Tony
Tony leaves Peter’s apartment very soon after their argument. He stops in to tell Diane that he’s leaving and that he will make sure they get all the paperwork necessary to get Peter enrolled in his new school, but he would take care of everything else.
He gets down to his car and starts driving back to the tower. What just happened? He tries not to be angry. He knows Peter is going through some shit, with getting expelled and Tony knows that he’s in trouble with his foster parents. Things seemed tense in there to say the least. But he can’t help but be a little mad at the way Peter spoke to him. It was completely unreasonable. He is going so far out of his way to help this kid, and he just gets yelled at. He’ll let the kid cool off for a few days and they can talk about it on Wednesday. Peter will probably think it over and apologize to him, like last time.
Over the next few days, Tony tries to be productive. He’s really been doing his best at it lately, and things are really coming back around in his favor because of it. His company is doing great, he no longer has a huge pile of projects sitting on a desk in his workshop, and Pepper is actually talking to him again. He finishes all the necessary repairs on equipment the team asked him to do last time he was over, so he has it delivered to the compound.
On Monday, he makes sure everything is set for Peter to get to go to Midtown. Even though the kid seemed mad, Tony thinks he’ll change his mind once he gets there, so he does the work anyway. He makes sure the Pattersons sent the paperwork over to the social worker, he has Peter’s old school transfer his records over to his new school, and he gets in contact with the school administration to ensure that Peter is accepted. It takes some convincing since the kid’s grades look like shit, but no one can say no to a recommendation from Tony Stark. Especially not when he tells them that whatever school his intern ends up going to will receive a generous donation for their troubles.
Other than that, he does pretty well at keeping the kid off his mind. He’s a busy man, lots to do. However, when Wednesday afternoon comes around, he finds himself pacing nervously across the floor of his workshop, waiting for the kid to show up.
First it’s 3:00
Then 3:30
Then 4:00
He sends Peter a text.
“You still coming to your internship today, Pete?”
No response.
He waits until 4:30 before calling him. It goes straight to voicemail.
Now he’s worried.
He makes another phone call. This one goes through.
“Hey, Tones!” He hears Rhodey answer on the other line. “What’s up? Something wrong?”
“Rhodey! Hey man!” Tony says, probably way too enthusiastically. “Nothing’s up. Why would something be up? I’m just calling to chat.”
There’s a pause on the other end of the line. “…you’re just calling to chat?” He asks carefully.
“Yeah, why are you so shocked? Do I not call you enough just to see what you’re up to?” Tony replies.
Rhodey huffs on the other end. “You do, just usually not when I saw you earlier the same day when I left your house, and will see you a few hours when I come back. Now, what’s wrong?”
Tony sighs. He supposes he could’ve been a little more subtle.
“It’s Peter, Rhodey. He didn’t show up to his internship again today, and he’s not answering his phone.” He tries not to convey how worried he is, but he doesn’t know if he’s succeeding.
“Well, you said he kinda flipped out on you last time you saw him, right?” His friend asks.
“Well, yeah. But I figured he would’ve cooled down by now. It’s been days.” Tony sighs again, running his fingers through his hair with nerves.
“Tony, I think you’re stressing about this a little too much.”
“You think?” He asks for clarification.
“Yeah, I do. I’m really happy you care about the kid so much, but you’re just his boss or mentor or whatever you want to call yourself. He’s probably got a lot of other things going on that are taking priority. He just got expelled, and it’s the week before Christmas. I’m sure he’s just taking the week off.”
Tony is nodding to himself even though he knows his friend can’t see him. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m sure he’s just busy with the holidays and such.”
“Right, exactly. So I need to you calm down, stop obsessing, and find something else to do to take your mind off it. Okay? I need to get to my physical therapy before I’m late, but I’ll see you in a few hours. Love you man.”
“Yeah, uh you too Rhodes.” He responds hesitantly before hanging up. He never was good at showing affection like Rhodey is. By now, the man knows Tony loves him. They’re practically brothers. They’ve been through everything together since they were teenagers. He just has trouble showing it.
Rhodey is right about Peter too. It’s Christmas time. Peter is a kid. He probably has friends to see and his foster family might have plans. He needs to just let it go and get on with his life. He’s literally just the kids superhero/science mentor. He’s acting like they’re a lot more than that, and he needs to quit before his brains starts delving deeper into those thoughts.
He has Christmas plans too after all.
