Peter's eyes landed on the world's fanciest penthouse when the elevator doors dinged open. A few couches stood in the centre of the living room facing the big wall with a colossal tv. Behind the couches, near the wall of windows with french doors providing access to a balcony, there was a long glass dining table big enough to fit at least a dozen people. Peter's eyes climbed to the room's ceiling, which stood 15 feet up with a sparkling chandelier hanging over the dining area. On the far side of the room, the ceiling dropped down 5 feet to form a kitchen, separated from the living room with a huge island. The dark mahogany cabinets and marble countertops were stunning.
Nothing to remind Peter how goddamn poor he was like seeing this place. Like, holy…
Peter's favourite part was the view overlooking the city. It was especially beautiful at night. The sun had set by the time they'd arrived at the Tower. After setting Peter down, Tony had decided to call a car instead, agreeing to swing by Peter's apartment first so he could pack a bag of essentials. Tony had a couple of his automated suits come over to pack up the rest of whatever he'd wanted to bring. They'd be over in a little while.
Tailing Tony, Peter followed the man into the room and then into a hall that opened up in the inner wall where the kitchen met the living room. They passed a number of doors that led to rooms like the laundry room, a home theatre, a library, and a game-room (which sounded awesome). The hall curved, several doors on either side coming into view. Reaching the second-to-last door on the right, Tony steered them into an enormous bedroom.
The decor was modern-style with a touch of homey. A king-sized bed sat to the right with a framed movie poster for The Empire Strikes Back hanging above it. The far wall, which was made up of windows that started 2 feet off the ground and extending to the 9 foot ceiling, had a glass patio door leading to a balcony. To the left of that door, there was an L-shaped desk with a bright red office chair that had a white spider symbol on its back. The left wall of the room had two doorways, one that was open and led into a walk-in closet, and the other with a door leading to an ensuite bathroom.
"Woah," Peter muttered.
As impressive as everything was in the room, one thing in particular caught Peter's attention: there were some bright red couch-style cushions built into the far corner of the ceiling.
Frowning, Peter pointed at it. "Are those cushions on the ceiling…?"
"Hm? Oh yeah, I made you a little sitting area up there since you seem to like sitting on the ceiling."
"Huh." It was true, he did it a lot. He'd startled a few Avengers by doing that in the meeting room once. They hadn't seen him when they came in and all but blasted him to smithereens when he'd spoken out of the blue. "That's thoughtful."
"Figured you'd like it."
"Too bad I won't be able to use it for much longer."
"Is your stickiness starting to go?"
A little. There had been a couple times now that it hadn't worked when he'd tried to use it. "Starting to, yeah."
Tony nodded in his peripheral. "Closet's the first on the left and bathroom is the far one."
"Pretty sure a quarter of this room is bigger than my entire apartment." Peter shrugged off his bag. "I can't believe it has its own bathroom."
Tony peered at the bathroom like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Figured everyone deserved an ensuite, I guess."
"Fancy."
"I'm right next to you, one door down."
Peter's eyes flicked to him. He'd put Peter's room purposefully next to his? Huh. Or maybe he was just staying in the nearest one for the time being in order to keep an eye on Peter? That was probably it.
"Alright. You settle in and I'm gonna go down to the lab. There's leftover… what is it? I think spaghetti, or stew or something, in the fridge. Needlessly to say, you're free to ransack the kitchen."
"Cool, thanks."
"See you in a bit."
With that, he left. Peter heard his footsteps disappear.
And just like that, Peter had a whole penthouse to himself. Or at least he suspected he did. Peeking out the door, he eyed the empty hall and listened to the silence. Creeping, he made his way over to the next door over. If he remembered right, this was Visio- oh wait. Vision was dead. Right. He he, oops.
So whose room was this? Peter pressed his ear up to the door. He didn't hear anything. He knocked. Nothing. Carefully twisting the handle, he poked his head in. The room was empty. Peter pushed the rest of the way in and frowned. The room was nice, of course, but it was smaller than Peter's and had generic decor: nothing personalized or anything. Also it didn't have a balcony.
Peter moved onto the next room. Again, no one was there. It looked the same as the other one, although it looked like it had been lived in a little. There were a few clothes in the closet (shirts that all looked stretched) and the bedding was red-white-and-blue stripes.
Continuing on, Peter snooped through the rest of the bedrooms, sure enough they were all the same. Just like he guessed, it didn't look like any of the other Avengers were staying at the Tower. They were all adults, he supposed. They had their own places and jobs and family to get back to.
