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“Boss, Peter Parker has entered compound grounds.”
Tony’s head shot up, having been buried in screens with as many security feeds in New York as possible. 20 hours ago, May Parker had called him after getting home from the night shift with no sign of Peter. Tony wouldn’t have been too alarmed at first. The kid had probably just gone over to a friend’s house and forgotten to call May.
But when May told him she’d found Peter’s suit at home, with blood, fucking blood, in blotches all over it, Tony had almost passed out.
He’d tried everything. He tracked Peter’s phone, which was in a dumpster ten blocks away from his apartment, checked security footage from the night before all across Queens, and by now, all across the city, but it was all in vain. May was just about ready to call the police, and as much as Tony didn’t want her to (as it would mean something had truly happened to Peter), he was about to let her.
But F.R.I.D.A.Y, bless her robotic soul, had said the words Tony had been praying to hear for almost a day.
“Wha- F.R.I, are you sure?” He sprang to his feet, yanking on his shoes that were for some reason under his desk.
“Yes, Boss. He appears to be walking toward the main building.”
That was all Tony needed to hear. He sprinted out of his workshop, through the many twists and turns of the building, and down the stairs. As soon as he reached it, he threw open the glass door.
And sure enough, he saw a teenage boy slowly approaching the steps, hood up and head down.
It felt like a 500 pound weight had been lifted off his chest. With a massive sigh of relief, Tony ran down the outside stairs, two at a time, and in what couldn’t have been more than 20 seconds he had Peter enveloped in a hug.
He felt the kid stiffen at the contact, and for a second Tony almost pulled away, afraid he’d aggravated an injury the boy had. He wanted to pull back and look Peter over to see what had caused so much to be on his suit, but the kid’s arms shot up and hugged Tony, almost as hard as he was hugging Peter.
Tony let out a long sigh, pressing his cheek against Peter’s hooded head. “Oh, thank God.”
They stayed that way for about a minute, and Tony was very relieved that it was 2AM. The tabloids would have gone nuts to see Iron Man hugging a child.
Finally, Tony released Peter, save for one hand on each side of his face. “Holy fuck, Pete, where have you been?! What happened to you? Are you hurt? Because I swear to whatever higher being there is I will kill the bastard that-”
“Mr. Stark, I’m fine.” Peter interrupted. “Totally fine, I promise.”
That made no sense. Peter’s suit had been stained with blood. His eyes scanned Peter’s body up and down, knowing that he had to be lying. He had to be hurt and was just too damn self-sacrificial to say anything.
“Peter.” He said seriously. “Your aunt found your suit. It was practically dripping blood.”
Tony regretted his words almost immediately, because Peter looked like he’d been stabbed in the heart. His eyes filled with tears and he fell back into Tony’s arms, hugging him even tighter than before. He buried his face in Tony’s collarbone and began to cry.
Oh, a shitstorm was gonna rain down on the son of a bitch who had hurt this kid.
“Woah, woah, hey.” Tony said, patting his back. “It’s okay, you’re okay now. Whoever hurt you can’t hurt you anymore.”
“M’ St’rk,” Peter muttered, his voice muffled from Tony’s collarbone. “I m’ssed up.”
“That’s okay.” Tony said instantly. “We all mess up, okay? Whatever you messed up, we can fix it.”
“N’t ev’n you c’n fix this, M’ St’rk.”
That definitely wasn’t what Tony wanted to hear, but he could stand to see his kid like this. He didn’t care if Peter said fixing his mistakes was impossible. He would fix whatever happened if it killed him.
“I don’t believe that, but before we discuss this further, let’s go inside. You look exhausted, kiddo.”
Peter hesitated but eventually nodded, letting go of Tony and wiping his eyes. “Okay, okay, yeah. God- I’m sorry, this is so embarrassing.”
“Nothing to be sorry for, okay? Now let’s get you inside before some rogue, sleep-deprived journalist catches what just happened.”
