Thunderstruck - Live - 1991 - AC/DC

Peter watched sullenly from a rooftop as several boats helped to guide the ferry back to land. It wouldn't stay mended for long, despite the fact that Iron Man repaired it himself. The boat was split in half, it was completely done for.

As soon as the situation was handled, Peter could hear the sound of Iron Man flying closer to him. He knew he was in trouble, but the glum expression couldn't seem to be wiped off of his face. He couldn't, however, calm his racing heart.

"Previously on 'Peter Screws the Pooch'," Came the voice of Tony Stark, accompanied by the stoic face of the Iron Man suit. "I tell you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multi-million dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back and do the one thing I told you not to do." His words grew less sarcastic and more angry as he ranted.

Peter bit back his retort. "Is everyone okay?" He asked, his voice strained. That was first and foremost.

"No thanks to you."

Peter whipped his head back around to face Iron Man. "No thanks to me?" He hopped up from his spot on the rooftop and began to approach the hovering suit of armor. "Those weapons were out there, and I tried to tell you about them, but you didn't listen. Okay, none of this would've happened if you had just listened to me!" Feeling spiteful as the armor landed in front of him, Peter spat, "If you even cared, you'd actually be here."

The disapproving face of Tony Stark appeared from behind the metal mask. He detached himself from the suit and calmly strode forward, while a startled Peter backed away. "I did listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh?

"Did you know I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else thought I was crazy to recruit a fourteen-year-old kid."

"I'm fifteen," Peter quietly corrected.

It was the wrong thing to say. "No, this is where you zip it! Okay?" Tony's anger was palpable, but the feeling of disappointment was worse. "The adult is talking. What if somebody had died? Different story, right? Because that's on you. And if you died?" Tony grew quiet. "I feel like that's on me. I don't need that on my conscience."

"Yes, sir, I-"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"

"Sorry doesn't cut it."

"I just wanted to be like you," Peter said desperately.

Tony shook his head. "And I wanted you to be better."

A conversation Peter had had earlier that day came to the forefront of his mind. How Tony sounded just like her made Peter even more resentful. "You sound just like Lila."

"Oh, so someone told you this before?" Peter missed the calculating look in Tony's eye. "You know, it's a damn miracle that you have friends who talk sense to you when you clearly don't even listen to them." Then, after a moment where Tony merely regarded Peter, he stated, "Okay. It's not working out, I'm gonna need the suit back."

Peter's stomach hit the floor. "For how long?"

"Forever."

"No, no, no, please, please," He was close to tears. "You don't understand, this is all I have. I'm nothing without this suit."

An accusatory finger was pointed at Peter when Tony firmly told him, "If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it." He then shut his eyes and cringed. "God, I sound like my dad."

Peter, unbelieving that this was happening, shook his head. "I don't have any other clothes."

"Okay, we'll sort that out." Tony replied, unperturbed.

                           *****

It had been a miserable Friday. Not that Thursday was particularly great, but Lila had hoped Friday would at least be a little bit better. It wasn't. She walked into school on Friday, the school abuzz with the latest on Iron Man, and mindless chatter filling the halls.

Lila walked down them feeling caught in a kind of limbo. She personally knew an Avenger, the subject of everyone's gossip, but that also wasn't a part of her life as of yesterday. Peter made it abundantly clear that his after school activities went way above her.

Lila had gone about the rest of Thursday in a daze. She was absolutely furious at Peter for thinking so little of her, when she knew she wasn't. But she was also unbelievably hurt for the same reason. And when Ned tried to talk to her about it at lunch, she simply shook her head and brushed it off, saying that according to Peter, it was absolutely nothing.

Michelle, who had never seen Lila like this, was unsure how to approach her. On the one hand, she was angry at Peter, and Michelle had a plethora of reasons to give Lila in regards to how stupid teenage boys were and how they weren't worth her time. On the other, Lila was clearly hurting over something her most prevalent crush had told her. And Michelle, having difficulty connecting to people on any emotional level, left her at a disadvantage to say anything comforting.

Lila tried her best to keep up the normal attitude she carried in school on Thursday. It sucked, no doubt, but it was easier than Friday. Peter came back to school Friday. Lila first saw him at his locker, putting books away while Ned talked animatedly at his side. He was barely nodding at whatever Ned told him, and his body sagged with sadness. Lila turned away, kicking herself that she still felt bad for Peter, still wanted to make sure he was okay. Instead of acting on those feelings, she put her backpack in her locker and grabbed her notebooks for her morning classes. She spotted Michelle down the hall, and shut her locker before walking to meet with her.

