Don’t look out your window (darling everything’s on fire)
“No peter you can’t come,” Tony slammed down his screw driver and abandoned the project in front of him. The air in the messy lab was tense. “It’s dangerous and I don’t want you to get hurt!”
There was a loud metallic bang as peter stood up quickly and knocked his chair to the ground, “Mr.Stark I can take care of myself! I’ve gone on missions before and held my own. I don’t have any other obligations so why can’t I come?”
Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes tight. Teenagers were the worst. “Ok kid you want the truth? I know you are are strong and competent or whatever but bad things happen. Bad things that could catch anyone off guard. No matter how capable you are you can still get hurt.”
“Ok then what about the rest of the avengers? They could get hurt too? So why can’t I go if it’s the same likely good of getting hurt?”
“Peter! No. Look at me. The rest of the team is fully grown adults who one way or another chose this life and they are here because they sought it out. You however, are here because I brought you and if you get hurt or worse Pete that’s my fault. Ok? I’m responsible for you being here and I’d like to keep you here. Do you understand?” Tony looked at the kid a few feet away from him and narrowed his eyes. There was no changing his mind and peter better not try to
Peter returned the stare and straightened his posture in an attempt to look more confident. He needed to go on this mission. The rest of the team may not see if someone comes for them. Peter could be back up.
“No. I don’t understand. I chose to be here. I said no to being a live in avenger but I could still come on missions. That was the deal. If I set out every dangerous mission then the only avenger thing I do would be movie night! I’m ready to help you guys out!” The end came across as pouting and didn’t help Peter’s case of being grown up. Nevertheless, he stood tall and didn’t brake eye contact with the older man.
“Kid, what if something happens to someone else? Huh? What if you dodge a bullet and goes through an innocent persons head? Or you can’t save someone? Or some dies right in front of you? A teammate? I don’t want you seeing that Peter and this mission is dangerous and it’s not like the other ones. It’s in an urban place and I can’t risk you being around that. You don’t need to be mentally scared. You’re too young.” Tony began to walk toward the door, signaling the end of the conversation but heard a mumbling behind him. Tony turned on his heels and and pointed to the teen, “What did you just say?”
Peter shook his head and tried to look innocent.
“No no no if you want to continue this argument you better be willing to do it out loud.”
Peter huffed and walked over to a tool bench, cleaning up their mess from the day. “Ok well I laughed at you saying I was ‘too young,’” he put finger quotes around the word,” maybe in the 90s I would be too young but my generation has seen all of this before. Death and destruction aren’t new to us. When I was 7 I saw my hero who had formerly just been a genius get kidnapped and then come out as a superhero. All of a sudden two years later you get attacked while racing then I almost get blown up by a rouge drone at the expo which wasn’t exactly fun. Then a whole bunch of other superhero’s surfaced and then aliens came? I watched from an evacuation house, huddled between my aunt and uncle as you fell from the sky through a portal.
One year later you were announced as dead and then whoopty doo you’re alive again! And happy almost died which still scares me now that I know the guy. Then the agency in place to protect us turns out to be filled with nazi 2.0? My classmates all huddled around a tv screen when we were 14 and watched ultron wreaked havoc and a city got destroyed killing almost 200 people and we didn’t know what was going on or if New York would suffer the same fate? Then men we studied in our history class turned out to be a war criminal and an assassin? Then they weren’t? That’s just what everyone in my generation saw! I fought half my childhood hero’s and my uncle died right in front of me. I had a building dropped on me and was on the outside of a crashing plane. So tell me again how I’m ‘too young’. What haven’t I seen? What haven’t I had nightmares about? I’ve seen death and I may as well call it a friend. My generation is fucked up but we’re still fine! We saw all that happen when we were impressionable and we aren’t scared of superhero’s or going outside. I’ve dealt with it Tony so don’t keep me out of this fight because of my ‘innocence’.”
Tony hadn’t moved during the speech. He expected some retort but it wasn’t this. Maybe about life not being fair or something teenagerish but this was thought out. Peter hadn’t come up with this on the spot. At least not most of it. He had known about the effects of Spider-Man but how much did the civilian side of peter hurt? How much did peter Parker hurt?
Tony walked slowly toward Peter, who’s breath was rapid and his hands shook. “Underoos. I never thought about it that way, but I stand by what i said. You’ve seen enough. Your generation has seen enough carnage for a lifetime and you don’t need to see any up close. I promise you you can come on others but I can’t risk this one. There’s a lot of factors making this decision. You can fight and it may not be anything you haven’t seen but I’m not looking for a world record for most traumatic experiences, ok?”
Peter laughed at the last sentence and sniffled. God he was crying in front of Mr.Stark. He’s so weak. But Peter couldn’t fight right now. And he needed to trust that his mentor knew what he was doing. Besides he was tired, “ Yeah, ok. But I want a comm. I want to know what going on even if I don’t have visual. Please?”
Tony’s shoulders sagged in relief at the agreement,” thank god kid I was gonna have to tie ya down to keep you here. And no comm but you can check our vitals, ok? Make sure we’re still breathing. How does that sound?”
Peter knew that was the best he could get and agreed with a sigh.
Tony wrapped an arm around him and led him out of the lab, “ how about we eat before I leave? I’m feeling like cheeseburgers. You?”
“Those sound great Mr.Stark.”