Chapter Text
“What the fuck, Peter!!” – Shit. Tony was pissed.
“Mr. Stark, I’m so sor-“
“Ooh no kid. Nonono, sorry doesn’t cut it! Sorry doesn’t even CLOSE to cut it this time! How could you be so fucking stupid!”
Peter completely freezes, eyes wide as he stares at his mentor’s furious face.
“You had one job. ONE job. But you just. Couldn’t. Follow. The fucking orders. You just had to do exactly what I told you NOT to do! I told you that under no circumstances you were to go in! I told you to stay put!”
“I thoug-“
“You put EVERYONE in harm’s way by leaving your position, Peter. Do you even realize that? Every single one of us. And at that point it’s not about accomplishing the fucking mission it’s about endangering your team mates!”
“Tony”, Steve said softly.
“How am I supposed to trust you with all our lives on a mission if I can’t trust you’ll do as you’re told?! This is not going to work. I NEED to be able to trust every. Single. Team member. It just doesn’t work like this, kid. I just can’t deal with this shit”
“That’s enough, Tony”, Steve warns.
“Fine. I’m done with this anyway. I’m so done with this bullshit” Tony spits in return. “As soon as we’re home, you will let Bruce check you over and then Happy will take you home.” There was no concern, only coldness in his voice.
“I’m fine, I don’t need Dr. Ban-“
“Do NOT” Tony raised his voice before Steve warningly took a step forward. “Do not even think about fighting with me on this one” he bit through gritted teeth instead.
Tony turned around and stormed off, slamming the door open on his way out.
And that is when Peter broke. The sobs he’d been holding in broke free as he cupped his face in his hands and just crumpled down.
“Hey, Pete, honey, come on, don’t cry. He doesn’t mean it. You know how Tony gets sometimes. He didn’t mean to be so-” Natasha was the first to try to soothe.
“But he’s RIGHT, he’s RIGHT, I ruined e-everything, the m-mission is ruined and it’s all my f-fault and I ca-an’t ever do anything right and I-”
“Shhh, Pete, that’s not true, don’t let his frustration get to you, ok? It’s not your fault. You acted on istinct, there’s nothing you can do about it.” She tried to ensure him when Sam chimed in. “He’ll get over it, give him some time, he’s just pissed he didn’t get his way right now”
“He, he- he said he can’t de-deal with my shit, he doesn’t want me-e here anymo-ore.”
“Oh, honey” Nat sighed and wrapped Peter in her arms as he continued to sob. “It’ll be fine, ok? He doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t, you hear me? Shhh, it’ll be ok.” , she soothed.
Peter continued to sob and heave until finally exhaustion took over. Sobs turned into hiccups and hiccups turned into quiet tears as he finally fell asleep in Nat’s lap.
_______________
It had been 10 days since the mission where he gloriously fucked everything up. 10 days and no word from Tony. While Peter and Tony would usually text or talk at least every other day, there had been absolute radio silence since last week. None of them commented on the fact that Peter hadn’t shown up at the tower last Friday, as he usually would every weekend. An unspoken understanding between them that that certainly wasn’t going to happen after what had gone down on the quinjet on their way home from last week’s mission.
Peter had woken up with a splitting headache the day after the failed mission. Why did crying always have to cause such major headaches? Ugh. He had looked at himself in the mirror, silently berating himself for thinking he could’ve kept up with the Avengers on one of their missions. His face had been a blotchy, swollen mess, eyes rimmed red with exhaustion and exasperation. He had considered texting Tony, saying he was sorry and asking to talk it over. The first day he had chickened out. Too scared of his mentor’s rejection and further scolding. And the second day he’d decided that no, this wasn’t all his fault.
Yes, he’d left his position and yes, he’d acted against direct orders. And yes, he was willing to apologize for it. But he had done it all with good intentions and Mr. Stark? Well Mr. Stark had been an absolute ass about it.
