Throwing Caution to the Wind

Chapter 26

He looked at the complicated weave of the fabric that was soon to be underneath the familiar red of his non existent mouth.

He was currently working on adding small bits of tubing throughout the suit under the black lines of the fake webbing and meet up both at the mouth, and small cannisters of pressurized oxygen scattered at low impact points. He had already planned out so it would loop around and eventually around and expel CO2 from the system. It was an incredibly precise task and he couldn't risk any distra-

"Hey kid" Mr Stark said loudly entering the lab.

-ctions. He pulled his hand up, fingers already hovering over the button to unleash his webs, causing him to pull out more than an hour's worth of tubing in a fraction of a second.

"Mr Stark" Peter whined, "I was nearly done, but now you've just made me mess up everything I've been doing for the past hour."

"Sorry kid, but it's time for you to take a break" Mr Stark said.

"Can't, I want to get this done before I leave tonight, and every minute is gold as of right now" Peter said turning back to the task at hand.

"Not an option kid, it'll only be a half hour, and all this will still be here when you get back" Mr Stark said grabbing his arm.

"Mr Stark, I have to first get all the tubing through the loops I've made, then give it a quick test pull all the loops tighter and glue them on, and I still haven't figured out an easy way it replace the cannisters" Peter said pulling away already trying to figure out what kind of stitch would work best despite the fact that he would r be getting there for at least another 4 hours.

"Nope, Spider baby's need a break every once in a while, and you've already been here for a few hours" Mr Stark said pulling him towards the elevator.

Once they were up, Mr Stark immediately sent Peter to the kitchen ignoring his offers to make them lunch.

They would have take-out, but Pepper had made a deal with Mr Stark that they only order take out for dinner, leaving them to make lunch themselves. Peter was more than happy to make lunch, but some days like today, Mr Stark insisted on being the adult.

Having been banished from the kitchen, Peter went to the couch to out on some TV while they ate. He was gonna get Friday to put on a few episodes of Friends, but then he had a great idea.

//There's a 104 of summer vacation/then school comes along just to end it/and the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it/like maybe...//

Tony heard the opening theme to some show from the kitchen, but he couldn't tell where it was from. It wasn't any show he recognized, nor was it one of the shows that Peter tended to rotate between whenever he picked.

When he walked into the living room with a small stack of grilled cheese on a plate, he glanced at the TV.

"What in the world are you watching kid" he asked very confused.

"Phineas and Ferb" was all Peter said.

Tbeu sat and watched a few episodes of the show together. Tony actually found himself enjoying it. It had a very specific formula and was easily predictable but that really let the dialogue shine through.

Eventually he let Peter back into the lab. But this time he insisted on helping him.

He looked at the task in front of him. It seemed easy enough, all he needed to do was create small sheaths of stiffer fabric around the inside of the waist of the suit. But it was proving much more difficult than that. He needed to align it all with the openings of the thin tubes the kid had already installed. And then he had to connect them to the mainframe of the suit so the filtration system could be activated via Karen, the kids AI.

Meanwhile Peter was currently working on small points in which CO2 would make its escape so not to suffocate him.

Several hours later, the suit was finally done. The plan was to remove it and have it on standby once they caught Metal Man. The ordinary mugger might have on him, at most, pepper spray, and Peter's mask was made of a thick enough material that it would barley sting so long as he washed it off within 5 minutes after the initial spray. So he wouldn't need it after, or at least that was the hope. The tubing also added extra bulk which Peter was not a fan of.

The two settled down on the couch and quickly pulled up a movie with pizza along with them.

The movie was good, calm. Maybe too calm though. Peter fell asleep partway through.

He felt like he was watching from the outside but was still him.He was walking down a street, he had a lot of angst in his step. He felt some serious déjà vue right now. Spring was in full force in the form of trees in various stages of budding, only a handful of trees actually flaunting fully grown leaves with a random smattering of pink cherry blossom trees everywhere. All in all it was pleasent day to be out. But Peter felt a sense of dread. He watched himself walk past a corner store, and suddenly Peter understood.

"Peter" called out a man in a blue uniform.

Peter watched himself ignore the man's calls.

Eventually the man caught up with him and when he pulled his shoulders to get him to turn around, he realized Peter was crying.

Ben held Peter whispering things about how it was ok to be angry sometimes, even at him and May, as long as he remembered that no matter that they loved him.

Peter remembered how he had only cried harder when Ben had told him that. But his uncle had held him tighter against him.

Peter had really thought it would all work out in the end.

He watched the pair make their way into the corner store to by some candy when a robber walked in.

Since Ben was still in uniform, he tried to get the mugger to put his gun down. The mugger turned to Ben and held out the gun. Peter watched his past self realize what was happening before the trigger was pulled. The world seemed to go in slow motion as he watched his past self hear the trigger. Ben was shot, and the coward ran out of the store without so much as a pack of gum to show for it.

Pete watched his pastt self kneel down next to Bed holding him, crying.

"Peter" someone said shaking his shoulder.

"Peter" came the voice again.

The scene slowly faded to black as the voice and the hand continued.

He realized his eyes were closed and tried to open them only the find something wet in his waterlines.

He blinked a few times to get rid of the wetness.

"You ok there kid" Mr Stark asked, his voice gentle and caring.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Peter said.

"And I'm the president. Seriously kid, what's wrong- and don't tell me it's nothing, you're crying" Mr Stark said firmly but gently.

"It was just a dream" Peter mumbled wiping away at his tears with his sleeve.

"Do you want to talk about it" Mr Stark asked.

Peter was about to say no, when he realized that he actually wanted to say yes. The only person he had told so far was Ned. He didn't want to bring it up with May since he knew that she would start crying.

So he told Mr Stark about the dream, and how it came back to haunt him every once in a while.

By the end of it, he was crying again. Mr Stark held him and let him cry.

Once Peter's sobs had calmed down into the odd sniffle, he led him done the hall onto his bed, tucking him in tightly.

"Don't go yet. Please", Peter said grabbing onto his hand as Mr Stark tried leaving the room.

Mr Stark gave him a gentle smile.

"I won't Pete, promise" he said sitting back down on the edge of the bed, his hand never leaving Peter's.

"I'll be here every step of the way" he whispered long after Peter had fallen asleep.