Prosthetic Parker

Time to cheer up... again

He watches as peter pets Dum-E, U spinning around the two of them. Butterfingers was nowhere to be seen, probably at his charging station or something. He hoped at least.

"He has a ball somewhere, probably stuck under a table or something." tony calls to the kid, watching him light up as he begins to search. Dum-E churrs happily.

the sound of the ball hitting the floor and being caught by Dum-E was enjoyable, tony had avoided turning on any of his music as he didn't want to upset Peter's senses on his first trip into the lab.

"Do you think I'll be going back to physical school?" peter asks softly. Homecoming and the incident had all happened in mid-september, leaving peter out of school to heal and grieve for well almost three months at this point. His last month off was slowly coming to a close and neither knew whether or not peter would be ready to return. Not only that but Christmas was fast approaching, what does a billionaire get a kid he disfigured because he wasn't thinking through his actions?

Hey here's a new arm for the one you lost! Now you have options! do you want a red one next?

"If you're ready to go to school kiddo. I'm not going to rush you or anything, it's your choice when and even if you wanna go back. if you want we can even transfer you to another school, there's plenty of good ones just like midtown." tony starts, pushing his thoughts away and spinning in his chair to face peter.

The kid taps his prosthetic fingers together as he thinks, tossing the ball back to Dum-E. He glances down at the metal fingers, spreading them as he begins to chew on his lip.

"Would there be any way to hide my arm?" he murmurs "and leg?" he adds as an afterthought. Tony leans back, taking in the boy in front of him. he was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, hiding his prosthetics as best he can beside his hand.

"If that's what you want, we can work on something to cover it."

"I just... I don't want to deal with everyone asking questions about it. I already know they're gonna ask about why I was gone and if I'm okay." he sighs. Tony was quite happy he had been able to keep his fostering of peter out of the news, he didn't want the kid to have to deal with his name plastered all over times square, his life story would be thrown to the wolves and tony just knows they would tear the poor kid to shreds.

"No one knows that you're with me, not even your friends, right?"

"Yea, but I was kinda hoping to tell Ned and-and maybe MJ about it..." he trails off, and Tony nods.

"We can let them know, as long as they don't say anything to the media-"

"They wouldn't! Neds been my best friend for years, and yea maybe he can get a little excited about certain things but he would probably keep his mouth shut, and MJ... Well, she doesn't really talk to anyone about secrets?" He rambles and Tony doesn't really like how Peter seems to question his own statement but he nods anyway.

"Alright, we can tell them. I'll let happy know he's gonna be in charge of driving you but I don't think it's a good idea to have you staying in the compound if you really want to go stay in midtown. that would be an almost three-hour drive and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to wake up at like five in the morning to get to school." tony states and peter kinda deflates.

"I forgot how far we were from Queens." peter murmurs, Dum-E beeping and pressing his claw against Peter's back. The kid turns to him and rubs the robot's arm, smiling softly at him.

"I can get us an apartment nearby, I'm not exactly needed at the compound twenty-four-seven." tony says after a moment of silence.

"Oh, no Mister Stark you don't have to-"