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“Peter. Where are you going?.” Tony asked as he saw his son heading towards the elevator and pressing the down button.
“Out.” Tony walked towards his son, placing his hand on his shoulder,
“It’s gone ten, Peter. It’s late.” Peter shrugged his dad’s hand off and turned to him,
“So?”
“So?” Tony repeated the word with narrowed eyebrows of confusion, “Peter, what’s gotten into you lately? You’ve been going out almost every evening or night, something you’ve never done until this recent month. I’m worried about you, Pete.”
“Well don’t be. I don’t need your concern or your attention. Just leave me be. God.” Peter all but snarled.
“You need to calm down, Peter.” Tony stated with a firm voice, though his eyes swam with anything but anger, the man felt scared and worried as to where the conversation was going, “Come on, I think you and I need to have a little talk. In private.” Tony added as he remembered the team were probably listening to the two from where they sat on the sofas.
“No. I’m off out.”
“JARVIS, don’t open the doors,” Tony called talking to the AI as Peter went to press the buttons on the lift again to call it up. Cinnamon eyes fell back onto the young genius, “Peter. I’m getting worried and a bit angry now. What is going on with you? Have you hit a rebellious stage or something because you are not acting like the loving and happy son I know.”
“Maybe I’m not the son you ‘know’. God, just piss off.” That was a first. Peter had never sworn in front of Tony (or anyone really).
“You will not speak to me like that.” Tony’s voice had hardened, “I am your father, Peter, and I will not have you behaving like this.”
“Well, I don’t want you to be my dad! You’re the worst dad anyway. Annoying. Overbearing and terrible. I hate you, I wish you weren’t my dad at all! Just get lost and leave me alone!” He snarled and grabbed his bag before storming down the stairs leaving a stunned audience of Avengers. Then there was the shocked and horrified Tony, who had tears filling his eyes. The man remained unresponsive until a hand fell on his shoulder.
“He hates me.” He choked out and turned to look at the owner of the hand, it was Steve, his gaze fell past the blond to look at the other Avengers, who were all staring at him worriedly, “my own son hates me. Am I really that bad?”
“No, Tony. Never think that.” Natasha whispered moving towards him and wrapping her arms around the shaking man and letting his tears soak into her t-shirt, “You are a wonderful man and an incredible father. I think Peter’s just going through some things and doesn’t quite know how to tell you and is choosing to lash out instead.”
“I need to go after him.” Tony murmured moments later breaking out of the redhead's arms and towards the elevator.
——LINE BREAK——
The billionaire grabbed his phone and called Peter. There was no answer. He tried several more times but still went to voicemail.
“Come on, Pete, pick up,” Tony mumbled under his breath as he absently passed by a dirty and dull alleyway. Hands grabbed at his bare arms, digging in and leaving claw marks. Something covered his mouth as a sharp pain echoed across the back of his head and his world fell into darkness.
——LINE BREAK——
He came around to the sound of Peter’s voice. His son’s voice shook with fear and terror. Blinking rapidly, Tony tried to clear the black spots from his vision.
“Petey?” He slurred almost unintelligibly, his head lolled about as he found his body drained of energy and strength, “Pete…that you? What…what?”
His vision was clearer and Tony stared at his son, who sat just out of reach chained to the wall by his hands. The older man found that he wasn’t tied up at all and he tried to shuffle towards Peter. His body too weak for him to get very far.
“Ah, good. I was worried you wouldn’t wake.” A deep voice called from behind Tony.
The genius had no chance to do anything but watch as his son’s chocolate eyes widened in horror with his mouth opening to shout. Agony echoed throughout his body. His feet lifted from the ground as he hung in the air by his left shoulder. A breathless scream ripped through his throat. His breathing was heavy and loud as he blinked the white spots of unimaginable torment away. Faintly, he could see Peter screaming, but all he could hear was a sharp ringing sound.
Catching his breath, Tony looked at his shoulder and his eyes widened as his hands moved up to grasp the rope of a large hook that was embedded into his shoulder. He tried to relieve the weight off of his shoulder. His hand slipped on the rope as blood poured out of his wound. Whimpers crept out of his throat. Someone grabbed his legs and pulled him along, his body swung on the hook. It dug deep into his flesh. Crimson bled down his body.
——LINE BREAK——
“Let him go!” Peter shouted as he tried to bloke his father’s cries out, “Please stop! What do you want from us?” The large man let go of Tony and loosened the rope, letting Tony’s body fall to the ground with a thump.
“Oh nothing, little boy.” He grinned and as he walked over to the sobbing teenager. Tony tried to reach out and stop him on his way, only for their kidnapper to kick his arm away. The man grasped his hair harshly and pulled, “just think of this little situation as some father-son bonding activity.”
