Chapter Text
An invite for the rescheduled event arrived in Peter’s inbox a couple of weeks later. He sent a screenshot to Tony tagged with the subject Did you duke it out with Ms Frean? and received a reply that just said Went over her head and then a bunch of emojis including strong arm nail polish 100 100 100. Tony, Peter thought, was really embracing middle-age.
A few weeks after that found Peter, MJ, and Mr Stark driving to a less fancy convention hall that had precisely zero ceiling décor bar lights for the awards ceremony. There were another round of fancy canapes before the show started to enjoy, though.
The ceremony began with an update on their previous venue and confirmation that no one was injured before they invited Pepper Potts to give another speech and present the awards. Peter was re-inspired all over again and was left feeling antsy to rush back to the lab to try and change the world. Miss Potts stayed on stage and then was joined by the rest of the judges, who waxed lyrical about the quality of presentations, difficulty in choosing etc etc. At the end, Miss Potts stepped forward to present the final winner.
‘And the winner is…’
Even though Peter knew he didn’t have a chance compared with the rest of the room there was still a part of him that hoped against all odds…
‘…Michelle Jones!’
The room erupted in claps, and Peter hit his hands together so hard they stung. MJ looked absolutely shocked but got up and made her way to the stage. Peter whooped from his seat, got an unfavourable look from the people next to him, and returned to just hitting his hands together as hard and as fast as possible.
~
He and Tony hung around at the end, while MJ took photos with all the judges and her intern lead, holding her certificate. She looked nervous but super pretty.
When she finally came to join them Peter picked her up and spun her round. He immediately doubted himself, but when he put her down, she was grinning.
‘I can go out of state for college!’ was the first thing out of her mouth. Part of the prize was the chance for SI to entirely sponsor further education. Peter gabbled on about how proud he was, how happy he was for her, how well deserved it was for long enough that MJ stopped looking embarrassed and started looking amused. Mr Stark did a much cooler ‘Nice job,’ that MJ dipped her head to.
Pepper Potts came down off the stage and joined them. ‘I just wanted to say congratulations again, and how well deserved it was.’
MJ beamed and blushed and said thank you far more intelligibly than Peter would’ve managed in her situation. After a few more well-wishes, Pepper departed, to be replaced by various other interested parties who wanted to get in on the new winner.
Eventually the crowd dispersed and Peter was left with MJ in the atrium. Peter had managed to snag some extra canapes while MJ was being swarmed and they huddled in the corner they'd agreed to rendezvous with Tony in and scoffed them down.
Tony comes back eventually.
'Where have you been?' Peter asked.
'Giving you time and space to make a move,' Tony says with no shame.
The blood rushes to the surface of his face so fast it prickles. 'Mr Stark!' he says, mortified, unable even to glance at MJ to see her reaction.
Tony grins unrepentantly back at him. 'Ready to go?'
~
Pepper's standing at the door saying goodbye to people as they leave.
She congratulates MJ again, who blushes, again, and then says some nice words to Peter about his project, and then it's his turn to blush.
Then, very interestingly, when she turns to Tony she says, 'Are you coming tomorrow?' and Tony says, 'I'll be there,' in, like, really warm tones.
Peter, because he's not an animal, waits until they're outside before turning to Tony, eyebrows raised.
Tony grins back at him, but says nothing else so Peter is forced to say, 'Well...?'
'Well, what?' Tony said digging his keys out of his pocket.
'Are you and Miss Potts back together?'
Tony laughs, getting in the driver's seat, sounding significantly lighter than Peter has heard in some time. 'Getting there,' he says, and if it had been anyone else Peter would have said he sounds almost giddy. 'We reconnected after the previous event,' he adds casually.
Peter, torn between punching the air while whooping and acting cool, ends up doing an odd half-flapping motion with both hands and letting out a strangled squawk that meets none of his objectives.
MJ raises her eyebrows in a way that lets him know that she did not find that smooth, at all, then rolls her eyes when Peter tries to inconspicuously make the money sign at her. 'Pay up,' he mouths, when he's sure Tony's eyes are on the road.
'I've done enough for this,' she says, which Peter is inclined to agree with.
He drops the money sign, but he is still totally kicking his legs in the backseat.
