All The Stars Align

Peter was passed out on the couch so Tony took this time to go call Pepper.

It was just after two in the afternoon but Tony knew Peter woke up early so he would let him sleep for an hour if he doesn’t wake himself up before then but it gave Tony the perfect chance to run down to his lab and talk on the phone for a few minutes.

Tony tried to cover Peter with a blanket but he had the blankets wrapped around his legs and Tony didn’t want to wake him up so he just left him there.

“FRI, let me know if he wakes up.” Tony whispered and then he was off. He pulled his phone out of his pocket on his way down to the lab and called Pepper.

“Hello?” She answered on the third ring.

“Hey. Pete’s staying home from school again today and he fell asleep on the couch so I just have a few minutes to talk but I wanted to ask you about something.”

“Yeah, what is it?” Pepper asked him.

Tony sat on his workbench and picked up a pencil to fiddle with. “So I’m thinking of getting Peter a therapist. He just needs some help with the separation anxiety and I can’t give it to him so I think this is the best option.”

“I think that’s a great idea, Tony. Talk to him first and see what he says about the idea.” Tony was glad that Pepper was on board. He knew it wasn’t technically up to her but he needed her to be on board about it so he knew it was a good idea.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know that he needs this because it’s just… it’s hard.” Tony told her and glanced over at Peter’s workbench. It’s been so long since they’ve both been down there together.

“That’s good. It’ll be good for him, Tony. To have someone to talk to. Just make sure he’s okay with the idea, maybe when you actually do get a therapist then for the first session you can sit with him.” She told him. That was the plan all along, it might even take more than one session for Peter to be okay with him leaving.

“Yeah. I just know this has to happen. But if we do it, we have to do it the right way. The therapist will have to know he’s Spider-Man so Pete doesn’t feel like he has to hide part of himself. Otherwise it won’t work.” Tony was terrified of having someone else know his underage kid is Spider-Man but he would just have to make them sign a bunch of papers.

“Of course. And you know I’ll help with that process too if you need my help.” Tony could hear the smile in Pepper’s voice.

“I kn-”

Tony was cut off by FRIDAY. “Sir, Peter is awake and is making his way down to the lab.”

“Well, he didn’t sleep for very long.” Tony looked towards the glass door and waited until Peter popped his head out.

“That’s good. So he goes to bed tonight, right?” Pepper asked him.

Tony was glad she knew his bedroom struggles with Peter. “Yeah. I just wish I had a bit more time to myself. Oh, there he is. Let him in, FRI.”

Peter was rubbing his eyes as he made his way over to Tony. “You left me.”

Tony shook his head fondly. “I thought you were gonna nap for a lot longer.”

“Wasn’t nappin’.” Peter grumbled and then tried to climb up on Tony’s lap but Tony didn’t let him. “Mmmm!”

“What?” Tony asked, trying to stop himself from laughing at his cranky kid.

“Let me sit.”

“Don’t sit on me. There’s literally a chair right here, Pete.” Tony reached over to drag the chair over but Peter pushed it away.

“No. I wanna sit with you.” Peter whined out and Tony sighed.

“Alright, Pep. I’ll talk to you later.” Tony waited for her to say bye and then he was hanging up the phone and staring at Peter. “Do you wanna go back to bed?”

“No. I wanna go out as Spider-Man.” Peter looked down at his feet to say.

Tony wanted to bang his head against the desk. He absolutely hated that his kid was Spider-Man. The only thing he liked about it was because it made Peter lighter so he could carry him. That is it and he doesn’t feel bad whatsoever that he feels that way.

“Dad. Please. I haven’t been out in over two weeks. I just- I want to go out and-and I promise I’ll be back when you want me to be back.” Peter looked up at Tony with his puppy dog eyes.

He had his hands on Tony’s knees so he could lean forward and Tony didn’t didn’t even think Peter knew he was doing it but it just proved that his kid was a kid and he shouldn’t be going out as Spider-Man.

Tony laughed. “Absolutely not. You are staying here.”

Peter threw his head back. “Dad. Please. Please, I really want to and-and you always get to do what you want to do so it’s not fair I can’t. I want to.”

Peter wasn’t making a very convincing argument. Tony wanted to want to let Peter go but he couldn’t. “I’m sorry. Not today.”

“Please. Please, dad. Let me. I’ll only stay out for an hour if you want me to. I really want to.” Peter begged him. He was about to get on his hands and knees to start begging because he wanted to lay off some steam so badly.

Tony sighed. He didn’t want to give in but he wanted to see his kid happy. “Fine. But one hour. I want you home in an hour and you know the rules.”

Peter jumped up and down in his excitement. “Yay! Thank you thank you thank you! I’ll see you in an hour!”

Peter started stripping from his clothes until he was down to his underwear then he grabbed his suit that was hanging up in the corner and put it on. He ran over to give his dad one last hug before he put his mask on and was running off.

Tony watched his kid run off. He wished so badly Peter would hand the suit over and give up on his Spider-Man days for good. At least until he’s in his twenties.

Peter ran up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. He couldn’t believe he was finally back in his suit. All of his problems and worries disappeared since he was only Spider-Man in his suit. Not Peter Stark who had crippling separation anxiety from Tony Stark.

“Hello Peter. It is nice to see you again.” Karen said and he beamed. He missed her so much.

