Guess who's back again... hopefully with our regularly scheduled programming (Tuesday / Thursday / some Saturdays upload schedule) for the summer, though it may be a lil late some days, like it is now.
I was on a roll with ASP but I know this is what most everyone wants to see, so. Here y'all are. Let the fun times begin.
Hope everyone is doing well and stays well and that I can bring y'all a little joy during this time. Love you all 3000. Thanks for sticking with me 3
In the end, the promise of food was enough to draw them all to the table, and kept them there long enough to start a conversation, at least.
Peter, as it turned out, didn't have much to say when it came to what they were actually having for lunch, as long as it was good food. The boy was willing to eat just about anything, what with his crazy metabolism and all.
Tony handed him a plate with almost triple what he'd set out for him and Rhodey, and silenced the other man's questioning expression with a silent look that seemed to say just wait and see.
Rhodes shook his head, but clearly decided it was better not to ask. It seemed he was less curious about Peter's insane appetite and more about what he'd just discovered in the living room. "Okay, so hold on a minute. I'm just… really, Tony? Did you do this all on purpose?"
"You'll have to define 'all this,' I'm afraid. I'm not a mind reader — yet, at least — and there's a lot going on here." Tony settled off of Rhodey's side, across from Peter, and took a bite of his food.
"The kid," Rhodey clarified.
"What about him?" Tony shrugged. "If you're asking if I knew he was Spider-Man when I chose him to be my intern, no. It probably accidentally factored into my decision, but I didn't choose him based on that. If you're asking if I told him we needed his help, then yes, but the full circumstances — still no, not yet. I wanted us all to meet, first."
Silence, for a minute. Then Peter piped up. "How did it accidentally factor in if you didn't know?"
Tony hummed, considering it. "Well, the thing is, I've been thinking about it… and we met before, right? Which is why you seemed familiar to me when we did the interview, and that caught my attention, because I don't remember random people all that often."
"And the fact that he corrected you," Rhodes pointed out, apparently not on edge enough about the whole situation to let the opportunity go to remind him of that apparently wildly amusing fact.
"That too," Tony agreed. "Which is how I knew you were insanely smart, but the whole thing was a little weird, which also caught my attention, and no doubt is something that has contributed to your abilities and success as Spider-Man. So, yeah, in a way, it factored in, but I didn't know."
"Okay, so let me get this straight." Rhodey leaned backwards, looking between them before settling his attention back on Tony. "The intern Pepper forced you to pick, somehow, someway, accidentally happens to be Spider-Man, and so your first instinct is to bring the kid in on so-top-secret-it's-not-even-official military business?" Rhodey didn't seem sure whether he should be more confused or irritated.
"Well, no, not my first instinct," Tony countered, looking mildly perturbed by the accusation. "It wasn't like I said, 'Oh, hey, you're Spider-Man, so you want to know a secret?' Give me some credit."
"Can we please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Peter injected. In the short span of their exchanges, he'd already finished most of his food, and was clearly growing a little irritated at not getting a chance to even put a word in. "Mr. Stark already said he didn't tell me everything you're so worried about me knowing. He didn't know I was Spider-Man because I didn't want him to know I was Spider-Man and it had nothing to do with why I wanted the internship. But he found out, and we've made our peace with it, and yeah, he asked me to help… which I would have wanted to, anyway, and yeah, he's right, I probably would have tried whether either of you knew or not, like I did earlier, so… it's probably for the best this way. And I can keep a secret. The world doesn't know I'm Spider-Man, after all, and that's gotta count for something."
"How long have you been Spider-Man?" Rhodey asked him.
"About six months."
"That's better than Tony ever came close to, I suppose," Rhodey muttered, begrudgingly.
"Hey!"
"Anyway, look kid," Rhodey continued, ignoring his friend's disgruntled cry. "I'm not doubting your sincerity, or your abilities, or anything like that. I've seen the kind of work you do in the city, and it's good, but it's small time. I don't know that you're ready for something this big. Stopping robberies and muggings and rescuing cats from trees is all well and good, I'm not discounting that, but there's no stakes to it. Mistakes cost you a couple days discomfort there. A bad memory, an injury or two. But out here, they'll cost people their lives. Including possibly yours."
Tony glanced at Peter just in time to see the kid's face go carefully blank. He straightened, half tempted to interrupt, sensing the fact that maybe the generalizations Rhodey made had gone a little too far, but Peter spoke before he could. And despite his previous knowledge, the words that came out floored even him.