---
Tony was more than a little surprised when F.R.I.D.A.Y confirmed Peter wasn’t injured. No bruises, scrapes, evidence of wounds healed in the last day, nothing. The only thing that was really wrong was that Peter was dehydrated, a problem Tony intended to fix.
He led Peter into the kitchen, sitting him down at the counter before going to get him a glass of water. “You sure you feel alright, kid? I’ve never seen you go this long without something tumbling out of your mouth.”
“You had F.R.I.D.A.Y scan me five times.” Peter replied. “If she says I’m fine, I’m fine.”
Tony sighed, handing the full glass of water to Peter. “Drink up. All of it.”
Peter didn’t argue, gulping the water down like he’d never had any before. Tony poured him another glass when he was finally, and that was gone just as fast. After three more glasses, Peter seemed satisfied, and so was Tony.
“Okay, okay.” Tony said. “I’m going to give your aunt a call, alright? You practically gave her a heart attack.”
Both of us, actually.
Peter nodded wordlessly, and Tony went into the next room to call May. He told her that Peter was safe, and that he was going to keep him at the compound for the rest of the night to see what was going on with him. She was certainly relieved her nephew was okay, but didn’t like the idea of being away from him anymore.
“May, listen.” He said calmly. “Something’s up with him. And if his suit was as bloody as you say, it had to do with Spider-man. Let Iron Man handle this.”
May sighed on the other end. “Stark. I honestly thought I lost him. I’ve lost too many people already. I can’t lose him.”
Me too.
“I know, I know, but he’s okay. I just have to know what happened and how I can fix it.”
“So do I.”
“May. Please .”
The line was silent after Tony’s desperate plea. But May came back on, letting out another shaky sigh. “I’ll be there first thing in the morning. Please just… take care of him.”
Tony smiled. “I will. I promise.”
He hung up and sighed. He couldn’t lie; he was terrified of May Parker.
Tony stuffed his phone back in his pocket as he went back into the kitchen. However, his eyes widened and his heart sped up when there was no Spider-boy in sight.
“Peter!?” Tony shouted. “F.R.I?! Where’d he go?!”
“Mr. Parker began to go into shock as soon as you left. He is currently in the restroom vomiting and requested that I not tell you.”
Any sane human being would not have said that as casually as she did, so it took Tony a moment to process what his A.I had said. But when he did, he raced to the bathroom. The door was locked, but Tony could hear Peter heaving his guts out.
“Peter?!” He said, knocking on the door. “Bud, are you okay?”
Tony heard a couple of gasps, and Peter croaked out. “I’m fine. Just give me a minute.”
“You are not fine. You’re in shock.”
“Am not.”
“F.R.I.D.A.Y?”
“Don’t ask her, please.”
Tony sighed. “I’m gonna go get you some clean clothes, okay?”
Peter gave a small “thanks” from the bathroom, and Tony went off to grab a pair of sweatpants and an MIT hoodie. He didn’t need either, so he’ll just tell Peter to keep them.
Peter had unlocked the door by the time Tony got back, so he peered in to make sure the little episode was done. Peter sulked against the wall, his head on his knees.
“Hey, Peter, you alive in there?”
Peter gave him a silent thumbs up, and Tony set the clothes down on the floor. “Here. Change. Then come to the living room so we can talk.”
Peter gave him another thumbs up, and Tony left him to it. He went to the living room and fell down on the couch, rubbing his forehead, the weight of fear and dread finally off his chest. For the past day he’d been terrified that the worst had happened. That Peter had been stolen or ki- nope. Not killed. That kid was not going to die for as long as Tony lived.
But even though he was relatively okay, something was still wrong with him. And Tony had to figure out what it was so he could fix it.
Peter came into the room about ten minutes later, his arms folded over his chest and his eyes glued to the floor. Tony patted the spot on the couch next to him. “Come on. Sit.”
