Day Off.
Shit.
Peter was late, he was so late, and he was so screwed. "May! May," please let her still be home, "May, can you drive me to school, please?!" He called, running out of his room as he pulled a shirt over his head. He stopped, paling at the empty room waiting for him, cussing under his breath as his eyes caught sight of the note left on the fridge.
Peter,
Take a breath, and don't worry. I already called up the school. I could hear you up all night and figured you'd sleep late. I'll be home at 5. I expect you to be home then too.
I love you,
May.
The air released from Peters lungs in a heavy rush and he dropped down in the chair at the table, finger tapping lightly. He knew he couldn't keep missing days off school, while he always caught up on the work, he knew the school was starting to question it. He just couldn't help it. Even though it had been almost 2 months, there were still so many nights where he lay awake, images flashing across his vision of the fight on Titan. Despite the fact they'd won, Thanos was gone, no longer a threat. It still scared him. So many nights the 'what if' scenarios ran through his mind, keeping him awake in a cold sweat.
At the sound of his phone buzzing, Peter straightened up, glancing down at the text.
9:47am MJ
Hope you're okay. Will pop by after school with your work. x
A small smile formed on his face and he shot back a reply before letting his phone clatter to the tabletop. He wondered for a moment what he should do now he was off for the day. He could go monitor Queens, make sure everything was okay. May had tried to ban him from Spiderman after the return from Titan. But Peter had managed to convince her, and Tony that he would behave, stick to the small things, keep safe until things were okay again.
Peter forced down a glass of water and an orange before grabbing his keys and leaving the house. He wandered for a few minutes through his neighbourhood before slipping into an alley and tapping his watch. The level of technological advancements that Tony Stark had made would never cease to amaze him. Soon enough Peter was climbing the wall of a building, head to toe in his Iron Spider suit.
After an hour or so of watching the city, stopping a car theft, a break-in, and helping someone get their kid out of a tree, Peter found himself making his way north to Stark Tower. He didn't know if Tony would be there or at the Avengers compound, but he knew he was always welcome there and couldn't help wanting to go and check up on things. As he swung into the top floor entrance - one that it had taken weeks to beg Tony for access to, Peter tapped his watch, the suit removing itself from over his clothes.
"Welcome. Peter Parker," the voice of Friday sounded off in the empty room. "We weren't expecting you."
"Is Mr. Stark in?" Peter responded, glancing around the room and pulling out his phone, checking for any missed messages from while he was monitoring the city.
"Welcome. Tony Stark," Friday sounded, causing Peter to turn around in time to watch Tony step out of his Ironman suit and into the room.
"Hey kid, you should be at school!" Tony scolded immediately, walking towards the kitchenette.
Peter shrugged a little, rubbing the back of his neck, "May called me in for a sick day. Didn't sleep well last night." He said slowly, looking at the suit that Tony had just stepped out of. "That's new," he noted, forcing himself to not walk over and inspect it.
"Prototype. Building Pepper a suit for her birthday," Tony responded, tossing a bottle of water over to Peter who caught it before turning his gaze back to Tony.
"Has Pepper expressed interest in having a suit of her own?" He asked, tiptoeing around his point, in which most women he knew - not that there were many at all - didn't tend to wish for a suit of armour for their birthday.
"Once. But I know she'd rather be able to monitor me than just listen to Fridays updated every time I'm out," Tony shrugged, not adding in that it would make himself feel a lot more at peace.
Peter hummed out a soft agreement to Tony’s words, knowing how stressed Pepper got over these things – especially after the whole space fiasco. He had to admit, thinking about it, it would be pretty cool to see Mr. Stark and Pepper flying around, fighting bad guys alongside one another.
Tony fiddled with the screen in front of him, typing in a few things he needed to fix in the suit, before looking up at Peter, “Are you all caught up on school? Anything left you need to get done besides whatever you’re missing today?” he asked him carefully, wanting to ensure that Peter wasn’t just taking the day without following up on any missed work or homework assignments. The response he received was nothing more than a small hum and a nod.
