For Tony - Post Kidnapping

[close_to_the_ground]

He's okay. That's what Strange kept trying to tell Peter as he'd tugged his mask over his head and immediately started webbing through the city, trying to get home. He didn't care if he was wearing his civilian clothes, didn't really give two shits who saw him.

Tony got hurt. And okay wasn't gonna cut it until Peter saw it with his own two eyes. He still didn't understand what had happened. He got beat up? That doesn't make sense and even without the suit Tony Stark can handle random muggers or whatever so there's gotta be more to it than that.

God, it's Peter's fault he doesn't even have a suit, anymore.

He swings to one off the windows of the penthouse because taking the stairs from the roof is too slow and pops the window open, stumbling into the living room.

"Mr. Stark!" he yells, pulling the mask off, hair hopelessly messed up. "Mr. Stark?"

Comments

[ahollowman]

How good you can be.

Tony lifts his head and watches Peter go with an odd expression, still clutching his mug.

"Mm-hm."

It was, possibly, one of the kindest things Tony had ever had said to him. But Peter was one of the kindest people he'e ever had the fortune of meeting.

"Don't be too long."

[close_to_the_ground]

Peter nods, feeling oddly exposed even though that wasn't even the most embarrassing thing he's ever said to Tony. But everything feels wrong, seeing Tony hurt like that. So terrifyingly wrong.

He pays the delivery guy with a tight smile and a generous tip and is back up to the penthouse in under five minutes.

"So movie is your choice, tonight. When you get beat up and get a new boyfriend out of it, you get to choose the movie," Peter announces, carefully dishing the food and arranging it on a tray for Tony to eat off of on the couch. "Eat up."

[ahollowman]

"You gonna change your mind if I pick What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" Tony asked, half-teasing.

He watched Peter quietly as he took care of setting up their dinner, and put aside the warm mug only when he needed his one hand to start eating.

The soup was a good idea.

"What if we tried to put a team back together?"

[close_to_the_ground]

Peter just stares for a moment, thrown by the change in topic and it takes a few moments to figure out what Tony's even talking about.

"Wait, seriously? Like the Avengers? But, uh...huh. So like next time, I don't just call you but I call a team? I don't, I don't know how to put something like that together."

[ahollowman]

Tony did turn the television to Gilbert Grape, before hiding the remote in the depths of his sling for safekeeping. At least it had a use.

He plucked some of the chashu pork from on top of his ramen. When he spoke again, his voice was strangely distant.

"You don't need to know how to put something like that together. Because I'm the world's second leading expert."

Although there were times when he wished it weren't true. That Fury had stuck around to look after what he'd created, and not put the burden on Tony's shoulders. To keep them outfitted, and organized, and fed, and safe, and as far away from reprisal as possible.

He'd failed.

[close_to_the_ground]

"I mean, I don't know much about superhero teams but I like the idea of backup. Especially for you," Peter decides, realizing that maybe Thor would be on it.

That would be so goddamn cool.

"Like, we could have a system, right? Like a superhero phone tree where we can easily call for help and someone is always available. And uh, oh man open comms when we fight together."

[ahollowman]

"That's exactly what you need. An open comm with everyone on the field."

Tony snorted and went after some of his noodles. They ordered from a good place. They were always fresh, and the perfect texture. Tony had some texture issues.

Tony had some issues.

"You're right, though. Backup would be good, especially for me."

[close_to_the_ground]

"You can't spend all your nights rescuing me from ridiculous stuff," Peter laughs, taking up his chopsticks to snag some Kakuni.

"I'm glad you're okay," he says, a little quiet. "I know you're in pain but I mean like not seriously hurt. You know that if something happened to you, I wouldn't be okay. I really need you."

[ahollowman]

"What's so ridiculous about sentient hedge animals?"

Tony gave a wry smile. He set aside his food for a minute to set his phone on the table and bring up a holo of the screen. It would be easier to manipulate one-handed. He started by trashing half of his email, and then opened a CAD file.

"That's a new responsibility for me. I'm not used to being needed. It's usually the other way around. "

[close_to_the_ground]

"Yeah, well, you can need me," Peter says around a mouthful of noodles. "Can't just be one sided, you gotta be getting something out of the whole thing other than a reduced bank account."

