Consciousness came back to him in small bits and pieces. Peter groaned and thought that maybe he should try moving but his head hurt like… like something… his head hurt.
And his chest hurt. And his stomach. Pretty much everything hurt.
Peter didn’t realize how quiet it had been until sound started coming back to him. First it was the sound of a car alarm going off but it was muffled. Like the car was underwater or something. Then the sound of people yelling but he couldn’t understand what they were saying because they were underwater too.
Then there was light.
So. Much. Light.
It seared through his eyelids and burned straight into his skull. That was a new pain on top of everything else. He tried to open his eyes and it took several attempts before he could even squint.
At first everything was hazy, nothing but blurry edges and kaleidoscopes of colors. Finally, he could make something out of all the indistinct shapes and shadows. He was in Mays car.
It didn’t look right though. Everything was upside down and there was red paint everywhere and broken glass but that was definitely Mays little dancing hula girl on the dashboard so it had to be her car which means May had to be there with him and maybe she would know what was going on and why everything seemed wrong… but he couldn’t move.
He tried. He tried to call out for May but the most he could do was a low groan that was vaguely in the shape of her name. He tried to lift his arm and undo his seatbelt, which he had only just realized he was dangling from, but he only got as far as touching the button before he lost his strength and that was when the fear hit because how could he possibly lose his strength? He’s spiderman, isn’t he?
“HEY!” Peter winced at the sharp yell and could barely make out a woman looking at him through the broken windshield of the car with wide, terrified eyes, before turning around and yelling behind her, “There’s a kid in here! He’s alive!”
Alive? What? Was that a surprise?
Why was everything so weird? His head hurt more and more with every passing second and his body was starting to wake up and let him know that his head was not the only thing hurting right then.
He blinked and suddenly there were three more people besides the woman and they were dressed like firefighters for some reason. One of them crawled in next to him and one of the others reached in and sliced right through his seatbelt. He was expecting to fall pretty hard but instead he was lowered gently onto a backboard he couldn’t remember being there a second ago and it was then, right then as they were carefully dragging him out of what was left of Aunt Mays flipped over car, that he finally saw her and everything came rushing back. It hit him all at once and absolutely stole his breath away.
They had been driving to dinner. Their favorite Thai place. They were going to celebrate. May got a promotion, and it meant more money and easier bills and she said they were going to go buy him some new shoes tomorrow…
Peters Spidey sense went off and he couldn’t tell why until it was too late… and it was too late.
Time stood still and that one split second felt like an eternity as the memory hit him. The bright headlights filled the window behind Mays head. The demonic sound the car made as it was crushed by the semi. Glass breaking and tumbling violently down the road until the car finally came to a stop, upside-down, more than halfway down the block from where they started.
And there was May, still hanging from her seatbelt. There was a paramedic next to her with his hand on her throat. Her face was covered in blood, her eyes were wide in shock, her mouth was gaping, gasping for air but every breath she took, more blood would seep out from between that paramedic’s fingers.
He could hear her heart as time started again and they were dragging him away. They buckled him onto the back board, and he could hear her heart thumping rapidly, so fast he didn’t think he could count the individual thuds if he tried.
As they lifted him up onto a waiting stretcher, he couldn’t hear the thumps anymore…
He was out cold again before they even got him to the ambulance.
Tony was just pouring himself a cup of coffee when the call came in. His phone vibrated in his pocket and when he pulled it out and didn’t recognize the number at all, he didn’t even hesitate to press ignore. He was turning back to grab his cup when he noticed the phone call hadn’t disconnected like he expected.
“Boss? You should answer that call.” Tony didn’t usually like being told what to do but there was a certain tone to Friday’s voice that made his stomach turn and he answered the call without any further questions.
“Hello, this is Tony Stark.” He said sharply and waited.
He could hear breathing on the other end, soft but choppy, and for a few seconds, that’s all he heard.
“Uhhm… uhh mm-mister S-stark?”
And Tony had never heard Peter Parker sound like that. His voice was barely above a whisper, shaky and rough and wet around the edges. The sound of it, of that one sentence, sent his heart pounding in his chest and sharp fear stabbing through his gut.
“Peter? What’s wrong? What happened?” he asked in quick succession, already making his way to the landing pad on the balcony where Friday, bless her circuits, already had his suite waiting for him. “Where are you, kiddo?” He never thought his voice could go that soft but Peter always had him doing things he never expected he would.
