Tony
Tony opens his eyes Wednesday morning, and surprisingly doesn’t have a headache or the lingering nausea in the pit of his stomach that seems to have been following him around everywhere he went for the last few days.
He rolls over onto his back and opens his eyes to look up at the ceiling. He’s been feeling a little bit better every day since the weekend ended, and today he hopes he’ll be pretty much back to normal. This is easily the longest he’s been sober since…well, since the battle that he’s very specifically not thinking about right now.
He felt good enough yesterday that Rhodey dragged him to an AA meeting. He insisted it would be good for him to have support from other people, especially after he leaves to go back to DC. Tony thinks it’s pretty stupid, but he took the little 24 hours sober chip they gave him anyway.
He gets himself up to get ready for his day. By the time he strolls into the kitchen, Rhodey is putting some toast and eggs on a couple of plates. He puts them on the island in front of two cups of coffee. At this rate, Tony won’t ever let Rhodey leave. He knows this won’t last forever though.
“How are you feeling this morning?” His friend asks as he joins him at the kitchen island.
“Better, I think.” Tony responds. “Looking at breakfast doesn’t make me feel like throwing up, so that has to be a good sign.”
“You better eat then. You haven’t kept much down in a few days.” Rhodey tells him, pushing his plate closer.
“Ay ay captain.” Tony responds, forkful of egg already on the way to his mouth.
“Today is lab day with Peter, right?” Rhodey asks, sitting down next to him to eat his own food.
Tony nods. “Yep. He’ll be here this afternoon.”
“You mind if I stick around today? Or is this by invitation only?” Rhodey jokes.
“Trying to steal my intern for yourself?” Tony jokes back. “Or are you coming to fill his head with more ridiculous lies.”
Rhodey shrugs. “What can I say, I like the kid. And nothing I told him the other day was a lie. It’s your own fault for being such a dumbass in college. This is what you get.”
Tony scoffs. “You know at this rate, you’re really asking to not get invited to our very exclusive lab time.”
Rhodey rolls his eyes dramatically. “Okay, fine. I won’t tell Peter any more embarrassing stories while you’re around. Deal?”
Tony stares at him blankly. “Is that the best offer I’m going to get?”
Rhodey smirks at him. “Yep. Take it or leave it.”
Tony sighs loudly. “Fine, I guess you can come to lab day today. The kid normally shows up by four.”
Rhodey slides out of his bar stool. “Great. I’ve got PT today and I have to run some errands, but I’ll be back by then. You get to be in dish duty since you’re feeling so much better today.” He pats Tony’s back on his way back to the bedroom to get ready, just to be irritating.
Tony goes about his business for the day. He heads down into the tower to get some work done. He’s been trying his best to be more present around the labs, partially because he thinks it’ll be good for the staff, and mostly because he wants Pepper to hear that he’s taking some responsibility for his company again.
When it starts getting close to three o’clock, Tony gathers their project for the day and heads back up to the lab to wait for the kid. He’s not kept waiting very long before Friday announces their arrival.
“Boss, Peter Parker and Happy Hogan just arrived to the parking garage.”
“Thanks, Fri. Bring him up.”
A couple minutes later, Peter bounds out of the elevator and into the lab, practically skipping, wide smile on his face.
“Hi, Mr. Stark!” He calls, dropping his backpack on a desk.
“Hey, Kid.” Tony strolls over to him and places both hands on the backs of Peter’s shoulders, directing him to sit down at an empty lab table. “Sit for a minute before we get started. Here, eat.” He sits down across from him and slides a couple of the high calorie protein bars to him across the table. Peter snatches them up eagerly and rips into one.
“Thanks Mr. Stark. I’m starving.” He says, mouth full of food already. Tony snorts a laugh. “I can tell. Try not to drop chewed up food all over my lab, will you?”
Peter smiles sheepishly and continues his snack.
“So, good first few days at the new school?” Tony asks, already knowing the answer based on Peter’s mood today.
The kid shrugs, but the smile is still on his face despite efforts to tone it down. “Yeah, I guess it seems okay.”
Tony smirks. “Just okay, huh?” He asks teasingly.
Peter shakes his head, still smiling. “Okay, fine. It’s been…nice I guess.”
Tony crosses his arms, smug smile on his face. “Oh, really? The school that I’ve been trying to get you to go to for months is actually nice? Who would’ve guessed?”
Peter rolls his eyes jokingly. “Okay, fine, Mr. Stark. You were right. Is that what you want to hear?”
Tony scoffs. “That’s what I always want to hear, kid, because I’m always right. But, I am actually happy to hear that you don’t hate it, because on the off chance that I was wrong about this, I would feel bad about sticking you somewhere you didn’t like.”
Peter gasps dramatically. “What? Tony stark would feel bad about something?”
