Chapter 4
It amazed Peter how quickly two weeks went by when he was busy fighting crime and going to class all in the same day. Midterms came and went with ease, Peter studying in the local library with Wade sitting next to him. Wade was usually pretty bothersome when Peter was studying, but Peter had saved up enough money to buy a pair of Airpods that Wade absolutely loved. That would keep him occupied on his phone for hours.
Before he knew it, it was Friday afternoon and Tony’s number was ringing on Peter’s extra phone as he sat curled up in his bed. Wade had just left to finish their patrol and wrap up the end of the day shenanigans, and Peter stayed behind because he was doing the early morning rotation with the X-men trainees.
“Hello?” Peter answered the phone, not used to hearing Tony on the other side.
“Hi Peter! How was your week?” Tony’s voice rang through Peter’s ears and he smiled a bit.
“It was good. I just had midterms, and they all went well and with winter break I don’t have a lot to do.” Peter kept the information short and sweet like he usually does.
“Great stuff! So that means you’re all good to come to dinner tomorrow, right?” Tony’s voice raised a pitch with the question, and Peter could hear his nerves. He wondered if Tony was nervous that Peter was going to suddenly back out. The thought had crossed his mind, to just destroy the burner phone and never talk to Tony again, but he knew Tony would stop at nothing to find Peter. His life would be easier if he could run the relationship on his terms.
“Yeah! What time do you want me?” Peter asked, and his personal phone buzzed in his lap. He tried to focus on Tony, but his phone just kept buzzing. He turned it around and saw several texts from Wade.
emergency
where are u
emergency
peter emergency
Peter’s heart jumped into his throat as he brought his phone to his fingers to type.
“How’s six work for you?” Tony asked, and Peter nodded like Tony could see him before he realized he wasn’t even there.
“Yeah that works fine. See you then-” Peter hung the phone up, not trying to drag out. He immediately called Wade.
The explosion he heard over the phone when Wade answered made him stand up immediately.
“Spidey your-” Wade cut himself off with a litany of curses towards whomever was fighting him. “YOUR GOD DAMN GREEN GOBLIN IS MAKING A FUCKING MESS OF THINGS-” Peter stripped himself of his school clothes and pulled on his costume, grabbing his mask to pull it over his face.
“Where are you?” He was out the window and ready to swing, propped up on his heels prepared to go off into any direction.
“In Brooklyn, near Prospect park.” There was definitely a struggle on the other side of the phone. “Get here soo-” The phone went dead and Peter’s stomach dropped to his feet. He hated when he wasn’t with Wade on patrol and he got into some debauchery, especially with his own enemy.
He swung his way through Queens and over to Brooklyn as fast as he possibly could, and all he had to do was trust his tingle to get him to where he needed to be. The closer he got, the more his whole body began to vibrate with foreboding apprehension. Norman usually did not create havoc on Friday nights, opting for a school night to annoy Peter more, so this was odd. He must have something big planned.
When he got to the area, he saw the Brooklyn museum in flames with police and firemen surrounding the area and Peter’s stomach did that nervous flip when he was too late. People started to point to Spiderman as he swung towards the direction of fire, and Peter couldn’t help but wonder what the hell Norman was doing lighting small museums on fire. He swung himself to the ground and landed on his feet, trying to get his bearings. He turned on the comms in his suit.
“Wade? Where are you?” Peter asked into his earpiece, and he received an earful of feedback.
“Webs! Glad you could make it!” He heard Wade’s muffled voice and Peter was glad that he was okay.
“Me and your friend are over by the dog park-” Wade was cut off yet again by a painful sounding hit, and Peter started over in the direction of the dog park. He turned to the firemen trying to put out the fire.
“Is everybody out? Do you know?” Peter asked quickly, itching to get to Wade and to stop Norman in his tracks. He wasn’t going to leave anybody in the burning building, though. The fireman stood there with a star struck look. After waiting a minute with no answer, he huffed.
“Fine.” Peter grumbled, swinging himself to the top of the building that wasn’t burning and finding his way in. After a sweep of the top floor and going to the floor under, Peter only found one security guard stuck in the building. He looked scared and like his arm had been burned, but overall okay.
“Do you know if anyone else is here?!” Peter yelled, the fire alarms blaring in his ears and making it so his body was filled with dread and unease.
“No one else.” The security guard was shaken up as Peter got him out of the building and lowered him to the ground. He waved a quick goodbye as he started his way over to the dog park and was surprised by the destruction he saw.
