#bruised!peter

When he saw the familiar car with the familiar person driving said car, he quickly rushed over to it, opening the back door, hoping in, and slamming it shut.

“As fast as you can,” Was all he said as he pulled out his phone. He had a tracking device on Peter’s suit, but not on Peter’s anything else. Nonetheless, he pulled up the app that told him where Peter’s suit was, in hopes of knowing something, but no luck at all. The suit was where Tony had left it.

“You need to calm down,” Happy said, seeing the distress on his friend face increase.

“Calm down?” Tony laughed, throwing his head back and leaning it against the back of the seats. “Calm down?” He repeated. “How the hell am I supposed to calm down?” He was laughing hysterically at this point. Shit. Maybe he really was going mad. “Jesus Christ,” He mumbled under his breath, closing his eyes, and trying to take Happy’s advice and calm down, even though he knew his attempts were futile.

“I should’ve let him keep the suit,”

“What?” Happy said, taking a glimpse at Tony, who looked a mess, through the rear-view mirror, before diverting his eyes back to the road.

“If I had just let him keep the suit, he would’ve had better protection, maybe he could’ve escaped before the building escaped, or hell, maybe he could’ve even stopped it from collapsing all together-”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” Happy stopped. “It’s not your fault the kid decided to meddle in something larger than he could handle, he’s reckless, not dumb. He knew it was a bad idea, but he went for it anyway, nothing about it is your fault,”

Tony knew that was supposed to reassure him, but it didn’t. He didn’t respond and jsut left himself to his thoughts for the rest of the drive over to Peter’s apartment. When Happy parked, it stopped Tony’s train of thought, and he opened the door, thanking Happy.

He walked into the lobby, to the elevator and onto Pete’s floor. Once he got to the door, he knocked. Someone might answer. May was probably working, but Peter, depending on what shape he was in, was either at school or home, or patrolling. If that kid was patrolling right now Tony might actually have a heart attack.

After waiting a minute or so, he heard the door unlock, then the door opened and revealed Peter’s face. Once he saw it was Tony at the door, he opened it wider. “Oh, hello Mister Stark, why are you here?”

Tony just stared down at him, his face expressionless. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Was he relieved? Upset? He was relieved to some extent, sure. Peter wasn’t horribly injured, not that he could see right away. There a nasty bruise on his arm that he hadn’t covered up. Tony didn’t want to know the other injuries that could be hiding behind Peter’s clothing.

“I mean, not like I don’t want to see you or anything,” Peter began to ramble on. “But it’s kind of weird for you to just show up- actually no it’s not- you tend to just show up a lot actually, kind of creepy sometimes- I mean not that you’re creepy or anything-”

“Can I come in?” Tony asked, still trying to sort out his emotions.

“Oh, yeah, sorry of course,” Peter said, side-stepping so Tony could get through.

Once Tony was inside he looked around. “Is it just you?”

“Wha? Oh yeah, May’s at work,” He said. Tony glanced at him and it didn’t take a genius to realize the boy was antsy, he kept balling his fists, wiping them on his jeans, even the way he was standing made it obvious the boy wasn’t doing too great.

“So, what have you been up too recently?”

“Oh, you know, Mister Stark, same ol’ stuff,”

“Staying out of trouble?” Tony said, directing his attention from around the apartment back to Peter, making direct eye contact while quirking a brow.

“Uh, for, for the most part, ya, yeah,” He said, laughing nervously.

“Really?” Tony says, staring Peter down, noticing how the boy is getting even more nervous.

“Ya, Yeah, why’d you ask,”

“Oh no reason, say, where’d ya get that bruise on your arm,” Tony said, stepping forward, carefully grabbing Peter’s arm and holding it up, showcasing the painful-looking bruise on his arm, observing it further. It was a deep purple. It’s what you would expect a bruise to look like if it was caused by rubble falling on your body.

“Mister Stark, I have a feeling you know something,”

“Hm, do you now? So I guess you really aren’t dumb,”

“I gotta say I’m a little confused Mister Stark, I-”

“So if you’re not an idiot, I don’t know why you’d go chasing after criminals, and then get an entire fucking building to fall on you,”

Peter’s jaw dropped. “I mean, I didn’t get it to fall on me, someone else broke it I was just, I uh- I was in the way of it,” There was a short pause. “It was kind of a lesson, if I remember correctly, it really wasn’t all that bad,” Peter was rambling at this point. Tony released his arm gently and looked him in the eye.

“Why do you keep doing this to yourself, kid?”

“I, um-”

“You can’t keep letting yourself be put in harm’s way!”

