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]

"Well, I was on a school field trip when the ships came down from the sky," he says. Yes, Peter had field trips back home, even if he didn't have them here. "We were on the bus when we saw this ship come down from the sky, so I ditched the bus and joined you guys. It was you, Dr. Banner, Dr. Strange, and a wizard friend of his whose name I didn't catch." Peter thinks that's everybody.

"There were two aliens there, a big one and this really tall thin one that kinda looked like Squidward. The big one, he was really physically strong, the other one had some sort of powerful magic."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Like Squidward." Tony squinted, but committed the info to memory. "Thanos keeps good company."

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah," Peter says. "He was trying to get Dr. Strange because he had the Time Stone. You told me to go after the Wizard and so I ended up chasing after them and got kinda pulled up with them."

Peter frowns as he continues reading, his frown deepening. "How does Thor know so much about all the stones?" he asks, once he's done reading about their powers.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Curiouser and curiouser. So he and this Dr. Strange had some time to get chummy.

“Despite what the tabloids would have you believe, he didn’t vanish because he got dumped. He was chasing after them.”

[st_arkintern]

Peter's frown deepens. "Did you guys know about Thanos before he showed up?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Not by name." Which was true--Tony had only seen the shadowy entity behind The Attack On New York in his nightmares for six years. The look on Tony's face conveyed this sentiment all on its own.

[st_arkintern]

Peter hesitates when he sees the look on his face, but he has to ask it.

"But you guys knew," he says. "Why wasn't everyone looking for the stones?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Thor was the only one with the knowledge and the means. Rest of us kept running point on earth. Of course, little did we know there was a stone keeping wizard hanging around Greenwich Village." He shrugged, not even finding it in himself to be frustrated or surprised.

"If I'd known a lot of things I'd have done a lot of things."

[st_arkintern]

As much as Peter tries, he can't seem to get his brain around it. "I don't get why he wouldn't tell everybody."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"He can be a slippery snail." Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose with a weakly affectionate chuckle. "Have you gotten through everything?"

[st_arkintern]

"No," Peter says. "I'll finish reading now."

It takes another ten minutes before Peter reaches the long string of Asgardian runes. He had been struggling to process everything up until this point; there were parts that felt like he had stepped into a chat mid-conversation and there were things he was expected to know that he didn't. With enough context, though, he was able to mostly deduce what was what.

Peter turns the notebook to Tony. "What's this?" he asks, pointing at the runes.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Asgardian. Only meant for brotherly eyes." Tony shook his head once. Even if he'd managed to learn runes long ago with gaps of nothing to do, he still respected his partner's privacy.

[st_arkintern]

Peter nods and continues reading. There's not much left from there, and much of it is bullet-pointed, which makes understanding it a lot easier than the long explanations at the beginning of the notebook.

When he reaches the end, he closes it and sets it in his lap.

"Wow."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony set his half-filled shake to the side and pushed off from his side of the room, rolling to stop at Peter's side. "Hold onto it. It's a lot to take in at once." He laid his hand atop the smooth cover, warming the journal where it sat on Peter's lap.

[st_arkintern]

"You really sure?" he asks, looking up from the notebook. "It's really important."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"You're really important, kiddo." Tony mussed Peter's brown mop and watched it pop back into shape--roughly. He smiled.

[st_arkintern]

Peter smiles at that, but even as he does, he can't help but be reminded of what Tony said earlier about them probably not being from the same timeline. In some way, that feels almost as bad as Tony actually dying. Yeah, he'll have a second chance with Tony, but it wouldn't be this Tony.

It would be some other Tony who he never vented to or confided in; a Tony he hadn't started building a car with; a Tony he hadn't made an AI of himself for; a Tony who he never called Dad.

It would be some other Tony.

"Yeah," he says with a languid nod. "I should probably study it so I remember everything when I get back home."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Pete?" The shift in the young man's affect didn't slip by unnoticed and Tony leaned in a few inches, trying to catch his eyes. "Talk to me."

[st_arkintern]

"I just," Peter takes a breath and then swallows hard, struggling to push out the words he wants to say. "You know. I just... I don't want to go back to an Earth where you're not--" Peter feels his voice cracking and he has to struggle to steady it it. "Where you're not there."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Peter’s words struck him even if he didn’t grasp their meaning immediately. His brows knit above the bridge of his glasses.

[st_arkintern]

The silence is oppressive, and Peter is suddenly sure that he's just speaking nonsense, same as when he was aboard the donut ship when he was talking about how he couldn't be a neighborhood friendly Spider-Man without a neighborhood. "Sorry. I'm sure that sounds pretty stupid, right?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I'll be there, Pete." Tony nudged beneath Peter's chin with the back of his hand, encouraging him to keep upright.

[st_arkintern]

"Mr. Stark will be there," Peter says, struggling to keep his chin up. "But you won't."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The corners of Tony's lips pulled, now staring right into the boy's eyes as they did. There was nothing he could do, nothing he could say--no promises to make, no false assurances to offer. Instead, he pulled Peter in by the shoulders and held him.

[st_arkintern]

Peter's arms wrap around Tony's and he buries his face into his shoulder. He wants to say something to fill that silence again, but when he tries, nothing comes.