Peter was pretty inaccessible, all things considered. His friends mostly only see him at school. He answers his texts at weird hours, when nobody else is awake. Spontaneous plans don’t usually include him, because he’s just not around.
When the decathlon team decided to meet up to study after school, Peter’s out on patrol, getting his ass beat. When Peter’s got a free afternoon, he texted his friends, and usually they’re busy doing normal teenager stuff. Ned’s getting dates, MJ’s got job interviews, they both have extracurriculars and futures that exist for themselves.
Peter wasn’t mad. He couldn’t expect everyone to live on Spider-Man’s schedule just because Peter Parker wanted to feel normal for once.
And maybe it’s because he tended to ramble in the lab, or maybe he put something in a voicemail, or said something in a text, but — Tony must have picked up on it. All of the sudden, Peter’s getting offers to swing by the compound at 10, 11pm.
And Tony started doing other stuff, too. Offered to drive out takeout at 1am-3am, the usual hours Peter wrapped up patrol these days. One notable moment, he called Peter when he got home from an early patrol so that they could watch a movie together— while Tony was in a total other country.
It was on his time, as inefficient as it was for everyone else. Meeting him on Spider-Man’s schedule, even though it probably made Tony tired as hell, just to make Peter feel like a normal kid.
It was exactly the kind of sacrifice that made Tony such a great dad, when it came time for it.
Peter never thanked him for that. He hoped Tony knew.