Tony shoots beams of light from his repulsers, missing every single shot.

It's an extremely embarrassing day for him.

He can't believe he's fighting a knock-off Doctor Strange and loosing.

"I hate magic," she shouts, flopping down against the pile of debris below him. "I hate it!"

"I dunno, Tony, it can be kind of cool."

Tony can hear the grin from under his mask as he shoots webs at the cloaked figure. Apparently this guy's favorite trick was teleporting. It's making their jobs a lot harder than it needs to be.

"Say that again and I'm taking you out of the will."

"I'm in the will- ow! What the hell?!"
He crouches down on the edge of a building, hands covering his head. "Dude, why are we throwing bricks?! Ow!!"

Yeah, he despises magic. He's a little more than pissed now.

He shoots up from the building and decides it may be better to fight this guy by hand. He tackles him, flying the both of them through the air. Objects are picked up by his weird telekinesis powers and luckily reflected off his suit.

The Knock Off suddenly becomes angry, fists shaking and glowing now.

"Kid, stay back!"

"What?! No- this is our mission I'm not-"

He doesn't hear the rest. He can only focus on the familiar direction of his palms. He's seen this spell thousands of times from his part-time teammate.

Tony points his own palms towards him, powering up his repulsers.

A hand suddenly presses against his chest, and he feels like he's being shot backwards at the speed of light. Though, he sees his body- hovering above the ground in a way that looks like slow motion. He thinks he's died before he feels his body collide with Peter's and every thing goes black.

And now, his head hurts. He feels like he's having the worst hangover of his life when he opens his eyes.

"Ugh... Pete.."

He looks around and finds he's on the floor in a dark room.

A child's bedroom. A nerdy one.

Tony shoots upward into a sitting position, immediately regretting the quick movement when his head begins to pound more painfully.

"Peter? What the hell? Where are we?"
He looks around and finds himself completely alone and suitless.

He's in a damn t-shirt and sweats.
Was he kidnapped?

His heart races.

When the door swings open, he jumps up into a fighting position. Though, he falters at the sight of a familiar couple. He's only ever seen them in photos.

Richard and Mary Parker walk into the child's- Peter's old room, grinning ear to ear. They talk about going on a trip and dropping Peter off at his aunt and uncle's.

Oh god.

That spell. He was thrown out of his body and into Peter's mind. This must be as early as he remembers.

Tony's absolutely clueless on what to do. He doesn't think there's any way out of this, so he just follows the Parkers through this memory and to May and Ben's apartment.

They're so good with Peter. He smiles as he watches them do puzzles with him that should be too complex for a toddler.

The time here is odd. Very rocky. In some moments they're very vivid and long, but then, he'll skip through a chunk of time.

He feels disoriented a lot of the time when it happens. The scene around him blurs and there's suddenly a gasp from across the room.

May drops onto the couch, a hand hovering over her mouth in shock while Ben stares at the tv with wide, glassy eyes.

Tony's heart drops at the sound of the news reporter explaining a plane crash.

The plane crash.

Peter looks up at them from his legos. He asks what's wrong and being a young, confused child, he cries with them despite not knowing what's just happened. All he knows in this moment is that his aunt and uncle are sad.

Time continues to move quickly. The hero watches as Peter asks for weeks where his parents are and eventually learns not to ask because May and Ben can't even say it out loud without breaking down. Peter went weeks without knowing what happened until they finally sit him down and explain to him that he'll be staying with them from now on.

Apparently, Peter's always been a kid that bottles things up. Tony had assumed this hurtful coping mechanism had developed over time but even at this young age, he says ok with a small smile on his face before retreating to his room to cry.

Tony wishes Peter could see him. He wishes he could feel and hear his efforts to comfort him.

He takes a stuttered breath and looks away from the kid.

When he turns back around, he sees flashes of moments where he and Ben make old computers. They'd taken on the hobby after finding a lot of damaged tech and Ben had a knack for fixing things.

When Peter's out of sight, May pinches the bridge of her nose,
"Are you taking him dumpster diving again?"

"Uh," he grins sheepishly, hiding the trash back behind his back. It clanks at the movement and it's frankly embarrassing he even tried to hide it.
"No?"

"Ben, I don't want you taking our nephew through the dumpsters. What if he gets tetanus or a raccoon leaps out at him and he gets rabies?"

Ben shrugs, looking away.
"It makes him happy, honey. That's all I want for him."

She sighs,
"I just... I just worry about him."

"I know."

Tony blinks and he's outside of the apartment for the first time. Unfortunately though, he's in Oscorb.

He'd recognise this shit hole anywhere.

Peter walks in a line of students, chattering excitedly to Ned.

