Peter took a deep breath and anxiously tapped his fingers on the side of his leg like he was revving up to confront some big boss character like Darth Vader… or maybe the Godfather was more suiting. He might as well be. Mr. Stark would love to be compared to Don Corleone, Peter knew it. Maybe it would butter him up before Peter hit him with the favor he had to ask.

Who was he kidding. Why was Peter even trying this?

Before he could decide whether or not he wanted to pretend that he had never been at the Avengers Compound to begin with, the kitchen doors swung open and a whole host of Avengers spilled out. Peter was caught like a deer in headlights.

"Hey! We missed you out there." Clint called out first.

"Yeah, let me tell you. The company was dull." Rhodey joked. Peter smiled as Natasha scoffed.

"You're a tough crowd, Rhodes."

They all walked past him, sometimes giving him a pat on the shoulder or in Sam's case, a fist bump. When the threshold cleared, Peter entered the glossy, modern kitchen. Tony, Cap and Pepper were still in there. Somehow, he felt like he was intruding.

"I thought you had too much decathlon stuff to come on the mission." Tony said upon seeing Peter. He looked tired. They all did. Even if he didn't already know it, Peter would easily be able to decode that they had just returned from some kind of superhero rendezvous.

"Yeah, I'm about to head to practice."

"So, you thought you'd make a "quick" stop 2 hours upstate?"

"Uhhh-I have a favor to ask." Nervously slurring his "uh" and "I" together into one word. Tony narrowed his eyes.

"Of course, you do. Anyone ever stop by just to say hey? No one comes to Tony to ask how Tony's doing. How's your day, Mr. Stark? How's the expo going? Any new armor? How was your trip to Prague?"

"You've never been to Prague!" Peter cut in.

"No, but if I had, you probably wouldn't ask me about it."

Cap rolled his eyes and chuckled from where he snacked on apple slices at the counter. He and Pepper stayed clear of the conversation. It was always best to do that when Tony was in a particular sarcastic or sassy mood. Peter was starting to learn how to send it right back at him though.

"How's your hangover, Mr. Stark?" Peter demanded, playing along. Unable to resist the slight up-turn of the corner of his lips. Steve and Pepper didn't even try to hide their full-out laughs, but Stark was less enthused. His cocky smirk was wiped off his face and he looked at Peter disapprovingly which just ensured Pete that he had won this one.

The current running joke among the Avengers was how Stark got so hammered last night at Thor's 1,523rd birthday party that he woke up at a bus station early this morning. He was twelve miles from the compound with no recollection of how on Earth he had gotten there. Peter only heard about it through the group chat (because yes, there's an Avengers group chat and Peter is proudly part of it), but it was just as funny reading it from his room in Queens.

"Alright, what the hell do you want? And killer, by the way. Thanks for asking." Tony answered flatly.

Shoot. Now was the hard part.

"I need to borrow a car."

"And what's wrong with the one I just gave you?"

"Nothing, no… Millie's great."

Millie was short for Millennium Falcon. Peter originally wanted to nickname the car just "Falcon", but he realized it would cause too much confusion with Sam's made-up, superhero name.

"It's just… It needs to be- I'd appreciate-"

"Spit it out, kid."

"The R8."

Peter could see Pepper's eyes go wide from where she sat and that didn't help his confidence. Both her and Cap were invested in the conversation now. They were probably wondering how the Hell this sixteen-year-old kid had the dice to make such a request.

"Uh…" Stark started, probably about to cut Peter down to size, but he interrupted.

"See, what happened was Flash was running his mouth off in class about how his Dad got this new Mustang and this really nice kid Noah was like 'Oh that's really cool. My grandpa used to collect Mustangs' and then he started talking about some of the models and whatever and Flash didn't like the attention turning to Noah, so he started cutting him down saying 'Those all suck. I wouldn't even call that a collector' and I felt bad because Noah's grandpa died only like a month ago, so I was like 'shove off, Flash' and he was like 'Shut up, Parker. You couldn't even breath the air around a Mustang GT… whatever it was' and Ned was like, being Ned you know, and said 'Actually Tony Stark lets Peter take out his cars all the time' and I was about to be like 'No, stop Ned. Shut up.' But everyone was like 'woah, what kinds, can we go on road trips' and Flash was like 'Wow, you know, I'd love to see one in action. Bring one to practice tonight, Peter' and I tried to be like 'no I can't' but then this kid Avery, who's kind of obsessed with you by the way. It's a little weird. He was like 'I read that Tony Stark got the 2018 Audi R8 before it was even released and Flash was like 'Oh perfect, bring that one' and-"

"This the kid whose car you wrecked on Homecoming night?" Tony thankfully cut into Peter's breathless rambling. Peter shuffled his feet and nodded. "Mm.", was all Stark mumbled in return.

It was quiet for a bit, save for the sound of Pepper typing on her laptop. Steve finally broke the silence by tapping the counter as if he was tapping out of the conversation. He got up, put his plate in the dishwasher, and passed by Tony. He gave Mr. Stark a firm pat on the shoulder as if to say, "Good Luck with this one" and nodded at Peter in ways of goodbye before leaving the kitchen.

Peter wished Tony would just tell him 'no' and get it over with.

~ X ~

"W- What?" Peter asked Tony in disbelief. Tony sat back on the stool next to the kitchen bay counter and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I said, back by 10 PM tops. Straight to practice and back. And no one else is allowed to even touch it. Aaaand you have to make time to come into the compound so I can walk you through your new suit upgrades- properly this time."

"I-"

"And I call the shots on when to pull you off a mission if I think things are getting too hairy. If I say you're done for the day, that means you're done. No arguments. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah. Of course." Peter said, a little breathlessly. Tony sighed and ran his hand over his face tiredly. He hoped he wouldn't regret this. He'd never admit it, but he was kind of a sucker for making the kid happy. That wasn't really why he was agreeing to this arrangement though. Peter had confided in Tony about this little-piece-of-shit Flash kid before, only after Tony pried it out of him. For some reason, the boy was set on making Pete's life a living Hell, or at least he tried his best. Peter was always pretty good at being mature and tuning it out, but it still made Stark's blood boil.

"Alright, come on." He beckoned to the frozen, beaming teenager in the middle of the compound kitchen. "I'll be right back." He told Pepper who had that small smile of admiration on her face that he recognized instantly. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Whenever he did something nice for the kid, she just ate it up.

Look at him, making two people happy campers. What a guy.

Tony lead Peter down to the garage.

"Oh," Stark added. ", and Mustangs suck."