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“You’re going to be okay.” Peter continued to give reassurances to the kid in his arms, realistically while yes, Spiderman has him, the child is still inside of a burning building. So, Not believing his continued reassurances was perfectly fair. Peter ran as the building shook, realizing it was going to collapse, and soon.
Collapse just like that warehouse with the Vulture.
He almost, almost, dropped the kid. But he didn't. All right, out the window they go. Peter ran and jumped, keeping the kid secure in his arms. He shot a web, the web shooting out of his web shooters and sticking to the roof of a nearby building, effectively swinging them into the concrete jungle that is the city of New York. He wants to get the kid far away from the building, maybe so far that he won’t even see the building collapse.
No one, especially not a little kid, should be under, or even near, a collapsed building.
Peter vaguely hears firefighters ushering out people, getting them away from the building, blocking all entrances, making blockades to keep people away. Good, people are getting away, they won’t get crushed. Peter vaguely wonders why he can’t hear them clearer, as he usually hears them crystal clear with his enhanced senses and all, but that thought is shoved to the side as the kid he was holding so tightly clung onto him harder, gripping the front of his suit like it was the only keeping him alive. To be fair, swinging through rooftops is kind of terrifying.
Eventually, he spots the kids mom, she had been the one to inform him of her daughter being stuck in their apartment, she had practically been begging for him to save her. Not that she needed too, Peter would’ve gone in and saved the kid even if the mom was screaming at him. So, he swung down, landing in front of the distraught mother. She lit up immediately as she saw the kid shaking with her face stuffed in Spiderman's neck.
“Thank you! Thank you for saving my baby!” The woman thanked him adamantly, tears streaming down her face as she hugged her kid tighter than she ever had. The kid squeezed her mother back, shaking and sobbing in her embrace. Finally reunited after what would probably remain the most terrifying experiences of the mother and daughters life. Peter could barely even focus on the gratitude the woman was presenting. He could barely breathe. It felt like the building was on him, crushing him with no one to help him. Under the rubble, injured and alone. Even if rationally his brain knew the building hadn't even collapsed yet.
The lady’s voice broke through. “Thank you truly, thank you.”
“All in a day's work, Ma’am!” He steadied his voice, the civilians didn't need to see him like… whatever this was. “I gotta get out of here, stay safe!” He shot a web and let himself be swung to anywhere but there. He swung past the building as it collapsed, turning into a mountain of rubble with a large chorus of crashes as the building crashed down.
Just like the warehouse. Crushing him. On him. No one to help him. No one to save him. Alone under the rubble. Screaming. Bleeding. Terrified.
He couldn't breathe, why couldn't he breathe? He lands on a dark rooftop, one high enough that no one would see his face with the mask off. As he takes the suit’s mask off, the Spiderman persona comes down with it. He hadn't even noticed how much his hands were shaking.
“Peter, your body is shaking and your breathing is erratic, is there an injury that my systems have not detected?” Karen’s voice suddenly rang through his ears, ringing and ringing. The mask wasn’t even on, but the AI’s voice still felt like it was in his ear.
“No, Karen. I'm fine.” His voice shook, and it shook badly. Why was he breathing so hard? His own suit felt like it was crushing him, compressing him as he called out for help. For anyone. Peter registered what was happening as his knees roughly hit the ground, as he hyperventilated like crazy, as tears welled up in his eyes threatening to spill, as frantic pleas tumbled out pleading for help.
His mask was close enough that Karen could still hear him, hearing the pleas her systems sent an alert straight to Stark's phone, because of the distressed spider protocol.
Tony Stark was patching up a bug in the Ironman suit programming when FRIDAY started to put out an alert for him. “Karen has alerted me, as Peter is in possible medical distress.”
Tony raised an eyebrow, what did the kid do this time?
“Give me his coordinates.” Internally Tony sighed, the Spiderling is always managing to do something.
FRIDAY showed the coordinates, and Tony was on his way.
———————
Peter didn't even notice the hum of the Iron man suit landing next to him, the sound of metal hitting concrete as it landed.
Peter was still stuck under the rubble. Not literally, the rubble and the pressure was all in his head but that didn't make it any less real for him. The rubble seems to be all around Peter, on top of him crushing him. Taking away his ability to breathe.
