Kid, Hold On! (Tony Stark, M, Spider Man HomeComing)

[Arc Reactor]

He was trying to finish his homework, which he never seemed to have the time to do anymore what with his "Stark Internship" and hanging out with Ned and trying to get Happy to text back, when Aunt May called him from the living room. "Peter! Mr. Stark is here to see you!"

His heart did a little happy dance as he quickly shot out of his seat, homework be damned. He stumbled over some legos that Ned had left behind the other day and hissed, hopping on one foot. He almost tripped over May's new cat in the process. "Sorry Boots." He whispered, attempting to stagger upright and brush his clothes down. Taking a deep breath, he came into the living room where his Aunt had laid out more of her famous cooking on the coffee table.

Mr. Stark was in the middle of putting one of her specialty banana bread in his mouth before spotting Peter and giving him a quick grimace which said "Save me." His mentor quickly ate it under May's scrutiny and Peter chuckled at the memory of the first time he had met Mr. Stark, in which he had spit her bread out in his trash can after having complimenting it beforehand.

"I'm going to go down to the deli and pick up a few sandwiches, okay Peter?" May was smiling way too much as she winked and mouthed "Work hard and good luck." She was out the door in seconds.

And of course, the first thing his mentor did was spit out the bread, which he had been chewing slowly, into a tissue and threw it out. "Blech. Parker, I know May's trying to be nice and all and I'm not going to deny her kindness because she is really smoking hot..." At which, Peter scrunched his nose in disgust. "Okay, that was inappropriate. Whatever. But her cooking is blasphemous. Absolutely intolerable. Jeez, this is what I get for being nice."

Peter smiled, then circled the couch and sat by the billionaire, who was absentmindedly rubbing his nose and had already made himself at home by folding one leg on top of the couch while the other dangled. "So what'd you want to talk to me about, Mr. Stark?" He was a little nervous and he tried to recap what exactly he could have messed up in the past couple of weeks as Spider Man. The list may or may not have been a little longer than he would have liked it to be."I know I might have mistaken that guy to be stealing that car but the alarm went off and I was just trying to help. I mean, the guy looked like a thief! Not that, all people who live in that neighborhood look like thieves or anything, but he was wearing all black and he had like this scary crew cut..."

"Kid, I don't care. I actually came here because..."

"Then is it about that time I accidentally broke through a bunch of backyards and freaked a bunch of people out? I mean, in my defense, I was chasing those bad guys in the van and I couldn't figure out how to use Karen correctly because you set up like a bunch of web combinations and Karen kept going into instant-kill mode but I didn't want her to because I didn't want to kill anyone. I know I ended up in that high-security storage facility and I found this really cool metal head thing there but I didn't mean to..."

"Wait what? You ended up in the...?"

"I didn't mean to! Please, please don't take the suit away. I promise I'll be good. I didn't think you would find out about that and it didn't seem like a big deal at the time..."

"Kid, breathe. It's okay. Truth be told, I didn't know about that until you just told me but eh," he flicked his hand flippantly then returned to rubbing his nose more vigorously this time, "I don't have time to worry about that right now. It was still irresponsible so don't do it again or I'll install the Pacifier Protocol on the suit."

"There's a Pacifier Protocol? I'm not a kid, Mr. Stark!"

"Uh huh. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about visiting the Avengers compound every now and then. I know," He lifted a finger, interrupting his nose rubbing, which had now turned pink, before Peter could open his mouth, "that you're not an Avenger because you said no, but this is just visits to help me out in the lab and stuff like that. You know, just normal, domestic, stuff and you could learn about how I make the suit and all that jazz. You'd have to talk to May though and it'd only be on the weekends and whoahh too close for comfort, Parker." Peter had wrapped his arms around the billionaire without thinking, overjoyed at the thought of getting to work with the Tony Stark in his personal lab. It was a dream come true.

He felt an awkward pat on his back. "Sorry, Mr. Stark. I'm just...thank you. Thank you so much."

Peter was pushed backward all of a sudden. It was a gentle push, but there was still a spark of panic. He looked up with the best puppy dog eyes he could muster, but instead of meeting a peeved Tony Stark, he saw his mentor staring off into the distance with a faraway look in his eyes, mouth slightly parted, and a hand hovering near his face.

"Mr. Stark?" No response. "Are you okay?" This time, he got a finger telling him to wait. After a few more seconds where his mentor held that pose, Peter spoke up again. "Do you need something? Is there anything I could do to help?"

"Ah...ah...ah..." Mr. Stark's breathing was hitching and that was when it hit him: his mentor had to sneeze.

"Do you need a tissue?" He looked into the tissue box on the coffee table. Empty. "I can get one for you. I'm not sure what'd you'd prefer though because Aunt May likes to keep a variety." He sprang up to check the closet and began listing the options. "We have cool touch, aloe, ultra soft, non-lotion..."

"Ah...eh... Kid, zip it. Ih...eh...heh..."

Peter obeyed and then grabbed a random box and made his way back to the couch where his mentor was still having difficulty. "I grabbed the cool touch ones. I'm not sure you'd like them though. I prefer the aloe ones..."

"Parker, hold on...ih...hih..." The hand hovered closer to his nose.

Peter noticed Boots stroll into the kitchen from his bedroom. The cat stretched and then went to its water bowl. Peter silently shushed the cat as the billionaire hadn't yet noticed it yet.

