Kinda went off the prompt but I had this idea 💀

Tony hears the gunshot before he sees the outcome.

They were fighting HYDRA in an open field- which was not ideal. Any fight they've ever done there's been something to take cover with. A building, trees, debris- but here, they had nothing. Just open area and grass. They'd been ambushed on their way to break into one of their labs for some information. Apparently, they'd gotten the word that they were coming.

Maybe this would have gone better as a solo mission for Natasha.

He'd worried about Peter the entire time. The kid has his suit and powers but it can only do so much. It's not like his iron man suit- it's not armour. It doesn't really have weaponry other than the emergency one he refuses to use. In hindsight, he probably should have chosen a different name from Instant Kill Mode.

As revolting as the idea may be to Peter, he can't be protected with just webs. The most they can do is distract someone if he webs them in the face or bounds their limbs together before they can get to him. When it comes to the fighting part, all he has are his fists.

On this field though, it's like fighting themselves- these guys have powers too, along with weapons and armour.

Tony stays by Peter as much as he possibly can, but even then it's not enough.

His gut twisted at the sound of that gunshot and he immediately knew where it hit. Peter had moved from where Tony could keep an eye on him, and now, he was on the floor.

The dead, yellowing grass turned a deep red.

"Peter!" He shouts.

He curses internally, feeling as if his heart dropped to his feet. Upon seeing the HYDRA agents running towards him, guns aimed, Tony flies over and blasts frantically.

They drop quickly, groaning at their burn wounds.

"Someone cover me," he shouts, dropping to his knees. Peter's glassy eyes are wide, staring at the sky.

"Kid. Kid," he stutters, "Pete, lookit me. Look."

Peter pants, hand cupping his side.
"Hey."

"Hey," he exhales, voice cracking. "I've had enough of this damn place. I already messaged Clint to bring the Jet down, ok?"

"But the fight," he grits, making an effort to pull himself into a sitting position. Though, the action makes him gasp before going quiet, something changing in his body language.

"Pete?"

"Tony."
He sounds scared now, leg spasming at the pain. "Something's wrong. Something's happen-"

He shouts, heels digging into the ground.

"What? What's happening?"

"Feels like- my insides are burning- agh!"

Peter had taken bullets before. He'd handled them well every time, probably over the embarrassment the kid would feel at showing any 'weakness.'

Tony had never seen him like this before.
They did something to the bullet.

His heart races.

He can't loose him. He can't.

Tony presses his arc reactor, letting his suit melt away. He'd worn long sleeves under it and rips one of them off. He balls the material up and begins pressing it onto Peter's wound, ignoring his shouts to stop.

"I'm sorry," Tony whispers, "I'm sorry, I need to stop the bleeding."

When he tries to twist his body away, Tony presses harder. He hates that he's doing this- he hates being the reason Peter's gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut.

Tony grabs his com and pulls it closer to his mouth,
"Clint! Bring the jet down, now!"

"Tony what's going on," Natasha shouts over the com.

"Kid's hurt bad we gotta go!"

Steve slams his shield into an agents head, turning around to face Tony. His expression drops at seeing Tony's panic-stricken face.

"Steve, please!" He begs, eyes burning. "We'll come back- I have to get him out of here."

He turns away and presses the com.
"Fall back everyone, Clint's coming down now."

The jet lands close, but they'll still have to run. Dirt and grass fly around them and Tony can feel it in his eyes. He ignores it though, and begins grabbing at Peter to manoeuvre him into his arms.

"Stop- stop," he gasps. "Wait."

"I'm sorry," Tony says, "I have to pick you up. We need to get out of here."

Peter's body tenses in his arms, writhing at the pain in his side. To Tony's dismay, he's crying now.

"Shit- Tony- it hurts."

He runs towards the quinjet, watching in the corner of his eye as his teammates fight around him so he can get Peter to safety.

When he stumbles inside, Clint shouts,
"What the hell happened?"

Bruce is already running towards the first aid kit they've got stowed away and dragging a thin cot.
"Put him here- quick. Clint, get us to the tower as quick as you can I think they put something in the bullet."

Peter tries to curl in on himself when he's put down. He cries loudly into the pillow,
"Oh god, Tony, what'd they do to me-"

He doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know what they did and he doesn't know what's going to happen. His heart hurts.

He leans forward and cups the kid's face, thumb dragging through the path of tears,
"Listen- it's gonna be ok. Banner's got the goods here, ok? Pain's gonna stop, we're ok."

He looks up at Bruce, desperate to know he didn't just lie to Peter. Please, please have something to take away the pain.

He rummages through the bag and pulls out a sedative.

"Pete, I'm giving you one of Steve's sedative's ok? I-I doubt you're going to feel it.."

He's right. He doesn't feel it. Obviously, the pain of his injury is stronger than a needle. Though, it doesn't matter to Tony because at least his cries died down and he finally looked at peace. He never wants to see anything like that ever again.

As soon as he's out, Bruce uses the tweezers to pull out the bullet and drops it onto the tray. It leaks from the edges with something other than blood.

Tony stares at the bullet for a long time. He stares until his friend speaks to him.

"Tony?"

"..Huh?"

"I was saying he's all bandaged up. He's good. Vitals are stable."

He sighs with relief and looks towards his other teammates, who stand there, stunned.

"What the hell was that?"

Bruce pauses,
"I need to get a better look at it but my guess is... the, uh, the bullet had something in it that he was having a reaction to. With his powers, Peter has a higher pain tolerance than most and I've seen him handle gunshot wounds before. I've never seen him react to an injury like this."

They go silent.

