Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 2
When Tony Stark told his long time friend Happy Hogan, that he needed to be driven to Queens. He didn't blame the guy for looking less than thrilled about going. After all it was about a two hour drive to get there from the compound, and they were already pressed for time. He only had forty-eight hours to try and get Cap to come to his senses, and four hours of that time had already been lost. He was desperate for extra help though, and sure hoped that it was worth the extra time going out of their way like this.
He had been keeping on eye on a certain web slinging vigilante that had been fighting crime around Queens the past few months. Some video's had been posted on Youtube of him doing some amazing stunts. The billionaire new right away that whoever this guy was, was a shoo in to join the Avengers. So with a little bit of digging he managed to find the name associated with the web slinger. The wind was taken out of his sails however, as finding out that the kid still attended high school. But he still kept a casual eye on the kid, with the intention of offering him a spot on the Avengers Team when he was a little older. Then the accords happened… and well it didn't matter how old the kid was. Desperate times called for desperate measures. And it's not like he was going out to fight villains so the likeliness of the kid getting seriously injured were pretty low. These were all the excuses he came up with to justify bringing in a kid on this whole mess. He just needed to convince the kid to come help, not that he was all that worried about that part.
Happy parked the car in front of a large apartment complex, where the kid supposedly lived. It certainly wasn't the most glamorous of places, but it seemed like a fairly livable building. Tony checked his phone, where he stored the address he found so he could double check the apartment number. Number 713, which meant that he was all the way up on the seventh floor. Hopefully they had an elevator. "All right Happy, you can wait for me here. Not sure how long I'll be- but the clocks against us so make sure you ready to go when I return."
With that he slipped out of the limousine. Maybe he was being a little bit (insensitive) towards his friend, but the billionaire really wasn't in a very good mood. So right now he didn't really care what anyone thought about him, expect maybe the kid. He needed to save all the charm he could muster into making sure this Peter Parker thought of him as a brave hero, that would do anything he asked and convince the boy's parents to take him out of the country for a few days. Luckily there was an elevator just inside the front doors of the building, and though it clanked a bit alarmingly Tony was able to safely make it up to the seventh floor. The apartment door wasn't too far away from the elevators, so it wasn't long before the man was knocking on the door.
There was a short silence before a woman's voice shrieked from somewhere in the apartment. "You expecting someone!"
"No…" a man's voice also from the other side of the door replied in a voice equally as loud.
"It better not be one of them Jehovah's Witnesses…" the woman's voice, much lower now, was heard grumbling before there was a click of the lock being turned and the door swung up.
The first thing that Tony noted was the intense smell of cigarettes that wafted from inside the apartment. Though he smoked the occasional cigar from time to time, he really didn't think much of those who smoked so much that they were brushing heads with lung cancer. Once Tony recovered from the sudden assault on his nostrils, he took a look at the woman who answered the door.
She was quite young despite the aging look of her skin. Her face displayed ghostly hints of once beautiful facial features that now looked gaunt and wrinkled from years of smoking. She must have recognized him at once because her hallowed eyes widened slightly and she slapped a hand over her mouth in shock. She squeaked out a, "Oh my God!" before quickly shutting the door in his face. Tony blinked at the chipped paint of the door in confusion and raised a fist to knock again, but before his knuckles made contact with the wood the door, it opened to reveal the woman again. This time she had a winning smile on her face. "I-I apologize Mr. Stark. I wasn't expecting you- um- how may I help you?" she spoke in a very friendly voice stuttering ever so slightly.
"That's quite all right," Tony told her with an understanding smile. He was a celebrity after all and most people would get caught off guard if one suddenly showed up on their doorstop. "Is this the residence of a Mr. Peter Parker?"
As if a light switch was turned off, the smile fell from her face, and a dark look crossed her facial features and all her charm was gone. "Oh my God…" her hand came up to slap against her forehead and she mumbled almost to herself. "He's got the Avengers looking for him… what the f- did he do?" the woman stepped aside non-verbally giving the man permission to enter the apartment. "Peter's not here right now, but you're welcome to wait."
