Upside-Down

Chapter 9

Tony Stark has not slept in 21 hours. This is nothing compared to after the attack on New York, when he couldn't sleep for days on end because of haunting memories and fear of nightmares. He had sent Peter to bed at 11:13 last night. He himself had spent the rest of the night, and some of the morning, working on a new suit for the kid.

He had started with an suit design he ended up not using, editing it and adding features specific to the boys powers, and done special work on the spider webs.

The kid could now choose from over a hundred different settings, some huge blasts of webs, others thin tendrils, for what ever he needed. Peter also had access to an AI he hadn't yet named, hoping the kid would come up with something special to him.

He'd stashed the suit on top of the fridge in the kitchen, asking the Vision to make sure no one took it besides Peter himself. Then Tony left to go do "real" work. Pepper had wanted him at a press conference near by, and he couldn't disappoint her.

Now he's just getting back to the tower walking into the elevator and going up to the main floor the Avengers lived on. He has a coffee in one hand and a stack of pizza boxes in the other.

 As the elevator rises, he can tell something is happening upstairs. Loud thumps and music can be heard, even over the elevator music Cap had asked for. Tony worriedly taps his foot against the ground impatiently.

"What the-" Tony almost drops his coffee- and a pizza box falls off the top of the pile- as the doors slide open the reveal a mess. Peter, Wanda, and Pietro are all leaping from couch cushion to couch cushion, pillow to pillow, while loud music thumps through speakers hanging from the ceiling.

Vision is standing in the corner, fiddling with a holographic screen. "I can't get it to work," he mutters. Wanda shoves Pietro off a cushion, causing a loud thump, and he mimics dying, falling over, hand over his heart.

Peter freezes when he looks up from his pillow island. "M-Mr. Stark! Pietro and Wanda said it'd be ok... I'm sorry if I did anything wrong!"

Pietro quickly gets up off the floor and stands next to Wanda. Peter edges closer to them, knocking over a tower of cushions.

"It's okay, Peter," Tony says, still gaping at the scene. He'd hoped Peter would become a friends with the rest of the Avengers, but he hadn't expected it'd happen so quickly. It was only seven o'clock in the evening. Friday had told him the boy woke up at one-

In six hours the kid had managed to destroy the living room with the Maximoff twins, the two people he had expected to be the coldest toward the boy. At least they were toward him.

"You guys are all pardoned. I've got pizza if the rest of the team's around..."

"I was going to make Peter dinner..." Wanda pouts.

"Breakfast would be go too Wanda," Peter says, "It will be more amazing when I don't have to make waffles while I'm half asleep. Wanda nods slowly, still stareing at the pizza boxes sadly. "Do you want me to get  Ms. Romanoff, Mr. Rogers and Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah kid that'd be great," Tony says, and Vision helps him get the pizza to the kitchen.

"Uncle Steve! Auntie Tasha! Uncle Bruce? Mr. Stark brought pizza!" Tony can hear Peter yelling. He got the Capsicle to let him be called Uncle Steve? He was the one who saved the kid from the street.

"Its nice and hot! It smells really good! I'll bet the cheese is all melty..." Eventually all the Avengers make it into the kitchen, getting plates filled with pizza, mouths watering at Peter's continuous description of the stuff.

Tony sits to the left of Peter, and is about to say something when Bruce starts talking. "Hey Pete, is okay if you could come down to my lab after school tomorrow? I need a bit of help with the project I was telling you about."

"Of course Uncle Bruce! That sounds awesome!" Peter says through huge mouthfuls of cheesy pizza.

Hey! He's my intern. I saved him. Tony thinks. He steals the conversation from Banner. "Hey kid?"

"Yeah Mr. Stark? This pizza is absolutely amazing by the way, sir. Thank you so much."

"Of course," Tony says dismissively, "I might need your help then." The kid nods.

"Let me tell Dr. Banner really fast," He turns to Banner.

"Hey Pete? -um, have you opened the box yet?" Tony asks, once the boy returns to his pizza.

"Oh, no sir." Peter sets down his pizza, suddenly looks a little nervous. "I was waiting until you were here. I wanted everyone to have a chance to see it... i-if they wanted to sir."

"Friday could've recorded it," Tony says. The kid makes a face, an emotion Tony can't quite place. "You shouldn't open it with out me though," Tony continues quickly, he doesn't like that face. It dangles at the edge of his memory."It's to dangerous for you to use with out Iron-supervision. At least, for the moment."

Peter nods, a few traces of the emotion left.

"So, Spiderling, I take it you like it here?"

"Oh! Yes!" Peter beams, "-sir." The boy continues speaking, but Tony has stopped listening. For some reason Tony doesn't like that word coming from this kid. It reminded him of something-- something that face did too-

His father. His father was his hero. His hero was disappointed in him. Angry with him. Didn't appreciate anything he did.

"Hey Peter?" Tony interrupts, after another "sir", "Can you cut it with the sir stuff?"

"Okay s- Mr. Stark." The kid grins happily, and takes another piece of pizza from the box.

"You're gonna go back to school tomorrow, okay? If anyone asks, you were with me, working on a project in LA, okay?"

"Got it, Mr. Stark," Peter takes another bite of pizza, flashing a quick thumbs up.

"And lets open the box after dinner, okay?"

Peter nods, but is already turning away from him, Nat asked him something. Tony sighs and goes back to eating the pizza. It was good, but he wasn't sure if it warranted such praises from the kid.

The kid who wasn't going to turn out like he had with his father. Tony was Peter's hero. Howard had been his. He wouldn't crush the kid the way his dad had crushed him.

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So, another chapter, this one featuring a jealous Stark. :)

Thank you for reading this, I'm glad that I could write another one today. We'll say the Loki one was for last week.

What? I never skipped a week? what are you talking about? XD

I hope you guys are having a good day, and please continue to, or start to.

Thank you all! You're the best!