That upcoming Friday, Tony gets himself cleaned up, puts on a nice suit, and attends the annual Stark Christmas charity gala. He’s not usually one for galas. It’s just a place for stuffy rich people to get together and brag about how rich they are. At least the product of their bragging goes to a good cause, he supposes.
He doesn’t even know if he would’ve gone today had it not been for Rhodey. The man practically dragged him out of his workshop with the threat of convincing Friday to shut everything down if he didn’t get out for a while.
When he arrives, there’s a huge crowd of paparazzi waiting for him at the door. There always is. Another reason he detests these things so much. It makes him feel like a show dog on display.
Then, once he finally makes it in the door, he’s bombarded by a million other people all trying to make some sort of connection with him. He puts on the smile, does his little show for everyone, makes some well practiced little jokes that everyone laughs at. His typical routine.
Hits eyes and entire focus are only on one person tonight, though: Pepper Potts.
She was already there when Tony had arrived. Of course she was. She’s habitually punctual and he’s always late. She’s absolutely stunning in a sparkling, midnight blue evening gown, with a low cut back very reminiscent of the night Tony first realized he was in love with her all those years ago.
They make eye contact a few times throughout the night, and she always smiles. Is she flirting again? He can never tell.
He waits until the end of the night to approach her, not wanting to ruin her good time if his company is taken poorly.
“Miss Potts, you look absolutely radiant tonight, as always.” He says as he approaches, handing her one of two champagne flutes he brought over.
She takes it from him with that same flirty smile. “Well thank you, Mr. Stark. You don’t look to bad yourself.”
“I would ask you if you’re having a good time, but I just saw Osborn over here a few minutes ago, so I know you’re not.”
Pepper chuckles quietly. God her smile is just brilliant. It lights up the entire room. If he could see that every day, he would be just the happiest man on the planet.
“I don’t know, Mr. Stark. His propositions get more and more intriguing every year.” She replies jokingly. Every gala they throw, Osborn either flirts with her or tries to hire her for himself, or both.
“Care to join me somewhere a little quieter for a moment?” He asks, holding out his arm. She smiles again and links her arm with his, walking with him upstairs to a balcony overlooking the rest of the room, where there are far fewer people in smaller groups, talking amongst themselves quietly. They find a spot away from anyone else.
“You really do look beautiful tonight, Pepper.” Tony says softer, less practiced and suave. Here he wasn’t Tony Stark, owner of a million dollar company, and she wasn’t Pepper Potts, CEO and inspiration female leader. They were just Tony and Pepper. Just them.
“Thank you, Tony.” She replies.
She pauses for a long moment. Tony puts his other hand on top of hers where it still lays on his forearm, her arm linked with his.
“I miss this.” She says softly, so he barely even hears her.
“Me too.” He replies. “We could have it again, you know. Just say the word.”
She smiles at him again, a sadder smile.
“I just don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. We had a lot of problems, Tony, and I don’t know if I want to just jump right back into that.”
“I know.” He says kindly. “I understand. But I really am trying to fix things. I’m working on some things.”
She brings a hand up to his cheek. “I know you are, and I’m so proud of you for that. But I don’t think I’ll be able to really be around you again until the work is done, not in progress.”
Tony nods, sadly but understanding where she’s coming from. He knows his bad habits are hurting her, and he really does feel like he’s on his way to getting better.
“I really do miss you, Pepper. And I really hope things can work out between us.” He tells her as he feels her pulling away to get back to the party.
She leans in and gives him a slow kiss on his cheek. “Me too, Tony. Let’s just give it a little more time. I haven’t given up on you.”
And with that, she turns around and starts walking back towards the stairs. He can’t tell if he feels better or worse after that conversation. He thinks it’s a little bit of both. God, does he miss her, but at least she told him that there’s hope. If he can fully pull his life back together, then he might be able to get the love of his life back.
By this point, he already had a little too much champagne, and now he’s emotional, so he starts walking towards the doors. He signals Happy on the way. The man has been standing guard all night as usual. They remain completely professional until they get on the road again.
“So, I saw you and Pepper up on the balcony.”
Tony just sighs and shakes his head fondly. “Nothing happened, Hap. She told me she needs some more time and I need to work on myself.”
“More time, though. That definitely doesn’t mean never.” The man responds.
Tony shrugs noncommittally. “I suppose.” He replies eventually.
“Hey, she loves you. Anyone can see that just by looking at you two. She’ll come around.”
