Chapter Text
Peter took a deep breath as he walked into the conference room. It had been a while since he had been to the tower and never under these circumstances. Happy had showed up after school saying he was needed at the tower, but didn't say anything else until he dropped him off and told him to head to the conference room. But then Happy told him that Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes were waiting for him, and he became worried and confused.
"Good afternoon, Peter. I hope the drive here was pleasant?" Miss Potts said as Peter stumbled in and took a seat across from the pair. Peter's eyes widened about being addressed and he nodded quickly.
"Yes, Miss Potts." he said, cursing how young he sounded. Miss Potts sent him amused smile.
"Call me Pepper please. I trust you've met Rhodey?" Miss Po-Pepper said to him, smiling warmly, calming him down slightly.
"Yes. Nice to see you again Colonel Rhodes, sir." the colonel smirked at Peter's politeness, and sent him a small nod.
"Okay, Peter I'm sure you were wondering why you were brought here, rather than to meet up with Tony?" Pepper said, her voice slipping into a more professional air. Peter nodded meekly, but didn't dare interrupt the CEO. "Well, it's about Tony. I know you guys had gotten pretty close before the airport incident. He talked about you all the time." Pepper continued, and Peter could have sworn he heard her voice break a little. Peter nodded again.
"Is there something wrong? Is he okay? I never did hear from him after Happy brought me home from Germany, I was worried." Peter said quickly, hoping there was nothing wrong.
"Well...he's okay physically. Mentally though...not so much. I'll just start from the beginning. After the fight at the airport, Tony found out that Steve was right about the other super soldiers and went to go help. What happened next we only know because of the camera on Tony's suit. But from the looks of it, Tony was shown a video of Barnes, or the Winter Soldier, killing his parents. Steve had known, but had kept it from him. So, Tony naturally was upset and attacked Barnes, which made Steve mad and he fought back. It escalated to the point where Steve and Barnes left Tony with a busted suit in Siberia. We got FRIDAY's alert a couple hours later and found Tony in bad shape. Since then he's healed physically. But..." Colonel Rhodes explained, but by the time he got to the end he choked up and shook his head, unable to continue. Pepper reached out and rubbed his arm, and continued for him in a soft voice.
"Well, Tony has had a lot of mental health issues in the past, which have been exacerbated by the traumatic experiences he has been through in the past couple years." she paused to take a deep breath and Peter found himself getting more worried with every word directed at him, "and Siberia seemed to be the breaking point, and Tony hasn't spoken since. We've consulted several doctors and psychologists and they've concluded that it's probably psychosomatic. They think it's his subconscious mind's way of protecting him from more trauma." Pepper concluded quietly, pain radiating from her eyes. Peter sat there quietly for a moment.
"What do you need me to do?" he asked, assuming he was brought here for a reason. Pepper smiled tightly.
"Tony was always happy when you came around to work with him in the workshop. So we wanted to talk to you about having a weekly lab time with him every Friday. We already cleared it with your aunt." Pepper said, hope seeping into her voice, "Tony's doctors said it was best to keep him surrounded by people who care for him and who make him happy, and that includes you." Peter gaped at her.
"Me? I mean I didn't know he even liked having me around. But I will do whatever I can to help Miss Potts. Friday's sound great...but um, how should I approach him? I don't want to make anything worse..." Peter trailed off when Pepper and Rhodey both let out relieved breaths at his answer.
"Well he has been using either a notepad or sometimes sign language when he needs something. But mostly he just listens to us talk. I had an earpiece made for you that has FRIDAY in it to translate his signs or any other gestures he makes for you so you can know what he is saying, without making him feeling like a burden." Pepper explained, setting a small earpiece in front of him. Peter grabbed it and set it in his ear, eyes widening when he heard FRIDAY greet him. "The most important part is to make sure you don't get frustrated with his lack of speech. If we ever make it seem like he's a burden it will just ruin any progress he's made."
"Okay. Any questions?" Peter paused for a moment before shaking his head.
