Thanks for everyone's comments on last chapter. I was hoping to get this chapter up sooner but that didn't happen.
Chapter 8
Tony Stark was a hot mess at the moment. To the public he looked as calm and cool as he normally did, but anyone who watched him behind closed doors would see that he was actually a barely functioning adult. The way things went down on the disagreement with the Accords had broken the man somewhat. He was now in a worse condition then he was after the Battle of New York. More than half of the team was now on the run, his best friend was permanently paralyzed from the waist down, and he had an extremely hard fall out with Steve. Tony doubted that he'd even come to forgive that man.
When all the dust had finally settled, Tony remained at the Avengers Compound. Mostly to help aid in Rhodey's recovery, not that he'll actually make a full recovery. But he'd at least be there to help his felt with the process, and it was better then moping around his mansion by himself. He took a few hours to event a device that would help the man be able to walk again. When there was nothing left to do to help his his friend, he took to holding himself up down in one of the compounds many labs. There he would spend days tinkering with whatever projects he found interesting, refusing meals and Friday's advice on taking care of himself. He only slept when so many hours had passed that his eyes wouldn't stay open and he'd fall asleep at his lab table.
After a couple weeks of this, someone ratted him out. It had to have been either Rhodey or Happy, because Friday wouldn't have been allowed to ask for help with him without permission which he never gave her. After 45 hours without sleep, Tony had thought he was hallucinating when his beloved Pepper Potts walked into the lab looking furious but also sympathetic and worried. Only she could pull that off in one look. God he could live a million lifetimes and never deserve that woman. All it took was a single sentence from her mouth, and an hour later he was sleeping soundly in his own bed with a meal in his stomach and a shower he had lacked since returning from Siberia. He was still a mess, that was for sure. But with the love of his life now back, he was once again a functioning human being.
Almost as soon as Tony was somewhat functioning again, Happy had started ranting and complaining about a certain overexcited spider teen that had been driving him crazy. It started with a three hour audio that had been sent to his personal computer, and the audio consisted of every message that the kid Tony had dragged from Germany, had sent to Happy since there return. It seemed that Peter felt the need to relay a fully detailed recap of his Spiderman Patrols that he went on every single night. Really the only reason he sat and listened to the whole thing is because imagining Happy listening to all this every night greatly amused him. And God knew that he needed a few laughs after everything that's happened. After the initial three hour audio, Happy then forwarded the messages that Peter sent everyday, and at least once a day Tony would get a separate call or message from Happy complaining about something along the lines of how babysitting had not been in his job description.
As annoyed as the man was with the situation, Tony knew that Happy would not stop the task of watching over the web slinging vigilante, unless Tony said that he could. The two had that kind of relationship. Happy would do anything for Tony, even if it made him want to pull his hair out. The billionaire had noticed though, that he was no longer receiving Peter's voice messages the passed few days. He initially didn't think much of it, figuring that Happy had finally decided that he didn't need to relay every message the kid sent, and only the important ones.
This proved to be wrong thinking when he received a frantic call from Happy late one night. He had been in his lab working on a new prototype, and trying to keep Pepper's grating concerns out of his head. It was just a little past midnight, last night he was asleep before midnight and he really didn't need to go to bed at 10pm every night. Trying to tell Pepper that, however was like trying to explain the theory of relativity to a room of English Language Learners. It just didn't work. So she was already in bed, and had been for a couple of hours, but not before giving him a few choice sentences that hinted as his destructive carelessness and the obviousness of needing to listening to her advice more often. Tony did feel bad for making her worry and stress about him, she really was the only reason he was alive right now. If it wasn't for her, he'd probably be sick as dog right now, mindlessly drinking his life away, locked in a room until he walked into death's calling arms.
He almost didn't answer Happy's phone call, when the billionaire first looked at the caller ID. Most of the time anything his head of security called about could wait till morning. But calling twenty minutes after midnight, the other man must have had a good reason. So in the end he did accept the call. "Tony- it's the kid," Happy voice shrilly spoke before Tony even had a chance to greet him.
