Devil Take the Hindmost

Tony Stark was not an idiot, quite the contrary really. The genius, which isn't just an over-inflated ego of his talking. (Not that he doesn't have one, he does in fact have quite the large ego,) was quite renowned for his technological advancements. The general consensus being that he was very intelligent, and in public (and his own) opinion he was nothing short of a mastermind. So he wasn’t sure as to why Peter thought he could hide the fact something was wrong from him. In fact it wouldn't take much of an effort to see the kid was clearly going through something.

It was another late night at the lab, working on a brand new addition to the Iron-Spider suit, which Peter had suggested. Although, he was quiet… unnaturally so. He hadn't made so much as a single mumble, and his mind was clearly somewhere else. Tony watched intently as the boy seemed to fiddle with wires, for someone who wasn't paying attention he was doing everything correctly.

“Hey, Underoos..?” Tony begins, which seems to startle Peter. The boy's body quickly jolts, and then turns to face him. “You okay? You’ve been very.. distracted.” His eyebrows furrow, looking concerned. There's a shuffling noise as Peter avoids eye contact, he fidgets with his fingers.

“Oh, yeah..” Peter whispers, his voice slightly hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken in a while (which he hadn’t). “It’s just-” he pauses for a second, considering how to continue. “It’s school, we have an Academic Decathlon competition coming up, and finals are in like a week.” He locks eyes with Mr Stark, but quickly averts his gaze. This seemed to explain the bags under his eyes, the crinkles only highlighted the dark purple circles. Heck, it looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.

“Ah,” Tony started, “You look like shit, go home and get some sleep Kiddo.” The teenager just nods in response, which only worries Tony more. Usually he’d reciprocate with a snarky response, or at least roll his eyes. He watches carefully as the kid leaves his lab, with a wave; or at least a pathetic excuse for one, he really just barely lifted his hand. Not a smile, not even a fake one. This made Tony slightly more distressed, maybe there was something more going on at school that Peter was leading on. As much as he’d like to interfere he knew that the spider-boy wouldn't be very happy with him if he did, who was he kidding? Peter would be pissed, and Stark was not taking any chances.

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Ned Leeds was also most certainly not an idiot, despite not having the same reputation as a certain billionaire, he did hack into said billionaire’s suit. So it wasn’t difficult to recognise his best friend having what could only be described to look like a mid-life crisis. Peter was practically sprawled across the table, head buried safely in his arms, he looked ahead, eyes unfocused. His cheeks were gaunt, and his face had no expression, almost like Ned was looking into a ghost.

“Yo, you okay?” Ned asks, snapping Peter out of his trance, he slowly moves his arms off the table, his head rises and looks around. He was seemingly surprised to be at school, his gaze fell downwards to face his food. He turns back to Ned, “Yeah, just late nights at the lab.” He states, “I’m just exhausted,” he offers a small smile to his friend, which is returned by a sympathetic one.

Peter reached down and took a small bite of his sandwich, looking like a shell of his usual self. Ned tries to spark a conversation but it turns into him just telling Peter about stuff going on in his life, as the other teenager just nods along meekly.

The bell rings, Peter had barely finished half of his sandwich. He stands up quickly and throws the rest of his lunch away, he looks frail, exhausted, and in need of a good nap.

They make their way to chemistry, which Peter usually at least tolerates. But once again the teen is staring down at his paper, not taking in any information their teachers spouting out.

Parker’s eyes adjust to his phone, he shoots a quick message to both Happy and Tony. ‘Won’t be in the lab today- have other stuff.’ it reads, the two adults respond with an okay and move on with their day.

At the end of class Peter swiftly packs his bag up, he’s out of the door before anyone could say anything.

—---------------------------

That night spider-man was out until three in the morning, despite the fact that there weren’t exactly many crimes for the vigilante to stop, something about criminals deciding that a Wednesday night wasn’t the best time to be committing any acts.

He could be seen swinging from rooftop to rooftop, occasionally sitting down on one, staring down at the busy streets, and the flashing lights. A group of onlookers would later describe him with a melancholic feeling to his disposition, nobody could see under the mask to see his true feelings though, so many just attributed it to friendly neighbourhood Spider-man admiring his city.