Tony stepped out of the suit as soon as he saw Peter doubled over. “Kid, you good?”
Peter gave no response, he didn't even seem to acknowledge that Tony was here. Unusual. “Kid, FRIDAY told me that you were hurt.”
This didn't really look like any injury that Tony has seen Peter retain, it looks like something else Tony recognizes. Not something that he has ever seen with Peter though.
Tony crotches down in front of him, unsure of what to do. Slowly, he reached his hand out and put it on Peter’s shoulder.
“Kid-” Peter flinched back with a whimper almost immediately, Tony took maybe a second to figure out what was happening. Ragged hyperventilation, shaking, on the verge of breaking down in tears, unaware of surroundings. Peter was having a panic attack, from what? It doesn't really matter at this moment. What matters is making sure the kid calms down. Even if Tony had entirely no idea what to do to calm him down. This isn't exactly his area of expertise, usually it's literally anyone but him comforting and calming down anyone in distress. Especially a distressed child.
“Hey, Pete.” His hand hovered over the shaking teens shoulder.
“P-please, help me, don’t leave me here, I-I can’t-” Pleads tumbled out of the teens mouth, shit. Where does Peter think he is?
Okay, talking isn't going to work, so Tony tried another method, he gently placed his hand on Peter’s shoulder. Who flinched, but eventually settled into the touch.
He tapped on Peter’s back. “Can you feel the taps on your back?”
Somehow, his voice broke through the haze wrapping Peter’s mind. He nodded. “When I tap once, inhale, when I tap twice, exhale. Okay?”
Tony didn't get a response but started tapping anyway. One inhale, two exhale, one inhale, two exhale. Tony continued, a sense of relief washing over him as he could visibly see the kid’s breathing starting to return to a steady pace. Starting is the key word there, it was far from normal.
“Underoos?” Tony tightens his grip on Peter’s shoulder, slowly guiding him to sit up right. The kid's tear streaked face came into view, tears still occasionally slipping from slightly puffy eyes. Peter shakily took a breath in, just staring at Tony sitting in front of him.
There wasn't any concrete crushing him, the pressure pushing him down lifted. He had his suit, some of the compression he had thought was rubble was now very clearly just the suit clinging to his skin. He wasn't alone, Mr Stark was there.
Because he wasn't under the rubble, he wasn't being crushed, he wasn't fighting for his life at this moment. He was up on the rooftop of one of many office buildings scattered through New York city with his dad mentor.
“Peter?” He snapped back his attention, going from scattered to focus on Mr. Stark real quick.
“M-mr Stark! I am so sorry for interrupting whatever you were doing, uhm, how did you even find me?” Then Peter’s brain fog cleared again, how could he be that dumb? “Oh! Right. You have trackers in my suit, well, then why are you here?”
“Karen and FRIDAY talk, kid. They have been programmed to gossip. Of course your distress gets back to me.” Tony retracted his hand, giving Peter a look.
Karen, such a traitor. He glances over at his discarded mask that contains the traitorous AI.
“What even happened?” Tony questions, stealing away his thoughts from what other things Karen could have possibly informed FRIDAY and Mr. Stark.
“Nothing happened.” Mr. Stark gave him a look, the look that said ‘I'm-Tony-Stark-kid-I-do-not-happen-to-be-an-idiot-you-little-liar’, It's a look Peter happens to get a lot.
“Are you injured?”
“No.” A few bruises and scratches yes, but that isn't what Peter personally counts as an injury. I mean they would heal quickly, enhanced healing factor and all that. Mr. Stark looked over at him for a second before deciding to believe him.
“Did someone die?”
“No.” He got everyone and their pets out of that building, and he didn't see anyone in the path of the rubble. Oh god, he hopes he didn’t miss anybody, he will have to go back later and check. And maybe help with the cleaning up of the place too.
Tony sighed, knowing he will really have to push the kid to explain what had triggered him. Why are teenagers so stubborn? Don’t ask him.
“Just explain what happened during patrol today.” Peter nods, then starts his totally wonderful and not concerning at all explanation.
