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“But you didn’t listen. NONE of this would’ve happened if you’d just listened to me! If you even cared, you’d actually be here.”
Grace and determination merged together as Tony Stark stalked out of the suit towards Peter. Peter who had just accused him of not being there - of not caring. Of course he cared! Spider-man had been in danger, Peter Parker had put himself at risk; of course Tony cared. That the kid would accuse him of not caring after all he had done - the suit, the parachute, the training wheels protocol, the tracker the glider the AI EVERYTHING - dug at a spot in his chest near the reactor core. Everything he had done was out of concern for the kid in front of him because jesus christ this is a kid! Physically, mentally, and emotionally, the person standing in front of him is a teenager with little sense of self-preservation and a never-ending desire to do good and has the bad luck of possessing superhuman abilities that allow him to do just that. The last person to die in front of Tony had been a friend who had lived a good life, had fought for his beliefs and protected others, who had died too young but experienced so much he was already an old soul when he wasn’t even middle-aged, and Tony would be damned if he were to let this bright, gutsy, kind young Boy take a shortcut to his grave.
For every step Tony Stark took out of the Iron Man suit, Peter Parker matched him stride for stride in the opposite direction.
How dare he. HOW DARE TONY STARK STRUT FORWARD LIKE HE WAS SOME GOD’S GIFT TO THE WORLD. What, was Peter supposed to be falling over himself with joy and gratitude that the great Iron Man had deigned to actually show up for once?
And Peter knew that wasn’t fair; he knew that even if Tony hadn’t stepped out of that suit, the very fact he’d sent the suit was proof that he did care and that his heart may have been replaced by a machine, but only physically. But a part of Peter resented him for it. Resented that he had already hoped that Tony Stark was actually in the suit and been let down before, resented that everything that had happened could’ve been avoided if Tony Stark would just trust his capabilities a little more, resented that at the end of the day, Peter was just a boy who got bit by a spider and now ran around his neighbourhood wearing a costume he would never have been able to lay eyes on without the man in front of him.
Part of him was afraid of Tony. The pressure exerted by the tech genius forced him to retreat, cowed in his defiance of the man who was essentially his benefactor.
Tony had listened. He had listened, and investigated, and reached out to contacts, and took steps to ensure that these thugs would be dealt with properly and safely. He had trusted the kid, taken him at his word, and protected him from any potential blow-back from those who only saw a kid being given a weapon rather than a kid with the abilities of a weapon being given a safety net. But the kid had taken the safety net and twisted it into extra rope to hang himself with and now they were both strung out to dry because hundreds of civilians had been put at risk all because one kid souped-up on radioactive spider venom wanted to play the hero and had done so with tech provided by Tony Stark himself.
So yes, Tony cared. Yes, Tony listened. But now it was the kid’s turn to listen and if losing the suit would make him stop and think about his actions before he put everything at risk, well… good; and if the kid couldn’t do anything without the suit - couldn’t keep himself safe, or analyse the dangers, or ask for help, or any number of things that would mitigate risk - if he couldn’t be himself without the suit, then maybe Peter wasn’t Spider-Man. Maybe Peter really was just a young teenager struggling to find his place in a world determined to up-end itself day after day, and if that is the case, Tony can’t justify enabling him to play at vigilante. Not when it would once again make Tony complicit to endangering countless civilians after he'd already sworn to be the one protecting them. Not when it could mean the death of his intern.