Peter didn't fit in with them too well. Even less now.
And yet, he had a nicer room. Huh.
That was odd.
He wondered what Tony's room looked like. Was he allowed to look? He didn't wanna, like, cross a line or anything. Curiosity got the better of him. Sneaking (like that was gonna make a difference), Peter approached the door at the end of the hall. He opened it.
"Woah."
Tony's room was definitely the nicest. It was massive. It had a whole bunch of fancy personalized decor (including a giant psychedelic poster of Ironman hanging over the super-king-sized bed), and a huge balcony with a hot tub.
So. Tony definitely put some thought into the room designs. So… why did Peter get a special room? It must've been like that from the start, what with the ceiling sitting area and the bigger square-footage. And the balcony. And then there was all the extra furniture. And the red bedding (his favourite colour). And the Star-Wars poster (which was awesome, by the way).
Tony had put some time and thought into Peter's room.
Huh.
It probably wasn't good to overthink it; it was probably just a coincidence or something.
Peter's stomach gurgled, reminding him of the leftover spaghetti calling his name. He wondered if there were meatballs? And garlic bread? His stomach gurgled even louder.
He patted it. "Ok buddy, I hear you."
. . .
Moonlight filtered through the big windows, adding a blue-ish tinge to the orange glow of the overhead light. Being so high up, the people below looked like ants, passing through streetlights then disappearing into the dark in a scattered rhythm. Peter wondered if they could see in. Sure he was far up, but a light on in the dark was like being in a fishbowl.
"If I were blinds, where would I be…?" he muttered to himself.
"Your windows aren't see-through from the outside."
Peter nearly shit himself.
"GAH!" Peter keeled over, hand on chest as he tried to catch the breath that had been punched out of him. His poor heart felt like it was going to putter out any second. "Oh my god, FRIDAY! I forgot about you."
"I'm sorry, Peter, did I startle you again?"
"Uh, a little, yeah." His voice was a wheeze. "Sorry,"
"No need to apologize. If you need anything, I'm on every level and every room of this building."
Peter blinked. "Even the bathrooms?"
"Yes."
He reeled back. "Oh my god! Why?!"
"In case someone falls, or if an intruder tries to hide in there."
Peter's face twisted in discomfort.
"I do not have any visuals, if you are worried about that. I merely detect heat signatures."
Well that made him feel a little better. Still weird though.
"You don't, like, watch or anything, right?"
"I do not have visuals in any bathrooms."
"Yeah, you already s… " Ugh. "Ok."
"Can I assist you with anything else, Peter?"
"Uh… n- no. Thanks FRIDAY."
"You are welcome, Peter.
Peter shifted uncomfortably. Even though he knew FRIDAY wasn't watching watching him, he felt uncomfortable being naked where she could see, even if it was just with infrared. Sucked even more that there was no escape from her anywhere. Living with an AI was gonna take some getting used to, that was for sure.
The bathroom was just as nice as the rest of the Tower: it had a walk-in tile shower with, like, five different shower heads, a long marble countertop with a raised sink, and a jet tub bathtub tucked under a full-length window. Good thing the windows weren't see-through from the outside. Much to Peter's surprise, the room was stocked with everything he needed: shampoo, conditioner, soap, some razors, facial cleanser, moisturizer and a bunch of other stuff. Also it was all high quality stuff, unlike the cheap junk he'd brought here.
And don't even get him started on the towels! They were literal clouds.
After getting all washed up then changing into his PJs, Peter spent the remainder of the night meandering around his room. Peeking inside the closet, he discovered a few items: a sweatshirt that said 'Stark Industries intern' on it, as well as a black jacket that had the 'Stark Industries' logo, and a few other items like socks and t-shirts with various Tony-related logos and stuff.
His desk had a few drawers that were stocked full of supplies like pencils, pens, erasers, a graphing calculator, a few notebooks, and sticky notes. Pretty much everything he'd need for school besides his textbooks. The other drawer had a few tools like screwdrivers and stuff.
Peter sat back. "Huh."
"I heard a noise of confusion, do you have a question, Peter?"
Sure enough, Peter jumped. He was never going to get used to that. "Uh, n- Well. I- did Mr. Stark buy all this stuff?"
"Yes. When he was designing your room, he ordered anything he thought you would need. There are some clothes in the closet he's been adding to over time."
Peter blinked. "Did he buy everyone stuff?"
"Could you clarify what you mean?"
"Like, the other avengers. Did he buy them a bunch of stuff he thought they'd want?"
"No."
