Sorry, this chapter is really just rushing into the excitement. I just want to get the boring stuff over, so I can (hopefully) upload more frequently.
"Hand me the blowtorch, Peter," Tony Stark ordered, not looking up from his current project, his right hand waving impatiently in Peter's direction. The teenager fumbled around for the torch, finding it surprisingly quickly, as it was not altogether safely buried under myriad empty Chinese takeaway cartons.
"Yeah, here." Tony scrunched his fingers in a 'gimme' gesture, and the device was pushed into them. His repulsors in the hands of the suit were playing up big-time, nearly making him blow up the extra piano when he tried to take off inside. Pepper had delivered him the most disgusted look possible, and had instructed him to "go play with your toys somewhere where I don't have to worry about you burning the house down". Naturally, that had led him to cautiously fly to Stark Tower, suit-to-be-fixed swinging in a remarkably strong tote bag that neither he nor Pepper possessed, and had given up trying to match it back to its owner.
"Whatcha making?' Peter asked, poking a strange ball of filament into a tiny device with a pencil. "Or fixing?" He dropped the pencil and cursed as the lead snapped off and the substance rocketed out of the tiny device straight into his face.
"I'm fixing my repulsors," he replied, amused, watching Peter struggle and swear quietly as he pulled the thread of his face. The kid looked like he'd run through a haunted house, cobwebs catching all over. "And what the hell are you making?"
"This?" the boy asked, trying to pull the last few filaments out of his hair, wincing as a good deal of hair came with it. "Well… I'm trying to replicate Spider-Man's webthings."
"I see." The kid didn't look as if he knew what he was doing. "It's working fantastically."
"I'm well aware," Peter said, poking the webshooter with the stump of pencil. Honestly, he was using a pencil. In just about the most well-equipped, high-tech garage on the planet. "But the webshooters are just so cool, he can just thwip everywhere." He pretended to shoot webs everywhere.
"You're a nerd."
"Yeah, but Spider-Man's pretty cool."
"Yeah, but I'm cooler and I don't see you making your own repulsors."
"Eh, the webs seem more elegant," Peter said with a grin. "Sure, it's easy to beat the crap out of someone when you got metal fists, but it takes awesomeness to put the time and effort to tie them up and make them look dumb."
"If Spider-Man's so awesome, how come I beat him in a fight?"
"You had Captain America. That's cheating. He'd have thrashed you if your cute little shield hadn't been there."
It had taken several weeks for the boy to realize he could make derogatory jokes towards Tony. And now that he realized his boss was cool with it, he had never stopped.
"That statement is horrifyingly false. Spider-Man was beaten before Capsicle even arrived." He felt a twinge as he said that. The guilt still hadn't fully left…"Anyway, that kid's technology is good, but kind of primitive-" Peter looked overdramatically forlornly at his broken webshooter "-and messy. If I found Spider-Man again, the first thing I'd do is give the dumb kid some actual decent materials to work with."
"And the first thing you would do is not punch him to oblivion?"
"Nah. Punching him up's second."
Peter got a curious look on his face, but he bent down and began taking apart the failure he called a webshooter.
"He'd probably appreciate it. Not the beating up part, the 'give me expensive shit to play with' part. I know if I was Spider-Man, I'd probably be grateful. Ish."
"But you're not Spider-Man."
"I know. Oh, the cross I bear."
"You can't hold up a crutch, much less a cross."
"Nope." Peter flexed an imaginary bicep. Anything that was there was either nonexistent or hidden under his baggy shirt. "Look at that. At least strong enough to lift a building."
"Uh huh."
The boy gave him a sly look. "Stronger than you, I bet."
It was almost alarming how quickly they started arm wrestling.
Pepper stopped outside the door, bracing herself for whatever was going to be behind it.
Yesterday they built a flying ballista in the shape of a dog. It had nearly escaped and it was only under the pressure of her yelling that Tony and Peter meekly dismantled it.
Three days ago, the sight behind the door was half the laboratory smashed on the ground while Parker hysterically laughed as Tony blindly crawled over to a table, oil smeared over his eyes.
A week ago- she didn't even want to remember.
All that insurance…
She knocked loudly and pushed the door open, not bothering to wait for an answer.
The sight that greeted her was relatively peaceful. Sure, there were chunks of metal everywhere, and Tony's repulsors didn't appear to have been fixed, judging by their dismantled state and the still-lit blow torch, God Tony feebly spitting fire onto nothing, but Peter and Tony had clearly not killed themselves or each other.
