Chapter 13
He wakes up slowly, and when he realizes where he is, he just lays there for a while. He doesn’t feel the need to rush and get up quickly, he can wake up slowly.
After half an hour of laying in the same spot he realizes this is probably more than just waking up slowly, but he doesn’t really mind. He finally pulls the comforter off of him and makes his way to the living room. He’s stayed over at the tower plenty of times, but none have felt like this. Normally he’d be excited about what Tony and him were going to do with his suit or something, but now he is just there, not really for any specific reason. He guesses he’ll have to get used to it.
“Goodmorning Peter, how did you sleep?” Pepper is sitting at the kitchen island, drinking a smoothie and reading on a tablet. He’s not used to her being around when he wakes up, normally she’s off working way before he’s out of his room, but it’s the Winter break now, and even she gets a bit of a holiday.
“Fine, how about you?” He can see Pepper look over his clothes and realizes he didn’t change out of the ones from yesterday. He feels embarrassed but she continues on like she doesn’t notice.
“Pretty good actually, even though I still woke up at five. My body’s not used to being able to sleep in so much!” She chuckles and Peter walks to the cupboards to make some cereal. He feels less numb than yesterday, but he doesn’t feel completely with it, like something is fogging his brain up and he can’t think clearly no matter how hard he tries. Pepper goes back to reading and Peter sets his bowl down on the island and sits. He starts eating in silence and tries not to be too loud. Not long after, he hears Tony walking in, “Now this is a sight! I don’t think I have ever seen you out of bed so early,” Pepper smiles at him and gives Tony a quick kiss before he moves to grab some coffee.
“Tell me about it, I don’t even think I’ve seen myself conscious at this time, it’s 10’oclock!” Tony finishes loudly with a smile, but Peter doesn’t look to see it, he instead looks down at the counter. Tony is probably only up because he was here. Tony is probably stressed because Peter is making a big deal out of nothing and decided to freak him out by not talking. They don’t seem to notice his internal struggle, which Peter is thankful for, and he takes a big breath before eating again. Pepper and Tony keep talking but he doesn’t really listen, which turns out to be a mistake when he hears Tony saying his name, “Pete?” Peter looks up and figures Tony must have been trying to get his attention for a bit, “There you are. I was asking if you wanted to go down to the lab with me?” He looks at Peter hopefully. Peter doesn’t know if he’ll be able to walk to the elevator let alone do actual work, but he doesn’t know what else he would do with himself.
“Okay,” he replies quietly.
Tony smiles and pats him on the shoulder, “Don’t you guys work too long, don’t forget you are humans and actually need to eat every once in a while,” Pepper calls after them in a light, but also serious tone. She has seen Tony go way too long without eating when he gets working on a project, although he is much better when Peter’s there. Tony chuckles and gives Pepper a thumbs up before the elevator doors close.
“I know your suit isn’t here, so I was wondering if you wanted to work on my suit today?” Tony asks him.
Peter has never gotten to work on Tony’s suit before, he's has never asked and Peter was always too scared to go near it for fear of breaking something important. He can’t gather the strength to act excited about this opportunity, though, so he just shrugs and says “Okay.” Tony looks at him with concern, but before he can say anything about it the doors open and Peter steps out.
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They've been working on the suit for just under an hour, the only sounds being of them working and Tony explaining different mechanisms, when Tony asks Peter, “So, I heard that you and John got into a fight, what was it about anyway?” Tony doesn’t take his eyes off of the part in his hands and keeps working through his question.
Peter can feel himself start to tense up a little at the mention of John, but answers anyways, “I broke a plate.”
“Really? With your reflexes I’m surprised, I’ve seen you catch a test tube behind your back when it fell off the table.”
“Yeah, my sense doesn’t work too good at the apartment.”
Tony looks up at him with a bit of confusion at that, “What do you mean?”
When John first moved in, Peter’s spider sense was always going off, but it was so small that Peter had ignored it. As time went on and John got angrier and angrier, Peter’s senses never stopped going off when he was there, and then he couldn’t distinguish between his normal ‘John’s nearby’ warning and ‘something’s about to happen’ warning. Peter doesn’t want to say that to Tony, so he just shrugs and keeps looking at the suit. Tony turns back slowly and he continues working.
“So John got mad that you dropped a plate?” Tony asks slowly, Peter just shrugs in response.
They work in silence for a few minutes before Tony speaks up again, “What happened after you dropped it?”
Peter takes a moment before responding, “Nothing really, he just got mad cause it was expensive or something, I don’t really know.”
Tony looks at Peter, but he stares at the ground. “How’d you end up here?”
“I don’t really know,” Peter responds. He wants to leave it at that, but Tony doesn’t look away or move to keep working and he knows Tony wants him to say more, “I guess I just walked out the door and came here.”
“Did you take the subway?”
“No. I walked.”
“Peter, it’s freezing outside and you didn’t even have a jacket on or anything, how long were you outside for?”
“I don’t know,” Peter answers truthfully. Tony releases a breath before turning back to the suit.
Peter feels like a complete idiot right now, it sounds like he reacted completely out of proportion for the situation he described. Tony probably thinks he’s being dramatic and is going to send him back to his apartment. Peter knows it sounds lame, but he also knows it’s the truth and is too tired to care too much about it.
“Does John get mad a lot?” Tony asks, eyes now completely focused on their work.
“I guess, yeah.”
Tony pauses in his movements for a moment before continuing, Peter can see his mouth is pressed into a thin line.
They work for another half hour before Tony stands and stretches his back out, “Let’s grab some lunch, I know I’m hungry and you probably are too.”
Peter stands and follows him to the kitchen where he sits at the island while Tony starts making some sandwiches. They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Tony turns around to face Peter and speaks up, “I just want you to know that me and Pepper are more than okay with having you here, okay? You can stay here as long as you want, we love having you around.”
Peter feels tears well up in his eyes and he tries to stop them, but they roll down his cheeks. He looks up at Tony and can see his look of shock and concern at seeing his face. Tony walks around the island and grabs Peter in a hug, “Hey kiddo, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Tony repeats over and over. Peter is a little shocked at first but quickly wraps his arms around him and cries into his chest. He is so tired that he doesn’t even care about sobbing in front of Tony. It feels so good to be hugged that Peter doesn’t want Tony to ever let him go. He wants to stay in his arms forever. He doesn’t know how long he cries for, but Tony holds him the whole time, whispering soft words Peter can’t really make out into his hair.
After what feels like forever, Peter lifts his head from Tony’s chest and Tony loosens his hold, leaning back from Peter. Peter takes a shuddering breath before using his sleeves to wipe his face and dry off the tears. Tony gives his shoulder one last squeeze before setting a plate of five sandwiches in front of him. Peter slowly reaches for one as Tony sits across from him with his own sandwich. They eat in comfortable silence and Peter can’t remember the last time he felt so loved.