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Peter sighs as he finally enters the clinic. His day has been a ginormous mess and he just wants to pick up his beloved pet and go home and pass out forever. Of course, nothing ever works out for him and he comes to the clinic only for the receptionist, Christine, to look at him in that usual worried slash painfully tired way she usually does whenever this happens.
“Did he get out again?”
Christine smiles, strained and weary. “Yes. I'd only noticed after we closed up.”
So Peter apologizes and sets on his merry way to look for his traitorous pet. At least he only does it when the clinic's finally closed so yeah, small mercies, he guessed. He's so engrossed with his task that he doesn't even notice when the clinic's front door chimes open and close, doesn't notice that someone else had entered the building until he hears a very, very familiar voice.
“Hey Christine, I'm here for my Sweetums.” the voice says and had he been drinking something, he'd have both choked on it and spat it out in a powerful spray.
He'd know that voice anywhere, of course. He’d spent countless hours listening to that voice and fantasizing over what it'd be like to finally hear it in real life. He finally gets his answer today and it is fucking unbelievable. He's sure his family didn't have a history of lung or heart problems but he's suddenly unable to breathe, heart beating so fast he's sure it's gonna burst. He's dizzy and feeling faint and god, if this is how he's gonna go—having a heart attack from hearing his greatest idol in real life—then he has no regrets. He scoffs at himself. If MJ was here, she'd have a fit laughing at him how he's the picture perfect image of a crazy fanboy.
“He's inside,” he hears Christine say, “Want me to go get him?”
“Yes, please.” the voice replies, a bittersweet kind of longing tinged with the slightest hint of excitement.
It's then that it hits Peter.
The Anthony Edward Stark is in a veterinarian’s clinic at a little beyond operating hours. His impeccable knowledge of this man that comes with the territory of being a die hard stan dictates that Tony Stark didn't have pets, and sure, he can only learn so much from what practically constitutes as cyber-stalking but he's dead sure he doesn't have any, which begs the question: What is Tony Stark doing here?
Tony was looking for his “sweetums” and Christine said that he was inside which it makes it seem like he's here for the doctor? God, he hopes not. He's pretty sure Dr. Strange and Christine were A Thing™ but he's not entirely sure? They argue a lot but like, in that gross, sexual tension-y kind of way but who knows, really.
Seconds later, there's Christine chuckling over the sound of a dog barking and the curiosity’s finally too much for him that he peeks out from the corner he totally wasn't hiding in.
He's greeted by the sight of Tony Stark kneeling on the floor with a basset hound licking all over his face. His heart immediately bursts with overwhelming affection because god, if that isn't the purest, softest thing Peter’s ever seen.
“Bats,” Tony coos, “How is my baby boy? Have you been good?”
Christine chuckles again, kneeling down to pat the dog, Bats, on the head before standing up and turning to leave. “I’ll leave you two be.”
Peter, who’s still melting at the sight, figures that he should probably do the same and let Tony have his private moment with his dog and not follow his aching need to take a video. He wouldn't share it, ever, just keep it forever with the knowledge that he's probably one of the few people who knows that Tony Stark is super soft with animals.
(Though he did save a dog from getting run over a few months ago and—oh god, it was this dog. Everyone assumed he’d had taken the dog to a shelter but to think that he’d actually kept it?? Too fucking soft. He can feel his insides rotting from the sweetness even as he's melting into the ground.)
He moves to turn around and mind his own business but in the world’s most cliche move, his jelly legs fail him and he trips on air and falls, faceplanting in a way that would be hard for Tony Stark to notice.
What he wouldn't give for the earth to swallow him whole right now.
“Please don't tell me you fell for me.” he hears Tony say and if he wasn't burning bright red already, that comment would've made him look like the brightest tomato.
Thankfully, he's used to using jokes to make himself a lot less likely to pee himself from the nerves and says as smoothly as is possible from someone whose face is glued to the floor, “I got nothing, then.”
Tony laughs at him—Tony Stark laughs at his dumb ass joke!!—and before he knows it he’s being helped up. God bless the world, he's never washing his hands again.
When he’s up and is as stable as he can ever get while he's face to face with his fucking idol, Tony smiles at him, like he's not even bothered he’d caught him fawning over a dog and asks, “So what's a guy like you, diving face first in a place like this? Pretty sure Strange doesn't operate this late.”
Peter wills his laugh to not sound like he's choking on a myriad of emotions and replies, “Oh well, work is evil so I don't get out till late and as much as I'd love to pick up my pet and go, the evil little thing’s escaped his cage again.”
Tony snorts, “A lovely pet-owner, calling the light of their life evil? I’m intrigued. What is it?”
Oh my god, is this flirting??? is what Peter would’ve said but thankfully his brain-to-mouth filter is working well and what he says instead is, “It's a tarantula.”
Tony looks at him like he's trying so hard to not be appalled but fails, his face a mixture of what the fuck and why would you do that . “People actually keep those as pets? No offense.”
Which Peter totally gets. They look gross as fuck to the normal person, apparently, but Peter finds them morbidly cute. “None taken.”
Tony grins at him and then makes a weird cross of sad and disgusted. “I'd help you look for it but.”
“It's fine,” or better than fine because Tony! Stark! sorta wanting to help him? After randomly meeting him in real life is already too much. “He’ll turn up soo—oh there he is.”
Tony freezes up, Bats looking as spooked as his owner and Peter tries so hard not to laugh and promptly bursts out in laughter. His evil little baby is on Tony Stark’s head looking like he has every right to be there. He makes a move to get him but it just makes the little thing crawl towards Tony’s forehead which is all it takes for Tony to start freaking out.
Bats starts barking at the obvious display of displeasure but Tony gently shushes him and tells him to go back inside. Bats obeys. Peter thinks Tony’s got a grip on the situation but he starts freaking back out once Bats goes in what seems like a private lounge through a little doggy door.
“Holy shit,” he says in a not quite scream. “Please get this demon off of me.”
Through bits of laughter Peter apologizes and tries to get the mean little thing off of Tony, standing on his tiptoes to reach the top of his head. “It's okay, just calm down. He won't bite just don't move around too much so he doesn't fall off.”
Tony obediently stops twisting in place and ducks his head a little. “Do they really explode if they drop?”
Peter snatches the tarantula off Tony’s head with a triumphant smile. “Kinda? They’ll usually die if they fall off though, even at small heights.”
He finally backs away and presents Tony with his baby beast. Tony glares at it like it's personally offended him. “Umm,” he tries. “Kaine says hi?”
Tony scoffs, says, “Nice to know that little demon’s appropriately named,” which makes Peter chuckle, and in a tone he's never dared imagine to be ever directed at him, Tony says, “How about the guy who saved me from that beast?”
Peter’s like, a few breaths away from hyperventilating into oblivion but he plays it cool, and if his voice cracks, Tony doesn't let it show.
“Don't encourage him,” he says as the beginnings of a joke he hopes to god doesn't sound weird, “He revels in the fear and misery he causes.”
Tony laughs at him like he's the world's greatest comic and smiles at him like he's the best thing that's ever happened to him and it's a little overwhelming in all the right ways.
“I’m Peter, by the way. Peter Parker.”