Like father like son
One week ago
“Oh I’m so sorry. You ok kid?”
Peter picks himself up off the ground, half dazed but still coherent enough to flinch at the sentence. Only Tony calls him kid.
“Yeah, yeah! No worries!” Peter exclaims, waving the man’s concerns off.
He brushes the dirt off his knees and starts down the road again. Unfortunately, even with his enhanced hearing he’s too far to hear the sound of a deep voice.
“Got him.”
Present
Focus .
Peter pries his eyelids open and stares at the teacher walking back and forth the dimly-lit classroom, reading straight out of their history textbook. He lets out a hushed groan and glances at Ned who isn’t even trying to look like he’s paying attention. Instead, he’s looking at his phone under his desk, playing what Peter is sure is MapleStory. Peter snorts and catches MJ’s eye who is probably sketching a very unflattering picture of someone in the room. He tears his gaze away to look at the clock. Three more minutes until this hell ends. Peter pulls out his binder in defeat and looks through some rough formulas for his web fluid he and Tony had come up with, intelligently choosing to ignore the teacher’s rambling like everyone else.
“Thank God that’s over.” Ned moans. Peter nods in agreement.
“I would have gone insane in another five minutes I swear.” Peter says with a yawn. MJ stays quiet, fixing up a few minor blemishes in her sketch.
“Come on losers. Day’s not over yet.” MJ finally says, leading them to Mr. Harrington’s room. Peter and Ned collectively groan as they follow.
They walk into the room, the last ones to arrive.
“Ah Peter, Ned, Michelle! Glad you could make it. Let’s start.” Mr. Harrington says, desperately trying to stay peppy. Peter and Ned snicker quietly behind MJ as she rolls her eyes at them. They take a seat next to each other, ignoring everyone’s stares and pull out their flashcards.
“Where’s Flash?” Ned asks, looking up after about ten minutes of tedious physics questions.
“He informed me that he wouldn’t be at today’s meeting.” Mr. Harrington answers, scrolling through his phone.
Peter and Ned exchange a grin. At least the meeting will be idiot-free. Somehow, Flash always makes them all lose a few brain cells at every meeting he’s at. Before Peter can ask the next question, the hair on his arms stand up, as his senses warn him of danger. Peter furrows his eyebrows and looks to the doors, on guard. He only begins to shout a warning as they hear a series of rhythmic crashes, before the emergency doors burst open, a group of five people streaming in...armed with guns.
People begin to scream but are stopped almost immediately by a deep and commanding voice. “Shut up or I’ll shoot every single one of you.”
“Sir. I have to ask you to put that weapon down. I will call the police and you’ll be arrested.” Mr. Harrington says shakily.
The man clicks his gun and aims it threateningly at the teacher’s forehead and he cowers.
Betty whimpers, tears running down her face and eyes wide with thinly veiled panic as she backs away slowly. Everyone else is in a state of shock but does as he says.
The man sighs like they were the last people he wanted to be dealing with right now. “Alright. Peter Parker step out and no one gets shot.”
Peter freezes. Do these guys know? Shit was this because of Spiderman or because of the internship? He can’t let anyone get hurt, he’ll never forgive himself. He sees Ned give the slightest shake of his head but he ignores him and comes forward.
“What do you want?” Peter asks boldly. Normally, he would make some sort of idiotic quip but he’s too scared of the guys that had now placed their guns to his friend’s chests. The man comes up and grabs his forearm, forcing him down on his knees.
“Call Tony Stark. Now.” He says, putting his gun to Peter’s temple. Peter pushes back a flinch and scoffs.
“Is this about the internship? I hate to break it to you but I’ve met Stark like once. Interns don’t get to have his phone number dumbass.” Peter responds, ignoring the looks of awe he was getting from his classmates. To them, Peter was the awkward nerd who tripped over his own feet and couldn’t stand up to Flash. This was a pretty huge step up.
