Chapter Text
“Peter! Watch out!” Tony had yelled.
Peter groaned internally, happy it wasn’t out load and hadn’t gone through the coms. Tony was being far too overprotective again. Peter had known the missile was heading his way. His spider sense had picked up ages ago, and he was out of the way the moment he sensed it.
But of course, his dad didn’t seem to remember that. Ever since he had gotten out of the soul stone, Tony was a worry-wart. Any battle, anything even reminiscent of danger and Tony was worried about Peter. It had gone too far. He knew his dad was only trying to keep him safe, but just a few weeks ago, they had proven he could lift 13 tons of weight with Shuri. Now Tony was worried about every day battles that weren’t even involving super-humans.
The battle that day was simply caused by three guys who had managed to steal some missiles and their firing mechanisms from the government. They were threatening to destroy buildings, and Peter had a healthy sense of the danger involved, but knew this was an easy job.
Peter could handle it. He knew he could.
But Tony had even called Thor in on the job, even though Peter could have probably handled it on his own without Tony or Thor there. It was a little insulting, but Peter was trying to be as patient as possible, because they both had their scars from what had happened. No matter how patient he tried to be, though, it was still getting under his skin that his dad didn’t trust him.
“I’m fine, dad.” Peter replied, trying to sound as calm as possible. The middle of a battle was nowhere to get into an argument, and Peter knew that.
Tony, of course, had picked up on it. “Do I hear an attitude coming from golden child Peter Parker Stark?”
It was meant as a joke, but it bothered Peter anyways. “Yeah, well, how about we focus on this fight instead of talking since you’re so worried I’m gonna be hit?”
There was literal radio silence and Peter knew he had just fucked up. “Excuse me?” Tony said, slowly.
“Is everything alright?” Thor asked, as he shot lighting at a missile that was coming towards them. Thor looked, for lack of a better word, bored, which Peter completely understood.
“Everything’s fine. You bored?” Peter asked him.
“A little.” Thor admitted.
“Well, I can end this then.” Peter said. He jumped down off of a roof, and then off of a missile, ignoring the cry from Tony. As soon as he touched the ground, he knocked the three men out, webbing them up as he did so. “Got them.” He called out.
“Peter Parker Stark!” Tony yelled. “You can’t just do shit like that. You could have been hurt!”
Peter’s frustration was too high for Tony to be chastising him now.
“Last I checked, I was Spider-man, Tony.” Peter snapped. “It comes with the job description.”
“Yeah, and being Spider-man means you stay alive, not jumping head first into danger.”
“I was fine!” Peter yelled. “I am fine! I caught the bad guys!”
“Indeed, he did.” Thor said. “Good work, Peter.”
“Don’t praise him.” Tony said, and Peter’s jaw dropped in shock. “He put himself at risk.”
“The guy was throwing missiles at us! We were all at risk!” Peter said.
“Yeah and you put yourself into more danger by jumping off of one of them that could have exploded at any moment!”
“I’ve done way worse!”
“Which is not okay!”
“I have to be able to do my job, Tony!”
“Keep this up and I’m taking the suit!” Tony yelled, his voice sharper than Peter had heard it in a long time.
Peter physically took a step back. Tony hadn’t threatened to take the suit since Peter was fifteen, back when Peter had been trying to stop the Vulture. The threat hung in the air thickly, and Peter felt his anger grow.
“I’ll see you back at the Tower.” Peter said, and webbed away without another word. He didn’t want to say anything he would regret.
“You think you can just web away from me?” Tony said, through the coms. Peter groaned, knowing that Tony wouldn’t let this go.
“Don’t you two actual Avengers have to put the guy in jail or something?” Peter asked. “You said keep myself safe. I’m safe in the Tower.”
“Thor and I are handling the bad guy, but there is no reason for you to be acting so pissy about nothing!”
“Oh, yeah. No reason to act pissy, huh?” Peter said, as he webbed through the streets of New York. “It’s not like you’re always letting me fight bad guys and having faith in my powers or anything! Jesus, Dad, Its almost like when I had my strength tests, I only lifted 13 pounds instead of 13 tons!”