“Hi Karen! I missed you.” Peter said excitedly and then pressed the button for the elevator so he could go down a few floors to jump off the balcony without being so high up.

Peter stood on the balcony railing and jumped off, letting himself fall for a few seconds to get that butterfly feeling in his stomach before he shot a web out and swung onto the next building.

He felt free.

Peter swung himself to Queens, stopping one mugging along the way and feeling so proud of himself. He was a bit sloppy at it, missing a punch that was aimed at his face and dodging it at the last second.

He then swung on top of a building and sat there, looking out at the city. He was in Queens and from his spot, he could see the Stark Tower in the distance, his home.

It was definitely weird to think of the tower like that after so many years of driving by it and now Tony was his dad. Weird how life works.

Peter jumped off the building so he could swing from building to building like he used to do all the time. Peter felt a slight twinge in his bladder and realized that he should have gone to the bathroom before he left but he didn’t even think about it.

He didn’t want to go back since he just got out so he decided to wait and hold it.

Peter continued to swing from building to building but paused once he realized where he was. He was back in his old area. He knew if he turned right and kept swinging for a bit then he would end up at his old apartment but he didn’t know if he wanted to see it.

With that thought in mind, Peter swung left.

The twinge in his bladder was back and more powerful so he decided that he had to find somewhere to go pee. He knew how much Tony would hate him for taking his suit off in public but he’s done it plenty of times plus he just needed to take it off enough to free himself to go.

Peter crawled down to the back of one of the buildings and looked around. It was quiet and blocked off by another building so he didn’t think anyone would see him.

He pressed the spider on his chest and let his suit fall to the floor but once he did that, the cold air immediately hit him and he remembered just how cold it was. The heater was just keeping him warm the whole time.

Peter quickly pulled down his underwear and started to pee but the cold hit him harder than it did anyone else so he started to shake and try to hurry up.

He finished and managed to pull his underwear up but then something ran out from under the garbage dumpster and scared him.

Peter screamed and took a step back but his suit was around his ankles so he fell back into a pile of garbage bags and metal scraps.

A sharp pain ran through his body just as Peter looked down and saw that there was blood running down his leg.

He let out a whimper at seeing the blood and struggled to stand up. A piece of metal cut his inner upper thigh as he fell and now the blood was pouring down his leg.

“Ow. No no.” Peter clenched his jaw at the pain and used his hand to stop the blood but it kept coming and his underwear didn’t go down that far to stop the bleeding, he also didn’t have any other clothing to stop the blood from coming.

Peter put his suit back on but it even hurt to walk.

“Peter, I am detecting a large cut on your inner thigh. I recommend calling Mr. Stark.” Peter could hear the concern in Karen’s voice but he was more focused on what she called his dad.

“Not Mr. Stark. Say my dad.” Peter didn’t know if the blood would leak through his suit but he hoped not since it would look like he was peeing blood.

“My apologies, Peter. I recommend that you call your dad.” Karen said again but Peter shook his head and limped out of the alleyway.

“No. Don’ call. Just… he’ll get mad, if he knows.” Peter knew that his dad would take Spider-Man away from him for a long time if he saw that he got hurt. And he wasn’t even fighting bad guys.

“Per your dad’s protocols, I have to automatically call him if you lose a certain amount of blood.” Peter hated Karan sometimes.

“No! Okay, I’ll go home now. And tell him just… stop talking.” Peter knew he was only out for about thirty minutes and if he went home now then he was wasting his time out as Spider-Man but his cut was hurting him and he didn’t want to risk Karen telling his dad.

Peter swung home and had his jaw clenched to hold back his whimpers the whole time. The suit would pull his wound apart and it hurt a lot.

By the time he got home, he was sure that his cut had doubled in size. His plan was not to tell his dad since he knew it would heal on its own and everything would be okay in a day or two.

Peter climbed up the side of the tower all the way up to his and his dad’s private floor and knocked on the window. Tony was sitting on the couch and stood up to go greet Peter.

“Hey, bud. You’re back early.” Tony expected Peter to be late not almost twenty minutes early.

Peter landed on his good leg and winced at the pain that still ran through his body. “Uh, yeah. I’m hungry so I Um, wanted to come home.”

Tony eyed him. Peter was a horrible liar and Tony knew Peter inside and out so he knew that wasn’t the reason. He played along anyway. “I can start an early dinner. Want anything special?”

Peter stayed where he was standing even as Tony walked towards the kitchen. He tried limping a bit to make his way over to the kitchen while Tony had his back to him.

“Um, maybe Mac and cheese. With hot dogs. And apple juice.” Now that Peter thought about it, he was actually really hungry.

Tony turned around and saw that Peter still had his mask on. “Take your mask off so I can see your face.”

Peter didn’t even realize he still had his mask on. He took it off and tossed it onto the kitchen counter. Tony looked his face over to see if Peter had any injuries and he thankfully didn’t so he went back to getting a pot out.

“I’m gonna go change. I’ll be right back.” Peter said and turned to leave. He made sure that he didn’t limp because he did not want his dad to see that and know something was wrong.

