Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

A Look Back

Trigger warnings for grief and vague mention of panic attacks, also general sadness. I think I need to hide.

"Mr. Stark, I'm here!"

Peter threw his backpack on the floor by the door, barely stopping himself from sprinting into the lab. He patted Dum-E, the friendly, fire-extinguisher wielding robot, on the claw as he passed, eyes searching for his mentor and marveling at everything within the lab. He'd been Mr. Stark's intern for a month now, coming in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon to work in the lab with his idol, yet he still became starstruck by everything - from the floating holograms to the strange jumble of tools that only Mr. Stark could have created.

"Mr. Stark?" He called again, moving deeper into the large room. With several sections and closed off areas, it could become a maze, but FRIDAY said the man was here-

"Over here, kid!"

Peter picked up the pace - carefully - and rounded the corner to see Tony Stark standing on a mostly clean work table, fiddling with a bright red gauntlet on his right hand. His tongue stuck out the side of his mouth in concentration, much like Peter's would. Gone were his suit and styled hair, replaced by an old band t-shirt, jeans, white shoes, and loosely curled hair. The teen came to a stop a few feet away, peering up at him with furrowed brows.

"Mr. Stark, what are you doing?"

"Science. Exploding science."

"Exploding-"

"Aha!" The man grinned, moving his hand away just as the gauntlet fired up. Peter covered his ears, but the light that shot out was a near silent whoosh. It blasted into the nearby wall and exploded in a flash. When it cleared, there wasn't a scratch. Tony laughed and jumped off the table, landing in an imitation of his signature pose. "Yes! U, did you get that?" He asked, pointing at the robot in the far corner, who was holding up an old style recorder. He shook his claw up and down as Dum-E and Butterfingers ran around, one wielding a fire extinguisher and the other with a broom held out like a sword. He spun to Peter. "What do you think, kid?"

"It was awesome!" Since his surprise had died down, he shared Tony's excitement without fully knowing what was going on. His mind was racing in time with his heart, questions bubbling up from his brain. "But what are you doing?"

"I wanted to see if I could make a material that stands up against some pretty heavy attacks." He walked over to the wall, patting it. It was a slightly different color than the rest of the lab, a new layer over the original. "This is what the next tower is going to be made out of. At least, under the surface."

"Why were you on the table?"

"That's irrelevant."

Peter opened his mouth to ask his next question - he wasn't sure what, only whatever came to mind first - only for Tony to interrupt him. "Do you wanna try?"

His flying thoughts skidded to a stop. "What?"

Tony chuckled, pulling the gauntlet off and holding it out to him. "Do you want a turn?" He nodded toward the wall. "Unless you only ever want to use webs-"

"No, no- I mean, yes- uh..." He dragged in a breath, unable to stop the wide, anticipating smile on the face. "I mean, that would be greater than getting an A on my physics test - which I did."

"You took that test today?" He nodded. "That's amazing, Pete. I told you that you could do it. All that studying and stressing and you did just fine." Tony shook his head, sliding the gauntlet onto Peter's hand. "You knew that stuff frontwards and backwards."

"It never hurts to study, Mr. Stark." Peter replied, flexing his fingers. The armor easily curled with his joints. How was it powered without the arc reactor? He peered closer, looking at the palm and back of his gauntlet covered hand. Little pinpricks of blue light raced underneath it. Was it charged somehow? Storing energy from the arc without having it connected?