell into the ocean a few years ago.”
“Can I help you?”
“Yeah, I’d love that,” Tony smiles, ruffling his hair, “ But we should wait until Peter gets back. We’ll work on your robot for now and surprise Peter with it soon.”
“Yeah,” Jonah grins and slips his processors back on.
“You don’t have to do that for me, kiddo,” Tony signs, reaching over to grab Jonah’s hand before he can fully turn them back on.
“I don’t mind, Daddy,” Jonah says, “I like listening to your voice. It doesn’t hurt my head.”
“You sure, Jonah?”
“Yeah,” Jonah nods, hugging his dad tightly, “I like hearing you and Mama talk to me.”
Tony presses a kiss to Jonah’s forehead, “I love you, buddy.”
“I love you too, Daddy.”
They spend the next few hours working on Jonah’s spider and Tony has Jonah giggling in the same way he used to make Peter giggle in the workshop years ago. Tony is impressed with Jonah’s craftsmanship, especially since Jonah hasn’t had much practice with the tools and parts that Tony gives him access to. Tony gets just as invested in the project as Jonah is and time passes as it always does in the lab and, sooner than Tony’s expecting, Pepper is clearing her throat from the doorway with a smile on her face. They both turn to look at her and she shakes her head, laughing, “Okay, so there are three of you, understood. It’s time for dinner loves. What have you been doing in here?”
“Working on a robot to help Peter,” Jonah says, pointing to the robot on the desk.
“Is this where you disappeared to earlier?” Pepper asks, walking over and running her fingers through Jonah’s hair.
“Yeah,” Jonah nods, “Upstairs was too much, I needed it to be quiet and still.”
“Did you try to take a hearing break?” Pepper asks.
“Yeah,” Jonah nods, “But it didn’t help me, there are too many people downstairs.”
“Does it get bad like that for you a lot?” Pepper asks.
“Yeah,” Jonah nods, “I don’t know why.”
“We’ll look into it,” Pepper promises, placing a kiss on the top of his head, “Now, come on, your brother and sister are waiting.”
“Is Peter here?”
“No, he’s patrolling right now, he won’t be back until later.” Pepper explains, taking Jonah’s hand as they walk upstairs. “Happy will bring him home when he’s finished.”
“Oh,” Jonah frowns sadly, “I wanted to give him the spider.”
“We’ll give it to him tonight,” Tony promises, “He’s gonna love it, I promise.”
When his parents had allowed Peter to go back out as Spiderman, they had told him he needed to be back at the Compound by ten pm on school nights and midnight on the weekends, which meant, for now, meeting Happy at the Tower by nine. Once they get back to the Tower, they’ll reevaluate his curfew times. He’s gone out patrolling every day since his dad had given him the suit back three days earlier and somehow, he’s already late for curfew. It’s almost ten when he reaches the tower and Happy glares at him when he finally swings through the window.
“I’m so sorry,” he rambles as he grabs his t-shirt and pants and pulls them on over his suit, “I was fighting a bunch of drug dealers and it took me a lot longer than I expected to web them all up and then then I looked at the time it was after nine and it took me almost twenty minutes to swing over here and I know I’m late…..”
“You’re gonna have to talk to your dad about it,” Happy says, grabbing his backpack and nodding towards the stairs, “I’m not the one you have to convince not to take your privileges away.”
Peter pales and runs his hand through his hair, “Shit.”
He calls his dad once they get on the road, “I know I’m late…..”
“Pete, it’s been three days and you’re already missing curfew,” His Dad sounds amused as he’s trying to sound stern, “Is this how it’s always going to be?”
“No, I swear, Dad, I was fighting this group of drug dealers and it…..”
“I know, kiddo,” his dad reassures him, “Karen keeps FRIDAY updated, remember.”
“Oh, right.” Peter sighs, “So, I’m not in trouble?”
“I didn’t say that,” Tony replies, “Mom and I haven’t decided what your consequence is, but your curfew is there for a reason.”
“I know,” Peter sighs. “I’m sorry.”
