The Ways We Drown || Peter Parker

Tony

Tony moves faster than he thought was possible, and he's quick to grab onto Peter's shoulders to pull him from the edge. At that Peter begins to fight by pushing away, and Tony is nothing but confused as he screams into his ear.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"They're drowning, we can't just let them die."

Peter continues to shove at him but the attempts grow weaker with each jab. If he hadn't almost drowned himself Peter would have been easily able to fight off Tony, and he can only be grateful that he seemed to have lost most of his energy.

Tony has the opposite reaction while his rage translates into strength, and he holds onto Peter with a little too much force. He refuses to believe the words that were coming out of his mouth, and he doesn't bother to hide the fury in this voice as he argues.

"They were going to kill you ten minutes ago."

"That doesn't mean we should just let them die, I can help."

"You are not risking your life for people who want you dead, I refuse."

"Mister Stark-"

"I said no ."

Peter stops thrashing then, and he must hear something in Tony's voice because he doesn't offer any more struggle as he seems to physically deflate instead. Tony is hesitant in letting go, and he makes sure that Peter isn't trying to pull a trick before he moves so they are sitting in front of each other.

Then, he asks the question he's been thinking since the beginning, "Why did you fight in the plane when you knew what was at risk?"

"They had a gun to your head, I wasn't going to let you get shot like that."

"And that was the dumbest thing you could have done, are you out of your mind?"

Peter stares in return, seemingly shocked that he was receiving a lecture in the moment. With that he immediately responds in defense which only fuels Tony's anger.

"I did what I had to do- if anything you should be thanking me for saving your life."

"If weren't for you we wouldn't be stuck in this mess to begin with, you should have let me handled it."

"Oh and you were doing such a good job with that, how could I forget?

Tony is seconds away from smacking him in the head, though before he can knock some sense into the kid another wave crashes into their makeshift lifeboat. He tries to keep himself in tact and Peter seems to effortlessly do so by sticking onto the metal using his abilities.

The water is a reminder that they have more important issues to focus on, so he forces himself to bury his anger just temporarily until they come up with a better solution.

Even when thinking this he knows that the attempt was pointless however. They had no way of contacting anyone which means that they had no other choice other than to wait. The realization brings no comfort, yet Tony cannot afford to show the dread on his face when he has a sixteen year old boy to protect and take care of.

With that thought in mind, he takes a deep breath before giving Peter a once-over, ensuring that he wasn't hiding any injuries from him. When he reaches his face he sees eyes that stare not at himself but instead the ocean water, and there's a look that resembles both a lost child also and an adult who has seen too much. If Tony didn't know any better he would have assumed that Peter had aged ten years in the past day alone, and the image is nothing but terrifying.

He attempts to distract by placing a rough hand on his shoulder, and Peter startles at the physical contact as if he had forgotten Tony was sitting there to begin with. It's only then when he properly gives him attention.