Spooktober 17: Mind-Reading

"What are those?" Peter asked, looking over to the boxes stacked in the corner of the lab.

"Oh, those?" Tony gave him a shrug. "SHIELD dropped off some various... something. I don't actually know what it is, they didn't bother leaving a note. Or voicemail."

Peter's interest piqued. He walked over to the boxes, opening the first one and peeking inside. "It looks like some kinda headset. Why would SHIELD give you tech?"

"Beats me." Tony walked over and took the headset out of the box, turning it over in his hands. He squinted. "This is a rather clunky design. Not exactly something I would ever make. I could have done this a thousand times better. Fri, what am I looking at?"

"There isn't any technology matching it in my databases, boss."

Peter looked up. "Can I put it on?"

Tony turned it over again. "Well... It doesn't look like a weapon. I don't know why SHIELD would give me anything dangerous without a note. Sure, what the hell. For science."

He handed the headset over and Peter grinned with giddy excitement. He pulled the tech over his face, and immediately it came to life, glowing a faint blue to indicate it was on and working.

"Okay, now," Tony turned to him and tilted his head to the side. "If you start feeling weird. Like, physically feeling ill, or emotionally like you wanna start breaking stuff or go crazy and kill me, take the thing off. We don't want to reenact any mediocre movie plots."

"I'm not really... seeing any difference," Peter frowned. "Maybe they're just cool glasses? Do I at least look cool?"

Tony smiled in amusement, the corners of his eyes crinkling. You look like me. "Yeah, kid. Sure, real cool."

"Yeah. Just like you." Peter snorted and sat in the nearest chair, moving back and forth on the floor. "Anyways. What are we working on today?"

Tony picked up a wrench and twirled it in his hands, moving his head in a so-so motion. "Haven't really decided. What'd you bring for me?"

"Oh!" Peter got up from his chair and went to the backpack he had left at the bottom of the stairs. "I had some ideas for a new suit. Or like, upgrades to the original you made."

"Bring it on. You gonna wear those dorky glasses the whole time you're here?"

"They're cool," Peter shrugged. He dug around in the bag for some crumpled up notebook papers with scribbles on them. He laid them out on the table in front of the two of them. "So, I made some tweaks to the web formula. I thought it would be beneficial to have like... you know, webs that would still work in certain elements. What if I'm in a house fire or something? I don't want the webs to burn up."

"Or the suit. Don't want Spidey extra crispy," Tony frowned. I should have thought of that already. Especially after Pepper. "What's your web formula made of right now? Run the recipe by me again."

"Oh, uh. Salicylic acid, carbon tetrachloride, ethyl acetate, methanol, sodium—"

"Sodium tetraborate," Tony nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I remember now. Okay. Um... Yeah. We can make that work for sure."

Peter smiled. "Cool."

Freakin' genius. Off the charts, this kid. "Well? What are you standing around for, you want an invitation? Go get the stuff for it, kid."

Peter made a face, his cheeks going pink. "Thank you...?"

Why does he look embarrassed? What did I say? Tony stared at him with furrowed eyebrows. "You're... What are you thanking me for?"

This was weird. Tony talked to himself all the time, Peter knew this, but he had never done so without the knowledge people could hear him. Simply put; He knew when he was being listened to. This didn't seem to be one of those times.

Maybe he had just gotten less sleep last night or something.

Peter slowly shook his head and then turned around, going to the various shelves in the lab for the chemicals and materials he needed to recreate the web fluid. He dumps all of it on his desk before starting to work.

"So, how was school?" Tony spoke up, dragging a chair over to the desk.

Peter smiled awkwardly and jerked a nod in his direction. "It was, uh—You know. It wasn't bad, I guess. Just school."

Too much. Scale back. Throw a joke in there. "Yeah. What about patrol? No more flying vulture guys I need to worry about?" Better not be.

"Mr. Stark, are you alright?" Peter blurted, the question leaping out of his mouth without a second thought to it.

Not generally. Why is the kid asking, though? Tony paused what he was doing and looked at him with confusion. "Uh, yeah? I'm fine. You didn't answer the question, though. Does that mean I should be worried?"

"What? No!" Peter quickly shook his head. "No more vulture guys. Patrol has been okay. Yesterday was actually pretty funny, I—"

I heard this in the voicemail.

"You listen to the voicemails?" Peter asked in awe. "The ones I send to Happy?"

Every one. It's the new fun thing to do when I can't sleep. "Yeah, when I have time I'll usually give them a casual listen. You didn't finish your sentence. Are you feeling alright, kid? You're acting more spazzy than usual." He wouldn't have come if he were sick, right? May would have my head. He should be at home resting. Can spider-kids get sick?

"Oh my god," Peter said in response, as everything suddenly clicked. Tony still was staring at him in puzzlement and concern. "I think I figured out what the headset does."

"Sorry? Care to share with the class, Mr. Parker?" Tony crossed his arms, the concern temporarily melting into mild intrigue.

"I think it can read minds, or something."

Oh god. I hope not. Tony gave Peter a look. "Is that so? What am I thinking right now, then?"

3.141592653589793–

"The digits of pi," Peter said. "How far do you have them memorized? I can go up to the first one hundred, but that's it."

Oh no. No no no no no. Not gonna happen. "Alright, I think it's time to take those off—" Tony reached over the table to take the headset from him, but Peter ducked away.

"What? These are so cool! We have to test them more! Come on, think of something else." Peter grinned.

No no no no no no. LALALALALA—

"You know, I'm really not comfortable with someone sticking their nose in my brain," Tony said, trying to reach for the headset again. "Or ears, for that matter, so—"

"Here!" Peter pulled the headset off his face and handed it to Tony. "Try to read my mind!"

Tony stared at him blankly before shaking his head and pulling his own glasses off. "Alright, you asked for it." He pulled the headset on. "These are not the droids you're looking for."

"Okay, first of all, that would only make sense if you could change the thoughts in my head," Peter pointed out. "Or if you had the force. Second of all— What am I thinking of right now?"

He shut his eyes tightly and thought of something easy. Just a quick summary of events.

My name is Peter Parker, I'm fifteen, I live in Queens, I go to Midtown School of Science and Technology. Right now I'm in the lab of Tony Stark, he's trying to read my mind— I hope I don't think of anything embarrassing. Like wedgies or something. Crap. Wait. No— Okay, back on track. Tony Stark is really cool, he's very parental like May. Like Captain Holt if I was Jake Peralta—Not like he's my dad! But he's like— I screwed this up so bad. I hope this backfires—

"Yikes," Tony said, pulling the headset off. "How do you not constantly have a headache? That's what I'm curious about. Your brain is so loud. Also— Definitely didn't backfire."

Peter facepalmed. Nice job, Parker. Nice job. Should have just stuck to the first few sentences of that "little summary."

"I'm gonna put this back," he muttered, standing up and grabbing the headset from Tony's hands.

"Be safe, pipsqueak! We can play catch later, if you want."

"Mr. Stark," Peter whined. "Come on, that's not fair! I didn't say it, my brain did!"

Tony shrugged, hiding his own grin. "Yeah, don't worry, kiddo. Your secret is safe with me."