Trees were on fire, a couple cars were strewn across the park but after a quick look Peter ensured no one was inside of them. There were multiple places where he could see little explosions from Norman’s stupid, annoying pumpkin bombs. Peter groaned as he continued to run over to where he could hear the real action, and when he finally saw Wade, a feeling of relief spread through his chest.
“Spidey!” Wade yelled and Peter ran over to him.
“Where’s Norman?!” A sudden explosion clued them in on where he was and what Peter would describe as the most futile fight happened in the next fifteen minutes. Chasing, more explosions, cursing from both Wade and Peter, and not being able to get to Norman lead to frustrations that Peter hadn’t had in quite awhile. Norman had actually been quiet for a little bit, so he didn’t really know what was happening.
The fight was dragging on longer than usual because Norman was really on his A-game. Peter and Wade were getting more and more frustrated as time went on.
“If we don’t get this fucking guy soon Petey I’m going to explode, he is really pissing me off.” Wade growled in his ear at one of the moments they were both in the same vicinity.
“I know.” Peter grumbled, rubbing his leg which had just been at the receiving end of a thrown car. He would have a gnarly bruise there tomorrow and he was thankful that pants existed so that he could hide it until he healed.
“He’s being a nasty little twat today.” Wade was talking in the tone of voice he uses when he talks to the voices in his head, so Peter took the minute to regroup. He really needed to get this over with. He was tired, night was falling, he had to see Tony tomorrow and he was overall not in the mood to be dealing with this stupid shit. As he was thinking about his next move and Wade was talking to his own voices, Norman had his own plans.
He had set a bomb up before the fight, and had finally gotten Peter to stand where he needed to be standing to finally mortally injure him. Peter’s spider-senses weren’t going to work, either, because he was already in so much danger that it would be no different than the second before.
“What, feeling a little blue, Spiderman?!” Norman cackled, on his glider above him. Peter rolled his eyes and went to shoot his web shooters, but Norman detonated the bomb. A ringing in Peter’s ear told him that he had to move, and he was able to get further away at the very last second, but not before the explosion happened and a hurtling rock hit him square in the left side of his face. He was knocked to the ground, face pushed into the grass, unconscious.
Wade immediately went into attack mode, flinging himself towards the man on the glider and trying to finish the fight once and for all.
When Peter started to wake, he wanted to move, get on his arms and push himself up, but he wasn’t quite there yet. There was a loud, high-pitched ringing in both of his ears and he wasn’t able to hear anything but that. He rolled himself onto his back and let his eyes adjust to the brightness until he looked a little farther into the distance and noticed something in the sky. Every bone in his body reverberated at the sight, as the colors of red and gold of an all too familiar iron suit became clear.
He pushed himself up, noting that his mask had taken some damage during the explosion, but not enough to reveal his identity. Just some cheek showing, and it was covered in blood anyway. He was not feeling good. He hadn’t taken a hit like that in awhile, and it was going to take him more than a night to recover from it. But he had more pressing problems now, like his father about to roll up.
He was able to get himself on his feet, but he was having a hard time. His leg was injured from the car earlier, and now that his ears were ringing so loud he couldn’t even hear anything, he didn’t know where Wade was. He frantically searched around, not able to see Wade or the Green Goblin.
“Fuck.” Peter cursed, reaching his hand up to touch his throbbing eye. That was really going to look nasty tomorrow. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He cursed again as Iron Man and a couple other of the Avengers were getting closer.
“WADE!” Peter yelled, trying to get Wade’s attention but he couldn’t even hear himself yell, just feel the vibrations in his throat. “DEADPOOL!” He yelled again, really needing Wade to come through and get them out of there. He felt a presence behind him, and he whipped around and immediately became defensive until he saw it was Wade.
He could see Wade was trying to say something, trying to communicate, but he really could not hear a single thing. Peter gestured to both his ears dramatically.
“I CAN’T HEAR YOU.” Peter shouted, and Wade paused for a second before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He began to type and showed Peter.
norman going bananas, tony dickhead on the way, should we bail?
Wade gestured towards Tony who was honestly less than a minute away, and Peter groaned.
“FUCK!” Peter cursed, and Wade smiled a bit under his mask.
ur shouting just play it cool and we’ll be fine and get out of here
Peter felt Tony land on the ground behind him, in all of his iron might, and grimaced at the thought. He had never wanted to see Tony as Spiderman ever again, but honestly, when has life ever worked out for Peter? Wade took the reins.
“Iron dick!” Wade exclaimed as Thor and Hawkeye landed behind him. Tony muttered something to the men behind him, and they went off to most likely deal with Green Goblin.
