Chapter 2
About a month later, Tony received an email full of a package of applications that Pepper thought he would like. She explained that they had to write up a project proposal of what they thought the biggest tech advancement would be ten years in the future. It was a pretty good idea, she had to hand it to her. But when about ten applications in, his head hurt. None of the kids had much of a good idea. And he still had over 500 applications left.
“Jarvis, call Pepper.”
It rang exactly three times, before Pepper answered. “Hi, Tony. Is there a problem?”
“Uh, yeah. Why did you send me over 500 applications to read through?”
“Well, I cut them down by 90%.” She sounded confused.
“Pepper. I don’t even read the paperwork for my own company. Why would read through a bunch of kid’s shitty projects?”
“Well, did you get to Peter Parker’s yet?”
Tony motioned to the 4D screen. “Jarvis.” He watched as Jarvis scanned the proposals until he came across the last name Parker. “Here it is, sir.” Jarvis confirmed the document before him.
Tony began to skim it. “Cybernetics, huh?”
There was an obvious smile in Pepper’s voice. “That kid is a total genius. I knew you wouldn’t want to read through all of them.” The line cut off.
Tony smiled a little, but he was distracted, intrigued by the proposal in front of him. It was surprisingly informal, compared to the rest, but the vocabulary was that which he was only familiar with his colleagues speaking with. He glanced up towards the top at the three sentence biography that introduced the paper. “Peter Parker, 17. Senior at Midtown School of Science and Technology in Queens. Interested in cybernetics and mechanical prosthesis.”
There was an address listed below. Tony had to meet this kid… but first, a shower.
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Peter had his headphones blaring so loud that he didn’t even hear the doorbell. May was at work, anyways. It was only 4 o’clock, so he figured it was the postman. He was still in his school clothes, after team practice for the Decathlon this year. It was his last year, and he was dang sure he was going to give it his all. He stumbled across the living room, letting the door swing open.
“May isn’t-“ He let his eyes drift upwards, and his words completely disappeared from his lips. He noticed the nice dress shoes and pressed slacks. He almost felt himself choke. This was definitely not the post man. The further his eyes traced up, the tighter his stomach got, and the more he saw of the man before him. Perfectly tailored black suit, neatly trimmed beard, a face he saw about a million times a day on the news, in the papers….
Tony grinned, he was used to it. “Peter Parker, right?” Though his grin suppressed his surprise. He definitely wasn’t expecting what he saw. The kid was 5’8, messy brown hair and huge chocolate brown eyes. His expression was like a deer in headlights.
“Y-Yeah… T-Tony Stark?!” He quickly tried to straighten his jacket and his shoulders, the shocked expression leaving his face for a more serious one. He took a moment to take it all in. His hair was slightly longer than it had been a few months ago at the press conference. Not that he watched it or anything… He just saw it on the news.
Tony waved his hand as if swatting a fly. “No formalities kid, I’m here to tell you that you’re in.”
“I-I’m in…? In for what?” His brain was currently dead. Functioning at 2% the capacity it usually did. His head literally felt fuzzy; he probably could pass out. His life-long role model was standing in front of him.
Tony threw his hands up. “The apprenticeship, kid. I know it took me a while to read the application, but damn…” He mumbled off.
Peter stuttered through a few sentences, his face getting red with embarrassment. Tony decided to save anymore of his hilarity, and handed him a packet. “Just some paperwork. You start next Monday, got it?”
And with that he disappeared down the stairs.
Dear god, Peter’s heart was beating a mile a minute. Tony Stark just showed up to his two bedroom apartment in Queens… and told him he won the apprenticeship. He closed the door, still in complete shock.
It had to have taken him at least twenty minutes to even open the packet, because he was WELL aware that he had to be dreaming. Should he call May? It would be rude to bother her at the end of her shift. Maybe he should call Ned, instead? Peter didn’t know if he could handle Ned’s reaction right now. He shut the door to his room behind him, and pushed the wrist-carried prototype he was working on out of the way. He could finally feel himself calming down, but it was difficult, because as he slipped the paperwork out of the file, the first thing he saw was the Stark Industries logo.
But the paperwork was pretty normal. It asked for his address, age, and health problems. It also asked for any extracurriculars he was involved in, and to write down a schedule for when he could work. As he continued reading, he reached the page that listed his duties as Mr. Stark’s apprentice.
“Aid in the upkeep of the lab, attend meetings and outings, and work in detail with Mr. Stark with his projects.” Peter nodded, letting his mind wander at what Mr. Starks’s life was life. He seemed to live fairly lavishly, expensive suits, big parties overseas… I mean just look at the Avengers tower. That’s where the guy lived!
Monday, too… four days away. Peter bit his lip, he could hear May shuffling around in the kitchen. She must have gotten home a few minutes ago. Peter peaked outside,
“Hi, May.” He gave her a smile.
“Hi sweetie, still in your school clothes? I’m surprised.” She was rummaging through the fridge, “What do you want for dinn-“
“A-Actually!” Peter interrupted slightly, “I was wondering… c-can I have some money for a metro pass?” Peter took a seat at the table, his cheeks turning red. He hated asking May for things, she already did so much for him.
“What for?”
“I-I got a job! In… In Manhattan and I’d really like to take it.”
May smiled, “Wow Peter! That’s great. For college money, I’m guessing?”
Peter nodded. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell May the details just yet. He didn’t want to make a big deal out of it…
“That great, Peter. Of course you can have some money. I’ll give it to you tomorrow, alright?”
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When Tony got back to Manhattan, he wished he had told the boy to start tomorrow. He could use someone else around to help out. The lab was a mess, half the time he didn’t even discard his “failed” projects, and they just sat in the back corner. And by failed, he simply meant he lost interest, and couldn’t see them providing in satisfaction once they were done anyways. The place was a wreck, if it wasn’t for him programming Dum-E and U how to straighten the place up, he wouldn’t have any counter space to even work on.
He leaned against the wall of the elevator as he rode it up to his suite. An office of sorts. It wasn’t even truly used for that, but it was a place where Tony could go to sit. And think. Which he had been doing a lot of recently.
He remembered trying to find solace in Bruce after the Mandarin accident. The shrapnel was gone, and that was one less stressor off his back, but Bruce didn’t really ever seem to listen. He didn’t blame the guy. Like he said, he really didn’t have the temper for it.
Steve had tried to talk to him about therapy once.
“Really does a lot of good. They’re trained to treat PTSD, Tony. It’ll make you feel better t’ get it off your back.”
Steve had given him a card, but it never made it past the first trashcan he came by. Tony knew he needed help, but he just could never find the courage to actually walk up to someone and tell them he needed help. It could be his ego, or it could be the fear of them saying there was nothing they could do for a guy who was terrified of space aliens invading earth through giant worm holes. Or maybe it was the stress of the publicity of it all. He didn’t want to let the people down.
He was Iron Man, after all.