Chapter Text
Peter couldn’t see in front of him.
Just as he had been about to shoot a web at one of the suits, the wave had hit him from behind. At the last second, Peter took in a breath of air and clamped his mouth shut.
Peter was thrown in all directions and he lost track of what way was up. He couldn’t see anything from the murky debris of the salt water that stung at his eyes. It burned so bad and made Peter want to scream - but that would mean losing his feeble amount of air.
Peter was suddenly thrown by the current into a rock back first. The air that he had been holding onto burst out in an exclamation of pain. It was the wrong choice as Peter lost his breath and the salt water rushed in. It pushed up his nose, burning him as it flowed down his throat and choking him.
Up was down, left was right. Peter didn’t know what was going on. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t hear anything over the rush of the waves. It all blurred together and Peter wondered if this was it.
At least he was able to save Morgan and Harley.
Peter was about to close his eyes as he accepted his fate when something told him to turn. It was like his body was telling him not to give up and Peter decided to listen.
The guys would never let him live it down if he got taken out by a rouge tsunami wave after everything else that tried to kill him and fail.
Turning in the water, Peter kicked. Something hard met his hand and brushing through it, Peter realized he found the ground. Grinning, Peter turned again so that his feet were on the sandy ground. Putting all the force in his legs that he could, Peter jumped.
Tony felt his heart stop as Peter was swallowed by the wave.
“No!” Tony screamed. With a hand holding onto Morgan, Tony flew down as close to the water as he dared to. It rushed past him, kicking up the sand and sediment to turning the once clear water murky. “Does anyone have eyes on Peter?!” Tony screamed. “Fri?! Rhodey?!”
“I can’t see anything in this murky ass water,” Rhodey answered.
“Negative boss,” Friday answered sadly.
“Shit!” Tony cursed.
“You said mommy’s word,” Morgan whimpered in Tony’s ear.
Tony had forgot that Morgan was in his arms. Gulping, Tony flew up higher to protect Morgan from the water. Placing his free hand on Morgan’s back, Tony rubbed it in comfort. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled like that with you right here,” he murmured.
“It’s okay,” Morgan muttered and looked down at the roaring water below them. “Daddy is scared about Petey – me too.”
Tony swallowed past the lump in his throat as he also stared down at the water. As long as he had both Morgan and Harley here, he couldn’t dive into the water to go looking for Peter. Sure, either him or Rhodey could hold both under Happy arrived with the jet but there was so much space for just one person to look through. He didn’t even know when to start looking – Peter could been have been washed miles away by this point.
Tony could feel the hope starting to die in his heart and he hated how he was already giving up so early.
Then, a pale hand broke through the surface and a string of webbing at shot at the suit, catching him in the shoulder. The white webbing went taunt as it was pulled on from the other end and Peter came shooting out of the water.
Tony’s mouth dropped open before it shifted to a smile. He shouldn’t have doubted his miracle worker kid so fast.
Wrapping his metal covered hand around the webbing, Tony pulled it up as he made the suit fly higher to bring Peter farther above the surface. Wholly, Peter looked okay besides his coughing. Tears flowed down Peter’s face as they tried to filter out the salt water and Tony’s heart went out to the teenager as he knew it must hurt like a bitch.
“You okay?” Tony called down in worry.
Peter coughed again and rubbed at his chest, grimacing. “Mr. Stark, why does the universe hate me?” Peter croaked a groan.
Tony couldn’t help himself – he snorted in laughter at Peter’s gripe. “Kid, I’ve been wondering that myself. Did your ancestors piss off the wrong god or something?” Tony joked.
“Apparently,” Peter grumbled. Sighing, he raised his other hand and started climbing up the string of webbing. Tony kept on him as he climbed all the way up to the suit and then perched himself on the suit’s shoulder like he did when in suit on the edge of a building. “Hey Mo,” Peter greeted his sister.
“Hi Petey,” Morgan waved shyly. “Are you okay?”
“Oh yeah,” Peter grinned. Tony could hear the slight strain in his voice as Peter kept clearing his throat, most likely from the salt water that had forced its way down. “I just took a bit of a swim, that’s all.” He patted his swim shorts and pulled something out of his pocket, handing it over to Morgan. “I grabbed you something.”
