#those billionaires turned into a red cloud in the matter of a fraction of a second

[charlesoberonn]

Me: *trying to concentrate on audiobook*

Brain: You need to pause so you can go over the scientific explanation for how the crew of the Titan submersible died.

Me: Sir, yes, sir!

[imwatermeloness]

Trust me

Chapter 1 is out, go show it some love :)<3

Summary: 5 times Tony had to trust someone else to take care of Peter and one time he shouldn't have

Chapter summary: Tony and Peter go skydiving. Parker luck strikes and Peter pays the price.

Read it here!

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"I can't believe I let you rope me into this." Tony grumbles in the driver’s seat, fisting the steering wheel tightly in a white knuckled grip.

Peter rolls his eyes at the man and leans back in his own seat. “I thought you weren’t scared of anything.”

It had taken a lot of persuasion to get Tony to agree to skydiving with him, without Iron Man. With the suit there would have literally been no point to the activity. Peter had spent weeks talking the man into coming with him and only when he had accused Tony of being scared, had the man assented, though begrudgingly.

The billionaire fixes him with a glare. “I didn’t say that. I said I’m not scared of anything, except for Pepper and your aunt.”

"Then there’s no reason not to do this.” Peter countered with a self-satisfied grin.

The man scoffs. “Speak for yourself, guess who’s going to have his head torn off if I come back and tell them that I let you fall to your death cause I didn’t have the suit.”

“I’m not going to fall to my death, Mr. Stark.”

That makes Tony look oddly alarmed. “For that, I’m gonna need you to knock on wood, kid.”

There’s nothing in the car that’s made of wood, not even cardboard coffee cups or receipts. Tony keeps the car freakishly clean. So Peter knocks his hand on his head, eliciting a scolding look from the man. Tony doesn’t like when Peter plays down or mocks his own intellect, even if it's a joke. He makes a show of putting his hand back down. “I didn’t know you were superstitious. Didn't you say you don’t believe in magic?”

“I’m heavily relying on past statistics. You have a habit of getting into trouble right after promising me you’re not gonna get into trouble. I’m not risking it.”

Peter breathes out a laugh. “Oh come on, it'll be fun. It's supposed to give you the adrenaline rush of your life." He moves his hands in an arch to add drama.

Tony’s grip on the wheel tightens just a fraction. He glances at Peter briefly, an unreadable expression clouding his expression. "I get heart palpitations just from watching the footage from your suit. I'm good on adrenaline."

Peter huffs impatiently and turns nearly sideways in order to give Tony his full attention. The man looks like he’s about to tell him to sit back but Peter opens his mouth before the man does. "Don't be a grumpy Gus, please, just try to enjoy it, for me?" He only widens his eyes a little bit, but it does the trick.

Tony grumbles something incoherent under his breath that sounds a lot like ‘damn puppy dog eyes’ and blows out a breath. Then, “fine.”

----------

They’re in the plane and they're both attached to other people by harnesses that wrap around their upper bodies. Tony is going to jump first. He’s standing in the open doorway of the small plane, his back against the tandem instructor’s chest, looking wildly uncomfortable. Peter is not sure if it’s because of being so close to a complete stranger or the fact that he knows he’s going to be free falling through the sky in just a minute. Nevertheless, the man looks like he would rather be anywhere else right now. Mr. Stark turns around for the last time and locks eyes with the man Peter is strapped against. His eyes are steely and Peter is glad he’s not on the receiving end of that look.

“That’s my kid, you bring him down safe, capiche?” Peter’s cheeks heat up fiery red as he hears the man’s firm ‘yes, sir’. Tony nods once and looks back at Peter.

“You okay?”

Peter wants to roll his eyes again. Tony is such a mother hen. Deciding against it he simply smiles reassuringly and gives Tony a thumbs up. “Yup.” And it’s the truth. Sure, he’s nervous but it’s trumped by the adrenaline filled excitement that’s coursing through his veins now that it’s almost the time to jump. He honestly can’t wait.

Tony nods one more time and pats Peter’s shoulder. “Alright, kid. I’ll see you when you get down. Happy trails!”

And then they jump. Peter watches them float down until they’re merely a small dot against the large area of sand they’re supposed to land on. His heart is racing so hard that he can feel it in his ears.

