Best Friends That Make It Easy
Peter's birthday and Christmas were really hard that year. Peter sat awkwardly, not wanting to show May how sad he was, thinking about his mama. May, of course doing the same. They tried to pretend for a while; it didn't go very well... They cried hard as they opened gifts, hugging each other tightly. They cried again as they eat burnt food that wouldn't have been but Mary didn't cook it. They sat and watched bad Christmas movies so they could make fun of them.
They managed to stay in their home for another four months after Christmas, only May didn't make enough on her own to keep it. They ended up moving somewhere smaller in another part of Queens. Peter's room had blue walls, but he'd always wake up expecting to see yellow.
May had started taking more shifts at work, and Peter had started spending more time with a lovely old lady who lived down the hall. Her name was Delilah, and in a weird way, she reminded him of his mama. He didn't mind that he'd spend the time there while May was at work, and she didn't mind when all he did was play LEGOs and mumble about his mama whenever she moved towards her old record player and ask she not turn it on. He would always draw her a picture to make up for it.
Of course though, nothing can go Peter's way. In a matter of a year and a couple of months, no matter how many hours May takes, they can no longer afford the apartment. This was one the cheapest places May could find that would house them both. She had nothing she could really do anymore. She just couldn't make enough. Just after Pete's birthday too. This, of course, left her with only one option. She was going to need to call... him.
"I know we're not too fond of him, tesoro, but I'm fairly sure he's not very fond of us either." He sighs with a heavy pout, shooting her the sad eyes. She gently flicks his nose.
"Now, come on, you know what they do to me. We can't stay here anymore, patatino. You know I wouldn't make you stay there unless I had no other choice..." He gives May a sorry smile and gives her a big hug.
"I know, Auntie May, I'm sorry. I just don't want to have to stay there because he's gross." May laughs softly, neither of them having laughed properly in a while.
"Don't you know it. Come on, patata, time to go get in his big fancy car." Peter giggles and takes her hand. Neither of them look back at the flat that never felt like home. Peter does look longingly across at Delilah's door though. He had said goodbye the day before, but it sort of felt wrong to him not to say goodbye as he was going. Then again, that seemed to be something that he should be getting used to.
The car out front was most certainly big and fancy. He pretended he wasn't awed when he got in though. There was no one inside, but he still didn't want to give Stark the satisfaction.
"Hello, I'm Happy." May sighed slightly.
"I'm tired and a little hungry after packing so much. I'm sure you're pretty hungry too, huh tesoro?" The man very obviously stifled a smile.
"Uh, no, my name is Happy, Happy Hogan." May turned a little pink, but Peter - every part his mother - made eye-contact with him in the mirror and said something that made the whole car pause.
"Well, that's pretty unlucky for you, huh?" May was practically wheezing trying to hard how hard she wanted to laugh, her shoulders shaking with mirth. When she and Peter looked a each other neither of them could stay quiet any longer. Their fatigue and the hilarity of the situation had them both laughing in a deep, soulful way they hadn't in a long time. They both wiped away tears as Happy started driving towards wherever it was they were going, Happy behind the wheel pretending he didn't bark out a laugh at the kid's comment too.
"God, you sounded just like your mother." That caused a melancholy joy to fill the entirety of the car. Peter would be honoured if he grew to be a fraction of his mother.
It took twenty minutes until they finally stopped, Peter and May whispering and joking about the consequences of stealing the car later for a joyride. Happy would chip in every now and again if they got too loud to tell them that if he was bought some chocolate chip cookies ('The good ones. Some of that white chocolate stuff.') he could probably be prompted to turn a blind eye to a pair of keys going missing. May planned on going on a walk later that day with Pete - totally not to find some decent cookies. {Even if they both knew that no good cookie had white chocolate in it.}
"And we're here. We'll have the movers take your bags up, I'll take you to where you need to be." He let them know as he opened the door for them. They were lead through the pristine white entrance hall of Stark Industries Tower and into a sleek elevator.
"Penthouse, Mister Hogan?" Came a voice from the ceiling. The two clueless Parker's looked for speakers, not that they could see any.
