Spider-Son & Iron Dad one shots

Recovery

Spooktober.24

⚠️tw: mention of Tony's struggles with substance abuse⚠️

The definition of recovery, according to a standard dictionary, is as followed:

"A return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength."

Tony Stark used to think that recovery was bottles of amber, numbing him of the pain from battles that left what may be permanent scars on his body.

He used to think recovery was taking just enough pain medication to make his brain just as sleepy as body.

This was his normal. It took him years of growth to realize that recovery wasn't any of those things. After that, he had a blank slate.

Recovery was nothing, because he didn't have a working definition to fit it anymore.

Either way, recovery is pushed out of his mind and replaced with new worries soon after the empty slate is established. He has other things to think about, like how to keep a kid safe from a distance and how to let go of anger that festers for people who no longer care.

The second one is easy enough, finding it easier to hide under the nonchalant billionaire guise he created for himself years before.

The first one didn't go as planned, leaving him the pseudo parent of not only a genius kid, but a stubborn genius kid who didn't leave him alone. The worst part is that he didn't mind in the slightest, welcoming him over any time he wanted.

Tonight was one of these particular nights. Peter swung over and threw his mask off before animatedly talking about some crazy thing that happened on patrol, and then decided to stick around for dinner.

("Stick around" is a loose way of explaining it. Tony asked if he had eaten, and when Peter stuttered through excuses of why he hadn't, Tony forced him to stay.

"I can't just let you go home starving!" He had exclaimed. "May would boil my insides for casserole.")

It was ridiculously domestic. Pepper was off in a different state for a business meeting which she insisted Tony didn't attend, believe it or not. Tony was never one to argue, so he stayed behind.

He ordered pizza for the two of them, and then made Peter change into some of his spare clothes so he wasn't walking around in the Spider-Man suit.

They watched movies until the food arrived, and when they ate they sat on the kitchen counter instead of at the table. In theory, this seemed like a backwards idea, but it played out instead as a charming way to spend time together.

It wasn't the normal, and neither were they. Both of them came from different places of hurt, and yet here they were, a makeshift family out of broken pieces that decided to love eachother anyways.

Tony looks at his kid, pizza sauce splattered on his chin as he threw his head back in laughter from some joke that was said, and he is suddenly reminded that recovery has multiple meanings.

Recovery. "The action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost."

Anybody that had read any news articles from the 90s knew that Tony's family had been stolen from him, one way or another. Then, just a few years ago, his family was stolen again when the Avengers broke up.

But life had a funny way of teaching things. It put Tony through the cruelest of lessons, and then when Tony had fought through each one, coming out more or less alive, sweat and tears on his face, it gave him the lesson again. Only this time, he did not have to fight, but accept it as a carefully gift-wrapped trophy for his troubles.

Tony smiles at Peter and shakes his head. "You've got pizza sauce on your chin, kiddo. Were you raised in a barn?" He teases.

Peter only laughs harder.

Peter was the lesson. He was the recovery. A new family, created from growth, restored and healed from the past losses Tony had learned from.

And in the end, that's what it's all about, isn't it?

To learn the hard way, to grow, and to be okay after the dust has settled, only to do it all over again for something new.

That's what recovery is, Tony thinks, and it may have taken nearly forty years, but he did it.

He'll be okay.

a/n: gotta put this image in my Spooktober series before it ends,, we love an annual tradition. I love this picture so much,,