"Okay, ready to go start your first lab day?" Colonel Rhodes asked jokingly, trying to diffuse the worry on Peter's face.
"Yeah, yeah." Peter said, trying to project confidence. Pepper nodded approvingly and motioned for him to follow her.
Peter was still a ball of nerves as Pepper opened the doors to Mr. Stark's personal workshop and ushered him in.
"Tony?" she said softly, gaining the engineers attention. He spun around in his chair with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He looked from her to Peter and raised an eyebrow at Pepper. "Peter came over for lab day. We talked about making his internship more legitimate remember? So I cleared it with his aunt and he will be coming over every Friday to work with you, is that okay?" Pepper asked, and Peter noticed how gentle she was with him without showing him pity. He watched as Mr. Stark's face lit up a bit and he nodded with a small smile. Pepper let out a small breath and smiled at the both of them.
"Alright then boys, I will leave you to your science. Tony, please behave and Peter, Happy will be here around 8 to take you back to your aunts okay?" Mr. Stark gave her a mock salute with a smirk on his face, while Peter just nodded. He watched as Pepper left and pushed down the panic building in his chest. He really didn't want to do anything to upset Mr. Stark. So he turned to the older man with a smile.
"What are we going to work on first Mr. Stark? Cause I was thinking you could show me how to fix my suit..." he trailed off as Mr. Stark raised an accusing eyebrow at him, "because maybe I got a hole in the suit?" Peter finished weakly. He watched as a myriad of emotions flit across his mentors face, finally settling on concern. His eyes trailed up and down Peter's figure as if looking for injuries. "Oh I'm fine Mr. Stark really! Some mugger threw a knife at me last week and it just grazed my side, but got a hole in the suit. It only left a scratch and it healed, see look?" Peter defended, lifting up and showing the engineer his newly healed side. The genius eyes Peter for a moment before nodding and gesturing for Peter to follow him to his worktable. He grabbed a notepad and started writing something before showing it to Peter.
Okay kid, grab your suit. I will show you how to do it step by step and then you'll repeat after me. Sound good?
Peter read through the note and started nodding vigorously. "Okay Mr. Stark!" He ran over to his backpack and grabbed his suit.
The next couple hours were some of the best of Peter's life. That may be an exaggeration but working next to THE Tony Stark was something Peter had dreamed about his whole life. Peter had gotten so into his work, following Mr. Stark's every move and repeating it, looking to the genius for approval after every step and getting a proud smile in return, that he hadn't been checking the time. So when Mr. Stark tapped him on the shoulder while he was looking at some schematics he almost jumped to the ceiling. Peter's eyes snapped to the man when he heard tapping on the table.
"Sorry, kid. It's eight. Happy is here." Tony signed, and FRIDAY promptly translated it in Peter's ear.
"Oh yeah! Sorry Mr. Stark! I had a lot of fun!" Peter said smiling at his mentor, shoving his suit into his backpack. "See you next week?" he asked standing next to the door.
Mr. Stark gave him a small smile and signed back, "Yeah kid, next week." Peter beamed at FRIDAY's translation and waved a hasty goodbye and rushed to a very angry Happy who was waiting by the car.
The ride back to his apartment was relatively quiet, Peter knowing Happy didn't like to listen to him ramble. Which is why when Happy started speaking, his mouth dropped open in shock.
"How did the lab go?" Happy asked, trying and failing to be nonchalant, but Peter knew he was really asking about how his friend was.
"It was fun. Mr. Stark seemed to enjoy watching me struggle with sewing the suit back together. He even looked excited when I asked about next week." Peter said. Happy gave him an appreciative smile as he pulled up in front of his apartment complex.
"Good. I'll see you next week then kid." Peter smiled at the words and hurried out of the car to his apartment, yelling a quick hello to May before hurrying to his room.
Later that night, when he was up late on a website learning sign language instead of sleeping, May couldn't find it in herself to get mad.