All My Life

21| I messed up

Tony's pov.

"Sir, the suit's fabrication has been successfully completed." Jarvis' voice makes me stop scrolling through the pictures on the hologram screen.

Finally...

"How long till Peter gets here, J?" I walk towards another blue screen displaying the suit's coding, my eyes swiftly going over the line and lines of programs.

"Master Parker will reach the tower in approximately two hours, sir." I nod, satisfied with the response. With Pepper out to France, on some business tour and most of the team members on some mission, leaving only Bruce and me at the tower, it's basically Christmas time. No one to pull me out of the lab, thus, making it possible to complete the project.

"That's great! What are we waiting for? Let's get the paint job done." I say with a clap of my hands in excitation.

"What's the colour scheme, sir?"

"Same as the original one, Red and Blue," I confirm and a few moments later, a screen with various design ideas, shows up in front of me. I scratch my chin while scrolling through the various designs, I stop when my eyes fall upon a design and I pull its copy to the other side.

"That's it. This one, J. Get it done."

"As you wish, sir. Initializing the command. Expected time of completion, 35 minutes." I walk away from the work table, towards the coffee machine.

The last news telecast featuring the so-called spiderman was one hell of a thriller. There is nothing worse than watching your kid jump into a blazing fire in a freaking onesie. It is about time for some confrontations and confessions. I gave the kid enough time to come clean, after all. The only question was when. When am I supposed to pull the topic up?

Then, there was the secret-keeping thing, should I encourage him to keep his nightly routine hidden from May, risking the stunt to blow up in both of our faces or make him go clean to her, risking him to lose his 'hobby'. That's not something for me to decide, at least not till I know his intentions. But, the one thing I can do is make sure he is safe and I'll be damned if he isn't.

I grab the coffee cup and walk back towards the centre, my eyes falling on my wristwatch subconsciously. 2:23 pm.

"The paint job is done, sir." Jarvis chimes in.

************************************************

"Mr Stark, you won't believe what happened today!" My eyes snap towards the teenage boy bouncing with energy.

"Try me." I encourage him to continue, used to the kid's habit of excitedly ranting about things making it an unofficial daily routine. He puts his backpack on the couch before walking towards him.

"Ned broke the almost finished death star model." He breaks the news with a pout. I raise my eyebrow, recognizing what model he was talking about. 9 times, that's how many times he had mentioned the model this week, constantly updating me about how much of it was constructed.

"The one with 3000 pieces?" I ask, leaving the tools on the table and turning in his direction. "3803." He corrects with a pointed look and I laugh at the sad puppy look he gives me.

"That's not funny, Mr Stark!" He whines at my reaction making me laugh even harder. He huffs angrily and walks towards the work table, grabbing his own toolbox and walks back towards me.

My thoughts turn back to the whole vigilante issue, I try to calm the internal battle raging in my brain. Is this the right time to address it? My eyes turn back to Peter, looking at the concentrated look on his face as he stared at some blueprint in his hand, I feel my resolve weaken. Maybe, later. I sigh.