"Oh, my bad. I forgot that's how it worked. That a mistake can not only get you badly hurt but someone else killed, if you're not careful. It's not like I've ever messed up, or anything. Never seen anyone die because of my mistakes. Not one person, or maybe two or three. Not like one of those nonexistent people was my own uncle who bled to death in my arms. Not like he died thinking he was trying to save me from bleeding to death in his, from a bullet wound that had nearly healed on its own before he even got cold because of powers he didn't know I had and that I was too chicken to use." For as upset as he had to be underneath, his words came out cold, steely, level and steady despite the severity. "But suppose you're right. An injury to the heart is no kind of visible injury, after all, and it's just a bad memory, now. So I guess I do have no idea what the stakes are, do I?" He stood up. "I think I'm done. I'll leave now so you can keep talking about me without me actually being in earshot. But don't worry, I won't be too far, so if the situation gets bad enough you actually need my pathetic backup, for whatever it's worth, I'll still be here." With that, he dumped his empty plate in the sink and walked out.
Stunned silence reigned for a whole minute after the teen stalked out.
In retrospect, maybe Tony should have seen some kind of outburst coming. For as impulsive as he had proved to be, he'd been pretty receptive and levelheaded since he'd snapped at Tony in the car on the drive here the first day — long ago as that somehow felt. He was due for an explosion, and though he didn't blame Rhodey for it, exactly, he wasn't surprised that the other man's words had sent him over the edge.
Rhodey turned around, slowly, to face Tony and ask the question. "Did you know?"
"That his uncle died, and that he was there, yes. The rest… no."
Another pause. "Well, shit. I didn't mean to set him off, Tony, but-"
"I know," Tony interrupted with a heavy sigh. "I do. I know what it's like out there. And yeah, he's experienced death, and tremendous loss, but he's still a kid. He is impulsive and sometimes volatile, as you just saw. But I gotta tell you, Rhodey, I've seen his skills first hand a few times now. He needs some training, but the boy could end up single-handedly saving our asses out there."
Rhodey sighed, passing a hand over his face. "I'm still not denying that, but Christ, Tony. I fought tooth and nail to bring you into this, and there's reasons that even other heroes know. Some untried and untested kid? No way in hell."
"Then don't tell them," Tony said, leaning forward. "We can tell them he just swooped in and then we didn't have any choice but to debrief him. And he doesn't need to know any more than absolutely necessary. I don't want him involved anymore than he has to be, anyway." He paused. "And you can say it. I'm the reason others aren't involved."
It was no secret that Tony had a history with a few of the other so-called heroes that were around these days. He'd met Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff not that long ago, on a mission organized by Nick Fury — as a favor after Fury had secured the supplies he needed to fix his arc reactor. Needless to say, he hadn't exactly become fast friends with either of them.
He'd been wary of working with Steve in the first place, having been raised with the comparison of the man whom he'd never even met until long after his father had died. He knew he harbored resentment toward him, and in a field where other people's lives had been at stake, he hadn't wanted to go in with that being a problem. And it hadn't been… until Steve has started accusing him of narcissism and basically everything else he could think of, attacking him based on an old public persona, and to say that Tony hadn't kept his mouth shut would have been an understatement. They nearly came to blows right in Fury's compound, but in the end, there was no time to fight, before or after, and it certainly wasn't worth going back for. He left straight after the mission to avoid a real conflict with him. And Nat… well, she was only human, but she was dangerous, and the honest truth was, while she'd done nothing wrong on the mission, she hadn't been entirely honest with either of them, and between that and knowing her storied history, he just couldn't trust her.
"Fine. Partially. But also because we're trying to keep this quiet as possible. If we bring in a tech genius to deal with supposed tech problems, we can get away with that, whether he's in a suit or not. If we bring in a whole team of heroes, on the other hand, there's gonna be questions raised."
That made sense, he supposed. Even if he wasn't entirely convinced that was the only reason why.
"Alright," Tony finally said. "I get it. But he's here, Rhodey, and the kid has skills that can help us. He's going to want to use them whether we want him to or not. Besides, I let him patrol today. People already know he's here, and no one knows about Malware but us, yet. So maybe we could play it off as coincidence."
"Maybe. For a time," Rhodey allowed, then sighed again. "Like you said, there's not much we can do to stop him. But I only want him having information on a need to know basis. Plausible deniability and all that."
"Of course." Tony waved it off. "Should I go get him?"
"Maybe we should give him a bit to cool off, first." Rhodey picked up his fork. "We should eat, then we can both go. I should… probably apologize. I mean… damn. He's got trauma to rival you, Tony."
"You're telling me," Tony muttered. "He's like a miniature version of me."
"Except purer," Rhodey told him.
Tony couldn't help but snort as he popped the first bite of food in his mouth. It was half cold, by now, but it didn't even phase him. He was already deep in thought. "Yeah. Ain't that the truth..."