The smell of cigarettes intensified when Tony stepped inside, and it was now associated with the familiar smell of alcohol. The man did not comment on the smell, but visually scanned the apartment. It looked like it was a really nice place at one point. Now it just looked dirty and unkempt. There were certainly corners and table tops that looked like they had not been cleaned since they moved in. A man was standing in the kitchen, with a bottle of beer in one hand, eyeing the billionaire with uneasiness. The woman went over to the couch and began clearing it off so Tony could have a place to sit, "Look Mr. Stark," she began while tossing aside a pile of papers and a jacket. "I don't know what Peter's done to cause you to come after him. But you need to understand that the boy's a teenager. I do my best- really I try my hardest to keep him in line. But I can only do so much-"
"Ma'am calm down," Tony interrupted her rant gently. "Your son hasn't done anything wrong."
The billionaire knew immediately that he had said the wrong thing, going by the look she gave him. She was quick to tell him what was wrong. "Oh no…" she shook her head with a slight laugh. "He's not my son, he's my nephew."
"Oh?" this surprised the man slightly. She sat down on the now clear couch giving her a questioning look.
"Yes, his parents both died when he was a baby, and his uncle and I were the only living relatives left to take him in."
Tony nodded in understanding, casting a glance over at the man who was still standing in the kitchen assuming that must be the kid's uncle. "I'm sorry- I never did catch your name?" Tony turned his head back to the woman,
She smiled at him, the charm back on her face looking almost flirtatious. "Oh…" she giggled softly and held out her hand to shake. "Sorry, I'm May Parker."
"Very nice to meet you…" it was a complete lie. He could live a thousand lifetimes and never actually want to meet and get to know this woman. What sort of normal person would ever want to be around someone who constantly reeks of cigarette smoke. But he had to put on his own charm if he was going to get anywhere near the kid who was supposedly spiderman. If Tony was honest with himself, he's very surprised by all of this. He would have thought the spider vigilante would have a better home life then this. Maybe the kid wasn't anything like his aunt and uncle. Tony of all people would know all about how you don't get to choose your family.
May Parker stood up from the couch, "Can I get you something to drink?" she offered walking into kitchen. "We have water, and soda, some beer and a tequila?"
"Water sound good," Tony replied not totally sure if he should trust anything that is offered to him. Not that he thought she might poison him, but going by the looks of the apartment, he wouldn't put it past their 'clean' cups still being dirty, maybe even the water also. But he needed to stay on her good side, so allowed something out of courtesy.
"Henry make yourself useful and offer our guest some of the walnut date loafs!" The prickly attitude Tony had heard before the door opened earlier was back as May's voice rose to almost a pitching scream for a moment. By the time she returned to the sitting room with a glass of water in her hands the charming smile was back on her face. She sat down on the couch with Tony and handed him the glass which the billionaire accepted with a false grateful smile. May's husband who must have been Henry came in behind her with a plate of walnut date loafs, that looked like they'd been sitting out for the past three days. The man set the plate down on the coffee table without asking if Tony wanted any of them. "So Mr. Stark… if you're not here because Peter did anything wrong then what are you here for?"
The way May asked that question didn't quite sit right with the billionaire. It almost sounded like she thought there was no good reason for Tony to be inquiring about her nephew, expect to maybe arrest him. He covered these feelings up easily, and played it cool. Luckily he already had a pre-prepared cover story about why he came to visit the kid. "Are you familiar with the September Foundation?"
"No," the woman replied flatly. Tony took this as a blessing as now he could explain to her what the grant was all about, and present it anyway he wanted. It would have been more difficult diffusing questions that she may ask because of what he already knew about the program. He goes into explaining about the grant that he offers schools and bright students to help in their education, and then begins his lies about how Peter had signed up for the grant which he approved and now wanted to offer the kid an internship spot at Stark Industries. By the time he finished explaining, May looked completely stunned. "You're telling me that you actually approved his application?" the woman sounded like she thought he might be pulling her leg.
"Well yeah… he's a smart kid."
May's eyebrows rose up behind her bangs, continuing to look at him with disbelief. "Really?" The billionaire was starting to get a bit taken aback by her reaction. Did she really not know how smart her nephew was? If he was going to Midtown High School, he had to be pretty smart. Tony just nodded his head in confirmation, reaching over and taking one of the date loafs off of the plate. "So Peter got approved for a grant, and that means he should getting some money right?" A greediness suddenly entered May's eyes, and Tony was pretty sure he knew exactly what she was thinking right now.
"Um… yeah for any projects he needs to have funded for his schooling. We'll get all that worked out when the kid gets here." Tony took a bite of the date loaf and quickly realized that they tested like they looked. He swallowed his bite trying not to grimace at the taste. "So when's he getting back?"
