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ironspiderfics · 7 months

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by @iron--spider for @meilz

Rhodey hasn’t been able to get a hold of Tony all day.

And he’s dealt with that in the past. Plenty of times. Too many to count.

It isn’t an immediate red flag, like it might have been in the old days, but it gives him pause. Almost everything Tony does gives him pause. Because he’s always doing some shit.

But Rhodey goes about his day—does some paperwork, attends the virtual visit with his doctor, finishes filing the new entrants for Stark’s Displaced Blip Persons program—and he doesn’t really worry. He doesn’t really think about it.

…he does think about it…but not actively. Passively.

And when he realizes he isn’t worrying, he starts worrying. Like an on and off switch flipped by an iron hand.

He sits down in the living room and tries Tony’s cell again, gets the same three rings and snarky answering machine.

Rhodey clicks his tongue.

Tony’s probably fine. Rhodey thinks about calling Pepper, or even Peter, but he tells himself, once again, that he’s probably fine.

Probably.

Tony nearly died after all the bullshit, and Rhodey could say that about various moments of Tony’s life, sure, but this last one was the closest they’ve ever come to losing him permanently. And Rhodey knows what that’s like—on a smaller scale, but still. World nearly ended, Tony nearly gone along with it, and he’s been—calmer, since the dust settled. More behind the scenes, on most things. Not risking life and limb as much as he would have before everything went down.

“So where are you?” Rhodey says to himself, looking at his phone.

It isn’t like they had plans. They live together, technically, at the new facility, and he normally knows where Tony is and where everybody else is, but he’s overthinking this. He’s definitely overthinking this.

And he continues to do that.

He checks Friday’s list of who’s on the grounds. Just to be sure.

Happy’s here, at Security Central. Pepper is not here, but the calendar says she’s in Jersey today with Natasha, which tracks. Bucky and Sam are here, Thor isn’t here but he’s scheduled to be here tomorrow, but no Tony, and…no Peter.

Red flag.

Rhodey clicks his tongue again, seeing both of their names grayed out.

Correlation.

Chaos.

Rhodey can almost hear them laughing. He can almost feel the destruction in their wake. Peter is like a little version of Tony, and just as insane, if not more so, and he makes Tony more insane than he already was, in a different way, and Rhodey always thought a lot of things blew up when he worked with Tony, but Peter and Tony? It’s outrageous, it’s—it’s always something—

They’re sweet, sure, if sweet is a fireball cascading through the sky and Iron Man flying after it and Spider-Man trailing after him shooting webs at the fireball—

Rhodey sucks in a breath. Tries to turn his brain off.

Maybe they’re out to dinner? Maybe they’re at the workshop in Queens? Maybe they’re playing Mahjong with May, sometimes they have those weird tournaments. Maybe Tony’s touring MIT with him again. But Rhodey would probably know about that, he went with them last time. Maybe they’re—working on something—

Maybe they’re not even together. Maybe they’re both off being normal somewhere separately.

Rhodey bristles, for a minute.

Then he picks up his phone and texts May.

Seen your nephew today?

He doesn’t know why his brain is jumping to conclusions. He isn’t the one with the Spidey Sense, that’s the damn kid—but maybe he has a Tony sense, after his years of experience, and maybe it’s been heightened since the kid came into Tony’s life, since the kid was unceremoniously yanked from Tony’s life, since Tony spent a year and a half running himself ragged trying to move time and space to bring him back.

And he did it, didn’t he? Twisted the fabric of the universe to bring the kid back, and everyone else along with him.

And he hasn’t really let him out of his sight since…

He’s my kid, Rhodey. He is, not my blood, but he is—like you’re my brother, that’s my—that’s my—he’s like my son, he is. I can’t—there can’t be a world without him. Not while I can do something about it. Not while I can still try.

Tony likes to bury his sentimentality sometimes, but it works its way out with the people he loves most.

He’s a big marshmallow.

May answers and Rhodey grabs his phone. Not since this morning, he was on some mission with Tony. He didn’t tell you?

And Rhodey doesn’t have a second to process that before someone is literally bursting through the main door.

And that someone is the tiny, previously mentioned spider person, and he immediately falls flat on his face, on top of the door, which is no longer connected to the wall. He scrambles a little bit, briefly, as if he’s forgotten how to move his limbs, and Rhodey jumps up before Peter even braces his hands on the ground. Or on the door.

“What the hell?” Rhodey almost yells, weaving around the couch to get to him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Peter is all dirty and dusty and his mask is only half on and his hair is sticking out in tufts from underneath it. He’s moving like a brand new baby giraffe, like he can’t pull himself back up, and Rhodey reaches him and hauls him up by his arms.

The kid looks around, his eyes wide like he doesn’t know where the hell he is.

“You destroyed the door,” Rhodey says, glancing over his shoulder. “Did you forget how to use doors, Parker?” He shakes his head, holding onto him. “It’s on the ground now—where’s Tony? What have you two been up to now, Jesus—”

Peter blows out a breath, looking around, and he finally meets Rhodey’s eyes.

He grins at him. “Hey. Hey! What’s up?”

