Today's fic is brought to you by some amazing art by spidey-art on Tumblr. It won't let me link on this site.
It's fantastic though - spidey-art. tumblrpost/177389124349/mays-car-craps-out-tony-helps-and-teaches (Copy and paste, add a url at the beginning, and take out the space between art and tumblr)
It's an older piece, but has never failed to make me laugh when I see it! I just hope I don't mess up the story too much, because I know way less about old (or new) engines than even Peter. So we're gonna keep all the technical stuff vague, mmkay?
Tony Stark parked his orange Audi R8 at the curb and stepped out, grateful to know that FRIDAY would be activating his state-of-the-art security system as he exited. The Parkers did not live in the best neighborhood.
It would be nice if their elevator worked though, he huffed with annoyance as he ascended the fifth set of stairs. Sure, he was in great shape; he had to be to handle himself as Iron Man. But five sets of stairs on a Friday afternoon when he wasn't in workout gear was just ridiculous.
He put his hand up to knock, but the door opened before he could make contact, a fresh-faced teenager smiling excitedly behind it.
"Hey, Mr. Stark!" Peter said happily, backing into the apartment as Tony entered. "May? Mr. Stark is here!"
"Hello, Tony," May said with a smile, walking into the room and pulling a suitcase behind her. "Peter, honey, grab your stuff."
"Yep!"
"Tony, are you sure you're okay dropping me at the airport? I can just get an Uber."
"May, relax. It's no big deal."
"My car has been struggling lately, but it worked just fine yesterday, and then this morning, not at all."
"Right. Gimme your keys."
"What?"
"Your keys. We'll get it figured out while you're gone."
"Tony, you do not have to-"
"Nonsense, May. Peter needs the experience, and you need a working car. It's a win-win. I promise he'll do most of the work himself." He used a finger to cross his heart. Her expression was hesitant, but she reached into a drawer and pulled out the spare keys, handing them across to him.
Tony didn't miss the slightly wrinkled nose in Peter's expression as he re-entered the room. He had gotten a little better at working on Tony's newer, fancier cars, (they were getting closer to computer-based, which he had much more experience with) but May's 2001 Toyota Corolla was going to be a different world, and he knew the kid wasn't overly enthused. When Tony was done with him, though, he was going to be comfortable working on any kind of engine. May's car was a great project, and they had almost four days to work it over while May was gone to her nursing conference and Peter was on spring break.
It had only been a few days before that when Peter had asked about staying at the Tower. He had come into his Wednesday internship hours with a hesitant step and expression. Kid was about as subtle as a brick through a window. It was a really good thing that he wore a mask when superhero-ing. Well, that, and because he definitely looked his age.
"What's up Pete?" Tony had asked patiently.
"So… I was just wondering. Are you going to be in town this weekend? Like through Tuesday?"
"Well, yeah, mostly. You're on spring break, right? I thought you might spend a little extra time here. It would be the perfect week for a project, if you don't have other plans."
The kid's face had brightened. "Yeah, Mr. Stark, that would be awesome. Um… so, so May is actually supposed to be at a conference from Friday night through Tuesday, and I was gonna stay at Ned's house, but he just came down with a really awful stomach bug today, and May doesn't want me over there because it spreads so easily, but she doesn't want me staying by myself, which is kinda silly, but so I was just wondering if maybe it wouldn't be too much trouble if I just stayed here, and-"
"Take a breath, Pete."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." He had taken a deep breath before continuing. "So, I would totally stay out of your way, and you wouldn't even know I was here except when you wanted me to work on stuff. But it's okay if you say no, I just really wanted May to be able to go, and I thought it might be fun…"
"Sure, kid."
"It's really fine if… Wait, really? You don't care? I can stay here?"
"Yeah, of course. It's basically your room anyway, and it's not like I have to babysit you if I have a meeting or something."
"Yes, sir. I mean, no, sir. I mean… Yeah." The next part was under his breath as he turned away to set his backpack down. "Awesome!"
After dropping May off, they went to a quick, casual dinner with Pepper, who enjoyed having a chance to talk to Peter, since they didn't see each other that often for two people who both spent a lot of time at the Tower. She was headed out of the country early the next morning, so it was pretty good timing that the kid wanted to stay over. It would have been a really quiet weekend otherwise. Since Pepper was leaving though, they opted to turn in early and let Peter entertain himself. Somehow in the last few months a TV, several new gaming systems, and quite a few LEGO sets had made their way to the "guest" room.
