Work Text:
It was cold, but it didn't matter. Nothing seemed to matter in the harshly cold bunker where he lay, still hunched, his suit sparking and fritzing. He didn't know how long he'd been there, burn marks on the wall and a broken shield glinting in front of him, but he didn't really care much. Because Steve had known. Steve had known that Barnes had killed his mom. He'd known and he hadn't told him. He'd known and he'd defended Barnes. Tony and Steve had never been the closest of friends, but after everything...
The broken hero closed his eyes in distress, grimacing at the pain. He needed to get home, but a quick glance at his arc reactor proved just how difficult that would be. Thank Odin or whatever he'd had that surgery, or else he'd be dead already, but his suit definitely wasn't going to be working anytime soon. If he could ever get up, he was sure he could fix it and fly home, that was, if he could ever get up. His bones felt too cold to even wiggle a toe.
Tony closed his eyes, still not moving and sure he wouldn't be able to get himself to move for the cold, when he heard a scuffle, followed by a gasp. A familiar gasp. His eyes snapped open, and he blinked furiously to make out the blurry red figure making its way towards him.
"-ark? Mr. Stark!" Penny Parker called, and he felt a jolt of fear rush through him. What was she doing here? How had she gotten here? She knelt down beside him, her face scrunched up in worry as she looked over his trashed suit frantically, "I-I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. That cat guy was leaving on this weird plane and I tried to sneak on but he caught me and he invited me to come with him and we dealt with that weird guy outside and he left with him. I said I'd just come and find you and you could fly, I should've--"
"Stop talking," he rasped, suddenly finding it in himself to sit up, grunting at his ribs. Penny shut up immediately, her jaw clicking audibly. He glared at her, "What the hell are you doing here? I told you you were done. You could've gotten hurt. You can get hurt. The suit can't fly us out of here!"
"I'm sorry," she said again, "I don't know, I just wanted to help. Wasn't...wasn't that why you brought me here?"
Tony cursed himself for bringing her to Germany at all. For dragging her into this and for assuming a kid who had taken up a vigilante lifestyle would ever listen to him. He was angry. He was betrayed. He was tired. And he took it out on Penny.
"No. You were supposed to help in Germany, not for you to follow me around. Where was Happy? I swear one day I'm just going to kick him to the curb. First the elevator and then--"
"Don't blame him! I have super senses, it's easy to sneak away!" Penny protested, looking incredibly upset at the idea of him firing Happy. Of course, he never would, but the kid didn't know that. Still, he only responded with an irritated look.
Tony stood up, stumbling to his feet. Penny tried to help him up by putting an arm on his shoulder, but he shook her off roughly, "The arc reactor's been trashed. There might be enough material here to patch it up, which was Rescue Plan Number One until you came along. But, since you're here, I'll have to make something to contact Rho--Happy. Grab that shield and stay out of trouble."
Penny did as told, her mouth a thine line as she nodded. She clearly got the memo that he was mad at her, and he could practically feel the way she was tiptoeing around him, following loosely behind silently, a stark contrast to the heavy thudding of his own footsteps. They headed into the room he'd been in earlier, just before the fighting had broken out. Now it was trashed, with glass and broken machinery littering the ground, crunching under his metal feet.
Tony surveyed the room, blocking out everything that had just happened in favor of letting his mind do what it did best; Work. He was great at work, at putting things together and forcing out everything that was too much.
There wasn't much in the room. It was all incredibly old, and he was sure most of it didn't work anymore, especially now that it was the remnants of a battle. If he could find some old missiles, he'd be able to fix his arc reactor. Temporarily anyway. At the very least it'd provide him with some emergency firepower, as well as keep his suit warm. It was frigid in here, and he was glad for the suit's thick padding at least.
The thought made him glance at the teenager beside him. He wouldn't be able to activate her suit's heater without contacting Friday, or fixing up her suit manually. Strangely, she wasn't even shivering. Maybe spider mutations made it easier to stay warm, like how Steve could--
He shook his head. He couldn't think about that. He had to work. He had to get home and make sure Rhodey would get the best care and braces so he could walk. He needed to get this kid home to her family so she could be safe instead of traipsing around the barren wasteland of Siberia.
The billionaire pulled out a chair that scraped against the ground, sitting down and beginning to work off his armor, "Put that shield down, kid, and help me out."
"Yes, sir," she answered, placing the shield down gently on a nearby monitor and padding over to him. He grimaced at the sir, but was too tired to even bother correcting her. Penny's super strength was amazingly helpful in taking his armor off, and despite her almost godly strength, she was surprisingly gentle. She was definitely a lot better at taking apart the armor than Butterfingers and U had been.
Once all the armor was off and laid off to the side on the floor, he could really begin to get to work, though he was considerably less warm. At least he'd been wearing a suit, and though it was torn in places, it was still better than his usual under-suit. He pried his reactor from the chest plate, the energy source flicking on and off dimly.