Rhodey’s eyebrows furrow. “What’s—what’s up? Did you just ask me that? Don’t tell me you’ve been drugged again. That would be upwards of eight times this month—hey, earth to Peter—”

Peter blinks at him. “Not, uh—um, Rhodey. I need—we need…your assistance, just a small bit of your assistance—” He takes one step and nearly collapses, and Rhodey catches him before he can fall again.

Rhodey is getting a little worked up. What the hell is going on? “We, okay, we, I heard we—”

Peter shakes his head. “I’m not even that messed up I’ve just been running for a long time and my legs are sort of jelly, I ran out of webs a little bit ago so I had to like, run, a lot and for a little bit—a while—”

Rhodey takes him by the shoulders, ushering him over to the couch, and he sits him down on the arm of it.

Peter blinks. “I shouldn’t be sitting.”

“You need to sit,” Rhodey says, standing in front of him and keeping him there. “Okay, speak.”

“Speak?”

“You forgot the meaning of the word?”

Peter nods, and shakes his head, swaying. “We need your help, we, meaning—”

“You and Tony—”

“Yup, me and Tony, we uh, well—”

Rhodey narrows his eyes. “Pete, I’m gonna need you to focus here, where is he? Where’s Tony?”

Peter looks at him. He grimaces. He smiles, he laughs, breathlessly, and he glances off towards the open doorway that he opened when he destroyed the goddamn door, and this face journey isn’t giving Rhodey any indication as to where Tony might be.

“Peter—”

“Okay, uh. Okay, The story—the story is—”

There are way too many low level bad guys in the new world. Peter likes to call it the new world—the post-blip world, the world Tony and the rest of the Avengers saved, the world Tony brought Peter back into with a snap and a breath he thought he would be his last. Peter doesn’t like to cry in front of people, especially in front of super people, but he collapsed against Tony on that battlefield and cried and cried when he thought he was gonna die, and Rhodey had to pull him off and get him back together.

But Tony didn’t die. There were bedside vigils and close calls and so many whispered promises and it all added up to something, and he didn’t die.

And now they’re in the new world.

And Tony mostly stays behind, on Avengers missions. The voice in Peter’s ear, when he’s with the team, and they cut off onto private channels plenty so Tony can talk just to him, and Peter bounces back and forth between getting distracted by Tony’s presence and being coached by him. But either way, Tony usually doesn’t come on missions in the flesh unless he’s really worried something is gonna happen. And Peter doesn’t wanna sound selfish, or like he thinks he’s fancy or anything like that, but usually that fear Tony has is something happening to Peter.

Which, like. Fair.

It grates on him sometimes, but more often than not it’s nice, that he cares so much. His words echo in Peter’s ears, and he knows why.

I can’t lose you again, alright? So if I think you need me, I’m gonna be there.

And Peter takes that to heart. And he’ll protect him too.

But the new world has a lot of new jerk bad guys festering underneath all the rebuilding and relocation and integration, and there’s an entire syndicate of enhanced morons coming together to form their own anti-Avengers in Queens. In Peter’s own backyard! It makes him a little insane, how close it’s all happening to May and MJ and Ned, especially after everything they’ve been through. None of these guys are anything like Vulture, not anything like Thanos, or even the fishbowl guy that terrorized the Stark campuses across New York a couple months ago, but they’re still—a threat. They can still cause a lot of damage. They’re getting too organized, they’re helping each other, they’re giving each other resources. They rob banks, they hit FEAST centers, and they aren’t above hurting civilians to get what they want.

Peter knows firsthand what they can do.

And once Peter found it, Tony insisted on going with him to sabotage their hidden home base.

And it went fine, at first. They’ve been monitoring their movements and they know when there’s nobody around, and when they went in it was just their security on duty, which are just a couple NYU frat guys who have no real idea what’s going on and what they’re getting paid for.

They were able to override the cameras for the areas they’d be working in. Just like in Speed. Peter’s idea. Except they did it better than in the movie. No disappearing purse.

“You’re just walking along in the suit,” Peter said.

“We’re in a hallway. You want me to fly?”

“I mean, you’re clomping. You’re just. You’re clomping down the hallway.”

“You’re skipping!” Tony said, gesturing to him. “You’re skipping in a bad guy lair. Does that seem inappropriate? Sources say yes.”

Peter snorted, and Tony grinned at him.

(— “and we were on our way out, we were literally leaving” —)

They kept walking. Peter knew the layout of this place like the back of his hand at that point, and they were only a few turns away from the spot they came in at.

“You got the cluster bombs going off right now, right?” Tony asked.

“Yup,” Peter said, and Karen gave him all his stats. “Few more in ten. And the scramble is already happening, so all the information should be wiped by—”

“Looks like midnight to me,” Tony said.

“Karen says we’re synced,” Peter said. “And the frat guys just got the burger delivery and they’re distracted by the driver so we’re—good on that front too—you didn’t need to come with me on this one, you know? It was pretty, uh—free and clear, with all the research we did, and we knew none of them would be here because they’re out there trying to—cause antics—”

“And Bruce is monitoring them to make sure no actual antics are caused,” Tony said, and he smiled at Peter again. “I didn’t want you going in it alone, just in case something went wrong or—one of them came back, or if you needed help. I know most of these guys are lame as hell, but some of them are, uh—and you know the one in particular—”

“I know, I know,” Peter said, because he did know. Personally. And he didn’t like to think about it.

