Work Text:
Peter gritted his teeth to keep himself from groaning in pain as he swung through the city, one hand shoved into his side in an attempt to slow the bleeding. It wasn’t working. He knew his healing factor would stop it from killing him, or he hoped it did, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant and the black spots starting to cloud his vision were bringing panic up in his chest.
Finally, the Avengers tower was close. With ragged breaths, he swung himself up to the upper floors, sticking to the windows. After trying, and failing, to catch his breath for a moment, he grits his teeth and shoves open the window to the living room that Peter normally entered through, unable to hold back the grunt of pain as he pulled himself through.
He meant to go get help Mr. Stark, he really did, but when his last bit of vision disappeared, he settled for curling up on the floor and hoping Friday would notify him. Mr. Stark would help, he always did.
What he didn’t count on, though, was the Avengers.
***
Steve and Bucky shot up from their bed immediately at the sound of a grunt and thud that came from the living room. They exchanged a quick look and hopped out of bed, Steve creeping towards the dark room as Bucky went around to quietly gather the other Avengers from their nearby rooms down the hall.
Following the amending of the accords, the Avengers had all moved into the tower. Tony hadn’t been terribly pleased with it, but had begrudgingly approved it, and the rogues had taken it as an opportunity to try and make amends. It had been two weeks and they had managed to have a team movie night in which Tony had actually let out a quiet chuckle a few times as they fell back into playful bickering, so they had hope that they were restoring the bonds that had been broken in Germany.
There was still a lingering tension, though, some unspoken distrust remaining in Tony, not that they could blame him. It seemed like he was hiding something, often leaving meetings with no explanation, texting some unknown person on his phone and immediately shutting down any prying questions. He had also been working on some secret mystery project in his lab that kept anyone from being allowed in and often seemed to be trying to subtly encourage them to not be home certain nights through little missions and team bonding trips that he “unfortunately couldn’t attend due to important meetings” and what not.
The slight tension was present in everyone’s mind as they crept towards the dark room, stances at the ready. If they protect the tower, maybe that would help prove their trustworthiness to Tony, they thought.
They realized a slight breeze was wafting through the building and turned to the now open window.
“What? I thought those didn’t open?” Sam whispered.
“Same,” Steve replied. “How-”
Steve went silent as he noticed the dark lump on the floor beneath the window. He approached it slowly, keeping his steps silent. As he looked down, his enhanced vision was able to make out the form of a person curled up on the floor, unmoving, with a puddle of dark liquid around them.
“There’s someone here.” he whispered to the team, tensing to get ready for a fight as he heard them do the same.
“Friday, turn the lights on.”
The lights flicked on and they found a figure in a red outfit curled up just below the window. Well, they couldn’t be sure if it was originally red, but now it was heavily stained with blood. The person’s face was hidden, tucked into their barely moving chest.
Steve moved slowly, cautiously reaching to move the person so they could see who it was, when he was interrupted by a loud crash. Everyone turned to see Tony sprinting into the lounge, pausing for only a second to see the entire team posed to strike, weapons at the ready, before rushing to Steve and shoving him back.
Tony looked frantic, positioning himself between the person and the team. “Stay away from him!” he roared, before turning back to the figure on the ground with panicked eyes. “No, no no no, come on, breathe. You’re okay. You’ll be okay. I’m gonna take you down to the med bay and get you fixed up, okay? Come on, please wake up.”
The avengers looked at each other, bewildered. Tony clearly knew the person who broke into the tower, but the strangest part was how hysteric and caring Tony sounded. None of them had ever heard him speak to anyone like this, except maybe Pepper, who this clearly wasn’t.
Steve resolved to figure that out later, reaching gently for Tony’s shoulder. “Hey, we can help bring him there. I can carry hi-”
Tony whirled towards him, fire in his eyes, as he continued to cradle the figure to his chest. “NO! You won’t touch him! I won’t let you hurt him!”
Steve couldn’t do anything but freeze in shock. He knew he still had a long way to go to regain Tony’s trust, but for him to expect them to hurt someone he obviously cares about? That stung deep in his chest. He raised his hands in surrender and the team watched in silence as Tony stood with the figure cradled against his chest, rushing to the elevator in a frenzy as he murmured gently to the mystery person.
***
Tony had woken to an alert from Friday. “Sir, it appears Peter has arrived and is critically injured.”
“Where?” he shouted, immediately jumping out of bed.
“He entered through the living room window and is still there. He appears to have suffered a number of serious stab wounds. Immediate medical attention is strongly recommended.”
Tony sprinted to the elevator, thankful that Friday closed the doors and activated it the second he was inside.
“The avengers have joined Peter in the living room and appear to be in defensive positions.”
