Blood, too much of it. Pain, burning, stabbing. Screams, Tony's face begging him to hang on.

And then it was all gone, eyes snapping open as his breath was pushed out of him in one go.

Peter woke with a scream, jolting upright in his bed, as his hands curled into fists in his blankets.

His heart raced as he looked around the room, taking a minute to realize where he was. Stark tower, in his room; he was safe.

He was used to nightmares, having had more than his fair share of them after his Uncle died; but usually, May would be there afterwards. She'd come running to his room and hold him, she'd brush his hair back and tell him everything was okay. But the room was quiet, and still, and his Aunt wasn't there.

It was early, earlier than he usually started the day, but it was late enough that there was no point in trying to go back to sleep, so he went out to the kitchen in search of food instead.

It had been a few days since his last disastrous physical therapy session with Cap, and he was stronger now, knees still a little wobbly, but solid enough to take him most places he wanted to go.

Peters head was loud and annoying, images from his nightmare flashing behind his eyelids, and he rubbed at them, annoyed, as he padded out into the hall. The lights were dimmed, with many of the towers occupants still asleep, so he wasn't expecting to hear anyone talking.

His ears honed in on the voice as soon as he heard it, recognizing it to be Tony's. He was talking to someone, Peter thought it might have been Happy.

"It was a mistake bringing him in, and I won't make that mistake again. It's all just such a mess, his Aunt keeps calling asking when he's coming home, but I can't tell her the truth. And now he's having nightmares; she's going to kill me if she finds out what happened to him. I mean, he shouldn't even be here, it's been weeks since the fight, and he's still recovering. He's missing school, and his friends; the whole thing got out of hand."

Happy's voice was tired. "What are you gonna do?"

Tony sighed, sounding equally tired, and Peter could practically see the way he'd be rubbing his hand over his eyes. "I brought him into this, this is on me; I'll make sure he doesn't get hurt again."

Peters heart sunk. Tony didn't want him to be Spider-Man anymore, he didn't want anything to do with him. It was like being hit by Ant-Man all over again. He didn't know what to do.

The voices drew closer, as the two figured walked down the hall towards Peter, and he quickly made it to his room, locking himself in and sinking to the floor, with his back pressed to the door.

He had thought Tony liked him, he thought he wanted him to stay, but now he felt like a burden; a lasting reminder of Tony's mistake that wouldn't leave.

The rest of the day was spent in his room, avoiding Tony. Everytime he heard him coming he'd scurry off to another part of the tower, or crawl on the ceiling until he left.

He knew it was a little silly, but it had really hurt to hear his hero and mentor say that it had been a mistake ever meeting him. It made his insides screw up into a ball, of anxiety and guilt.

So, he sulked in his room and stayed away from Tony.

He had started texting Ned, now that he was getting ready to come home, and he was absorbed in their messages when a tiny knock came at the door.

He sighed and typed a reply back, as he called out to the door. "I'm busy!"

Knock. Knock.

"Ugh, seriously? I just want to be left alone!"

Peter looked to the door, waiting to see if the knock would come again; when none came, he went back to his messages.

'I miss u 2 dude and I promise I'll be back soon but Mr Starks got me working real hard. tnx for the homework btw and for letting MJ scribble on-'

Knock. Knock.

Peter groaned and slid his phone across his desk in frustration, hauling himself up from his chair, and leaning a hand against the wall as he got to the door. His legs were not completely, steady yet and he'd fallen enough times to have learnt to stick close to things he could lean on.

Knock. Knock.

Peter hobbled faster, grumbling as he flung the door open. "Did you not hear me the first...time?"

Peter was expecting Tony, or Steve, possibly Sam, but definitely not a little girl with pigtails and a backpack. She smiled up at him, as he stared in confusion.

"Hi, can you help me find my dad? I don't know where he is."

Peter said nothing for a moment, unsure of how a little girl could be wandering around Stark tower alone; before realising he should actually do something, like answer.

"Sure, who is your dad?"

"His names Scott, he wears an ugly helmet and a wetsuit sometimes."

