Hey Everyone! I hope you are all doing well! I'm just really into the Irondad and Spiderson thing right now. All the fluff potential! Anyway, I got a bunch of prompts that I hope to work through but if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments and I might use them! Hope you all enjoy!!! Lots of Love - Lorna:)
1.Prompt No Stop!
"Underoo."
Peter jolted, eyes wide and afraid. Tony held up his hands in surrender, walking toward the terrified teen. He made sure to show every movement, so Peter could watch what he was doing.
"Mr. Stark."
He nodded, "Yep."
Peter watched him take a step closer and tried not to flinch away from his mentor.
"What- what are you doing in here? Are you going to the lab? "
Tony stopped when he saw Peter recoil, if only slightly. "No. I wanted to chat."
Peter twitched, ever so slightly, his muscles going taut, ready to fight or flee, though Tony didn't know which.
"Is that why I'm here?"
"Yeah Pete. Karen alerted me. And May. And the man in the chair. And Scary Girlfriend. Pretty much everyone actually. They're all pretty worried about you."
"Why?"
Trying to smooth out his facial features and portray a calm he did not feel, Tony dramatically sighed.
"Why do you think?"
Peter couldn't seem to hold still, his eyes wandering everywhere, looking for the invisible threats around his room in Stark Tower.
"Cause I've been acting weird?"
Tony nodded. "Sure kid, let's go with that. You want to explain why?"
Peter blinked a few times before shaking his head. "No."
Tony nodded. "Alright, can I tell you what I think is wrong?"
Peter didn't respond, so he took that as a reluctant yes.
"Can I sit on the bed, Spider-ling?" It was a small request, and yet a big ask from the obviously paranoid kid. Pete hesitated and then nodded, taking a few steps away from the offending object that Tony was to be sitting on.
"Uhuh." Tony chided. "You gotta sit with me. Today is not the day you become taller than me."
Peter inhaled sharply and then sat on the very top of the bed, as far away from Tony as could be allowed, as he watched Tony's every movement with caution.
"I think that you're not acting weird at all." Tony paused as he saw Peter's eyes widen. "Given that your Spider-sense is going ballistic right now."
Peter jolted as though he had been shot. "Uhm- errr- why do you think that, Mister Stark?"
"Paranoia, lack of appetite, little to no sleep, fight or flight reflexes, elevated heart rate, and a thousand other tells. You take your pick." Tony gave Peter a look. "I'm also a self-proclaimed genius so…"
Peter winced.
Sympathy bubbled inside Tony as he looked at the teen. "Pete, what happened? Why is your spider-tingle going crazy?"
Shrugging jerkily, Pete motioned that he didn't know, but there was something in his eyes that made Tony think he did. Tony's metal bracelet buzzed, an alert from Friday lighting the screen on it. Karen had been monitoring and reporting Peter's information every couple minutes, through his own thin, metal band around the teens wrist. Tony had made Peter promise not to take it off under any circumstances. Elevated heart rate, shortening breath, low-grade fever brought on by exhaustion and worsened by constant shaking and movement.
"Alright, well, we need to fix it." Tony said softly. "Not gonna let you leave here until I'm sure you won't have a heart attack the next time Aunt May walks in at a weird time."
Peter managed to nod, but his eyes kept flickering around the room.
"Ok, bud, don't move. I'm going to go chat with Fri, and Karen's going to watch out for you. M'kay?"
Nodding again, albeit timidly, Peter dug his fist into the blanket to ground himself.
"Alright, I'll be back in a sec, kiddo. Don't leave the room alright? And don't try to puppy-eye Karen or Friday into letting you out, they are under strict orders." Tony joked, hoping to alleviate some of the tension in Peter's frame.
He shut the door to Peter's bedroom quietly, walking several rooms away so that the teen's sensitive ears. Peter listened to his mentors footsteps all the way until he couldn't any longer.
He tried to ignore the constant and all-encompassing felling of wrongness and danger that was constantly assaulting him. It took everything in him not to lunge at every shadow on the wall, anything that made a noise or even looked in his direction.
"Karen."
"Yes, Peter?"
"You tattled." He tried to joke, but he knew it sounded hollow.
"I wouldn't have to 'tattle' if you had just proceeded to tell Mr. Stark as I advised several times." Peter could almost hear the snark, though Karen's voice remained steady.
"What's Mister Stark going to do?"
"Nothing you need be concerned over right now Peter." Friday responded. Karen remained quiet, and it unsettled Peter. "Is there something that I can do to help?"
"Uhm, n-no. I don't think so. I just-"
A holoscreen suddenly appeared in front of him, displaying the familiar black background and theme song.
"Star Wars: the Clone Wars, Karen tells me you enjoy them, especially when you're upset or nervous."
Peter nodded, letting the force theme try to soothe some of his worry. Like a jedi letting his anxieties into the force… but he decided that being a jedi was much harder than it appeared. No wonder Anakin fell to the Dark Side. Fear lingered even when you thought you had pushed it all away, eating away at you like locusts.
He just forced himself to watch, trying desperately to still his racing heart and paranoid mind. He was just so tired. Tired of being afraid, tired of being on edge, tired of feeling like he needs to attack at every moment. Just tired.
