Work Text:
IronDad Bingo – Raise a Glass
Prompt – Child abuse
“And today when Flash was giving me a hard time MJ just glared at him and he shut up. I mean it was crazy Mr. Stark the way all she had to glare and-“ Peter paused his rant, “Are you okay Mr. Stark?”
Tony just smiled at his kid. His kid.
Tony wasn’t exactly sure when he started feeling this kind of way towards the kid. Peter Parker has a way of worming his way into your heart whether you liked it not. It wasn’t unwelcome per say. Tony had been keeping tabs on Spiderman for a long time, every since the first sighting really. He’d known about Peter Parker a little longer than that though.
The kid first popped up on Tony’s radar during the Stark Expo. When the Billionaire had gone up against Justin Hammer and his stupid ironman dupes a brave kid had put himself in front of one of the hammeroids a determined look set on his face. Tony Stark had felt some type of way about that but he couldn’t put a finger on it Later that night when Tony was going through a list of all the guests who had attended a young boy had appeared on his screen. Peter Parker. Kid had lost both of his parents, and later when Tony went to check on him again – because of course he kept tabs – he had just lost his Uncle too.
Tony had gotten better really, he had. He had built something for himself, heck he had discovered an entirely new element, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to protect the people he cared about. It wasn’t enough to protect the Avengers. Tony considered them his family, his family of chaotic broken superheroes and then had gone and destroyed that too. When the Avengers had chosen sides, he knew he needed help from a certain web slinging superhero.
The first meeting was awkward, but Peter looked at the Avenger like he had created the universe just for him and Tony swore on his life right there that he would do anything for this kid. It was like an instinct to protect. He stayed away after Civil war though. He needed to rebuild, he didn’t have time to give into whatever instinct told him to get to know the kid more. To help him more. The kid seemed to have other plans, and when he yelled at Peter, the sweet innocent teenager, on the ferry Tony felt like his dad. Heart racing and blood boiling he had abandoned Peter at his Aunts Apartment without the suit, without Tony.
But they had made up, and when Tony realized he started to see the kid as his kid he had two options. Push away any hope for a budding relationship, and lock himself away in his lab, or try this out, and be a real mentor. Obviously he had chosen the latter. The fake internship became a real internship and he began to enjoy the company of someone else in his otherwise lonely lab. Peter would yap about all – 2 – of his friends constantly. The boy, Ned, who was just as obsessed with star wars as the spiderling, and his crush MJ, a force to be reckoned with.
“Yeah Kid, I’m great” Tony said with a genuine smile. Pepper had said that he was smiling more since Peter and he couldn’t help but agree. He glanced down at the hologram in front of him. “Looks like its time for a certain Spiderkid to get a move on”
“Awhhhh Mr. Stark are you sureeee” Peter practically whined. Tony couldn’t help the chuckle that felt out.
“We don’t want Aunt Hottie to get mad like last time.” The mechanist shivered at the memory of the woman calling him. Peter and Tony had been working on the newest Ironman suit, experimenting with Vibranium and they had worked late into the night before falling asleep at their work table. They had woken up to the phone ringing around 2am. May was silent for a moment unleashing hell on earth. She wasn’t even on speaker and he could hear her yelling, so could Peter apparently because his face went white before rapidly apologizing and booking it out of the lab and swinging home leaving Tony to take care of it much to his amusement.
“yeah yeah.” Peter said disappointment obvious in his tone. Tony couldn’t help the pang of guilt. Secretly he wished the kid could stay here longer than Tuesday and Thursday nights for their internship. He had grown accustomed to the chatter while he worked as opposed to the AC/DC sound tracks. It was lonely without the kid in all truthfulness.
“Sorry, Kid.” Tony said, “I’ll see you on Thursday though”
Peter smiled and started packing up his things. “See you Thursday” Was all he said before heading down to meet Happy in the garage.
Tony sighed after the kid left. He didn’t want the kid to leave but he had to get back to May and the billionaire had work to do on the accords. Ross had been on his ass for a few days now practically demanding Tony go out and hunt down his fami- the rogues. His default response being “Like hell I will!” Before hanging up.
It was at times like these, when the lab was especially quiet and Tony was occupied trying to hunt them down that Rogers emergency phone called his attention. Tony glared at it, blaming Steve for putting him through this alone. The accords weren’t perfect, but he had thought they’d all work together to fix it. Now it was him, alone in his too quiet lab, with nothing but his thoughts. Thoughts that swirled in his head relentlessly bringing him to times he’d much rather forget.
Memories that had been imprinted into his brain from the fight in Siberia. The shield being shoved into his chest seemingly on repeat, and the horrible half hour where he waited for death to claim him. Before the billionaire knew what he was doing he was getting up to grab a bottle of scotch from his makeshift bar in the back of his lab. He hadn’t had a drink since Peter first came into his life but he found that he couldn’t fight the urges. Not when he had work to do, and memories that insisted on torturing him while he did it.
At some point in his mildly drunken haze he heard voices.
“…I would advise you not to enter.”
“Tony?” The voice asked. Huh he didn’t even hear the doors open. “Tony?” the voice said quieter this time.
Oh god. Peter.
“p’ter” His words were slurred. This was everything he never wanted Peter to see. “Wh’cha doing here k’ddo” Tony said trying to blink his way out of this but the bottle of scotch did not want to leave his system. Stupid alcohol tolerance.
“Tony, what happened” The voic- Peter trailed off and spotted something at the same time Peter did. The video, the video of what happened in Siberia was displayed on his screen. Something he never wanted anybody to see. When did he even start watching that. Vaguely he remembered staring it at taking shot after shot, throwing an empty bottle at the hologram, the bottle going straight through it.