Tony doesn’t reply this time. He knows that it isn’t her that needs to come around, but him that needs to work through his own issues before she’ll be happy with him again. Tony only wished that Pepper’s happiness could drag him out of his own sadness. It couldn’t before, or else he never would’ve started drinking in the first place.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Tony joins Rhodey at his mother’s house for Christmas this year. She lives a couple hours upstate, and she’s been like a second mother to him ever since college. He’s very grateful the Rhodes are taking him in. The last thing he needs is to spend Christmas alone.
He does send Pepper a gift. It’s a nice necklace that he found that he thought she’d like, and a card. Handwritten, she likes that kind of thing. He’s gotten better at gift giving since the giant rabbit incident, and he knows Pepper always appreciates him writing her out a card. It’s nothing fancy or mushy, just a simple Merry Christmas, Love Tony, kind of thing. He’s not looking for anything in return. He just wants her to know he’s thinking about her.
The days after Christmas he spends at the compound with the team. They have a Christmas party of their own, and Tony can almost pretend things are the same as they were before. If it weren’t for the constant shots of adrenaline and sweat and heart pounding that happen pretty much every time Steve gets too close to him. He’s just hoping he’s not being too obvious about avoiding him.
At least the alcohol is flowing at this party too. It makes it way easy for him to just let go and enjoy himself without focusing on everything that happened. He can just relax, and enjoy this party with his closest friends, just like old times. Wanda and vision are even back from their trip.
They have a secret Santa. He had Clint. He made the man some new arrows inspired by Peter’s webs. They explode on impact, spreading a sticky substance that has enough strength to stop even speeding cars in their tracks. The man loves them. Of course he immediately knows they’re from Tony. He goes on and on about them all night, and Tony has to forbid him from trying them out inside.
Natasha has him, so he receives a ridiculous amount of Spider-Man merchandise. Pajamas, T-shirts, socks, even a mug. That’ll teach him not to say anything bad about someone Natasha ends up liking. He’s sure this is revenge for telling everyone that the kid was an asshole before they met. In his defense, the kid was totally out to make him look bad that whole day, he’s absolutely sure of it.
He takes the gift in stride and laughs along with the rest of the team, ignoring the retelling of the story to the ones who weren’t here before, Clint, Wanda, and vision. He does feel bad about judging Peter so harshly at the beginning, so he really does deserve this. As his own personal penance, he sneaks off into his room while everyone is talking and changes into the Spider-Man pajamas. The whole team laughs hysterically when he comes out.
“No pictures better be taken of me in this atrocious outfit, and if I see any on social media I will sue.” He says sternly, but they know he’s joking, especially since he still sees multiple phone cameras pointed his direction throughout the night.
Wednesday comes and goes, but this time Tony doesn’t expect to hear anything from Peter. It’s Christmas after all. He has Friday forward any news stories to him regarding Spider-Man, and he checks the credit card statement every couple days to make sure the kid is eating enough. Since he got kicked out of school, he’s only been buying food in the middle of the night. Tony is assuming that’s the only time he’s able to get away from his foster family during the holiday season. Hopefully he’s getting enough calories from all the seasonal food.
The next Wednesday comes around and still no word from Peter. Tony sends him a picture of him in his Christmas pajamas that Natasha inevitably took of him last week along with a text.
“Happy holidays, Pete! The team wants me to bring you around again as soon as you’re free. We clearly have some Spider-Man fans over here.”
But the kid never responds. It is New Year’s Eve though, so again, he’s probably just busy. He’s certainly patrolling a lot at night. Tony wonders when this kid sleeps. He seems like he has almost as bad of a sleep schedule as Tony.
When the first week of January hits, he’s starting to wonder if Peter is still pissed at him because of the whole school thing. Or maybe it’s because he called him Kid again? But Tony had been calling him that for a couple weeks before Peter snapped at him for it. He decides that since Peter starts school next week, he’ll have Happy go pick him up like normal and see what’s wrong. The kid loves Happy. He’ll probably talk to him.
It turns out that he doesn’t even have to wait that long.
That Wednesday night in the first week of January, the week before Peter starts at his new school, Tony is holed away in his lab and it is not a good night.
