IronDad & Just Dumb Stuff

These hearts were made for breaking P.3

When Nat pulled up at the Compound, a sinking feeling grew in the bottom of Peter's stomach. He knew Tony would be there and he knew that their last interaction wasn't the best. When Clint opened Peter's door to carry him into the Compound, Peter shied away from his touch.

Clint sighed an understanding sigh, "Listen, I'm not gonna lie to you. The next couple days, especially the immediate hours, are gonna be rough, uncomfortable, awkward, and sad.". Peter looked away from his friend and at his legs, was that supposed to make him feel better? It only made the sinking feeling deepen. "But," Peter looked back up at Clint, "if you try and run away from this or try ignoring this, it'll only last longer and be more painful.".

After a second Peter nodded, Clint took that as an ok to pick him up and scooped him out of the car. Clint was right after all. Peter's parents died when he was four. He refused to talk about it to May or Ben. But then Ben died and it was just him and his aunt. That's when Peter realized he needed to open up to May, talking about his feelings didn't seem like it would help but it did. So, so much.

"Peter!" Peter heard the moment Clint had him in the door of the Compound's main building. Before Peter could process who said it he was being squished between Clint and what smelled like Tony in a makeshift hug.

On recognizing the other person as Tony, Peter removed his arms from where they were sitting in his lap to fling them around Tony. Clint let go of Peter completely and upon hitting the ground, Peter's feet gave him the most painful jolt yet, they must have adjusted to not being used.

Peter yelled out similar to when he first discovered the pain and fell to the floor once more. "Pete..?!" Tony was kneeling beside him almost immediately.

"Oh, crap. I thought you were going to hold him." Clint said, looking down at Peter and Tony, a panicked look. "His feet got burned.".

"And his nose is broken and a cat scratched him. He probably hasn't eaten anything either." Natasha added, stepping around the three boys, "Clint, make him something to eat, I'll be right back." and with that she disappeared into the hallway. Clint walked around them and into the kitchen, he started taking things out of the fridge.

Peter wasn't hungry but he wasn't about to argue with Natasha, so instead he looked at his feet, they looked irritated and were slightly swollen. He could feel Tony looking at him but he refused to look back. "Kid,".

"I'm fine." Peter said too quickly.

After a moment Tony hooked his arms under Peter's legs and Peter put an arm around his shoulders as Tony lifted him with a small grunt. "You're getting too old to be carried." He joked. It made Peter smile on the inside and want to smile on the outside, but it didn't show through, the sinking feeling wouldn't allow it.

Tony set Peter down on the couch and put his feet up on a pillow on the coffee table. "Oh, you didn't have to do that.." Peter said shyly, Tony being nice and gentle with him when their last interaction was a one-sided fight made Peter feel guilty. There were so many emotions swirling inside him, mixing and making new ones. Tony sat in an armchair adjacent to Peter, Peter wanted to say something, anything to him but his throat was tight with his emotions threatening to burst out if he so much as opened his mouth.

Luckily Natasha came back into the living room/kitchen area from the hallway, she was holding one of those hot water foot massage things. "Since the burns are on your feet, we should really take you to the Hospital, but they're not too severe from what I can tell." she said to Peter, "Plus you have somewhat of a healing factor.". She put the bandage strips that were sitting inside the massager on the table next to Peter's feet. "I'm going to give the rest of the team the 'ok' to come in." she said more to Tony, "So Bruce can get us a second opinion".