Chapter Text
Peter took in the hallways as they walked, but there were no doors or windows, he was being taken the back way, he couldn’t see any cameras either, but if Tony Stark had an AI in his building maybe he didn’t need one.
Pepper and Tony talked but Peter didn’t pay too close attention, he had given a short ‘it’s fine’, in response to Pepper apologising for the clothes all being too big on him, and that he didn’t need any others.
Peter stood in the back corner of the elevator, his back pressed against the cool metal, he stood stiffly, he hated elevators, he would be stuck in a room for a certain amount of time with other people who could attack him. Pepper stood to the side, subtly checking her cell phone, but Tony stood beside him, unlike Peter Tony leant casually back against the wall with one leg crossed over the other.
“You don’t get sick in these things, do you?” Tony asked, taking a look at Peter’s face, the doors still open, presumably waiting for his command.
Peter shook his head. He watched Tony raise an eyebrow and the doors stayed open. “I’m just tired,” he told him, when he realised that Tony needed him to talk.
“You look kind of… pale. We can walk up if you like, but it’ll take a while.”
“Seriously, I’m fine, I’m always pale.”
Tony opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it with a small frown, and nodded. “Fri, take us home.”
“ Will do. ”
Despite his hatred of them, Peter was the last one out of the elevator, another precaution he had been taught. He scanned the room they entered for any threats, but there were none, it was only then that he bothered to look at the room.
The floor was dark wooden slabs in ever so slightly different tones, the walls were tall and the ones which weren’t wooden post dividers, or glass, were white. There were wooden doors like the floors around them, and framed art pieces on the walls.
“That door’s the guest washroom,” Pepper told him, pointing at the door to the left of them, “and in here’s the cloakroom, it’s mostly used by guests, but we have some shoes and coats in there, things which we wear often to go out.”
She opened the door and Peter could see several coats and a pair of muddied rain boots, the room seemed to go back further than he would have expected, but he couldn’t see far enough inside to gauge what else had gotten left there.
Peter thought about the feeling he’d had since he had been experimented on, that instinct, the one which had told him that he was safe when he had met Tony, or at least wasn’t in danger. He tried to feel that now, to see if there was any danger near him, but there was nothing. He felt comforted by that, at least a little.
Pepper led the way away from the elevator door, past what looked to be a fish tank wall, but when Peter looked again he realised that the fish were holograms, and towards the living area.
Despite being massive, bigger than the cafeteria back at the compound, the dark wood, and the art pieces, and the contemporary furniture made the room still feel cosy.
And familiar.
He took several steps away from Pepper and Tony, up at the massive fireplace, unlit due to the summer, there was an art piece above the fireplace, massive, it looked like a living thing, like movement, and Peter knew that it would sink into the wall and a television would slide down as soon as Tony asked the house to do it, asked… someone… it was blurry but it must have been a memory.
“That’s made outta-”
“-Sea glass.” The words were out of Peter’s mouth before he realised he was going to say it, his eyes were still on the art piece, he could tell now that tiny lights gently pulsed beneath it, making it seem like it was breathing, but in his mind he could remember thinking that it was alive.
“Y-yeah,” Tony’s voice sounded like he hadn’t drank anything in about a week, but woven through the jagged sound was hope or wonder, Peter didn’t know the difference between the two.
“You remember it?” Pepper’s voice wasn’t dry like Tony’s but it had the same hopefulness as her husbands.
Peter just stared at it, before shaking his head, “No,” he claimed, still staring at it, his voice was dry and flat, “I could just tell with the glass.”
He knew that those words hurt the two of them, so he didn’t turn around, he didn’t feel good about lying, but he didn’t know what he remembered - he wanted to know before he let them know that he knew. His mind was a tangle of thoughts which even he couldn’t make sense of.
“I bought it when I was younger,” Tony said after a minute, his voice had returned to the old version Peter had heard before Tony found out who Peter had been. “My dad hated it, said it wasn’t art because it was made by someone on a beach, not some pompous asshole with some oil paint. So I mounted some lights into it, and hung it up in my room where everyone could see it.”
Peter’s mouth tugged into a small smile, he had done petty things like that too, at the compound, things which got him in trouble but felt like a small rebellion. Maybe he got that from Tony.
Maybe he got it from his Hydra mother.
His smile fell.
“There’s a television behind the piece,” Tony continued when Peter didn’t say anything, “just talk to Friday and she’ll turn it on for you.”
Peter turned to look at Tony and Pepper, “Friday’s your AI, right?”
“Yup, she’s yours too, now. Seriously if you ever need anything she’s around, and she can get me or Pep or whoever if you need us too.”