Peter laughed at her description, recognising the outfit as Ant-Mans. "Yeah it is pretty ugly. Um, I don't know where he is but I can send him a message and tell him to meet you here? You can hang out with me till he gets here. I'm Peter, by the way."

The girl nodded and stepped through the door as Peter held it open, looking around his room with wide eyes.

"I'm Cassie."

Peter nodded and hobbled his way back to his desk, pulling a chair up for the girl and gesturing to a box of crayons that had been sitting there when he got the room. "Mr Stark left those for me as a joke, but we can do some coloring if you want? Here, you get started."

She happily took the colourful box and some paper that Peter handed her, as the teenager called out to the AI that ran through the whole building.

"Hey, Friday? Call Scott, let him know Cassie's here."

"Sure thing, Peter."

Peter hadn't used crayons in years, but Cassie was already filling her page with colour, so he got started on his own as he chatted to her.

"So, you're hanging out with your dad today? That must be fun."

Her tongue was sticking out the side of her mouth as she concentrated, and she swept the crayon over the paper to colour the sky blue as she answered. "Yeah, he's taking me to the fair, and he even said he could let me see Spider-Man, because they're friends."

Peter couldn't help the smile that crept onto his face at that. "You like Spider-Man?"

She nodded emphatically, holding up her drawing to show a crude depiction of the web slinger, and herself, fighting crime together. "Yeah! He's so cool, but the news said he's been gone for a while, and they don't know where he is. I hope he's okay."

She put her drawing down, and continued to colour the sky, and Peter could no longer look at the drawing without feeling as if his guts were turning inside out. Because Mr Stark had said he didn't want Peter to be Spider-Man anymore, and apparently the public had already noticed that he was gone.

Cassie's drawing was of Spider-Man saving the day, but now that might not happen again. He'd failed his mission, and Tony didn't want him on the team anymore.

Cassie's voice interrupted his mellon-collie thoughts. "Are you alright?"

Peter looked up, to find her watching him with concern; he hadn't meant to look so sad, but she patted his hand on the desk.

"Are you worried about him too? It's okay, I know he'll come back."

She seemed so confident, while Peter didn't even know himself if he would be coming back.

"How do you know?"

She shrugged, drawing webs onto her page. "Because he's Spider-Man. He can do anything."

"Cassie!" Both kids heads turned to the door, where Scott was waiting with a smile, arms open wide to catch his daughter as she jumped into them. Peter stood from the desk, pressing his lips together at the loving scene of a father and his kid, that made his heart ache a little for his Uncle Ben.

Scott noticed, and set Cassie back down on the floor. "Hey, can you go wait just in that room over there? I need to talk to Peter, but I'll be right there." He pointed to the nearby kitchen, and watched his daughter leave, before turning to the teenager.

"Thanks for helping her, she's a big fan of yours you know."

Peter nodded, squeezing his hands together in front of himself. "Yeah, no problem. She's sweet."

Scott hesitated, not knowing how to approach the kicked puppy look on Peters face, since they didn't actually know each other that well. And also because he'd been responsible for smacking the kid to the ground on the fight on the first place.

"Are you...are you okay? I heard Tony has been trying to find you all day, and you haven't really left your room. He's been getting worried."

Peter bit his lip but didn't say anything, looking down at the ground instead. Scott sighed and tried again. "Look, Cassie is still a kid, I don't know how to do the dad thing for anyone above ten, so just spill it or I'll have to do something weird like tickle you or something."

Peter sank back down to his chair, Scott watching him worriedly. "Mr Stark doesn't want me here. He said it was all a mistake."

Scott wasn't expecting that. "Oh."

The teenager nodded, grateful to have someone to talk to about it, even if it was the guy that had almost killed him.

"When he first came to me, and asked me to fight with him, I thought I'd finally gotten my chance to become a real hero. But I screwed up, and now it's over. I didn't want to see him, just to hear him say it to me in person. That's why I've been avoiding him."

Scott took the chair his daughter had previously been sitting in, and frowned. "When did you hear him say this?"

