After all that he'd been through with the Spider-Kid, Tony was used to FRIDAY informing him that Peter had arrived in the middle of the night. The kid had grown on Tony. With his sarcastic remarks and protective nature hidden behind a soft and shy exterior, Peter had quickly become part of the inventor's self made family.

This meaning, Tony was always, without a doubt, concerned when Peter payed him a midnight visit. "What's Pete doing here, FRIDAY?" Tony asked his AI while walking to the elevator. He didn't mind when Peter payed him visits, it was honestly something he looked forward to, but visits this time of night meant that he was injured.

'It seems that Mr. Parker is in distress, Boss,' FRIDAY answered.

Tony felt the elevator go faster with FRIDAY's obvious concern. "Distress?" Tony asked, "Contact Bruce. Do you know what's going on with him?"

'No, Boss. My sensors aren't picking anything up besides a few bruises.'

The elevator door slid open, and Tony was immediately taken aback from the whimpering noise coming from behind the other side of the couch. He quickly made his way over to the source, sucking in a sharp breath at the image that lay itself out before him.

Peter was trembling on the space in between the table and the couch, scratching at his wrists with his eyes clenched closed. His breaths came out in choked gasps, and Tony could see the vigilante's mask by the window he must have entered through.

"Peter," Tony breathes out before rushing to move the coffee table away so Peter wouldn't injure himself further. "Peter, Kid, it's me-"

"No, no please s-stop it. Please," Peter whimpered out. He finally opened his eyes, and Tony seemed to forget how to breathe when he saw the kid's eyes. Peter's normally wide, full of emotion brown eyes that reminded Tony of Bambi were spaced out. They were full of tears, and it was obvious that Peter was seeing something that wasn't there.

"Peter- Bud, it's me. It's Tony, I'm right here," Tony tried. The billionaire grabbed the younger's wrist when he tried to scratch at his neck.

"Help me, somebody h-help me- me," Peter sobbed out.

Tony gently shushed to boy, trying his hardest to hold the Peter's wrists down, but Peter had super strength and Tony didn't.

"Tony? What happened?" Bruce's voice echoed from the elevator. The scientist gasped when he rounded the couch, and he rushed over to Peter's other side, "What happened?"

"I- I don't know!" Tony exclaimed, "FRIDAY gave me an alert that Peter was here, and I found him like this!"

"Okay, Tony, you need to calm down."

"Calm down?" Tony hissed with more venom than he meant. "Bruce I can't- I can't just calm down. That's my kid." If Tony wasn't panicking he would have felt bad on how he was talking to his friend, but as it was his mind was in to much of a frenzy.

Still, Bruce stayed calm. The doctor put his hands up as a sign of peace and spoke once more, "Alright. I get it, but you need to calm down enough to help me get him to the med bay."

Tony nodded and activated his suit which quickly formed around him. He picked up his kid, and followed Bruce into the elevator with a now thrashing Peter. "Let me go, please- please let me go!" Peter sobbed out, arms thrashing before Tony shifted to hold them down.

Tony gently rocked the kid in his arms as he whispered soothing assurances in the shaking figure's ear, "It's okay, Pete. I'm going to fix this, I swear."

The elevator door opened to reveal the med bay, and Tony sprinted to one of the beds, Bruce following while telling FRIDAY things Tony wasn't following. Tony gently set Peter down, holding his shoulders down to make sure Peter didn't try to start scratching at his own wrists again.

Tony only looked away when he saw Bruce walking over with padded cuffs. "What are those for?" Tony asked even though he already knew the answer.

Bruce cast a look of regret at the still sobbing Peter before looking back at Tony to reply, "We need to draw blood to find out what's happening and find out a cure. You can't keep holding him down like this."

"He has super strength, Bruce. He'll break those things easily," Tony gritted out, tired after having to try and hold Peter down. Tony was losing energy, but it was clear Peter wasn't. He loathed to admit it, but the cuffs were the only option since they hadn't created anything that worked on the kid to calm him down for situations like this.

"They'd hold down Steve," Bruce reasoned. "Tony, I know that you know this is one of our only options, and if we're going to work on this, we're working on this as quickly as possible. You have to realize this."

