1
Tony was starting to get sick of himself.
The self-hatred and self-pity were starting to crescendo, which was shedding a lot of light on how he got to and where Tony currently was in his life.
Spangle’s betrayal shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.
The breakup with Pepper shouldn’t have been as painful as it was.
He shouldn’t miss the team as much as he did.
Vision injuring Rhodey shouldn’t have felt like a personal failure, but it did.
Speaking of personal failures, the accords shouldn’t have scattered more than half of the planet’s protectors in the wind, all while labeling them ‘war criminals,’ but they had.
And Tony was sick of himself because a Serbian cold shouldn’t haunt his centrally heated penthouse, but it was.
Because his heartbeat shouldn’t feel like someone trying to jackhammer the arc reactor into his sternum sometimes, but it did.
So he decided to go out because his inner ‘self-hatred’ voice was starting to sound too much like his father, and that was about the last straw for Tony.
A baseball cap, coat, and muffler later, Tony Stark was roaming the streets of New York, but then it was too fucking cold for that, so he quickly ducked into a cozy looking Irish pub.
He quickly scanned the place for a place to sit. It was pretty packed except for a booth which was occupied by one person who had their head down on the table and appeared to be best-case scenario, dozing off or worst-case scenario passed out.
Appropriate company for the kind of evening he was having, he thought to himself as he made his way to the booth.
A waiter came to take his order, and Tony took it upon himself to order a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. If he was gonna get hammered in a public place against all good sense, then at least he was gonna do it with some company… even if the said company was seemingly unconscious.
When the waiter put down the glasses, his boothmate woke up. And Tony was confronted with a gorgeous guy with stunning brown eyes, he was sporting a rather sizable shiner over his left one, but it did absolutely nothing to detract from his attractiveness.
“Jesus Christ… are you actually Tony Stark? Or am I hallucinating?” The guy asked quietly.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t recognize me.” Tony wrinkled his nose as he admitted.
“That’s either a scathing comment on your perception of the general public’s intellect or humility, which absolutely does not go with the reputation that precedes you,” the guy scoffed.
Huh… he’s sharp and quick, Tony thought.
“A little bit of both. The hat usually miraculously works.” Tony explained
“Don’t judge me, but I’ve had an entire wall dedicated to your face ever since your first Rolling Stone cover… the hat wasn’t gonna work on me.”
“That’s a lot to unpack from a stranger.”
“I’m Peter Parker.”
“You know who I am.”
Peter’s face split into an overjoyed smile when Tony said that. It was a ridiculous ‘only in New York’ kinda thing to find yourself in the same booth as Iron Man in your local pub, and Peter really needed this after the day he’d had. He was still utterly terrified that at any moment, Tony would accuse him of being Spiderman and make him sign the accords, but he was also gonna let himself relax and enjoy meeting his hero a little.
“I’m not a billionaire expert, but shouldn’t you be drinking at a much upper scale place than this?” As amazed as he was, Peter was also perplexed by Tony’s presence in the pub.
“There’s a lot about me that absolutely does not go with the reputation that precedes me. You just admitted to me that you have a wall dedicated to my face and then brushed past it like it was nothing…” Tony said incredulously.
“You’re pretty; you’re an amazing scientist, you build robots and are a superhero because of a badass armor you made that can fly. I’m a nerd and bisexual, it’s is nothing, just nature basically,” Peter waved him off as he started to pour the whiskey for them.
Surprisingly enough, Tony’s cheeks were a little flushed by the time Peter looked up, which made him think that maybe there isn’t much accurate about the reputation that precedes Tony Stark.
“Hmm… who did that to your face?” Tony asked about the shiner Peter was sporting.
“Umm… a girl was getting mugged. I tried to play hero, you should see the other guy as the saying goes,” Peter shrugged.
“Wow good for you… could’ve ended badly, though.” Tony’s chest was unexpectedly and rather worryingly tight hearing about the danger Peter had been in.
“I know… I lost a loved one to a mugging gone wrong, but the girl needed help, I didn’t really have a choice.”
It was like hearing those words was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Tony. Because he completely understood what Peter meant. Tony never really felt like he had a choice either. Whether or not Peter was ready to have a lot of information about the Avengers and his ‘face wall’ buddy Iron Man’s wretched life choices, he was gonna be vented at like there was no tomorrow. Because Stark men don’t go to therapy, they drink and speak very fast at unsuspecting civilians.