The rest of the drive is quiet, but the silence is a comfortable one. MJ is dropped off first, and then it's just Peter and Tony in the car.
'I've been thinking about extending the range of applications for the web fluid,' Tony starts, and then the car is parked outside of Peter's apartment for, like, thirty minutes because the discussion that followed couldn't be contained in the time it took to get there.
~
They're in the lab. Peter is working on modifying the webs for use as an adhesive in construction. He could ask Tony for help, but he's enjoying the challenge, being back in the creative flow, where time just disappears and suddenly it's been hours of tweaking quantities and making notes and new ideas sparking with every success and failure.
There's a change, though. Usually, it takes audible borborygmus from either party to stop for the day and go eat (which is sometimes raiding a fridge stocked with a private chef's best premade meals and dashing back down to continue and is sometimes ordering food and then dashing back down to continue) but dinner time today sees Miss Potts coming down the stairs.
'Dinner's ready,' she says, and then does a subtle double take when she sees Peter. 'Hi,' she says with a smile. 'Are you joining us?'
'Yes,' Tony says, before Peter can stutter through 'Oh no, I must be going, look at the time'. Right on cue, his stomach rumbles, so it's probably for the best.
'If that's not too inconvenient,' Peter says.
'I was only planning on heating up the pre-made meals,’ she says with a laugh. ‘So, it's really no bother.'
~
Now when Tony heats up his private chef’s meals, that involves microwaving them in the lab, eating a few bites and then getting distracted with work, so then they get microwaved again and then again when they get cold and repeat until full or finished.
Miss Pott's version involves turning on the oven and laying the table and glasses of sparkling water. It's the first time Peter has sat at the table and it's different, but not in a bad way.
He's a bit worried he's not going to have anything to say. Peter has mostly got over his star-struckness around Tony, except when he hasn't, but Tony is a naturally chatty man, so even if Peter is feeling shy, there are no awkward silences.
Turns out, he needn't have worried. Miss Potts is a masterclass in how to engage a guest and not make them feel like a third wheel. Peter is chatting up a storm even before dessert is served, and with Tony contributing quips the atmosphere is jolly. Whatever is happening between him and Pepper looks good on him, Peter decides.
Dessert is a chocolate lava cake, gooey and melted and, even though he's warned, Peter burns his tongue on the first spoon of molten chocolate, but it tastes so good he doesn't care.
'This is the best thing I've ever eaten,' he tells Miss Potts sincerely.
Tony concurs and she laughs and it feels like a warm golden filter has been set over the apartment.
After, Peter sits boneless, slumped in his chair, belly full and sleepy. He'll have to leave soon to get the subway home, but he is unbelievably comfortable and full of pleasant lassitude. He'll give himself just a little time to rest and digest and then force himself up and out into the cold dark.
'How's MJ?' Pepper asks.
'Good, good,' Peter says. 'She's got the next intern lined up to continue her project so it doesn't all fizzle out once she leaves and her lead said she has a guaranteed place for next summer if she wants it.'
'Very well deserved,' Pepper says.
'Have you asked her out yet?' Tony asks, of course.
No matter how often Tony implies or outright asks, Peter never fails to blush. His blushing is also directly linked to his voice box, so he sputters out some nonsense while Tony grins unrepentantly.
Pepper puts a hand on Tony’s arm. 'You're incorrigible,' she says, shaking her head. 'Go at your own pace, Peter, and ignore him.'
'If you don't act soon, someone else will,' Tony says, still grinning. 'You need some decisive action.'
'What, like you?' Peter says, a weak comeback but the best he can do while blushing.
Tony takes the hand that Pepper has on his arm in his own. 'Exactly,' he says, looking like a cat that has got the cream. For her part, Pepper rolls her eyes and shakes her head at Peter.
'Again, ignore him,' she says, then slightly ruins it by adding, 'She was very complimentary of you when I spoke to her.'
Peter puts his head in his hands. He's embarrassed, but it's not in a totally horrible way. It's like he has an extra aunt and uncle who are ribbing him. He looks up.
'Watch out, I might actually do it and then you'll be all alone in your lab again,' he says.
'Nah, bring her along,' Tony says. 'The more the merrier.'
