{Peter is Tony's bio son.}
Tony had always been extra careful when it came to Peter. Keeping him out of the spotlight, making sure he grew up a normal kid, making sure either Happy or himself was around at all times in case someone found out about Peter's heritage, making sure Peter stayed safe.
It was the most important thing he could do, keep his son safe.
Sure Peter got a little fed up with his father's protectiveness, but he understood. After all, you'd never expect something to happen until it does.
"You good, dude? You're looking pale," Ned points out as they board the school bus.
The academic decathlon team is going on a field trip to a nearby museum as a reward for winning regionals.
Peter looks up, eyes a bit too wild, too far away for his friend's liking. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Ned picks a seat and Peter immediately sits beside him, not even a second thought to sit anywhere else.
"Is this a Spider-Man thing?" Ned asks, voice dropping to a theatrical whisper and leaning in closer to Peter.
"Just Spidey-Senses tingling, you know? It's probably nothing," Peter reassures, leaning his head back against the seat. "It's probably just having Flash this close to be honest."
Ned laughs quietly, but keeps his attention on his friend who has somehow gone even more sheet white.
"Dude... You look like you're going to be sick," Ned points out, worry lacing his voice.
"He's right. You're looking green," MJ says, sliding into the seat across from them, book in hand.
"Shut up," Peter groans. "You talking about it is not going to make me feel any better."
This gets the two to shut up pretty quickly. MJ sticks her nose in her book and Ned turns to the window, eyebrows still creased with concern.
A few minutes later, Ned's given up on being silent, rambling about everything from Star Wars to Captain America to Spanish homework to his mom.
Peter's just progressively feeling worse, stomach twisting in knots and hands sweating profusely. At least he's got the comfort of his web shooters heavy around his wrists.
"Peter?" Ned suddenly says.
The boy's eyes snap open immediately, locking with his friend's. "What? What is it?"
"You tell me. You haven't stopped fiddling with your web shooters since we got on this bus. Should we be concerned?" Ned says, wide eyes searching Peter's face for some sign.
"I don't know. My spidey-senses won't shut up. Like danger or something. It hasn't been this bad in a really long time," Peter admits, eyes welling with his tears as he sucks in a breath. He's worried, unbelievably worried. What if something's happening and he isn't there to fix it?
"Should you be calling Tony? Get him to come just in case something happens?" Ned says.
MJ's head perks up from her book, legs tightening against her chest. "What's going to happen?"
"I don't know. Peter's sensing danger," Ned responds.
"It could be nothing, guys. For all I know it could just be warning me that Flash is going to beat me up after school," Peter says, shrugging as his eyes dart across the scenery.
"That happens most days. What if this is something important?" Ned asks, frowning harder, obvious anxiety rolling off him in waves.
"If something happens, you've got Spider-Man sitting next to you. Do you think there's any way in hell I'd let anything happen to you?"
MJ opens her mouth to speak, but she doesn't have time to say anything before there's a scream, a bang, shattering glass and then silence.
Peter comes to only seconds after they crashed.
A car swerved and the bus swerved in turn to avoid hitting the car and ended up flying off the bridge.
Luckily, the water wasn't too far from the bridge.
Unfortunately, the water was deep and the bus was filling really fast.
All the passengers are unconscious, wounds on foreheads and arms and legs, but nothing that looks life threatening to Peter. He's sure he's got a concussion himself and he's got a few shallow cuts on his arms and legs.
He knows he has to do something. Immediately.
So he gets to work. Not as Spider-Man, but as Peter Parker. His webs don't even work in water, something him and Mister Stark had been working on for the past couple weeks, but hadn't perfected a formula yet.
He starts at the front, feeling an awful guilt weighing on his chest at the idea of leaving his friends in the bus, but he's gotta start with the driver because that's where a lot of the water is coming in.
The water's already up to his ankles and there's 8 people on the bus not including himself or the driver.
Peter fumbles with the seatbelt for a few moments, heart beating erratically in his chest, before using a bit too much of his strength and ripping the belt in half.
He wraps a tight arm around the man's waist and grabs onto a smaller girl in the front seat, Cindy.
He's not entirely sure if he can swim without his arms and he's not sure how smart it is to take the unconscious bodies into the water, but he know he can't leave them in the bus to die.
Peter uses his feet to kick out a big enough hole in the front window, cursing as the water pours in faster.
Hugging the two people close to his body, he pushes out of the bus and kicks as hard as his legs can manage towards the far away surface, holding his breath.
He gasps when he hits the surface, almost struggling to keep himself and the two others afloat as he kicks towards the shore just a few meters away.
The teenager deposits the two people on the ground and dives back under, using his arms this time to push his body back towards where he sees the bus against the bottom of the lake.
The water is cold and seeps into his veins, gasping again when he makes it to the bus where the water's up to his hips now. He's not going to have time to save the other 7 people. But he's gotta try.
Glass catches on his skin as he rips off his jacket, shoes and jeans to try to make himself more lightweight to swim faster. There's more blood than before his chest is heaving.
He grabs the teacher and MJ this time, sobbing harshly when he realizes just how quickly the water is flooding into the bus. He doesn't have time to stop.
He kicks and kicks and kicks, legs aching as it takes longer this time to get to the surface, muscles already aching.
He drops the two beside the first two, coughing and coughing and barely giving himself enough time to recover before diving under again.
When he reaches the bus, the water's up to his shoulders and he's still got 5 more people, 2 more trips.
"I'm sorry," he cries to his best friend, knowing there's not enough time to get everyone out.
This time he takes three people, knowing it's a risk, but a risk he has to take. Abe, Taylor, and Michael. All relatively smaller people.
