A/N: After Infinity War I found myself very much on the IronDad and SpiderSon bandwagon. Infinity War left me feeling like there was a giant 2 year hole in the story. Surely Tony and Peter saw each other in between Homecoming and Infinity War. My brain started filling in some of the gaps. I debated putting them "on paper" but more and more tidbits started populating in my brain. Then EndGame happened. And, after my brain stopped mourning, it hit me that why can't my little 2 year snippets take place in the 2014 timeline - you know, the one that Thanos abandoned when he followed Nebula. So, my brain kept working and my little snippets started to take the form of a little bit more of a story. I think they're still slightly disjointed and I have no dabbled in fanfiction in 20 years (yep - dating myself), but nonetheless a story was born.

He thought he had handled it well. He didn't have a lot of practice being told no. In fact, other than Pepper (and occasionally an Avenger or two), Tony couldn't remember the last time anyone had actually told him "No". Offers to be an Avenger weren't often made. Actually, they were never made, it just seemed to happen. Maybe that was the problem, he was trying to force the issue when every other time it had occurred naturally. He was pretty sure that they never really sat down and decided to form the Avengers, despite Fury's "initiative". They just all saw the threat facing them and reacted. Then something else would happen and they reacted and they just kept reacting - as a team. It was by sheer dumb luck that they had been somewhat successful. And then even worse luck that there had been too many casualties along the way. The events of the last couple months were enough to convince him that they were never a team. They were just doing what they thought was right...as long as it didn't conflict with their own personal interest. But the kid, the kid was different. He didn't seem to have "personal interest" other than helping people. No one was that selfless.

Tony had two modes - fly by the seat of your pants and figure it out as you go or learn everything you can about the subject before engaging. When it came to recruiting the kid he landed on the 2nd mode. FRIDAY had pulled everything she could on the kid before he recruited him...something he woefully regretted at this point. In his defense, he really hadn't expected a fight. He thought cooler heads would prevail and reason would be seen. He had been wrong. And he hated being wrong. He thought back over the details FRIDAY had spit out. Kids' parents had died in a plane crash. Lived with his Aunt and Uncle afterwards. Father had been a scientist which explained the kids' smarts. Because yes, he had also pulled the kids' grades as well. Straight A's in advanced classes except for a brief dip about 8 months ago. The kid had mentioned something about "it" happening about 8 months ago and that was also about the same time his Uncle had been killed. Overall, he was shocked the kid wasn't a walking disaster. He certainly was at 15 and had much less emotional trauma. Now he was curious. What kid turns down joining the Avengers. But truth be told he also wanted to know how the kid had brought down his plane.

"FRIDAY, search through all cameras for facial recognition of Peter Parker from last Friday. I want to reconstruct a timeline of the kids' actions leading up to the plane crash."

It only took FRIDAY a couple hours to piece together a timeline. Traffic cameras, security cameras, and general surveillance cameras picked up way more than people realized. FRIDAY had also traced the kid's cell phone signal so it helped narrow down where to look. "FRIDAY, start when he left for the Homecoming dance". So he watched. He watched as his Aunt dropped him off at the girl Liz's house and watched him nervously approach the door. He glanced at the address that showed up on the map overlay and swallowed the lump that formed in his throat. Toomes. Peter Parker's date to Homecoming was the daughter of the man he had chased down and captured. Of course it was. Because the kid couldn't just go to a high school dance with a girl he liked.

Tony looked at the path the car took wondering how uncomfortable the kid was during that ride. There's no way Toomes could have known it was him. Pete was actually pretty good at keeping his identity a secret, surprisingly considering how much he talked. He could imagine the kid trying not to squirm and failing miserably. Maybe Toomes said something during the car ride to tip Pete off about his plans to hijack the plane. Tony kept watching as the the cameras outside the school picked up the girl getting out of the car. Tony waited for Pete to alight and he didn't...at least not at first. Tony leaned forward and stared at the look on the kids' face when he finally got out of the car. "FRIDAY freeze video". Panic seeped into Tony. Toomes knew who he was. You could tell by the look on Pete's face. The kid covered it well but Tony recognized the fear that was just under the surface. Was that why the kid went after him? Why in the hell had Toomes even let him out of the car? Tony sat back deep in thought. The more he thought he knew that wasn't why the kid went after him. It's what Tony would have done but the kid wasn't Tony. The kid was a little more noble than that.

"Boss, Mr Parker's cell phone and facial recognition take different routes from this point". FRIDAY interrupted his thoughts as he brought his eyes back up to the frozen image on his screen. He stared into the eyes that barely masked fear. Then he saw something else - the steely determination that overshadowed the fear. Some people would have missed it but it was a look that he was familiar with because it was a look that had stared back at him before.

