"I see that, what I don't see is why I have to come with you." Peter pouted, following as quickly as he could, because even though he had super-speed, keeping up with Tony was a sport.

Tony waved at a few people on the way and grabbed Pepper as she stepped out of the room he was about to walk into.

"Please, honey, come on!"

Pepper rolled her eyes, "Tony, this is ridi-"

"It'll be the best week of your life." Tony urged, "come on, sweetie."

Peter watched with a bored expression on his face, turning around and bumping into a tall man.

"You look way too young to be here!" The man laughed, patting Peter's shoulders firmly.

Peter fidgeted uncomfortably, "yeah, I'm-I'm an intern." He replied, and the man nodded.

"This is your future, huh." He said in a way that didn't need an answer.

Peter pursed his lips and smiled slightly, "yeah, I-I need to get going." He said as politely as he could, turning to leave.

He felt a hand on his arm and turned to face the same eerie old guy. "Stark, you mind?"

Tony waved his hand from the corner of the room in dismissal, all his attention focused on talking to Pepper. Well, trying to get her to agree to go with him on his trip.

Peter sighed and forced another smile, "so?"

"You live with your parents, right?" The man asked curiously.

That's not a question you ask to random teenagers you meet, is it? Peter shook his head, "no, my aunt." He replied.

"Yeah? What about your parents?"

"They're dead-they died." He said. Saying it out loud didn't bother him as much as people thought it did. It happened long ago, and he'd been with May since he could remember.

"What a shame," he shook his head, "that must be difficult. Is it just your aunt?"

"You know, I'm just here with Mr Stark, we're-"

"Come on, it's just small chat." He convinced Peter, eyes widened in anticipation. "So you and your aunt then, huh."

"Yeah." Peter managed to say quietly, because he didn't like talking about this one bit, not to some random old man he'd just bumped into in the corridor of a random building.

"So, it's always been you and her? You know Ross Consolidated down the road? Ross grew up with his uncle, had no one else."

"Yeah, I read about that in school, I think." Peter sighed, "my uncle died a year ago."

"Oh, that must sting." The man said, and Peter stared ahead into his eyes, feeling tears well up in his own. "You got him killed, that why don't talk about him?"

He felt like he couldn't breathe. He hadn't thought about that for months, and it was what had stopped him from having those nightmares. As much as he loved Ben, thinking about what happened brought back bad memories.

"Wh-what?" Peter nearly stumbled, "why would you-"

"You got him killed, like you got those people in that fire killed, just like you're gonna get your Aunt killed." The man spat, and Peter didn't even notice that his nails were digging into Peter's arms.

"That's not-"

"Bullshit!" He screamed, and Peter let out a choked, terrified cry as he was slammed back against the wall, the man's hands now roughly grabbing the collar of his shirt.

He couldn't move. He was a hundred times stronger than his attacker, and yet he couldn't move.

"If they didn't live, why should you?" The man continued, slamming Peter backwards again and scratching at him.

"Hey!" Tony yelled as soon as he heard, running over to Peter and pulling him out from under the deranged man. "Someone get this psycho out of here!" He yelled.

"You're a murderer! You kill your uncle, then you kill everyone else!" The man yelled one last time before he walked off down the corridor.

"Peter!" A voice interrupted, and Peter gasped, moving back into the wall and looking around.

The man was calm, definitely not attacking Peter, and Tony was staring at him in confusion. "You black out or something?"

He felt the collar of his shirt and frowned, had he just dreamt that whole thing? He could feel his heart thudding loudly against his chest and shook his head, "no, I'm fine."

He held the back of his neck with his hand and tried blinking away the tears - it didn't work.

"Kid, what's wrong?" Tony asked immediately, holding his arms gently and looking him over.

"I just-I think-look that man was here and he-he was pushing me back and-he-"

"He wasn't doing anything, he was just standing there, helping you actually." Tony cut in, "what's up with you."

"It's alright, he looks stressed. You two take care." The man said, smiling and walking off into the same corridor he'd done in his daydream earlier.

"Yeah, thanks, sorry about that." Tony said, focusing his attention on Peter again, "well?"

Peter felt the tears and gripped his hair with his right hand, "I don't know." He said quietly. "I'm not insane!"

"I didn't say you were-" Peter turned his head in dismissal, "-hey, it's okay, don't worry about it, it's fine. It just takes time, now let's go."

Peter sighed in frustration and leaned off of the wall. Tony put an arm around him as the started to walk.