“I-I-I uhh,” he broke off in a sob, spending the next few seconds gasping. Tony didn’t wait for an answer before taking off. Friday already had Peter’s location up on the screen and Tony tried desperately not to let the panic he was feeling seep into his voice when he saw the kid was at West Mercy Midland Hospital.
“It’s okay, kid, I got your location and I’m coming for you. Don’t worry, okay? Are you hurt? Did Spidey have a rough night out there?” he tried to joke a bit but even to his own ears it sounded weak.
For a few seconds all he could hear was the soft gasps and cut off sobs and every tiny sound was like a knife to his heart. What the hell could have happened? He’d never heard Peter cry like this with such… devastation.
“h-help.” He whispered so softly that Tony could barely make it out. “help. H-help. Please.” If Tony could have moved faster, he would have. He was already maxing out his boosters.
“I’m on my way buddy, okay? I’m coming for you, bambino, just hold on.”
Then he heard a new voice and it sounded like the phone was being shuffled around before that new voice was right in his ear.
“Hello, I am nurse Roberts here at West Mercy Hospital. Are you Peter’s father?”
“Yes.” He didn’t even stop to think about it. He didn’t know why she thought he was Peters dad but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth and this was probably the only way to get more information about what the hell happened to his kid. “What happened? Is Peter hurt?”
There was a brief pause and he could hear some more shuffling around before she spoke again.
“Sir, Peter was in a car accident tonight. He’s going to be okay but he does have some pretty severe injuries. We can go over everything in more detail once you get here. How soon would you able to arrive?”
“I'm five minutes away.”
He’s going to be okay. That’s the only part of the conversation he could focus on because if he thought about the rest of it he would be useless and Peter needed him.
“Has anyone called his aunt yet? She’s his legal guardian and she’s a nurse so she wou-“
“She was driving the car…” the nurse cut him off, soft but firm.
…
… no. Please no. Don’t say what I think you're going to say. Please, not to Peter, not again…
Nurse Roberts took a deep breath before continuing. “Unfortunately, she did not make it. She was pronounced dead at the scene…” her voice was hard but no less sympathetic. The tone of someone familiar with giving bad news.
The words echoed around his head on a loop. This could not be happening. He had to swallow twice before he could get his voice to work again.
“Tell Peter I’m on my way and let the doctor know I’ll be transferring him as soon as possible. I want our doctor taking care of him from now on.”
“I don’t know if he’ll be able to be moved just yet but I will inform his medical team that you want to transfer him. I must inform you that since Mrs. Parker was his legal guardian, child services will be here waiting for you to discuss custody arrangements but that can wait until after you see Peter. Just give his name to the front desk and they’ll tell you where to go.”
“Thank you.” He hung up without another word. “Fri, get Pepper up to speed and tell her to call the lawyers. Peter’s coming home with us no matter what. And get Dr. Cho over to West mercy now. I don’t want any other Doctor touching him, got it?”
“Understood, boss. Mrs. Boss has been informed and is already on the phone with the lawyers as we speak.”
God, he loved that woman. He had absolute faith that she would know what to do to handle this. He didn’t know what he would do without her.
Thirty seconds later he slammed down outside the doors of the hospital and jumped out of the suit, bolting inside almost before the suit could fully let him go.
He was directed to the fifth floor, room 5141. He didn’t even remember his frantic run through the halls, the elevator, the search for the right room but once he found it, he took a few seconds to calm himself, to settle his racing heart at least a bit. He couldn’t go in there panicked. Peter didn’t need panic right now. He needed to be the calm in the storm for Peter’s sake. So, he pulled himself together as best he could before calmly opening the door to Peters room and he was glad he did because the sight inside took his breathe away.
It seemed like every inch of the boy’s body was bandaged in some way. No limb made it out unscathed. He had casts on both his left wrist and left ankle. He had two black eyes and an obvious broken nose. His head was wrapped in bloody gauze and he couldn’t imagine what other injuries he had under the gown and blankets that was just out of his sight.
“Oh, bambino…” he uttered under his breath. Peter managed to squint out of one eye at the sound and the second he caught sight of Tony standing by the door, his face crumpled and the tears came.
