Call Your Parent
It was Peter's fault, really. Well, it was an accident, of course, but an accident that could have been avoided if he had been more careful. Even if the one that knocked him over was indeed Flash Thompson, his old bully, Peter was not going to accuse someone wrongfully. It was indeed a good opportunity for him to get back at Flash for once ― there was no denying that ― but he wasn't going to.
Because it was an accident.
"Uh-huh, yeah," says Harley. "But it's no use telling me that over and over right now. I was there but even I'm refusing to believe that. But Dad? I'm pretty sure that he's not gonna listen to any of that."
"Wait, you called him?" Peter frowns, looking up at him from where he is sitting up in the bed.
"Well, duh." Harley crosses his arms. "Even if I didn't, someone was going to anyway."
"Then you help back me up," says Peter. "You said you were there. You would have seen everything."
"Well, I saw Flash, you, and then you getting knocked over and hit your head on the floor." Harley shrugs. "So yeah."
Peter rolls his eyes and glares at him.
"Really?" He says exasperatedly. "Like that's gonna help a lot."
"And why should I help you? Or him?" Says Harley. "Thomson can get a bit of a lesson out of this. Not to mess with anyone."
"But that's lying," Peter refutes. "I hate Flash just fine, but I don't want to be the very same kind of person as him."
To that remark, Harley seems to have nothing to say. He looks like he is pouting before he starts talking again.
"Well, like I said, you convince him. If he asks me, I'm gonna tell him just what I saw."
"Well, Tony's supposed to be a hero," says Peter. "I doubt he's gonna try and traumatize a kid just because of―"
The door of the infirmary opens suddenly, making both Peter and Harley turn their heads. They find Flash standing in the doorway, looking genuinely frightened.
"I― I'm sorry," he stutters. "I'm really sorry. I, I didn't mean to― Really, I didn't."
Harley scoffs.
"Well if you didn't, a bit of help would have been nice," he retorts sarcastically. "Instead, you just ran away straight after that."
"Uh, yeah. I― I'm sorry about― about that, too," Flash says.
Peter nearly raises an eyebrow in amusement at just how terrified and shaken his former bully looks. Of course he is truly terrified ― he didn't hurt just a nobody, he hurt one of Tony Stark's sons. Or at least, so he thinks. But Peter shakes his head instead.
"It's fine," he says. "It's not your fault, anyway."
Flash is trembling and sweating.
"You're lucky that he is such a stupid saint," Harley says flatly as he gives Flash an unimpressed look.
"I'm not a saint," Peter says. "I just don't want to be a liar."
Like he always was, he adds only to himself.
Flash gulps.
"So I guess you're the one responsible?"
Flash's already wide eyes grow even wider. His face loses color that it already lacked that it is a true wonder that he doesn't go completely transparent. He slowly turns around to find a man looking down at him from behind ― the man with a pair of sunglasses and a hard-looking face.
Flash is about to scream, Peter thinks. But either he has extraordinary self-control over his body to prevent himself or he is too scared to even make a single squeak of a sound.
Tony turns his head to Peter and Harley. Out of the three teenagers, Harley is the only person that is relaxed and laid back. Peter, on the other hand, looks so done.
"No, he's not responsible. It was an accident." Peter sounds exhausted.
Tony looks over his own shoulder at Flash, who is still standing at the door. Once he realizes Tony's gaze on himself, he slowly closes the door before his own face. If it was in a different circumstance, Peter would have laughed at just how robotic and comical Flash's movements are.
Tony turns back at Peter and takes off his sunglasses.
"That not what he told me," he says, pointing at Haley with one of the legs of the sunglasses. He walks into the room, closer to the boys.
Peter sends Harley an unimpressed look. Harley chooses to neatly ignore him.
"Just what did you tell him, exactly?"
"Like I told you about a million times now," says Harley. "I told him what I saw."
"And just what did you see?"
Harley was heading to the gym on the first floor with some of his classmates for his fifth-period class. He was just passing by the entrance hall and the central staircase when he heard Ned's panicked yell.
"Peter!"
Harley didn't really think much of it at the moment as he turned his head to where the sound was coming from. Just as he did, however, he saw someone topple over from the middle of the staircase right into the bottom floor.
