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Peter had had a bad feeling about this talk since he had found out about it. Then again, when he had found out that Tony Stark would be giving a STEM talk to 5 schools in the district and that Midtown was one of them, the bad feeling had been because he thought that Tony would find a way to inevitably embarrass him. It hadn’t been that a shooter would turn up and take Tony hostage. If that was what was happening here. Peter didn’t think he had quite computed what was going on yet.
One minute Tony had been talking about mechanics and making everyone laugh and the next, two men had burst through the door, fired some shots around before aiming their guns at Tony. Everyone was screaming and pushing back away from the stage, trying to put as much space between them and the guns as possible, as if that would stop a bullet.
“Everyone stop moving or I’ll shoot you. And SHUT UP!” One of the men yelled, turning his gun to the crowd.
They immediately froze and stopped screaming though Peter could still make out the terrified whimpers and rapid breaths.
“And don’t even think about calling anyone,” the man growled.
Peter’s heart was beating loudly and quickly in his ears as he watched the gun pointed at Tony. Tony just stood there with a calm look on his face, hands up as he scanned the scene. Their eyes locked. Peter widened his. Tony took a deep, exaggerated breath and shook his head a minuscule amount. Keep calm, don’t engage yet. Peter nodded back and began to creep backwards, eyes roving, taking in the perps and evaluating the situation like he had been trained to.
“Stark,” the man with his gun pointed at Tony barked. He was holding a standard handgun but Peter could see the outline of another at his side. Bigger gun. He was wearing red Converse. Peter almost rolled his eyes. He moved to the other man. Same guns. Same black ski mask. Green Sneakers. Seriously? Peter thought.
“You are going to call-”
“I thought you said don’t think about calling anyone?” Tony raised a brow. Red Converse slammed the gun to the side of Tony’s face. His lip split.
“You think you’re so funny, don’t ’cha?” Red gripped his hair in his fist.
“It is one of my better qualities.” Tony grinned a bloody grin. Red hit him again. Peter felt anger rise up in him, lighting up his veins. How dare they.
“Forget it. Just bring him with us. The car is ready,” Green grunted.
“No thanks. You can’t afford me,” Tony snarked. Red punched him.
“Want to reconsider? Because the price for not coming is your life.”
“Oh, good one. I’ll be sure to tell that one to Spiderman later. We have a bit of a thing about perps with puns.”
That was Peter’s permission to act. He looked around from where he was pressed against the back wall; no one was looking. Slipping out of the window at the back of the room, he activated his suit, feeling it suit forming around him as he silently sent an alert to the police. He crawled from the outside to the window by the stage.
“Optimistic of you to think you’re seeing him anytime soon.” Red punched him in the stomach and grabbed his hands behind his back, shoving him forward.
“I think he will be seeing me sooner than you’d think. Besides, you can’t take him yet. He didn’t finish his talk,” Peter told them. People gasped in shock and relief. The two shooters were less pleased about his arrival. Green shot at him but Peter quickly moved out of the way, anticipating it.
“Kid!” Tony yelled. This was probably not what he had had in mind when he had given his permission for Peter to do something. Luckily, Peter had a plan. It was not a well thought out plan in the least but he had to do something or yet another father figure would be shot in front of him. He wasn’t sure if he would survive it if it was Tony.
Green kept shooting at him and yelling while Peter kept moving out of the way, quipping back at him in his usual style.
“Enough! freeze or I shoot him,” Red yelled, thrusting the nozzle of the gun at Tony’s temple.
“I don’t think so.” Peter locked eyes with Tony, both of them eerily calm. “Do you trust me?”
Tony raised a brow and Peter had to hold back a smile. “Like you even have to ask.”
Peter leapt backwards, shooting webs at Green, Red and Tony. The momentum pulled them all out of the open window of the fortieth story, smashing the glass that got in the way. Peter could hear screams in the hall and screams from the two shooters but Tony didn’t make a sound other than his hitched breathing. Peter webbed the two men together below him and grabbed Tony round the waist. He raised one arm as he fell and attached himself to the side of the building. He grit his teeth as he felt his shoulder dislocate under all the extra weight as they slid down a few feet before Peter got his feet stuck to the bricks as well. It was still for a moment as he panted through the pain. The men were screaming from where they were hanging below them.
