Chapter Text
Peter sighs as he sits in class, biting at his thumb nail. Mr. Harrington is giving a lecture he’s already given so Peter isn’t really paying attention. Staring out the window, he let his mind wander to what he was going to do after school. He and Ned were supposed to be hanging out today and working on the new Lego Death Star Ned had gotten. He had thought about going to see Mr. Stark but he assumed the man was busy and he didn’t want to bother him. Ned nudges his leg with his foot to get his attention, startling him a little, and Peter gives his best friend a smile. About ten minutes later, the bell rings and he jumps up, grabbing his books, excited to hang out with Ned. They hadn’t been spending a lot of time together lately due to his Spider-Man thing and Peter feels kind of bad about it. The guy is his best friend. They used to hang out all the time. Unfortunately, since he is stuck in his own head, he isn’t being nearly as observant as he should be and suddenly the floor is coming up rather quickly. Normally, he would blame his own clumsiness on the fall but then he hears laughter from above him and realizes what happened.
“Watch where you’re going, Penis Parker.” Flash Thompson, his long-time bully, says, his tone mocking. Sighing, Peter stands up and notices a twinge of pain in his left ankle that he decides to ignore. It’ll heal soon enough. He tells himself, tuning out the rest of Flash’s insults. He walks/limps out of the classroom to his locker, hearing footsteps following him, knowing it’s Ned.
“Hey, dude, you alright?” Ned asks, concern clear in his voice as he stops next to Peter. His friend takes his books from him as he opens his locker.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Wasn’t paying attention. My fault. May have twisted my ankle a little but it’ll heal in, like, an hour or two.” Peter says, shrugging to himself as he grabs his bag and starts putting in the books he’ll need for his homework. Thankfully, it’s Friday so he doesn’t have to actually do any of it tonight. He feels his stomach growl but ignores it, used to being hungry at the end of the since school lunches were never enough for an enhanced metabolism. Although, that means my ankle might take a bit longer to heal. He sighs and pulls out his phone, checking his messages and blocking out the other students roaming the hallway. “So, are we hanging out at your place or mine? May has a night shift tonight so we can hang at mine if you’d like? I mean, your mom is great and all, but she can be a little overbearing at times.” When he doesn’t get a response after a few moments, he looks up to see Ned not looking at him. “Ned?”
“I’m really sorry, dude but I kind of forgot we were gunna hang out. I mean, you’ve been patrolling like, every night this week so I figured you’d be doing that tonight too. I… I made plans with Betty.” Ned admits, looking up at Peter to see him smiling softly.
“That’s alright, Ned. Don’t worry about it. I think you mentioned going out with her after school a few days ago. I must have forgotten. We can hang out tomorrow or something.” Peter says, closing his locker. Ned hadn’t said anything about spending time with Betty but that’s alright. He supposed he sort of deserved that for ditching Ned all week. “I was actually planning on going patrolling.” He lies, slipping his bag over his shoulder. “Have fun on your date.” He teases his friend before they do their handshake and he leaves the building.
“Hey, Parker!” Flash shouts at him from the bottom of the steps outside the school and Peter rolls his eyes, trying to ignore the boy. He heads down the steps, planning on finding a place that’s empty so he can change into his Spidey suit. “Parker! Don’t fucking ignore me!” The bully snaps and shoves Peter when he reaches the bottom of the steps. “Hit your head when you fell earlier or something?”
“You mean when you tripped me? No. Just leave me alone, Flash.” Peter mutters and starts walking away, the shove having barely moved him. Next thing he knows, he’s once again on the ground but this time, hit head slams into the concrete and he groans quietly. “What the hell, Flash?” He snaps, touching the side of his head and feeling a bit of blood. Not good… He thinks, shifting to stand when he feels someone pulling him up. Luckily, Flash had gotten bored and left. Looking up, he sees MJ and smiles a little. “Thanks.”