“So I wanted to back you up,” Tony said, nodding at him. “Just in case. Make sure it’s all good.”

And Peter knows Tony wants to back him up, and protect him, especially after the shit that's happened, but sometimes it still shocks him to be in it, to be faced with it. He closed his eyes and laughed a little bit, continuing to walk. He was glad he had his mask on because he knew his face was red, and he wished he could stop being surprised by how much Tony cared about him because they literally spend most of their time together and it’s pretty normal and commonplace but here he is, tearing up over it again—

“Well, that’s uh, that’s—I mean, it was easier, to set the traps and stuff, with you here, but that’s uh, that’s—that’s really—”

And Peter glanced over at him and he was gone.

Gone!

(— “oh so he disappeared is that what you’re telling me he disappeared into thin air that’s what we’re dealing with” —)

“Tony?” Peter asked, spinning around on the spot. “Tony?”

How? He was alone, all of a sudden, when seconds before—and was this something more sinister than—Tony was in an entire Iron Man suit that isn’t exactly inconspicuous—was it aliens was it one of the guys was he invisible and following them—

(— “okay I don’t need to hear your entire thought process where was he did you find him why are you here without him come on Peter” —)

“Tony?” Peter asked again, and he heard a crash. A crash that sounded like it was below him somehow, and he stared at the ground. “Uh. Tony?”

“Peter!” Tony’s voice yelled. From. Somewhere.

Peter just stood there. He spun in a circle like a cat, looking around, glancing—around, and below, and around, and—

“I fucking fell! Through the goddamn floor!”

He sounded so far away, and Peter started looking down. Why did he have to be looking away when this happened? He could have seen where he went but nooo—

“Which floor?” Peter asked, his eyes wide.

“Which—the floor!” Tony yelled, and Peter tried to follow his voice. “The floor we were walking on!”

“I don’t see any holes—”

“There wasn’t a hole there was—one of the panels must have—I don’t know I didn’t have time to analyze the situation as I was falling into the abyss—”

“Karen do you like—see any of the panels that sticks out like the things in cartoons in the background like the thing that looks different and is drawn different because you know it’s gonna move—”

“What are you saying?” Tony yelled, and he sounded closer. “What are you talking about?”

Karen highlighted the panel Peter was standing on top of. Peter kneeled down and started banging on it. “Hey! Hey! I’m on top of you!”

“Do not say that,” Tony said, and he sounded very far away even though he wasn’t really far away. Was he?

“Karen how deep is it?” Peter asked. “Is he in danger? Well, we’re in a bad guy place—is he in imminent danger—”

“Peter, step back!” Tony yelled. “I wanna try something. Step back, step—take a bunch of steps back—”

Peter sighed, and stepped back, trying to keep a mental note of which panel is the right one. And he stepped back and stared and waited. And he might have heard a couple little noises but they didn’t sound like anything.

“What are you—wait, why can’t you connect through coms to talk to me?” Peter yelled.

“Not working—repulsors not working either, some of my—some of my suit capabilities are being blocked—can’t fly out—”

He was yelling and yelling louder and Peter felt antsy, because this was easy and then it wasn’t. He rushed over and laid himself out and started trying to peel up the panel.

“Can’t fly out—still trying to fly out can’t fly out—Friday stop—stop updating me on the weather—”

“They must have—some kinda something some kinda—blocker or something on that level—you’re in—” Peter was pulling and gritting his teeth so hard that it felt like they might bust, but the panel wasn’t budging.

“What are you doing?” Tony yelled. “Don’t hurt yourself. Pete! Don’t hurt yourself. Jesus I shouldn’t even be using your name—”

“I’m not hurting myself I’m just trying to—”

He pulled so hard that he lost his grip and flew backwards, hitting the wall. He was starting to panic, and he tried to relax, but that’s impossible sometimes—he almost feels better when he’s the one that’s in trouble, because when Tony is in trouble Peter never feels capable enough to fix it, even though he has to fix it or he would go nuts, and Tony being in danger is worse than Peter himself being in danger because he’s Tony and how can Tony be in danger—

(— “Jesus Christ, Peter” — )

Peter scooted back over and tried to start prying again. He wished he had some grenades or something.

“Spidey, scan the area, make sure they aren’t back yet—”

Peter could hear the coms trying to connect, Tony’s voice trying to come through, and what the hell was going on? Why was there a blocker underneath the floor? They got in and out easy as pie, nobody detecting them—

But maybe this was detection—

And that would mean they know—

Peter checked the stats. “Nobody’s here yet and those guys are still out front talking to the drivers,” he said, gritting his teeth again and trying not to lose his grip this time.

“Can’t believe I fell through the goddamn floor like we’re in a Looney Toons episode—okay, kid, we gotta figure this out—”

Peter knew they were gonna be back soon—

“Okay, so we have to go get him,” Rhodey says, clapping Peter on the shoulder.

“You didn’t let me finish—”

“What else happened?” Rhodey asks, fast. “Big grand goodbye? Did he tell you to come get me? Did anybody ambush you?”