He's smiling and looks sincere. Now, Peter doesn't like asking for things. The anxiety of even thinking of trying has woken him right up out of his post-prandial languor. But there is a best friend code, and Peter can be brave for one of his favourite people in the entire world. 'Could...Ned come along?' he says. Then, to try and disguise the words amongst others, 'only he's, like, even smarter than me and way better at coding and he would literally die it would be the coolest thing ever for him, but he would also be totally normal, don't worry he's not a creep, he's just really intelligent and enthusiastic and I can't even imagine what he could achieve with your resources.'
Peter takes a breath that is a bit of a gasp. Tony is still smiling in an amused, indulgent manner. 'Sure, Ned can have a trial day in the lab. Can't offer your girl and exclude your guy in the chair.'
The idea that Tony might have been listening to Peter's rambles is almost more than he can take in. Usually he just runs his mouth and assumes that Tony is tuning him out, like most people. That he remembered Peter referring to Ned as his guy in the chair, combined with the sure knowledge that Ned is going to totally freak and it is going to be the best present Peter has ever got him, means Peter says, 'Thank you, thank you, seriously, thank you so much, you won't regret it I promise.'
His gratitude rant is not providing the reassurance he hoped. 'It's a one-day trial, and if he's a weirdo it's less than that,' Tony says. 'Tell him if he breaks the lab rules, I will be kicking him out pronto.'
'Of course, of course,' Peter says, then, '...What are the lab rules?'
Tony pauses, then rallies. 'Don't be weird. Wear goggles. And...no egg in the lab.'
'Okay, of course, yes,' Peter says nodding. Internally, he's thinking hard. Ned can do the latter two, no problem. His hardboiled egg phase is pretty much over, and he usually doesn't keep them in his pockets anymore. The glasses won't be an issue. But for the last...would Tony view excessive fanboy-ing as weird?
~
Ned, predictably, freaks. He tries to breathe into a bag, except his lunch is in plastic not paper so Peter has to emergency rescue him from suffocation.
'Mr Stark says you gotta be cool,' Peter says. 'And no eggs.'
Ned, still breathless says, 'Dude, I am physiologically incapable of being cool. I wasn't built that way. If I enter Tony Stark's personal lab, I’m gonna faint or cry.'
Peter, who has watched Ned try and ask for a picture with an E-list celebrity from one of his mother's reality TV shows, unfortunately believes him. 'Maybe you could just...not talk? Or, like, let him lead the conversation?'
Ned has his head on the table. 'I can't believe I am going to ruin my one opportunity to see the place that Iron Man makes his suits due to my genetic flaws in meet and greets.'
'Genetic?' MJ says. She's got her sketchbook out.
'My mom met Paulo from her soap opera –you know, that guy that was secretly the father of the main girl and he kidnapped her when her stepdad wouldn't let them meet and then he got leukaemia and recovered but then he was in a car accident and died in the third season—oh okay, never mind, basically, someone called the ambulance. Literally, blue lights. And she never even got her picture or managed to compliment his portrayal of a man separated from his child.'
'Devasting,' MJ says, deadpan.
'It was,' Ned confirms.
'Could you at least try be chill?' Peter says.
Ned looks like a man sentenced to hang. 'I'll try my best.'
~
Ned comes along to the next lab meeting, having told Peter that a longer build up time is not going to help matters. Peter texts Tony to doublecheck his welcome, and tries to subtly give a heads up. 'He's a big fan of yours, but don't worry, will be cool.'
Tony texts back 'If he's weird he's getting kicked out strong arm red cross emoji' which is not entirely reassuring to Peter.
As the elevator rises, Peter can see the blood in Ned's face drain in the opposite direction. 'Mr Stark is chill,' Peter says for the millionth time. 'Don't worry about it.'
Ned doesn't look reassured.
Tony isn't there to greet them, which isn't unusual, but Pepper is in the kitchen, which is. 'Oh hi, Miss Potts,' Peter says.
'Hi Peter,' she says. 'And you must be Ned?'
Ned lets out a squeak and looks visibly scared. 'Yes,' Peter confirms.
'Would you be able to help taste test a pie later on?' Pepper asks. 'I'm meant to be doing a potluck in my hometown next week, but my efforts have not been very successful so far.'
