Aftermath (Peter x Tony)

-1-

His company buried him in the basement. At least that's what it felt like to Tony. Ever since he just... appeared after five years along with billions of others, Stark Industries tried to stop him from being involved with the affairs of his business. The board "welcomed" him back with parties celebrating his return and then promptly threw him into his new house full of, what had the head of HR called it - right. "Toys to tinker with."

That's what he spent most of his days doing. He'd planned to take back one of the controller ports to his latest AI, a pair of aviators, from the kid, but he also planned on flying in on an iron unicorn with guns blazing to save the day. He'd also planned on being the big boy of the bunch and taking the hit for everyone else. That's where EDITH was supposed to come in but now... well, even alive, Tony was the hero. And Peter didn't look too bad wearing the glasses even if they gave them to him a little presumptively.

What he didn't plan on was blipping out of existence and coming back seeing everyone else had aged and he... didn't.

It wouldn't be so bad, getting to hide away from the world and create whatever he wanted. Except for the fact that Pepper was the CEO. Which also wouldn't be that bad except to her, five years had gone by. Five years without Tony. And apparently five years without Tony meant marrying some stupid, ridiculous head of marketing in his fucking company. For the first few months after coming back, Tony thought he could actually win her back. After she made it clear that that wasn't going to happen, Tony went back to partying every night, drinking himself to sleep, and spending his days building suit after suit.

His life followed this pattern of drink, pass out, sex, work, designer drugs, sleep, in every which order imaginable until one day he sauntered into his penthouse's spatious living area, plopped on the couch with a scotch in his hand and turned on the TV.

The kid's face was up on the screen, the headline reading in bold letters "Spider-Man unmasked: MIT Student by Day, Avenger by Night."

"What the hell did you do?" Tony grabbed Peter's shoulders, his eyes dilated from all the alcohol running through his veins, searching his face.

Peter cried. He couldn't stop. Tony didn't know how the kid had tears left, he'd practically been bawling since Tony flew over to the park where Peter was getting swarmed by paparazzi. He'd grabbed the kid with a literal iron fist and dragged him back to the new Stark Tower. "FRIDAY!" he shouted, pointing to the couch, silently demanding Peter sit, "Cancel all my plans for tonight!"

"You had no plans, Mr. Stark," the AI said.

"Cancel them anyway," Tony lowered his voice, speaking slowly, dripping with anger.
"Well, you really screwed the pooch this time, didn't you?" Stark turned back to Peter. "Thought five years carrying the Avengers on your shoulders would have taught you responsibility! But no, I get back and find little underoos fucked everything up again. Have you read the news?" He pointed at the big screen that labeled Spider-Man a terrorist. "They're blaming drone strikes on you. Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Peter was still crying, face beet red. "Mr. Stark you're not being fair!"

"Fair? Oh you want fair now? Is this elementary school recess?" He stopped yelling only to start mocking. "If you don't have enough stupidity for the whole class KEEP IT TO YOURSELF! Don't you think we all want things to be fair? You think I wanted to disappear for FIVE YEARS AND FIND PEPPER MARRIED TO A GUY WITH AN ACTION FIGURE COLLECTION! WHERE'S FAIR, PETER?!"

Peter ran out of tears, but kept shaking. "They... they edited the video. I was calling off the drone strike, he got EDITH and-"

Tony held up a finger. "Zip it, kid. FRIDAY! Can you get rid of this please? Put the real video out there, you know what to do."

Peter sniffed, looking up. "You can fix this?"
"Ha! I can get the terrorism bullshit to stop, I can make them look up to you again, the usual BS. But I can't undo all the damage. Everyone knows who you are now."

"Mr. Stark?" Peter hiccuped.

"Yeah, kid?" Tony sighed, about to make a comment about Peter getting snot on his couch but biting his tongue.

"Is, is that offer still standing? Living in the compound? Online college? I know I was already made an avenger after everything and the Blip and all that, hell, you gave me Edith but I never got to, you know, actually feel like an avenger and now that everyone knows who I am I can't go back to school and you know... And aunt May... she uhm, you know..."

"Parents die, family dies, no need to get your panties in a twist about it. Circle of life and all that."

"Now playing Circle of Life from the Lion King," FRIDAY said in a stiff, more robotic voice.
Tony let out a breath of relief when he saw Peter's lip twinge upward for half a second at FRIDAY's attempt at a joke. Or rather, since Tony created FRIDAY and made her capable of mimicking the unevolved attempts at AI created by lesser, more politically and morally deviant billionaires, it was technically his joke so he could take the credit for making Peter smile.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to clear his buzzing head. He almost took the glasses back from Peter, which he should have done the moment he blipped back. But even he couldn't push himself to go that far. Collecting himself, Tony sat down next to Peter and handed him a monogrammed handkerchief. "Wipe your face," he meant to make a witty remark but decided against it.

"Thanks," Peter did as directed and Tony studied him.

Peter looked good, five years turned him from a scared little kid to a very fine young man. Guess having the weight of the Avengers on his hands did that to you, made you grow up whether you wanted to or not. He was almost glad Peter was crying. It showed he didn't grow up too much since Tony's been gone.

"You can stay with me, Peter."

Peter brightened at that and threw his arms around Tony, squeezing him tightly. "Thank you Mr. Stark, you won't regret this, I swear."

"No regrets kid, that's my motto. As long as you can handle the hangover," he smirked, "hakuna matata!"

"Now playing Hakuna Matata from the Lion King," FRIDAY said and the song started blasting the hidden speakers.

Score two. Peter laughed.

Tony grabbed the kid's arm and spun him around. "God, kid you grew."

"Why are you twirling me around?" Peter was still laughing.

"It's called dancing, it's a groovy song."

Score three!

"Thank you, Mr. Stark," Peter said when the song ended and they plopped back onto the couch.

"Call me Tony now, kid. You're not in high school anymore."

"Then call me Peter, if I'm not a kid anymore."

Tony chuckled. "I'll think about it," he stood, "let me see what I got in the fridge, might got a juice box and a lunchable somewhere especially for you kid. Might be over five years old by now, but..." he trailed off.

"I'm old enough to drink," Peter said with a smile.

"Hey," Tony pointed at him and grinned, "juice boxes and uncrustables are the pinnacle of fine dining."

Peter laughed and they soon found themselves sitting on Tony's balcony sipping from Caprisuns and gourmet PB&Js.

Peter found himself staring at Mr. Stark, and he dropped his sandwich to give his idol a hug.
"Thank you, for everything, Mr. Stark."

"It's Tony now, kid."

"Thank you, Tony."

Peter smiled for what felt like the first time in a long time.