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“Peter, please,” Tony begged, trying very hard to keep the frustration out of his voice. He wasn’t his father, he wasn’t his father, but he wasn’t perfect and neither was his son, apparently. Everyone had a breaking point, and Tony and Peter’s both seemed to be the battle over veggies.
“No!” Peter shrieked, pushing his plate of broccoli away yet again, as if Tony was actually going to give in to his temper tantrum or something. Instead, he pushed the plate back to his son.
“Peter,” Tony began, far more patient than most parents would be at this point, “you need to eat your vegetables, or else how do you expect to grow up and be a strong superhero?”
Super soldier serum, science experiments gone wrong, multi million dollar suits. There were endless ways it could be achieved without eating green vegetables, but Tony sure wasn’t going to tell him that.
“I DON’T WANT,” Peter screamed, slamming his fists down onto his high chair.
Tony felt the last strands of his willpower shred. “Well you know what, Peter? There are millions of children in the world who don’t want to go to bed hungry and would give anything to have just a little bit of your broccoli, but I guess it only matters what you want, hm?”
Tony stood up from the table and picked up the plate of broccoli, carrying it over to the kitchen counter where he planned to put the leftovers into a container to save for Peter’s breakfast in the morning because Tony Stark did not give up.
He paused in the action when he heard a sniffle behind him.
He turned around to face Peter’s teary face and grabby hands. Sighing, Tony walked back to him and placed the plate in front of him.
“Have you changed your mind?”
“D-daddy, I-I don’t want them to go hungry,” Peter hiccuped.
Tony’s features softened. His kid was too precious. Definitely a Hufflepuff. “I don’t want you to go hungry either, Petey. I know you don’t like them, but vegetables are a really important part of your diet.”
“C-can we share with them?”
Precious. “Yes, baby, of course you can share. Just try to eat this and Daddy will take care of the rest.”
Peter nodded, his still chubby fingers grasping onto his fork and forcing the green into his mouth. He made a face, but he swallowed it all the same. Tony smiled at him, ruffling his hair and kissing his forehead once he’d eaten all but one piece of the broccoli.
Tony lifted him out of his high chair, holding him close to his chest for a moment before setting him down on the floor to play with his toys.
He did the dishes and made a note to FRIDAY to remind him to make a donation to Feeding America in the morning in Peter Stark’s name.