st_arkintern | Tony Stark Voice Test

Tony Stark Voice Test

When Peter Parker texts Happy, it's in a panic.

Happy
HAPPY
Happy this is important!
I really need Tony's help
May knows I'm Spider-Man
She's freaking out right now
And when she freaks out I freak out
And I'm freaking out now too
Happy
Please tell Tony I need to talk to him

Peter looks down at his phone, waiting for Happy's response. There's nothing. He tries to be patient. Minutes go by with nothing. For a brief moment, he considers texting him again, but just as he's about to thumb in another message his phone vibrates.

UNKNOWN NUMBER

Peter takes a breath and presses his finger against the green Accept Call button, then swipes right.

"Hello?"

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Yet another pause, yet Tony was nodding slightly as Peter finished speaking.

"...Alright." He was the first to break, turning his eyes towards his knees.

"Alright, kid." Tony enunciated his words with a sort of finality that was concretely him. "That was...I think you've got the basics down. Maybe a little less combatting but I think we've got something workable."

Peter takes a breath. He's been aching for Tony's approval the entire time, and finally he has it. So many emotions have been churning inside of him ever since this conversation started, but right now, relief and happiness rise to the forefront.

"Thank you," Peter says breathily.

He's sure Tony never had this problem before; no one would ever take his suit away.

Peter looks down at his hands for a second, then back over at Tony.

"I watched the YouTube video of the press conference," he says. Peter'd been fairly young when Iron Man first became a thing. "What'd you do after everyone found out?"

May isn't everyone, but this is probably as close as Tony got to someone he loved finding out. Maybe Ms. Potts knew before any of them; maybe Happy, too. But Peter can't be sure.

"Uh." Tony scratched his eye idly, too emotionally exhausted to spin a fittingly heroic narrative or even adopt a fittingly heroic posture.

"Well. The government immediately attempted to seize my work as I slowly died from metal poisoning." Another pause. "It all worked out in the end, of course."

Peter feels too embarrassed to actually admit that he watched Tony in the courtroom on YouTube, too; he's sure if he did, he'd just come across as a fanboy. But Tony had been so cool, so self-assured and there's a small part of Peter that wishes he could have that sort of easy self-confidence.

But there's one thing that Peter doesn't know.

"You were dying?"

"Palladium poisoning's a bitch, kid." Tony tapped the center of his chest, where the arc reactor once rested.

"Really hit rock bottom with that one. Bad scene." He was so off hand with the way he described those days, it was as if he were describing a somewhat embarrassing bender.

Peter tries to imagine what hitting rock bottom would be like for Tony, but much as he tries, his usually-active imagination isn't able to pull together anything.

He wants to tell Tony that he's glad he's okay, but he doesn't want to sound too sentimental. Peter doesn't know why he's not okay with saying it to Tony, because he'd be okay with saying it to anyone else. Maybe it's because Tony's not very sentimental and he's not entirely sure how he'd react to it.

He swallows back his reservations and just says it.

"I'm really glad you're okay," he tells him. "I'm sure it can't be easy being an Avenger sometimes."

And that might have been part of why he rejected Tony's offer; he knew he wasn't ready for that sort of responsibility yet. Just taking care of Queens was enough for awhile.

He still had plenty of time.

"Heh." Tony's voice was as dry as always, but the corner of his eyes wrinkled with his smirk at Peter's sentiment. It was rare to be the recipient of such earnest words.

"...Here's the thing about being an Avenger." Tony summoned the will to meet Peter's eyes once more.

"We answer to the world. Take governments. Governments can lie. They can take. They can decide you're not worth it." The first few statements come easily, though his throat tightens with the next. "You've got teammates. Teammates, though...they can disagree. They leave. Meanwhile, one day you're on top of the world with the masses and the next they're turning their backs."

He chuckles again, though the smirk doesn't reach his eyes.

"You've got to answer to Aunt May, Spider-Man. But she'll be in your corner no matter how badly you screw the pooch."

Edited 2018-07-24 07:28 (UTC)

Before everything that happened in Berlin, Peter couldn't imagine a reality in which the Avengers would disagree to the point where they'd rather break up than reconcile. He was sure even before he became Spider-Man that they had to have their share of disagreements. They had disagreements at school just working on school projects; it had to be far worse between their team when the decisions were much more important than who was writing the essay and who was putting together the Powerpoint presentation.

This was the safety of the world at stake. They had to be able to overcome their differences. Peter couldn't imagine them not doing so.

Right?

Peter knew firsthand the reception some of the superheroes had. He'd visited the superhero subreddit religiously for awhile, but some of the discussion just ended up being toxic. No one, it seemed, really considered the challenges -- even those who defended the Avengers without question. Their arguments all seemed to boil down to "He saved us before, you don't think he was trying to save us now?" rather than anything that actually discussed the difficulty of being a superhero. They all though being a superhero was easy; many of them wanted to be superheroes; many more didn't understand what it was like being one.

"I can be in your corner, Mr. Stark."