Peter obliged, sitting on the couch with his legs crossed. Tony put a hand on his shoulder. “Okay. Whatever happened, we can fix. I won’t be mad. Just tell me what happened.”
Peter gulped before slowly starting his explanation. “May was on the night shift at the hospital, so I was out a little later as Spider-man. I saw this girl in an alley, and some guy was trying to mug her or something. The whole thing is kind of a blur.”
Tony nodded, encouraging Peter to keep going.
“I remember going down there, trying to web the guy up like normal, but then he pulled out a gun.”
Tony tried to hide the sharp breath he sucked in. He already knew where this was going, but he let Peter continue.
“I think I wrestled him for it. The girl had gotten away at this point, but I couldn’t let the guy get away, so I kept trying to grab the gun, and-”
Peter’s eyes turned glassy with tears and terror again. “It went off. Right below his heart.”
Peter buried his face in his hands. “I tried! I tried to get the bleeding to stop, but I just couldn’t! There was so much, and he- he just-”
He didn’t have to say anymore for Tony to know what happened. The man had died in Peter’s arms, and he blamed himself for it.
That’s why he’d said Tony couldn’t fix what happened. He couldn’t fix someone being dead.
“Oh, kid.” He said, pulling the boy into his arms for the third time in an hour. Peter began to sob, and Tony could feel his tears soaking through his shirt. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
“I killed someone!”
“The guy wasn’t a good man.”
“But what if he had people waiting for him to come home?”
“He didn’t. And even if he did, they wouldn’t miss him. The guy had a loaded gun.”
“But-”
“No. You do not get to blame yourself for this. You saved that girl’s life, didn’t you? Who’s to say the guy wouldn’t have turned that gun on her?”
Peter continued to cry for a little while, and Tony held him until he was finished. Peter finally pulled away from Tony and sighed.
“Okay, okay.” Tony said. “But still. Where did you go?”
“Like I said, everything was a blur. I remember going on, taking off my suit, running out of the building, Next thing I knew I was on a bus.”
“To where?”
“The driver made everyone get off in Atlantic City. That place sucks, by the way.”
“Thank God you think so. It’s like Vegas, only smaller. Still lose the amount of money, though.”
Peter let out a little laugh, and Tony smiled. “Okay, now we’re getting back to the Peter Parker I know.”
Peter kept going. “I wandered around all day. I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought you and May would hate me if I came back home.”
“First, we didn’t even know what happened. Second, she would never hate you. She was hysterical when she called me earlier.”
Tony patted Peter’s shoulder. “And I would never hate you either.”
Peter smiled. “Thanks, Mr. Stark.”
“Alright, kiddo. Last question. Why’d you come here instead of going home?”
That was something that had been bugging Tony since Peter arrived. Not only was the compound much further away from his apartment, but he had come to see Tony instead of May. Tony was perfectly happy to comfort Peter after this whole debacle, but he had to know why Peter didn’t go home.
“Um…”Peter said, his head down. “I-I didn’t think May would really get it. She still isn’t 100% okay with the whole Spider-man thing. And so I figured that you would, because you’re, you know, Iron Man.”
That caught Tony by surprise. Not just Peter’s reasoning for coming to him, but the fact that Peter trusted him that much. He trusted him so much that when he was swamped with guilt, he went to Tony instead of May.
He smiled. “Okay, listen. I’m glad you came to me. Door’s always open. But your aunt cares about you more than anything in the world. She’ll take your side no matter what. You can trust her.”
“I know. I just wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Yeah, no shit. But you can trust both of us, okay? I need you to know that.”
Peter nodded. “I know.”
Tony patted Peter’s shoulder. Peter had been somewhat right. He couldn’t fix what had happened to him. But he could fix how Peter felt. He wouldn’t let this haunt the kid forever.
“It was an accident.” Tony said. “This would be a different story if you’d shot him on purpose. But you didn’t. You did what was right.”
Peter bit his lip and Tony pulled him back into his arms.
“You’ll be okay. I promise.”