So Tony talked, and Peter listened, about how the star-spangled man with a plan is a fucking douchebag, how fucking hurt he felt that Nat, Clint, and Wanda would still choose him over Tony, how he hasn’t been able to look Rhodey in the eye since Germany and probably never will be, how easily things fell apart with Pepper even after he tried so hard, how the winter soldier fucking killed his mom and fucking spangles hid it from him, how he probably deserved it because that poor kid that got killed in Sokovia because of him… and as Tony talked, he also drank, so he was feeling pretty buzzed by the time he was done talking. Thankfully, Peter was drinking right along with him.
It wasn’t really a conversation, rather Iron Man just venting to him… he did notice a pattern though, everything Tony complained about, he tied up the line of thought with ultimately blaming himself for it.
Peter had always felt a certain kinship with the guy… but this man telling him how helpless his power had made him to the massive responsibility that came along with it, hit too close to home.
“Are you always this self loathe-y, or is this just a today thing?” Peter asked when Tony stopped talking
“What? I don’t… what?”
“Buddy… Captain America, if he really did to you what you say he did… then who gives a shit? He’s an asshole. And I’m not even a supporter of the accords, but even I think that the Rogues could have handled it in a better way…
No seriously, there are way more enhanced folks in this country than just the Avengers, some of them are minors, there’s a dude in Hells Kitchen who is gonna sue the government and the UN so that the registration thing is scrapped, Charles Xavier and his team are even collaborating on the lawsuit.
Those people could have really used Captain America with them on this, but he was too busy playing Rambo and violating other countries’ sovereignty and beating the living shit out of Iron Man apparently.
I mean for a genius, you’re a dumbass because you let the people who once tried to nuke Manhattan convince you that you’re more dangerous than they are, but you had ‘dead-kid-in-Sokovia’ guilt. So I get it, but c’mon cut yourself some slack.”
Tony was a bit flabbergasted by the kid’s performance.
“Of course you’d say that… you stick my pictures on your wall,” Tony grumbled
“Oh, hell, no! You will not use my stan status against me. I know precisely how problematic my fav is. I know your family made their fortune selling weapons and not just to the US Military. I know you only gave a crap about the under the table dealing with terrorists when they threatened your life, but I’m sorry Mr. Stark, if you deny yourself the credit for learning from your mistakes, then every human everywhere is going straight to hell.
Intellicrops prevented famines… the arc reactor technology is saving the planet from global warming…
I saw that video of Helena Cho with those acid attack victims in India and openly wept in a Starbucks…
You really did privatize world peace… there’s a reason the biggest threat to us now is “evil aliens” you know… cause’ what the fuck chance does ISIS have against War Machine? Even that Mandarin thing turned out to be a hoax.
I have three patents because of my Maria Stark Foundation grant, and I didn’t even get the MIT-full funding ones… one day one of those kids is going to cure cancer, and it’s going to be because of you.
So, of course, I’ll defend you, man… but you don’t seem to realize that any decent person would. “Peter was pretty pleased with himself after that and shot Tony an eyebrow raise as if daring him to disagree.
“I got nothing.”
“Of course, you don’t.” Peter grinned.
Maybe Tony had just isolated himself too much from people who didn’t consider him a complete and utter asshole.
But with Peter, it didn’t even feel like praise… it was like the guy was scolding him for being too mean to himself.
It felt nice, nonetheless.
Before Tony had even recovered from Peter’s glorious rant, the younger guy handed him a business card with the words “Daily Bugle” embossed on it.
“Don’t hold my gossip rag workplace against me… it’s easy money, and I’m only doing it till Norman Osbourne starts paying me for the work I already do for him.” Peter shrugged
“You’re with Oscorp? What do you do? Why not SI?” If he had scored an internship with Oscorp and a grant from his foundation, then he must be good enough for SI.
“I’m R&D chemical engineering, and I’m not at SI because your recruiters are assholes who demand three years experience for a beginner position…” said Peter matter of factly.
“You should apply with us again.” Tony insisted the guy had three patents and very sharp. After tonight the least Tony could do was get him a job.
“You should call me.” Peter countered
“I- wait, are you hitting on me?” And much to Tony’s chagrin, he found himself blushing again.
“Yeah, duh, Mr. Stark.”
“I’m old enough to be your father.” Tony sputtered, and that hurt to admit.
“And I have insane daddy issues- you’ll love me. I’m not even gonna ask you for a selfie… you don’t look your best right now, but definitely call me.” Peter winked as he started to leave.
“You’re fucking negging me?!” said Tony looking up at the ballsy kid as he slid out of the booth.
“Hey, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Gandhi said that.” The kid called over his shoulder as he walked away.
“Gandhi absolutely did not say that, Peter,” Tony yelled back.
God, he was gonna call the guy.