Stark tower basically had its own subway station. It was more than a tower, after all, it was a whole city block of complexes. There were some luxury apartments, some other Stark Conglomerate businesses, and a few tech startups that were vying for prime Stark real estate. Stark Tower was, of course, the tallest, a beacon of the industry against the New York Skyline.

Even though it was Saturday, people still milled around the tower lobby. Except one person, staying still, leaning against a column by the front desk. Tony Stark was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, and he was staring directly into Peter's soul.

At least, that's what it felt like. Peter slipped through the doors as they were closing behind an exiting employee, looking around the lobby.

Tony cleared his throat. "Impressed? I know you didn't get the full tour the first time here, so I thought we would start with that."

"Okay. Sure."

"You, uh…you okay?"

Peter licked his lips nervously. "Um. Yeah. No. Maybe we can uh, talk first? Not in the lobby?"

"Oh. Okay." He cocked his head towards another elevator off to the side. Peter assumed this was his personal elevator. They rode up in silence and the doors opened to the same penthouse floor that Peter had seen before. "Spill, kid."

A lot of emotions that Peter had been feeling poured out. "You shouldn't have come to me. I'm fourteen! You wanted me to go to war for you!"

Tony was appropriately abashed. "You're right. I wasn't thinking clearly, I hadn't slept in days, and was pulling at straws. I have been appropriately lectured."

"Oh. Lectured by who?"

Tony grimaced. "Oh, uh…Nat, Steve, Wanda, Pepper, Rhodey…the whole gang. And you were right about the other thing too. About the Accords."

Peter's face broke into a shy smile. "Should I be recording this? For posterity?"

"What I'm saying is…I'm sorry. The whole situation…there were things you didn't know, about Barnes and I. He…he killed my parents. And you know…you of all people know what that is like." Peter's mouth went dry as Tony continued. "And then Steve went to the press and I was so pissed that he was making me out to be a villain. But he was right to, I was so focused on personal revenge that I forgot about the greater good."

His words were genuine, and struck a chord in Peter's chest that made all of the teen's complaints fade away. Peter reflected quietly for a second. He had never really thought about Mr. Stark's parents, although he had known they died when Mr. Stark was about the age that Peter was now. He let out a heavy breath. "I'm sorry about your parents. I didn't know that Sergeant Barnes did that. It's…awful. For everyone."

Tony cleared his throat and slapped Peter's shoulder. "Well, are you ready for the rest of the tour?"

The next hour was spent walking through the building, Peter managing to ask a few questions without being too awestruck. The employee labs were incredible, and never-ending. Bio labs, machining bays, and computer labs covered more floors than Peter could keep track of.

But then…they entered Tony's lab. It was beyond Peter's wildest dreams. Walls of fastidiously labeled drawers, an iron man suit laying on a table as if it was in surgery, and best of all, samples of red and blue fabric next to a mechanism that looked like it could be a spider.

"Mr. Stark, is that…?"

"It's going to be your new spidey suit. I'm just fabricating the material now. Are you sure you don't just want an iron suit? It's a lot better at deflecting bullets than…what do you normally wear? Cotton?"

"Poly-cotton blend. And that's what my spidey sense is for, avoiding the bullets. Your suits are too bulky. Too easy to grab, and to hear coming."

"Fine. Well, here are the samples I was working on. It's cotton, sort of. It's cotton with a microgrid of nanowires. I'm trying to balance the flexibility you want with the—bulletproofness? Shall we say?"

Peter rubbed the red material between his fingers. "It's kind of itchy, isn't it? And why are you so worried about bullets? I've fallen a couple stories a lot more often than I've gotten shot."

Mr. Stark closed his eyes briefly, inhaling deeply. "One problem at a time." Peter bunched the fabric in his hand and tossed it back to Mr. Stark, then dove into a nearby holoscreen to look at the specs. He was lost in the digital files for about an hour, but emerged with ideas that flew out of his mouth at the speed of light. Well, at the speed of sound. Or at least, at the speed Mr. Stark could take notes on them.

Peter unearthed a soldering iron and set to work at the spider contraption he had spotted when he first walked in. Mr. Stark had intended it to act as a suit release, so that he could remove the suit quickly. But Peter had at least six ideas for the spare centimeter of space in the casing.