Tony’s heart dropped. He forgot they were there. There was no way in hell he would let them touch his kid. Luckily, they didn’t often target people who were already unconscious, as Peter probably was, but he couldn’t exactly trust them 100% yet in general, much less when it came to his kid. He was a kid, why were they in defensive positions against a kid?
Tony sprinted out of the elevator, pausing to look at the scene before him. Natasha, Wanda, Clint, Sam, and Bucky were standing at the ready, some with weapons ready, some clearly prepared in a fighting stance. Steve was ahead of all of them, close to the open window, under which Peter- oh god Peter wasn’t moving. He wasn’t moving and there was a sickening amount of blood around him. Enough to kill any normal man. All he could focus on was getting to the boy and getting him safe.
The sight of Steve’s hand reaching for Peter’s limp body sent him into a blind panic, only thinking of when Steve fought him and dropped an airport loading tunnel on the kid. He knew Steve had no idea Peter was 15 at the time, but it didn’t make much of a difference to him at the moment.
The next thing he knew, Steve was stumbling away and Tony had Peter held gently against him. He started rambling softly to the boy, desperate for some sort of response. He wasn’t even sure what he was saying, but it didn’t matter all that much, because his boy still wasn’t moving.
He felt Steve reach towards him and panic swelled in his chest until he was screaming something that left all the rogues staring at him in shock. He didn’t care though. All he cared about was the boy hanging limp in his arms. He rushed out with Peter, practically flying to the med bay.
“It’s okay, Peter. You’ll be okay. You’ll see. It’ll be okay.” he murmured, ignoring the tears welling in his eyes. “You really need to stop giving me gray hairs, kid.”
***
Steve hadn’t seen Tony since the encounter with the mystery man three days ago. He seemingly hadn’t left the med bay, with their only indication that he was still alive being Pepper bringing food that Happy picked up into the room for them a few times a day. He wanted to apologize for seeming threatening to whoever it was that was with him, but didn’t want to intrude by going in to join them. (he also had a feeling that even if he tried to get in, Tony probably had blocked their access to the room)
He waited outside the room whenever possible, hoping for an appearance from Tony or some sort of update, but the man still wasn’t leaving. He caught Pepper a few times, asking her if they needed anything or if there were any updates, but Pepper always responded with a tense, sympathetic smile and a “It’s not for me to say,” shrugging as she carefully entered the room.
He did notice the food change after a day and a half. For the first bit, the food Pepper delivered was enough for only one person, a single cheeseburger meal from Burger King or a personal pizza (Pepper must be eating separately, she never stayed long, having to run more of the company in Tony’s absence) but starting at dinner the second day, Pepper brought in bags of fast food with enough meals to feed 4 people. That was odd, but Steve wasn’t interested in questioning it and risking deteriorating their relationship more than it already had. So, he waited quietly outside the med bay every day, sometimes joined by other rogues, hoping that everything was alright.
***
Peter woke up with a groan. Every movement sent a sharp pain through his body, even breathing. He just wanted to go back to sleep and wait until he was fully healed, but a voice brought him out of the fog of exhaustion.
“Peter? Peter, are you awake?”
He opened his eyes to see Tony leaning over him, worry etched across his face.
“Oh thank god, kid. You gave me a bit of a scare there.”
“Sorry, Mr. Stark. There were more guys with knives than I expected.” he mumbled sheepishly, holding back a groan as his lungs strained against his tightly wrapped chest.
Mr. Stark let out an exasperated huff and dragged his hand down his face. “That’s the kind of situation you call me in on. I’d much rather come help you than find you…” he trailed off as his face tightened, blinking harshly as his eyes got redder. “Anyways, you really have to be careful. Please, I want you to stay safe. You know I have heart problems, kid. Don’t give me a heart attack.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I just really thought it would be fine because of all the adrenaline and then I didn’t realize how bad it was until I was swinging back and then… oh.” Peter stopped, face pale as he realized Mr. Stark had probably found him bleeding out in his living room. He was flooded with guilt at the thought, he really didn’t mean to freak him out.
“Yeah, you were in… pretty rough shape,” he swallowed nervously, voice thick. “But it’s okay, I got you in time. You’ll be okay. It’s just taking a bit to heal because you lost so much blood.” he tried to hide the way his voice cracked at the last part, but Peter noticed, dropping his head.
“Hey, hey. Look at me.” he said softly, tilting Peter’s chin up to face him. “I’m not mad at you, and there’s nothing to be sorry for. I was just scared, that’s all. I care about you, Peter. You know that, right kid?”
“Yeah. I’m still sorry though.” he mumbled back, barely meeting the man’s eyes.
Mr. Stark just sighed and pulled him into a hug. “Let’s get some pizza. How’s that sound?” he sighed in relief when Peter lightly hugged him back, nodding into his shoulder. “Yeah, that’d be nice, Mr. Stark. Thank you.”
*****
Peter spent the next day sitting with Mr. Stark, talking about ideas for suit upgrades for both of them and various interests, but the kid got bored quickly.
