Mistrust || Peter Parker

One

Tony Stark woke from his coma at 5:21 AM.

When Peter first heard his phone ringing, he automatically assumed the worst. The doctors had lost faith in Tony ever waking months ago, yet Pepper had refused to lose hope, keeping him in the hospital and visiting regularly along with Peter. At this point it had been nine months since Tony reversed the snap. The world now saw him as a hero, a martyr despite not being officially dead.

When Peter learned that Tony was not only awake but asking for him, he fell to his knees and sobbed.

When Peter saw Tony laying in the hospital bed twenty minutes later, one arm less but eyes shining and focused, he fell to his knees and sobbed some more.

That had been exactly a week ago, Peter had been overcome with the feeling of joy and happiness, thanking the world for doing him this one favor.

Then, Parker Luck took strike yet again, and his identity was revealed to the world.

Now he didn't know what to feel.

Currently, Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey surrounded the living room of the lake house, in the middle of a seemingly heated discussion. Peter was shocked to see Colonial Rhodes join as quickly as he did, assuming that he would have been too busy to handle Peter's mess.

Happy and May were currently in charge of taking care of Morgan and keeping her away from the chaos. Peter was grateful that both May and Morgan weren't alone, having Happy to watch over and keep them protected. (Though he would never say it out loud, the selfish part of him was also thankful May wasn't here with him, at least in this moment. He didn't think he could handle seeing the inevitable look of disappointment on her face).

"They shared and broadcasted the information of a minor, Spiderman or not that's an easy lawsuit, not even the Daily Burge could manage to get away with that."

Peter was aware that he should be paying attention to what was going on in front of him, given the fact that he was clearly the topic of discussion, but listening would mean acknowledging the situation and he wasn't quite ready for that.

You were never ready for any of this.

He attempted to ignore the voice in his head by picking at a hangnail.

"The public doesn't even know about Tony's survival, surely we can use that as some form of distraction."

Peter was sitting alone on the couch, hands fidgeting and legs refusing to stay put. They were bouncing up and down to the point where he distantly wondered if he was creating a dent in the very expensive looking, wooden floor.

"Distraction or not, we're still going to have to set up a press conference, or at the very least an official statement. And the sooner that's done, the better. We all know from experience how quickly gossip and rumors spread if they're not addressed."

"The kid is not participating in any press conference, those reporters are vultures-"

"You don't think I know that, it's not like we have a choice."

"He's so young and he doesn't have any experience with media, they'll eat him alive- He's just a kid, practically a baby compared to the other Avengers."

As if snapped out of a trance, Peter sat up and spoke for the first time. "What if we use the Baby Monitor Protocol, we could pull out some of the footage for proof... I don't know who we'd send it too though."

There was silence for a few seconds, everyone thinking through the possible flaws and drawbacks of the makeshift plan. Before the silence swallowed him whole, Tony voiced his apparent thoughts, his gaze leaving Peter and turning to Colonial Rhodes.