Nice to meet you. Again.
“That’s not it, is it?”
Peter’s apartment building-when put in simple words, was not very enticing. Compared to the one next to it-well, it certainly wasn’t the place you’d imagine a super-kid living. Not really. Not Peter anyway.
“Yeah-that’s it. Sixth floor, fourth door on the left end.” He wanted to question it-just a little maybe-but he didn’t get the chance to. Tony was already climbing out of the car like he’d been here a hundred times already. Happy got out with a sigh.
Today hadn’t been pleasant so far-waking up early to drive all the way out-just to be cornered and forced to watch Spider-Man media for far too long was unpleasant at best-for a good minute or two there he was sure Tony had lost it.
Remembering Peter wasn’t as easy as it sounded. He was sure that the something missing had been May-and in some parts it had been-in other’s it really hadn’t. Being hit with the name-and the face all at once-much to Happy’s own frustration-had hurt. He wasn’t going to lie-it hurt. It felt like part of his life had been locked away-and every time he remembered something it hurt.
He remembered the plane first-not Germany, or the first time he met him-or anything else. It wasn’t a pleasant first memory of Peter-neither was the funeral. All he did was sit in the very back-and when he got up he was already gone.
These were not the things he thought he would be remembering about Peter. When Peter’s name came out-somehow he still thought that he’d still be…filling in? Alright-he wasn’t really sure what his place with Peter was-he wasn’t even really sure what his place with May was-but he still thought he’d be there.
He thought he’d be there-and surprise surprise, he most certainly wasn’t.
That wasn’t the only thing bothering him though. There was something itching at the back of his head-something about Tony now-and he wasn’t quite sure why it was there. He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out either.
“So…a wizard? Really? Doctor Strange did this?” Tony made the hazardous climb up icy stairs first, nodding while he did it. It was impressive for someone who’d gotten into trouble this morning for attempting to disassemble their arm.
“Yep.” Tony took great pleasure in popping the last letter, most likely just to annoy Happy. “Well-that’s what he told me. He was pretty upset though.” Happy’s pretty sure he’d be ‘pretty upset’ too.
Losing everything many-many times couldn't be fun.
Happy was still more than willing to run over a wizard.
Stairs turned out to be awkwardly quiet. That was fine. They were steep-and the steps themselves weren’t easy to fit his foot on either-it took a lot of concentration.
He wasn’t nervous to see Peter after nearly what? A year? Okay-maybe he was a little nervous to see where the kid ended up. Now that he could remember Peter, he felt bad. He could remember knowing him-and all the incidents after Tony….and well-the thing with that Mysterio guy-and what he had said on that jet had him worried.
Happy felt a sort of responsibility for him-at least after what happened-and he was responsible for him. Tony couldn’t be-he was….unconscious? Unconscious. Happy was one of the last adults who were close-and responsible for Peter. Happy should have been there for him-he lost May-they both kind of lost May-but that wasn’t the important part. Peter lost his only parent-and the only…available adult in his life just-just forgot he existed.
He lost his aunt, and found himself all alone-and that was Happy’s fault. He remembered the grave-meeting-and the funeral-god the funeral. He’d barely seen Peter there-he’d been some kind of red-faced, teary-eyed face in the back row, sitting alone. He hadn’t signed the visitor registration, or gone to see May in the casket-he’d just disappeared halfway through the service.
He could see why-his only remaining family member was dead, and he was alone-and no one was there to support him.
At least he was doing better than Happy thought he would be.
He’d admit it-when he realized that Peter had been alone for so long-especially after being forgotten-he’d expected a bit of the worst, for Tony to have found him on the streets-or that his self-sacrificing nature would have led him to an early grave without someone reasonable there to pull him back.
But this wasn’t that. He had a roof over his head-no matter how shoddy-but then again, he was eighteen and on his own once too-it’s not like he had it great. If he was paying rent, he had a job-and if he had a job, he had food, and a bed. If he had time for a job, and all the time for that Spider-manning footage to have been shot in the last year, that meant he was doing alright.
He could live with ‘alright’.
Happy was hoping wherever Peter was-it wouldn’t be as horrible as he feared.
His thoughts were of course-absolutely denied any chance of being something positive, when Peter opened the door.
Admittedly-at first, Happy thought Tony had led him to knock on the wrong door. Peter-at first glance, did not look like Peter.
