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.

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[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."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"August 10th." Tony quirked a knowing brow. "Start your list."

[st_arkintern]

Peter's smile only brightens. "You remembered."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Don't sound so surprised about it." Rolling even closer, Tony prodded Peter right in the center of his forehead.

[st_arkintern]

"I'm not," he says. "But I think you have to make a list first."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Just plant a tree for me." Tony rolled back, taking up the elegant glass full of the cold dairy.

[st_arkintern]

"Okay," Peter says, though it's not the answer he's hoping for. He really wishes Tony would tell him what to get. He knows Tony will probably be happy with anything, but Peter doesn't just want to get him anything. "I'll make sure to point out what tree is yours."

Peter looks down at the moleskin journal, still sitting in his lap. "Guess I should read." He bites his lower lip and then opens to the first page.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

As the teen cracked open the journal, Tony rubbed his eyes and nursed the sugary drink. Almost immediately his mind was consumed with this and that with nowhere to go--not yet, anyway.

So, instead he sat back and dug out a journal of his own--one with a specific message in mind.

[st_arkintern]

After a few moments of careful reading, Peter looks up.

"When did you see the Mind Stone in action?" Peter reaches his milkshake and takes a long sip, still watching Tony.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Fell victim to it once. It was brief." Brief. Intense.

[st_arkintern]

Tony's purposeful vagueness just makes him all the more curious. "What happened?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Showed me a vision of the future." Tony's only tells were the way his jaw subtly clenched and the slow but anxious tap of his pen against the surface of his paper. "One that, in some universe, we saw come true."