“We aren’t mad at you, bud,” Tony promises, “But the curfew is there to make sure you’re home in time to get enough sleep before you have to be up for school in the morning. You know sleep is important.”
“I know,” Peter agrees, “I promise I won’t do it again.”
“I know,” Tony agrees, “We’ll talk about it when you get home. Get your homework done and meet me in the lab when you get here.”
“Okay.” Peter agrees.
“I love you, kid,” Tony says gently.
“I know,” Peter says, “I love you too.”
He hangs up the phone and gets to work on his homework. He’s finished with most of it by the time Happy pulls into the Compound garage and turns off the car. Peter thanks Happy and heads up to Tony’s lab. He knocks as he enters, “Hey Dad, I’m home.”
“Hey, bud,” Tony turns away from his workbench and smiles at him. He pulls Peter in for a hug and ruffles his hair, “How was patrol?”
“Fine,” Peter shrugs, setting his backpack down on the workbench, “So, what’s my punishment?”
“No patrol for two weeks,” Tony says.
“What? Come on, Dad….” Peter starts to whine and Tony holds up a hand, stopping his protests.
“One week is as a consequence for missing curfew, the other is because we’re going on vacation next week, so we won’t be here for you to patrol anyway,” Tony explains. “It’s fall break and Mom and I figured it would be a good time to get out of here and we can move back into the tower when we get home.”
“Oh,” Peter shrugs, “Okay.”
“You wanna invite MJ and Ned?”
“Can I?”
“Yeah, for sure,” Tony nods, grinning, “We’re going to LA and Malibu….”
“We’re going to Malibu?” Peter’s eye widen in excitement, “Really? Are we going to the beach? I miss the beach at Malibu!”
“That’s the plan,” Tony smiles, “It’s been a while since I’ve been surfing, you think you still remember how?”
“Even if I don’t,” Peter grins, “I can always stick to the board.”
“Come on,” Tony shakes his head and changes the subject, chuckling, “let’s go say goodnight to your mom and see if Jonah’s still awake.”
“Why would Jonah be awake?” Peter asks.
“He made something for you this afternoon,” Tony explains as the two of them head upstairs, “He was really excited to show it to you.”
“Oh,” Peter says, biting his lower lip, he feels bad that he made Jonah wait for him, “I hate that I was late….Was he upset?”
“A little,” Tony nods, “But we told him he could wait up for you and if he’s asleep, we said we’d wake him.”
Jonah is asleep, laying on the couch, his head in Pepper’s lap, or what’s left of it. Pepper is reading something on her tablet and she looks up when Tony and Peter enter. “Hey baby.”
“Hi, Mom.” Peter says sheepishly, “I’m sorry I was late. I won’t do it again, I swear.”
“I know,” Pepper says simply and motions for him to come join them on the couch, “Come wake your brother, he made something for you.”
Peter sits on the coffee table and softly shakes Jonah’s shoulder. Jonah’s eyes slowly blink open and it takes a minute before he realizes that Peter is sitting in front of him. He grins when he realizes Peter is there and lunges into Peter’s arms, hugging him tightly. “Hi, Peter.”
Jonah pulls back and holds his hands out so that Pepper can hand him his processors. Peter smiles at him as he puts them on, “Hey, bud, sorry I’m late. Dad said you made something for me?”
“Yeah,” Jonah sits up and nods, “I made something in the lab with Daddy’s help.”
“Ooh, you got to work in the lab with Dad?” Peter grins.
“Uh-huh,” Jonah reaches over Pepper’s lap and holds out a small, mechanical spider, “It’s a robot spider to help you. You know, cause you’re Spiderman.”
“Whoa,” Peter feels his heart warm as he takes the spider from his brother. It’s impressive for Jonah’s first attempt. “I love it, Jo. What can it do?”
“Mostly get things for you,” Jonah smiles, “I wanna make something that you can use as Spiderman, but this one can only be used at the house.”
“I love it, Jonah,” Peter says, hugging his brother tightly. “Thank you.”
“You’re Welcome, Petey,” Jonah says, “Thanks for being the best big brother ever.”