Irondad & Spiderson

Nightmare*

Words echoed in Peter's head as scenes flashed before his closed eyes. In his mind, he was in the warehouse where the Vulture had cut the support beams, leaving the young teenager crushed under the building. In his mind, his mom and dad and aunt and uncle were screaming at him "its all your fault!"  In his mind, Tony Stark was kicking him out onto the street.

In reality, he was in his room at Avengers Tower, situated in between Tony and Strange's room and Steve and Bucky's quarters. He was in bed underneath the blue and red sheets that matched his suit, the ones Tony had found and bought for him for only $24.95 on Amazon. While he struggled to move from under the rubble in his nightmare, he was tangling himself in his sweat-soaked sheets. Any tighter and his breathing would be restricted, even more than it was with his erratic heartbeat.
It was FRIDAY who noticed Peter's vitals and screaming and contacted anyone on the penthouse level. Normally everyone would ignore the AI, but this early in the morning (not to mention the mention of Peter) had all of the original Avengers and any other superheroes currently in the building.

Tony reached Peter first, followed shortly by Steve, Strange, and Bucky. Seconds later Bruce and Natasha arrived with Clint trailing behind. Hope Pym (the wasp) was in surprisingly fast for someone who had only known the boy for a day and a half. Even Loki was there but this was understandable considering his attachment to the superhero. The only original Avenger missing was Thor, but he was forming a new colony in Norway with Brunnhilde (a Valkyrie that had helped defeat Hela).

Tony quickly shook Peter awake, tears in his eyes as his son continued to toss and turn and scream and cry out. It sounded as though he had been stabbed a thousand times or something worse. The others whispered quietly to themselves, trying to figure out what was wrong with Peter.

When Peter finally awoke, Tony let a tear fall as the superheroes in the room all let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding. Peter threw himself into Tony's arms, sobbing and whimpering. He continued to mutter something about "toomes" and "building", "awful" and "couldn't breathe" along with some other fragments of a story that the others could barely make out. While Tony consoled the traumatized kid, the remaining adults discussed who would stay for support and who would leave. In the end, Nat, Loki, and Bucky would stay. The rest of the superheroes left, making a plan to show their support to Peter in the morning.
Back to the main characters.
Peter couldn't stop crying. Nobody's words could break him from his sobs. Tony continued whispering reassurances in his son's ear and rubbing a comforting hand over the teenager's shaking back. After a few minutes with no sign of stopping, Tony pulled out of Peter's strong grasp, placing his hands on the arachnid's shoulder and looking him straight in his blood-shot eyes.

"What happened?" His voice was soft, barely a whisper as he wiped a tear from Peter's cheeks.

Peter stumbles through his answer, sobs racking through his body. "T-t-toomes he um he he um dropped a building yeah um a-a building on me on Home- homecoming night and a- and I I was trapped...was trapped under the b-building and I I couldn't breathe dad I couldn't breathe and I was soscaredithoughtIwasgonnadie but I um I didn't I I didn't obviously and I still get nightmares...get nightmares about it but I'm okay I'm okay I'm okay" Peter continued repeating his words, as if trying to convince Tony or maybe himself that the words were true.

It was obvious to anyone who listened to Peter's story that he was not okay. The kid was a horrible liar. Everyone had shed at least one tear during the story, and they hadn't even lived through it. While all of them had their own traumatic events, they had been heroes for a lot longer than Peter was and had been a lot older. Peter was 15, the next youngest was Wanda and her traumatic experience (well, the biggest one) happened when she was 24. Everyone in the room made a silent vow to protect Peter from any harm from here on out. Everyone eavesdropping in the vents and hallway also made silent vows.

Peter was once again in Tony's arms, but the sobs were slowing. The three heroes in the room slowly exited, careful not to make any sound so that the new dad could calm his son.

"Pete?"

A sniffle. "Yeah"

"I am so sorry that happened to you. It was my fault it happened. If I hadn't taken away the suit- but before you say anything you are not allowed to apologize. Ok? That's the one rule in this house. Ok, kid? You are not going to apologize for anything. Every hero in this building ran here in the middle of the night for you, Pete. They all love you. I love you. You're my son and I don't want you to hurt. If this happens again, you need to tell me. And if not me you have Steve or Loki or Wanda or- or Strange or anyone in this building. Ok?" Tony finishes his rant with a small smile.

Peter sniffled once again, trying to stop the tears from flowing again. This time, they weren't sad or scared tears. These were tears of happiness. He had a family.

The young boy looked up at Tony, who was also tearing up, and whispered "I love you too, dad"

Tony didn't stop smiling for a week.