MJ looks at him, a brief flash of concern in her eyes before it’s gone, and she shrugs. “He’s a douche. You alright?” She asks, turning his head to the side to try and see the damage. He moves away, feeling a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him but he takes a deep breath and steadies himself.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Great actually. I…I have to go. Um… See you Monday?” Peter says, cringing mentally at how lame that sounds. He wasn’t sure why he was still so awkward around her when he no longer had a crush on her. He realized not too long ago that he is definitely gay. Now, they’re sort of friends. She simply shrugs and walks off, going back to reading her book. Peter starts walking away from the school and finds an empty alley, ducking into it. He blocks out the pain in his head and ankle, hoping they heal soon, and changes into his suit. Once the mask is on, Karen’s voice greets him, and he smiles.
“Good afternoon, Peter. How was school? Your left ankle seems to be a bit swollen and you have an injury to the right side of your head. Should I contact Mr. Stark that you are injur-“ Karen says, getting hurriedly cut off by Peter when she mentions contacting Mr. Stark.
“No, no, no. No, Karen. Don’t do that. It’s nothing to worry about. School was fine and I am fine. Please don’t… don’t contact him, okay?” Peter gets out, letting out a small sigh of relief when she agrees. “Thank you. Now. Is there any crime nearby? Anything Spider-Man can help with?” He asks, getting to the top of a building and webbing his bag to the roof.
“There appears to an attempted robbery happening a few blocks away at a convenience store. It seems as though it has just started so if you hurry, you may be able to stop them from getting away.” Karen tells him and he heads in the direction she gives him. He gets to the store and perches on top, dropping down silently before sneaking in through a broken window. It looks like there’s only one robber so it shouldn’t be too difficult to take him down. When he sees an opening, he webs the gun away, knocking the robber out before he can make an attempt to get away. All the sudden movement makes his vision blur a little, but it eventually steadies, and he goes over to the girl behind the counter who is crying, probably only fifteen or sixteen.
“Hey, hey. It’s alright. The police are already on their way and he’s out cold. Everything’s okay. Take a deep breath for me.” Peter tells her, going behind the counter to try and calm her down, recognizing the start of a panic attack. After a few minutes, he manages to calm her enough that he’s able to leave without feeling bad. Since his head was still hurting quite a bit, he decides it might be best if he just heads home, not wanting someone to get hurt because he’s off his game. “Alright, Karen. I think it’s time to head home. I may not be as fine as I said. Don’t tell Mr. Stark, though. I don’t want him to worry. It’s not that bad.”
Peter starts swinging back to his bag when a text message pops up in front of him. Frowning, he opens it to see it’s from Mr. Stark, only serving to make him more confused than he already was. “Karen, did you contact Mr. Stark?”
“No, Peter. You told me not to, so I did not.” Karen says, sounding slightly offended which made Peter chuckle a little.
“Alright. Sorry. Just making sure since he just texted me and that’s a bit odd.” Peter stops on the roof and takes his mask off, pulling his phone from his bag to read the text.
Mr. Stark: Hey, kid. You’re out of school now, right? I forget what time school gets out. Anyway, why don’t you stop by the lab. I have a surprise for you.
Peter: A surprise? You didn’t blow anything up, right? And yes, school got out, like, an hour ago. But, yeah, sure. On my way.
Peter shrugs and stands up, slipping his mask back on and putting his phone away. After picking up his bag and securing it to his back, he starts swinging towards the Tower, his excitement making him forget about his injuries. After almost an hour, he gets to the Tower and goes into the lab through the unlocked window that Mr. Stark always unlocks for him when he knows he’s coming by. “Mr. Stark?” He calls out, slipping his mask off and setting his bag near the workbench he uses.
Mr. Stark comes out of a nearby room and smiles at Peter, making the younger man’s stomach swoop just like it always does when Mr. Stark smiles at him. “Hey, kiddo! Glad you could stop by. I have an upgrade for your suit! So, go change so I can do said upgrade.” He says, walking over to his workbench and tinkering with a few things. Peter could see that Mr. Stark hadn’t slept in a few days and he probably hasn’t eaten either, but he doesn’t mention it. Yet.
