st_arkintern | (no subject)

"Yeah, sure," Peter says, nodding. He moves into position, trying his best to follow his instructions to a T.

"My dad and I didn't do anything like this," he says. "He wasn't really into making things. Just cooking."

Tony motioned for Peter to make his move--the tower of stripped wood would have to be webbed up and stored in the shed Tony constructed near their workstation. "The best skill in dorm life. He who cooks reigns king."

Webbing is something familiar -- and it's something that Peter knows he can do. Peter starts moving and webbing the woods into more easily carriable stacks. Sure, he could probably carry a lot of it at once (strength was, after all, one of his superpowers), but it was also super awkward to carry because of its length.

"Yeah, we used to do it together sometimes," he says. "Uncle Ben and I made a pinewood derby car once. I used to help with his models too."

"For your troop?" Recalling that Peter was a scout at some point, anyway. As the table got cleared, Tony pulled a rolled sheet of graph paper, 34"x 44", and laid it out on the surface.

Edited 2019-01-27 22:02 (UTC)

"Yeah," he says, continuing to wrap and bundle things up. "I stopped before I got to Webelos, though."

"What'd you do in those, anyway? How many badges on that cute little vest?" Civilian life was largely a mystery to Tony and his military-industrial background.

"Went camping, earned badges," Peter explains, still working. "Uncle Ben was my assistant den master until I left."

A beat, and then: "You weren't in cub scouts?"

"Boarding school until I transferred to MIT when I was thirteen." Tony clipped both ends of the paper to secure it from rolling back.

Peter looks up from his work and over at Tony.

"It doesn't really sound like you had much of a fun childhood."

"You make your own fun as you go." Tony winked over his shoulder, straightening out the creases. "That's all life is."

"Did you have fun at boarding school?" Peter can't imagine it'd be fun being away from his parents. Or May or Ben. He knew firsthand what it was like to be without most of them.

"Had fun. Loved and hated it, depending on the day." Understatement--he cried almost every day he'd gotten sent off as child, but children were adaptable. Though after he'd acclimated, it wasn't as if he got homesick--though just as often he was ready to return once he was actually back home. "Became a seasoned traveler early."

"Yeah?" he asks. "I didn't really get to go on many trips until you took me to Berlin. May and Ben took me to Jersey Shore twice I think. After mom and dad died."

An internal sigh. "Berlin didn't count. We'll go back without an agenda." As Peter finished his work storing wood, Tony nodded for him to approach.

"It kinda did," he says, just as he wraps things up. Tony might not think it was, but he did. He had at least a little time to explore the city before he went home. He just wish he could have done it with Tony.

When Tony gestures for him to join him, Peter does, his head tilted ever-so-slightly to one side.

Glancing sideways, Tony hesitated. No. It wasn't time to bring that up right now. He gave a thin let's move on smile. "Check this out." He gestured at the detailed schematics illustrating the ins and outs of the sleek 1958 Plymouth Fury they would recreate with wood and little else.

"Whoa..." Peter has a hard time containing his awe. The car was vintage, like the kind of stuff he saw in old movies.

He's pretty sure he's seen this model in a particular movie, and he strains his brain to remember it. And then suddenly, it hits him.

Peter looks over at Tony. "That's the same car as the one in that old movie Christine, right?" He's not sure if Tony's seen it, but Tony at least knew Star Wars and Aliens. Maybe he knew Footloose too, but he wasn't really sure on that. Tony looked pretty annoyed the whole time he was with the Guardians.

"Sharp." Tony elbowed Peter with a smirk. "Promise this one won't be cursed."

"I hope not," he says. "You know there's a copy of it in the library. I didn't see it until I got here."

When all there were was VHSes and VCRs, it did kinda limit the movie eras Peter had to watch from.

"I named a Bentley after her." Tony leaned back slightly to allow Peter a good look at his diagrams. "On the spot, honestly. I took Thor for a spin in one and he asked if it had a name."

"Did he get the reference?" Peter asks. He's not exactly sure how many movies he's seen. He's not even really sure if there's movies on Asgard. He never asked.

"Nope. Offered to take it to get blessed when I explained. Oh, Lord, gotta love him..." Tony chuckled, leaning his palms onto the surface and cocking his hips back. "I'd like to outfit this rig with an AI interface."

"Like KITT from that old show, Knight Rider?" Peter's not sure if Tony knows it, but Tony seems to get a lot of his old references, so maybe he's watched it.

Especially since Tony really seems to like AI too.

"All the personality with none of the bells and whistles--yet. You can cope, right?" Tony tousled Peter's hair affectionately. "Any AI we've got around can interface with it."

Peter smiles at the gesture of affection. Tony had been more generous with those displays since he got here, but it didn't stop Peter from appreciating it anyway.

"I like Karen," Peter says, because he does. It'd be embarrassing for him to admit that he considers her a friend, even though he's sure Vision and Tony are friends. Karen doesn't really have a body, though. "Do you think she can exist in two places at once?"