Peter went into his bathroom and shut the door. He pressed the spider on his chest and then the suit was falling to the ground. He stepped out of it and sat down on the closed toilet seat. There was dried up crusty blood all down his leg and fresh blood bleeding out of the large gash about the size of a pencil in length. It didn’t look that deep so Peter didn’t understand why it was bleeding so much.

He also didn’t have any cleaning supplies in his bathroom so he just grabbed a toilet paper roll and wrapped a thick layer of toilet paper around his leg just below his underwear line.

Once that was done, Peter walked out into his bedroom and pulled on black track pants just in case he bled through.

He walked back out and went to the kitchen after he finished getting dressed and debated on telling his dad. He knew Tony would over exaggerate the situation but he would help him and give him some much needed comfort which was what he really wanted right now.

Peter just didn’t want Spider-Man to be taken away from him. He wanted to be Spider-Man a lot more now and go back to how it used to be, well, maybe not exactly how it used to be since he spent about 40% of his time as Spider-Man.

“We’re out of apple juice, do you want fruit juice or grape juice instead?” Tony asked him once he saw Peter walk back into the kitchen.

“Um… fruit juice.” Peter responded.

For the rest of the night, Peter hid his wound. He refused to go pee because he didn’t want to pull down his underwear and have to redo his toilet paper bandage because of that.

Tony kept his eye on his kid. Peter was acting weird and was really tense but he didn’t know what it was. He wanted Peter to come to him for it. He assumed that something happened as Spider-Man which maybe scared him or put him on edge.

Either way, it was time for bed and Peter had yet to tell him anything.

Peter went into his dad's bathroom to shower like he always did and Tony knew something was wrong because Peter always went into the bathroom with the door somewhat open but this time, he closed it completely which he never did. Something was definitely wrong.

Inside the bathroom, Peter flushed his makeshift bandage down the toilet and went into the shower to wash the blood off. He didn’t end up using any soap on himself because he knew it would hurt his cut which still wasn’t healing even after over five hours.

Peter carefully dried himself off, getting some blood on the towel by accident. It wasn’t a lot but it was noticeable.

Peter let out another whimper as he carefully put his pyjama pants on and his shirt. His pyjama pants weren’t tight but they were still rubbing his cut and he just wanted it to go away.

Tony looked up when he saw Peter walk out of the bathroom but he didn’t look anything except tired. “Hey, bud. You tired?”

Peter nodded his head and carefully crawled into bed. He just wanted to cuddle up to his dad and go to sleep but Tony was getting out of the bed. “I’m gonna go shower real quick so I’ll be back. Close your eyes and try to sleep.”

Peter watched Tony leave, he knew he wasn’t going to fall asleep without his dad so he laid there and watched the bathroom door, waiting for it to open.

The stinging in his leg had stopped a bit so that was a good sign. Maybe it would start healing now.

By the time Tony came back out, Peter was desperate for some cuddles so he reached an arm out for him. “I’m coming, Pete. Let me just turn the lights off.”

Tony shut all the lights off and got ready for Peter’s nightly begs of not going to school the next day.

“Close your eyes and sleep, baby.” Tony whispered and ran his hand through Peter’s hair.

Peter shut his eyes but there was something on his mind now. “Dad?”

“Hm?”

“I don’t want to go to school tomorrow. Can I please stay home?” Peter asked. He also didn’t want to go because of his wound that would definitely hurt him at school.

There it is, Tony thought. “You have to go. I know you don’t want to but I need you to go.”

Peter shook his head. “No. No more school. I want to stay with you.”

Tony sighed. “How about we see how tomorrow morning goes?”

Peter didn’t like that plan but it was better than nothing so he agreed. Tony held him until they both drifted off into a deep sleep.

Peter rolled away from Tony like he usually did. A few hours passed with both of them in a deep sleep when Peter shifted a bit and felt something wet and sticky between his legs.

Still drowsy from sleep, Peter moved his legs some more and felt that it was wet down there. He sat up a bit and rubbed his eyes to try and wake up a bit.

He put his hand under the blankets to reach down there and he felt that it was wet. No. He hadn’t wet the bed like that since Ben died which was over a year ago now.

Peter couldn’t really see anything in the dark but he could make out his dad’s sleeping frame. He tapped him. “Dad. Dad, I think I wet the bed.”

Tony only groaned and rolled onto his back so Peter tapped him again.

“I wet the bed, dad. Wake up.” Peter shook his dad again and then Tony was sitting up.

“Yes. What? What’s wrong?” Tony blinked a few times and looked over at the clock next to his bed saying that it was 3:14am.

“I wet the bed.” Peter simply said. Tony was more awake at that.

“You wet the bed?” He asked, trying to make sure he heard that right.

“Yes.” Peter forced out since he said it about five times now. “I just felt that the beds all wet under me. I didn’t mean to.”

Tony couldn’t see anything in the dark but Peter had never wet the bed before, he knew his history of it but he hadn’t experienced it with him so he thought that maybe Peter just had a dream he wet the bed and was confused so he reached under the blankets to Peter’s side and felt that it was in fact wet underneath him.

“Okay. Uh, it’s okay.” Tony reassured him and tried to think about what to do next. “It happens, it’s okay. We just have to change the sheets.”

Tony reached over and turned on the lamp so they could have some light on to see what they’re doing. He looked over at Peter who was looking down. “It’s alright, Pete. It’s an accident.”

