Chapter 11
Peter hears Tony’s car pull up to the curb before he sees it. He looks out his window and down to the street below where he can see Tony parking his car. John isn’t home yet, but Peter can feel himself panic that Tony will be here when he does. He throws on his shoes and jogs out the door - John finally got a key for him - and goes down the stairs. He wants to meet Tony before he can get here, doesn’t want John to come home to Tony in the apartment. He makes it to the bottom of the stairs and tries to steady his breathing as he sees Tony walk in. He acts like he doesn’t see him for a second and walks towards the front doors as if he was just going out. Tony looks through the doors and he looks surprised for a second, before he smiles warmly at Peter. Peter’s chest feels tight when he sees it.
“Hey kid, what are you up to?”
“Hey Tony. I was just gonna go on a walk.”
“Mind if I join you?”
“Sure.” Tony holds the door open for Peter and they start walking down the street.
Peter always finds it funny to see Tony walking around where he lives. Tony looks so fresh and clean and out of place here. His shoes are so shiny, and the sidewalk here is always grey with dirt and debris. Even the way Tony walks is slightly out of place, he stands so tall whereas almost everyone else is curled in on themselves, trying to conserve as much warmth as they can on such a cold winter day. Peter is already freezing, the zipper on his winter coat is broken and he has to keep his hands in his pockets to try and keep it mostly shut on himself. Tony doesn’t even wear a coat, just a thin looking jacket that, knowing Tony, Peter imagines is probably the warmest thing ever, with some type of strange feathers in it or heat conserving liner or something.
“How have you been?” Tony asks him.
“Good, how about you?”
“Oh you know, same old, same old. How’s school going? You have exams coming up soon right?”
“Yeah, they’re after the winter break.” Peter only had one week until the break, so three weeks until exams. In any other term at this time Peter would normally start thinking about and reviewing some of the earlier content. Now, though, he is just focusing on getting through the current work. “I’ve got like, seven assignments due before then cause all of the teachers are like ‘we want to give you some time to rest over the holidays’ but its so crazy right before that all I’m gonna have the energy for is sleeping the whole break.”
Tony chuckles lightly before responding, “I remember those times. But hey, at least you’ve only got a couple more days before you get to do all that sleeping I know you’re secretly pumped for. I was thinking, if you can take a break from sleeping, that is, that over your break you could spend some time at the tower before we leave. We could work on whatever projects you want and stay up late, but not my late, your late. So like 10pm.”
“Oh Tony, come on that is so early you know that’s not late for me, I’m not like, two years old or anything,” Peter pouts slightly and Tony laughs at the expression.
“Pretty close, kiddo.” Tony smiles and bumps his shoulder into Peter’s as they continue walking. Peter smiles back and actually feels good for a moment. He feels like if he was with Tony all the time he would be okay. He could let Tony take care of things - of everything. He could rest and he knows that Tony would make sure he was okay, would protect him and do the things that need doing. He’s surprised to find himself thinking like this, normally he’s overly worried about being too much of a burden, but he’s too tired to care anymore. He knows that if he just stopped with all the facades he’s been trying to keep up and just collapsed like how he wanted, like he was always on the verge of, that Tony would hold him up. Tony would take care of him and fix him. Tony would help.
Peter opens his mouth to speak when he sees the familiar grey of John’s car turn the corner up ahead. He continues walking and when John sees Peter he gives a tight lipped smile and waves to him and Peter waves back.
“That was John, right?” Tony asks. He’s only seen him a couple of times and has only spoken to him for a few minutes total.
“Yeah,” he responds. His mouth is dry and he feels sick. This is wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. He should be at home. What is he doing out here? Why did Tony have to come to see him? “Uh, yeah, that was him. I should probably head back if it’s already that late, actually. I have homework,” Peter weakly trials off.
“Yeah, okay, you have those seven assignments due soon and all. Let’s head back.” Tony pulls his sunglasses from his head onto his face and turns around. He almost looks disappointed, but Peter looks up to watch John’s car pulling into the apartment’s garage before he can really make it out.
The walk back is only a couple of minutes, but it feels like forever. All that can be heard is the sound of their shoes scuffing against the concrete. Peter feels terrible that he has to leave Tony. He wants to stay with him, but he feels like he needs to be back in the apartment more. He wishes Tony wouldn’t give him a choice, would just take him away to the tower and they could work and watch movies and eat and talk and laugh. He wishes Tony would just take him away from this apartment and never let him back. When they reach the front doors Peter stops walking and Tony turns to face him. Peter is miserable. He wants to use his powers on Tony and physically stop him from leaving - leaving without him. But he doesn’t. He stands still and can feel tears start to form in his eyes as he looks at Tony, but not enough to be noticeable to him. He can make out Tony’s eyes behind the dark sunglasses and sees Tony’s eyes scanning his face. Peter is used to that look, but not in this context. It’s the look Tony gives him when Peter shows up injured from patrol, like he’s looking for signs of other injuries that Peter hasn’t told him about. He always checks because Peter never wants to be a burden, and has tried to hide many injuries from him. But Peter’s not injured now, he hasn’t been out ‘spidermanning’ and isn’t lying to Tony. They stand in silence for a moment before Tony leans back slightly and stops his searching. Peter doesn’t know what he could have been searching for. Tony’s the first to break the silence, “Okay Pete. I’ll see you soon, okay?” He looks into his eyes like he means it, “Don’t work yourself too hard okay? School isn’t the ‘be-all, end-all’, make sure to give yourself some breaks,” Tony gives Peter a small smile.
“Yeah, I will Tony, don’t worry,” Peter replies, even though basically all of his time is spent as a break. He does the bare minimum amount of work for school. God, if only school was his main worry. It used to be. It was so easy, he wishes he could be more stressed for school, he wishes he could go back and have the main thing occupying his mind being what test was when and what chapter of the textbook he had to read before Monday.
Tony nods at Peter before he says “See you later, kid,” and turns to walk to his car. Peter watches him leave and goes through the doors before Tony can see him still there.
Peter closes the door behind him softly, so he doesn’t disturb John. It doesn’t do much good, though, because John already sounds upset, “Peter.”
“Yeah?” Peter hesitantly calls from the front door, he starts walking towards the living room even though his gut is telling him to run.
“Why were you outside with Tony?”
“I-”
“You can’t just leave the house and go wherever you want whenever you feel like it,” his voice rises as he continues, “you didn’t even text me or May. You need to ask us before leaving this apartment.”
“I was just down the street, and I wasn’t even by myself, I was with Tony!”
“I don’t care!” John shouts as he stands from his chair. “You cannot leave without permission. What would have happened if I hadn’t seen you on my way here? Hm? I would have come home to an empty apartment - one you’re supposed to be in - with no idea where you are. How do you think May would feel if I had told her Peter? She would have been worried sick - you would have made her worry. And for what? Just because you didn’t want to do something as simple as text us? This is such a shitty thing to do to your Aunt, Peter. Are you really that mean that you don’t even care about May’s feelings? Are you really that terrible of a person? Because that’s how it’s looking.”
John stared at him with disgust for a few seconds before shaking his head, “Just go to your room and think about how terribly you treated May. Maybe actually think next time before hurting your own Aunt.”
Peter trudges down the hallway and goes straight to his window. He looks down to the spot where Tony’s car was parked and then down the road, but he’s already gone.