highlander_ii

Tony was beyond impressed with the new hire in his chemical engineering division. The PhD student had been with Stark Industries for about eight months and was already running circles around the department head. Tony had heard more than once already that the 'new guy' would be leading a team of his own in little more than a year. Not his area. If someone decided that, great. He wouldn't block it.

He'd stopped in earlier to chat with a couple folks about some new ideas coming down the pipe. While he was there, he'd overheard one of the techs asking Parker (the 'new guy') about his body art. Specifically a Pac-Man tattoo.

Tony had seen the inked sleeves before, but hadn't given the designs much thought. Apparently one of Parker's friends was a tattoo artist and liked using Parker as a canvas. He obviously didn't mind and had been inked from at least wrist to shoulder in a colorful array of images from Star Wars to playing cards. There were bits of text woven between the images and more space filled with stars and other simple shapes. It all fit together in a way that felt natural. Clearly Parker's friend had a good eye and sense of design.

Maybe he'd have a look at tattoo artists to hire to his design team in the future.

Iron Man did a fly-by to scoop a bank robber off a fire escape. He descended into the alley where he knew Spider-Man was battling the rest of the robbery team.

He hovered just above the ground, the robber dangling above a dumpster. He didn't interfere. Spider-Man had the fight under control. Even when one of the robbers pulled out a knife. Spider-Man didn't even flinch. Not even when the knife slashed into the hero's arm. He just kept fighting until he had them webbed up and out of play.

"You missed one," Iron Man said.

"No I didn't. I knew you were there. But," Spider-Man used his un-wounded arm to web up the one in Iron Man's hand as well.

"Nice." Iron Man floated to the ground. "You okay there? That cut looks pretty bad."

Spider-Man looked down at his arm. He dipped his fingers into the tear in his suit to inspect the cut. That was when Tony saw the ink on the hero's skin. There on Spider-Man's forearm was that same yellow, ghost-chomping Pac-Man he'd seen on the 'new guy' in chemical engineering. Could Spider-Man be his employee? Or was this one hell of a coincidence?

"It's fine, man. I'll be good in a couple hours."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," Spider-Man said, though he seemed a little less sure this time.

"Why don't you let me get you patched up. No hospitals. I can do it. It would suck if anyone found out Iron Man left Spider-Man all alone, injured in an alley."

He didn't really give the friendly hero much choice as he looped an arm around the guy's waist and took off into the sky.

Tony took Spider-Man to one of his tucked away apartments to protect the hero's identity. He made sure Spider-Man was steady before letting go. Then listened to the guy comment on the apartment and the building - about how nice it was. How expensive it looked.

He let his armor fold away as he crossed to a fridge and got a bottle of water for his guest.

"Do I need to stitch you up?"

Spider-Man shook his head. "I'll be fine in a few minutes." He also downed about half the bottle of water.

Tony took a seat on the nearby ottoman. Ignoring Spider-Man's insistence that he'd be fine, Tony took the man's arm in his hand to inspect it. Through the opening in the sleeve made by the knife, he could clearly see the same collection of tattoos.

"So, how long have you been fighting crime, Parker?"

"Since I was sixteen," he said. His eyes suddenly widened and he stared in what Tony could only describe as fear. "Oh shit."

"Calm down, kid. Your secret's safe." Tony tapped Parker's arm. "I assume you don't face lucky knife wielders often."

Parker shook his head. "Not usually. Man, am I fired now?" he asks, tugging the mask off his head.

Tony frowned. "No. Why would you be fired? Because you didn't tell me about your secret identity?" Tony snorted. "Do whatever you want outside of work as long as the work gets done. But, tell me, how are you working a job, being a superhero, and getting a PhD all at the same time?"

"Clones?"

For a second Tony thought Parker was serious. His life was seriously messed up sometimes. "Funny."

Parker grinned. "A lot of my PhD work is from my job. I cleared it with my boss and her boss. It's all good. No proprietary info will go into my dissertation. You wanna read it before I submit it?"

"Yes," Tony answered simply. "Enough about work. Wanna tell me about this spider thing?"