Tony purses his lips. Bruce was right, Tony wouldn't be able to keep holding the kid down, and they needed to start finding a cure. "Alright," Tony grunted, "Start with his wrists. We'll work our way down to his ankles after."

It was an absolute nightmare of a process to cuff and draw blood from Peter, a kid that Tony had grown very close to over the time they'd spent together. To listen to Peter's wails and sobs and pleading to stop stop please no more-. Guilt burned throughout Tony's entire being, digging it's nasty claws into the inventor's soul, as Peter struggled against the bonds. "I'm so sorry, Peter," Tony whispered in a broken tone as he stepped back.

"Tony come on," Bruce interrupted hurriedly.

"I'm not- I can't leave him alone, Bruce!"

"We'll call someone in, but if we want to fix this we should fix it as fast as possible," Bruce answered, "I've already called in for a couple people to be in here, let's go." Bruce pulled Tony along with him, and out of the room.

•••

It two hours later that they inject Peter with the cure. It's an two hours and thirty minutes later where Peter is finally calm enough for the cuffs to be taken off where his skin is slightly red and bruised. It's the three and a half hour mark when Peter finally opens his eyes.

Tony immediately perks up from his chair where he was attempting (and failing) to work on some blue prints. Peter's eyes were dazed, but he still somehow looked to be more… in the moment than they were almost five hours ago.

"Mis'er S'ark?" Peter manages out. His voice is still scratchy from the stress it had been under for a long period of time.

"Hey Pete," Tony reaches over to move a stray curl, "You with us now, Spiderling?"

Peter hummed, and Tony helped him sit up, and passed him a cup full of water when the younger noticed the pitcher. "What happened?" Peter asked softly after taking a few sips.

Tony hummed as he filled the cup back up, "What do you remember?"

It took several seconds before Peter answered. Eyes focused on the blanket, and reaching for memories. Finally, Peter cleared his throat to answer, "I was patrolling… there was this guy. He was- was harassing this girl and I went to go… to go help 'cause that's what I- what I do and-"

Tony gently shushed the kid and took the paper cup from his hands when he saw Peter slightly shivering. "It's okay, it's okay Peter. Do you remember what happened next?"

Tony watched Peter as his breathing became rapid and out of control. His eyes were wide, panicked, and losing focus. "I- he threw some kind of… powder in my face. I remember coming to the tower, but I don't-" Peter cut himself off with a sob, and looked into Tony's eyes before closing them as he covered his mouth with a shaking hand.

"Peter…" Tony started before he realized he didn't know what to say to comfort his mentee. So, putting his phone down, the mentor sat down next to Peter and wrapped his arms around the kid. He rocked the teen back and forth rubbing small circles with his thumb on the younger's arm as he sobbed. "What happened, Peter," Tony mumbled into Peter's curls, "What did you see?"

It took a few minutes of just Peter's cried slowly lowering in volume. Peter hid his face into Tony's shoulder as he stuttered out an explanation, "I was- I was trapped, Mr. Stark. I was trapped in this horrible loop of the worst times of my life, and-" Peter took in a big breath- "I was trapped in my mind, Mr. Stark and I couldn't get out-"

Peter breaks out into sobs once more, and Tony does nothing but let the kid let it all out. He holds the kid as he trembles, and combs his fingers through Peter's tangled curls. He doesn't know what Peter saw, he doesn't know what Peter counts as 'the worst days of his life', but he does know that the kid has had some pretty horrible things happen to him in his short life on Earth.

Tony lets Peter cry into his shoulders, because he knows that Peter needs to cry. He knows Peter can't grow up believing the toxic saying that is 'Stark men are made of iron', and he just… Tony knows, okay?

Neither of them know how long Peter was crying into his mentor's shoulder, but Tony doesn't stop combing his fingers through Peter's hair even after the teen had slumped in exhaustion. "I've got you, Peter," Tony mumbles is assurance. "I got you."

Peter doesn't give a verbal response, but he does squeeze Tony a little tighter for a second before returning the original amount of force used. It was an obvious message. I know.

Tony had him.

And Peter knew.

AN: Here's my first chapter of FebuWhump 2019! Thank you for reading! Don't forget to follow, favorite, leave a review, and check out my other works! Until next time!