Peter is alone in his room again. He can hear the rest of his family and the avengers in the penthouse, laughing over whatever movie they were watching. Of course they didn't notice he wasn't there, they never did. He knew they didn't care about him but the conformation hurt. He pulled out the cupcake and candle he bought on his way home from school.
"Happy birthday to me," he said sadly with tears rolling down his cheeks. Its hard to put it into to words, how the holidays will always hurt. Holidays are supposed to be spent with family. Peter doesn't have the luxury.
If they cared they would have remembered his birthday. Noticed when he wasn't there for movie night. Noticed how he was sick for a week after coming back from his field trip to Oscorp. Noticed how he could now stick to walls. Notice how he spent hours in the lab developing web shooters. Notice how he went out for hours every night to stop crime as Spider-Man. He even tired to tell his dad he had powers but he always got the same response. "That's great Peter but can you tell me later, Harley wants something."
If anyone cared, they would notice how alone he felt.
But everyone was always to busy with Harley to notice Peter.
Ned and Mj greeted him at school the next morning.
"Dude how does it feel to be 16?" Ned asked excitedly.
"A lot better if my family remembered," Peter responded.
"Im sorry dude," Ned apologized sincerely.
"It's fine, can we talk about something else?" Peter asked.
"Mr. Harrington is announcing the winners for the science competition after school today," Mj responded.
"Im so exited, if we win that means we qualify for the state championships," Ned said, not being able to contain his excitement.
Peter smiled, maybe if he won his dad would finally be proud of him.
When lunch came, Peter was starving. He cursed his super fast metabolism.
As he was eating with his friends, Ned asked if he was okay from patrolling. He may or may not have gotten stabbed then called Ned asking how to tell if a blade was laced. Thankfully Peters metabolism was able to burn though the sedative lacing the knife. Most the time he hated being hungry but was extremely thankful for it in times like those. It didn't affect him til he was already home, and all it did was have him sleep a few extra hours.
"Seriously how do you heal that fast," Mj asked, a mix of concern and awe.
"Magic," Peter laughed. Mj knew he was Spider-Man but he couldn't exactly say that at school.
When Mr. Harrington informed him he was selected, he was ecstatic.
"There will be a ceremony after school to announce everyone who was selected, and we have invited and informed the families their kid will be receiving the award," the teacher told Peter.
Peters smile grew wider at the fact his family would be there. His dad would finally be proud of him. His mom would congratulate him and give him a hug. He would finally be out of Harleys shadow.
He couldn't contain his nerves as he waited backstage, after spotting Tony Stark and Pepper Potts in the audience. They came! He had doubts if they would bother to show up, but all his concerned were gone.
"Harley Keener," the announcer said, bringing Peter out of his thoughts. Harley and Peter went by their middle names as their last names at school so no one knew they were related to Tony Stark.
Ned was called next and Peter was happy his friend was accepted as well.
Peter waited anxiously for his name to be called. After 10 minutes of Peter worrying about Tony only caring about Harley, Peter heard his name.
"Peter Parker," he walked onto the stage and scanned the crowd for his family.
A frown overtook his face when he noticed they were gone.
He accepted the award with a fake smile before sitting with Ned and his mom.
"I um need some air, i'll catch you later," Peter told Ned, desperate to not break down in front of his best friend.
Ned watched Peter with a sad smile, he understood why Peter wanted to be alone.
"See you Monday, let me know if you need anything," Ned responded.
Peter gave a quick thumbs up before leaving.
He tried to stop the tears streaming down his face to no avail. Peter quickly went into and alley, he didn't want anyone to see him like this. Of course his parents only showed up for Harley.
"Hey kid you okay?" He heard a voice say.
He looked up to see Daredevil, the man who inspired him to be Spider-Man. Tony always said he wasn't trustworthy which made Peter automatically trust him.
"My parents forgot my birthday then didn't show up to an event I had," Peter said, unsure why a stranger would care about him. No adult ever did.
"I know I'm overreacting, I'm mostly used to it by now but it still hurts," Peter continued to tell the man.
"You're not overreacting kid. Why don't we get dinner together and you tell me more about it?" Daredevil proposed.
Peters spidy-sense told him it was okay to trust the man so he agreed. Tony and Pepper wouldn't notice he was gone.
Once they reached the restaurant, Peter noticed it was a Thai place.
After a waitress named May took their order, Daredevil asked Peter if he wanted to talk about it.
"Just normal family stuff," Peter responded. He was already grateful for dinner and didn't want to be a burden to his hero.
"Doesn't sound like it, they shouldn't have forgotten," Daredevil responded.
"They always do, it's fine really. They didn't notice it was my birthday, they didn't notice when I got sick, hell they don't even notice I have spider DNA," Peter rambled, not noticing what he said until he already said it.
"Your Spider-Man," Daredevil said with a smile.
"Um no?" Peter responded, but it came out like a question.
"Kid it's okay, I'm not going to tell anyone. I'v been looking for someone to fight crime with and if you're up for it, you'd be perfect," Daredevil reassured the kid.
"You want to fight crime with me?" Peter questioned. His parents never wanted him around so why would Daredevil.
"Of course. And you can call me Matt. Matt Murdock," Matt responded.
"Wow thank you Mr. Murdock!" Peter said excitedly.
"Oh and my name is Peter. Peter Stark," Peter introduced himself.
"Your Starks kid? What's he like?" Matt questioned.
"An asshole," Peter grumbled.