"Not really," Parker said. "The story's not as cool as being kidnapped by terrorists."

"Not sure that counts as cool. Kinda sucked."

Parker shrugged. "The kidnapping isn't cool. The story is." A pause, and he looked at the spot on his arm where the cut was. It had closed already.

"Maybe. But what happened? You sign on for some top secret military experiment or something?"

Parker shook his head. "Spider bit me." When Tony arched an eyebrow, Parker added, "Experimental spider." That's all he was willing to offer.

Tony could accept that. "Who makes your suits?"

"I do."

"Can I see the rest of your tattoos?" Tony asked, tongue sliding across his lower lip.

Parker frowned. "Uh, why?"

Tony grinned, sly and wicked. "Please tell me I don't have to spell this out for you."

"Um -" Parker looked a little stunned for a moment. "But I work for you."

"Not directly. Do you really think I'm going to give you a promotion to the C-suite if you blow me? Come on. You're smarter than that. No one gets a promotion six months in."

"Eight months."

Tony smirked. "So, I don't get to see the body art?"

"Only if I get to see if you have any."

"Kid, my entire body has been plastered on the internet since before it was cool."

Parker shrugged. "Suit yourself." And he didn't move.

Stubborn bastard. He liked this guy. "Fine." Tony peeled off his shirt. "Better?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, actually. Though, I'm kinda surprised you don't have any tattoos. Rebel bad boy that you were."

Tony shrugged and tossed his shirt away. "Don't really care for needles. And after I ran away when I was seven, my dad threatened to tattoo a barcode on my wrist that would send him an alert if anyone scanned it. Never wanted any after that."

"Dude, your life is messed up." Then Parker pulled his arms free of the sleeves of his suit and held them out.

Tony leaned closer, examining the man's outstretched arms. "This work is really well done. Why's this one so faded?" He smoothed his fingers over a rose that had clearly been a vibrant red originally.

"Healing powers. She's redone that one three times."

Tony brushed his thumb over the faded tattoo. He glanced over when Parker held out his other arm, showing a detailed model of an arc reactor on the inner biceps. "You're a fan, huh?"

"Technological marvel. Too cool to pass up."

That was one way to get Tony's attention. No more stalling. He leaned in and pressed his mouth to Parker's. And he was a little surprised at how eagerly Parker seemed to return the kiss. The younger man climbing into his lap almost made him smirk and ruin the kiss.

He could get behind this though. He let Parker spend time just exploring his mouth while he ran his fingers up and down the man's back. Tony couldn't tell if Parker's spider enhancements were influencing how he kissed or not, but the guy was pretty damned good at it either way.

That wasn't all Tony was after though. He slid his hands down, dipping beneath Parker's suit to curve around the young man's ass. He could feel that Parker was as hard as he was. "Hop up and get out of this thing. We're gonna move to the couch. I wanna see if you have tattoos anywhere else."

Rising from the ottoman, Tony stripped out of his own pants before settling on the plush couch that faced the tinted windows of his apartment. He rolled on a condom and generously coated it in lube while he waited on Parker. He waved his fingers, beckoning the younger man closer.

"You sure about this, Tony?"

He nodded. "Definitely. And you can break anything but me," Tony said.

"I probably won't do that, but okay." Then Parker stripped out of the Spider-Man outfit, revealing a host of tattoos down both legs.

Tony watched as Parker knelt over his lap without even bracing himself on the back of the couch. Fuck - that was hot. Tony was going to find a way to explore all of those powers. Later though.

"You probably don't really need the condoms, huh?" he asked, fingers tracing the lines of what he thought might be a storm cloud on Parker's right thigh..

Parker shrugged. "Not really. I usually use them anyway because you never know."

"You just keep getting sexier. Come here." He moved Parker into place and told him to move at his own pace.

Parker's pace turned out to be agonizingly slow in the best of ways. Tony let his hands settle at Parker's hips as the man began to move, using those strong leg muscles of his incredibly well.

"I changed my mind - break me if it gets to that point," he panted between them.