Tony’s mouth dropped open in surprise at the perfect light pink scallop sea shell. Morgan squealed in joy as she took the shell in her hands, marveling at its size and color. “Pete, how the hell did you get that?”
Peter blew an air of amusement out of his nose. “You think I wouldn’t find Mo a present whenever I can?”
“You literally almost drowned in a tsunami wave,” Tony deadpanned.
“But I didn’t,” Peter snarked back at Tony with a haughty laugh. Tony just shook his head in disbelief the same moment a message popped up on his interface.
[Are the kids safe?] – Happy
“Fri, tell Happy that we got the kids and we are heading in now,” Tony told his AI and spun around in the air. Rhodey, a small distance away with Harley sitting War Machine’s shoulders, noticed and inclined his head.
“Please do,” Peter said and gave a soft cough. He shivered in the chillier air of the sky and Tony took that as his hint to hurry back.
Tony and Rhodey flew through the air towards the Quinjet they commandeered for the trip. As they did, Harley and Peter gazed down at the flooded island that they were supposed to be staying. “Well, that doesn’t look good,” Harley commented.
“Eh, it wasn’t my favorite island anyways,” Tony said.
“You have more than one island?”
“What billionaire doesn’t?”
“Looks like the trip is over,” Peter pouted. They were only on the second day of five and it sucked that it was going to end so quickly.
“Says you,” Tony snorted. “We’ll just head over to the other island. What do you say, do you want to go to Mediterrian or are you feeling more Polynesian? I also got one in Fiji if that spikes your interest.”
“How many private islands do you have?!” Harley exclaimed in shock from Rhodey’s shoulders.
“Enough to have options in a situation like this.”
“I want an island,” Harley grumbled.
“Graduate from college without getting arrested and it’ll be one of your presents,” Tony said.
“Hell yes!” Harley cheered.
“Can I have an island daddy?” Morgan asked. She held her shell to her chest to avoid dropping it in the water below as they got closer to the jet.
“When you’re older,” Tony answered. “What about you, Pete? Want an island while I’m giving them out?”
Peter snorted. “If you’re feeling generous, Mr. Stark.”
“’Roo, please, call me Tony,” Tony groaned. “I will give you an island right now if you call me my name.”
“Tony,” Harley piped up with a smirk.
“Not you,” Tony frowned at Harley.
“Aww man,” Harley pouted.
“Okay, Mr. Stark,” Peter smirked.
Tony just huffed but didn’t fight as they got close enough to the jet. Happy must have saw them approach and opened the back door to let the group in, the two suits clanking to the ground as they landed.
Pepper and May hardly waited for the men to release the children before they were rushing forward to inspect them. May threw a fluffy towel around Peter’s shoulders before crushing him against her in a tight hug. “Oh, my baby,” May cooed.
“I’m fine, May,” Peter laughed but didn’t hesitate to return the hug. “Just had a little dip in the water is all.”
“A little dip?” Harley rolled his eyes as Pepper moved his face from side-to-side to inspect him. “He saved both me and Morgan.” He gingerly took his face out of Pepper’s hands, whispering he was fine, and turned towards Peter. “Pete, since when have you been that fast?”
“Since the spider bite,” Peter shrugged. May let him out of the hug and he grabbed a corner of the towel in each hold to close it around him.
“How come you’ve never told us that you can smoke almost anyone in a foot race then?” Harley questioned.
“I mean, I swing around the city more than I run,” Peter answered. He found a spot to sit down and wrapped the towel around his legs. May stepped away to get a towel to dry Peter’s hair.
“Maybe you should join the super grandpas and Sam for their morning runs,” Tony suggested as he finally stepped out of the suit. “I’m sure you can help bully Sam for not being genetically modified.”
“That’s bullying,” Peter frowned. “But then again…he did show up on one of my dates with MJ with Bucky just to embarrass me. Maybe this will be a good time for revenge.”
“Ah great,” Rhodey chuckled as he also left his suit. “You’re making the kid enter his villain era.”