“Mr Stark, can I stick around here with you today?”
Tony watched him a moment, seeing the question lingering in Peter’s eyes. Peter had always been fairly clingy, not in a bad way, just…he was always around, even when he wasn’t. Happy called it overbearing, Tony found it endearing. But since they got back from Titan, it seemed Peter just couldn’t be alone for too long, he didn’t stay out too late as Spiderman, whenever May wasn’t home, Peter was either here at the tower, or with one of his little friends. Tony worried. “I have to head upstate in a few hours, but you can ‘stick around’ if you’d like, I’m heading down to the lab now.” All truths be told, if Peter asked him, Tony would probably allow the boy to join him at the Avengers compound, hell he'd allow him stay here for the rest of the week if Peter really wanted, he was happy for the company and it would allow him to keep an eye on the kid’s mental state. But Tony wasn’t going to just offer, he didn’t want to take Peter out of school, he was already missing so much, he really wanted for Peter to just be a kid for a while, he deserved to have a break. Helping people was one thing, but it was dangerous to do so if you weren’t taking care of yourself too. Tony had learnt that the hard way.
The pair made their way down to the lab, Peter standing back as Tony used the retina scanner and password to unlock the room. As much as Friday worked wonders in the security department, Tony just couldn’t risk anyone getting into the lab. There was too much dangerous equipment in there that in the wrong hands could cause a worlds end. Once the pair were inside, Tony moved to his bench space, connecting the screen to Friday’s operating system to bring up what he’d noted previously. “I’m going to be setting you up with your own scan and password to the lab in the next week,” he said, not looking up, figuring that Peter was on his way over to the station where he made his web-fluid. Tony had allowed Peter access to the lab weekly to work on his web-fluid, to keep track of crimes in the area, note down anything serious. It was a good way to work in the Stark Internship cover and saved the risk of anyone finding out about the whole Spiderman secret, Tony could barely believe that Peter had been doing it all at school, honestly the boy just about gave him a heart attack when he heard it. So risky. “It will be set privately for you only, same as with Pepper and I. Every entry will be logged and recorded on Friday’s system, so I don’t want you to be going around telling people or bringing anyone in, I will find out about it-” he was going to continue when Peter was suddenly in front of him, throwing his arms around Tony in a tight hug.
“Thank you so much, Mr Stark, thank you, I won’t let you down Mr Stark, you have my word, I promise, you can trust me, Mr Stark. I won’t tell a soul. Oh wow. Wow. Mr Stark, thank you so much, what an honour-” Peter rambled on his thanks, not even noticing that Tony had returned the hug. It really was such an honour, and so exciting to think that Mr Stark trusted him enough to allow him personal access to the lab. He’d only ever been allowed in with the supervision of Tony or Pepper – who were the only two people to have access to the lab – and despite the fact that Friday would obviously be monitoring everything, it was still so incredible and humbling to Peter to find out Tony was trusting him with something like that. It took another minute of rambling before Peter registered the fact that Tony was hugging him back and his words trailed off into silence, “Wow…this is nice,” he breathed, letting his eyes close as he welcomed the embrace. Truth be told, Peter had barely realised he had hugged Tony, he was just so excited that the action came out of nowhere.
The embrace was interrupted by the sound of Peter’s phone buzzing on the bench-space across the room. Peter, forcing himself out of Tony’s hold reluctantly and padding over to retrieve it.
11:42am Ned
OMG
11:42am Ned
PETER
11:42am Ned
ur never gonna believe
11:42am Ned
We just had a meeting with Mr H – got pulled out of class for it
11:42am Ned
he v upset ur not here again btw
11:43am Ned
we going on a field trip next week, the robotics club and decathlon team
11:43am Ned
Guess where
11:43am Ned
Guess where
11:43am Ned
Guess where
11:43am MJ
We have a field trip to Stark Industries next Friday, you’ll need to have the slip signed and handed in EOD Friday this week. I’ll bring it by with your work. x