Trust | 2 |

Chapter Forty-One

Tony had been dreading this part. He hadn't seen the kid since before Rey went missing, and today he was coming over to work on some stuff with him. Tony had actually requested the kid come up to the facility after Parker was done with school that day.

Of course, this probably caused the kid to lose all focus, but that's not the scary part for Tony.

The kid would be expecting something big, like a mission or something like that.

Not news on the fact that someone he came to look up to, some he came to respect and admire, had gone missing. Tony saw how he liked Rey even though they interacted in Germany (maybe), a couple times at the compound, and once when Parker's friend got Rey to help with the Vulture situation.

"FRIDAY, how close is Happy with the kid?" he directed at the ceiling.

"About five minutes out."

Tony sighed, he couldn't wait any longer. He had been trying to tinker away in his lab ever since Rey had gone into space but even that wasn't working. Instead, he just needlessly dirtied a few shirts and jeans just to take apart anything he made.

The most success he had in making anything was a new arm prototype for Rey. Tony planned to build in some pretty cool features, like a gun in the hand (couldn't figure out if it should come from the palm or index finger yet), built in communications and trackers she could control, and other things he was working on.

Other than that, he hadn't been making much progress. He sighed and picked up a towel from the table in front of him to wipe the grease off his hands and forearms, glad he remembered to roll up the sleeves of his white shirt. Pepper didn't like stains in white clothes because they never came out and the stains were always visible after a few washes.

He set the towel back down on the table and wiped the remaining nervous sweat off the palms of his hands onto his jeans. Looking in a nearby mirror, Tony realized the cat on his t-shirt over the white long sleeve was much happier than he felt.

"They're coming up the drive now, I'd suggest meeting Peter Parker at the door," FRIDAY spoke up. He didn't outwardly respond, just nodded and got up from his stool.

Where should he talk to the kid? The lab was a good, familiar spot, but didn't have a comfortable place to sit and they would definitely need to.

The common area felt just a bit too open, but no one else was at the compound today so that might work the best. Maybe Tony could get them some water, too.

God, he really didn't want to do this. But not saying anything would be way worse.

He took the long walk from his lab to the front entrance where the kid and Happy would be coming in. It was a pretty empty day at the compound, or maybe Tony was just noticing Rey's absence too much.

It took him a couple hours to really figure out why he cared so much. After he came home from the city after talking to Strange, he just went to his room and kept everything out. Not that he would ever admit it, but tears were definitely shed.

But he couldn't figure out why it hurt so much until Pepper came to console him. "You see her in the same way you see Peter. She's like another kid you've gotta look out for," Pepper explained.

Sure, it made sense, but then it made it hurt even more.

Tony put on a small smile when he saw the kid hurrying inside with a worn out and much less Happy following behind. Happy knew about Rey, too, so he had a hard time driving the kid when he was so excited in the back seat.

"Mr. Stark!" he called, bounding over. "I was really excited to get your message, really, I could barely get through the day without jumping out a window and just making my way up here myself."

Tony didn't want to ruin this happiness.

He held the smile and looked at Happy. "Give us a minute alone, yeah? We'll be in the common area," he told the other man. Surprisingly, there was no protest from Happy. He just nodded and went off in another direction.

Tony turned, Peter following in suit, and the older man put his arm around the kid's shoulders and they started to walk. "I'm glad you didn't jump out of a window, that might've been hard to explain," he said.

Peter knew something was off. When he first walked in, he noticed how Mr. Stark wasn't giving him the same proud smile he gave him last time. Sure, different circumstances (Peter really didn't know why he was here) but it still felt off.

Once Mr. Stark opened his mouth and spoke, Peter's worries were confirmed and grew. Something was up and it wasn't good. The hairs on his arms were even standing a little, his senses going off.

"Mr. Stark, is everything okay?" he asked.

Tony hesitated before answering. "Let's wait until we get there, okay?" That did not help.

They got to the common area and Tony directed the kid to sit on a couch while he got water. "Ice?" he asked, to which Peter just shook his head. Tony got the two glasses and set them down on the coffee table in front of the couch.

"What's going on, Mr. Stark? Did I mess up? Are you taking the suit back?" Peter asked, firing off all these questions.

Now Tony saw what he had done to the kid and he immediately shook his head. "No, no, kid you haven't done anything wrong. No, this isn't anything like that..." How the hell was he supposed to do this?

Peter sighed in relief, but then realized that something was still wrong. "Wait, then what's wrong?" he asked.

"I... kid- Peter, something happened." The kid's face got more worried by the second and he felt his heart rate going up. "I know how close you got to Rey and how much you look up to her so I knew I had to tell you about this," Tony explained.

Peter's eyebrows drew together. He was completely lost, now. "What?" he asked. More conclusions popped up in his head. "Did she get arrested? Did she get hurt? Is she okay?"

There was no quick response from Tony this time, and Peter knew that a question had struck a chord. He didn't quite know how Tony figured out how much Peter looked up to Rey, but he wasn't wrong.

In fact, he was dead on. Peter felt like she was an older sister he never had (being an only sibling and all). It was weird how quickly he attached to her. But when he thinks about the night where they stopped Vulture together, he didn't need much more evidence.

"Mr. Stark, what happened?" Peter asked quietly.

Tony looked at him and sighed. "She's disappeared and we have no idea where she went. FRIDAY can't even find her. We deduced- this guy and I- that she somehow went off-world with Thor and Loki," he quickly explained.

It took him a second to properly mull over the words, but once he did, his face fell. "So she's... she's gone? Just... up, somewhere in space and there's no way to get to her?" Peter asked, his quiet voice cracking.

He knew this would happen, the kid getting emotional, Tony just didn't know how to handle it. It didn't look like he was crying yet, but this was still a strange spot for Tony to be in.

But seeing how Parker started to shut down, Tony moved himself just a bit closer and pulled the kid into a hug. "It's gonna be okay, I'm gonna figure this out," he said quietly.

Peter's shoulders relaxed and suddenly started shaking. Tony just sat there with him while he cried.