“Peter! You know I am just trying to keep you safe.” Tony said. “You used to be fine with that.”
“I’m not fine you babying me, dad!” Peter said, about halfway to the Tower. “You never did that before! I’m still Spider-man no matter what has happened in the past!”
“It’s not babying, it’s keeping you safe.” Tony insisted.
“I beg to differ.”
“Jesus, Peter. You need to chill out about this. I’m your dad and what I say goes.”
“Yeah, well you’re acting way too protective to be the dad I know.” Peter said. “Karen, shut down coms.”
“Done, Peter.” Karen said.
“You think you can end a call on a suit I designed?” Tony said, his voice coming back through angrily. “What the hell has gotten into you, kid?”
“A desire to be away from you!” Peter yelled. “Can’t you see I’m trying not to talk to you!”
“Fine, if that’s what you want, that’s what you get. Talk to me when you’ve chilled out a little, Peter.”
And the call ended, leaving Peter in silence.
Peter got back to the Tower, and stumbled onto the roof. He didn’t go inside yet, content to look at the view rather than having to deal with anyone else. His anger was slowly fading away as he overlooked the New York skyline and was on his own.
Peter had never really fought with Tony before, so he didn’t know what was going through the older man’s mind, or how to handle it from there. Peter knew she shouldn’t have lost his cool, but couldn’t help it. The anger from losing May again was getting to him, plus he was holed up in the Tower and never left to do anything on his own.
But Peter also knew Tony was worried about his overall safety, and now Peter had gone and started a fight about it instead of being grateful he had someone to be worried about him.
Peter let out a loud sigh, feeling guilty for what was said.
He couldn’t take it back now, though.
He knew he would say something he would regret.
-
There was a knock at Peter’s door some time later. Peter tensed, and was concerned that it was Tony coming to yell at him, but when he opened the door, he was both relieved and disappointed to see Thor.
Even though Tony might have yelled at him, it would have been nice to actually talk it all out.
“Man of spiders.” Thor said, a gentle smile on his face. “I have come to have a talk with you.”
“Come on in.” Peter said, opening his door wider for Thor, who walked in, looked around for a moment, and sat on Peter’s bed. A while ago, Peter would have freaked out at the thought of the literal god of thunder sitting on his bed. Now, this was his new normal.
“I heard your … disagreement with Stark earlier.” Thor said.
“Great.” Peter muttered. “That’s not mortifying at all.”
“I believe I detected sarcasm.” Thor said.
Peter sighed. “Yeah you did. I guess you’re here to tell me I need to go talk to him?”
“I actually wouldn’t recommend that. He is currently playing extremely loud… extremely disturbing music in his laboratory.” Thor said.
“He does that when he’s mad.”
“Yes, well, anger is normal.” Thor said. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. You did not come out for dinner, and you were not yourself in our battle today.”
Peter looked away. “No, I wasn’t.”
“What is going on? Normally you and Stark get along so well.”
“Did you… do you happen to notice how protective he is over me?” Peter asked. “Like how he freaks out over every little thing?”
“I am not sure what you mean.”
“You’ve had to have noticed.” Peter said.
“Well, he does seem concerned in battle. More so with you than anyone else on the team.”
“He totally is!” Peter said, his frustration building back up. “And it’s also way more than that. Yesterday I stubbed my toe and he made me do an x-ray!”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, but I assume it was an over-reaction for the injury obtained?”
“Yes, yes it was. There was no need to do all of that. There was no need for you even be in the battle today! I had that!”
“I admit, it did seem as if you were perfectly competent.”
“It’s just that, with all of this soul stone stuff that just happened, dad is so worried about me. Like way too worried. I know I was gone for a week and all, but I’m fine! I’m good! I don’t need someone babysitting me like I can’t do anything.”
“It seems you are rightfully upset, young spider. What do you normally do when this happens?”
Peter paused. “I … I don’t know. We’ve never fought before.”
