Tony
Tony goes home that night to an empty penthouse. It hasn’t bothered him in a while, but tonight it just feels terribly lonely. He hasn’t been truly alone in a long time. When he was young, he always had Jarvis and Aunt Peggy around. Once he went to college, he had Rhodey. In his 20s, well everyone pretty much knows at this point that he rarely slept alone during that period of his life. After he was done with his partying playboy phase, he settled down with Pepper and housed a team of superheroes who were always around. For the last few years, he had a family. And now, he looks around his empty home and just feels really, horribly alone.
It’s not like the fight with the Avengers happened that recently, but this is one of the only nights he’s been sober enough at the end of the day to be able to register what he’s feeling. He doesn’t like it. He lets out a heavy sigh, and turns to his bar. He doesn’t even really want a drink, but what he does want is completely out of his reach. He takes what he can get, and pours himself a glass.
The next day, thank god, Rhodey comes back from his week long visit at his mother’s house.
“Hey, Tones!” The man calls upon arriving in the penthouse.
“Hey, there he is! Welcome back Honey bear! How was your trip?” Tony responds enthusiastically from the couch.
It’s midafternoon, plenty late enough in the day for Tony to have gotten over his morning hangover. He is currently scrolling through some emails on the couch. It’s the only hint of Pepper he ever gets anymore, reading through the emails she sends with documents he needs to sign, prototypes for products he needs to approve, and summaries of meetings he’s missed. Not that he’s that desperate to hear from her.
…okay fine. He’s that desperate. But he’s also trying to be a responsible company owner.
“Oh, it was nice, but I’m happy to get back here. I swear that woman still treats me like I’m a teenager when I’m staying there. I feel like I can’t leave my room without telling her where I’m off to.” Rhodey says, plopping down on the couch next to Tony.
“Tell me about it.” Tony says with a roll of his eyes. “Last week she wouldn’t let me eat dessert until I’d eaten everything on my plate, and the woman served me a plate fit for a super soldier.”
“She was probably trying to keep you away from that god awful pie you showed up with. I made sure to tell her that was entirely from you after you left.” Rhodey responds with a laugh.
Tony just shakes his head fondly. It’s not like the man is wrong after all. The pie was pretty bad.
“So how’d it go with Peter yesterday?” Rhodey asks once its clear that Tony isn’t going to defend his baking creation. “Did you two patch things up okay?”
“Oh yeah, just fine.” Tony says casually, but he’s honestly really pleased that everything went as well as it did. “I apologized and everything, like a real grown up. Aren’t you proud of me?” Tony says sarcastically, giving Rhodey a beaming smile.
“I know you’re just joking, but I actually am proud of you. You’re usually not the best at apologies. You must really want this kid to stick around.” His friend replies.
Tony shrugs. “You know, I actually do kind of like the kid. If you’d have asked me a few weeks ago, I would’ve told you there’s no way we’d be getting along, but we’re figuring things out I guess. He’s definitely got issues, but they’re issues anyone would have after being orphaned two times over and then getting shuffled around foster homes for almost 3 years.”
Rhodey nods in understanding. “I’d be way more surprised if the kid made it through all that without major issues. Did he end up letting you reprogram the suit?”
Tony holds up a hand in a so-so motion. “We compromised, like you suggested. He let me put the tracker back on but it only sends me information if he’s in life threatening danger and he approves it. It’ll only automatically send if he’s incapacitated. I made it so his AI will strongly suggest telling me about injuries if they’re bad enough, though.”
“That seems like a pretty reasonable deal.” Rhodey says.
“Yeah, I guess.” Tony responds, standing up off the couch. “Enough about the kid. I saw someone in R&D the other day that I think would be perfect for you. Let’s go see if she’s working today so you can check her out.”
Rhodey rolls his eyes. “Not this again, Tones. Come on man.”
Tony pulls Rhodey off the couch by his arm. “Seriously, Rhodes. You need to get back out there. It’s been way too long since whatever her name is that you went out with last. Sarah?”
“Jessica.” Rhodey corrects, annoyed. “And it wasn’t that long ago.” But he begrudgingly follows Tony to the elevators anyway.
Luckily, it’s not a team bonding weekend this week, so he spends the weekend with just Rhodey, doing things that aren’t hiding away in Tony’s workshop away from civilization for days at a time. Rhodey drags him outside to actually makes him get some vitamin D, and he makes him eat really healthy food instead of just takeout and junk food like he’s been doing recently. He doesn’t want to admit he feels better, but he’s definitely not drinking as much this weekend. Damn Rhodey and his healthy coping mechanisms.
