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How could Tony refuse, when the kid had looked at him with those wide eyes and barely managed to stammer out the question? He had been determined to keep Peter at arm's length when it came to his personal business but he supposed a tour of his personal workshop at the Avenger's facility couldn't hurt.
The fact that Peter was interested in science was a plus, better than trying to mentor a kid who had no interest in the subject, at least it gave them something to talk about. Plus it meant Tony could show off without having to say a word, all he had done was open the door to the workshop and Peter rushed off to examine everything, letting out exclamations of excitement as he did. Tony replied at the right times with nods of his head, polite chuckles and firing his own questions back at Peter to answer. It was so easy to be impressive in front of him, he didn't have to do anything and Peter still thought the world of him.
As Peter stood at a work bench examining Tony's latest drafts for a new suit he could feel something nagging him at the back of his mind but he couldn't quite feel what it was trying to tell him.
His thoughts were interrupted by Peter's shout of delight as DUM-E wheeled over towards the new visitor.
"Mr Stark is this your robot?" Peter asked reaching out to touch DUM-E only to be greeted with a playful snap from the robot's claw.
"Are you kidding?" Tony replied, walking over to join them. "Built the original model in my father's workshop when I was sixteen. Haven't been able to get rid of him since. Goes by the name DUM-E."
"Mr Stark he is so cool!"
"You want him? Please, take him, get him out from under my feet," Tony joked and was repaid with a serious of whirs and clicks from the bot.
"Sixteen? I couldn't imagine building a robot right now," Peter responded and Tony could see a flicker of self doubt under the surface. He knew one thing for sure and that was that he wasn't going to let Peter measure himself up against anyone else.
"Well, at that age I wouldn't have imagined myself swinging from buildings and having superhuman strength and reflexes. All while hanging out with the world's most famous superhero."
Peter smiled before looking up at him. "I'm not friends with Captain America," he said while doing his best to keep a straight face. DUM-E whirred at hearing this in what felt like an attempt at laughter, which was enough to push Peter over the edge and cause him to start laughing too.
"I can't believe this," Tony replied turning away from them to head towards his desk. "I'm being made fun of by a kid and a robot." Then the nagging feeling was back and he realised what it was, the joke had been the final piece to put it all together.
He turned back to look at Peter who had now spotted U lurking in the corner of the room and was seemingly being introduced by DUM-E. Peter looked ecstatic and was attempting to figure out how to shake hands with U. It was the excitement at all the equipment, the affinity with the two bots and then the ease at which a joke had come at Tony's expense. It was like having Bruce there.
He watched in silence as the bots pulled at Peter's shirt and dragged him over to a work bench and were now attempting to force various tools into his hands.
"Mr Stark," Peter called out across the room. "I think they want me do some maintenance on them, is that -?"
"Knock yourself out," Tony replied trying to act flippant. Bruce used to do the same, he was always ready to take time off of whatever research he was doing in order to attend to the bots needs. Tony had always given him a hard time over it, telling Bruce that he was spoiling them, but Bruce simply shrugged and did it anyway.
With everything that had been happening lately it felt nice to just sit and watch as Peter attempted to figure out what each of the bots were trying to say to him as they whirred, beeped and clicked at him with their claws.
Tony sighed, head in hand thinking about how outnumbered he would be if Bruce were here too. It was a wonderful thought, the idea of Bruce being back and seeing how much progress Tony had made without him. He even had a kid working in his workshop with him, Bruce would never believe him if he could tell him.
He sat and watched as Peter attempted to understand what it was that the bots were trying to say to him as he worked on them. Eventually, Tony was too caught up in his own day dreams to notice that DUM-E had seized something off a nearby desk and was returning to Peter with it.
"What's this?" Peter asked taking the object from DUM-E to observe it.
The bot responded with a series of affectionate beeps. that caught Tony's attention and looking over he saw that Peter was staring intently at a photograph, Tony's eyes snapped up to a nearby workstation and saw that the photo he had pinned there was missing.
"Is this you with Bruce Banner?" Peter asked across the lab, without looking away from the photo.
Tony jumped up and made it across the room in several quick strides.
"That's private," he responded, pulling the photo out of Peter's grasp. "And you," he said pointing at DUM-E, "are getting disassembled." He walked back across the room in silence to his desk. The photo was from a rare moment when Bruce had permitted his photo to be taken so was one of the only photos Tony had of them together.
"Was that taken when Doctor Banner was still in the Avengers?" Peter asked in small voice, clearly startled by Tony's reaction but obviously hiding a hint of excitement.
"Yeah," Tony replied opening a draw and carefully placing the photo inside.
"Do you still work with him?” Peter asked.
"What do you know about Doctor Banner?" he asked, trying to sound casual and gesturing to a chair next to him which Peter eagerly took.
"Uh, well," Peter stammered clearly trying to think of a suitable answer. "He's got seven PHDs, he’s an expert in Biochemistry, Bio Organics, and Gamma Radiation of course. Basically the world's smartest man, until..."
"Until?" Tony prompted.
"Until he retired from the public eye a few years ago. Well that's what people say anyway."
"And what do you say?"
"Well my friend, Ned, and I had our own theory.... But"
"Theories are good, let me hear it." Tony replied encouragingly so that Peter knew it was okay to speak his mind.
"Doctor Banner's the Hulk, that much we know. But even the Hulk hasn't been seen since the Avenger's fight in Sokovia. It’s the longest recorded period without a Hulk appearance..."
Tony could sense that Peter wanted to ask something but was clearly trying to think of how to phrase it.
"Did something happen to Doctor Banner at Sokovia?" Peter finally managed to ask as gently as he could. "Is his retirement a lie?"
"Yes,"Tony sighed. Peter gasped but Tony continued before he assumed the worst. "But it's complicated."
"What happened?" Peter asked quickly, clearly excited to be let in on such a secret. “Is he on a secret Avenger mission or something?”
"No, nothing like that. Truthfully, I don't even know," Tony offered with a shrug. "But whatever happened it resulted in our good friend the Hulk managing space travel." Peter looked confused and Tony supposed he didn't blame him, after all he didn't understand it himself. "Whatever happened, both Bruce and the Hulk are no longer on Earth."
"What, so he's like a... Space Hulk now? Is the Hulk originally from space? Is there a planet of Hulks?" Peter blurted, once again becoming carried away.
Tony laughed. He felt a weight lift off his chest hearing Peter's naive response to all this. It was refreshing to hear a light hearted reaction after suffering through his own mind's turmoil these past few years. Bruce would have laughed too.
"This is all classified information," Tony added in mock seriousness. "You can't tell anyone this stuff, not even the other Avengers." The last thing he needed now was for Peter to blurt this out in front of anyone and Bruce's secret would be out. It took Tony a moment to realise that he had just told Peter a secret he had not even managed to confide in Rhodey yet. Now the only other person who knew Bruce wasn't hiding somewhere on Earth was Peter.
"Of course, Mr Stark," Peter replied in that nervous fluster like he often did when anything relating to the Avengers came up. "You know me, I won't tell anyone."
"Not even Ned?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. He didn't even know who knew Ned was but it sounded authoritative to say.
"Not- not even him," Peter said nervously licking his lips.
Tony supposed that Peter would probably would end up telling his friend, but who would believe the overheard words of two highschool kids anyway.
"Mr Stark?" Peter asked after a few moments of silence. "Is Doctor Banner coming back?"
"I don't know,” Tony replied feeling a surge of sadness.
Peter didn't say anything in response. Tony didn't like how vulnerable he was being in front of Peter right now. He always did his best to act like the confident Iron Man that he knew Peter admired so much but right now he wasn't capable of mustering the energy to do so. He supposed Peter would see him like this sooner or later.
"Mr Stark? Were you and Doctor Banner... a thing?" Peter asked nervously.
"Okay, this conversation is over. Happy!" Tony yelled, fully aware that Happy was hovering just outside the door. Happy waited several seconds before entering and shooting Peter an annoyed look like he often did. It always amused Tony how much Happy overreacted at Peter's behaviour all the time and it had been for that reason he had put Peter in his charge.
"Mr Stark, I'm sorry, I didn't-" Peter attempted.
Tony put up his hand to silence him and waved over towards the bots.
"Don't forget to say goodbye to them or I won't stop hearing about it all week."
Peter nodded and said his goodbyes while attempting to pull his shirt sleeve out of DUM-E's grasp as the two bots attempted to stop him from leaving. Tony watched, secretly amused as Happy joined in the effort to free Peter's sleeve before irritably ushering him towards the exit.
"Hey kid," Tony called before they had made it out of the room.
"Yes Mr Stark?" Peter asked turning back eagerly to hear Tony's parting words.
"Someone, certainly not me after the stunt they pulled today, is going to need to give them mantinecne at least once a week." Tony said gesturing over to the bots and letting the words hang in the air and watched, delighted inside, as the meaning of his words dawned on Peter.
"Yeah, of course Mr Stark! I would love to!"
"Yeah yeah," Tony said dismissively with a wave of his hand and turning away. "Get out of here."
Once he was alone Tony looked back at the two bots who were now looking over in his
direction. "Don't say I don't do anything for you." he said, shaking his head.
Opening the draw, Tony fished out the photograph to stare at Bruce's smile, wondering what he would say if he had just witnessed this afternoon's events. No doubt he would have joined in Peter's jokes and accused Tony of not looking after DUM-E and U enough.
Smiling, at the idea of it all, Tony set the photo back on the desk where it belonged.