"I'll see you? Definitely?"

There was a sigh from behind them, "yeah, you will." Pepper said, watching them walk off together.

Tony gave her an unclear thumbs up, putting his hand in his pocket and taking out his phone.

Peter squirmed out from under his arm, "I'm gonna go home." He said as they got to the door. Tony lowered his phone and looked at him.

"I promised May a few hours of fun. This isn't a few hours of fun. It's actually been thirty minutes of you just being sad. Do you wanna be sad?" His eyes narrowed like he'd just asked a completely serious question.

Peter frowned, "no, that's not what-"

"Great. Let's head back then, and we'll…do something." He said vaguely, unlocking his car and nudging Peter when he didn't move.

Peter glared, his eyes on the groups of people moving in front of him. This wasn't "going back".

"It was last minute." Tony said quietly in Peter's ear, straightening his tie and nodding at a few familiar faces.

Peter shook his head, "that's what you-what are you doing, Mr Stark?"

Tony's eyes widened, "what am I-I told you it was last minute, I have to say hi, can't just ignore a party in my own home."

Peter scoffed, "if you were busy we could've done this another time. I don't-I don't wanna be here." He said, nothing but frustration and sadness in his tone.

"I'm not busy!" Tony said defensively, "I wanted you to get out, is that so bad?" He asked, concerned and worried.

Peter sighed, pursing his lips and looking around, "no, no, I guess…" he was still angry. The first time he gets out in two months and Tony takes him to a place filled with people, a place that was nowhere near the "nice, quiet day" he promised.

"Great." He looked up and pointed in front of him, "and Vision's here, you two'll have fun." He reassured Peter, who turned around and watched Vision smile.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to talk to someone." He said, patting Peter's back and taking off.

"I'm the Vision." Vision greeted, extending a hand.

Peter shook it, "I'm Peter. And you're Vision."

"Yes, that's what I said."

"No, you said you're the Vision, you're a-" he stopped, trying to phrase his sentence properly, "well you're not-that's just not how you introduce yourself. You don't call yourself the, that's weird." Peter explained, watching the confused robot-human in front of him.

Vision nodded, "interesting."

"Yeah, not met much people, huh?"

"I guess not. They must've not noticed."

Peter laughed lightly, "you're a cool guy, but they probably noticed."

"Alright."

"Okay, let's go."

"Where?"

"Out of here. I don't wanna be here, neither do you, so let's go."

Vision hesitated, and Peter noticed. Was he supposed to hesitate, did he even know how? Why did he? "We should tell Tony."

"No, we shouldn't, he'll make me stay. You're an adult…kind of, he can't yell at you."

"I doubt he would yell at you."

"Yeah, well, he wouldn't not yell at me eith-" he stopped abruptly when he saw a familiar face in the background. The same man from just an hour ago. It couldn't have been a coincidence. "Who is that?" He asked Vision, who turned around. "The guy in the grey suit."

"I'm not sure. I've never seen him before, why?" Vision asked back, his head tilted and eyes narrowed.

Peter's brows furrowed, "I saw him earlier, at that building Tony was buying."

"Maybe he's a friend."

Peter shook his head no, "no, he isn't," he clenched his fists, "or I'm being paranoid."

"Perhaps." Vision agreed, and Peter cracked a smile, because everyone else would say 'no, no, that's not it!' Like Ned. Ned was amazing - the best, but he had the tendency to agree with whatever Peter was doing and saying, and sometimes that just wasn't what he needed.

"Peter!" The man called as both Vision and Peter continued to stare, and as soon as he noticed, Peter pushed Vision to move along, except Vision didn't budge.

"Fancy seeing you here."

"Well, I was with Mr Stark like an hour ago so…" he said, sounding ruder than he intended.

"So snarky. It'll get you killed one day."

Peter stared in confusion, was it a joke? "Right, listen, Vision and I-"

"Do you even think about them?"

Peter's breath was stuck in his throat, "who are you?"

"You killed my daughter."

Peter's eyes widened in surprise, "what-I've-I've never killed anyone."

"That fire. You had the chance to save her."

Peter stared as his heart thumped against his chest, "I tried to get to everyone out."

"Well, that's a little lie, isn't it?"

All of a sudden, Peter's shoulder was being weighed down by the man's heavy hand as he moved closer. "But you already knew that."

Peter heard the first half of the sentence before the ringing came, which soon turned into a monotone beep that got louder and louder in his ears. He stumbled back against the wall and covered them as tightly as he could, not that it made a difference.

