I'll be your family now

I met you X

Peter awoke confused, one minute he was in a school suffering and now he was in his room, with Tony safe and sound before him.

Sure, his mentor seemed a little messed up, with a concerned expression and ruffled hair.

But was alive, and didn't seem wounded.

"Peter? Are you ok, kiddo?" Tony's voice was soft, as if he was talking to a butterfly that could fly away in any minute.

That's all that took for Peter to understand. He was in his bed, in his room, with Tony, shaking, wetness in his cheeks and with a sore chest.

He had a nightmare. They weren't often, thank god, but they were still there, from time to time. It was worse, so much worse, when the vulture thing happened; he would have them every night, but it seemed like it was kind of true that saying. Time heals.

His brain processed and the relief of founding Tony- his dad (he was not admitting that for now)- alive and okay, with him, was bigger than the little embarrassment he felt at being loud enough in his sleep to wake him up.

So he threw himself at his dad and hugged, hard, relishing in the feeling of having him safe.

"Oh, Peter" Tony said before wrapping his arms around the boy that meant the world to him. He was a little took back by the suddenness of the kids action, but he wasn't going to question it when his kid was breaking down in front of him.

"Oh my god... Tony" Peter looked like a toddler, clinging to him, voice small and little tears tracing down his cheeks "Please, please. Don't go"

"I'd never, Underoos"

Tony wanted to know about Peter's nightmare, he wanted to help but this was no time to ask, he would wait until his kid, at least, wasn't crying.

"Hey, hey look at me" Tony said when the kid finally pulled out of the embrace and looked to his lap.

And Peter did, slowly, insecurely, but did.

"Sorry" he apologized, Peter felt bad for waking him up, he knew that Tony didn't always get enough sleep.

"Don't. Do not apologize, kid. You did nothing wrong" Tony added, then "I want you to come to me always that this happens, okay?"

Peter nodded before saying softly, with scared and weak eyes "Tony... would you- do you think I'm a freak?"

"What? Why are you asking that? Believe me, you're not a freak" he responded very confused at the question because, honestly the kid was the purest human being.

"Nothing... I just wanted to be sure, because, well... You really mean that? I mean, I'm not human, I'm a mistake made by humans, something that wasn't in the right course of nature. I stick to things, I can hear a moth flying in the other building and I have a sixth sense... It's not normal" he finally said, looking completely wrecked.

Peter knew he was being dramatic, that he was never bothered by this before and that he shouldn't let what a criminal told him get to his head, but he has thought of it before, what was different was that now he no longer thought it was cool. He always dreamed of superpowers and fictional things, but now...

Tony sighed, he didn't knew his kid thought of himself as that. Being really honest and blunt, what his kid thought of himself was not only awful but also sad.

He wanted to shout that he was the best human he knew, he wanted to shout that he was anything but a mistake, but he only looked at him with the kindest eyes he could muster, but also a seriousness that he usually didn't used with his kid.