"Wait, then why…?" Why'd he do that for Peter?
"Tony wanted you to have everything you would need," she reiterated.
"Oh. Uh… ok…"
"Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"Uh, n-no. I'm good. I think I'll just, uh, go to bed now." He shook his head to dispel his confusion. "'Night, FRIDAY."
"Goodnight, Peter."
Crawling into bed, Peter pulled the covers over himself. They were super soft, just like the rest of the bed (which was made of memory foam and had massage features?!). He wondered if Tony knew red was his favourite colour or if it was just a coincidence.
There was a knock at his door, startling him. His head snapped to the door to see a head poke through. Much to his surprise, it was Tony. Peter blinked. The man came into the room.
"How're you settling in?"
"Oh, uh." Peter looked around. The automated suits had arrived with most of his stuff (except his furniture of course). He'd figured if he was going to die here, he might as well try to make it feel a little like home. He hadn't gotten around to unpacking yet. After helping carry the boxes down the hall, he was pretty much wiped. He'd really only gotten around to putting up a couple of photos on his bedside. "Yeah, I'm- it's a nice room. I noticed you bought a bunch of stuff for, like, the desk and bathroom and stuff."
"Did I miss anything? You need anything to change? Different mattress or bedding. Or maybe some new furniture. Different paint? Anything?"
"Uh, n-no. No thanks, it's all- it's fine."
"Just fine?"
"Good. It's all good, is what I meant."
"You sure?"
"Mr. Stark, this room alone is nicer than anything I've ever seen, much less lived in, so yeah, it's good."
Tony put his hands up in surrender. "Ok. ok. Fair enough." He came over and sat on the edge of Peter's bed, looking at Peter with an unreadable soft expression.
"I appreciate the, uh, sentiment, though..."
"Alright. Well, I'll be in the lab downstairs most of the time, so you'll be on your own for meals and stuff. The food and pantry is stocked. If you need anything, let FRIDAY know and she'll order it. Take-out or groceries. Just try not to burn the place to the ground, will ya?"
A smile tugged at Peter's lips. The last time he tried cooking anything, he actually did almost burn down his apartment building. "No promises."
Tony rolled his eyes. "What have I gotten myself into?"
"Why're you here? Uh, no offence. I just thought you'd be at your house or something."
"I was in the lab. Wanted to come upstairs and say goodnight."
Peter tilted his head. "You did?"
"Yeah. You got a problem with that?"
"No! I just- it's. That's nice of you."
"I am a saint, aren't I?"
Peter squinted. "Something like that."
"Goodnight, kid." He ruffled Peter's hair.
Peter smiled shyly. "Goodnight, Mr. Stark."
Getting up, Tony went over and flicked off the light for Peter, starting to close the door. He paused, face becoming serious. "Don't look under your bed. They don't like it when you see them."
Tony closed the door and the room went dark.
Peter was alarmed.
He was just joking. Right? He was…
Peter laid down. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. Eerily quiet.
Something moved under the bed! Or- did it? He listened closely, heart hammering too loudly in his ears. He heard something again. No he didn't. It was in his head. It was all in his head. Or was it? Should he look? No. He was being a baby. There was nothing there. He knew that. But did he? Tony was just joking. But what if he wasn't?!
"FRIDAY?"
"Yes, Peter?"
"Was Mr. Stark teasing me?"
She sounded amused when she answered him. "Yes."
Peter relaxed and rolled his eyes. Rolling over, he closed his eyes, trying his best to relax in the new, way-too-fancy-and-being-spied-on-24/7 room.
. . .
Peter leaned back in his chair, feet propped up on his desk. The view really was nice up here, had he mentioned that yet? 'Cause it was really nice. His fingers mindlessly toyed with a little cube with all kinds of buttons, switches and stuff on it: one of the items he'd found in the desk. His other hand scribbled down a few messy equations. These first-year classes were pretty easy and he was barely even paying attention.
"That's all the time we have for today, good first day everyone. I hope online class was easy enough for everyone to adjust to." The professor spoke, calling everyone's attention back. "Make sure to work through problems 1.3-1.13 for next class. See you all later."
Everyone unmuted to mutter their goodbyes before logging off. Peter closed his laptop screen. He'd already finished all but one of the problems. Two minutes later, he was done all of them. He'd also managed to finish all his work for his first class this morning too. Ugh.
To say the least, things around the Tower had been getting pretty boring. And it was only day two. A few of his classes had started today, but others still weren't going to start until next week since those professors weren't as tech-savvy.