“That’s bullshit and you know it. I’m not fucking messing around. Call him or I’ll make you.” He sneers. Before Peter can react, the man is grabbing his wrist and twisting it painfully upward. Peter chokes back a groan of pain as he hears his bones shift and tense. Everyone flinches and a few cry out as they hear the snap. Peter blinks back tears and looks up to meet the man’s loathing stare with a glare of his own. The man scoffs in anger but strides toward his classmates. His gaze settles on MJ and he clicks the gun to her head. Alarm bells go off in Peter’s head and he leaps forward only to be forced back by two of the black-clad people.
“Call him or she gets a bullet in between her eyes. I’m not kidding kid.” He threatens. MJ clenches her eyes shut but doesn’t allow herself to waver.
Peter lets go of his resolve and grabs his phone out of his pocket. He types in his password and speed-dials Tony’s number. As it rings, the man snatches the phone out of Peter’s hand and brings it up to his ear.
“Hey Pete. Did Decathlon end early?”
The man gives Peter a look. Met him like once, huh?
“Tony. I need you to sign these. They were due like three weeks ago. You have-... had a meeting with John an hour ago. You're supposed to be on your way to VersaLife to finalize our agreement. God, I can’t do this.” Pepper says, clearing off the clutter on Tony’s lab desk and slapping an entire forest of paper onto his desk.
Tony groans and shoves the stack away from him. “I know, I know Pepp. I’ll get it done.” Tony smirks to himself. Get it done meaning he’ll give three fourths of the stack to Peter and have him do it. He had taught the kid how to imitate his signature perfectly, and it came in handy. Plus, he payed the kid with ice cream. It was a win-win!
Pepper raises her eyebrow. “Mmhm.” She exits the room pauses and pokes her head back in. “And I expect you to do them, not torture that poor kid with it. Tony for heaven's sake stop asking for a lawsuit.”
Tony fixes her with an incredulous look and she scoffs.
“Of course I knew.” She calls.
Tony lets out a small chuckle and shakes his head looking at his phone just as it starts to ring. He glances at his watch. It’s about twenty minutes before Peter’s decathlon practice ends, so there’s no reason for him to be calling now. Weird. Tony picks up and puts the phone on speaker.
“Hey Pete. Did Decathlon end early?” Tony asks nonchalantly, grabbing a flat head screwdriver to fine tune one of his stabilizers.
“Hello Stark. Unfortunately your kid isn’t able to come to the phone right now.” A deep and unfamiliar voice comes through the speaker, making Tony drop his tool. It clatters onto the floor, forgotten.
“Who is this. Where’s Peter.” Tony asks, his voice steely calm.
“You can call me Silas. Peter is right here along with his friends. I’ll make you a deal. Come here and chat in person and I won’t put bullets in ten 12-year olds.” The deep voice made Tony involuntarily shiver.
“Fine. Don’t hurt the kids, got it?” Tony asks.
“Get here quick.” He says and cuts the call. Tony lets out the breath he was holding and collapses in his chair.
“Fri you recorded that ri-”
“Yes sir.”
Tony nods and rushes to his prototype. “Where are we at?”
“Boss the suit is at 17%. Only the repulsors are online. I will not be able to connect to the suit.” Friday responds.
Tony curses. He loved Pepper more than anything and would do anything for her but he was really regretting not waiting a few days to blow up all his suits.
“I don’t have a choice. I have to go get the kid.” Tony mutters to both himself and his AI. “Do me a favor and put in the Escape Baby Escape protocol. Just use the backup supply and divert the power supply from the hologram tech.”
“You will have to initiate it manually as the suit does not have enough power for me to control it.” Friday replies.
Tony nods as he steps into the suit and shoots out of the window and towards Midtown.
Peter chokes back a cry of pain as he hears a familiar roar of repulses. His classmates look on in awe as IronMan waltzes through the doors and flips up his face plate.
“Let him go.” Tony says. He stares at Peter’s mangled looking wrist and his controlled expression turns hard. Peter shakes his head slightly. Don’t worry about it. Tony squints a little but returns his gaze back on the group of thugs.
“Now.”
Silas considers him for a few moments and then gestures to his gang to let up. However, he tightens his hold on Peter.
Tony growls and starts toward him only to be stopped by the gun put to Peter’s head.
“Right there is fine.” Silas says, looking at him with loathe.
