Chapter Text
“Peter, can you come here? I need to talk to you about something,” Aunt May called from the living room of their small apartment. Peter paused the calculus homework he was doing and made his way to the living room wondering what could have his Aunt sounding so serious.
“What’s up?”
“You know how I applied to do that medical training course in England a while back? And I didn’t think I would be accepted?” he nodded. She was really scared to send in her application because she was sure that she would get rejected, but Peter convinced her to send it anyway, “Well I got a call from the hospital yesterday, I got in.”
“What?! Aunt May, that's amazing! I’m so happy for you!” He immediately ran to her and hugged her. They jumped around cheering for a few minutes before settling on the couch and ordering some well deserved take-out for dinner.
In the middle of eating, May abruptly put her Thai food container down and turned to Peter with a nervous face, “This course runs in the Royal London Hospital from July first to September first. I have to figure out my own lodging for some of it, not to mention the flight there and back, and food,” Peter looked at her quizzically, she sighed, “basically, we don’t have enough money for both of us to go, you would have to stay here.”
Peter stayed quiet for a moment. With Aunt May gone he would have to live on his own. He’s only 14, and sure, he's a crime fighting vigilante, but two months? He doesn’t know if he would be able to do that.
“What will I do then? I want you to do this but I’m nervous about having to live alone for two months.”
“Oh Peter, I’m not going to just leave you here alone for that long,” May grabbed Peter’s hand, “I actually have a bit of a surprise.”
“What is it?”
“When I found out, after freaking out, of course, I wanted to make sure I had you taken care of before I told you about it. I know how you are and how happy you would be for me, making sure I go. So I made a call to your pal Happy, who got me in contact with Mr. Stark. I know you two have been getting closer because of your spider activities and your super genius brain, so I asked if maybe you would be able to stay with him for the summer. We talked a few things out, but in the end he said yes!” Peter couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A whole summer with Mr. Stark, he could spend all his time in the lab with him, go out as Spiderman as much as he wants, and live in Avengers Tower with the actual Avengers! There was no downside. Besides missing Aunt May, of course. Peter smiled so wide, practically shaking just thinking about how much fun he was going to have.
Before Peter could get too far into his thoughts, May kept going, “I want to make sure you’re completely okay with me going. I’ll have to leave on your last day of school, I’ll be missing your birthday, and I know you haven’t slept at the tower before, but Mr. Stark assured me that you would be well taken care of. And I’ll make sure to FaceTime you all the time, it’ll be like I’m not even gone. So if you’re up for it, I’ll accept the offer and call back Mr. Stark to arrange everything.”
“Are you kidding Aunt May? You should totally accept the offer! This is huge for you, and I’ll be fine, a summer at Avengers Tower? What teenager would turn that down?” He gave his aunt a hug, “I’m really happy for you Aunt May, this is going to be a great summer for both of us, even if we’re across the globe from each other.”
“What did I ever do to deserve you Peter? I larb you, kid,” she stood up and grabbed her phone, “I’m going to make those calls right now. Thank you Peter, really, you’re the greatest,” Peter just smiled and kept eating his dinner, thinking about all the fun he was going to have this summer.
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*brrrrrring*
The final school bell of the year rang out and Peter packed up all his things for the last time. He had to go home where he had packed his overnight bag full of everything he could need to stay two months at the tower. Happy was going to drive Aunt May and him to the airport where they would say goodbye (he was dreading that) and then they would go to the tower where he would remain for the entirety of his summer vacation.
He walked as fast as he could to his locker, shoved everything into it, and was about to start walking to the front, still buzzing with excitement, when he felt a hand pull on his shoulder and spin him around.
“Dude!” Ned, the owner of the hand and his best friend, was smiling widely at Peter as he turned around, “it’s finally summer break! We should make a list of everything we want to do, we have to start planning for your birthday early. Can you ask your Aunt if I can come over tomorrow? We can make a spreadsheet.”
“Actually…” Peter started slowly, “Aunt May isn’t going to be around this summer,” Ned’s face shifted from excited to confused.
“What? Where is she going? Are you okay? Do you need somewhere to stay?” Peter felt so grateful to have a friend like Ned, even if his line of questioning was unnecessary. He couldn’t wait to see his friends reaction to his news.
“I’m okay Ned, really. Better than okay actually, May is going to a medical course thing all summer in London, I’m actually really excited for her. I can’t stay home alone all summer, obviously, so she arranged a place for me to go and it's, get this, with Mr. Stark at the tower!”