Peter had decided to work ahead and pretty much completed everything he could without having gotten any assignments yet. So he'd been spending most of his time watching movies and trying to teach himself pool. He wasn't good at it and gave up after, like, two tries of trying to break the triangle. Also he couldn't remember if he was supposed to sink the black 8 ball, or if that was what he wasn't supposed to do…? Also it was too loud. He didn't like it. He did like playing with the sticks like they were a samurai sword, however. He'd stopped swinging after almost taking out the jukebox, though.
He'd raided the dvd cabinet in the living room right off the bat. Despite Mr. Stark having been signed up for every streaming platform, Peter preferred dvds. He liked the extra feature options and stuff. Plus, there was something gratifying about actually choosing a dvd and putting in the machine. It reminded him of movie nights with Ben back in the day: every Friday after he got home from work. It was always Peter's job to choose the movie and make the popcorn.
Upon searching the cabinet, he realized that most of these movies were ones he liked - more specifically, ones he'd referenced or talked to Tony about. Like Empire Strikes Back, Alien, and the Stark Trek franchise - movies and tv series. There were a whole bunch of others too that were similar to those, like Kill Bill. Nice.
"Huh."
He'd been saying that a lot. He couldn't help it: he was flummoxed, and getting a lot of mixed signals at that. Here Tony was, designing a fancy room for Peter and buying him a bunch of stuff. And then whenever Peter saw the man in person, he barely even paid him any mind and was flippant and dismissive. So…? What, exactly, was Peter supposed to be making of that? Part of him was honestly wondering if he was hallucinating vividly. Was that a symptom of the mutant disease? Also did that disease have an actual name yet? 'Mutant disease' sounded a little… y'know. Also it didn't roll off the tongue like something like 'X-terminate'. Get it? Like X-gene and exterminate, because, well… Ok maybe that was a little dark.
After bingeing a few Star-War films, an alert popped up on his phone and he almost shit himself. THE BUGLE! He'd forgotten. God, he had the memory of, like, a goldfish at times. Thank Odin for the reminder app!
Grabbing his bag, Peter darted into the elevator. FRIDAY had questioned him about where he was going, seeming hesitant to let him leave. Peter told her that he had a right to go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted. There was a pause, likely her informing Tony of his words. After a moment, the elevator moved, letting him go downstairs. He thanked her, feeling a little bad about the sass. Regardless, he didn't like feeling like a prisoner, so whatever.
Thankfully, with the new government mandates, all businesses that didn't need in-person employees weren't requiring staff to be there. That meant Peter was able to sneak off to the Bugle and drop off his photos without running into anyone. Of course, he'd had to take the very long (and quite possibly dangerous) way though alleys and ditches and whatnot. He slipped the photos under the Bugle office door and headed back.
After his very long and very tiring trek, he'd arrived back at the Tower just in time to get an angry phone call from JJJ.
"WHAT ARE THESE PIECES OF GARBAGE, PARKER?!"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Jameson, they're all I could get. Spider-Man hasn't been seen for days."
"I CAN'T USE THESE, THEY'RE GARBAGE!"
"Ok," Peter said sadly. How was he gonna make rent this month? He still wanted to keep his place on the off chance he didn't die in a few weeks. "When should I stop by to take them back?"
"I DIDN'T-" the grumbled a string of curses on the other end. "Since they're better than any of the garbage anyone else has, I'll take them. But I'm paying you half price!"
"I'd like 2/3rds actually…"
"TWO THIRDS?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THAT'S ABSURD!" A pause. "Fine! Who taught you how to rip people off like this?!"
"Uh… you?"
Silence. Shit. Peter really had to start using his filt-
"HA!" The man bellowed on the other end for several seconds straight. "As soon as Spider-Man resurfaces, get me better pictures or you're fired!"
And with that, their conversation had been over.
At least he was getting paid.
Time to celebrate with a nap. After that trek, he would be more than happy to pass out forever.
He supposed that was just dying.
Dropping his bag, he slumped face-first into the couch, not even bothering to remove his shoes. Dick move, yeah, but the thought of actually having to do something made him wanna crawl into a hole like one those things, you know, the what-do-call them from Lion King? Timon? Meerkats! He wanted to be a meerkat. Hang out underground, secluded from the world and just sleep for hours on end. Man, did that sound nice.
He passed out on that thought, meerkats crawling through his mind like a fever dream.
. . .
