Hey, Little Spider || Peter Parker One-Shots

You Were Crushed By WHAT?!

Unfortunately, Steve seemed to have the exact same idea at the exact same time. With their combined strength, the drawer flew right off it's track and towards the ground. Spidey-senses dulled with exhaustion, Peter didn't have time to move out of the way as it landed.

Right on top of his foot.

Peter cried out in surprise and pain, at the exact moment when Tony came into the kitchen.

Steve and Peter froze, staring at Tony with wide eyes. Tony, however, was focused on the heavy drawer sitting on Peter's foot.

"What are you two doing?! Get the thing off him!" the man exclaimed, flailing his arms in every possible direction. Steve reached down and retrieved the drawer, returning it to it's rightful place - and stammering out apologies the entire time.

"It's fine," Peter said, waving away his concern, "It wasn't your fault. Besides, I've had heavier things land on me."

"Like the jet bridge?" Steve replied without thinking, "Sorry about that, but you did catch it, and we were fighting and I needed to contain you, and-"

"Hang on," Tony's left eye was twitching dangerously as he rounded on Steve, "You dropped a JET BRIDGE on PETER?"

Steve slowly backed away. "Um ... yeah? In the airport? In Germany?"

"WHY on EARTH would you DO THAT?! You didn't even know if he could HOLD it!! What if it had CRUSHED him?! What if -!"

"Mr. Stark!" Peter exclaimed, stepping between the two men, "Calm down, I'm fine! Anyway, that wasn't even the heaviest thing that's fallen on me." He chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It wasn't?" Steve asked, confused, "What else landed on you that's heavier than a jet bridge?"

"A concrete roof." Peter replied carelessly, his slight limp almost nonexistent as he walked back over to grab his cereal.

"What." Peter flinched at Tony's dangerously soft tone.

"Um ... you might not want to be a part of this." Peter muttered to Steve. With a nod, the super soldier discreetly left the kitchen.

"So, Peter," Tony said, "When, exactly, were you going to tell me a concrete roof landed on you? And why didn't Karen report it?"

Abandoning his cereal - he wouldn't have any time to eat it while talking, anyway - Peter walked over to the couch and sat down. Tony joined him. The two sat in silence for long enough that Tony grew impatient. However, right before he was going to ask again, Peter spoke up.

"First of all, I want to say it wasn't your fault. You couldn't have helped me. Heck, you didn't even know where I was, let alone what I was doing."

Tony had no idea what the kid was talking about. "When did this happen?" He asked, confused.

"During Homecoming," Peter said quietly, "So I didn't have the suit. And I'd left my phone in a bad guy's car so I could track him. It seriously wasn't your fault."

Tony didn't know why the kid kept repeating that. Why would it be his fault? Yeah, he'd taken the suit, but what difference would a suit make in catching a falling roof? 'Cause Peter had caught it, right?

Right?

"Did you catch it?" Tony asked roughly. Peter glanced over, confused. "The roof, kid. Did you catch the roof? When it fell on you?"

Peter remained silent, staring at his hands.

"Peter." Tony was starting to panic, "Did. You. Catch. The. Roof."

Mutely, Peter shook his head.

Tony sat back in shock. He could see it clearly, almost as if it were happening in front of him: Peter, trapped and alone under a pile of rubble, crying out for help when no one could hear, sobbing and screaming at the darkened sky -

"Mr. Stark." Peter was shaking him with a worried look in his eyes. Peter, who'd had a building dropped on top of him, yet was sitting here, alive and well. Peter, who had taken down a villain, and stopped a plane from destroying a city, right after nearly being crushed to death -

"Mr. Stark!" Peter yelled in Tony's ear, snapping him out of his thoughts. "I'm fine! I got out. I'm here. I'm fine."

"How?" Tony rasped, "How did you get out?"

Peter shrugged modestly, "Well, first, I panicked." The boy chuckled slightly, "Not a very productive thing to do, I know. But then, I thought of all the people who needed me, and I realized you didn't think that I wasn't good enough to be Spider-Man, and ... well, I lifted the rubble and got out."

Tony was appalled. "Why on Earth would you think that I thought you weren't good enough?" He demanded.

"Well," Peter said sheepishly, "Remember when we were on that rooftop, after the ferry? When you took away the suit?"

Tony nodded, "Look, kid, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't ha -"

"It's fine!" Peter interrupted, "I still had my old one. I think that 'tough love' was actually what I'd needed to ... well, realize my full potential, I guess. Anyway, before you took the suit, I'd said 'I just wanted to be like you!' and you'd said 'and I wanted you to be better'. Well, I interpreted that as 'you aren't good enough right now, so I'm giving up on you. I know -" Peter continued over Tony's rapidly shaking head, "That wasn't what you meant, but at the time, I didn't realize that. I thought I had disappointed you, so you were giving up on me."

Tony's head was shaking back and forth so fast, it looked like it was about to fall off.

Peter looked down at his hands. "Under the rubble," he said softly, "I realized that you were disappointed, but you weren't giving up. You were just trying to teach me something I had to learn on my own. I hadn't believed in myself then," The boy looked up, meeting Tony's eyes, "But I do now. So, thank you."

Tony didn't know what to say. This kid was thanking him for abandoning him? Tony definitely deserved worse. He was actually pretty surprised that Peter hadn't either screamed at him or given him the cold shoulder by now.

What had he done to deserve having a boy like Peter in his life?

Reaching over, Tony tugged the surprised teenager into a tight hug. Peter hugged back, burying his face in Tony's shoulder.

Little did they know, the rest of the Avengers had been watching the whole thing. Natasha slipped out her phone, and silently snapped a picture.

That picture has been framed on the wall of Tony's lab ever since.

A/N: 1612 words. I don't know why I'm even writing these notes anymore - nobody's gonna read this book, anyway.

Regardless, have a wonderful day! :)