**First time I've done one of these, haha! *nervously looks at the readers* okay so give me any feedback you have please... Thank you! I hope you enjoy it! It's super long, like over 6,000 words, I am so sorry!**

5 times Peter Parker failed to be careful, and the one time Tony did.

~1~

Ned and Peter made their way downtown, to a comic shop that was having a special Star Wars event. Ned, ever the prequel fan, was dressed like Jar Jar Binks, while Peter was decked out in a replica Mandalorian outfit.

"Meesa has a problem," Ned said, imitating Jar Jar's squeaky voice.

Peter scrunched up his face. "I don't think I like that, dude, can we just talk like normal people?"

"No, no, no," Ned squeaked, shaking his head and hands. "Isa how meesa speaks!"

"I will leave right now."

"Sorry, okay, I'll stop," Ned said, dropping the voice. "I was just gonna say you took off your helmet and that's a huge no-no."

Peter laughed. "I had to see where I was going, dude, the way or not."

The two laughed at that for a bit, smiling at one another. It was a only a few more blocks until the comic store, and they quickly started chattering about the new Lego set coming out later that month and fan theories about the upcoming movie.

Peter's sense flared suddenly, and he reacted without thinking. Ned felt Peter's hands on his back, then he was falling onto hard pavement, barely catching himself with his hands.

There was a squealing of tires, then a horrible, sickening crunch. A car had jumped the curb, and Peter was caught between the front bumper and the brick wall behind him.

"Peter!" Ned pushed himself up and rushed over to his friend while a crowd began to form around them. Someone was calling 911, another was trying to get the driver of the car out of the crumpled space behind the wheel.

"Peter, can you hear me?" Ned knew there was no need to shout, Peter would hear him. The other teen nodded, his head lolling slightly.

"Where's the pain?"

"'m stomach." Peter whimpered as he took a breath. It had been quite a while since he'd been this badly hurt. Sure, stabbings and shootings and a few fractures or scrapes were common, but being crushed like this? This was unusual and definitely hurt the most.

"Karen, I need diagnostics."

The AI went to work, and Ned got a text not a minute later.

Karen: Peter sustained several injuries, including a fractured sternum, punctured lung, severe crush injuries in the abdominal cavity, and a shrapnel injury to the right thigh. I am also picking up a concussion.

Ned swore to himself softly. "Peter, you're gonna be fine."

There was another text, this time with vital signs. Ned scanned them quickly.

"It's not nearly as bad as that warehouse incident, but I wanna get you out of there and to Bruce, okay? Can you move at all?"

Peter nodded, taking a shallow breath. His eyes found Ned's, and they shared a moment of silent communication. There was a time and place for secret identities, but right now, Peter needed to get out of there. Peter put his hands on the bumper of the car and pushed.

The sound of scraping metal was piercing and Peter almost lost consciousness because of it. Damn enhanced hearing.

Ned watched patiently. He didn't need a lot of space, just enough to get him out of there and onto the flat ground. After a few minutes, there was just enough space, and Ned scrambled over the hood of the car.

"You shouldn't do that, you should wait for the para-" Ned cut the man off.

"I know you mean well, but I know what I'm doing."

There was a handful of people now watching the two teens, concerned for the one smashed between the car and the bricks.

"Arms," Ned said, and Peter lifted his arms like a child waiting to be picked up.

Ned put his own arms around his friend's chest, desperately trying to ignore the feeling of blood soaking through his shirt, and lifted.

Peter grunted in pain as his friend carried him over the hood of the car. Another bystander came forward to help Ned lower Peter's legs onto the ground.

"Thanks," Peter whispered to the man.

Ned didn't bother with formalities and instead focused on a makeshift tourniquet made from a strip of his costume and Peter's Mandalorian weapon, which had been broken in the crash.

He tightened it around Peter's thigh, then pulled out the shrapnel. The bystanders gasped, some looking away, others shouting for Ned to wait for professionals.

When the metal was out, Ned shoved 2 fingers into his friend's leg, looking for the artery and vein around the femur.

