#15 with Irondad (platonic, of course)
Prompt: meeting in the E.R/A&E au. DO NOT TAG AS ST*RKER.
When Rhodey gets hurt, Tony doesn't know what to do.
It was so sudden. Rhodey was testing the experimental armour Tony was making for the military and had invited him to see. "If anyone deserves to be there, it's you," he'd told him, and Tony had grinned and seen his best friend fly. But then something went wrong, and now his best friend might die.
He thinks he might throw up.
He doesn't remember the ambulance arriving, or answering any question, but at some point they must reach the hospital, because he blinks and he's sitting on a hard, plastic chair, and really, who makes these? They're ridiculously uncomfortable, and remind him all too much of the bench he was sitting on before the accident. He breathes, hauling air into his lungs, and blinks again. He's back at the hospital, but Tony himself isn't quite there. His head feels weirdly foggy. Everything he was feeling a moment ago - fear, anger, guilt, pain - is gone, replaced with cool emptiness.
He isn't really sure how much time passes until Pepper gets there. All of a sudden, she's just standing in front of him, repeating his name, over and over again. Her eyes are red. "Tony? Tony, are you there?"
"Hey, Pep," he greets her, his voice rough. Her shoulders slump, a little less tense at the sound of his voice. He gestures to the seat next him, but it's like someone else is controlling his body. "Sit down. You look tired."
She looks up again and searches his face. She doesn't seem to find what she's looking for. "Okay," Pepper agrees carefully, sitting down next to him. She pulls something out of a bag she's carrying - how did he not notice that before? - and holds it up for him to see. "It's that weighted blanket we got. I'm going to put it around both of us. I think it'll help."
Help with what? he wants to ask, but he can't seem to form the words, so he settles for a nod. A moment later, a gentle weight settles on him as Pepper drapes the blanket on them. He can feel its weight on his body, but it’s less faint than he would’ve expected.
A second later, her hand slips into his. Normally, he'd be surprised - they've been dancing around each other for a while now - and it's there, but it's buried deep, deep inside him. The warmth brings him a bit back to himself, though, and he manages to squeeze her hand, letting his head flop onto her shoulder.
They sit there together for a while, and at some point, a woman comes and speaks quietly to Pepper. He doesn't bother to listen, eyes drifting around the room. There's a handful of other people there, but only one catches his attention.
He's a teenager, with wild brown curls and big brown eyes. His face is flushed, his cheeks marred with tear tracks, and he's sitting all alone, looking impossibly small in his over sized hoodie, which makes Tony feel a pang of something. Before he can do something stupid like go over and introduce himself - "Hi, I'm that really famous genius billionaire Tony Stark, nice to meet you!" - Pepper comes back.
"He'll live," she tells him, and a weight he hadn’t even known he’d been carrying disappears from his shoulders. "He's still in surgery, but his condition is stable, but..." She hesitates. "He'll be paralyzed from the waist down, Tony, I don't - he might not ever walk again."
What little emotional stability he might have gained in the past couple of hours immediately disappears, but even then, the panic is and guilt is far away. Good. Those will just distract him. "Might," Tony notes. "You said might."
"Well." Pepper shifts. "The doctors didn't really say anything about that, but...it's you. I know you, Tony. You're a genius, and I know you'll do everything you can to help Rhodey walk again. I don't know if it's possible, but there's always hope."
He nods. After that, he starts to drift again. He knows that they discuss having a press conference, and how to tell the public. Pepper leaves, because as much as she hates it, she has work to do. Before leaving, she pulls him up and hugs him tightly. "Don't blame yourself, Tony," she whispers in his ear. "I'll come back as soon as I can. Try to come back for me, okay?"
And then she's gone, leaving him alone with the blanket and mildly confused. Come back? He's right here.
Again, as he settles down, his gaze comes back to rest on the teenager from before. He looks so alone...scared...
Before he can convince himself not to, Tony gets up and plops down next to the kid, pulling the blanket a little tighter around himself. The kid who barely even reacts, except for shuffling away a little, and he frowns. "Hey, kid. You okay?"
The boy looks up, clearly startled. His red-tinged eyes widen even more when they land on his face. "I - wait, oh my god, you're - you're Tony Stark!"
"Yup. That's me. Tony Stark." He attempts a half-hearted smile, but it takes a lot of effort. More than it should. "You got a name?"
The boy looks away, chewing his lip. "Peter Parker," he says, after a moment, and Tony nods.
"Okay. What are you here for?" A moment later, he realizes how that sounds. "Wait. No, I didn't - that was rude, sorry, kid. You don't need to answer."
"It's fine," the kid - Peter - mumbles, toying with the end of his sweater. His brief burst of enthusiasm seems to have faded, and Tony wants to feel bad about that, but he stills feels pretty floaty. His head feels like it's full of static. In an attempt to clear it, he tries to start up a conversation.