“No, it was—I mean, yeah, we said goodbye, it was—it was scary and upsetting, it sucked, he couldn’t get it—I don’t even know how he got in or if it was on purpose I don’t even know it just happened out of nowhere I don’t even know if it was a trap—he said he loved me he said be careful—it’s still crazy to me when he says he loves me I mean obviously we love each other like family you know but still it’s sometimes like whoa—that’s Tony Stark—”

Rhodey scoffs at him, and he’s trying to plan in his head. “Yeah, right, we know he loves you—so nobody ambushed you, why are you so dirty and messed up?”

Peter glances away. “I mean, like I said that was just from—I ran out of webs, I came a long way back and like I got tired there’s a lot of emotions at play here and I was running and emotional and I almost got hit by a bus and—”

“Okay,” Rhodey says, still holding him by the shoulder.

He knows about these guys, Tony has talked to him about these guys and how concerned he is about them and how they’ll affect Spider-Man. Rhodey thinks he remembers Tony saying one of them was…a Rhino guy? A bunch of goddamn misfits and they’re gonna kill somebody, whether on purpose or by accident. Tony tries to act nonchalant, but Rhodey knows how worried he gets. Peter tries to take on more than he can handle. A lot like…someone else.

Rhodey clicks his tongue. “I’ll transfer the information from Karen to me, you can stay here—”

“No,” Peter says, leaping to his feet. “No, I’m not staying. I’m not staying here.”

Rhodey huffs at him. “Kid, you’re messed up—”

“I’m not messed up. I’m not.” He’s shaking his head, and he always looks young to Rhodey, but with that look on his face, and his hair all wild, he looks like a child in a costume. “I’m just dirty, I’m just—I was just—”

“You destroyed the door. You knocked it down.”

“I mean sometimes I’m just running, sometimes I’m just moving fast and things get knocked over, sometimes that happens, sometimes people get knocked over, good thing you weren’t standing there—”

Rhodey closes his eyes, hangs his head. “Peter, what the hell is Tony gonna say when I roll up back into this bad guy lair with you with me after you already escaped—”

And Peter is taking Rhodey by the shoulders now, as if he thinks he’s got the upper hand. “We did not escape because we were never captured—we invaded them—and I know Tony’s still there I know I know but honestly I wouldn’t even classify this as him being captured but anyway you’re gonna help me yay okay let’s go we’re wasting time let’s go—”

He brushes past him before Rhodey can even look up, and Rhodey moves after him and grabs his shoulders and spins him around so Peter’s facing him again. He did it almost on autopilot, like Tony’s spirit possessed him briefly and imbued him with fatherly instincts.

“New suit, Mr. I’m Just Running. Mr. I’m Moving Fast. Gonna go in there completely useless, Jesus, new web cartridges too, Christ—”

Peter nods, a little manically, and Rhodey wonders if they did get into some shit and he’s leaving it out. But he shakes his head and follows him in the direction of the workshops.

“Is this how you and Tony get around? You use him as a surfboard?”

“Only when I’m out of webs,” Peter says, perched on Rhodey’s back as they fly in stealth mode.

“You are not out of webs. You just restocked. You’re up to your eyes in webs.”

“Since we’re in stealth, can people see me? Are you completely invisible? Does it look like I’m walking on air?”

This is something Tony’s talked about. When Peter says things that are random and silly but also, what the hell is the answer? Rhodey knows he’s not completely invisible in stealth, but to people who are looking—but does he want that to be the answer—

Peter sighs, and he shifts so he’s literally sitting on Rhodey’s back and his legs are hanging down.

“Kid, this is—this is strange, you’re—I mean, what if I have to change trajectory—”

“It’s fine I’ve got good balance,” Peter says. He kicks his feet a little, and Rhodey narrows his eyes. “I’m worried. I’m worried about Tony.”

“We’re gonna go get him,” Rhodey says, setting his jaw and glancing at the time to their destination. “It’s gonna be okay. This is nothing for him, the shit we’ve gotten into? This is nothing. Just a little break.”

“I just—it’s just—it’s just like, when it’s me that’s hurt or lost or stuck or whatever it’s like okay, sure, makes sense, I’m younger and I’m always learning—I am expert level at a lot of things, most things, but I’m still learning—”

Rhodey finds himself smiling a little bit. “Uh huh.”

“But when it’s Tony…I don’t know, he’s—he’s just—I know he’s not invincible but he feels invincible and I just, it just—”

“I know,” Rhodey says, hit with a wave of sentimentality. “I know. It’s hard to, uh, see him in trouble. He’s like a little brother to me, like a dad to you, either way—”

“You shouldn’t see your dad hurt,” Peter says, and his voice is rough, like he’s tearing up.

“It’s fine,” Rhodey says, fast, because Peter’s gotta get his head in the game, because he might not be focusing properly if he’s getting emotional about it. And if he starts getting too emotional, Rhodey might, and that’s not good for anybody. “He’s probably just lounging around in there. He’s not hurt, it’s fine. We’re gonna get him.”

