voidtreckerexpress | Good morning

Entry tags:

Good morning

Who: Tony Stark + OTA
Where: Dining Carriage/ Kitchen
When: Month Apple, Day 2
What: Come bug him while he's eating breakfast/ having coffee
Warnings: Language maybe?
Notes: I'll make a note on a tag if it contains Endgame spoilers, but I'll try to avoid them.

Oh god, it wasn't a dream.

Some habits died hard, like his internal clock that had him waking early to a dark cramped space that after some moments confused, he remembered to be his bunk on a train. Moving as quietly as he could, he gathered some toiletries and slips into the bathroom for a shower trying not to wake anyone. From there it's a change of clothes and then the hunt for the one thing that will keep him sane during this trek- coffee.

Wearing one of the red polo shirts he'd been given, Tony arrives at the dining car early. He leaves the wheelchair downstairs in the kitchen, finding for just the short journey upstairs he doesn't need it. While he was in the kitchen, he doesn't protest too hard when someone on kitchen duty fixes him an egg white omelet, toast, and coffee.

Upstairs, he finds a good spot where he could watch the door and settles in to enjoy his breakfast and ponder over the fact that this situation he was in might not actually be a hallucination after all. He sorely misses his tablet where he could check the world news like he usually did over breakfast, but these things happen when you're randomly kidnapped by a freaky train in middle of the void.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tony just stares at Peter for a long moment. What. The. Hell. Pffft, he can't help it. He laughs and shakes his head. Giving Peter's hand an affectionate squeeze, he lets go. His intern was such a goofball, but he loved him.

"Do you have plan of getting into regular clothes or are you going to spend your day in your pajamas?" He was almost jealous he'd bothered getting dressed. He reaches out and tries to fix that hair though. "Didn't they give you a comb?"

Peter's well aware of how stupid that joke was but it made Tony laugh and helped to dissolve the tension (or at least he hopes it did). He pulls his hand back and takes another drink of coffee.

he pulls the mug away and gives Tony a look. "Cut me some slack here, Mr Stark, I've only been awake for like thirty minutes!" If even that. He pulls his head back a little so Tony can't mess his hair, grumbling under his breath.

"I'll comb it later."

Tony draws his hand back with his eyebrows rising. He hadn't expected Peter to snap at him over that bit of teasing, but perhaps the kid was more out of sorts because of his outburst than he'd let on.

Since he'd already apologized for his tantrum, he didn't feel inclined to do it again over such a minor slight. So instead, he just watches Peter without saying anything. Anything he'd say would likely not go over well anyway.

He's not upset, really. He's just tired and didn't get enough sleep last night. He realizes after a moment that he'd probably sounded a little more snappy than he had meant to. His face pales as could probably be predicted and timed, an apology is rolling out of Peter's mouth.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry Mr Stark-I didn't mean-I don't even know what time I fell asleep last night-so I'm kinda-crabby I guess." He admits before letting out a sigh and drinking more coffee. He really wishes they had some form of energy drink on this train.

"I really didn't mean it to sound like that-I was just trying to give you a hard time-which I shouldn't be doing. So uh... sorry for that too."

There we go! Does he know this kid or what?

That wary, slightly offended look he had on his face dissolves into a smirk. It was so Peter to react like this. In that instant everything was forgiven and he could relax again with the boy he enjoyed spending time with the most.

"It's okay, kid. Obviously, I've been having a rough morning too," he gestures towards the mark on the wall he made with the cup. "I'm worried about you though. You need to sleep more. It's not healthy to go as long as you do without some quality shut eye." He was such a hypocrite! When he was dealing with issues a few years ago, he had a period of time when he couldn't sleep either. Fortunately it had come to an end when Pepper helped him. They needed to get Peter similar help so he wasn't tortured by this any more.

"What can I do to help?"

Peter sets the coffee mug back down and stares down into tan liquid before offering a half hearted shrug. One of the nights he’d stayed at the penthouse he’d told Tony about his issues with sleep-why it was always so hard to fall asleep. Or, he hadn’t actually said the words. He’d more started to say them, chickened out and let Tony fill in the blanks.

“I don’t think there’s anything to do, Mr Stark.” He says honestly. “I mean-it’s been six years and I still can’t talk about it-not without thinking about it. And I mean I don’t usually think about it-about him but I can’t sleep so maybe I do in a way-I don’t typically have nightmares about him but then you can’t really have nightmares if you’re waaay over tired.” He sighs and take another drink of coffee, sinking into his seat.

“I never meant to-but May would usually just wake up on the bad nights and make hot chocolate. And then we’d sit on the couch and watch Netflix until I fell asleep-but that’s not really an option.”

Tony listens, feeling his heart wrench in his chest painfully at the reminder of what Peter was battling. He'd never told the kid this, but he'd found Skip a couple years ago and- god help him- he beat the hell out of that man. He hadn't even used. He just asked if the man remembered Peter and broke his nose, knocked out a few teeth, and came back home bloody and feeling more satisfied than he had in a long while. Skip would never do something like that again. Iron Man was watching him now and he knew it.

