Despite the fact that he still was a teenager Peter didn't expect that he'd be carried like a child let alone by someone he admired a lot. In fact he could count on his fingers on one hand how many times Mr. Stark carried him.
Fortunately the memories of those particular situations were a little bit fuzzy, which lessened the embarrassment he felt whenever he thought of them.
He hoped that he didn't give out the impression of being someone that needed the occasional rescue, because he was way tougher than he looked. He also hoped that Mr. Stark didn't think any less of him.
The first time it happened, Peter was so tired, so out of it he felt like he was dreaming. One moment he was trying to keep his eyes open, while struggling to keep himself upright, the next he felt warm hands cupping his face, running through his hair, carefully checking him for injuries. That's when he realized that he had been involved in a fight, only the details were quite blurry at the moment. His pathetic attempt to recall the events that led him to the situation he was in got interrupted by a series of words that echoed in the background and he needed a while to focus enough to interpret them.
“Hmm...”
“Are your ears ringing kid ? Do you see five fingers or double ? Don't you dare drool over my hand.” he could hear the worry underneath those words, the slight tremor interwoven into that familiar voice.
“Mr..Stark...”
“The one and only kid, now could you try and stand...” immediately he tried only to stumble over his feet and he would have fallen on his knees if it wasn't for a pair of strong hands keeping him up.
“So..rry.” he mumbled, his eyelids unbelievably heavy, refusing to obey him and open.
“So, I guess opening your eyes is out of the question, huh ? ” was whispered next to his right ear.
He truly didn't want to disappoint Mr. Stark who had put so much faith in him, but his body was ignoring his inner struggle.
“ok...I'm...fine” he mumbled this time with a bit more energy only to get an amused reply as an answer.
“Sure you are, you're as weak as a kitten, I'm counting the seconds before you faint on me...so I'd much appreciate it if you could hold onto your consciousness for a bit longer.”
“Hmm...” with the last part of his energy he cracked his eyes open, took in Mr. Stark's relieved face and let the comfortable darkness pull him under as he fainted.
He vaguely remembered a curse and arms wrapping tighter around him, but he wasn't certain that it was real.
Only when Happy told him that Mr. Stark carried him to a safe place, he realized that the whole thing wasn't a dream.
It wasn't that dramatic the second time it happened, but it didn't make it any less embarrassing.
This time though, Mr. Stark wasn't there when he got injured, but he was definitely present when Peter tried to wrap a bandage around his swollen left ankle to keep it steady enough so he could walk.
“What happened ?" he got startled, got caught in the act and blurted the first thing on his mind,
”Nothing.“
The disbelief and amusement on Mr. Stark's face was proof that he might be able to fool aunt May, but he wouldn't be able to do that to him.
”So nothing made your ankle look like that time when Dummy accidentally dropped a fire extinguisher on my foot and...“ he whistled " your ankle actually matches the red of the extinguisher.”
Peter cringed at the comparison, twisting his foot in a direction that shot a sharp sting of pain through his leg that he had to bite his lip to keep his moan in.
“It's nothing really, worse than it looks like.” the least he wanted was to appear weaker than he actually was in front of the other man.
“Let's see then.” he crouched in front of him before he gently touched Peter's ankle, examining it, all the while frowning at it.
“I assume this was an accident. No secret undercover chasing bad guys around the city right ?” Peter flushed at those words and the knowing look Mr. Stark gave him and not for the first time he wondered whether the other man had been paying a closer look at what he was doing as spiderman.
“Alright, we'll put something cold on it, it doesn't appear to be broken because if it were, you'd be screaming my head off, wrap it up and get you home.” Peter opened his mouth to protest because he arrived at Mr. Stark's place so they could work on a project, not to be sent home.
“I don't want to hear a word from you. Besides I don't want you to faint on me once again.” feeling his face heat up in embarrassment, he did everything that he was told. Well...almost everything.
Just as they managed to reach his apartment with mr. Stark's help of course, Peter decided that he didn't need help anymore and that his ankle wasn't throbbing as much as it did.
It turned out to be a mistake.
He stepped away from Mr. Stark and tried to bravely put some of his weight on his ankle, which granted was more stupid than brave and as the pain rattled his teeth he would have fallen down the stairs if it wasn't for Mr. Stark's good reflexes. He caught him on time and when it became clear that he wasn't going to make the last staircase, he said,
“Here we go again.” before Peter could interpret the meaning behind those words, mr. Stark lifted him up, one arm under his knees until he had no choice, but to wrap his arms around his shoulders.
So embarrassing and humiliating.
“Hmmm, I can walk on my own...this is..”
“Maybe this will teach you to be more careful next time, because when that door opens, May will demand answers so you better have a good excuse.” all the while he continued walking while Peter stared in wonder at the display of strength.
“I could tell her that I tripped in your lab,” he suggested.
“Sure, put the blame on me. It's not as if your aunt doesn't have enough reasons to dislike me.” he huffed.
“Sorry Mr. Stark. I promise it won't happen again.” to his surprise the other man let out a small chuckle.
“Alright, just don't give me that look. Gosh you look like a kicked puppy. Don't worry kid, coming up with excuses is one of my specialties.”
As always he proved that he was right.
The third time was actually more of a catching than carrying, but it was equally messy as things always turned out to be whenever spiderman was on the field.
So, he was a bit too enthusiastic, more reckless than usual as he tried to keep up with the rest of the avengers.
