Endgame Special- Irondad & Spiderson (the last 10 days)

Day 7: I'm right here Pt. 4

He bolted upright in panic. He could hear his heartbeat ringing in his ear.

He was covered in sweat, emotionally distraught, but he felt relief flooding the course of his veins.

It wasn't real.

He was never this grateful to wake up in the middle of the night halfway to an anxiety attack.

Tony looked at the alarm clock, which read 2:39 am in annoying bright red letters.

Through experience, he knew well enough that he wasn't going to sleep anymore tonight.

He couldn't shake off the unpleasant feeling that his world had been ripped apart, even half an hour after he woke up.

He kept reminding himself that Pepper was in D.C, and his spider-kid was tucked in his bed. 

But the sentiment wasn't reassuring enough. Tony decided that he wasn't going to be able to sleep ever again if he didn't get to see his Spider-baby's alive and colorful face one last time. Sure, he had messed up and at this point, if the kid didn't want him a mile near his house it was understandable, and creeping outside his window at three in the morning wasn't going to make anything better.

But, he was also frantically trying to flush out the images of Peter lying in a coffin with an ashen grey appeal that his nightmare so graciously provided him with.

He walked up to the top floor faster than ever and waited as his armor formed around him before he shot across the sky making the three-hour journey in a matter of minutes.

He finally reached the familiar apartment in Queens, where the kid he was so fond of grew up and stayed.He let his armor dissemble around the fire escape outside Peter's window and gently lifted the pane as the kid had told him he often left it open after patrols.

Tony carefully pushed the curtains and peeked into the room.

There he lay, sleeping contently as his arms and legs sprawled across the lower half of the bunker bed.

His room smelt like fresh pine and old paper, the floor was covered in Lego pieces, old homework sheets and two empty boxes of pizzas. The walls and closet doors were covered Star Wars, Back to the future, or Avengers posters. On his desk was a lamp, used high school textbooks, the StarkBOOK air he gave the kid for his birthday and a box of soldering wires. Half of the spider-man suit was peeking out of his closet's lower half.

In short, the room hadn't changed a lot since Tony first came here a year ago.

He looked at the sleeping kid again.

The moonlight falling through the window made the kid look a bit whiter than usual. Tony didn't like that very much. His dream had been vivid and unnerving, and he had been trying his best to forget it.

But his fears were consoled, Peter was far from the still and lifeless form he had taken in the nightmare. He was having small spasms and jerked suddenly and violently in his sleep.

"Help! II-I'm sorry! Let me go...Stop! Keep the lastic away!" he vigorously thrashed around.Tony, having years of experience in this particular field immediately knew that his kid was having a nightmare.

He didn't think twice; he entered through the window, tenderly brushed his hair in repetitive motions and whispered comforting words to his kid.

'Lastic?' Tony remembered the drug guy who was going to torture Peter minutes before he arrived called the gun 'lastic'. Peter was having nightmares about Portland.

"It's going to be okay, Peter. It's just a bad dream, you're not in Portland...that's it".

The ruse worked for a while, the boy had considerably calmed down.

Tony felt like an idiot.

He was worried about the kid, and he ended up yelling at him and he was glad Peter wasn't harmed. At least not physically.

He overlooked the kid behind the mask, a sixteen-year-old who was struggling with the profession. As his mentor, it was his job to make sure Peter was fine. He looked fine, but he wasn't. And Tony made it worse.

Peter was a brave, young superhero. It must have been frightful to cling to a plane for hours and fight for justice in another state.

Tony realized, even though someone like Steve would be more equipped to handle his kid, he couldn't just quit being his mentor. He had nightmares. He needed help.

So far he had done a crappy job, but Tony vowed from here onwards he would do everything in his power to make sure the kid was alright.

Like right now.

Although in a matter of minutes, Peter's eyes fluttered open and he was visibly in distress, but oddly he wasn't in the least alarmed to find Tony Stark sitting on his bed.

He hysterically wrapped his arms around his mentor and choked panic sobs, "I'm sorry, I thought you left. I'm sorry Mister Stark, I didn't mean anything I said yesterday. I-I'm scared"Tony was surprised at the natural sentiment, but he was glad the kid was giving him another chance. He was going to make it count.

"I'm sorry too, kid. I messed up" he could feel his eyes getting moist, "You're the bravest kid I know. And I'm not going anywhere, I'll always be right here."

_____________

A/N: And the mini series is a wrap! I hope it didn't disapoint anybody, because I feel that for a fic hastily written at 3 am it could be better and worse.

Again, if anyone is reading this I do accept requests and I love constructive criticism!

(The countdown to endgame is the US release date)

Days till Avengers: Endgame- 3

Word count: 963