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Peter and Tony were laying on their bed, it was probably after the roughest sex they had ever had. I mean, their relationship was new and before tonight, they hadn’t really explored any kinks, just had sex, which it wasn’t boring, it couldn’t be boring with Peter, fuck, Tony thought it was great, but tonight, it was so much more - well - harder.
So, Tony was a bit worried when he saw his young lover sitting up, his knees hugged to his chest and his eyes having a glossy, far away look. Tony decided to sit up with him and placed a hand on Peter. The younger boy jumped slightly from the touch.
“Kid, are you okay?” Tony asked softly, carefully placing his hand back on Peter. This time, Peter didn’t jump away but instead turned to face Tony. His eyes were still glassy and when he blinked, tears came out, but Peter’s face was still blank, basically showing no expression. He seemed like he was in some sort of dream-like state.
Peter turned himself around a bit, so he was facing his boyfriend. Tony did the same, trying to figure out what Peter needed. “Did I go too far?”
Peter shook his head no. The tears that had spilled out previously were slowly drying on his face. The younger male reached his hand up to touch Tony’s face, the pale fingertips rubbing Tony’s facial hair, finding the texture comforting.
“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” Tony asked, kissing Peter’s wrist once it was brought up close enough. Peter showed no sign of hearing the question and continued to touch the rough facial hair, Peter showed no sign of stopping, not making any other movements except for soft, sweet touches.
“Pete?” Tony asked after a while, reaching up to grab the pale wrist belonging to his boyfriend. “What’s wrong,”
“I don’t know,” Peter said, about to cry, he didn’t know why he was crying but it felt so easy to just let it out.
“Pete, hey kid, don’t cry, hey no,” Tony said, tracing his hands down Peter’s arms and wrapping his hands around his hips, pulling him slightly. “It’s okay, what’s wrong?”
“I just -” Peter began. “I feel like I wasn’t good enough, and I know it’s dumb, and I feel n- numb, like - I’m so sorry,” Peter began, more tears rolling down his face. “I’m sorry, sorry, sorry,”
“Hey, babe, no, don’t apologize, you were perfect, okay? Absolutely perfect,”
Peter perked up slightly, looking up to meet his boyfriends gaze through teary eyes. “I - I was?” He hiccuped.
“Of course,” Tony laughed lightly at how dumb Peter’s insecurities were, but he didn’t take them lightly, he pulled Peter close, running his hands through the light brown hair sitting on the top of his head. “You make me so happy, and you’re so good, why would you think any different?”
Peter didn’t answer but just let out muffled cries into Tony’s chest. He enjoyed the skin on skin contact. “Can I do anything to help?” Tony asked. “You know I don’t like seeing you sad,”
“I’m s-sorry,” Peter stuttered, trying to stop crying now.
Tony rocked back and forth a little. “No, no, Peter don’t apologize, I didn’t mean it like that, you know that, I just want to make it better,”
“I - I just don’t know what to do, I keep crying and I feel so sad, and I just -”
“Don’t freak out about it, okay?” Tony said, kissing the top of Peter’s head. “F.R.I.D.A.Y?”
“Yes,”
“Can you help diagnose Pete?” Tony said, still holding Peter close, who was mumbling apologies.
“From the symptoms I picked up on, he is experiencing something called subdrop.” Friday finished.
“Hey it’s okay, Petey - okay thanks Fri, elaborate?” Tony said just doing his best to comfort Peter.
“Subdrop can be defined as when after a ‘scene’ the sub can experience an adrenaline and endorphin drop, causing multiple symptoms in different people.”
“See Pete, it’s normal, it’s okay, you don’t need to apologize. Fri, can you try and inform me on how to help?”
“Usually the sub just needs help to be transitioned back into everyday life. A term called ‘Aftercare’ can usually help,”
Tony thanked the AI before leaning a little bit away from Peter so he could make eye contact. “See, it’s okay, let’s go try and help you, okay? Baby, come on, let’s try and take a bath, okay? And then we’ll try to eat some food, because you’re shaking, are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, I’m fine, I’m so sorry,” Peter said, he wasn’t like sobbing, but just tears rolling down his face, continually now.
Tony’s heart was shattering at the sight but knew telling him to stop apologizing, would just require him to feel obligated to apologize. The billionaire was familiar with the term Aftercare. Subdrop was very new to him, but Aftercare was not, but he only knew it as massaging lotion into rope burns, giving water, basic things.
