music, just music

@thatonetranny

OK, I know this took a long time. sorry. I could explain why, but I don’t really want to.

Characters: Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Ned Leeds, Flash Thompson

Fandom: Marvel

Word Count: 1760

Summary: Peter has a meltdown after Flash becomes the tipping point for him on a Bad Day. Ned helps, and irondad comes to the rescue.

TW: Meltdown, literally one cuss word

Peter enjoyed being alone. Sure, he liked hanging out with Tony in the lab, watching a movie with May, or playing video games with Ned. But being alone gave him space, space that the world didn’t want to offer, especially on Bad Days. Days when sounds were too loud, lights were too bright and anytime he tried to talk to someone they would brush him off or just annoy him. After days like that, being alone in his room with no one but his phone for company sounds like the greatest thing in the world.

So, when Peter woke that morning with the sun shining too bright and his pajamas feeling as though they could strangle him, he knew today was going to be a Bad Day. Brushing his teeth was a pain and he could barely swallow half an apple (he was going to be starving later, stupid metabolism). He immediately put his headphones in right outside his apartment door and started his walk to the bus.

The bus was surprisingly not too bad, yeah the jerky movements could be annoying, but to Peter they were familiar. A nice calm before the storm he knew. He kept his headphones on as long as he could, but the bell rang and the class had started. Off went the headphones and in came sensory input. He tried his best to focus and take notes while the teacher droned on about something he probably already learned with Mr. Stark. He’ll have to ask Ned for the notes later.

He was dealing with his Bad Day pretty well so far, he’s had all of his classes, except for his last one, with almost zero trouble. Ned even gave him his leftover lunch to help with his lack of breakfast. Things were going well, that is until Flash decided to be extra Flash today. Peter was grabbing the books he needed for his last class, gingerly picking up and putting down each one to make sure not to accidentally tear them up. When Flash came in and slammed his locker door and all his books fell to the ground.

“What’s wrong penis? Are you still being weird? I thought you got rid of that.” He said with a smirk, thinking he did something cool.

Peter could feel his blood boiling and itching. He just had one more class. One more. And then he could be on his way to his ro- Mr. Stark. He had to go to the tower today and work in the lab with Mr. Stark. That kind of just ruined peter. Yeah, he loved going to the lab and helping Mr. Stark, he would do that any day. But today? On a Bad Day? Why?

“Hello, Penis!” Flash started snapping his fingers in front of his face, and that was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back.

Peter clamped his hands over his ears and screwed his eyes shut and sat down in the corner of the wall and his locker. Luckily Ned had forgotten to give him his notes and wouldn’t have seen him for the rest of the day and asked his teacher if he could give them to him quickly before class started. He honestly wasn’t expecting to see peter in a corner in a ball with flash standing there looking shocked and almost worried for the teenager.

“Shit, Peter? Are you okay?” Ned tried to keep his voice low and quiet to keep from distressing Peter more.

Peter just shook his head.

“Okay, I know what to do. You told me like a year ago.” Ned started to recall the list Peter gave him after a similar thing happened last year at their first Acadec meet.

“First, look for the cause, get rid of the cause.” He looks at Flash and glares like his mom does when he interrupts her during a phone call. It’s enough to make Flash runoff, deciding that he didn’t want to be a part of the situation anymore.

“Second, block sensory input.:” He dug around in his friend's bag to find his headphones and hat to block out the sound and light.

“Three, try, and communicate.” He looks at his friend's face and hopes his teacher won’t be mad for staying out of class for so long.

“Hey Peter, you doing better?” Still keeping his voice quiet he manages to get a nod out of his friend.

“Do you want to go to the nurse?” Knowing the nurse will help him way more than he could.

“No.” came his quiet timid response.

Ned bit his tongue in thought and tried to decide what was best for his friend.

“Do you want to go home? To May?”

His friend once again shook his head and simply said “Work.” in the same timid voice.

