Peter's unbeatable plan to survive New York City. (hacked a billionaire, help)

My favorite hobby is throwing rocks at old people.

It has been about a month of Peter working for Iron Man now, since their first (in hindsight very awkward) meeting. He hadn't met the villain in real life again, though he's been getting.. messages.. His job mainly consisted of solving random equations thrown at him as well as experimenting with certain metals and calculating their durability. Just as the man had promised he didn't make Peter do anything notorious though the longer he was doing these tasks the more he was beginning to suspect that the villain had at least been lying about having an agency.

He was now even able to rent out a small studio apartment. Peter still struggled a bit with buying stuff for himself, always having an odd sense of guilt and shame creeping up on him when he did so, which made his place seem a bit bare but Peter was sure that with time he'd get over it.

Oh yeah-, the messages.

Every other day he would get random messages from Iron Man. They were no longer talking over discord since the other man had texted him one Friday afternoon, god knows how he got Peter's number, but they were anything but professional. Peter would bet good money that they were produced in a drug induced state, he hopes it was drugs rather than that being the man's sober communication skills.

Iron Boss: What do you like to do in your free time?     01:13
Peter: Uhhh surviving probably?    01:22
Iron Boss: That's crazy     01:22
Iron Boss: 🤯     01:25

Or maybe

Iron Boss: I don't think I could ever love a worm    22:43
Peter: What?      23:14
Iron Boss: My Boss asked me if I would love them if they were a worm.   23:16
Iron Boss: I don't think I could.     23:17
Peter: Tony Stark asked you that?       23:17
Iron Boss: Sure       23:17
Iron Boss: Would you love me if I was a worm, Peter?    23:44

Peter left him on read that day.

He knew that his prior boss-employee relationship wasn't the best either (cough cough Jamerson) but he was also pretty sure that getting messages like that on a weekly basis wasn't really professional either.

Iron Man probably didn't even care about ethics anyways.

And if Peter had to be honest he kind of started anticipating the next ping of a new notification with a sort of content curiosity.
Iron Man was one of his very few contacts, right next to his Highschool friends and Aunt May's old number which he just couldn't get himself to delete. It belonged to someone else now.

In a moment of weakness, a few days after he had run away from some foster home, he had called the number. Peter didn't even remember why, maybe he wanted to hear her voice over the mailbox one last time, but when a gruff male voice answered after the third ring he muttered something akin to an apology and hung up. At that moment Peter had allowed himself grief for the first time after her death.

So, yeah! He's been working under that maniac for about a month now and felt physically and mentally better than he ever remembered feeling. Spider-Man was back. Peter Parker was back.

And so he made his way down to Delmar's. He really did feel better than ever and was craving a Cuban sandwich and social contact. The door to the bodega swung open with a ring of a bell as Peter stepped inside.

"Hi Murph!"

The cat happily wandered over to him and nudged his leg as he went further inside the small store.

"Buenas Peter, The usual?"

"Uh yes, please!"

"You still looking for a job?"