st_arkravinghazelnut | [Tony, Peter, Liz]

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[Tony, Peter, Liz] - Reunion

True to his word, Tony Stark made second contact with Liz well into the afternoon, following their first meeting the night before. After the whirlwind of the previous day's arrival, unsuccessful escape attempts, some drunken antics, and an entire five stages of grief regarding his room assignment, Tony had to really get his head in the game for this show he was about to put on.

"Remember the plan?" Tony hovered behind a clothing rack at the gift shop, clad in a souvenir hoodie (that wasn't there to hide his bed head) and an oversized pair of tinted sunglasses (that also weren't there to hide the bags under his eyes) for disguise. Lastly, he was armed with a mug full of coffee with the inn's logo printed on it in bright pink lettering. He motioned at Liz, or as he called her, his "Co-Conspirator for Operation Spider Ambush."

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Liz was currently compartmentalizing. She was still reeling from this morning's bombshell of meeting Annie May Parker at breakfast. Still, this was really important to Peter. Mr. Stark was here. This wss big.

She nodded to him. "I asked him to meet here. I said there were new VHS tapes." She looked around, trying to act casual. "He should be here soon."

Tony nodded back as chugged down his elixir of life. "Uh-huh. You'll do fine, kid. It's like being on camera. You never look at the camera." He motioned at his face. "This right here? This is the camera."

He gave her an encouraging pat on her slight shoulder. Somehow, she looked as frazzled as he felt. At least one of them was capable of showing it. "You're strong, you're capable."

She smiled to Tony at his reassurance and then nodded. Okay, she had this. Even if things were a little tense with everything.

Liz took a few steps away from where Tony was hiding and stood there, waiting. It felt unnatural to just stand there so Liz reached for a magazine on house keeping and started to casually flip through it.

Peter wasn't sure what was up.

His spidey sense hadn't exactly gone off the way it sometimes did when something was wrong, but he sensed something was different the moment Liz informed him there were new VHS tapes instead of just bringing them to his room like she usually did.

Despite these anxieties (and some triggered by Liz's intro to Annie earlier in the day), Peter still shows up at the gift shop when Liz asks him to.

"Hey, Liz," he says to her as he enters. "What'd you find?"

Even with everything going on, when she saw Peter, the look of endearment was ever present. She felt herself tense though and realized it was weird knowing Mr. Stark was watching them.

She offered a smile to him as she put away the magazine. The truth was there were no new VHS tapes at the moment which meant the lie would be easily figured out

"Actually, um. I wanted to show you something I made. A new shirt? I was going to put it on one of the racks and surprise you, but I realized once I got here that I forgot it in my room. And then I was worried if I left to get it you would think I ditched you, so... Would you mind if I ran back and got it? I'd say just come with me, but the kitten I've sort of adopted was sleeping when I left and he'd probably get startled by us."

That seems like a weird excuse and Peter's not exactly sure how to take it. Were things that awkward this morning?

"Y-yeah," he says, uncertainly. "I'll wait here."

Normally she wss good at this sort of stuff, but today she felt entirely off center. Liz walked up to him and kissed him chastely on the cheek, doing her best not to blush.

"I'll be back soon." Except she wouldn't. Peter would know where to find her when he was done, if he wanted to talk. For now she exited the boutique and hoped things went well between Peter and Mr. Stark.

Listening to the two of them awkwardly go back and forth from roughly ten feet away was nearly enough to make Tony lose his nerve. Maybe it was a full moon soon?

He furtively glanced up from the sudoku book he idly solving in his head, enough to see past the corners of his raised hood. There was Peter, standing just down the aisle. His throat tightened, and he wasn't entirely sure why. If he there was anyone he knew less scary than the kid, he had a hard time thinking of them.

Turning back to his book, he sighed dramatically, certainly enough to draw a little attention in the quiet shop. Oh, it was showtime. "Must be getting old. My record was ten of these in four minutes."

Peter Parker is fooling with his hands the way he usually does when he's nervous. He's still looking out the door, waiting for Liz to resurface when he hears the sound of a familiar voice behind him.

He's pretty sure he knows who it is. No, he knows who it is, but his mind can't process reality right now. It's just like the time he first opened the trunk and discovered the suit Tony made for him.

But somehow, he manages to maneuver his body so it turned, and even despite his best efforts, Peter's mouth drops.

"Mr. Stark?"

"Been standing here for three straight minutes, kid." Tony gently chided, pulling down his dark brown hood with his free hand. "But hey, I know what it's like. Pretty girl in the room. Nothing else matters."

He returned the book to it place on the shelf, going over Peter with his eyes from head to toe. "...Have you gotten taller? Slow down there, kid. You're gonna outpace me here soon."

And before he can stop himself, Peter feels warm tears roll down his cheeks, one after another. He doesn't know why it happens, he just knows that it does and he's not quite sure how to stop it.

He wipes away his tears with the back of his hands, feeling really, really embarrassed that he's crying in front of Tony like he's a little kid.

But it's been so long -- over a year now -- and there'd been other people that showed up like Quill and Rocket and Thor that was completely and totally 100% from his world, but none of them were Tony Stark.

And none of them could have prepared him for the moment he'd see Tony again.

Logically, Tony knew what was coming the moment Peter realized he was here. Still, as the moment developed before his eyes, Tony realized he had no good counter-action.

"C'mon, kid. C'mere." His voice was quiet as it came out, and he had to force his heavy legs to move before he was closing the gap between them. He ruffled Peter's brown mop of hair as soon as he was within strike range before winding his arms around his back.

"I'm sorry," Peter says, suddenly feeling really pathetic.

He leans his forehead into Tony's chest as Tony holds him.

"I just --" Peter takes a breath. "-- I've been here a year and I didn't know when I'd -- you know, when I'd be able to see you again."

He sniffles audibly.

"Don't be." Tony's chin touched the top of Peter's head to sit, his hand running up and down his back. Any excuse his body had to rest against something, it was more than ready to take it. "If it weren't you bawling right now, it'd be me."

Shit, did he say that last part out loud? He hadn't meant to.

"It's been a hell of a day and a half I've had here, kid. Not gonna lie." Tony quickly added. He wasn't sure he wasn't still on the verge of an utter meltdown. He just had to trust, in this moment, that Peter being in his arms wasn't an illusion his mind was conjuring up. "... .. ...If that was all to know you're alright, then I guess I can live with that."

"Yeah?" Peter manages hoarsely. It's been a year since he arrived here, and all the many, many things he felt and thought that day felt so far removed from his reality now that even though he'd lived through it himself, he was having a hard time imagining how Tony felt.

Peter wraps his arms around Tony, and he feels less insecure about it than he might have before Tony started talking.

"I really missed you," he says, finally. He hopes it's okay to say that.

Tony shook his head. Everything he could say about every pain, grievance, or any other conceivable stress the hotel inflicted on him mattered so little in that moment.

"It's only been a week since I last saw you. And here you are. Life is strange like that, I guess." Even having said that, the sheer weight that this Peter seemed to be carrying somehow made it feel like so much longer. "It's good to see you."

"Yeah," Peter says, finally unwrapping his arms from around Tony's body. "It's good to see you, too."

Peter wipes the few remaining tears with the back of his hand and is suddenly so grateful for Tony's presence.

"Were we in space when you last saw me?" he asks, finally, trying to sound steadier than he actually feels.

Tony removed his sunglasses just in time to regard Peter with a brief yet baffled look. "Last time I saw you was over video chat, kid. You were chit chatting about holiday break."

Had space ever come up between the two of them, much less going to it? Tony was a fan of keeping himself planted firmly on terra mater.

"I got this question already. I don't know the exact date, armor development runs on its own schedule, but Christmas is--was--right around the corner."

The redness in Peter's eyes is finally starting to subside. His eyes usually get red whenever he cries.

"It was a few weeks after Homecoming," Peter says. A few weeks after everything happened with the Vulture. "So I guess you showed up from after me."

Peter's trying to form a timeline in his head. If they hadn't gone to space yet, Tony was definitely from before Thanos.

"Were you still working on the same armor you had when you climbed into my window?"

"Something way cooler than that, actually." Tony couldn't keep himself from puffing a bit. "Nanotech."

Words were cheap, he felt. Stepping back a few paces, Tony gestured at the arc reactor he had fitted to his new outfit (why not customize something you grow attached to, after all?) before giving it a firm pat. In a few moments time, the nanoparticles radiated out like a wave to engulf his form in a sleek, optimized version of his familiar Iron Man armor.

Peter was a tech nerd even before he met Tony, so when the nanoparticles neatly the fold over his skin until there's nothing left exposed, his awe is palpable.

"How did you make it?" he asks quickly. "How long have you been working on it? Is it bulky, or is it thinner than your last suit? What about weight? Is it lighter? It looks lighter." He can only imagine tech with a name that included the prefix Nano would be compact and lighter, but he wants confirmation his assumptions are correct.

For one moment, Peter doesn't say anything, and it seems like his long string of questions is finally over. But then, he has one more: "Is it okay if I touch it?"

Peter really wants to touch it.

"Kid, you could wear this. Why don't you find out for yourself?" Tony struck a pose that was skillfully somewhere between heroic and nonchalant. "Nanoparticles are as fluid as an undergrad at a keg party."

He gestured for Peter to come closer. It would have been easy to assume the ever-possessive Tony Stark to be joking, but he was completely sincere.

"Are you sure?" Peter asks uncertainly, making his approach. His parents always had him stay away from anything that could possibly break or shatter because they were expensive and couldn't be replaced. Logically, he knows that even though Tony's suit was both expensive and would almost certainly be difficult to replace with what they had at the inn, it was strong. It'd survive him. Illogically, he's worried he'll do something to mess it up.

In the next moment, the sleek armor was drawn back into the arc reactor in a rolling wave. Tony tugged the bottom of his hoodie up, working it up over his head. "Did I stutter?"

Extended the article of clothing Peter's way, he fought the urge to stick a finger or two in the boy's gaping mouth. "This my one, so no spazzing."

What Tony kept to himself that, in lieu of any proper testing back home, he was always on the lookout to gather more data about his suit. Impressing his protege was nice, and observing Mark 50 from the outside was just a bonus.

When Peter takes the hoodie into hand and it's all he can do to contain the churning ocean of emotions inside of him. He can't believe Tony's letting him actually try it on. And he can't believe that it feels perfectly normal; the material feels a lot like the sports hoodies he found in the thrift stores back home, except unpilled and nicer somehow.

He quickly tugs it on over him, then tentatively looks at Tony. "What do I do now?"

Peter really doesn't want to mess this up.

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