Everything seemed to have frozen. The fallen student didn't move. Ned stood still at his spot on the stairs, staring down at him. Flash, who was standing next to Ned, also froze as he looked down with wide eyes. Harley himself couldn't move as it took a moment for him to acknowledge what was going on. A few students that were passing had also stopped in curiosity.
Harley blinked a few times. Then something snapped in his head. He pushed his things into the hands of a nearby student, ran toward Peter, and crouched down next to him.
"Peter!" he called, carefully trying to roll Peter to his back. "Hey, Peter!"
Peter hardly moved as he squeezed his eyes shut in pain. He groaned as his body slowly turned onto his back under Harley's control. His eyes opened slightly and stared up blankly for a moment.
"Hey, you awake?" said Harley. "Can you hear me?"
Peter groaned. Then he closed his eyes shut and went completely limp.
Harley looked at Ned, who had come down and bent down next to Peter and across from Harley. Then he looked around and saw Flash running up the stairs and disappearing from his sight fast.
"That little shit," he snarled before turning toward his friends, who were standing behind him and around the Stark boys. He called toward them. "Can you guys get the nurse?"
"Sure," one of them answered before running off toward the infirmary.
"Shouldn't we call the ambulance?" Ned said. He was on the verge of crying.
"He didn't fall too far, did he? I don't think it should be that bad," Harley replied. "Although I'll make sure to have him get a medical check later."
Harley looked at Peter as he pulled out his cell phone. He found Tony's number on his contact list and made the call. Thankfully, it didn't take long for him to pick up.
"Hey, Dad?" He said. "Uh, we got a bit of a situation at school. Um, Peter got hurt."
The call didn't last for so long as Harley only fed Tony the brief information of all he knew.
"I'll be there soon," was the only thing Tony said before hanging up.
Right about as Harley put his phone away, his friend returned to the site accompanying the school nurse. Other students had been gathering around them in curiosity by then, so the nurse had to pass through layers of bystanders to get Peter out of there and to the infirmary.
And that was why Peter woke up in the infirmary bed with Harley sitting on the chair beside him.
"Okay," Peter says slowly. "I can see why it might look that way."
"So, what's your story, then?" Tony asks.
Peter scratches the back of his head.
Peter was talking to Ned as the two of them walked down the hallway from his Social Studies classroom. They headed up the stairs to get to the lab workshop.
"And it's just crazy how they put all those little details in them―"
The overall conversation was more one-sided as Peter mostly listened to Ned talking enthusiastically about random pop-cultural media. In truth, Peter had been suffering from the aftermath of missing the opportunity to fall asleep on the previous night. He was on his low-battery mode, practically dragging his stiff and heavy body around. His senses had become dull and he was trying his best to maintain his balance with every step up the stairs.
Still, things were uneventful until they had just reached the middle of the staircase when someone ran down from the upper staircase. Ned, who was a few steps ahead of Peter was able to step back and manage to get out of his way. Peter's reflexes, on the other hand, were not fast enough. To make things even worse, his body was already swaying as it was. And the fact that his mind was groggy did not help. As a result, when he tried to react to a very hurrying Flash running down the stairs, he barely took a step back at the last moment in a rather hasty and unstable motion, lost his balance, and failed to find a solid step to support his body. Feeling his body lean toward the ground, he stretched out his hand to grab the railing ― or maybe he didn't. He thought he did, but he wasn't sure if his body actually listened to his commands. One moment he was in the air and then―
Wham!
His vision grew black in an instant. At first, it wasn't the pain that he felt but a dull ringing. Everything was buzzing. The only thing that he could actually acknowledge was the fact that he was now lying down. But why was he and where was he lying?
Does it even matter? The thought emerged vaguely in the back of his head. He just felt so tired. Maybe he should just go to sleep….
He closed his eyes shut. A mild headache was starting to annoy him. It must have been because of his fatigue. And for the moment, he just needed to sleep.
Someone touched his shoulder. He groaned. He was just too exhausted. Just leave me alone, he mumbled internally. But whoever it was was persistent. Peter felt his body roll onto his back. Was it morning already? Sighing, he forced his eyes open.
"Hey, you awake?" Someone was looking down at him, but his face was too blurry. But the voice sounded familiar like he should recognize it right away. "Can you hear me?"
Yes, so shut up, said Peter ― or at least, tried to.
It is the last thing he remembers.
"So… yeah." Peter rubs the back of his stiff neck.
Tony is definitely not impressed.