"This morning, he was talking to Happy."

Scott nodded. "Okay, firstly, eavesdropping never ends well. Don't do that. Second, I'm pretty sure you must have heard him wrong, because Tony's been bragging about you since Germany. It's actually very annoying, cause I'm new too, and I literally ripped a plane apart as a giant, and I didn't get any compliments from him at all."

Peter smiled just a little, scrunching up his nose as he gave the man a sideways glance. "Well, a piece of that plane that you ripped apart, did end up stabbing me...so…"

Scott winced and patted Peter on the shoulder. "Right, sorry about that. I definitely did not mean for that to happen, I also didn't mean to hit you so, I'm sorry for that whole mess of a fight. Especially since Cassie is really upset that her favorite hero is MIA, and she'd kill me if she found out it was my fault."

He said 'favorite' a little bitterly, and Peter couldn't help but smile. "It's not your fault, it was a fight, stuff happens."

Scott was glad the kid was so understanding, but he still looked so sad. He tried again, hoping the young hero would listen.

"Peter, whatever you heard him say, has an explanation, and that explanation is probably that he's worried about you. It was really hard for him to see you hurt, and he has the biggest guilt complex of anyone I have ever met, so he's probably just trying to distance you from any more danger. Because like it or not, you're still a kid. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to Cassie, but I know I would do anything in this world to protect her."

Peter looked up at the man, eyebrows furrowed as he tried to wrap his head around what he just said. Maybe he had heard him wrong? Maybe Tony really did just want to protect him.

Scott patted his shoulder and stood from the chair. "Go talk to him. You took on Captain America without flinching, you can do this too."

The man left, to go get his daughter, who smiled and waved at her new friend as they passed his door on their way out.

"Bye Peter! Thanks for letting me use your crayons!"

He waved back, smiling, mind still full of what Scott had said. Peter really didn't want to talk to Tony about what he'd heard, because it still hurt, and everyone calling him a kid was getting really annoying; but Scott was right, he needed to deal with it.

He found Tony in his lab, hunched over a table and working on...Peters Spider-Man suit?

Mr Stark looked up as he came in, waving him over. "Oh good, I was just about to ask Friday to get you. Come over here, I need an extra pair of hands on this."

Peter stared at the suit as he walked over, surprised to see Tony working on it.

"You're fixing it?" Why would he fix it if he didn't want Peter fighting anymore?

Tony's brow was furrowed in concentration as he nodded, repairing one of the eyes on the suit as he did.

"Yeah it got banged up when you did, and I'm adding a few things. How do you feel about a parachute?"

Peter ignored the question, in favor for one of his own. "So, you still want me on your team?"

Tony looked up from his work, but didn't stop what he was doing, hands moving over wires and conducting lines; but it was clear he didn't know what Peter's talking about. "There aren't really teams anymore, but you're going to need the suit when you go back home and fight crime, or help kids cross the street or whatever a spiderling does. You can't expect me to just allow you to walk around in those pyjamas you call a suit."

Peter's shoulders sagged, losing the tension he didn't know they held. He was more confused than he had been before, with more questions than answers. Tony seemed to have completely different opinions than he had that morning.

"But… I failed the mission. I thought you didn't want me to fight anymore."

Tony dropped his tools on the workbench, face pinching into something close to concern. "What are you talking about? You didn't fail anything."

"Steve and Bucky got away, and I broke the suit." It was almost like the conversation he'd overheard that morning had never taken place, Tony was acting completely different. Peter started to feel out of his depth, as if he'd run into the situation with a few overheard mumbles, and none of the information, and now he wasn't sure where he stood or what he was even looking for.

Tony searched his face, and seemed to find something there, pulling a stool to the table and patting it.

"Sit down. You didn't break the suit, it just needs a tune up, and you did not fail. I failed you. I shouldn't have let you come in the first place, it was stupid."

There it was. Peter sat down and squeezed his fingers together in his lap, staring down at them. His voice was small, and more childlike than he'd meant it to be. "So, you don't want me on your team."