Tony rushed over, laying his hands gently, so very gently, on Peters head and chest, holding the boy in the only way he could without hurting him and good god was he always this small? The hospital bed seemed to swallow him up.
“Buddy, I’m here. I’m here and I’ve got you. We’re gonna get out of here as soon as we can, okay?”
Peter reached up with his un-casted hand and placed it over Tony’s on his chest. Tony could feel the bone deep tremble going through the boy’s whole body. The weak sobs wracking his frame and making him flinch in pain with every hitching breath in.
He tried his best to hold back his own tears, though his vision still started to swim after a few minutes regardless. Peter didn’t deserve this. He’d already lost his parents and then his uncle and now this?
“T-th-they’re g-gone.” Peters wobbly voice was so soft, Tony could hardly hear him but for how quiet the room was already. “Th-they’re g-g-gone. My, m-my wh-whole family…. I’m th-the last o-one… I-I’m all a-alone now.”
Tony struggled to make out what he was saying through the tears and gasping breaths but when he did, he felt his heart breaking in his chest. God, what was he even supposed to say to that? His whole family…
Tony leaned in closer and planted a gentle kiss on Peters forehead, running his fingers through what hair he had sticking out of the bandages, trying to sooth the kid how ever he could, before pulling back looking into his eyes.
“Listen here, baby. You are not alone, you understand? You have me and Pepper and Happy and Rhodey and none of us will ever let you be alone in this world, okay? I’m so sorry you lost May, sweetheart, but I promise, you are not alone.” He finished firmly. Peter nodded but nevertheless continued to fall apart in Tonys hands and he couldn’t blame the kid for it. No matter what he said, he still just lost the closest thing he had to a mother.
Tony didn’t know how long it was he sat there, just holding his kid through his sobs, when there was a knock on the door. He looked over and saw a man in scrubs and another man in a rumpled suit, holding a clip board and a stack of papers. It didn’t take his genius mind to figure out what they were here for.
Looking back at Peter he saw the boy had cried himself to sleep, so he carefully pried himself away and got back to his feet, wiping his hands down his face as he made his way over to the other men.
The three of them made their way out into the hall and the doctor was the first to speak.
“Mr. Stark, are you Peters dad?” to his credit, he didn’t even sound shocked or disbelieving, just genuinely concerned and Tony decided immediately that he liked him.
“I am.” He said, trying and failing to hide the wavering in his voice. “What, what happened? What are his injuries?”
“My name is Dr. McHenry and I’ve been Peters doctor since he was brought in. Peter has sustained multiple broken bones in his left arm and leg. His leg might require surgery, we wont know until we do some more x-rays. He has four broken ribs, luckily none of them have punctured his lungs but he has some deep muscle bruising that will make it difficult for him to move and breath. His head hit the side window when the car was struck and it fractured his skull and gave him a hell of a concussion. That is what I’m most concerned about but, and this is important, we have every reason to believe he’ll make a full recovery.”
Tony sagged like a puppet with its strings cut. He didn’t realize how tightly he was holding himself until that moment but could feel his knees trembling in the relief that Peter would be okay. The doctor grabbed him by the elbow and lead him back into some chairs lining the hallway and the three of them sat, letting Tony get a hold of himself for a few seconds before continuing.
“I understand you want to move Peter to a different medical facility?” Dr. McHenry asked and Tony could only nod. “While I don’t recommend moving him, he is stable enough to be moved. I need to contact his doctor and get everything arranged.”
Tony nodded absently. “Yes, it’s uh, Dr. Cho. She’s our personal Doctor. I’ll, um, here.” He pulled out his phone and Friday already had her information pulled up for him. Without thinking he just handed his phone over to the man. The doctor copied down the number on his screen and with a firm nod, walked up to the nurse’s station to make the call.
Tony sat back in the stiff plastic chair, folding his arms tight across his chest and turned his attention to the man at his other side.
The man had stayed silent the whole time, sitting with his clipboard and stack of paperwork on his lap. He looked tired but alert and his dark brown suit had seen better days, but it was clean if a bit frayed at the edges. He had kind eyes, Tony noticed.
“My name is Julio Martinez and I’m the on call social worker for the hospital.” He introduced himself with a sad smile, almost more like a grimace, and Tony found himself grateful that the man didn’t offer his hand to shake. “I’m so sorry for yours and Peters loss, Mr. Stark. That we have to meet under these terrible circumstances. I wish I could give you more time but because Mrs. Parker was Peters legal guardian, we do need to discuss his future living situation.” He continued with clear sympathy.