"What are you doing?" Vision asked innocently, and he was met with more lies.

"Your buddy's in pain."

"You did something."

"I'm helping, so should you."

Why wasn't Vision doing anything? He wheezed from the pain and tried blinking away the tears. People were beginning to stare.

"Are you okay?" He could hear the tall man say in a muffled tone as if he was talking into a pillow, looking concerned now that people were noticing.

"You just lied." Vision said firmly, moving defensively in front of Peter. "What did you do?" He asked calmly yet threateningly.

"Nothing." He laughed nervously, "man", he paused and looked over Vision, "if I can even call you that, I'm just-"

Vision pushed him back against the wall, a hand now placed on the top of his head.

The man yelled, "hey, what are you-"

"What the hell's going on?" Tony interrupted quietly but firmly, pulling Vision back, "Vision, How many times do I have to tell you gat you're too strong for barfights? You'll just kill-" he stopped when he saw Peter and frowned, walking over to him.

Peter squeezed his eyes shut. It felt like his ears were going to burst, because that horrendous noise was getting louder and louder. You're gonna die.

Another voice made Tony jump and roll his eyes, "you're partying, and I have this," Pepper waved a file in the air, "you know what this is? The paper I've been asking you to sign for-" she stopped, looking around the group of misfits.

Tony was muttering something to Peter, who had his eyes shut. Vision was glaring angrily at a random man, and a fair number of people just glaring like hawks.

"Everyone back to, uh, doing whatever you're doing." She smiled to the crowd of people, who still stared eagerly. "I mean it." She said again, the smile staying but her tone changing.

There were murmurs, and slowly they turned around, whispering about what was happening, but at least they weren't staring.

"What's wrong? Why is he even here?" She asked genuinely.

"Parker, gimme something." Tony said, "I just got to him." He said, tilting his head towards Pepper.

He opened his eyes, as if on cue, and choked a cry, "I can't-I-I can't see-I-" his hand clutched the edge of the wall for support, he'd never, ever, felt so helpless before.

"You'll be fine." Tony reassured, even though he had no idea what was even happening.

"He's in pain." Vision informed, also focusing closely on the boy. "Because he did something."

Tony looked up to see a tall, bulky man cornered by Vision. He frowned when it hit him, "I saw you. You were there with him this morning."

"I don't know what you're-"

"What the hell did you do to him?" He turned back to Peter, "Peter-"

"He can't hear you." Vision said in an irritated tone.

"Why not?

"Because he's hearing something else right now."

"Like wha-"

Peter let out a suppressed scream, and Tony covered him, turning around to the crowd and smiling as if nothing was wrong. "Angry teen problems." He said shakily, waiting a few seconds before putting an arm around him and taking him around and half-dragging him around the corner of the wall into a corridor.

"Peter?"

Then he screamed, and Tony only grasped the seriousness of the situation when he saw the streaks of blood on Peter's neck and fingers, which were shaking against his ears.

"Is that blood?" Pepper gasped, her own voice shaking.

Tony groaned, clenching his jaw. He put a hand comfortingly on Peter's shoulder, but was pushed off.

"I-see-I can't see-" Peter choked.

All he could see was white. Like the blinding light when you walk into a bright room, except it never normalising. His ears were still ringing, and his hands covered against him made that strange white noise, and he could hear himself breathing alongside that buzzing, and that was it. Was he dying? It felt like he was dying.

"We'll help you, we're all here." Tony said softly, this time wrapping one hand around his neck, which he didn't pull away from.

"Helen's coming, I just called her." Pepper said, kneeling down next to Tony and running her hand over Peter's hair. Granted, she didn't spend a lot of time with him, but this was Peter. Sweet, energetic Peter, who would never hurt anyone and here he was, struggling to breathe.

"Where's Vision?" Tony asked, pulling Peter closer to him when he started crying.

"He took that man and Maria came and-what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know." He pursed his lips looking down at Peter leaning against his chest with his ears still covered. "I shouldn't have-I shouldn't have asked him to come, Pep."

Pepper looked down, "he had to." She said over his quiet cries, grimacing, "that was a loss for him and he obviously couldn't handle it, you had to do something."

"Yeah, and he's crying to death over here." He said grimly, and Pepper scoffed, "he could've been sulking at home but at least he wouldn't-" he rubbed Peter's shoulder.