“Ready, kid?” his flying instructor asks, walking them closer to the edge. Peter swallows down the bubbling anxiety and nods determinatedly, gripping the shoulder straps of his harness. “Yeah.” he says, “let’s do this.”

And suddenly they’re falling. It feels sort of like one of those amusement park attractions that drop down from really high up and make your stomach feel all wonky. it's exhilarating, insane, amazing, terrifying but so, so great. The oxygen is a lot thinner than down in the ground and for a second it's hard to breathe. His mouth is gaping like he’s seen fish do. He breaks out in startled laughter at the feeling that reverberates from the bottom of his stomach throughout his whole body.

It’s incredible.

Until they suddenly jerk violently and are flipped upside down, falling heads first towards the rapidly approaching ground. He hears the skydiving instructor yelp and it's only a half a second later that Peter registers a snap from somewhere in his lower leg, that is soon engulfed by absolute searing agony that emanates from his right ankle. It feels like someone is trying to rip his foot from the rest of his leg. He doesn't even realize that he has been screaming until he closes his mouth to grit his teeth together. His eyes fill with hot salt water and Peter can instantly tell from past experience that his ankle is definitely broken, there's no other possibility. He's felt this pain so many times.

They start spinning around wildly and Peter gets so disoriented that he is unable to tell up from down. He can't really see anything other than the chaotic blur of ground that he can make out occasionally and that they are nearing at an alarming speed.

The man behind him yells something at him but Peter can't concentrate on anything other than the unforgiving burning in his ankle. Peter looks up and what he sees makes his heart drop down to his stomach. The drogue chute has somehow inexplicably wrapped itself around his ankle. The sight of it makes the pain worsen tenfold and Peter bites his lip so he won't scream again. Oh man, what if this thing rips my foot clean off. It feels like it. Could he still be Spider-Man with only one foot? Tony could probably make him a really good prosthetic, with so many different features. He doesn't want a prosthetic, though. He wants to keep his leg and he doesn’t want to be an amputee. Oh God he doesn’t want to lose a limb because of something so stupid.

The rope squeezes his ankle so tight that Peter is half scared that it's cutting off the blood circulation to his foot. It feels worse than getting shot. Delirious from pain Peter thinks the rope might be caught on his shoe so he frantically kicks his sneaker off with his other foot, but it changes nothing. His ankle is still being strangled and no matter how much he flails his leg around, the rope won't budge.

Then finally his head clears enough to hear what the man is yelling in his ear.

"Kid! Kid, are you okay?"

Peter grunts, fighting to keep his voice level. "Y-yeah, yeah, it's just- my foot, it's-"

"Alright, you're okay.” The man sounds just as scared as Peter is although he is hiding it a lot better. “I'm gonna get us down! Just take a deep breath. I'll count to three and on three I'm going to pull the emergency chute. It's gonna get rocky but we'll be fine."

Peter pants because now the pain is on the point of being unbearable. He manages to nod shakily. "O-okay."

"Okay, one, two, THREE!"

It knocks the breath out of Peter's lungs. The abrupt stop in motion feels like getting hit by a car and he can already tell his whole torso is going to be bruised. He can't stop the yelp of pain that escapes through his lips when the movement jostles his leg violently. Deploying the emergency chute has flipped them back into the right position and now they’re floating down feet first.

Peter can't remember the rest of the way down. All he knows is the erratic race of his heart, the all consuming torment in his ankle and the strange numbness that he associates with shock. He thinks the tandem instructor might have talked to him but he can’t be sure. Once Peter's feet touch the ground his vision whites out and he almost faints when he feels the bones in his ankle creak. It suddenly strikes him that they could have very well died.

All the adrenaline drains out of him at once and he sags against the chest of the man behind him. Maybe he should faint. He wants to faint. He doesn't want to feel or think about the mess that is his leg. He can tell that it's bad, just from the feeling. Tears fill his eyes again and he tries to blink them back but then his lower lip starts trembling and he really wants May.

The man places a comforting hand on Peter's chest, rubbing it softly and shushes him quietly, all the while Peter trembles and shakes like a leaf. He's dazed and can't catch a single thought, his mind like a carousel, spinning out of control.

