Chapter Text
Of course, of course, the day that there was a thunderstorm predicted was the day Peter was consistently on the verge of a sensory overload. That was his kind of luck-- the storm wouldn’t have happened on any other day, obviously. At least it was the weekend, so there was no having to try to push through the school day with all the bright lights and obnoxiously loud sounds. Plus, it was all on one of the weekends where May and Tony had agreed that Peter could go up to the Tower or Compound, so while the teen was upset that he wasn’t able to get any lab time in, it could be far worse. At least here, there was a better chance of things being dim and quiet.
Days such as this were rather draining for Peter, and from the moment he woke up for the eighth time to what, for him, was an ear-piercing clap of thunder, he’d already felt exhausted. Insistent that he was fine, a little mind-over-matter sort of thing, the teen had practically dragged himself out of bed and into the kitchen to get himself something to eat and some water.
Tony had found Peter a half an hour later sitting at the kitchen island with his forehead pressed down against the counter, the lights in the room shut off, and a straw going from a glass of water on the kid’s lap up to his mouth. Thankfully, a hand was holding onto said glass. Immediately after seeing the kid in this state, Tony knew what was wrong and made his way over to the medicine cabinet to grab Peter some extra-strength Tylenol. The flinch the boy made after he must’ve shut the cabinet too loudly only reinforced his query on what the problem was.
“Hey there, bud,” Tony spoke as softly as he could, sitting down beside Peter and gently placing the two medicine tablets down next to him. “Head hurting you?”
A little, soft groan was the only response from Peter.
“Thought so,” the older man nodded. “Got you some of the strong shit, it should at least help a little.”
Yet another grumble, but this time, Tony could vaguely make out the word ’thanks’ from it.
“‘Course. Anything you, uh, need?”
“Nuh-uh.”
“You sure, kid? You’re not bothering me if you want something.” That had always seemed to be a worry of Peter’s.
“‘M ‘kay. Pr’mise.”
“Alright, I’ll take your word for it.”
As Peter slowly, almost painfully slowly, moved the two tablets into his mouth, Tony made himself some coffee. It hurt to see the kid in as much pain as he was, but the man couldn’t help but be thankful that the monster of a headache and queasy stomach Peter must have was all it was. Yeah, it’d be better if he wasn’t hurting at all, but beggars can’t be choosers-- especially with how much trouble Peter gets himself in. It was almost as if he had to choose between Spidey-problems and Petey-problems. At least with Petey-problems, there usually wasn’t any risk of someone, usually the teen himself, getting seriously injured.
“Hey, kiddo,” Tony whispered, placing his free hand not holding a coffee cup on the teen’s shoulder. “Can’t imagine sitting all hunched here at the counter is too comfortable, eh? Why don’t we move over to the sofa or something? You can actually lay down there and not screw up your back.”
“M’kay,” Peter mumbled, lifting his head up off of the counter now, but his eyes still tightly shut. The kid looked exhausted, and there were bags under his eyes to rival Tony’s own. God, did he get any actual sleep last night? Peter opened his eyes just enough to stand up from the little barstool-like chair going to go put his empty water glass in the dishwasher before Tony gently took it from his hands and set it aside on the counter. He could put it away later-- right now, Stark just needed to get Peter to rest. He would’ve dragged the kid’s ass back to bed if it weren’t for the fact that he’d get pissed off and try to sneak out of his room or be ‘productive’. Sometimes, he was like a child-- refusing to go to sleep simply because he seemingly didn’t want to be left out or whatever.
Maybe May could’ve gotten Peter to stay in bed, but Tony just went along with his ‘I’m fine’ act. For the most part, of course.