“I would say nice to see you but I’m trying not to lie as much.” Tony greeted Wade, and Wade gasped and grabbed his heart.
“You pain me! This asshole Green Goblin is on some real shit today, we’ve been trying for the past hour to get him under control, good luck with him. We cleared the art museum out and got people out of the way, just can’t get him to stop. But we gotta bounce. Thanks for helping! Toodaloo!” Wade pointed at Peter when he said something about leaving, and Tony stepped towards him.
“Spiderman, are you okay? You look… disheveled.” The concern in Tony’s voice was real but could only be heard by Wade. Peter gestured to his ears, and shrugged his shoulders because there was no way he was using his real shouting voice right now to talk.
“He was blown up. Can’t hear anything. Gotta get him to the hospital. You guys got it, right?” Wade asked, trying to hurry the conversation along, getting Peter out of there before anything else could happen, like the step-father showing up or another bomb going off.
Tony took another step towards Spiderman, and Wade tried to step in. There’s no way Tony was getting closer.
Meanwhile Peter’s heart was literally beating out of his chest, unable to hear anything they were saying, and watching as Tony came closer. He could see Wade scrambling, trying to get him away.
“We have medical professionals back at the tower, you need to bring him back there to be treated. That leg looks bad.” Tony gestured at the leg that Peter was decidedly not putting any weight on.
“No, he has his own doctor. We need to go though.” Wade spoke, but Tony felt like something was off, the way Spiderman was standing, the way Wade was trying to get them out of there. He couldn’t place his finger on it.
“We have world class doctors at the tower. Bring him back there and get him looked at.” Tony’s voice was stern, but there was no way Wade was letting that happen. Poor Peter was just standing there, clueless as to what was happening except every Spidey sense in his body going off.
Wade finally got totally in between Wade and Peter, and Peter gave a wave goodbye as Wade walked towards him.
“See? He’s fine! Waving and everything. Thanks a lot!” Wade got him out of there quickly and effectively, Tony watching on and having a bad feeling in his stomach.
~
Peter’s hearing had healed late that night as Wade and him laid in bed.
“How am I going to see Tony tomorrow?” Peter whispered, just glad that he was able to hear himself as he spoke. Wade clicked on his phone and the clock flashed 4:30am.
“Technically it’s today.” Wade pointed out, and Peter scowled at him so hard that Wade drew back a bit. “Okay okay, your leg should be healed enough that you’re just going to be limping on it by the time you get there. The thing I think we need to worry about is your eye. That’s not going to be healed by the time you see him, and that’s probably the most noticeable thing.” Wade was thinking aloud, and Peter reached up to touch his newly black eye. He hated Norman at this instant, not only making Spiderman’s life hard, but Peter’s life hard too.
“I know. I’m gonna have to make something up that brings together the eye and the leg. Should I tell him I got into a fight at school?” Peter cringed at his own suggestion. “No. He’d probably freak out. Should I say car accident? Falling down the stairs? Slipping on ice?” Wade seemed to be taking in the suggestions, giving them thought.
“What if you just cancel?” Wade proposed, and Peter gave it a good bit of thought. Canceling was an option, maybe he could just say he had a huge test that he had to study for. On the flip side, however, Tony was so concerned with getting details on Peter’s personal life that he was afraid Tony would take this as an excuse to double down on his efforts. Eventually Peter decided canceling was not a good idea and he’d just take the hit and see him injured.
“No canceling. Don’t want him to send a convoy out for me. I think slipping on ice would be the best." Wade pondered. "That would mean it isn't anybody's fault really except for the ice. He’d probably have a heart attack if you said you got into a car accident, and if you said you fell down some stairs then he’d just think you’re stupid.” They continued back and forth, and finally got to Peter slipping and falling down the stairs at his school.
“So I slipped on the stairs at school and fell down, they brought me to the hospital, and I’m totally fine. Just hit my knee and my face. That gets the limp and the black eye. He can’t see any of the other injuries if I wear a sweater and jeans, so I should be good for that. Good plan. Now I’m going to go to sleep, Wade, and I swear to god if you keep me up for any reason I will kill you.”
~
Peter bounced his leg relentlessly on the whole subway ride to Stark Towers. His eye had healed a bit, and looked like he got it a couple days ago instead of yesterday. Peter was quite worried that Tony might put the puzzle pieces together after seeing Spiderman injured yesterday, but Wade reassured him that he was definitely just overthinking it.
