IronDad & Spider-Man Short Stories - Webpril 2021

Not Fine (part I) - 02: "I Don't Want To Go"

Webpril days 02

"I Don't Want To Go"

summary:

After the Snap is undone, Tony is over the moon to have his Spider-kid back. He spends more time with him than ever, only to realize that Peter is not quite himself. Peter doesn't seem to bond with the team as well as Tony had hoped, in fact it seems like he has lost any interest in being Spider-Man.

Or... Peter struggles to accept how different things between the Avengers are. As much as everyone else seems to have moved on from what tore the group apart, Peter is not ready to forgive and forget.

tags: Post-Endgame, Tony Stark Lives, Not Spider-Man Far From Home compliant, Civil War Team Iron Man, Protective Peter, Peter Parker Needs A Hug, 

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"What do you mean, you don't want to go?" Tony's heart had made a painful jump as the words had bubbled out of the kid, memories echoing in his mind from years ago. Memories he tried to bury deep.

"I just have a bunch of stuff on my plate right now. There's school and... and May doesn't like it when I'm not home for dinner."

Tony arched his brows. Peter had spent days on end at the cabin over the last few months, including countless dinners. "Well, bring her. I'm sure Happy would love to keep her company."

"Ew, Tony, stop! It's gross..."

Tony blew out a low breath. "It's a big deal for the team, kid. You could go in the suit if you want. You don't have to do the intern charade."

Peter huffed out an undefinable gibberish of words under his breath.

"In the past, I had to drag you away from parties like that."

"Well, the past is the past..."

With that, Peter turned his back, collecting the mugs that were scattered across both their workbenches, and headed for the stairs.

"I'm sorry, is this... are we done for the day?" Tony called after him.

"No, just... just don't have any room to move is all," he said before he disappeared through the door.

That was a lie if Tony had ever heard one. Not only had he seen Peter work around not just a few cups but a day and a half's worth of plates and bowls last time the girls had gone to visit Pepper's parents and had left them alone to tinker in the basement for a weekend. Usually getting Peter to tidy up his station was like pulling teeth on a hyped-up bunny.

No, this was vintage Peter, keeping secrets, hiding stuff. Tony just couldn't quite figure out what.

It's not that Tony had any reason to complain. The kid was spending more time with him at the lake house than ever before and Tony loved every second of it. He made a great effort to indulge Morgan and went out of his way to put a smile on her face cause no matter how much Peter wanted to pretend that he loved to drink pretend tea and sing along to the Frozen soundtrack, unlike Tony's daughter, he was not a 4 year old.

All of it would have been fine though if Peter hadn't been stalling on his true passion.

Spider-Man had not been seen in his neighborhood in months. Years of course, technically, but what worried Tony was that Peter had not been in the suit since the last big showdown with the ugly titan. They had spent hours tweaking things on both the old suit and the iron spider and every time Peter had taken the suit home to test it out and every time he had come back with something else to fix but not a minute of patrolling under his belt.