"Thanks, JARVIS." Peter and May look at Happy expectantly for a moment before it registers with him that not every building has sentient elevators. "That's JARVIS, Tony's AI. He'll be helping run the penthouse, so if you need anything ask him - not me." Peter gave a sly smile that he hid. He knew at some point he'd be asking JARVIS to contact Happy for him. The two, instead of voicing their mischievous plans, make agreeable awkward conversation sounds (you know the ones) and attempt to make small talk that Happy pretty much ignores. When the lift dings to a stop, the young boy felt awfully worried that Tony Stark may be behind those doors waiting for him. It may be horrible, but he didn't see himself actually getting on with the man. He'd try to be polite and make it work, of course he would, but he had a nagging feeling Tony wasn't going to be much involved.
Luckily for him, there was instead a woman. She looked really sweet, but stern. Her blonde hair tucked itself neatly up in a perfect bun. She was in jeans and a button-up shirt, not a wrinkle to be seen.
"Hello! I'm Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries and friend to Tony Stark. Tony's hard at work in he lab and meetings I'll have to drag him to today, so I've been given the day off to help settle you in. You must be May, and you must be Peter. Very nice to meet you both at last!" They both smile and give her a hug, pretending to be surprised Tony didn't come to greet them.
"Hello, Mary told me about you. You were there at the DNA test, weren't you?" Pepper nodded.
"She was a lovely woman, I'm so sorry for your loss." Mary sighed and looks to a now upset Peter, scooping him into her arms.
"So are we." She ran her fingers through his curly brown mop and kissed the top of his forehead before setting him back down. They held hands as they were lead through a tour of Tony's penthouse floor, then one of the floor below, which they were informed would be theirs. Pepper gave a short run around the medical floor too, hearing that's where May would be working now she lived in the building rent-free. They went back to their floor then, noticing all their boxes and furniture had been brought up. They could unpack it all later.
"So... Drinks?"
It was three weeks before Peter saw Tony, which he found pretty impressive. They lived literally a floor below him. They shared a lift.
"Hey there, Petey." The name should have felt warm and like his mama, but instead it sounded forced and distant. It hurt a little.
"Don't call me that." He glared at the billionaire. "My mama called me Petey. Don't call me that." The man was kind of taken aback by the tone of the boy, but before he could snap a gentle hand rested on little Pete's shoulder.
"Hey now, patatino, we don't snap. Rewind." He watched in something like diluted fascination as all emotion drained from Peter's face, and all tension dispersed from his body. A smile wormed its way onto his face, and he spoke again, Tony mouthing 'potato chip?' to himself in the meantime.
"Hello, Stark. If you don't mind, could you call me Peter? My mama used to call me Petey."
"Yeah, sure. Whatever, kid. Just came to say hi. How old are you? Like, three?" May rolled her eyes a little.
"He's eight, actually."
"Great. Think me and my boy could get some alone time? I should get to know my son." Pepper's idea. He had to have at least four hours of quality time with the boy before JARVIS would unlock his lab again. He thought he may as well get it out of the way. May looked down at the boy in question to see if he wanted that. He gave a sigh and heavily reluctant nod, so May supposed it would be okay.
"Alright then, I'm going to go see if they need some spare hands in medical. Enjoy your time." If she asked JARVIS to let her know if anything went wrong so she could run up again, that would be no one's business.
"So, kid. You at school?" God Peter had never felt a room more awkward.
Done. He is absolutely done. If Peter has to hear Tony Stark's stupid voice again in the next hour he may rip the man's tongue out. What kind of guy just up and tells a kid his dead mother is probably happier now that she doesn't have to deal with him? That's messed up! They spend four long, awkward hours together and not only can he not be a nice guy to his own child but he can't be nice about that child's recently dead mother? What the hell!
Peter stops his way out of the elevator and into the entrance. From there he runs out of the tower and to the park he'd go to with May and his mama. It's so close now. He sits on the swing - luckily the whole place is empty. It usually was whenever he was there. Weird. He rocks himself back and forth for a while, eyes closed and just hoping May doesn't get too mad or worried. He probably should have told someone he left, but it's not exactly like Stark tried to stop him when he barged his way into the elevator. Besides, May probably knows that he'd come here.