He isn’t sure exactly what triggers it. It’s probably a lot of things. It was freezing cold and cloudy all day today. It snowed a few days ago, so the entirety of the city is filled with that nasty grey 3 day old slush on the sides of the road. The kid didn’t show up again, but Tony honestly expects that after 3 weeks of nothing. Rhodey is leaving later this week to go back to DC. After over a month of Rhodey just being his rock, he’s going to be completely alone again. Every night, he’s going to come back to a sad, empty apartment. Just him and an AI that he treats like another human out of necessity. The anniversary of his parents death was just a couple weeks ago. He had enough going on at the time to distract him from that pain, but there’s nothing right now to keep him from drowning in it.
He drinks a lot. Not as much as he could’ve, but still a lot. He drinks until the pain is dulled and he starts to feel unsteady on his feet. He falls into bed fully dressed in his sweat pants and T-shirt, not even bothering to get under the blankets, and lets the alcohol pull him under.
Just a few hours later, Tony awakens suddenly to way too many noises.
“Boss, you have an incoming call from Peter Parker.”
Friday announces, turning off the alarm she was playing.
“Jesus, what time is it.” He says, vision too blurry to read a clock.
“Just after 1 am. Would you like me to answer the call?” She asks again.
“Call…call from Peter?” He asks, finally waking up enough to understand what’s happening. His head pounds when he sits up on the side of the bed, but he ignores it.
“Yes, Boss. Peter Parker. Shall I put him through?”
If Peter’s calling him for the first time in a month at one in the morning, he knows it can’t be anything good.
“Put him through, Fri, and override his tracker while you’re at it.”
He’s standing and walking out his bedroom door already when the call comes through.
“Mr. Tony Stark, sir?” He hears from the other end, but it’s definitely not Peter’s voice.
He keeps walking, opening the balcony door and calling his armor to him.
“Who is this?” He asks, not answering the question. “Where’s Peter?”
“This is Ned, sir. Ned Leeds.”
He switches the call to his helmet and takes off into the skies, Peter’s location already displayed in front of him. He’s just a few minutes away.
“Where’s Peter, Ned? Is he there with you?” He tries to sound calm for the kid’s sake. The boys sounds afraid. Tony can hear the tremor in his voice.
“Yes, sir. He just got here a few minutes ago, and he told me not to call you but I just didn’t know what else to do, so I took his phone.”
“You did good, Ned. I’m sure you made the right choice. How bad are his injuries? Did he say? Is he still awake?” Tony is getting more frantic by the second. He turns his repulsers up to full power. He can see the apartment already.
“Yeah he’s awake, sir, but he got shot I think a couple times, and there’s a lot of blood Mr. Stark I don’t know what to do.”
“Just hold on Ned, I’m here now.” He tells the kid, landing the suit on the fire escape outside Ned’s window and stepping out quickly. He slides through the open window as fast as he can at his age to find Ned standing in the middle of the room, visibly panicking.
His eyes light up as soon as he spots Tony crawling in.
“Oh my god, Mr. Stark! You’re actually here. Tony Stark is in my bedroom. I can’t decide if this is the best or worst day of my entire life.”
Tony just can’t with this kid.
“Ned, focus. Where’s Peter?” He tells him sternly.
Ned points to a door branching off his bedroom.
“He’s in the bathroom, sir. He locked himself in there when I told him I was calling you.”
Tony rushes up to the door and tries the handle. Sure enough, it’s locked.
“Peter, if you don’t open this door right now I swear to God I’m blasting it down.”
He hears movement inside. He forms a gauntlet on one hand and points it at the door, and right before he fires, he hears the lock click. He returns the gauntlet to nanos and pushes the door open.
On the ground next to the bathtub is Peter, still dressed in his Spider-Man suit and covered in blood. His hands are deep red and wet where he looks like he’s trying to hold pressure over a wound. There are smears on the kid’s face and all over the bathroom: floors, walls, the tub.
Tony is horrified. “Peter! What the hell!” He screams as he drops down to his knees in front of the boy, not caring about the blood seeping into the knees of his sweat pants.
Peter’s eyes are drooping, but he’s still awake. He lets out a pained groan.
“I told Ned not to call you.” He mumbles.
“No!” Tony says sternly. “This is the exact thing you do call me for. Remember? We had a whole discussion about you being trustworthy enough to call me when you get hurt enough to need medical attention.”
Peter nods, eyes closing. He’s clearly not with it enough to be able to focus on this conversation.
“Peter, hey, stay with me, bud.” Tony says a little more gently than before. Peter’s eyes lazily make contact with his own.