He feels good after such a good weekend, so he tries to actually be productive for the work week. He wakes up at a reasonable time, showers, shaves, gets some work done, actually rounds on some floors of his company.
He tries his best not to obsess over the kid since he saw him on Wednesday, but he’s having a lot of trouble. It’s nice when he can keep himself distracted, but as soon as he has a free moment, he just keeps thinking about the moment Peter slammed into that wall. He has Friday ping his phone with Spider-Man information on social media. Apparently there’s a whole Twitter account dedicated to Spider-Man spottings in the city. He tells himself that he’s monitoring the account just in case he gets spotted too close to his apartment, or changing, or something of that nature. It’s a good excuse.
He just can’t have any peace of mind knowing that Peter is out there every night, and Tony won’t know if he’s hurt unless Peter allows him to know or he’s knocked out. He understands Peter’s need for privacy, but he’s still concerned for the kids lack of self preservation. So, he follows the stupid Twitter account and he gets pings on his phone when Peter uses the credit card Tony gave him. He’s been using it a lot more lately, so at least Tony knows he’s well fed.
Finally, Wednesday rolls around again. After a few days of not drinking so much, still a little bit though to stave off the total withdrawal, sober Wednesday is much easier. Rhodey is getting ready for his date with R&D girl (Erin? Emily? He’s pretty sure it starts with an E. Either way, Tony totally nailed it with his wingmaning.) and Tony is in the lab getting ready for Peter to arrive. He had a great idea for their lesson today.
“Uh, Mr. Stark? Why is there a car in the middle of your workshop?” Peter asks immediately upon entering, having stopped in the doorway to stare.
Tony waves him in. “This, Mr. Parker, is our project for today.” He explains, waving his arm in front of the open hood in a Vanna White motion. “How much do you know about cars?” The man asks.
Peter walks up to the open hood, dropping his things off on the way. “Hardly anything. May and Ben never had a lot of money so we never had one. We just took the subway everywhere.”
“Well, I believe everyone needs to know the basics of automobiles, although we’re going to go way past the basics. So I got us this old thing for learning purposes.” Tony says with a smile, patting the side of the car.
Peter’s eyes go wide. “You bought a whole car just for learning purposes?!” He asked with disbelief.
Tony just shrugs. “Billionaire, Pete.” He explains, pointing to himself. “I can afford it. Now, let’s get to it. Are those clothes okay to get a little greasy?”
To Tony, all of Peter’s clothes look like they need an upgrade. He hasn’t seen the kid in something that wasn’t either too small, full of holes, or both, but Peter looks down at his current faded, too small shirt, like he’s not really sure he wants to say yes.
Tony doesn’t let him think about it for too long. He prepared for this anyway. He grabs an old shirt that he brought down for this exact purposed and throws it towards the kid. Peter catches it with no problem. “There.” Tony says. “Throw this one on instead. It can get messy.”
Peter throws on Tony’s shirt over his other one. Weird choice, Tony thinks in the back of his mind. It’s just them. He could’ve just changed and tossed his other shirt into his bag. Whatever. He’s probably just shy or something. Tony’s shirt is way too big on him, but it’s kind of cute.
Tony starts by just explaining the basics of how cars operate. Then, he pulls Peter next to him under the hood of the car, and shows him how to identify the different parts of the car. Tony is once again impressed by Peter’s intelligence when he quizzes the boy on all the information he was given, and he can not only relay everything Tony said, but make his own connections about things.
Tony is so disappointed that Peter is still stuck at that shitty Brooklyn public high school. This kid has so much potential. He can see it already. He just hasn’t had the opportunity to use it. Tony is going to have to hope he can provide enough of a practical education that it will make up for his poor schooling. But with just a few hours a week, can he really do that?
His thoughts are interrupted when Peter returns from the snack break Tony forced him to take a few minutes ago.
“Okay, Pete, you think you’ve got the basics down?” He asks as Peter approaches.
“Yeah, I think so. There wasn’t anything too complex.” Peter replies confidently.
“Great. We’ve got lots of time still, so next we’re going to disassemble the engine, I’m going to walk you through all the components while we’re doing it, and then we’re going to see if you can put it back together again.”
“Awesome!” Peter responds enthusiastically. He very quickly has their tools in hand, removing the engine and setting it out for disassembly.
It takes them about an hour to get it completely apart, with Tony explaining what all the parts are and what they do and Peter eagerly following along. This kid really is like an excited puppy when you find something he really likes.
