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Tony flies across the ruined street, chasing one of the metal arms attached to the madman standing in the middle of the rubble with a vial. The man, who announced his presence by telling the entirety of times square that he was gonna save the human race with said vial, is grinning at them and throwing them around like ragdolls, and Tony isn’t exactly sure how he’s doing it.
He would love to take a close look at whatever is making this contraption work so beautifully, like an extension to the man himself, but the claws swinging around and keeping watch of absolutely every move, is making that dream a little hard to succumb to for the time being.
Cap’s shield is stuck in a brick wall too far away for any of them to reach in a reasonable time, Clint’s arrows aren’t doing much of any damage at all and Nat can’t even get close to the maniac before she’s picked up and thrown away.
It’s a mess, to say the least, and Tony regrets to say that he wouldn’t have been against a few more teammates right now. But as it is, he’s stuck with the ones he’s got, while the rest are off doing whatever else they usually do when nothing major is going on in the city. And it’s not like they had a warning or anything, this idiot just showed up out of nowhere, waiving the precious vial around. And honestly, if it was that important, he should maybe be a little more careful with it.
What he absolutely doesn’t need right now, though, is his acrobatic, reckless boyfriend swinging in between the buildings and joining the mess. “What the hell are you doing here?!” is the first thing he says. And maybe it’s a little harsh for a welcome, but Peter really isn’t welcomed at this shit show of a party. He can’t worry about him too, in the middle of this.
“What do you mean, what am I doing here? ” he retorts back, flinging himself over one metal arm and grabbing another one, ripping it from the socket. The madman screams and Peter webs another arm towards himself, and jumps over and around the guy, making him lose his balance. “You totally hijacked my villain. This is my guy. Go fight your own.”
The bad guy groans as he gets back on his feet and Peter takes the chance to jump on his back and fiddle with something on his neck. “This is a little out of your league, Spider-Man ,” Tony spits through gritted teeth, and is about to blast the maniac to pieces when the arms suddenly drop to the ground, the idiot screams again and falls to his knees, and Peter backflips away from him with something in his hand. He even manages to grab the mystery vial before it breaks on all the rubble.
“Out of… excuse me ? Otto here has been in my league for ages , ain’t that right, Doc?” Peter shakes the little bottle, studying the insides for a second before tucking it away in his suit. He’s not even looking at the doctor? Cocking his head and seemingly having complete control over the situation.
It’s a little embarrassing, having struggled for so long with this idiot, only to have the street-level vigilante come to their rescue. Captain America is panting next to him, and Tony can hear the speech coming a mile away. He doesn’t need it right now. And even if Steve doesn’t know it, they don’t need to fuel Peter’s ego either. He’ll just get even more reckless and unreliable. Tony has enough struggles trying to keep him safe as it is.
Otto grunts and curses and tries to make Peter help him, and it’s straight-up bone-chilling to watch the chaotic, optimistic, colorful hero look down on him. Emotionless and empty. Something definitely went down there in the past, because Peter doesn’t act like that with anyone .
“And by the way,” Peter says suddenly, pointing at Tony and Steve while he prepares a web to get out of there. “You guys are cleaning up this mess.”
And then he just swings off , leaving them with the whining villain and Tony is so confused about the history between the two of them and what the hell is in that vial. Cap sighs but squares his shoulders and steps towards the puddle of a man in the middle of the street, who’s currently screaming for Spidey to come back and help him.
Tony isn’t exactly known for being a patient guy, however, and he’s got no intention of waiting until he sees Peter on their next date to ask about all of this. Cap and co can take care of the bad guy, he doesn’t look like he’s about to try something else anytime soon.
He can hear Clint on his comm asking if they should follow him and make sure no one gets killed. Which he supposes is fair, from their perspective, anyway. It’s not like Peter wants to be public or open about their relationship. At least not yet.
It’s a nightmare to keep it secret, though. Tony isn’t really good at the whole secret thing. But Peter hasn’t even told his son yet, or his aunt. And Tony has a sneaking suspicion he still feels a little guilty for moving on after his husband’s death.
Natasha says something about hoping Spidey comes out on top, and that spiders need to stick together. Cap tells them to leave it alone and Clint shoots back that he bets a hundred dollars that they’ll find Tony webbed to a wall.
Tony rolls his eyes as he rushes off. He doesn’t even know where Peter took off to, but he can’t really be that hard to find, right? He’s a bright-colored acrobat in the sky.
He’s sitting on top of his favorite gargoyle because of course, he is. Peter doesn’t have a lot of friends, Tony figured pretty soon after meeting him. But talking to a figure made of stone is a little low. If Peter would just open up to everyone, he could have conversations with actual, real people instead. Maybe he’d even get some helpful answers.
“So… what’s in the bottle?” he asks as he touches down on the roof, retracting his suit. Peter doesn’t turn to look at him but keeps fiddling with the vial where he sits on top of the gargoyle’s head.
“Devil’s breath,” he mutters, completely uninterested in talking to a live person, apparently. “And what the hell were you guys doing down there? I thought you were supposed to be good at this stuff?”
Ouch. Okay, so they may have been a little out of practice. But to be fair, it hasn’t been too many avengers level fights recently. And Tony was just there because he had time to spare. He’s mostly retired these days. He doesn’t have the powers to keep him young and strong forever. He’s got armor, but even that takes strength to carry, and he’s getting old . (Old er . He’s getting older. Not old.)
“Well, we didn’t really know what we were dealing with.”
“That’s a terrible excuse from someone who prides themselves with saving the earth on several occasions,” Peter retorts, not missing a single beat, turning his head slightly. “You can’t just destroy entire streets. People actually live in this city, y’know?”
“Seriously? You know I can just snap my fingers and it’ll be fixed within a week, right?”
“Yeah, but how often do you actually do it, huh? Who do you think will get the blame for this mess?” He gets to his feet suddenly, jumping over the ledge to land straight in front of where Tony is standing. Peter isn’t a particularly tall guy, but he still looms over the billionaire when he straightens up and squares his shoulders.
Tony really wants to know what the hell went down between Pete and this Otto guy because seeing his boyfriend like this is truly a rare sight. It’s incredibly intimidating, and while Peter is poking his chest with a finger that feels like solid rock, squinting his white lenses, Tony can’t help the blood draining from his face, rushing straight down to his groin instead.
“Who is this doctor, anyways? How do you know him?”
Peter ticks his jaw, grinding his teeth together, and pushing the vial into Tony’s hand. A sore spot then, not surprisingly. “He was my mentor,” is all he says, but it’s so cold and emotionless that Tony doesn’t really need to know any more details. Not right now, at least. “Don’t drop this. You’ll kill half the city with that thing.”
And then he jumps off the roof, and Tony is left staring at his back as he disappears around a corner.