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"Are you really unhappy here?"

Peter's question cut through the relative silence of the woods, which he and Tony were surveying together. If Liz hadn't brought it up to him, he probably wouldn't have noticed, but now, it felt like he was looking for it in every one of Tony's words and in every one of Tony's movements.

It felt like something he should have noticed first, but the two of them hadn't spent much time together ever since he and Alec were fighting in the bar. He wondered if he had made Tony mad, but that wasn't a conversation for now.

Maybe later, but not now. Peter was ready to cut through one issue at a time.

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"Well, you're out here shooting the breeze with the first. He's not scary. Way friendlier than yours truly. Behind the swing and the fake eye, he's a cupcake." Tony bunny hopped over another log, a definite airy quality surrounding him.

"Yeah, but I know you," Peter points out. Unlike Tony, he steps normally up onto the log and then steps normally down off it. "I don't know him."

More importantly:

"How did the two of you become friends after he beat you up?"

Flash's bullying never got physical, but he still couldn't imagine being friends with him.

"We saved New York together, but anyone can save a city together." Waves of nostalgia were flooding his chest, adding to the warmth that was there. God, was he reaching menopause or something?

"As I learned, he's a good guy. Knows how to have a great time. Ignorant of our Midgardian ways but eager to learn--you do not know fun until you take a Norse God to Joe Jr. and convince him the ketchup is the complimentary drink."

Peter squints, and then spins his head to one side, as if expecting Thor to be standing there.

It really is kinda unbelievable.

"Did that -- Did that really happen?"

"Ask him for what happened next. I've got a million of them." Tony grinned, leaning back as they descended a muddy slope. "It's good to have someone on your team back, it really is. He was gone for a few years, there."

"I know," Peter says. "There was a lot of speculation on Reddit that he might be dead or abducted by some other aliens." Since he was technically an alien, too.

"The last anyone got wind of him was that article on TMZ." Peter figures Tony knows what article he's talking about.

'Is that everyone's last impression of him? Poor bastard.' Tony wasn't a stranger to public commentary on his love life. He had every intention of avoiding it at the hotel. Loki was the only one aware of their little affair, and the man was surprisingly mum.

"Truth is weirder."

How do you explain away accumulating a magical rock collection for the sake of the universe?

"And on a need-to-know basis."

Edited 2018-09-02 22:53 (UTC)

"Was he fighting Thanos, too?" There's a little jolt of excitement in Peter's voice at that. He knows that he and Quill and himself and the others were already about to start fighting him, but maybe Thor showed up, too -- in the middle of that final combat! Obviously, Thor couldn't have been fighting him before then. Thor and the Hulk were the two strongest Avengers; Thanos would have been easily trounced by either one of them, he's sure!

"Did he say something about that?"

"What?" Tony asked, unable to keep some unintended reprimand out of his voice. "You know about Than--that."

How much had Star-Gourd gone off to Peter about the "totally awesome plan" they were enacting?

"Yeah," Peter says, trying to sound casual. "Mr. Star-Lord told me about it after he showed up. He knew me, but I didn't -- you know, I didn't know him, so he filled me in."

Great. The kid knew enough details to be hopelessly optimistic.

"Anyway," Tony cleared his throat, saving that beast for later, "Thor never mentioned being there at the time of the...space dispute."

"Did Thor mention anything about being there after?" he asks, temporarily lengthening his gait he's no longer trailing behind Tony. "What did Mr. Star-Lord tell you? Maybe I can fill you in."

"We don't discuss it all that much. And Mr. Lord--" Tony batted a branch out of the way, "--didn't do much beyond gloat about how good he was at Mario Kart, so you'll have to excuse me there."

"Yeah, he's pretty good at Mario Kart," Peter says, the same way someone might when summing up someone's prowess in battle. "He's not as good at Super Mario Bros. 3, though. If you want to beat him at something, you might wanna try that."

Not that Super Mario Bros. 3 was a game in which you were in direct competition with anyone.

"Maybe you should teach me before I walk into that next failure, Pete." It felt nice to get off the topic of supervillainy for a change.

"Or we skip all that and do movie night. Liz has been clamoring. Well. As much as she can clamor."

"What movie were you thinking about?" he asks. "I've already seen A New Hope and Bladerunner about a hundred times."

As much as he loved both of those, they were both eligible for automatic veto at this point.

Tony caught himself in an overhanging branch to keep from sliding down yet another slope too quickly.

"Who knows? I'd rather go with the crowd, this time. I inflicted The Shining on Thor and that...well, it didn't go over well."

Peter shoots Tony an incredulous look. "Why would you show him that?"

"It's a classic and he deserved to experience it." Tony rolled his eyes. "The Overlook? The Madonna Inn? Uh, hello? I didn't want to be alone in the references, here. I make one little ax-murdering joke and someone takes it the wrong way..."

Well, Thor had to take it personally with his ax-hammer.

"I just found a copy of Clueless and I haven't watched it yet," Peter says. "I read the back of the tape and I think that's probably going to be a lot safer than The Shining."

"Why not? We can all be polaroids of perfection together." Usually, Tony would have put up a fight, but just being together sounded like medicine.

"Unrelated. Just between you and me, I'm working with someone on getting a lab up and running. A proper one."

Peter's eyes light up with interest.

"What for?" Peter asks. "For getting us out of here?"

"Compiling all the available data on the Madonna Inn and gathering more. Escaping is a sub-goal." Tony answered quickly, having clearly given this extensive thought. "It's looking like simply getting out won't be enough."

Compiling makes enough sense to him; they need all the information in one place if they want to have even the smallest possibility of getting out of here, but --

"Why not enough?"

"Just escaping doesn't answer every question I--or others--have." Tony jumped some rocks leading over a small stream. "'What will we retain when we leave?' 'Where does this place exist in space?' 'Is it possible to communicate with the outside?' To name just a few."