Upside-Down

Chapter 19

Tony sadly scrubs the toilet, cursing Pepper for giving him this job.

"Hey Fri?" He asks.

"Yes Boss?

"Would Pep let us switch chores around, do you think?"

"Asking her now."

Tony continues to wash the restroom. It wasn't bad, it was just the suggestion of such a chore for him. He knows that eventually the quality of the chore-doing will disintegrate, and the cleanliness of the tower along with it.

"She says 'that is allowed, but you'll be hard pressed to find someone who will switch with you.'" The AI changes to a recording of Pepper's voice.

"Ugh..." he tosses the Clorox wipe into the garbage can, getting up off the floor he gives up on the rest of the room. The now-fired cleaning crew cleaned it up pretty good yesterday, and how could it get worse?

Never mind. It could get worse.

But not today.

Everyone else finished their chores a little less then an hour ago, Tony just had to go about whining and burning time instead of actually cleaning. The lamp Pietro had knocked over earlier has been cleaned up, but Tony still treads carefully in the area it imploded.

He has a bad history with tiny shards of material.

He decides to check on Peter, just to see what he's up to. He walks down the hall to the kid's room, and quietly knocks on the door. He waits a moment, and when nobody opens it, he cautiously twists the handle.

He opens the door to see a person with a blanket over their back and a hood over their head, hunched over something in front of one of the floor to ceiling windows on the far wall. Tony closes the door behind him and creeps closer.

"Pete?" He whispers, cautiously looking around the room. He can see the cat sleeping on one of the kitchenette's counters. Once he nearly reaches the boy, he holds out his hand, carefully tapping the boy's shoulder. It was clear he couldn't hear.

Peter twists and grabs Tony's wrist, jerking it as though he is about to throw Tony to the ground. The kid's phone goes flying, and it takes a moment for him to realize who he just grabbed. He quickly releases Tony's wrist. "Oh, h-hey Mr. Stark. Sorry, I didn't mean to do that, my spider sense..." His eyes are red.

"Pete? You okay?" Tony crouches next to him. Peter uses one hand to take out his airpods while at the same time reaching to the left to grab his phone. A necklace swings from his neck, reading, BFP. He tucks the thing away quickly. On the phone screen, Tony can see a video of him and a woman, who he supposes is May, opening a box next to a Christmas tree, but Peter turns the phone off before he can see much more.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just didn't hear you come in," the kid sniffs, rearranging his blanket around him.

Tony feels awkward, he isn't exactly good with kids. "Was that your aunt..."

Peter pretends not to hear him. "The view from here is really nice, Mr. Stark, thank you so much for this room... for everything."

"No problem, kid. You deserve it."

Peter sniffs again. "Wait—do you think you don't?" Tony asks incredulously. Peter doesn't say anything. "Look, kid. I've seen the things you can do. I've done some research. You're a straight A student since third grade, all high a's, even, you're so frick'n smart, if you'd applied I would've taken you as my intern any way."

"Mr. Stark—"

"Don't even get me started on Spider-Man. You've saved dozens of lives, hundreds, even. You saved everyone in that building from that fire the other day, stopped that lizard guy, dozens of robberies-"