Tony grabbed the blankets and pulled them off of Peter but when he did, he almost had a heart attack. “What the fuck. Oh my god, Peter.”

The whole bed under Peter was covered in blood. Along with the sheets and Peter’s pyjama pants by his crotch. Tony wanted to vomit at the sight because that was not normal.

“Peter.” Tony said in disbelief. Was his kid peeing blood? Maybe something was wrong internally.

Peter looked down at all the blood and covered his face with his hands to start crying but his hands were already covered in blood which made it even worse.

Tony felt frozen. It looked like a murder scene. “What happened as Spider-Man?! Tell me what happened.” Tony knew he should have pushed it harder. He should have forced Peter to tell him so now Peter wouldn’t be peeing blood.

Peter looked at Tony with tears mixed with blood on his face. “I’m s-sorry!”

“Tell me.” Tony said again.

“I went pee.” Peter cried out and Tony wanted to throw something.

“I know you did. I want to know what happened as Spider-Man!” Tony knew he couldn’t have patience with Peter right now.

Peter sobbed loudly. “I went pee as Spider-Man! Be-behind a building, and-and… I fell and the metal cut my leg open.”

Tony tried to process what he was hearing. So Peter wasn’t bleeding internally but bleeding from a cut in his leg. He reached forward to pull down Peter’s pyjama pants to see where this cut was. It had to be deep if it caused a puddle of blood to form under Peter.

Peter tried to stop him because he didn’t want Tony to see the cut. “No! Don’ look at it!”

His effort was useless. “Let me see,” Tony pulled his pyjamas down and saw exactly where the wound was. “Oh shit, Peter.”

Peter was crying loudly now, both from pain and fear. Tony didn’t need to look at it anymore to see that Peter clearly needed stitches. He carefully pulled the pants back up and got off the bed to rush over to Peter’s side so he could pick him up and take him down to the MedBay.

“FRIDAY, tell the MedBay we’re coming down and to get ready.” Tony said in a panic, trying to keep calm for Peter but having a hard time because Peter was literally bleeding out in his arms.

Peter tried to grasp the front of his tank top but his action was effortless since he was so weak from all the blood loss.

“D-dad. It hurts.” Peter said weakly.

Tony mentally begged the elevator to move faster. He could feel Peter struggling to hold his head up now which terrified him. “Peter! We’re almost there, buddy.”

The elevator doors opened up on the MedBay floor and there were the doctors rushing around the place, trying to set up a room for what they were about to receive.

They were always in the tower, working on new medicine in some of the labs but were always ready for when the team came back from missions and needed medical attention but Tony never expected to be bringing his kid down, crying loudly at three in the morning.

Two female doctors rushed up to him first and looked over his kid covered in blood and crying in his arms. “What happened?”

Tony answered as he followed them into a room that was being set up. “He… he fell. Outside and cut his inner leg.”

Tony knew that they knew Peter was Spider-Man because it was necessary if anything like this happened and they had to use the proper medicine and anaesthesia for Peter’s body.

“Set him down here.” Tony set Peter down but Peter was reaching for him desperately. He cupped his face and moved to stand behind Peter’s head to let the doctors take over.

“No! Dad! Don’-don’ leave. Daddy!” Peter cried out and tried to reach for him from where he was standing but he couldn’t.

“Shh, I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” Tony leaned down to press kisses to Peter’s face. He looked up and saw that Peter’s pyjama pants had been taken off and they were looking at his cut and trying to stop the bleeding.

Tony hated seeing Peter’s legs covered in dry and fresh blood and watching a bunch of random doctors work on Peter but he knew that Peter was in good hands and that they were doctors so it was okay. It was going to be okay.

The doctors were shouting stuff at each other but Tony didn’t listen to any of it since he was only focused on Peter. He had Peter’s face cupped with both hands and made sure that Peter didn’t see anything that was happening since it was scary to see his kid covered in so much blood.

“It’s okay. Just look and be and breathe. It’s okay, Pete. Shh.” Tony said to him. He ran his thumb along the side of his face and forced out a smile.

“He needs to get a few stitches so we’re going to numb the area now. You’re gonna feel a slight stinging pain for a few seconds.” One of the doctors said; Tony couldn’t remember her name.

Peter tried to lift his head up but Tony held it down which only made Peter start to cry once again. “Daddy! It hurts!”

That broke Tony’s heart. “Shh, it’ll be over soon. It’s okay. I’m right here.”

Someone grabbed Peter’s hand to shove a needle into it and tape it on. Tony saw that it was hooked up to fluids. He looked up and watched the needle about to go into Peter so he looked away and looked back at Peter’s face.

“Ow! S-s-” Peter couldn’t finish his sentence because he was crying so hard and it hurt Tony probably more than this was hurting Peter.

“Almost done. You’re being so brave, Peter.” One of the doctors reassured him. Tony looked over at her and saw that she was taking the needle out and then moving around to do something. “We’re going to have to move you a bit so I can get at your leg because it’s in a tricky place.”

Peter looked up at Tony for the first time since he was brought down here and Tony could see that his eyes were focused on him so the pain must have gone away at least a bit.

Tony looked back up at the doctor. “Okay. Do I have to pick him up?”

She smiled and shook her head. “Nope. I just need him to lay a bit sideways so I can bend his leg in front of me.”