"Good news, Pete, nothing was severed."

Peter gave a half-hearted thumbs up.

Just then, there was the sound of sirens in the distance, and Ironman repulsors from above.

"Tony."

"What the hell happened here?" If Ned didn't know how much Tony loved Peter, he would have guessed the billionaire didn't care, but he did know. It's why he picked up that tremor in his voice and the way his hands shook slightly.

Ned looked down at his blood stained costume. "The Mandalorian over here got into an accident while we were headed to the comic shop. He's a little busted up, but I checked the leg, the arteries and veins are clean. Karen says he has crush injuries, though."

The older man sighed heavily. "Meet you at the tower, then."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter blinked confusedly in the light. There was the sound of a chair scraping and Tony's face came into view. "Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me, young man, we have to talk about being more careful."

~2~

Peter swung through the air, the feeling of cool wind and free falling actually making him relax. It was a weird thing, but Peter loved it. He loved feeling free. He loved being out here.

The boy let his body fall towards the ground, barely catching himself before his back grazed the pavement.

"Whooooo- hooooooo!"

Pedestrians stopped to watch the boy as he flipped through the air, some smiling, some wincing as he nearly smashed into things.

"Peter," Karen suddenly said. "Tony is requesting you come home. He says you were supposed to come home immediately after school."

Peter sighed. Leave it to Tony to bring down a good mood.

It'd been a long day. One of those days when Peter was feeling overwhelmed and down. Flash had been rough today, rougher than usual, and patrolling like this made Peter feel better.

"Tell Tony I'll be home in a bit, okay?"

The AI confirmed that the message was delivered to the older man, only to say that there was another message from Tony. "He says you will come home in 5 minutes or there won't be another patrol for a week."

Peter huffed, but there wasn't much he could do but head home.

Letting the web he was currently swinging on snap, Peter changed direction suddenly and flicked another web to a building behind him. It was a jerking, sudden change, and the pull on the teen's shoulder was painful, but he ignored it and kept swinging. His bad mood was back.

He wasn't too far from the Tower, but it would take him the full 5 minutes to get there. He saw sunlight glinting off the enormous building in the distance and squinted his eyes. 

"Peter, your web supply is low."

"How low?"

"Dangerously low. My calculations say you only have 3 to 4 more shots before you'll run out."

Peter hummed in response and landed on a roof near by. Looking over the city, the teen tried to calculate how many buildings he'd need to swing from to get to the Tower.

"Should be able to do it in 3," he mumbled, tracking his eyes over the series of buildings he was planning on taking.

"I highly suggest walking, this route is too risky. You'll run out of webs."

That wasn't the answer Spiderman wanted, so he decided to ignore it. Walking to the Tower from here would take much longer than 5 minutes, and he'd be a fool to cross Tony when he was already mad.

The first 2 swings were fine, but the third was thinning. Peter's head snapped up, looking at the Tower coming closer and closer. The web above him was thin and watery.

One more, Peter thought.

He flicked his wrist at the building ahead of him, but nothing came but a short, wisp of webbing. The familiar feeling of free falling didn't spark the usual enjoyment in the teen. Instead, a heavy pit of dread weighed heavily in Peter's stomach as his brain whirled.

Pavement came sooner than Peter expected, and his body was thrown against the ground. Gravel ground through the fabric of the suit and the skin under it.

The teen's skull thwacked against the street as he hit the ground, bouncing slightly and eventually splitting open. Wind was knocked from his lungs.

"-eter. Peter, shall I call Tony?" Karen's voice cut through the ringing in Peter's ears, but he was struggling to focus on what she'd asked.

"Contacting Tony."

There was a moment before the line connected. "Kid, where are you? You have 60 seconds to walk through this lab door before I-"

Peter whimpered, the feeling of hot blood pooling around his cheeks making him uncomfortable.

"Underoos, where are you?"

Peter couldn't do much more than cry softly.

"Karen?"

