The Weekend
Tony
After Captain America freed everybody from being imprisoned in The Raft, I had to deal with General Ross and the rest of the mess that was left from our “Civil War”. I had to be in countless meetings with the U.N. and I also had to revise The Sokovia Accords a hundred times to ensure that the final declaration would not hinder the operations of The Avengers.
It took me nearly a month to smooth things out and I had no time to personally check up on Peter Parker. I wanted to meet him at least once a week so he could get upgrades on his suit, regularly catch up with him and ask if he needed help with anything, but my schedule was too cramped. There was no way for me to free up time because the UN and The Sokovia Accords were too monumentally important.
I also had to help my best friend Rhodey literally get back up on his feet after the injury that paralyzed both his legs that resulted from the Civil War. I went with him to his physical therapy sessions as much as I could and I created a prosthetic that allowed his legs almost completely normal functioning. After he was able to recover and was able to walk again, he decided to rest with his family at his hometown, leaving no one in the Avengers compound in upstate New York.
During those weeks though, I did get updates about Peter from my friend and Head of Security, Happy Hogan. Whenever I had time, I would read through the texts that Peter had sent to Happy and I would also look at the daily logs on his Spiderman suit. Watching Peter’s logs patrolling around Queens sort of became my stress reliever in the midst of the stress that the aftermath of the Civil War brought to me.
When everything was settled, I finally had the time to meet Peter. I wanted to spend a whole weekend with him but first, I had to make sure that he would be comfortable during his stay with me. Even though there was the Avengers Tower in the middle of New York, I wanted to take Peter to the Avengers Compound because he probably hasn’t seen it yet and I didn’t want the billion-dollar thing to rot away with no one using it.
I had the largest room in the Avengers quarters renovated and prepared for Peter. I also made sure that there was a walk-in closet complete with all the clothes he needed. I figured the kid must like watching movies so I also got the mini theatre and movie room renovated as well.
Lastly, I noticed that Peter seemed to always feel hungry because he’s constantly snacking while he’s on patrol and he would make passing comments about feeling very hungry to Karen. These led me to the conclusion that Peter must have the same metabolism as Steve Rogers which means he needs to eat twice to five times as much as a regular person so I made sure that the pantry at the compound was fully stocked.
When everything was ready, I contacted Peter’s aunt and asked her permission for Peter’s “Stark Industries Weekend Retreat”. She immediately answered yes and all I needed was to pick Peter up. I drove to Queens as soon as I could because I just couldn’t wait to see the kid again.
I got myself seated on one of the large couches in the lobby of the compound while I waited for Peter to finish getting dressed out of his Spiderman suit. I don’t know why but I felt like I owed him an explanation why I didn’t contact him at all for nearly two months. I don’t want him to feel like I would only talk to him if I needed him to fight super soldiers with me. I want him to think of me as sort of a “mentor” in his journey as a superhero. Someone he can call if he ever needed any help even if it isn’t Spiderman related.
I tapped my foot against the white tiled floor as I waited. The kid was taking quite longer than I expected for a teenage boy to get dressed. Did he get lost or something? The compound’s interior layout can be a little confusing. I decided to ask Friday what was taking the kid so long.
“Mr. Parker is currently in his closet staring at shoes, boss” Friday answers.
When I hear what the kid’s been up to, I couldn’t help but smile. He can take his time looking at shoes if he wants to. I decided to just use my Starkpad and read a couple of emails while I waited for Peter. A few minutes later I hear the elevator doors open and a wide grinned Peter comes out.
I get up and tease him, “you seemed to enjoy your room Spiderling, I’ve been waiting here for almost 15 minutes.”
He laughs bashfully and tells me, “sorry to keep you waiting Tony, I just got a little overwhelmed by the closet.”
I smile and grandly gesture him to come closer. “Come on Pete, let me show you around this little building that will be your home for the next couple of days.”
“Since you’ve already seen the lobby, let’s go to the other places on the first floor.” I lead him to the hallway that connects the main lobby to a smaller more intimate area that’s more like a large living room than a lobby.
“This is our private waiting area, where the team would hang out while we waited for briefings and conference calls from Shield and whatever government agency that wanted to talk to us, it’s more convenient than waiting upstairs in our private living quarters since it’s right next to the conference room.”
The room was covered in dark wooden walls with leather sofas and armchairs situated in the middle. Adjacent to the room and separated only by clear a glass wall was the empty white conference room.
“Why is the conference room empty? Like isn’t there supposed to be a big table and chairs and stuff?” Peter asks, genuinely curious.