Tony actually listens for once in his life, and stays where he is. “You want to talk, let's talk. But let them go.”
“Nope. Sorry. That won’t work. These kids, especially this one, is my leverage against you. So I’ll make you a deal.” He pauses and Tony nods. “Come with me quietly and there won’t be ten teen murders on the news tonight. If it comes to that, I’ll make sure to make his, extra painful.”
Tony’s heart falls to his stomach at the small flicker of fear in his kid’s eyes. He looks back up at the offending man and clenches his jaw.
Peter furrows his brows. Why is Tony not using the controlled repulsor blasts on these guys? Peter knows for a fact that he could take these dudes out in a second while keeping them safe in the process. Why the heck is Tony entertaining these idiots for so long?
Tony internally curses. There’s no way he can take this guy out without hitting Peter, as his suit didn’t have anything more controlled than his flight repulsors. He manually pushes the small button on the inside of the IronMan gauntlet and the suit retracts off of him. As soon as he steps out, it flies out the open door and towards the Tower. Thank God for Friday. He hopes she has enough sense to keep Pepper in the dark about all this shit until he finds a way to get out of this. Tony’s hard expression noticeably softened as he looks back to Peter’s now terrified expression.
Peter finally finds his voice. “ Tony .” He rasps.
“It’s ok Pete. Get these kids outta here. I’ll figure it out.” Tony gives him a look. Friday will tell you what to do.
Peter’s eyes well up.
I can take them.
He begs Tony to let him take these guys out but Tony shakes his head firmly. Before Peter knows it,
his mentor is gone.
“Peter?” MJ says softly, she tries to put a hand on his shoulder but he flinches away.
“D-don’t talk to me right now. I need-I need to think. I have to save him. I have to-” Peter cuts himself off, fighting down a panic attack.
“Peter. Look at me.” MJ tells him calmly. She ignores everyone sprinting toward the doors, calling the police. She looks into his panicked eyes, Ned standing nearby to comfort Peter if necessary.
Peter looks up into her hazel eyes and follows her rhythmic breathing, trying to calm his nerves.
“What do you have to do?” MJ asks him gently. Peter nods at her in gratitude. “I-I have to call Happy. He’ll..ah he’ll pick us up. That’ll give me enough time to call Rhodey who can call the Avengers. When I get to the Tower I-I’ll have Friday hack into the traffic cams and see where they went. I’ll figure everything else out after that.” Peter finished and let out an exhausted breath.
He can do this. He can get Tony back.
Happy arrives at record time. They decided to just ditch the police. It’s not like they can help anyway. They’ll ask a hundred and one questions and come up with nothing, wasting everyone’s time and patience.
Happy had already called Rhodes which left Peter to do nothing but worry about Tony. That and answering the rapid questions Happy was firing at him as well as his friends on their way to the Tower.
“Peter.” Happy calls from the driver's seat as Peter was descending into his own thoughts. Peter hums to show he’s listening. “Tony has been through worse shit then this. We’re going to get him back ok kid?” He says, uncharacteristically kind.
Peter swallows the lump in his throat. “Yeah, got it.” He murmurs.
Happy squeezes the wheel and speeds a bit as they approach the Tower.
“The Avengers are on their way Peter.” Friday informs him. Peter nods and pulls at his hair, sitting down in Tony’s usual spot. He had rushed in here, only briefly stopping at the Medbay to set his wrist correctly. He stares at the screwdriver laying on the floor when a flashback suddenly overtakes him.
Peter looks up to see Tony frowning very intently at a screwdriver.
“What’d the screwdriver do you?” Peter jokes.
Tony’s gaze clears and he looks at him with a confused expression. “Hmm?”
Peter sighs and puts down the complicated motherboard he was working on. “What’s wrong?”
Tony shakes his head. “Nothings wrong. What’s up with you?”
Peter puts an affronted look on his face. “You're the one who was looking at that like it murdered someone.” Peter says gesturing to the tool.
Tony smiles and shakes his head. “Well I’ve been told I have a resting bitch face. Guess that’s true.” Tony jokes.
Peter snickers. “If you say so.”