"The bottom line is, that it's just an accident," Peter says. "So just― please don't make this bigger than it should be."
"I still say that he plays a bit of a role, though," Harley jumps in. "If he didn't run on the stairs, then this wouldn't have happened."
"That's just bullshit and you know it," Peter says flatly.
Harley looks at him but doesn't add much. He knows that he is just being ridiculous.
Tony dramatically pinches the bridge of his nose.
"What were you doing all night?" He says.
Peter shrugs. "Just… you know, phone, internet."
"Does this mean I have to confiscate your phone from now on?"
Peter rolls his eyes. Then a sudden yet deep yawn escapes him, attracting both Harley's and Tony's attention. Peter can't help feeling embarrassed and looks down at his hands.
The door suddenly opens again. This time, it's the nurse coming in.
"Oh, Mr… Mr. Stark." The nurse looks a little taken aback as she looks at the man. "You must be here for Peter."
"I sure am," Tony answers.
The nurse nods and walks inside. She makes a turn to her right toward her desk and pulls out a piece of paper from one of the binders on it. She then walks back to the Starks.
"He doesn't have any visible head wound, no bleeding, but you should get him to a hospital for a full check-up."
Tony nods. Peter has a strong feeling that she's only preaching to the choir.
"For that, I would recommend taking an early leave today. It's almost the last period anyways. I'll write you a permit. You can hand it in at the administration office on your way out."
She then hesitantly looks at Harley.
"Um, would you need to leave early, too?" She asks.
Harley raises eyebrows at Tony.
"I don't know," he says. "Depends on whether you can handle babysitting him on your own."
Tony huffs humorlessly.
"If you come along, it'll be not you helping me babysit him but me babysitting the two of you," he deadpans.
More like me babysitting the two of you , Peter almost says, although he manages to stop himself. Instead, he sighs and buries his head in his hands. This is definitely not the kind of conversation he would like to have at all, let alone in front of other people. The nurse contains laugher as she amusedly watches the interaction. Peter would smack his forehead if he hadn't hit his head so hard already.
Harley checks the time with his phone as if he does not recognize Peter's agony. He looks at the nurse. "Can I get a hall pass for the classes that I missed?"
"Sure," she replies.
Tony turns to Peter.
"You think you can walk on your own or should I carry you?"
Peter glares up at him for a few good seconds with a "Don't you dare" look on his face. He takes the blanket off himself, lowers his legs, and puts his shoes back on.
"I'll get my backpack," he says and tries to get up from the bed.
"I'll get it," Harley stands up from his chair.
Peter opens his mouth to protest, but Harley is already at the door.
"You don't even know the combination," Peter says.
Harley looks back at him.
"Don't I?" He says.
Peter's eyes narrow with both alarm and suspicion. As if Harley has read his mind, he simply smirks.
"Wait, what do you mean―"
Before Peter can even finish asking, Harley leaves the infirmary. Peter is left to watch the door shut behind him.
Tony turns to the nurse.
"Can I get that permit now?" He asks.
The nurse walks over to her desk again, leaving Tony and Peter to themselves.
"So, what do you want to do about that kid?" Tony asks. Peter understands right away who he means.
"What do you mean, 'do about him'?" He gapes at his guardian. "I told you, it was an accident."
"He's still a bully, isn't he?"
"Well, he was, but―" Peter pauses and frowns slightly. "Wait, how did you know about that?" Then again, he doesn't really need to hear Tony's response to know the answer. He shakes his head. "You know what, never mind that."
"Should I call his parents? Threaten him not to come near you ever again? Report to the school?" Tony keeps a straight and serious face, but he is clearly messing around rather than really meaning it.
"No!" Peter says exasperatedly. "He doesn't even do anything anymore. There's just no point bringing up the past. Seriously, getting back at him now is just petty and childish." He shakes his head. "Aren't you supposed to be the mature grownup telling off about things like this, 'Dad'?" He emphasizes the last word with the strongest accent he can give.
Just then, the nurse returns to them with a sheet of paper.
"There you go." She hands it to Tony.
"I'll get this to the office. Be a good kid and stay still." Tony tells Peter and walks out of the room.
Finally some peace and quiet. Peter lets out a sigh as he leans against the headboard. The nurse laughs softly.
"You have such a caring family," she says.
Peter has to fight back a sigh and a groan.
"Unfortunately."