Tony nodded again. Of course, this was important, but to him it was already a forgone conclusion that Peter was going to be living with him. There was simply no other option. They all already believed Peter was Tony’s real kid anyway and he certainly wasn’t about to let them ship Peter out to live with some strangers. Not a chance in hell.
At the same time all he could think about was getting back into that room and sitting with his kid. He didn’t want him waking up alone. He might be a super hero but he was still just a thirteen-year-old kid that just lost his fourth parent. Tony could hardly contain the urge to turn and run back to the boys side.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out Peppers business card, instead. “Call this number. Any questions you have she can answer and she has the lawyers already up and moving on this. Peter is coming home with me. Please, I need to get back to my kid.” He finished, not even trying to hide the anguish in his voice.
Mr. Martinez took the card, gave it a glance and nodded in Tonys direction. “Of course. I understand. I’ll call her right now and we’ll get everything sorted.”
Tony stood and with one final look to the doctor, who was still on the phone but still gave him a thumbs up when he caught his eye, he didn’t wait for one more second before rushing back to Peters bedside.
It took a few hours but they finally managed to get Peter transferred to the tower medical center. Dr. Cho gave him another look over to confirm Dr. McHenry’s diagnosis. She found that despite Peter’s normally incredible healing, most of his injuries remained unchanged. It was only the broken bones that were showing any signs of healing and the best she could tell, his immune system was working on the most severe injuries first and leaving all the small stuff for later. Of course, his mental state would also play a role in his recovery and considering the circumstances, they were informed that it may take much more time for him to get better than they were used to.
It took three days for Dr. Cho to feel comfortable letting Peter be moved into his own room and not the medical bay.
Four days later was Mays funeral.
She was buried in the same cemetery, the same plot, as Ben and Peter’s parents.
In the week leading up to her funeral, Peter never said a word. Tony didn’t want to admit how concerned he was about that.
The funeral was yesterday and Tony was as worried as he could get without calling it panic.
Peter hasn’t been talking, which was already concerning but not exactly shocking. He’d already spoken to a child psychologist and read quite a few books about dealing with children going through grief and they all say that temporary selective mutism can happen after a significant trauma and this was definitely significant.
But he also hasn’t been eating. The poor kid could barely get down a few bites here and there leading up to the funeral but he hasn’t had anything since the day before they went and has refused any food since. For any other kid, that wouldn’t be good but for Peter it was downright dangerous.
His metabolism was too fast to be going days without food. Helen said that if they can’t get him eating soon then they might have to resort to a feeding tube but both Tony and Pepper felt like that would just be trauma on top of trauma and they didn’t want to do that.
But he didn’t know what else to do.
Peter still hadn’t spoken, couldn’t seem to get out of bed and now he wasn’t eating.
It felt like the kid was barely even existing at this point. Like he was simply fading away.
Tony wasn’t going to let that happen, though. He didn’t have anyone to turn to when his parents died. No way in hell was he going to let the same thing happen to Peter.
This was the only thing he could think of. It was his last ditch effort before they had to take a more extreme step.
Tony spent the whole morning running around and grabbing every pillow and blanket he could find in the penthouse, even going so far as to order more for two hour delivery when he didn’t feel like there was enough. He dragged everything into their living room and had Friday que up a whole list of Peter’s favorite movies. He dimmed the lights and set out every one of their favorite junk foods because at this point, he didn’t care what the boy ate so long as he ate something.
All that was left to do was grab the spiderbaby.
He took a deep, fortifying breath and made his way to Peters room. He knocked gently, not expecting or receiving an answer, before pushing the door open.
The room was dark, just like it always was now. Peter was laying on his back under his covers, silently staring at the ceiling. The bruises on his face were only just beginning to fade. He didn’t even acknowledge Tony being there.
Tony sighed and knelt down by the bed, leaning one arm on the mattress and softly running his fingers through Peters hair with the other. He didn’t move but Tony saw the tears slide down the side of his face. He saw way his chin wobbled and his eyes went glassy.
