The Talk

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“You know, I’d really like to start this out cold.” Tony began as Peter made himself comfortable in his rocky abode, and he reached for the phone. “But this is a two-milkshake job.”

The No Dairy, No Red Meat, and No Gluten rules sat woefully forgotten under the pile of Tony Stark’s vices. He had resorted to theorizing that Thor had passed along some metabolic tolerance by way of exposure.

Comments

[st_arkintern]

"Physics. Lots of physics," Peter says. Tony knows that much, at least; he has asked for help with it in the past. "History, too. It's part world history and part universe history. I'm not really sure how much of it applies to our universe, though. I write a lot of papers."

A lot of papers.

"I do art sometimes. Piotr used to teach me, but there's no one around to teach anymore so I just kinda mess around by myself."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony's head fell back at the mention of papers and he couldn't quite suppress a gag. "Tell me you at least get a field trip in there or two."

[st_arkintern]

"Where would I go?" Peter asks.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“You’re telling me this place is inhabited almost exclusively by adults who defy the laws of physics they teach and no one’s gotten creative? At least tell me you’re doing some project based learning.” Before Tony could get too far on that tangent, a professional three-series knock could be heard and he popped up from his chair to fetch their ordered goods.

[st_arkintern]

"Self-study, mostly," Peter says as Tony makes his way to the door. "Ned and I are trying to put together a video game."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony hummed in intrigue as he accepted the platter of their sandwiches and shakes, once again being rejected for his offer to tip. “Go on.”

[st_arkintern]

"It's not much," Peter says. "I mean, we're trying to do this VR game, but all we really have is our phones and I'm kind of nervous about using my phone from home since that time it stopped working." Peter'd been afraid he was going to lose everything he had on the device.

"I thought maybe we'd do something like BARF, except you get to be a superhero."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“You know BARF?” Tony kicked the door closed with his heel, balancing the tray carefully on his palm.

[st_arkintern]

"Yeha, I watched your presentation on YouTube Live."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“Then you know it wasn’t cheap to make.” Tony gestured for WALL-E to break out the single-person tables, setting Peter’s food down before him first. “Not that that should stop you from trying. No son of mine backs down from a challenge.”

[st_arkintern]

Peter smiles to himself at the word son. "Yeah, I mean, we don't have money, but we have plenty of time."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

A smile lit Tony’s face, disappearing as soon as it had appeared, nursing his shake as he lowered back to sit in his favorite chair.

“You ready for this one, Pete?” Setting his triangular sandwich aside, he pulled open one of the drawers beside him.

[st_arkintern]

Peter takes his shake into hand and nervously fiddles with the straw before taking a long sip of his shake.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Peter just hopes he sounds ready.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Rooting about, Tony produced the hidden object—a perfectly innocuous black moleskin notebook. “Ta-da.”

[st_arkintern]

"What's that?" he asks, frowning.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Just think of it as more physics reading." While an object so ordinary in appearance would usually be tossed about casually by Tony Stark, he instead rolled closer to hand it over to the boy directly. "Compiled by Ásabragr himself."

[st_arkintern]

"So, this is everything?" Peter looks down at the cover, then up at Tony, his lips pressed together.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Any trace of glib faded from Tony's face and from his tone. "Pete. I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but wherever we're headed after this, it likely won't be to the same place. I wasn't doing your timeline any favors by trying to keep secrets. Letting you read this may be the only thing I can even do for you."

[st_arkintern]

Peter stares down at the notebook and turns it around in his hands; it feels like if he opens it, it's going to be the end of something, and Peter's not sure what it is, let alone if he wants it to end.

What Tony's saying isn't new to him; Peter's considered this possibility the most likely of all of them, even before anyone else arrived at the inn. A future version of himself definitely would have made it known he knew Quill immediately.

"What should I tell you so you know I'm telling you the truth?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The smile returned to Tony's face, though it was wry. "Anything you tell me would be something that could not be explained away by any other means. Luckily, your old man's thought that through."

[st_arkintern]

"Are you," Peter begins, but then he swallows and runs a thumb over the corner of the notebook. "Are you gonna tell me?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

A smile, even though it was far smaller than all the rest, managed to briefly touch his eyes. "When I turned thirteen, my dad's birthday gift was a scrapped 1932 Ford. A few days a year we'd get together and rebuild it. He died before we could finish. I still keep it in my workshop, working on it on and off. I've never finished it."

[st_arkintern]

Peter looks up at that, his eyes wide. Tony didn't talk much about his father, but he gleaned a little from watching the BARF presentation online.

"We need to finish it," he says almost immediately. "The one here, I mean."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony leaned forward on his elbows, rocking to and fro gently. "We will."

[st_arkintern]

"Good," Peter says, and he smiles. "I'm sixteen though. Almost seventeen."