Tony was more confused than before, abandoning his task completely and turning his stool towards the boy. "If I didn't want you on my team, I wouldn't have brought you here in the first place. You have incredible powers, and you're incredibly smart, of course I want you on my team, but what I want doesn't matter. You're a kid, and I pulled you into something that ended up getting you hurt. You did a good job, you didn't fail anything, but that doesn't change the fact that I should have left you alone. This is my fault and I'm so sorry Peter."

The teenager sighed, annoyed. "Why does everyone keep saying that? It wasn't your fault, and I'm not a kid. You didn't do anything wrong."

Now Tony was getting annoyed, because he felt guilty, so guilty all the time it was a constant weight that he couldn't shake off, and now he was being denied it.

"I dragged you to Germany, I took you away from school, and your aunt and your friends! I pushed you into a fight that you weren't a part of, that you didn't understand and you almost died! Aren't you mad at me?"

Peter frowned, at Tony's raised voice, but he needed the kid to understand; he couldn't let him forgive him without knowing everything.

"No, of course I'm not mad!"

"You should be! You should hate me, Peter! I got you beaten up so bad your heart stopped beating!"

Peters eyes widened in surprise, as the room lay in sudden silence.

Tony was breathing hard, looking ashamed, as Peters voice came out small, and a little afraid. "My heart stopped?"

Suddenly, it was as if all the tension had leaked out of the room, popped like a balloon as soon as the admission was out. Peter had died.

Tony hung his head, slumping in his chair and rubbing his hands through his hair. He sounded so defeated. "This isn't on you Pete, none of it is. You did everything right, you.." He looked up, placing a hand on Peters shoulders as he looked in his eyes, meaning everything he said, and needing Peter to know that. "You did really good, and I'm sorry I pulled you into my mess."

"I'm not."

"What?" Tony's hand fell from Peters shoulder, as the teenager shrugged.

"I'm not saying it wasn't scary or painful but...if I had to choose again, I would still go with you."

Tony couldn't understand. After what he'd just told him, he still wasn't mad? "Why?"

"Because before I met you, I was trying to make my web shooters out of old dvd players I'd found in the dumpster, and spending all day sitting in class wishing I could get out of there and help people; hoping that I could be someone important."

"You are important." His words were adamant, but Peter shook his head.

"Thanks Mr Stark, but you know what I mean."

Tony wasn't good at comforting people, he wasn't good at motivating speeches like Steve always seemed to be spouting off in the midst of battle, but he truly cared about Peter, so he tried his best. "I think you're going to make a really great hero some day, but let's start off small for now. No fighting giants or battling super soldiers, just…"

"Standing up for the little guy."

Tony smiled. "Exactly."

Peter certainly felt better than he had that morning, but he still wasn't sure about a few things.

"So, does this mean you still want me to be Spider-Man? You aren't going to stop me?"

Tony turned back to the suit. "Why would I?"

Peter didn't want to admit that he'd been listening to his and Happy's conversation but he needed answers. "I heard you tell Happy it was a mistake bringing me in, and that you wouldn't make the same mistake again. I thought that meant, you wouldn't let me fight with you anymore."

Tony sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "I didn't know you were listening. Is that why you were avoiding me all day?"

"I wasn't eavesdropping, I just...did you mean it?"

"I'm not good at caring about people, Peter. I wasn't supposed to care, but you just...your constant babbling, and your nerd t-shirts that look just like some of mine...I care, even if I don't want to. So, when you fell, and I saw you lying there, god, Peter I almost had a heart attack. I can't handle you getting hurt, and when I said I wouldn't be making the same mistake, I meant that I wouldn't let you get hurt again."

He gestured to the suit laying on the workbench. "That's why I'm upgrading it. You're going to have a parachute, and a tracker, coms, I was thinking of adding a defibrillator but I haven't managed to get the charge up high enough without it damaging the suit."

Peter's chest no longer felt as if it had been caved in, he no longer felt sick with worry that his hero hated him. In fact, Tony had just admitted that he cared? Peter smiled, trying not to let on just how much it meant.

