Irondad Oneshots

take a look at me now, there's just an empty space

For a Fic Exchange on Tumblr/AO3 (check out the Friendly Neighborhood Exchange Collection on AO3 for everybody else's fics.)

My AO3: Magicalyss; My Tumblr: Lyssismagical

Could not thank my beta enough Rrobrien 

*

Hurt people hurt people.

Ben used to say that after fights with May. He'd get back late at night to find May in the kitchen, stress cleaning as she does, with Peter sitting on the floor by her feet, refusing to go to bed until he knew his aunt and uncle were okay. His face would fall, tears filling his cried-out eyes, and he'd sweep May into his arms, pressing kisses to his forehead and cheeks.

He wouldn't use it as an excuse, he was better than that. But it was a reason why, a soft explanation as to why he'd gotten angry about the little things. He was hurting, that doesn't make it okay, but May always expected it like it was an apology.

Peter didn't realize how close he kept those four words to his chest until he lashed out at Ned one day.

There hadn't been anything wrong in particular. A regular lunch day, years after the death of his parents, something he thought he had mostly gotten over. As much as he could, at least.

But Ned had started complaining about how overbearing his mom was being, how much his dad would pester him about his homework.

"At least you have parents." It was meant as a joke originally. A way to lighten the mood a little bit, but it came out bitter and Ned had flinched as though Peter had shouted it.

"You have May and Ben. They love you loads, Peter."

"They're not my parents."

Added to the bitterness was a hint of jealousy, of longing. He knew it was unfair to May and Ben who loved him to the moon and back, they cared for him like he was their own. But as much as they loved him, they still weren't Mary and Richard. They weren't his parents.

He remembered them pretty well. Better than May thought he would. She lost her parents at a pretty young age too, but she only remembers them in snippets, in photographs, not in the specific details Peter remembers his.

Mary wore lavender perfume that would hang in the house no matter how long she was away for business, though Peter suspects Richard would spray it just to make sure it didn't fade.

Richard had an obsession with old baseball cards. He kept them in photo albums, ones Ben kept in his closet after.

When Peter was really little, they used to make sure to take alternating business trips so Peter never had to stay with May and Ben for longer than an afternoon. His aunt and uncle never minded, but Peter was a clingy kid and would get fussy if he was alone for too long.

The fight with Ned had escalated until Peter cried, which made Ned, ever the sympathetic friend, cry too. And they hugged it out.

But what Ben had said hung in Peter's head.

Hurt people hurt people.

Peter tries harder to be the hurt person that helps people.

No matter how heavy the hurt gets, stuck in his chest with nowhere to go because burdening others is hurting them, he won't be that person.

*

When Ben dies that fateful night, Peter keeps up that mantra in his head. Hurt people hurt people.

He writes off every fight with May, every night she doesn't come home, every plead to the landlord when May doesn't make the bills on time, as just a byproduct of her hurting. He never complains, does all his chores, and convinces Delmar to give him a job after school to help take care of the finances.