He's Fine
The kid is fine. He’s just sleeping. He's perfectly fine. It takes almost everything in Tony to think the exact opposite. Just looking at Peter would make any normal person feel some kind of pity. His hair is a mess, sticking up in every direction, his skin is pale just enough to be noticeable and he has so many bruises on his face it could be a mosaic.
If Tony was thinking straight (which he barely ever did, he's proudly as straight as a wheel thank you) he would be trying to figure out what the actual fuck that thing was.
But, for now, he would just sit at the island in the kitchen and down as much caffeine as needed.
He blindly stumbles through the kitchen, past multiple people, and does just that. Clint is the first one to ask if Peter will be alright. All Tony could do was nod as he downed scalding hot coffee.
“Jesus Tony, you look like shit.” Pepper, the great person she is, comes waltzing into the room like she owns the place. She barely even looked up from her phone before she started throwing insults around.
“Ya well, I try.” The only thing he can say before thinking about how tired he is.
She hums distractedly, “By the way, Peter’s aunt's name is May, right?” Now it’s Tony's turn to hum distractedly.
Pepper looks a little concerned by his answer. “Well, I haven’t been able to find her number anywhere. So, I looked up who else I could call and-”
“There isn’t anybody else.” Tony cuts her off looking just as concerned.
Pepper, to her credit, didn’t seem annoyed by being interrupted. “No actually, there was one other person on the list, a Sally Jackson, but she didn’t pick up, so I left a message.”
This time Tony just looked confused. “He’s never said anything about a Sally Jackson.” He pulls out a Stark pad from seemingly nowhere and starts fiddling with it.
“Tony, don’t you think it's an invasion of Peter’s privacy to look her up?” Steve asks in his "you're starting to disappoint me, stop now” voice.
“No, I don’t Captain.” Tony says while he flips the Stark pad to show a hologram of the woman's profile. She was in her mid-thirties, divorced and remarried, worked at a candy shop, and had a son Peter’s age. Her husband was just as innocent. Tony was about to search for the son, but Natasha shut him down.
“No, you don’t. You are letting this go and going to bed so you can be a functional human when Pete wakes up.” Her dead stare really sells the fact that he is going to bed whether he wants to or not.
Pepper seems to agree and drags him off to bed.
---°—°---
The next morning is rather boring. He wakes up, checks on Peter, eats breakfast, and is forced to sit in the common room for the team's weekly ‘bonding sesh’.
So, there he was sitting on a chair half listening to Sam drone on and on about something when Friday interrupted him.
“Sorry to interrupt Mr. Wilson. Boss, there seems to be a disturbance in the lobby.” She says in her smooth Irish accent. Normally she wouldn’t have bothered him about it and just sent him the footage later (He liked to watch people make a fools of themselves in the lobby), so this had to be urgent.
“Put it on the Tv Fri.” Which she does. In seconds he's watching this teenager, with a glare to rival Nat’s, talk very curtly to the receptionist.
Everyone in the room seems a little uneasy about the look on his face. He looks downright murderous.
“Friday could you give us an audio please.” He says in a low voice.
The sound crackles for a moment then a rough voice starts talking. “Look, my mom was told that he was here and that something had happened. So, help me gods if you don’t give me a better answer than ‘I don’t know what to do for you Mr. Jackson’ I will lose my shit.” he says in a ‘no bullshit I will do it’ tone.
Surprisingly, Bucky was the first one to pick up all the breadcrumbs, “He must be Sally Jackson’s kid. He’s talking about Peter.” he says slowly. Obviously, he did not like the way the kid was talking to the receptionist.
“Should I let him up?”
Tony was conflicted. The kid could be dangerous, he had never got around to looking him up after last night. But he knew Peter. Before he could come to a decision, Nat did it for him.
“Tell the receptionist to let him up Friday.” She said looking around at the mix of emotions on everyone’s faces. “What? He was Peter’s emergency contact.” She shrugs.
Looking back at the security footage they all watch as the lady tells him that he can go up to their floor. As soon as the words leave her mouth, the kid’s eyes snap up to look straight into the camera. He smirks slightly and looks away. Hedding straight for the stairs.
“He does know that we’re over seventy floors up,” Clint says what they were all thinking.
Turns out they wouldn’t have to wait that long because not five minutes later the stairwell door opens, and out comes the kid in all his scary glory. Now that they’re face to face, Tony can read him a lot better. He’s about six feet of pure muscle and has the most piercing blue eyes Tony has ever seen. If he looked close enough, he would say that they were almost glowing. He stood in a ridged stance, surveying the room for a possible threat.
If Tony didn’t know that this kid was under the age of eighteen, he would have thought he was a war vet, he’d seen that look on multiply people in this room. After the kid deemed it safe, he took a step forward, searching for something else. Or someone. Tony was about to break the silence but was beaten to the punch by the kid.
“Where’s Peter?”