Peter’s vision clears, the flashback only to be replaced by the tears. God he could use one of Tony’s idiotic quips right about now. And Tony would actually know what to do. But he isn’t here. He’s with a bunch of psychos, and God knows what they’re doing to him. Peter drops his head into his hands.
“Peter. Tony has left a message with me for circumstances such as this. Would you like me to play it?” Friday’s quiet voice washes over him.
“What? Yeah play it Fri.” Peter responds, looking at the nearest screen. Instead, a hologram pops up in front of him scaring him shitless.
“What the-!” The hologram shifts over so it’s not obstructed by the desk and plays.
“Hey Pete. First of all, don’t panic,”
“Already did that.”
“You probably already have but don’t anymore yeah? When you're as cool as me this is kind of expected. Alright so for this very reason I put a tracker in my left shoulder. Track that. If whoever’s got me has a signal dampener, and if they actually got me, they probably do, check the traffic cam footage for anything.”
Peter swipes to pause the hologram and rolls over to the laptop open on the lab table. He hacks into the police station and scrolls through the traffic cams stopping at 3:40. It takes him a second to realize the footage was doctored. They had put in footage from some other day and deleted the real thing, something Peter didn’t even know you could do. Peter slams his forehead to the table, great. He informs Friday to continue the message and looks up.
Ok. If that doesn’t work...ah that sucks. I have some programs on my private server to help you get around blockers but it’s going to take some time. God I’m going to regret this but Pete you have a protocol that overrides all the restrictions on Friday I’ve got on you. Tell Friday Protocol Spider Baby Boss...laugh at me later. Listen to me, get Nat and the others. Don’t do this alone. When you find me, let them handle it. I don’t want you anywhere near these guys yeah?
Hologram Tony pauses for a moment.
Your smart kid. And I trust you. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you soon.
Peter swipes the hologram away and breaks out into an unrelenting sob, his breath coming out in staggered gasps. He hunched in on himself, shoulders shaking back and forth at the sheer force. Both his hands went up to his face in a futile attempt to stifle his whimpers, but it was no use.
Peter feels soft hands on his shoulders, pulling him into a warm embrace. He inhales Pepper’s cinnamon perfume and turns to fix his blood shot eyes on her.
“Peter, honey, why are you crying? Why are you in here all alone?” Pepper asks softly. Peter looks down. She doesn’t know. Happy knows Tony enough to know that he wouldn’t want her to know. But he couldn't do this to her, or himself.
“Tony’s gone.” He says, letting out a long breath and averting his eyes. Pepper furrows her brows and sits down next to him. She stays quiet as he explains, his words covered in a layer of guilt. Pepper calms her racing heart and raises Peter’s chin to look up at her.
“It’s not your fault.” She says firmly. She waits until Peter gives her a half-hearted nod and stands up. “I assume Happy called the Avengers. I’ll cancel the press conference for today evening and keep the media off of us for a little while.”
“I’ll start working on the blocker. I’ll get a bit done before Nat and the others get here.” Peter nods, regaining some composure. Pepper nods and lightly ruffles his hair.
“We’ll get him back. If Tony is anything he’s resilient.”
Peter’s lips twitch upward and he nods as she leaves the room.
“Fri. Open Tony’s private files,” God Tony sucks. “-Spider Baby Boss.”
“I believe this is the file you're looking for.”
“Great. Get me in.”
“You know Tony, I really don’t want to waste my energy like this.” Silas says, rubbing his knuckles. He sighs at the glower he receives and pulls up a chair. Tony spits blood at his feet and flashes a grin.
“Trust me, I really don’t want you to either. I think this is unhealthy, think I read about it somewhere... ah yes! It was called mental illness. Heard of it?”
The man considers him, wiping Tony’s blood onto his jeans. “Hm. So you never do shut up, do you?”
“Nah. Being quiet is boring.” He retorts. Silas snorts and leans back in his chair. He takes in Tony’s bruised and bleeding face, relishing in the satisfaction of finally putting his fist in the face of the person who annoyed him so much. Who had so much that he didn’t deserve.
“You really don’t care why you’re here do you? But, gotta hand it to you, your damn brave Stark.” He says, an approving glint in his eyes.