“Really?” Thor asked, looking shocked. “I find that hard to believe given Starks… personal tendencies.”
Peter was about to ask what Thor meant, but he felt someone watching him out of the corner of the room. He turned to look at whatever it was, but found nothing there.
Peter sighed and turned back to Thor, who didn’t even seem to have noticed. It could have been a ghost or something, but Peter didn’t care to find out. The Tower could not be haunted, on top of everything else. Tony would actually put him in a bubble, then.
“How do you handle fights with family, then Thor?” Peter asked, taking his mind off of whatever was in the corner.
“Well, my father banished me, and Loki… well, he tended to stab me, which resolved lots of issues.”
Peter blinked in shock. “Yeah, something tells me that’s not gonna work out here.”
“I fear I am not the best at giving advice here, young spider.” Thor said. “My family issues are … not normal. And yours are completely normal.”
“Thor, my dad and I just got into a fight over me launching myself at a missile during a battle. I don’t think that qualifies as normal.”
“I think it is completely normal.”
Peter decided to let that one go. It wasn’t a good idea to argue with the god of thunder when he was only trying to help.
“So, did any of your family fights actually work out?” Peter asked, instead.
“Some did. Mostly with stabbing.” Thor said. “Or magic.”
“Huh… wish I had some of that right now.”
“Wasn’t the soul stone inside of you a few months ago?” Thor asked. “That could be considered magic.”
“Not that kind.” Peter said. “If I ever touch one of those things again my dad will kill me and I would have had it coming.”
“That is probably for the best, then. It should all work out. If I could forgive Loki for everything he has done, then you can forgive Tony.”
“I thought Loki died.” Peter said.
“Uh, yes, he is very dead. So much so that I forgave him after death.”
Peter wanted to ask, but it he figured it wasn’t worth it. Thor wouldn’t tell him anything anyways.
“You really think it will all work out?” Peter asked, instead.
“I know so, young spider. Just look at how far you two have come! Tony is much less irritating than he was years ago and you… well, you are very strong.”
“Thanks, Thor.” Peter said, though he wasn’t sure if he should thank him or be insulted.
“Tony will come around. The man acts very angry until all of the sudden he misses whoever he is angry at and forgives them. The same thing happened when I blew up the common room after I fell off the road in Mario-Kart.”
Tony totally hadn’t forgiven Thor for that one yet, but Peter didn’t want to tell Thor that. So, he nodded, content to let the god of thunder believe that Tony had forgiven him. Besides, with the fight that just happened between Tony and Peter, the older man probably had forgotten it.
“Listen, Peter.” Thor said. “You two have come so far. It is time for you to see it.”
“It’s hard sometimes.” Peter said, “Especially when you say stupid things to the one family member you have left.”
“I assume you’re talking about Stark. He will forgive you, Peter. You two will rise to the challenge of being father and son again.”
“Hopefully.” Peter said, sighing. “Thanks for coming to talk to me Thor… I actually feel better. Maybe you’re also the god of pep talks too.”
“I cannot tell if that was an insult or a compliment, so I shall take it positively. Good luck, young spider.” Thor said, and he left Peter’s room with a pat on Peter’s shoulder.
Peter sighed, alone again. After a moment of quiet, he noticed something was still feeling off.
Peter shook it off. It had to be the fight with Tony. It had to be.
Whatever it was, it was gone a few minutes later. So, Peter decided he would go talk to Tony.
As he got to the door though, Peter hesitated. Maybe Tony was still angry. Maybe going down there now would only lead to a worse fight than they already had. He thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head and walking back over to his bed. It wasn’t a good time for this. Maybe they could talk tomorrow. Maybe Tony would be over it, or have completely forgotten about it come morning.
Peter was right that someone would have forgotten about the fight, but it wouldn’t be Tony, and it wouldn’t be just the fight that was forgotten.
As Peter dozed off, he didn’t notice that something had come into his room, and that same something messed with his mind. In fact, Peter didn’t notice anything at all.
But he woke up a different person.