Tom Holland Blurbs

tragedy (p.p.)

show me a hero and i'll write you a tragedy.

~ f. scott fitzgerald

Peter Parker refused to see Tony Stark as the tragedy everyone said he was.

Tony Stark, whose birthright was an empire that profited by taking the lives of innocents. Tony Stark, brilliant beyond measure and self-sacrificing to a fault. A man whose presence filled a room as soon as he stepped inside, one who never floundered at the prospect of being the smartest person in the room, because he almost always was. Tony Stark, who built weapons of mass destruction and profited from war because that was all he knew. The man who should have died in Afghanistan, attached to a car battery that should have failed to keep the shrapnel from reaching his heart. The man who would never truly win over the public, because they would never see past the mistakes, the failures, the lifestyle.

When it came to Tony, the media threw the word "tragedy" around like confetti at a parade. "Another Tragedy for Tony Stark: Audi Keyed While Shopping"; "Tony Stark's Tragedy: James Rhodes Paralyzed"; "Stark's Tragic Loss: December 16th"; "Tony Stark Seen Partying: Tragic Mistake on page 4", etc. It went on and on. Peter, quite frankly, was tired of these people who had never truly gotten to know Tony using such a heavy adjective like it was nothing.

Tony Stark had survived tragedy by fighting tooth and nail, refusing to accept circumstances that would have defeated many lesser people. Circumstances that had defeated people Tony considered much stronger than himself. Peter knew that, because he was absurdly observant of the man he had come to consider his father figure. Tony struggled tremendously with seeing himself as good enough to deserve anything let alone a wife, a daughter, a pseudo-son/apprentice figure/mentee person, and a multitude of other people who made up his functionally dysfunctional little family.

Peter saw the tendency to lean towards self- hatred every time Tony's hands started shaking when accepting praise, no matter who was giving it. Not that Tony received outright praise and thanks very often, a slight that Peter was determined to correct as quickly as possible. He loved the Avengers, he really did, but they were absurdly unaware of how much they relied on Tony and took him for granted at the same time. How every time they rode back on the quin jet, that Stark Industries designed, and cataloged all of the damage to equipment and any malfunctions and took pain meds and stitched each other up or prepped one another for the med bay at Stark Tower or the Compound, that every movement and preparation was possible because of Tony Stark.

Peter was absolutely certain that the team had no idea that while they were told to log any malfunction that happened with their weapons or equipment into a general pool for someone at Stark Industries to get to eventually, Tony secretly had any and all projects pertaining to the Avengers sent to his personal work drive and worked until every single glitch or bug was nonexistent as soon as possible, no matter how injured he was from the mission, or how much sleep he had missed, or how much Peter and Pepper begged him to get some rest. Yeah, Peter knew the Avengers didn't know about that side of Tony, because he knew they would insist on Tony taking care of himself, they weren't completely heartless, they just knew they could rely on Tony no matter what, and Peter had also picked up on the fact that Tony took pride in the fact that people trusted him and that he didn't want to let them down. Ever.

Peter was startled out of his sporadic train of thought when the monitors in the hospital room suddenly went haywire, the beeping causing his headache to spike in intensity. He climbed to his feet, frozen there by the frantic gasping sounds coming from his mentor in the hospital bed. From what Peter could tell, Tony wasn't awake, just unable to breathe. Peter was terrified. A choking sound erupted from his own throat as he attempted to yell for someone, anyone to come and help his d- Mr. Stark. His Mr. Stark.