"I know you love pretending everything that goes wrong is your fault, but this definitely isn't." She said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

The clicking of heels caught both their attention and they looked up to see Helen rushing towards them. "I was all the way-" she pointed backwards and frowned at their expressions, "anyway, I got ai…" she trailed off, looking at him closely and pulling out a syringe.

She injected it into him and waited for his body to relax until he was unconscious, until his cries turned into ragged breaths. "I don't know what he's hearing, or if it's real-"

"He's not crazy." Tony said defensively.

"No, I know that, otherwise his ears wouldn't be bleeding." She said, looking back as more doctors followed. "I meant that while we don't know what it is, it would be unnecessary to let him be in so much pain." She explained.

"I think he'll be okay." She said at Pepper and Tony's worried faces.

"You think? That's-that's great." Tony said, standing up as Peter was being taken.

Helen sighed, "I can't really-saying he'll be okay when I don't know what-it's-okay, this isn't really my area of expertise, my resident can help you with that." She rambled quickly, following the others.

A young man walked to Tony, "What Ms Cho wanted to say was that she knows you're scared and-"

"Okay, okay, I don't need coddling." Tony cut in, stopping him with a hand in the air and walking off the opposite direction to find Vision.

Pepper smiled, "sorry, he's stressed, obviously." She offered, also walking out to follow Tony.

"Hydra. How about that." Tony said quietly, running a hand over his hair. "How'd he even get in? Is this what I pay security for? Because even Dum-E could've done a better job and he's not particularly good at a lot of things." He ranted, getting louder and louder.

"He forged a card and he got in, I don't know what to tell you." Happy offered, throwing his hands in the air in defeat.

Tony scoffed, "you don't know-how about who the hell was managing this? Because last I checked it was you."

"And like I said, I wasn't there checking off names on a list the whole night." He sighed, "he would've found a way."

Tony stared at him, "is that supposed to make me feel better? I gave you one job-"

"Tony, what is wrong with you?" Pepper cut in, shaking her head.

"Yeah, dial it down, Happy's far from the problem." Rhodey agreed, "why can't you just-" he made the cliche 'calm' signal with his hands.

Tony looked at them, unimpressed, "okay, well for starters, Happy here-"

"Okay, this isn't on me, I did exactly what you asked me-"

"I didn't ask you to let a murderer in to-"

"I swear, Tony, if you-"

"If I what, Rhodey? This was my party, I deserve an exp-"

"You're over-exaggerating, honey, just-"

"He's dying and I'm over-"

"Everybody shut up!" A voice yelled on top of the bickering group.

They looked up and straightened themselves out. Maria.

"First of all, Happy's not your bouncer, Tony."

Tony rolled his eyes, "well that's obvious, this isn't some nightcl-"

"I'm not finished. I don't think the problem is how Brown got in." She said, "he had run-ins with Hydra, we're assuming that's how he got those", she rubbed her fingers together to motion to the powers, "as far as SHIELD knew, he was on the run. He spent time with Adrian Toomes, was part of his group for a couple of years, we're assuming that's how he knew more about Spider-Man. He had a daughter that no one knew about, she died in the building your superhero failed to save last month."

Failed. Ouch. "He didn't fail, he couldn't get everyone out on time because he's also a kid." Tony said instantly, "and why the hell was she there? Toomes was rich, so were his buddies."

"She was with a friend. There was a party and she died along with a few others, and she also wasn't close to her dad."

"Where is he?"

Maria sighed, "dead."

"Sorry, what? Coz it sounded like you said he was dead when we don't even know what he did, exactly."

She pursed her lips, "there was a struggle."

"And you killed him?"

"Well, he wasn't exactly all human, and I wasn't the one who did it."

Tony exhaled, he was dangerously close to punching something right about now. "Great. That's just-" he rubbed his forehead, "-amazing."

Rhodey frowned, "but they can help the kid without him, right?"

Maria shrugged, "I was just here to tell you what I knew about Brown." She put a file down on the table. "Have you tried waking him up? I think it was only temporary, you know, trying to get revenge and all, and he's dead now." She said.

"Helen's testing it."

"Tell me how it goes. I hope he's okay, Tony." She said, turning to leave the room.

"So we found out nothing."

"We found his motive." Rhodey answered.

"We're not detectives, who cares about motive."

"You're telling me you don't care why he did it? Why some random dude came in and just did that to Peter?"

"I was more interested in the how." Tony argued, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"I'll call his Aunt."

"I already did. Told her he'd be here for the weekend."

Tony held Pepper's hand, "you're amazing."

"Is that so?"

