A Meeting At The Park
The next time Tony saw Peter, a year had passed and he had nearly forgotten about the boy's existence. J.A.R.V.I.S had threatened to shut down the lab if Tony didn't step outside and get some fresh air. In the words of his beloved AI, “Vitamin D is essential to the human body and you sir, have not eaten anything nutritious or seen sunshine for the past six days”. It was ironic that the only thing on earth that could threaten Tony and get away with it was a product of his own creation.
Letting out a sigh, he leaned back onto the wooden bench he had settled on. A black cap and sunglasses were anything but inconspicuous but Tony refused to wear a wig or shave his goatee like J.A.R.V.I.S had oh so helpfully suggested. So there he was in a park, wasting his precious time instead of spending a perfectly good day tinkering in the lab.
Making sure the rim of his hat covered enough for his face to deter curious glances, Tony figured he might as well stay out for a little longer (after all, J.A.R.V.I.S had set up a timer and he still had an hour left till freedom). He took in his surroundings, the loud shrieking and laughter of children naturally drawing his attention. Sweeping over nonchalantly at the constantly moving colorful blobs, his eyes caught a small figure in red at the edge of the playground. The child was crouching with their back facing the rest of the park, alone.
And again, Tony wouldn't have paid much attention to this. After all, children did weird things sometimes. The kid could have been playing with rocks or dirt for all he knew. But it was when he noticed the tiny shoulders that were trembling that Tony continued to stare at the child. Were they crying? Were they hurt? Tony turned to the side where most of the parents were, chatting with each other and keeping a watchful eye on their own children. But no one was looking in the direction of the small child near the bushes.
Should he go over and make sure they were alright? Wasnt that the responsible thing to do? Tony let out a sigh. Or maybe he was being unnecessarily nosy. After all, if the kid truly was in that much trouble, they’d be wailing and screaming right? Plus Tony didn't want to seem like some creep with his already suspicious looking “disguise”. Unwittingly, the memory of a young boy holding in his tears as a result of his fathers harsh words came to mind. Tony let out another sigh and rose up from his seat.
The trembling of the shoulders continued and up close, he could hear soft sniffling. So he was right, the child was indeed crying. Tony hesitated for a few seconds before leaning down closer and gently tapping the small shoulder. “Hey kid, are you alright?” he asked, trying to tone down the usual gruffness in his voice to something softer. It must have worked because the child didn't startle much, instead pausing their sniffling and turning around.
Tony had already mentally prepared himself for an eruption of a wail and possible snot. Instead he was greeted with blotchy cheeks, a trembling lip, and a silent stream of tears. The kid- the boy looked up at him with startlingly wet big brown eyes and Tony felt the echo of something familiar. He didn't dwell on it and instead, scrambled to say something (anything) to the clearly distressed little boy.
He finally settled with an “Are you hurt?”. The boy looked down at his propped knee and Tony followed his gaze to see an open scrape. Tony couldnt help but let out a hiss in sympathy. It looked red and irritated, blood sluggishly oozing out of the largest gash. He scanned the rest of the boys exposed limbs, noting a bandage on an elbow and a pointer finger. Two older looking bruises were scattered on the boy's other knee and forearm and a blaring alarm went off inside Tonys mind. He quickly took a deep breath to pull himself together. Small children were uncoordinated and got hurt all the time. He shouldnt be jumping to the worst conclusions a few minutes into meeting a kid. Just because Tonys childhood was sh*t doesnt mean he should assume everyone else's were.
“That looks like it hurts buddy” he said, shifting his cap and sunglasses to meet the boys cautious eyes. Nibbling on his lower lip, the boy gave a single hesitant nod and Tony felt his heart clench as he watched another stray tear fall down just as silently. “Well, we can get this all patched up and then it will feel better. How ‘bout it bud?” Tony asked, wondering if it was more responsible to find the kids parents or stop him from bleeding out first? The scrunch of the boys eyebrows eased, his body unfurling from the curled position it was in before and he opened his mouth to presumably give Tony an answer when the shrill voice of a woman interrupted them.
“Peter! What happened!”, the woman that came barreling in between them almost toppled both Tony and the young boy- Peter to the ground. But Tony knew he couldnt blame a worried mother so he held back the colorful expletive that was on the tip of his tongue. “I was gone for a few seconds and look at this!” the woman exclaimed as she stood Peter up on his feet to brush off the dirt off his clothes. It seemed a bit longer than a few seconds to Tony but whatever. He cringed at the whimper that came out of Peter's mouth as he was forced to straighten his scraped knee.
“Sorry I'm clumsy again mama” he heard Peter say, the first time Tony had heard his voice throughout the whole ordeal. The woman let out an exasperated sigh, as if she had gone through this a thousand times and needed to gather up the little patience she had on reserve. “Peter baby, we talked about this. This is why you need to be more careful.” she said, crouching to Peters level and holding him by the shoulders. The small boys lips began to tremble and Tony wondered if this would be when Peter would finally cry out loud. The woman seemed to be thinking the same thing as she quickly went to bring the boy into, what looked like to Tony, a stifling hug. Peters whimpers were quieted immediately, not because he himself had stopped but probably because his face was smooshed into the women's embrace.
“Thank you for trying to help my son.” the woman said, startling Tony out of his searching glances at Peter's trembling shoulders. “It was no problem”, he replied genuinely. Peter was probably the most well behaved crying and injured child Tony had ever seen. The woman gave him a polite smile and stood to leave. Tony should have let her go but he couldn't stop himself from blurting out, “Does Peter get hurt often?”.
The woman turned to him with another exasperated sigh. “Hurt often? He bumps into something at least once a day and falls at least once a week! Hes so clumsy that my husband and I cant take our eyes off of him or who knows what could happen! Today is proof! ” she exclaimed, a self pitying look that for some reason, grated on Tonys nerves. Well she sure was doing a great job at keeping her eyes on him. 'Today was proof', Tony thought mockingly in a high pitched voice (he was being the completely mature adult that he was at this moment).
“Falling every week and bumping into things everyday seems a bit excessive. Have you ever thought about doing any further digging into it?” he asked instead, trying to sound casual as he brushed down his own clothes and stood up straight. The woman didn't seem like she was lying about Peter's injuries (Tony had built up an excellent sense of people's sincerity as he grew up surrounded by cold blooded backstabbers). He wouldnt be surprised if the women was exaggerating some but still, the boy getting hurt so often shouldnt be written off as just being “clumsy”. Tony wasnt an experienced parent but he wasnt stupid either. He wondered if this woman and her husband were though.
The women bristled, as if Tony was questioning her very parenting (he kinda was) and turned around to fully face him. Tony stopped himself from rolling his eyes and instead crossed his arms and took his default dont-even-try-to-give-me-that-b*llsh*t position. “What exactly are you trying to say? That my baby could have some sort of disease!?” she balked and Tonys head spun from the leap this woman just took from what he said. “No” Tony emphasized, practically clenching his teeth, “I meant he could need glasses”.
The woman paused her bristling and blinked. She almost seemed to have frozen before giving Tony an indignant glance as she turned to leave once again. “Whether my son needs glasses or not isn't any of your business sir. Have a good afternoon”. She quickly walked away and this time Tony let her. It was only when he spotted the top half of Peters tear free face and a little hand waving goodbye at him that Tony let out a small smile.
******
Returning to the lab, J.A.R.V.I.S welcoming him back with snarky comment of “That wasnt so bad, now was it sir?”, was when suddenly Tony remembered where he had seen that smile before…on a little boy in a red jacket standing outside surrounded by pure white snow.