“Alright. Be right back.” Peter walks to the connected bathroom after grabbing his clothes from his bag, trying not to limp. After a few minutes, he comes back out and brings his suit over to his mentor. “Here you go. So, what’s the upgrade do?” He asks, looking up to see Mr. Stark staring at him with a worried expression. “Uh…Mr. Stark?”
“Kid, why is the right side of your head bleeding?” Mr. Stark asks as he stands up, walking off and coming back with a med kit. “Also, you were limping. Wanna explain that?”
Peter tenses slightly and sighs, letting Mr. Stark lead him to a nearby chair and sitting down. “It’s nothing. I… fell.” He says, which isn’t a complete lie. He did fall. He just doesn’t mention that he was pushed. Or tripped.
“Uh-huh. Right. You ‘fell’. Now, you wanna tell me what really happened? Is it something Spider-Man related? Someone bothering you at school? You get jumped?” Mr. Stark rambles off questions when he clearly doesn’t believe Peter’s sort of lie.
Sighing, Peter tries not to wince when Mr. Stark starts cleaning the small cut on his temple with rubbing alcohol on a cloth. “Uh…Y-yeah. It’s a Spider-Man thing. Was stopping a convenience store robbery and I just got a little hurt.” He says, not wanting to tell his mentor about Flash, not wanting to worry the man.
Raising an eyebrow, Mr. Stark pulls back and gives him a look that says he clearly doesn’t believe him. “Alright. Well, why not just me that? Why lie to me? Did you think I’d take away your suit or something? Because I won’t. A convenience store robbery is definitely something Spider-Man can handle without getting hurt. So, that makes me wonder why you got hurt? Did they have alien tech? Too many of them? What was it?” The man asks, kneeling to check out Peter’s ankle. “Swelling is pretty bad. You need to put ice on it. Also, why hasn’t all of this healed yet?”
Peter shifts in his seat, his anxiety rising a little with all the questions. “Um…there was more than one, yeah. One of them got the jump on me and I tripped and...” He trails off, wincing when Mr. Stark starts touching his swollen ankle. “Not sure why it hasn’t healed. But I’m sure it will. After you do the upgrade, I’ll head home and put some ice on my ankle and relax the rest of the night. Promise.”
“Mhm. Or, we could head up to the penthouse, you can sit on the couch and pick a movie with ice on your elevated ankle, and I can order us some Chinese food. Sound good?” Mr. Stark says, wrapping Peter’s ankle carefully. He stands up and helps Peter up, wrapping an arm around Peter’s waist so he doesn’t put too much weight on his bad ankle.
“Yeah, sure. That… that sounds great. Thanks. Oh! Can we get sweet and sour chicken?” Peter asks, trying not to focus on how close he is to Mr. Stark.
“We can. If you tell me the truth about what happened?”
Peter groans but doesn’t respond at first as they walk to the elevator and make their way up to the penthouse. Once the doors open, Mr. Stark leads him to the couch and helps him sit, moving a pillow onto the coffee table and setting Peter’s ankle on it carefully. “I…I was tripped. And pushed. But it’s nothing. Really.” He says, not missing the flash of anger in Mr. Stark’s eyes.
“So, someone is messing with you. Name.” Mr. Stark says, crossing his arms over his chest. Peter sighs and looks away, not meeting his mentor’s eyes as he shakes his head. “Peter, if someone is bullying you-“
“It’s fine, Mr. Stark. I’m fine. Nothing I can’t handle. So, just drop it, okay? Maybe I should just go home. I have homework anyway.” Peter mutters, shifting to get up but Mr. Stark pushes him back down.