Tony was unable to stop the sigh from escaping his lips. He was really starting to get tired of hearing Happy's constant complaints about the Spiderman kid. "Look Hap, I'm really not going to get into this with you. Why don't you just tell the kid that-"
"Tony!" The laced hint of fear in the other man's voice caused the billionaire to pause in his rebuke. Something must be really wrong, and this was confirmed with Happy's next words. "I think the kid's in trouble."
Different thoughts went through Tony's head after hearing this, and his mind began to race. Did something happen when the kid was out doing his vidulanteing? Or maybe he was just in trouble from whatever trouble teenagers get into these days. If it was because of Spiderman, then he was at least partially responsible for not keeping a better eye on him. "What happened?" the billionaire quickly asked and before Happy even had a chance to respond, Tony was calling for Friday to pull of any recent news on Spiderman.
"He sent me text a few minute ago, talking about nothing left worth living for. I tried calling him, but he must have turned his phone off because it's going straight to his voicemail."
A deep sigh fell from Tony's lips. Teenage suicidal thoughts didn't really fall into either category he'd been thinking, so he wasn't sure if it would be his fault if they found out tomorrow about the kid killing himself. He guessed that it depended on his reasons for thinking that life wasn't worth living anymore. If it involved his home life or school there wasn't much he could do about it, but if it had something to do with Spiderman then he was certainly responsible. But nothing on the news said anything negative about the web slinging vigilante. In fact the news was saying that just under an hour ago, the kid had saved two children from a burning building. So it must have been something outside of Spiderman. Though considering how he was involved now, doing nothing about it would certainly deem the kid's suicide partially his fault. "What exactly did the kid say?" Tony figured that she should probably make sure that Happy didn't misunderstand the teen's text.
"Hold on a minute," Happy spoke and then there was a moments silence while he most likely pulled up the text conversation on his phone. "Is living another year on this shithole we call home even worth it?" Ok so it wasn't an outright confession of about 'I'm about to commit suicide' but certainly a concerning message, and Tony did not feel it was the right decision to ignore it.
"Friday, pull up the Spiderman Suit location?" the billionaire spoke to his A.I. without giving a response to his head of security. It took about ten seconds before Friday was able to find the location of the suit. It was currently on the rooftop of a very tall business building in Queens. This was both good and bad news in Tony's opinion. It was good because being on the rooftop meant that the kid hadn't jumped yet, unless he took the suit off before doing so, but the man refused to consider that option. It was also bad, because anyone in that state of mind shouldn't be anywhere near high places where jumping could be very easy. "Thanks for letting me know Happy. I got the kid's location, I'll take if from here." With that Tony ended the call.
In a matter of minutes since ending the call with Happy, Tony was in one of his suits and flying towards Queen's. He had set the coordinance to where the spiderman suit was currently stationed, It had yet to move from the spot, since been located back in his lab. This caused the man to think more and more, that maybe it really was just the suit laying on the rooftop by itself. He dearly hoped that this wasn't the case; that he wasn't too late. He really didn't know what he would do if he found out that the kid actually had jumped.
A huge wave of relief washed over the man when he saw the building off in the distance, and was able to make out a lone figure sitting on the edge of the rooftop. It really could only be the kid. He landed gracefully on the rooftop, several feet from where the teen sat. He didn't want to get too close, and cause the boy to panic and jump without thinking.
The kid was sitting on the edge of the rooftop, with his legs dangling over the edge, eyes downcast towards the street below them. The spiderman mask was clenched in his hands, being squeezed so tightly in his grip that Tony thought the wiring in the mask might need some repair work. The child took a moment to glance over at the billionaire when he landed on the room, but was back at looking down at street a moment later. Tony took two hesitant steps towards the kid, and opened his facemask in order to talk to him normally. He figured that the kid would rather talk to him rather than the ironman suit.
