"Why did you tell him?" Tony hissed.

"I had to." replied the voice of Nick Fury, void of any feeling.

"He was stabbed! And do you know why?" Seeing The Tony Stark so petrified was a rare sight, how he was trying to hold together the complete horror for what happened on that roof last night, how his eyes were shining that petrifying glare that showed just how much the man with supposedly no heart cared about Peter Parker-Stark.

"Because you made him believe that there is something out there chasing him, tracking him, just to make him fall into a trap. You made him believe that there was a pattern in the crime rate, in where it was happening, that there was one person behind it all. You made him have a panic attack in the middle of a street, because you were only concerned about the case and not Spider-Man himself, you don't care if he has PTSD, that bringing back memories of Titan and Thanos gives him panic attacks, you don't care about it, if it means getting the job done. He was so obsessed by figuring out a pattern, that he was completely oblivious in the face of the obvious. That someone was indeed behind him, waiting with a fucking knife, to stab him!" Tony was shaking with anger, spitting out words just to shake any meaning into Nick Fury, who was just standing, taking in Stark's words stoically.

"I'll tell you one more thing, Nick." now the sudden change of tone in Tony's voice did make Nick raise his head and look the billionaire right in the eye. Tony had all the pain written across his face, the possibility of loosing his child stabbing him right in the heart,

"I'll tell you one last thing. I don't care if you have anything else prepared for him, but know one thing, if you touch my kid again, there will be someone else you'll be dealing with." and that sentence held so much feeling, that it even struck Nick Fury in the chest, tearing down the many barriers he guarded his stone-cold heart with. And with that, Tony Stark turned away and entered the building, not looking back once more.

                                              *

Steve was sitting in the living-room for the most part of the day, as did the rest of the team upon hearing what happened to Peter. After Peter had been transported to the med-bay and had the wound stitched, only Tony and Pepper were allowed to see the boy.

The team waited. And waited. And it felt like forever. The hand of the clock seemed to be frozen, every few seconds you could see one of them looking up to check the time.

The tense silence was interrupted with Steve's phone text alert. It was Pepper.

Pepper: Pete woke up. Tony sat with him throughout the entire eight hours of Peter sleeping. We've got a really critical situation. Tony burst out of that room, and I didn't know where he went. Peter cried. I wanted to come in but next thing I know he's asleep. I don't know what to do. Peter woke up five minutes ago and he's asking for Tony. He's gone, and things are really tense. Peter's panicking, he said he's not worth us, you know how he gets, Steve just help please. I think Tony told him something. Can you please come?

Steve: Be there in two.

Peter had teary, red eyes, hugging his knees to his chest, Pepper massaging his back.
Steve had no idea what he was doing and why. He entered the room, Pepper signalling to him that she will leave. The man sat on Peter's bed, waiting for Peter to raise his head and catch eye contact, as the boy was visibly avoiding it.

After five minutes of uncomfortable silence, Steve decided that it was time to break it.

"You gonna tell me what happened?" Steve asked, facing the wall in front of him. There was no response for another two minutes.

"Which part?" came the response in a barely hearable mutter.

"The one which explains why Tony is nowhere to be found, working himself up God knows where, probably self-deprecating for what an asshole he sometimes is with a glass of scotch." Steve replied. That did make Peter raise his head.

"Why do you blame him?" came the question, "I got stabbed because of my own stupidity, made you guys go and track down some random villains way below your pay-grade, just because I was too stupid to realise that this could be resolved quicker with everyone actually working together, and me actually telling you guys where I am going at 1:00a.m. with Karen deactivated. I have a panic attack, because some stupid obsession triggered my PTSD. I then get stabbed, because obviously whatever was trying to catch me, was waiting for the perfect moment, and stupid me was giving them an early Christmas. And then MJ helps me, Dad comes, I arrive here, you guys track them down and all is well, except the fact, that it's all my fault, again! And it's my goddamn fault that my Dad's injured and mad at me, probably hating me for-"

"Yeah, that's the part were you stop, Peter, and breathe." Steve interrupted, resting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it. Peter looked up at him, searching meaning in Steve's eye, with those big, brown, watery eyes, that beg for forgiveness.

"What am I supposed to do, Steve?" Peter whispered, gulping.

"I told you before why Tony acts like he does. He loves you more than anything, and he can't watch you suffer, and he would rather have you on constant watch than let you out every night, praying for you to be safe and return home in one piece. You never saw how Tony dissociates when you're out spidermaning, he can't focus on anything, he can't function with the thought that something might be happening to you. We never told you, but the first night you got back to Spider-Man after Thanos, he had a panic attack and we just couldn't calm him down. And he has every right to be mad."

"I screwed up pretty bad, partly because I can't control myself whenever I hear someone mention any threat."

"That's Fury's fault, Peter. You can not blame yourself for the panic attack, because Nick should not have told you about the threat in the first place, knowing well enough how these things trigger you. There is nothing that excuses him." Steve said.

"But it's only my fault in the end, and I don't blame Director Fury for the accident." Peter replied, "nobody should."

Steve snickered under his breath, to which Peter raised his head in confusion.

"Try telling that to your dad."

"He blames me. I'm an idiot for even wanting to fight alone and trying to hide it from you."

Steve smiled warmly at the teen.

