The rain came down hard on Peter as he made his way home to the apartment where he lived with his aunt May. The intense downpour strained his umbrella to the brink of collapse as it struggled to prevent him from getting drenched. Fortunately Peter arrived at the apartment and tucked away the umbrella before it could be destroyed. He unlocked the door with his key, went inside and locked the door behind him. He then dried the umbrella with a towel and wiped his shoes on the mat.
"Aunt May, I'm home!", he called out.
"Hey, Peter.", a male voice responded as a man with short black hair revealed himself from behind the corner. Peter was surprised.
"Mr. Stark? Where's my aunt?"
"Oh, your hot aunt will be back in a few minutes from the grocery store. She left me here to wait for you. So how was your study session with Ned and MJ?"
"Pretty good.", Peter replied. "We were researching some Norse mythology about dragons for history class.
"Cool.", Tony smiled. "I'm sure Thor would get a kick out of that."
"Oh yeah, totally.", Peter laughed as he opened the door to his room.
He quickly found the window was open and asked Tony, "Why is my window open?"
"Oh! Sorry about that, kid. I just wanted to let out the stale air."
In apology, Tony went back into Peter's room and closed the window. Peter went in after him, set his things down and sat on his bed. Tony followed in suit, taking his own seat on the chair at Peter's desk. He looked past Peter, observing the rain weakening.
"It's just about to stop.", he commented.
Peter looked outside as well. "Yup. That's good."
*chirp*
Peter immediately shifted his view away from the window to the rest of the room. Tony took notice as well. Peter looked at him.
"Did you hear that?", he asked the older man, who nodded.
"Yeah, I did."
*chirp*
Peter looked around some more. He quickly noticed the door to his closet was ajar and focused his eyes on it.
"I think it's coming from there.", Peter whispered.
He got up from his bed, tiptoeing very slowly to the closet to investigate the source of the sound. Tony got up as well and took the side of the closet opposite Peter. Once they were close enough Peter cautiously opened the door to see what was inside. A moment later, in the darkness of the closet, a pair of green eyes with slightly slitted pupils appeared to greet the gaze of the two heroes, who slowly stepped back. This allowed the occupant of the closet to come out and reveal itself to them. What they saw stunned them both. It was a dragon, about two feet long, black as night with bat-like wings, tail fins, and cat-like ears. Peter could then see that there was water dripping from the creature, who started to shiver like crazy.
"It's okay, little fella. We're not gonna hurt you.", Peter cooed to the dragon as he took the blanket from his bed and swaddled the dragon in it to keep it warm.
This caused the dragon's pupils to dilate into round rectangles, indicating it was pleased. Peter looked at Tony, shooting him a stupid grin. Tony just rolled his eyes at him and looked back at the dragon.
"I must have let it in when I opened your window. Any longer out there and the poor thing could have died from the cold rain.", Tony realized.
"Yeah. You're right. Good thing you opened it when you did.", Peter said.
Peter carefully picked up the animal and set it down on his bed. He sat down next to the dragon and began to caress its head. The dragon warbled at what he was doing and proceeded to curl up into a resting position.
"What's Aunt Hottie gonna think of your new friend, Peter?"
Peter just shrugged. "She was cool with me being Spider-Man. She'll be cool with this too."
"Tony, I'm back!"
"In here, May!", Tony called back to her.
A moment later May revealed herself in the doorway of the room.
"Hey, guys.", she greeted them gleefully. Then she frowned, slowly stepping closer to them. "You guys look like you're hiding something."
Tony looked at Peter. "Wanna tell her?" Peter nodded. He opened the blanket just enough to reveal the dragon sleeping. May was quite surprised.
"What...is that?"
"A dragon.", Peter answered quite bluntly. "We found it in my closet taking shelter from the rain.
May closed the door behind her and walked even closer to the sleeping reptile. The sight of it sleeping soundly without a care in the world made her heart melt.
"Aw...so cute.", she whispered. But she did have some concerns as well. "You know we can't have animals in this place."
"We know.", acknowledged Peter, with Tony nodding and adding, "Plus, it's a wild animal. It needs to be taken back to its home."
Peter started to rub his own chin in wonder. "But what's a dragon doing in a big city like this?" Then he got an idea. "Where's Thor, Mr. Stark? I think he can help."
"He's meeting with his dad. He'll be at the tower tomorrow morning. We'll show him the dragon then. Right now it needs to sleep."
Peter smiled. "That's fine. I got a cot that I can sleep on." He went to the closet to get out said cot, unfolded it and set it on the floor.
"I'll get another pillow and blanket.", May said as she went out to find them.
A few moments later she came back with the items and gave them to Peter. Tony got up from the chair he was sitting on and proceeded to exit the apartment.
"See you tomorrow, guys."
"See you.", Peter and May said in unison as Tony closed the front door. They then went back to the room, where the dragon was still sleeping. Peter broke the silence.
"First Vulture turns out to be Liz's dad, then you find out I'm Spider-Man, and now there's a dragon sleeping in my bed. All has become strange.", he whispered.
May agreed. "Yeah. Cute dragon. And you need some sleep too. Tomorrow you've got an important mission. Good night." She kissed his forehead.
"Good night, aunt May."
Peter got back into his room. He closed the door, made his cot, and laid down on it. He took a look at the dragon one last time before succumbing to slumber.