She missed the look Peter sent her as she retreated.

                        *****

The school's annual homecoming dance was the subject of a plethora of conversations amongst the student body that Friday, only souring Lila's mood further. Not that she was planning to go, she actually promised her dad she'd help at the shop in lieu of socializing with her fellow classmates on a weekend. But still, listening to all the talk of what dresses would be worn and who was going with whom put Lila out. And she couldn't help but wish she could go with a certain wall-crawling boy.

That was the fatal blow to Lila's forlorn Friday: Peter Parker asked Liz Allan to the homecoming dance. And she said yes. A kind of disbelieving bliss had replaced the sad look on Peter's face, and it left Lila feeling about ten times worse.

She felt like she had a glimpse into this great life, with more than one friend at school and a purpose helping a superhero, only for it to be snatched away. And so she remained gloomy, only half-heartedly asking everyone on the decathlon team for their homecoming pictures.

She walked out of school alone, promising Michelle she'd help her get ready for the  homecoming dance so long as she didn't laugh (like Lila would ever). Her feet seemed to drag as she walked down the street, moping. She came to the conclusion that the person who could talk her through her situation best was her mom, and the thought alone made tears that had long since fought to appear fall down her face.

She wiped at them hastily, feeling that they were of no use to her while out on the streets. Instead, she decided to wait until she got home to cry, where no one could see her. It also did occur to her that she was having one hell of a pity party, and decided it would only last through the end of the day. Saturday would be a new day, and she would move along with it.

That was the decision she made as she crossed the threshold of Landry's Flowers, and blinked the last of the tears away. A soft greeting from a regular customer met her ears, and she shyly smiled in return. Knowing Sophie was working, Lila meandered to the back counter, gazing around at the semi-busy shop. Her lips turned into a frown at the several bewildered stares of customers, and her eyebrows furrowed when someone reached for their cellphone to take pictures.

"Hey, Soph," Lila asked, turning around, "what's going - o-oh."

"My fault," Tony Stark said, shrugging lightly. Lila had to repeat who said those words in her head three more times just to firmly grasp who was standing in front of her. And it was, in fact, him.

Tony Stark. He was really there, standing in her dad's flower shop. The weight of that statement sank like a rock in her stomach, and as it settled, a million questions flowed through her mind.

The first being: what the hell was he doing there? He was Tony Stark, surely he had people who bought flowers for him? Heck, he probably had people for the people who bought his flowers. So what was he doing?

And why did he look at Lila like he knew exactly who she was? Did he? Did he actually know her?

Or maybe he knew Sophie? Origin Story was an extremely popular podcast, and Sophie talked about him all the time on it, so maybe he thought he'd drop by? But turning to Sophie, who was behind the counter, Lila knew she was wrong. Sophie's mouth was practically on the floor, her hand outstretched and shaking. Lila guessed that Tony shook her hand, and she was unable to retract it like a normal person.

But Sophie's surprise left Lila in a panic. Tony Stark wasn't here for her, he kept his eyes on Lila, and that told her everything she needed to know. "I-I - um - that's okay - I-"

"You're Lila, correct? Lila Landry?"

Holy shit, Lila wanted to say. He knew her. Iron Man knew her. "Y-Yes, but-"

"Your family owns this shop?" Not trusting her voice, Lila nodded. Her mind was unable to keep up with what was going on.

Tony seemed satisfied with her answer and looked around the shop. "I saw your shop in Manhattan, and figured I'd pop in. Read your mission and all that." He picked up a pin from the pile that were for sale on the front counter with the logo of Sophie's podcast on it (the "O" in "Origin" was replaced with an Iron Man Mask), and pocketed it. "Thought I'd track down the owners, talk business."

The look he gave Lila was unreadable, but she had a gut feeling that he was absolutely lying to her face. He wanted to talk about something else. But what-?

Peter.

That thought alone made her yearn to be anywhere else.

"So can we?" Tony asked expectantly.

"C-Can we...?"

"Talk? Is there... somewhere else you and I can chit-chat?" Tony asked, head twitching slightly in the direction of Sophie, who still hadn't moved. Lila wasn't entirely sure Soph was even breathing, but then again, was she? Tony Stark had just asked to speak to her in private, and though she should've been elated, her mind was screaming at her to run away. This is the guy who enabled Peter, she thought, the same Peter who tossed you to the side like it was nothing.