It wasn't until Tony opened his mouth to speak, when he realized that he had no idea what to say to the kid. He was never very good at this pep talk stuff. He should have tried to prepare some kind of speech on his way over, but he had been too busy worrying that he might be too late to stop the kid from making the biggest mistake of his life. The man opened and closed his mouth for several moments before he finally decided that if he couldn't think of anything comforting to say, he might as well start off with why he was there in the first place. "All right kid… want to explain that message you sent to Happy?"
"It wasn't supposed to be sent to him…"
"Well it did go to him, and maybe that makes the mistake a blessing in disguise. It's better to let people know when your feeling like this, then just keeping it to yourself." That was a pretty good sounding speech, if Tony didn't say so himself.
The response that the child gave, threw him off however. "Like you even care…"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" the billionaire asked slightly taken aback. "I wouldn't be here right now, if I didn't care kid. Doesn't having me here right now, show you anything?"
There was a moment's pause before the kid responded. "Yeah… it shows that neither you or Happy care enough to even message me until I'm a suicidal case. So what? Would my death by too hard on your conscience?"
Guilt filled the man's chest as he realized that what the boy said, was exactly right. He hadn't known that Happy was ignoring the kid just as much as he was. He had kind of assumed that Happy was at least calling to check up on the kid every so often, as it's what he would have expected with the task of watching over the young vigilante. But Tony didn't feel right passing the blame around when he really didn't do any better. The man now realized how stupid it was of him to ever bring a teenage boy in on all this mess. He could barely take care of himself let alone mentor a kid who's at such a tender age that goes through so many emotions it's real easy to mess them up behind repair. Releasing a deep sigh, Tony spoke. Thinking more about his words this time. "Listen kid… not trying to say it excuses anything. But I've been a f-ing mess that past few weeks. So bad that someone had to come up and make sure that I ate, drank, and went to bed on time like some toddler."
The boy grunted softly as if indicating that he agreed it was a poor excuse. Tony just sighed to himself; feeling completely out of his element. What was he supposed to say to the kid that you and him both knew you royally screwed up with. Now he knew what it must have felt like to be a parent. After a moments debate, the man exited out of his armor. "I'm going to come sit by you ok?" he figured that giving the kid's state of mind it was probably best to let him know what he was going to do.
Tony took boy's lack of response as at least partial permission to move forward. He took a few hesitant steps towards the kid, watching for any sign of more destress from the kid that may cause him to suddenly jump from the building. Tony really wished that he could get the teen away from the edge, but that seemed very unlikely. The billionaire groaned softly at his aging joints protesting his movements to sit down next to the kid. He almost thought he was going to lose his balance for a moment, but managed to eventually settle himself down next to the boy. They both silently stared out at the city of Queen's for several moments. It really was a breathtaking view; Tony understood why the boy had chosen this building to sit on top of. When the silence got so long that it was starting to feel uncomfortable, Tony knew that it was time for him to break the silence. "So why are you so upset kid?"
Peter continued to give him no response or even a single thread to pull on and try to make sense of all this. The man dared to probe ever so lightly. "I heard that Spiderman saved a couple of kids from getting killed in a fire earlier this evening. That should warrant some kind of commendence." At the mention of the fire, the teen's shoulders suddenly tensed, and his hears picked up on a hitch of breath. Tony knew that he had said the wrong thing, or maybe the right thing depending on how you looked at it.
The billionaire had mentioned the fire in hopes of taking the kid's mind off of what was bothering him, by reminding him of something good that he did. But this had the opposite effect. Something must have happened at that fire, something so bad it caused the kid to think life wasn't worth living anymore. Before Tony even had the chance to question any further, the boy's emotions began spiraling out of control. The teen began sniffing loudly, breath hitching in a vain attempt not to burst into tears. His shoulders began to tremble under Tony's hand, and the man could only stare in horror at what was folding out in front of him. He had no clue as to what to do when a kid starts crying, let alone when the kid is sitting right next to you. He was really blowing this. Great pep talk Stark! Now you've made the kid cry. "Hey, wow there. What's wrong? Did something happen?"
