Yay or Nay?
Disclaimer: This is a tickle fic! Scroll if you do not like!
Lee: Peter Parker
Ler! Tony Stark
Peter Parker was quite the peculiar individual for Tony. For one, the guy was Spider-man. The friendly neighborhood spidey who helped old ladies cross the street, played soccer with the local kids, and just so happened to be able to go toe-to-toe with a super soldier, and hold his own and even help against avenger level threats as he would get to know.
Yet, also still admiring the avengers like any other fanboy, was awkward, and stumbled on his words around people he liked. It was kinda funny to see the same guy who treated life-or-death and people with guns like a grumpy neighbor get all flustered whenever someone like Captain America wanted to talk to him.
It wasn’t just Peter’s attitude and his work as Spider-man that interested Tony though. It was also his work as Peter as well. He had already figured the kid was smart in STEM from the web formula he used, however, he didn’t expect to find himself genuinely intrigued by Peter’s other projects as he would soon discover.
It was quite interesting to look into some of the kid’s works. He could really tell why the kid was in a STEM school like Midtown. Although he didn’t really plan on developing any relationship to Peter further then just as Iron man and Spider-man, he could really use somewhat of an intern in the labs. Who knows? Maybe it’d be a nice change of pace.
#
From the get-go, Peter was anxious. It had been about two weeks since Tony decided to actually go through with the whole internship thing. The kid came every day after school for about two hours. Unlike what Tony had for some reason expected, it was radio silence from the kid. The only interaction between them would be whenever Tony would ask for a part or came about to check up on whatever the kid was doing.
Usually, the kid was doing something real sweet. Like making an entirely new element for the periodic table and somehow making use out of it. Tony could also tell the kid was working on a personal project using what Tony had to offer, however, the kid was definitely hiding it from him. Which concerned Tony.
Today was no different from usual. Peter was across from him, still messing with the new element. AC/DC blasted as the two of them worked on their own things. Even though it was peaceful between them, it was easy to tell that Peter was definitely anxious. Tony had been meaning to try and dissolve that anxiety from Peter, but he didn’t really know how.
Peter was shaking his leg as his hand rested on his forehead. There was a conflicted expression on his face as the blue light emitting from the element shone on his face. Tony could tell the kid was frustrated. He checked his watch. Shouldn’t be too bad of a time to come around.Â
Tony stood up from his chair, walking around to where Peter was. He was feeling kinda awkward himself, he had no idea how to really talk to teenagers except for sarcasm anyways. Peter, somehow, didn’t notice him from behind. Tony looked at the element. It looked a bit deformed from last time. There was a plastic cover over it now as it flaked and spurted, splaying itself all over the cover.
“Whatcha got there kid?” Tony tried to soften his voice a bit, trying not to scare Peter. He did anyways. Peter jumped up in surprise, the spinning chair wheeling against the tiled floor.
“Ah-shit—oh, Mr. Stark, hi.” Peter breathed a sigh of relief before straightening, coughing to try and cover up his embarrassment at being caught off guard.
“Hey kid.” Tony couldn’t really help the flat undertone of his voice that just edged for a little bit something more from whoever he was talking to. He usually really liked talking the way he did because of it, but right now he just cringed at it. He liked the kid. He didn’t want to scare him off like this.
“What you have here this time around kiddo? I assume it’s not exactly swell from the looks of it. Got a lil someone over here I see.” He tried to flatten his tone a bit, tapping the plastic covering that was currently splattered from the inside in whatever the element was spewing. Peter grimaced, pursing his lips.
“Err, yea.” Peter replied awkwardly. His shoulders were tense as he tapped his foot against the floor with that same, quick, thumping as he had been for the last 10 minutes. He was clearly not having fun with whatever he has been doing right now from the mindless way he was staring at the glowing splattered on the plastic. You couldn’t even see the actual block of the element. Tony suddenly felt awkward.
“Just something that uh, keeps ruining my tests on it like it hates me or something. Don’t worry, it’s all dandy.” Peter leaned forward from his chair, experimentally lifting the plastic cover as he braced for something. He scrunched his nose when steam arose from under the plastic before he cupped it back in again.
“Hopefully that isn’t some deadly gas you just accidentally concocted.” Tony quipped mindlessly. Peter pursed his lips again, his eyebrows tensing by a miniscule amount.
“Yea.” He just responded again.
“Hey how about we uhh, get you working on something Spidey related? Elements are a hard fix anyways. Have I ever told you about my experiments with Badassium?” Peter’s interest seemed to peak. He raised his eyebrow slightly, eyes following Tony as Tony went to the back of the lab to dig out some gear; probably spider gear.
“No, you haven’t.”
“Right, well,” Tony went on to talk about his experience with Badassium. Peter seemed quite intrigued by the stories, nodding along as he watched Tony drag out blueprints, notebooks, and a whole lot of mechanical parts and spandex as well.
“And the worst part about that was when it blew up on me and broke poor Brucie-bear who just happened to be there’s favorite mug. I think it was the green in his eye that scared me though, apparently he was already having a screw-over’ed day.” Tony pulled out two web shooters. They were designed a bit differently from Peter’s usual web shooters. They were smaller with only the trigger, the small pipe to shoot it out, and the cartridges.