Tony had forgotten his tablet down in the kitchen, and as he walked by Peter's the guest room he could hear the boy talking excitedly on the phone, probably with his friend Ned. Tony smiled, and ducked his head through the partially open door.
"Night, kid. See you bright and early? I had May's car towed this evening, and it's waiting for us in the garage."
Peter groaned theatrically, the phone pushed against his bed to muffle their conversation. "How early is early, Mr. Stark?"
"Oh, about 8 or 9."
"Oh, good. I can do that. Night, Mr. Stark."
"Say hi to Ted for me."
Peter did, and Tony could hear an exclamation from the phone as he walked away. He would miss Pepper, who wouldn't be back until Wednesday, but at least things wouldn't be boring for the next few days.
The next morning found Tony and Peter leaning over the engine of the little blue Corolla. Peter had raised the hood, but was looking doubtfully inside with a flashlight he'd grabbed from the garage workbench.
"So what's wrong with it? Other than being almost 20 years old, that is?" Tony had tried to talk May into letting him gift her a more reliable car a few times, but she had, of course, refused.
"I dunno Mr. Stark. May said the steering's been kinda wonky, and when she tried to turn the a/c on the other day, it didn't really work. And I noticed it hasn't been sounding good. It was making like… an eeeeeeeee sound."
Tony looked up at the young genius, eyebrows raised. "I'm sorry. A what sound?"
"...Mr. Stark," Peter protested quietly, obviously embarrassed. This was the kid who could disassemble and reassemble a computer in an hour, and who made useful upgrades to some of Tony's robots? He really had some basics to cover with this kid.
"Okay, okay. We'll get there. Then what was wrong this morning that was different?" He swiped gently at the kid's hair to let him know he was done making fun of his lack of auto mechanics. For now.
"May said she heard like a bumping noise right before she got home last night? And the steering got worse, and the electronics went a little screwy. And this morning when she started it, it started but it wouldn't really do much and was acting all weird."
"Okay, Fonzie, let's open her up and see what we can find." Tony was already pretty sure he knew what was wrong, but the point was for Peter to figure it out, and then fix it. And Tony was pretty sure they'd find some other things that needed tweaking along the way.
Peter sighed, but hesitantly followed Tony's directions as they started removing pieces so they could get to other parts of the engine. Tony had Peter identify and check lots of different systems and parts for soundness before he had him start on belts.
"Okay, kid, which belts should this car have?"
"Uh… timing belt and drive belt?"
"Also called?"
"A serpentine belt."
"Good job. You have been paying a little bit of attention. Show me."
Peter found the timing belt without too much trouble, but after a few minutes of digging around with the flashlight, he said, "okay, I give up. Where is the drive belt in here?"
Ding ding ding. "Well," Tony drawled, "it should be right here." He indicated the area with his hand.
"But… it's not. Where is it?"
"And there is the problem, my young padawan."
"It's missing? But where…"
"The problems you described, and even your 'eeeeeeeeee' noise are signs of it failing," Peter rolled his eyes and flushed again at that, "and the noise May heard last night was probably when it broke. We might have to take things apart a little more and dig if it fell down somewhere. And we'll need to install a new one. Along with a few other things."
"Uh, do you have those parts?"
"Not for a Corolla. We'll have them delivered this afternoon. But we can take a lot of this engine apart, clean it up a little, and make sure nothing else needs replacing."
Peter looked nervous. "But what if you can't get it back together?" He didn't look excited about disassembling his aunt's car.
"Pete, look who you're talking to. Of course I can put it back together. But I want you to be able to, too. You need some work and knowledge in this area. You can see that, right?" Peter nodded glumly.
"So, let's put in a few hours breaking it down, then we'll stop for lunch and stuff, and get back to work once the parts arrive. Pizza?"
The boy's expression brightened a bit. "Yeah."
"FRI, put our order in for around 1 PM, will you? Throw in an extra meat lover's so Pete has something to snack on later."
"Of course, Boss."
"Oh man, I hadn't thought about that part of staying here for several days," Peter said off-handedly, carefully pulling the broken drive belt free from where they'd found it. "So much food!"
Tony frowned. "Peter, when are you going to tell May that you need to eat more?"
"I dunno. It hasn't been a huge issue since I started eating here twice a week, and buying extra with the card you gave me. Thanks so much for that, again. I just don't want her to feel bad, and the longer it goes on, the worse I'm afraid she'll feel. I think I just keep hoping it never has to come up." Peter pulled a difficult piece loose that he had finally unscrewed, and carefully placed it on the drop cloth, where Tony had him labeling everything with industrial sticky notes.