The AI informed Tony of Peter's location, which happened to be less than a block away from the Tower. It took Tony a few minutes to get out there, but once he saw the familiar red and blue spandex, he sprinted down the block.

"Kiddo, what happened?"

Peter's head lolled to the side, and Tony pulled him into his lap.

"Peter, please," the billionaire whispered.

"Not enough webs. Tried to get home on time, but I didn't have enough."

Tony took a breath, hauling the boy up and into his arms. He needed to get hime to the med bay in the Tower and soon.

"Pete, we're going to have to talk about being careful with your webs, k? And maybe keep some extra in your bag."

~3~

The ticking of the clock above the receptionist's desk was louder than normal in the small, quiet office. Peter hated the sound, naturally. Repetitive and sharp, boring into his brain like a screw.

It was hardest to deal with these sounds, especially with super hearing. It was a thousand times louder, and a thousand times more annoying, than it would have been to anyone else.

Peter sighed, slumping in the seat he was in. He hated waiting for the principal, mostly because of the ticking and the looks from the receptionist and the absolutely horrid smell of office carpet.

"Mr. Parker." The principal called from his open office door. "Please come in."

The teen made his way down the hall and towards the office, his bag dragging lightly over the floor.

"Take a seat."

Peter took a seat behind the hard, wood desk, the rough fabric of the cushion sending shivers up his spine.

"Let's talk about Flash, okay?" Peter nodded. "I heard some of the teachers talking about an incident that happened last week. Now, they say Flash pushed you, but Flash said you pushed him first." Peter nodded.

"So you pushed Flash before he pushed you?"

Peter shrugged. The principal sighed.

"Peter, I am trying to help you. I know you've had a hard time lately, and with the rumors going around about you coming in with black eyes and stuff-"

Peter's head shot up at that. "It's not anything bad."

The principal raised an eyebrow. "Peter, being hit, either at home or in school, isn't okay. We need to talk about this. Is someone at home hitting you?"

Peter shook his head rapidly. "Absolutely not."

"Then it's Flash?"

Peter shook his head again, this time slower. "No, he's not-"

"It's one or the other, unless you have a significant other in the mix."

Peter looked at the man in front of him and breathed deeply. "I have an internship. Through it, I meet a lot of highly wanted and highly dangerous individuals. I've been taking self-defense but I'm not very-"

"You don't have an internship at Stark Industries, Peter, I called this morning and they didn't have you in the intern system."

Peter shook his head. "Sir, I have an internship, I just-"

"That's enough! I spoke with the company, you don't work there! I spoke with your teachers, you are constantly missing classes and coming in late. You've had multiple incidents with Flash, for whatever reason, and Ned refuses to say anything about the whole situation without you in the room. You're constantly coming in with bruises and cuts, and the gym teacher said you brought in a note for broken ribs a month ago."

"You pulled Ned into this?" Peter asked, outrage clear in his voice. "This doesn't involve him!"

"He knows you and your living situation best, of course I wanted to talk to him."

Peter huffed, but the principal cut him off. "I'll make it easy. Yes or no only. Are you being bullied?"

Peter shook his head.

"Are you being abused at home by someone close to you?"

"No."

"Are you lying about your Stark Internship to cover up something else, maybe a gang or something? You are gone a lot."

"Absolutely not! I promise, I have a very good reason for all of it, I just can't tell you."

"You are going to tell me right now, or we're going to call your guardian and the police."

"No!" Peter's hands shook slightly. "No, sir, I am telling you. I am safe and fine, there's nothing-"

Hands met hard wood with a slap and Peter flinched back. "Peter, I'm done with this conversation, I'm calling your guardian and the school resource officer."

"No, please, I can tell you what's going on, but I just-"

The principal picked up the phone, and Peter panicked. Without thinking, he flicked his wrist at the phone, and webs covered the man's hand in a second.

Mortia and Peter made eye contact, each one not saying anything. The older man slowly lowered his hand to put the phone back on the receiver, but the webs prevented him from putting it down all the way.