Tony led Peter out of the kitchen, past the main living room, and down the hall to a smaller one with a long sofa running along the wall with cushions as soft as a Tempurpedic mattress. There was still a television and the same crap that’s in the regular living room in this particular one, but the difference is that this had been ‘spidey-fied’ and was really only used when Peter’s senses were bothering him more than usual. It had blackout curtains, carpeted floors so there weren’t any loud steps, plenty of cushions and pillows to rival the comfort of some of the beds, and most importantly, soundproof walls so the outside world wasn’t any bother once the door shut. Besides FRIDAY over the speakers, no sound got in. Occasionally, Tony would mute her when he and Peter were spending the day in here so that way her sudden announcements wouldn’t either disturb him, wake him if he was able to sleep, or startle him if he was groggy or something like that. It was something that Tony liked to think of it as the ”Blankie Protocol” because you couldn’t disturb the li’l spider-baby when he had his blankie and trying to take his nap, now could you? It was illegal, in Tony’s mind. Said protocol was activated now as he helped Peter get set up on the sofa. If there was an emergency, of course, it would be overridden, but besides that, all messages were sent to Tony’s phone or tablet he used for work.
Peter laid across the furniture, and a soft and fuzzy blanket laid across him. Tony took a pillow out from inside a little ottoman, lightly lifting up the teen’s head to slip it underneath. He sat down beside where the boy laid his head, running a hand through his curls. Peter’s face was buried into the pillow, his way of snuffing out any of the little bit of light left in the room even though the overhead lights off.
The kid looked like, well, a little kid fast asleep like that. Sure, Tony hated that he was in pain, but he couldn’t say that part of him didn’t enjoy taking care of Peter. Then again, there was also the little part of his brain nagging at him to put distance between himself and Peter like he tried to at first, not wanting to fuck the kid up. He wasn’t Tony’s, so he had to stop thinking like that. Starks don’t make good fathers, so why the hell would he be any different? Besides, potentially screwing Peter up would be the biggest disrespect to Ben and Peter’s father, the two men who’d been in the male parental figure position in the teen’s life and whose shoes Tony knew deep down he was trying to fill to the best of his abilities.
But Peter didn’t need some old man’s-- the kid gave him some gray hairs, he was officially old-- internal ramblings right now, as though Tony’s worries were being outwardly projected. Today, the spider-boy just needed peace and quiet, and most importantly, a lot of rest. Tony soothingly ran his fingers through Peter’s messy head of curls with one hand whilst the other held his phone as he read through a mix of the news and the most reliable and recently updated articles on how to help someone through a sensory overload. Had he read most of these before? Yes. Did that stop Tony from rereading and looking for new sources each time Peter had a day like this? Not a chance.
Whilst he read, the phone screen that had had the articles up was replaced with a sweet picture Pepper and Peter, both dressed up for a Stark Industries event, and a ringing phone icon. Said phone was on silent, yes, but the little buzzing noise it made when it was vibrating still seemed to disturb Peter, as he had begun to stir. Tony stood up, shushing the boy once or twice as he did to try and get him back to sleep, before stepping out of the room, shutting the door behind him so none of the noise from this call would slip into the other room.
“Hey, Pep,” Tony answered the video call. “Everything okay?”
“Mhm,” Came her voice through the little speaker. “Just wondering if you have that paperwork I gave you last week done. You did it, right?”
Shit. He totally forgot.
“Yeah, ‘course I did,” He lied through his teeth. “When did you say you needed those, by the way?”
“This afternoon, Tony,” Pepper answered, not believing for a second that the man on the other end of the call even started it. “Four-fifteen, to be exact. If you didn’t start it, hypothetically, you could still get it to me by the deadline if you started now. And if you didn’t get distracted, it might only take you an hour or two. But that’s only a hypothetical.”
“Obviously it is,” She had that look, she totally knew. “And I’ll get them to you by then.”
“Thank you, and good luck,” The CEO smiled a little. “So, how’s Peter? What are the two of you up to today?”
“It’s going to be a quiet day for our friendly neighborhood spider-boy,” Tony replied, glad to have changed topics.
“Is he okay?”
“He’s okay, don’t worry. Kid’s just a little more sensitive to everything today.”
“Poor kid,” She frowned. “Make sure he rests now, okay?”
“He’s passed out on the sofa right now.”
“Good, good,” Tony might’ve been irresponsible with a lot of things, but when it came to Peter, he could be pretty mature. “Let him know I said ‘hi’, I have to get back to work.”
“I will, I promise.”
“Don’t forget the paperwork, Tony.”
“I won’t.”
“Four-fifteen.”
“I know.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too, bye.”
“Bye.”
