Broken But Not Alone

Chapter 17

Peter woke up in the middle of the night in Ned's bed, Ned was sitting on the floor doing homework.

"Hey dude, your finally up," he said smiling at Peter.

"Yeah, what happened?" Peter sat up rubbing his eyes.

"You fell asleep on Mj and then started shivering so we put you in bed, your surprisingly light by the way. But yeah Mj had to leave a couple hours ago and your phone keeps ringing I didn't want to answer," Ned said passing Peter his phone.

"Oh shit, it's Mr Stark. I never told him I was going out, I just left. I've got to go sorry, I'll see you soon?" Peter said stumbling out of bed and into his spidey suit.

"Yeah. But Pete, slow down. Call me if you need me okay?"

"Yeah," he shouted as he jumped out Ned's window.

"Yeah he's not gonna slow down," Ned sighed as he closed the window and went back to his homework.

•

Peter read one of the texts Tony sent him,

Tony: You can stay with me from no on. Don't worry about that, please come back I need to know that your alright

So stopped he by the apartment on his way back. He got some extra clothes, a couple of May's sweatshirts that he wore sometimes, a photo of him and May, a couple books and the box of blades that he kept under his bed.

Maybe he'd get away with leaving if he was getting stuff from home. It didn't all fit in his backpack so he took the duffle bag that May kept in her closet and put all the clothes in there and headed back.

•

His window was still open so he climbed in, closed the window, changed out of his spidey suit into his pyjamas. He looked at the clock it was 2am, he unlocked the door and walked into the room where Tony, Bruce and Natasha were.

"Hey guys," Peter said awkwardly.

"Peter! Where the hell have you been? Why haven't you answered your phone?" Tony asked jumping up.

"I went home got some clothes and books. I saw Ned and Mj and we went to his and we just started talking," Peter said quietly looking at his feet.

"It's fine but telling me would have been nice," Tony said putting his hand on his shoulder.

"How come you didn't answer your phone?" Bruce asked as Tony sat back down.

"I fell asleep Ned and Mj didn't want to wake me so they left me to sleep," Peter said standing awkwardly in front of them. "I'm still kinda tired so I'm gonna go to bed if that's alright."

"You want something for dinner first?" Natasha asked.

"I had something before I left Ned's," he lied.

"Goodnight Peter."

"Night Tony. Night guys," Peter said before he turned around and left quickly.

•

After trying to get to sleep for about 2 hours he gave up, he ended up just pacing up and down around his room until he heard a knock at the door Tony walked in.

"Peter you alright? I thought you were asleep?"

"I'm fine, can't sleep," Peter said sitting down on his bed.

"You sure that's all?" Tony asked sitting next to him.

"Yeah," Peter said avoiding eye contact.

"You don't seem alright, how about you get into bed and try to sleep again? We were talking about it and we're gonna let you stay off school for a bit because if everything that's happened. You should be back sometime next month."

"But I'll fall behind further than I already am," Peter said falling into Tony's arms.

"We'll get the work that you'd be doing and we'll all help," Tony said smiling.

"Alright," Peter said yawning.

After 10 minutes of them sitting like that Tony looked down to see Peter asleep, trying not to disturb him he picked him up and put him to his bed and tucked him in.

He then felt Peter's boney hand wrap around his wrist, "stay," Peter mumbled. So Tony lay down beside Peter and fell asleep there.

•

Tony was woken up by Peter kicking and turning and whispering, he couldn't hear what he was saying but knew he was having a nightmare.

Tony shook him, "Peter! Peter wake up it's just a nightmare," he wasn't waking up, "Peter!" He shook him again and he shot up hyperventilating. "Peter you've got to breath okay? Come on breath with me kid."

Peter tried to slow his breathing down but it didn't work he ended up crying and leaning into Tony's chest.

"It's alright, you're okay," Tony said with one hand running though the curls on his hair and the other rubbing his back.

Peter calmed down eventually, "I'm s...I'm sorry, Mr Stark," Peter said quietly.

"It's alright kid, I'm not mad," he said with a small concerned smile.

"I'm sorry, you had to see that," Peter said still hugging Tony.

"Hey kid, I'm not bothered alright. I want to be able to help, how long have you been getting nightmares?" Tony asked still playing with his curls.

"I don't know...A while. Since homecoming," Peter paused, "so like 3 months ago."

"3 months?!" Tony said a little to loud noticing Peter covering his ears, "I'm sorry. But why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to bother you an...."

"You will never bother me, I want to help but I can't if you don't let me in Peter," Tony interrupted.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Peter said quietly.

"You've really gotta stop with these 'I'm sorry's'" Tony said smiling.

"Yeah, I'll try," Peter said looking at him and smiling back.

"So your probably not getting back to sleep and it's like half six so you wanting breakfast?" Tony asked standing up. "We can even go out and get something."

"Alright, as long as it's waffles," Peter said jumping up smiling.

"Alright lets go get waffles," Tony said smiling before leaving Peter to get changed and getting changed himself.

Tony loved seeing Peter how he used to be, even if it was only sometimes. Or only for a couple seconds. It made him feel like all the little things were worth it, that maybe he'd be okay eventually.