Chapter Text
The following afternoon, Peter is still making minor adjustments to Johnny’s… well, not car… or ship exactly, but it was made by Reed Richards, so it was made for safety first, last, and always. Peter had been worried about making any suggestions, but the way Peter understood it, if Johnny and Ben wanted to take it on a couple race circuits in space, there was really no one at risk.
He looks up when he hears JARVIS. AUTHORIZATION: STEVEN ROGERS.
Peter swipes all the papers into a haphazard pile and closes the file a little desperately. Tugging some of the wrinkles out of his shirt he stood just as Steve walked in.
“Peter Parker?” Even the way he said Peter’s name felt a little heroic.
“Yes?” Peter replied, ready to accept any alternate solutions at this point. Cap just laughed.
“At ease soldier. I came to talk. Are you free?” Peter closed out of where he’d been logged in to Tony’s servers and giving a final glance to the pile of papers nodded.
“Of course.” Steve looked around the lab. It wasn’t all that different from Tony’s but where Tony had machines and half-built mechanisms scattered around his workspace, he could see chemicals set out on counters along the back wall in Peter’s. He noted a thick gray tinted liquid bubbling in a large beaker in the back. There were several lamps around it radiating heat or UV and several tools hanging off the lip, one of which looked almost like a meat thermometer.
“Would you mind if we went somewhere?” Steve waited as Peter wrestled the stack of torn-off notebook pages and printer paper precariously in his arms and walked to the back of the room to stuff them as a single pile into a filing cabinet.
“Of course. Where to?”
Peter had surprised himself by being reluctant at first to ride on the back of a motorcycle with Captain America, but Steve didn’t own a car and he wanted to take Peter out somewhere. Feeling small and awkward, Peter threw one leg over the back of the bike while Cap held it steady. Wrapping his arms around Steve had been like hanging on to the side of a fleshy wall and Peter looked around while they drove. To Peter’s surprise, Steve liked to drive fast, and they were soon weaving between cars. Peter had never driven a car or a motorcycle before and it was new and interesting to watch the city fly by from street level. Cap stopped outside the city center, pulling up to a little diner which had gone largely unchanged for the last fifty years. It was still new to Cap though, and he opened the door for Peter. With cheeks burning, Peter headed inside.
The inside was wood paneled and a little dark. Most of the seats were empty, but the smell coming from the kitchen was amazing. An older woman caught eyes with Cap from over the counter and headed around to show them a table. Cap ordered coffee and Peter ordered some pancakes and milk for a late lunch. Cap looked at Peter.
“How are you liking Stark Industries? I hear Tony made you… Junior Partner?” Steve watched as Peter’s face lit up as he told Cap about some of the equipment Tony shared with him and his doe-eyed sweetness made Cap a little uncomfortable. Talking like that, Peter seemed even younger than he was.
Cap accepted his coffee and Peter his pancakes and Peter stuffed a big hunk of sweet bread into his mouth. Cap took his silence as an opportunity and struck.
“I was hoping we could talk about Tony,” Cap said. Peter gaped at him a little before choking on his bite of pancake. He coughed, trying to dislodge the food caught in his windpipe and took a big gulp of milk to recover. Cap looked at him a little startled and concerned.
“You okay?” he asked. Peter just nodded, clearing his throat several times with watery eyes.
“Yeah,” he scraped, coughing again. “I’m fine. What… what about Tony?” Peter leans back in a subconscious gesture and Cap makes a mental note that Spider-Man is incapable of work as a spy.
“You two seem to be spending a lot of time together lately,” Cap says, nonchalantly between sips of coffee, and Peter nods cautiously. Before answering, Peter takes another bite of his pancakes.
“He’s a great guy,” Peter replies, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. Steve nods lightly in agreement.
“I just want to make sure that you know what you want from him. And what he’s capable of.” And what he’s not, Cap adds mentally. Peter swallows and sets his fork down next to his plate watching Cap a little cautiously.
“Not that I’m not fanboying it up,” Peter starts, voice not cracking in the slightest, and motioning between the two of them at a table. “But if you mention birds and or bees I might scream.” Cap laughs, a little surprised, but Peter’s still cringing a little from the other side of the table.
“I understand. Tony really is a great guy,” Steve agrees, steering the conversation back through more stable waters before venturing out again. “And you seem like a great kid.” Somehow the words grate a little coming from Cap.
“I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea about him,” Cap finished, and Peter nodded a little while he spoke.
“Honestly, in the most respectful, patriotic way, I don’t really understand how this is any of your business.” Both Cap and Peter look a little surprised once he’s said it, but Peter doesn’t relent, hands fidgeting together in a nervous gesture.
“Do you know… what happened? To my last girlfriend?” Peter asked. Steve waited, watching the way Peter stared at the table beside his plate.
“She was thrown. Off a bridge. And that was because of me. Because someone found out about me. And I… I caught her.” Peter’s jaw clenched after he’s said it and Steve can see that he’s grinding his teeth. “I felt…” Peter started, having to stop again to take a breath before continuing. “I felt her neck snap in my arms.” This was something Steve understood, and he looked away, giving Peter a moment.