'Of course,' Peter says and Ned goes 'I can't believe I might eat something Pepper Potts made' in an all-too audible voice.
Peter grabs him by the arm and hurries him down the stairs and into the lab. There's security, but not as much as you might expect. Peter suspects a lot more of it is happening surreptitiously. Ned is suitably impressed by what there is visible, the iris scanner, the disembodied voice of Tony Stark's AI.
The doors open, but when they step inside Tony is nowhere to be seen.
'Mr Stark?' Peter says uncertainly and hears a muffled curse as Tony hits his head on something. Shortly afterwards, he emerges from under a car.
'Pete, welcome, and you must be Ted,' he says, nodding in Ned's direction.
'Tony Stark knows my name,' Ned says in awed tones.
Peter elbows him. ‘Be cool,’ he hisses.
'Hi Mr Stark,' Ned says, about an octave higher than usual.
Tony looks suspicious but ignores it and turns to Peter. 'What do you want to do today?'
'I was thinking of working on the suit,' Peter says, having pre-decided that that is the best neutral, mutual territory. 'With yours and Ned's input into the coding I can incorporate some of the new web fluid I've been working on. It needs different timings and synchronisation I can't figure out how to code.'
Things are a little awkward to begin with, and occasionally Ned will say something and Tony will turn to Peter with his eyebrows raised in a ‘Who is this guy?’ kinda way. When they had originally started working together, Tony said that he identified as a 'bit of a misanthrope', which Peter had promptly ignored because, well, evidence suggested otherwise. He still didn't think it really described him, just thought it was a defensive way of saying 'takes me a little while to warm up to people, especially in my personal spaces'. Peter had forgotten this but is reminded with the addition of Ned and the way that Tony is just that bit less relaxed than usual.
For Ned's part, although he started out fish-eyed and silent, the minute things get technical he suddenly forgets who he is speaking to. Peter was more than a little relieved when, five minutes into the coding, both Ned and Tony were talking a mile-a-minute, and Tony started to forget to deliberately misremember Ned's name.
They make good progress, and a little while in Peter thinks that Tony might even be starting to like Ned. Peter’s biased, but Ned is the best. Not only incredibly smart, but also incredibly nice and kind-hearted and everyone who meets him should think themselves lucky.
And then, Ned pulls out a hard-boiled egg out of his pocket.
Now, Ned isn’t a savage, it’s still in its shell. But that doesn’t entirely help his case when he starts absent-mindedly piling up bits of shell on the desk.
Tony stops talking, and looks on in clear horror, as Ned explains something through a mouthful of egg.
Tony says, very quietly, 'No eggs in the lab.'
'Wha wah tha?' Ned said, through a mouthful of egg.
Peter's hand is on his arm, and he is dragging him out before Ned can even swallow the mouthful. 'Dude!' he said. 'I told you no eggs!'
Ned looked distraught. 'I forgot,' he said. 'I just never took the egg out, and then it's just a habit to have an egg whenever I get in the flow. Brain food, you know,' he said mournfully.
And then, because Ned is a comfort eater, he takes another bite of his egg.
Peter sighed. He loved Ned and that meant accepting that Ned was a creature of habit, who didn't have a bad bone in his body, but also was pretty absentminded.
'Wha's even up wih the egg?' Ned asked. Having viewed the mush currently inside his mouth, Peter was inclined to just take a picture and show him, but that seemed overly cruel so he just sighed and said, 'I don't know.'
'Do you think he'll kick you out permanently as well?'
Peter hadn't even considered that, but the instant it was said it became reality. 'Probably,' he said despondently.
'Should we just leave?' Ned said.
'We should probably say goodbye to Miss Potts first,' Peter said. Then, double guessing himself, 'Right? Or should we just go without disturbing her?'
Ned was not known for his decisiveness so was not the ideal candidate to ask. 'Maybe we should say bye... or would we just be getting in her way? Do you think Mr Stark would be mad that I was speaking to her?'
They looked at each other, and Peter knew it would go nowhere if he didn't make the decision. One time Ned had prevaricated over a snack choice for a full thirty minutes.
'We'll say a quick goodbye and be out of their hair.'
~
They found Miss Potts in the living room, tapping away on her laptop, a rich warm smell coming from the kitchen.
