Five times Peter didn’t tell Tony about The Building

The building collapsed, and Peter thought he screamed but to be honest, he wasn’t sure of anything in those moments.

One minute he was fighting the Vulture, and the next he was covered by rubble and he could hardly feel his legs. 

No, scratch that. 

He couldn’t feel them at all. 

Nobody would come for him. 

Mr. Stark didn’t think the Vulture was a threat, and Peter didn’t tell anyone else about this that would be able to help. 

Peter Parker was well and truly trapped under a building, with no help on the way.

He began screaming until his voice was hoarse, but it didn’t do anything. This part of the city was abandoned, so it was unlikely that anybody would hear him. 

If only he had the suit Mr. Stark had made…

No.

It was Peter’s own dumb choices that landed him with a measly onesie as his suit. 

Focusing back at the task at hand, he realized his head was bleeding. Peter was pretty sure he was concussed, if only minorly. His super healing should kick in and fix that eventually, but for now he was somewhat disoriented and the pounding in his head was a bit of a nuisance. There was a chance one of his wrists were sprained, and lord knows what happened to his legs. If he could feel them he’d have some idea of what he was dealing with. 

I’m gonna die here, he thought numbly. Peter was going to die, and nobody would know what happened, but they’d figure out who Spider-Man is (was?). 

He couldn’t let that happen. He had May to get back to; Ned, MJ, Mr. Stark, too. And of course the people of Queens. They needed Spider-Man, and he’d be damned if they lost him. 

But… the rubble was so heavy, and oh man it felt like he couldn’t breathe. His chest began to rise and fall rapidly, but with the limited space in the rubble he couldn’t get any air into his lungs. 

Peter was actually going to die. 

Peter didn’t want to die. At least not alone. 

He hadn’t felt this short of breath since his last asthma attack from before he got bit by the spider. 

His head felt fuzzy, and it seemed easier to just give up, but he couldn’t die here. Not without saying goodbye. 

He calmed himself down as best as he could, but he was still somewhat panicking. Murmuring words of encouragement, Peter began to lift the concrete that was pinning him down. 

“C’mon Spider-Man, c’mon.”

Only he couldn’t lift it. 

This wasn’t supposed to be how it happened.

No matter how hard he tried, the building was still on top of him and he couldn’t lift it even an inch and oh man he’s gonna die and he was supposed to build a new Lego set with Ned and he still needed to prove himself to Mr. Stark and May would want him home for dinner and he was sure MJ would kill him if he died and he had homework due in a few days and his world was fading to black and is this what death feels like?-

Peter woke up with a gasp and a hand on his shoulder. He vaguely recognized there were tears streaming down his face, but he was more focused on the voice luring him away from the nightmare. Memory? Would it count as a memory if he had gone through it, or a nightmare because the ending was changed? Something in between? He internally shook his head to clear the thoughts. 

Where was he? He knew that voice. 

What was the voice saying? Everything was too loud. The cars outside, the rustle of his bedsheets as someone sat on his bed with him, the blood running through his veins, the heartbeat of the other person.

Actually. 

Actually, the heartbeat was alright. It was a little strained, like it was put through hell but was still chugging on. There was also a hint of a mechanical hum alongside the heartbeat. Peter focused on that to calm his nerves, then he was finally able to listen to the voice. 

“-okay? I’m here, it’ll be alright. I got you. Can you talk to me? Peter, kid, tell me what’s going on. Do you know where you are? Do you remember why you’re here?”

“Hi, Mr. Stark. Uh, I guess I’m talking to you right now? Well, I think that’s pretty obvious since you can hear me. Unless you can’t hear anymore. Oh gosh what if you can’t hear me. You can hear me right? Yeah, of course you can hear me. That was a stupid question. Oh! The other question. Of course, Mr. Stark, I’m at the Stark Tower. Or is it technically the Avengers Tower? Anyway I’m staying over while May’s out of town. She’s gone to California because she won that vacation. To be honest I thought that was a trick. Like, what radio contest actually lets people win a vacation? I thought that only happened in stories. You know a really good story I’m reading right now-“

“Kid, you’re killing me here. As much as I would love to hear about the story your currently reading,” the sarcasm was dripping from his words, although there was a hint of sincerity in his voice. “I’m kind of more concerned about the fact FRIDAY alerted me at four in the morning that you had a rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, and were screaming bloody murder.”

“Oh.” Peter paused for a second. Should he really tell Tony about what happened? If he did then Tony might think it’s his fault, but it’s not really. Peter was the one who decided to go after the Vulture. Mr. Stark told him not to, but he did anyway. But also, lying to him made his insides churn and palms go all sweaty. 

A half truth it is.

“It was just a nightmare from a fight that happened a few months back, I’m okay. Don’t worry about me, Mr. Stark.” 

“See, the thing is Peter, I don’t think that you’re actually okay. And I’m gonna worry, might as well keep me in the loop about what I’m worrying about.” 

“Really Mr. Stark, I don’t think you need to hear about this.” Peter could feel the frown on his face, but it only seemed to egg on the man sitting next to him. 

“Well now I need to know. You telling me I don’t need to hear about something is like telling a rabbit not to eat a carrot.” 

“I just,” Peter let out an exasperated sigh, “it’s a bit of a sensitive topic and I don’t really know if I can talk about it yet. Either way, I’m sure I’ll be fine soon. It happened so long ago I can’t even remember much.” Now that was definitely a lie. He remembered every single detail. 

This seemed to make Tony hesitate. Peter could see the gears in his head turning, figuring out the right thing to say. As Tony began to speak, his voice was a lot more serious than it was previously.

“Pete, just because something happened a while ago doesn’t mean that it won’t affect you. I still have panic attacks about flying the nuke into that wormhole. It’s called trauma, and it doesn’t go away quickly.”

Peter knew that. He wasn’t an idiot. Trauma was difficult to overcome and it had lasting consequences. But also, it was hard to talk about. It was terrifying to face your feelings and Peter was tired from last night’s patrol and just wanted to sleep. “Can… can I tell you another time? I don’t think I can talk about it yet, but I’ll be able to at some point. I promise I’ll tell you, but I’m not sure I can right now.” 

Tony had a soft smile on his face now, and he let his voice go softer than it had been previously. “Of course. Just let me know when you want to talk.” 

“Yeah, okay. Thank you, Mr. Stark, sir.”

“Sweet dreams, kiddo.”

“You too.”