“We’re getting you to the tower. Now.” Tony tells him. He leans over and wraps Peter’s arms around his neck so he can help the boy stand, then practically drags him through Ned’s room, back to the window. Tony steps through first and back into his armor before grabbing onto Peter and pulling him through. Ned sticks his head out the window after them.
Tony gives him an approving head nod. “You did good tonight, Ned. We’ll call it even for you hacking into my suit. Peter will text you in the morning.”
He picks Peter up behind his shoulders and under his knees, and takes off into the sky. He can feel the kid shivering as they go, but they only have to fly a couple minutes before they’re landing on the balcony to the tower’s medbay. Tony keeps the suit on to carry Peter inside, taking it back off once the boy is laying on a hospital bed.
He taps the spider symbol on the boy’s chest, expanding the suit, and he pulls it down to Peter’s waist. He immediately can see two bullet holes, one in Peter’s side and one in his right shoulder, along with a ton of bruising.
“Peter, this is going to hurt, but I need you to roll over for me, okay? I’ll help.”
Without waiting for an answer, he rolls Peter to the side so he can look at his back. The boy groans loudly, but doesn’t scream. This kid has quite the pain tolerance. The hole in his side has an exit wound, thank god, but the one in his shoulder doesn’t.
Shit.
He rolls Peter back over gently. The kid is wide awake after that.
“I have to get some pressure on this one in your side.” Tony tells him. Peter nods, and Tony get a pressure dressing on to help slow the bleeding. It might need stitches, but that’s not their primary problem right now.
“Peter, you with me kiddo?” He asks, the nickname just slipping out due to the stressful situation. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like Peter notices or cares.
“Yeah, yeah I’m here.” The boy responds, gasping through the pain, looking up at Tony, fear in his eyes.
Tony tries his best to convey calmness since Peter is clearly and understandably panicking. They can’t both be panicking. Tony has to be the reassuring one here.
“Listen, kid. One of the bullets went all the way through, but the one in your shoulder is still there. We need to get the bullet out before your healing kicks in and heals the hole over the bullet.”
Peter stares up at him, eyes wide. Tony rushes to to run a hand through his hair in what he hopes is a calming motion.
“You can do this, Pete. You gotta trust me.”
They look at each other for a moment, Peter clearly searching for reassurance in Tony’s eyes, before nodding his approval.
“Yeah okay. Whatever you have to do.” Peter gasps out again.
“I’m going to get you an IV so we can get some of your pain medicine going.” Tony wraps a tourniquet around Peter’s upper arm and grabs the IV supplies and special Spider pain meds. While he’s working, he calls out to his AI.
“Fri, call Rhodey down here ASAP. Tell him it’s an emergency.”
Peter’s head turns as fast as he can manage to look at Tony. “Rhodey? Why Rhodey?” The kid asks him, looking like he’s panicking again.
“Trust me, Peter. You’d rather have Rhodey do this part. He’s much more experienced at this sort of thing.”
He gets the first dose of pain medicine through Peter’s IV, but he still looks really freaked out. He’s covered in sweat that’s sticking his hair to his forehead.
“I don’t want Rhodey.” Peter practically whines, grabbing onto Tony’s arm with his still bloody fingers. “I want you to do it, Mr. Stark. Please.” The boy pleads with him.
“I can’t, Peter. Please, just let Rhodey do it.”
At that moment, Rhodey storms in the door, dressed similarly to Tony in a T-shirt and pajama pants. He’s already pulling on gloves as soon as he enters the room.
“Friday told me what happened. Get him some more pain medicine.” Rhodey instructs, gathering the tools he needs to dig the bullet out of Peter’s shoulder.
“No!” Peter screams, pulling at Tony’s arm. “Why can’t you? I know you’ve done it before!”
Peter is getting more and more agitated by the second. Tony pries his arm out of the kid’s grip and gets a much higher dose of Peter’s specially made pain medicine. He pushes it into his IV, and within 30 seconds, Peter slumps over back onto the bed.
He’s not completely out, but he’s mostly there. Tony has another dose at the ready as he holds onto the arm that Rhodey is currently digging into just in case Peter moves, but the most he does is twitch a few times and groan quietly.
After what feels like forever but was more likely less than a minute, Rhodey pulls out a small metal bullet and drops it on the tray next to him. He smiles at Tony and they both let out a sigh of relief.
He lets Rhodey do all the stitching on all three holes before thanking him profusely.