As the call ended, Tony stowed his phone in his pocket and poked his head back into the room where Peter slept peacefully. The kid seemed like he wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon, so he’d be alright for the few minutes in took to get downstairs to the lab and grab the papers and get back up here. Tony closed the door once again, stopping in the kitchen to put Peter’s water glass from earlier in the sink really quick before going to the elevator. It took him down two floors to where his lab was, where Tony had to briefly search before finding the slim folder filled with awfully tedious Stark Industries paperwork. He took it in his hand and made his way back over to the elevator. He backtracked to the lab before it could get to his floor in order to grab a pen to fill the sheets out, but as he was walking back down the hall to the metal doors, the lights in the Tower suddenly cut out.
It was probably just a blown generated as a result from the storm, Tony reasoned. Something like that, at least. Still, the man couldn’t help feeling a knot of worry in his stomach from being away from Peter. Tony was fairly use to attempts on his life being made, especially since he first became Iron Man, and knew that people like that were ruthless and willing to strike at any given moment. He had the right to be paranoid about this.
“FRIDAY, talk to me,” Tony called out. She should still be online. “What’s with the power outage?”
”It seems as though lightning from the storm struck a powerline outside,” The AI answered. ”I can get the power running again from the generator in a few minutes.”
Just a few minutes, it was fine. It was only the storm, nothing bad was happening. “Alright, good,” Tony said, mostly to himself though. “Is Peter still asleep?” The thunder outside was fairly loud still, but even though the power was temporarily out, the sound shouldn’t be getting in there to him.
”Yes, Mister Parker is in stage two of the sleep cycle, and seemingly about to enter the third. It’s likely he’ll stay asleep until fully rested.”
So, he was just stressing for no reason then. Well, what was really new?
Just as FRIDAY had told him, the power was back up and running in only three minutes. Tony stepped into the elevator as it arrived, and stepped out just as quickly. Yeah, of course Tony knew that Peter was perfectly safe, but that kid could probably get himself in just as much trouble asleep as he could awake. How? Well, Tony didn’t exactly want to find out. He just wanted to get back onto that cloud-like sofa, stroke his kid’s hair, and get this damn paperwork done.
But Peter wasn’t on the sofa.
Tony quickly rounded to the front of the furniture to see if the teen had merely just rolled off and onto the floor, but he hadn’t. Alright, calm down, he thought. He might just have gotten up to go to the bathroom or something. No reason to panic. Just check with FRI. “I thought you said Peter shouldn’t wake up anytime soon.”
”I did,” FRIDAY replied. ”And he hasn’t. Mister Parker is still in a deep sleep.”
“Then where the hell is he?” His voice raised. “How could he have just fucking disappeared if he didn’t wake up to move himself? Is there someone in the fucking Tower?”
”I don’t detect any intruders. The only people on your private floors are you and Mister Parker.”
“FRIDAY, where is my kid? I need an answer now.”
The AI hesitated.
“I’m not getting any younger. Probably getting more grey hairs, actually.”
”I’m unable to determine Mister Parker’s exact location at the moment. He’s not being picked up on my sensors, but his heat signature tells that he is still in the building and nearby. Actually, he’s between the floors of the one you are currently on and the one below it, though he seems to be changing his course now.”
“How the fuck is he between floors?” Tony swore his voice went up an octave. Did he not just stress how he didn’t want to know how Peter could get himself into shit while asleep?
”I suspect that he--”
“He what?”
”He-- the walls-- sir, I-- there’s-- Mister Parker-- got into-- tamporin--”
“FRIDAY?” Now Tony definitely had a reason to feel stressed. “FRIDAY, status report.”
The power went out once again, but this time, FRIDAY was offline and unable to feed him live updates. Whatever Peter got into now, Tony was going to kill him for scaring the shit out of him like this. After, of course, he tracks his sorry spider-ass down, makes sure there’s no danger, and fixes this power mess with FRIDAY. Now, if this could be at all considered a silver lining, Tony understood the whole mother’s adrenaline thing-- he was ready to rip the damn floorboards up to see where and how the hell Peter got to where he was, wherever that may be.
God, there were too many unanswered questions, and this creepy-ass horror movie shit going on was not helping his heart problems.