"Peter, are you-"

The teen didn't wait for anything else, just grabbed his bag and ran. Super speed gave him quite the advantage over the school's resource officer and the principal. He ran towards a near ally and shot a web up to a nearby roof. He just needed some time to think, some time to relax, some time to come up with a plan. Putting his hands over his eyes, Peter rocked back and forth slowly.

His phone rang, startling him out of his thoughts. Karen announced she was answering the call, because someone had put in an override code.

"Peter?" Mr. Stark's voice was soft and gentle. "The school just called. The principal said he was a little worried, he said you ran out of the office pretty upset. Can you tell me what happened?"

Peter sniffled for a second, the cold morning air causing his nose to run. "The principal wanted to talk to me about some stuff."

"What stuff?"

Peter shrugged even though Tony couldn't see him. "Stuff. It didn't matter."

"He seemed to think it did," Tony countered. "He invited me down to talk with him, but he wanted me to pick you up first. Where are you?"

"Karen?" The AI sparked to life.

"I'll send Mr. Stark coordinates now."

Tony's phone pinged with the incoming message and he hummed. "You're not far from the school, I'll be there soon"

True to his word, Tony was there soon, and Peter was tucked under the billionaire's arm as he wandered back towards the school.

"m' sorry," he murmured before they headed into the principal's office, and Tony almost asked why the teen would be sorry before his eyes landed on the phone webbed to the principal's hand.

"I see." Tony shut the door. "Principal Mortia, I am Tony Stark, Peter's guardian."

The principal tried to not look too star struck. "Hello, I would shake your hand, but..." The man trailed off, gesturing to his webbed up hand. Peter groaned.

"I am so sorry, sir, I was panicking and you said you were going to call the police, but I-" Tony cut the teen off.

"Peter here caught my eye a year and a half ago, Mr. Mortia. I invited him to the Tower to act as an intern, but he quickly worked his way up the ranks and now helps me personally run the Avenger's tech development."

The principal's mouth hung open for a moment.

"You have a very incredible student, here, sir." Peter did a double take, he couldn't recall the last time Tony had used 'sir' in a genuine manner. "After he developed a new Captain America shield, he was introduced to Spiderman, and the two hit it off.

"He was asked recently to redesign Spidey's web shooters, and has been wearing them to test comfort and flexibility. I understand how this could be a danger, but Peter had to test if they went off easily with day to day activities. Unfortunately, Peter has also been training with us at the Tower. He is very valuable and very visible, which makes him a threat. He's trained in hand to hand combat, as well as with the Captain America shield, which he personally tests and uses, and Spiderman's web shooters, which he practices with to test accuracy, distance, and strength.

"As you can imagine, the idea of bringing in law enforcement, who have been known to dislike Spiderman and the Avengers, was stressful, and Peter acted without thinking."

Tony finished his lie, surprisingly calm and collected. Peter was thankful for times like these, when his father and, undoubtedly, Pepper, were able to come up with something in minutes.

"I see," Mortia said. "I didn't understand the situation fully, and this would explain the Tower refusing to disclose his employment."

Peter and Tony both nodded. "I am deeply sorry," the teen said, wringing his hands.

"That's alright, Peter, I understand the stress you must be under now. It still doesn't explain the situation with Flash, though."

Tony turned his head to his son. "Who's Flash?"

"Some kid," Peter shrugged. "He pushed me and Ned around sometimes, but it's nothing."

Tony shot the principal a look. "I'll speak with Flash today, Peter, and we'll make sure he leaves you and your friends alone."

"Thanks."

The billionaire and the teen headed back down the hall, where they shared a quick hug. "Thank you, Dad."

Tony whispered in his son's ear. "No problem, Underoos. Be more careful with the big secret, okay?"

~4~

"Ned, can you get me the nearest Animal Shelter and pull up WikiHow."

The boy on the other end of the coms furrowed his brow. "I'm reading there's a small place on 5th, why?"

"I have a dog here."

Ned laughed. "Leave it to our friendly neighborhood Spiderman to find a stray. What do you need the WikiHow for?"

