#trace amounts

by celestial-irondad

part one/six

part one || part two || part three || part four || part five || part six

614 words

this is for you @officialtonystarkprotectionsquad, because you make me smile with your tags and likes and comments and you just really make my day! 💓💓 thank you 💙💙

——

one.

Tony was in the kitchen, all his electronics displayed out in front of him, actually doing work. The other Avengers and the kid had gone out on a simple rescue mission, a quick break in and out kind of thing.

He would have gone, but after weeks of neglecting SI paperwork, the amount of things he had to do piled up. Pepper, of course, had absolutely put her foot down when Tony offered to go in place of Steve, saying that it was his punishment for always putting SI last.

Now, Tony was bitterly reading through and signing his assigned paperwork. He had it easy, Pepper was the one doing the hard work, filtering the things Tony had to do.

Really, Tony Stark should be happy he got himself a Pepper Potts.

“Boss,” F.R.I.D.A.Y interrupted the billionaire’s internal monologue, “Ms. Romanoff has called using the emergency ‘someone has a boo boo’ protocol. Patching her through now.”

Fear thrummed in Tony’s veins. What if Peter got injured? Shit, why hadn’t he just dealt with paperwork when needed so he could’ve went with Peter?

“Tony, I need you to prepare the med bay—”

He didn’t even let the ex-assassin finish. “Where’s Peter? Is he injured? He better be okay, or I swear to—”

“Tony? Tony,” Natasha interrupted his ramblings. “Peter’s with us, he’s got some injuries—”

The billionaire cursed. This was why he wanted to go on missions with Peter. Who else could protect his spider-baby as well as he could? Who else can shield the teenage boy from the big, bad, awful world? Who else can swoop in to save the day like Tony could?

He faintly heard Natasha ramble on about Steve being injured, but he was too busy rushing down to the med bay, preparing all the equipment that may be needed.

When Natasha told Tony they were a few minutes away from reaching the tower, he rushed back up to smooth their landing.

The first person to come out of the Quinjet was Steve, who was leaning heavily on Natasha. He was beaten up thoroughly, bruises and cuts littering his body. He had a black eye, and a limp. He was hunched over, abdomen having suffered from injury.

“Where’s Peter?” Was the first thing that came tumbling out of his mouth. Shit. He should’ve at least showed concern towards Steve, but his mind was focused only on his kid, who was not in sight.

Natasha sighed. “He’s sleeping in the Quinjet.”

The billionaire hastily told the duo that Ms. Cho was waiting for them in the med bay, before rushing into the jet.

In there, Carol had his kid sprawled out on her lap. Peter had a cut on his face, it was deep enough to raise concerns but Tony already had worries before seeing his spider-baby. Seeing his kid injured, no matter how small, had him seeing red.

He rushed over quietly, and Carol stopped running her fingers through Peter’s hair to look up at him.

“He’s resting now,” Carol said simply, “he will wake up and he will be fine.”

The thing was, Peter shouldn’t have had scratches at all. He had a whole league of superheroes who were supposed to protect him, and he had a sixth sense to warn him from danger. How could he still get hurt?

Tony scooped up the teen with strong arms wordlessly. Without a second glance to the woman who probably did her best to protect his kid, he went down to the med bay.

And if the Avengers talk about him favouring Peter, Tony doesn’t have to know, because he’d definitely deny it.