Survivor's Guilt || Peter Parker

Seven

Immediately, Peter notices that Tony looks better than the last time he saw him. While he still has heavy bags under his eyes, they were not as deep and bruised as they were at the funeral. He also has some color back on his cheeks, no longer looking like a walking corpse.

With the mention of a corpse, he thinks back to Morgan's cold yet weightless body pressed against his chest, and he suppresses a shudder.

"Are you going to let me in?"

Peter blinks twice before remembering to move out of the way. He steps to the side as Tony walks in with stride, immediately making himself comfortable on the couch.

"You can close the door now..."

Peter slams it shut without meaning to, and continues to stare at Tony with his mouth agape.

"Yeah, that's starting to get creepy."

Finally, he finds his voice.

"Mister Stark, what are you doing here?"

Tony raises an eyebrow yet again, "May told Happy that you were going to be alone tonight, and then Happy told me. I thought I would stop by and see how you were doing."

Peter continues to blink at him, almost dazed.

Because he wasn't an idiot, he knew the real reason Tony had showed up unannounced. He was here to yell at Peter, finally blame him for the death of his only daughter. He had been waiting for this moment for weeks now and knew that it was only a matter of time before Tony officially kicked him out of his life.

No matter how hard he tried to prepare himself for the inevitable, he still wasn't ready to hear the words spoken out loud. He let out a shaky breath and slowly walks over to the kitchen, giving himself time to calm down.

"Would you like me to get you anything sir, we have water and... uh, food? We have food."

Truth be told, Peter didn't know what they had in their fridge and cabinets, but he assumes that May had stocked up.

At that, Tony tilts his head in confusion.

"Sir?" He asks with an incredulous tone.

Ever since Tony had saved the universe and survived the snap, Peter mostly dropped all of the formalities he often used with adults. While he still called Tony 'Mister Stark', that was more from familiarity than obligation.

Peter drums his fingers against the kitchen counter, trying to put his nervous energy to good use.

"I can make you something if you want- are you hungry? I'm not the best cook but I do make a mean sandwich, though you can't really mess those up, huh." Peter pauses and lets out an awkward laugh, and Tony stares at him with a calculating look in his eyes.

"I'm not hungry, I just came to check up on you, that's all."

"Oh." Peter's anxious rambling had been put to a holt at the admission, and uncomfortable silence drags out for too long.

Eventually, Tony shakes his head as if he's annoyed with himself, and stands up.

"So how have you been, kiddo?"

Peter opens his mouth to respond then closes it seconds later. He grabs hold of the counter in front of him in an attempt to stop his hands from shaking.

"Mister Stark, you don't have to do this."

Tony had been walking closer to Peter, but he stops in his tracks after Peter speaks out, looking taken aback.

"Do what?"

"You know-" he moves his hand and gestures to the space between Tony and himself. "This, all the small talk... you can say what you need to."