Pointe Shoes and Spider Webs

65. Tony

"Hope you learned your lesson," Tony says when Peter walks into the lab. It's dark out and he only just finished picking out the dead nanobots. Tony stands up to greet Peter properly, but he doesn't reply and simply passes Tony to get to his own desk. "Um, rude." Tony turns around to Peter with his eyebrows raised. Peter still doesn't reply and takes out his laptop and notepad. He sits down at the desk and gets to work. Tony scoffs. "Oh, so you're ignoring me now?"
"Am I?" Peter snarls.
"Jeez, kid." Tony walks towards him. "Don't go acting like you did the right thing. You did the exact thing you catch others for. Stealing."

Peter finally looks Tony in the eye and cocks an eyebrow. He purses his lips and takes a breath.
"'Hey, Mr. Stark, could I maybe show Ned what I'm working on in the lab?'" Peter quotes himself from a while back and puts on a lower voice to impersonate Tony.
"'Nah, kid, no outsiders allowed in Avengers Tower.'" He angles his head and uses his regular voice.
"'Hey, Mr. Stark, there's this girl I really like and she has a weird effect on me, Could I borrow some tech so I can figure out what's going on?'" He brings his chin down to his neck to impersonate Tony's low voice again.
"'Sure thing, kid–'" He pitches his voice slightly- "Ring, ring!" -before bringing it back down again to his Tony voice "'Hey, why are your vitals doing what they're doing? No testing outside the lab.'" Tony stares at Peter's one-man-show. It's amusing, but it's also worrying. This is going somewhere Tony had hoped it wouldn't. Peter keeps his voice low. "'So, Daph, I generally hate outsiders and don't want any strangers walking around in my labs but here, let me give you the exact same clearance Peter has so you can ghost around Avengers Tower whenever you please.'" The sarcasm seeps off 'Tony's' words.

"Kid-"
"Don't 'kid' me now, Mr. Stark!" Peter stands up from his desk with enough force that the chair rolls quite a bit away from him. "How long did you know about Daphne?"
"Know what?" Tony remains calm. Panicking would only make him less believable to Peter, though he's fairly certain the kid knows. Which is enough reason to start panicking, to be honest.
"How long." It's not even a question anymore. Peter's angry. Tony presses his lips on top of each other, causing Peter to roll his eyes in frustration. "You never let any random people in the Tower yet right after Daphne gets kidnapped, she's welcome whenever she wants." Peter starts pacing through he the room. "You've given her special treatment the second you found out she makes my nerves go haywire. Why? Because you know. You know what she is," Peter says accusingly. He glares at Tony.
"Fine!" Tony finally yells back. "But in my defense, I was curious about her because of her electricity levels. Didn't know about the channeling device stuff until Stephen told me after Loki took her."
"But why give her clearance to nearly the entire compound?"
"Maybe I just want to keep an eye on her, okay? If she feels welcome, she'll come by more often. I don't want anything to happen to her as much as you do, Pete."
"But why do you care about her?! For whose sake?!"

Tony's eye twitches. The kid's onto him and he hates it.
"You know whose." He nods once at Peter. Peter's shoulders relax slightly and his eyebrows curl up into a frown.
"I can take care of myself." Peter's voice cracks.
"Peter, you're sixteen and also radioactive. Your senses are heightened and you might not notice the effect she has on you, but everyone else does." Peter looks at Tony confused, so he continues after taking a deep breath. "You're seriously going to tell me you haven't noticed your emotional outbursts?"
"My what now?" Something in Peter snaps and he tenses up again.
"Anger, Pete. You've been angry a lot more." Peter clenches his jaw.
"Angry?!" Peter's eyes go wide as he scoffs and looks away for a second. "What- so I'm not allowed to feel anymore? I'm not one of your robots, Tony!"

