Pull Us Back

the bonding

Tony was mad. No, he was absolutely livid. How the hell could

"Where the hell were you?"

"D-Dad! I was at my friend's house working on a project!"

"Yeah, I know. You sent me a text. One, singular text at three o'clock! But wait, what time is it again, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"It is 00:00, sir."

"And how long is that from 15:00?"

"Nine hours, sir."

"Nine. Hours. Peter. And nothing more than a text telling me you're okay!"

"Dad-"

"Uh bupbupbupbupbupbup. This is the part where you zip it, Peter," Tony said, standing over the teen. Peter cowered down. "You need to keep me updated, Peter! You know what? You're grounded for the week. No, month. Actually, until you leave for god damn college!"

"What do you care? You weren't there for most of my life!" Peter suddenly snapped back, despite cowering still.

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't help raise me and the only reason you took me in was because of moral obligation, I'm not stupid!"

Tony was so taken aback, any angry thoughts swimming in Tony's head disappeared. So many words were bubbling in his throat. He felt as if he was going to throw up. Despite Peter facing the ground, Tony could see the tears streaming down his face. Steve was right. He was already fucking up the kid's life.

"Pete-" He whispered softly. His balled up fists started shaking as they opened and relaxed. He cleared his throat and said more clearly, "Go to your room."

Peter, sniffling and trying to hide his tears, shuffled off quickly to his room. Tony slowly sunk down to sit on the couch. He leaned his head back as he tried to slow his breathing. "Fri, send someone to check on Peter. Clint's probably the best option, Pete seems to like him."

"Yes, sir. Mr. Barton is on his way to Peter's room."

"Thank you."

He let his head fall into his hands, refusing to let himself cry. Steve tore down too many of emotional roadblocks. He refused to hurt Peter anymore by being to god damn emotional. As he sat in the cold, empty living room, he started building up every single wall back up because Stark men are made of iron. Stark men don't cry.

~!~

Peter woke up early the next day, despite his devastating lack of sleep. Clint stayed with the boy for two hours, calming him down after his and Tony's fight. Then he couldn't sleep for two more hours. Then he woke up at seven am, unable to fall asleep again, which lead him to thinking, which lead him to absolutely hating himself and wanting to die. Both of those feelings he usually worked out on patrol, but he didn't want to sneak out since Tony was already mad at him.

So, in conclusion, that's how he found himself in the gym, working on beating the stuffing out of a punching bag, angry Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco songs playing in the background. He had already split the skin of his knuckles multiple times as he actually put rips in the strong bag. He yelled as he threw another punch and tore the bag completely open. The bag spilled sand onto the floor and his wounds, making the teen hiss in pain.

"You really know how to throw a punch, don't you, Peter?"

Peter yelped, turning to see Natasha in the doorway. "O-Oh. H-Hi, Miss Romanoff."

"Hey, Peter, and please, for the love of God, call me Natasha or Nat. Miss Romanoff makes me to feel way too old."

"S-Sorry."

"I was going to train some with Clint, but how about we just hang out some?"

"What?! N-No! You and Mr. Hawkeye training is way more important than stupid ol' me! You could be called on a mission at anytime!" Peter stuttered out, clearly panicked, while unwrapping his hands quickly.

"Shush, Peter. Clint's been trying to get out of sparring with me anyways." Natasha winked.

"Yeah," Peter chuckled, still quite awkwardly. "Like if you won Dad, Sam, and Rhodey would never let him ever hear the end of it."

"If? You mean when, Peter," Nat laughed, leaning against the wall. "Clint's decent at fighting, but he's no match to yours truly."

"Hey, Nat, ready to get your ass whooped?" Clint whooped as he slammed the gym door open, scaring the crap out of Peter. "Oh, hey, kid!"

Clint ruffled up his hair. "Wanna see me kick Nat's ass?"

"Did someone give you a pep talk so you believed you could win, Mr. Hawkeye?"

Clint gasped in fake hurt. "How dare you, Petey? I thought we were friends!"

"We've decided we're just gonna spare you the shame and hang out, Clint," Nat joked, patting his shoulder while she walked out of the gym. "I'm going to make lunch!"

"Uh, Mr. Hawkeye, are you and Miss Nat like... together?" Peter asked awkwardly.

Clint snorted. "Ha! She wishes she could get someone as gorgeous as me."

Clint flipped his imaginary long hair and strutted up the stairs, Peter trailing behind him to the kitchen where they found Nat making them all lunch. As the boys sat down, Nat called over her shoulder, "tell us about yourself, Peter."

"Uh, I'm fifteen, I go to Midtown Tech, I have two friends, and that's really it about me."

Nat was about to ask more about him, but Clint's Dad Mode kicked in when he sensed the teen's awkwardness.

"Hey, Petey, do you want to hear a really embarrassing story 'bout your old man?"

"S-Sure?"

"So, this was the first mission we all had ever gone on as a team, even before that damn alien attack, since Fury wanted to see if we would actually work well as a team. So, we were all on a quinjet on the way back. Thor is trying to get everyone to drink this Asgardian whiskey, and I didn't drink any 'cause I'm a responsible adult-"

"Don't listen to him, Peter. He got so drunk he made out with the wall," Nat noted, leaning against the breakfast bar. 

"Not pertinent to the story, Natasha." The blonde threw a playful glare at the redhead. "Anyways, so, Tony got super drunk, like drunker than I've ever seen anyone. He was giggling, and Thor accidentally turned on Beyoncé, and Tony thought it would be a great ideo to give a lapdance to Nat."

"I wasn't involved in the idea of that bullshit lapdance. Wasn't even good." Peter snorted.

"That's not even the best part! After Nat shoved Tony off, he started doing a very badly reinterpretation of Single Ladies with an even worse a Capella version by him. It's still my favorite Tony story."

"It's one of my worst memories of these idiots. And that's saying a lot," Nat joked, starting to plate the grilled cheeses. 

As they ate, they swapped stories, Peter starting to open up and share his stories (just as Clint planned, and he thought that he should definitely be Peter's Godfather now). Sam eventually wondered into the kitchen and started baking, as he does when he's stressed, mumbling about his two 'idiotic fucking best friends.' Clint and Natasha filled Peter in on who's dating whom, and who used to date whom (literally none except Tony and Steve). Peter was actually quite surprised that Sam didn't stand up for Steve. In fact, he said Steve was an idiot, a very, very stupid idiot.

Peter was having a blast until Bruce made his way into the kitchen and told Peter, "Hey, Peter? Tony wants to speak with you in the lab."

Word count: 1282

Sorry the chapter is late!!!! -cj