~You Will Always Have Me~ Irondad and Spiderson Fanfic~

Chapter 24: He's never hurt me before.

A/N: Hope y'all are having an incredible day! :) -EmeraldLokiMalfoy

warnings: violence

Of course Tony didn't believe Peter, he knew that something was wrong the minute the boy had rushed past him after school, he just hadn't expected this. Peter was a clumsy kid, Tony had lost count of the amount of times he had dropped something, but not clumsy enough to fall over and knock up his head.

He trusted him to tell him the truth but he could understand why he was hesitant to. But if Peter wasn't going to tell him what was going on, he would have to find out himself...

***

The next school day was worse than the one before. Flash had spent the entire day doing little things to aggravate Peter, slip notes in his bag, push him in the corridor, spray his water at him, trip him up. He dreaded the end of the day, he just knew Flash would do something and he wasn't sure he could convince Tony that he 'fell over' again.

When the bell rang at the end of the day Peter said a quick goodbye to Ned and MJ before rushing out the door, hoping he would be able to avoid Flash. Unfortunately he was wrong, just as he had exited the school and was looking for Happys car, a hand grabbed the back of his bag and yanked him so he fell onto the floor.

"So, little Penis was trying to run, how sweet." Flash taunted while his friends laughed along with him. "Go away Flash." Peter muttered, standing up. "Now where's the fun in that?" he replied, kicking at Peters knee so he fell to the floor again, making the boy whimper in pain. Two of the boys stood behind Flash made there way over to Peter, laughing at the look of fear on Peters face.

One of the boys kicked Peter in the ribs while the other started to flick at his head with their fingers. Peter began to cry as the pain started to become to much, he just wanted Tony here or someone to stop this.
He wached as Flash stepped forward, raising his fist, but before he could hit he heard someone yell, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

They all freezed and Peter turned his head in the direction of the voice, his mouth fell open when he saw Tony stood there, giving Flash the darkest death stare he had ever seen. The boys stepped back from Peter, leaving him laying on his side in a heap, and gulped nervously as Tony advanced on them. "I believe I asked a question, what the hell are you doing to my kid?" he asked again, practically fumming.

"N-nothing, M-mr Stark, sir." Flash stammered out, fear written all over his face. "If I catch you doing 'nothing' to my kid ever again, that may just be the last time you set foot in this school, got it?" They nodded and ran off back round the school, leaving, them both alone.

When Tony looked at Peter his gaze immediately softened. "Oh buddie, can you hear me?" he asked worryingly as he kneeled down to pull the boys head into is lap. "T'ny.." he slurred, exhausted from all the pain. "Yeah, it's me, you're safe now, I'm gonna take you home okay?"

"M'kay.." he murmed. Tony lifted the boy into his arms, one arm wrapped around his shoulders and the other under his legs and carried him back to Happys car. "Jesus Boss what happend to him?" Happy asked when he sat down, Peter curled up comfortably in his arms. "I'll explain later, let's go home." The man nodded and began to drive, though he kept sending concerned looks through the mirror of the car.

***

By the time that they had arrived back at the Tower, Peter was somewhere between asleep and awake. His eyes were closed but he could still hear everything going on. "Bruce can you check him over please?" Tony said, lying the boy down onto the medical bed. Bruce nodded an began to check Peters body for any severe injuries.

"It hurts.." Peter moaned when Bruce was checking his definitley bruised ribs. "I know bud, it'll be over soon." Tony reassured holding onto the boys hand. "Dad.." the boy said, gripping the mans hand tighter as a wave of nausaue hit him. "Shh, it's okay Pete I'm here." Tony said, running his hands soothingly through his hair. To busy comforting Peter to notice Bruces smirk which clearly stated, 'Not Peters Dad huh?'

By the time Bruce had finished Peter was already sound asleep, Tony looked up at Bruce waiting to hear the results. "Well, he appears to have a bruised knee, three bruised ribs and a mild concussion. He may have a shortage of breath for the next 24 hours and a headache but I have some medicine he can take when his head gets really bad." Bruce said, handing over a small bottle. "Thank you Bruce."

The docotor smiled and left the room, giving Tony and Peter some space, it had certainly been a long day.

***

When Peter next came to his senses he groaned at the throbbing pain in his head, cracking open his eyes slowly, he realised that he was once again in the medical room. Bit by bit, the events of what had happened slowly started to come back to him, running from Flash, getting hurt, Tony yelling...Tony!

Peter opened his eyes fully and observed the room before his gaze finally landed on the figure of Mr Stark, who was sat on the sofa opposite the boy, reading through some documents. He knew that the man would definitley have some questions so he decided to get it over and done with.

"T-tony?" he croaked out, why was his throat so dry? Tony looked up, startled at the voice, and immediately looked relieved when he saw it was Peter. "Pete! Buddie how's your head?" he asked, reaching forward to brush some hair out his face.

"Hurts.." he replied, leaning forward into the comfort. "Sorry for not telling you.." he trailed off. "It's okay, but you need to tell me about things like this, how long has this guy been hurting you?"

"He's never hurt me before." Tony gave him a look. "Not...delibrately atleast. I mean, sure, he's a jerk, but I can handle it. The way he treats people is horrible, so I figured..if he's busy with me..no one else can get bothered by him." he admitted. Peter heard the man exhale before he reached forward to comfort him. "Peter...I understand you feel like you're doing what's right, and you are, but that guy needs to be stopped. What he's doing is wrong and..you shouldn't have to deal with that ever, you understand?"

He nodded, wrapping his arms around the man. "Anyway, let's just say he'll never be bothering you again." Tony said, chuckling slightly. Peters eyes widened, oh god what did he do. "You didn't kill him..did you?" he asked hesitantly. "Of course not, I mean I would if you wanted to, but I figured just a slight threaten would...help it get through his head."

Peter smiled and tightened his hold on the man whispering a quiet 'thank you', deciding that one threaten could knock some sense into Flash. "Now," Tony said, pulling back from the boy, "I think you can call me Tony now?" he said, smiling. "Alright, Tony." he replied, smiling back.

***

Later that evening, Peter found himself alone at the kitchen table, thinking. The day had been such a whirlwind that he had barely anytime to process what was actually happening, Flash had hurt him, for the first time, and Tony was there to save him. But what if the threat didn't stop him? How would Tony react then?

He hadn't felt that defenceless in a long time, sure he had his powers, but he couldn't use them on someone like Flash, people would get suspicious if the nerdy boy could suddenly take on the school bully. It was only now that he realised how much he relied Tony, the man was the closest person he had to a parent, though he would never tell Tony that, and he couldn't be more grateful for everything he had done for him.

There was still a nagging feeling his head telling him he didn't derserve this, he didn't deserve all the kindess the Avengers had shown him, but he knew, deep down, that May would be proud. She would be happy that he was happy, and he valued her opinion more than anything. He only then noticed the tears slidding down his cheeks, only now they were happy ones, ones that held happiness, gratefulness and joy, joy that he had so many people who cared about him, so many people who comforted him when he needed them.

Tony walked into the kitchen and his face grew concerned when he saw Peter crying. "Peter, why are you crying?" he asked. But the boy just smiled and said, "Thank you, for everything, it means more to me than you could imagine." A look of understanding rested on the mans face, he too smiled and walked forward to plant a kiss on Peter forehead. "My pleasure, night buddie." he replied, grabbing his phone and walking back up to his room, leaving Peter once again alone.

The boy let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, silently thanking whoever it was that allowed him to have some luck in his life for once.