"Can you get me some steps on how to get a stray dog to come out from under a dumpster or something? I think she might have puppies, she's kind of going crazy."

There was a moment of silence as Ned looked up any helpful information he could find. There wasn't much.

"Oh, here's something!" Ned exclaimed excitedly. "Okay, it says it'll take a bit of time, but to start by remaining as still as possible. Strays can get really scared by sudden movements or noises, so don't call out to them either."

Peter sighed and moved his legs so he was sitting, rather than crouching. He was probably going to be in the ally for a while, and the crouching was starting to hurt both his back and his legs. It wasn't exactly pleasant down on the ground with puddles from last night's rain and he garbage that had spilled from the dumpsters.

The dog didn't really do much of anything at first. She looked pretty skeptical of the teen superhero at first, her eyes tracking every movement he made when sitting down, and her back raised. Peter slowly put his hands up in a mock surrender.

"Hey," he cooed softly. "It's okay."

The dog seemed to back down slightly, but still kept a distrusting eye.

"Hey," Peter said, extending his hand towards the animal. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The dog lunged suddenly and latches onto Peter's hand, startling the young boy. He yelled in surprise and pain, and Ned panicked on the other side of the com.

"Peter? What happened?"

Peter was busy wrestling his hand away from the dog, who was growling. He didn't want to hurt her, of course, but this was making things harder.

"Peter!"

"I'm fine," Peter choked out, finally getting his hand out of the dog's mouth. "I need you to call in an anonymous tip. Say there's a dog in the ally between Washington and Main, k?"

"Okay, did you catch her?"

"Obviously not. I need an expert to catch her."

Ned called it in, and animal control was on their way. Peter swung off with his other hand, his good hand, and headed towards the Tower.

"Okay, new tab, Ned. I need how to treat a possible rabid dog bite."

Ned choked on his drink. "You need what?"

"The dog bit me when I reached out for her."

"I told you to hold still!"

"Well, I thought you meant, like, my body, not my hand. She bit me, but it's not too bad, just a little blood."

Ned sighed, but pulled up the quickest thing he could find about rabid bites. "It says go see a doctor."

"I'm the doctor here," Peter said. "So look up what doctors do."

"You most certainly aren't the doctor."

Peter huffed, but didn't say anything. He could hear Ned typing on his laptop.

"You need to wash the bite, and we'll need a rabies shot," Ned said, his voice calm and low. It was best to remain calm in these type of situations, especially when Peter was determined to take care of himself.

Peter tapped on the window of the Med Bay with a special pattern, which indicated to FRIDAY that it was just him. The window slid open and he tumbled through the window, landing on the floor in a superhero pose.

"Okay, I think we'll probably have that in the med bay. We have just about everything in there."

The teen made his way over to the large cabinet in the corner that held the vials of medications and vaccines Dr. Cho kept in the office. "Rabies... Rabies..." Peter muttered, looking through the cold, glass vials.

"Aha!"

Grabbing the bottle, and a small needle for the shot. He measured out a good dose, making sure there were no bubbles in the syringe. Taking a deep breath, he plunged the needle into his arm and pushed the plunger down. The liquid burned as it entered Peter's system, but the boy shook it off.

"'Kay, I did it. I'm gonna wash up and wrap my hand, I'll text you later tonight," Peter sighed into his com. "Thanks, man."

"Of course." Ned signed off and Peter pulled off his mask. It was relatively easy to wrap his hand so Tony or the others wouldn't see how bad the bite was, but the bandages were a little bulky, and they were sure to notice.

Sure enough, as soon as Peter walked through the living room of the penthouse, he was bombarded with questions. "What happened to the hand, Pete?"

"oh, uh," Peter stalled, looking down at his hand. "I slammed it. In a door."

The team laughed lightly. Peter was known for being clumsy, after all.

"Did you wash it?" Bruce said seriously.

"Yeah, washed and cream and the whole thing." The teen fell onto the couch beside Natasha and Pepper. "How was-"

"What's up with your arm?"

