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It’s midnight when Tony gets the call from May, and even if he should have been getting ready for bed as Pepper had told him, he’s still finishing a project in the lab. The woman has long gone to bed, too tired from a whole day of meetings and wanting to be freshened up by tomorrow morning – that leaves Tony alone in his workshop, two big blueprints on the ground and countless tools laying around. He knows it’ll take him another fifteen minutes just to get out of the lab, so he doesn’t attempt to stop; even if he knows it’s good for his health, and that he should probably start acting according to his age and not on his false impression of not needing sleep.
However, any previous idea of spending the night avoiding Pepper in the lab or considering the consequences of doing so disappear as soon as the call comes through.
Aunt Hottie lights up his screen and for a moment Tony feels raw fear through his veins. It’s not that he doesn’t have a good relation with May Parker, though he’s been at the bad end of her screams more times than not. But the only reason she would be calling him at night is to talk about Peter and him getting hurt after patrol, like she has already done a few times. The fear is short lived, as he quickly remembers that the kid is actually perfectly fine enjoying his homecoming dance with his date and friends, probably a bit intoxicated even if Peter swore he would die before taking alcohol.
So Tony picks up the phone, half expecting nothing and half expecting May to call him just because, although the always nagging thoughts on the back of his head tell him different.
“Hey May” he starts, tying another part of his project together, hoping it doesn’t explode on his face. “Shouldn’t you be enjoying your teenager-free night? Red wine and bachelors shows?”
“Tony”
That’s what makes him stop working, and forget about how carefully he has been holding those wires so that the project doesn’t mess up. But her voice is not trying to hide any fondness like she always does, neither she’s mad or pissed at him. May Parker’s voice is so broken that it sends chills down Tony’s spine, and the silence after it leaves him cold; the type of cold that doesn’t stop with a warm blanket.
Suddenly, it’s no longer midnight and Pepper’s possible complains about his unhealthy habits don’t matter anymore. He has never been more glad of not listening to her. May, not waiting for him to say anything else, talks again.
“Peter is… he…” the voice at the other line stops for a second, and he hears her taking a deep breath. “C-Can you come over? He’s in his room, something happened. He says he wants to be alone, but –“
“Is he hurt?” Tony blurts out. Last time he saw the kid, Peter was all smiles and adorable giggles, getting ready for his homecoming dance while Tony helped him with his tie and May tried to teach him some dance moves. May stays in silence. “Is Peter hurt? I swear, if he went out as Spiderman I’m gonna –“
“No, it’s – it’s not that” May says, although she doesn’t answer the first question. “It’s – can you come over? I’ve tried talking to him, b-but he says it’s fine, and… and…”
“I’ll take the suit. Be there in ten”
May thanks him quietly, and he keeps the line on long enough time to hear the begging of her own sob. Suddenly, not a single thing that is laying around him and would have take him fifteen minutes to walk by matter. Tony doesn’t care about the hard work or the money spent on the project; he stumbles and falls, and in the next five seconds he’s barrelling out of the lab leaving behind a trail of broken things and a very excited Dum-E holding a fire extinguish.
Millions of possibilities dance around his head as the suit closes around him, from Peter getting shot to a failed kidnapping attempt. It has been just a few months ago when they’ve started to become close, yet it feels like an eternity. At first, Tony had thought leaving the kid with Happy was the best idea; but then, after Siberia he found himself alone, and selfishly dragged the kid closer to him. What intended to be just a distraction until he got better turned into something more, judging by the way Peter has now a room at the tower and spends his aunt’s nightshifts with him.
Tony thinks of Peter’s rambling and his stupid self-sacrificing kid that always gets him into trouble. The boy doesn’t have an inch of preservation in his body, although Tony can’t talk from experience. That’s the only thing they have in common, because while Tony saw him as an distraction, Peter saw the man as his hero who needed help. He can’t count how many times Peter has brought him up or been there for him; and now, Tony can’t stand the thought of not being there for the teen.
The flight to the Parkers’ apartment is filled with self-doubts and FRIDAY doubling the power of the suit; in five minutes, he’s landing on the roof, and by the time the sixth go by, May Parker is opening the door. He must be a work of art; in his pyjama pants, because he promised Pepper he would go to bed after finishing something really quick, and a oil-stained tee that it’s too old to notice the original colour.
