5 Times Peter Fell, and Tony caught him. And the 1 Time Tony didn't.

Chapter 5: Step and Fall

"-Peter!? Christ, please, PETER!?"

Peter felt himself being lowered to the ground. It was cool concrete – but not pavement. It was too smooth to be pavement. Was he back on the roof?

With Tony?

"Peter!? Come on, Peter, look at me!"

That same warmth wrapped around Peter. Fingertips slid along his scalp, while a warm hand against his chest. Those same fingertips pulled away from his head and pressed against his neck. They were shaking.

Tony?

Peter was shaking too. But...gently. He was swaying. The warm, solid, mass that he was pressed against was rocking, back and forth. And Peter was rocking with it.

Slowly – so slowly – Tony's voice started to filter through the sieve that was Peter's brain.

"-No, no. Please. Christ no! Pleas-"

The fingertips that were pressing into Peter's neck moved, fluttering up and down his neck before pressing down again, painfully hard.

Peter could faintly feel his pulse beating against the fingers.

And, apparently, so could whoever was holding him.

"Oh god!" The words came out as barely a breath, but Peter could feel them above him. Warm arms closed more firmly around him, and a forehead dropped down to rest on his own. "Oh Christ, thank-you. Thank-you." '

For a few minutes there was nothing. Peter just...existed. And so did the man above him. The man heaved in several breaths – Peter rising and falling with each one as he was still clenched against his chest – and continued to rock.

It sounded like Tony. Hell – it even felt like Tony.

Peter knew those hands. They were scarred and rough. Calloused to the core. They swept over Peter's hands when they were in the lab, working on the detailed sections of his web shooters. They clapped him on the shoulder more times then he could count. And damn were they strong. He thought it every time he did something stupid, or dangerous, and those hands clasped onto him like chains. Engineer's hands. Strong and steady.

But the man had said he was gone.

The man had said –

"-Peter. Peter! You need to look at me. Look at me! Come on, give me something, kid, please-"

Those fingertips were on his face again. Ghosting over his forehead, and eyes. Hovering over his lips as he breathed.

At the feeling of Peter's breath against his finger the man clutching Peter let out another heaving breath, and the hand on Peter's face disappeared for a moment.

Peter faded with it.

"-Bruce! Bruce." Tony's voice broke back through the haze.

"Yeah, I have him. H-he didn't fall. Or he did – he just didn't. He d-didn't – I have him. I have him, but he's not okay. His eyes are open, but he's not responding."

Huh. Peter's eyes were open? That was odd. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't...well...anything. He was so numb that he wasn't entirely sure he had a body at all anymore.

"-he has a pulse – but he's barely breathing. I need you to head down to the workshop, okay?" Tony's rushed words swayed in and out. Peter only caught a few hear and there. He had more important things to worry about. Like whether he still had a body. He wasn't sure if it was a concern or not, but it was worth pondering.