"I don't even know what I'm doing,"

"You're taking care of him." She said, leading him out of the room.

"He lost hearing in one ear completely, but I managed to save it." Helen said proudly, "that was something, but I'm certain he'll be able to hear perfectly within a week."

"He couldn't see either. What about that?"

"As far as I can tell, if the noise was temporary, the light should've been too, we couldn't find any damage there anyway."

"So he'll be okay."

"I'm optimistic." She said, looking down at her phone when it vibrated, "I have to go, I'll be back after he wakes up."

Tony pushed open the door and looked at Peter for a minute, taking a seat next to him. Uncomfortable chairs.

The door opened again and he turned to see Vision. "I was the one that killed him."

Tony sighed, leaning one arm on the chair and pinching the bridge of his nose, "I figured."

"He was dangerous." He justified

Tony looked up through tired eyes, "I didn't say anything. You say he was a danger, then he was a danger."

Vision nodded calmly, "I'll come back." He said, backing away quietly and leaving.

Peter gasped awake, clutching his chest with one hand and ripping the tubes out of the other as he violently pulled inwards.

"Hey, calm down." Tony said instantly, getting up and holding his arm to stop him clawing at his chest.

He stopped and looked up at Tony. His vision was blurred and opening his eyes wide, so he squinted.

Tony looked down sympathetically. Peter's eyes were bloodshot and red around, like he'd been crying. The squinting made Tony get up and dim the room. Should've done that earlier.

"Your ears okay?" Tony asked, and Peter's nose wrinkled in confusion.

"What?"

"Your ear-" he started shouting and shook his head, "nevermind."

"I can hear you." Peter said a little too loud, his fingers scratching at the bandage on his left ear.

"Don't do that." Tony said, about to grab his hand but the bandage was already off. He threw it aside into the bin and put a hand back over his ear.

"This one doesn't hurt."

"The other one ruptured." Tony said quietly, now that Peter could hear better.

Peter looked at him in surprise all of a sudden, "I know who did it! It was-it was that guy we saw in that bu-"

"Okay, detective, calm down, I already know who did it." Tony cut in.

"Where is he? I just…" Peter frowned, clenching his fists and jaw.

"He's dead."

"How?"

"He tried fighting Vision."

Peter nodded, "do you know why he did that? The man?"

Tony contemplated telling him and decided against it, "He was a psycho, okay? Forget about him." He shrugged.

Peter looked down and exhaled, "he said I got his daughter killed."

Tony put a hand on Peter's, "well, you didn't. That…that night wasn't on you. You know that."

"Yeah, you already told me that a hundred times." Peter dismissed.

"But you never listened." Tony said a little louder, guiltily toning it down when Peter flinched a little. "You're a fifteen year old, and that was a ten-storey building. Expecting to get everyone out was a-a fantasy."

He waited for Peter to respond and gripped his shoulder when he didn't, "what's this really about?"

Peter looked up with tears in his eyes, "I don't know. I don't-I guess because there were a few people from school there and…" they died, he threw his hand up in the air and shrugged.

"You got more than fifty out. That counts for something-a lot, actually." Tony offered, and Peter sighed.

"Yeah."

"Could've tried to sound at least half-convinced." Tony said jokingly.

Peter sighed, "I know it was all I could've done, but that…I still feel…" he frowned at his fumbling fingers.

"Stop thinking of different outcomes." Tony shook his head, "replaying it in your head-" he twirled his finger in the air in a circular motion, "it happened. It happened how it happened, thinking about what would happen if you'd went in from the south instead of the north, or helped the family or the crying lady," he clapped his hands together quietly, "it's not going to change."

Peter stared as if Tony was speaking a different language.

"You're losing sleep over things you can't change-they're dead. That's just reality and one you need to accept." Tony continued, raising his eyebrows at Peter and trying to decide whether he needed to keep going and whether he came off as too harsh.

Peter nodded, "it's not gonna change anything." He paraphrased.

"No, it's not." Tony reaffirmed, "you okay now?"

"Thanks. I-I needed to hear it, and thanks for-" he looked around the room, "for this."

"Well, looking out for the little guy, someone has to look out for you."

Peter smiled, "you don't have to."

"Are you kidding me? Look at you, of course I do."

Peter let out a small laugh, "right."

You guys are so awesome and sweet, thank you so much for those reviews!

This one turned out to be longer than expected so enjoy, I don't even know if that Hydra stuff makes sense (might've skipped some parts of Winter Soldier :/ ), but I liked this idea.