Someone walks and sits on the swing next to them. Peter opens his eyes to see a girl next to him. Her hair is super curly and frizzy and pulled back into a neat ponytail with two little strands of hair dangling around her face. Peter notices that her skin looks like a deep amber in the sun, but he's sure it would be darker if not under the golden light of the sun slowly setting. He's left almost breathless. She's so pretty. He looks away awkwardly, cheeks red, and notices her mother on the bench over at the other end of the park. She's not paying any attention to the pair.
"I saw you run out of Stark's. I asked if we could come see you." Her speaking makes him jump. She doesn't look up from her book.
"Cool." A silence falls, but it's comfortable.
"Why were you there?" He sighs deeply, and finally she looks in his direction. Her eyebrow is raised in an expectant way that seems practiced.
"He's my dad." Sure, Peter's smart for an eight-year-old, but that doesn't mean he knows that him being Tony's son is a secret.
"Sorry."
"Me too." They both giggle a little. Peter notices this gains her mother's attention.
"I don't really like Tony Stark." Peter sighs with a smile.
"Yeah, me either." They make eye contact, and together they chorus the same word.
"Sexist." They decide there that they have to stay friends.
"Pepper, darling, this is an intervention," May says seriously as she and Pete force Pepper to sit in a chair in front of them. Peter nodded solemnly. "Because we can see the way you're looking at Stark, and it needs to stop." She blushed deeply.
"You can't crush on him Pep, or he'll crush your heart! You see what he's like with the ladies!"
"Not to mention the fact you practically babysit him."
“I don’t know what you mean.” Pepper attempts to deny. She didn’t convince herself -it sounded fake to even her own ears
“You know what she means! He’s gross, you don’t want to be married to a toddler. Get over him. Find a nice man who you won’t have to be chasing after all the time. Mr Stank doesn’t have to be your hobby!” The two ladies wheeze out a laugh.
”Mr Stank?!”
”It fits, okay!”
And that was that. Only moving forward for Pepper. Besides, she’s worth ten of Stark.
"Um, hi MJ! This is Peter. Me and May were wondering if you want to come to the tower and have a sleepover on Saturday for my birthday?" They had been hanging out a lot lately. May was pretty sure they would be best friends for a long time. They don't go to the same school and yet they don't ever go more than three days without seeing each other.
"Sure, stupid, I'll be over at eleven." Peter can hear her smiling.
"Awesome! Wear something you can go out in, May says Stark can buy us ice-cream!" Pepper had started making the man go out with Peter once every two weeks. Peter doesn't see him otherwise.
"And we're going to?" She asks expectantly. In tandem they sing 'make his pockets hurt' to the tune of 'whistle while you work'. A little tune they had started singing when Pepper said he could take Tony's card to get May birthday gifts.
The days remaining at school passed achingly slowly as Peter waited for Saturday to raise its bleary head. He put on his favourite outfit - one just ike his mamas favourite : a white t-shirt tucked into a yellow skirt with little sunflowers and white trainers. He had MJ paint little sunflowers on them like his mama used to do. He isn't as good at painting as MJ. He grabbed his little Clairs makeup pallete and rubbed yellow over his eyes, nose, and cheekbones. MJ said it makes him look like a little yellow mushroom. Peter thinks it makes him look like a Disney prince. He adds a yellow hoodie to combat the cold.
"You really make him go outside wearing shit like that?" Comes from the doorway as he ties his laces. It makes him angry.
"Auntie May doesn't 'make' me do anything. I choose my own outfits. I like it, reminds me of mama." Tony sighs.
"I better not get recognised." He pulls on sunglasses and a baseball cap before they head down to the entrance. MJ is sat on the steps outside and jumps up the moment she sees him, pretending not to be excited.
"Happy Birthday loser. Maybe now you're older you'll finally get taller than me." Peter rolls his eyes and hugs her.
"I love you too. And I'm always older!" She scoffs but ruffles his hair, much to his indignation. They hold hands as they walk down the road, Tony and May behind them. MJ turns around, grabbing Pete's hand with her other one so she can walk backwards and talk to May without tripping.
"You look alright, May." May blushes slightly, used to MJ's way of speaking. She knows that's a high compliment.
"Why thank you, Michelle. You look rather pretty yourself." She does. Her jeans are worn and slightly torn in places and have little studs and safety pins randomly dotted in fitting areas. Her white t-shirt really pops under a black cropped hoodie.
