Alright! This chapter is mostly Iron Dad Spider Son with some real quick cameos. Little heavy, little fluff.
Thank you for those who have reviewed, it really means a lot. I don't want to be one of those authors but I do want to for warn. I'm perfectly fine but my sister is in a rough spot so I'm trying my best to be there for her and to support her.
I have most of this story roughed out (which is how I was able to post so many so quickly) so never fear, it's basically done, just gotta polish them up.
So there's that. Reviews will always brighten my day and would truly be appreciated.
Tony sighed, a long dramatic sound as he snapped his fingers before smacking his hands together. The billionaire had trouble sitting still for any length of time really. Downside of being a genius he always needed to be doing something with his hands.
The teen across from him was staring, waiting for an answer, looking as much or more worried than Tony felt.
"Yeah okay. So, I'm gunna tell you what happened, but none of that is to try and somehow make you think I'm not guilty, okay half pint?" Peter didn't really understand but Tony could see that clear as day in his expression. "I'm the one that screwed the pooch this time. But I think it's fair that you know what happened, so you understand that I would never, never, let you go through that alone."
"I called…" Peter had said so before, during his breakdown, but clarity wasn't given other than Tony accepting fault.
"I know you did champ." Did Tony's nicknames for him ever stop? "And Happy- You know Happy's not at fault here. He heard what you said, the first part, about talking to me about the suit. He was out of town so he just called me up, asked me to handle it." Happy Hogan was not responsible for this, only Tony was. "And I did, I tried to you know? I had Friday play it but…" he sighed, "You know, before I heard what happened Strange whisked me away to deal with the fact that Thor was bringing about a thousand Asgardians who needed asylum to Earth, including Loki. And you know what? I forgot. When I got back home Peter. And this is on me, I forgot."
It hurt, knowing how he'd spent the last two months, how he'd grieved, alone, without anyone who truly understood everything he was experiencing, but there was some minor relief in hearing that Tony hadn't just brushed him off- as he'd feared.
The teen was looking down, not meeting Tony's gaze but that was fine, Tony wasn't sure he could stand to see the sadness in those brown eyes right now. "You know between that and trying to get the others cleared from their crimes I just…" he shook his head, "I didn't remember it and all the protocols I had built, all of them- God. Do you know I have an entire server dedicated just to you. To your AI, to fail safes, to watching the news for any sign that you might be in over your head. All of that and nothing, none of it took into account what happened if you weren't being Spiderman. Can you see how I screwed up?"
Peter thought about it. He knew Tony had lots of programs and systems in place, all of them designed to protect him when he was Spiderman, to make sure he wasn't taking on bad guys out of his league. "Everything was programmed to look for something." An injury, a headline, a data point, an AI alert.
Tony nodded, "Exactly. I wasn't looking for the absence of information." Of Peter not using the suit at all, "Like I said, that's all on me Pete. Cause you know what? At any point I coulda just picked up the phone and called. Coulda just dropped by to say hi. But I didn't. You know why? Cause I convinced myself it was better that way." he shook his head with a laugh at the irony. "Who knows, maybe it still is." Was it really better to be here with Tony? He wasn't exactly the best role model around.
"I knew you wanted to stay a secret, the masked hero. Couldn't really do that if you and me were seen together and so were our alter egos. The public might be easy to manipulate but they aren't stupid. I figured the best thing for me to do was to stay as far away as possible." He clicked his tongue over his teeth, "So that's it." He made a motion with his hands for no real reason but simply to encourage Peter to let him have it.
The boy was still, other than continuing to play with the hemline of his shirt in absent thought. There was some relief in what Tony said- never a thought that the other would lie to him. Tony hadn't known, regardless of whether or not he should have, he didn't. When Tony had learned what happened, he'd taken off to rescue him immediately. It wasn't what he'd feared, that Tony wanted nothing to do with him.
It wasn't that- but he was still uncertain, "So… So Mr. Stark...I can stay?" He questioned, his voice still soft, still unsure.