“You’re kidding! You’re actually going to spend all summer at Avengers Tower? Hanging out with Iron Man and the other avengers? He agreed to that?” Ned seemed excited until the last question, but something in his tone made Peter nervous.
“What do you mean ‘he agreed to that’? I was surprised too but Aunt May asked him personally and he said yes. Do you think I should be worried about this?” Peter suddenly felt a lot less excited. Ned was one of the smartest people in his life, if he thought there was something worrying about this arrangement then he wanted to hear what he had to say.
“No, no, of course not,” Ned paused, “I mean, I know you hang out with him a lot, and you guys have gotten pretty close, I’m just saying that he’s not exactly been quiet about his opinion on children. It’s just kind of surprising that he would agree to house a teenager for the whole summer.”
Peter hadn’t thought about that. He had been so hung up on his excitement for the summer that he didn’t even think about the logistics of him actually living with Mr. Stark.
Of course he wouldn’t want a teenager around bothering him all summer, he thought. Peter felt a sense of dread about going to the tower later, but it was too late to change the arrangement now. He just had to try his best to be the least nuisance-like as he could possibly be.
“I have to go,” Peter said to his friend dismissively, “I need to be home to drop Aunt May at the airport, text you later.”
He heard Ned yelling after him as he ran from the school, and though Peter felt bad leaving his friend so abruptly, now he had more important things on his mind. He would text him later and make sure Ned knew he was okay.
He made his way home without paying much attention to his commute. He was trying not to think about how worried he was about what could happen this summer. Ned made a good point and Peter was now having doubts, but he couldn’t let Aunt May know how scared he was to live with Mr. Stark. Knowing her, she would willingly stay home from her training course for him, but she was really looking forward to it and he didn’t want to ruin that for her.
Next thing he knew he was walking up the stairs of his building, anticipating the wreck he was about to walk into. As he opened the door his suspicions were confirmed. May was in a frenzy pacing the apartment holding a packing list that looked like it had about a million check marks all over it.
“Hey Aunt May, I’m back,” she looked up from her list and smiled in a way that looked slightly deranged, “are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Sweetie, promise, I’m just making sure that I have absolutely everything figured out before I leave,” she scanned the list once more as she said this, then looked back at Peter, “speaking of, do you have everything you need too? It’ll be easier for you to come back here if you forgot anything than it will for me, but double check just in case so you don’t have to.”
“I double checked yesterday, you have nothing to be stressed about, you have double, triple, and quadruple checked that you have everything, too. Happy should be here soon, let me help you bring your bags to the front.”
Next thing Peter knew, they were on their way to the airport. He and Aunt May were sitting in the back. She was rambling on about what she needed to do once she got to the airport, but Peter wasn’t paying attention, he was too busy falling down a rabbit hole of what-if’s. What if Mr. Stark only said yes because he was caught off guard? What if when he gets to the tower he finds out it was all a joke and he’s left stranded? Every possible scenario ran through his head, and a pit in his stomach formed when he realised that after Aunt May left, if Mr. Stark really didn’t want him there, he would be stuck for the whole summer alone. He was terrified. But before he could get too ahead of himself he felt a hand on his arm and snapped back to the real world.
“Are you okay, Sweetie? Are you nervous about me leaving? I promise you’ll be okay, you won’t even notice I’m gone because you’ll be having so much fun with Mr. Stark. Don’t worry about a thing,” May’s attempts to reassure him didn’t do anything to help, just drove home the fact that when she was gone the only person to take care of him was Mr. Stark, and if Peter did something to upset him, he would be alone.
“I’m really going to miss you Aunt May.”
“Aw, I’m going to miss you too, love,” she gave his arm a quick squeeze then went back to looking out the window, just as they were pulling up to the drop-off zone of the airport. Happy got her bags from the trunk and Peter finally got out of the car, not at all ready to say goodbye to his Aunt.
“Can you call me when you land?” Peter asked meekly.
“Of course I will, Sweetie,” she pulled him into a bone crushing hug which he returned just as fiercely, “be good for Mr. Stark, remember to brush your teeth, and please, have fun. I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Aunt May,” as she let go and walked into the airport, waving, Peter felt sad. He knew, ultimately, he would be okay no matter what happened, he lifted a building off of himself for goodness sake! But that did nothing to calm his nerves.
The drive to the tower was a blur, Peter zoned out for most of it. Happy looked at him through the rearview mirror a few times, probably wondering why he wasn’t chatting up a storm, but he didn’t ask about it.