"Thanks Mr Stark."

Tony gave him a small nod, and handed Peter a screwdriver. "No problem kid, now help me with this suit, you have training later."

….

Now that Peter was almost fully healed, the other Avengers had decided that he could use some training, and the first to volunteer her services was Natasha.

"You may have super strength, but you can still be light on your feet. Use it to your advantage when you sneak up on people."

"Like this?" She watched in amusement as Peter spider-crawled up the wall and across the gym ceiling, smiling down at his tutor.

"Hey, Black Widow, you're a spider. Why can't you do that?" Clint had also offered to help Peter with training but had mostly been commentating from his perch on the balcony above.

Natasha's face melted into a smile, although it was more of a mix of fondness and threat.

"New lesson, Peter. I'm going to show you all the ways you can snap someone's neck."

She moved so fast that Peter could barely keep up, as she flipped up onto the balcony and launched herself at her teammate, tackling him to the floor and wrapping her legs around his head.

Peter started laughing, letting go of the ceiling to hang from it by his feet, as he watched the two wrestle.

Clint had almost given up and tapped out, when someone knocked on the training wall, to get their attention.

"Sorry to interupt what looks to be a rousing lesson on sex positions, but I need to speak to Peter for a moment."

Peter nodded and flipped down from the ceiling, following Tony out of the gym and down the halls to his room.

"So, your wonderful aunt called, and insisted you come back home, and since you are all healed now I thought it might be time. I wanted to keep it for a surprise, and also she arrived without warning so, she and your friend Ted, are waiting in your room."

Peter sucked in an excited breath, not bothering to correct Mr Stark on Neds name. "They're here? I get to go home?"

Tony looked guilty, but tried to cover it as he stared at his watch, pretending to adjust something on it. "Yes. I am sorry that you had to stay here so long, but-"

Peter quickly interrupted, realizing how ungrateful he must have sounded before. "No, no, no! It was great! I love it here, it's awesome! I just...really miss her, and Ned."

Tony peeked a glance his way, nodding. "Good, because I'm going to try and convince her to let you come over for training every weekend. We will stick to the cover story of course, and it's only if you want to but-"

"That's awesome, thank you Mr Stark!"

Tony smiled, looking a little less flustered, as they arrived at Peters door. "Good. Okay then, they are waiting in there, I'll let you have your reunion while I have Happy pack up all your things. I've already finished the suit, and got it back in its case, so you take care of it."

Peter nodded, practically bouncing with excitement. He had been waiting for weeks to see May and Ned again, and he could barely wait a second longer. "I promise I'll take really good care of it."

"I know you will. Now, go in there your jet home leaves...well, whenever you like, it's my jet."

Peter turned to the door, hand on the handle, but paused and turned to the billionaire. "Mr Stark? I just...thank you, for everything."

Tony smiled and patted Peters shoulder. "No problem, kid."

Peter couldn't wait any longer, he opened the door, and stepped into his room, and was immediately engulfed in one of May's perfect hugs.

"Peter! Oh my god, I missed you so much!"

She smelt just like she always did, and Peter was so happy to be back in her arms that he felt his eyes prick with tears.

"I missed you too, May."

Another pair of arms suddenly wrapped around him too, as Ned joined the hug. "Dude! You left me at school with no friends, it sucked without you there! Even MJ missed you!"

Peter laughed at that, as May released him from her grip, to brush his fringe back as she searched his face.

"Thanks Ned."

"Are you okay? Have you been eating enough? Why did I have to come all the way here, just to get you home?"

The teenager almost rolled his eyes at that. "May, Mr Stark is a billionaire; of course I'm eating enough. And I know I've been away too long, but this internship is just so cool, I got all caught up in it. I've been learning about tech stuff and how Mr Stark runs his companies, it's been amazing."

Ned was already distracted with the room, picking up things and asking questions about everything. "You have your own room here? And he got you...crayons? Did you draw that?"

He picked up the picture that Cassie left behind, making Peter smile at the little figures on the page. Spider-Man and Cassie, saving the world.