Instead, they were frantically and competitively arm wrestling.
"Hey, Pep," Tony said without a glance at her, brow furrowing as Peter's apparent lack of any muscle challenged him. Peter was smirking widely, Tony's arm nearly bent onto the table.
Honestly, Tony did not treat that boy like a good employer should. Peter was more like a nephew than an efficient worker. Pepper did not doubt that he had a good head on his shoulders, and he was always polite to her, but he was surprisingly different to the neatly dressed blonde girl waiting patiently in the elevator, claiming to be his girlfriend.
"Hello, Miss Potts," Peter said cheerfully. Obviously his victory was close.
Tony glowered as his newest employee triumphantly smashed his arm onto the table surface, narrowly missing impaling his forearm on a screwdriver.
"I win!"
Pepper held back a smile as Tony scowled, rubbing his arm.
"I came in to say that a Miss Stacy is waiting in the elevator. She said that you invited her."
"I did?" Peter's young face was confused. Pepper noticed a web-like strand connecting a hunk of hair to an eyelash. It looked like someone had tried to sew the two together. The white strand made the livid red cut across his forehead even more noticeable.
"Tony did." She sent a glare her partner's way. He practically doubled up on himself trying to avoid her gaze.
Forget aliens or Nick Fury. There were only two things that man was scared of. 1: Losing her and 2: Her.
"I did?" Tony asked.
Pepper slumped at her desk.
Gwen had been remarkably understanding at Tony completely forgetting that she was supposed to come, and Tony had been remarkably sincere in his apology for forgetting (and Pepper was sure he still didn't remember). Gwen was a lovely girl, and Pepper could say how she was an excellent influence on her boyfriend. A bit of sensibility was needed in every relationship.
Guess who had that in hers?
There was only so much of Tony and Peter's antics she could take in one day, even if there was a responsible young woman watching them and ensuring they didn't destroy the city, and it was such a relief to be away from them.
She stretched out a hand and poured a glass of water from a jug sitting on her desk, condensation dribbling off the sides onto a mat. It was crisp and refreshing, and she briefly considered taking it back to the lab and tipping it over Tony's head. Partly for amusement, the rest because that man should be treating Peter like an employee, as much as they got along. How was Peter expected to understand what an actual job was like if his current one was practically playing with buts and bobs and chunks of machinery?
She reminded herself that Peter was eighteen, he had had a job before working at Stark Industries and he was clever. It would really take someone with no brains to believe that careers were all fun and games.
Miss Potts, J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted, do you remember the figure known as the Green Goblin?
It was bit of a stupid question. The Green Goblin was the only thing anyone was talking about at the moment. He was always swooping around the city on a glider that looked too primitive to be a creation of Stark Industries, screaming for Spider-Man and using small bombs to blow up buildings.
Last week, a supermarket in Queens had felt the man's wrath. Before that, a library, a (thankfully empty) school, a church and an expensive restaurant. The only discussion in newspapers, online, at meetings, was where was he going to attack next?
"Of course, J.A.R.V.I.S. Why?"
Mr. Stark's previous programming had forced me to lock down your office, as per usual in the event of an attack. I detect a figure on a gliding approaching the building.
"What!?" Pepper screamed. "Does Tony know? He's got two kids in the lab!"
Despite the fact that the lab was where most of his inventions-in-progress lived and due to excessive overprotectiveness, the lab was the least secure room in the whole building, and Pepper's office was the most. Something to do with Tony having enough junky weapons stashed in the lab to protect itself.
Of course, they hadn't actually thought there would be an attack.
I believe the Green Goblin is in the lab now, Miss Potts, J.A.R.V.I.S. informed her, oddly glum for AI.
Pepper sprinted to the window, heels skittering across the hardwood. Tony's lab was a few floors below her office, and since she was locked in her office (thanks, Tony), the only way of seeing what was happening was peering from the window.
All she saw was shattered glass glinting as it fell towards the earth, and Gwen Stacy following close behind.
Oh no! Don't worry, I'm actually not a huge bitch. Stay tuned.
Oh, and a message to Guest Reviewer Checkerz: I added in the career freak-out purely because that's what's happening to my sister. I think you're absolutely right!, he would know what he's doing! :) It's just a nod in my sister's direction.