Pepper grabbed the teen's arm, pulling it closer. "Peter! You have hives all over your arm! Did the cream you used make you itchy?"

Bruce got up to inspect the hives. "These look really bad, this is an allergic reaction. What cream did you use?"

Peter's face burned. He knew he had to tell them the truth, but he didn't want to. "Just the normal soap in the Med bay and the cream I use all the time?"

"Is that a question or an answer?"

Peter looked down at his hands.

"I didn't use any cream, I- I- I gave myself a shot."

"A shot?" Pepper's voice raised an octave as she began to check the arm with more intensity. "Why did you give yourself a shot?"

"I got bit." Peter shrugged.

Tony stepped into the living room, concern plastered over his face. "Bit by what, exactly?"

"A stray dog." At those 3 words, the entire team jumped up in panic.

"A stray? Why didn't you come to me or Cho?" Bruce said angrily, hastily undoing Peter's bandages.

"Ned looked up how to treat a rabies bite so I just did what he told me to do."

"Jesus Christ," Natasha said as Bruce unraveled the last of the gauze. The bite was clean, yes, but still bleeding and bright red.

"Okay, we're going upstairs right now, you're clearly having a reaction to the shot and this needs to be stitched in a couple places," Bruce commanded, standing up.

Tony grabbed Peter's shoulder and guided him to the elevator. "Can't you be careful just once? What were you thinking, it was a stray dog!"

Peter smiled sheepishly. "I thought I could help her."

~5~

Peter dodged the hailstorm of bullets and fist flying his way. It was part of the gig, of course, but battles like these, battles where HYDRA operatives poured from the base like hornets from a nest, were worse than all the others. The teen superhero was relying almost entirely on his spider sense to dodge agents, since there were far too many to be keeping track of on his own.

A HYDRA agent sent a well timed and precise punch at the same time another turned to pistol whip the teen and Peter had no chance to dodge the attacks.

He went down heavily, but stayed on his feet enough to spring back up after a second. He launched himself at one of the agents and pulled the gun from their hands. Turning, he shot at the people around him blindly, hoping to hit someone.

Shot after shot after shot, Peter turned and fired the gun. He knew he was missing the majority of the agents, but there were a few agents who hit the ground with dull thuds.

The gun popped as Peter fired the last bullet, and so he tossed it into the air and grabbed the barrel, swinging it around to whip a near agent.

Webs were flying, but Peter was at the advantage now. He had taken out enough of the HYDRA agents to have an upper hand, and it was showing.

Peter webbed the last agent to the opposite wall, taking a moment to catch his breath and look around.

There were agents, bloodied and webbed, scattered around the small room. "Not bad for a little spider, eh?"

Peter looked down at the nearest agent, who glared. "No good?"

Shrugging, Peter jogged out of the room and down the hall, checking each of the rooms he passed as he went.

"Area 3 cleared," he said into his com when he saw that the rooms were all empty. "Who needs some extra hands?"

"Good here," Natasha said.

"I'm fine, Buck's here." Steve's voice crackled slightly.

"Sam here, I'm doing an aerial check. I can't see Tony, does anyone know where he is?"

Peter's heart skipped a beat. "He was in the back."

"I think he went inside, he's not in the back anymore."

Peter launched himself into the air, shooting a web and swinging towards the back of the facility. He saw the back doors hanging on their hinges, bullet holes and singe marks around them.

"Tony?"

Peter crept forward, cautious of any agent who might be in the shadows.

"Tony?"

There was the sound of harsh shots and grunting from a room in the back. Peter slipped through the door and flipped over the doorway, watching the fight. Tony wasn't doing great, but he wasn't losing either.

The older man shot a repulser at one of the HYDRA operatives and he went flying backwards into the wall. Tony spun, firing up another shot.

Peter saw the HYDRA agent, the one who had just been blasted into the wall, stood up. A glint of light reflected off his gun as he raised it at Tony, and Peter, who couldn't get his mouth to work as fast as his body did, dove in front of the barrel.

