stark, peter parker

vii. beautiful, a genius, immensely talented

"fury was right. tony did a lot for me so i owe it to him, to everybody." peter was telling beck, drinking yet another lemonade from the bar.

"do you?" he countered.

he nodded, incredulous. "yeah. i mean, mr. stark gave me the chance to be more. he wanted me to be better than him. and fury wants me to live up to that.

"what do you want?" beck asked.

"what do you mean?"

"what do you want?" he repeated.

peter shook his head with sa slight scoff. "i don't know-"

"what do you want? peter parker. now. i know you're thinking about it."

he threw his hands into the air in exasperation. "i wanna go back on my trip with my friends! and i want to go to the top of the eiffel tower with the girl i love, and i wanna tell her how i feel and... and give her a kiss! and make up for all the times i didn't say i loved her."

beck gave him a tight lipped smile. "you're not gonna do that, are you?"

peter shook his head again. "no, i can't."

"why not?"

"because i have too much of a responsibility." he explained. a waitress then tapped him on the shoulder, handing him the edith glasses, which had fallen onto the floor. "oh my god. thank you so much." peter said, taking them from her gratefully.

"what are those?" beck asked. "are those the--?"

"edith glasses, yeah." peter nodded.

beck shook his head. "they were just on the floor? try them on. let's see how they look on you."

peter put on the glasses, blinking for a moment before looking at him. "i actually really like them."

"can i be completely honest with you?" beck said.

peter nodded. "please."

"they look really stupid." beck said, making peter's face fall. "but maybe they have a contact-lens version."

"you try them on." peter said, holding them out to him.

beck took the glasses from him, putting them on. "what do you think, kid?"

peter frowned, his brows furrowed in concentration. "next tony stark, i trust you." he mumbled.

"what?"

"mr. stark left me a message with those glasses: for the next tony stark, i trust you." peter explained.

beck shook his head. "i''m still not following. how many lemonades have you had?"

"he knew every mistake i ever made, okay?" peter continued. "he must've known i wasn't ready for something like this. maybe he didn't trust me to have edith, he just trusted me to pick who should. it makes much more sense. he always knew i'd do what's right. and he's not gonna give them to fury because fury would give himself edith."

"you're probably right about that." beck nodded.

"right, so the world needs the next iron man. and it's not gonna be me. i mean, i'm a sixteen-year-old kid from queens." he said. "and kodie's, she's.. she's already sapphiron, right, and she would've taken the glasses herself if she really wanted them. it needs to be an adult with some experience and that's good... like tony stark, like you."

beck then shook his head. "no. peter, come on. no."

peter looked up, speaking to the glasses. "edith? hi. um. i'd like to transfer your control over to quentin beck."