Tony stares at the kid. His kid. He'd called him by his first name. Tony blinks a few times as an uncomfortable silence settles between them. Peter stares back at him, waiting for a reply. Tony had imagined the first time Peter would say his first name to sound very different. Maybe while they'd play an intense round of video games or when they cooked together and he'd absentmindedly ask for an ingredient. Or something more meaningful, like a special day or occasion. A wedding day? He even imagined he would never get to hear it himself. That Peter would always call him Mr. Stark and that only friends and family would hear Peter say Tony at Tony's funeral. Or something like that. He always imagined it to be soft, in a way. He never expected to hear his name fall from Peter's lips in anger and it hurt him more than it probably should.

"I'm sorry," Tony says, instantly diffusing Peter's rage. Tony rarely apologized and as manipulative as the ex-arms dealer could be, it sounded sincere. Peter's still breathing quickly and shakes his head slightly.
"I know I'm not an adult," Peter whines softly. "But in the lab, you make me feel like we're equal and I thought we could tell each other everything."
"I do tell you everything."
"No, you don't." Peter's voice cracks and Tony can see the tears form in his eyes. "I trust you with all I have and I'm just- I'm so fucking naive!" Peter winces at his own words, silently apologizing to his uncle Ben.
"Peter-" Tony gasps.
"I'm sorry-" he murmurs. "I'm just... I'm so fed up with lies. And lying. And I'm scared and-" he interrupts himself and looks at the windows. It's dark outside and the lab is completely reflected in the glass; like a mirror. "I'm at my limit, Mr. Stark..."

No. No, this kid can't be burnt out. He's only sixteen. Teens shouldn't get burn outs. Tony grabs Peter's arm and pulls him in for a sudden, tight hug. Peter doesn't hug him back. His arms hang next to his body and he keeps staring at the window. Or, more specifically, the reflection of Tony hugging Peter. It almost feels like it's not actually happening. Like Peter's not actually here. He stares at his reflection as if he's watching himself in third person.
"You shouldn't be sorry, kid..." Tony takes a breath and squeezes Peter, which snaps him out of his dissociating state. "I should've told you, regardless of what Stephen said." Tony bites his bottom lip when he feels the teen shake under him. "I should've told you," he repeats. Peter's hands slowly creep up Tony's back, to embrace Tony like he is embracing Peter. "You don't deserve any of this crap." Peter hides his face into Tony's chest and sniffs.
"Neither does Daphne." Peter's voice comes out monotone.
"Agreed," Tony says simply.

It's quiet for a bit, but they don't let go of each other. Their grips on each other are tight and it surprises Tony how little he cares about Peter nearly breaking his ribs with his power. Neither of them realized how much they needed this.
"I did grow to like her, by the way," Tony chuckles quietly. "Through you and what you tell me about her. And the time she's spent here." Tony's thoughts wander to when a confused Peter asked Tony if it was normal for love songs to suddenly make sense. Tony smiles.
"So, you admit you didn't like her when we were first doing the tests?" Tony scoffs at Peter's muffled voice.
"I honestly deserve an Oscar for my performance. I believe I only broke character when I told you to 'un-like her'." Peter's shoulders jolt slightly and a wave of peace flows over Tony. The kid is laughing again. "For real, though, I just didn't want her to hurt you. I did actually start to like her later that evening. She keeps up with my jokes."
"That's self-centred of you, Mr. Stark."
"You know me, kid."

Tony pats Peter on the back a few times before finally pulling away. He looks at the teen's face. It's red and puffy. Peter sniffs and looks away embarrassed. Tony bites the inside of his cheek. He can't help but worry for Peter. He's just a kid. He shouldn't have to deal with any of this. Tony reminds himself goody two-shoes Peter Parker would be Spider-Man regardless of Tony being in his life. He'd rather guide him through, give him the best suits, arrange appointments with the best psychologists and doctors than let him get himself killed in the pajamas he once used for his hero suit. Still, the kid didn't deserve the pain. He didn't deserve the trauma.
"I want to tell her," Peter says quietly.
"I know you do."
"But I'm not sure if I can." Tony sends Peter an encouraging smile, only lifting one corner of his mouth.
"Sure, you can," he says with a nod, patting his shoulder. "But-" he adds quickly. "You can tell her here, with me. If you want." Peter nods slowly and looks down at his feet.
"I might just..."