hashtagparkerluck | Drabble #1

“Hey, Spider-Man.” Tony’s voice cuts into the room like a knife and Peter and Ned both look up quickly from where they’re in the middle of watching ‘Weekend At Bernie’s’ and then look to each other. That tone of voice tells both boys that Peter Parker was in big trouble. Ned gets up from his bed and stutters out something about going to grab a snack downstairs, Peter hissing a quick ‘traitor’ at him for leaving him alone with his clearly angry Mentor. This isn’t going to be pretty and Peter can feel his heart sinking rapidly down into his stomach. What has he done this time? Or, what has he done that Mr Stark found out about? He knows he’s in trouble because Tony Stark wouldn’t be paying a visit to their hotel room otherwise.

“So... “ Tony prompts, giving Peter a chance to come clean. He doesn’t take it though-there are about twenty different things he’s done in the past week alone and he’s not about to just start a confession. Tony’s eyes narrow sharply and Peter’s heart sinks lower and starts beating a little faster.

“S-So…?” Peter prompts, practically wincing against the look on Tony’s face. He’s just digging himself in deeper and he can feel it.

“Is this the way you want to play it, Parker?” Tony demands, his voice tight with controlled anger. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” He pulls up footage on his watch to show a clip of Spider-Man from last night and Peter does wince. “What do you think my first thought was when I got this?”

“Uh… someone obviously has a really convincing Spider-Man suit?” Peter tries. The look on Tony’s face tells him just how funny he finds that comment and Peter just lets out a sigh. Well, he’s screwed.

“Okay so, I know you said not to go out Spider-Manning here again but I heard some guy getting mugged-and I couldn’t just-I mean the mugger had a gun, you know? I couldn’t just let that happen-Spider-Man’s supposed to stop bad things from happening to people.” He rambles off quickly, making sure not to mention the fact he’d been shot and had to send an email to have someone help him to remove the bullet after having failed to do so himself.

“Did you think I just told you not to go out because I didn’t want you running around in your little onsie?” Tony asks, eyes still cold and hard. “No, I told you to cool it with the Spider-Man thing here for a reason and you decided you know better than Iron Man and to do what you want to do anyway. The police could have handled your little mugger and you wouldn’t have gotten shot-” Peter opens his mouth to protest but Tony just cuts him off. “-Oh yeah, I know about that too.”

“Like they handled Ben?” Peter’s voice is soft and low and he’s not even daring to look his mentor in the eyes. “I don’t mean-I mean the police did what they could but-what if that guy was someone else’s uncle? Or-or dad? Or even someone’s husband? I couldn’t just ignore it.” The words are heavy and for a moment, even Tony Stark isn’t sure how to respond so he doesn’t and just lets out a heavy sigh. He pulls his sunglasses off and rubs at his brow, trying to decide how best to handle this.

“Look kid, I know this is hard for you to believe, but there is an honest to god reason I don’t want Spider-Man making appearances in London-okay? I’ll see what I can do damage control-wise but already the government’s on my ass about this-That means I gotta deal with that Mycroft guy again-and if you think Ross is bad...” Tony shakes his head, leaving the statement unfinished.

“Uh… I don’t…? I never met secretary Ross?” Peter offers.

“Yeah, and we’re keeping it that way.” Tony says decidedly. “But the more you appear as Spider-Man here, the more likely someone is gonna put together that Spider-Man is someone that came to London with me-that leaves a total of four suspects-Pepper, Happy, Ned and you-guess who’s already figured it out?”

Peter feels even smaller as he realises that Mr Stark really might have had a point but there wasn’t much to be done about it now. Awkwardly, he looks back up at his Mentor. “Uh… Sherlock Holmes?” He offers. Tony’s frown deepens.