Excuses? I've got nothing. Sorry it's been so long. Things are calming down so hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly now. If not, only a few months left until the semester ends and I can get back into my normal upload schedule again.

That's all I got. Sorry for the wait, and thanks to everyone for sticking with me! I know it's short and rather uneventful, but it's going to pick up from here! Hope you enjoy!

It was a while later when Jarvis interrupted his work to announce, "Colonel Rhodes has arrived, sir."

Tony straightened, surprised. Rhodey had said he wanted to drop in sometime this week, but he was expecting some kind of notice first, at least.

Apparently not. He'd barely made it out of his chair when there was a knock on the outside of the lab door.

Tony stood up, stretching and sighing before muttering, "Let him in, J." There was no point in keeping him out.

The lock clicked, and a moment later, Rhodey pushed open the door, stepping inside and looking around as he entered. Then his eyes landed on Tony, and he immediately raised an eyebrow. "You look like shit," he told him bluntly. "Were you pulling all-nighters again? You're not in college anymore, Tony. You can't keep doing that."

Tony scoffed, lowering his arms and throwing down the tool he was still holding in his hand. "You know, I don't know whether to believe Pepper put you up to saying that, or that you two just both think you're my parents and jump at any chance to lecture me about my well-being. Which you both do more than my parents ever did, might I say."

"Say whatever you want. You know we both just don't want to see you put yourself through any more stress than absolutely necessary." Rhodey sighed, looking him over again before seemingly deciding to let it drop. "Speaking of extra stress, where's the kid?"

That gave him a pause. "Out," he answered vaguely, after a short pause. He hadn't really considered what he was going to tell Rhodey about him yet - or rather, what the extent of what he was going to tell him was. If Peter was really going to work with him on this, then he couldn't exactly hide his involvement, nor would he likely be able to keep his identity a secret for very long. Rhodey was too observant not to notice that every time "Spider-Man" showed up, his intern was nowhere to be found; but he also doesn't want to give him away without Peter being there, or them at least talking about it, first, which they hadn't yet.

"Out?" Rhodey repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. Out. Relaxing, having a good time, I'd imagine. Doing whatever it is teenagers do when left alone these days."

"So you sent a teenage kid loose in a place he's never been before by himself?" Tony just shrugged. "Does he have some kind of supervision, at least?"

"His aunt lets him run the streets of New York by himself and he's fine. How bad can it be here by comparison?"

"Um, bad? Especially when there's a supervillain out and about with an unknown vendetta to fulfill?"

Tony stopped mid-step at that. Shit. Rhodey was right. He hadn't even thought about that. He'd let an underage, undertrained vigilante superhero take off into a city on his own without a second thought to the fact that they were here to stop a supervillain that had been targeting this area of the state. What if Peter somehow got caught in the middle of one of his attacks? Or worse, ran into the villain or someone associated with him and decided to try to take him on himself? Hadn't they just been talking about how impulsive and reckless he tended to be in the heat of the moment? He wouldn't think twice before trying to take on this monster on his own if he had the chance.

He instantly was digging in his pocket for his phone, ready to call the kid and tell him to come back this instant, when he caught a glimpse of the clock on his lock screen. There was less than a half hour until Peter was due to be back, and he'd installed security protocols in the suit just for this purpose. If Peter had gotten hurt at all while he was out, he'd have been alerted already.

He took a slow breath and pocketed the phone again. The boy would be back within the next twenty minutes. There was no point in cutting that short. If he didn't turn up in that time, well, then he could start calling him repeatedly and panicking.

He turned back to Rhodey, who was still watching him with one eyebrow raised. "Well?"

Tony shrugged. "I trust the kid," he said, simply, and was almost immediately surprised to realize that the words were true. Despite the whirlwind of the past couple of days, he did trust him. Maybe not to have the self-preservation instincts he needed to protect his own life, but with Tony's own? With the innocents in the city? Yeah. He did. And to that end, he trusted that Peter would contact him if something happened, if only because he'd be worried about someone else getting hurt if he didn't. "He'll be back soon. In the meantime, he'll call if he needs to."

Rhodey put his hands up. "Whatever, man. Your lawsuit if something happens. So, what do you have for me?"

Tony smiled wryly, heading for the door and gesturing for Rhodey to follow. If only he knew that the subject he was trying to change was basically the same as the one he had just asked about. "A few things. Come on, let's go upstairs. We can talk about this over lunch."

Several minutes later, they're back in the kitchen, moving around each other as they cook just like old times. It's nothing fancy - just spaghetti and meatballs, with some salads on the side. It's enough that he knows he can feed all of them, but it also doesn't take long to make, and keeps him and Rhodey out of each other's way as they cook.

