Tony paced the floor in the living room, anxiously waiting for his dumb Spiderling to return from patrol. It was way past midnight and the kid was supposed to have returned over an hour ago.

Peter Parker was in for one hell of a lecture.

He'd tried contacting Karen but he hadn't been able to get through, nor had he managed to track the kid's location.

If Tony found out that Peter and his friend Ted had hacked the suit again, both of them were gonna be in for it.

Peter was staying over that weekend since summer break had begun last week and May had left for some much needed girl time.

He'd left at about nine and hadn't returned yet.

Tony was man enough to admit that he loved that reckless, idiotic Spiderchild to pieces. Yes, the same one who was responsible for all the grey hair he possessed. Whilst Peter successfully gave him multiple near heart-attacks quite frequently, there was nothing Tony wouldn't do for that kid.

"Boss, Peter Parker is approaching the tower. ETA eleven minutes."

Tony would've hugged the AI had she been standing before him. He let out a relieved breath he didn't realise he'd been holding.

Sure enough, exactly eleven minutes later, Spiderman swung inside through the window Tony had left open.

The vigilante pulled off the mask to reveal the face of one Peter Parker. "Hey, Mr. Stark."

Tony first scanned the kid with a quick glance and was pleased to note that Peter was unharmed. "You okay, kid? Any injuries I need to know about? Or do I need to ask FRIDAY?"

Peter shook his head. "I'm fine, sir. I swear."

That's when Tony gave way to the displeasure. He crossed the distance between them until he was a foot away and crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Peter.

"So Underoos, care to tell me why you've missed curfew? And why was your suit not responding when I tried to contact you? No you put that lip right back in. Pouting isn't gonna cut it tonight, kid."

Peter stared at his mentor and chuckled nervously.

"Aw come on, Mr. Stark, you can't be mad at me now." Peter wrapped his arms around Mr. Stark and squeezed him in a giant hug. "Could you please, please yell at me in the morning when I'm less zombie and more... awake? I swear I'm fine."

Half his words were muffled by the ginormous yawn Peter let out into the man's shoulder which was suddenly very comfortable.

If Mr. Stark was mad at him now, Peter couldn't even begin to imagine how pissed the man was gonna he when he found out what Peter had been doing out on patrol.

His head was throbbing and he was having a really hard time playing it cool. He buried his face deeper into the warm material of his mentor's sweatshirt.

Peter should have known better than to go after those goons without informing Tony. But they'd been stealing some weird tech and he couldn't let them get away.

In the process, the tech had exploded, his suit had come in contact with the chemicals resulting in the temporary disablement and Peter was sure he'd inhaled something he wasn't supposed to.

But of course he wasn't going to mention all that to Mr. Stark. Not if he wanted to spend the remainder of his teenage life without being grounded.

Peter would rather face a bunch of armed criminals than an angry Tony Stark.

Mr. Stark uncrossed his arms and wrapped them around Peter: one hand rested on his back and the other automatically buried itself in the kid's chocolate curls.

"You're damn lucky I love you, kid."

Peter hid his smug but thrilled smile, a smile which turned to a yelp when Mr. Stark pulled away and tugged his ear, a gesture that was both fond and reprimanding.

"Don't think for even a second that you're off the hook. We're gonna talk about this in the morning. For now, permission granted to hit the hay."

"G'night, Mr. Stark." Peter was relieved when he got away. He reached his room and threw himself on the bed without bothering to take off his suit. The cool pillow underneath his head felt like pure heaven.

Hopefully the next day would be more... boring.

Peter's eyes blinked open to the familiar view of his bedroom at the Compound.

He brushed a hand over his eyes and froze.

Why did his hand look so skinny? Were his fingers always so short?

That's when he noticed the suit. The one he'd slept in last night.

Peter was practically drowning in his suit.

"What the hel—"

He abruptly shut up when he heard the sound of his own voice. He hadn't sounded like that since... forever.

Peter threw his covers off, kicking them away aggressively and ran to the full length mirror next to his wardrobe.

And he screamed.

Tony was in the kitchen, flipping pancakes and waiting for the kid to show up, all bed-headed and adorable, when he heard a high pitched scream from down the hall.

Panic seized him and he dropped the spatula and ran towards Peter's room.

He stopped short when he saw the kid.

Really a kid.

Tony Stark had gone through a lot and seen a lot. Especially after meeting Peter Parker, he'd soon grown accustomed to the kid's idiotic yet oddly lovable tendencies. Which is why he was almost always prepared for everything.

But nothing could have prepared him for this.

Standing in the corner of the room was a kid who couldn't have been any older than six.

One look at the kid was all it took for Tony to recognise him. He'd seen the exact same child in the photo album that May had given him last week.

That and the Spiderman suit that was hanging off his shoulders and pooling around his waist.

"Peter?"

His voice came out much calmer than he'd expected, but that was just a facade. There was only one thought in his brain at that moment:

Shit shit shit shit shit SHIT!

What the hell had just happened?

"Mr. Stark." It was a soft whimper, pitiful and afraid.

Tony's legs seemed to have a mind of their own. He walked inside the room and crouched down in front of Peter.

"Wanna tell me what happened?"

Peter shook his head vigorously as his eyes dropped to the floor. "You'll get mad."

The kid's lower lip jutted out, forming what was undoubtedly the world's cutest pout.