“So scary,” Happy snarked from the front of the plane.
“I’ll have you know that I am plenty scary,” Peter frowned.
“Sure – if you would stop bantering with your perps so much,” Tony snorted.
“It’s part of shtick!” Peter exclaimed.
“I thought being a spider is,” Harley joined in on the teasing. “Aren’t spiders quiet?”
“Just for that, you better sleep with one eye open,” Peter threatened with a finger pointed at Harley.
“Oooh, so scary,” Harley laughed.
Peter sneezed again, look miserable. “Alright, let’s not bully the hero of the hour too much,” Tony chuckled and grabbed another blanket to throw around Peter’s shoulders. The teenager cooed when he realized that this one was heated and felt the warmth soak into his bones. “So, which island are we continuing our vacation on?” Tony asked Peter.
“Anywhere I don’t have to worry about the ocean or a volcano will try to kill me,” Peter deadpanned. He wrapped the blanket tight around them and tucked his nose into it.
“I know just the place,” Tony laughed.
BONUS SCENE:
On a new island that Tony apparently owned – Peter really wondered how many Tony owned – the web-slinger was sipping a fruity drink by the pool side. Harley was in the pool with Morgan where he pretended to be shark that chased her. Morgan was screeching in joy so Peter had a pair of headphones on to block out the noise.
On the table next to him, he felt his phone buzz. Without thinking much about it, Peter grabbed his phone and pressed the power button to see who was texting him. He let his eyes skim it for a second before his mouth dropped open in amazed shock.
“You’re going to catch flies if you keep your mouth open like that,” Tony commented as he sat down in the chair next to Peter with his own drink. “What’s got you like that?”
“One of my best friends is coming back to the city,” Peter beamed. His fingers flew across the screen as he tapped out a response to the person that texted him. “He said he’s transferring to Midtown for the last semester. Oh man, this is going to be awesome.”
“Best friend? How do I not know about him?” Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. “I thought Ned was your only friend.”
“Oh, he was my best friend from childhood that had to move away when his parents divorced,” Peter explained. “We met in daycare back when my parents were still alive and just kept in touch even after his move. When things were getting rough between his parents, he would come spend a lot of time over at my place so May really knows him.”
“What’s he moving back for then?” Tony asked. “There’s only one semester left.”
“His mom is moving back to the states,” Peter said. “He says that if he returning to the USA, he wants to go to school with his best bud.”
“Ned is going to be jealous,” Tony said.
“Nah,” Peter waved off the concern. “Those two are going to kick it off.”
“Are you going to tell him about your spidery half?” Tony asked. It was a valid concern – he had no clue who this kid was. Maybe he had seen all the news articles about Peter with Tony and wanted to get in on the spotlight. Ned and Michelle had shown up plenty of times in the papers just from being in the same vicinity of Peter as the paparazzi tried to get a story about Stark Enterprises heir.
“I’ll work up to it,” Peter said. He sent another rapid-fire text before putting his phone down. “Even if we’ve known each other since near diapers, I know to be careful.”
“Good,” Tony nodded and leaned back in his chair to take a sip of his drink. “Now, who is this kid? I want to investigate his parents.”
Pepper called Tony a helicopter parent and he proudly wore that badge if it meant his kids were safe.
“You already know one of them,” Peter said as he went back to his phone to pull up a picture.
“I do?” Tony furrowed his brow. Man, he hoped it wasn’t someone that he had royally pissed off or else that would make things difficult. Thinking, Tony took another sip of his drink.
“Yup,” Peter nodded. “Norman Osborn.” Sticky fruit juice sprayed across Tony’s front as he spat his drink out in surprise. Peter laughed at the reaction. “Did May really never tell you about how I had playdates with Mr. Osborn’s son all the time?”
“Wait a second,” Tony straightened as he remembered a far-off conversation in passing that Norman has a son. “Are you talking about—”
“Duh,” Peter smirked, turning his phone to show a picture of himself with Richard Parker, Norman Osborn, and Norman’s son. “I’m talking about the one and only Harry Osborn.”