Peter got mad just thinking about it. He had simply tried to help out, had left his position because his spidey-sense had told him Mr. Stark was in immediate danger, he couldn’t have known how everything was going to go to shit after that.
The mission had failed, Sam, Steve and Clint having to go in a second time a few days later in a much more high-risk stealth mission to retrieve the needed intel. But no, it wasn’t his job to make the first move. It was Tony’s. He had been the one yelling and swearing like an absolute dick. He was the adult for God’s sake.
10 days after the mission Peter started feeling like shit. He had been in an awefully cranky mood ever since the mission but today his mood had been topped up with an overall feeling of just feeling, well, like shit.
“Dude, you have to stop sulking like this, man. You barely touched your lunch”. Ned had been understanding and veeery cautious as to how he treated Peter after the latter had told him of the shit show that was last week’s mission. “Come on, man. He’ll come around eventually.”
Peter gave him an irritated look “I’m not sulking, ok? Just – don’t know. Feel weird today.”
“You getting sick?”
Peter grunted. “Can’t get sick, remember? Don’t know. Just, ugh don’t know. It’ll go away soon I’m sure.”
It didn’t go away though. Peter felt worse by the hour. On the way home he thought he might just make the subway ride an extremely memorable one for everyone around him. Not necessarily pleasant, but surely memorable.
He shakily tried to fit the key into the lock on their apartment door, mumbling curses and silently begging for the key to go in before he was going to lose the battle against his cramping stomach. As soon as the lock clicked he slammed the door open and swung himself onto the bathroom floor, retching the remains of his lunch into the toilet bowl.
“Ugh, God, gnnnn” Peter moaned as he sunk back, heavily leaning against the bathtub. Whatever this was, it wasn’t letting him get any rest throughout the entire night. Dry heaving was the worst. He had never been more thankful for out of town nursing conferences, ensuring May wouldn’t have to see him like this. She wasn’t due to be home until Saturday.
The next morning he wasn’t feeling any better. The throwing up part had let up a bit but the cramping and feeling like shit part was still going strong. He decided to text May that he wouldn’t be going to school today.
“Do you need me to come home?” No, he definitely did not want May to have to cut her trip short. Apart from the long conference days she'd long been looking forward to the the nights and dinners with her coworkers.
“I’ll be fine, just need to sleep it off I guess”
“Kay, hon, I will let the school know. Text if you need me!
Gtg, busy schedule here!
Feel better soon!
Larb you!”
He sighed and closed his eyes, exhaustion from last night making him quickly drift of in an uneasy sleep. It wasn’t until around lunch time when he woke up again to continuous buzzing of his cell phone. Checking his notifications he found countless text messages from Ned. Some apparently from earlier this morning.
“Dude, you still coming today?”
“Better hurry, Mr. F is not cool about tardiness.”
“You sick? Mr. Fliginger says you’re marked absent?”
“Peter?”
And then there were those that had woken him up with a steady stream of vibrations just now:
“Shit”
“Dude”
“not good”
“Flash keeps yelling around that you’re only feigning sick to get out of tomorrow’s field trip to SI”
“Shit he’s got everyone buying it”
“Says you’re scared your fake internship will finally blow up in your face”
“Dude you need to come, you’ll never live this one down if you don’t show up tomorrow”
“Hope you’re feeling better btw”
“Sorry”
“Should’ve asked that earlier maybe”
“FUCK.” Peter exclaimed “Fuck, fuck FUCK!” Frustrated he let his head plop back down on his pillow as he dropped his cell back on the bed and covered his face in his hands. He had forgotton all about this stupid field trip to SI. The tower was a popular field trip destination for schools from across the state, his teacher had booked in MONTHS ago. Why, of all days, did it have to be tomorrow? He did not want to run into Mr. Stark and he certainly didn’t want to run into Mr. Stark puking his guts out. Shit. This was going to be a disaster.