“Well, it was going pretty normal, a few robbers, helped some kids find their way back to their mom, helped some tourists, but then I saw smoke coming from one of the apartment complexes. So, I swung over and immediately started to help people out. I thought I had gotten everyone out so I was about to go help the first responders with getting people who need treatment, but then a mom found me and begged me to save her daughter, so, of course, like any sensible person, I went back into the building, on I think the 12th floor and found the kid,”
That's when Peter’s explanation got weird. Or more accurately, he started to act a little off.
As soon as they got to the topic of the building starting to seem unstable, about to collapse Peter’s eyes started to become glazed over as his words slightly slurred. “The building seemed unstable, so I got out of there as quickly as I could, and…” He started to trail off, the glazed look becoming more and more prominent.
“... Peter?” Peter looked so…distant. No response.
The pressure had returned, Peter was back in the warehouse. He could vaguely hear the vulture escaping from behind him but he couldn't move, he froze as the support beams gave out and the rubble started to fall. In this moment, Peter usually couldn't remember the falling of the rubble, or it falling onto him but now. He could remember it oh so clearly as a large piece knocked him down, slamming into the concrete floor of the currently collapsing building, the rubble building up on top of him.
“Pete…” Tony slowly reached his hand out, returning it to its resting place on his shoulder. The kid didn't seem to respond until he tightened his grip. Peter’s eyes snapped up and met Tony’s, the glazed looked only slightly retracting but still ever prominent.
“Huh? Sorry.” Peter felt floaty. Actually, disconnected was a better word. Where was he? He was just at the warehouse. This isn't the warehouse. Or was this the flash between life and death, was these last 7 minutes full of the memories he held most dear to him? Mr Stark being in those memories made a lot of sense.
“No, don't apologize,” Tony just looked absolutely concerned about what was happening with his kid, the spider kid. “It's okay.”
Peter glanced around, the feeling of the large concrete slab never dissipating, never fading even though it wasn't even there.
“Pete, do you know where you are?” Tony asks as he guides Peter's hand to meet the rough surface of the roof.
“Warehouse.” Peter choked out, his hand tensing on the concrete, scraping his skin on the concrete.
Warehouse?
“Vulture, the building-” The building collapse, during Peter sophomore year, Peter had practically refused to ever talk about it. “-buried.”
…Buried?
That warehouse had collapsed on Peter and he didn't even bother ever telling Tony about it.
Fucking teenagers.
“You are not buried, hey look at me,” Tony forced his hand to relax, to stop tearing through the skin on it with the floor. Forcing him to feel the floor, to feel that he wasn't in that damn warehouse. “Would I be here if you were still in that warehouse?”
Peter's wavering gaze flicked between focus on both of Tony's eyes, trying to decide if Tony was even here or not. Peter's eyes flicked down to his hand, finally feeling the floor without the haze of his memories weighing on his senses, the surface of the roof was rough and warm, so unlike the smooth and cold flooring of the warehouse. “...No.”
Finally that haze started to lift, the realization of where he was finally dawning on him.
Crying, at least he thinks he still is, on a roof, in front of Mr. Stark. Great. Just great.
“You okay?” Peter wasn't sure what to say, hell he wasn't even sure what just happened. Why was that more distressing than when he actually had that warehouse on him? Maybe he just had more adrenaline and other motivating factors in the moment, without them somehow that whole situation was somehow 10 times worse.
“Uhm, yeah, fine.” If there is one thing Peter will never be talented at, it will be lying. But Tony decided not to push, not this time.
“Wanna come back to the compound?” He can take care of May, not that she would mind her nephew staying over, he has done it many times before. He doesn’t want to take his eyes off his kid. He would rather Peter have panic attacks and dissociative episodes with him around, rather than without.
“Yeah, yeah, I would.” Peter reached over and grabbed his mask, yanking it on, can’t let New York see Spiderman without the mask. Peter stood up, ignoring the amount of numbness in his legs, and went to the edge of the building.
“Underoos, you cannot swing yourself right now.”
“Yes I can.”
“No, no, you can’t. I’m not blind, I can see your little child legs shaking.”
“I totally can escort myself back, Mr. Stark.”
Tony internally sighed, teenagers.