Peter nodded slowly, he doubted he would ever need anyone, he was good at figuring things out on his own, and Friday would probably fill any gaps on the things he didn’t get, but he decided not to say that. “That’s cool, an AI.”
Apparently the comment was enough because Tony absolutely beamed, even if he tried to play it off a few seconds later.
The rest of the tour went similarly, they walked from the living room area to the kitchen, where Tony told him where the good snacks were hidden, and the door which would deliver any food they had sent to them from like seventy stories down.
There was a dining room, a games room, Pepper’s office, a balcony wrapping around the outside complete with another dining table, and several bathrooms.
They got to the wing of the penthouse where the bedrooms were housed, Pepper pointed out a couple of guest rooms, telling him that Rhodey would often stay in one, and that Rhodey, whoever he was, had been his uncle and godfather. Peter couldn’t remember anyone called Rhodey.
The room at the very end was Tony and Pepper’s, they didn’t open the door or say much else beside that, but they pointed at the door beside it.
The door had his name on it, carved carefully into the black wood, the name was down low, near the door handle, it didn’t make that much sense, until he realised that it would have been on eye level for a young child.
This had been his room.
He traced his finger across the letters, he remembered doing this, he remembered saying the letters out loud, announcing ‘Peter’ proudly.
“You taught yourself how to spell your name from that,” Tony told him, “you insisted on showing me every single night.”
“I…” Peter’s voice was far away, “I think I remember that? The name seemed like it was up higher on the door in my head though...”
“You were always fairly short,” Pepper told him like she was soothing him. “You were born early, you were so small, but always so strong. Plus Tony’s not exactly the tallest person in the world, so you can blame him.”
“Hey!”
Peter let out a single laugh at Pepper’s joke, mostly as a thank you that she had bothered to make a joke to make him feel better.
“I’ll have you know,” Tony said grandly yet with humour still in his voice, “I’m above average height, I just happen to often be around people who are freakishly tall.”
Peter let out a small snort of laughter. He placed his outstretched hand on the door, it felt cold beneath his hand. But he didn’t open it.
“You don’t have to go inside yet, if you're not ready,” Tony’s voice was just as soothing as Pepper’s had been, but even quieter, the voice just for Peter.
Peter wasn’t going to give in, though. He placed his hand on the door handle and opened the door.
The bedroom was massive, with the far wall made completely of glass, with a perfect view of the city at night. The walls which weren’t windows were deep blue, and the room was sparsely decorated. Against one wall was a massive bed, with bedside tables on both sides. There was a desk against the other wall, with doors on either side.
“We’ll get you more things in here,” Pepper told him.
Peter walked over to the desk, he found a small silver red bus, like they had in London.
Next to that were two framed photographs, one was a younger Tony holding a baby, him, he realised. He was older in this picture than the similar one Black Widow had shown him. The baby’s hair had several messy brown curls, and the baby was beaming, covered in some sort of food. Tony looked just as happy, even though food was covering him too.
The other photograph has an older Peter, he guessed that it was shortly before he was acquired by Hydra, as they would have put it. It was probably Easter, that or he had become obsessed with wearing bunny ears. He was beaming again, this time he wasn’t covered in food at least, instead he was building with some blocks, Pepper smiling down at him on one side, on the other Tony was frowning at what looked to be an instruction booklet.
It all looked so familiar that Peter knew that they hadn’t been photoshopped or something, but he wished they had, that he didn’t look so happy in the photographs, to not know how much had been taken from him.
“The tower was nearly destroyed a few times,” Tony told him, “we managed to keep your door, but we put everything else of yours in storage, except for those. I didn’t want anything damaged in case you… I mean there’s a lot of little kid things, but I’m having them shipped here, you can go through it, see if there’s anything you want to have here.”
Peter shrugged, “I don’t need any of those things, you can trash them.” He didn’t mean it to sound cruel but watched Tony’s face fall.
“They’re already on the way,” Pepper told him in a happy tone, “we may as well have a look through them, you might find some things you like in there.”
Peter could tell that she was trying to appease both him and Tony. He didn’t think there would be anything, he had always been told not to hold onto anything material, or anything really, but there was a small part of him which wondered what sort of things they had bought for this other Peter. “Sure, whatever.”
She smiled at him, and Tony tried his best to also smile, but his eyes were sad.
“There’s a closet here,” Pepper opened up the door closest to them, then walked across the room closer to the window, “and you have an en-suite here.”
Peter followed her and found a large bathroom, or what seemed like one, it wasn’t as big as the one he was used to, but those had been used for twenty people to shower, and this bathroom was so much nicer; no smell of mildew, no mold, no worry about having to defend himself from assholes looking to be a dick to him. “It’s… just mine?”