"Kid, go and find an AT-5 Spandrel missile. They were standard Soviet missiles, and shouldn't be too hard to find. Bring me as many as you can," he ordered as he grabbed a tool hidden within a compartment in his suit and began taking apart his reactor. He thought Penny might have mumbled a confirmation, but he didn't really hear her, instead hyper-focusing on what he was working on.
Tony's teeth were chattering by the time Penny came back with what he asked for, and he could barely work for the way his hands shook with the obliterating cold and fear. There was a loud CLANG! of metal against metal. It made him shoot up in his seat, twisting around and holding out his hand despite the distinct lack a repulsor.
The culprit of the startling sound ended up just being Penny. And a bunch of missiles. That she'd dropped.
Immediately his face turned into a scowl, glowering as the teen bent down to begin picking up the extremely dangerous explosives she'd dropped, not even saying anything.
"Jesus Christ, kid! Why weren't you watching what you're doing? And you can't even listen! I told you to stay out of the fight and now you're here! Right where I don't want you to be. I don't know why I asked you for help in--"
Tony cut himself off, plopping back into the chair with a heavy sigh. He shouldn't be yelling. He shouldn't be screaming and blaming and taking everything out on this kid. Because she was a kid. And because he'd brought her into this.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark," she whispered, her voice practically nonexistent. Immediately his head snapped up, and his whole body shot up at the sight of the kid. Her face was deathly pale, her lips bluer than the sky and her caramel eyes wet.
He stepped over to her, putting as much gentleness and reassurance into his voice as he could. He put a hand up to her forehead--even he was surprised by the fatherly gesture--pulling it back, as though burned, "Jeez, kid. You're freezing up. Sit down for a moment."
"No, Mr. Stark. I'm fine, I'm okay really--"
"You're fine when I say you're fine. Sit down," he interrupted, and he noticed that she still wasn't shivering. That was bad. That was a stage of hypothermia, right? "Okay, we're just gonna have to get you warm. You're probably entering hypothermia right now, so I need to--"
"What? Why?" Penny blinked.
"You're not shivering, kid. It's a stage of hypothermia. Now, there's a heater in--"
"It's not hypothermia."
"Kid--"
"Spiders can't thermoregulate."
Tony blinked.
"That's worse. You do realize that's worse, right? We're in Siberia, and you can't keep up a constant body temperature?"
"Not really."
"Oka, okay, okayokayokay! We'll just have to work with this," Tony panicked, shrugging off his ripped suit jacket and wrapping it around her, "Just hang in there. I'm just gonna fix the arc reactor and then I can send out a message, okay?"
"Mkay," she mumbled, "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"You'll get cold without your jacket."
Tony blinked. Why did she care. Why did this child with wide brown eyes and poofy brown hair care about him. He hadn't done anything for her. Had just yelled at her and dragged her around countries to fight people.
Unsure of how to respond, he just patted her shoulder and began to work again. He was aware of Penny watching him sleepily the whole time, and he wished he could just work faster, but his hands were too unsteady to get anything done. He missed Yinsen and his steady hands.
As he was struggling to put two wires together, Penny padded up behind him, offering, "I can do that, Mr. Stark."
"Go sit back down, kid."
"Your hands are shaking," she protested. Tony stared in front of him for a moment before sniffing and moving out of the way.
"Fine, but you have to listen to my instructions. Okay?"
"Okay, Mr. Stark."
Penny did...great. Due to his shaky hands he allowed her to put the rest of it together for him, under his careful instruction of course. He'd known she was smart but...damn. This girl was an actual genius. She understood every word he said, had pieced together the arc reactor like it was nothing. Needless to say he was actually considering making her internship a real one.
Once they'd put the power source together, Tony placed it back in the suit, grateful to see the suit light up clue with power and to hear Friday's ever assuring voice, though she definitely sounded a little loopy.
"Hello, Mr. Stark," Friday said, "It is good to see you're okay."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," he responded, "Call me and the kid a Quinjet, would ya? I'm ready for a hot cup of coffee, and maybe a coco for the kid."
"Yes, sir."
Now all they had to do was wait.
Waiting, it turned out, wasn't too bad. The cold still sucked ass, but there were worse people to be stuck with. They told jokes and kept up mild conversation, managing to keep his mind off of the betrayal that had just occurred. Sometimes he still stared off at the screen where the video had been shown, but Penny would make some dumb pun, and then he'd be back in the conversation.
He ended up being able to turn Penny's suit heater on thanks to Friday's help, allowing for some color to finally return to her cheeks, though they were still both freezing. He blamed the cold for their eventual cuddle party, the kid tucked underneath his arm as they tried to conserve body heat. Though he couldn't deny that playing with her hair was calming in a way he didn't know had existed.
And in those few hours where they waited for the Quinjet, Steve almost didn't matter. It didn't matter that the Avengers were done for. It didn't matter they weren't prepared. And it didn't matter that Steve had almost killed him and left him for dead. Just for those few hours, Penny Parker was all that mattered.