Still, he’s allowed inside and takes notice of the apartment. Peter’s suit jacket has been thrown on the couch along with May’s purse, yet something else catches his attention; the white flower bracelet that Peter has bought for his date, that should be on that girl’s wrist and not lying on the couch.
“He appeared here two hours ago” May whispers behind him, when she notices where he’s looking at. She has tears track on her cheeks and is clutching a blanket to her chest. “It’s not fair, Tony. It’s not – he doesn’t deserve it”
“What isn’t fair? And why isn’t him at the dance?” he turns around to face her, mindful of his voice volume for a certain super-hearing.
“The girl he was going with sent him a fake address, some shithole an hour away from the school. And I didn't know, because he wanted to walk there and really thought she was gonna appear” with that, Tony’s heart falls to his feet, but he knows there’s more of it. “Pete waited for hours, Tony. Hours. Then, some boys and the girl drove by, calling him… that nickname he hates, and, some other teenage stuff”
“What are their names?”
It’s the first thing that comes to his mind, the first and the most important. He has known kids bother Peter in highschool, and that the kid is too shy to do anything about it; but this, the humiliation, crosses the line. He wants to make them beg for Peter forgiveness on their knees, to cry for him not to let Tony ruin their lives. He wants to make them regret ever talking to his sweet, innocent boy. And he already has an idea about certain boy with a dumb name who started the whole Penis Parker name and who surely was there too.
“I know he has been crying on his way here, and I’ve tried talking to him. But he says he wants to be alone” May shrugs, ignoring his question. “And I thought that, maybe… you’re like a father to him, Tony, so maybe you can help him”
It’s not the first time he’s referred as Peter’s father figure. May threatened to bury him alive if he ever hurt the kid or his feelings a few times, because he sees Tony as a father, and Pepper is always teasing him for behaving like an helicopter mom; yet like everytime someone mention his relation with the kid, his heart flutters a little. It’s almost not noticeable, as the only thing filling his chest apart from the arc reactor is pure rage.
And hurt.
So much hurt that it could have been him the one given the fake address. It roots deep inside him and suddenly he understand why being a parent is also hard. It’s not always smiles and laughs, there are also problems. But Tony would have gladly take a teenage argument with Peter if that means he gets to see him smiling when he opens the door of his room.
Pointlessly, he hopes Peter has fallen asleep and they can talk in the morning, when Tony has calmed down a bit and Peter doesn’t have tear tracks on his cheeks. Without further explanations, May sits on the couch and Tony walks towards the teenager’s room, finding his wish to be useless as he hears the quiet sniffles coming from it. The door is closed, Peter’s name tag from when he was a kid hanging from it. Tony takes a steady breath, or tries to, and opens the door.
“Kid?”
No one answers, and Tony knows Peter noticed him the second he put a foot on the apartment. Maybe sooner, as he can hear the suit from the distance. Either way, the only signal that he gives him that he’s aware of Tony is that he tries to muffle his cries. It doesn’t work; Tony still can hear the heart-breaking noises Peter is making, and now he can see him.
Peter is curled in a ball, a lump in the sheets facing the table. His suit - too big from him, that he had insisted to wear because it was Ben's, no matter how much Tony wanted to buy him one - is laying on the floor, and so is his phone, a few inches away from the shoes. Tony enters the room just as the phone shows the last seconds of Ned’s face; and then, it adds to the twenty eight missed calls from his friend. There are more from different people, but Tony has more important things than to pry on it. So he carefully avoids the things on the floor, Peter’s last robotic project that is close to his bed and kicks one shoe away.
“May called you” Peter says, his voice croaky and wet. It’s so small and low that Tony has to guess what the last word is. The man smiles softly, even if Peter can’t see him.
“I meant it when I said I was here for you, buddy” Tony sits beside him, and pretends not to notice how Peter’s body gravitate towards him. He places his hand on the biggest lump, Peter’s shoulder, and squeezes softly. “Spiderman related or a problem in your math homework, I’m here”
“And she told you?”
They both know the answer, but for a moment Peter pretends they don’t. Tony doesn’t find an use in lying; he really doesn’t want to make the kid repeat what has just happened, because he’s already seconds away from getting the suit back and going for those teenagers. So he just tightens his grip on his shoulder, and finally Peter’s head comes out of the sheets. It takes a while, because he can’t move much with Tony sitting in the small bed, but eventually a mess of brown curls come out. There is no trace of the gel that he has put with so much effort to keep them down, they are all over the pillow.
