Pain and Power

_--_-Chapter 5-_--_

Peter was only left alone for a few minutes, in which he picked up Morgan's photo album and kept flicking through it mindlessly. His dad came back into the room within minutes, and sat back down on the chair next to the bed, leaning his chin heavily on his clasped hands and studying Peter carefully.

They sat in awkward silence for a minute, before his dad sighed loudly, then leaned back in the chair, and wiped a hand down his face tiredly. "Holy shit." He whispered, looking at Peter worriedly. "I can't believe — holy fuck."

Peter frowned momentarily. "Sor—"

"Stop." His dad shook his head. "No apologizing. You're not allowed to do that anymore. Just — just... can you tell me what you do remember."

He shrugged slightly. "I, uh — I —" Peter attempted to speak, and instead found himself mumbling uselessly. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I remember... stuff. Just not about... me — I mean, I know a little bit now, but only because Morgan was showing me the album, and telling the stuff."

"Shit." His dad muttered again. "Shit — what did she tell you?"

His dad's worry about what Morgan had told him confused Peter a bit, and only added to his seemingly ever-growing list of questions. He cleared his throat quietly. "Uh — just like... my name, and how old I am and stuff, and like —"

"And how old are you?"

"Morgan said I'm sixteen." Peter tore his gaze away from his dad and stared at his one hand instead. "That's right, right? Like I am sixteen? Cause, I mean, she's four, so maybe she got the number wrong but..."

"Yeah." The man's face relaxed significantly, and he nodded slightly. "Yeah, you're sixteen. Seventeen in August. What else?"

"Right, yeah, amnesia. She told me who all you guys were by like, showing me the photos and putting faces to names, so that helped a bit. And she told me that we're in Wakanda — which is crazy, by the way, like, Wakanda! How are we in Wakanda? Because it's like... exclusive! Like, people don't just go to Wakanda!"

His dad looked at him with raised eyebrows, his expression amused and slightly exasperated. He stopped his rambling. "Sorry, it's — it's just really, really cool. And like... she said that we're in Wakanda because I did something stupid and got hurt from it? I dunno, she said nobody was really telling her anything, so I don't really know what's going on. But like... she said that the King — who's an Avenger, right? — well she said he was one of the ones that brought me here! Like... how do we know a king that's also a superhero?"

His dad's slight smile dropped, and his head whipped up quite suddenly, eyebrows furrowing together. "You — you don't remember." The older man shook his head slightly. "I mean, obviously you won't remember if you have amnesia, but... but you seem to know that T'Challa's an Avenger, and —" He laughed quietly. "— kid, I'm basically the beginning of all that. Iron Man? You might've heard of him? — well, I'm him. He's me. I am Iron Man."

"Shit," Peter said after a moment's hesitation. He ignored the fact that everything suddenly felt way too bright, and seemed to get more bright every time he blinked. And ignored the growing ache in the back of his head. "Holy shit, my dad is an Avenger — Iron Man is my fucking dad! My dad is Iron Man!"

His dad groaned loudly, dropping his head into his hands for a moment, before lifting his head again and standing up. "I've gotta talk to Strange for a moment — he's only two doors down, so I'll be back soon. Be right back — BRB — whatever it is that you youngsters say these days."