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Usually he’d go to Dad for something like this, but Dad was busy. He and Pepper were going to Africa or somewhere tomorrow for something with SI. But Peter just really needed to talk to someone or he felt like he was gonna explode. So he knocked on the study door.
“Pop? Can I come in?” There was an unusual wobble in his voice.
The door opened and Steve’s worried face poked out. “Peter? What’s wrong?”
Peter rubbed the back of his neck nervously. This was dumb. He could deal with this on his own and he was bothering Pop when he had work to do. God, why was he so needy and stupid? He turned away from the door, “You know what, it’s not important. Sorry for bothering you, I know you’ve got paperwork to get done.” He went to walk away but Steve laid a gentle hand on his arm.
“Hey, I’m never too busy for you. Okay, Peter? You’re my son. You will always be the most important thing, not SHIELD or the Avengers, you.” He wrapped his arm around Peter, guiding him over to the couch. “What’s wrong?”
Peter buried his hands in his hair, tugging on the strands lightly. “Nothing really in particular but I just feel like there’s so much going on right now and I can’t control any of it and I feel like we’re never together as a family anymore and most of the team is usually up at the Compound while we’re here and I love being here but I miss them and I don’t like being apart and…” Peter was going so fast he was starting to hyperventilate.
“Peter. Hey! Slow down.” Steve rubbed circles on Peter’s back. “I need you to breathe for me. Okay, bud? Just breathe for a minute.
“I know you have a lot going on right now. With Spider-Man and school and all of your other activities. But taking some time just for you is okay too, alright? Just because you’re a superhero doesn’t mean you have to take the weight of the world on your shoulders. We’re all here for you. I promise everyone on the team would agree with that statement.
“We’re all here for you and I know we’re not as close to the team as you’d like. I don’t like being this far away either. But we don’t have the space here for the training grounds and everything and we need to be here because you have school.
“And I know Dad has been really busy and SHIELD has had me on a lot of missions lately but we’re making an effort to cut back on time away from home. With any luck, we’ll be spending all summer at the Compound as a family. And yes, before you ask, your friends can come as often as they like.”
Peter finally just broke down and crawled into Steve’s lap, sobbing like a child. “T-there’s just so much g-going on right n-now and I-I’m having a hard time processing everything and I f-feel like my senses a-are always dialed t-to 11.”
“Oh, baby.” Steve just hugged his son, pressing kisses to the crown of his head. “You’re gonna be okay, it’s all gonna be okay.”
…---...
And that’s how Tony found them. Steve rocking Peter back and forth, Peter still lightly sobbing into his chest. Steve looked up when Tony opened the door.
Tony walked over to the couch, his face softening in sympathy for both his husband and his son. He snuggled into Steve’s side, running his fingers through Peter’s hair. “Sunshine, why all the tears, huh? Do I need to unleash DUM-E on someone?”
Peter just whimpered, reaching an arm out to bring Tony into the family puppy pile. Steve mimicked him, wrapping his arm around Tony’s shoulders.
Steve pressed a kiss to Tony’s forehead before murmuring, “He’s just really overwhelmed and missing family time. Needed to vent. I think we’re gonna be doing a movie night with the team this weekend. Peter really misses them.”
Peter hiccupped. “There’s j-just so much h-happening and you g-guys have b-been gone s-so much lately a-and I just feel l-like I have c-c-control over nothing. A-and I m-m-miss the team. Why d-don’t they c-c-come to visit m-more often? They s-said they w-w-would.”
“Honey, I don’t know why they don’t visit.” Tony kissed Peter on the forehead. “But we’ll go up this weekend, okay? You’ve got a four day weekend. And you can see if Ned and MJ want to come with alright? We’ll have a movie night and you can run the obstacle course with Sam and Tasha. You can beat Clint at Mario Cart for the millionth time. Sound okay by you, bambino?”
The boy just nodded, his head still buried in Steve’s chest. Peter’s back was still shaking with the occasional sob and his parents could hear his hiccups. The whole situation broke their hearts. They’d both been away from home so much lately and they just assumed Peter was fine because the kid never complained but apparently Peter had just been bottling his feelings up and now the cork had popped, leaving his feelings spewing everywhere.
Steve leaned down, pecking Tony on the lips. “We should probably eat dinner soon. You wanna order take-out or cook?”
Chuckling, Tony slowly started to untangle himself from the puppy pile, “I think we have ingredients for spaghetti. Hopefully I won’t burn the tower down.”
Peter whimpered as Tony got off the couch, reaching out pitifully for his father. Tony just hushed him, pressing kisses to his head before Peter settled, cuddling even closer to Steve.
Tony turned around at the door, smiling sadly at the scene in front of him. While he was glad Peter was coming to talk to them, he was sad that it took so much for the boy to open up. They’d be having more talks about self-care in the near future, he was sure.
“JARVIS?” Tony whispered as he walked down the hall.
“Sir?”
“Let the team know we’ll be up this weekend. Peter needs some family time.”
“Of course, sir.”