Spider-Son & Iron Dad one shots

Darkness

Spooktober.29

a/n: this oneshot is short but I really love it, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I liked writing it

Tony often felt like there was darkness inside of him. It clawed and squeezed uncomfortably at his inside, making it hard to breathe most days. But he did breathe, and he got up day after day, because people counted on him and he counted on them. Life goes on, as it does, and so did Tony.

The darkness manifesting in Tony's soul was as clear as ever when he met Peter Parker. It was a desperate plead for help, really, because Tony didn't know anybody else to help him fight and he needed strength. It seemed everybody he could trust no longer needed or wanted him, and all he had to rely on was some new recruit from Queens.

Spider-Man was strength wrapped up in a positive working class hero that just made Tony's life easier, but he wasn't the entirety of the puzzle. His other half was just a teenager, and while Tony really hated the idea of bringing a kid into something he shouldn't need to think about (just as his father did to him), he was, as mentioned before, desperate.

But as Tony got to know the kid, and also as he gradually morphed into somewhat of a father figure to him, he realized that Peter was just as dark as he was, despite packaged as an innocent child who coincidentally knew how to throw a punch that knocked the wind out of Agent James Barnes himself.

Peter hid darkness under bright smiles, but they were tired and rarely met his eyes, even if the corners of said brown eyes would crinkle when he did so. He hid his darkness with a red mask, which became a darker shade of red every night.

He hid his pain well. But Tony has known him for two years now, and he knows.

Tony knows when his kid is about to break. He can see it when Peter will trudge into the lab, not saying anything at all. His eyes would be watery but he wouldn't let himself cry, the tears staying painfully at bay before his eyelashes.

Peter would sit down, his entire body tense, and his breathing shallow, and he would just sit there for a moment, silent, waiting without knowing what for.

"Kid?" Tony would ask. "You alright?"

He would know the answer, and it would be proven by the way Peter stumbles for words for a moment as he stares helplessly back at Tony, and then the tears would fall down his face and he just shakes his head, the words not coming out.

Tony would hug him, because nothing else comes to mind when your kid is breaking in front of you. He would hug him, and he would want nothing more than to take all of Peter's pain away and put it on his own shoulders.

He knows he would take on Peter's grief any day, wholeheartedly and without a glimpse of a second thought. He knows this as easily as he knows the sun rises at dawn. He could carry the weight for both of them if it means that his kid would suffer less.

But he cannot carry anybody else's darkness but his own. This is how the world works, breathing in suffering for all the ways you can or cannot help, but breathing all the same. So Tony keeps hugging him, hoping that one day life will be kind enough to the both of them.

For now, Peter has Tony, and Tony has his kid, and that's all they can use for the fight against the darkness within themselves.

Nobody said they must fight alone.

So they don't.