Tony helped her move Peter so he was lying with his head on the side then she grabbed Peter’s leg and placed a sheet over his waist so he was no longer fully exposed.

Tony dragged over a stool so he could sit down throughout the process and however long it was going to take.

The doctor attempted to talk to Peter but Peter wasn’t answering her which she understood and didn’t push it. Tony was extremely grateful for her. There was another older man in the room who was checking Peter’s chart and doing something off in the corner that Tony wasn’t focused on.

The whole process took about ten minutes which seemed like a lot longer to Tony and probably Peter too.

The doctor was putting some cream on Peter’s leg and wrapping up in a gaze. Tony knew the process wasn’t over yet but he was so grateful that his kid was okay.

Now that he knew Peter was okay, he could actually think clearly and he thought about how bad of a father he is. His kid came home hurt and bleeding and it took him almost ten hours to notice. Peter was bleeding out for a whole ten hours and he didn’t do anything about it.

The doctor was talking and pulling him from his thoughts. “Mr. Stark, it’s important that you keep his wound clean at all times so as to not cause any infections. I’m going to give you this antibacterial cream that will be applied onto the wound as well as some gaze. It is also important that he gets no water or dirt into the wound until it is completely healed so I would suggest him showering with just a wet cloth for a few days until it closes. It’s also important to let the wound breathe so it heals faster but because of where it is located, that might be a bit hard so loose fitting clothing will be good.”

Tony tried to take mental notes on everything the doctor was saying to him but it was kinda hard to do with his racing mind. “Um, okay. Alright.”

“The stitches will disappear on their own but if you think the wound looks a bit odd or for any other reason then bring him back down and we’ll have another look.” The doctor smiled warmly at Tony and gave a gentle squeeze to Peter’s leg.

“Thank you so much.” Tony was extremely grateful for this doctor that he still didn’t know the name of and all the other doctors that helped his kid.

She smiled at Tony and left without saying another word.

“Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?” Tony asked Peter who was seconds away from falling asleep.

Peter shook his head and rubbed his eyes. Since Peter’s old pyjamas were now covered in blood and taken away by one of the doctors somewhere, Tony debated just picking Peter up and carrying him back to his floor since no one new would see them but he still didn’t like that idea.

“FRIDAY, can you ask Steve or whoever’s up to go get some pyjama pants from Peter’s bedroom and bring them down to us.” Tony ran a hand through his hair and then realized that his hand still had blood in it and so did Peter’s face.

He stood up to go grab a cloth but Peter let out a whimper. “Don’ go.”

“I’m here, baby. I’m just grabbing a cloth to clean your face.” Tony reassured him and then went to the sink to wash his hands and grab a cloth and wet it.

Peter was touching his face and trying to sit up so Tony helped him into a sitting position. “Put your leg straight, Pete.” Tony told him because Peter still had his leg stretched out on the side table that the doctor brought up.

Peter shook his head. “‘S gon’ hurt.”

“No, baby. They numbed it. I’ll help you.” Tony walked around so he was standing beside the bed and gently grabbed Peter’s leg so it was lying straight in front of him next to the other one. “There. That’s better.”

Tony started wiping Peter’s face with the cloth to get rid of the dried up blood from both of them touching his face with their blood covered hands. Peter grabbed the sheet covering himself and tossed it to the side.

“Where-where’s my pyjamas?” Peter looked around the room. They were one of his favourite Iron Man pyjamas and he wanted them back.

“They got dirty.” Tony decided to say instead of the fact that they were drenched in blood.

“But… I liked those ones.” Peter moved the cloth away from his face so Tony placed it on the tray. He got most of the blood off anyways.

“I’ll get you new ones-”

“Peter.” Steve said from the doorway, holding a pair of Star Wars pyjama pants in his hand. Tony saw his eyes skim over Peter and land on the bandaged wrapped thigh. “What happened?”

Tony took the pyjamas from Steve with a quiet thanks. “Uh, he went out as Spider-Man, took off his suit to pee, fell over and some metal cut his leg open but he didn’t tell me until he woke up and thought he wet the bed.”

Steve was looking at Peter with wide eyes. Tony knew Steve cared about Peter a lot so it was hard for him to see Peter how he was.

Tony helped Peter so that he was sitting with his legs hanging off the side of the bed. He then bunched the pyjamas up to get Peter’s feet in easier but Peter was pushing him away with his good leg. “Doesn’t match my top.”

“It’s okay. It’s just for tonight.” Tony explained to him and pulled Peter’s feet through each hole. “I’m gonna help you stand up but put all your weight on your good foot.”

Tony helped Peter onto the floor and then pulled his pants up to his waist. He looked over at Steve who was still watching with wide eyes.

“Is he okay?” Steve asked quietly.

Tony nodded his head. “Yes. He’s okay. It’ll be healed quickly. Maybe two or three days with his spider bite.”

Tony lifted Peter into a bridal carry just like when they came down but this time Peter wasn’t screaming bloody murder and his heart wasn’t threatening to bust from his chest.

Peter grabbed onto the front of his tank top again but with a stronger grip as Tony walked towards the elevator. Steve followed close behind him and touched Peter’s forehead once they got into the elevator.

“Do you need me to come up?” Steve asked Tony but Tony shook his head.