“Damn I got a compliment from the ...oh man I don’t know who you are- oh wait I don’t give a shit. But, since we’re playing twenty questions, I’ve got one for you. How the fuck did you find Peter?” Tony demands, trying to stretch his aching limbs in the tight handcuffs.
Silas snorts and shakes his head. “For a smart dude, you're an idiot. You waltz around with that kid almost every week without security. I found the kid and staged a little accident.” Silas says, shrugging. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small silver sticker looking thing. “It was as simple as that.”
“You bastard. You put a tracker on him.” Tony snarls.
Silas cracks his knuckles. “If it makes you feel any better, I was never going to hurt him. I needed him to get to you.”
Tony stays silent. As much as he hates this dude, he does feel better that he wasn’t going to hurt Peter. “Alright let’s cut to the chase. Why exactly do you hate me so much?” Usually, the douchebag that has nothing better to do with life than hold useless grudges against him finishes their evil villainy monologue he’s practiced a dozen times in front of the mirror in the first five minutes. This dude seems to care less about him.
“Well I was in on this because I hate people like you. Rich bastards who get everything they want, never mind everyone else. I know IronMan was just a positive publicity stunt after all the shit you’ve pulled.” Silas pauses. “But really, it’s not me that has a problem with you. Those guys will be in here shortly.”
Tony shoots him a fake smile. “Always like new friends.”
“Oh I’m afraid you won’t like these guys. They really despise you unfortunately.” Silas says, his face contorting into a pout.
“Hey, you never know. I can be pretty persuasive.” Tony snorts, wiping his bleeding nose on his soiled shirt.
“We’ll see.” Silas reaches to his belt and grabs his phone.
“He’s all yours.”
“Peter, check those. I need to track the last signal from his tracker. Maybe we’ll get an approximate location.” Natasha orders, sipping her coffee. Searching for her kidnapped best friend after a five-hour-long combat mission was definitely not how she was expecting her evening to go, but Nat would be lying to herself if she said she wasn’t worried sick. Worried they wouldn’t find him in time.
Worried he was already gone.
“On it.” Peter spoke tiredly, pressing his fingers into the headache that culminated between his eyes. Natasha shakes her thoughts away and purses her lips, glancing at him worriedly.
“Maybe you should get some rest маленький паук.” She says softly.
Peter shakes his head indignantly. “No way.” He grabs the coffee cup out of Natasha’s hands and slurps the rest down, relishing in the much-needed caffeine that coursed through his body. Natasha shakes her head at him and looks back to her screen.
.
.
.
“Nat?”
“Hm.”
“Tell me this is real.”
Natasha cracks her neck and leans over to Peter’s laptop screen. Her face breaks out into a smile.
“ Thank God, it worked! We have a location. Text Pepper, tell her we’re leaving. Come on let’s go tell the others.” She says, sighing in relief and getting up out of her chair. Peter is already in the elevator as she stands, sending the message on his phone, his face bright for the first time in hours.
Natasha’s eyes soften at Steve and Clint pacing the common room looking stressed. The both of them had been kicked out of the lab as Natasha insisted they needed space to work. So they look up with hope in their eyes when she and Peter walk in. Most of their team were in DC finalizing some bullshit agreements that were deemed mandatory by the Board. Steve and Clint decided to stay here with Tony and Natasha in case anything came up and go next week.
“Let’s go. He’s about thirty minutes out. Friday sent the coordinates to the Jet.” Natasha nods. Steve and Clint sag in relief, running out toward the smaller Quinjet, already suited up and ready to get their friend back.
Peter grabs his suit from his backpack lying forgotten on the kitchen floor and runs toward the doors, only to be stopped by Natasha’s hand.
“Tony told you to stay here didn’t he?” She asks, raising her eyebrow at him. Peter cringes. He could...lie.
Nat fixes him with an intense stare.
Yeah...no.
“I know. Nat please. I have to-” Peter cuts himself off. What if something happened? If Tony was hurt he had to help. He would never forgive himself if he agreed to stay here, helpless, waiting for them to bring Tony home.