“I had a boyfriend before that. My best friend in the world. Spider-Man ruined his life and now every time he sees me he tries to kill me. He sent me a text last month asking why we stopped hanging out.” Another familiar feeling for Cap.
“I’m sorry.” Peter just shrugged, sending Cap a little half smile.
“So Tony… I’m not scared he’ll get tired of me. It would suck if he didn’t want to spend time with me anymore, but I’ll be okay. But thank you,” Peter nodded, finally looking at Steve square.
“Thank you for speaking with me. I understand that I may have overstepped my bounds.”
“No! I’m sorry if I—“ Peter stutters, and Cap can see Peter shrink back into himself a little again.
“I appreciate it. Most people get too caught up with the public image and won’t speak to me like a person. It was a pleasure speaking with you, Peter.” Cap stood, depositing a several bills on the table.
“Yeah, you too.” Peter took his outstretched hand and shook it before digging into his jeans for his wallet and dropping a handful of crumpled bills as well. The combination would more than cover their meals and a tip, but Peter couldn’t accept Steve paying his way and Steve wasn’t about to take the money back. They left it for the waitress and Cap offered Peter a ride back.
With Peter tucked away in the tower again, Steve pulled out his phone. He flipped through a couple contacts before hitting call. The phone ringed once before it was answered.
A listening pause. “I hate to say it, but I think Tony’s right.” The voice on the other line can be heard, even as Steve holds it two inches away from his ear. “You know my recommendation. I say hire him.”
The call comes two days later and as soon as Peter’s tucked the phone back into his pocket he’s looking for Tony.
JARVIS, watching Peter peek into a couple rooms calls for Tony who comes and meets him outside his penthouse.
“There you are!” Peter is a little surprised to see him upstairs. Tony seemed to only enter his penthouse to sleep. Tony steps past him, opening the door and letting Peter inside. He pours himself a drink and settles himself onto the couch.
“I got a call,” Peter starts. “From Fury.” Peter looks at Tony who seems unsurprised. “He offered me a job.”
Tony nods, waiting until Peter sits on the couch beside him.
“And what do you want to do?” Tony’s challenging him, and Peter can feel it. He thinks about working for SHIELD.
“What would I do? He was a little vague on that point.”
“You’d help people. Stop the bad guys. What did you tell him?” Tony asks, and Peter seems a little sheepish.
“I told him I wanted to talk with you first,” Peter muttered and Tony beamed. Fury certainly wouldn’t have appreciated that.
“They’d take care of you. Anything you needed would be taken care of, and that would of course include Aunt May too.” Tony took a sip of his drink and Peter leaned in.
“I’m sensing a but…”
“You’d have to travel. …Honestly, he’d be lucky to have you at any point, and now I think he knows it. I’d consider it a standing offer until you’re ready to decide.” Tony stretched his feet out, rubbing them along the thick white carpet of his floor. His floor, as in, the floor of the building which was his. The rest of the floors were his as well, but this floor was a little more his than some of the others. Peter was staring at him.
“There’s something you want me to do instead, isn’t there?” Peter’s watching Tony’s face, and Tony just shrugs.
“Well, Jameson had been a big part of the registration movement. Last night I leveraged a buyout of the Daily Bugle,” Tony looked at Peter serious and Peter gaped at him.
“Seriously?”
“You mentioned that you liked photography and I took another look at your work. You’re good, Peter. Really good. And what I’d like to do is work it from a PR angle. You and a couple other heroes working in New York get the worst of it and draw the most negative attention. It’s not a permanent solution, but I’d like to focus on helping New York better understand and embrace its heroes.” Peter blinked, mouth opening but nothing came out.
“So… I’m thinking…” Tony leaned back, crossing his arms across his stomach. “Photographer? Just as a hobby of course. I’m not letting you off the hook for Stark Industries either, but that position is mostly on paper. If you want to, you can work freelance like you have been and decide how you want to spend your time. You’ve got connections as Spider-Man,” Tony said, thinking a lot of connections. “You can relate to the others without them ever having to know who you are.”
“Tony, you’re—“
“No. For me. This is my way of turning petty revenge against Jameson into something useful. I have a company now, and I’m asking you if you want to help run it.” Tony can’t help but feel a little miffed that for whatever reason, buying the Daily Bugle seemed like a bigger deal to Peter than making junior partner. I mean, the Bugle was tearing Spidey a new one every week, but Tony didn’t expect the delighted look Peter gave him.
Peter thought about it. The job he’d always wanted with the Bugle without Jameson shorting him every month. His photography could actually help people, and he wouldn’t even have to sell unflattering shots of his own ass. Even if things didn’t work out with Tony, he could work at the Bugle. He could get his own place. His own place with a sink and a shower, and heating in the winter.
“So we’ve got options, Peter. And if worst comes to worst, you can always give Fury a call.”
“Tony… Thank you.”
“Of course,” Tony nodded, pulling out his phone. “Looks like everyone’s in the tower right now, and you won Cap over pretty hard. What say we go hang out with the Avengers?”