He didn’t look like Peter, and Happy couldn’t really place why. Everything he had…going on was characteristic of Peter-it was his face-it just so happened to be tired-and bruised. Not the first time Happy had seen that.
He doubted it would be the last either.
Peter was apparently trying very hard not to look at Happy. He’d spared him a mildly surprised glance through puffy eyes when he first opened the door-and afterward, began decidedly stared into the mold-befriended window behind Tony’s head.
“Hey…?” Well. That was certainly a way to greet someone he hadn’t seen in a year.
“Hey underoos, you hungry?”
-----------------------------------------------------------
Tony, despite chattering away in the front seat about the few mundane things he could tolerate, was filled with dread.
He personally believed he had every reason to be. His kid-after a long, meaningful, and stressful reconnection, chose to reappear with heavy bruising. If he thought Peter was trying to break his heart last night, he was clearly trying to give him a heart attack now. Tony knew-he knew his suggestion wasn’t going to be taken well-if at all-and he didn’t expect to find that ohohoh, Peter’s never going to Spider-man again, and he’s willing to be wrapped up in bubble wrap, so Tony can protect him for the rest of his life-but he didn’t expect him to go out after he left.
Sure, he should have. Pepper told him he probably would when Tony was pacing the hallway at two in the morning, and occasionally checking in on Morgan-much to her dismay, it did not help him sleep that miss ‘All knowing Pepper’ thought that Peter was going to go out.
It was only eight hours. He was only physically away from his kid for eight hours, and now a good portion of his face is heavily bruised.
A good portion of his face was heavily bruised, and it didn’t seem to be healing. Tony’d watched Peter heal from a miraculous amount of lab-accidents, and all of them-no matter the weight, seemed to shrink off before the hour. This looked like it was settling in to stay.
Tony stared at his kids face, possibly for too long in the mirror as he continued to talk about the weather of all things. Peter needed one of them to be an adult. Right now he was really wishing he could push that on Happy, and bring up Peter’s injury-and well, everything else. He wanted to know who he had to kill. Or maim. Just who, what and why. That’s all he needed.
Not that he was going to bring it up in the car. No, right now he was busy trying not to stare at his kid-or wonder what was going on with his hand-and remembering to look up where they were going. When asked-Peter has suggested a diner-which according to it’s looks, only sold burgers. It-according to Happy’s car clock-was ten in the morning. He wasn’t worried about the whole grill food for breakfast thing. If that’s what his ‘heroes don’t need food’ kid wanted, that was what he was going to get.
No, he was worried about the ‘C’ rating on the more recent review photos.
“Hey bud, are you sure you don’t want to eat somewhere else?“ Maybe somewhere without a review that claimed to find a roach in their milkshake-oh and there was the picture. Great. He was pretty sure that should have ended in less than a ‘C’ rating, but sure.
“Uh.” And there was the look from Happy. He’d been real snippy when it came to him suggesting things to Peter, from the time they saw each other, and until then.
Then again, Tony would be snippy with Happy if Peter was refusing to talk to him. Not that he blamed him. This whole thing was awkward. Awkward, and hard to focus on when he saw Peter’s face, and ended up stuck thinking back to the night before, specifically when Peter was in the middle of sobbing so hard he couldn’t breathe.
He was really tired of feelings coming to hit him upside the head when he was trying to ignore it long enough to feed his kid.
Peter glanced up into the rear-view mirror momentarily, before going back to his lap. This was still better than how last night started. It was awkward-but Peter was probably just tired. He was likely up far too late after all.
“If-you…guys want to.” Happy-spotting his time to jump in, and choosing to do exactly that, seemed to almost seemed too excited to speak to Peter. He got it. He remembered first getting the chance to talk to Peter.
Peter hit him for the trouble-but that was neither here, nor there. It was awkward, and tense when you were actually sitting there with…Peter. Understandable for two people who hadn’t seen each other in forever. There hadn’t been much effort between those two to speak, and Tony was glad to see…some of it relieved, even if it was just on Happy’s end. That was how Tony got Peter to talk to him after all. Progress was progress, even if it was excruciatingly small.
Or if it felt like it was shrinking.
“I know a great place-it’s like an off brand waffle-house, I’m sure you’ll like it.”