That didn't help their current situation though. Peter was still suffering from this event and there was little Tony could do about it. "You know you're always welcome to come and wake me up. You don't even have to tell me why, just come in and say we need to hang out. I don't know if there's hot chocolate in the kitchen but we could at least do tea- I saw that in there." He lets that sit for a moment before continuing. "Pete, we need to find a way for you to let some of that out. You're holding on to the trauma and it's not good for you. I'm not at all blaming you for it, I'm just saying I'm not willing to ignore it or the fact you're suffering. That's not okay. You don't deserve that and he doesn't deserve that kind of power over your life."

Peter lets out another sigh and rubs at his face. This is not a conversation he wants to have so early in the morning-nor does he really ever want to have this conversation. He gets what Tony is saying, he really does but he can't talk about it-even now his starting to feel the dread rising into his stomach and twisting into knots-effectively killing his appetite. They're dangerously close to talking about it and part of him wants to spit out an excuse and retreat back to his bed.

"Thanks, Mr Stark, really, but I'm sixteen. I should be able to handle this without having to go to an adult for comfort in the middle of the night-that's like the same as having to crawl into bed with my parents because I got scared." Which he's sure he did at least once-he can't really remember if he did it with his actual parents but he definitely crawled into bed with Aunt May and Uncle Ben several times when he was younger. And he still sometimes needed May to fall asleep.

"Um... so was I the last one awake?"

"So?" Tony asks, looking sincere. "Do you think you need to proof anything to me, Pete? Because you don't. I know you're strong. I know you're sixteen. And I know you eat candy like you're three. I don't care. Whatever you need, I'm not going to judge you about. Well.. maybe about the candy. I judge that a little. But not something serious. I hope you'd know that about me by now."

He wondered about the other question and shook his head. "I haven't seen Dread yet. By the way, you're on dishes duty for lunch and dinner according to Gwen when you didn't show up for breakfast."

Peter takes in a sharp breath and exhales slowly, he’s not a little kid and he doesn’t want to be treated like one-that’s not what Mr Stark is doing but he’ll feel like a little kid if he has to depend on his mentor for sleep.

“I mean, it’s fine if you’re five but I’m not-I’m gonna be seventeen and I can be dependent on other people just to fall asleep.” He sighs again and rubs at his face before grumbling something under his breath about how he does not eat candy like a three year old.

“Yeah, that’s-that’s fair. She can wake me up if she wants-I might grumble a little but I’ll get over it.”

"I've had to and I'm a lot older than seventeen. We all need help once in a while. I'd rather get you real help before you develop a drinking problem to get yourself to sleep or you are so sleep deprived you hurt yourself or others during a mission. Have you ever been to the sleep section of a supermarket? It's a billion dollar industry just to help adults- not children- fall asleep."

He watches as Peter struggles to deal with this conversation and sighs. "Alright, I'm done lecturing you. You know the invitation is there, that's all I need from you right now."

The other comment had him looking at Peter funny. "Are you planning on going back to sleep before lunch?"

Peter still wants to argue-Tony got over his no sleep problem and Peter’s keeps coming back if he could even say it ever went away. It was so messed up that in one afternoon Skip had managed to wreck his life and he got to just walk away because Peter was too afraid to testify and May and Ben thought money would be better spent on therapy rather than a lawyer. Which-he never really fully opened up to the therapist so that was money from his aunt and uncle just straight down the drain.

“What? No. I mean-I wasn’t planning on it. Maybe if there’s nothing else to do because we’ve been on this thing since yesterday and you know I hate sitting in the same place for very long.”

Peter never could accept how someone else could understand what he was going through unless the situations were perfectly identical. It was something Tony had noticed about the boy. He also didn't seem to understand what it meant for his mentor to share those sort of details about himself. It was okay though. They weren't just buddies, there was a separation between mentor/ pupil at play here. Tony didn't need for Peter to understand his life, so long as the older man could be there for the kid's. He didn't need Peter to be his confidante. It was one of many reasons, he didn't see any reason to share the future or what was going on internally within Tony with Peter.

That said, he was glad Peter didn't continue to argument with him after he'd revealed something so sensitive and personal.

He frowns when there appears to be a miscommunication. He plays back their conversation in his mind and figures out where they fumbled. "You said it's fair if Gwen wakes you up. I was assuming you meant later today, but you mean later as in tomorrow, yes? If you're not planning on napping today. What are you going to do?"

Peter picks up his coffee cup and takes another sip and just offers a shrug. What was there to even do on this train? There was the Gym-ish carriage, he supposes but how long will that keep him entertained?

"I think there's a game on the communication center things-and something about lessons? I might look into that for a bit."

"If you're truly so bored, why not take an inventory of what materials we have at our disposal? Would you be able and willing to check with people what they might have been given from home? From what I've gathered, Gwen and you have your web shooters and I have my suit. It'd be helpful to know if we are in a bind," Tony suggests.

He sits back, considering what else they could do if they gathered the right information. "Perhaps we should start work on a database of information.." It was more to himself than to Peter.

He opens his notebook and starts jotting down ideas.

