[Tony, Peter, Liz] - Reunion

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

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."

Comments

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony looked between Peter's face and his chest--suddenly reaching out and tapping the arc reactor he still bore on his chest, letting the armor envelope his protege's form.

"And look at you now. A natural."

[st_arkintern]

As much as Peter tries to hide his smile out of embarrassment, he completely fails at it. He's always been a bit of an open book, and now is no exception. He's just grateful right now that Tony can't see it.

Peter rubs his arm.

"Yeah, maybe," he finally manages to get out. "I think it'll be awhile before I catch up with you, though."

Peter taps the arc reactor, then thinks about the suit he wanted to make. He told Liz that he didn't feel like he could ever make anything up to snuff with Tony's tech and it should have felt like that now, especially after he showed him the nanotech. But now, he felt galvanized to try himself with whatever tools he found here.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Well. Clearly." With another, firmer, pat on the chest adjacent to the arc reactor, Tony nodded expectantly. "I really will need that back. I've barely said hi to anyone and I've got a few people giving me the stink eye. No suit, and all this build up just for me to up dead and mounted over some guy with a grudge's fireplace?"

Whether that was true or not, he felt it. Aside from Peter and Thor, there were hardly any familiar faces, but he couldn't help the sense that he should have known more folks than he did.

[st_arkintern]

Peter nods and pulls the hoodie off, then offers it back to Tony.

"Yeah," he agrees. "It'd be good for you to speak with everyone." When he first arrived here, he didn't have anyone. But he ended up meeting a lot of people and making a lot of friends.

"I'm sure a people have already answered your questions, but if you have anything else that comes up, you can come to me," Peter says, trying hard to sound casual.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony pulled his prized article of clothing right back over his own head, stroking his hair back into something resembling a presentable shape once it was ruffled.

"I'd ask if you got a spare bed, but far be it from me to intrude on your time with your cutie."

[st_arkintern]

"I share a room with someone else already," Peter says, watching Tony groom himself. "He's been staying with me for a couple of months now. Sometimes, the rooms just decide to move people into other rooms."

Which was exactly what happened with Alec.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony squinted hard at that particular concept. While he was eager for a one-way ticket out of his current lodging, the idea of having to share a room to do it wasn't much more appealing. True, he had already made an appeal to Thor over this very issue, but he backpedaled just as quickly. There were some barriers of intimacy he wasn't ready to cross, even with longtime allies.

"I'll, uh, keep that in mind." He rubbed a building knot of tension out of the side of his neck.

Dear God, what if the hotel spontaneously decided he was better off making roomies with someone else? That spelled danger, especially on a primal level. He loved Pepper with all his heart, and he was growing lonelier by the day. He'd done some menu browsing since becoming happily committed, but never once ordered. For what precious scraps of integrity he had left, all external temptation was to be avoided.

[st_arkintern]

Even now, there's some part of Peter that can't believe that this is happening. He'd been here for just over a year and suddenly, there were people here that he knew or knew him, and it was everything that he hoped for. Even before people started showing up, he hadn't felt as isolated as he did those first few days in a very long time.

But seeing Quill (who knew him, but who he didn't know), Thor (who he knew, but didn't know him), and Tony (who knew him and who he knew) made him realize how much he really missed home and the people in it. And while on some level, logically he knew that he missed Ned and May and Tony and all of his Decathlon friends, there was a part of himself that had to distance himself emotionally from that so it wouldn't be so painful. But now, seeing Tony again, Peter was suddenly realizing how painful it was to be without those people, even if he didn't acknowledge it.

Peter wanted life as it was to continue. He wanted to be Spider-Man, to meet Quill some day that wasn't in some bizarre pocket universe inn. He wanted to become an Avenger and then be one instead of being told by someone else that that he was. He even wanted to fight Thanos, because how else could he prove himself?

Peter points to the stairs. "I'm, uh, I'm gonna go up to my room," he says. He's not precisely sure how to leave this conversation. He wants to hug Tony again, but he knows that Tony isn't the huggy type and one teary hug already seemed like too much.

"See you!"

Peter jogs off, half-turning to give Tony one final wave right before he scrambled up the stairs.

Peter hoped that he wasn't too awkward.