“Yup.” Tony told him, his energy back, the sadness gone from his eyes. “There’s some towels in there too for when you want to shower, and some toiletries, toothbrushes and all that.”
“And if you need anything else just tell us,” Pepper added, walking back into the room properly. “We’ll get you some new clothes tomorrow, and anything else you want for here. Is there anything you need right now that I can get?”
Peter scanned the room, then shook his head, “No this is… this is good. Thank you.” He could practically hear his teachers over the years yelling at him for saying thank you, and for being here at all, he felt like he had to fight against that.
“Good,” Tony clapped his hand on Peter’s back and turned him towards the door they had walked through. “We ordered a mountain of takeout, you must be hungry, let’s go eat.”
Peter had no problems with that, so he let Tony lead him away, trying not to shrug off his hand.
Tony hadn’t been kidding when he had said they ordered a mountain of food, all of it perfectly hot from being left in the takeout delivery elevator they had told him about earlier.
Peter had hesitated, despite his stomach growling at him, he had sat through tests similar to this before, but Pepper insisted that he loaded his plate.
He sent her a smile, and waited for Tony and Pepper to both start to eat to pick food for himself.
The problem with growing up where he did, other than literally everything else, was that they were fed the bare minimum and only bland, boring food which would fuel their bodies to do what they were meant to. So Peter didn’t even know where to begin with all this food which he knew from movies, and pizza from when he lived with May and Ben, though that was still fuzzy.
“The bao buns are good, they’re duck ones,” Tony told him, nodding towards the steamed ball shaped buns.
Peter picked up one and took a bite.
Fuck it was good. He quickly shoved it all into his mouth, trying not to show exactly how good they tasted, and how hungry he was.
“Good?” Tony asked, grabbing one for himself.
“‘ud,” Peter confirmed around his mouth of food, the duck filling had burnt the roof of his mouth, but he didn’t care.
Tony grinned, “You used to like them when you were a kid.”
Peter swallowed, “I did?” he blinked surprised at Tony. “I, er… I’m not sure what to…” he gestured vaguely at the food, he hoped that the man would understand, because there was no way he was going to actually verbally ask for his help.
“I’m guessing you still don’t like seafood?”
Peter pulled a face, “It’s not my favourite… but I can eat it?”
Tony looked confused then shook his head, “You don’t have to eat anything you don’t want to eat, just as long as you eat kid. How about some buttered chicken? In fact, pass me your plate.”
Peter didn’t hesitate in passing it over, even if he didn’t understand why.
He watched as Tony loaded his plate with rice and noodles, then every possible main that could go with them onto the plate so Peter could try all of them.
“Thanks,” Peter sent him a small smile as he accepted the plate back.
As they ate Tony and Pepper peppered him with questions, they were very careful to avoid talking about hydra or the compound. They were the sort of questions Peter asked new people in his bunk to get them to calm down a little, the newer ones… he had never asked where they had come from, or why they were so scared, perhaps he should have.
So he answered their questions: His favourite colours were blue and red. He liked winter because he liked all the Christmases he saw in movies even if he got cold easily. His favourite movies out of all of the ones he had managed to watch were Star Wars, Han Solo was clearly the coolest, and Leia was clearly the most bad ass, but Peter’s favourite was Luke, he liked his hope and persistence.
“I used to watch those with you.”
Peter frowned, “You did?” He knew that the movies had seemed comforting and familiar, but he couldn’t remember that.
“He did,” Pepper was smiling at the memory, “Before you were even holding your own head up.”
Tony shrugged, “I see nothing wrong with that.”
Peter let out a small laugh, “Yeah me neither.”
Tony grinned at him, and slid him the last slice of chocolate gateau as a reward.
“Do you have any hobbies?” She asked, sliding away her half full plate, the mountain of food was now reduced to only a few half full tubs.
Peter had to stop himself from laughing at that. “I didn’t exactly have a lot of spare time at the compound.”
“Oh… of, of course.”
Pepper’s face fell and Peter felt bad again, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
“-Honey, don’t apologise, I should have thought about it, I was just thinking that if you had a hobby we can add things to the shopping list for tomorrow.”
“I’m all good, honestly, you don’t have to waste your money on anything for me.”
“Pete,” Tony’s voice was firm like he meant business, “spending money on you isn’t a waste. Anyway we’ve got years to make up for: so whatever hobby you wanna try we can get.”
Peter watched as Tony took Pepper’s hand and squeezed it.