Still, how could she say no?

Nodding, Lila cleared her suddenly dry throat. "Um - yes. Yeah, there's-" she pointed to the spiral staircase, "- just u-up here." He raised an eyebrow, and Lila realized that she would have to lead the way. Fine by her, as her face was growing redder by the minute. She mumbled something to Sophie about watching the shop, and trekked up the small spiral staircase to the second floor. The second floor was less busy, only one customer was tucked in the corner, and even then, his back was turned to the two of them. The significant difference in noise level sent Lila's head into a tizzy, and she struggled to grasp exactly what was going to happen.

When she pushed the door that led to the backroom, Lila barely even remembered to drop her backpack off on the corner table before heading straight for the rickety stairs tucked away. The same stairs that Lila had just taken Peter up to work on the web solution they had created not days ago. Hurt settled in her heart remembering how excited he was at the formula, and how he couldn't wait to try it out in the suit. The suit that the man following behind her had built himself. When she came full circle in her line of thinking, a dull ache settled in her brain. Not even the smell of her mother's greenhouse calmed her down fully, though it did clear her head enough to think.

Turning around slowly, she noticed that Tony had taken it upon himself to investigate the room, his glasses tinting slightly to adjust to the sudden sunlight. He ran a hand along one of the rows of plants, and assessed just what exactly he had walked into. "Quite the upkeep, considering you've got a business to run downstairs." He stopped walking and waited for her to reply.

Lila wasn't sure how to. She'd seen plenty of videos where he spoke, seen the way he interacted with people. Anything she said would be added to his mind, one more tool to use for or against Lila. It was unsettling, to say the least. But, Lila was truthful by nature, and if there was one person (who was alive) that she could talk to about her problems besides Peter Parker (who at the moment was at the very root of all said problems), it would be him. So, the truth it was. "I don't mind. It was my mother's."

"That explains the perfume, I suppose," He sniffed slightly, and Lila's gaze fell on the table beside the door where the last bottle of her mother's perfume still sat. She had no idea he'd even glanced that way. "Did you say 'was'? What happened, did she skip out on you?"

"She was m-murdered by a Chitauri alien e-eight years ago." Tony's mouth twitched into a frown, and his posture grew tense. Lila tried to continue, not really thinking she'd ever have this conversation with an Avenger. The closest she'd come was to Peter, and he wasn't there for the Battle of New York. "Keeping this place h-helps keep her around."

Deflecting any emotions at Lila's statement, Tony shrugged. "Makes sense, I suppose. Must've been one hell of a woman if her go-to perfume was Chanel."

"She w-was," Lila murmured, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Look if you're - if you're in the market for some f-flowers, you're better off finding them down-"

"I saw you have my tech downstairs," Tony interrupted. Lila noticed that he kept glancing in the back corner, where all of Peter's things were tucked away. "My pairing with Apple. It's a good call, it should last your store for a while."

"That's what Peter said," Lila blurted before thinking. Her eyes grew wide, and Tony looked to her, with a lopsided smile on his face.

"You go to Midtown?" he asked her, once again changing the subject. It only made the ache in her head worse, but Lila nodded. "One of my interns goes to Midtown Tech. He's a bright kid."

Lila was unable to beat around the bush any longer. "Do you happen to give all of your fifteen-year-old interns superhero s-suits? Or j-just the bright ones?" The smile grew fractionally on Tony's face, and Lila's irritation spiked. There was a silent, mutual understanding that they wouldn't be tiptoeing around each other anymore.

Many videos and interviews of Tony Stark on the internet couldn't prepare Lila for her interaction. And the first thing she noticed was that to his core, he was restless. She noticed it in how he ran his fingers across every surface he possibly could, and his shoulder muscles coiled underneath his fitted polo, like he was itching to use his hands to build something. Lila supposed that's what kept him going, his restlessness, his inability to sit back in inaction.

Just like Peter.

"How l-long did it take you to build P-Peter's suit?" Lila asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. Her eyes remained locked on Tony as he pulled out the container that held Peter's web fluid out from under the corner table, and sat down on top of it. Rubbing his hands together, he trained his eyes on the girl who still stood. Their eyes refused to waver from each other. It was almost unnerving to Lila, since she wasn't much for prolonged eye contact, but this felt too important to retreat into her comfortable existence as a wallflower. She'd been feeling that way since Peter admitted he was Spider-Man.