He planned on taking Peter immediately to bed to go to sleep. “No. It’s okay. Thanks for grabbing his pants.”

“Yeah, no problem. Let me know if you need anything.” Steve looked Peter over one last time before he was getting out of the elevator and onto his floor.

Tony looked down at Peter and saw that he was looking up at him. Tony hated how this was all his fault. If he just said no to Peter being Spider-Man then everything would be okay now.

“I’m sorry, Peter. I shouldn’t have let this happen to you.” Tony said as he carried Peter out of the elevator and over to the stairs.

“No. S’not your fault. I should-shouldn’t have… went pee.” Peter said weakly and shut his eyes a bit because he was exhausted.

Tony was going to talk to him about what he did once he’s better but at the end of the day, Peter is a child and it’s the parents job to keep their children safe.

Nothing more was said between the two as Tony carried Peter into his bedroom but paused once he saw all the blood that he temporarily forgot about. He had no idea how he was going to clean that up but that was a problem for tomorrow.

Tony turned and carried Peter into his own bedroom and moved the blankets back then placed him down. Peter opened his eyes and saw where he was and started freaking out. “No. Daddy, I wanna stay with you.”

Tony melted at the name. He wished Peter called him that all the time. “My bed is dirty. I’m coming to sleep with you in here, bud.”

Tony piled up a bunch of pillows on Peter’s side to hopefully stop him from rolling off and then he climbed into bed with Peter and brought him close to his chest to hold him while they slept.

Peter moved his head a bit to speak. “No school tomorrow.”

Tony smiled, despite the situation. “No school tomorrow, baby. I promise.”

.
.
.

The next morning Tony woke up and immediately checked on Peter.

He moved the blankets a bit to check to see if there was any more blood which there was thankfully not. He didn’t know what he would do if he saw that again.

He didn’t have his phone or anything in Peter’s bedroom and he had no idea what time it was so he just laid there. Peter’s bed was actually very comfortable.

He looked around his room and saw how empty it was. Besides for a stack of legos on the floor and a few pictures on the wall, there wasn’t much of anything in the room. It definitely did not look like anyone was living in the room and to be fair, Peter only changed and showered in there; if that.

Tony needed to change that eventually. The room needed a paint job for starters and some more stuff in it. Then maybe that would also help Peter sleep in his own bed which Tony kept trying to do but something always came up and prevented him from doing that.

Tony checked on Peter one more time and then got out of the bed. “FRI, let me know if he wakes up.”

“Yes, Boss.” FRIDAY replied in a gentle voice.

Tony had to sike himself up to enter his bedroom and see the pile of blood again. He walked into his room and wanted to vomit at the sight. Seeing it in daylight was even scarier because so much blood had come out of his kid. The sight was sickening.

He immediately opened the window to get rid of the metallic smell. He went into the bathroom to get ready for what was about to be a long day.

After he was done in the bathroom, he then took the comforter off the bed and tossed that to the side to be washed even if no blood got on it. The sheets were destroyed with no hope so Tony grabbed a garbage bag from the bathroom to take the sheets off the bed and put those in there. He didn’t care if it was one drop of blood, everything on the bed was going in the garbage.

There was still a massive stain on the bed and Tony would have taken pee over this any day. It hurt him to look at the giant blood stain because he knew it was his fault and now he failed as a father.

He sat on the clean side of the bed and grabbed his phone to order a steam cleaner. If that didn’t get all the blood out then he would buy a new mattress.

“Boss, Steve and Natasha are requesting access to the floor.” FRIDAY announced.

Tony put his phone in his pocket and started heading downstairs. “Tell them to come up.”

He got downstairs at the same time as they were exiting the elevator. “How’s Peter?” Steve asked, worry written all over his face.

Tony ran a hand through his hair. “He’s good. He’s still sleeping and I wanna let him sleep for as long as possible so he heals after.”

“Steve told us what happened.” Natasha said and if Tony saw correctly, he would say that he saw some worry on Natashas face as well.

He didn’t say anything though. He knew the whole team cared about Peter a lot. “Yeah, well, it’s my fault for letting him go out as Spider-Man and now he’s missing another day of school.”

It was way too much. Tony felt like he was rushed to get into a ‘normal’ life with Peter but there was no such thing as normal for him and now Peter as well so he didn’t know why he felt this way.

“Then take the suit away from him. That simple.” Natasha said like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Tony laughed. “It’s not that simple.”

“Why? Would you rather have him mad at you and alive or happy that you let him be Spider-Man but dead.” Natasha put bluntly.

Tony felt his heart skip a few beats. Peter was alive and he was okay. “I want him to stop being Spider-Man but you don’t understand.”

Natasha walked past him. “You’re his dad. You tell him what you want and he can either listen to you or not listen to you but your say goes.”

As simple as it was, Tony didn’t think about it like that. He didn’t say anything else about it and thankfully neither did Natasha. He followed her with Steve over to the tree that was still up.

“Are you planning on keeping this up until next year?” Natasha asked, sarcastically.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Obviously not. I don’t exactly have time to take it down right now.”

“We can take it down for you.” Steve offered. “We don’t have anything to do. Clint gets back on Friday and then we have that mission that we’re going on but until then we’ve got nothing to do.”