“You know you never have to thank me for something like this, Tones.” He says on his way out, shaking his head like Tony is acting ridiculous.
Tony gave Peter a little more pain medicine for the stitches, and the kid fell asleep pretty quickly after they were done. Now that he’s not in any immediate danger, Tony pulls up a chair and sits down next to Peter’s bed, allowing himself to get a good look at the boy.
Along with the stitched up and dressed bullet wounds, Peter’s torso is covered in bruises. Some look days old and some look like they happened tonight. Tony really needs to get the kid back in with Natasha soon if he’s getting his this often in fights. The kid is also worryingly thin. Tony can see every one of his ribs. He thought the kid was eating enough since he gave him the card. He must’ve been wrong. Looking at Peter’s face, he looks even thinner than the last time they saw each other, which doesn’t seem right.
He sighs and covers Peter up with a blanket. What is he supposed to do with this kid.
“Friday, lights. Let me know if he wakes up while I’m gone.”
Friday turns the lights off as he exits the room. He goes up to the penthouse again to find Rhodey in the kitchen, making some tea.
“I need something to help me calm down and go back to sleep after that. You want some?” He asks.
Tony nods. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
Rhodey brews the tea in silence and passes Tony a full mug, sitting down across from him at the table.
“I was drunk tonight.” Tony admits quietly after a few sips.
Rhodey just raises his eyebrows at him, but doesn’t comment yet. He knows when he should comment and when he needs to let Tony get something off his chest.
“I got a little freaked out about everything, you know? You leaving, the team, my parents. It was just too much, and I got drunk. Happens way more often than it should, you know that. But tonight…Peter needed me tonight.”
There is a moment of silence before Rhodey responds.
“Is this about why you had me dig the bullet out when he was asking for you?” He asks kindly. It’s not an accusation. He just wants to know what’s on Tony’s mind.
“I couldn’t trust myself to do it tipsy, or hungover, or whatever I was. He needed me, and I couldn’t help him because I’d been drinking instead.” Tony admits, staring into his mug of tea like it holds all the answers in the universe.
“You did help him, Tony. You brought him here and you got him help. That’s what matters.” His friend says honestly.
“But what if he had been shot a couple hours earlier? Or next week, when you’re gone again? What would’ve happened?”
Rhodey shrugs. “What are you really trying to say here, Tones?” He asks quietly.
Tony thinks for a moment, trying to convince himself of what he’s about to do. “I’m saying that if Peter is going to rely on me to help him in these situations, then I can’t keep doing this. Even now, he’s down there laying on a hospital bed, and I’m up here craving a drink. You and Pepper have been trying so hard to help me, and I just haven’t been able to accept it. I haven’t been strong enough. But if the consequence is this…if the consequence is letting a teenager who is relying on me for help get seriously hurt, or even killed, then I can’t just sit here and keep on doing what I’m doing knowing I’m putting him at risk.”
Rhodey is looking at him in this moment with so much pride that Tony almost wants to take it back, but he can’t now that it’s already out there in the world.
“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you say that, Tony.” His friend says, smiling wide. “And I’ll be here to help you every step of the way.”
Tony lifts his eyes again to mee his friend’s. “You will?” He asks.
Rhodey nods. “I was really dreading going back already. I think they can last without me for a little while longer. I’ll request for a leave of absence in the morning.”
Tony tries not to grin stupidly at that announcement, but he can’t really help it. “Rhodey, you know I really can’t thank you enough. For everything.”
Rhodey stands up with his mug and pats Tony on the shoulder. “And you know that I don’t need your thanks. You committing to getting better, that’s all the thanks I need.”
Tony rolls his eyes at how cheesy this conversation is getting. “Get to bed before you make me throw up.” Tony commands jokingly.
“Are you going to be okay for tonight?” Rhodey asks.
Tony waves him off. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m going to go sit with the kid for a bit and then I’ll go to sleep.”
“Okay, man. Give me an update in the morning, okay?”
Tony tells him of course he will before bidding Rhodey a good night. He puts his empty mug in the sink before heading back down to the medbay.
Peter is still asleep when he gets there, so he sits down in the chair next to the bed again and breathes out a big sigh of relief. The kid is fine. They got through it. He’ll just sit here for a few minutes before going back up to bed, just in case Peter needs him. And if he lays his head down on the bed for a just moment, chances are that no one is going to notice. The kid is asleep, Rhodey is staying, and everything is fine.