They made small talk as they cooked, but Tony managed to steer him away from talk of information and planning as they do, as much because he doesn't want to discuss this information without Peter being here as the fact that he's having trouble focusing on anything besides worrying about him as it gets closer to time for him to return with no sign of him. It's hard to fathom this sudden urge to protect and worry about him all the time, but it's like as soon as it occurred to him that he should, he just couldn't turn it off.

"Tony."

Tony jolted slightly, looking over his shoulder at Rhodey, who was giving him an unimpressed look, clearly having called his name several times without getting an answer. Even thinking about Peter apparently was enough to draw him into a spiral of deep thoughts and emotions.

Great. So much for not getting too attached.

"Sorry," he muttered, moving his pan off of the stove and turning off the burner. "What'd you say?"

"I asked when we were going to get back to the subject you were so stubbornly avoiding. Do you have any information for me or not? Or did you just pull those all nighters for the hell of it, just to see if you still could?"

Tony scowled. "Smartass." But it's a valid question, and he can't keep putting it off. And Peter is supposed to be here… He checked his watch and froze. Peter is supposed to be here now. As in, was supposed to be here a whole three minutes ago.

Before he could go into a full on panic, however, there's a slight hissing sound from the other room. He and Rhodey both spun around at the sound, though for Tony the overwhelming feeling is relief, while Rhodey looked more alarmed at the unexpected intrusion.

Hardly caring to reassure him at the moment, Tony immediately started towards the balcony door in the living area, which he was sure was the source of the hiss he'd heard. Sure enough, just as he stepped through the doorway, a red and blue form was dropping down onto the balcony, rolling into the doorway and bouncing almost immediately to his feet.

As soon as he was upright again, he was pulling off his mask, his other hand coming up in a gesture as if to ward off an attack. "I know I'm late, but I can explain," he blurted, stopping a few feet from Tony, puppy eyes already at work when Tony met them. "I was on my way back but there was this cat in a tree and I couldn't just leave it but I got turned around trying to get on the path back. Everything is just either so green or so sandy, I can't tell anything apart, and I-"

Seeing the boy back and in one piece was enough to make the slowly building knot in his gut start to loosen, and he relaxed automatically once his brain had caught up to the fact that he was back, alive and seemingly unharmed, if now four minutes late. "Peter," he interrupted, and then waited until the teen stopped and had a moment to catch his breath before continuing. "I'm not mad. It's literally four minutes, and I was just about to dish out lunch, anyway. But next time, try to call me and give me a heads up, alright?"

Peter stared at him for a long moment as if uncomprehending. Clearly, the boy had been bracing himself for more of a scolding, and he didn't quite trust that he wasn't getting more than that. Course, Tony had been pretty severe in his warning of punishment, even if he hadn't specified what that punishment would be, so perhaps it was only to be expected. "Okay," he agreed, after a few moments pause. "So what's for lunch?"

"What's for lunch? Are you kidding me?"

Tony whirled around again at the sound of the voice. He'd almost forgotten Rhodey was even there, but clearly, Rhodey hadn't forgotten that he was. He must have followed him into the living area to see what the noise was, and, well… here they were.

Peter froze, staring at him with wide eyes. "I- uh-"

"Easy, kiddo. He's a friend. We were going to have to tell him anyways," Tony told him, attempting to be soothing despite being absolutely shit at comfort. This certainly could have gone smoother. He cleared his throat. "Pete, this is Rhodey, an old friend of mine. Rhodey, this is Peter, my… intern."

"Your intern," Rhodey repeated. "Great. So when were you going to tell me that your intern was Spider-Man? Or that you were spreading classified information to untested individuals - to a child, no less?"

"I'm sixteen," Peter interrupted.

"You're a child," Rhodey retorted.

"Okay, okay." Tony squeezes his shoulder. "Look, I was going to tell you, Rhodey-"

"When?"

"Over lunch. Right now. I was just trying to buy time until the kid got back so that I could make sure he was totally okay with me revealing his identity to you, at least, but, well-" He looked at Peter. "A little late now, but you don't mind, right?"

Peter looked uncertain, his eyes flicking back and forth from Rhodey to Tony, but eventually he nodded. "Uh… I guess not."

"Great!" Tony straightened, clasping his hands together and gesturing towards the kitchen. "Perfect. Let's go to the kitchen, then, and we can finish properly discussing this over lunch. How's that sound?"

For a long moment, it's that awkward silence again, as Rhodey and Peter seemed to size each other up, neither of them looking too certain about the whole situation. It was Peter who finally broke it, looking up at Tony with an expression of such trust that he felt something in him twist at the sight.

"Depends," the boy said simply. Tony raised an eyebrow, silently motioning for him to go on, and Peter smiled a little, that sweet, excited puppy look taking over his whole face again. "What's for lunch?"