Narrator's POV

"Wow. You're taking this surprisingly better than I thought you would." Stephen told Tony as they walked away from the campus.

"Ch." Tony scoffed. "It's only five hours, big deal." He said, kicking a rock out of his way.

"Yeah. On his first day of school." Stephen said.

"Nothing's gonna happen." Tony said. "I remember my first day of school." He said. "I was so nervous that I totally ignored the fact that my shoe was untied...and I stepped on my shoe lace and fell right in front of the whole class and everyone laughed at me and I crIED! OH MY GOD, STEPHEN!" Tony took Stephen by the shoulders. "What if that happens to him, and he's scarred for life like I was? Then he'll never want to go back to school and drop out and become a crack addiction who..."

Stephen sighed. "Here we go."

///0///0

Tony looked at the clock on his wall, then out the window. "Maybe we should go back and get him." He said. "He still doesn't know how to tie his shoes."

Stephen sat on the couch, legs crossed, reading a book. "They teach them how to do that there." He said, keeping his eyes on the pages of the book. "Plus, he's wearing his shiny blacks shoes with the little latches."

Tony opened and closed his fists, his fingers jittering nervously and anxiously. "Maybe I should-"

"No." Stephen said.

"What if there's an attack and they capture Peter and take him away, and we never see him again for the rest of our lives?" Tony asked.

"Because villains are gonna go after a bunch of Little Tikes." Stephen said, flipping a page.

"What if he fell and scraped his knee and gets an infection caused by flesh eating bacteria, and they end up amputating his leg or he falls from a swing and busts his head open?" Tony asked. "There are tons of dangers in the playground. I remember once, on the slide, I cut my arm open while my underside was being burned."

"Tony." Stephen put his book down and looked at his boyfriend. "Necrotizing fasciitis is a very rare bacteria. Your chances of getting it are zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, four." Stephen went back to his book. "And the incident on the slide happened because you're an idiot."

"Hey, the four still counts. There's a chance!" Tony said. "This is a serious matter. Bacteria isn't something to joke about."

Stephen looked at Tony, who looked totally stressed out and like an anxious mess. He raised a brow, looking at him up and down before going back to his book. "You used to be hot."

///0///0

"Can we pick him up now?" Tony asked.

"Tony, it's only been two hours." Stephen said.

"Hey, getting there three hours early isn't gonna hurt anyone." Tony said.

"Since when do you show up early?" Stephen asked, preparing a salad for dinner later tonight.

"Since like...ever." Tony said. "Being early is my thing, you know."

"You're late to every single one of your meetings, and just last week you said you didn't care if you were late for a meeting, you insisted on having coffee before anything."

"BECAUSE COFFEE-" Tony took in a deep breath, and let it go slowly. "Because coffee gives me life." He said. "I just can't function properly without that first cuppa joe." He poured himself a cup of coffee.

"You know coffee increases your chance of dying earlier?" Stephen said.

"Oh, well in that case..." Tony poured his mug back into the coffee pot.

Stephen smiled triumphantly, but his smile fell once he saw Tony pick up the coffee pot and begin to drink out of it. "Tony no-"

///0///0

"This would be a perfect place for my snapdragons." Stephen said, looking at an empty patch covered in green grass in his garden. He was pulling weeds out.

Meanwhile Tony was pacing around in the background, muttering nonsense and eating green grapes out a ziplock baggie Stephen had made for him to calm him down.

Tony loved grapes.

Stephen took out a small garden shovel from his back pocket and began to dig, sighing, remembering how his small four legged companion used to help him do this.

"Ew. A sour grape." Tony said in the background.

Stephen chuckled quietly, shaking his head at his boyfriend.

An alarm went off on his colorful watch.

Stephen looked back at Tony, who was still eating grapes and pacing around. "Tony." He called. "It's only half an hour til Peter is out." He stretched his arm out, exposing his watch.

"Is that a children's watch?"

Stephen shook his head, rolling his eyes playfully. He stood up, dusting his knees off and removing his gloves afterward. He tossed his head back, swishing that perfect curl of black hair back, but it came back to his forehead. "Let's go pick Peter up."

///0///0

"I don't see him..." Tony said with his hand over his forehead, looking out for a small curly haired kid with a yellow hat.

"Tony, this is totally unnecessary." Stephen said, holding onto Tony's legs as they hung down from his shoulders.

"Hush, now Stephen." Tony said, sitting on Stephen's shoulders. "I'm searching, and I require your height to see over these people."

"Your suit can fly." Stephen said.

"Quiet." Tony said.

Stephen sighed, rolling his eyes. "Ah!" He gasped when he saw his little ray of sunshine looking around for them at the gate. "Peter!" He called, jumping with excitement.

"Stephen-" Tony lost his balanced and fell from Stephen's shoulders.

Peter saw Stephen.

A huge smile formed on his lips.

Peter held onto the straps of his little backpack and was about to run to Stephen, when another kid caught his attention.

"Daddy!" The kid shouted and ran into his father's arms.

Peter looked at Stephen, his smile returning. "Daddy!" He ran toward Stephen.

"C'm here." Stephen said, crouching down and opening his arms.

Peter ran into his arms and embraced him.

Stephen picked him up and lifted him in the air.

Peter giggled, looking down at Stephen.

Stephen brought him back down, holding him in his arms. "Oh, I missed you so much." He kissed Peter's cheek.

"I'm okay, thanks." Tony said, coming over to the two.

"How was your first day of school?" Stephen asked.

"Good." Peter smiled. "I made some friends." He said. "Harry and I are best friends now, and I made a new friend for Lamby." Peter said, pulling out a shiny food can decorated with glitter, googlie eyes and pipe cleaners. "I named him Sam." Peter said.

"That's awesome honey." Stephen told Peter.

"You can put pencils in it. He can hold stuff for you." Peter said.

"Well, Tony over here was super worried about you." Stephen said.

"Was not." Tony said. "I was perfectly fine."

"He was crying like a baby." Stephen whispered.

Peter giggled.

"How about we get something to eat?" Tony asked. "I'm hungry. You hungry, Squirt?"

"A little, yes." Peter said.

Tony took him from Stephen and placed Peter on his shoulders. "Let's go, then." He said. "High Ho, Silver." He said, running to the car with Peter, who was giggling, but holding to Tony for dear life.

Stephen chuckled, watching the two bond. He walked over to them. "Wait up."