“Mr. Stark, please can I leave? I swear I feel so much better! I’m totally fine!” (that was a lie, he felt like every movement was going to pull his muscles apart, but he was confident he could still at least walk through the pain a little bit) “I’m so boreddddd. Please?” He looked up at his mentor with his signature sad puppy dog eyes, hoping it would be enough for the man to cave.
“Nope. Nuh uh. Don’t give me that look. You and I both know that you are still healing and moving around could make it worse. You try to leave, I’ll take away your lab privileges for two weeks.”
“Mr. Stark! You wouldn’t!” he yelped, mock offense on his face.
“Oh I would.” he stared Peter down with a stern gaze.
“Fine.” he replied with a huff, crossing his arms and pouting. “Can we at least watch a movie? And get pizza?”
Mr. Stark smiled softly at that. “Of course, kid. Which movie?”
“Star Wars?” he asked with an innocent grin.
Mr. Stark sighed, chuckling as he ruffled the kid’s hair. “Wow, what a surprise. I’ll go get the DVD.”
Peter beamed up at his mentor as he left, heart squeezing at the way he smiled back at him before gently closing the door.
***
Tony quietly closed the door behind him, careful not to be too loud to hurt Peter’s hearing. He finally felt like he could breath, his kid awake and his normal happy self again. Well, he could breathe, that is, until he turned around to find Steve sitting in the chair in the hall, perking up as Tony walked out. Tony tensed up, fighting the urge to immediately go back into Peter’s room and barricade the door or start to fight the man in front of him.
“Tony, hey! I just wanted to check on you. Is the man okay? Are you okay?”
Tony just stared back at him, still trying to decide what to do.
“I’m really sorry we seemed threatening to him, we just didn’t know what was going on and we thought he broke in. We didn’t mean any harm,” the Captain continued, fidgeting nervously in his seat.
Tony’s jaw tensed as he tried to hold back his retort. He was bleeding on the ground not movingI He’s a kid! Not much of a threatening intruder to the fucking Avengers! Instead, he gritted his teeth, and gave him a terse nod. “I know. But you’ll understand I don’t want you near him now.”
Steve nodded, regret shining in his eyes. “I know, I just hope he’s okay. And I still want to earn your trust back. We all do. We know we’ve messed up but we want to make it up to you. I’d love to help if you or him need anything.” he replied earnestly.
“I can trust you enough to be around me and stay in the tower, and I appreciate the offer, but I certainly don’t trust you around my ki- my friend. He is my first priority in this situation, and we have a long way to go before I’m willing to risk anything.”
“I understand. Just know, we would never intentionally hurt someone you care about.”
At that Tony scoffed. You already have hurt him. I thought he was seriously hurt back in Germany. I’m never putting him in a situation with you again. I won’t risk it, I won’t make the same mistake again. I would never forgive myself.
“I can’t say I do know that. But I appreciate the sentiment, Rogers. Now please, head back to your room. I can’t leave him alone if I know you’re here.” Tony knew he should feel bad for that blunt comment, but Steve’s feelings weren’t as important as Peter’s safety, so screw it, Tony’s PR training could only go so far in keeping this conversation friendly.
Before Steve could respond, he heard the door creak open slightly and a voice came out. “Mr. Stark, it’s okay, really. I can handle myself. And I think he’s telling the truth.” A small hand grabbed the door from the inside and started to push it open, but Tony stepped in front of it, hiding the person from Steve’s view.
“What did I say about getting up?”
“...not to?” God that voice sounded young. Was it a kid that was injured? No wonder Tony was so protective. But how did a kid break into the tower and who on earth would hurt a kid that bad? It didn’t even look survivable, much less like someone would be able to get out of bed three days later, but maybe Stark had better medical tech than he realized.
“That’s right. So why are you up?”
“I heard you two talking. You shouldn’t be mad at Mr. Rogers. He was just trying to protect you guys. I did kinda break in. Plus I really want to watch Star Wars, so you should go get the DVD.”
That was also odd. Why would Tony have DVDs? Almost everything he had was high tech, did he even have a DVD player? Apparently he did, because he just smiled softly and nodded.
“Okay, kid. But you stay in bed, and he isn’t seeing you. I don’t want people meeting you quite yet.” Tony shot a glare at Steve. “And, you need rest. I wasn’t kidding about taking away your lab time. Don’t test me on it.”
A groan and a “fine” came from the door and the hand disappeared, door closing behind it.
Tony turned back to Steve. “Okay Rogers, you can stay in the hallway, but do not go in that room. I need to keep him safe. No one goes in there except me and Pepper. I will be back very soon and if you so much as look at him I will blast you to another universe.”
Steve nodded firmly, but relaxed a little bit at the slight improvement. He was going to earn Tony’s trust back, no matter how long it took.