I'm Fine, Mr. Stark

Chapter One: Moving In and Bloodstains

****PLEASE READ AUTHOR NOTES********
Hi! I just want to say this is my first ever fan fiction, period. So it might be bad, or short, but quite honestly I was just really bored. I'll update as soon as I can, but finals week is this week and who knows how hectic it'll be. Sorry in advance. I hope you like it, I kind of do.
- solo una fottuta donnola

"Is this the last of it?" Tony asked May, picking up one of the last cardboard boxes laying on the carpet in the living room. They had been carrying boxes of the same out to the curb to wait for the moving truck to get here. He weighed the box in his hands. "These are the dishes, right?"

"Yeah, I think so." She ran a hand through her hair. "Let me go wake up Peter, I'll tell him to help you load the stuff into the truck when it gets here." She sighed. "His lazy ass needs to be good for something today."

Tony snorted. "Lazy is not a word I would use to describe your nephew, May." He freed one of his hands to pull his sunglasses down on his face. "That boy works harder than me, and I'm an insomniac."

"Only to impress you," she winked. "You should see him when he gets back from your little sessions at the lab. You couldn't wake him up for anything-Unless he has patrol," she added as an afterthought.

May smiled. She was proud of her nephew, but sometimes it was hard not to worry about him. "He does everything as if the world depends on him. It's impressive how well he handles it all. Sometimes I think it's too impressive."

Tony furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean, too impressive?"

"I mean, I don't know." She started wiping down the counters. "He locks himself away so often, and I don't want to bother him- but ever since homecoming and that whole building thing, he hasn't been the same. He's been strange."

Tony's stomach dropped a bit. He hadn't noticed anything wrong with Peter. Had he not been paying attention enough? Did Peter not trust him? He dropped the box. "Strange how?"

"He's always so quiet now. It's like he's afraid to say anything." May said, thinking. "His lights are always on, even when he's sleeping. And he hasn't worn a shirt that goes above his elbows in a while. That probably doesn't mean anything, I've just keeping a mental note.
Sometimes he'll excuse himself to his room and when he comes back out, he looks exhausted." She dried the counters. "But I don't know where he goes. If anywhere. I just don't want to bother him."

Tony felt uneasy. Everyone expected Peter to be different after he had stopped the Vulture, but now that's it's become more of a reality, it made him dread seeing Peter again. What if he really was different? He had seemed fine to him the last weeks he had been at the lab working with him. Completely normal.

Those first few weeks after homecoming, Tony was careful and observant around the boy. Just to make sure he was okay. He had healed physically long ago, but you never know what is going to haunt you. Besides, the kid was 15. He was fragile. It was from this worry he extended the invitation for Peter and May to live on the base. Peter was too excited at the prospect of living with the Avengers to turn it down.

So he'd watched, and Peter was as enthusiastic as ever. After that, Tony had stopped paying attention. What if he's-

'He's fine,'Tony reminded himself. 'You're overreacting. Teenagers are like this sometimes, he's totally okay.'

Tony hadn't noticed May had left until he heard the soft knocks on Peter's door. Sighing, he picked up the box again and carried it down the long driveway to the curb.

When he came back, Peter stood in the kitchen, messy hair and footie pajamas and all. He had been helping his aunt check all the cupboards to make sure they were empty. Tony would've thought the boy was five instead of fifteen.