When they made it to the tower Peter felt sick, he almost didn’t want to get out of the car, but he knew that wouldn’t help whatever was waiting for him upstairs. As he was about to get on the elevator, Happy stopped.
“Are you not coming up too?” Peter asked.
“No need, kid. You’re the one living here, I just had to deliver you in one piece. Say ‘hi’ to Tony for me,” and with that he walked away, leaving Peter even more stressed. He walked into the elevator and pressed the button with a fancy ‘S’ on it, but nothing happened. Peter was worried, maybe he locked me out? But before he could spiral he noticed a small screen to the side of the buttons that read ‘SCAN BADGE’. Suddenly it clicked in his head, of course Mr. Stark wouldn’t just let anyone walk into his house. So Peter fished his intern ID badge out from his pocket and scanned it on the screen, praying for it to work, but the elevator sprang to life and began its journey to the top floor.
The elevator opened up to a large living room, a bar on one side, a kitchen on the other, and a massive flatscreen TV on the far wall surrounded by soft-looking couches. There, sitting on one of the couches was none other than Tony Stark, tapping away on his tablet, clearly engrossed in something. Peter took a deep breath to compose himself before walking into the space. He got all the way to where Mr. Stark was sitting before the man looked up from his screen with surprise.
“Oh hey kid, I wasn’t expecting you so soon, let me show you around,” the man smiled and stood, motioning for Peter to follow, “now I know you’ve been here a few times so you know all about the security measures, and you’ve had clearance for every level of the building except the residential floors, well, until today, that is. But now you’ll be living here for a while so I have to catch you up to date.”
Mr. Stark led him around the big room and pointed out all the things Peter had already noticed, adding in quips and comments like his lack of a remote for the TV (he just uses FRIDAY), the kitchen is open at all times and to take what he wants when he wants (yeah, right), and how Peter can never touch the bar because if he ‘drinks alcohol he’d die’ (unlikely). Once the room tour was done, Mr. Stark led Peter to a hallway beside the elevator that he hadn’t noticed when he arrived.
“This room is mine,” he pointed to the first door in the hallway, one of four, “the one next to that is just storage, across the hall from that is your bathroom, and then the one across from mine is yours, go ahead and drop your stuff, get comfortable, I’ll be down in my lab.”
“Okay Mr. Stark,” Peter spoke quietly, still nervous to do something that could irritate the man.
“Oh, kid, we’re going to be living with each other, stop with the ‘Mr. Stark’, you should just call me Tony,” but Peter made a face. Being told to call someone he idolises so much by their first name felt weird, so Mr. Stark sighed, “oh whatever, see you later, kid,” waving as he retreated, leaving Peter alone in his new home for the next couple months.
He walked into his room and gasped, it was like he walked into a five-star hotel. There was a queen size bed in one corner dressed in white bedding, a nightstand with a simple lamp on it, a huge closet with some embedded drawers inside along the wall parallel with the door, a simple desk along the opposite wall, and a huge entertainment centre with dozens of empty shelves, a TV, and multiple game consoles all to himself.
Peter couldn’t believe it, he had never had a room so big before. Something he noticed, though, was how barren it all seemed. The walls were a nice light blue colour, and there was a tasteful grey rug on the ground, but there was nothing else in the room. Nothing on the walls, the shelves, no clothes or boxes in the closet. It looked as if no one had ever even stepped foot in the room before.
The sheer emptiness made Peter slightly uneasy. His room back home was always full of clutter, posters all over his walls and knick knacks covering every surface. Mr. Stark told him to get comfortable but so much empty space felt odd. He hadn’t even thought about bringing anything from the apartment to decorate.
Though, he wondered if Mr. Stark added so few details on purpose. I’m only a temporary guest, after all, sticking things to walls and covering shelves with useless things would be a hassle to clean up when I’m gone. It was disappointing, but he understood, he would just have to deal with the empty room. It was only for two months.
He tried to shake the feeling and began to unpack all his clothes, only partially filling the huge closet. Once he was finished he simply sat on the bed and zoned out. Mr. Stark told him he was in the lab, but that wasn’t a formal invitation to join him, and Peter would rather not bother the man while he’s working.
He resigned himself to just staying in his new room, trying to get used to the feeling of it. In doing so he eventually just closed his eyes and fell asleep, despite it being only around six in the afternoon, it seemed like the best course of action to get away from the anxious thoughts eating away at him.