Raising Hybrid Puppies [a Starker coffee shop AU]

Chapter 27

"I expected more from you, Parker. This is such a cliché."

Tony lets his head fall on Peter's shoulder with a sigh. The Vegan Princess is regarding them in frustrated disdain and he really, really doesn't want to deal with this right now.

"Uh, hi, MJ. What're you – what're you doing here?"

The girl huffs. "You fall off the radar and someone sends us a text from your phone – your dead phone, I might add – what was I supposed to do? Wait until global warming flooded the mall and washed out your corpse in the process?"

"Um..."

"Ned's on his way, too."

Tony groans into Peter's shoulder, which turns out to be the wrong thing to do.

"Stop hiding behind a teenager, Mr. Stark," MJ says. "We gotta clean up this mess."

It's uncanny how much that chick reminds him of Pepper back in their early days.

Tony reluctantly untangles himself from Peter and gives MJ a flat look. "That's what the FBI is for. Cops, too, cause the Feds gotta change out of their nighties before they can get their asses here."

"Good. Then someone better go outside to guide them here. Wouldn't want the perpetrators to escape because the people with the real handcuffs can't find the entrance," she adds pointedly.

"Did that sound like an order to you?" Tony asks Peter, keeping one hand on the kid's hip. "Cause to me that definitely did."

Tony catches MJ's eye roll in the background and Toomes grumbles something into his non-existent beard. He can't enjoy having Peter close to him for too long, however, since MJ has a point and besides, Tony needs to talk to JARVIS and there's no way in hell he'll do that in front of the guys who turned spying on him into a business model.

"Can I trust her not to set them loose?" Tony wonders, only half teasing.

MJ responds by giving him the finger, which Tony takes as a 'yes, and now fuck off so I can quiz my friend and curse your name', so he leaves them to it.

"JARVIS, status on the grid."

"Presently, an estimated 957,300 Brooklyn residents are without power due to the incident. The Department of Damage Control is dispatching experts to remedy the situation as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, and when's that gonna be?"

"Forty-eight to fifty-three-point-five hours, based on my current data."

Tony's steps along the hallway don't falter yet he does let out a heartfelt sigh. "How much faster if I'm there to help?"

"That reduces the timeframe to twenty-four to thirty-six hours from when you commence assisting the experts."

Yeah, not how he planned to spend his weekend. Ugh.

Okay, so far his plans included briefing Ainsley on the whole inadvertently-breaking-his-probation situation and replaying his moments with Peter over and over in his mind. Well, technically he's still violating his probation... though it's getting harder to remember why he should minimize the possible repercussions. Or why he can't just snatch Peter, grab one of his private jets, and go to somewhere nice. Has the kid ever been on a beach that's not Coney Island?

A noise pulls Tony out of his daydreaming – was that another set of footsteps?

Yeah, and that shadow's moving suspiciously much like a person...

"I know you're there, buddy," Tony calls out, sounding braver than he feels. He blames his quick pulse on the blood loss. At least the wound on his arm has clotted by now. "I still have a gun, by the way."