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“Hey, kid, hold on,” Tony called out, causing Peter to pause where he was bounding ahead of him. The kid turned to look at him, the big eyes on his suit blinking in a way that was distinctly puppyish, and Tony had to resist the urge to rub his chest above his heart at the way they pierced through him.
“Yeah, Mr. Stark?” he asked, voice bright.
“We’re teaming up with someone on our latest mission,” Tony said, clearing his throat. “It’s not one of the usuals, and you’ll be support for this. We’ll be going over the briefing before heading out, so there will be plenty of time to go over the plan, but I didn’t want you to be too surprised, especially because this guy is pretty… intense sometimes.”
“Intense?” Peter asked, shifting to look at him more directly, even as they both resumed walking.
“Yeah, he…” Tony trailed off, before sighing heavily and shaking his head. “There’s no sugarcoating this. He puts most of his ‘bad guys’ in the Intensive Care Unit by beating them half to death.”
“Oh,” Peter said, not seeming nearly as alarmed by that as Tony had expected. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Peter said, nonchalantly as they rounded the corner. Tony stared. “It actually sounds a lot like - Hey! DD!”
Peter went running and took a flying leap towards a familiar red-clad vigilante standing there talking to Pepper before Tony could stop him. Daredevil took the kid’s weight on his back with nothing more than a grunt, tipping his head slightly towards the teenager as the kid’s arms wrapped around his neck in a hug, his feet planted on the vigilante’s hips.
“Webs,” the devil greeted back, lips curling up in the smallest smirking smile Tony had ever seen. “Wade’s been looking for you recently, said something about you going through your ‘magical girl transformation’ we last saw each other? No idea what that means, but he said you would.”
Peter groaned, throwing his weight back in a move that made Daredevil stagger and let out another grunt of effort.
“Seriously?”
“Kid, stop doing that,” Daredevil scolded, gravelly voice dropped low and threatening, but Peter seemed to not pay it any mind. “Just because you weigh the same as a backpack doesn’t mean you can’t throw me off balance.”
“Shut up, Double D, you just told me Wade’s hunting me down to see the new suit,” Peter complained, leaning forward to rest his chin on the man’s shoulder. “You know he has no shame and is fully willing and able to ‘find’ me at the most embarrassing moment possible.”
Daredevil hummed, before shifting to face Tony finally, who had been too startled by the familiarity of the interaction to say much until then - more interested in watching the pair interact to learn more.
“Stark,” Daredevil greeted. “Nice to meet you. Thanks for keeping an eye on the kid.”
“Lucifer,” Tony said, not letting himself be thrown off any further. “And please, don’t thank me, the onesie the kid was wearing before was a crime against technology. You two know each other?”
“Oh!” Peter exclaimed, suddenly seeming to realize he’d not told Tony about that yet. “Yeah, Daredevil and I go way back! I knew him back when he was still in the black ninja outfit, rather than the leather. He taught me how to fight!”
“I wasn’t the only one,” Daredevil corrected, reaching back with one arm to pluck the kid off his back and swing him around to his front. Peter yelped, before his feet were back on the ground and one of Daredevil’s arms was around his shoulders. “Jess says hi, by the way, and I ran into Black Cat the other day - she said to expect a visit soon.”
“Oh no,” Peter said, looking vaguely afraid. “Do you think if I hide with Jess, she’ll leave me alone? Or maybe Frank can take me with him out of town, he has to have a job soon, right? I wouldn’t be worried, except I accidentally spilled a big bowl of eggs all over her the last time we hung out - it was a whole thing about a bakery being a front for a puppy mill we were busting up. Don’t ask it was way too wild to get into now.”
“Kid, if you ticked off Cat, better just take the consequences,” Daredevil said, sounding slightly incredulous with his head tipping towards Peter. “If you let her sit she’s only going to get madder, you know this.”
“I’d like lilies at my funeral,” Peter told him solemnly, looking into the blank eyes of Daredevil’s helmet.
“Do you think I’m made of money, Webs?” the older vigilante sounded offended now, removing his arm from Peter’s shoulders and taking a step back. “You’re getting carnations or alstroemerias depending on what’s on sale. Or what I have on hand.”
“Okay!” Tony cut in, still feeling thrown by the number of names and inside - jokes? information? - being thrown around that he didn’t recognize. “So, you taught Underoos here how to do the vigilante thing and not die. You’ve clearly done us all a service, or the spiderling here would have been toasted like a bagel months ago. Am I invited to your little club meetings too, by the way, or is it only small-time heroes who can be let in?”
“Applications are closed at the moment,” Daredevil had a… not unfriendly small smile on his face as he turned his attention to Tony, but it certainly wasn’t welcoming either. “I can get you on the waiting list though, if you want.”
“Ugh, I don’t do waiting lists,” Tony dismissed immediately, striding forward to peer at the case file in front of them. “Is this on paper? Ew. FRIDAY?”
“On it, Boss,” came his beloved AI’s voice, and a moment later he had a digital copy of the information from his
“The tabloids really don’t do you justice,” Daredevil said, voice low behind him. From his peripheral vision, Tony could see him shaking his head - body language a little annoyed and exasperated.
“They rarely do,” Tony quipped, before turning his attention back to Peter. “So, kid, you good to work this case with us?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Peter said, before following the flick of Tony’s eyes towards Daredevil. “Wh- because Daredevil’s here? Mister Stark, I’ve been working with him longer than I’ve even known you. Did you forget that one conversation we had a few months back? I used to be like him, even.”
“You tried to be like me,” the man in red leather murmured, causing Peter to smack him with the back of his hand. Daredevil winced at the strike, but pressed his point. “It’s the truth, you fought like a Husky when I met you - loud and too strong for your own good, and just plowing your way through your problems. Someone would have swatted you down within weeks, if you’d kept on like that.”
“Why do you hate me?” Peter pouted.
Tony wasn’t sure what to make of the change. Peter was sassier with the other vigilante, more playful, more comfortable with violence. With Tony he was a bit shier, and a lot more respectful. There was a distance there, as if Tony and Iron Man both were still a little on a pedestal for him, and Tony hadn’t realized it bothered him until that moment.
“Right, well,” Tony said, shaking himself from his thoughts as he stepped forward to sling a casual arm around Peter’s shoulders. “Let’s talk logistics.”
“I’ll follow your lead,” Daredevil said, a hint of sarcasm underlying the words. “Unless the plan you make is stupid.”
“I’m Tony Stark,” Tony said derisively. “I don’t do stupid, Morningstar. Come on kid, I have the rest of the plans in the meeting room. Hornhead, if you’re willing to hear my not-stupid plan out, come with me.”
“Play nice,” Peter said under his breath, but he had an amused air to him as the trio began making their way to the other room.
“Tell that to him ,” Tony and Daredevil muttered at the same time, in the same annoyed tone. Peter laughed as they both turned to each other in offense.
“Oh, this is going to be hilarious ,” Peter said, ducking out from under Tony’s arm to be the first into the meeting room. “Once Cat finishes beating me up, I’ll have to tell her all about it. Wade too.”
Tony wasn’t sure how worried to be about that, but given Daredevil’s own twist of displeasure, he thought it couldn’t be good. He sighed. The things he did for the sake of being Iron Man. And for the kid.