Chapter Text
*The person you are calling is currently unavailable, please hang up or leave a message after the beep*
“Hey uh, Mister Stark, I know it’s kind of late and even though you don’t really sleep a lot, you’re probably doing some really important superhero stuff or working on something that’s going to change the world. I really don’t want to bother you but something happened and I don’t really know what to do. I … I tried calling Happy but he didn’t answer either and you always said that if in an emergency I couldn’t reach Happy I should call you. But I think you meant a Spiderman emergency, not a Peter Parker one. Although this isn’t really a life or death emergency situation, it was but the latter seems to have become victorious, which, I guess means that this is no longer that kind of emergency and it’s not even to do with Spiderman so it’s not really your realm of expertise anyway. If you’re busy or something it’s ok I’ll just find something else. Ned’s definitely asleep and I don’t want to worry him, plus his parents are already way too nice to me and I stay at his place when May’s away sometimes. I don’t want to bother them. I can't go to Mj, I know she cares but I haven't known her as long as I have Ned. He's the person who I've known longer than anyone now. I’m sure that I can just figure out something on my own. Fuck, I really am on my own, how am I going to get back to the apartment. I think I broke my web-shooters and I have school tomorrow. I'm so going to fail my math quiz, which means I’ll probably flunk out and then I’ll never get a job. I’ll go cold and hungry. How am I supposed to be Spiderman if I’m hungry? I need more food than the average person. Sorry, I swore didn’t I?. Anyway, I’ll hang up now, bye Mister Stark”
Peter pressed the red button on his phone and let it fall from his hands, clinking against the button of his jeans as it landed in his lap. His arms slumping down by his sides, feeling heavy and hollow. Chest rising and falling quickly, his brain racing, thoughts suffocating each other in an attempt to remain at the forefront of his mind, their fast motion blurring their meanings and hindering his ability to anchor himself on one.
His eyes scanned upwards, towards the bed that his aunt laid in, words from earlier echoing around in his head.
“We’re losing her, charge to 200”
“Time of Death 20:52”
For the first time since reaching the hospital, climbing out of the ambulance, hurrying after the paramedics wheeling his aunt's bloody body inside on a stretcher, he let the tears fall from his eyes. If he couldn’t save the person he loved most, how could he be a superhero? He had frozen, he knew the car was going to hit her and he froze.
She was dead because of him. Everyone he loved was dead, and It was all his fault again. Just like Ben.
The streams of pain he had been holding back, made his eyes blurry and stained his face. Sobs shook his tiny frame as he gasped to get air into his lungs. It was all happening again, but this time he didn’t have a loving aunt and uncle ready to take him in or a person who mourned alongside him. This time he was alone.
His family was gone, every last one of them.
As if on their own accord, his knees lifted, folding against his body and pushing him further back into the hard uncomfortable chair he was sitting in. This was a position that was all too familiar to him; a position that May had found him in on too many occasions for the short amount of time that he had existed in this world; a position that was supposed to provide him comfort.
However, sitting in this cold, bleak, hospital room, the sterile nature only further drains any feeling of warmth out of the place.
Peter felt no comfort at all.
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“FRIDAY, has the kid made it home from patrol yet?” Tony’s voice cut through the blaring music, bouncing off the walls of his lab. He wiped his grease-stained hands on a towel that DUM-E had placed on the workbench, not long ago, in an attempt to make his dry cleaning somewhat easier for whatever poor, probably underpaid, soul had to spend countless hours scrubbing out the grease.
It was just after midnight, which meant that Peters’ curfew had recently passed and he knew Aunt May would have his head on a stick if he didn’t enforce it whilst she would be at work. He had given Peter the suit, he had taken Peter to Germany without her knowledge (a fact which he was still trying desperately to get out of May’s bad books for) and he had the technology, medical care and power to oversee Peter whilst he looked out for the little guys of Queens.
“It appears that Spiderman did not patrol this evening boss” The AI responded, voice abruptly loud compared to the now quiet music.
Her response confused Tony. The kid always patrolled on a Monday, especially when May worked the night shift. Protecting the little guy was important to Peter, more important than being a normal teenager, going to parties, hanging out with his friends, sometimes even his beloved school work. Nerd.
It was like Ben's phrase punctuated his every thought. ‘When you have the power to stop bad things from happening and you don’t, the bad things happen because of you’
“There has been no activity from KAREN at all?” He asked, internally shaking his head at the name that Peter had so adoringly given the AI inside of his suit. He pictured the kids face when he had been given the suit, having secretly watched all of the footage from his ‘vlogs’ and the suit when he practised how to sound.
He never thought he could become so fond of someone so young, thinking kids were all just sticky and annoying. And although logically he knew Peter wasn’t some toddler who didn’t know how to wash his hands or go to the toilet by himself, when they had first met, Tony had planned on their acquaintanceship being a short, minimal contact one.
“It appears that way, Sir, would you like me to check for any information I may have as to why Mr Parker did not patrol?”
Despite the nagging feeling at the back of his brain, he dismissed her. He didn’t want to interfere with the kid’s privacy more than he already did, especially when it was probably a Peter thing, not a Spiderman thing.
“No, it’s ok FRIDAY, the kid probably has a test tomorrow or something, kick the music back up would you”
Although he had no responsibility for Peter Parker, his lab buddy and ‘intern’, only Spiderman, the red and blue vigilante who patrolled the streets of Queens, he still felt a strong need to protect the boy,
Over time he had become one of Tony’s people. The people Tony would run in front of a bullet for, without the armour. He adored that kid like what he imagined a father should love his child, not that he had any personal experience with fathers who were warm and adoring.
Not that he was saying he saw Peter like his kid. No, definitely not. Just as a Protégé. Yes, that was it. A protégé, who happened to be a kid.
He continued listening to music whilst he tinkered on some arrows for Clint. Apparently, the archer hadn’t yet figured out how to clean up after himself and had somehow ‘ran out’.
After a few hours, the door to the lab opened to reveal a slightly annoyed looking Pepper Potts. Unlike usual, she wasn’t dressed in smart attire that commanded respect and hair that was never out of place.
She was wearing an old t-shirt of Tony’s that had M.I.T. spelt out on the back and black pyjama shorts, with her hair, sat on top of her head in a messy bun.
“Please for the love of God don’t tell me you have forgotten about the out of tower meeting we have at 8 in the morning,” She said, putting her hands on her hips dramatically.
“Of course I haven’t” Tony replied, telling a half-truth. He had remembered there was something he had to do, just not what or where.
“Then why, pray tell, are you still in the lab at” she paused looking at the clock on the wall for confirmation “nearly 3:40 in the morning?”
“Because I have a self-destructive personality and crippling insomnia?” Tony said, trying to be light and funny but ending up coming across more serious, as they both knew there was truth to his words. Needless to say, Pepper did not look impressed.
She made her way over to him, bare feet gently tapping against the cold floor of the lab.
“Come to bed, you don’t have to sleep, just at least rest” She yawned, standing behind him, head resting on one of his shoulder blades. Her hands came up to wrap around his torso in a loose hold.
Reluctantly, he gave in, turning around in her hold and placing a soft kiss on her forehead. Although he was the superhero in their relationship, the way she could get Tony to agree to anything was almost like her own superpower.
“Lights out FRIDAY”
“Yes Boss”