The door creaked open and Peter literally jumped, reflexes pushing him off the bed and ready to fight or flee.
"It's alright Pete, just me." Tony said as he stepped through the door, holding a case of something in his hand. Peter didn't think he was going to enjoy whatever was inside, but he tried to tell himself that was just his impending sense of doom.
"I'm going to sit on the bed, alright. Can you sit on the bed too?"
Peter nodded, but he hesitated.
"Doesn't need to be next to me, you can sit all the way over there if you just want to watch. Okay?"
"Y-yeah." He forced himself to sit on the edge of the bed as Tony set the case down before sitting as well.
"I know you didn't want to talk about it right now, and Heaven knows I won't make you now, but I went back and looked at all of the Spidey footage accumulated over the past couple days. I think I found something to help until you're body heals itself and gets back to normal."
Peter continued to alternate between eyeing the case and his mentor.
"It's going to be unpleasant, isn't it."
Tony frowned. "Normally, no. It's a couple quick injections, however with your senses as heightened as they are and your spider sense, I think it may be more challenging."
"Figures." Peter tried to joke, but his stomach clenched painfully. The recurring thought in his head turned into a screaming voice yelling at him that he was in danger.
Tony's eyes softened as he opened the case and pulled out an aluminum alcohol wipe container. "Can you come here or should I come to you?"
"I can move." Peter said quickly.
Tony nodded. He suspected Peter would take that option. It gave him some control in a situation where he felt he had very little.
It hurt that Pete was so timid in approaching him, but he made it nonetheless.
"Roll up your sleeve for me, alright?"
Peter nodded and cautiously obliged. Tony pulled out a small shot from the case, and Peter had to physically grab onto the bed to force himself to remain rooted to where he was. A small shot should have been nothing, he got much more injured on a daily basis than a small pinprick, but his entire body screamed at him that this was the end.
"Kid, look at me, not that." Tony instructed softly. Peter looked at him, his throat bobbling as he struggled to swallow. "Good. Tell me about school today. How'd you get through that."
Peter inhaled sharply. "Poorly, obviously."
Tony chuckled. "I guess that's fair."
He rubbed the alcohol wipe on Peter's exposed arm, worried when Peter hissed.
"Burns, Mr. Stark."
Tony forced himself to nod as though this was to be expected.
Peter flinched again. "I can't - This isn't right."
Tony tossed the used rag back into the case. "I know. It's your spider sense, Spiderling. You're okay. There's no danger, but I know it feels like that."
"I know but- I just- something is wrong."
Tony carefully picked up the injection, but held it away from the obviously terrified teen.
"Nothing is any more dangerous than it was five minutes ago. What happened, bud? Why are you spiraling?" Though Tony knew. The antiseptic had sent Peter's senses over the edge and now he couldn't hold himself back. Tony couldn't believe that he had somehow made it through school like this.
"I just- I should go." Peter rasped, panic setting into his voice and creating a grating edge.
"Nuhuh. No can do. Remember what I said earlier, I'm not letting you leave here when a strong wind might send you into a cardiac arrest. Trust me kid. Those aren't fun."
"Mmm." Peter grumbled absently, breathing becoming short and labored. Abruptly, Peter made to stand up and Tony pulled him back onto the bed, bringing the teen to his chest in a hug. Peter quaked in the embrace/ restraint, struggling halfheartedly.
Tony used one arm to gently hold the boy in place while stroking the boy's hair, combing his hand through the curls. The other hand worked fast to re-sanitize Peter's arm.
"No! Stop!" Peter hissed.
"You're safe, Roo." Tony whispered. "You're safe with me, ok? I would never do anything that I didn't think was in your best interest. I would never purposefully hurt you, Roo."
Peter took a small hitching breath. The nickname Roo put his anxiety ridden, paranoid mind to rest. Roo was the nickname Tony used when he being genuine and right now, Peter knew Tony meant what he was saying. He forced himself to nod and ignore the lingering pain from where his skin felt as though it was burning under the antiseptic.
"First shot is a muscle relaxer and sedative. It should be strong enough that it takes a hot minute to work through your metabolism, alright? The next I'm hoping will get rid of whatever toxin is lingering in your bloodstream and making your spider sense go wild. It might take a sec though, hence the sedative."
Peter's brain went berserk with that information, feeling the needle press into his overly sensitive skin. It felt like a stab wound and his spider sense was trying to kill him with how intensely it was screaming at him. Danger, Danger, DaNgEr, DANGER!
"Ahh." Peter whimpered. Tony shushed him softly. Another searing wipe and prick. A sudden warmth overtook him as his quaking muscles slackened involuntarily. The overwhelming, crushing feeling of danger was sent to the back of his mind.
"There you go, Roo. Better?" Tony asked, genuine concern seeping into his voice.
Peter nodded, his eyes closing as he leaned into Tony's warmth.
"Nap-time is it, kid? Stay up past your bedtime last night?" Tony joked, but his grip only tightened around the teen.
"Tired." Peter slurred.
Tony chuckled, but he did not move for several more hours, so that the kid could get a few good hours of rest before the sedative wore off.
"Night, Roo."