Chapter Text
Dick was patrolling with Jason. It was a surprisingly light night, Arkham had had a mass breakout and no one wanted to get caught up with Scarecrow. After they finished cleaning everything up and handing out antidotes, they had a few hours before crime started back up.
So Dick was having parkour race with Jason. As they flipped and somersaulted between rooftops, he noticed Peter was in his usual spot.
Jason noticed too. As they landed on the roof he signaled to Jason to let him handle this.
Peter was on the roof, but he looked.. scared. His face was blanched and he was shaking.
He looked closer and noticed more poorly concealed bruises. He ground his teeth, he needed to get Peter out of his situation. He obviously wasn’t safe.
“Hey Pete.” He held out his arms placidity.
Peter startled a bit, moving closing to the edge of the roof.
“Let’s move away from the roof. Okay?” He really didn’t like Peter being anywhere near the edge.
He offered out a gloved hand.
And then Peter fell.
“No!” He ran towards the edge, hoping he wasn’t too late.
He caught sight of Peter and reached out to grab him.
He felt the fabric of Peter’s shirt in his hand.
He griped his hand as tightly as he could.
He grasped air.
He grasped air.
He watched as Peter fell, and fell, and fell.
Gravity mocked him as he watched another person he loved fall.
Peter frantically pressed at his wrists falling, falling, and all Dick could do was stare.
His heart was in his throat as Peter approached the ground.
And suddenly Peter wasn’t falling anymore.
Red Hood’s signature red flashed Infront of him as he made his way on the roof with Peter in his arms.
Peter seemed to only get more panicked as he forced his way out of Jason’s arms.
“No, no, no, not again.” Peter muttered as he started to gasp for air. He stared panickily at his hands, his eyes widening even more.
“I’m sorry Mr. Stark” Peter seemed to be terrified as he stared earnestly at Dick.
Dick’s eyes widened as he realized.
Fear Toxin.
He met Jason’s eyes and came to an agreement. Jason went to knock Peter out as Dick pulled out a dart of the antitoxin.
Peter seemed to realize what was happening a second too late. He went to dodge, but before he could Dick managed to hit him with the dart.
Peter glanced at the dart in alarm before Jason knocked him out.
He didn’t like that he had to do it, but he didn’t see any other way.
Staring at Peters bruised and pale face the rush from the night started to wear off.
God.
Leaning his head against the building he sighed wearily.
Jason approached him. “You seem like you know him.” He stated plainly.
A lump formed in his throat. “Yeah, Yeah I do.”
Jason studied him for a moment. “Y’know, you’re going to have to hide him from Bruce.”
He gave a wet chuckle. “Yeah.” He appreciated Jason’s attempt to lighten the mood.
They sat in silence for a second. Looking at Gotham’s muddled sky.
“We have to get the kid somewhere safe. Do you know where he lives?” Jason Said.
“Unfortunately, no. I don’t think he’s safe there anyways.” He said tensely.
Jason looked at Peter and saw the healing bruises peaking from his shirt that defenatly weren’t from the fight.
Jason ground his jaw. “We can bring him to one of my safehouses.”
“Yeah.” As much as dick wanted to bring him to his apartment it was wasn’t the best suited to house another person. Especially a kid.
And Wayne manor was filled with unfamiliar people. People who would probably cause Peter to close off even more.
Being careful to not jostle any unknown injuries Peter had. Dick gingerly picked Peter up and headed to the nearest safehouse.
As they entered through the window Dick looked around for a bed. All he saw was a couch.
“Really?”
“Hey. Not all of us have Bruce Wayne’s budget at our fingertips.” Jason replied.
He carefully placed Peter on the couch and took a seat on the coffee table.
A couple moments of silence passed before Peter started coughing.
Dick was over by his side in a second. “Pete? Are you okay? Do you need anything?”
He tried to sit up, struggling. Dick helped him up.
“Hey, hey. Take it slow.”
Peter coughed lightly a couple more times. “Wh-h-at happened?”
“You got hit with fear toxin you tried to fight us. You thought I was someone called Mr. Stark?”
Peter froze.
“Y-eah-h he’s my guardian.”
Dick was fairly certain he knew why Peter saw ‘Mr. Stark’ while hit with fear toxin, but that confirmed it for him.
“Why were you apologizing to him in your vision?” Jason asked.
Peter was looking more and more nervous. He appeared to search for something to say, eyes darting around the room. “I-I don’t remember.”
“Okay.” Dick broke the tension. “Peter can you lift your shirt for me? I want to see how bad it is.”
If it was possible Peter seemed to pale even more. “It’s okay, I-I can handle it.”
“Did Stark tell you that?” Jason asked. Dick motioned for him to lighten up. He wanted answers as much as anybody, but they needed to be more subtle.
Peter seemed to be horrified at the notion, then he looked at his torso and seemed to come to a realization. Looking back at him with wide shocked eyes.
“No! Its fine really, barley hurts.” He quickly said nervously gesturing at himself.
Dick’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“It’s still good to check.” He said.
Peter seemed to recognize there was no way he could get out of the situation.
“Okay.” He relented.
Peter hesitantly lifted up his shirt to reveal sickening scars and dark bruises.
Dick felt a fiery rage as he took in all the injuries. When his eyes fell upon some messily stitched stab wounds he sucked in a breath.
“Did you stich these yourself?”
If he was mad before he was furious now. What type of person doesn’t even treat their kids stab wounds?! Jason laid a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
He took a deep breath while Peter sheepishly answered. “N-no?”
Dick could tell he was lying, but right now Peter needed medical care.
Dick hummed non-committedly and got to work. “Ok, well their done sloppily.”
He saw a cut that wasn’t from the fight and grabbed some rubbing alcohol.
“I’m going to need to disinfect the wound, it’ll sting.”
Peter barley reacted to the alcohol. He gave him some painkillers and showed Peter how to stich properly.
Dick wasn’t happy about it, but if Peter was going to stich himself, he needed to know how to do it properly.
“You took that really well.” Dick complimented; a bit suspicious.
The pain meds seemed to make Peter sleepy.
“mmm. Ive had worse. Pluss wth th’ me’ds feel btter.”
They would talk about that in the morning. For now, he needed to ask.
“Is there any way for us to contact Mr. Stark, so you can stay with us? You’re not in any shape to get back.”
As much as he would like to just run off with Peter, if the bruises were any sign, Stark still had some connection to him.
”No, he won re’lly no’ice.”
Dicks eyes narrowed.
“Do you have anyone else who’ll notice?” Dick asked, tone deceptively light.
Peter drowsily nodded his head. “nnm. b’t ‘is friens som’imes help me.”
He honed in on the words ‘help’ but put it aside.
“Is there anyway we can contact them?”
“Nn. They won care anywas. t’s fine.” Peter waved off.
Dick tightened his fists; he wasn’t letting Peter go back.
“Ok. Why don’t you go to sleep? Its been a long day.”
Peter mutter an ok before he was out like a light.
As they waited by the couch in the safehouse Jason spoke up. “He was strong. Stronger than a normal person would be, during the fight he threw me off. You think he’s meta?”
As he looked over at Peter’s sleeping form it would explain a lot.
Why he thought he ‘could handle it’ and that ‘it was fine.’ If Stark was in with the wrong groups it’d explain the scars. Especially if it was science related it could even explain why he hid (or even had) his powers…
Jesus he was getting sick just thinking about it.