Peter felt like a stranger in this place which was too familiar to make that feel right. Seeing them like this was like catching a tiny fragment of a memory. He looked away from them, it hurt too much to know that he should have seen this every single day, and it was beyond weird, it wasn’t like he saw much affection at the compound.
He pushed away his plate, finally full, or at least not feeling hungry anymore.
“Do you want to watch a movie, Peter?” Pepper asked him, “It's pretty late but I know you slept a lot in the medical wing.”
Tony stood up and began to clear the table, taking a plate from Peter as the teenager tried to help, forcing him to respond to Pepper.
“I… I’m pretty tired, actually. Is it okay if I go to bed?”
“Of course it is, honey. We can watch a movie another time. Let me show you where the things for the shower are again.”
Peter let Pepper grab him a towel and show him anything he could possibly need, he could have figured it out on his own but he figured Pepper wanted to show him.
Once Peter was set he was pulled into a surprise hug.
“I’m so happy to see you again, honey,” she whispered to him before pulling back. “If you need anything just talk to Friday, or come and find me or Tony, okay?”
“Sure, but I’ll be okay, Pepper.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m all set.”
She nodded and looked like she was about to leave him be, but instead pulled him into another hug, before letting go and walking out of his room after wishing him goodnight.
Before Peter could do anything Tony walked into the room, carrying a small pile of clothes.
“PJs, they’re all new, I’ve never worn them, we just get sent them, and you could do with something to sleep in. “
Peter looked down at the red hoodie he was still wearing, he supposed he couldn’t sleep in it unless he wanted to burn alive. So he took the pile, raising an eyebrow when he realised that the pyjamas were made up of Iron Man shorts and an Iron Man tee.
“
Great
,” he told him, dosing his words in sarcasm, “thanks, just what I always wanted.”
Not completely a lie, but Tony never needed to know that.
“I figured,” Tony retorted. He looked around the room. “You’re gonna be safe here, kid, I promise.” He sounded like he was reassuring himself, not Peter. “If you want to talk about anything, about the places you were living, or if you want to know anything about your life here, I’m… you can talk to me, any time, hell you could wake me up at four in the morning to talk.”
Peter was going to just shrug him off, but perhaps it was the hour, or the fact that his world had suddenly imploded in the last few days, that Peter hesitantly nodded then, “I… I can’t… not yet… Did… Pepper said you got me to watch Star Wars when I was a baby… did we watch movies often?” He knew it sounded dumb and awkward, but Tony smiled anyway.
“All the time, especially when you were sick. I think I have every Pixar movie out, in those four years, memorised.”
Peter smiled softly, “I used to watch movies on this shitty laptop in the vents, I mean most of the time they were in the wrong language and missing parts, but I… yeah.”
Tony lifted his hand as though he was going to touch Peter’s head, but before he could Peter flinched. Tony dropped his hand.
“We’ll watch more movies, you need to be educated on good cinema,” he added the last bit as a joke but Peter could tell he was thinking about the flinch. “Take your shower and I’ll see you in the morning.” Tony told him, he didn’t try to hug him like Pepper had, not after the flinch, but he sent Peter a warm smile.
He had made it to the door before he turned back around, “Oh, erm, don’t try and leave the apartment, if you wake up early, Fri’s got security up high so just stay put, yeah? If you need anything-”
“-ask Friday or find you and Pepper,” Peter recited from memory, they had both told him that enough. He should probably feel like a prisoner, not allowed out anywhere, but this was more freedom than he’d had in his life, if anything it was comforting, knowing what he could or couldn’t do. “Got it. Night Tony.”
“Night buddy.”
Peter stayed in the shower longer than he had expected, but he couldn’t move out of it. He sat on the built-in seat and let the water wash away his sweat and tears. It was all so much, and Pepper and Tony were being so nice and Peter just felt like he was somehow ruining it, like he was talking the life of someone still alive.
He washed with the shower gel Pepper had left, and shampooed his hair with whatever was waiting for him in the shower. He brushed his teeth, managed to swallow only a little mouthwash by accident, and got confused by how he was meant to floss, so he gave up on that one.
He changed into the new clothes, paused for a second, then slipped the hoodie on again, not because it was Tony’s, just because he liked the colour red.
When he was finally done he looked in the mirror, he looked brand new, his hair was lighter with the dirt washed out, his face didn’t feel as oily, and his eyes only had small bags under them. He looked like he could almost fit in here now. Okay that was an over exaggeration…
It took him only ten minutes to realise he would not be able to fall asleep in this bed, and another five to figure out what to do; he grabbed the duvet, the discarded blankets and cushions, and piled them up in front of the widow, after making sure that Friday would keep the blind up, Peter settled into his self made nest and watched the city until he fell asleep.