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Tony lands with the man and his legs feel like jello. That was… God awful. This is the last time he agrees to any of Peter’s insane ideas. The whole way down all he could think about was the chute malfunctioning or the harnesses malfunctioning or the tandem instructor having a heart attack or something. His mind went through every single worst-case-scenario where something went wrong and they fell down, only leaving two wet smears of red in their wake.

Nothing happened though, thank God, and they descended safely. Although, the sight that greets him raises his hackles right back up again. The people around him, even the ones helping him out of the harness are all mesmerized by something that is happening above them, in the air. He’s confused for a moment until his mind freezes on a thought. Peter. Heart pounding he leaps off the ground and gazes up. Sure enough, it’s Peter and his skydiving instructor.

Something is clearly wrong though, as they’re falling down in a completely wrong position, very different from what Tony and his instructor had done, plummeting towards the ground. The air hitches in Tony’s throat and his heart falls down to his stomach. His hand automatically slaps against his chest, and instead of connecting with the nano housing unit, his hand only meets fabric on top of the scarred surface of his chest.

“Fuck.” He had come without the nanoparticles. The realization clenches his heart in a terrifying grip. His kid… Oh god- he has to- oh God. Fuck, he shouldn’t have listened to the kid. He doesn’t know what to do. Frantically he looks around and settles his eyes on the nearest man, getting into his face.

“Hey! What the hell is going on?” He doesn’t care that his voice shakes, he doesn’t even care that everyone there can clearly see that he's scared out of his mind. The man only glances at him before turning his gaze back to the blue sky. It’s painfully obvious that the man is doing his best to act calm around the billionaire. It does nothing to ease the panic that’s clouding Tony’s brain. “I’m not sure, Mr. Stark. It looks like something might be wrong with the drogue chute.”

He frowns. “What, what does that mean?”

The man doesn’t answer his question but places a placating hand on his shoulder. Tony wants to push it off. “Hold on, sir.” The man says and leaves him to go talk to the man a few feet away from them.

“No, you hold on-” it falls on deaf ears when there’s a unified gasp from nearly everyone around him. He spins around to look back to the sky and heaves out a breath of relief. Peter and the man have deployed a parachute and are now approaching the ground in what Tony thinks looks like normal manner. He may have not done this before but even he knows that a parachute means not being in an acute danger of dying.

Or thought he knew, because suddenly the people around him go even more frantic than before and Tony’s heart skips another beat. He hears the word “ambulance” and his heart all but stops. “What…” he breathes when he sees one of the men lifting a phone to his ear. He spins around to find someone, anyone available to tell him what is happening but everyone’s busy discussing the situation with each other.

Tony finally runs out of patience.

“Hey!” he yells with the deepest, loudest voice he can manage and is satisfied when the employees of the place stop buzzing around like damn bees. “Somebody better tell me what the hell is going on before I sue this place six ways to Sunday and you ragtag gang of damn adrenaline junkies never see the inside of another plane ever again!”

The silence hangs heavy around them for a moment until the man Tony had jumped with steps forward. “They deployed the emergency chute. You can tell by the solid color.” he explains calmly, like talking to a frightened animal and points to Peter and the man where they’re floating down with a bright orange colored chute. “That means something’s wrong with the original parachute. Now, according to protocol we have to alert the emergency services and get an ambulance here, just to be sure.”

Tony doesn’t think he’s breathing. Emergency chute? An ambulance?

His arm tingles uncomfortably and in that moment he’s sure he’s actually going to go into a cardiac arrest. Tony hadn’t prepared for this. Yes, technically he knew that there was always the possibility of something going wrong, but statistics always applied to other people. The statistics were there to assure people that these mishaps only happened to a very, very small portion of people and that there was really nothing to fear.

“Right now they seem okay. Don’t worry, sir, Dave’s gonna get your boy down safe and sound.”

That is what bothers him the most. The kid could be dying for all he knows and he’s helpless to do anything. He has to trust his entire world in the hands of a ‘Dave’ he doesn’t even know. Tony hasn’t felt so utterly useless in a long time.

-------------

"Peter!"