“I was fine! I swear Mister Stark, I had it under control! I mean, sort of, I didn’t plan for it to happen the way it did, or anything, I didn’t plan for the building to fall on me, duh, but I knew basically what I was doing! And I got out of it, nothing bad happened it was fine,”

“For one, me and you have different definitions of fine–”

Peter tried to cut Tony off, but he kept talking.

“Secondly, even if that was considered ‘fine’, one day, you’re not going to be so lucky, you’re not going to get out, and then who knows what will happen. You could get injured, you could die. Do you even care? This is your life we’re talking about, Pete,”

“But I’m fine!” Peter yelled, he didn’t know why he was yelling, but he was getting mad at how Tony would just swoop in and yell at him for doing things Tony would’ve done if it meant saving someone. Why was it any different when he did it?

“Once again!” Tony was also raising his voice now. “We have two completely different definitions of fine!” Tony reached forward and grabbed his arm again, holding it up. “It’s a bruise this time, but what about next time? And don’t say it won’t ever happen again because this isn’t the first time! You keep putting yourself in these dangerous situations, without caring what happens to you, or what other people are going to do when you get hurt, you’re just being reckless, Peter,”

“Try and tell me you wouldn’t do the same thing!” Peter yelled, yanking his arm away. It hurt a lot, but he wouldn’t admit that. Especially not to Tony.

“It’s different, kid,”

“Tell me, how’s it different?”

“I don’t know kid, it just is, okay?”

“No!” Peter yelled. “It’s not okay, you would’ve done the same thing in that situation! And you can’t sit here and look me in my face that you wouldn’t because we both know that’s bullshit,”

“Peter-”

“No, Tony, It’s B-S!”

“Peter listen to me, you can’t keep doing this!” Tony was trying to avoid the ‘you would do it too,’ because yes, he would. He was dumb and reckless as well, but that’s a subject for another time.

“God,” Peter said, exasperated. He ran his fingers through his hair and through them back down to his sides. “Why are you so concerned with every little thing I do? I don’t see you riding up anyone else’s ass about this, it’s only me,”

“That’s not true,” Tony said, slightly throwing his head back. It wasn’t true was it? Think, Tony, think of an example come on- “Wanda, I’m always concerned about her,”

“No, you were concerned when the papers were being signed because she was seen as a weapon, it’s different and you know that, so why are you so concerned with me? Concerned with how I save lives, how I save people, how I defeat bad guys? Do you like adding to the stress level I have to deal with in those situations? Do you want me to be fighting and think “Oh, damn Mister Stark’s gonna be pissed, I should stop and let everyone else handle it,”

“To some extent, kid, Yes I do. I want you to think, I don’t want you plunging into battle without a second thought of the people who care about you!”

Peter didn’t respond. It felt like the breath was taken out of his lungs. He had so much he wanted to say but he just couldn’t.

“What would Ned feel? What would May feel? Do you think about that at all? How they’d feel if you died? Or got hurt? Held hostage?”

“I-” Peter began, but Tony cut him off.

“I mean, Jesus Christ kid, what about me? Do you know what I would do if you died? I’d be devastated. I love you, Peter, and as selfish as it might be, you can’t leave me. I can’t live in a world that you’re not in. And it hurts me to feel that way, it really does, but I can’t stop it. And so I have to watch as you constantly put yourself in harm’s way, and it’s killing me, Peter,”

Peter listened as Tony poured his heart out and he was shocked to say the least. He noticed how his jaw had dropped slightly, and instantly closed it.

“It’s like you don’t even care-”

It happened in a flash. Tony saw Peter stepping closer, bouncing up on his toes to make himself taller, and then he felt Peter’s soft lips against his. Tony was shocked for the first few seconds, obviously. However, he was able to gather his thoughts enough to start kissing back and place his hands on Peter’s hips and pull him closer.

Tony wasn’t sure who initiated the tongue kissing, but he was sure thankful it happened. It was hot and messy and Tony shouldn’t be getting excited by how inexperienced Peter obviously was, but the dirty reality was that it just made it all the better.

Every other thought of Tony’s was pushed away and all he could think of was Peter. Peter’s tongue. Peter’s body against his. Peter’s soft skin. Peter’s lips. Peter’s hands that were tangling themselves in his hair. Peter.

Unfortunately, you can’t kiss forever because of this pesky little thing called: oxygen.

“Sorry,” Peter said, not breaking eye contact and his face flushed red.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but probably because of the fight, or the fact I kissed you, or-”

Tony cut him off. “That took some guts, I could’ve meant it all platonically,”

“Yeah, I thought about that but then,” Peter tilted his head, the corner of his mouth quirking up. “I decided it was worth the risk,”

Tony couldn’t help but smile. This kind of risk was a risk he didn’t mind Peter taking.