"Diplomacy, kid. Diplomacy." Tony gives the muddled red ball a few good squeezes. "What approach do you use when asking permission to have your friends over? Or a puppy? Or to borrow the car on your sixteenth? Hopefully what you don't do is whine, first off."

Tony passed the ball back and forth between his hands, idly rotating a few degrees back and forth in the dark chair. He felt hilariously out of his element, but he wasn't about to admit it.

"You swear you'll be responsible. You promise to stay out of the liquor cabinet and that you'll house train Fido." Tony tossed the ball Peter's way in a high arc. "No one's gonna hand you the keys to the car if they can't trust you with it, kid."