Finally.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but it was too much and he was already there, at the door of MIT, waiting for Peter to meet him there so they could spend the weekend together.
It was Friday, just the time to eat, well, a little earlier, because he wanted to be there, with him, to take advantage of all the time they had together, and if he arrived a little late he risked that Peter had already done it, because nothing was known with this child.
So there he was, Tony Stark, on the doorstep of his old university, with the phone in his hand as if he were using it when he was really waiting for a child he had not seen for almost 3 months to go with him.
It sounds weird, doesn't it? Well, imagine for the people who passed by, whispering and pointing at nothing disguised, asking what he was doing there.
He wished he could have the super hearing of the kid because he could only focus on one of the conversations because he was unable to listen to all the small groups gathered there.
"He may have come to teach." One said without sounding very convinced.
"I don't think, in any case, he would have come to give a talk-"
"My God, can you imagine that Tony Stark gave you a talk?" The rest of the people around him started to laugh and Tony smiled tenderly.
'Well,' he thought, 'at least Peter is surrounded by people with his same weird humor'.
"Well, he has not come for any of that," said a voice, Tony returned to pay attention, intrigued.“And then why has he come, Elliot?” Asked a girl who, from what he could see out of the corner of his eye, was very short and blonde.
Elliot, he remembered that name and quite a lot.
“He has come to pick up a child,” said the supposed Elliot.
Okay, wasn’t that the name of Peter’s roommate? It sounded like he had mentioned it once while talking on the phone.
“How? Since when-?” A lot of voices shouted at once.
“Who?” The blond girl asked.
“Me”.
A shy voice talked from behind the group of children and Tony looked up from the phone. The group separated so everyone could see the speaker and Tony stood up and walked quickly towards Peter, the kids separated a little more when Tony passed between them.
Tony opened his arms when he got to where he was and Peter lunged forward.
“Hi kid,” he sighed as he rested his chin on Peter’s curls.
“Hello Mr. Stark,” he replied softly.
Tony couldn’t see them but he knew that the children behind them had their mouths open.
When they finished the hug, which Tony wished that They didn’t do, because god, he had missed those hugs, Peter looked at him and then approached Elliot.
“Well guys, see you on Monday".
“See you later,” Elliot replied.
The rest of the boys also said goodbye to Peter while the rest of the people in the area continued to gawk at them.
“How do you know him?” Said the short girl who had asked before.
“It’s a long story,” he said, and after that, he went back to Tony and picked up a small suitcase he had left there. “We are going?”
Tony nodded and they left, leaving the group behind.
“Those are your friends? Like, all of them?” He asked.
Peter nodded, although he looked a little dull, and said, “Well, not so much, they are Elliot’s friends, I go with them although I take more with him alone”.
“Well, at least I see you’ve expanded the group,” he laughed softly.
“Why would you say that?!” he asked, acting offended.
“Oh, excuse me, sir, my friends are Ned and MJ.”
Peter laughed a little and they kept walking.
“I don’t see what’s wrong with that,” he said as he continued.
“Me neither.” Peter laughed even louder at Tony’s comment.
God, he had missed this.
In the car, Peter sat in the passenger seat but was strangely quiet until they arrive at the hotel where Tony had booked a room.
And even when they got to the room that was huge, he did not make one of his surprised comments, the ones he did every time he went with Tony on trips or conferences. About how big the room was, about whether the closet was bigger than his room … complaining about how small his room was in Queens, even though in the compound he chose a small one when he had been offered some much bigger.
“Something wrong?” He asked without knowing that he was doing it.
“What? No, yes, I’m fine” he said looking up from the suitcase.
Tony didn’t believe him but he continued with his own, deciding to leave the subject for later, looking at him out of the corner of his eye so often to see if it got worse.
They spent the afternoon in the room, talking about how things were at MIT and at the compound, it wasn’t necessary to say that Peter tensed when they talked about classes, he hid it, but not enough so that Tony didn’t realize, knowing him.
He didn’t do much more than continue to review him every bit, but when it was time for dinner and Peter hadn’t changed a bit of attitude since he had picked him up, Tony decided to insist a little more.
Although it wasn’t necessary, because when he came back from the bathroom and he asked, “hey kid, what’s going on?” The answer, although nonsense, made him understand that yes, something happened.