Tony stared at him. Lots and lots of work on confidence. "Do you remember when I had Happy drive you up state?" He wondered, Peter nodded slowly. "Invited you to the team, you thought it was a test, so I just rolled with it, cause, ya know, I don't like being turned down and all. You remember?" Again, Peter nodded. He did, it was around the same time Tony announced that he was keeping Stark Tower.
"Kiddo, that wasn't a test. That was real. I was ready for you to be a constant little thorn in my side then-" Peter's expression shifted at the comment, so Tony continued before he could speak, "And I still am now, okay?"
Peter was silent for a moment, considering. "Mr. Stark?" Tony hummed in question, "What if...what if I didn't get my powers back?" The question was clear. Would Tony still have a place for him? Who did Tony want around, Peter, or the Spider.
Yup, that's it, he's signing the kid up for self-esteem classes immediately. "You want the truth?" He questioned, Peter nodded, "Absolute truth? No lie?" Peter nodded again, yes, yes he did.
Tony sighed again, scratching at the back of his head and trying to figure out just how he'd landed himself in this whole mess of a situation. Not just with Peter but all of it. Asgard, Avengers, Accords. He found that none of that-while important, really took his attention, no his mind was solely focused on the teen who appeared to be shrinking the longer it took him to answer.
"Hear me out." He started, Peter blinked. "Kid when I first came to you I needed Spiderman- but I wasn't about to uplift just any vigilante nor slave away over multiple suit upgrades for just anyone. What you said to me Pete- about having powers and bad things happening? "The teen nodded, "I know what that's like and kid, the fact that you're… that you are just a kid and you've got this weight on you…" He shook his head.
"I almost wish you weren't Spiderman. And yeah, that means we never would have met, but what we want isn't always what we get so you are Spiderman, and you're stuck with me. And Pete, if you lost your powers tomorrow I'd just force you to help me build you a suit that would give you your powers back." He mimicked the teen's usual tendency to ramble, "Ya know...If you even want. Hell you wanna go back to being a regular kid no problem. You wanna live here or the apartment or Aruba. Kid you name it." He waved his hand.
Tony paused, gaze clouding as he thought back over all he'd just said, "I guess that doesn't really answer your question."
Peter offered a lopsided smile, "No...Mr. Stark it does. Thank you."
Tony tilted his head, eying the teen for a moment as if seeking the truth behind the words. After a brief pause he seemed satisfied. "Okay champ. Why don't you get a shower, get cleaned up and changed? I got one more thing to show you." Tony shifted off the couch then, moving to stand and patting Peter's shoulder as he went by, "Meet me in the common when you're ready."
Peter nodded, watching Tony leave before ducking into one of the doors on the ground floor of his room only to discover it to be a large, but mostly empty walk in closet (bigger than his room at the group home).The other door thankfully led to the bathroom. There had been a few clothing options in the closet and apparently in the right size too so he snagged them before moving back into the bathroom. He swore he wasn't as scrawny as people thought but when they put him in clothes two sizes too big it made him look tiny.
As it would turn out, the bathroom was also not tiny. It was huge- huge by his standards anyway. Especially since it looked like a private one, not one he shared. There was a full standing shower with way too many settings and showerheads, even a soaking tub he figured he'd never use. Did everyone have one of those? And why was there a freaking Spiderman themed rubber duck perched on the corner of said tub? It was a spider duck. Seriously?
Out in the common Tony moved to drop onto one of the couches, smirking as his move caused Nat to be bumped a bit. She glared over at him for a minute before, "How's he doing?"
Tony sighed before nodding, "Good. Better. Physically. Ya know, we'll just have to see how emotionally screwed up I made him." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him.
"Did you put him down for an afternoon nap?" Barton wondered from nearby, taking a drink from his beer and not taking his eyes off the tv screen.