Stark notices MJ walking a little behind the group reading some book as students run around looking at things and touching things they shouldn't.

He inhales sharply as he watches a small spider crawl across the room, just barely weaving the footsteps of clumsy children.

He bites his fist anxiously as he watches it crawl inside Peter's oversized boot.

Why the hell did he need to wear his uncle's god awful boots? They were hideous and now, they could've killed him.

It's only moments later when alarms blare, echoing through the halls and the students are ushered out of the building. They aren't told why they have to leave, nor are they checked for any stowaway radioactive spiders.

God, they can't even do a field trip right.

So, because of their negligence, he gets bit when he's walking home alone.

Peter yelps, looking down at the now dead, curled up spider.

"Shit. Shit, do I need to report this? I accidentally stole a spider from a lab. Oh god I'm gonna get arrested," he whispers frantically.

Despite this very serious moment, Tony finds it quite funny that Peter talks to himself. As always, an endearing kid.

The scene switches so quick that Tony stumbles. Ugh, he hates this. He feels sick.

Maybe it's because he's in Peter's mind and can feel a fraction of the pain he's in now, because right now he's so sick he doesn't even know how he survived.

Peter leans against the toilet, panting and crying and shaking with pain. Sweat soaks into his clothes as he gasps and groans, falling back against the wall behind him. He tips his head back and whimpers, spasming when another wave of pain rocks through his body.

"Pete, call them," Tony begs, voice wobbling. His cheeks become wet, "Why didn't you call them?" He crouches next to him and wishes he had never gone through this. As much as he loves him, he'd rather they never met if it meant he never had to
be in this much pain. He wishes he could at least comfort him for his own peace of mind. For Peter to at least know he's here.

He sits next to him until the memory ends, knees touching.

"It's gonna be ok, kiddie," he murmurs. "You're gonna be a really cool superhero and a dysfunctional, overprotective mentor watching your every move."

