Mistrust || Peter Parker

Ten

The first fifteen minutes of the drive were spent in silence, but Tony wasn't about to be the one to break it. He could tell that Peter was thinking hard about something, and it was only a matter of time until it would all come spilling out. Until then, Tony decided to patiently wait as he watched Peter's leg restlessly bounce from the corner of his eye.

It took another five minutes for Peter to finally speak.

"Mr. Stark, can I ask you something?"

"Go right ahead." He tried to sound as casual as possible, not wanting Peter to see the anticipation that's been eating him alive.

"Well I've been talking to my therapist..."

Oh, so it was one of those conversations.

"How have you been liking therapy, do you think it's been helping?"

"Oh yeah, I really like Ms. Patterson! She taught me this cool counting exercise that I've been using."

"That's good to hear Pete" and he really meant it.

"Yeah..."

"So what did your therapist say?" Tony said to get the conversation back on track, especially since Peter looked ready to back out in any given moment. He thinks if the two of them weren't trapped in a moving vehicle then Peter would have done exactly so.

"She talked about opening up- asking people for help when we need it." This didn't seem like an extraordinary idea to Tony and he was about to say just that, but he bit his lip after realizing that would make him the biggest hypocrite in existence.

So instead he said, "she makes a good point."

"She's a good therapist." Peter didn't sound like he was about to continue so Tony attempted to push him forward once again.

"So what do you need help with." He had to force himself to keep his eyes on the road instead of gauging Peter's reactions. But even when not looking, it was impossible to miss the way Peter stiffened in his seat.

"So uh... okay, you know how I've been having all these nightmares?"

He thought of this morning, seeing Peter sleeping on the cold, hard floor and pretending it was normal.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, so sometimes I'll wake up and get through the day and everything will be good- But then something starts to shift and then everything turns into another illusion... and it's just really scary."

Tony hates that he isn't surprised by the admission. Peter had mentioned the illusions a few weeks prior when Tony had first woken up from the coma, but he had hoped the problem would naturally go away with time. If anything, it only seems to have gotten worse.

"I guess I'm just waiting for things to turn scary again... I don't know if that makes sense."

The statement is worded in a childish manner, and Peter almost makes it sound like he's talking about monsters hiding under his bed. But then Tony takes a quick glance at Peter and he looks so much older than a seventeen year old boy.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how mature Peter truly is, despite being so young. On the surface level, he's an awkward teen whose barely escaped puberty. He talks about his homework and still plays with Legos in his free time. But then there's moments like this where he looks like a completely different person. Tony has read countless of news articles questioning how a teenage boy could be the face under the Spiderman mask, and Tony remembers his own shock when he first learned about Peter. But right now, he sees the resemblance of Spiderman and Peter Parker so clearly, simply from the way he holds himself. He hates how Spiderman has forced Peter to grow up as quickly as he did.