And Rhodey does get it. He gets all that. He loves Tony to the ends of the earth, he drives him insane but he never wants anything to happen to him. And maybe he underestimated just how much Tony means to Peter. He knew, he knows, but maybe it’s deeper than he realized. He knows what happened to Peter’s father, his uncle, and how close he was to his uncle. He knows he almost lost Tony, too.

They’re on the same wavelength. At least with this, anyway.

“The guys are back to their little evil lair,” Peter sighs. “Little, midsized, I don’t know—”

Rhodey narrows his eyes, and Peter’s AI, Karen, is quiet for a second.

And then, after a moment, the information comes through on Rhodey’s HUD.

“Looks like they haven’t found him yet,” Peter says. “Maybe they won’t, maybe that’s—I mean, they’re not super smart, maybe this is just an actual like, problem—that piece of tile opens up into—maybe it’s not an actual trap—”

“I doubt that,” Rhodey says, looking at the blueprints they have of the compound. “It definitely sounds like a trap—”

“And I still can’t connect to him—which I guess is probably good because it probably definitely means that they haven’t found him yet—”

Rhodey gets the indication that they can’t connect to Tony, a few long moments after Peter mentioned it, and he narrows his eyes. “Do you have some kind of backdoor code that allows you to get information before other people—”

Peter shifts into a perch again on Rhodey’s back. “Um, hm, you know, I don’t know—”

“Peter.”

“Yeah, yes. I do, I did that. So I can take care of things if I’m the cause of the problem—that sounds a lot more, uh, martyr—martyr-like—that’s not the purpose, I’m—”

“It’s incredibly dangerous,” Rhodey says, scoffing. “Peter, you’re—ten years old—”

“That’s a massive exaggeration—”

“Someone else, one of your other team members, in this instance me, could be more equipped—oh shit—”

The cloud comes out of nowhere, and he twists and avoids it, and clouds always fuck up the stealth and usually he gets indications when he’s about to fly through a bigger one and he was avoiding them fine and he wonders if Peter’s little time delay had anything to do with missing it and he hears Peter fall off and into the open air, yelling, and his heart nearly bursts out of his chest—

“Oh shit—”

And Rhodey is about to rocket down but Peter shoots a web and latches into Rhodey’s ankle.

“Are you good?” Rhodey yells, a little too loud, into their com connection. He looks down, sees the kid twisting around and spinning like an actual spider. “That was stupid. That was so stupid, I’m sorry, I knew you were there, I didn’t think—”

“Killer cloud!” Peter yells, trying to climb his way back up the web. “It’s gonna kill us! Red alert, code red!”

Rhodey rolls his eyes, and takes off a little faster. “Stay down there. Your surfboard privileges have been revoked—”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, I was just existing—”

“And don’t tell Tony about that, what just—what just occurred—”

“Oh I’m gonna tell him and he’s gonna be mad—”

Rhodey sighs. It’s bad, because he knows it’s true.

“Stop stomping.”

“I’m not stomping. You need to respect your elders.”

The place is overrun with assholes. They’re dealing with the aftermath of what Tony and Peter did to their place, which was essentially exploding a bunch of their weapons and scrambling their hard drives, and Rhodey guesses that was a good plan, maybe a lead-in to making it easier to catch them. He feels stupid right now, because a bunch of these dickheads who have been causing problems are here right now, with a bunch of their powerless employees (probably hangers-on, wanting to have powers, and they are probably giving themselves powers and that’s probably why half of their powers are shitty and why half of them are landing in the hospital asking to speak to Bruce Banner—Rhodey remembers Tony telling him that story—)

And Peter rushes out in front of Rhodey, and looks both ways, and then he’s running away from him—

“Okay, dummy, you came and got me for a reason, you can’t get him out without me, that was the entire purpose—”

But Peter isn’t saying anything, just rushing out ahead trying to get to the spot where Tony is first, and for what reason, Rhodey doesn’t know.

Rhodey keeps looking at the map they’ve got, every time Karen pings another guy to keep track of and avoid, and he keeps wondering if Peter has a more updated version of events.

Friday is still unreachable. Rhodey knows these assholes aren’t Thanos, or even the Mandarin, or Whiplash or anybody else Tony has faced, but he’s still filled with dread and the kind of anxiety that Tony is normally known for, not him. Is it because he hasn’t heard Tony’s voice? Is it because Peter is bounding out ahead of him like a golden retriever puppy? Is it because he knows if anything happens to Peter in Rhodey’s care that Rhodey would hear about it from Tony for the rest of his life?

“It’s right here,” Peter hisses, like someone is close by and listening, even though Rhodey knows Tony and Peter’s traps destroyed most of the security cameras. “I think. Wait. I marked it with a little web.”

“Because that’s not obvious—”

“It’s little—” He’s crab-walking along the floor like a lunatic, but then the eyes on his mask get all big and he slams his hands on the ground. “Here it—Tony! Tony, it’s me! It’s me and I’m back and I brought Rhodey!”

Peter is already trying to peel at the side of the floor panel, like he didn’t try that before and knows it won’t work, and Rhodey rushes over, quick as he can, and he’s definitely stomping now.

He hears Tony’s voice.