When the subway reached his stop, he felt his stomach drop. He really did not want to be here, seeing Tony like this. But Peter thought the risk was bigger if he canceled, and he might as well have Tony get used to seeing him a little roughed up.
By the time he was inside Stark building, the name on his badge hidden against his chest, he thought he was going to throw up. If Norman had just minded his own business, and left him alone for more than a week at a time, his life would be exponentially better. He just kept breaking out of jail and coming back to torment him, though.
The elevator ride was the quickest he’d ever experienced, and soon the doors were opening to his floor. Tony and Steve were waiting outside. The gasp that came out of Tony’s mouth let him know that they had immediately noticed the black eye.
“Peter!” Tony hurried over, Steve closely behind as Peter stepped off the elevator. Peter sheepishly hid that side of his face. “What happened?!” Tony asked, hand reaching out to touch Peter’s face. Peter shut his eyes as Tony’s fingers grabbed his tender face, pulling his injured side into the light.
He had rehearsed this. All this morning, coming up with different ways to say it, tell the story, but he hated all of them.
“I slipped and fell on some ice in front of my school last week. Hit the side of my face on the railing, but it’s healing nicely! I got checked out at the doctor so don’t worry.” Peter wasn’t unhappy with the story, but wished it could have been easier. Tony examined his eye, gently touching the bruised parts.
“Did you hurt anything else?” Tony asked, and Peter nodded.
“Just my knee. Banged it up a bit.” Peter added as nonchalantly as he could.
“Which one? Let me see it.” Tony demanded, and Peter’s heart started racing in his chest. He’d worn a regular pair of dark pants, skinny enough around his calves that he wouldn’t be able to pull them up. Besides, Peter had multiple other injuries that Tony would see if he had to show him.
“The left side. It’s just bruised. No breaks.” Peter tried to wave it off, but Tony seemed set on seeing it until Steve noticed Peter’s discomfort.
“I bet it’s fine, Tony, if he went and got it checked out. Does it still hurt?” Steve asked, and Peter shook his head.
“Been taking tylenol and ibuprofen for it as needed. So not really! I know, I can be so clumsy sometimes.” Peter tried to laugh it off, and if Wade had been there he would have lost it at how fake Peter’s laugh was. Thankfully Steve and Tony didn’t seem to notice and dropped it.
“If it hurts, let me know. I can get you in with better doctors. We could go down to the medical bay right now.” Tony spoke and Peter had to repress the roll of his eyes. There was no way he was going to let that happen.
After that, they didn’t talk about the black eye anymore and went through the same conversations they had last dinner. What Peter was up to, working in school, how were midterms, all that blah-blah-blah shit that had Peter fidgety in his seat.
“Do you have special plans for Christmas?” Steve asked, Christmas was five days away, and Peter clenched his hand beneath the table. This was the question he was dreading, knowing that he was going to May’s house and sleeping over for the holidays.
“Just spending it with my family.” When Peter said family, Tony deflated a bit and Steve noticed. Family made it sound like Peter had the whole shebang at home, when in reality May was going to make a nice dinner and then Wade would sneak in at the late hours of the night.
“We were hoping maybe you would want to celebrate with us. We got you presents, and we could open them now or next time if you’d like.” Steve ran the conversation, and Tony listened in.
“Presents?” Peter asked, feeling small and like a kid on Christmas with his parents for the first time. Steve and Tony nodded. “You guys didn’t have to get me presents. I didn’t get you anything!” Peter blurted out, nervously playing with his fingers. What did you even get parents for Christmas? He had no idea. He'd only ever gotten presents for May or Ben, and then it was easy.
“Of course we got you presents! First Christmas with a son, of course I’m going to spoil him.” Tony added as Steve got up to grab the presents, and Peter’s stomach flipped when he saw the stack of boxes, neatly wrapped in white and gold snowflake wrapping paper.
They were set in front of Peter, and Peter suddenly realized this was the first Christmas he ever remembered spending with a father. With his father. And it wasn’t even Christmas. Peter felt the tears prick at the back of his eyes, but he immediately blinked them away. There was no chance he was crying here.
“Open them!” Tony exclaimed excitedly, watching as Peter started into the first one.
Peter was stunned when he saw a brand new laptop, top of the line, probably cost more money than had ever been in Peter’s bank account. Nausea filled his stomach at the thought, being bought by his own father, and his heart sank to his feet.
“I… I can’t-can’t take this! It’s too expensive.” Peter tried to convey the emotions in as best a way he could, not trying to be rude, but genuinely uncomfortable with the thought of a $4,000 laptop being given to him.