Tony didn’t know about the mission on Friday because he wasn’t invited. Not that he was complaining. He hadn’t gone on any missions with the team since Peter came to live with him and he wasn’t going on any anytime soon.

“Help yourself. That would help out a lot. I’ve got a steam cleaner coming soon so I can clean the blood off my bed so I’m gonna be busy with that and Peter-”

“Boss, Peter is waking up.” FRIDAY announced so Tony started rushing upstairs.

He started walking to his room out of habit but had to stop and turn around so he could walk into Peter’s bedroom. Peter was sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. He smiled weakly when he saw his dad.

“Good morning, bud. How’re you feeling?” Tony laid down on the bed on his side and held his head up with his arm.

“Good. I think my leg is all healed. It feels better.” Peter yawned and moved the blankets off of him. He tried to pull down his pants to see the bandage but he’d rather wait until he’s standing up.

“That’s good.” Tony was so happy to hear that. “I have the cream here so let me look at it and see if maybe we should let it breath today.”

Peter carefully got out of his bed to see how his leg felt when he went to stand on it. There was a bit of pain where the cut was but it was bearable.

Peter went into the bathroom and dropped his pyjama pants to go pee first while Tony got the cream, gaze and underwear.

Tony walked into the bathroom and started washing his hands before he touched Peter. “Can you put some underwear on before I change the bandage?”

Peter put his underwear on and waited for Tony to finish. “Okay, come stand in front of me.” Tony sat on the closed toilet seat and guided Peter to stand in front of him.

He had never done anything like this before on someone else so he was a bit scared of making it worse. He carefully undid the bandage, Peter wincing at the movement.

Tony removed it and saw that the stitches were healing very well. The cut was practically almost healed. It looked amazing. Maybe Tony was also grateful for the spiders bite fast healing as well as light weight.

“Look at that, Pete. It’s almost fully healed. I think by tomorrow morning it’ll be fully healed.” Tony said and put the bandage in the garbage then grabbed the cream.

Peter shook his head. “But no school tomorrow. I need to stay home for another day.”

Tony laughed. “I don’t think you do but I’ll let you stay home from school tomorrow too, okay? We’ll finish your biochemistry assignment today and tomorrow so you can bring it to school on Friday.”

Peter relaxed at that. He gets to spend another day at home and then suffer one day at school and then the weekend.

Tony carefully rubbed the cream over the wound, caking it on so it’ll heal faster. Steve popped his head in the bathroom. “The steam cleaner came so I’m gonna try to clean the bed for you. You stay with Peter.”

“Oh. Thanks, Steve.” Tony was very grateful for the team right now. He wouldn’t have been able to do it all by himself.

They say it takes a village to raise a child but in this case, it takes a team of Avengers.

“You ready to go downstairs and eat something?” Tony asked Peter and stood up to wash his hands.

“Yeah but I’m only wearing my underwear. I don’t like the way it rubs.” Peter said and rubbed his good leg for emphasis.

“That’s fine. I think Nat, Sam and Bucky might be down there taking down the tree.” Tony told him as they walked out of the bathroom and headed downstairs.

“Aww, I wanted it to stay up.” Peter whined. He liked the way it smelt and how it made the room look so cozy. Plus it reminded him of his first Christmas with his dad.

“Next year, bud. It’s time for the tree to come down now.” Tony put his arm around Peter and hugged him against his side.

The tree was already taken down by the time they got down there with all of the tree ornaments in the bins. Natasha and Bucky were cleaning up the tree pieces on the floor which Tony was extremely grateful for.

“Thanks guys.” He said as he passed by them on the way to the kitchen with Peter.

Everyone’s eyes landed on Peter and looked down at his cut. “Brave, rebenok pauk.”

Peter smiled, having no idea what she just said but she called him brave and he liked that.

After everyone was gone downstairs a few hours later, Tony decided to sit down and talk to Peter about a few things.

Peter was currently sitting on the floor playing with his legos and had been ever since breakfast was over. Tony sat down and leaned against the couch. “Let’s talk for a sec, bud. Can you stop playing with your legos for a second.”

Peter’s face fell. “Am I in trouble?”

Tony wanted to say no but that wasn’t the truth. He just wanted to talk to Peter but he wasn’t going to punish him or anything. “Not really. I just wanna talk about what happened yesterday.”

Peter nodded, having assumed as much.

Tony began. “You know I don’t want you to take your suit off for any reason while you’re out. I know you did that before but I do not care what you did before. Those are part of the rules and you broke that rule yesterday.”

Peter nodded his head and continued to look at the carpet. “I just… I didn’t want to come all the way home and waste my hour.”

“Communication, Pete. If you came home to go pee and told me ‘hey dad I just wasted fifteen minutes of my hour to come home to go pee can I have extra time’ then I would have said yes.” Tony told him. He could tell Peter felt bad for what he did but Tony felt worse. His baby got hurt.

Peter didn’t say anything so Tony continued. “This was the best case scenario, Peter. What would have happened if someone attacked you while your pants were around your ankles? Huh, what would you have done? Or what would have happened if someone showed up and took a picture of you with everything out there in the open?”

Peter shrugged his shoulders and continued to look at the carpet. “I don’t know.”

“I want you to look at me when I’m talking to you.” Tony waited for Peter to look at him before he was continuing. “I need you to understand that you can never, ever do this again.”

