Tony
“Sir, I’m afraid we’ve lost the target.” His AI, Friday, announces in his ear as he zips in between buildings close to the street, chasing after Spider-boy.
“Shit!” He groans to himself. How did he get away? Tony knows for a fact he’s way faster than the kid. Spiderling must know these streets really well to be able to evade him so easily.
He directs the suit back up out of the narrow streets and into the sky.
It only takes a couple minutes of fast flying before Tony is touching down on his balcony outside of his penthouse. He immediately throws off his suit and heads to pour himself a drink from his bar, before changing his mind and just grabbing the whole bottle and taking a swig.
Tony storms towards his elevator, furious.
“Lab, Friday.” He demands.
“Sir, I must advise against intoxication in the lab-“
“Friday, mute.” Tony interrupts with a growl. Sure, he programmed Friday to keep him safe, but he was in no mood to listen to her advice right now. What he needed right now was to lock himself in his lab where no one else could get to him and muddle his emotions through substance use.
Well, at least he’s self aware.
He gets down to his lab and yells at Friday to put it in lockdown mode until he says otherwise. She doesn’t respond since he muted her a few minutes ago, but Tony can practically feel her irritation as he hears the locks click shut. Damn AI, haunting him even when muted.
He takes another long swig out of the bottle in his hands before slamming it hard down on a lab desk and grabbing the closest thing to him in his project pile. It’s Natasha’s Widow’s Bite bracelet. He sighs, takes another drink, and starts taking out his frustrations on the project in front of him.
Tony had almost forgotten how much extra work it was to have the team around. Sure, it was a ton of work to get them back. Going to meetings, drafting, editing, and negotiating for amendments to the accords, working with the PR department to keep the team on the good side of the press. It was all very exhausting, but just having the team around was a lot of work too. They’re still a PR nightmare (he would know, he’s one too), he has to make all the upgrades and repairs to all of their gear, and he actually has to spend “team bonding” time with them, which in Tony’s humble opinion was completely idiotic.
This weekend, in fact, was one of those dreaded team bonding weekends. He’d been expertly procrastinating hunting down the Spider-kid until the day before he was supposed to see the team again. That clearly worked out just wonderfully for him. Steve was going to be expecting an update. He’d already fucked up and told the man that he already knew the kid’s identity, so he couldn’t use that as an excuse.
Tony was really banking on the kid at least hearing him out tonight. Did he really expect to just be able to run from Iron Man? Good attempt, but futile. He’ll try again next week when his mandatory team weekend is over. He was just mad that now he’s going to have to face a lecture from Captain know-it-all.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
“What do you mean you lost him, Tony?” Rogers asks with an annoyed glare. “I thought you said you had this handled!”
Oh, yes, this is the lecture he was referring to.
“Relax, Spangles. I will have it handled, I just need a little more time.” Tony is the picture of nonchalance, tilting back in his stool in his lab at the Avenger’s compound upstate and typing away at his keyboard, stylus for his touch screens tucked away behind his ear.
He decided after the last time he was alone with Steve that maybe sobriety just wasn’t for him, and he was in a much better mood because of it. There are still jolts of fear coursing through him whenever Steve moves a little too suddenly, but he’s having a much easier time hiding it. He is Tony Stark after all. He’s grown up knowing that he’s never out of the publicity spotlight, and he’s very good at putting on a show.
He arrived at the compound few hours ago, and had been dreading the moment that his teammates realized he was here. It didn’t take them nearly as long as he’d hoped.
“How much more time? You said last time that you’d have it handled by today. SHIELD has been all over me for some answers, Tony. I can only hold them off for so long.”
Steve plants his palms on Tony’s desk across from where he was sitting, waiting for a response. Tony forces himself to keep staring at his screen and swallow down any intimidation he feels from the other man towering over him.
It’s all just a show, Stark. Just put on the show, and no one ever has to know how you’re really feeling.
He clears his throat. “And I have full faith in you that you can continue to hold them off until the kid agrees to come with me of his own free will, or has Captain American resorted to kidnapping now?” He glances as Steve with a questioning tilt of his head.
The other man lets out a frustrated sigh and opens his mouth to retort, when he’s interrupted by another voice coming from a certain redhead that had found her way down and was currently leaning against Tony’s doorway.
“Kidnapping? Tony, this is the man who won’t even let us say any bad language words, remember?” She says with a wink and a smile.
Tony gives a hint of a smile back and lets his feet drop back down to the floor from where they were resting on the desk.
“Hey, Red.” He replies. “Glad you could join us. We were just talking about how our noble Captain here wants me to kidnap a child for SHIELDs personal gain.”
It may just be because he’s known her the longest, or maybe it’s something else, but even though Natasha betrayed him as well, Tony has forgiven her. She always puts him at ease when she’s around, and Tony can’t help but feel like they just understand each other.
“I did not say that, Tony.” Steve argues, glancing over at Natasha to make sure she understands.
“Relax, hotshot. It was a joke.” Tony replies to Rogers before turning back to Natasha. “We’ve been tasked by our wonderful overlords to recruit a certain Spider themed vigilante and make sure he’s properly following the Accords.”