Tony was modelling some options for suit materials on his screen, occasionally breaking Peter out of his daze to consult. Likewise, Peter would sometimes interrupt Tony to ask for a tool (it was easier than searching the entire lab, although Peter definitely intended to do that sometime).

Four hours later, Mr. Stark leaned back in his chair cracking his back. "Well kid, I think your eyes might be permanently crossed. What do you say we take a break and continue with the rest of the tour?"

"The rest?"

"Yeah, I got a text from Pepper that she's in between meetings and wants to meet you officially. So I thought we'd head upstairs."

"Upstairs like your house?"

"You've been there before, why does it look like you're about to freak out?"

Peter's heart was indeed beating faster. "I'm…uh…Ms. Potts is just…intimidating?"

"You came into my tower and yelled at me thirty seconds later, but you're intimidated by Pepper?" Peter was blushing, and Tony felt a little bit bad. But just a little bit.

Peter licked his lips. "It's also just like…super fancy. I mean, it just rained yesterday and my shoes are kind of muddy. And I got some oil on my hands that didn't come off in the sink."

Mr. Stark appraised him for a second, and Peter worried that he was going to get made fun of. But Tony must have thought the better of it, because he clapped a hand on Peter's shoulder and steered him towards a cabinet near the lab door. "Your shoes are fine. For your hands, try this." He tossed an orange bottle of something to Peter and pointed to the sink. "If my dad taught me anything, it's to keep this stuff on hand."

Peter washed his hands, then followed Mr. Stark into the elevator. "Hi Friday," he said hesitantly.

"That's adorable." Mr. Stark muttered. Peter's ears turned red in embarrassment.

"So, the only thing your dad taught you was to use some very orange-y soap?"

Mr. Stark looked straight ahead. "Well, I can't even say he taught me that. But my mom refused to let me in the house after a tinkering session without washing with that stuff. I guess…to me it smells like afternoons in my dad's workshop."

The elevator doors opened to the penthouse, but it was another entrance that Peter hadn't seen before. He must have gotten turned around in the tour Mr. Stark had given, and they were now on the opposite side of the giant space. Immediately, Peter's eyes found a grand piano in the corner that he hadn't seen earlier. Morgan would go nuts if she could see it.

"You must be Peter." Ms. Potts stood up from a chair in the lounge area and held out her hand. Peter shook it as she smiled warmly. "Tony has told me a lot about you."

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Potts. I…uh, I read the article you wrote for Popular Mechanics last year and thought it was really interesting."

Mr. Stark snorted. "Suck up." Once again, Peter's ears turned red as he blushed.

"Tony, you can act like you're fourteen when you're with the Avengers, but you can't do that with an actual fourteen-year-old."

"It's fine, Ms. Potts, I know he was joking," Peter said quietly.

"You can call me Pepper. And stop calling him Mr. Stark, it fuels his ego and we don't need that."

Peter smiled abashedly and found a little bravery as his eyes swing over the piano again. "Does anyone actually play that piano?"

Pepper smiled gently, "Once a year, at the holiday party. Do you play?"

"Oh, not me! My little sister Morgan. And I guess she doesn't like…know how to play? But she really likes music, and I've been making a keyboard for her…well, a computer keyboard…but it makes piano noises!" Peter's eyes lit up when he was talking about his and Morgan's project. "Do…do you think that maybe she could come play it? It could be when no one else is around so she doesn't disturb anyone."

Pepper smiled gently. "How old is she?"

"She's 11, but like a really mature 11. She can take care of herself. I mean, I would get her here, I don't like when she's on the subway alone, but you can trust her like, in your apartment. She's quiet. I guess not when she would be playing, but…"

Tony interrupted him. "Peter, it sounds great. She's welcome any time you are."

"We'll have a tuner come by tomorrow," Pepper said, already writing a memo on her phone.

"You don't need to go through any trouble or anything. I mean, I'm pretty sure she could even tune it herself if she did a little research. Her teacher at school says she has perfect pitch."

"Well, what time are you coming next? I'll have the tuner come then so they can teach her how to do it, do you think she would like that?"

Peter stared, dumbfounded. "That would be amazing. I'll check with Aunt May and see if it's okay. I'm not sure when we would come…Is Wednesday maybe okay? Or if that's too soon, we can do later."

Tony smiled, locking eyes with Pepper to confirm as she gave a small nod. "Wednesday's perfect."