All of that led to a few bad ideas, some potentially dangerous moves, but as long as he was kicking ass while being up and running it was more than fine. Unfortunately he was the only one who thought like that. In between swings and flips he heard War Machine's amused warning,
“Tony, your kid did something stupid again.”
“You know what they say, sometimes the worst ideas turn out to be the best....I have Karen babysitting...what the actual..” came Mr. Stark's reply over the comms, only to stop in mid sentence when he took in the situation Peter got trapped in. Which was the same time Peter himself acknowledged it as well.
It was too hot, everything was too hot because there was a fire that somehow he failed to notice and Karen to his shock was disabled. And he was standing on top of a collapsing building and just because he was extra lucky, his web shooters were malfunctioning.
“My tech doesn't malfunction.” came out of nowhere before Iron man's suit appeared in his line of vision, while Peter was too busy balancing on the shaky ground.
It must have been the magic that was messing with the tech, the magic user they were up against was quite unstable and for lack of better words crappy at controlling his powers.
“Son of a bitch...hold your ground for a second spiderling. I'm coming to get you.”
Peter didn't want to be rescued, it ruined the image that he was strong enough to fight side by side with the avengers, so he tried to put his web shooters to work.
Once again his luck abandoned him in the middle of a swing and before he could manage to send forth another web, Mr. Stark flew by and picked him up from mid-air as if he weighed nothing. To his surprise the action was so smoothly and carefully performed that he almost felt jealous of that amount of skill.
“Sorry Mr. Stark....” he said.
“Not your fault kid...I hate magic.” he grumbled before he gently put Peter on the ground and flew away to deal with the rest of the situation.
At the end of the day Peter was happy that everything was sorted out and he promised himself to be better.
Peter never expected that there will come a day when he would be able to return the favor. Or that he would be able to do it. This time it was an intense battle and a threat that required the assistance of the avengers, each one of them took at least a few hard kicks and by the time everything got wrapped up, Peter's whole body ached.
There was still a lot of adrenaline in his system that kept him on his feet that he barely stopped himself from clapping at the good work they'd done. His gaze found Ironman who currently was standing on the ground, looking incredibly battered.
“Mr. Stark! That was awesome! We did it!” he yelled proudly and smiled at the thumbs-up he got in return.
Having his gaze on Mr. Stark must have been the reason why he was the only one to notice that something was wrong with him. He walked towards Peter, but his movements were slow and careful, it started to worry Peter.
“Mr. Stark ? Are you alright ?” he asked when the other man was at arm's length.
“Great...it's nothing.” his voice was steady, but he couldn't hide the groan that escaped through his lips which immediately lit a warning signal for Peter.
“You don't sound...” he started and he watched with worry as Ironman took a few more steps and fell on the ground. It took Peter an extra few seconds to react through the panic that took over him as a voice in his head yelled that Mr. Stark was injured and he needed help.
Without a second thought he rushed to kneel next to the fallen figure, not knowing what to do first.
“Mr. Stark.” he was gently tapping the suit's helmet in a foolish attempt to check whether the other man had lost consciousness.
“Friday? ” he asked, this time unable to keep his voice from shaking because he hadn't been in this kind of a situation before and he didn't know what to do.
“Karen...” he wasn't aware how small his voice sounded until he heard himself.
“I'll try to connect you.” came the reply from his suit and just as the other superheroes started realizing that something was wrong, Friday mr. Stark's AI retracted the suit back to its holding allowing Peter to take a look at his mentor. He was pale and there was a gash at the side of his forehead, but it was clear that he was breathing.
“Friday?” he mumbled only to have the AI's reply echoed in his ears.
“The boss' vitals are stable for the moment, but he suffered a mild concussion and has a few lacerations. I would suggest taking him back towards the tower and no doctors, not unless colonel Rhodes deems it necessary.” she sounded displeased, but was unable to ignore her creator's protocols.
So Peter decided to take action without waiting for colonel Rhodes or anyone else to react. He carefully put one of his arms under Mr. Stark's legs the other under his torso and lifted him up. At first he thought he had gone mad, that he wouldn't be able to lift let alone carry someone heavier than him, but to his and everyone's surprise he managed. In fact Mr. Stark was lighter than he appeared to be and Peter was overjoyed to find out that he wouldn't have a problem carrying him.
So that's what he did, until both of them were out of the mess and in a safe place.
Since Mr. Stark didn't mention it, Peter kept his mouth shut, even though he was a bit sad that no one acknowledged the fact that he was strong enough to carry Mr. Stark. What made the situation even more interesting was the trending photo that was circling the web, one on which could clearly be seen how spiderman carried ironman in his arms. The reaction coming from the public was quite positive, he even caught himself blushing at the comments about his strenght, so it didn't bother him at all that Mr. Stark hadn't said anything about it.
Exactly two weeks after the fight, Peter returned home from school and found out that a package had arrived for him.
Unable to reign in his curiosity, he rushed to his room, sat on the bed and opened it.
It was a t-shirt, a seemingly normal t-shirt until he saw the picture on the front of it. There was spiderman carrying ironman in his arms, it was drawn in chibi style and the words written on it were
A true hero always has your back
Adorable, cheesy and incredibly heartwarming.
There wasn't a note anywhere in the box, but he got a message that said,
I'm waiting for you in the lab tomorrow, don't be late. Don't worry, that ridiculous shirt isn't the real thank you gift. Your gift will be waiting for you when you arrive.
- you know who I'm.
There was no doubt who the present was from.