The Ways We Drown || Peter Parker

Tony

"That kid can't keep himself out of trouble for five goddamn minutes."

Tony sighs as Happy continues to grumble through the phone, and he ignores the pit in his stomach as he skims through the Queens security footage from the past twenty four hours. He inserts another facial recognition scan, and when Peter's face doesn't show up Tony lets his temper get the best of him. He punches the nearest wall and bites his tongue to prevent screaming on the top of his lungs.

It had been a half hour since Tony had read Peter's message asking for backup, and he can't help but think that the wasted time will cost someone their life. Tony had been careless by ignoring his texts, but he chooses to focus on the anger inside of him rather than the guilt. He's already lost enough minutes as it is.

"Any update on May?"

"Still headed to the apartment, I should be there in ten minutes if traffic would hurry up." Happy says this as he honks the horn multiple times, cursing at some of the drivers who pass him by. Tony can practically see him flipping off some of the bystanders, and in any other situation he would poke fun at the idea of it.

Instead he forces his attention once more on the security logs, and after he reaches yet another dead end Tony doesn't hold anything back when he groans. It was safe to say that both of their nerves were shot at this point, and Tony doesn't know if he should be aggravated with himself or Peter for causing this mess in the first place.

Though the moment he even considers blaming Peter for the chaos is when he immediately ridicules himself. The kid had nothing to do with the kidnapping just how he had nothing to do with the Vulture incident.

It has been a few months since Spider-Man has taken down Adrian Toomes, and since then his relationship with the boy has been tense. In the beginning he assumed it was because Peter was simply an awkward kid, but the moment Tony began to find his mannerisms as endearing instead of uncomfortable was when he realized it was his fault the two were on rocky terms.

Tony has been trying to keep him at an arm's length so as to avoid this exact scenario, but the kid has a way of breaking barriers without even trying. As more time passes by the more he finds himself enjoying Peter's company, and he thinks that might be the most terrifying realization of them all. This is what he worries about at night when he sees Peter patrolling as Spider-Man, and he wishes he could take back the day he first met him.

But that wasn't true either, yet Tony lies to himself anyway.

He doesn't have time to fret now, so he pushes the fear aside and begins to search through another video log. Happy distracts him before he can fully do so.

"Hey Boss, you might want to come to the apartment yourself. There's a lot more men than we expected and I don't know if I'll be able to take them out myself."

"I thought you said you could handle it?" Tony doesn't mean to snap but he can't help himself. The selfish part of him was only concerned about Peter's well-being, and he hates himself for even thinking that way.

Of course he didn't want the aunt to die, which is why he and Happy have decided to divide and conquer. Though at the end of the day Tony's priorities lean towards the kid, and he's certain that May would agree with him if she was given a say.

"There's too many of them to fight without someone getting killed, it's not worth the risk going in alone."

Tony wants to argue, but even he can see the logic in that, "Fine, I'll be there in five."

He sighs as he heads towards his Iron Man suit, and he supposes he should've left with Happy to begin with. Since he read the text from Peter he hasn't been in the right state of mind, and he thinks that it's another factor that will destroy someone's life when all is said and done.