Helpless

4: Conduction Can Be Overrated

A/N: Thanks for 300 reads, ahh! AO3 ppl requested protective peter so that's where this came from :)

Tony doesn't remember falling asleep but he doesn't think he's ever going to forget waking up to the sound of sobbing and the scent of healing burns.

"Pete?" he asks blearily, his limbs aching from being left idle in the same position for too long.

The sobbing slows down a little before Peter sniffs. "Mister Stark?"

"Yeah, kid, I'm here, It's going to be okay, I'm sorry."

Peter seems to get control of his sniffling just as Tony fully wakes up and reality sinks into his mind like water into a sponge. The burn on Peter's chest is healing well – which they'd probably thought about so they wouldn't have to concern themselves with any kind of first aid, Tony hates to think – but it's going to scar and a reminder of this is the last thing Peter needs to recover.

"Good, you're awake," Connor announces as he walks in, wearing gloves and holding what looks like a miniature TV remote. His timing would be uncanny had Tony not already guessed there were a few cameras in the room at all times, even if he can't locate them.

"What is that?" Tony asks, "Don't hurt him."

Peter stays quiet until Conner presses the remote to Tony's shoulder but when he does then start to shout, Tony can't hear him because the world is too bright and he can't think beyond pain. It passes quickly but his hands twitch once, twice, thrice as he gasps, blinking to regain both his vision and his composure.

"Leave him alone!" Peter yells, which is probably not the first time he's said that in the last sixty seconds but it's the first time Tony has been aware enough to hear him. "We are not here for your entertainment! What, do you guys not have enough money for wifi or something?"

Connor turns to Peter and Tony's world fizzes again.

He cries out without meaning to, his muscles jerking and the metal around his limbs seeming so much tighter, so much harsher than before. He has to shut his eyes before he can recover, breathing heavily and groaning inwardly. Somehow, it's so much worse the second time around, as if someone had taken the process of immunity and reversed it.

"Stop it!"

"Why should I?" Connor sounds almost like a petulant child, the most human Tony can remember someone capable of branding to appear.

Peter seems to huff in either annoyance or fear. "You're hurting him!"

A part of Tony wants to cry at how innocent Peter still sounds, despite being more or less branded just a day before. Or maybe it was hours before, it's not like there's a clock anywhere.

"That's rather the point, brat." Connor's voice has now progressed into a scarily smooth mix of scorn and amusement. "Why does it bother you?"

"Because it's Mister Stark!" Peter fires back and now Tony has regained enough of his eyesight to see the cold fury in his eyes. It worries him that a teenager is capable of such ardent anger but, with everything that Peter's gone through, it's not all that surprising.

"He's already been hurt, what more do you want?"

Sparks flicker across Tony's vision as a strained cry is snatched from his throat and he knows that, had he been standing upright, he'd have collapsed instantly, embarrassingly. It's like his body is light, lighter than a feather, but bursting with energy that has nowhere to go but his muscles, making him heavy, heavy with the strain of being stuck in one place when his body wants to move, to use the electricity spreading across his skin.