Tony sat down and put his head in his hands. What was he gonna do with this kid? Nothing he said seemed to get through to Peter. Then again, nothing Peter said really seemed to get through Tony either.

Maybe the kid was right. Maybe it was time Spider-Man made a reappearance. Though he had to admit, Tony wasn't too thrilled with the idea, it looked like the only right thing to do. He'd wait until tomorrow to tell Peter the news.

Or so he thought.

Just as he stood up to go to his room, Tony's phone buzzed in his pocket. Who could be calling him now?

He pulled his phone out of his pocket to read the caller ID. There was none, just an unknown number. That was weird. People shouldn't be able to just call him, and with his phone he never got spam calls, so he should just ignore it. Maybe even block the number just in case they'd try again.

But something in Tony's gut told him he should answer the call. Right before the last ring, he hit the answer button, holding the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" Tony decided to ask, though he felt dumb doing so.

"Mr. Stark?" Tony heard the voice on the other line say, no doubt a teenager.

"Look, if this is some kind of prank call—"

"No sir!" The person cut him off immediately. "I'm Peter's friend, Ned. You know, the one he went to the concert with tonight?"

"Yeah, I know who you are," Tony said, hearing the tiniest squeal from Ned who was ecstatic that the Tony Stark knew who he was, then remembered why he called.

"Hey, how did you get my number? Are you and Peter pulling some prank on me tha—"

"No sir!" Ned said again, feeling bad for cutting Tony off once more. "I promise I wouldn't be calling unless it was important."

Tony straightened himself and pressed the phone a bit harder to his ear.

"And what is it that's so important?" Tony asked curiously.

"It's uh— it's about Peter. I was wondering if he um... got home safely?" Ned asked, trying not to show the concern in his voice.

"Yeah he did. Always picking a fight with me. He stormed off to his room a couple minutes ago," Tony said.

"Stormed off?" Ned gaped, completely forgetting to hide that there was an obvious problem.

"Ned, what's going on?" Tony questioned, a hint of concern etched in his voice as well.

"Wha— uh nothing, Mr. Stark."

"No, no, no, no, you know something that I don't. If it concerns Peter you need to tell me," Tony said firmly.

Ned was torn. Peter might never forgive him if he told Mr. Stark about Peter's dangerous habit, but he'd rather Peter stay mad at him and live than hide his secret and take a chance at losing him.

Making up his mind, Ned said, "Has Peter been acting... weird, lately?"

"He's a teenager with powers who recently lost his aunt. I think he has a probable cause—"

"No, you don't understand! Tonight, Peter... he— I saw his sleeve come up, and his arm was..."

"Ned, his arm was what?"

"He had cuts, and I know his powers help him heal better so he doesn't scar as easily as most people— but there were scars and... Mr. Stark Peter's been hurting himself," Ned blurted out, feeling guilty as if he just betrayed his best friend.

Tony, on the other, hand froze for a second. Everything started adding up, making sense. All the fights, secrets, pain... and then he remembered the fight they'd just had.

If he's been hurting himself for a while now, his best friend found out, and clearly things didn't end well there because he walked home, and he just fought with Tony then...

Tony dropped his phone, ignoring Ned's voice asking about Peter, and ran as fast as he could to the boy's room.

Tony never ran so fast in his life. He'd never hated how big the tower was until now, and he'd never forgive himself if Peter was hurt because of him.

He reached the hall and bolted to Peter's door. It was locked, not that he expected it to be unlocked, but it only made his fear spike more.

Tony knocked hard on the door, and when Peter didn't answer in 0.1 seconds, he used the hand armor of his suit that he'd forgotten he called for and blasted the lock.

Kicking the door down, Tony barged into the dark room and saw Peter sitting on the end of his bed. He felt relieved, until he looked down at his arms and hands.

Peter's arms were littered with fresh cuts, a bloodied knife in his hand, which was now pressed to his wrist harshly, drawing beads of blood.

Tony dove at Peter, fighting to get the knife out of his hand. In his weakened state, Peter didn't stand much of a chance and lost his grip on the knife.

"Give it back!" Peter shouted madly, tears forming in his eyes as he weakly reached for the knife again.

"Peter..." Tony said, kneeling in front of the damaged teen. He was going to end his life tonight. How could he have let this happen?

This was all his fault.

Tony pulled Peter into a tight and firm hug, not caring that the blood was beginning to soak and stain his clothes. He held on even tighter as Peter began to sob, his whole body shaking.

He'd been through too much. Losing his parents, uncle, and then aunt and having to live with someone he really didn't even know. Tony thought he was helping Peter when he took away his suit, but seeing Peter now finally opened his eyes to realize he had been wrong.

The truth really is ugly.

Tony released Peter from his death grip and gently grabbed his arm. The bleeding was beginning to stop, probably because of his abilities, but he would no doubt still need treatment.

"Peter... did I do this? Why would you..." Tony drifted off, unsure of what the right thing to say was.

"I don't— want to be here," Peter said between sobs, "It's not worth it... not anymore."

"Don't say that, Peter. Whatever's going on— whatever I did... we can fix this."

"Not everything can be fixed! I'm not some technical issue in your suit that you make a few adjustments to and work like new again!"

Tony inwardly sighed.

"I know you're not. I've been trying to act like you are— hell, I've treated you like you are... Let me make it up to you. Let me... do it right this time, Peter. Please," Tony pleaded.

"What if... I can't be fixed? What if I'm never normal again?..."

"I don't think... normal was a part of who you ever were. You're a special kid, and you've got powers to prove it. But I don't think anyone could ever go back to being the way they were once they've lost someone. Would you ever say you went back to normal after your uncle's death?" Tony asked.

Peter paused before slowly shaking his head. He stopped crying a minute ago, leaving his face stained with trails of tears.

"I'm gonna go get some stuff to clean this up and hope there won't be any scarring. Can you promise me you won't do ANYTHING that would hurt you more for the next minute?"

Again, Peter just nodded. He'd promised to give Tony another chance, even though he didn't say it out loud.

Tony stood up and left to get the supplies. He made sure to tell the rest of the team to stay out longer, saying he needed some time with Peter, but didn't tell them why. He gathered all the supplies he'd need and sighed.

This was going to be a long night.

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Yikes, sorry that took forever to update. No excuse for that one. Hope there's still one or two people that follow this who still read it haha. Hope you're all doing good :) please read and review 3