“Please stop,” Peter whispered, tears trickling down his cheeks and the balding man patted his cheeks mockingly, before smiling,
“Hmm. I think not.”
Before Tony knew it, he was being dragged upwards off of the ground again and his shoulder was burning with agony. His face was pale as his blood drained from his body. He was screaming. Peter was screaming. Tony couldn’t hear or see. There was yelling. There was a ringing sound. Then there was a crash. He thought he saw Peter pull the shackles off of the wall before Tony hit the ground and passed out, his shoulder going numb as the darkness settled around him. He thought he heard his son shouting for him.
——LINE BREAK——
There was something beeping to his right and something holding onto his left hand tightly yet loosely. Tony hissed as he turned his head and shifted his shoulder, he saw Peter sitting on a chair beside him, holding his hand and sleeping. The genius shifted his hand out from under Peter’s and ran his fingers through his son’s hair. Tony closed his eyes, the feeling of Peter’s soft locks around his fingers lulled him into a soothing state of peace as he tried to recall recent events. He could’ve sworn that he saw his son rip the chains he was tied in from the wall. But that couldn’t be right, Peter whilst strong -hell the kid was all but forced to workout and take self-defence lessons with Natasha and Steve, of course, Tony agreed with the idea, but didn’t want to make his son do anything he’d hate- point was, Peter was not strong enough to rip thick metal chains from a sturdy wall.
“Dad?” Came a sleepy murmur and Tony shifted his head to look at his son, who was blinking drowsily and rubbing his eyes as a young child would.
“Hey, kiddo.”
“Dad! Are you alright? Does your shoulder hurt? How long have you been awake for? Shall I call a nurse? Uncle Steve just went to get some coffee.”
“Petey, calm down,” Tony whispered with a gentle smile before hissing in pain when Peter hit his arm. The boy heard him and saw the slight flinch causing him to apologise profusely. “I’m okay, kid. I’m okay. You wanna catch me up on what happened?”
“Umm…well…I stormed out on you -dad, I’m really really really sorry, I didn’t mean any of it, I was just angry and stressed and it had nothing to do with you but I took it out on you and I’m really sorry-“
“It’s okay, kid, I know you didn’t mean it. That doesn’t mean we won’t be talking about it later, though.” Peter nodded miserably, Tony held his hand, “what happened after?”
“I…I was walking down the street and….and then I walked past this alleyway and…and…I think someone hit me and… then I woke up. The guy wasn’t expecting me to wake up so soon, but he had me tied to the wall and…and he…he was dumping you on the ground and…he was fixing this hook and rope thingamajig…” Peter’s voice quietened and he looked down at his hands, “then you woke up and…and he…he put the hook into your shoulder…god…dad…I don’t think I’ll ever get the image out of my head…you were screaming and bleeding and…and it…it…”
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Tony whispered, “How'd you get us out, Petey?”
“I…I…the shackles were really…umm…weak and…and I guess the adrenaline kicked in and…and I…broke them…the…the man wasn’t expecting it…and so I knocked him out…he…he had our phones…so I called Uncle Steve…he got us out and…then we’re here…” Tony was quiet for a few minutes,
“I see.” Tony’s frown turned into a smile as he looked at his son, “I’m glad you’re okay, Peter.”
“‘m glad you’re too, dad. Love you.” The boy mumbled as Tony pulled him in for a hug, both mindful of Tony’s bandaged shoulder,
“I love you too, Peter.” He pressed a firm kiss to his son’s temple before drifting off to sleep.
——LINE BREAK——
It had been two days since Tony had been injured. Less than 36 hours since he was released from the hospital. Peter had gone back to school and the two seemed a bit strained. Tony had been oddly quiet, though it could’ve been due to everyone forcing him to rest and stay out of the lab, but the man had been lost in his thoughts and contemplating what he knew.
It was definitely a breach of privacy, but as his father and due to the situation, Tony thought it was alright just this once. He heard Peter enter the floor and waited for the door to open.
“Dad! What are you doing on my bed?”
“When were you going to tell me, Peter?”
“I…what?” Tony stood and held up a red and blue suit that could most definitely be improved, “Oh…” Peter choked out,
“So Spider-Man…I suppose it does run in your blood. At least I now know how you broke us out.”
“Dad…I can explain everything…” Peter stated as Tony stared at him with an unamused and uncharacteristically serious frown on his face.
“You better get started then.”
And so Peter explained everything and Tony understood. That’s not to say the young teenager wasn’t grounded and in the bad books, but Tony being Tony loved his son more than anything and knew what he was like. So the boy continued to be Spider-Man because Tony knew there was no stopping it, that’s not to say Peter wasn’t in an incredibly strong and protecting suit filled with all sorts of safety measures; it was called the Iron Spider suit.