Peter just sits there a moment, thinking about Mr Stark's list and while he can definitely see the merits of doing such things he's also at the point of his boredom where he's so bored he doesn't really want to do anything besides lay around and complain about being bored. He can't do that if Mr Stark is giving him stuff to do.

"Uh.. yeah, I could do that. I've already met like... almost everyone on the train-I think there's like one person I haven't." But it's not a super long train-he's sure to run into them at some point.

"Which, uh-I don't have any refills on my web fluid-wait-I think I told you that-anyways-I hope we stop soon and I can like... get the stuff to make more."

Tony pauses in his writing and looks up at Peter, almost surprised he's still there. Hadn't he been given a task already? He raises an eyebrow as the young man continues to sit and talk to him.

"And when you met everyone on the train did you ask them about their items they brought and make a list of what's currently on the train?" He asks, some impatience seeping through.

The news about his web fluid isn't good news. He doesn't remember the kid mentioning it before, but it was possible he simply wasn't paying attention. "Well use it only sparingly until we can find some chemicals. What makes you think we're going to stop at some point?"

Peter didn't really take that as 'go do what I said' and only continues to sit there munching on toast covered with a fried egg and just offers a shrug before swallowing to avoid talking with his mouth full.

"It's a train." He states. "It's got an engine... it's gotta need fuel at some point right?" He takes another bite of toast. He'd pull out his own notebook but it's back in 1A in the pocket of his hoodie.

"No, I didn't ask them that-but I met a lady that has a Clefariy-that's pretty awesome. A dude that might be almost as big as the Hulk, and another lady that I talked to about space travel. Plus Gwen, Lightening and Buttercup." He pauses, frowning slightly because he's forgetting someone, he knows it. "Oh! And this one person that's like... really demanding. They wanted to go bother you about uh sleeping accomidations and I uh... might have... sorta.. kinda... webbed them to the wall. Just in case it comes up."

Tony watches Peter eat and decides he won't get on the boy's case until he's finished about actually doing what Tony asked him to do.

He could see the logic behind Peter's reasoning, but they were also on a train traveling through space or whatever this was. Could they really apply assumptions of other trains on this one?

"Eva. Yes, she's one of my roommates," he nods, before hearing the rest of the list. He decides this is actually turning into a useful conversation. He would like to know who Peter knew and who he hadn't met yet. He had been sure he'd met everyone so far, but then Peter describes someone he very much hadn't crossed paths with. Just before he could say that he hadn't met her, Peter was saying he'd webbed the person!

"You did what?" He wants to be mad but that was also hysterical! "Who is this person and why do they think I can do anything about their room?"

Peter shrugs, having taken another bite of breakfast-now that he's been up for a little bit, his appetite is starting to kick in. He wipes a bit of egg yolk off his face with the back of his hand-completely neglecting his napkin before he clarifies.

"I don't know-they were just really upset about having to share a room-Uh.. I think they gave the name Hibiki Shikiyon, or something? I can't remember but they said it like I should recognize it and also said something about relinquishing my hue? Guessing they meant the purple since different teams-anyways-they asked where they could find you so I told them to leave you alone but they clearly weren't gonna so I uh... webbed them." He rambles just like he normal does when he's confessing to something he knows he shouldn't have done.

"Don't be mad-You just seemed so out of it yesterday and it was after the whole Lavender incident and I just thought that no one should bother you after-and I mean yeah, that was my fault-but I wasn't gonna let anyone bother you over something you can't control right now."

Pete really reminds him of his daughter sometimes. He could be so forgetful and somehow managed to be cute when you should be getting irritated with him. Plus, they both had terrible table manners. Morgan had the excuse she wasn't even five yet for another couple months. What was Peter's excuse?

The humor on his face grows as he finds more about what Peter was saying and doing amusing. This person wanted to be purple that bad? They weren't even sure what the colors mean! He rolls his eyes at the silly behavior followed by mild annoyance at being reminded of his physical weakness. It wasn't so much annoyance at Peter, just in general.

"Thank you. I'll let Buttercup and Eva know you're our new bouncer for our room. I'm sure they'll be thrilled."

Having scarfed down the rest of his toast, Peter's in the middle of licking egg off his fingers when Tony declares him to be the new bouncer. He's sure it's just a joke but he can't help but respond.

"I mean-Sure I don't mind but I think Clefairy would make a better bouncer-what with attacks like moonblast and metronome-well metronome's kinda uh.. random and could be anything but usually it involves an explosion of some-kind... in the... anime at least." He takes another drink of his coffee and starts to get up.

"I'm gonna grab more toast-want anything, Mr Stark?"

Tony shakes his head. He was forever taking his jokes too literally and that reaction was no exception to the rule. What he wouldn't give for the boy to just laugh at his joke. Kid had no sense of humor. Ah well.

"No, you go ahead," he answers mildly. He wonders if the people running this train are aware of how much Peter and probably Gwen eat. If there was a scheduled stop ahead for supplies, would they even make it that long?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good morning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: Vague mentions of Skip Westcott

CW: References to sexual assault and regular assault

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject