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Peter peeked his head around the corner of the wall he was hiding behind. Bringing his phone to his mouth, he quietly spoke into the speaker. “Friday? Is there anyone near the staircase?”
It took a few seconds before there was a reply.
“Not at the moment.” Came the softly Irish accented voice. “But Boss is currently in the communal kitchen.”
That… that wasn’t ideal, but it was also the best Peter was going to get.
Sneaking down the hallway, he crouched behind a support beam as he scanned the lower level. He was right next to the staircase that led to the ground floor and really didn’t want someone to stop him now.
“Ya might want to hurry, Mini Boss. Boss is finishing up the smoothies he’s making as we wait.”
The got Peter into gear. Turning on the camera on his phone and setting it to video, he got into position in front of the staircase. Easily jumping onto the railing, each foot on one railing in an easy stretch, he made sure he was comfortable.
If this went wrong then Peter knew he was going to be in a load of trouble.
“You ready to record, Friday.”
“Always, Mini Boss.”
Taking a deep breath, Peter hit the record start button so he could get a POV version while Friday captured the third person video.
Once he was sure that his phone was recording, Peter concentrated on letting the stickiness on his feet release. Once he felt himself starting to lose his grip he braced himself. Soon enough, he started to slide down the railing, quickly gaining speed.
As concentrated as he was on getting a good video and keeping his balance, he didn’t see nor hear Tony come out of the kitchen and into the common room. He was 3/4 of the way down the railing when the sound of the man swearing and glass breaking caught his attention.
“What the fuck!”
It was enough for Peter to lose his balance, one foot slipping off the railing. Tucking himself into a ball, he felt himself hit the floor instead of stairs and roll, coming to a stop in the middle of the common room in a sitting position.
Well shit. The horrified look on his mentor’s face was not good.
“I can explain.”
Peter watched as his mentor’s face went from horrified to outraged.
“Then you better start explaining right this instant and it had better be damn good too.”
Scrambling to his feet, Peter tried his best. “So, you know like that stunt you sometimes see in movies or like at some form of party? Where the person tries to show off by sitting on a stair railing and sliding down?” At Tony’s nod he continued. “Okay, well, I thought it would be cool to learn basically a more dramatic version of that? Especially since the enhanced everything would help with actually doing it and with the eventuality that I would fall.”
Tony looked at him like he had hit his head and gone slightly insane. Which, he didn’t. His head was perfectly fine, thank you. Peter knows how to tuck and roll damnit.
“So you wanna learn whatever hell version of a rail slide, that you just attempted, all because it’s dramatic?” Tony put his face in his hands, voice becoming slightly muffled. “Jesus Christ.”
“I also wanted to scare people with it.”
Seeing Tony’s head snap up in a glare, Peter hastily tacked on, “Not you specifically. Just like the Rogues or even Rhodey. You just caught me practicing for the first time is all.”
There was a long silence as the two just stared at each other. It was broken by Tony sighing as he scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Next time, just… just give me a heads up, alright?”
“Okay!”
“And if you get injured AT ALL, you are to immediately go to medical. Friday will let me know if you don’t.” Tony glares at one of her cameras. “Won’t you, Friday?”
“Of course, Boss.”
Peter was bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. He’s basically getting permission to scare all the other people at the compound!
“And lastly,” The engineer held up a hand to the excited teen, stopping him from saying anything just yet. “I want video. Especially if you get around to freaking Rhodey out with that stunt.”
Nodding enthusiastically, Peter bounded over and wrapped the man in a hug, ignoring the spilled smoothies and broken glass.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Feeling a hand pat the top of his head and smooth out a few rogue curls had Peter even more giddy with happiness.
“Yeah, yeah. Just try not to hurt yourself.”
The crunch of glass under their feet made Tony look down.
“You’re also cleaning that up. I’ll make some new smoothies.”
After that, Tony had short snippets of video sent to him via Friday for the next few weeks, each showing the reactions of the Rogue Avengers to Peter’s increasingly dangerous rail stunts.
The ones that got to Tony the most was the day he was sent two videos. One each from both Friday and Peter. Watching the one from Peter had Tony laughing so hard he thought he was going to be sick, the look of pure unadulterated panic on Rhodey’s face setting him off. Once he opened Friday’s video he understood exactly why the man had looked like that, also feeling nervous even if he still thought it was hilarious.
The video showed Peter sliding down the compound’s stairway railing, one hand holding his phone while the other held onto the railing itself. The rest of him was up in the air in a handstand as he zoomed down the slick metal surface.
If Tony didn’t know the kid was enhanced in a way that actually allowed that kind of behavior, he would’ve wrapped the teen genius in about a million layers of bubble wrap and never let him out.
It was only the knowledge that the kid had handled worse (even if the thought threatened to give Tony an aneurysm) that allowed him, in good conscience, to save the video right next to his other favorite.
Because while Rhodey’s reaction is his favorite, seeing the Winter Soldier run up and grab Peter just as he started to surf — he had a piece of cardboard as a board and everything— down the railing had Tony giggling. Actually giggling.
It was nice to know that there were people who cared about Peter as much as Tony and Aunt May did — even if the kid didn’t know it yet judging by the confused look on his face in the video.
And Tony 110% planned to use the resulting lecture that Bucky had given the poor teen against him. The kid’s scandalized face as he was reprimanded would be the source of Tony’s amusement for years.