Chapter Twenty-Five

"Is this really necessary?" Peter was fumbling his arms but 's cape which was tightly wrapped around his body didn't seem to budge. In fact, being wrapped by the cape and held prisoner in comparison to ropes seemed even more embarrassing. It had been twelve minutes exactly since Dr. Strange had caught Peter trying to hijack his pills. But to be fair holding him hostage was the least he could have done especially since he looked like he wanted to murder him on the spot.

"Yes." That was all Dr. Strange said. He still had the pissed off look on his face which was starting to irritate Peter. Dr. Strange was acting like Peter had decided to cook meth in his office. It was just pills for God sakes. "You should be glad I am not locking you up in a dungeon."

"You have a dungeon?" Peter quipped, feeling oddly interested and he would prefer anything over the feeling of slow suffocation that was going on right now especially since his wounds hadn't exactly healed.

Dr. Strange didn't respond and instead he just stated at Peter. Once or twice he clenched his jaw so hard Peter could swear he could hear it click. He seemed to be studying Peter which made him uncomfortable. Instead of being stared at by Dr. Strange or worrying about the ass kicking he was going to get, Peter decided to worry about a more pressing problem. Where the hell was he going to live?

He didn't have enough money for a hotel and he couldn't stay at MJ or Ned's place because that was the first place that May would look. He wondered if he could stay here, but he doubted that after what happened Dr. Strange would be eager to have him as a houseguest.

Peter heard the door opening and at first, he thought it might be Wong, but the outcome was much worse. It was Tony and he looked downright pissed. He kept shooting daggers at him practically saying, I will murder you for this stupidity and won't even blink.

Peter didn't even have the energy to look sorry, he just shrugged as if he had accidently taken the last cookie. Peter knew by looking at Tony's outfit that he had been in the middle of one of his creations when Dr. Strange had called him. He was wearing sweatpants stained with oil and a black tank top. He was holding the keys to one of his expensive cars which meant he had driven which was. . .impressive.

Tony immediately turned to Dr. Strange. "What happened?"

"He tried to steal from me," Dr. Strange said calmly as he showed him the pills. "I thought you would be a better person to call than the police and I don't have his aunt's phone number. Stark, can I talk to you in private?"

"Yeah," Tony replied as he shot Peter another look as he followed Dr. Strange to the hallway. "Look, Strange I will talk to Peter and knock some sense into him. I'll talk to his aunt and I'll have Peter clean all the windows of HQ or maybe he can be your errand boy-"

"It's not about the fact that Peter is stealing," Dr. Strange interrupted as he showed Tony the pills. "It's what he is stealing. These are very strong pain pills, Peter couldn't have finished off the other ones I got for him. Not to mention Bruce told me that he also gave him pain pills a while back and nothing major has been going on in New York as far as I know."

Tony looked at him strangely. "What are you saying?" he asked sarcastically. "Are you saying Peter is a junkie or a drug pusher? The kid is on the Academic Decathlon for God's sake."

"I'm saying you need to need to keep a closer eye on him," Dr. Strange arched an eyebrow. "He's hiding something, I can tell. He's fidgety and he's limping and for a while he's been a walking accident-and now the stealing. What I'm saying is figure out what's going on because the next time Peter gets involved in something like this he might not be so lucky."

Tony swallowed feeling the lump in his throat. Dr. Strange was right, Peter had been acting weird for a while, distant even. He had shrugged it off as teenage moodiness but maybe not. They went back to the room and Dr. Strange snapped his fingers and the cape unwrapped himself from Peter and Peter fell to the floor.

Peter scowled at Dr. Strange as rubbed his knee. "Was that really necessary?"

"Steal from me again and I'll shove a New York rat down your throat."

Peter fought the urge to roll his eyes just in case he was serious. He grabbed his backpack and was about to pounce out of there when he heard Tony's booming voice following close behind him. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"I don't think Dr. Strange wants me to stay for a sleepover." Peter quipped.

"Funny." Tony said as he showed him, his car keys. "I'm driving you home. It's too late for you to be walking around at all hours."

"I can't go home." Peter blurted out.

"Why the hell not?"

"I just can't." Peter replied stubbornly.

Tony rubbed his temples looking beyond exhausted. "Whatever, I don't have time for your teenage angst. You can stay at the tower, come on."

They exited Dr. Strange's townhouse and Peter followed Tony down the poorly lit street. "Strange has the worst parking." He murmured before he turned around to face Peter. "What the hell is going on, Peter? Why are you stealing pills? That's not like you."

"I lost the other pills Dr. Strange gave me," Peter lied as he looked at the ground. He hated it when he disappointed his mentor. "I knew he would yell at me, so I just decided to take them. I screwed up, I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? Sorry? You stole from one of our friends Peter and besides that just what do you think you're doing? You're flunking out of class, you're getting injured on a regular basis, you're not telling me the truth-"

"What the hell do you want me to do?" Peter screeched back. "Tell you my every though, my every decision as if you were my personal therapist?"

"I want you to be honest!" Tony roared back not caring that a couple of people were stopping by to stare.

Peter was about to respond back when he felt something heavy inside his chest. It felt like his entire chest cavity was being crushed and his heart was being squeezed inside his chest. Peter let out a chocking sound as he pressed his hand against his chest, he fell on his knees and Tony rushed towards him.

He wrapped his arms around a frail looking Peter. "Peter, what is it? What's wrong?"

Peter tried to choke out an answer, but the pain was getting worse. He saw Tony's frightened eyes and he saw Tony's mouth moving, but he didn't hear what he was saying. The last thing he saw was Tony mouthing his name.

-End of Chapter Twenty-Five-

I know it has been terribly long since I've updated, but I promise I will finish this story. We are almost reaching our end.