“Oh, bubba, I know.” He whispered, brokenly. He couldn’t stand seeing his kid in so much pain and not being able to do a thing about it. “I know it hurts. I wish I could take it away for you.” He lay his head down next to Peters. “I’m not gonna sit here and try to force you to talk. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, okay? But I’m not going to let you stay in here and be sad all alone.”
Peter turned his head, just a few inches, in Tonys directing, looking at the man for the first time in what felt like days. Tony felt like it was probably the closest thing he was going to get to an agreement from the kid, so he gave him a sad grin and got up to get to work.
He dragged the comforter off him, laid it down on one side of the bed and then carefully, and hyper aware of all the injuries still healing from the car wreck, he lifted Peter up and placed him in the center of the comforter and, more or less, swaddled him up like a baby.
Peter did nothing to stop him beyond scrunching his brow in confusion.
Tony gave him a small chuckle. “I’m wrapping you up like a burrito and we’re gonna go out into the living room and watch movies and eat junk food.” Tony could tell instantly just from the look he gave that Peter wanted to protest but couldn’t find the energy to do so. Somehow him just giving up and accepting that this was going to happen still felt like a win. An incredibly depressing win but a win is a win and at this point he’ll take it.
So that’s how it started. Tony carried him out into the giant nest of pillows and blankets he’d gathered and somehow he managed to convince the boy to eat some candy and half a bagel. They watched Tangled and Moana. Pepper came home halfway through Coco and simply kicked off her shoes and plopped down on Tonys other side without a word, grabbing a slice of cold pizza from one of the many untouched boxes and leaned her head against Tony shoulder.
He had Peter sat cuddled up to one side, still wrapped up in his comforter, Pepper leaning heavy on his other side with her arm looped through his and their fingers laced together and for a brief moment in time, he felt a special kind of peace wash over him. Here, holding close his two most important people. Peter had finally stopped crying and had actually eaten something.
For a minute, it finally felt like everything would be okay.
The next day he did almost the same thing. Tony made it a habit to wrap Peter up, “My little Peter Burrito.” He’d said on that second day and somehow over the week it got shortened to Peter-rito. He’d carry him around the whole house like that. They would mostly end up on the couch with Peter leaning heavily on Tony’s chest. Tony made sure there was always food available and got him to eat what he could.
He just wanted to remind Peter that he wasn’t alone.
The words he said at the hospital that day were burned into his mind.
‘My whole family, they’re gone. I’m all alone now.’
Tony refused to let that be the reality. They were Peters family, now, and they would show him every day that he was loved and wanted and not alone.
Peter still wouldn’t talk.
But he cried a little less every day. It took another week for his bones to heal enough for the casts’ to come off but when they did, sometimes (on the good days) Peter would drag his blanket out into the living room all on his own, without Tony having to carry him.
He and Pepper both decided to mark that little landmark down in the win category.
Every day they got him to eat a little bit, just a few bites of something, and it wasn’t enough but it kept him off of a feeding tube like they had been worried he’d need early on.
Today was one of the bad days.
It was a bad day.
Well, it was a bad month.
Maybe it was just a bad life.
Mr. Stark was being so nice, and Pepper. They were both being amazing and kind and gentle with him.
He heard Tony walk into his room and couldn’t find the courage to look at him. He knew he was disappointing the man every day and he just couldn’t bear to see it in his face.
“Oh, buddy.” Tony sighed and a couple seconds later he felt familiar fingers carding through his messy hair. He felt disgusting. He hadn’t showered in a while, but he just couldn’t seem to find the energy to get up and do it. He didn’t care that he smelled or his hair was greasy. He just couldn’t. “Rough night?” the man whispered, though by now Peter knew he didn’t expect an answer.
He just sat with him for a while in silence, wiping the tears off Peters cheeks once or twice, before wrapping him up again and carrying him out to the couch. Pepper was already out there, still in her jammies and already munching on a bowl of popcorn at 10 oclock in the morning. It was Sunday and they both had the day off so just like last week, they were going to do a full day of ‘chill hangouts’, as Tony called it.
Tony sat down with him, leaning back against the arm rest and held him tight to his chest. Honestly, these moments when Tony held him were his favorite and least favorite moments. He knew they wouldn’t last but he never wanted them to end.
Peter Pan started playing on the big screen on low volume and they all settled in but Peter couldn’t relax. That wasn’t exactly unusual, but he just couldn’t turn his brain off.