“We have holographic conference meetings, wanna see how it looks like? Friday, play the recording of the meeting we had with General Ross a couple of months ago.”
In a blink of an eye, the room glows with blue light and a life sized holographic long table surrounded by chairs materializes. The chairs become filled with people that used to be the ones I trusted the most but are now the ones who have hurt me. There was Nat, Steve, and the others who were with me when General Ross first conversed with us about the Sokovia accords.
The recording of our meeting with Ross plays and a surge of awful memories start to fill my head. Rhodey falling uncontrollably from the sky. The video recording of the Winter Soldier killing my parents. Cap piercing his shield straight into my arc reactor as I gasp breathlessly in pain. Me, alone in the Compound that was once filled with my teammates, my family.
Peter must have noticed my expression changing because he suddenly commands Friday, “turn off the recording Friday, please.”
I could feel Peter staring at me but I couldn’t look at his face. I walked out of the room as if nothing was wrong and continued on the tour.
“Next I’ll show you the training room, it’s the perfect place to practice your Spider stunts” I say as Peter silently follows me closely with an unreadable expression on his face.
After more than an hour, I finished showing Peter around the Compound. The sun was starting to set and it was about time for dinner. I decided to order five large pizzas for our meal. Peter was hesitant to pick out five different pizza flavors saying that five is too much for the two of us but he eventually gave in and freely chose whatever he liked.
Peter and I were in the living room of the Avenger’s quarters while we waited for the pizza to arrive. The tv was on playing a baseball game that the two of us didn’t really care about. I figured it was time to tell him why I didn’t contact him at all for two months.
“Hey Pete,” I started. “Um, I just wanted to tell you that I didn’t call you or anything for two months cause I was busy dealing with all the matters of the Accords. I hope you didn’t think I was forgetting about you.”
Peter stares at me wide eyed as if he was shocked, like I read his mind. Did he really think that I forgot about him?
“Oh, it’s uh nothing Mr. Stark, I mean Tony! It’s totally understandable! It’s not like I’m important or anything, I mean, yeah it’s fine,” Peter rambles as he looks away from me. I could see him starting to get red on his cheeks.
“From now on, we’ll both meet up at least once week. That all right with you?”
“Yes! That would be awesome!” Peter says with the happiest smile on his face.
God, what is it with this kid’s smile that is so infectious? I couldn’t help but smile back. I ruffled his messy brown hair and leaned back on the couch, feeling more at ease. Peter was a little startled from my sudden touch but then relaxed, and it felt like all the awkwardness and the questions between the two of us had been cleared up and dissipated.
Friday informs us that the pizza arrived. We ate dinner infront of the tv, sharing a comfortable easy flowing conversation about what’s been going on in Peter’s life since I last saw him. He talked animatedly without even realizing he ate all five boxes of pizza while I ate just three slices. He felt embarrassed for eating so much but I reassured him that I know he needs to eat a lot because of his increased metabolism. I felt full, not from the food but from listening to Peter’s stories.
As we cleaned up the mess we made in the living room, I noticed Peter was trying to stop himself from yawning but he was failing. “I know you’ve had a busy week Pete, why don’t you head to bed and I’ll be the one to finish cleaning.”
“No, Tony! Let me help you!” he objects and quickly stacks the pizza boxes in one hand while wiping the table with another.
“Done!” he says triumphantly and we were finished with cleaning.
“Goodnight Pete, see you tomorrow” I say as we headed to our separate rooms.
“Goodnight dad!” Peter accidentally says. “I mean Tony!” he corrects himself and runs into his room.
I felt like my heart was going to explode from my chest.
The next two days were filled with productive and non-productive activities. We worked on upgrades for his suit and his webshooters. I found out some parts of the suit had micro tears because Peter’s been handwashing it to keep it clean. I gave him a similar mechanism to the one in his closet that was in a form of a metal briefcase that allowed the suit to get cleaned and charged at the same time.
Peter also got to try out his new webshooters in the training room sparring against Ironman suits, much to his delight. Then during the late afternoon until the evening, we watched movies in the movie room. I let Peter pick out whatever he wanted. The weekend flew by quickly and it was already time for Peter to get back home.
I drove him home since Happy’s currently at Rhodey’s, delivering some new stuff for his leg prosthetic.
“This was one of the best weekends I’ve ever had Tony, thank you” Peter says. He looks at me with the most grateful sincere look that I've never seen anyone give to me before he stepped out of the car.
“Bye Tony!” Peter waves as he disappears into the apartment building.
What did I do right to deserve this kid?