“Fine. I’ll drop it. For now. Just… stay there. You really need to stay off your ankle. Pick a movie. I’ll order food. And, yes, I’ll get you your sweet and sour chicken. Now relax and pick something that’s not Disney.” Peter chuckles as Mr. Stark walks off, picking up the remote to look through the list of movies. He reluctantly ignores a few good Disney movies, although he guesses if he chose one, Mr. Stark wouldn’t complain. He debates for a moment or two about possibly picking a horror movie but decides against it. Eventually, he lands on Wonder Woman since he hasn’t seen it yet, but he’s heard it’s really good. Mr. Stark comes back after about five minutes and chuckles as he sets ice on Peter’s ankle before sitting next to him. Peter resists the urge to scoot closer to the man and presses play, relaxing into the couch.
“Hope this is okay. I haven’t seen it, but people have said it’s really good. But if you don’t want to watch it, you can pick something else. I mean, of course you can, it’s your TV. But it’s not Disney so I thought it would be a good movie for us to watch and-“ Peter starts rambling and his mind is telling him to stop but he can’t seem to until Mr. Stark interrupts him.
“Kid, it’s fine. I haven’t seen it either. We can watch it. Just relax, alright?” The older man says, laying an arm across the back of the couch. Peter nods and takes a deep breath, turning his attention to the screen. They watch the first ten or fifteen minutes of the movie when Mr. Stark pauses it to go get their food. He returns a few minutes later and sets two bags full of food on the coffee table. “I got double of the rice and noodles since you eat as much as Thor.” Mr. Stark says, his tone teasing as he hands a container of rice and chopsticks to Peter.
Nodding, Peter tells him ‘thank you’ around a mouthful of rice, causing the man to laugh again. They hit play and continue with the movie as they eat. At some point, Mr. Stark stopped eating and started watching Peter, but he didn’t seem to notice, too focused on his food and watching Wonder Woman kick some butt. The movie ends and Peter sets his now empty container of sweet and sour chicken down, turning to Mr. Stark and smiling. “So? What’d you think?” He asks excitedly.
Mr. Stark stands up to clean up the trash, not answering at first. He takes everything to the kitchen, putting the leftovers away and throwing away everything else before going back to the couch. “I thought it was fairly good, Pete. Wanna watch another movie? It is Friday so you don’t have school tomorrow and it’s not too late yet. Only…” He trails off as he looks at his watch. “Quarter ‘til midnight. It can even be a Disney movie, I suppose.”
Peter’s eyes light up and he nods, immediately playing The Greatest Showman. “This one I have seen but it’s so good. I think you’ll really like it. But if you don’t, we can change it.”
“It’s fine, kid. If you say it’s good, it can’t be too bad, right?” Mr. Stark jokes, sitting back down a bit closer to Peter without really noticing. He honestly didn’t really care what they watched. The man just didn’t much want to go to bed, avoiding his nightmares. Granted, it had been about three days since he last slept so he expected he may just pass out soon. About halfway through the movie, he feels a soft thud against his shoulder and turns his head to see Peter asleep with his head resting on him. Must have had a long day. He thinks, brushing some of the younger man’s curls out of his face. I’ll let him sleep for now. Not sure I can carry him to the guest room.
Once the movie ends, Tony gently shakes Peter awake and chuckles at the grumble of ‘five more minutes, May’. “Normally, I’d let you sleep, Pete, but this can’t be good for your neck. C’mon. I’ll help you to the guest room and you can get some real sleep.” He says, raising an eyebrow when Peter grumbles something unintelligible as he sits up. The older man stands and helps Peter to his feet, letting the bag of mostly melted ice fall to the floor. He helps Peter to the guest room and can’t help but laugh a little when the kid flops onto the bed and is immediately asleep again. “Goodnight, Peter.” Tony closes the door and heads back out to the main area, shutting the TV off and cleaning up a little. Sighing, he debates on whether he should try to get some sleep or go back to the lab. After a few moments, he decides to go back down to his lab, not wanting to have a nightmare with Peter around.