'That smells amazing,' Ned says, thankfully having finished his egg on the way up.
'Thank you,' she said warmly. 'You're up early.'
'Yeah, we're heading out now, just came to say goodbye,' Peter said.
'Is something wrong?' she said, concerned.
'I ate an egg,' Ned said in tones of a man who knows he's done wrong.
Pepper looked confused. 'Was it bad? Do you feel unwell?'
'No eggs in the lab,' Peter explained.
Pepper didn't look much enlightened.
'Mr Stark kicked us out,' Ned said.
'For an egg?' Pepper asks.
Both boys nodded.
Pepper shakes her head as if to say, “There's always something with this guy” then says, 'You'll stay to test the pie though?'
It doesn't feel like a question. 'Uh— if you would like?'
'Yes,' Pepper says decisively, and that is how the two boys come to be seated in the casual lounge area, Peter spending half his focus on not spilling on what he is sure is the most expensive couch ever to host his buttocks and the other half on trying to catch Ned's spills. It's not that Ned has no coordination whatsoever, but if someone is going to spill the odds are on him.
It's really good pie, though. Like, good enough that Peter almost forgets about the spilling issue. It's sweet, but not too sweet and is topped with nuts that are roasted to perfection and the base is done just right and Peter doesn't even really care about pie ordinarily but this might be in his top three desserts of all time.
'This is so good,' he says.
'This pie changed my life,' Ned says. 'It will forever be divided into before this pie and after.'
Pepper looks like although she doesn't entirely get it, she understands that this is meant to be a compliment and demurs.
Then, Tony walks in. 'Wondered when you guys were coming back, should have guessed you'd been seduced away with pie.'
Ned is so startled he upturns his plate, and if Peter had not been enhanced the world's largest dry-cleaning bill would have been headed their way. As it is, Peter manages to divert it from the couch and rug to fall onto the floor right side up. The plate even manages to escape chipping. Peter breathes a sigh of relief.
'My pie,' Ned says in tones of devastation. He then becomes aware of Tony and falls silent in terror.
Tony is...unconcernedly cutting himself a generous slice of pie. He doesn't look angry to discover two delinquents sat on his couch, eating his potential girlfriend's pie. He takes a seat across from them next to Miss Potts and begins eating. His focus is totally on his pie. Having recently had a near-transformative experience himself with that pie, Peter can kind of get on board with it, but he is still waiting for an axe.
But, when he finishes, Tony just says, 'Are you two coming back down or do you need a ride home?'
Peter and Ned look at each other, the silent language of best friends. Ned does hope like no one else Peter knows.
'Would you be okay if we came back down?' Peter says gingerly. 'You know... With the egg?'
'You have more eggs?' Tony says, nose wrinkling.
'No, sir,' Ned says, although Peter is pretty sure he's lying. Ned always has more eggs. It's a Mary Poppins pocket of eggs situation in his jacket.
'Then, let's finish this thing. What time do you have to go again?'
~
They do get it done, at least mostly. Ned is the one who cries off before it's fully debugged but his mom is the most terrifying opponent Peter has ever faced so he understands. Miss Potts tells Tony he has to drive them home because it's late so Ned gets to ride in Tony Stark’s car. Peter lets him take shotgun and he looks like a kid on Christmas, although Mr Stark, sensibly, bans him from pressing any buttons (Ned literally sits on his hands to remove temptation, which Peter privately champions).
They drop Ned off a way down his street ('no, no, do not let my mom see me in this car, she's going to think I'm involved with drug dealers, no offense Mr Stark, thank you sooo much for everything today I will remember it for the rest of my life, right here is great thanks, byeee') and then it is just Peter in the car.
Now, Peter lived further out than Ned and MJ, so it made practical sense to drop them off first. But there was a part of him that quietly hoped that just maybe Tony also enjoyed his company.
He let the silence be for a bit. Sometimes Peter tried to force himself to wait for the other person to strike up a conversation to indicate that they were keen to talk. But ultimately, his curiosity is too strong on this night. 'So, was Ned cool or what?'
Tony turns to him. 'I don't know if cool is exactly the word I would use, the little nerd.' He pauses, then says, 'But he does fit right in.'
Peter grins in the dark. 'Ned's the best.'