He stopped a mugging, but instead of the usual quips against the criminals that he was so known for, Spider-man was completely silent. His presence barely seen, the only proof he actually was there was the webbing he left behind. At first the ladies whose wallet he returned believed she hallucinated it, but the group of attempted robbers being tied up via webs just validated the experience.

Videos were posted to the internet of Spider-man sitting, just watching the busy crowds. One spanning for a whopping thirty minutes, Spider-man on the same rooftop, just staring for the entirety of the video. The clips quickly went viral, some believing it to not actually be the hero, just someone in a costume. That is until the figure swings away, in another direction, with the signature Spider-man webs, going from building to building, crawling up walls.

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Tony wakes up; after actually sleeping for once. A surprise that even he didn’t see coming, instead of spending the night in his lab, it just felt empty without his little; as he liked to call him ‘sidekick.’ He was anxious about the happenings, even more so when he saw the videos.

The time dating to three in the morning, from just the previous night. A distracted Peter sitting in his suit, staring down at the streets he swore to protect. He felt bad for the kid, but he didn’t know how to approach the subject. His own father never taught him how to deal with emotions, so he didn’t understand what he was supposed to do to help the child, or any child for that matter. Tony also couldn’t trust himself to not get mad at the kid, it was way past his curfew, and especially when finals were just around the corner. Peter was lucky that Stark knew he was a genius, or the kid’s mentor would’ve burst right into his apartment with no warning demanding the spider-kid to study, maybe even taking away his suit until all his exams were over.

He pours himself a big mug of coffee, and sets off to his workshop again, knowing he’ll see Peter that night. He was hoping they could work on the Spider suit again, he’d built his own idea off of a suggestion from Peter and was quite excited to pitch it, even preparing a speech as if he was on shark tank. He felt stupid for feeling so giddy over this; like an idiotic school girl he told himself, but he couldn’t help but get thrilled when it came to science. 

He’d spent the past few days with Peter, well other than last night, working on the suit. Peter had brought up an idea for web shooters, which caused Tony to create a concept for storing the web cartridges, meaning the kid wouldn’t run out of them so easily.

He fiddled with the hologram blueprints, seeming to find a way to fit it in the suit, in the most efficient way possible. He frowned, deep in thought, he had a feeling in the back of his mind, he knew it was about Peter. However he couldn’t determine whether the feeling was about the kid’s recent behaviour or the chance Peter would shoot down his idea. He chalked it up to lack of caffeine and got himself another cup.

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Peter once again cancelled on their lab plans, telling Tony he had extra AcaDec practices. Tony was seemingly happy that the teen had something he could focus on, hoping that the new distracted-upset disposition would be over when the competition was done.

He still couldn’t believe they’d schedule it around the time of Finals week, he sympathised with Peter for this. He was disappointed they weren’t going to work in the Lab again, but he’d figured that it would pass soon.

Tony had even offered the kid to come over to the lab later than usual, and for him to crash at the Tower; to which Peter responded with two very contradictory statements, that he couldn’t stay up so late on a school night, and he needed Spider-man. Tony thought this was bullshit, but he wasn’t going to challenge the kid’s logic, he just hoped that Parker wasn’t going through his teen angst phase.

Oh god, he was just glad Peter was such a good kid, and would not end up like Tony. The man shuddered at the thoughts of himself at the kid’s age, in university already drinking and on various substances. How anyone supplied these to the 15 year old, he would never understand. But Peter was not like him- well not in that sense anyways, the guy did have stubbornness that could Rival Tony’s, along with similar eye-bags and habits when it came to not sleeping. 

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Peter wasn’t Tony, but much like a younger version of Tony he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders; god forbid either admit they need some help. 

Another day of school, Peter looked on edge which Ned quickly noted. Being shrugged off and explained as another late night at Stark Towers, Ned had every reason to go and give Tony a piece of his mind, but alas he knew Peter would be upset by this. 

To be completely honest Ned was still awestruck by Mr Stark, he doesn’t think he ever won’t be. The boy would much rather die than be disrespectful towards THE Tony Stark, but if it was about Peter’s wellbeing he would do anything to keep him happy and healthy.

Once again, the minute the bell rang Peter was out of the class, leaving everyone in the dust as if he were never there. He looked like utter garbage so much so nobody even commented on this, let alone the teacher, Hell, even Flash left him alone.

