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“Friday, where’s Tony?”
“Boss has been called to an urgent business meeting with Miss Potts on the twenty-first floor. I am under strict instructions not to interrupt.”
“I’m sure he’s thrilled about that,” Rhodey chuckled to himself looking around the empty penthouse. The place still smelled of freshly brewed coffee from breakfast and the MIT hoodie he hadn’t seen since their college days was abandoned over the couch. He strolled over, picking up the old thing with a nostalgic smile. The letters were worn out from washing and the colour had faded, but somehow that gave it more character. He folded it up, placing it back down with more care than Tony had ever shown it and wondered what to do.
He was supposed to be catching up with Tony over lunch and looking over some bugs in War Machines coding which had been causing some of the weapons to randomly power down mid-use, but it seemed those plans were somewhat thwarted now.
He considered the outlandishly expensive coffee machine in the kitchen, but a coffee would only kill so much time and Tony might be hours. He could always come back another day, but his free time was a rarity these days and he really needed these bugs fixing.
“I still have access to the lab, right, Friday?”
“You do, colonel.”
“Great,” he said, deciding a little head start wouldn’t hurt. He strode over to the elevator and instructed Friday to take him there.
He’d only been to Tony’s lab in the tower a handful of times since the man moved to New York due to work so he couldn’t be blamed for the awe-struck face he must pull every time he did visit.
The space was probably as big as the lab-come-garage set-up he once had in Malibu, but since the cars now had their own space it seemed so much bigger. Every workbench was unsurprisingly cluttered with parts of Iron Man suits and non-descript projects Tony must have been working on. Three fully functional suits were on display at the far end which was the only part of the room which had a semblance of organisation.
He stepped forward, trying to locate somewhere he could sit down and load up his laptop when a clatter came from a far corner. He jumped back, ready to reprimand Dum-E before a voice came.
“Shit. Where is it?” a man’s voice - a child’s voice - came.
The person was still out of sight, clattering around across the lab crouched down somewhere. Hiding somewhere. A burglar perhaps? Either way, something didn’t sit right.
“Who’s there?” Rhodey demanded, pulling out the gauntlet hidden in his watch. It was Tony’s some years ago before he made a higher-tech version and gave Rhodey the hand-me-down that he was more than willing to take.
The rustling stopped as soon as he spoke and a head appeared above a worktop from the nose up revealing a messy mop of brown curls and blown brown eyes.
“Oh my god, Colonel Rhodes War Machine, sir,” the kid stuttered out and jumped to his feet.
He was wearing a blue school hoodie by the looks of the emblem on his chest and held a bunch of metal cylinders in his hands. He didn’t look like the thieving type, but he didn't know how the kid could be here otherwise. Tony didn’t let anyone come into his lab apart from himself, Pepper, and Happy. Had the kid hacked Friday?
“Who are you?” He questioned, hand still raised even though he had no intention of hurting the kid.
“Oh, um I’m Peter. Peter Parker,” he stuttered. “You’re taller than I thought you would be. Sorry. I don’t mean that in a -“
“What are you doing here?”
He frowned, eyes dropping to the gauntlet activated on his hand. “Oh! I’m not stealing, I swear. I’m allowed here. Friday?”
“Colonel Rhodes, meet Mister Parker, Tony’s personal intern.”
Rhodey let out a breath, lowering his hand. “You couldn’t have told me that earlier? What if I shot the poor kid?”
The kid - Peter - snorted. “That would have been so cool. But no offence, I don't think you could hit me.”
“Oh really?”
“Mhm,” he said, carrying the cylinders over to a worktop and placing them down. Rhodey followed him with a spark of curiosity, retracting the gauntlet. Tony had never once mentioned he’d hired a personal intern, let alone a high schooler. The only thing he did know was that Tony hated kids which was why he was so confused. It also didn’t make sense that he was allowed to be in the lab unsupervised, he couldn’t be more than sixteen by the look of him.
“Are you allowed to be here without your boss?”
That got another smile. “Mister Stark isn’t my boss . And I am as long as I don’t mess with chemicals or the soldering iron again.”
“I feel like there’s a story to be had there.”
“There is, but Mister Stark has banned me from telling it because he says it’ll give him a heart attack one day.”