Whilst Peter didn't know this, Tony found it hard to be mad at the teenage Peter. Those doe eyes that looked at him like he could do no wrong, the adorable curls that always refused to behave and his perpetually bashful but endearing nature always weakened Tony's resolve when he had to tell the kid off.

He'd dubbed it as the PPE aka the Peter Parker Effect.

Something which had only magnified exponentially with this sudden decrease in size.

He couldn't get mad at this Peter Parker. He'd feel like the worst human being ever.

He'd scold the kid later when the whole situation was less bizarre.

He instinctively brushed a hand through the kid's hair. "Underoos, you gotta help me out here. If we have to fix this, you have to tell me what went wrong, Pete."

Peter felt the heat building up behind his eyes. He hated every bit of this situation. Mr. Stark was being so nice and all Peter wanted to do was curl up against the man and hide.

Where did that childish whim come from?

He clutched his suit tighter around him, acutely aware that he was just wearing his underwear inside.

Underwear that was far too loose.

"I'm waiting, kiddo."

Peter clumsily pointed to the camera that had been installed in the suit.

"Right. Should've thought of that. FRIDAY, do me a favour and play the footage in the kid's suit from last night."

And Tony saw it all. He watched how Peter had gone after those robbers, the fight that had ensued, the mini explosion that had occurred when the tech equipment exploded before the screen went blank.

The room was silent after that for a whole minute. Tony sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, barely holding all the emotions at bay.

"FRI, send a suit to retrieve what's left of the explosion. We might be able to know more once we've analysed the tech."

He wanted to be mad at the kid, he really did. But when Tony'd seen how dangerous the situation had been last night, he was honestly just damn relieved that Peter had gotten out relatively unscathed.

Minus this different version of Honey I Shrunk The Kids of course.

Another thought struck him at that moment. "What about your powers? Were they affected as well?"

A stricken look crossed Peter's face. "I haven't tried," he whispered.

Peter grabbed the thing closest to him— Tony's shirt, his eyebrows adorably pinched in concentration. And then he let go of it.

He tried again with the wardrobe this time and then again with the nightstand. Tony only watched with increasing confusion.

"My powers are gone! Mr. Stark, I've lost my powers!"

If Peter hadn't been crying before, he most certainly was now. Slowly but steadily, S

soft sobs began to wrack his small frame, the sound completely shattering Tony's heart.

Peter felt miserable. He was half his size, everything was too big, his powers were gone and he couldn't stop crying.

He was sixteen and yet he was bawling like a baby. It seemed that it wasn't just his physical traits that had been affected. He was even acting like a child and he just couldn't stop it!

He blindly swept one hand over his eyes, in a vain attempt to stop the flow of tears. He pressed his palms into the sockets and squeezed his eyes shut.

That's when he felt a pair of large, calloused hands wrap around each wrist and gently pull them away from his face.

"Pete, bud, just... breathe, okay?"

Again, acting on pure instinct, Tony curled his arm around the now little boy and drew him towards his chest. Peter didn't pull away. Instead, he tucked his head in the crook of Tony's neck.

Sure, Tony had hugged Peter quite a few times before, but now it felt different. Kid was a whole lot smaller and that made him even more vulnerable than normal.

Tony pulled back and smoothed the unruly curls that were sticking up in all directions.

"We're gonna work this out, kiddo. I promise." Ultimately, Tony was a mechanic. He fixed things and so he was gonna fix this situation as well.

Peter's eyes were moist and his tiny lower lip wobbled dangerously. "But what if we can't? If we can't, I'll be a kid forever and my powers won't return and I can't be Spiderman anymore!"

He was sporting his infamous kicked puppy look again.

"Pete, you're not gonna lose your powers. We will find a way to get 'em back. I promise. FRIDAY will let me know when the suit is back and I'll go and check out the problem and we'll get to the bottom of it. Besides, I'm Tony Stark, Underoos. I can do damm well anything. You're the one who told me that, remember?"

Peter nodded and Tony reached forward and gently thumbed away a few tears.

"Wanna put something else on? Cause I'm pretty sure that the suit's gonna fall off any second and the only thing you're wearing is Iron Man underwear."

"Mr. Stark!" The squeaky voice didn't have the intended effect and Tony couldn't help but smirk.

"I'll be back in a sec, try and not to do anything stupid."

Tony went to his own room and into his walk-in closet. He found an old Stark Industries sweatshirt and figured it would do until he bought some proper clothes for the Spiderling.

He wanted to vent but he was keeping it together for Peter's sake and he liked to think that he was doing a pretty good job so far. It wouldn't help if both of them would get upset.

He told FRIDAY to order some stuff and went back to Peter's room saw him sitting on the bed, his feet dangling off the ground.

"Here ya go, kid. Put this on and give me your suit. I'll take a look at it later."

He turned around to give Peter some privacy and once the kid was done, he turned back.

Something funny burst in Tony's heart when he saw the kid wearing his sweatshirt. It practically drowned the boy and trailed the floor and Tony had never seen anything cuter in his whole life.

Shit. He was turning into such a sap.

Peter's stomach rumbled loudly and the boy blushed.

"Yup. Breakfast it is. How's burnt pancakes sound?"

The kid let out a little giggle and it was the most wonderful sound Tony had ever heard. A grin tugged at his lips and he ruffled Peter's hair.

Goddamn freakin' adorable.

He stood up and beckoned for the kid to follow him out. "Come on, Petey-Pie. Hopefully the kitchen's still in one piece and FRIDAY turned off the stove like a good AI."

And that's chapter one for you guys. Review and let me know what you think.