I Was Joking

Surprisingly, Talking does Help.

*Arright arright arright. So, please excuse this minor AN, because I wanted to address a couple of things. 

1st off:

This is absolutely fantastic and I cannot thank you bois and gorls enough. 

2nd: I'm not normally one for self-promotion but I'm an attention tsundere so...

Check it out after reading this, pls. It's a short little thing I made, but I will greatly appreciate any and all feedback on it. (Looking at you, commenters. You guys are the best.)

Anyway, back to the story!*

Tony frowned slightly when he saw Peter asleep on the ceiling again.

Normally this wouldn't be such a bad thing, if not for the fact that apparently he's done this for the past couple of weeks, in addition to tensing up to physical contact. The father was starting to get a little concerned, along with everyone else.

"Hey, uh, kid?", the man asked, before sighing and resorting to gently poking Peter with a broomstick until he finally woke up. 

"Mm? Whazit?", the teen groggily asked. "Breakfast is ready, champ. So if you could come down...", Tony trailed off, lowering the stick. "Ok dad.", Peter responded with a slight yawn. He slowly unstuck himself from the ceiling and onto the floor, walking to the common area. 

Tony smiled affectionately and lightly ruffled Peter's hair, taking note of the slight wince his son made at the action. Anyone else might not have noticed; he was used to always noticing the smallest details others might overlook. After Peter picked up the pace, Tony's smile faded as he watched the young man.    

Breakfast was quiet, but not in the awkward sense. After the two cleaned up, they headed down to the lab and started working on their respective projects. 

As the morning passed, Tony had stuck himself into a mental debate as to how to approach the problem, before giving a resounding 'screw it' and started the conversation. "Hey, son?" "Yeah Dad?", the teen asked absentmindedly. 

"Is there, uh, a reason you've decided to start sleeping on the ceiling? Is something wrong with the bed?", Stark asked, voice lightly laced with concern. "What? No, no, the bed is fine, it's just..." Peter was quiet for a moment. "May said you've been doing it at the apartment too. Have been for the past couple of weeks.", the man continued, making sure to not show any malice, watching Peter for a sign to stop. 

The teen sat in silence for a second. "Have you ever, like, felt something, and it just...made you uncomfortable in your own skin? God, this is really hard to describe-" "Like, you're not in touch with reality anymore? You experience the same feelings you did with the event that your mind strongly connects that thing with?", Tony described, eyebrows furrowing with worry. What could Peter have possibly gone through that would make him experience this? 

"..Yes.", Peter finally answered, looking down at the floor in guilt. "I was doing so well too...", the teen muttered to the ground.

"Hey, hey.", the man coaxed, getting closer to his son. "What happened?"

Peter shook his head slightly. "It was years ago, I was over it, I AM over it, just..." The teen took a breath. "It's kinda hard to get over it when I have to look at him every day.", he finally admitted, curling in a little. 

Finally putting two and two together, Tony gently pulled Peter in, running a soothing, calm hand through his curls. After tensing up for a second, the teen practically melted into his father. "I'm fine, I swear, it's just...", he tried to deny, before letting a quiet tear slip. Tony calmly wiped it away, having Peter listen to the arc reactor and its mechanical heartbeat. 

The teen's breathing evened, and his hold on Tony tightened before pulling away. "Thank you.", he muttered. 

"Anytime kiddo.", the man responded with, sighing in content. "I hope that helped some.", he responded with a little smile, walking back over to the Iron Man suit. Peter echoed it with a little nod, turning back to his web solutions.     

After Peter had gone to bed that night, Tony called May and told her the event. She was quiet for a moment, before giving him the context of what happened. Needless to say, Tony was pissed, May was pissed, and 'Mr. Wescott' was in trouble.

After May had hung up on Tony, she immediately called the principal and informed him of the situation, which resulted in him calling someone else and getting the situation handled. Mostly because no one wanted to deal with a Tony Mothereffing Stark who was pissed off because the school couldn't follow one of their own policies and protect his son. 

Skip got the message on Sunday afternoon, informing him that 'due to numerous prior incidents with one of the students, he was not allowed on the grounds of Midtown High anymore, and was no longer accepted into the teaching assistant program.' 

Peter gave a sigh of relief as he stepped into school on Monday with a spring in his step.