Ned didn’t know what to do. He was supposed to take him to the nurse so she could help him, but trying to force him there could lead to an even bigger meltdown. And Mays at work so he definitely doesn’t want him home alone right now.

“Well, what do you want peter?”

Now, Peter is smart, like really smart. All A’s kind of smart, memorized Pi in the fifth grade kind of smart. You get it, Peter is smart. But, in situations like these all that smart he has gone out the metaphorical window and he reverts into what Ned likes to call The Lizard Brain. There is no thought process or best decision for what variables there happen to be at that moment. There is only: DON’T DIE FROM THE SCARY WORLD. So when he gives his answer to Ned's simple questions, he doesn’t think.

“Tony.”

Tony was having a surprisingly good day. He ate breakfast, did his morning workout, talked with pepper on her lunch break, and was even productive in furthering their new stark phone they are planning on releasing soon. Overall, a Good Day. Plus, today was a lab day with Peter, even better. Peter was the highlight of his day, any day. He liked having the kid around, someone to match his level of intelligence. It was easy having him around, he said what he thought most of the time and would appreciate whatever Tony said back. Sure he had his days where communicating was hard, they just learned how to work with each other when that happened.

He was just about to remind Happy to pick up Peter when he got a call from the boy.

“Hey kid, I was just about to get Happy to-”

“OH my god, hi, sorry sir, to interrupt you, but we kinda have a situation.” Tony was a little startled, to say the least when he heard the voice of a different teenage boy than the one he was expecting.

“Who are you? And what situation?” to say Tony was concerned would be an understatement. There goes that Good Day.

“Um, I’m Ned, Peter's friend. And Peter is the situation right now.”

“Hi Ned’s Peter’s friend, you wanna tell me what’s wrong with the kid?” hearing that there was something up with his kid didn’t sit right with Tony.

“Yeah, uh, something happened between him and a classmate of ours” -Did Peter get into a fight? He doesn’t do that. And if he did, it would be the other kid in the ‘situation’, not Peter- “And he started having a meltdown, -Peter, does he know what a meltdown is? He does? Okay.- and I was able to calm him down, but he can’t really go back to class like this. And May’s at work. So we called you.”

By the time Fred- Ned? Ned had finished talking he already had his shoes on and was heading towards the elevator.

“Okay, thanks, Fred. Tell Peter I’ll be there to pick him up in about ten minutes and to go to the front office.” he hung up not even waiting for an answer. Getting in his car and he started down the road to go and get his kid.

When Peter heard Tony say that he was on his way he was able to calm down some, but not all the way. He could still feel the rumbling of the A/C below them and the hat he wore blocked out most of the light from the ceilings, but not the shiny floor of his school. When he stood up to leave the front office he swayed a bit on his feet, but with the help of Ned, he was able to get there without fail.

After a few minutes Peter guessed, Tony showed up with the heavy-duty headphones and sunglasses. Peter gratefully put them on and got up to leave. He waved at Ned hoping he wouldn’t get in trouble because of him and stepped outside.

The ride was quiet on the way to the tower but Peter liked it that way. Mr.Stark didn’t pressure him to talk when he didn't want to. The car had a more soothing rumble compared to the one in the school.

When they arrive at the tower Tony leads Peter to the couch, yes Peter remembers what he said about being alone, especially on Bad Days, but that doesn’t apply right now. He just wants to watch a movie with his father-figure, is that too much to ask for? Tony leaves to get Peter's favorite blanket he has in his room. “No, I’m not a dad, I swear” he whispers to the posters in Peter's room.

He sits down beside the spiderling and covers them both with the blanket. After a while when Peter is calmed down more he takes off the headphone and sunglasses and looks at Tony. He’s not looking at his eye but at his ear, eyebrow, nose, chin, and anywhere else except for the eyes, Tony doesn’t care, he just wants to know what his kids got to say so soon after a meltdown.

“Thank you.” he practically whispers.

“For what Underoos?” he matches his tone, afraid he’ll break something if he doesn’t.

“For helping me. For being there.” his speech is still a little broken up, but Tony doesn’t care.