For Mr. Stark - Construction

[close_to_the_ground]

"Hey Mr. Stark!" Peter calls as he bounds into the apartment. It's construction day and painting day. Or something. Whatever, Peter's in clothes he doesn't mind ruining (that is all of his clothes, honestly) and a pair of sneakers and comes bearing chocolate croissants freshly baked by Greta. He knows Mr. Stark will bitch about the carbs but Peter knows he'll like them. Tony works way too hard not to let himself have something good. Besides, Peter more than owes him. He's responsible for Tony having to ruin a two million dollar suit, having to have his Porsche's interior redone, having to replace all his bedding again and not to mention how much all that medical equipment has to cost.

Anyway, Peter also realizes that with all the drama about The Gardener, Peter's not sure if Tony is taking care of his own health things. Once he'd felt like himself again, Peter couldn't shake that worry. He's not like Peter, he's not just gonna bounce back. Tony doesn't have a Tony to take care of him. He's just got Peter.

"I brought you some food."

Comments

[close_to_the_ground]

"Oh, apparently I totally almost did die," Peter mumbles around a mouthful of crust as he remembers last second to wipe his greasy fingers on his pile of napkins and not like, his pants.

"Got separated from Ben when everything went crazy and one of those robot guys flew up and you or one of your suits showed up and blew the guy to hell. I was a dumb little shit and thought my Iron Man costume was real. But man, I talked about it non stop for a week at school and none of the kids believed me at all."

[ahollowman]

Tony remembered that, only vaguely, which did sting a little. For him, that day was a revelation and an embarrassment, too much good and too much bad and too many insurance copayments. There hadn't been any lives lost that he'd been made aware of, but that was only by chance. So many other disasters had ended more poorly.

Well, chance and Pepper. She always did handle it.

"The kids at school were snotty little brats. Is that why you put the pajamas on? Decided that was the thing to do?"

[close_to_the_ground]

"Oh yeah, that really made the kids think I was cool," he snorts, already mostly through his pile of slices and thinking about going over for more.

"Teenagers are super impressed by secret identities you can't tell anyone about. Then you get to be a scrawny nerd but also a scrawny nerd who quit all his extracurriculars for no good reason. But hey, it's kinda cool you saved me when I was little, yeah? Ben and May were so mad but I just thought Iron Man was like, was just it. I was so star struck."

[ahollowman]

"Do you even taste your food?" Tony wondered, going slightly cross-eyed as Peter entered his fourth slice while he was still working on a first.

"Sorry I can't ... remember much of that. I was having a bad six months." Even out of a bad ten years. You had to pick me as a life goal, too? Sorry for your luck."

Tony gave a snort, chewing on his food, half-watching the television. He usually only half-watched, it was hard to fully engage when his mind wouldn't still.

[close_to_the_ground]

"Don't be sorry, I didn't think you'd remember," Peter says with a wave of a pizza slice.

"I just thought it was cool. And hey, you're a big reason I wanted to start learning to build things. And I've got no game and no swagger so the bad bits weren't even a possibility. And I look stupid in sunglasses and don't have any facial hair so the building things was really all I could do."

[ahollowman]

For whatever reason, all of that put together made Tony laugh until his eyes watered a little. He wiped at his face and wheezed.

"You're right. You don't have an ounce of swagger. You're too like Bruce. Shrinking yourself when you should be strutting. Like you're waiting for the bully's fist to fall still, even when you're the bad-assest guy in the room. But you don't need sunglasses and a beard. You've got your own thing. And you're living it."

[close_to_the_ground]

Peter rolls his eyes but can't help but laugh a little, even if he's pretty sure Mr. Stark is laughing at his expense.

"I don't think I know how to strut even if I wanted to," he agrees, setting his plate down on the coffee table and sprawling back onto the couch. Despite it's size he's managed to get up in Tony's space and knocks his shoulder as he settles.

"Man, I wish I could have met Dr. Banner. That guy was so cool. So smart. It's a toss up between Chem and Engineering for me but that really sweet spot is what you both did. All the crossover with Bio and Chem and Physics and Engineering you guys have in your head between you? Holy shit."