It’s about three in the morning when Peter startles awake, drenched in a cold sweat and breathing unsteady. Somewhere in his half-asleep mind, he hears FRIDAY trying to talk to him. Jumping out of the bed, he freezes, realizing he doesn’t recognize where he is. The last thing he remembers is watching The Greatest Showman with Mr. Stark. Meaning he probably fell asleep and is in the guest room in the penthouse. Okay. Okay, Peter, calm down. It was just a nightmare. You’re fine and safe in Mr. Stark’s penthouse. He tells himself, taking a few deep breaths, finally hearing FRIDAY speaking.
“-arker? Mr. Parker, are you alright? Should I contact Mr. Stark?” She asks, clear concern in her voice and Peter just knew if she had a physical form, she’d be hugging him right now.
“Uh… no. I mean, yes. Yes, I’m alright. No, don’t contact Mr. Stark. Just a bad dream. It’s happened before. Just need some water. Thanks, though, Fri.” Peter says and leaves the room, walking towards the kitchen. He’s there for less than five minutes when he hears footsteps heading his way. He assumes it’s Mr. Stark but it was odd the footsteps weren’t coming from the man’s bedroom. Well, not that odd. He clearly hasn’t slept in a few days. The footsteps suddenly stop and he turns to see a rather surprised and exhausted billionaire.
“Peter? What are you doing up? It’s, like, three in the morning.” Mr. Stark says and moves to refill his coffee mug.
“I could as you the same thing, Mr. Stark. You should get some sleep. You don’t look that great.” Peter says, concern flashing through his eyes as he sips from his glass of water. His ankle and head had fully healed since eating always seemed to help speed things along.
“I’m fine, Pete. Don’t worry about it. You should get back to bed.” Mr. Stark dismisses as he walks back in the direction he came from. Peter stands there for a moment, biting his lip in thought.
“Hey, Fri? When’s the last time Mr. Stark slept? And when was the last time he ate before we ate earlier?” Peter asks, his worry for the man only growing at the AI’s response.
“He last slept over 72 hours ago, and he slept for roughly four hours. As for eating, I believe the last time he ate before you two ate Chinese food was 36 hours before that if you don’t count the smoothies he drinks.” She tells him, sounding worried for her creator. Nodding slowly, Peter walks towards the lab. If Mr. Stark wasn’t going to sleep, neither was he. When he walks in, he’s hit with much too loud music and he immediately covers his ears. He mentally thanks FRIDAY when she turns it down for him, but Mr. Stark doesn’t seem very happy about the change.
“Fri, what the hell?! Turn the music back up!” The older man snaps, not looking up from whatever he’s tinkering on.
“Mr. Stark? Are you okay? You really shou-“
“Peter, I said I’m fine. If I wanna sleep, I’ll sleep. But I don’t want to so drop it.” Mr. Stark snaps at him, lifting his head to look at Peter and immediately regretting his words when he sees the kid is upset. “Shit. I’m sorry, Pete. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” He sighs and rubs a hand over his face then through his already messed up hair. “Do you… want to help me with this?”
Peter swallows and shakes his head, tugging nervously on his shirt. “No. I’ll leave you alone. Sorry. Just… get some sleep soon, okay?” He mutters and turns around, leaving before Mr. Stark could get mad at him again. Maybe I should head home. He doesn’t seem to really want company. But… he has my suit. Huffing in frustration, Peter goes back to the guest room and sits on the bed, pulling his phone out and playing random phone games. He eventually manages to fall back asleep around 5 AM.
Tony sighs and puts his face in his hands, feeling bad for snapping at Peter. He tells FRIDAY to shut the lab down and heads towards the guest room a few hours later. He raises his hand to knock but stops and shakes his head. “Fri, is he still awake?” He asks, making sure to whisper. When she tells him he isn’t, Tony nods and steps back, heading to his own room. After changing out of his greasy clothes, he showers and finds a clean pair of boxers and pyjama pants, flopping onto his bed. A quick glance at his alarm clock tells him it a quarter after six. He tosses and turns for about thirty minutes before falling into a fitful sleep.