Tony heard the shot go off. He shook his head as he tried to shake the ringing out of his mind, but he was failing. There was something wrong, something different, something... he didn't feel it. No pain. No impact. The bullet never hit him.

Tony spun, already fearing the worst. There, on the ground, a puddle of blood pooling around him, was his kid. Peter.

"Back up now, area 7, I need all hands on deck."

"Kinda busy here, Stark," Clint said.

"Sorry, we're finishing up some agents but we'll be there soon," Steve said.

"No, I need back up now," Tony pleaded, tears blurring his vision. "Peter is down."

Natasha was the first one to show up for Tony, immediately flying into action and taking down HYDRA operatives.

"Get him to the jet," she called over the noise. "We'll take care of this and meet you back at the Tower."

Tony didn't need to be told twice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter woke up slowly, light blinding his vision and a sharp beeping hammering a headache into his skull.

"Loud. Bright."

In an instant, the lights were off, and the beeping quieted. There was a shift of weight on the bed.

"Hey, Underoos."

A calloused hand carded through Peter's unruly curls.

"Hi, Tony. Are you okay?"

The billionaire chuckled. "Peter, I'm fine. Why did you do it?"

Peter opened his eyes fully, looking up at his mentor. "I couldn't let you get hurt. Not when I was there to shot it. If something happened to you, and I'm there, that's on me."

Tony didn't bother wiping away stray tears. He pulled Peter in for a hug. "Just be more careful on missions, okay?"

"Okay."

~+1~

The team were slumped against the soft couches of the penthouse, their bodies sore and tired from working out. Tony grabbed the remote and tossed it to Rhodey, who snatched it out of the air easily and turned on the news.

"-To Veronica with the weather."

"Thanks, Marcus. We're looking at a dry week, but temperatures should..."

Everyone groaned. It had been an extremely cold winter, but the dryness of the month had been driving everyone crazy. The best part of winter was the snow and all the fun that went with it.

"When's Peter out of school?" Bucky asked, getting up to get a snack.

Tony checked his watch. "Around 3. He'll be home late, though, he's going to a movie with Ned."

Bucky hummed. "The new Star Wars?"

"You know it."

Natasha, who had gone straight to her room after the mission, came out into the living space, clad in a red and black plaid onesie. "Where's Peter?"

"School. He's going to see a movie afterwards, too, so he won't be home till dinner."

Natasha huffed. "I was going to suggest a movie night with pajamas."

"Aren't those the pajamas Peter gave you for Christmas? The matching ones?"

Natasha nodded curtly, refusing to show any sign of embarrassment. "Tony has a pair, too."

The team laughed lightly, but one look from the billionaire shut them up. It was no secret that every single one of them would wear pajamas from Peter, regardless of how silly they might look.

The weather girl was stepping off the screen by now, so Rhodey turned the news back up and watched as they talked about the new shelter being opened in Brooklyn. It was nice to see good things, of course, but it was even nicer for the superheroes. Being surrounded by death and evil made them anxious. Good news was hard to find in their line of work.

The news kept going, some good, some bad. At some point, Steve had offered to make lunch for everyone, which was more than appreciated. Tony had decided that Natasha had the right idea, so he'd donned his red and black plaid onesie as well.

Wanda was having her hair braided by Bucky, her eyes glued to her phone. Clint was asleep on the couch, and Sam was perched over him with a marker, attempting to give him a face tattoo of a butterfly.

"And now to Chris who's reporting live from downtown."

"Thanks, breaking news here tonight as a raging fire breaks out and envelops half of the block within the first 10 minutes."

Rhodey's head snapped up, and he gasped. Tony glanced over.

"That looks serious."

"Tony." There was something in the man's voice that broke Wanda from her phone, pulled Bucky from his handiwork, and made Natasha drop her glass.

"Hey, that's hardwood in there," Tony said with a scoff. "What's going-"

The billionaire's eyes fell on the screen, where the movie theater down the street was burning. Everything from that point on felt like it happened in slow motion.

Tony dropped his plate, pieces of ceramic shooting across the floor.