“Rhodey? Don’t let him fall in too, kid, this is a trap for us iron people—”

“I’m not gonna fall in too, you moron,” Rhodey says. He hears Tony laugh, which lights a fire under him, and he starts burning around the edges of the panel. “Find a good spot in the middle somewhere, I’m gonna drop this panel on your head—”

“Oh, nice, just what I wanted—”

“I need one of these little burner guys in every single one of my suits from now on—”

“Pete, step back, come on—”

“Okay okay—”

And Rhodey burns around the entire outside of the panel, reaches the beginning of his line, and it falls in.

And there have been plenty of moments in Rhodey’s life when a lot of things are happening at once. And a lot of those moments involve Tony, and his chaotic energy, going all the way back to MIT and shit exploding before it ever had a right to explode, but he guesses Tony touching anything gives it a right to explode—

But this one startles Rhodey, for some reason—maybe because getting Tony back was so built-up in his head because Peter’s anxiety is big and ballooning all around them—

But there’s a spray of bullets, and the lights flicker, and there’s—sparks of electricity? And a rolling wave, and some other shit, because somehow the two of them were so focused on finding Tony that they didn’t realize the conglomeration of dickheads were converging on their location, with their mishmash of powers and assholery—

And Peter cries out, slipping forward a bit and nearly falling into the newly opened panel—

And like a phoenix rising, Tony shoots out of the ground, grabbing onto Peter on his way out, and he flies down the hallway.

“Shit,” Rhodey breathes, a few bullets ricocheting off of his suit as he follows in Tony’s wake—

“Rhodes, can you make a big old hole in the wall there for me—”

“Coming right up,” Rhodey says, and he aims with both hands and fires two high caliber repulsor blasts at the same spot, and the wall blows out, lending them a new exit.

And they fly out, spiraling into the air like two comets finding their way back into the sky.

“Peter,” Rhodey says, hearing the last vestiges of the assholes firing at them and yelling obscenities. “Shit, uh, we should probably send someone—”

“A bunch of someones are coming,” Tony says, and when Rhodey looks over, he’s clutching Peter close. “I don’t know why the hell we were even playing spy games, we should have just—”

“They’re not all there right now,” Peter gasps, and he groans, wrapping his arms tighter around Tony’s neck. “Rhino’s not even—they’re not all—that was the thing, we were gonna—we were gonna take them out in stages, and it would be harder after—after the first stage—”

“Well, now the first stage is a bunch of explosions and a rescue—Friday, tell me what’s going on with him—”

“I can tell you what’s going on with me, I got shot—”

“He’s not wearing one of the bulletproof suits?” Tony asks, and he’s got the nerve to glance over at Rhodey when he asks it.

“I didn’t dress him,” Rhodey says, speeding up a little bit. “He was ready to run out guns blazing in his other suit, which he somehow shredded just coming home all freaking out—”

“I didn’t mention that—when I was coming to get you—some of our traps went off early and maybe on my way out I ran through some of them—”

Rhodey scoffs, rolling his eyes so hard that it hurts. “Yeah, okay, there you go, there we have it, the truth comes out—”

“Rhodey, he’s been shot—”

“Okay, so, he still did something stupid, and lied, and he knows which of his suits are bulletproof and which ones aren’t—”

“We were moving quickly,” Peter says, and he coughs a little bit. “I was worried, I know you were worried, not as much as me though—”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Tony says, and Rhodey sees him kicking Friday into the highest gear. “I was relaxing—”

“What did I tell you?” Rhodey asks. “What’d I say?”

Peter coughs again, laying his head on Tony’s shoulder. “Losing a lot of blood. Definitely dying.”

“You are not,” Tony says. “Friday?”

Rhodey can’t hear her response, and he sighs.

Peter better not be goddamn dying. Not after something stupid like this. He’s done stupid shit in his life but this particular thing was really stupid, and if Peter died at the end of it, Tony would never forgive himself. Tony doesn’t forgive himself when Peter gets a goddamn hangnail, so this would be—worse than that. By far.

And Rhodey wouldn’t be happy about it either.

“Pete, hang on,” Tony says, and Rhodey sees him cradling the back of Peter’s head. “We’re not too far—”

“Did you know,” Peter says, “that Rhodey made me fly the entire way hanging by a web that was attached to his ankle—”

Rhodey scoffs again. “Wow—”

“Rhodey, come on—”

“Wow—”

“He’s fine,” Rhodey says, standing shoulder to shoulder with Tony outside of Peter’s med bay room. “He’s fine. Right as rain.”

Tony glances at him, his eyes narrowed. “He got shot in the back.”

“In the shoulder—”

“He uses his shoulders a lot.”

“Who doesn’t?” Rhodey asks, raising his eyebrows. “Maybe if someone didn’t fall into a hole like the fucking Wily Coyote—”

“It’s Wile E. Coyote, the ‘e’ is his middle initial—listen, this was a lot more Bugs Bunny,” Tony says. He sighs big, and looks back over towards the closed door, where Helen is talking to Peter.

Rhodey sighs too.