Natasha pushes off the doorway and makes her way towards the center of the room, arms crossed casually. “And you’re having trouble with this because you can’t catch him or because you’re not going to let SHIELD have a fourteen year old kid?”
“Neither.” Steve answers the same time Tony says “both.”
Steve glares at him in an attempt to shut him up. “We’re not having any trouble, and we’re not giving him to SHIELD. Under the revised Accords, as long as he’s under 18 he doesn’t have to sign, but if he wants to continue to fight crime and keep his identity a secret, then he has to be trained and vouched for by a member of the team. No handing him over to SHIELD.”
Natasha nods along as Steve is speaking. “So you’re going to have a little apprentice? That’s awfully cute, Rogers.”
“No, actually. Tony will.” Steve says with a smile.
Natasha’s eyes widen slightly in surprise, the smile on her face growing. “You, Tony Stark, are going to help train a teenager? Well this I can’t wait to see.”
Tony makes a teasing face at her. “Laugh all you want, Red. He’ll be better off with me than any of those government puppets who will turn him into a child soldier.” He says with a purposeful glance at Steve.
“Hey, I believe you.” Nat replied with a shrug. “I just didn’t take you for the mentoring type.”
“How do you know the Spider-Man is a teenager?” Steve interrupts.
Natasha just smiles and winks again. “Oh Steve, you’d think you’d learn by now that nothing is ever going on around here that I don’t know about. Now come on, the others sent me down here to get you two upstairs for lunch before we start going over some drills in the gym.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
The following Monday, Tony finds himself in a run down apartment in the bad part of Brooklyn, perched on the edge of a shabby old couch, trying to not let his expensive suit get ruined or covered in bedbugs or something. Can couches get bedbugs? He thinks probably.
The apartment itself isn’t actually dirty looking per say. It actually looks fairly clean, just in an overall old and poor condition. He thinks the dirty feeling is coming from the two across from him.
“Can I offer you something to eat or drink, Mr. Stark, while we wait for our Peter to get home?” The woman, Diane, asks with a smile. Her husband, Bill, sits on the couch next to her with an equally fake looking smile plastered on his face as well. Tony would know. He’s an expert in fake smiles. He also knows that he’s a celebrity who just showed up at their house and that he’s probably just making them nervous. He tends to have that effect on people.
“No thank you, Diane. Should Peter be home soon?”
All heads turn at the sound of a lock turning and the front door creaking open. Thank God. Tony wasn’t sure how much longer he could bare the uncomfortable small talk with these people. He quickly stands up from what was probably at one point someone’s great great grandmother’s couch as a young boy wanders into the room.
He’s…different than Tony imagined. He’s skinny and scruffy, like he hasn’t had a haircut in too long. His face is thin and his eyes are a little big for his face, like Bambi. Could be considered cute almost if Tony didn’t know what he was like. His clothes are torn and stained. His pants are too short like he’s gone through a growth spurt since he bought them.
Peter’s eyes scan the room and very quickly lock with Tony’s. They widen for half of a second in what looks like…fear? Before immediately switching to determined anger.
Tony smirks. Shouldn’t have doubted Tony Stark, kiddo. He wins this round.
“Peter, it’s so nice to finally meet you face to face.” He says with an evil smile. What can he say? He wants to have a little fun with the kid.
“Mr. Stark, I wish I could say the same.” The boy responds sassily.
Tony chuckles. Yeah, this kid is going to be fun.
“Peter!” Diane screeches. “This is an important moment for you, young man. You might want to think about how you’re speaking to Mr. Stark or there will be consequences later.”
Tony holds up his hand to silence the woman. “It’s no matter, Diane. I like a guy who’s not afraid to say what he means.”
Peter looks unimpressed, but clearly Diane’s consequences aren’t something he wants to deal with. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Sir?”
Wow, this kid’s attitude has the power to make an honorific sound like an insult.
Tony faked a gasp. “Why Peter, I would’ve thought that you would already know what I’m here for, and I was very surprised that you didn’t tell your lovely guardians about it.”
The look of fear on the kid’s face gives him everything he needs to know. The boy’s eyes dart back and forth from Tony’s to his guardians, trying to solve the puzzle, before Diane puts him out of his misery.
“Yes, Peter Dear, why didn’t you tell us about the internship at Stark Industries? Clearly you made an impression if the man himself came all the way down here to hire you.”
Peter pauses for a moment, mouth hanging slightly open. “Oh….right….the, uh, internship. I just didn’t want to get my hopes up since it was such a long shot.” The boy chuckles nervously. “And, I, uh, actually changed my mind about it just recently. I’ve been so busy with school and my chores and everything lately. So, yeah. Thank you, but I’ll pass.”
Peter quickly turns towards the hallway, but Bill stands and grabs onto the kid’s backpack before he can take a step.
“Hold it right there, Peter. This is an awfully big opportunity for you to pass up on. Plus, Mr. Stark says this is a paid internship. It would be good for you to start saving, don’t you think?”
Bill and Peter look like their having a conversation with their eyes that Tony isn’t that interested in following, not that he’s going to let the kid get away now that he’s here.