Tony snorted at that, yeah the kid was young. The rest of them had been well into their adult lives when they'd come into their...their what? Super lives? Something like that. No, not Spiderman, he had to be a teen, as if puberty wasn't hard enough on its own.
The billionaire took a moment to glance around. "Where's everyone else?" He wondered.
"Sam and Scott are in the sublevels. Steve went for a run I think." Clint shrugged, it wasn't as if he was keeping track of everyone all the time.
Tony nodded, "How are the hatchlings?" He wondered, teasing Clint about his own family.
The other finally offered a smile and glanced over, "Good, getting big. Laura wanted me to bring your head home on a pike you know." He chuckled, it hurt, the time he lost away from them, but it was the life he'd picked. "I figure going back with fully funded college funds will make her happy." Tony lifted an eyebrow but smirked a moment later. Of all the things he'd spend money on, that would be no issue.
He had the money and then some, sure there might have been a time and place when others had felt awkward about it, but they'd quickly overcome their unease around the rate at which Tony spent funds. Tony had, at one point, when trying to convince Steve to let him buy the man a decent ride, had threatened to spend an equal amount of money on something extremely stupid if the soldier turned him down again.
Steve had declined, and Tony had purchased $70,000 worth of bird seed which was delivered on a weekly basis, one pallet at a time, to the blond with a message letting him know that he could go be an old man in the park and feed the birds.
It was a cautionary tale.
"So what's fatherhood like?" Clint questioned, clearly teasing given his own father status.
Tony snorted, rolling his eyes. "Can it bird brain." He was no one's father.
Only a short while later Peter emerged. Still sticking to sweats and a tshirt but now wearing clothing far more suited to his build. Clint glanced over and Tony could see sharp eyes appraising the teen, studying. "I don't think we've met." Well, they had, sorta and Peter's flickering glance said as much. "I'm Clint Barton." He continued smoothly, waving from the couch, keeping it informal and not bothering to stand or shake the kid's hand, no need to make it awkward.
"You can call me Nat, little spider." She gave from near Tony with a smile.
"Peter." He answered, "Peter Parker." And that was that. Unlike most of the Avengers, Clint and Nat both had their starts far earlier in life, the father in him might not want to see any kid in the middle of a battlefield but the master assassin within knew there was little he could do to change it. Not really his place anyway and from what'd he'd seen, the kid had the raw power to put him on his ass if he wanted to, even if he didn't have the training to match Clint's skill level.
"Alright Underoos, let's go." Tony offered, not letting the teen have a chance to sit as he pushed himself out of his seat and headed back for the elevator. Peter followed, curious but not worried. After their talk he felt better, the worries and doubts were there still, but held at bay.
"Fri, one floor down." Tony announced, keeping his secret for as long as possible. Peter looked over with curiosity but didn't have to wait long when the doors slid open to an expansive workshop. Brown eyes widened as he stepped out, forgetting his meekness for a moment as he moved to the railing. They were on one level but off to the left there were stairs down into a larger workspace. There were two luxury cars parked randomly- Peter's brain couldn't even process why there would be cars this high up in the Tower (or how they got here). The higher level seemed to be full of tech, computers, 3D monitors and Tony would later explain that it was where he did most of his planning and developing- Basically the R in R&D. The larger space below was for the second half. Development, fabrication.
Work stations littered the area some with half-finished projects. He managed to tear his gaze away for only a second to look back at the billionaire who smirked and nodded, "Go ahead." Was given with a flick of his hand. Eyes widened a second later when Peter launched himself over the railing and straight down to the floor below without using the perfectly good stairs. Bruce was going to kill him.