Once again… the absolute wrong thing to say. Seconds after the words left his mouth, the teen let the waterworks lose and burst into tears. Tony's hand flew away from the boy's shoulder so fast, one would have thought fire had just be set to it. He had just broken the kid, probably touched him for too long. Not that Tony was all that surprised, he always managed to break every good thing that came into his life. But what was he going to tell the kid's aunt? Sorry, Ma'am but I kind of broke your nephew. I didn't realize how fragile he was. Even in his head it was a pretty lame excuse. He needed to at least try and fix this.
The billionaire's mind reeled, trying to think back to what your supposed to do when someone cries. He wasn't usually around crying people. In fact the only person that actually mattered to him, he could think of that he had seen cry in the past decade, was Pepper. Even when that happened Tony had tended to steer clear of her until she was feeling less emotional. There was no way in any good conscious that he could walk away from this kid when he was so distraught. The child sat there, on the edge of the roof sobbing harshly into his hands. The man started thinking back to when he was younger, and what people did when he had cried. It didn't count the stray trickle of tears that leaks from your eyes in an emotional moment, he hadn't actually cried in front of someone since he was about ten. His father had always yelled at him anytime he teared up, stating that Stark men were made of iron and didn't cry. Tony knew that he must have cried in front of his mother before, but he couldn't think of a time where he recalled what she had done to comfort him.
Jarvis on the other hand. There were definitely memories creeping back into his mind, of the man wrapping gentle but strong arms around his trembling form as he cried into into his shoulder. Yes that was the answer, a hug.
It was shown in movies all the time. You hug someone when they cry. Tony had never been a very touchy person, and usually avoided physical contact with anyone, expect maybe Pepper. But considering that the alternative was continuing to sit awkwardly next to a crying teenager, Tony barely thought twice before wrapping an arm around the kid's shoulders and gently pulled his body closer to his. "Hey- Hey… c'mere it's all right." The billionaire had half expected the kid to tense up at the affection, as that's what he would have done. The boy did the opposite however, and threw his lanky arms around Tony and clung to his body like a leech and began to violently sob into the man's chest.
Tony couldn't help but think about how his expensively tailored suit was now being soiled. It wasn't too hard to push that thought from his mind, as he rubbed a gentle hand over the teens back, whispering soothing words in an attempt to calm him. It took a few minutes but the teen was eventually able to calm down enough for Tony to ask, "Want to talk about what happened?"
The boy only responded with a soft hiccup and remained silent except for the occasional sniff. The silenced stretched on for so long that Tony began to wonder if maybe he had crossed some line with that question, and he was just about to make some type of apology when the kid began to speak in a very small voice. "I messed up…"
This confession was followed by another small stretch of silence. Tony wanted to give the teen a chance to elaborate. When he didn't, the man hesitantly probed. "What did you mess up?"
Another sob fell from the child's lips, and he clung more tightly to the billionaire. Tony found himself instinctively pulling the boy closer to his chest. It was another few moments before any comprehendible words came out of the kid. Very slowly between his sobs the teen began telling a truly tragic tale about being in the midst of a burning building. His arms were already filled with two young children, and he could hear the screams of a third child just below his feet. He chose to get the other two children to safety before going back for the third one, and that choice ended up making him too late to save the child. By the end of the story, the teen was a sobbing mess, totally distraught. "I should have just gone to save her!" The boy wailed into Tony's chest. "She was still alive, I heard her. I could have gotten to her in time!"
A deep sigh fell from Tony's lips as he continued to hold the kid's trembling frame. This was one of the hardest lessons that every hero has to learn at some point. You can't save everyone. Sometimes you have to make a hard decision and choose the lesser of two evils, or choose the option that saves more lives. Tony did not think for a moment that the kid made the wrong choice. If he had tried to take those two kids with him to save the third one, it's very possible that it would have been too much or him and the result could have been them all perishing in the fire. "Listen kid… I know don't want to believe this. But you made the right choice."
