Peter watched, completely engrossed as the man's hands moved skilfully, every tug was perfect. The man worked his hands expertly: in and out then in again.

He made it look easy but Peter knew it was way harder than it looked.

"Whatcha doing, Underoos?"

Pete let out a very unmanly yelp and slammed his laptop shut. Mr. Stark was standing at his door, smirking at him. Peter knew that smirk very well.

"Mr. Stark! I didn't hear you come in."

He shoved the laptop under his pillow but the man had already noticed it.

"Your Spidey senses getting rusty, Petey-pie? And in my defence, the door was open."

Peter huffed. His senses weren't rusty. They just weren't on high alert around Mr. Stark. His Spidey senses implicitly trusted Tony Stark. That was probably because the genius always represented a sense of safety and protection for Peter; even when the man was yelling at him for doing something dumb.

"And word of advice, kid, the next time you wanna watch porn, keep the door closed. You're a teenage boy after all so I'm not judging, but for your sake, keep the door closed and always wash your hands before you come out."

"Mr. Stark!" What was meant to sound annoyed and forceful, came out more like a pitiful squeak.

Peter wished the ground would just open up swallow him right there.

"I wasn't watching... porn," he said the word in a hushed whisper, like it was a crime to even say it out loud. "I swear, I wasn't." Peter was pretty certain he was red as a tomato and judging by the amused smirk on Mr. Stark's face, the man was enjoying this a lot.

"Alright kid, I believe you. Wanna tell me what you were up to?"

Tony observed the kid and his smirk softened into a fond smile, the one that hadn't existed until he'd met Peter Parker.

The kid was currently sporting the very dangerous kicked puppy look which could reduce even the most powerful and heartless people to cooing morons. For example: Tony Stark.

"It's sorta dumb and really not that important," Peter dismissed with a bashful shrug.

"It's gotta be at least a little important if you screamed like a little girl when I came in to your room. So if it's not porn, what is it? Does at least May know about it?"

Was the kid hiding injuries again? Because if that was the case, he wouldn't hesitate to drag the stupid Spiderling down to the MedBay by his ear and have him looked at properly. That would of course be followed by a long lecture.

"It's not urgent, Mr. Stark. It's just kinda stupid. I'll show you, but you've gotta promise me that you won't laugh."

Tony could already feel a smile tugging at his lips but he masked it and raised an eyebrow at the kid expectantly.

With a sigh, Peter pulled the laptop out from under his pillow and handed it to Tony.

The genius opened it and the screen turned on. His smile was back again and he looked up at the kid who was rubbing the back of his neck.

"A bow tie tutorial?" Whatever Tony had been expecting to find, it wasn't this. "What for?"

Peter got over his embarrassment temporarily to look at Tony incredulously. "What for? The Stark Industries Annual Fundraiser you mentioned only yesterday as soon as I came to the Compound. You said I had to be there. Mr. Stark, I know you're old, but try and keep up will you?"

Tony narrowed his eyes at the boy before gently cuffing him on the head. "Watch it, Spiderboy. I'm not gonna let a twelve year old sass me in my own house."

"Fifteen." His embarrassment was back again. "I know it's a big deal and there will be a lot of important people there, so I didn't wanna you know... disappoint you." Peter shuffled his feet and averted his gaze, the way he did when he was abashed.

Tony felt something tug at his heart when he heard the kid. He could never ever be disappointed in Peter. Who could?

"Pete, you could never disappoint me. Not even if you tried. I couldn't be more proud of you."

Tying a bow tie was one of the first things Tony had learned as a child. He remembered his father's words clearly: A Stark always represents oneself.

"Thanks, Mr. Stark." The boy's cheeks reddened adorably and Tony resisted the urge to pinch one of them. Damn this kid was too cute.

"The fundraiser is week away. That's more than enough time for you to play dress up. If you still don't get the hang of it, I'll do it for you."

The kid's eyes widened with surprise. "You'd really do that?"

He'd do anything for Peter. But of course, there was no need to tell him that. He got enough near-heart attacks and grey hair thanks to Peter Parker anyway.

"Sure, kid."

Anything for you.

Rhodey had been Tony's oldest and closest friend for a very long time now. That meant he'd seen all his personalities: genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, CEO, boyfriend, superhero; but DAD was definitely a new one.

It seemed Tony had taken a kid from Queens under his wing as an intern but anyone with half a brain could tell that this kid—Peter— meant a whole lot more to Tony Stark.

Rhodey hadn't seen his best friend in the last couple of months but it made him super happy to see that Tony looked a lot better than he had the last time Rhodes had seen him.