Natasha considers him for a moment. Her heart aches for this kid. She knows how much Tony means to him. And as much as she hates it, she knows there’s a possibility that he might be severely injured...or worse.
“Shit. Tony’s going to kill me,” She mutters, staring at the far-away look in Peter’s eyes. “давай.”
Peter glows, his smile nothing but thankful as he runs out to join Steve and Clint. She runs after him to see Steve giving her doubtful looks from the Jet. She shrugs and gives him a nod and he sighs, clapping Peter on the back reassuringly.
She gets on and they take off from the ground, everyone with only one goal in mind.
Tony bites the inside of his cheek, the skin already ripped and bloody. He refuses to divulge any evidence of the pain he was in. In turn, the two men got angrier and beat the living crap out of him more. A never-ending cycle of shit, for him anyway. He thought about Peter. He had no doubt in his mind that Peter and the few remaining Avengers at the Tower would find him. He hopes the kid’s wrist is ok...he’ll have to kill that bastard Silas later for doing that to his kid. He gets clocked in the face for what seems like the thousandth time, and his chin slumps down to his chest. He’d forgotten how it felt to be in so much pain you can’t breathe. Of course, life would have a way of reminding him.
“Good one. Impressive.” Tony says, impressively keeping the slur out of his voice. God this was not cool. His stupid ribs were broken and pushing into his lungs, making every breath feel like he was drinking liquid fire.
The big dude in front of him growls and kicks him in the stomach. The wind is knocked out of Tony and he wheezes. As he regains his breath he wipes his mouth on the side of his shirt and smiles showing his blood-stained teeth. “Not one to talk much are ya?”
“Shut up.” His brass knuckles cut into the skin of his shoulder and he felt his arm dislocate. Tony let out a small groan and the man grins in satisfaction.
As the other guy comes in again, he braces himself for another round, hoping to pass out quickly.
“Alright we’re going to land about a mile or so away so that they don’t hear us coming.” Clint informs from the cockpit.
“We’re gonna walk?” Peter asks.
“Hell no. Avengers don’t walk. What are we, animals?” Steve smiles at Peter’s chuckle. “We’ve got sound-absorbent motorcycles. Courtesy of the joint force of Tony and Shuri.”
“I haven’t seen Shuri in forever. Tony said he’d take me to Wakanda over summer break.” Peter mentions.
“Hey kid, do you have school tomorrow?” Steve asks.
Peter shoots him a look. “School is the least of my priorities right now. And for your info, I told May what happened and she called in. If anyone asks, I’m on sick leave.” Peter says.
Steve’s thought is interrupted by Natasha, who emerges from the cockpit. “We’re here! Everyone get your asses to the garage!”
Peter pulls on his mask and holds onto Steve. He salutes Natasha as Clint and Steve childishly race.
As they near their destination, Peter is again filled with a hatred toward the assholes who took his mentor. He had been distracted from the subconscious images his brain could cook up by the never ending pile of work to get this location. Now that they were here, the images came back at full force, leaving Peter breathless. Tony could be... dead. The thought seems foreign in his mind. The thing is, in his mind, there’s no way it’s possible. The world can’t turn without IronMan, and Peter can’t go on without Tony Stark.
“Peter?” Steve says softly, snapping him out of his thoughts.
“Hm.”
“Don’t think about it too much. He’ll be ok son. He’s Tony, he makes it through everything.” Steve reassures. Peter nods into Steve’s back, trying to clear the troubling images out of his head as they finally come to a stop.
They see a small tool shed looking structure. Through Karen he’s able to see it’s a brilliantly designed underground bunker. Unfortunately, he can’t see heat signatures due to the metal the bunker was made out of.
“Four heartbeats detected Peter.” Karen informs him. He holds up four fingers to the rest of the group and they nod. Natasha puts a small, sleek black device on the lock of the shed and it unlocks automatically. Nat and Clint go in first closely followed by Peter, Steve bringing up the rear. They find a single trap door leading to the array of rooms underneath. Natasha holds up three fingers...2….1. He hears a sharp screech then-
CRASH
They jump in one at a time and all hell breaks loose. Peter immediately scans the area for Tony, leaving the ass-kicking to the others. He spots him and all but sprints toward him.