Suddenly, there was a loud gasp and an "AAAISHHH-oo!" His mentor sniffled. "Whew...God, that was embarrassing. Heh..." He steepled his hands over his nose. "ISHHH!"

"Bless you." Peter said as he tore open the new tissue box. Mr. Stark took a couple and then blew his nose softly.

"Anyway, so I assume that you said yes to the whole visiting my lab on weekends thing. You can come over this Saturday if May says..."

"YES!"

"Hih-ISHH!" Mr. Stark grabbed more tissues, folding them over his pink appendage and rubbing it hard and slow. “Heh...heh...heeISHHHooo!”

“Bless you!” Peter was still jittery from his mentor’s proposal to visit on Saturday so he didn’t notice when Boots strolled into the living room lazily and then jumped onto the arm of the sofa, curling up by the 15 year old. “Mr. Stark, are you okay?”

The older man lowered the tissues from his face, blotted at his eyes and sniffed. Peter noticed that the billionaire’s eyes were red and watery. “Yeah, Parker. I’m good. I don’t know why the hell I’m sneezing so much all of a sudden.” He chuckled, not noticing the cat that was hidden behind Peter’s body. “Alright, so I’ll let May know about Sat...hih...Ugh, can’t I get a break...heh...AAAESSHHH!” Mr. Stark had dove behind the tissues once more and he lowered them shakily, a hazy expression still on his face.

“Bless you again! Are you coming down with something? Do you need to lie down for a second?”

Before Peter could continue his rambling, the billionaire raised a sharp finger, halting the flow of questions. His eyes were glassed over and that hazy expression contorted and crescendoed until the tissues were brought up once more and his eyes screwed shut. “ISSHHH...HehISHHoo!” The man blew his nose, only to have his eyes water up even more. “Ah...ah…” He turned to the side, away from the wide-eyed boy who had no idea what to do, and pitched forward. “AeeERTSheuww!”

“Is there anything I can do?” Peter asked cautiously, afraid to make the billionaire more annoyed than he already seemed to be.

“What the hell is happening?” Mr. Stark grumbled to himself as he plucked more tissues from the box and snuffled into them, trying to get his nose back in control.

Just then, there was a meow, signaling that Boots wanted to join in on the conversation. Peter chuckled as he turned and lifted the cat, placing it in between himself and the older man on the sofa. “Boots! How long were you sitting there for? Here, come meet Mr. Stark!”

In his excitement, the boy didn’t register his mentor’s flustered reaction to the pet and instead, urged the cat toward the older man.

“Kid, hold on! D..don’t br...heh...bring it clo...hih..hih...closer. I...I’m...aller...heh...hih...ih...allergic t...to cats!”

Peter, when he finally made out what the billionaire was saying through his hitched gasps, sprang up to catch Boots. But the cat jumped… right into Tony Stark’s lap. It purred, then nuzzled against Mr. Stark’s stomach.

“HehISHH...ISHHHoo...AaahISHHH...ISHHHUEWW! Heh...heh...heh...Parker, g..get i..it off me!”

Peter lunged, then scooped the cat into his arms and took it into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. Boots meowed in protest the entire journey.

His mentor, however, was sneezing his face off. “AAASHHHUEWW… HehISSHoo… ISHHHooo… AtttCHEUWW… huh… huh…” Mr. Stark trailed off, gasping, then plucked several tissues, folding them over his pink nose and blowing. Peter noticed that his mentor’s face had flushed red. He couldn’t help but cringe a little.

“Mr. Stark, I am so so sorry. I didn’t know you were so allergic and Aunt May just adopted Boots the other day. I’ll get you a cool washcloth.” He quickly rinsed a small cloth and hurried back, but the billionaire was still buried in the tissues, attempting to alleviate the tickle that was clearly harassing him.

He was rubbing his nose roughly, his eyes streaming. Peter stayed back, hesitant. He didn’t know whether to approach the allergic man or to wait until he lowered the tissues. But after bouncing up and down on his heels impatiently for thirty seconds, he decided to just move forward and hand it to his mentor, who looked like he was on the verge of another sneeze.

But the billionaire wrenched away. “AaISHHoo… TSCHHHHoo… ughhhh. Thanks kid.” He said wearily, accepting the washcloth and spreading it over his nose. He exhaled at the relief. Peter was about to step forward again when his mentor stuck up a sharp finger and pointed at him. “Stay right where you are. There’s dander all over you and I am not about to have another friggin allergy attack, alright?”

Peter was nervous. What if Mr. Stark took away his weekend visit opportunity? What if he never came over to the apartment again? What if… what if…

“Kid, you’re thinking too hard, I can hear it from over here so shut up.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Hush. Silencio. No hablando, understand? It’s okay. I’m gonna call May later today, alright? I’m going to go down to Walgreens in the meantime and grab some Benadryl. See you Saturday, Parker.”  

“Okay.” He whispered meekly as the billionaire sniffed, returned the washcloth, grabbed a few tissues, and then left.

“ISHHH… Jesus Christ!” He heard faintly as he closed the door. Peter smiled to himself.

 

END.

 

[HideAndGoSneeze]

Wow! I haven't seen Spiderman: Homecoming yet, but this was really good! Great story!!

[Elyze]

Ooo, I love cats! And even better, a handsome man with a bad cat allergy! :-D