Tony
Tony drags himself out of bed as soon as he wakes up Monday morning and heads straight to the coffee maker. He’s really glad Peter has been sleeping so well, because he definitely hasn’t. Every time he closes his eyes, he sees his child handcuffed and beaten in a closet. Tony may not have been the one to put him there directly, but he knows it’s his fault. If he hadn’t been so focused on his own insecurities, this never would’ve happened.
He hasn’t even sat Peter down to have a conversation about what happened yet. He knows he needs to do that today before the social worker gets here tonight at five. He needs to apologize and see if Peter can forgive him enough to at least stay at the tower. If he doesn’t want to, then he’ll talk to Peter and the case worker about maybe having Peter live at the avengers compound or with Rhodey.
He’s been using the excuse that he doesn’t want to stress Peter out by asking him to make these big decisions while he’s still healing, but if he’s being completely honest with himself, Tony is terrified that Peter won’t forgive him. Tony doesn’t know what he’ll do if Peter doesn’t want to live at the tower. He’s already worried enough about the kid that he’s been checking on him while he’s been asleep the last couple days. It sounds bad, but he gets so anxious that he can’t relax until he sees that Peter is here and safe.
Now that he’s thinking about it, he should probably go check in on the kid now. The other day he found him passed out on the bed without even a blanket. He must’ve been so exhausted.
Tony sets his mug down on the kitchen counter and quietly approaches Peter’s room. He cracks the door and tries to look onto the bed to see if Peter is still asleep, but the bed is already made. Weird.
He opens the door the rest of the way and walks inside, thinking that Peter is probably up and in the bathroom, but once he’s in the room he can see that the bathroom door is open too, and the room empty.
Tony stops in the middle of the room for a second to take a breather and remind himself not to freak out. There’s no reason to panic. Peter’s room is empty, but that doesn’t mean anything. He could be anywhere in the tower, or out for a walk or something.
He glances around and sees Peter’s spider suit sitting on the dresser and breathes out a small sigh of relief. At least he’s not out as Spider-Man. Tony doesn’t think he’s ready for that quite yet. Whatever amount of relief he got from seeing the spider suit is immediately gone though when he notices that Peter’s credit card is sitting next to the spider suit, but his backpack is nowhere to be found in the room.
Peter would never go anywhere without his backpack, but he removed the two things he always keeps with him that Tony could track.
Shit.
He’s got a bad feeling about this.
“Friday, is Peter somewhere in the tower?” He asks, losing hope quickly as he scans Peter’s room for other clues.
“No, Boss. Peter left the tower last night around 10 pm via his bedroom window.”
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
This is so bad.
Peter’s new clothes are sprawled out across the ground, and a few of everything is missing. Tony starts pulling open drawers to see if there’s something he missed, and he gets excited when he sees a post it note in the bedside table. When he picks it up, though, it’s only the note that Tony wrote for Peter when he made him a snack the other day.
“Call Peter’s phone, Friday. And track it for me while you’re at it.” He commands, running out of the bedroom and down into the lab.
“Peter’s phone is off and therefore cannot be tracked at this time.” She says.
Tony jumps into a stool at his lab bench and pulls up his screens, already working on trying to track his kid.
“Keep an eye on it in case he turns his phone back on and scan security footage from around the city to see if you can find him anywhere. Start with the cameras outside the tower.”
She starts pulling up videos on his screens and scanning people for facial recognition. He has video footage of Peter coming out of an alley next to the tower and pulling the hood up on his sweatshirt. He’s not wearing anything descriptive, just a black hoodie and sweatpants. He keeps his hood pulled up far enough to obstruct the view of his face in the camera, but Tony catches enough of a glimpse to know it’s him.
“Keep searching, Fri. And get Leeds on the phone.”
After about half of a ring, Tony heard an excited voice on the other end of the line.
“Hello, Mr. Stark, sir!”
“Ned, hey.” Tony says back, trying to keep the concern out of his voice just in case Peter isn’t with Ned. He doesn’t need a kid freaking out on him while he’s trying to stop himself from freaking out. “Is there any chance Peter is with you?”
“No, sir.” Ned says. “I’m on a family vacation in Florida. I haven’t really heard from Peter since last week.”
Well, shit. This led nowhere. If he hasn’t spoken to Peter since last week, then he doesn’t even know what’s going on. Tony was sure Peter would’ve told him right away.