Rhodey grinned. “He makes you call him ‘Mister Stark’?”
“What? Oh. No. I just… I don’t know. It’s a respect thing, I guess.”
“Manners. Something Tony doesn’t have.”
Peter smiled, pushing the cylinders one by one into some sort of gauntlet.
“How long have you been interning here?”
“Um… maybe four months?”
Rhodey frowned. Four months and Tony never mentioned him?
“So you, what, applied? Is it a program through school?” He asked, trying not to make it sound like an interrogation.
“I didn’t apply, Mister Stark came to me.”
“He came to you?”
Peter nodded like it was no big deal, too consumed in what he was doing to notice Rhodey’s shocked-come-confused face.
“Shouldn’t you be in school right now or something?”
“Spring break.”
“Huh. Aren’t you supposed to be out with your friends and partying? Don’t tell me Tony has you working overtime.”
The kid didn’t seem impressed by that, shooting him a small frown. “I'm here because I want to be. And I don’t drink.”
Rhodey chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning back against one of the work benches. “You don’t have to pretend, kid. Everyone has a few beers at house parties.”
“I don’t drink,” he repeated more firmly, as if he was offended. “I wouldn’t do that to Mister Stark.”
Rhodey frowned. Was he missing something? Why would Tony care if his intern drank? None of this made sense.
“So are you and Tony close?”
“I guess.”
Great, now he’d upset him. “How often do you work here?”
“I come over maybe three times a week, but I’m not always working. It depends on when my aunt has work,” he explained noncommittally, picking up a small screwdriver and began taking apart one of the cylinders.
“Does your aunt work here too?”
Note to self, don’t give up the day job to become a detective.
“No, she’s a nurse, but she does night shifts a lot, you know? So it means I have to stay over since they won’t let me stay at home by myself which is totally stupid. I’m almost sixteen,” he said without looking up once, the cylinder now in four pieces.
So much to digest.
The kid was fifteen. He was an intern but stayed over when his aunt wasn’t home which led him to wonder if he had his own room somewhere here and where his parents were in this picture. He decided there’d be a not-so-good reason for the latter so kept that to himself.
“Is it my turn to question you now?” Peter asked with a small mischievous smile.
Rhodey held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry, just trying to figure out what’s going on I guess.”
“It’s cool. So what are you doing down here?”
“Tonys is supposed to be helping me with some coding. The weapons on my suit are malfunctioning.”
“Awesome. Can I help? Tony’s gonna be ages in that meeting.”
“I don’t know, kid…”
“Please? I work on Tony’s suits all the time, right Friday?”
“Mister Parker does have extensive knowledge in Boss’ suit coding,” the AI responded.
Rhodey blinked, unable to hide his surprise. He seemed like a nerdy kid - in the nicest way - but this code was far out of what a kid his age could understand. Or so he thought.
He smiled, seeing a spark in the kid's eyes that reminded him of a young Tony. “Okay hot shot, you can try.”
Tony rubbed a weary hand down his face as the elevator took him back to the lab where the kid was undoubtedly causing havoc after being left alone for over two hours. The meeting that Pepper dragged him into was with some of the company's top partners and they wanted a run through of all of the upcoming projects they might be interested in buying once complete. Needless to say, it took up every last brain cell Tony had leaving him as drained as the empty coffee mug he clutched.
He prayed the kid was gonna be low maintenance at least for the next half hour whilst his sixth coffee of the day settled in, but something told him that was too much to ask if the distant crashing and blasting noises were any indication.
The doors to the lab chimed open, not that he could hear it from the loud bangs in the room.
Tony's heart leapt to his throat, dragging his gauntlet from his watch and running into the lab ready to defend the kid. He stopped three feet in after catching sight of War Machine firing at the practice wall he’d set up a week ago.
“Christ, Rhodey. You gave me a heart attack.”
“Tony! Sorry, man. Didn’t know you’d be back so soon,” Rhodey apologised from across the room, sitting at one of the workstations on his laptop.
Tony’s jaw dropped. “Wait. Who the hell is in the suit?”
As if his worst nightmares presented themselves before him, the face plate snapped up and Peter Parker’s beaming face smiled back at him.
“Hey, Mister Stark!”