He leans down and scoops Red onto the couch from where she's been eyeing them patiently. "Huh, girl? We gotta take care of Mr. Stark."

[ahollowman]

Tony laughed when the dog whined, like she actually knew what the hell Peter was talking about, and then winced when the noise pulled at his bruised chest.

He looked at Peter curiously then.

"You know that's not all I get out of this, right? Having you around isn't nothing. Anyway, this was all in the ten year plan. Have children. Create elaborate pranks to have executed in my will."

[close_to_the_ground]

Peter glances up from his noodles, red in face at the 'isn't nothing' comment. He knows, knows Tony loves him and so maybe that's enough like it was enough for May. Peter definitely drained pretty much everything from her, especially after Ben died.

"Yeah, I feel like adopting a teenage spider-mutant kid and a three legged dog was super in your ten year plan," he snorts. "Teach him how to drive, how to swim. Buy him a new chem lab at school."

[ahollowman]

"Hey."

Tony lifted his hand and carded it through Peter's hair, holding his bangs away from his face. He'd seen May do it before, and it felt natural, the first time he'd tried it. And that was the best cue he ever had trying to learn this. Do what felt natural.

He wondered if Peter understood. If someone so young really could. Tony hadn't even understood, not until Pepper. What it felt like to love someone in a way that poured so much of your ego into them that they were more important to your survival than yourself.

"If I teach you one good thing, then I'll have done everything I needed to. I think that was the whole ten year plan all along. Now be a dear and go get my contacts case and my glasses from the bedroom."

[close_to_the_ground]

Peter doesn't even think about how he instinctively leans into Tony's hand, always a little starved for that contact. More than he thinks sixteen year old boys should be.

"Yeah well you've taught me like a thousand good things so I guess you can just kick back and relax for the next two years," he murmurs, closing his eyes for a moment before he pushes up to trot over to Tony's room.

"Pretty sure this right here is why you adopted a kid. Fetching stuff."

[ahollowman]

"Is that not what a child is? An indentured servant?"

Red looked at Tony as if she were offended he'd gotten himself hurt and upset The Boy and Tony looked back at her, frowning. He wasn't about to be lectured by a dog.

"No leftovers for you."

He rubbed her head between her ears, watching them flop while he waited for Peter.

Reaching over, he gave the plans on the holo screen a spin. The suit had a new addition to the design, an electromagnetic force field. But that wasn't good enough, not when he had the Mark L to compare it to.

[close_to_the_ground]

"Your readers, grand-dad," Peter announces, dropping the glasses and contact case in Tony's lap, as if Peter hadn't needed glasses until the spider bite.

He flops dramatically back onto the couch, stretching out on his back and staring up at the suit specs.

"Any way to keep it more air tight or is that not possible without the nano-tech?"

[ahollowman]

"That's what I'm working on," Tony said, pulling an alcohol wipe out of his contact case before opening it with his teeth.

"Gimme hand," he demanded. "So far what I have works. Works wonders, actually, although maybe better in a different application. Nothing gets in. Which is also the issue. Nothing gets in. Not microparticles, and not wifi. Not radio waves. Nada. If it's on, everything's dark."

[close_to_the_ground]

Peter reaches over his head and snatches the case, carefully opening up both sides and disinfecting them before handing them back.

"Huh," he huffs as he settles back down, thinking through that. "Oxygen is gonna be an issue after a while if you're sealed up that tight. You're either gonna have to go so high tech that even you haven't invented it yet or rely on something seriously old school."

[ahollowman]

Tony carefully removed one contact lens before the other, before slapping the case shut. He would deal with the rest of it all later, for the next couple days, he would just be grand-dad apparently.

He slid his glasses on and gave a few blinks.

"That's the thing. That's what drives me batty. The tech already exists. It's in Ant-Man's suit. But I'm not allowed to have a look at it. Not even a little look. I called Pym. He's got a very creative vocabulary, for the record. Knows at least fourteen ways to tell a Stark how to go fuck himself."

He rested his head back again.

"I hate it when people give me a taste of my own medicine."