~Iron Family~

Happy's Comic Books

Happy was waiting for him outside the door to the lab.

"Let's go," he sighed, switching his phone off. He barely glanced at Peter before swiveling on his heels and starting to walk down the hall.

"Am I having dinner with the Avengers?" Peter asked, jogging to keep up.

"Yeah," Happy answered in a bored tone.

"Woah!" Peter's hands flew to his head. "For--for real?!"

Happy ignored him.

"This is the greatest day of my life," Peter panted. "How--how many Avengers will be there?"

"Three," Happy grumbled. Peter scratched his nose and thought about something for a moment.

"So, uh...why do they call you Happy?"

Happy slipped on his sunglasses and clenched his jaw. Peter closed his mouth and put his head down, staring at the polished white floor as it slid by under his feet.

The elevator took them down for what felt like several hundred floors until it opened up into the dining hall. There were long gray tables throughout the hall, stretching out all the way to the other side of the tower. From the windows, the lights of the city glowed in the darkening sky.

There were two buffet counters on either side of the path from the elevator. The lights looked modern and high-tech, and the walls were hung with strange abstract paintings. Peter could never make sense of those, they always made him dizzy.

There were several plants in the dining hall, surprisingly. There were some dangling in pots from the ceiling, others attached to the wall. They extended their delicate crawling stems, seeming to wave to him as he entered the room.

At first, Peter had thought that seven o'clock was rather late for dinner. Now, gazing around at the huge dining hall, he realized Mr. Stark probably set the time to when everyone else would be finished with dinner already and they could have some peace and quiet.

Just the very idea of being in the same room with the Avengers was making Peter's head spin!

Most of the buffet was being cleaned up, but Happy managed to grab Peter a few slices of pizza.

"Uh, I can't eat all that," Peter blurted, then he bit his tongue. Rude. "I mean, um...thanks, Mr. Happy! I'm starving."

The corner of Happy's mouth twitched, and Peter got the feeling that if it had been on anyone else's face, they would've smiled.

"Just call me Happy," he said, shoving the plate into Peter's hands. "Drinks are over there, help yourself... I'll just be over here, doing some work." He pulled out a comic book and plopped down in a chair at the far end of the opposite table.

Peter nervously got a cup of water and sat down in the middle of the table Happy was sitting at. There were no Avengers yet.

He glanced around at the dining hall, waving at the people cleaning up. They flashed him joyous grins and then went back to their work, looking a bit happier. A warm feeling started spreading from his chest--a feeling he hadn't experienced since Aunt May's last hug. It was bittersweet.

He glanced down at his pizza, no longer hungry.

"Happy, you're so far away," Peter said dramatically, stretching out his hand towards him. "Do you wanna talk about comic books? I know a little bit about those."

Happy aggressively flicked his page, ignoring Peter again.

Peter was about to see if Happy would notice if he started dancing on the table when the elevator opened and three men stepped out.