"Oh my God. Mr. Stark!" The rambling continued as Peter ran from one spot to the next, touching and not touching everything, all but humming with excitement. He circled the main work area before his gaze was pulled to the display cases with several of his older suits. Tony moved down the stairs as Peter continued to rush around. The older man hated people in his lab. He really did. It was his domain, his sanctuary. His retreat. There were a select few who could venture in, but rarely did he enjoy them lingering for long. Bruce was about the only one he could stand to have in his workspace for more than an hour and they were Science Bros. If they were working on separate projects they tended to keep to their own labs as they had extremely different work ethics. But Peter…Well in Tony's mind Peter didn't count as a person (and persons were not allowed in his lab for long). No in his logic, Peter was a kid, and he didn't have feelings on how long a kid could stay in his lab so his rules remained in place. That was that.
Tony knew this about himself. He knew that while he'd developed as a person over the last decade or so, he still had a laundry list of character defects and one of those was the fact that he didn't really like to share his things. So why did seeing Peter in his workspace seem so right? He was probably setting them both up for a big let down but he couldn't help it, the teen was so…
Well here he was getting all philosophical, but Peter was everything Tony wanted to see right in the world. He was kind. He was in so many sickeningly ways like Rogers it wasn't funny. But he was also smart, impressively so and Tony wanted to see that side of him, see what Peter could accomplish. All bragging aside, Tony had become the genius he was in spite of his father. He'd done it alone and look at all he'd accomplished...He couldn't even imagine what the teen could do with actual support and guidance.
"-What?" He blinked.
"I asked which armor you're using." Peter repeated, rocking on the balls of his feet by the display cases, motioning to them at the same time.
Tony smirked. He was flashy, he loved to show off, he wanted everyone to know when he was in a room and how smart/strong/amazing he was. He was Earth's self proclaimed best defender. All that and more and yet, with Peter he didn't want to put on a show. Tony couldn't really explain it himself, it was subconscious, but he uncurled his arms from his chest as he stepped closer, waving Peter over to one of the workstations, "Come on, lemme show you kiddo. Big upgrades." He pulled a stool out to sit on before lightly kicking another for Peter to hop up on as he pulled up schematics for his darkly dubbed Bleeding Edge armor. Tony had to ignore the way peter put both feet on the stool, sitting perfectly balanced in a crouch to observe.
"Mr. Stark...are you using nano-machines?!" Tony smirked, he didn't need to double tap the housing on his chest but it was a habit and it served as a distraction. If he did it every time he called his armor forward no one would realize just how ingrained the nanotech actually was. It didn't respond to the physical tap but rather to signals from Tony's neuro-synapses. His very thoughts. After the tap he held his hand out, calling the armor out just along his arm and down to his hand while Peter watched, wide eyed.
Hands reached out before the teen glanced up in question. Tony had always hated being handed things, he had other quirks about personal space, some of which he'd overcome but not all. Still, with Peter he nodded, letting the teen run fingers over the enhanced arm, flipping his arm over so it was palm up to study the repulsor on it.
"But Mr. Stark...there have got to be…" He paused, because yes, Peter was actually doing a calculation and not just throwing out a random large number, "What...close to a trillion? Are they just programmed to on off and follow normal suit functions?"
Tony chuckled, just to answer Peter's question he pulled his arm free before letting a blade form from the armor, "Fully moldable to suit my needs." The teen stared, it was clear he was considering the amount of programming and advancements that would be necessary to have the endless possibilities Tony had with this armor. The teen's gaze flickered from the armor to the billionaire's features clearly piecing together the only possible way for Tony to have instant control over the moldable suit.
"Come on kiddo. Don't think too hard, Bruce will kill me if you have a stroke." Peter was still silent as Tony let the armor retreat back, "Besides. I think that's enough about my armor. How about we talk about your suit." For that he stood, moving over to one of the other stations where he wiped the unopened mail package, tossing it to the teen who caught it easily with advanced reflexes. "And just how you got it back here." Peter gulped.
So there we have it! I know this chapter recapped a lot of what we already knew- the things that kept Tony away, but I didn't feel right glossing over it, I needed to give Tony the chance to explain and for Peter to understand. Hopefully the emotions in the scene kept it from coming across as a pointless recap.
Reviews make me smile.