“Uh, well- I …”
Tony frowned at Peter’s tone. His voice trembled a bit like when he was about to have a panic attack.
“Bud, hey, what’s up, Pete?”
“No, I’m not-”
“What happens? Are you sick? What’s wrong?”
“I’m not fine” he began to tremble a little while trying to hold back the sobs.
“Peter”.
“No, I mean I’m fine, I’m not sick,” he began to cry, not holding on and trembling more than before. “I’m a failure”.
“Peter, don’t …” Tony knelt in front of him and stared into his eyes.
“Don’t say that n-no, because it’s true, I don’t serve for this, I don’t know how to do a-anything”.
“Stop. Leave that, you’re not making sense, don’t- ”
“I-I’m a failure.”
“Peter…”
“It’s true, I-I don’t serve, I should give in, leave school and-”
“Okay, okay, what’s happening? You won't say that unless- you don’t-”
“I’ve fai-failed two exams, bad. An-and I can’t, I can’t…” he began to hyperventilate.
“Pete, breath, come on, breath”. Tony interrupted his meaningless babbling.
“N-no, if I can’t pass, I shouldn’t be an engineer, I shouldn’t be at MIT, I should go home,” he paused, trying to calm down, which didn’t work. “I want to go home”.
“Relax, breath, Peter,” Tony stood up and sat down next to him, turning him gently so he could see him better.
“No, n-no, I can’t, I’m so- I, I’m so sorry. I knew that I couldn’t do it, I don’t know why I wanted to come”.
“Okay, now I want you to stop saying stupid things and concentrate on your breathing while I talk,” Tony didn’t even wait for Peter to give signs of having understood him, “you came here because you deserve it because you’ve been working hard to get there up to this point. And those exams? They’re just marks, they only are for nothing more than headaches and-”
“I just want t-to go home” he didn’t even look at him in the eyes, as if he was afraid Tony would get angry. “I-I’m sorry, I-I’m so sorry, I’ve failed you and a-a May and n-no-”.
“Kid, come on, don’t apologize, it’s not your fault, you haven’t failed me or May,” he approached him in a hug and let him vent as he spoke. “You could never, whatever you do, you couldn’t disappoint me.”
Peter began to cry harder, shaking in Tony’s arms as he ran his hand through the boy’s curls, doing everything possible to reassure him.
“I do- I, sorry”.
“Don’t apologize anymore, please” Tony pressed him a little closer to his chest and Peter seemed to calm down even more.
“I-I know it’s nonsense, I shouldn’t have bo-bothered yo-you with this, you had come to visit n-not to hear me cry for nothing”.
Tony took the kid by the shoulders and stared at him.
“Nothing that makes you cry is silly, okay?” Peter looked away and Tony straightened him again, “you understand me? Nothing”.
Peter nodded and Tony hugged him, even harder than before.
“Are you better?” Tony asked trying not to sound worried.
He didn’t answer, but he felt his head moving against his chest so Tony supposed he was nodding.
Tony didn’t know how long they were sitting there, with Peter in his arms, but it was worth every second that passed until he calmed down.
“Can we do-? So-something? I just don’t want to-” He asked so quietly that he almost didn’t hear him.
“Sure,” he said as they stopped the hug. “What about a film? Sounds good?”
Peter nodded.
“What do you wanna see?”
Peter looked at him still with tears in his eyes and smiled.
And, here was his Peter at least.
“I don’t even know why I ask” Tony sighed amused, “the seven is fine with you?”
Peter shrugged and said, “yeah".
They got up and went to the sofa in the room, Tony looking at the boy every bit.
He played the movie and Peter curled up beside him, with Tony’s arm over his shoulders as they watched the Star Wars movie for millionth time.
“Anyway, what were the exams about?”
“Statics’ midterm. I don’t think I can recover the note”.
“It was just not your day. Failing an exam is not the end of the world, especially a Statics, they are ridiculously difficult”.
Peter laughed, still sounding a bit drowned from having been crying but it was a laugh.
"But really, don't worry too much, you'll get over this".
He remained silent after that, looking at the screen as the movie played.
“Mr. Stark?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks.”
“I’m always in your corner kid.”
“I know, you’re the best”.
“No arguments there buddy”.