But it's a struggle to kick all the way back to the surface. This time, Peter inhales water, chest burning and eyes beginning to fill with tears as he barely makes it the surface. He pushes himself to swim to the shore, dropping the bodies beside the others and crying out as he realizes he's going to be too late, they're already going to be under. He's only got 2 left. Flash and Ned.
And there's no way in hell he's leaving them down there to die.
So he pushes his body to swim and swim and swim, knowing he's not even going to get the relief of breathing when he gets to the bus.
Glass cuts into his limbs as he shoves himself back into the bus, finding the two boys, heads just above water and then they're under.
Peter swims to the top, takes a deep breath of air and then ducks back under, grabbing the last two boys.
The strain is unimaginable on his aching, freezing limbs as he begins to kick towards the surface again.
It's too far, he realizes. He's never going to make it there.
He changes route, swimming directly across instead of up. And finally he's in line with the shore, chest stuttering for air, burning and burning and burning. And he pushes the two bodies up, hoping against all hope that someone's up there to catch them and get them onto shore. The force of the push sends his own body the opposite direction, the world already spotting black at the lack of air and the cold.
Peter doesn't want to die.
He doesn't want to die because his dad doesn't want him to die.
His dad!
He reaches out, water filling his aching lungs as he struggles for air and presses the panic button on his watch just once before his strength sputters out entirely. The last thing he sees before his back hits the bottom of the lake is a bright light shooting towards him.
*
Tony's in the middle of a meeting when the panic alarm goes off from Peter's watch. Tony doesn't even time to react before the suit is closing around his body and shooting towards Peter's location.
He shot down into the water, fear running his veins cold and his skin hot, panic and panic and panic.
And then he sees his kid, eyes shutting as his body relaxes on the lake's floor.
Tony collects his kid in his arms, immediately shooting back for the surface, an ambulance called through Jarvis already.
When he gets to the surface he sees the group of people huddled on the shore. 9 of them.
The ambulance has already shown up, having been en route from the call and Peter's pulled away from him, put on a stretcher and wheeled away.
He tries to follow, tries to tell them that he's Peter's dad, but he's told to meet them there.
The suit deposits him on the shore, and he recognizes MJ who's crying, something Tony never thought he'd see.
"MJ?" Tony calls out, voice hoarse with held back tears. "What the- What the hell happened?"
MJ sobs out and fingers clutching Ned's jacket let go as she turns to the hero.
"Peter- He..." she takes a deep breath, stilling her panic. "The bus crashed. We swerved and went into the water. We passed out. Peter didn't I guess... When I woke up, I was already on shore and Ned and Flash had just hit the surface. Peter.. Peter didn't... He saved us."
"Are you all okay?" Tony asks, trying to keep his head screwed on alright despite the constant panic.
A cry catches his attention and he sees a boy crying, body trembling, mouth dropped open.
"I just- I can't believe... After everything, he still saved me?" the boy cries, eyes wild and searching.
"You don't deserve it, Flash. He should've left you down there," Ned says, breathing heavily as he turns on Flash.
"Why?" I ask.
MJ responds, glaring at Flash through her tears. "Flash has been bullying Peter since middle school. And yet Peter still sacrificed himself for him."
"Tony?" It comes from Ned who's crying eyes are staring up at him with a wondrous awe. "Is Peter going to be okay?"
"I need to know if all of you are okay first. Is anyone hurt?" Tony says through clenched teeth.
"No. No, we're all fine. Go meet Peter at the hospital. Please. Let us know if he's okay," MJ demands. Tony wouldn't have been able to decline even if he wanted to.
The suit closes around his body again and he shoots off towards the hospital.
*
Peter looks small, too small in the hospital bed. His face is pale, no color gracing his cheeks like there normally is, no vibrant aura surrounding him. Just pale.
Sleeping, Tony reminds himself, he's sleeping.
The doctors said he inhaled quite a bit of water and they had to drain his lungs of all fluids. There's still worry they might fill again with water, so Peter has to be under supervision for the next couple days, but Tony isn't too worried about that. He's sure Peter will pull through anything.
But his kid looks so small in the big hospital bed. Pale.
"Hey, kiddo. It's Dad. I'm here. You wanna open your eyes for me? I really need to see your eyes again. Gotta make sure you're okay in there, yeah?" Tony coaxes, squeezing Peter's hand tightly.
The small hand in his twitches and Tony's heart picks up its pace. He twitches again and then groans quietly in pain before finally opening his eyes slowly.
He looks around the room, squinting until his eyes land on Tony and he smiles dazedly.
"Daddy?" Peter slurs, eyes glazed over as he sniffles, head drooping further into his pillow. "Sorry I almost died again."
"That's okay, kiddie. You didn't die. You saved so many people, Petey. You did so so well. I'm so proud of you. I just wish you would've pressed the panic button sooner. You didn't need to do it all by yourself," Tony murmurs, offering him a gentle smile.
He giggles softly, sniffling a few more times as his eyelids droop shut again. "I forgot?"
"You forgot?" Tony repeats, frowning at his kid.
Peter giggles again, even quieter than the first time. His face falls serious when he speaks though, "Wasn't an emergency until I couldn't swim anymore."
"You're allowed to ask for help even when you're capable of doing it yourself. It was a close call, Peter. Too close," Tony reprimands, but there's no bite to his voice.
"I know. I'm sorry," Peter slurs, lifting his eyes lazily up to his dad's again. "Cuddles?"
Tony smiles, knowing there's no way he could say no to his child with his bambi eyes. He crawls into the hospital bed beside his kid and lets Peter snuggle up close to his chest.
"I love you, kiddo," Tony whispers, pressing a relieved kiss to his kid's forehead.
"Love you too, dadda," Peter slurs, passing out again in the safety of his dad's arms.
___
wowie another update today :)))
Lyss