"A few weeks before Berlin. Figured he'd be useful should the occasion arise." A white-hot pang of anger pierced Lila's heart at his words, his tone. Tony spoke like Peter was disposable, useful at first, but unnecessary in the long run. She pursed her lips as the nagging voice in the back of her head reminded her that that was exactly what Peter did to her. Lila buried it where she buried the rest of her hurt, and opted to say nothing in response to Tony's answer. The aggravating smirk crept back onto his face as he studied her. "You don't believe me."

"No, I don't. You're lying."

Tony shrugged. "Wouldn't be the worst thing I've done."

Lila's head swirled with a mixture of emotions, but her affection for Peter, who wasn't here to defend himself, drove her confidence to the surface. The rest of the conversation was something Lila would look back on in shock, almost like she went through an out-of-body experience talking to the billionaire. "You're selling yourself short."

"Mmm, I don't sell myself short." Tony's eyes narrowed in disagreement. "That's not something I'm physically capable of doing."

"No, it's n-not," Lila agreed. "So wh-why are you?" When he didn't speak, Lila elaborated. "I could p-pick up any bit of news on y-you, and find at least one s-sentence mentioning y-your textbook narcissism. So I ask again, h-how long did it take you to make Peter's s-suit?"

Tony leaned up against the wall, arms crossed. "You know, I'm not sure me being a narcissist has anything to do with the fact that I'm good at what I do." A heavy pause, and Tony sniffed indignantly. "Yeah, okay, so maybe it does. Why do you have trouble believing that it only took a few weeks?"

"Because if you're a-anything like Peter Parker, then you don't half-ass things. And f-from what I've gathered about his suit, and from what h-he's told me about his interactions with you, it just doesn't add up.

"That suit is p-perfectly catered to every ability he has, and then some. You m-met Peter once before giving him the suit, and even then, he didn't t-tell you everything about his abilities. Which means you were looking into P-Peter's life long before you ever sh-showed up to his apartment. So, h-how long have you really been making his suit?"

"About as long as you've had a crush on him," Tony answered, and Lila's heart skipped a beat. Her cheeks flared red, and her lips seemed to glue themselves shut. Glancing down, she noticed her hands were trembling. But if Tony noticed, he didn't mention it. Instead, he stood up and opened the container that held Peter's web fluid. He had turned his back to Lila, and she took that moment to compose herself. "I'm kidding, I imagine that dates farther back than February." He turned to look back at her, still smiling. "You make this yourself?"

He held up a vial of web fluid to show Lila. Swallowing, she nodded, the tension in her muscles beginning to ache. Tony stood up. "Honestly, I thought you teenagers were all about minimal effort. I thought that was what was cool."

"You're Tony Stark, I'm pretty sure you've got the c-cool thing down," She joked, and Tony's smile grew. "Besides, I go to a science school, i-it's kind of the opposite."

Tony blew a raspberry. "Figures. It's the same with the kid, he tries way too hard."

"If more people tried to b-be as good as Peter, the world might be better off."

"You may be right. But then again, the world might have one more Staten Island Ferry still in operation." Lila bit her lip. The news was all over her Twitter feed, how Spider-Man and Iron Man both teamed up to save everyone on board. It was lucky, but Lila knew that it was also a big mistake.

"H-He should have been at school." She whispered. Her words rang heavy, and she found herself leaning against one of the tables edging the greenhouse to keep herself upright. The weight of her predicament with Peter sent her heart plummeting into her stomach. "I should have - I should have tried harder to keep him at school."

"In your defense, I don't think he would have listened. He sounded pretty PO'd at you when I talked to him." Lila winced, and Tony looked at her with a twinge of sympathy in his eyes. "Granted, I think most of that anger was directed at me. If it makes you feel better, I took the suit back. Now he can just be Peter Parker again." The surprise she felt was dulled by her hurt. She should have been elated with the news.

But Lila believed in Peter Parker, and what he tried to embody as Spider-Man. And despite him disregarding anything she had to say, she felt sorry for him. Peter genuinely felt he was nothing without Spider-Man, that he wasn't somebody until he was a hero. How could Lila even begin trying to explain that that wasn't true? That he was capable of more than he knew?

"Did you take it away because he turned off the training wheels?" She asked dimly, and Tony laughed.