"FRIDAY, where does Peter's phone stop?" The reply was quick, "A warehouse approximately 8 miles from the school". Tony frowned. "FRIDAY, stay with Peter. Where do you pick him up next?".

Video started playing in front of him of Peter in his ridiculous sweatpants and hoodie running out of the rear of the school only to see him thrown into a bus moments later. Correction, a bus was thrown into him. What the hell? The guy was obviously using alien hybrid tech. The kid didn't stand a chance without any protection. Guilt swarmed over Tony. The kid didn't have any protection because he had taken it away from him. And from the looks of it, he had lost his web-shooters after the first hit. Finally the alien weapon was webbed up. Except it wasn't Pete using the web shooter, it was his friend - Ned? "FRIDAY, make a note to dig into Pete's friend." He had helped Pete hack his suit, released the Training Wheels Protocol, and is apparently good in an emergency. "We might need to hire him when he's out of high school." Maybe before at the rate he was going...from what Tony had seen so far, between Pete and his friend, they could give most of the junior techs at SI a run for their money.

The kid darted out of the camera view of the school and Tony's eyes focused on a new image of Spider-Man driving, although driving may not have been the correct word, a convertible Audi. He needed to remember not to let the kid drive until he could teach him a little bit better. Frowning to himself he wondered where in the hell that idea came from. Him teaching someone to drive was ludicrous. Finally the kid did as much damage as he could to the car and abandoned it to run into a warehouse in the Brooklyn Industrial Sector. The video skipped ahead to someone leaving the building Pete had walked into. Tony watched the video from the security camera across the street as Toomes exited the building and held his breath as he waited for Pete to exit. Except he didn't. Tony watched as the building collapsed knowing that Peter was inside.

"Boss, your heart rate and respiration are increasing. Should I call someone?". Tony fought to keep the panic he could feel rising tamped down. He kept reminding himself that he had just seen the kid that day. He was fine. No bruising. No broken bones. But that didn't reconcile to the fact that a warehouse had collapsed on top of him. And again the thought hit him that he had left him without a suit. Not that it would have helped protect him from the rubble that rained down on him. But still, the kid was in sweatpants and a hoodie. If he'd been in the suit he would have had a way to call for help. Maybe he had gotten out another way, before the building collapsed. Holding onto that thought he forced his breathing to slow down which in turn slowed his heart down. "Don't call anyone. I'm fine". Closing his eyes for a moment he opened them just in time to see a very battered Peter Parker running from the rubble, fling a web, and disappear from view. The image of Pete running from the building confirmed Tony's original suspicion that he had been inside when it collapsed and it made him sick to his stomach.

"Boss, there is no additional footage of Mr. Parker until after the plane crash". Tony pulled up the plane's data read outs and scanned through them. His eyes stopped when he looked at the trajectory changes right before it crashed. It had been headed straight towards Brooklyn but had changed course at the last minute. Tony studied the mechanical readings. The flaps had been moved not by their internal mechanisms but by an external force. Tony took a deep breath as he realized what that meant. The kid hasn't been in the plane...he had been outside of the plane. He could imagine him pulling on the webs as hard as he had on the ferry as if willing the plane to turn in an effort to save lives. He watched the video feed FRIDAY had pulled from Coney Island as the plane crashed on the beach. Rubbing his hand over his face he kept reminding himself that he had just seen Pete and he was very much alive and uninjured. He made a mental note to dig into the kids ability to heal. It seemed to be even quicker than a certain Super Soldier that he knew. He mentally rolled through Steve's various challenges...pain killers that didn't work, sedatives that didn't work, he was sure there were others but pushed it into another section of his brain as disjointed images rolled across the screen pulled from various cameras that managed to capture footage until the last frame froze on Pete's face as he sat atop the roller coaster. A face normally so animated was now streaked with blood, bruises, and burns. Panic set in. He had done this to the kid. He has taken away his suit and made him think he was on his own. He didn't hear FRIDAY'S inquiries as to his increasing heart rate. All he could focus on was how hurt Pete was and that he was the cause of it.

"Colonel Rhodes, Mr. Stark requires your assistance." Rhodey sighed as he looked up at the ceiling. "What's the problem FRIDAY?"

"Mr. Stark is in the middle of what appears to be a panic attack and does not seem to be able to calm himself down".

Rhodey exited the elevator and let FRIDAY direct him to Tony. Kneeling down in front of him he took Tony's hand and pressed it against his chest taking deep slow breaths. "Tony, I need you to look at me. I need you to breathe." Tony's panicked eyes raised and locked onto Rhodey's eyes. He slowly started to match his breathing to Rhodey's. Unfortunately they had practice. As his breathing slowed his heart stopped feeling like it was going to beat out of his chest. After what seemed like forever he felt himself come back from the edge that these attack's always brought him to. Rhodey was the first to break the silence.