Tony does his best unimpressed look, which makes Peter chuckle.
“Yes, believe it or not, even Tony Stark has guilt as part of his emotional repertoire, though it doesn’t get used often. You should be honored to have even been considered.”
Peter rolls his eyes again and finishes his snack.
“So, you do think you’ll like it there, then?” Tony prods again, eliciting another shrug.
“It’s only been three days, so it’s hard to tell, but I think so.”
Tony nods. “Good. Make any new friends?”
He’s met with a blank stare.
“What?” Tony asks, confused.
“Did you seriously just ask me if I made any new friends at school?”
“Yes!” Tony says, a little affronted. “Is there something wrong with that?”
Peter just snorts like Tony has made some kind of joke and shakes his head. “It’s just….nothing. Yeah I think I might’ve made a friend. MJ. She sits with Ned and I at lunch. It’s hard to tell, though. She’s kind of hard to read.”
“I’m sure she’ll come around if she hasn’t already.” Tony responds with a shrug. “Come on, enough about school. Let’s get to our project for the day.”
Peter jumps up with a grin. “Yes, please!”
As Tony leads Peter over to the table he set up, he hears the doors to the lab slide open. Peter spins around to see who is entering.
“Mr. Rhodey!” He calls happily. “I didn’t know you were coming today.”
Rhodey shrugs, walking over to join them. “I’ve only got another week or so before I have to get back to work, so I figured I’d better come supervise lab Wednesday at least once to make sure Tony isn’t just using you as unpaid labor.”
“Hey!” Tony interrupts, ignoring Peter’s laughs. “First of all, I do pay Peter. Actually he makes more than the other interns, because he has to put up with me. Second of all, I’m a great teacher. Right, kid?” He asks, glancing towards Peter for back up.
The kid just looks confused, a teasing look in his eye. “But Mr. Stark, what about that time you left me in your office with that huge stack of paperwork you told me to do for you.”
Tony scoffs. “Nice try, kiddo, but Rhodey knows very well that Pepper does all of my paperwork.”
“Fine.” Peter grumbles. “He’s very nice to me. Can we work on the project now?” He asks Tony impatiently.
Tony gestures towards the table and the prosthetic limb that is sitting on top. “Have at it, my young protégé.”
Peter grins and gets to work. Stark industries biomedical engineering department has been developing a new prototype prosthetic for upper extremities. After he shut down weapons production years ago, he started thinking about the good that he could provide instead of the evil. He started focusing on things like clean energy, medical technology, and recently, since the incident with Rhodey, he has really ramped up his biomedical engineering and prosthetics. He wants to make things as easy as possible for anyone his creations might have injured in the past.
He already discussed this specific project with Peter on their way back from the compound last weekend. He listed a few projects that needed done that the kid could help out with, and Peter chose this one. Currently, the kid is inspecting the arm prototype closely, picking it up and looking at it from all angles.
While Tony very much deeply regrets having any contact whatsoever with the winter soldier, he was inspired by how well made the man’s prosthetic limb was. He wants to make something that capable for the general public, though without the super strength of course. That could end badly. His department had done a pretty good job, but it wasn’t perfect. Tony wants to make a lot of adjustments before they try to mass produce it.
He gives Peter a few minutes to inspect it and think before approaching, eyeing Rhodey to make sure he’s still paying attention.
“So, Pete, what did you come up with?”
That one question sets Peter off.
“It’s really good, but I feel like it could be better. It’s pretty heavy still for a normal person, so I think it could be made of a lighter material. And they way they designed some of the joints doesn’t seem like it would give you exactly the same range of motion as a normal arm. I know it’s not exactly practical to build an exact wrist joint, but I feel like if this was just a little bit…hold on. Friday, can you pull this up on the hologram?”
He pauses mid explanation while Friday pulls up an exact digital copy of the prosthetic. Peter immediately starts maneuvering it and changing things.
“I think that if it looked more like this, then the wrist movement would probably be a lot more fluid.”
Tony nods thoughtfully. “I think you’re right, kiddo. What do you think about this right here, though?” He asks, pointing to a section of the hologram, leading Peter to another conclusion.
“Oh!” Peter exclaims. “You think it should be designed more like this?” He asks.
The two go on like that for a while, with occasional input from Rhodey who did also go to MIT. Sure it was a while ago, but he’s still got it.
Soon enough, they have a much improved design and Tony is teaching Peter about the more intricate parts, like the coding and the wiring. Peter needs a little guidance every once in a while, sure, but overall, the kid is unbelievably smart. Tony thinks his intelligence and ability to pick up skills and remember information rivals his own when he was Peter’s age. He thinks Peter could probably already be in college by now, but he just got Peter into a decent high school and he got enough pushback just from that. He’ll wait a while to try to convince Peter about college, he decides.