Peter numbly lifts his head to see Mr. Stark sprinting towards him with what looks like at least ten people. His mind clears a bit more and he manages to calm himself down enough to uncoordinatedly pet at the vest that he is still strapped in.

Tony kneels in front of him placing his hands to Peter's cheeks, while a few of the people that came with the billionaire start working on detaching Peter from the man. The tears spill over without his consent.

"Oh my God, kid. Lordy, you almost gave me a heart attack."

In his state Peter can only mumble incoherently. "M-my, my foot-"

Tony glances down at Peter’s ankle and Peter can see him grimace when the man takes in the blood seeping through the fabric of the suit. "Alright, Jesus, we'll, uh, we'll get you all fixed up, okay. I already called Cho."

Behind him he can remotely feel the tandem instructor's body leaving his back and he very nearly slumps down but he hears Tony’s quiet ‘whoa’ and feels the man’s hands catch his shoulders, keeping him upright.

He hisses when he feels someone move his leg to assess the damage. He quickly looks away and settles his eyes on Tony again.

Peter moves his head in a shaky nod, blinking to get rid of the blur of tears in his eyes. Tony is looking at him with more fear in his deep dark irises than the last time Peter got stabbed, and it had been bad. He doesn’t like it when Tony looks at him like that. He doesn’t like it when Tony or May are so worried about him. The atmosphere suddenly feels too heavy and Peter needs to alleviate it somehow. He sniffs quietly, trying his best to form a believable smile. "Told you,” he mutters. “the adrenaline rush of your life."

So much is happening around them, but Peter can only focus on Tony and the stab of pain in his leg. Tony gapes at him like it’s the most ridiculous thing Peter has ever said. Very soon, though, he gets himself together and then gently brushes the wild ringlets of hair off of Peter's forehead.

Tony’s hand is warm against Peter’s chilled skin. "And I told you, little hooligan, that I've had enough adrenaline as it is."

Peter chuckles and smiles sheepishly, when the man lowers his hand to cup his cheek again.

"You scared the devil out of me, Pete,” Tony states suddenly and Peter’s stomach clenches in guilt. “I'm never letting you go skydiving again, at least not without my suit. And even then I need a year, at least, to recover from this."

Peter lowers his chin to hide the relieved expression on his face. After all, this had been his idea. "I think I'm okay with that."

The sound of tires on gravel breaks the moment and Peter looks up to see an ambulance approaching them. He almost groans in embarrassment. He doesn't want to get on the bus and he doesn't want people to make a big deal out of it. He nuzzles into Tony's hand and looks up through his lashes in hopes that Tony can read his mind.

He can apparently, but it doesn't get Peter what he wants. Tony only glares at him playfully and taps the side of Peter's head disapprovingly with the hand that rests against his cheek.

"You put those peepers away. The puppy dog eyes don't work when I'm scared for your life."

Tony points at his own hair where Peter can see hints of grey. "See this? This is your fault, now you face the consequences."

Peter smirks, assured now by the realization that things we’re most likely going to be okay. "It's my fault, that you're... old?"

Tony barks out a laugh and nudges Peter's shoulder. "You little shit! It's only broccoli for you for the next month."

"Jokes on you, I like broccoli."

"Yeah, cause you're a menace."

"Am not! You like me!"

"Don't know where you got that idea from."

"I'm your favorite intern."

"Intern? Doesn't ring a bell."

"What?" He laughs. "You know me!"

"Peter? Peter who? Never heard of him."

Peter cackles so loud his whole body shakes, not even caring that the action jolts his leg uncomfortably, and Tony joins him. They giggle like children until the ambulance reaches them and Tony wipes the remnants of tears off of Peter's cheeks.

"Alright,” his voice is almost a soft whisper. “let's get you to Cho." Then a smirk grazes his lips and he points at Peter.

"It's Peter, right?"

Peter shoves Tony's shoulder with a childlike giggle. "Stop."

Tony chuckles and places a hand on top of Peter's curls. He grins at him and adds softly. "You'll be okay." Peter smiles back at him, all bright eyed and trusting, just like he always is.

Tony will make sure of it.

A mischievous grin tugs at Peter’s lips again. "So,” he stretches the word. “who's gonna tell May?"

The smile on Tony's face falls.

"Shit."