"No, that was a kid that was here with her dad. Actually, May do you mind if I do something before we go? I just have to see someone really quick."

….

Cassie was drinking from a juice box in the lounge, when Peter and Scott peeked out from behind the corner.

"Thank you so much for doing this, seriously, she's going to be so happy."

Peter shrugged and pulled his mask down over his face. "No problem, you helped me today, and she's great. I don't get to meet my fans that often, since, usually I don't really have many."

Cassie didn't notice either of them, too focused on her book to see Peter crawling on the ceiling above her, but she smiled as Scott came in.

"Hey, do you remember when I said I had a special surprise for you?"

Cassie smiled, nodding.

"Well, it's here. So, close your eyes."

Peter looked down at the two, waiting until Cassie had her eyes closed, to lower himself to hang from a web in front of her.

Scott was smiling so wide, eager to see his daughter meet her hero, happy even if it wasn't him.

"Okay, open them."

Cassie let out a squeal as she saw Spider-Man in front of her, and she threw her hands up to her face as she was overcome with excitement.

"Spider-Man! You're okay!"

Peter nodded and held out his hand for a hand shake. "Of course I am! I heard you wanted to meet me, and I couldn't let you down could I?"

She took his hand, shaking it, and giggling when Peter groaned theatrically. "Woah you've got a strong grip! Are you sure you're not the one with super powers?"

She gazed up at him with huge eyes, scanning all over his suit, that she'd only been able to see in grainy videos on the news and on youtube.

"They said you were gone, were you hurt?"

Peter shook his head. "Nah, I just had a little bit of a…" She watched him curiously as he pretended to be warding off a sneeze. "A..cold...ahHHH CHOO!"

Peter pretended to sneeze, firing a web at Scott as he did, as if it were a giant splatter of snot. Cassie screamed with laughter as Scott made a show of complaining about how gross it was, as his daughter came over to pull at the sticky webbing, over his chest.

"Gross! That's so cool!"

Peter laughed at how excited she was. It was nice to feel appreciated, like he was a real hero and not just some kid that ran around New York in his pyjamas.

"It was nice to meet you, Cassie! I'd better go back to fighting crime, but you take care of your dad okay?"

She nodded, watching as Peter jumped down from his web, to crouch in front of her. She jumped forward and wrapped her little arms around his neck squeezing tight as he hugged her back.

"I promise! Thanks Spider-Man, you're my hero!"

Peter had never felt like more of a hero, than in that moment. "Thanks Cassie."

She released him, and watched him fire a web, swinging to the ceiling and away through the tower. Once he was gone she turned to Scott. "That was so cool! Peter is so nice."

Scott almost choked on his own saliva at that, and Cassie laughed again.

….

Peter carried his giant silver case to the plane, as Ned carried his other bag, the two of them chatting away about everything that Peter had missed while away.

Tony stood beside May, as they watched the boys, trying to convince her to let Peter come back to the tower every weekend for the 'internship'.

"I won't keep him as long as I did this time, that was just so that he could settle in. We had a lot of information to cover, but he did great; he has a really bright future ahead of him. I just want to help him achieve that."

May didn't take her eyes off her nephew as she replied, voice hard.

"He's everything to me, Stark. If anything happens to him I'm blaming you, I don't care how much money you have, or how smart you are, I will not let anything happen to him."

Tony sighed, as he watched Peter laugh with Ned, he looked so happy, and more like himself than he had in awhile. If only May knew how much he cared about the little nerd.

"I'll take good care of him, you have my word. He's a really good kid, May."

She smiled, watching Peter put his bags down and hug his friend, the both of them relieved to be finally going home. "I know."

(AN: this is once again a prompt fill from tumblr so thanks to whoever sent the prompt I really loved writing this one, in fact I loved it so much its going to be multichaptered! I'm really gonna be making Peter suffer so this will be fun haha Im psychotic I know but you all love it

please tell me what you think of it tho? Do you want more POV from any particular person? does it need more detail? or any particular scenes you really want?)