Steve didn't remember leaving the fridge open when he ran out of the kitchen, but when the team made it back to the Tower hours later, the fridge would be wide open, the cheese drawer still pulled out.

Wanda didn't feel her hair fall out of the braid when Bucky stood up, nor did she notice the snap of her phone screen breaking when she dropped it.

Clint bolted up at the sound of so many things breaking, but as soon as he saw the TV, he seemed to shake all thoughts of sleep out of his head. He didn't even notice the streak of black ink across his cheek from when Sam dropped the pen.

Bruce let his sandwich fall from his hands, the bread and cheese and meat spilling over Tony's couch.

Tony made it to the theater first. Clad in nothing but his onesie pajamas, he pushed passed police and first responders and firemen.

Steve tried to grab him, but he slipped through the super soldier's hands and dove into the flames. Natasha tried to follow him, but Clint and Wanda held her back as she screamed and cried.

"Peter!" Tony yelled through the smoke, his eyes dilating rapidly to see through the hazy air. His lungs burned, but he ignored it. There was only one person in this building who mattered right now.

The man pushed through the theater doors, white hot metal scalding his hands.

"Peter!"

"Mr. Stark!" It was Ned.

"Kid, where's Peter? You gotta get out of here!"

Ned coughed as he nodded rapidly. "Peter was helping people get out, he ran into another theater. I- I- I- " He tried to push through a fit of coughing at the end, but it was clear he was struggling.

"Ned, I'll find Pete. Just get out. Bruce and the others are outside."

Ned nodded and struggled to his feet. Tony grabbed his arm. "I'll take you out."

"No," Ned chocked out, pushing the man away. "I can do it, just go get Peter."

The billionaire nodded, watching as the teen stumbled out into the main hall.

"Peter!"

It was 2 theaters down when Tony found his son, stuck under a burning support beam.

"Underoos!"

The teen looked up. "I was trying to help... The beam..."

Tony looked around the teen, noticing that his leg was trapped. "Peter, I'm going to lift this and get you out, okay?"

Peter shook his head. "You're not in your suit. You'll get hurt."

Tony shook his head. "Not your concern, buddy, on three now."

The older man counted to three and lifted with as much strength he could given the burning heat. Peter scooted out from under the beam with a grimace. Tony set the beam back down, then pulled Peter's arm around his shoulders.

"Come on, the team is outside."

The two hobbled through the almost entirely destroyed theater, the flames and heat and smoke making them sweat and cough and burn. Tony could see the doors when he heard the first crack.

A beam from over the lobby fell, nearly taking down Peter's head. Tony looked up, only to see rubble falling throughout the entire place. Picking up the pace, he hauled Peter up on his side a little more and tried to make it to the doors.

They were so close.

He could feel the cool breeze.

He could hear Natasha's excited yell.

He could feel the heat from above.

He could feel Peter's weight crash against him as a beam pinned them both.

"Nat!!"

Tony screamed as loud as he could, the fleece of his pajamas melting into his body.

"Natasha, get him!"

The red-head sprinted forward as Tony pushed the beam up, and she dragged the teen out from the inferno.

"No!" Peter screamed and protested. "No! No, Natasha, no! Dad!"

And then the entire building came down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dull beeping of the heart monitor was somehow soothing to Peter now. He'd been in the room for days, watching and waiting for Tony to wake up.

The burns he sustained had already healed, but Ned and Tony were still pretty badly injured.

"Please," Peter whispered, his hands clasped over Tony's. "Please wake up."

There was a slight stir. Hardly noticeable. But to Peter, it was everything. After a few minutes, there was another, this time Tony jerked his hand.

A small squeeze.

A soft groan.

"Dad."

Tony opened his eyes lazily. Chocolate irises turned to Peter, and the teen let out a shakey, tear choked laugh.

"Hey."

"Hey," Tony rasped back.

"We're going to have to talk about you being more careful," Peter said, his eyes twinkling.

Tony scoffed. "I was being heroic, I think."