Tony is quiet, but sincere when he says, 'You're lucky to have each other.'
There was quiet for a bit longer and then Tony gave a cough and said, casually, 'By the way, I spoke with a contact I had about the potential for the web fluid’s use as a construction adhesive, and he's keen.'
Peter perked up, 'Oh yeah?' He wondered if Mr Stark knew how grateful he was that he was networking on Peter's behalf. Sometimes Peter felt vaguely guilty. It felt a bit like nepotism, and a bit like taking advantage. But Mr Stark managed to make it feel like no big deal.
'How much do you want to be involved? There's the option for you to go to their R&D and work on it, but it'll be a full-time role, probably your entire summer. Or, we can just give them what we've got so far and you can just be kept on in a consultant role.'
'Is it SI?'
'No, it's a much smaller company. Well, relatively. They still have a huge lab and R&D budget. Lot of money in construction.'
Peter didn't know how to articulate what he felt. 'Would you be okay with me working for someone else? Isn't that...a conflict of interest for you?'
Tony shrugged. 'Not really. SI doesn’t do construction.'
So, Mr Stark had found him this opportunity, and he wasn't even going to get anything out of it.
'What do you think I should do?' Peter asked.
'If you don't mind giving up your entire summer, I think you'd learn a lot,' Tony said. 'They're pretty established with internships, and they have a good reputation. We hire an above average number of people who have done their internship program, and I asked a couple of the guys at SI about their experience and they were both mucho gushy about it.'
Mr Stark was downplaying this, but he'd clearly put more than the bare minimum of effort into this.
'Thanks,' Peter said. 'For, uh, organising all this.'
Mr Stark made a pfft noise. 'All I did was ask a guy. You will need to do what I'm sure are reams of paperwork to make it official.'
Peter smiled to himself. Mr Stark was no good at taking a compliment. Then, another thought struck him, one that sent a cool rush of unhappiness through him. 'Have I-' he started, then realised he had no idea how to phrase what he was asking without sounding pathetic. 'Uh, I guess I won't be coming around to you any more then,' he finally settled on, trying for casual.
Mr Stark looked surprised, like this hadn't occurred to him. 'Guess you will be too busy,' he says eventually. 'But you're more than welcome if you don't find construction adhesive research thrilling enough.'
It didn't sound like a rejection, but the fear that Mr Stark had put in all this effort just so he could have a plausible reason for getting Peter out of his personal space remained.
Initially, Peter stayed silent, but the fear built up until he couldn't stay silent any longer. 'Would you rather I stopped coming now?' he said. 'You really don't need to be worried about offending me, I totally get that I'm in your private space and I make everything take way longer because I ask a million questions because I don't know anything, I really do appreciate everything you've already done for me and I've learned so much, and I totally understand if you just want your space back for you.'
'Woah, woah, woah,' Mr Stark said, taking his eyes off the road momentarily to look at Peter. 'Chill with the verbal diarrhoea, okay? I have not constructed this elaborate summer internship plan to give me an excuse to get you out of my hair. If I wanted you out, I would just tell you, I am not a shy or polite person. You're fine, relax.'
Peter relaxed by half a degree, but embarrassment curdled his spine.
'I think your web fluid has potential and I think you would benefit from a place where they have structure and learning opportunities. I flatter myself that you are learning things with me, but it is on a very ad hoc basis and it's tricky to put on your CV in concrete form. This one has an official educational supervisor and, you know, certificates.'
So, maybe Mr Stark really was just doing this to be nice. 'Uh, thanks again,' Peter said.
'Well, after we did this whole internship presentation thing I realised I probably had some kind of duty of care to you and ought to be giving you something you can actually use, not just pure messing around having fun.'
'No, no,' Peter hastened to reassure him. 'The new Spider-Man suit literally saved my life on multiple occasions. I would've been totally stabbed to death by now if not for that messing around having fun.'
'That is not the heartwarming statement you think it is.'
There was a break for Tony to hoot violently at a car that cut in. The driver flipped him off and carried on. New York drivers. Nothing like ‘em.
'I would have made the suit regardless,' Tony said, as if nothing had happened. 'That's just fun for me. But if I'm taking up enough of your time you can't do extracurriculars figured I probably have a duty to arrange something. Although,' he said reflectively after a minute, 'could always do a letter of recommendation.'