The sound of the elevator dinging made Peter look up. Tony walked through, swiping away a hologram of a DNA strand off of his tablet. He looked like crap, like he hadn't slept in days. Now that Peter thought about it, he hadn't seen the man since he'd brought him to the Tower three days ago. Had he even come upstairs to sleep? It didn't look like it. Dark circles hung deep under his eyes and his hair was messy. His facial hair was unkempt and was starting to look more like a normal beard than a goatee. His shoulders sagged as he continued into the living room.
Upon noticing Peter at the table, he nodded then went to say something. He stopped suddenly, eyes widening then narrowing, jaw tightening shut.
Peter's eyebrows shot up in alarm. He looked behind him. There was nothing. He looked back at Tony; the man was still staring at him, face tense. Peter patted his face to see if he had, like, the world's biggest zit or something to warrant getting a look like that. He didn't feel anything.
"What?!"
As if he suddenly realizing he was staring, Tony's face changed into a fake-chill look, although his mouth was a thin white line. "Hm?"
"Why're you staring at me like that?!"
"I'm not staring at you."
"Yes- yes you were! Why?!"
He didn't respond for a second. "It's nothing."
"IT's vErY OBviOuslY noT NOthiNg!"
"It's- you've… lost some weight, is all."
"I-" Peter blinked. Turning around, he eyed his reflection in the window. Seeing himself full-length, he guessed he did look a little… rough. Without his super strength, all his extra muscles had atrophied and he guessed he kinda looked scrawny. Also his eyes were sunken and he was looking pretty pale.
"Oh." Is all he said.
"How've you been feeling?" The man's voice was tight.
"Uh… fine?"
Tony stared at him a few seconds before blowing out a raspberry. He scrubbed a hand down his face and looked between the hall leading to the bedrooms and the elevator.
Peter heard FRIDAY's voice.
Tony muttered in response, "I know, I know." A pause. "I don't have time-" Another pause. The man deflated. "Two hours. You wake me up in two hours, got it?"
Tony rubbed the back of his neck and returned his focus to Peter. "How's the living situation working so far? You need anything? Did I mention there's a pool on the level below us? It has retractable walls and roof, so it can be outdoor or indoors. Also there's a hot tub, steam room and waterslide. And I know you like your independence and all, but I'm gonna have to insist FRIDAY have a life-guard suit there. With you passing out and being all lethargic lately, it's just a precaution, ok?"
Peter blinked. A pool with a water slide? That was cool. Just the idea of actually having to keep himself afloat made him tired though. It would be nice to chill in the hot tub, maybe.
"Kid?"
"Hmm?" Peter blinked. "Right, yeah, yeah everything is good."
Tony nodded. "Kay. I'm gonna catch some shut-eye."
"Night- Uh, mean… day?" Tony bobbed his head once and made to turn around. "Wait!"
Tony stopped, raising an eyebrow in question. "Yeah?"
"In pool, are you supposed to sink the black 8 ball?"
Tony stared at him for a moment. His mouth tugged into an amused smile and he shook his head with an eye roll. He walked away, heading down the hall.
Peter called after the man. "Is that a yes?" He disappeared around the corner. "Ok then."
. . .
"Whatchya workin' on?" Tony's voice filtered through the kitchen as he approached the island and grabbed himself an apple, taking a big 'ol bite out of it.
Peter looked up from his pen and paper. He'd been on the verge of passing out about ten minutes ago when his delirious brain had hatched the greatest idea of all time and he had to get up and write it down before he forgot.
"Ok get this-" Peter planted a hand on the table and jerked forward, coming up into a half-standing half-sitting position. Tony paused his chewing and his eyebrows climbed his forehead. "You know birthday candles, right? Well, what if you baked a cake and put one of those small fireworks in it and had the string thingy that you light-"
"The fuse?"
"ThAt'S tHe OnE!" Peter shot the man with a finger gun and a manic smile. "Well, you could pretend that it's a normal candle but when you light it- it explodes and then the cake explodes and everyone gets covered in cake!"
"Uh… ok, champ, that's… that's a great idea, yeah, I'll keep that in mind next time I bake someone a cake."
"That's stealing!"
"Uh…?"
"That's my invention. I invented fireworks and cake. You can' j'st steal them…" Peter's words were slurring now and he had to blink every few seconds as his vision kept drifting.
"O-k then. Here," Tony was suddenly by his side and then Peter's arm was over the man's shoulder and then Tony's arm was across his back and then they were both standing and then the world was moving around them and then something soft was at Peter's back and the ceiling of his bedroom was a over him and then someone's hand was on his forehead and then there was a tissue dabbing under his nose and coming away red.
And then the world fell away.