What follows the curls is even worse, and Tony knows it’s gonna be a long night and week. Peter’s eyes are red and swollen from crying, his mouth drawing a sad pout. But the worse part, the one that makes Tony suck a breath and tighten his hand on a fist, is the soft blue bruise on his cheek. It goes across his left eye to his cheek, and although it’s not that noticeable, against Peter’s pale colour it is. As much as he tries to keep his emotion in check, he can’t help some of them flowing through his eyes.
Peter notices, and barely bits down the other sob.
“What happened here?” Tony drags his hand to his face, and gently traces the bruise. Peter leans against the touch, letting Tony catch the falling tear and closing his eyes.
“They t-threw a rotten egg at me” he whispers, chocking a breath and making Tony run his free hand through the messy curls. “I-I washed my h-hair… but it l-left some s-smell”
“Does it hurt too bad?” Tony lowers his voice even more, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Peter’s hair. Indeed, under the fresh smell of his shampoo, there is the faint one of a rotten egg.
“The humiliation is worse” Peter says. “They… I was waiting there f-for two hours, Mr Stark. I really t-thought it was a m-mistake… I… I…”
Peter picks up his crying again, and Tony wastes no time in squeezing himself in the small bed and hugs him close to his chest. There has been enough sleepless night, enough nightmares, to know that Peter needs physical comfort when in distress. Peter sobs against him, the sheets between their bodies while the boy tries to be as close as possible to Tony.
While he cries his heart out, Tony can’t shake the image of Peter alone in the middle of the street, waiting for someone who isn’t coming and realizing later that he had been fooled. He can almost see his shoulders sagging, the excitement leaving him and being replaced with hurt and sadness. Worse even, he can now imagine the car rushing by him and throwing him the rotten egg, staining the suit he has wore with so much happiness. Tony has always taken pride in imagining situation easily, in visualizing what is happening in his brain as if he is there himself.
Now, he curses. He has known Peter had a problem with some kids, he didn’t think though it would get that far. Behind him, Peter’s phone lights up again. He doesn’t move.
“I’m going to help you, bud. I promise they’re gonna get what they deserve, and you’re gonna be just fine” he cards his hand through his curls.
“I’ve never felt so humiliated, Mr Stark” Peter confesses, letting his cries quiet down a bit as Tony caress his hair. “I really liked Liz. And when she asked me to go with her, I thought…. I thought that she…”
“Liked you back” Tony finishes the sentence, feeling more than seeing Peter nodding. “I’m sorry, I really am. What do you want me to do?”
There is the fact that Peter has said the girls name, and that Tony will cling to it until he has her files on her desks. He’ll recreate himself in the punishment, he’s sure May or even Pepper will gladly help to deliver it. If it’s up to him, he’ll grab every rotten egg on this planet and throw them to those kids. But Peter is hugging him so tight that there is barely room to breathe, barely any room to feel anything else apart from the utter and pure love he feels for the teenager.
So when Peter talks again, now without tears and with a clear voice, he decides that the punishment will have to wait.
“Can you stay tonight?” Peter admits. “I know I told May I want to be left alone, but I-I really –“
“You don’t have to explain it, kid. Of course I’ll stay” he notices Peter sag in relief and he smiles.
“Until I wake up?”
“Until you want me to”
Tony wouldn’t have slept a lot in his room, but he knows he won’t be closing an eye in that Queens’ apartment. He doesn’t have the heart to tell Peter so, because he know Peter will chicken out and suffer in silence. If bearing a bad back pain in the morning and dealing with bigger dark bags under his eyes than usual is what he needs to make Peter feel better, then he’s more than ready.
Kids can be assholes, kids are assholes and every now and then they remind Tony why he hates them so much. But then, he looks down and sees Peter’s soft face sleeping soundly, tears still fresh on his cheeks, and clinging to Tony’s tee with spider stickiness. He remembers why his heart is so full and why he’s lying awake in a small bed in Queens' apartment, why when May Parker walks into the room a few hours later he just nods at her and smiles. He’s got it handled; as long as he lives, he’ll always have.