'If you kicked me out the car right now and never spoke to me again I would still be eternally grateful for everything you've done for me,' Peter said.
Tony pulled a face. 'Find some self-respect.'
'Buzzfeed did an article on how much my suit probably cost and I wouldn't be able to afford it even if I had like ten children and sold all their organs individually.'
'I don't think that's a reliable journalistic resource,' Tony said. 'And I'm a billionaire, I can't only spend my money swinging elections for tax breaks.'
Peter lets the comment pass uncontested. As far as he can tell, Tony just starts saying stuff if you try to even suggest that he isn't entirely selfish. He picks a different tack.
'If anything, I should be doing things for you. Do you need a legit intern? I could get you coffee no problem. I could get you so much coffee. I'm really sticky, I can carry like eight cups at once all up my arms. Wait, probably more, I’ve got chest space.'
'Thank you for that horrifying mental image,' Tony says, 'but I'll have to decline the coffee monster. I've got willing slaves coming out of my ears. Perks of being rich and famous et cetera et cetera.'
Peter still wanted to communicate gratitude, but was starting to suspect Me Stark wouldn't allow it in any recognised way.
'Well, if you need me— or Spider-Man, just let me know.'
Tony nods in an indulgent, “Sure, like that’s gonna happen” sort of way.
~
Peter did the construction adhesive internship. He had a fabulous time and got to hang out with a bunch of college kids on their year in industry which was super cool, and by the end of the summer they very nearly had a viable prototype which was even cooler.
And after all his angst, he still made his weekly lab session with Tony, most of those weeks. Summer is only like 6 lab sessions which is barely anything at all when you have Spider suits to upgrade and explosive webs to make. Ned came along more often than not, and there was a special kind of alchemy when it was the three of them working together on the Spiderman suit. When Peter was younger he got told that the secret ingredient in his Uncle Ben’s cookies was love, and for the longest time had sincerely believed that. Now, that, but with code.
But sometimes it’s nice to be like it is now, just the two of them. They have hit another snag on suit construction and have switched back to their web fluid recipe grind. The memory of being stuck to the ceiling has faded enough that Peter can stand to try again, although the safety goggles are on and Mr Stark is wearing gloves, which he basically never does.
So far, neither have actually been used. They’re not trying for maximum stickiness this time, and Peter has, along with some dry legalese and how to persuade middle aged men that he has good ideas, got to learn quite a bit via his summer internship.
Today, the modifications have been minor tweaks, that mostly have so far only succeeded in making it less useable. Small is, however, how it usually starts. Minor changes and then, before you know it, they’re egging one another on, one-upping each other’s ideas and upping the ante, culminating in explosions and accidental sticking to ceilings.
But no one is on the ceiling yet.
Peter carefully pipettes the newest batch out into one of the web shooter prototypes. They’ve sorted out a 3D printed mini mass production line for this exact scenario, and Tony has an entire drawer dedicated to the most basic form of web shooter.
(Tony’s lab organisation system is a mystery to Peter and, he suspects, also to the man himself. Trying to find the right drawer for something is like the coolest dumpster dive he’s ever done, with treasures in every drawer (and, quite frequently, trash too). He’d kept this thought to himself, however, not sure that Mr Stark would appreciate the comparison.)
He aims and shoots. The mechanism jams. He adds thinner, tries again.
‘Hey, Pete!’
Oops. Hopefully, the old band t-shirt didn’t hold too much personal significance.
‘I’ve had this shirt since I was your age.’
Well that answered that question. ‘Time for an upgrade?’ Peter’s drama skills didn’t extend to lying about how easy it was to remove web fluid from clothes (Very, very, extremely difficult).
Mr Stark sighed and tried to brush off the worst of it with a gloved hand. Glove instantly stuck to the shirt. He pulled his hand out the glove and looked up, unimpressed, at Peter.
Peter ran up to him, glue thinner in hand. ‘How attached are you to this shirt?’
Another sigh, this time resigned. ‘Do your worst, kid.’
