Chapter Text
Tony Stark loathes things he doesn’t understand. He knew from an early age he could only trust what he could learn, take apart, or build. He remembers the first time he experienced the frustration of not quite reaching the desired level of comprehension. It burned like an unscratchable itch just a centimeter under his skin.
He’s eight, riding in the backseat of the family car with his mother while their loyal butler, Jarvis, pushes past the speed limit to reach their estate faster. His mother grips his hand tightly as they run the red light, hushing his fears even while Tony can see the panic in her eyes; feels the pressure on his hand when the red truck clips the back of their car, spinning them to a jolting stop against the curb.
–
Tony’s eight and sitting on the hard plastic hospital waiting room seat listening to his father rage at Jarvis for endangering his and his mothers lives. “Soul sickness is bullshit! The fact you even think that could explain -” Howard’s harsh words cut through the stale air. The little genius has seen him angry before; will see him angry again. He knows when his father is really mad his voice gets quiet, methodical and seething .
The quiet and forced tone is evident of his anger but what catches Tony’s ear is the reasoning - Jarvis risked their safety because of soul sickness? He doesn’t understand and not understanding burns worse than any fear sparked by the accident.
–
Soul sickness caused the most ironically tragic moments in human history. A threat to a soul’s other half creates a bone deep need to protect in the other - sparking action before all else, even rational thought.
It’s the out-of-body panic causing Orpheus to look back and the frozen dread pushing Patroclus to steal Achille’s armor. An affliction that brought giants to their knees and helped turn the tides of wars.
Tony may be eight but he doesn’t think he’s ever heard of anything as awe-inspiring. He spends the next six months reaching everything he can get his hands on regarding the power soul sickness has over each half of a soul.
–
At thirty one, Tony hadn’t thought of soul sickness in years. Despite recently connecting and slowly developing a relationship with his soulmate, he didn’t quite see it as something that would or could happen to him. Afterall, his soul’s other half can take care of himself - something Peter had repeatedly stated after the initial reveal’s shock wore off.
His platonic soulmate being late wasn’t an unusual behavior. Since he relied on public transportation and often refused the cars Tony would send to pick him up, the billionaire got used to the younger man running a few minutes behind to their meetings. The spiderling never ran more than five or ten minutes late and often Tony was so enraptured in whatever project at hand he wouldn’t even notice.
So when his finger hit send on the On your way? Message and a shock as cold as ice water ran up his arm, the attention that had been split between texting his soulmate and connecting the final wires in his gauntlet’s palm snapped into a singular focus. It felt like holding his finger to a buzzer, except instead of pain there was only freezing dread . Something happened to Peter.
Tony had to locate Peter - something was very wrong.
Spider-man has been spotted traveling fourty seven miles per hour and increasing. It appears he may have caught a bus. Friday’s voice accompanied the holoscreen clearing to display traffic camera footage of Peter on the front of a bus, feet and hands pressed to the windshield while the runaway bus sped block after block.
The electric shock that ran through his fingertip earlier put a layer of ice over his bones. Tony’s eyes flew to the projected route Friday created - there was a hill at the end of the last few blocks with a larger intersection at the bottom. He quickly calculated their distance, there was no way Iron Man could make it from the Tower in time. Unless…
“Send the legion, Fri.” He tapped three times against his glasses, switching to manually operate a few of the drones. They weren’t ready - he and Peter hadn’t finished calibrating the bots depth perception or finalized their landing gear. He ignored Friday’s warnings and two Iron Legion bots launched, flying faster than a manned suit ever could.
–
Two gray Iron Man suits slammed into the road in front of the runaway bus. Tony braced their feet and extended the arms, catching the bus’s windshield on either side of Spider-man. Their iron boots dug into the asphalt, the groaning metal sound echoing through the bus. Despite the force exerted by the bots, their lack of landing gear meant they were easily pushed and the street began to give way as the bus’s momentum kept them from stopping the vehicle.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Peter’s voice cut through the com link.
“Thought I’d catch a bus, support public transportation and all that” Tony snarked, trying to get the legionnaires to dig their feet deeper to slow the bus. “You looked like you needed a hand.” Broken asphalt pinged off the empty metal suits as their feet dug deeper into the ground. The genius had to readjust their grip as the bots started to slip under the bus.
“Wh-you’re not even here?” Spider-man readjusted his grip so his weight was in his arms and kicked one legionaire’s legs out from under the bot at the knees.
The kid webbed the torso of the bot to the windshield. Tony felt his blood go cold, there was no way the remaining legionnaire could stop the bus alone - the other half of his soul was going to crash because he couldn’t stop the bus. “Spidey, we’ve got to kill this speed! What do you think you’re-”
“I’m handling it!” Peter spit through gritted teeth. He stuck one hand to the back of the in-tact legionnaire and pulled hard, sending the bot upwards before shooting two webs to pull it back to the roof of the bus. Terrified screams filtered through the coms as the billionaire’s H.U.D. flashed red. The thwip of Spidey’s shooters were the only warning before Tony found the bot webbed to the dented roof. “Tell everyone to hold onto their seats!” Peter yelled.
Panic swelled in Tony’s chest, he launched two more drones, swearing at the fact they were so behind. He’d just gotten to find the other half of his soul - he couldn’t lose him now.
The genius could only watch the intersection at the bottom of the hill get closer and closer through the lens of the legionnaire strapped to the windshield next to Spider-man.
Spidey turned from staring into the bus to face the road, he adjusted his footing and shot two long webs at surrounding buildings, pulling his arms out as they sped past. He grunted and pulled his arms to his sides, releasing the webs as soon as the bus became airborne. He crawled to the underside of the bus out of Tony’s view .
“No! Friday, get Spider-man!” the billionaire shouted, heart racing. The other drones weren’t close enough, the bus was going to crash, Peter was going to be crushed, Tony would have to bury his soul before he even really got to know him -
- the bus stopped.
Or rather it was caught . Tony switched to traffic camera footage to see the bus suspended over the dreaded intersection. High enough the cars underneath were unharmed yet secure enough the bus bounced a few times and settled on the mess of weblines Peter shot off from underneath the bus.
Standing squarely in the center, completely upside down and looking satisfied stood Spider-man.
Tony swore.
Friday started a silent tally - Boss: 0, Spidey: 1 .