With a deep shuddering breath, the teen looked up at him with tear filled wounded eyes. This was the first time the billionaire really looked into the kid's eyes, and he could really see the deep hurt embedded into him. This isn't just a result of what happened with the fire. Something, or someone else had hurt him. "B-But-"
"No but's," Tony interrupted, his voice becoming firm. This caused the boy to close his mouth and silence any other protests. It was hard to be firm when the kid looked so beaten, but there no way Tony was going to allow him to blame himself for what happened. "If you had stayed in that building any longer you would have endangered the two kids you had saved, and you may not have gotten them out in time. Or something worse could have happened, like you could have been killed and none of them would have been saved." The young man continued to hang his head, looking defeated. "All right, I'm going to lay it out for you. You may have super powers kid, but your still human. And we still live in this shitty world, where it's impossible to save everyone. If you can't come to terms with that fact, then you need to hang up the suit and find a different career."
The boy flinched at his blunt words, causing Tony to wonder if he was being too harsh. Maybe he should have waited to teach this lesson when the kid was in better spirits. It was too late to go backwards. The best he could do now was to just patch up the damage he's already done. "The point I'm trying to make here kid," Tony began, speaking in a more gentle voice now. "Is that you can't go blaming yourself for deaths that you were unable to prevent. It's terrible what happened to that little girl, and I'm sure that her family is devastated and wish that you could have saved her. But you can't let that fact overshadow the fact that you had saved the other two kids."
By this time the teen had stopped crying and was silently listening to the older man's words. Tony noted that the kid had relaxed into the embrace, and he could almost feel the kid drinking in the affection. One may have thought that the boy had never been hugged in his whole life. The billionaire was once again overwhelmed with the sensation of how much of a mistake it was to get involved with this kid. It was starting to become clear that the boy was much more broken then he ever realized when he first met the kid. He probably would have never gotten involved if he had known. A broken mentor can do nothing to help a broken mentee. But cutting ties with the spiderling now, would certainly have devastating effects. "I'm sorry if it felt like I abandoned you kid. It really wasn't my intention." Tony began to confess. "I know I can't change what happened, but I want you to know that I do care about you."
The child shifted his head around to make contact with the man. He gave Tony a look that clearly said he thought the billionaire was patronizing him. "I mean it kid. I wouldn't have given you that suit if I didn't." The only other response the kid made was shifting his eyes downward, and giving another sniffle. "I promise that I'm going to make more of an effort to show you. And you promise me that when we part ways tonight you won't go do anything drastic. Deal?"
Another silence stretched as the boy thought this over. Tony really hoped that the kid agreed because if he didn't, then he'd probably have to put him on suicide watch or something. Thankfully after a couple of minutes the teen gave a very soft, "Ok…"
Tony was not able to stop the sigh of relief that fell from his lips. Both man and child remained in their embrace on the edge of the building for several more minutes. The billionaire had a feeling like the kid really needed this, and even though he was very uncomfortable with how long he's been touching the boy, he didn't feel right being the one to break the hold. Just when he was beginning to think that he might have to give in, he felt the kid release his grip and gently push him away. More then happy to have his bubble space back, Tony also released his hold on the kid and ruffled his hair in a playful gesture. He was rewarded with a smile from the kid. When they finally parted ways about fifteen minutes later, Tony felt like things were going to be ok. He flew back to the compound, determined to make it up to that kid. It wouldn't be easy, and he would certainly have to go out of his comfort zone. But he had already messed it up so badly it almost ended in tragedy. He would never make that mistake again.
I think this is where I'm going to end this story. Sorry for those of you that were waiting for Tony to rescue Peter from Aunt May and her boyfriend. That was never going to happen in this story. I'm actually not sure if it's even going to happen at all. I currently don't have any "Tony adopts Peter" plans. This is an exploration series that will focus on the life of a child that lives with verbal and emotional abuse everyday, and what we can do to help children in this situation, since in most cases the law cannot do anything about it.
I have started working on part 2 in this serious. I think it's going to be a oneshot. Not sure when it will be posted. I'm going to be moving so things are going to get crazy in my life.