Peter gently pulls her towards him just as she is about to back into a streetlamp.
"You do." He says just as she goes to deny May's statement in that cool, uncaring way she does. Instead, her cheeks flush pink (though she'd kill anyone that says so) and she turns back around. Peter hears Stark chuckle behind him and can practically sense the stupid about to fall from his face.
"Ooooh got two lovebirds here then? I would have thought he'd be one of the fruity ones." This is why MJ hadn't been around Tony too much. May and Peter knew she'd get angry and rant at the man. They may not like him, but they do appreciate him letting them live with him (even if because he was forced by Pepper), and frankly, MJ gets scary when she's mad.
"Excuse you?" She snaps. She stops and turns on the spot, forcing him to stop. "What do you mean by that? 'one of the fruity ones'. What do you mean by that Mr Self-Righteous? You better not be saying what I think you are." Tony, for a genius, is pretty damn stupid May notices.
"Y'know..." He makes some hand gestures that don't really mean very much at all. "The gay ones." Peter snickers, much to Stark's confusion. He gets a look at clearly means 'why are you laughing', so decides he should clue in.
"Just you're acting like my clothes decide who I'm in love with. Like some gay version of the sorting hat. I just find that pretty funny." He shrugs, May laughs openly.
"The sexuality scarf." That makes May laugh harder. MJ said it with such a flat tone that it came across so serious. It has them both giggling together.
"Hmm... Lots of skirts in your closet... But love monster trucks? Must be... bisexual!" May says through gaps in her laughter. At that point the three are in tears, wheezing through their connected jokes, now walking again. This does leave Tony rather confused though.
"What's bisexual?" The three others pause.
"Aren't you like... Fifty?" MJ asks, Peter ignores his indignant 'I'm forty ' and awkward spluttering to laugh instead.
"It's when you like two or more genders. You know... like if you like men and women?" May explains and a very obvious realisation dawns on Tony's face.
"Oh. " The other three snicker and push open the door to the ice cream shop. Damn Peter wants some gummy worms.
He didn't know why he called a super-secret urgent code red at the knowledge of her existence, but he was very suspicious of her. Why he had no idea, but Natalie had that aura of always knowing more than you, and he had caught her looking at him oddly on more than one occasion already. MJ was at the tower in a matter of minutes.
"What's up, mushroom boy?" He scowled. Maybe he was wearing red today, but he doesn't look like a mushroom! ... Okay, maybe he does, but that wasn't the intention! It just reminded him of the skirt his mama got him and he wanted a day to be a mama's boy. Sue him!
"We have a new lady in the top levels of the tower and I think she's suspicious. We're gonna spy on her using JARVIS and our super-secret kid hiding, alright?" She looked at him like he was stupid for a moment.
"Peter." She sighed when he didn't seem to realise what she was pointing at. "Peter you're wearing bright red. You don't blend in very well." He smirked. That's not a good sign, he put on his planning face. MJ is scared of his planning face, it usually means she has to do something painfully stupid Peter will invent and somehow have work out. He's like a dumb good luck charm, they never go wrong. MJ likes to think this is how May felt when Mary would start planning, frankly. May seems to think it is.
"Does that mean that your purple and white is too bright too? Can I dress us up?! I'm dressing us up. Spy mission!" God damn it.
Pete grabbed her hand and dragged her through the hall to his room. He had some clothes that fit her in a separate drawer for when she stayed over so she didn't need a bag. She also had a toothbrush in his bathroom, not that that would be necessary right now. She knew Peter wasn't likely to touch her clothes here though. He's going to expect her to wear a skirt to run about the tower like some kind of comic book goddess.
"Okay, okay, okay, wow I'm excited! Do we need hoodies or t-shirts? Or a cardigan? Longsleeve, or short? Help me MJ you're the kick-butt spy lady!" She, despite her wishes, snorted at the way he spun in circles like a dog at a tennis match as he rambled on. She could play along a little... Only for Peter, she totally wasn't having fun!
"Longsleeve t-shirt. Plain black. Turtle neck - no don't look at me like that, I know you own some, stupid - and black leggings."