How long were they going to let him stay here? How long before they forced him to start talking? How long until they got tired of his behavior and called the social worker? When he did have to leave, would he ever be allowed back? Even just for Lab days?
He’d been wanting to ask for weeks but at the same time he didn’t want to know. It almost felt like as soon as he asked, that would be it and he would have to leave.
He desperately didn’t want to leave.
Tony and Pepper were all he had left.
His whole family was dead. He didn’t even know what happened to their old apartment. He hadn’t even thought about the place until just now.
What happened to all their stuff? His computer stuff and their photo albums and their couch? Where was his homework? He hadn’t even been back to school, was he even still enrolled?
There was so much. Everything was just so much and he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know where he was going to go. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
“Mr. Stark?” he didn’t know he was planning to talk until he heard his own raspy, unused voice come out of his throat. He felt Tony tense up behind him and his arms tighten a bit around his chest. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Pepper sit up straight and look over at them from her spot on the recliner.
Tony hesitated before replying in a soft tone. “Yeah, buddy?”
Peter didn’t know where to start. There were so many things he didn’t have the answers to. So many questions he wanted to ask and so much he didn’t even know how to ask.
“Can I have some ice cream?” he found himself saying. It was like his mouth had a mind of its own. He was about to apologize but Pepper had already jumped up and gone to the kitchen and Tony had pulled him close and held him even tighter.
“Of course you can, bubba. You can have all the ice cream you want.” He couldn’t see the mans face but his voice sounded a little watery and that told him enough.
“Mr. Stark?” he whispered. He needed at least one answer. There was one question that, more than anything else, he needed answered right away.
“Yeah, Peter?” and Peter couldn’t really place his tone of voice, but it almost sounded hopeful.
He took a uneven breath in, bracing himself for whatever the answer may be.
“… When do I have to leave?” he asked softly. He wished he could have just stayed clueless about the expiration date of his stay with them, but he needed to prepare himself, mentally if not physically.
“Leave? What do you mean, bambino?”
“Oh, honey…” Pepper cam back just in time to hear his question. She set down a whole unopened gallon of Neapolitan ice-cream and three spoons on the coffee table before kneeling in front of him and taking his hands in hers. “Sweetheart, are you asking when you have to leave here to go to a foster home?”
Peter heard a gasp from behind him and Mr. Stark pulled back and turned him enough so he was looking at both adults. He couldn’t meet their eyes. If he looked at them he would just start crying, he knew it. He wanted the ice cream but his stomach was so twisted up he didn’t know if he could even eat it at all. He nodded and squeezed his eyes shut.
He didn’t want to go. He really didn’t want to go but he knew he wasn’t going to have much of a choice in the matter. It’s not like they would let him stay here indefinitely.
He felt his shoulders start to shake and tried to hold it back. He didn’t want to make them feel guilty for not wanting him but it was hard when he wanted them so badly.
“Oh Peter, is that what you’ve been thinking this whole time? That we were going to send you away to live with some strangers?” Tony sounded so appalled at the thought that it made him pause because… yes. That’s exactly what he had been thinking. They couldn’t possibly want to take in a teenager with all the baggage he had dragging behind him… right?
“We’re so sorry, Peter. We thought you understood.” Pepper sounded so sad and Peter took a chance and looked at her only to see the tears in her eyes.
What was going on? What did that mean?
“Peter,” he turned back to Tony and felt his hand land, heavy but gentle, onto Peters shoulder. “We already signed the papers, bubba. Right now we’re your fosters but later this summer- we were going to talk to you about it when you were doing a little better but, we want to adopt you, Peter… we want you to be ours.”
“You’re not going anywhere, baby. You’re staying right here with us.” Pepper said, the tears that were threatening before now falling down her cheeks.
Peter looked over to Tony and saw his eyes overflowing with tears and now all of them were crying and –
And he didn’t have to leave.
He didn’t have to leave.
They wanted to keep him.
He felt the dam crack and a wretched sob break loose from deep in his chest.
He was so tired of crying. All he’d been doing for weeks now was cry and cry and cry and he was sick of it but for the first time in a long while, the tears weren’t completely sad.
He couldn’t stop bawling for a long time, long after the ice cream had melted and the movie ended, but it was okay because Tony and Pepper never let him go.