So, this was new to Tony, but he was going to try and make it better for Peter. “Wanna go sit in the bath? Hm?”
Peter was gliding his hands over Tony’s arms, as if grounding himself to something. He just nodded, when Tony tried to get away, Peter let go with a whimper and held himself. The sight broke Tony more, so he walked over to the other side of the bed and picked him up. Peter was apologizing again. Maybe if he wasn’t such a nice person, he wouldn’t be apologizing, but Peter was Peter. And Peter always blamed himself for anything.
Once Peter was safe in tony’s arms, they walked over into the very large bathroom and Tony placed Peter on the bathroom sink. “Hey, can you wait here for a second, okay?” Tony wanted to say more but he didn’t know what to say, he knew nothing about anything and that killed him because Peter looked so sad.
Peter nodded and began tapping his fingers lightly on the ceramic countertop. Tony began the tub, putting in bubbles, not knowing which smell Peter would like the most, but he went with the most empty one, because clearly Peter had liked it, and Tony could just buy him more if he was saving that bit.
While the tub was filling up, Tony walked over to Peter, who had spread his legs so the man could get closer to him. Tony took his hand and grabbed Peter’s chin lightly. “Hey,”
“Hi,” Peter mumbled. He wasn’t really making eye contact which worried Tony, because he was so out of it. Usually Tony would snap his fingers in front of the kids face and that would be it, but it was different this time. It was a endorphin drop and snapping fingers would just make it worse.
Tony tried figuring out what was going on but soon the tub was filled so he removed himself from Peter and turned off the tap. He walked back over and picked Peter up again walking him over to the tub. To avoid slippering mess he placed Peter down so he could get in the tub.
Tony climbed in behind Peter and pulled him back against his chest gently. Tony kissed Peter’s shoulder who showed no reaction. Tony thought the kid just looked really depressed and it scared him, Peter was also bright and happy.
“Hey,” Tony smiled, his fingers poking lightly at Peter’s sides, trying to get a giggle out of him. Tony kept moving his fingers around a bit, tickling the younger boy. Eventually Peter had let out a small giggle moving his legs a little bit. “There’s that pretty little laugh,”
Tony kept tickling Peter lightly the boy letting out small giggles. “O -Okay, s- stop, I can’t breath,” He laughed, so Tony ceased the tickling with a kiss to Peter’s shoulder again.
Tony reached for a loofa so he could help clean Peter off, rather it be sweat or cum, “We can talk about it when you want, but it’s okay if you don’t want to,” Tony whispered, rubbing the green sponge on the pale arms.
Peter made a noise of agreement, but didn’t speak. He was more aware now, which was comforting.
Tony asked Peter to turn around so he could clean off his stomach. Peter nodded and did just that, Tony began cleaning off his stomach and Peter was now smiling a bit and the glassy look was gone from his eyes. “T -Thank you,” He mumbled. Tony smiled.
“It’s completely fine, okay? You were so good for me, okay?” Tony said, kissing Peter’s forehead. Peter smiled and looked up.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to f-freak out like that,” Peter apologized. “I just -”
“No, don’t apologize, baby,” Tony said. “You couldn’t help it, and we won’t go as far next time, maybe we - I - pushed you too far,”
Peter perked his head up quickly. “No!” Peter said. “No it wasn’t that,” Peter said, lowering his voice back to regular volume. “It was so perfect, I loved it, it was perfect, so good, probably the best I’ve ever had,” Peter said, boosting Tony’s ego even more. “And I freaking loved it,” Peter said. “I just hated after when it all happened, it made me feel sick,”
Tony smiled lightly. “Okay, so we’ll figure it out, research more on what’s happening, it’ll be okay, I know what it’s called now, we’ll figure out what helps it not hurt as much,”
Peter nodded and smiled. “I am sorry, though,”
“It’s not your fault, Petey, you don’t need to say sorry, I should say sorry, because I didn’t know what to do, I should’ve known,”
“That’s dumb, you couldn’t have known,”
Tony just sighed while smiling. “I love you,”
“I love you, too, Tony, so much,” Peter smiled, wrapping his arms around Tony’s bare chest. Tony rubbed Peter’s back.
“Are you feeling any better?”
“Less sad, I guess, but I still feel like, physically sick,”
“Well, we’ll figure that out soon, baby,