“But I looked around for the bad guys and I didn’t see any.” Peter tried to defend himself but Tony was laughing.

He could not believe how innocent and naïve his kid was. “Peter, bad guys? Really? This isn’t some kind of video game. This is real life.”

“I know that.”

“No, I don’t think you do.” Tony eyed Peter and saw that it looked like he was about to cry but Tony didn’t care, he needed Peter to understand. “It’s not safe for you to just whip yourself out in some ghetto alleyway to go pee. I don’t care if you pee the suit trying to make it back home. You. Do. Not. Take. Your. Suit. Off. Outside.”

Peter nodded his head.

“Do you understand me?” Tony asked to make sure this didn’t happen again.

Peter nodded his head again. “Yes. I understand you.”

“Good. What happens if you're out as Spider-Man and you need to go pee?” Tony asked him to see what he would say.

“I come home and ask you for more time.” Peter answered. He felt really bad for the whole Spider-Man thing plus he didn’t want to go through that again.

“Good job. Now, I don’t want you to ever ever ever keep anything from me especially if it is about your health. Yesterday you hid your bleeding thigh from me for hours, Peter. Hours. If you ever do that again then you can say bye bye to Spider-Man for a very long time.” Tony wanted to take Spider-Man from Peter now but he knew he couldn’t. It was something that had to happen so they both learned a lesson. Definitely the hard way.

Peter knew Tony was being serious because he had that twitch in his eye. “Yes. I won’t keep any more Spider-Man injuries from you or anything else.”

Tony smiled. His boy was too perfect. “Okay. Good. Now come give me a hug.”

Peter crawled over on his knees and reached forward for Tony to grab him into his arms. “I love you, dad. And I’m sorry for being bad yesterday. I was just scared you would take Spider-Man away from me.”

Tony squeezed Peter tighter. “I love you too and it’s okay but… I am taking Spider-Man away from you for a week. Spider-Man is on timeout for one week.”

Peter pulled away from him. He looked like he was about to argue so Tony raised his eyebrows at him but Peter sighed and went back into his dad's arms.

“Fair enough.”

Tony patted Peter’s butt, silently signing Peter to get off of him. “I’m gonna go make my bed again and do some laundry. Do you wanna come or stay here?”

Peter thought about it. He wanted to be with his dad but he was having a lot of fun playing with his legos. “I wanna stay here.”

That surprised Tony but he was glad. Peter needed some time with his thoughts and he needed some quiet time himself with his thoughts. He bent down to press a kiss to Peter’s head. “Call me off you need me. I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay. Bye.” Peter watched Tony go upstairs and then went back to his legos.

Tony walked into his bedroom to go look at the bed. Steve had said that all the blood came out but it was a lot and took awhile. He saw that all the blood was gone. No evidence of it ever being there to begin with which Tony was grateful for since he didn’t want to have to get a new mattress.

He grabbed some new sheets and made the bed then spent a good hour doing laundry and by the time he finished that, it was time for lunch.

Tony applied more cream onto Peter’s wound multiple times throughout the day even if he could see that Peter didn’t need it. He wanted to make sure that there was no risk of infection or anything like that.

By the time nighttime rolled around, Tony could tell that Peter was exhausted.

What happened the day before had taken a lot of energy out of the both of them so when it was 9pm, Tony decided it was time for bed for the both of them.

He put a package on the bed that he ordered earlier that day for Peter. So after he helped Peter shower with just a cloth so as to not get his wound wet, he waited for Peter to spot the package.

“I wanted to go- what’s that?” Peter paused and then rushed over to his side of the bed where there was a package. He picked up a note that had his name on it.

Peter,

Because I love you so much

-Dad

Peter smiled and looked up at his dad who gestured for him to open it. Peter ripped open the bag and saw that it was a pair of Iron Man pyjamas. He pulled them out and hugged him to his chest.

“A new pair! I love them so much, dad. Thank you! Hm, so soft. I’m gonna put them on now.” Peter went to go hug his dad and then he put his new pyjamas on.

“Aw, I’m glad you like them, bud. I know how you like your Iron Man jammies.” Tony teased him and ruffled his hair.

“I love them. Because you got them for me and because it is you.” Peter did a little dance and jumped into bed. He waited for his dad to finish getting ready himself and then latched himself onto his side once he was in bed.

“I’m glad I don’t have school tomorrow. It’s Peter and daddy day. Again. But those are my favourite days.” Tony’s heart completely melted. He had no idea what he did to deserve his beautiful boy.

“I love you so much, Petey. My baby boy.” Tony pressed a bunch of kisses to Peter’s face which caused him to start laughing but he didn’t want to make Peter less tired so he stopped. “Alright. Time to sleep. Shut your eyes.”

Peter let Tony run his hand through his hair that calmed the both of them down. It didn’t take long for the two of them to both drift off.

.
.
.

Tony woke up to FRIDAY calling him.

“Sir? Peter has left the tower.” FRIDAY said but Tony wasn’t fully awake just yet.

He sat up and blinked a few times. “What?”

“Peter has left the tower five minutes ago. I have been trying to wake you up.” As FRIDAY was speaking, Tony looked over and saw that the bed next to him was empty.

His heart dropped. Peter was gone.