“Are you looking for him?” Ned asks when Tony doesn’t reply. “Is he missing? Did he get kidnapped? Do you need me to come back and help look for him, Mr. Stark because Peter’s my best friend and I-“
“Calm down, Leeds.” Tony commands firmly. “Peter hasn’t been kidnapped, he just…ran off.” Tony admits. “Do you know anywhere he might’ve gone? Any places that were important to him?”
“Uhh lemme think…he likes this sandwich place in queens. Delmars. He goes there a lot. Umm…kinda morbid but he goes to see his family where they’re buried sometimes. It’s in maple grove cemetery. You might ask MJ too if she’s seen him. He might’ve gone to her place.”
Tony is jotting down everything Ned is telling him as he’s speaking.
“Okay, great. That’s perfect, Ned. Thanks for your help.”
“Should I try to call him for you, sir?” Ned asks. “Is he not answering his phone?”
“His phone has been off since last night, but you can try.” Tony explains. “If you get ahold of him, can you just have him call me? Tell him I’m sorry for everything, and I just want to know that he’s safe. Can you do that, Leeds?”
“Of course, sir. I’ll see what I can do.”
He hangs up the phone with Ned and goes back to his computer. Still nothing on the facial recognition.
“Friday, get Happy up here ASAP.“
Tony gets up from his chair and starts pacing frantically. How does he keep managing to fuck things up so badly? He can’t believe that he didn’t see that Peter was upset enough with him to leave in the middle of the night without even saying anything. Did he just fake it for two days while he healed and then run off as soon as he was physically able to? How did Tony not see this coming?
Happy is up and in his lab in minutes, faced flushed from running.
“What happened? Friday told me there was an emergency.”
Tony spins around to look him in the eye.
“Peter’s missing.”
Happy’s eyes grow wide. “Missing? Like missing how? Like taken?”
“No, like he left.” Tony clarifies. “He told me he was going to bed last night and then he took off out the window. He left everything I could’ve used to track him and we haven’t been able to get him on facial recognition.”
“He just left?” Happy asks with disbelief. “With no explanation?”
“Nope.” Tony replies. “And he’s not with his friend, Ned, either. I already checked. The kid did give me a list of places Peter might’ve gone to in the meantime if you could go check them out and anywhere else you can think of.”
“Of course.” Happy says without hesitation. “Whatever i can do to help.”
Tony passes over the paper he wrote the names of the places on and Happy rushes back towards the door.
“Call me if you hear anything.” Tony calls to him on his way out.
“You too.” Happy responds.
Once he has someone else he trusts on the lookout for his kid, he moves on to his next lead.
“Friday, call Peter’s friend Michelle.”
Unlike Ned, it takes Michelle quite a while to pick up the phone. Tony almost hangs up thinking she won’t answer when he finally hears her voice.
“Hello?” He hears her say, phrasing it like a question.
“Hey, Michelle. It’s Tony Stark. Quick question: have you heard from Peter in the last, oh, 12 hours or so?”
“Why do you ask?” Comes the reply.
He decides to take the more direct approach with Michelle. He knows she can handle it.
“He was staying at the tower last night, and when I woke up he was gone. He left late last night without saying anything, and his phone is off. I thought maybe he would go to you for help.”
“And why would I tell you if he did? If you’re saying the truth then it sounds like he’s trying to get away from you.”
Tony would be rolling his eyes had he not been so worried about his kid. He doesn’t know what he did to make Michelle dislike him so much, but it’s irritating. He’s just going to have to be honest with her like he should’ve been to Peter and hope the message gets through.
“Look, I’m going to tell you the truth here, Michelle. I know that I’ve messed up, and if Peter does come to you, you’ll know that I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past couple weeks that I can’t begin to make up for. I don’t blame Peter for being angry with me or not trusting me or whatever it was that convinced him to run away in the middle of the night. I just need to know he’s safe. I’m not going to force him to come back if he doesn’t want to, but if you do see him, can you just tell him I’m sorry for everything and ask him to just call me? I promise I won’t track his phone if he does.”
There’s silence on the other end of the line after his speech for a moment before he hears Michelle’s voice again.
“If I see Peter, then I’ll pass along the message.”