Once Peter is an expert on all things advanced prosthetics, it’s about time for him to get home. Tony already asked Happy in advance to be ready, so when it’s time, he waves Peter off at the elevator, a huge smile on the kid’s face.
“Bye, Mr. Stark and Mr. Rhodey! See you this weekend!”
The elevator doors close behind him, and Tony looks back over at Rhodey who’s shaking his head in disbelief.
“Okay, that was crazy.” The man says, chuckling slightly. “You managed to find a kid who’s a superhero and can keep up with you in your lab?”
“I know.” Tony says, mimicking Rhodey’s expression. “I had no idea he was this smart until I’d known the kid for weeks. I don’t think he even knew. I still don’t think he fully understands. I could barely even convince him to switch to a decent high school.”
“He’s going to give you a run for your money some day, Tony.” Rhodey says, smiling.
Tony shakes his head. “You’re assuming I’m ever letting him leave my company. No way. If I can convince him to go to a decent college, he’ll be working downstairs the day after he graduates.”
Rhodey huffs. “Well try not to put too much pressure on the kid. Working for you can be kind of intense.”
Tony rolls his eyes. “Me? Intense? Ridiculous. Speaking on downstairs, though, I gotta run this prototype and our notes on the changes back down. I told Pep I’d have it done ages ago, but I wanted to let Peter have a go first.”
He exits the lab, not seeing the small smile his friend gives him at how soft he’s becoming for this teenager that he was convinced he would hate.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
A couple days later on Friday, Tony is scheduled to attend a couple of meetings. He doesn’t have anything else going on, and he’s been told his alcohol cravings will improve if he keeps himself busy. He’s usually not one to take other people’s advice on his own problems, but seeing as he hasn’t ever made it this far on his own and Rhodey can’t stay forever, he decides to give it a chance. He gets himself up in the morning, gets himself ready, and goes to the damn meetings.
The first one he actually would’ve gone to either way. It’s a meeting with biomedical about the prosthetic. It doesn’t end up being a long one, especially since him and Peter drastically improved everything about the prototype. They go over the proposed changes, how that will affect production costs and times and sale prices and all that jazz. Towards the end of the meeting, the lead developer asks him how he came up with a couple of the improvements.
“Oh, those?” He responds. “Those were my intern’s idea.”
The entire room looks confused.
“Your intern?” The man asks. “Sorry, sir. We weren’t aware you even had an intern.”
Tony smiles. “I do. Pretty good for a high schooler, isn’t it?”
If the fact that he took on an intern confused them, the fact that his intern is in high school completely shut them up. He ends the meeting pretty quickly after that. No one is exactly concentrating after that announcement. He doesn’t intend to make them feel bad, but he’s not sure what it says about them that a high schooler developed a better product than a team of highly trained professionals. He laughs a little bit to himself about that on his way out.
The next meeting he attends is the monthly board of executives meeting, which is his least favorite of all the boring meetings. Pepper smiles at him when he walks into the room, though, and that makes it worth it.
Kind of.
It’s still really boring. The room is full of stuffy old rich people trying to tell him what to do and how to run his company. It’s awfully dull, but these are the pains he must suffer through for his company.
After the meeting is finally over, after going over way too long to the point where Tony almost gave up and left, Pepper approaches him before he can slip away again. She looks happy to see him.
“I’m surprised to see you here, Mr. Stark.” She says in her professional voice.
Tony shrugs. “I figure it’s about time I start taking an interest in company affairs. Don’t you think, Miss Potts?”
She smiles at him. “I agree. You look….different, Tony. Better, I think.”
“I feel better.” He replies, pulling out his 24 hour sober chip from his breast pocket. He puts it between two fingers and holds it up where Pepper can see.
She gasps softly, snatching the token and spinning it around, as if making sure it’s real. “Is this really…you’re…?”
“Yep.” Tony answers quietly. “It’s actually been longer than 24 hours, but they didn’t have a chip for a week and two days, so.”
“Tony.” She says, sounding a little emotional. “This is just…so amazing. I’m so proud of you.”
“So, at the risk of sounding completely desperate, when can I ask you out on another date?” He asks her, stepping a little closer. She chuckles, sniffling a bit.
“Well, what other chips are there?” She asks.
Tony glances around, thinking. “I think the next one is thirty days, then sixty, ninety-“
“How about this.” She interrupts. “Ask me when you can show me your ninety days, and we’ll see where that goes.” She takes his hand from where it was hanging by his side and presses the chip back into his palm, closing his hand around it.
He can’t do anything but stare into her eyes, wanting. “You have a deal, Miss Potts.” He finally gets out.
She smiles at him once more before expertly spinning about and strutting away, heels clicking down the hallway.
Three months, and he might be able to convince the most amazing woman he’s ever met to give him another shot. He can do this.