"I took it because he was taking on way too much. Peter was in over his head, and he needs to take a step back." Having Tony Stark agree with her should have eased her thoughts, but it only made her feel worse.

"Is that why he mentioned me? B-Because I said the exact same thing?" The hollow feeling in Lila's chest seemed to grow.

"No, I'm not sure what you said. But he interrupted my parent-of-the-year lecture to remind me that I sounded just like you, so I'm curious. What did you tell him?"

Lila couldn't take it anymore. Several tears slipped out of her eyes, and she kept her gaze down to her hands. She missed the uncomfortable look that grew on Tony's face at the sight, not sure how to comfort a crying teenage girl. Not that she would have asked him to. "I told him that I th-thought that if you wanted h-him to follow in your footsteps, you would have - would have given him another Iron Man suit. I-Instead, you built him a Sp-Spider-Man suit." Lila wiped her tears and sighed. She tried not to look at Tony, who was relatively quiet. "I don't know, maybe it's stupid. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut."

There was a beat of silence. Then, "You know Pepper kept her mouth shut for years." She looked up to see Tony staring off with a fond look in his eyes. "She let me fuck around - shit - am I allowed to curse around you?" Lila shrugged. "It is exhausting being around children, gotta say. Anyways, when I became Iron Man, she started speaking up, she - she always shut me down when I wanted to do something stupid. Or reckless, or anything that's filed under the category of my personality, really. But Pepper keeps me in check, helps move things along. If she kept her mouth shut, I'd be long dead." A hand found its way onto Lila's shoulder, awkward and yet oddly reassuring. "Peter's gonna come around, but don't think it'll be because you kept quiet. It'll be because you were looking out for him."

A moment's silence, where Lila let his strangely comforting words circle her. Then he continued, "Wow. Here I am, giving Doctor Phil a run for his money. Not just because I have more money than him, but damn. Anyways, I've gotta split, some clean energy initiative is happening in Paris, I promised I'd speak there tomorrow. Should probably go."

He was nearly to the greenhouse door when Lila spoke up one last time. "I don't blame you for what happened, you know. Eight years ago?" She saw the tension return to Tony's shoulders, but it was something she had to say. This might have been her only chance.

"There were a lot of reasons to be angry after my mother was killed, but my father's anger and mine were never directed at you." Tony turned around to look at her, a guarded expression on his face. "You saved an entire city that day, and I just - I want to say thanks. Y-You can't save everyone, but you tried."

He was quiet when Lila led him back out to the floor. They descended the stairs, where the shop was still relatively busy, but less so than when they had gone upstairs to talk. Lila saw a bouquet of tulips, almost in bloom, and a small smile reached her lips. Grabbing the bouquet, she asked Sophie, who was still ogling Tony Stark, to ring out the bouquet before handing them over to Tony.

"If i-it's not too much trouble, my mother, Angelina Landry, is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. If you h-have the time, would you bring these to her? If not, j-just give them to P-Pepper."

Tony matched her smile and nodded. "Also, w-we've been working with the f-farmers upstate, and we're going to be adding a collection of sorts, exclusive to Landry's Flowers. They should pop up in our Manhattan store first. They're Avengers-themed bouquets. If you want, I can send you over some of the i-ideas for your bouquet if you'd like to pre-approve them."

Tony dug a business card out from his pocket and reached out to give it to Lila. She was just about to take it when he held it back and said, "Just as long as they don't have those hideous tulips, the red with yellow tips-"

"Tulipa schrenkii," Lila corrected, snatching the card from his grasp. "I'll be sure to add those to every design. Seeing as tulips are my favorite and all."

"Horrible color scheme."

"The Iron Man color scheme is red and gold. Should have thought about that before you b-built the suit."

"Goodbye, Flower Power," Tony Stark said flatly before he turned and left the store, clutching the tulips Lila had given him tightly in his hand. She glanced down at the business card and smiled, reading the handwritten note ("Troubleshooting for Web-Shooting") followed by an email address and the initials TS. It was strange, she felt adrenaline leave her system, unaware it had been there in the first place.

But she was also left with something to think about. Because if Tony Stark was telling her to open her mouth more often, how could she even refuse?

Thanks ailie-willow for helping me with future song choices. Hope I can finish the "Homecoming" plot by the end of next week and move on to phase 2 of this story.

Shit's gonna hit the fan.

Stay hydrated, invest in clean skincare, and fuck TERFs (feminism is intersectional otherwise it isn't feminism). Unedited. Xx.