The words come out solid and definitive, as if Peter's given this considerable thought and there's no doubt that this is something he wants to do. Peter's sure there's other people in Tony's life -- other Mays -- who are there to support him. But Peter knows that sometimes people need more than that.

And if Peter can do that... Peter wants to.

Tony's eyebrows shot up at that.

"Whoa, time out. Is--is that what you were getting out of this? No, no. That's my line as the sagely retiree here." He made a back-and-forth motion between the two of them.

"You have enough to worry about surviving puberty without throwing me into the mix, alright? Alright."

Peter frowns at that.

"I'm surviving puberty fine," he protests, mildly embarrassed. "I can handle it!"

Besides, Tony was always looking after him. Maybe not in the best way or in the way Peter wanted him to, but...

This was something he could do for him, if Tony'd just allow it.

Tony leaned over to gently cup the bridge of his nose with a few fingers. He was seldom one to redden, but this was as close as he had gotten for a long time. Having a fifteen year old insist on reassuring him wasn't something he was sure he could handle.

It was better than Peter insisting on inducing a panic attack, he supposed...

"Okay. Okay. I'm...I'm just gonna take the compliment."

Peter's not sure if his offer should be seen as a compliment (he really was being sincere!), but he knows that it might be the best he can manage from Tony.

At least he managed to say it, he decides.

"So what are you going to do?" he asks, segueing the conversation elsewhere. "When May shows up, I mean."

"Uh. Besides making myself scarce...yeah, that's it." Ever blunt, Tony sat back up straight and patted his knees briskly.

"I know I offered to talk to her, but that was just me being polite. This is your fight, kid.

"You said you were going to talk to her," Peter protests. "You shouldn't say something if you don't actually mean it."

"Yeah, yeah, I did. Honestly, I didn't think you took my request that seriously." Tony raised his hands in defense. "Even more honestly? I don't think I'd do anything to help your case. Not gonna lie, I've been sensing a little tiny bit of hostility from Auntie every time I show my face."

He flopped his hands back to his lap. The lecturing was at least easier to swallow than the sympathy.

"If you really and truly want me here, though...I'll do it."

"I just think that you can contribute to the conversation," Peter says. Even if Tony doesn't think he can. "If May knows about all the safeguards in the suit, I think she might respond better."

Even if it's coming from Tony. She's said she's not a big fan of him, but Peter really, really wants her to know that he does care about him enough to make him a suit that kept him mostly-safe.

"I'm staying in the background. Not speaking unless spoken to and all that." Tony tapped his knees restlessly. Getting the stink eye from an angry parental figure was he last way he wanted to spend his afternoon, but a promise was a promise.

"Hey." He nudged Peter's shoulder.

Peter looks over at Tony after he nudges him.

"Mm?"

Tony met Peter's inquisitive stare head on, as he leaned forward onto his knees.

"Call me more often."

Peter genuinely looks surprised at that.

"Really?" he asks. "Are you sure?"

He's always texting Happy and it was clear to him that Happy wasn't happy about it.

The last thing he wanted was to be a bother to Tony.

"Yeah, I mean it." Tony insisted. "I mean, I can't guarantee I always answer right away. Aside from the Avengers nonsense, I'm engaged. Kind of on cloud nine from that."

He clasped his hands together and they gave a little bounce of lingering excitement.

"But I really do mean it. I want to share in the good and the bad of your average high school Spider-Man. Acing your exams, your first love, whatever home intruder you happen to thwart."

Yet another pause.

"Nothing too mundane. Whatever you had for breakfast and added a weird filter on, yeah, not gonna reply to it."

Peter is practically vibrating with happiness at this particular conversation. Even including the quip about sending him pictures of his breakfast, which he'd never do, even to Happy.

But knowing that Tony's really invested in his life... even the mundane things -- that makes him impossibly happy. And it takes everything inside of him to try and hide that excitement, and his momentary big smile is replaced by an awkward quirk of the lips that only makes his joy even more obvious.

"Thanks, Mr. Stark," he says. "Um. Should I still text Happy?"

He's not sure if Happy still wants to be bombarded by his texts if he's going to be going straight to the source.

"Oh yeah. Shoot the guy a "good job!" message every now and again. Spread the validation around." Tony patted him on the back to emphasize that last statement.

"If you're gonna summon me again, kid, make sure you're not grounded, would you? Sneaky is an older model and she just doesn't run as well as her younger siblings. Like going from a Camarro to a Camry."

"Yes, sir," Peter says solemnly. His attempt at looking solemn isn't quite as good as his attempt to sound it.

"Hopefully I'll be grounded after this --" What can he really call what is about to happen? "-- conversation," he finishes. That's really the only way he can describe it.

That might just be a pipe dream, though.

Tony turned his wrist to check his watch once again. About a good fifteen minutes left until showtime at minimum. He flopped back onto Peter's sheets, rocking the bunk bed's frame with his modest weight.

"Wake me up when she gets here, would you? I'm thirty-six hours into a Redbull-powered tinker marathon and I'm coming down."

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st_arkintern - 2018-07-25 12:16 (UTC) - Expand

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