Peter hasn't patrolled in three weeks.

Tony hasn't heard from him in just as long.

When it comes to their mentor-mentee thing they've got going on, communicating practically every day is a common thing, even if it's a short conversation with their usual banter or some stupid meme Tony doesn't understand but appreciates either way. He likes to know what's going on in the kid's life- maybe that's a little controlling but he just cares.
A lot.

So, when the kid hadn't responded to a single text in what felt like forever, Tony started getting worried. He'd sent silly little jokes, expecting some sort of comeback, maybe even a 'leave me alone.' He would've accepted that because at least he knew the kid needed some space.

He kind of came to that conclusion anyway. He started to feel guilty because maybe he had been too much. Too controlling.

His dad always was, so maybe it runs in the family. He'll always be angry at himself for being like his father in any way. He wishes they weren't related at times. Maybe he would have liked Tony better.

He really hopes he hadn't scared the kid off. He was probably just off enjoying his summer with his friends, but maybe he had been stressed with the many lab days that took place throughout the week. Maybe Tony pushed him too hard, made him feel like he expected too much from him.

He tries to think of the right text to send, apologise if he'd done something wrong because his dad never apologised. He needs to be better.

Though, the more he sits there thinking, the more he types, and he feels like it's too much. He's a teenager. This happens. The kid doesn't have to talk to him all the time, obviously. He should be allowed to have some space from his job. It's not his fault Tony sees their dynamic more of a family's than a job's. It's only been a few weeks.

He's sitting in bed when Pepper drops her head on his shoulder, staring up at him.

"You seem down."

"I'm not."

"You look like a kicked puppy," she laughs, "The exact face Peter makes constantly. How is Peter? Haven't seen him around much."

"Dunno. Haven't heard from him."
He tries to sound nonchalant but his tone betrays him. He sounds fucking sad.

"Oh. Is everything ok?"

"Not sure. He hasn't told me."

"You haven't reached out?"

"I mean, a little bit, but after a few days I realised he probably needs some space. I've probably been too hard on him."

"Space? From you? Tony, you're his idol."

Tony cracks a fake smile, "Well, they do say never meet your heroes. Maybe I... I don't know."

"Tony, you sound insane," she deadpans, "You're, like, his favorite person. You've known eachother for years. He's not the type of kid to just ghost you. Have you talked to May?"

"I'm not going to call his aunt because he hurt my fragile little feelings, Pep," he laughs.

"That's not why you'd be calling. You seem worried about him because this is out of character. Call her. It's still early. Just see if he's ok and then leave it up to him to reach out."

"Ok, ok. Bossy."

She smiles and presses a kiss to his temple.
"I love you. Stop being like this."

"You don't love me."

"Tony, go call her so we can go to bed."

He throws his hands up,
"Ok! Here I go."

He snatches his phone off the desk and sends her a pouting look before making his way to the lab.

He huffs and stares at May's contact. He doesn't want to intrude. Though, it would be nice to know the kid's alive and well and just ignoring his calls.

"Tony?"

He jolts, not realising he even hit call.

"May! May, hello. How are you?"

Jesus.

"Tony... did something happen?"

"No, I'm just seeing how the Parker family is doing. Just a life check."

"Oh. Uh, yeah we're... we're ok. Have you not heard from Peter?"

He cringes.
He feels like he's snitching on the poor kid for wanting some space from his crazy mentor.

"Uh, no. No I haven't. No word from Pete in a while. I just wanted to see if he's ok so he can go back to ignoring my calls to his heart's content."

"Really? He hasn't called you? Shit."

"Shit?"

"He's been... sad. It's been really hard to see him like this. He's been taking a mental break from, uh...everything apparently. I wanted to leave him be for a little bit but I think I let it go on too long. I'm worried, Tony. He doesn't like to talk to me about this stuff."

Tony notices how she doesn't tell him the topic of his sadness. He understands, obviously, because it's not really her place to tell. It should be coming from Peter whenever he's ready to talk to him.

"Ok. Ill try to catch him somewhere. Maybe come by while you're at work tomorrow."

"Ok. You've still got the key, right?"

"Yeah. Bye May. Thank you."

When Tony gets back, Pepper's already asleep, probably completely drained after today. He feels bad she takes on so much to keep this company afloat. He makes a mental note to get her some time off.

He lays down, tossing and turning in his bed. After staring at the ceiling for too long, he checks the clock and realises he's been up all night. Again. He doesn't even know how it's possible to be awake this long and not realise how much time has passed.

He throws the covers off of himself frustratedly and makes his way back to the lab. He needs to do something. At least he can drop by the Parker's in... like, 5 hours?

God, it's early.

He begins pulling things out of drawers, discarding useless things by throwing them across the room.

There's a loud clank and a sad whirring noise.

"Sorry DUM-E."

He makes content robotic noises. The best way one can.

The bot will probably hit him over the head later as payback. And the he'll have a damn concussion and more shit to worry about because there's only so many concussions a man can take before he drops dea-

"Sir?"

"Yeah FRI?"

"It appears the spider-suit is active for the first time in a few weeks."

His head snaps up and smacks against something metal.

He shouts and holds his head in his hands before looking up to see the bot. As always, Tony was correct.

"Goddammit DUMB-E!"

He stumbles to his feet, leaning against his desk.

He can't see straight. Not good.

"FRI, read it to me please. The update."

"There's no update, boss. No injuries, no elevated heart rate. Just Peter in the suit. He doesn't appear to be doing anything."

"Oh. Do you think I should...?"