"Well, keep giving it some thought, because I really think you should tell her. It's been quite a while now that you have been getting enough to eat, so I don't think she'd feel as bad for not knowing. She'd be upset at first, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to eat your fill when you're with her?" He walked over to check the accuracy of Peter's sticky notes, noting another piece he wanted to replace on his Starkpad.
"Okay, I will," Peter said quietly. Do we have much more to go?"
"What do you think?"
"Well, we've checked all the major systems, and identified a few things that are worn or might need replacing soon based on age. I think we just have to clean a few things, install the new pieces, and put everything back together? Unless I'm missing something?"
"No, I think you're right. Let's clean up and see if that pizza's here."
"Yes, I'm starving."
"Kid, honestly. There is a fridge right there, with plenty of snacks. I shouldn't have to remind you to eat, just because you're working." The boy eyed him.
"FRIDAY? What's the average amount of time Mr. Hypocrite here goes without eating when he's working on a project?"
"FRI, don't answer that," Tony snapped, a half smirk on his face. "Okay, okay. You're supposed to be better than me, though, remember?"
"I'll try, if you will," Peter fired back. They both washed up, then headed upstairs for lunch.
As they ate, Tony turned on the TV and chose "Ghostbusters," which he knew the kid liked. After a while though, he noticed Peter wasn't paying much attention, but instead seemed to be reading on his phone.
"Am I boring you, Underoos?"
"What? Uh, no, of course not. But… would you mind if I went to my room for a couple hours? I want to talk to Ned, and there's a project I need to get a jump start on." It warmed Tony's chest a little when Peter called it "my" room.
"Anything you want my help with?"
"No! I mean no, it's something for history."
"Ah. Have at it, then," Tony said, his face showing his disinterest in that subject, at least at a high school level. He pulled out his Starkpad and started answering some emails. With Pepper away, he did have some things he actually had to do at SI this week. Unfortunately that included being present in-person on Monday. It had been a while since he did that, other than frequent trips to R&D. He registered Peter getting up and quietly leaving the room as he got pulled into his work.
A little after 4 PM, FRIDAY reported the delivery of the parts they were waiting on. Tony stood up and stretched, regretting the last few hours he hadn't done that.
"FRIDAY, be a dear and tell Peter we're ready? Tell him to grab a snack and meet me in the workshop."
"Yes, Boss."
Tony, trying to be less of a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do adult, grabbed an apple on his way to the elevator. He'd check over the new parts and make sure they were what they needed before Peter came down. Of course if one was wrong, he wouldn't say anything. The kid would need to figure that out, too. This mentoring stuff was hard. He wasn't really looking forward to a whole evening of slooowly putting the Corolla's engine back together, but helping Peter pick up new skills was worth it.
About ten minutes later, Peter showed up in the workshop looking more eager than he had that morning. He dove right in, inspected the new pieces, and started installing them with very little input on Tony's part. He paused and asked questions a few times, but made quick progress. Actually, he acted like he'd done this before. It was night and day from the kid earlier who hadn't even noticed the drive belt was missing.
After about an hour of watching the kid in bemusement, Tony finally broke. "Okay, who are you, and what did you do with my kid?"
Peter's head snapped up, an adorable stripe of grease across his cheek. "Wh-what?"
What were you really doing the last few hours? Because I don't believe for a second you were just talking to Ned. Or working on history."
Peter blushed and he bent his head back to the bolts he was tightening, after correctly replacing everything that went below it. "It was kinda history. This car is old. I may have been looking a few things up, so I knew what I was doing," he said into the engine.
"You were studying all that time?"
"Maybe."
"Sheesh, kid." Tony shook his head. "Good for you." Peter smiled shyly, returned his attention to what he was doing. Tony rolled up his sleeves and stepped in next to the kid to give him a few tips as he puzzled through all the little pieces that came next. Tony shouldn't have underestimated the boy. He'd seen his determination as he worked through problems before, and as he constantly stretched his limits (and sometimes the adults in his life) in order to help people as Spiderman. There was no way a car that was older than he was was going to get the best of him.
At this rate, they'd be done with the car by early tomorrow, and Tony was going to have to find something else to challenge Peter. It was a good problem to have, though.
I was actually trying to write about Peter going into SI with Tony, but I couldn't keep referring back to this event without writing it. It just wasn't working out, and I wanted more details than made sense to put into the next story…