Tony nods to himself. Hopefully between her and Ned, one of them can get ahold of the kid soon.
“Thanks, Michelle. I appreciate that.” He tells her.
“Oh I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for Peter.”
“I know.” Tony replies. “And I appreciate that all the same.”
She hangs up the phone.
As soon as he hears the call end, Tony is up and headed to the skies in his suit. Happy is going to the cemetery and the sandwich shop, but Tony can cover a lot more ground by flying. He’s sure he can come up with some other places Peter might have gone.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
A few hours pass, and Tony has gone from worried to completely panicking. It’s now almost the afternoon, and he’s still had no sign of Peter. He’s still got Friday watching security cameras around the city, but he sent Happy back to work reluctantly. There just isn’t much else the man can do to help.
Tony is back in his lab trying to brainstorm anything else he can do, but besides notify the police which he hasn’t resorted to yet, he has nothing.
All of a sudden, his computer starts alerting with a notification. Peter has turned his phone back on. Before he can even begin his internal debate on whether he should track Peter’s phone or leave him he like he promised Michelle, Friday announces that Peter is calling him.
“Answer it, Fri.” He says.
There’s silence for a moment.
“Pete? You there, kid?”
“…yeah. I’m here…hi.”
Tony is so relieved to hear the kids voice he actually starts laughing a bit.
“God, kid. You really had me scared there for a bit.” He says through a relieved smile. “Are you doing okay? Did you find somewhere safe to stay?”
“I’m safe, and I’m really sorry, Mr. Stark.” Peter says. “I didn’t mean to worry you so much.”
Tony sighs. “It’s okay, bud. I understand why you left. I’m not mad.”
“…you’re not?” Came the nervous reply.
“No, kid. I’m not. I’m just worried about you. Is there any chance you’ll come back to the tower so we can talk about everything?”
Tony waits anxiously for Peter’s reply, so afraid that Peter is going to say he never wants to see him again, but he’s a little confused when Peter finally answers.
“Look, I’m really sorry I had to run away, Mr. Stark, but I can’t come back. I know what’s waiting for me there, and I can’t go back to foster care. I just can’t do it. I won’t.”
Peter is audibly getting worked up at even The thought, and Tony doesn’t blame him. Tony can hear him breathing heavily though, like he’s starting to hyperventilate or maybe he’s crying. Tony can’t tell. All he knows is that he needs to stop it.
“Hey, Pete. It’s okay.” He says softly, trying to calm him down. “You’re not going back to foster care, I promise. I’d never let that happen.”
“…I’m not?” Came the confused reply.
“No, kid, of course not.” Tony explains firmly. “You think I’d ever let you back there after what they did to you? No way. Never again. If you really don’t want to stay at the tower with me, then we’ll find somewhere else. Maybe with Rhodey or at the compound or something. We can figure it out.”
Once again, Tony is left in silence with no reply. He waits a second before speaking again.
“Pete?” He asks.
“…I didn’t know staying at the tower with you was an option.”
What?!
It finally hits Tony just how much of an idiot he’s been. He thought Peter left because he was angry with him, but that wasn’t the case at all. Peter left because he was convinced that Tony didn’t want him around. Tony had thought it would be enough to show Peter he was welcome in the tower, but he never took back what he said about not wanting to be a father. Peter has probably been dwelling on what he said this whole time and thinking that Tony was going to send him back off to foster care. He needs to fix this ASAP.
“I think we need to sit down and talk about some things, kid. In fact, I think it’s long overdue. Will you meet me at the tower? I promise you’ll be safe there and no one is going to try to send you back to foster care.”
“…okay. I guess we can do that.” Peter responds hesitantly after a moment.
Tony lets out a sigh of relief at knowing he’ll get to see his kid again, and this time he’s going to do it right.
“Okay, great. Can I send Happy to pick you up somewhere?” Tony asks, anxious to see Peter again as soon as he can.
“No, thanks. I’m not far. I can be there soon.” Peter replies.
“Okay, kid. I’ll see you soon then.”
Peter hangs up the phone as soon as he’s finished speaking.
Tony pretty much collapses onto the couch after that very emotionally draining phone call, but he knows there’s way more to come. If he’s going to be a dad, he’s going to have to get way better at all this emotional stuff, starting with his talk with Peter today. He thinks that finally, he knows he’s doing the right thing.