“Okay bud, your turn.” Tony says, ruffling Peter’s hair before retreating. “If you get stuck, let me know and I’ll help you work through it.”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks Mr. Stark.” Peter mutters absentmindedly at the man, his focus already completely on the engine.
Tony chuckles at the kid’s hyper-focus before going to a different table and pulling up the schematics for his latest set of armor he’s been working on. He checks in on the kid every 10 minutes or so just to make sure he’s making steady progress and 45 minutes later, they have an engine.
“Mr. Stark, I think I’m done!” Peter calls from his table.
“Okay, Underoos, let’s take a look.” Tony says as he makes his way over. He inspects the engine for a minute before deciding that everything looks great.
“It looks perfect, Pete. Great work!” Tony says to the boy, who is currently beaming up at him with pride. “Let’s get this back in the car.”
He directs Peter on how to reinstall it, and as soon as they’re done, Peter turns around and freezes. Tony whips his head around to see what the boy is looking at, and Pepper Potts is standing in the doorway watching them with a soft smile.
“Hello, Miss Potts.” He greets nonchalantly.
“Mr. Stark.” She replies, equally casually, walking into the room
Tony turns to Peter. “Peter, this is Pepper Potts, the CEO of the company. Pepper, this is my intern, Peter.”
Peter gives her a small smile. “It’s nice to meet you, ma’am. I would shake your hand, but…well.” He holds up his black and oily hands with an awkward chuckle.
Pepper smiles at him. “That’s alright, Peter. It’s nice to meet you, too. I came to discuss some work things with Tony, if it’s okay with you that I interrupt?” She asks.
“Oh, of course, Miss Potts. I was just leaving anyways. It’s time for me to meet Happy downstairs.” Peter says politely, attempting to clean his hands off with a rag.
“Hey, Pete. Before you go, can I talk to you about something really quick?” Tony asks, not waiting for an answer before he puts a hand on Peter’s shoulder and directs them towards the elevators.
“So I was thinking between us working in the lab and your training, a few hours a week doesn’t give us a whole lot of time. Do you think, if I get your foster people on board, you’d be up for doing stuff like this on Wednesdays, and we can do hero stuff during the day on Saturdays? Maybe even go back to the compound sometimes?”
Peter’s face just lights up with a smile. “Yeah, Mr. Stark! That would be so awesome if you can get the Pattersons to approve. I won’t be able to start for a while though because I have Saturday detention.”
“Ah, right.” Tony says, remembering what Peter told him a couple weeks ago.
“Thanks again for today, Mr. Stark. It was really awesome.” Peter tells him as he turns to leave.
Tony gives his shoulder a squeeze before he gets out of reach. “No problem, kiddo. I’ll see you next week.”
“See you next week!” Peter calls back as the elevator doors shut.
Tony turns around to head back into the workshop, and sees Pepper observing them through the glass walls.
“To what do I owe the pleasure this time, Miss Potts?” He asks when he’s back in the room.
Pepper smiles that soft smile she’s has since she came into the room. “That’s Peter?” She asks, not answering his question at all.
“Yep, that’s him. We’re getting along better.” He replies.
Pepper nods. “You’re good with him. And it seems like he’s good for you. No drinks in here, I see.”
Tony shrugs noncommittally. “I told you I wouldn’t drink around him, and I was serious.”
She nods approvingly. “Well, I really came to ask you if you looked at the email I sent you about the prosthetic prototypes our biomedical department put out.”
“I did actually. I went down to the department and spoke with them about some proposed changes I think could be made to improve the design, and they said they’d send an update soon.”
Pepper’s eyes widen a bit in surprise. “Wow. Thank you for doing that so quickly, Tony.”
“You’re very welcome, Pepper. I plan on being a little more hands on with the company, at least for a little while.” He replies with a smile.
“Oh? So you’ll start showing up to board meetings again?” She asks, almost sarcastically.
“Hmmm,” he pretends to think on it. “I’ll get back to you on that one.”
Pepper laughs at him. A full on, real laugh. Tony can feel himself smile just from the joy of this one simple thing.
“Okay, I’ll have Friday start notifying you, just in case you decide to make an appearance. But for now, I need to get back downstairs. Will that be all, Mr. Stark?” She asks, almost…flirtatiously. Was Pepper Potts flirting with him?
“That will be all, Miss Potts.” He responds in turn.
She turns around and walks out, heels clicking against the floor all the way to the elevator.
What the fuck just happened?