As he approaches, he quickly realizes Tony is passed out cold. “Tony? Hey we’re here. Time to wake up now, come on.” Peter pleads. He surveys the older man’s body cringing at every evidence of abuse he finds. Peter crouches to the back of the chair and works the knot out freeing Tony’s hands and feet, catching him as he slumps forward.
“Tony! Get up please. Just-just let me know your ok.” Peter asks again, looking up at his face for any sign of him being awake. At first he thought he was imagining it, but Peter hears a small groan of pain that both picks up, and shatters his heart.
He finally looks away from Tony to see Clint, Steve, and Natasha all restraining three dudes, two of which are shouting curses at them. The other one is just looking at him intensely. Where does he know…
Peter gasps. “It’s you. You did this.” Peter says, his voice shaking in anger and disbelief.
“ Oh I’m sorry. You ok kid?” The man mocks.
“How did you find me? How did you know when I was at the school? How ?” Peter demands.
The man smirks. “Might want to check the bottom of your sneakers some time when you get home.”
Peter’s eyes widen in realization. The bastard had put a tracker on him.
Peter steps in to clock him a good one, but is stopped at his mentor letting out another, louder groan.
“Tony? You with me?” Peter asks softly, tightening his hold on him. In his peripherals he sees Steve hold his shield threateningly at the two buff men as Natasha makes her way over to them. She inspects him and nods, flashing a look of loathing at the three behind them. “He’ll be ok. We have to get him to Bruce.”
“We’ll throw these guys in the storage area. I’ll go in there with them, make sure they don’t try anything.” Steve nods. Natasha puts her gun back into belt and nods back.
“I’ll go get the Jet. Be right back.” Clint says climbing up the ladder to the trapdoor and out of sight.
“P’te?” A quiet mumble comes out underneath him.
Peter snaps to look at Tony, smiling with tears in his eyes to see his mentor finally awake.
“Hey. We-found you.” Peter laughs, choking on a sob in the process.
A raspy laugh makes its way out of Tony’s throat and he looks back up at him.
“Thought I told you to stay home. Never listen.” Tony croaks quietly, eyes closed.
Peter shifts and gives him a half-smile. “You really expected me to?”
Toy shakes his head, a smile on his lips. “You ok?” Tony asks, opening the eye that wasn’t swollen shut and looking at his wrist brace.
“Am I ok? Are you kidding?” Peter asks him thickly.
Tony shakes his head but stays silent. This was a conversation for a later time. “Can you stand?” He asks with certainty.
Tony shakes his head. “Nah they kicked the shit out of my legs.” Peter’s gaze turns hard with hatred as he glances at the two men wrestled to the floor.
“I can carry you.” Peter teases wiggling his eyebrows. Tony snorts.
“Hell no. Over my dead body.” He smirks.
Peter zones out for a bit looking at Tony’s beaten and bloody face and Tony reaches up and ruffles his hair with his unbroken arm. “S’ok. I’m alright.”
Peter offers him a half-hearted smile. “I know.”
“Peter! Clint’s back. Help us with the stretcher.”
“Hey Nat! Get the good stuff going, gonna need some of that.” Tony calls.
“Good to have you back shell head.” Natasha smirks affectionately.
“We gonna talk?”
Peter looks up to find Tony awake for the first time in a long time. As soon as they got to the Medbay, Bruce had whisked him away shouting things like internal bleeding and resetting bones to his few assistants. Peter waited outside the ER for the whole of the four hours, only accepting the energy bars and coffee Steve and Natasha brought for him and refusing any other food. Pepper stopped by as soon as she got the alert from Friday that Tony was in surgery and she sat with Peter muttering sweet nothings into his ear until he fell into a fitful sleep. Only, he was awakened after an hour by Bruce telling them Tony was going to fully recover. He and Pepper were let into his room and Peter sighed with relief. He looked peaceful. He didn’t look on the verge of death like he did when they found him. Covered in blood, his limbs bending in the wrong ways , his brain added for him.