"I was worried you were going to backtrack on all of your progress with these attacks after Siberia. What set this one off?"

Tony shook his head. "This has nothing to do with Siberia. He glanced at the kids battered face and felt Rhodey's eyes follow. "Jesus, is that the kid? What happened?" Rhodey continued looking at the screen. "Is that the plane crash? That was just a couple days ago. The kid was just here today." The confusion was apparent in Rhodey's voice.

Tony stood up and started pacing. "Healing factor? Maybe? Doesn't matter. I did this. I am the reason a 15 year old kid missed his homecoming dance, had his date's father try to kill him by collapsing a building on him, and then singlehandedly stopped his dates' dad who is apparently an arms dealer from taking what could only be described as the mother load of weapons and technology."

Rhodey sat down, his braces giving a slow hiss as they released. Manipulating the video he ran it back to see for himself what had set Tony off. "Ok, for starters, you didn't do this. If I remember correctly you took the suit because you were trying to keep him from doing shit like this."

Tony set his jaw and ground out "But he did it anyway."

Rhodey sat back and looked between the screen frozen on a 15 year old's battered face and the face of his much older best friend. "Yeah he did. He did exactly what you didn't want him to do. Sound familiar?"

Tony snapped his eyes back to Rhodey. "I'm assuming you're choosing now to bring up some of my less brilliant ideas. That is not going to help. How am I going to stop the kid from doing stupid, life risking things out of some misguided sense of right and wrong?".

Rhodey sighed, "You're not. You never listened to me when I told you not to do stupid, life risking shit".

Tony threw himself back into the chair next to Rhodey's and out his hand over his eyes. "You cannot seriously be comparing the two of us. He's just a kid. A smart and ridiculously capable kid, but a kid none the less. I certainly don't fall in the category of self sacrificing vigilante hero." As the words fell out of his mouth he saw Rhodey smile. "You mean the hero who flew a nuclear warhead into a wormhole?" Tony scowled, "It was a one time lapse of judgement. The kid had a building fall on him and still went after the guy."

Rhodey's grin grew even bigger, "One word...Malibu."

"Shit." Tony stood up and started pacing again. Opening his mouth to counter Rhodey's comparison, he shut it just as quickly when Rhodey cut him off.

"And, I can think of at least three girlfriend's dads who have tried to kill you. Tony, face it, the reason you're having so much of a problem with this is that you see yourself in him. Hell, I saw that when you showed me his file after Germany." Rhodey paused to let what he said sink in before continuing. "The kid doesn't need someone to tell him not to do something. He needs someone to teach he how to do the things he's going to do anyway. He needs a mentor."

"I am the furthest thing from being able to be someone's mentor. In fact there are probably quite a few people who would say that I should not be around children...ever." Tony continued pacing because as much as he hated to admit it, Rhodey was right. The kid was not going to stay close to the ground and just help the little guy. He was going to take whatever was thrown at him and unfortunately the world they lived in meant the things being thrown at him could fight back against him, no matter how enhanced he was. "Crap." Tony turned to face Rhodey. "Why don't you mentor him. You're a great role model."

Rhodey laughed. "I've already mentored my genius risk taker." Tony frowned even more realizing Rhodey was right. The kid just needed someone to mentor him. Unfortunately it seemed like the kids' only option was going to be a genius billionaire that suffered from panic attacks and was barely holding his life together. He looked up at the image of Peter and saw his own eyes mirrored in the innocent ones sporting bruises and cuts and hoped that he could somehow be worthy enough to keep the kid from getting himself killed.

Peter's phone buzzed as he was getting off the subway, headed to school. Two and a half weeks ago he had been excited about taking Liz to Homecoming, a little over two weeks ago he had turned down a spot with the Avengers. He was still wondering if he had made the right decision. When he glanced down he saw an unknown number with the message "Want to come by the lab after school? I have some ideas for your web-shooters. We can order pizza. TS". A grin spread across Peter's face. Did Mr. Stark just ask him to come work on his web shooters? He quickly typed "I'd love to. Need to ask Aunt May". He had a response within seconds. "I called her to ask. She yelled at me for a solid 5 minutes before relenting. I'll pick you up after school." Peter's grin quickly turned into a frown. Aunt May had yelled at Mr. Stark? But she was going to let him work in his lab. He hovered over the keys and finally typed "K". He'd text Aunt May at lunch just to make sure but not even Flash could put a damper on his day. He was going to get to spend the afternoon working with his hero.