“Kid? Are you alright?” Tony whispered to him. Peter grunted and began lowering them down to the ground below, his arm and shoulder on fire.
“Fine. Talk about trust fall.”
Tony huffed a laugh though Peter could hear his heart thrumming.
“Honestly, Underoos, asking me if I trusted you. What a ridiculous question.”
“Just had to make sure. And make you aware that something crazy was about to happen.”
“Well,” Tony hummed, “You aren’t the first person to throw me out a window. You’d be surprised how many times that’s happened.”
Peter grunted again. “Bet you’ve never been pulled out of one before.”
“Let me think about it.”
They had finally reached the ground and Peter let out a sigh of relief as he let go of Tony and the building. He went about disarming Red and Green, pulling the guns out of the webs and then dissolving the webbing keeping them in place, handing them over to the waiting police.
“Come on kid,” Tony muttered, materialising at his side and steadying him as he swayed. “Let’s get you checked out. Somehow, I don’t think all that blood is just from a dislocated shoulder.”
Peter looked down in surprise to see that there were smudges of blood covering him and now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he began to feel more pain than the one in his shoulder. He groaned. Then looked up and panicked. Tony had blood on him as well.
“Shh, calm down. Don’t worry, they didn’t get me. It’s just some of the smashed glass. Easy healing.” Tony grabbed his good arm. “Come on, Roo.”
Peter let him lead him away, into a car waiting for them. “ ’sup Happy?”
Happy eyed him. “Try not to get blood on the upholstery, kid.” Peter snorted at the poorly hidden concern on Happy’s face. Maybe he thought Peter was too out of it to notice. He was almost correct. Peter rested his head on Tony’s shoulder.
“Wait a sec, kid, let me check you aren’t concussed.” Tony gently jostled him before gripping his head and looking into his eyes, then he felt around his head. “Okay, you’re good. Want anything for the pain?”
Peter thought about it for a moment, returning his head to Tony’s shoulder. He gripped his sleeve. “Nah, its not too bad. The cuts should be healed by the time we get to the tower.”
“Good,” Tony nodded. “Cho will be ready to reset your shoulder as soon as we get there as well.”
Peter nodded, turning his face into Tony’s neck as the events caught up to him. He sobbed.
“Oh, Roo.” Tony turned so Peter could slide into his lap easier.
“They were going to shoot you,” Peter cried. He didn’t get quite this emotional every time Tony was in danger, he would never be able to get anything done otherwise. But shooting was different for him. And Tony knew that. His arms tightened around him.
“They weren’t really, kid. They needed something from me. Otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered trying to get me to leave with them.” Tony had begun rocking them gently. Peter absently noticed that Happy had rolled up the divider between them, allowing them privacy and his heart gave a pang in gratitude.
“But they could have.” That was the most terrifying part of the whole day.
“No they couldn’t,” Tony reassured. “Do you want to know why?” Peter looked up at him with watery eyes and nodded. “Because you were there. And you were ready to act, to web me away or whatever. Its why I wasn’t worried about being shot. I was more worried that would do something stupid and get yourself shot. Like jump in front of me or something.”
“It crossed my mind,” Peter admitted. Tony glared at him.
“What did we talk about?”
“Do not consider courses of action that would get me killed,” Peter repeated dutifully, calming down slightly.
“Exactly. Nice to know that you do pay attention to what I say. And then ignore it completely.”
“I don’t ignore everything you say. Just the stuff that could get you hurt. Or is stupid.”
Tony gasped in mock offence. “Nothing I say is stupid. Haven’t you heard? I’m the most intelligent man alive. The Times said so.”
“Yes,” Peter agreed, a mischievous glint returning to his eyes. “And you know what they say, you must believe everything you read in the paper. On that note, aren’t you also currently dating half of women kind, a good quarter of the men, and have a long lost child?”
“Well, it might be a bit of an exaggeration to say all at once. Probably over the span of the last few decades. And about the child, I wouldn’t say long lost,” Tony stared down at him, “I know exactly where he is.” Peter blushed furiously, looking down and hiding his face in Tony’s chest. Hiding his smile. Though he didn’t know why he bothered; Tony knew. He was sure to feel his smile, just like Peter could feel his, pressed to his hair.
“Yeah?” he asked softly. “Where’s that?”
“Where he belongs.” Tony tightened his arms around him.