"So," Peter echoes. After a moment, he speaks again. "Can I ask why you're here? I mean, like, why you're sitting next to me? Because you're really awesome and smart and May told me you were pretty nice and helped her carry her groceries the one time she met you, but I'm kind of just a nobody, so? Can I ask?"
"Technically, you already asked," he points out. Having a conversation is hard. It's taking up a lot of his energy, but that's fine. He's used to pretending to be in perfect condition while actually dying inside.
Peter flushes. "Oh, I - sorry, I didn't-"
"You're fine, kiddo," he says, waving it off. "And to answer your question, I dunno. I guess you just seemed like you could use someone to talk to."
"Oh," the teenager says quietly, looking away. He's made sweater paws with his hoodie, Tony notices. He finds it ridiculously adorable.
They sit together in silence. It's not exactly a comfortable silence, but it isn't awkward, either, so he counts that as a win. Several times, Peter takes in a breath like he's about to say something, but he stays quiet. He doesn't mention it. If the kid wants to say something, he'll tell him when he wants to. Besides, it's nice having him sitting there. His presence grounds him, a little, and it clears the fog in his head a little.
"It's my aunt," Peter blurts out, after a couple of moments, when he's starting to drift again. Tony startles, looking at him.
"You asked. Why I was here." Peter avoids his eyes, staring at his hands. The sweater paws are gone, and the sleeves are hiding his hands, but he gets the feeling that they're clenched in fists. "It's because of my Aunt May. She got - we were driving home. Someone crashed into us. She was hurt really badly, and - and usually I would've hailed a taxi-" Usually? "-but there was so much blood, and her body was in this weird shape, and - and-"
Peter buries his face into his hands, and with a start, he realizes that he's crying, and has a brief moment of panic. He has no idea what to do with a crying child, not until he remembers Jarvis's soft hand rubbing slow circles in his back after a fight with Howard, and later, Rhodey holding him and running a hand through his hair on bad days in MIT. Hesitantly, he reaches out and presses his hand between the kid's shoulder blades.
For a second, Peter stiffens, and he experiences the full spectrum of negative emotions, but then he practically melts into his side, crying even harder, which is - different. Different, but not unwelcome. Still, he's glad nobody else seems to be paying attention to them. Carefully, he pulls the blanket away from him and tucks it around the kid, before rubbing small circles in his back. The motion is calming, and he finds his heartbeat settling down a little. Little by little, the weight of the blanket and Peter feels closer and closer until he finally slides back into his body. Normally, he would've payed more attention to that, but right now he's got an armful of crying teenager to focus on, so.
After a while, Peter sniffs and tries to pull away from him, but Tony just tugs him closer and wraps an arm around with him. He's not usually so touchy with people, but the weight isn't only grounding, it's nice. The kid goes without much protest, letting his head fall onto his shoulder, just like he'd done earlier with Pepper. "Sorry, Mr. Stark," he mumbles quietly, sounding embarrassed. "I shouldn't have - I just - 'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it, kiddo," he says. "I don't mind. I'm sorry about your aunt."
"Thanks," the teenager says. Several seconds pass before he continues. "I - the ambulance. We have to pay for it, but, um, we don't - we don't really have that much money, me and May. Before, we used to be fine, but after Ben-" He breaks off and looks down, sniffing, and he gets the feeling that whoever "Ben" is, he's a sore subject. "I don't know how we're going to pay for it."
"I can pay for it," he offers. "Just give me the word and I will. I'd be more than happy to."
Peter pulls away from his, eyes wide with shock. "I - what? No! I mean, that's super nice of you, Mr. Stark, but I can't just accept your money like that! I just - I don't-"
He seems to choke on his own protests, and he immediately takes the opportunity to sway his opinion. "No, seriously, it's fine, kid. I owe your aunt, anyways. You said her name was May, right? May Parker? Yeah, I helped her with her groceries, partly because I'm nice like that, but partly because she saw something top secret, but she swore she wouldn't tell anyone. I still need to pay her back, so-" He shrugs. "This is my chance."
The teenager wipes his eyes. "What did she see?"
"Oh, that's top secret. Only the cool adults get to know."
Peter eyes him skeptically. "Sure."
"Okay, Mr. Stark. Whatever you say." The teenager studies his hands, avoiding his eyes. "I'll...think about it. The money thing. I'll have to ask May, too. She was right, by the way. You are really nice."
Tony doesn't know why that makes him choke up. "Well," he says, clearing his throat. "She sounds like a really smart woman."
"Yeah," Peter agrees, smiling fondly. "She is."
They sit together for the rest of the night, as the sun creeps up into the sky, and he thinks that he might just keep this kid around.