“Try this on, figured it’d be inconvenient if Y’know; crushed up your web shooters like a lollipop.”Â
“Mr. Stark, who bites lollipops?”
“Last time I checked just about everyone, kid are you sure you’re the only one not biting lollipops kid?” Tony found himself smiling as he looked back at the kid. Peter seemed less tense compared to two hours ago. He was currently trying to put on the web shooters, eyebrows creasing when he couldn’t.
“Need help with that kiddo?” Peter nodded. Extending his wrist out. Tony grabbed the webshooter, taking it and wrapping it around Peter’s wrist. His fingers grazed them. Peter suddenly sputtered. He tensed, flinching away as the web shooter dropped to the ground.
Confusion washed over Tony as he flinched back from Peter. He blinked. Did he alarm him or anything? Peter looked up before looking away. Suddenly shying away again. Did he accidentally trigger a deep-set problem in the kid?
“You alright kid?” Tony asked tentatively. Not wanting to scare the kid.—gosh Pepper would be telling him to stop treating the kid like a scared animal. How were you supposed to talk to kids again? But Peter’s not a kid, he’s a teenager, is he just nervous or did he do something wrong?
“Yea, it’s nothing.” Peter shook his head, keeping his gaze low before extending his hand again. This time a bit more hesitantly. Tony raised an eyebrow. He looked back to Peter’s hand, trying to gauge his memory for when exactly Peter flinched away, trying to pinpoint a reason why. He looked at Peter’s face, before looking back at his wrist. He decided to test the waters. After all, he never liked guessing.
“Ok then, why does this bother you?” He took a light grasp on Peter’s hand, light enough to let Peter pull away if he wanted to. He dragged his finger lightly up and down Peter’s wrist. Peter squawked before he reflexively pulled away.
“I-Uh-I-it’s just—“
“Is it something to do with your Spidey DNA or something? Talk to me kid,”
“No-I mean—yea, it is but-“
“So something with the spider? Come on kiddo, I’m curious unless you don’t wanna talk about it of course.”
“No it’s fine— it’s just uh, embarrassing.” Peter kept flickering his gaze between the floor and Tony.
“Cause like, y’know how uhh, the spider dna gave me spider-like thingys? Like how I can climb walls, I can’t thermoregulate, and-“
“Wait, you can’t thermoregulate?” Tony cut in. Peter just sorta shrugged, still eyeing him with a flustered expression.
“I can’t, yea but anyways—I’m pretty sure it gave me half-developed spinnerets because there’s been like these kinda bumps in both my wrists and they’re really sensitive. It’s bad, so-I just uh, reacted since you brushed them.” Peter looked down again. Tony blinked at the new information. Half-developed spinnerets? That was a new development. The thermoregulation too but that wasn’t the main focus right now.
“Sensitive as in pain-sensitive orrr?”
“Well touching the bumps itself is pain-sensitive, it’s just the surrounding area is.. ticklish.” Now that was definitely new. Who knew Spider-man was embarrassed by being ticklish? It was a funny idea, yet also kinda cute when you take into account Peter’s attitude around him. It made Tony want to be more playful. He grinned a bit.
“Soo, you’re saying that this tickles?” Tony took Peter’s hand again, this time he held it tighter. He dragged his finger lightly across Peter’s wrist again, this time tracing shapes and lines on them. Peter sputtered, his other hand coming up to cover his face as he reflexively tried to pull away again. He looked away to the side, shoulders shaking slightly.
Tony grinned watching Peter’s reaction. The kid was just being adorable right now.
“Come on kiddo, does it tickle? Yes or no.” Tony dragged his finger in a circle around the two bumps on Peter’s wrist, watching as Peter’s fingers curled in, another quiet muffled laugh leaving Peter’s mouth.
“Yehehes it doeses,” Peter giggled, covering his mouth. His shoulders still shaking lightly. Tony had to resist laughing a little himself.
“Are you also saying this tickles?” Tony rolled Peter’s sleeve up, now dragging his fingers lightly across his forearm. Peter squealed before dissolving into breathy, quiet laughs. Trying his best now to muffle them. He sunk in his chair.
“Come on gigglebug, does it tickle?” He dragged his fingers back down to the spinnerets, circling around them slowly again making Peter’s laughter pitch a bit higher again. Peter nodded frantically, trying to hide his face.
“Use your words Pete, does it tickle?” Tony teased him more, basically asking for Peter to break out into laughter at this point.
“Yeshehses!” The word came a bit louder than Peter wanted, trying to pull back even more. Tony hummed, slowly walking his fingers up Peter’s arm. Peter peeked out from covering his face, to be attacked with wiggly fingers against his neck. He squawked, trying to curl up on himself as he scrunched his shoulders. Fuzzy, tingly bolts shooting up his neck to his brain, making him feel all meltly.
“Mr. Stahark!” He whined, trying to cover his face while also pulling lightly at Tony’s hand. He peeked again just to see Tony’s mischievous grin. Only serving to fluster him more.