Tony clears his throat and walks towards the two. “Why don’t Pete and I here go hash out the details before he makes his decision, hmm?” Tony wraps an arm around Peter’s shoulders, taking him out of Bill’s grasp. “We’ll go somewhere private to get out of your way. Your room is this way I presume?”
Tony begins to steer them both into the hallway that Peter tried to escape down a minute ago, until the boy shoves his arm off of his shoulders when they get out of site of his foster family.
The kid glares at him threateningly, and it makes Tony want to chuckle again that this child thinks he’s a threat to iron man, but he appreciates the attempt. He follows Peter through a door at the end of the hall, leading to what he assumes is the kid’s room, though it looks nothing like what Tony would assume a normal teenage boy’s room would look like.
The walls were plain white and bare, the bed had one plain white blanket on it, and there was a small dresser against the wall. There were no toys, no posters, no video game consoles. The only indication that someone lived here instead of it being a random guest bedroom were the backpack and shoes that Peter drops on the ground as the enter the room.
Peter doesn’t sit. He just turns around in the middle of the room with his arms crossed accusingly.
Tony shuts the door quietly behind him.
“If you’re here to turn me in, good luck. I’ve already proven once that I can outrun you.”
Tony scoffs. “Yeah right, kid, you had a head start last time. You won’t have that advantage again.”
Peter glares daggers at him. “Don’t call me kid, Stark. My name is Peter.”
Tony is starting to think this mentoring thing is going to be a little more difficult than he originally planned. First of all, this kid is very irritating already.
“Alright, Parker, if we’re only doing last names then so be it. Anyway, I’m not here to turn you in.”
Peter shuffles uncomfortably on his feet. That is clearly not what he was expecting to hear. “Then, what are you here for? You said I was in violation of the Sokovia Accords.”
Tony shrugs and wanders over to sit on the kid’s bed. He wants to sit, and Peter doesn’t seem very bedbuggy to him. “Technically, you are. I’m here to fix that, not throw you in jail. Plus, you’re only like, 12. You think SHIELD is going to throw a child in jail?”
“I already told you not to call me a kid!” The boy snaps. “I’m almost 15. Don’t baby me.”
Man, this kid was defensive. Tony holds his hands up placatingly. “Look, Parker, I already told you that I’m here to help you. Why don’t you tone down the attitude a little bit so we can get this over with. You think I want to be here any more than you do!”
“I pretty much guarantee it, considering you seem to have been stalking me of your own free will.”
“Look, boy wonder, I’m going to level with you here. If I had it my way, I would be very far away from your dingy apartment, in a penthouse with my fully stocked bar, but here I am because for some reason, I decided to help you.”
The kid still looked pissed, but he remained silent.
“The newly revised Sokovia Accords state that every enhanced individual who uses their powers for any protective measures outside of direct self defense have to be properly trained and associated with the governing body, aka SHIELD.”
Peter raises his eyebrows in disapproval. “So, you’re here to recruit me to be trained by SHIELD? No thanks.”
Tony groans internally. Why must this child make everything so difficult?
“No, Parker, I’m here because I don’t want you to be trained by SHIELD. We can argue about it all you want, but you are legally still a child and I don’t agree with turning children into soldiers. So, I’m here to volunteer to train you myself.”
Peter huffs a laugh. “Uh, yeah, double no thanks to that one. I’m good on my own, old man.”
Tony’s jaw clenches. This kid is really saying no to being personally trained by Tony Stark? Really? Isn’t Iron Man like every little boy’s hero or something? God this kid is irking him.
“Too bad, kid. It’s either me or SHIELD, and I guarantee they won’t be as willing to help keep your little secret from those two out there.” He says, pointing towards the door.
Peter’s eyes widened in fear. Tony’s got him right where he wants him. “Now you’re blackmailing me? You’re against turning a teenager into a soldier but you aren’t above blackmailing one?”
Tony gives him a smug smile. “Oh, don’t think of this as blackmail, Petey. I’m just stating the facts.”
Peter looks absolutely furious, and Tony couldn’t help but feel a little joy at knowing he could get under this kid’s skin just like the boy was doing to him.
The kid’s jaw clenches as he speaks through his teeth. “Fine, Stark. I’ll go along with your stupid little plan, but don’t think for one second that I’m going to be happy about it.”
Tony smirks at him. “Oh trust me, kiddo. With an attitude like yours, I’m sure everyone in a 50 foot radius of us is going to hear about how upset you are about it. It won’t change a thing.”
Tony stands back up and starts walking towards the door, flipping a card out of his pocket and handing it to the kid on his way by. “Stark Tower, next week, Wednesday, after you get out of class. I’ll send my driver. Be there, or there will be consequences.”
He didn’t look back at Peter’s reaction as he left the room and shut the door behind him.
He makes a quick stop back in the living room where Bill and Diane were waiting for him to inform them of Peter’s decision. He also gave them his business card and informed them that paperwork would be sent over for the internship, and Peter would inform them of his schedule after their first meeting.
“Hit the road, Happy.” He demands as soon as his car door closes. “Get me away from this dump. I’m worried I’m getting fleas. Oh, also, what are you doing next Wednesday around, oh, 3 in the afternoon?”