Peter stayed in the same leather chair for 48 hours. His aunt visited and brought him food, trying to convince him to come home, but she left only successful in making him take a shower of which he did quickly to return to Tony’s side as fast as possible. He had already missed the first two times Tony was awake as his body was too tired from stressing for such a long period of time, as Pepper liked to put it. She informed him that she and Tony had talked about what had happened. He was glad the couple got some alone time but he was not going to miss the next time Tony was awake.
Peter tried not to look at himself as he knew he looked like the definition of crap. This seems to be a concern to Tony as his eyes are lit up with worry.
“About what?” Peter asks, trying to hint to Tony that he didn’t want to talk about it. Tony was having none of it.
“Don’t give me that look. You're not telling me something and I want to know what it is.”
“There’s nothing! Seriously Tony.” Peter sighs.
“Tell me or you're grounded.” He half-teases.
“I don’t think you have the authority to do that.” Peter scoffs. Tony raises an eyebrow and Peter rolls his eyes. “Hate you.”
Tony laughs softly and fixes him with a stare, trying to figure out what the emotions Peter had no intention of and no idea how to share.
“I’m proud of you.” Tony says out of the blue.
Peter’s gaze snaps to his face and he swallows the lump in his throat. “W-what?” He nervously chuckles.
“I’m proud of you Pete. You kept a level head and you got me out of that hell hole.” Tony repeats, patting his shoulder affectionately.
Peter looks down as Tony’s eyes widen in realization.
“Peter.”
“Yeah hm?”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Yes it is Tony.” Peter says quietly.
“ No you listen to me. It’s not.” Tony says calmly but firmly.
Peter shakes his head as words explode out of him like a shaken-up soda. “It was Tony. That guy, he ran into me. H-he put a tracker on my shoe. These few weeks, I’ve felt my spidey senses tingle when we were out together but I never paid attention to it. I shouldn’t have called you, I should have handled it at the school. I took too long-maybe if I-I was quicker you wouldn’t be hurt like this. It was my fault-everything was-” Peter was cut off as he hiccuped out a sob, feeling hot tears gather in his eyes.
“Peter.” Tony sighs. He reaches out to the boy who was curling in on himself wiping his face angrily. Peter shakes his head and leans away from his touch.
“Bruce said you're not allowed to move too much.” Peter reminds him weakly.
Tony raises his eyebrow. “And I don’t care what Brucie Bear says. I want to hold my kid and I’m gonna hold him damn it.”
Peter lets out a laugh and joins Tony on the bed, scooching close to him and resting his head on his good shoulder.
“Alright. I’m going to tell you some stuff and you're gonna listen yeah?” Tony pauses to look down and Peter nods reluctantly.
“What happened to me had nothing to do with you. It had everything to do with those three creepy stalker bad guys that are going to rot in jail for the rest of their lives.”
“You don’t have to talk to me like I’m three ya know.” Peter frowns.
“Ah ah ah. Shush. I’m not done yet.” Peter rolls his eyes. “Plus, you did the right thing, calling me. I would have been pissed as hell if you didn’t. They ran into you on purpose, and you would have had no way of knowing that they put a tracker on you. If anyone this is on me. I should have put some security on us.” Tony pauses to see Peter furrow his brow.
“That’s not your fault. You didn’t know there were going to be quote-unquote creepy stalker bad guys spying on us.” Peter mocks.
“There. We can agree it’s not both of our faults.” Tony says with a smirk. Peter smiles and nods, blinking away the wetness in his eyes and laying his head back. He never understood Tony’s ability to always say the right thing, but every word made him feel a little bit stronger and a lot bit lighter.
Pepper comes in and smiles as she sees Tony awake.
“Hey Pep.” Tony says, smiling into the kiss Pepper places on his lips. Peter turns beet red and turns his face into Tony’s shoulder in embarrassment. Pepper, however, has none of it and traps his head into her hand, kissing him on the forehead.
“Pancakes or waffles? Breakfast’s on Clint and Wanda.” Pepper grins.
Tony and Peter look at each other and back at her.
“Pancakes!”
“I’m not an animal Pep. Pancakes.”
Pepper shakes her head and sighs.
“You boys.”