Ned just wished they had an AcaDec competition soon so he could spend more time with Peter, maybe even approaching the subject outside of school time. Peter had been cryptic recently, outside of the whole silence during school, and unfocused eyes. He had only been responding to Ned’s texts with one word responses, which was far too out of character.

Ned was used to Peter’s rambles, even over text, Peter would be asked a simple question and it would instantly be turned into a long rant over something he learnt three years ago. To be honest, as much as Ned jokingly hated Peter’s ‘Fun Facts’, he would give anything to hear his friend talk about some Fable he’d read once as a child that was loosely related to the conversation.

The boy was filled with the most useless information, but that was part of the fun. Sure Peter was smart and could easily talk about some complex formulas, but the best part was him talking about some random piece of information that an entirety of three people know about. Things that otherwise seemed mundane or pointless, made intriguing by the wording that Peter gave them, he always seemed interested in his own facts, getting easily excited. You couldn’t help but smile while he gave a rant about something that seems so futile.

It was a nice break from all the hectic schoolwork, and yet there had been no fun facts, well sometimes the facts were anything but fun, some gruesome form of medieval torture that definitely did not relate to the conversation. But there were no silly rants about something, about anything. Ned wishes to hear these rambles, even about some torture method he’d usually rather not hear.

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A manila folder lay empty on the coffee table, the contents spread across, an array of photos scattered all over the place. Neatly placed on top, a letter, addressed to one Peter Parker. On closer inspection, the photos would consist of typically mundane activities; Peter walking out of school backpack thrown over his shoulder, Pete and May out at the grocery shop, Tony and Peter walking together, Peter and Ned out for ice-cream, Peter getting out of a black Audi A8, a disgruntled Happy Hogan accompanying him in that last photo. 

What wasn’t so mundane, the fact that Peter had no idea who took any of these, some were taken from a distance, while others were much closer up shots.

Chances are, Peter saw the person who’d taken these pictures, perhaps greeted them, perhaps had met them, maybe he knew them well. 

What worried Peter the most, was his Spider-sense (or so rudely named Peter-Tingle by his Aunt May) had not alerted him to these photos being taken, someone had potentially been stalking him, photographing him, and he hadn’t noticed- heck he had no fucking idea.

There sat Peter; eyes wide and panicked. May wasn’t home yet, she was working the night shift, she always did on Thursdays. 

He’s snapped out of his depressing thoughts when there comes a knock at the door, a small package sliding under the door. He quickly opens the door, to no avail. He didn’t even sense someone approaching his door till the knock. But there in the doorway, nobody stood, nobody.

A sinking feeling in his stomach, he hadn’t even realised he was shaking until he went to pick up the package. He wearily tears in open, to reveal an almost identical manila folder to the one that was scattered all over the table. 

Peter opens it hesitantly, carefully retrieving even more pictures. But this time.. they weren’t of him, they were solely of his Aunt May, “Oh dear god..” He whispers to himself. Some kind of choking noise escapes from his mouth, as he fights back tears. 

The photo that startles Peter the most was one that was dated, the date was today, time stamped at exactly 7:45 PM, 10 minutes prior. The teen has to remind himself to breathe, as he’s started to hyperventilate. Who was doing this, why target him.. or more specifically his Aunt May, did they know he was Spider-Man? Was this person trying to get access to Tony Stark through Peter? Or was this something else all together; something sinister, sick and twisted.

The photo had been taken inside the hospital May works, she seemed exhausted and much like Peter, had no idea her photo was being taken. The span of the photographs was months long, this person sure as hell had dedication, which makes it worse for the Parkers.

He reaches into the Manila folder once more, retrieving a letter, “Don’t tell anyone, or your precious aunt is in danger.”

Peter wasn’t taking chances when it came to something as important as his Aunt’s life, his one living relative- not by blood of course, but that’s not what mattered. The Woman who raised him was in danger, and it was all his fault.

He didn’t go out as Spider-Man that night, he ignored all the texts he got from both Ned and Mr Stark, he spent a few hours staring at the wall, until May got home. By then he’d already cleaned the photos up off of the table, hidden them in a trick layer to his desk. He lay there, completely faking sleep; snoring and everything. He could hear May creaking the door open slightly, he could almost sense the smile on her face, the fond smile she sported whenever Peter was involved. 

Would she look at him the same if she knew that her life was at risk because of him?