“Peter Benjamin get out of that suit right now.”
“But I fixed it! Look!”
Before he could stop him the face plate snapped back down and he took four shots at the target.
“Peter get out of the damned suit right now.”
The kid sighed and the suit disengaged. As soon as he stepped out of it Tony took him by the shoulders, scanning him for any injuries.
“I’m fine,” he moaned, swatting his hands away.
Tony huffed, crossing his arms. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Tony?” Rhodey asked, looking oddly suspicious as walked over to join them.
“Was it your idea to put my kid in your suit?”
Rhodey's eyebrows shot up. “ Your kid?”
“What?” He looked down at the teen and up again. “Figure of speech. Not the point.”
“I think that’s a more important point.”
Tony rolled his eyes, leaning back against one of the worktops. He really needed that coffee to kick in. “You know Peter isn’t my kid.”
“I didn’t know him until today.”
He frowned, scrunching up his nose, “what?”
“I thought he was stealing from you when I found him in here,” Rhodey explained. “You’ve never mentioned him before.”
Tony shook his head, glancing at the kid and relieved to find he didn’t seem offended. “I don’t know how that’s possible, are you sure?”
“Mhm.”
“Well I guess it’s too late to introduce you, but meet my personal intern,” he said, gesturing to Peter who hugged himself awkwardly. Tony smiled, pulling the kid in by his shoulders and ruffling his hair. “My best employee.”
“Who is a high school student,” Rhodey said slowly.
“Yes.”
“Even though you hate kids.”
“Bar this one.”
“Who stays over when his aunt’s at work.”
Tony cocked his head, unsure where he was going with this. “Yes.”
“And he has a room in your penthouse.”
“Yes?”
Rhodey blinked. “Wait, really?”
“You guessed that? I mean it doesn’t really matter.”
“Doesn’t matter? No one gets a room on your floor.”
Tony shrugged, letting the kid go and he wandered back to his worktop where he seemed to be upgrading his web fluid cylinders. “He's an exception.”
“You sure he’s not yours?”
“A paternity test has never been done,” Friday unhelpfully added.
Tony rolled his eyes. “He’s my kid, but he’s not my kid. Now do you have any more questions or can we carry on?”
“Sure, that makes total sense.”
Tony rolled his eyes, still trying to figure out how on earth he’d failed to mention his protege to Rhodey. Not that he’d admit it out loud, but his favourite pastime was singing the kid's praises and generally just talking about him like a proud not-parent parent.
“So you wanna look over your suit or are you gonna put a minor in it to play with guns again?”
Rhodey chuckled. “First, it was just the blasters, no guns involved, and second there’s no need. The kid fixed it.”
“The bug?”
“Yup. And even increased the accuracy.”
Tony raised an eyebrow at the kid who was wearing a small smile and he knew full well he was eavesdropping on their conversation.
“I’m impressed, but not surprised. He’s a smart kid.”
“I’d argue genius level. Where’d you find him?”
“It’s a long story.”
Before Rhodey could respond and most likely try and dig further, his watch buzzed, saving him.
He glanced down at the notification. “Shit. You haven’t eaten in four hours?” He asked, looking at the kid.
Peter cringed, “I forgot. I was working on my - uh - project.”
“Wait, that notification was about Peter?” Rhodey questioned.
“Trust me, if I didn’t need it I wouldn’t have it,” he muttered, raising an unimpressed eyebrow at Peter.
“I swear I just got carried away!”
“Forgetting to take breaks working in the lab, sounds like someone I know,” Rhodey chuckled.
“Thin ice honey bear.”
“Come to think of it, he does have your hair. And eyes.”
He scowled, shooting a glare at his friend. “That is a weak argument. You're saying everyone in the world with brown eyes and hair must have some relation to me?”
“He looks like you and he’s obviously a genius, just saying.”
“Well don’t. I can confirm no one in their right mind would want me as a parent.”
Rhodey hummed in that agree to disagree way which always made Tony roll his eyes.
“Come on, I think we could all do with some lunch. Kid, you’re eating two lunches.”
“Tony.”
Tony smirked, walking away towards the elevator. “Talk to the hand.”
Behind him, two pairs of footsteps and voices followed him.
“You’re totally his kid.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”