Coming Back Home (Closed to Peter)

[st_x5_494]

His talk with Kitty and some more time alone caused Alec to return to the Inn. He smelled, but he was used to that, however he did miss showers. Despite the ability to live off the land for at least a month, there were some comforts that Alec missed. Plus he figured he needed to find out how badly he left things with Peter.

He was ready to be told to move out - however he could manage that, anyways.

Alec pushed through the door noticed the note on Peter's bed immediately. The kid wanted to talk - shocker. He dropped his pack and went to hit the shower.

Comments

[st_x5_494]

"Ant-Man?" ANT-man?

Alec brought fingers to the bridge of his nose. Seriously, what the fuck was with these names? Did the Winter Soldier only fight in cold weather? Did people in Peter's world really think these names sounded cool? He was sure Max would also eye-roll at all of this. He really wished she was here so he could feel validated in thinking all this was lame.

Still, what Peter said didn't escape notice.

"So basically what you're saying is you went into a fight with 'he's wrong and he's dangerous' but you didn't ask what he was wrong about?" Fuck the metal arm, that's the part that bothered Alec. He had seen a lot worse than just a metal arm before.

[st_arkintern]

"Mr. Stark showed up to my house and he told May that I'd won a grant and he told me that he knew I was Spider-Man and he said he wanted to take me to Germany."

He should probably leave the part out about how he told Mr. Stark he couldn't go to Germany because he had homework and Mr. Stark insisted, because Alec would probably just make fun of him.

"When I got there, the only thing I knew was that Captain America had gone crazy. Mr. Stark came to my apartment because he needed my help, so --"

Peter swallows and looks down, suddenly embarrassed. He should have pressed him, but he was so happy that Mr. Stark had asked for his help (Spider-Man!) that at the time, it didn't really seem important.

Iron Man needed his help.

"-- so I helped him," he finishes.

[st_x5_494]

Stark was so many reasons why Peter was going to get killed. Alec did not like the man and he had never met him. In fact, he even preferred Ames White over Tony Stark and Ames had planted a bomb in the base of his skull.

He tried to summon Kitty and Max at that moment. Even Corbie.

Alec closed his eyes. Peter did a dumbass move based on faith.

"Next time... maybe you should ask some more questions." He opened his eyes after that.

See? Personal growth?

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah," Peter says, feeling embarrassed. He wants to tell Alec he was fourteen, as if that would somehow make a difference. He's pretty sure it wouldn't.

"Probably."

[st_x5_494]

"Can you just promise me one thing?" Alec looked at Peter with a more serious expression than before. "Can you at least promise me that here, you won't go do some dumbshit just to impress me or Star-face or that damn raccoon or anyone else? If you're going to do something it's because you need to and you ask for help if help is better than alone?"

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah," Peter says, looking up. "I won't."

And then he realizes that Alec might think it means that he won't ask for help.

"Do dumb stuff," he quickly clarifies. "I promise, if I need it, I'll ask for help."

[st_x5_494]

"Good." At least Alec felt a little better with that. "And also, that raccoon's not allowed in the room. I don't trust him."

[st_arkintern]

Peter frowns at that.

"Rocket's my friend," he says. "You can't arbitrarily ban him."

[st_x5_494]

"I can if I think he's going to kill me in my sleep." He'd seen that look before - maybe not in animal eyes, although Joshua's brother was close.

[st_arkintern]

"Is this because you punched Mr. Star-Lord in the face?"

Yeah, Alec. Peter knows.

[st_x5_494]

"Probably less to do with that and more to do with how I talked to him." Alec was not denying the face-punch. He stood by it thank you.

[st_arkintern]

Peter's frown deepens.

"What did you say?"

[st_x5_494]

He shrugged. "I don't remember the specifics." Which was a bold-face lie since he couldn't not forget.

[st_arkintern]

"You say something bad enough to tick someone off to the point of banning them from our room, and you don't remember what you said?"

[st_x5_494]

Alec sighed. "Alright, fine. He might of said some shit to me, totally failing to miss my point and hanging onto some bullshit line he thought I was talking about and I might have called him roadkill. And that he wasn't human and made fun of his height." Sort of, anyways. He implied Rocket wasn't a 'grown-up.' Also, the irony of Alec talking about human and not human wasn't lost on him.

[st_arkintern]

Peter's frown deepens even more.

"You need to apologize to him," Peter insists. "You can't say that sort of thing to him."

Peter Parker is a master of what you shouldn't say to people lately.

[st_x5_494]

"I'm not apologizing to him." Alec crossed his arms stubbornly.

As far as Alec was concerned, Rocket had basically said Peter was going to die, he might as well enjoy it.

[st_arkintern]

"You're going to apologize to him," Peter says, and he pushes himself off the bed to make a grab for Alec's arm.

[st_x5_494]

Alec didn't move his arm. He let Peter grab it, though his expression was challenging.

"What are you going to do? Make me?"

[st_arkintern]

Peter realizes that an apology is meaningless unless Alec actually means it. Even if he made Alec apologize, he gets the feeling that Rocket would see right through Alec's lack of genuineness.

Peter lets go of Alec's arm. "I'm not," he says. "Because you need to realize it's wrong before you apologize."

[st_x5_494]

He sighed. "People aren't always going to be friends with each other. It's just how life is. You're not friends with that douchebag at your school."

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, but we don't live next door to each other, either. I'm not saying you have to be friends, but... don't you think you should be civil to one another?"

Peter doesn't antagonize Flash.

[st_x5_494]

"He's a bad influence. Besides, I'm being civil by not turning him into a hat." Stubborn man is stubborn.

[st_arkintern]

"How's he a bad influence?" Peter demands. "He hasn't even done anything yet."

[st_x5_494]

He crossed his arms again, but Alec didn't say anything. There were things he had to say about it. Things he saw in the damn Raccoon he saw in himself and some of the things Rocket said in general - Alec just knew - but Peter liked the damn thing so... for some reason Alec couldn't say.