"You're probably grounded for life, but I have to tell you that Fury is already rotting away on the moon, rethinking his life choices." the man said standing up, smiling at Peter.

And when the man left, Peter jumped out of bed, grabbed his phone from his bedside table, opened the window and escaped outside and onto the rooftop of Avengers Tower, where he sat, shivering in the cool breeze of nighttime New York.

A floor below him was probably the team, waiting restlessly for any news about him, awaiting Steve to come back up and update them about his state.

Ten minutes past. Twenty. He found he received thirty texts five missed calls from MJ, and one voicemail he only bothered to open because he needed to know if his girlfriend and best friend are totally furious with him or just concerned. He was a fool to think that it was just the latter.

He tentatively pressed the voicemail, taking in a deep breath of fresh air, and squinting as the movement caused him pain.

"Peter, you complete and utter idiot with no brain, we know what happened from Pepper and why exactly I found you DYING on a rooftop and had to somehow keep you ALIVE, and you better promise me that this was the last time I did that, because the amount of stress I had to suffer(...)"

And Peter paused the voicemail, not wanting to hear a second more of how he disappointed his friends. 

Thirty minutes past, and Peter was sure they had to realise by now that he wasn't in his bed.

Forty minutes, and the silence was interrupted with his phone ringing. He didn't even tense, as he was expecting this. But when he looked down at the caller ID, a shiver ran down his spine. His fingers curled tighter against his phone, and as his heart began to thump faster, his finger hesitantly pressed the green "call" button.

He closed his eyes awaiting...

he really wasn't expecting anything, he tried to hide his emotions as far away from the surface as he could. 

There came no response from the phone, as the simple "hi" came from behind him. He turned around to see his dad approaching him. Words were stuck in his throat, and he couldn't even stutter a response. 

He turned around to face the other way, as he could feel his eyes betraying him, as he felt the resemblance of a tear crossing down his cheek.

"Feeling alright?" Tony asked. Peter shivered. He liked to tell himself that it was just because of the chilliness in the air. Peter's face was stone cold, his mouth closed shut, not letting out one word that could possibly betray his pact with his goddamn emotions. He went for the easy way round, he nodded his head, that completely didn't reflect the truth.

Peter didn't look at Tony as the man sat down next to him over the edge, legs dangling over the building. He felt Tony's gaze on him for a while, but the man soon realised that the boy was feeling uncomfortable.

"You're probably excepting me to yell, but I already did a fair deal of that for now." Tony said. Peter didn't reply.

"It's not Fury's fault." Peter muttered, his voice hoarse. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tony raise his eyebrows.

"Well, considering how he totally ignored the fact that he triggered your PTSD, knowing perfectly well that it will affect you, you are saying that you had complete control over what you were doing?" Tony asked. Something boiled inside Peter. Some unfairness. His dad was more than mad a few hours ago, and now he was saying it wasn't his fault?

"That's not what you thought a few hours ago." Peter said, far colder than he intended it to sound. Tony sighed.

"And then I checked your suit, which shouldn't have been deactivated in the first place, and guess what elevated heart rate to Mount Everest, shaking, a panic attack in the middle of a street, just ten minutes before you were stabbed. And I am as sure as hell furious you even thought about working alone, but triggering you?" Tony exclaimed. There came no instant response from the teen.

"Why did he do it?" Peter asked after a moment, knowing perfectly well that Tony knew the answer. The billionaire looked his way, something between a puzzled glance and a look of concern on his face.

"He's testing you."

Tony was evidently picking his words carefully.

"For what?"

"He needs to know if you're reliable."

"But why him? It's not really his business, is it? And even if, I'm not really scoring high for now."

Tony smiled, which made Peter frown.

"You're going to lead the team one day, Spider-boy. When we are old and dead and rotting somewhere, or hopefully retired. We will need some fresh blood in our place. And anyways, keep  scoring low, that's what gives you points from Fury."

"That's like weird."

"He is weird."

Peter was too stunned after what he heard from his dad, to give any intelligible response. 

Tony stood up and left the boy.

"And by the way kid, you're grounded!"

Peter smiled, head down, staring at the street below him. He just couldn't quite wrap his head around why his dad sounded so happy. This wasn't Tony Stark at all. Peter knew the real Stark, the one that liked Star Wars and other Disney movies, the one that drank hot chocolate when he had nightmares, the one that cried at sad movies, the one that hugged and loved, and wore sweatpants and sang Highway to Hell... yet this just wasn't Tony Stark...

Or maybe this was his dad's way of coping with pain? Maybe it was so well hidden that just a smile could hide Tony's true face even before Peter himself? Maybe he was already so broken that a smile was easier to show than a true face of a broken person? 

And Peter couldn't let this facade last any longer. If he was the source of his dad's pain, if he made his dad suffer, than he couldn't let that happen, he couldn't let Tony Stark suffer because of him.

Another tear rolled down his cheek. He didn't even try to stop the next ones.

(A/N:) this is getting really emotional, I can't deal with this. I'm trying to cope here. So much drama, I just love writing this, I literally have no clue why I love torturing Pete and Tony. I'll TRY to make the next chapter happier, but no promises. I just watched an edit of Tony Stark suffering after Infinity War, and I just had to write something about him dealing with pain.

My Spanish classes are so boring, I just fill my notebook with chapter drafts...fellow writers you know what I mean.

Anyways, I hope you liked it!