~
So, good news is that the new formula is skin-safe, or at least it isn’t actively burning or itching Mr Stark after thirty minutes of trying and failing to get any of it off him, his shirt, his glove. Getting stuck to the table was actually entirely his fault though, for trying to reach over and get a screwdriver for prising off attempts. Really if you thought about it, the table, glove and screwdriver attached to his body were all a result of his own actions.
Peter is very, very carefully putting a single drop of acid on the join between glove-table-shirt. The acid is not skin-safe. It hits the web fluid and… rolls off.
‘I like this shirt, but I don’t know that I want to wear it for the rest of my life,’ Tony says somewhere above his head.
‘You know when I had that chunk of ceiling on my finger, it took less than a week to shed enough of my top layer of skin that it could come off.’
‘Very reassuring,’ Tony says. ‘I’ll just walk around with this table attached to me for the next week.’
And, as annoying it would be to try and manoeuvre round with a table attached to you for a week, it would not be as annoying as trying to manoeuvre with a glove, table, screwdriver and teenage boy attached to you, which became the situation shortly afterwards.
‘I’m really sorry about this, Mr Stark,’ Peter said. He could make eye contact if he twisted his head, but he was choosing not to. ‘I really thought I was strong enough to separate you.’
Tony had sighed more in this one evening than Peter had ever heard, total. He did another one just then and didn’t say anything else, which was more of an indictment than any words could have been.
Pepper Potts walked in at that moment, which was kind of a relief. ‘To- oh hi Peter, what’s going on in here?’
‘We’re a little stuck,’ Tony said.
Pepper comes closer to examine the situation. ‘You don’t say.’ She rolls up her sleeves. ‘Tell me what to do.’
~
It takes… a long time. A truly unbelievably long time. Partway through they stop to eat a takeaway, Peter one-handedly managing to spoon enough in to gather strength for the next effort.
Pepper Potts turned out to be the ideal person for the job. She remained aware at all times of the sticky potential, thus avoiding adding a third person to the human-glove-table-screwdriver-human combo, and slowly (so slowly), methodically chipped, peeled, dissolved, snipped, levered until Peter was free of Tony and Tony was mostly free of the table. (‘I think we are going to have to sacrifice some of this table in order to move forward’).
They have ice cream on the sofa upstairs to celebrate.
‘Super glue has nothing on that substance,’ Pepper says, with feeling. ‘There has to be some practical use for it.’
‘Stick your enemies to their chairs,’ Mr Stark suggested.
They all laugh, but Peter’s is strained. He is beyond relieved that they finally got Mr Stark mostly free, but the chunk of table still glued to the front of his shirt is a visual admonition. He goes back to focusing on his ice cream.
‘By the way,’ Mr Stark says, super casually.
‘Yeah?’ Peter says.
‘Pep and I are engaged.’
Peter does a full-on spit take. The carpet he had saved from Ned he cannot save from himself. There's a pattern, sure, but it's all in various shades of creams and pastels. Very elegant, very muted. Very hard to hide a large chocolate ice cream stain.
He apologises profusely, while also simultaneously trying to congratulate them. He's not sure he manages to communicate anything beyond being extremely flustered.
He goes to grab paper towels, while Pepper gets the stain remover from a hitherto unknown kitchen cupboard.
'No harm done,' she assures him cheerfully. 'This stuff is magic. I should have taken out stocks in the company the amount we use it. Tony's always getting grease strains on the soft furnishings, a little chocolate is nothing we can't handle.'
The stuff is indeed pretty magical. Peter is back on the sofa shortly, although he refuses second helpings as tempting fate.
'Congrats again,' he says to Tony while Pepper is putting the ice-cream away in the kitchen. A sly grin comes over his face. 'So, you're going to name your first child after me?'
'What?'
'I basically single-handedly engineered their parent’s reunion,' he says.
'You illegally joined an internship program and via a near mass public health disaster we ended up talking to each other, I’m not sure how much credit you can take for that kind of serendipity.’
Confession time. 'The only reason I joined that program was so that I could get the two of you in the same room together.'
Tony's turn for a double take. ‘What?’
'Yep,' Peter said blithely. 'You guys were my real project all along.'
Tony drags a hand over his face, says, ‘You are one crazy character, kid,’ and then they’re both laughing, loud enough that Pepper calls through from the kitchen to ask them what the joke is and then they’re all laughing, together.
~