“You should have just let SHIELD take care of that place,” he says. “You didn’t need to go in there with this multilayer three-pronged attack on this week’s episode of the Iron Man and Spider-Man show. I mean yeah, there are a bunch of them, and it’s concerning, and I know how you feel like you need to take care of shit on your own sometimes, but this is the new world. I know Peter calls it that, and I’ve started calling it that too, because in the new world Tony Stark is more cautious. I get a lot less ulcers now, knowing that most of the time you’re on a couch or behind a desk. Or at worst, behind a computer screen. When I see Peter rolling up knocking doors down because you fell through the floor in some cartoon situation on a side mission, it feels a lot like the old days. And you’ve been through too much shit to be reverting back to the old days. This nearly-dying situation was different than the other nearly-dying situations.”

Rhodey tries not to speechify, but that one got away from him. He sighs again and leans against the wall, and Tony looks at him.

“He knocked a door down?”

“He did. Living room on the fourth floor. I haven’t done anything about it yet. Happy’s probably seen it by now.”

Tony nods. He cracks his jaw and looks down at the ground. “Uh, couple months ago, remember when I went to the lakehouse with the kid and May?”

Rhodey does. They were gone for almost a month, Pepper was ferrying back and forth up there, saying things were fine. Rhodey was busy, and he asked a couple times, but all he got was fine, yeah. It’s all fine. “Yeah,” he says, tentatively.

There’s new tension in Tony’s shoulders. “Well, uh—that Rhino guy, that’s one of the members of that asshole club we just blew through—he nearly broke Peter’s back.”

Rhodey feels chills go through him. “What?”

“Pete didn’t want to tell anybody, and he didn’t break it, it was just a nearly, but he was really hurt, and emotionally, uh—it wasn’t—it wasn’t great, it was—it was hard for me, to see him like that. And then as soon as we get back, he starts going after them harder, and we had a couple blow-ups, because it was insane to me, that he was doing that after what just happened to him, and yes, I know, me, me, me, mini-me, but still, I just—yeah, it felt personal, with me and this place and this guy—and he wasn’t even fucking there tonight for the strike team to get—but maybe I wasn’t thinking, maybe I was thinking a little bit too much, but I’ll always remember how hurt Peter was and the pain he was in and I knew he was just gonna keep running at them anyway and I wasn’t gonna let him do it on his own. Not him. Not—my kid.”

Rhodey nods at him, and almost doesn’t know what to say. He feels a little sick about it, but he tries to stay present.

“And don’t get on me about not telling you, I was gonna, eventually, but things just, you know, things happen, they keep happening—”

“Yeah, I sure know that,” Rhodey says. He watches him, the way his eyes search the ground, avoiding his gaze until he looks up again. “He’s okay now, though. It was essentially a graze.”

“It was not a graze,” Tony snaps.

“You woulda called that a graze in the past—”

“Yeah, okay, well, yeah, for myself, maybe—”

“But when it’s a spider baby, things are different, huh? Definitions are changed?”

“Definitions are changed,” Tony says, definitively.

Rhodey snorts. “The two of you are truly two peas in a pod. He was all worried about you on the way in, all antsy about it—”

“Oh, you weren’t antsy about me being stuck in an enemy lair? How the tables have turned—”

“I knew what was going on,” Rhodey says, knocking him on the shoulder. “It was truly some Looney Toons shit. Probably some old trap they didn’t even realize was there—”

“You didn’t know that, none of us knew that—”

“But it was true, right? I had a feeling, when Peter described it to me—and his narrative detail is great, by the way, we should do Spider-Man Story Time for kids at some of the local bookstores—they’d eat it up—”

“I’ve thought that,” Tony says, smiling fondly. “That’s so funny, I’ve thought that, and now you’re saying it, so it’s a sign we need to set it up—”

“Yes—but the way he described it I knew you were fine. Not great, but not injured, not in imminent danger. I know some of these guys are genuinely dangerous, like the Rhino asshole you’re talking about, but it feels like the vast majority of them are morons.”

Tony blows out a breath, nodding. “I know Pete gets worried. I know. I get worried. We’re both worried, and it’s just—”

“It’s sweet and I like seeing it,” Rhodey says. He shakes his head. “I mean. I don’t like seeing you worried. But the two of you—I like that you have—I like that you’re in a dad position. It’s nice—”

Tony cracks his jaw. “Pep and I just never—”

“I know,” Rhodey says, stopping him before he can get into that, “but you’ve got it with Peter. And he needed it and you needed it and it’s nice. You put up a front and a lot of people take that at face value, take you as that, all your quipping and dumb one-liners—”

“They aren’t dumb, they are carefully crafted—”

“Yeah, I know, I’m well aware, but a lot of people just see that, and think that’s who you are, when really you’re marshmallow fluff. Completely and totally, and especially for certain people—considering I’m one of those people—but I know Peter loves being one of them too. And it’s sweet. As annoying as the two of you can be.”

Tony scoffs, pushing off the wall. “He’s annoying.”

“You’re both annoying. And maximum annoying when you’re together.”

Tony glares over his shoulder, and he knocks ever so slightly on the door before he’s pushing it open.