"I believe it would be best to pay a visit. Karen says he's emotionally distressed."

"Ok. Ok I'm leaving. When Pep wakes up, tell her I'll be back."

Tony watches the hologram map in his helmet closely. It isn't moving, which is a little alarming.

He flies faster.

When he sees Peter in the distance, clothed in his spider-suit for the first time in weeks, he sighs. He throws his feet out in front of him and hovers in the spot, far away enough for the kid not to notice his presence.

He shouldn't intrude. Peter isn't required to talk to him.

Just as he's talking himself out of the conversation and about to turn back, Peter's body jolts and he turns around.

Well, now he has to follow through.

Tony flies down to the ceiling, allowing his suit to break apart and retreat back to the arc reactor.

"Hey, kid."

Peter stares, looking guilty.
"Hey."

They're silent for a moment, having fallen out of their daily rythme of conversation.

Peter ends up being the first to speak.
"What are you doing here?"

The mechanic would be lying if he said the question didn't hurt a little bit. He sighs and sits down a few feet away.

"I'm sorry kid," he huffs, "I was trying to give you some space but I... are you ok?"

He looks at the man with a surprised expression before glancing away. He stares down at the lights and the cars and the small silhouette of people walking home from a night out.
"Yeah," he replies shortly, "why wouldn't I be?"

"The declining of my phone calls were one thing. And the lack of patrols."

Peter swallows, turning his head as far from Tony's gaze as he can.

"I know I've been hard on you. You have a right to be mad at me because I yell sometimes and it's way too similar to how my dad was for my liking. I get worried- I promise it's all about worry, but I know I don't express that the right way sometimes. I'm sorry if that pushed you away, Pete."

Peter whips his head around,
"No. No, that's not- that's not what this is."

He blinks,
"It's not?"

"No- shit. I didn't mean to- I didn't think you'd care if I just... disappeared for a bit."

"Of course I'd care. A huge part of my day is making sure you're not bleeding out in an alleyway or going on some insane side quest without me."

Peter laughs quietly.
"I didn't mean to, like, ghost you. Or, I kind of did... it's a little complicated. Mind junk."

"Hit me. My brain is 70% mind junk."

The boy hesitates, his mouth opening and closing as he searches for the words. Eventually, he just blurts it out.
"Ben died today," his eyes squeeze shut with discomfort at saying it out loud. He'd obviously been holding it in. Never planning on spilling his internal struggle with this trauma. "Or, he died yesterday now. Sun's gonna come up soon."

Tony didn't know. No one ever told him the exact date of the tragedy. He knows he could have looked it up because it was definitely in some kind of newspaper or online article but it didn't feel like the right thing to do.

"Pete." 

"No, I- I'm fine. It's just... I haven't talked about this with... anyone. It's been a year now. My parents died in the same month. Got my spider powers this month too. I..." he pauses and takes a breath, contemplating if he should continue. "I kind of hate them sometimes."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he whispers.

"That's ok."

He gives a disbelieving smile, "Not really. I help a lot of people. I-I've saved a lot of lives but... I feel like it hasn't helped me with people I love the most. I could've helped Ben that night and I-I didn't."

His voice cracks with emotion. He tips his head back and takes a shaky breath.

Tony puts a hand on his knee.
"You do help a lot of people. You have to know what happened that night wasn't your fault."

"I didn't save him."

"You were a kid. You are a kid. Saving him wasn't your responsibility- it shouldn't have even happened."

"But it did."

Tony gets a feeling he has more to say so he stays silent.

"I've just been angry this month. At everything. And... I got in my head that I could loose you too. At any point. And if I lost one more person in this month I might have gone crazy."

"So you thought that avoiding me this month would stop that from happening."

"I dunno, it might have lowered the chances. Parker luck could strike again."

"You're not a cursed object, kid."

"I feel like I am."

"You're not."

Peter sniffs.

"I don't think I'd be able to cope if I lost you or May. Or anyone else. I've been so scared of loosing anyone else- I've been avoiding everyone I love. MJ and Ned have been blowing up my phone and showing up to my apartment and I haven't said a word to them. I'm an awful person, Tony," he turns to the man, eyes glassy and expression so desperate it's as if he's begging for answers to fix the outcome of his traumas.

And that's the one of the only things in the world that Tony can't fix. All he can do is be present when things get bad like this.

"Hey. You're not a bad person. You're actually the complete opposite of that," he says, gaze hardening. "I know you don't believe me but you constantly put everyone first. It's ok to put yourself first every once in a while. In fact, you should be putting yourself first from now on. If that meant never speaking to me again, I'd approve."

"Tony, I don't want to never talk to you again," he laughs, "that would probably be the worst thing I could possibly do for myself."

"What, cause this whole thing'll look good on your college resume? Wow."

"No," he grins, "Well, kind of but that's just a plus with the internship. But I'd probably be... bleeding out in an alley way more often if you weren't being your weird, helicopter-mentor-y self."

"Keep making up words and that'll be another thing you could put on your resume."

"You know what I mean," he groans, foot knocking gently against Tony's.

"Yeah, ok, I do," he smiles.

The sky is beginning to brighten more by the minute.  They sit in silence and watch as the clouds turn orange and pink.

"So any reason you came out here specifically? I've never seen you on this building."

"The view," he replies, sounding like a weight's been lifted off his shoulders. "The sunrise is really nice here."

Stark hums.
"It's alright."

He had never been one to feel any form of sentimental towards sunrises, but with Peter's back leaning against his shoulder and their stupid, silly dynamic returning in minutes, this one feels a little better than alright.