Chapter Ten
Peter could feel his palms starting to sweat. What was Mr. Stark doing here? Why had he come? Had Ned blabbered? Was the earth coming to an end? Did Mr. Stark have his own spidey sense and had come to save Peter from a complete asshole that for some reason Peter couldn't stand up to?
Tony looked relieved that Peter had shown up. "Hey, Kid I've been waiting for 30 minutes. Why don't you answer your phone?"
"I thought you had work," Scott said with a grimaced. He looked annoyed that Peter had interrupted his conversation with Tony, even though Mr. Stark had practically fallen asleep mid conversation.
"The boss gave my shift to Paul, he is uh, saving up for business school so I have the afternoon off." For a few seconds, Peter forgot about his injured back. It seemed like old times, finally. Tony used to come pick Peter up for a wild (but age appropriate) adventures all the time, but after Thanos and after Scott entered the picture he had been keeping his distance.
Peter shrugged as he tried to look casual. He went to the fridge and opened a coke. The bubbly sweetness seemed to force Peter to relax and allowed him to clear his mind. The last thing that he needed was to word vomit something that needed to be kept deep inside. "How can I help you, Mr. Stark?"
Tony looked amused by Peter's formality. Peter was no longer as formal as he used to be back when he had first meet him. "I was telling Skipper-"
"Scott."
"-Sorry Scott, I was telling Scott since you had the afternoon off that maybe you would like to come up to HQ with me," he raised an eyebrow. "To talk about the winter internship. What do you say?"
Peter's heart started to swell up with excitement, he hadn't seen Tony or been to HQ in weeks. The idea of spending time with Tony instead of hiding up in his room was a huge plus. "I would love to, Mr. Stark," he looked at Scott nervously. "Can I go?"
Much to his surprise Scott nodded, it seemed that even he didn't have the balls to say no to Tony Stark. "Sure of course you can go, Peter."
"Thank you," Tony said in a strange, fake polite voice that seemed odd even to Peter. "I'll even chip in dinner, come on Pete. You can have dinner with me and Pep." Tony motioned Peter to come outside and Peter started babbling almost immediately.
"Wow, Mr. Stark I didn't know you were even here. I didn't see your car or Happy."
"I gave Happy the day off, it wouldn't kill me to drive my own car every once in a while." Tony shrugged as they went into the bitterly cold air and towards a very nice sports car that everyone was gawking over. "He just downloaded Tinder and apparently he is a celebrity with all the middle age ladies in New York. Why didn't you tell me that your aunt had an accident? I could have send Bruce or Helen to take a look at her. Honestly, Peter you should tell me these things every once in a while."
Peter shrugged, he was too happy to feel guilty as they left Queens. It felt good, he felt as if all his problems had gone away as soon as he had left the city. It was nice to live in bliss even if it was for a little while. If he was going to HQ maybe Bruce would have something for his injured back that had started itching. He would have to invent another story though, he doubted that Dr. Banner would fall for the "cats attacked me" story.
For the rest of the trip, Tony and Peter talked about pleasantries. They talked about the wedding venues that him and Pepper were thinking about for the wedding. Tony wanted Las Vegas and Pepper wanted something classier like the Hamptons. Peter talked about his job at the grocery store and Tony seemed personally offended when he described the putting away groceries process. "Kid, you do know that I can pay you for a fake internship." Tony said through a raised eyebrow. "Hell, I'll pay you for patrolling if you promise you wont be spending hours after school putting away eggs and milk."
"It builds character," Peter said bravely as they entered HQ. "Besides I can totally do your internship during winter break."
"I don't want you to overexert yourself," Tony warned as he parked the car. "Your aunt will kill me. Do you want to hear what we-or rather you'll be doing instead?"
Peter nodded trying not to look like a little kid at Christmas. "Well, all of us are getting a little rusty since Thanos bit the dust so I though we would have a little training session. You, me, and Natasha will be on one team and Rogers, Barnes, and Wanda on the other."
"Just like last time."
"Call it Stockholm syndrome." Tony said with a shrug. "So, are you in? Bruce was too much of a coward and he offered to judge instead." Peter nodded. "Ok, underoos go change in your room. We're meet in training room 5. Bring your A game, Parker. I don't want a repeat of last year."
Fifteen minutes later Peter was dressed in his outfit, the tightness of the material of the outfit made his injured back even more uncomfortable, but he tried to ignore it. He was fighting with the Avengers for crying out loud, he couldn't chicken out because his back hurt.
"Peter," Natasha said, she was caressing her favorite knives. "Glad you could make it. Ready for the rematch?"
Peter smiled, "You got it."
Bucky snorted. "I'm not going to make it as easy for you, Kid."
Peter said cheekily. "I would like to see you try." He was all talk though, he was starting to feel a bit dizzy and his back still hurt. He desperately wanted an ice pack, but he didn't want to look like a wimp.
"Save the talk for the playground, kids. In position everyone!" Tony said as everyone got into position. Tony, Peter, and Natasha on one side and Steve, Bucky, and Wanda on the other.
Bruce was standing in the private box above the training area. "In my defense, I don't think that this is a good idea, are you sure that-"
Wanda rolled her eyes. "Just start Bruce, we're not going to kill each other." Bruce pressed the button and a loud beep was heard.
Peter took a step and was prepared to Spiderweb himself into the ceiling when everything went black.
". . .Peter, Peter wake up-"
"Get Bruce now!"
"Tony, Tony let him breath-"
Peter's eyes fluttered opened and he saw a bunch of concerned faces looking at him. Tony looked like he wanted to throw up. He wanted to comfort him, tell him that he was fine, but Bruce injected something in him, and everything went dark again.
-End of Chapter Ten-
Hello again! I know it's been a while babies, thank you so much for your patience!