“Come on Spidey, are you also saying the Spider-man is ticklish? Because that’s probably the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard of all week.” Peter squealed, almost jumping out of his seat as a hand latched onto his ride side. Squeezing and wiggling. He broke out into louder, breathier, laughs as he started to squirm in the spinning chair.
Tony’s fingers trailed up Peter’s neck, scribbling lightly over the sweet spot just to the side below of Peter’s ear. Peter broke out in hysterical giggles, wrenching away from Tony just for fingers to follow. His cheeks turned pink from the embarrassment and laughter. Who knew he was going to end up being possibly tickled to death by Tony Stark himself?
“Is this a giggle spot Pete?” He squeezed just under Peter’s lowest rib, laughing himself when Peter flopped out like a fish out of water, now laying sideways on his right side in the chair as he squirmed around.
“Thishis is evhehvevil! Youhuhur’e ehehevil!” Peter giggled as his laughter started to get louder and more uncontrollable.
“Yea I can’t take you seriously when you’re laughing so much, smiley.” Tony suddenly attacked Peter’s exposed left side with both hands, squeezing his side as he massaged his fingers torturously into his ribs. Peter barked out laughing as he started to squirm with more vigor.
“eHEK! Mrhrhr. StarahHArk!” Peter squeaked as Tony started to crawl his fingers, skittering all over his ribs, sides, and stomach now. Rubbing his thumbs along the side of Peter’s stomach in a way that made his giggles sound more panicky.
“Yes Peter? Do you need more tickles or something? I can do that.” He climbed his fingers up Peter’s ribcage before pinpointing a sweet spot just between the last and second to last rib. Peter’s laughing became louder. Tony snickered himself as he honed into that spot.
“THahHaHat’S SoHOo BaHAhaHad!” The spinning chair swerved hard as Peter kicked out. Tony planted the chair in place with his foot, dragging it closer to him before rubbing deep circles into that spot watching as Peter snorted.
“Pfpt- was that a snort?” Tony laughed now, amused as he massaged deeper into the spot watching as Peter’s cheeks got red.
“My, my Pete I didn’t know you were this ticklish. This is just adorable, you know that right?”
“SHuhHUT UhuUhP!” Peter bit back at the teasing, still giggling and laughing loudly and kiddishly as he squirmed with all his might. Tony whistled at the attitude.
“Not a great thing to say at the moment there Spidey,” Tony skittered his fingers higher up his ribcage, taking notice of how Peter’s pitch got higher the higher he went up.
“Dohohon’t!” Peter looked at him, wide eyed with mirth. He wore a grin on his face that Tony hadn’t seen since he first recruited the kid. He grinned back devilishly.
“Yessss,” he took hold of Peter’s wrist, holding it above his head as he scribbled at Peter’s underarm. Peter broke out into a loud laughter as he weakly tugged at Tony’s hand with his other, unrestrained hand.
Tony didn’t even try to suppress snicker at how ridiculously ticklish this kid was.
“Does it tickle, kid? You’re practically shaking with laughter, I don’t get the big deal.” Tony didn’t even hide his grin as Peter tried to glare at him. Yet it wasn’t very threatening with the wide grin on Peter’s face. Peter opened his mouth to say something just to squeeze his eyes shut with another bout of laughter.
“Sooo would this also tickle?” He let go of Peter’s wrist, going to repeatedly squeeze Peter’s side. He watched as Peter squirmed more with laughter. The kid’s laughter being music to his ears.
“MihsihsitEr!.” Peter tried to talk through the laughter, failing as he did. He curled up on himself, trying to make a ball as his laughter went silent.
Tony snickered, this time more slowly as he figured the kid was just about done. He slowed down, ruffling Peter’s hair.
“Looks like you’re beat kiddo,” He commented. Peter just giggled some more.
“Just got one more thing for you…” Peter suddenly looked panicked as he started to try and scoot back in the chair, trying to escape now before Tony grabbed hold of him, wrestling the vigilante down.
“Nononononono!”
“Ever heard of this berry? I think you’d like it since it’s red and all and you’re red too. As in Spider-man and right now. No? Alright,” He blew a raspberry into Peter’s neck. He spasmed before trying to curl up again as his giggles went hysterical again. White light exploded behind his eyes.
It felt like 30 minutes before Tony finally let up, blowing 2 more quicker raspberries before letting Peter go.
Peter laid limp, curled up in a fetal position in the chair as he tried to catch his breath. Tony watched as Peter’s back raised and fell with breath. He had to suppress another small laugh at the kid. He never thought but he was feeling quite affectionate right now.
“Tony?” Both Peter and Tony’s gaze snapped to the familiar voice. Steve stood in the doorway as the door opened. Steve looked up from what he was holding, blinking at the curled up teen and Tony.
“What happened here?” He asked. Tony just grinned as Peter bolted, scrambling off the chair and hiding behind Steve.
“He’s evil!” Peter accused, pointing at Tony as Steve blinked again at Peter’s newfound attitude. Usually, he was too shy to talk to him.
“Just some good ol’ fun.” Tony said, eyes twinkling with mischief. Steve just raised an eyebrow.
“Ok then.”