Pain Will Always Come Back to Haunt You

Miscommunication

Peter and Ned chat quietly about what happened at school while Peter waits for Happy to arrive. The firefighters came back outside when they found no evidence of there ever being smoke, let alone a fire. Principal Morita wasn't happy, to say the least. It's safe to assume that he'll be investigating. He still cancelled school, which both Ned and Peter are grateful for. Happy arrives a few minutes later in the Bentley and motions over Peter. The crowd quiets as they stare at the appearance of the luxury car. So much for keeping a low profile.

"Sorry." Ned gives Peter a sympathetic look, who returns a tight-lipped smile.

"It's okay. I'll see you tomorrow." Peter picks up his backpack, careful to not let the pain of his side show in his movements.

"Are we you know...? Tonight?" Ned asks eagerly, obviously talking about patrol.

"God I hope so. I'll text you." With a deep breath, Peter jogs up to the car and slides into the passenger seat. "Hey, Happy."

"Hey, kid." The voice doesn't come from Happy. Peter jumps slightly and whips around to face the voice behind him. Tony is leaning forward from the backseat with an innocent smile. The gash on Peter's side aches at his sudden movement, but he doesn't show it.

"Mr. Stark?! What are you doing here?!" he practically demands with wide eyes.

"To be honest with you, I'm insulted. A crazy thing goes down at school and you call Happy?" Tony acts insulted. Honestly, he had been worried and anxious the whole ride to Midtown. Though, he'd never admit it.

"Wanna run that by me again?" Happy challenges while driving out of the parking lot.

"Why don't you ever sit in the front seat like a normal person?!" Peter questions followed by a deep breath.

"Because I'm not an ordinary person, I'm extraordinary," Tony corrects. Someone please put me out of my misery, Peter hopes.

"But you didn't need to come. I had everything handled," Peter assures, even though it's only a half truth.

"What exactly was it that you handled?" Tony inquires. Oh, I set myself up for that one, Peter internally berates.

"I'll tell you if you put your seatbelt on." Peter nods towards the backseat. Tony raises both his eyebrows, unamused, but sits back and buckles his seatbelt nonetheless. "So, Mysterio may or may not have made an appearance at school." The car falls deadly silent.

"And you didn't call me?!" Tony demands, his anxiety skyrocketing. Peter resists the urge to roll his eyes. Oh now he wants to communicate? After that whole issue where he wouldn't listen to anything I said? He takes a steadying breath to keep his temper from showing.

"No, because I had it handled. Just like I said. I tried to plant a tracer on him...but it didn't work and he got away," he mutters regrettably.

"Next time, you tell Karen to contact me. You understand? I don't want you dealing with that creep again." Peter scoffs and turns to face Tony.

"I'm my own hero, Mr. Stark! I can take care of myself and I've done a lot to prove that," Peter defends. He tries not to think about how he lost the fight and got hurt. He doesn't want to keep disappointing Tony.

"You're sixteen. You're not even a legal adult. So, no, legally you can't take care of yourself." Tony has a tone of finality in his voice.

"You know that I'm not like other teenagers! If you didn't think I could handle myself, you wouldn't have taken me to Germany." As soon as Peter says it, he regrets it. Tony's face hardens for half a second, but he covers it up almost instantly.