Irondad & Spiderson - Marvel Oneshot

Nightmares

Peter woke up sweaty and gasping for air. He rubbed his eyes to clear his vision from unshed tears, and looked at the time. 4:34 am. He had to wait until at least 5 am to avoid May becoming suspicious of him before he could get ready for school. He decided instagram was the best way to kill time, and then saw that Ned had sent him a link to a news site.

"Spider-man saves Tony Stark's life on secret Avengers mission"

It was followed by a text "Dudeeeeee why didn't you tell me you saved THE iron man?!". Peter knew it wasn't a good idea to read the article but still he couldn't help himself when he clicked on the link. He scrolled past the old picture of him and iron man, and started reading the dramatized story of how he almost hadn't saved Tony.

Tears welled up in his eyes at the bad memory as he finished. Every night since the mission Peter was haunted by nightmares reminding him that had he been just a bit slower Tony wouldn't be here anymore.

But he didn't have time to dwell on that in his daytime, he was a busy man, or boy, afterall. It was late enough now that he could safely leave his room without May asking him a million questions. She had only caught him having a nightmare once and he planned on it staying that way.

While Peter was scrambling around his room trying to find a clean pair of jeans he got another text, this time from Tony.

"Hey kiddo you're coming over tonight, right? We'll order pizza" Peters stomach turned at the thought. He absolutely loved spending time with Tony and the rest of the avengers, but it was Friday and Friday hangouts usually turned into sleepovers and Peter did NOT want to stay the night. There was no way the avengers could ever figure out he was having nightmares every night like some little child.

He sent a quick text to Tony telling him he wasn't sure if he had time, before hurrying to get out of the door on time. He may have been up early but somehow Peter always ended up almost being late.

Peter decided at last that he could probably hang out with the avengers tonight and still come home to sleep in his own bed. He didn't want to miss any of the lab time he could get and figured he could just tell them that May needed his help with something.

...~*~...

Lab day had always been Peter's favorite part of the week ever since he and Tony started them. He usually went directly to the lab where Tony would be waiting with a snack that Peter quickly devoured.

They would work for several hours until Pepper had to drag them upstairs for dinner, which the avengers usually joined in on. He loved Steve's cooking but nothing would ever beat the smell of fresh New York pizza being sat on the table. He was incredibly grateful that the others knew he was Spiderman or else it would have been kinda hard to explain why he alone could eat almost 4 whole pizzas.

When they finished eating it was 9 pm, which was when Peter had to make a choice to stay the night or not. He usually said yes which resulted in movie night, but that was before the nightmares, and so his mind was running a million miles an hour trying to come up with excuses.

"You're staying tonight right, Pete?" Tony asked him with hope in his eyes. Ever since his near death experience he wanted to use as much time as he possibly could with Peter but he felt like they only grew further apart. It had been over 3 weeks since Peter stayed over, and normally it would have been a long time if there had been more than a week between.

"Uhmm it, uh, it doesn't really fit so well tonight, sorry"

"Why not? Meeting up with a girl?" Clint asked, batting his eyelashes.

"What?! N-no!" Peter sputtered, his cheeks flushing red.

"Peter, why is it that you once again can't stay the night? Did we do something?" Tony asked with sad eyes.