The question caused May to sigh a bit in frustration, a disapproving look crossing her face. "Well his schools already out for the day, and he's supposed to come home right after… but does he? That's another story. He likes to stay out late doing teenager stuff, you might have to come back later." Come back later? Tony didn't have time for that, the clock was ticking as it is. Just when the billionaire was thinking that he might have to try and hunt the kid down on the streets, the front doors lock began to jiggle. "Oh… you're in luck. That's got to be him."
She shifted her body on the couch to look behind her. They heard the door open a moment later, followed by footsteps walking inside. "Peter!" May called out.
It wasn't until the sound of the door shutting, when a very young voice responded, "Yeah…"
"Get in here! There's someone here to see you!" A moment later, the kid walked through the hallway that faced the back of the couch. God the kid was a lot younger than Tony expected. Going by his looks, if Tony didn't already know that he was in High School , he would have thought the kid was twelve or thirteen. But the kid was in high school, so he had to at least be fourteen.
Peter had his backpack slung across one shoulder, and an old DVD player under one arm. The other hand that was reaching up to take the headphones out of his ears froze in a tight fist wrapped around the wires as he halted in his tracks when he saw who was sitting on the couch with his aunt. "Hello Mr. Parker," Tony greeted looking directly at the kid. With a single jerk of his fist, the ear buds fell to his sides. The boys brown eyes were as wide as saucers, and his mouth was hanging open slightly.
"Don't be rude Peter, say something," May firmly reprimand him.
The boy gawked for another moment before stepping closer and stammering. "W-What are you- Hi, I'm- I'm- I'm- Peter-"
"Tony," the billionaire responded, needed to speed things along some. It had probably been a good twenty minutes now since he left Happy in the car and he only just met the kid.
"Whatareyou- whatareyou, what are you doing here?" the kid continued to stammer like a broken record, obviously trying to keep his cool in front of him. At least Tony no longer had to worry about the kid liking him or not. Going by the awestruck mannerism Peter was displaying, the boy must idolize him.
"It's about time we met," Tony continued smoothly. He sure hoped that the kid went along with this. If he denied knowing anything about the September Foundation Grant then things could get awkward real quickly. "You've been getting my emails right?" the billionaire gave a couple of winks to the kid as indication to just go along with it.
Luckily the kid seemed to catch on, because he responded with an uncertain, "Yeah…?" then quickly changed his tone to sound more confident. "Yeah, regarding the…"
"What the hell Peter!" May interrupted sounding pretty annoyed. "Why didn't you tell me about the grant?"
The kid immediately shrank back some as his aunts tone. This made Tony wonder if maybe he should have come up with some other cover story, he certainly had no intentions of getting the kid in trouble which it seems was happening right now. "Y-Yeah the grant…" Peter replied with uncertainty in his voice.
"The September Foundation," Tony added trying to help the kid out. Hopefully he could help smooth this over without having the boy get grounded. That might put a damper on bringing him to Germany. "Remember when you applied?"
"Y-Yeah."
"Well I approved," He brought his glass of water up to his lips to take a sip. "So now we're in business."
May still didn't look very happy at her nephew. "So why didn't you say anything?" she asked glaring intensely at the boy.
"W-Well I did, didn't know how you'd react, and I wasn't even sure if I'd get approved so- anyways what did I apply for-"
"That's why I'm here- to hash it all out," Tony interrupted. It was really getting to point where he needed the kid alone to explain everything. Then if the kid agreed he could smooth things over with him aunt that continued to give her nephew a dirty look that Peter was trying very hard not to show how much the glare was bothering him. The boy nodded meekly, looking down at his feet. "Can I get five minutes with the kid?" the billionaire turned back to May, attempting to smooth the sudden tension of the room with a smile.
All the charm from before was gone however, and she just continued her glare. "Yeah. Sure," she deadpanned in almost a snappish way. "Peter you can take Mr. Stark to your room, hopefully it's not a pigsty…"
With his head looking downcast, Peter began walking further down the hallway, without bothering to tell Tony to follow him. Assuming that he was supposed to follow the kid, Tony got up from the couch and left the sitting room. "I apologize for his rudeness," May called over to him, her voice was raised high enough that Tony thought her real intention was for Peter to overhear. "I wouldn't blame you if you reconsidered accepting his application." Tony just waved a hand at her, and followed the boy. He made a mental note to remember that the kid did not have a good relationship with his aunt.