Comfortember #7 - Comfort Item and #19 - Cold
It was well into November, and it had been extra chilly lately. Pepper liked it warmer, but when she was out of town, Tony didn't like to turn up the heat much. He liked getting to wear warmer clothes and drink hot coffee (or sometimes even hot chocolate) all day and remind himself that it was fall outside, even if he didn't often go out.
Peter was at the Tower for his weekly internship, and had been wandering all over the lab this afternoon, and now all over the penthouse while they waited for pizza to arrive. Tony couldn't figure out what he was doing. He seemed to be looking for something.
"Pete, what's eating you?"
"Huh?" The teenager's eyes were wide, as his head shot out from where he was nonchalantly looking through a closet. His face was just a little too innocent. Something was up. Tony turned and faced him, arms crossed and eyebrow quirked.
"Can I help you find something? What did you lose?"
"Um, nothing. I'm just cold. I was looking for a jacket."
Tony tilted his head to the side in confusion, staring pointedly at the carefully folded hoodie sitting on the table between them. "Didn't you just bring that one back?" One of Tony's old MIT hoodies had been missing for a few weeks—ever since it got cold—but that mystery had been solved when Peter sheepishly pulled it out his backpack earlier that afternoon, returning it washed.
"Is there something wrong with that one?" he asked again.
"It's all clean. I was just looking for one you'd already worn or something, so I don't get that one dirty." Tony had gotten pretty good at reading the teen, and that was only a partial truth for sure.
"Kid, there's a whole stack of clean ones in my bedroom; we just did laundry. You're fine to wear that one, or I can turn up the heat if you're really cold."
"No, I… I don't mind the cold, I just…" Peter was looking really nervous. Or was it embarrassed?
Finally he spit it out. "That one just smells like our laundry. Because after I wore it all weekend when I was sick, May washed it. I like it when it smells like… like here, instead."
Tony was surprised, but he felt his expression soften. Well, that was… was sweet. Without another word he pulled his own hoodie over his head and handed it to the flustered Peter, then walked over to the table and pulled the clean one on instead.
He turned back to Peter, who was standing, frozen. "We good now? Anything wrong with that one?"
"No, uh, it's great," Peter said quietly, his voice muffled as he quickly pulled on the hoodie Tony had been wearing for the last two to three days. The kid's face was flushed, but he also looked content now.
"The pizza's almost here," Tony said, glancing at his watch. "Why don't you go grab the veggie tray out of the fridge, so I don't have to lie to your aunt if she asks if we ate something healthy?"
Peter turned to do as he asked, a slight smile on his face. Somehow Tony didn't think he was going to get that hoodie back for a few weeks. He'd be sure to have one ready when the kid was ready to exchange it, though.