Chapter Text
He entered the lab as he always did, with a bright smile. Like nothing was bothering him.
“Mr. Stark!”
With a little jump, his mentor lifted his head up from the metal scraps he was working on as if he didn’t know Peter was coming.
“Hey, kid. Good to see you so lively as always.”
Mr. Stark was smiling, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. It looked almost fake, forced, mechanical. But he knew better than to point it out and have an unproductive argument about it. Tony Stark was never good with emotions. Not good with handling them, not good with talking about them.
He was that kind of person who put his emotions in the second place, tried to hide them. The keyword being “tried”. You could see his emotions in the dark circles under his eyes, you could see it in the distant look of his eyes, you could see it on the glass shards littered across the floor and on worst days, you could smell it from the alcohol in his breath.
But today it was limited with dark circles and a little bit of that distant, empty look. Something was definitely bothering Mr. Stark, Peter had a feeling it was about him.
Sometimes he would catch the man looking at him from the other side of the lab, his eyes full of a mixture of worry and fear. It was one of his signature looks, aside from his fashionable clothes that is. That particular look on his face, the nibbling of his finger, a restless leg. Peter kind of knew what he was dealing with.
Extreme worry. Second keyword being “extreme”.
2 hours into his lab work and Mr. Stark was in that position again, it looked like he wanted to hover over but refrained from it. Peter was getting distracted and he was slightly annoyed, so he put his work down and that startled Mr.Stark into his normal state.
“Something wrong Pete?”
Peter was having a fight within himself, he had two options:
1-Ask Mr.Stark what’s going on with him?
2-Ask Mr.Stark to stop looking at him like he would disappear.
He could go with the second option but he was aware that he would have the deal with the first one sooner or later. He wanted the take the bull by its horns, but he felt somehow restless. He shook his head added a third option for himself, just for now:
“No, no. Just hungry, I guess.”
Coward.
“Oh, right. Look at the time, sometimes I forget about your enhanced metabolism. I’ll be right back.”
Mr.Stark went out of the lab, probably to order some pizza.
Peter sighed, he didn’t realize he was holding his breath. He himself didn’t understand why he was feeling so tense lately as he always felt relaxed and protected around his mentor. Of course, that was until 3 weeks ago. After that fateful day that his heart stopped for 2 whole minutes, everything went downhill. But since one can’t cry over spilt milk, Peter chose to forget about it.
He stood up from his lab chair to look around the lab and came across something resembling a bracelet on Mr.Stark’s workbench. It was black, metallic but soft to the touch. Nano-tech, he guessed. Just at that moment, his mentor came in, his eyes found Peter and then his hands. He looked alarmed as he rushed to Peter and took the black thing out of his hand:
“You shouldn’t touch my unfinished projects kid! It could blow up!”
And now it was Peter’s turn to look alarmed, Mr.Stark was acting out of character. Normally, he didn’t lose his cool like that.
“I’m sorry Mr.Stark, I was just curious. What is it anyway?”
“Well, for now, it’s nothing. I will tell you when it’s done.” His voice faded towards the end of the sentence as he slowly put the black nano-tech into one of the drawers. He cleared his throat and looked at Peter:
“I ordered pizza. I know, what a surprise. Let’s take a break and eat it while watching something.”
It was a stay-over weekend, therefore he didn’t have to worry about falling asleep and he normally would immediately. But he found it difficult to fall asleep even after stuffing himself with slices of pizza and watching a boring movie.
The culprit was his spider-sense. He stood up and looked around, he didn’t feel like he was in immediate danger. It was dull, not like the sharp ones he gets when he is fighting with criminals of all sorts.
“Peter? What’s wrong?”
Mr.Stark stood up, uneasiness evident in his eyes and with his action, Peter’s spider-sense started getting stronger. Still dull, but stronger.
Peter was in shock. The danger wasn’t coming, the danger was already there. He just wasn’t paying attention, he just kept ignoring it.
He looked his mentor in the eyes, he couldn’t tell him. Simply due to the fact that he didn’t know what was going on at all. He didn’t know if it was safe.
What was happening? Why did he feel this way with Iron Man, his mentor and father figure?
Peter studied his face, it didn’t look like he wanted to hurt him. It was just full of worry, fear. As always.
But that didn’t fool Peter, he was intelligent. He knew how to tackle an unsolved mystery.
“Mr.Stark, just now…what were you thinking?”
He looked taken aback by the question, but he quickly composed himself and avoided the question:
“Nothing really, I was just dozing off to the movie. That was until you stood up and startled me of course.”
Peter noted his avoidance and sat down.
“Sorry, I fell asleep and had a weird dream.”
“Don’t worry about it kiddo, happens to me all the time.”
The rest of the night was them trying to forget what happened, then it came to an end with Peter going to his room to sleep it off.
It didn’t work. Well, when was he able to sleep without a problem anyway? There was always something. Schoolwork, non-stop screams in the streets, a criminal on the loose…
He got out of bed and reached under the bed to take out his backpack, upon opening the zip of it he saw his savior. Familiar red and blue of his suit gave him comfort, he quickly put it on.
He paused for a moment after opening the window, Mr.Stark wouldn’t be happy with him leaving without notice or without his permission. He would most likely refuse to let him patrol. So he decided against alerting him.
While he was swinging between the buildings, his mind wandered off to different places. For example his new patrol curfew, Mr.Stark’s control over where he went, who he dealt with or who he spoke to. It sometimes made Peter suffocated but he never dared to say anything, he was afraid of getting his suit confiscated.
It was a different story in missions. He was an official avenger but it looked like Mr.Stark didn’t want to acknowledge that anymore.
Aliens? Send Peter to the tower for safety.
Mutants? Send Peter to the tower for safety.
Criminals with alien tech? Send Peter to the tower for safety.
That’s how it usually went. Sometimes Steve, Rhodey or Bruce talked Mr.Stark into letting him join and sometimes it worked. Not so well but still.
He put a break to his zoning out when he heard a familiar scream of a distressed woman, his enhanced hearing supplied him with a location as well. He got there as quickly as he could and when he did, he took out the bad guy as always. It was a pathetic case of mugging.
The woman looked like she was in her mid-30s, she had what seemed to be a rose-gold hair. It was pretty.
“Are you okay Ma’am?”
“Y-yes, thank you little spider.”
“Li--! Little spider?”
“Oh, sorry. You just sounded so young.”
Peter couldn’t argue with that so settled with a little sigh and offered to take her home, which she gladly accepted. She was easy-going and talkative, easily leading the conversation:
“You know, I heard rumors about Spider-Man appearing less and less. Why might that be?”
Tony freaking Stark.
“Aah…I wonder.”
He wanted to complain about the man so badly, but he bit his tongue and kept quiet.
“I’m sure you have your own stuff to deal with, I’m not saying that to make you feel pressured.”
Peter smiled lightly:
“I know, I guess people just worry about their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”
“Correct. Well, this is my apartment so I will go now. Thank you for accompanying me.”
“Always. Good night!”
After that, the city was really quiet and Peter was finally getting sleepy. So he decided to head back to the tower.
He silently crawled under the open window and closed it with the same caution. He exhaled a breath of relief but upon turning around it got stuck in his lungs. He'd expected his bed to be empty.
But a very angry Tony Stark was sitting on it with a dark look in his eyes.