“Jesus, what if he’s changing—”

“He shouldn’t be changing, he should be in pajamas, in the bed, right, Peter—”

And when they walk inside, Peter is halfway out the window. He’s wearing Tony’s hoodie, and a pair of jeans, and Helen isn’t even in there at all. Tony makes a small noise, like he’s been shot, and he glances at Rhodey as if he’s making sure he’s not insane, and then he looks back at Peter without getting confirmation because he already goddamn knows.

“What are you doing—”

“Why are you up—”

“Are you out of your damn mind—”

“After everything we just went through—you just got shot—”

“Peter, honestly—”

“And where is Helen?” Tony yells, his hands on his hips, and Peter is just frozen there, one knee in the window frame. “Where did she—what did you do to—”

“I didn’t do anything to!” Peter yells, getting down. “She left through the interior door,” he yells, gesturing to it. “And then I got up, and put some clothes on, and I—”

“And you were gonna leave, and escape, and go live on Governors Island—”

“No, no, I was just going to go around, and go up a floor, and come back down so you didn’t see me, because Tony—”

“Eventually, I was going to see you, Peter, this plan was flawed—”

“A lot of that going around lately,” Rhodey says, before he means to, and Tony shoots him a look. Rhodey clears his throat.

“May can’t keep coming here and seeing me in the med bay,” Peter says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Like, we had a whole talk, about the new world, and being more careful in the new world, and now here I am, again, and this one is so stupid, and MJ is coming with her this time and she said if I keep getting hurt that she’s gonna start a rumor that she’s Spider-Man and that’s gonna put a lot of scrutiny on her that I don’t want her to have and I know she’ll do it.” He swallows hard. “So.”

“We already told May something happened,” Rhodey says, throwing his arms up.

“But not—not—I mean, something could be anything, doesn’t have to be like—I mean, something could be the roof caving in, and me being a hero—”

Tony scoffs. “We can’t—quickly cave in the roof just to back up a bullshit story—”

But Rhodey knows he would, if it came to that, and he knows that for sure.

Peter rushes over, and grabs Tony by the arms. He doesn’t even look that bad, only a little pale, but Rhodey knows even the slightest bit of paleness is enough to win Tony over. Especially with their whole heart to heart in the hallway, and Peter getting hurt at all—the odds just aren’t in his favor.

“Please,” Peter says, the final nail in the coffin. “Let’s just—come up with something—no med bay, let’s meet her in like—the lounge—nowhere near the door, the broken door, which I’ll fix, let’s just—come up with something—”

“There was a chemical leak,” Tony says, almost deadpan. “That you discovered, and you saved a whole pool of interns. We can meet May and MJ in the living quarters upstairs and we’ll—order pizza. No med bay.”

Peter takes a tiny moment to process that he actually just won this battle, despite trying to escape through the window, and his face breaks out into the most beautiful, shiny smile. Enough that Tony smiles too, and Rhodey finds himself smiling, even though he’s almost nauseated by the ridiculousness of them.

Peter hugs Tony tight, and Tony hugs him back, careful of his right shoulder. He pats his back, closing his eyes, and Peter pulls back, still grinning at him. “Thank you thank you thank you. I’m gonna go up there now and set the scene. And I’ll order the pizza. Thank you thank you.”

He looks at Rhodey before he leaves, and winks at him, over the top and exaggerated and not at all subtle. He nearly skips out of the room, and Tony stands there, his shoulders wilting.

“Don’t say it—”

“And pushover of the year goes to—”

“How’d I know you were gonna say it—”

“He was trying to climb out the window,” Rhodey says, as the two of them head into the hallway. “Did being stuck under the floorboards for a couple hours scramble your brain?”

“They weren’t floorboards, this wasn’t a haunted house, this was highly sophisticated—”

“I hope you’re not arguing semantics with me,” Rhodey says. “Not you, of all people—”

“Peter!” Tony calls, because Peter is still racing down the hall within eyesight. “Be careful—and make sure to get eggplant on Rhodey’s pizza. He loves it! He loves it so much!”

Rhodey pushes him with his elbow, and Tony pushes him back, grabbing him around the middle and pulling him into half a bear-hug. Rhodey snorts, wrapping his arm around him.

“Thanks for taking care of him, you know, up until the whole getting shot thing—”

“That was on you, you were back in charge then,” Rhodey says, gripping his shoulder. “And when the next missions start, with the den of assholery, let me help the two of you, huh?”

“Oh, War Machine wants to join?” Tony says, letting go of him.

“Yeah,” Rhodey says. “I do. I wanna have your backs.”

Tony grins at him again. “Noted,” he says.

And hopefully he is actually noting it. Because Rhodey does want to be there, to cover the two of them while they cover each other. He’s known Tony for a long time, most of his life, and he loves him beyond.

And he does love the way he loves this kid.

He can’t let anything happen to either one of them.

“Extra eggplant!” Peter yells, before turning the corner. “Got it!”

Rhodey rolls his eyes, and Tony giggles. An inside joke, over thirty years old, and he still goddamn giggles about it.

“They’re all going onto your plate,” Rhodey says, pushing him again.

“Just like last time.”

#irondad #iron dad #peter parker #tony stark #james rhodey rhodes #spider-man #iron man #war machine #works by iron_spider #irondad fic #iron dad fic #marvel fic

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