“P’ter, ‘ts fine” Tony said trying and failing once again to bring himself back to the world. Peter only looked sad through Tony’s squinted eyes. He had let him down, he’d let down the kid. Suddenly just as quickly as the guilt appeared it was gone replaced with a fiery anger. “Get out!” His voice crackled, broke, but he didn’t miss the flinch the kid let out.
“Mr. Stark” The kid said, sadly this time, it only edged Tony on more. Why couldn’t he just shut up. He must’ve said that last part out loud because the kid curled in on himself anymore.
“Get out Peter.” Tony said, voice devoid of any emotion. The kid stayed. “LEAVE!” Before he knew what he was doing something was flying towards the kids head. Missing only by a fraction. Tony froze, Peter froze, and neither spoke for a good 10 seconds. “Peter, oh my god I’m so sorry” But the teen had already left, practically fled out of the lab leaving Tony frozen again in his place.
Sometime after the kid fled Tony had wreaked havoc in the lab because when he awoke ,nursing a strong hangover, he saw tables over turned, tools everywhere, and there in the middle, 2 glasses broken and a few droplets of blood. Everything became crystal clear and he couldn’t pretend that what happened was a dream anymore.
“Friday bring up footage from last night.” Tony said holding his head in his hands praying for the impossible he knew wasn’t true. That it hadn’t happened.
“Shit fri.” Tony sighed and returning to the footage. The billionaire watched as he uttered slurred words, and the fear and guilt that was obvious in his eyes. Peter and Tony had both recognized the screen at the same time and he watched both of their faces fall looking almost identical. Soon enough the fear was replaced by a fiery look and now angry Tony was spewing things at the kid before a glass flew through the air towards the kid missing but the glass separated and a few shards caught the side of Peter’s head. Tony watched in horror as the kid pressed a few fingers to it only to come away bloody. The teen mumbled a sorry before practically fleeing the room.
Tony cursed again briefly thinking what Rogers would say if he saw the billionaire now but quickly erased it from his mind. Rogers wasn’t here, and he wasn’t coming back.
“You might want to see this.” Friday hesitantly said, since when couldn’t AI’s hesitate? But none the less Tony was drawn to the screen once more. He watched Peter slowly walk back in, a bandage where the wound previously was, and stare at the now sleeping billionaire. The teen looked sad but grabbed a blanket off the couch and putting it over the man. Peter disappeared again, returning with a glass of water Tony spotted in the work bench next to him, and a few advils.
This kid. Tony couldn’t help but think his guilt festering even more. He watched Peter write something on a sticky note before glancing up at the camera and pointing towards another room. FRIDAY switched angles and he watched Peter head towards a guest room in the tower. The feed cut out then and Tony rushed over to where the note was.
Dear Mr. Stark,
Sorry for coming back I had forgotten my web shooter fluid and fell a few stories because I had left my new web fluid here in a hurry to leave. I dislocated my shoulder but I fixed it easily enough. I wanted you to know that I know it wasn’t you last night and not to beat youself up about it. The footage, of you in Siberia, I watched it again, Friday pulled it up for me later. We’re both broken I guess Y’know sometimes I still think about what happened on Homecoming night. We don’t talk about that stuff a lot but I think we ought to.
I told May I was camping out here for the night because I want to be here for you when you wake up. You have a guilt complex that rivals even mine, and I know we have a lot to talk about. FRIDAY is already going to alert me when you awaken so don’t even think about escaping. Hope you feel better.
Love,
Peter.
P.S, FRIDAY says that you need painkillers and water for the hangover so I left some here. Goodnight Mr. Stark.
And if that wasn’t enough to metaphorically kills Tony on the spot he didn’t know what would. Right on cue Peter shuffled into the room with a small apologetic look on his face. The kid looked, scared, but not of Tony for him. For the man who had thrown a glass bottle as a teenager in a fit of rage.
“God Kid,” Tony whispered voice breaking despite its volume, “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, Mr. Stark. It wasn’t you.” The kid said, and darn if that didn’t make the man feel even worse. A few moments passed between them before Peter shuffled next to him sitting beside him on the work bench and pulling him into a hug.
After a few moments Tony sound his voice. “Did I ever tell you about my dad?” His voice was soft, unlike its usual volume. There was a vulnerability there.
“Not really, I’ve heard stories though. He wasn’t very nice”
Tony sighed. “No he wasn’t… I guess I get my bad coping mechanisms from him. He was always so disappointed. He wanted me to be more like Captain Goody-two-shoes. I hated Rogers growing up, and I guess it kind of just festered into my adult years too. My dad yelled at me a lot. He made sure I knew how disappointed he was in me every time I partied instead of studying, met with girls instead of heading the company. He hit me sometimes too.” The man glanced up trying to reading Peter’s expressions, it held only sympathy and something that could only be called love there too. “It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough. I vowed to never be like him. To be fair I vowed never to have kids, but then I met you.”
Peter glanced up, eyes wide.
“I love you, kid, and I screwed up. I became like my dad, and I’ll regret everyday for the rest of my life. I understand if you never want to see me again but I… I don’t know I guess I just wanted you to know.” Tony finished with another sigh and prepared for the inevitable.
He expected Peter to storm out to yell at him that what he did was beyond repair, but the gold hearted kid only pulled him into a hug. “That wasn’t you last night… It’ll take time, but I believe in you, that you can get better. I love you too.”
Those words warmed Tony’s heart. That day Tony made another vow, and put the bottle away forever. The two grew closer than ever after that, becoming nearly inseparable. Peter often spent weekends at the tower, and multiple holidays. When he graduated Tony was there, a proud father indeed. He had become everything his father wasn’t, and as he stood watching his son get his diploma, he had never felt happier.