One Shots feat. PJO, Irondad, and More!

Sea-riously Suspicious: Part 2

2/3

It'd been chaos delivering the bloodied mess of the stranger to the med bay, but as quickly as Stark had handed him off and explained what he knew his staff was ushering him out and away. His hands were shaking, chest tight with panic, but Tony didn't have time to freak out. He had a teenager who he could only assume was losing his mind upstairs.

Out of the med bay, he stripped off the suit and shoved it into a private elevator, trusting F.R.I.D.A.Y. to get it where he needed to be. The titanium alloy shell was speckled with red liquid he tried to ignore as the doors closed.

He sighed in relief when he glanced down at himself. The metal casing had thankfully kept him clean, albeit for a few snags on the new Armani jacket from a few sharp edges he'd been meaning to sand down and refined. But still,, no blood. Relatively stable and put together.. Satisfied he wouldn't scare the kid, he made his way to another elevator. In silence he took it to the residential suite.

Tony didn't know what state he had expected Peter to be in, but his heart managed to do an unbalanced dance upon seeing the teenager standing in the middle of the floor covered in blood. The young superhero must have come through the side window. Red drops of liquid tracked to where he was standing on the hardwoods, right at the edge of the carpet. He'd ripped the mask off. The material was gripped in his hands, but streaks of dried blood where his fingers had touched his face glared angrily on his pale skin. Tears rimmed his eyes and dark patches of blood stained his suit.

The billionaire pushed dark thoughts back into his mind. Logically he knew, after what he had just seen, that the teenager was physically fine. Unharmed. F.R.I.D.A.Y. had told him three times already upon questioning, but it was a little jarring to see him look so injured and defeated. It certainly was going to be a new introduction in his already vicious roundup of nightmares.

Peter wiped his cheeks; Tony wished he hadn't. The kid already looked like he'd spider crawled backwards out of a horror movie. "Is he okay?" he rushed out, brown eyes wide.

Right out of the gate with the hard questions, Tony thought with a grimace. "You need to get cleaned up," he deflected. He jerked his head toward the bathroom, stepping forward. "Come on. You can use my shower."

Peter didn't fall for it and dug his heels in the ground, refusing to follow. "Is he okay?" he repeated.

The man sighed softly. Should he lie, or just rip the band aid off? The guy they'd brought in was in no means good shape. He'd have to be supernatural to survive. "Things aren't looking good, bud," he decided (Bud? Did he just call him bud?). Peter was too smart for anything else. "He's lost a lot of blood. But Cho just arrived, and if anyone can fix it, it's her."

The teen shook his head. Tears formed in his eyes. "I should've been faster."

"Kid, you did everything you could-"

"No! You weren't there, you didn't see! I just stood there! Watching! Just like- just like with-" he trailed off, eyes focusing on his bloodstained hands. Shit. Shit, that wasn't a visual Tony wanted him to have ingrained into his mind, especially if the guy downstairs... Why hadn't he made him take the suit off and shower immediately? Why couldn't have Peter just kept swinging, ending up at the tower carefree and unharmed?

"Like who, Pete?" he distracted, stepping forward to gently grab the spider's elbow.

"I told myself it'd never happen again," he cried, listlessly following the billionaire towards the bathroom, lost in his own thoughts. He let out a pitiful sob before collapsing. Tony barely caught him, hissing at a sharp pain in his back as he slowly lowered the teenager to the ground.