“Please, Peter, I insist. Use it for school.” Tony could sense Peter’s uneasiness, even with how hard he was trying to cover it. “I couldn’t give any of this stuff to you growing up, I want you to have it now.” Peter’s heart rate was increasing, and as he started to hear that ringing in his ears, he knew a panic attack was in his future. A million things ran through his mind.
Four thousand dollars, a four thousand dollar laptop, the nicest thing Peter’s ever had, from his billionaire father trying to buy him, trying to track him with this laptop probably, have to check it for trackers, have to turn of location services, have to factory reset it, have to give them gifts, have to thank them, can’t cry, don’t cry, do not cry-
“Are you okay?” Steve asked gently, raising a hand to Peter’s shoulder. Peter snapped out of it, tried to quiet those anxious thoughts, and he nodded his head. Steve and Tony were both watching him closely, trying to decipher his thoughts. The base of Peter’s neck was tingling.
“Just never seen a laptop this nice.” Peter tried to lightheartedly joke, tried to make it sound like he wasn’t having a crisis, but it was hard not to notice.
“If it’s too much Peter, we can keep it until you’re ready. It’ll be here waiting for you.” Steve’s voice was tender, and Tony nodded. He looked quite emotional. Peter nodded, handing the box to Steve.
“I’m not ready for that. Are they all this expensive?” Peter whispered, looking at the boxes in front of him, and Tony nodded.
“Let’s… let’s save these then. If you’re not ready. I have one that I’d like you to open, if that’s okay.” Tony was being more understanding than usual, speaking with a considerately soft voice. Peter nodded, and Tony reached forward to grab the smallest box in the group. He handed it to Peter, and Peter opened it. Inside was a watch, one that looked older. Peter looked up at Tony expectantly.
Tony cleared his throat.
“It was my father’s, and I’d like for you to have it. I’ve held that close to me for years, and I want you to experience that too. You are so important to me. I need you to know that. No gifts, or words, can express that to you but I’m hoping this can. I’m sorry you aren’t ready for the other gifts, but when you are, they’re yours. They’ll be waiting here.” Peter was blown away at the sincerity in his voice, the emotion in his words. Peter dumbly nodded at his father, reaching down to put the watch on.
“Thank you.” Peter whispered, voice cracking in the middle. “I’ll keep it safe.” The air was tense, emotional, in a way Peter had never experienced. Steve broke the tension.
“Alright after all of that, let’s get some dessert, right? I ordered chocolate lava cakes.”
~
The night ended soon after dessert, when Peter had yawned and Steve took the lead with a goodnight.
“We’ll see you after Christmas, okay? Let us know when you want the presents.” Steve and Tony walked Peter over to the elevator doors like they always did. Peter nodded, pit still in his stomach.
“Thank you so much for the gifts. I really appreciate them. I’m…” Peter trailed off for a second, trying to gather his thoughts. The patience he was met with from Steve and Tony was much needed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t accept them today.” Peter tried to convey his thankfulness, but he really could not take them. Especially with how Tony was trying to track him. At that, he would be taking apart the watch in the subway on the way home to make sure there were no implanted trackers.
“It’s okay. Don’t be sorry.” Tony added, lifting a hand to pat Peter on the back. “Whenever you’re ready. We’ll see you next time, okay? I’ll call you.” Peter flipped around quickly and gave his father a quick hug, surprising the both of them. It lasted all but three seconds, but when Peter pulled back and saw the stunned look on his face, heat rushed up to his cheeks.
“See you next time.” Peter spoke in a hushed voice, getting on the elevator, and waving as the doors shut. Tony and Steve were left alone, and Steve smiled.
“He hugged you!” Steve raved, and Tony couldn’t help the grin that followed. “Your first hug!” Steve followed up, and they walked back to the living room and sat on the couch.
“I told you the presents were too much, Tony.” Steve chastised, and Tony scowled.
“Any boy would want that laptop. I just wanted to get him something, anything, to show him how important he is to me. I guess it was a little too early. I hope he takes them soon.” Tony left out the fact that he had installed a tracker on the laptop and put it back in the box and plastic wrap to see where he lives. He had a suspicion that Peter might be too smart for that, though.
“His eye looked bad.” Steve commented, and Tony nodded.
“I did want to talk to you about that. I don’t think he really slipped, who slips on ice and gets a black eye? He must have gotten into a fight at school.” They gave a little thought together, and Tony continued. “What if he’s getting bullied?! And I can’t help him!”
Steve grabbed his shoulder.
“He’ll tell us when he can.”