He knows he won't be heard.

~~~~~

Peter wakes up on the floor of the bathroom absolutely ripped.

The powers only took a night to kick in. He watches all the awkward moments where he had broken a door knob or completely torn apart one of his textbooks just by opening it. He watched all the sensory overloads he'd gone through before he found some ways to get by.

His aunt and uncle weren't clueless- they'd noticed when he'd retreat to his room after an Injury or the daily sensory overload while he got used to his powers. He wasn't very sneaky about it- he'd leave in the middle of the day in efforts to sleep it off, but it was easy to just claim he was getting migraines.

He starts training himself in an old abandoned building. Tony watches joyfully as he learns to crawl up walls and create his web fluid in the middle of his lab. With students around. Tony doesn't even bother to count the many times it exploded in the drawer. Luckily, it was a weaker formula than the current one and it'd dissolve by the end of class.

He cringes when he tests the first few formulas with the weight of his body and crashes to the ground, his first injuries being worse than any he'd ever dealt with as a kid but he'd soon find that they healed in a night.

Tony curses to himself when Peter becomes reckless with it and keeps getting injured without care. He can't wait to get home and have a long talk about how they're going to stop these long term habits because now he sees where he got it from. At least it wasn't Tony's doing.

Peter becomes stubborn and snappy with his aunt and uncle from the lack of sleep and confusion of what he's become. Eventually, Ben sits him down and tries to talk to him, but Peter won't hear it.

"I know you've gone through a lot but you can't do this. You can't stay out all night like this. It's hurting your grades and I know you're smarter than this. I know you're a good kid."

Peter glares at him, pulling away when Ben puts a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't think you know me at all," he snaps, rushing out of the apartment.

Well, that was a little edgy.

Tony feels quite awkward watching his aunt and uncle stare at eachother in shock. He's definitely witnessing something that isn't his business. He's suddenly glad they don't know he's here.

Ben grabs his coat and says he's going to go find him.

Tony follows Ben down the street, walking quickly behind him. He unfortunately knows exactly how it plays out but still jumps when a man walks out of an alley way to cut Ben off, staring coldly.

"You need to move," Ben snaps, trying to dodge him, "I'm looking for my kid. Wait- Have you seen him? he's 13- brown curly hair he's-"

The man cuts him off,
"Shut the fuck up and give me your wallet."

"I don't-"

"Now!"

Tony looks around frantically as if he could've called for help. He's supposed to be a hero and he's completely powerless because this has already happened. This has to be some form of torture.

He spots Peter down the street, frozen in place.

Oh god. Tony hates this.

"Listen! I ran out the door with only my jacket I don't have anything! I'm looking for my ki-"

In nothing more than seconds, Ben's on the floor, gasping for air. He grasps at his shirt as the blood soaks through his wound.

The sound of a gunshot seems to take Peter out of his trance and he finally runs over, dropping to his knees at Ben's side. He begs for him to stay alive, screaming for help but the only few people that stop for him stare. One man finally calls an ambulance but it's already too late.

The police men pry Peter's sobbing form off of his uncle. His palms and the knees of his jeans are soaked with blood, along with the red hand print smudged against his cheek.

"No, no, no," Peter begs. "I'm sorry Ben, I'm sorry-"Over and over again, he repeats himself. He rambles as he's guided into the back of the police car and stutters something about wanting to go with Ben to the hospital. No one utters a word.

When May gets to the police station, pale and puffy-eyed, Peter's a shell of himself. He doesn't even look alive. His half lidded, glassy eyes stare forward, figure hunched.

May whispers comfortingly to him through her own cries.

Tony wants to go home.

He watches the grief the Parkers went through- how Peter never talked to May about it, only comforting her before crying himself to sleep and telling himself it's his fault every single night.

Peter remains seemingly soulless when he's not comforting May and obsessing over when she gets home from work. He paces by the door until he hears her footsteps coming up the stairs.

He goes through each day on autopilot but when he eventually chooses to be a hero, patrolling puts a smile on his face. He suddenly remembers the look on his face when he took the suit away from him those years ago and feels like the worst person on the planet. This gave him a reason to get up in the morning- helping people the way he couldn't help Ben.

Tony follows Peter another day on his walk home from school- which he had stopped to Dumpster-dive on the way. He had picked up the hobby again a few months after Ben passed. (Which once again makes Tony feel like an absolute douche for teasing him for it when they'd met.)

Tony spots his car in the driveway and immediately knows. He remembers this. He shares this memory with Peter.

"Hey, May there's this crazy looking car in the drivewa- oh."

"Mr. Parker."

Tony stares at himself from the doorway, sprawled out on the couch eating May's horrible nut loaf with a nasty looking black eye.

"Um, what are you...? Hey, I'm-I'm Peter."

Suddenly, Tony's shot forward the same way he had from the spell, his spirit finally connecting with his own body again. This is the last thing he expected to happen- he's in his body again but... in the past..?

He doesn't have time for this.

He stares at his kid, now in a somewhat physical form. He smiles,
"Hey Peter."

Everything goes black.

This whole experience was confusing and most definitely a crossed boundary. He's been absolutely clueless this whole time- he never knows what's going to happen next.

Light spots dance in his blank vision, and he soon realises it's sunlight. The ache in his body tells him he's back in real life.

Tony gasps, eyes shooting open in a new room.

Yes, this feels more real. No, this is real. It's Medbay. And he's in his own body.

He groans quietly, scrubbing a hand over his face.
"Ugh... what..?"

"Tony!"

Peter jumps off his cot and practically leaps over to hug him.

The man huffs amusedly, patting his back.
"Hey Pete."

He relaxes at the touch, and suddenly everything hits him. Everything he just saw. Information that wasn't his to have. His face screws up with the sudden emotion and ends up hugging the kid tighter.

"Oh, kid," he whispers, voice breaking.

"What's wrong?"

"I just... you're so good. I'm so proud of you."

"Uh, thanks..?" He chuckle and hesitates before sighing into his shoulder. "That was scary. I had to find doctor strange as a ghost."

"How many times do I have to say you weren't a ghost, Peter?"

Tony practically jumps out of his skin. He clenches at his chest and glares at the rapidly beeping heart monitor.
"Strange?!"

"Yes. Peter did indeed find me. Your astral form was projected out of your body and into his, thus kicking him out of his own body."

Tony pauses,
"Oh. Does that mean I was dead?"

"Not exactly."

Peter groans quietly,
"Why do I feel so...drained?"

Probably because I was in your brain witnessing the entirety of your childhood."

"What?! Oh- Oh my god."

"Yeah," he offers a small, slightly grimaced smile, "I'm sorry kid. It wasn't information for me to learn on my own. It was for you to tell me about when you were ready."

"You didn't go there on purpose."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just... sorry, kid."

"Stop apologising," Peter laughs, "it was probably a lot for you to see too. At least we're kinda trauma bonded now."

Tony pinches the bridge of his nose at Peter's grin.
"Jesus, kid. We were already trauma bonded we didn't need more of... this. Anyway... I just- Ben would be really, really proud of you, Pete. I know I am."

The kid smiles softly, looking down at his shoes.
"Thanks."

"I'm gonna leave," Stephen mutters, inching away.

Oh yeah, he was here.

"Wait- Strange?"

"Yeah?"

"I hate magic."

"Right, yeah, I know. Enjoy trauma bonding."

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

I know tomorrow's Halloween but I plan on continuing these prompts until I decide I'm finished
🫡 Happy Early Halloween y'all