"I'm not wearing leggings! A crime against fashion. I don't even own any. How dare you?" They laughed together for a moment before Peter continued his rant, but it was painfully true. Peter had a big thing against leggings. May had asked if he wanted a couple of pairs once and he ranted for fifteen minutes. He only finally shut up when MJ threw a pillow at his head, but the pair of women swear to every higher power possible he easily could and would have continued if allowed. He started a pillow fight between the group instead.
"-not to mention that they aren't flattering at all and only make anyone who doesn't look like the models that wear them in ads feel horrible because they think that they can't have natural bodies to look good and it's disgusting. I don't agree with the symbol of hating yourself they come with. Let alone the itchiness of them, I mean have you ever worn them for longer than a couple hours? They feel disgu- Ouch! What was that for, I'm ranting!"
"Exactly. Shut up." He gasped dramatically with twinkling eyes.
"How dare you, do you know who my father is? I'll have you sued for speaking to me that way, peasant." She hit his across the back of the head again.
"Shut up and get me a skirt, idiot, I know you want to." He squealed and thankfully stopped. Just like the leggings rant she knew he'd just go on and on about lawsuits the same way Stark would in the same situation. (Though, Stark would likely not be kidding...)
They ended up dressed from head to toe in black, with matching smokey black makeup to match, completed by a black stripe below each eye for 'camouflage' according to MJ.
Their socked feet made no sound as they crept down Stark's hallways. JARVIS had helpfully let them know where this 'Natalie Rushman' was, and neither of them much liked it, so they were making sure to be extra quiet. After all, why would she be in Tony's (for he had been upgraded from 'Stark' by Peter, purely to end the odd looks and questions supplied by Aunt Pepper) office? She had no reason to be, especially not alone. Peter let MJ look around the corner of the door when they got there. She always seemed to have a way to lurk without notice, and here they were both going to exploit that. The minute she did she turned back around the corner and pulled Pete safely out of whisper-hearing range.
"She's downloading files, and from how tense she is, I don't think it's authorised... To Pepper?"
”To Pepper.” They ran the way to her office at full sprint.
“Pep! Pepper! Pep! Red alert! Red alert!” She immediately stopped typing. She and Peter organised a system for if he needed something. Red meant it really could not wait - life or death emergency level.
“What’s up, Pete?” He, puffed from running so far, dragged from his inhaler. MJ spoke for him instead.
”We saw that Natalie Rushman woman downloading files or whatever onto a flash drive from Mr Stank’s office. She was alone in there so I don’t think she was permitted. You were our first bet.” Pepper got steadily more pale as MJ went on. She nodded with a ‘let’s go’ and marched professionally out of the room, kids at her heels.
"Emma!" Peter yelled, banging obnoxiously on her bedroom door. "Em! Emma! MJ! Em! Michelle! Michelle Jones, you open this darn door!" MJ's parents stand at the end of the hall with May, giggling, Tony Stark by their sides staring at his phone and trying to pretend he wasn't in some poor people's flat in Queens.
"What do you want, mushroom boy?!" She yells back through the door. He pushes down a laugh to instead glare at the hunk of wood as though he could burn a hole through it.
"I want you to get the hell out here so I can hug your stupid self and whisk you away to the land of iced cream and gummy worms you say you don't like but we both know you love! And then, whether you like it or not, you're going to spend the weekend with me in Feminist Tower Incorporated and have a great time doing nerd things with me, and then we're going to spy on that new lady, Natalie, again." Which totally didn't make Stark splutter out half-made defences about 'betterment' and 'stronger sexes' for five minutes.
A heavy sigh can be heard through the door and soon enough MJ emerges from her sleep cave, no longer in what Peter knows for a fact was one million per cent a unicorn onesie.
"Emma, it's midday. You'd sleep your whole birthday away!" He squeezes her in a tight hug. May giggles once more off to the side.
"Emma?" She asks. That's not a name she could imagine MJ letting anyone use.
"Don't call me Emma." She glares slightly at May - she'd never fully glare at her, she holds to much respect for the woman - and then continues on a slight tangent. "Only Peter can call me Emma. I don't know how the rat boy has convinced me to allow it, but I will." May gives the most characteristic sarcastic hum.
“Are we going or not?” MJ demands more than asks. They all know she’s embarrassed and move on quickly. Peter really learnt how to worm his way into MJ’s heart.