Tony looks back at Peter's resting face and feels emotional.
"I hate taking him on these damn missions. I can't-I can't stand seeing him hurt like this-...fuck."
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to take deep breaths. He hates this. He hates this.

Bruce sits next to him, pressing their shoulders together.
"I know, Tony."

He drags his hand up his face, digging his fingers in his hair as he takes a stuttered breath.

No one speaks the rest of the flight home.

It seems nothing else is important until they know the kid is ok.

Tony was glad they could all agree on something.

As soon as they land, they rush Peter to Medbay where Doctor Cho is waiting, and only leave when she tells them he's in good hands and he'll be fine, she just needs to do some tests. Tony and Bruce take the chance to snatch the small metal tray that the bullet occupies, because anyone could see something was off with it.

Tony smells it before he gets a chance to even have FRIDAY zoom in on the thing. He thinks he's going crazy so he ignores the thought.

Bruce swabs around it and has FRIDAY run a few tests, thinking it may have some kind of drug in it.

While it's being tested, Tony starts taking it apart to see how it works. He manages to break it apart relatively easily, and the smell from before becomes stronger as the substance pools around the bullet.

Tony scrunches his nose.

Behind him, watching, Bruce tilts his head.

"Hey Banner," he says, "Is it just me or does this stuff smell like insect killer?"

He pulls a seat close to pick at it with tweezers. He pulls away, hesitating.

"Yeah, uh... yeah it does. FRI? Any luck?"

"Yes," the AI says smoothly, "You and Boss are correct, it is in fact an insect killer that was injected into the bullet. Specifically Raid."

"Raid," he exclaims, slamming his hands down, "Fucking- raid?!"

"Tony-"

"He was targeted. He- how'd they know that would even do something to him?"

"Tony, calm down for a second."

"How am I supposed to calm down," he snaps, "It was killing him from the inside. He's allergic to peppermint, Bruce, imagine how much worse this is."

"I don't need to imagine," he says, "I saw it, Tony, I know it's bad."

Tony scrubs his hand against his face before dropping into his chair hopelessly,
"Why him?"

Bruce stares at him with that sad, pathetic, puppy look that Tony hates. The one when he's feeling bad for him.

"Stop that."

"I just- well, I can take a guess why it was him that was targeted," he says slowly. "Think about it. We have a new, obviously young member on our team that we all look out for. With his powers, they could probably take a guess on what would do some damage."

"Yeah," Tony says, urging him to get to the point.

"Well, if they injure our beloved member badly enough, we have to leave. Easy distraction and all they had to do was a run to the store for some insect killer."

Tony sighs.
"I hate this."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"It's- we'll just have to bench him from HYDRA missions for a while."

"He'll hate it."

"Honestly, Banner, he can hate it all he wants. He's benched."

Bruce looks worried. His eyes dart around as if searching for another option.

"And what if he doesn't listen? Which we know he won't."

He tips his head back and stares up at the ceiling.

Ok, he's got a point.

"Yeah, that is one of his biggest personality traits."

"So, no other options? I happen to remember a secret prototype," he grins, "The one that was being saved for his birthday."

Tony glances at the chest locked away under his desk. He rolls his eyes and looks over at his friend.

"Are you giving me an opening to be more protective than usual?"

"Take it before my empathy sets in for the kid."

"Dramatic much?"

"Coming from the helicopter parent."

"Hey, my kid almost died I'm allowed to be like this and it's about to get ten times worse."

"Tell him if he ever needs someone to talk to I have a degree in psychology."

"Ok," Tony gets up from his seat. "I'm not going to take any more of the disrespect I'm going to check on the spider-kid. FYI, you were a terrible psychologist when I gave you the chance."

Tony leaves laughing as he hears the man shout something about his reviews. Though, when he's standing outside Medbay, his smile drops. He hopes he's doing alright. He'd already sent the results they'd gotten in the lab to Cho, and she seemed to be pretty certain it would be out of his system by tomorrow.

His hand hovers over the doorknob.

"FRI?"

"Yes, boss."

"Is he awake?"

"He's currently waking up now. He may not be fully coherent with Mr. Roger's painkillers."

That's fine with him.

"Pete."

Peter catches his eye and seems to light up a little, cracking a tired smile,
"You look insane."

He blinks, not expecting this to be their reunion. He looks down at his previously long sleeved shirt. Yes, half of his right sleeve is missing. He supposes it does look a little odd.

"Yeah, whatever, that sleeve probably saved your damn life."

"Oh yeah," he mutters, "That hurt, like, a lot. I don't think a normal bullet would even hurt anymore after that. Maybe I'll be immune."

Tony laughs, sitting in the chair next to him, leaning his elbows against the bed,
"Yeah, well, I think a better plan would be to avoid getting shot again. Ever."

He scrunches his nose.
"Dunno if I can do that. What was wrong with it?"

"Insect killer. It was made to leak it into your body after the bullet was inside to aggravate the open wound. There's still some left in there but your healing's taking care of it. It'll wear off by the morning."

"Woah. Why... Why doesn't it hurt anymore?"

"Drugs, Pete."

"Oh. Cool."

Peter's knuckles bump against Tony's, and he watches as he carefully manoeuvres himself to face the man with a loopy grin on his face.

He hopes a similar one returns when he gives him that new suit.

Tony resists the urge to laugh.
"What."

"Hey, Mr. Stark," he says, a small chuckle sounding, "That stuff's like my kryptonite or somethin'."

"You're not funny."

"I'm so funny."

It's not. But the explosion of laughter that comes from the kid makes it like he told the best joke of the century. So, fine, maybe he's a little funny.