His dark circles were better, he'd put on a bit of healthy weight and he seemed to smile a lot more than Rhodey remembered. Tony was finally recovering from the disaster that was Civil War and it was all thanks to this teenager from Queens.

Whenever Rhodey called, Tony mostly talked about the kid, about how kind and smart he was and Rhodey had never heard his friend use the word 'adorable' so many times in three minutes.

The Colonel still had to meet this Peter Parker and he was way more excited than he'd like to admit.

"Kid you ready or not? We gotta leave now or we'll be late. If Pepper gets mad at me, I'm throwing you under the bus. You can face my fiancé's wrath all alone."

Rhodey snickered at Tony who was standing in the living room and yelling into the hallway.

"Coming! Just give me like one sec, Mr. Stark."

If someone had told Rhodey that Peter was Tony's son, he would've probably believed them immediately.

Brown hair, brown eyes that shined with the same intelligence, although Peter's posture was more awkward and bashful than arrogant.

"So, how'd I— HOLY CRAP! That's War Machine!"

The kid's eyes widened comically when he spotted Rhodey. "Its an honour to meet you, Colonel Rhodes, sir. I'm Par— Peter Parker."

"It's great to meet you too, Peter. Call me Rhodey," the man replied, grinning at the boy. He shook his hand and was surprised by the firm grip the teenager had. "Tony's told me a lot about you."

"Yeah, I told Rhodey about how you are a constant pain in my ass."

"Aw come on, you know you love me, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah yeah, kid. Don't go around getting cocky now."

"So could you uh... fix this real quick?" Peter asked, pointing at his bow tie. He looked at Tony with a hopeful smile and Rhodey was beginning to understand why his friend adored the kid.

The bow tie was a tad bit shabby with one end longer than the other and slightly wonky as well.

"Yeah, yeah. No biggie." With deft fingers, Tony undid the knot and proceeded to retie it properly. "You've made progress, Underoos. Soon you'll be able to dress yourself all on your own."

"Very funny, Mr. Stark."

Once Tony was done, he brushed the invisible lint on Peter's suit and ruffled the boy's chocolate curls.

"Hey! I spent twenty minutes making them stay down." Peter swatted Tony's hand away and tried to flatten his hair, key word being tried.

"You're adorable if you think you succeeded in getting your hair to behave. Now be a good boy and pose for the camera. I promised May I'd send her some shots of her baby."

All throughout their little banter, there was only one thing going on in Rhodey's mind: Where did Tony Stark go?

There was no way that this warm, laughing and gentle man was the very same one who'd returned from Siberia looking like his whole world had shattered.

Even before all this, Tony never smiled that way. Those genuine half smiles were rare, most often replaced by his 'media mode'.

But Tony was really fond of this kid. Rhodey found himself grinning.

His next question: When did Tony become a dad?

"Honeybear, take a picture of me and the kid, will you? If I send his aunt enough pictures, she's agreed to share all the pics from Petey-pie's fifth birthday."

"I thought it was bad when you and Aunt May didn't get along, but this is worse, Mr. Stark. I've decided that I don't like it when the two of you team up against me."

"Get used to it, kid. Now smile."

Tony pulled the kid to his side and Peter held up bunny ears behind the man's head.

Once Rhodey had clicked enough pictures, they were ready to leave.

"Kid, today's your lucky day. You get to pick the car. I'll join you in a minute."

"Yes! I'll see you later, Mr. Rhodey." Once Peter has left, Tony turned around to glare at Rhodey. "Spit it out, Platypus. It's just us now."

"Er- what?"

"Wanna tell me why you're staring at me with that idiotic grin?"

"You never told me you were a dad."

Tony looked at him bewildered. "W-What?" Then it seemed to dawn on him. "You mean me and the kid? I'm not really his dad, Rhodes. I mentor him a couple of times a week, tinker in the lab, let him stay over when he feels like it, pick him up from school sometimes, then we Netflix and chill here and I ground his butt when he's earned it."

"So basically you are his dad."

"Whatever you wanna believe, Honeybear."

Rhodey's grin nearly split his face in half. "You just don't wanna day it out loud. You're Dad. Does this mean I get to be Uncle Rhodey?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Maybe, if you're good. Now come on, let's not keep the kid waiting. Knowing Peter, he's gonna be equal parts excited and nervous."

Definitely a dad.

With that thought in mind, Rhodey followed his best friend out.

"Hey, Tones, what about Irondad? It's got a nice ring to it you know?"