**Request for seven-silence where Peter feels replaced by a particular intern at SI. Tony makes things better, but not after Peter feels a good dose of sadness. Enjoy!**
Peter raced into the building, excitement pumping through his veins. He had been waiting to do this project for weeks, now, and today was finally the day!
The receptionist greeted the teen with a little nod and a smile, and he waved enthusiastically. That was the things about Peter Parker, he could put a smile on your face no matter what was going on, no matter how bad you felt, no matter hard your shell was.
There was too much energy pumping through the boy's body by the time he reached the elevator, so he bounced where he stood in the small space. Peter's favorite projects were the bio-chemical ones, so this particular project, which was to develop a new type of prosthetic, one that could chemically create blood and receive nervous input. It was a big project, but Peter had already drawn up some ideas for how to do it.
The elevator dinged open, and Peter rushed out. "Hey, Tony, I already worked on some-"
"Hey, kid." The billionaire was bent over his desk, a second person at his side. "Why're you here today?"
Peter furrowed his brow. "I thought we were working on that project today. The chemically capable prosthetic."
Tony didn't say anything for a second, clearly lost in thought. Peter sighed, waiting for his mentor to come back to reality.
"Oh, I didn't even think of... Were you going to do aesthetic design?"
"No, I was going to help with chemically recreating blood, since I've been chemically recreating natural substances for a while now."
Tony didn't respond. After a few moments, Peter cleared his throat.
"Oh, sorry. This is Anne Charleston of UCLA. She was recognized for her work on the biochemistry of that new vaccine or whatever, so I brought her in for our biochemical part. She's going to be doing that."
Peter's face stayed the same, but he felt his heart break all the same. He was always the guy Tony went to on biochemical stuff. Always.
"Oh. Then- uh- then could- could I work on the- the suit? The- uh -Sp- Spidersuit?"
Tony looked up for a second. "Sure. Take it to another lab, though. We're going to be busy down here and I can't have people getting in the way."
Peter tried to keep his face stony, but he couldn't help the few tears that slipped out. He was a bother to Tony. He got in the way. Peter didn't want to get in the way anywhere else, so he just turned on his heel and left the Tower all together.
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"Get outta here," Tony said, looking over his notes.
Peter took a step back. "Well, I just-"
"I said get out! We're on the verge of a breakthrough and you think this is the right time to talk to me about whatever it is you wanna talk about?" Tony's voice was sharp. "Get outta here, Peter, go home. Go bother someone else."
Peter let his hand clench around the flyer in his hand. New York's 3rd Annual State Science Fair.
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The project wasn't going as planned. There was something off with the mechanics at first, and with the nervous interfacing, and after Tony and Anne had figured that out, there'd been trouble with the blood synthesis. Tony brought the issue to Bruce once, and to Helen Cho a few times, but no one had the faintest idea why the science wasn't working.
Pepper, who had finally convinced Tony to come up to the penthouse for a proper dinner for the first time in a week, was happy enough to see her fiance out of the labs, but he wouldn't stop complaining about all the trouble he was having with some nonsense.
Having enough, Pepper sighed heavily and said "what did Peter say about it?"
Tony furrowed his brow. "What?"
"What did Peter say about it? He's had such good luck with his webs and the spider bite thingies for Natasha. He seems to be good with biological projects."
"I haven't mentioned it to him. He hasn't been around for the last week or so."
Pepper looked up from her food. "Yes, he has. He was here about a week and a half ago but you sent him away, and then he was back the day after, and the day after that, and then you snapped at him and he came by 2 days ago to help me with some paperwork."
Tony pushed the food around his plate. "I don't remember snapping at him."
Pepper scoffed. "You said he was interrupting your's and Anne's breakthrough."
Tony looked down at his lap. "FRIDAY? Where is Peter Parker right now?"
"He appears to be working on some coding in his bedroom, sir."
"Has he been patrolling?"
"No, sir, he was last on patrol on Monday of last week, but sustained heavy injury and returned home. He has not been out since."
Tony jumped at the news that Peter had been hurt. "How badly was he hurt?"
"He was shot several times, sir. From Karen's records, it would seem that Ned preformed minor medical assistance, and Peter's healing has almost entirely closed the wounds."
"Why was he shot so many times?"
"My intelligence says he was involved in a hostage situation, and he was shot 4 times to the chest, twice to the stomach, and once in the leg."
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"Hey, Ned." Peter held the phone up with one hand, the other still typing at his laptop.
"Hey. How's the body feeling?"
"Like it was shot 7 times, thanks for asking. The damage is mostly healed up, but I'm giving my leg a little longer before I go out again. I can go without the bracing now, but I don't want to have the bone split again."
"You ever going to tell me what happened that night?"
"I didn't dodge in time," Peter said.
"7 times in a row?" Peter didn't say anything.
Ned took a breath. "Have you spoken at all to Mr. Stark?"
Peter's eyes prickled with new tears. "No." His voice was low and soft. Ned had known Peter long enough to know that was a sign of his pain.
"You know he still cares, right?"
"He's got a funny way of showing it."
Ned didn't have much of a response to that, so Peter continued after a second of silence.
"At least when Ben left me alone, it wasn't his choice."
Ned tried not to gasp at that, but it was hard not to. Peter had been through a lot in his life, but clearly Tony meant something to him. To have his last father figure do this? It had to be hard on the teen.
"Hey, uh, I have my hands kinda full with this coding, can we talk later?" Peter asked. He knew he'd thrown a pretty heavy statment out there.
"Yeah, 'course." The two said their goodbyes and Peter tossed his phone onto his bed before looking over his coding.
His leg throbbed a little as he bounced it, but he pushed it out of his head. He was healing, and that's all that mattered.
There was a knock at the door. "One sec," Peter called. "I'm working!"
The door opened anyways, and there was Tony. "Hey, kiddo."
Peter tensed, but only for a second. He couldn't let himself get hurt again. He just couldn't take it.
"Hi."
Tony looked around the room, his eyes flitting over the homework and textbooks and clothes littering the room. The spidersuit, which was slung over Peter's dresser, was torn and bloodied, and Tony picked it up with a couple fingers, inspecting the holes.
He wasn't good with emotions, that was for certain.
"How'd this happen, kid?"
Peter looked over his shoulder, but he didn't respond right away. "I got into a spot of trouble."
"You didn't dodge the bullets?" Tony tried at a lighthearted joke, but it didn't land well.
Peter shrugged.
"What really happened?"
Peter sniffed. "I got shot."
"Peter," Tony sighed. "Talk to me."
"Why should I? Not like you really care, you just want to know how I ruined your million dollar suit."
"I really do care. I care about you."
Peter shook his head. "If you cared, you wouldn't have gone to some Californian biochemist and yelled at me."
Tony didn't say much. He didn't have any excuse for his behavior.
The teen took a deep breath. "I was trying to bust up a bank robbery. There was a hostage, I wanted to... I got in the way, they shot her. I don't like when I can't do... I could have dodged 'em."
Tony took a shuddering breath. "You... You didn't dodge on purpose?"
Peter didn't say anything else.
"Peter, I didn't bring in Anne because I thought you couldn't do it. I brought in Anne because I was thinking about recruiting her for the company and she asked for a place on the project."
Peter hummed. "Sounds like a fine reason to me."
"It wasn't. I should have told her that I had an expert at SI already. I should have told her you're the best scientist we have. I should have told her you were going to inherit the whole Tower one day. I should have told her my kid was on the project."
Peter blushed and looked down at his feet. It didn't make up for what happened, but it was something.
"And more than all of that, you should never, never put yourself in danger again. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you, Underoos."
Peter couldn't help but sniffle at that, a couple tears slipping down his cheeks. "I thought... I thought you hated me..."
Tony pulled the teen into a hug, feeling the cool track of tears down his shoulder and Peter nestled into it.
"You're all I have left, now, you can't leave me," Peter whispered. "You can't leave me on purpose."
Tony held the boy closer. "I won't."