"From what you've told me, I completely agree," Matt told Peter with a smile. He was mad at Tony for doing this to a kid and needed Peter to know he was important. Tony ignoring him was Tonys fault, not his.
After dinner, Peter went back to the tower. He wondered if anyone realized he was gone.
In the elevator, Peter talked to Friday a bit. She had cameras everywhere so she knew he was Spider-Man, but Peter hacked into her so she couldn't tell anyone, not that she would if she could.
When Peter walked into the penthouse, he half wanted Tony to ask him where he was, if he's okay, he would rather be in trouble then forgotten.
"Peter," Tony greeted, while Peter smiled that his existence was acknowledged.
"Harley won the science award! Isn't that great," Tony beamed with pride.
Peter would give anything to have that pride be because of him, but he has to keep dreaming.
"Congrats," Peter told his brother, trying to keep the jealously out of his voice.
"He's so smart, he's like a mini you," Pepper told Tony, obviously talking about Harley, not Peter.
"There's a reason he's gonna take over Stark Industries in the future," Tony told Harley.
"Wait really dad?" Harley asked excitedly.
Peter couldn't take it any longer and left, his stupid super hearing still picked up every word.
"You've earned it, your the smartest person I know, no one else even comes close," Tony responded.
And that hurt Peter even more then all the other times their dad made it clear Harley was more important than him. He watched his father with his brother and wondered what he did to deserve this. Is he really that dumb that he's not even close to Harleys intelligence? He doubted Harley could build web shooters, despite the fact Tony always clears his day if Harley wanted to work in the lab together.
Speaking of the lab, Peter went down there, by himself, to work on an ai for his suit. He doubted anyone would bother him because they were probably planning a party for Harley upstairs.
After hours of work, he finally added Karen, as he named her, to his suit.
"Friday?" Peter asked.
"Yes Peter how may I assist you," the ai responded.
"Can you sync up with Karen?" Peter asked.
"Of course Peter, where would you like me to list her in order of priority," Friday asks. When two people asked Friday to do things that clashed, she would follow the order of priority to see who to listen to.
"Below me, above Tony and everyone else," Peter responded. He thanked Friday for letting him into the system to put himself above Tony, so the ai wouldn't alert him when Peter snuck out to patrol.
"All done, do you require assistance for anything else?" Friday asked.
'No, but don't tell Tony about Karen," Peter told the ai.
"Of course Peter," Friday responded with what seemed to be a smile. Tony coded emotions into the ai, hoping it would help Friday read situations better. Luckily for Peter, the ai devolved sympathy for him, and even though she couldn't give Peter access and she had to tell Tony when he snuck out, the ai could help him hack into her and override the protocols and tell Peter how to make her report to him instead of Tony. Peter allowed her to lie when she deemed necessary, even to him because he didn't want to take away her choice. Even though she was an ai, Peter in a way thought of her as a person. Another reason she choose to find every loophole she could in Tonys coding to help Peter.
Peter quickly changed into his suit and leaped into the air, excited to try out patrolling with Karen. He almost forgot about the whole 'your brother is better than you so he gets the company' situation.
"Can you tell if there's any crime Karen," Peter asked.
"Matt Murdock, also known as Daredevil is currently approaching a man who is holding a woman at gunpoint," Karen responded.
"Can you direct me to them," Peter requested.
A map appeared in-front of Peters face, highlighting a person at the end.
When he arrived, Daredevil was telling the man to drop the gun.
"You should drop the gun, you don't want to mess with him," Peter said as he swung next to Matt.
"Shut up insect," the man with the gun yelled.
"Actually spiders are arachnids," Peter mocked the man as he webbed his gun away from him.
He tossed the gun up and webbed it to the wall, 15 feet up.
When he was fighting the man with Daredevil, Peter noticed the woman was frozen in fear.
He shot a web to a support beam above them, grabbed her and swung her to safety. By the time he got back, Daredevil was standing over an unconscious body.
"You got skills Spidy, good job" Daredevil told Peter.
"Thanks, you did good too, he's unconscious," Peter said with admiration.
"If he's lucky," Daredevil mumbled, not knowing Peter had super hearing.
"What do you mean if he's lucky? Oh no is he dead?! Karen pull up his vitals," Peter panicked.
"I cannot detect a pulse," Karen responded.
"Don't be sad, he deserved it," Daredevil responded, seemingly unfazed.
"But he's still a person," Peter mumbled sadly.
"He was trying to do more then just mug that woman," Daredevil explained.
"Oh," Peters voice was filled with realization when he understood what Daredevil was implying.
"Having that I killed someone on my conscious is a small price to pay for him not being able to do that to anyone ever again," Daredevil explained.
"Why does everyone say your dangerous and a criminal when you just make the streets safer," Peter though aloud.
"I'm glad I didn't scare you away kid, I like spending time with you," Daredevil responded.
Peter and Matt went up to the rooftop, Peter grabbing the gun he previously webbed to the side of the building and destroying it.
"Who's that voice inside your mask?" Matt asked.
"That's my ai, Karen," Peter told Matt excitedly.
Matt cast a sad smile at the kid, why would Tony Stark fill this kid with so much self-doubt. How could he hurt a little kid?
"I programmed her to detect heat signatures, run facial recognition on people, enhance or decrease my hearing when needed, and Karen can connect to Tonys ai to let me know what's going on in the tower. Oh an I also made these web shooters and the web fluid," Peter told him happily.
"You built all that? Your insanely smart kid," Matt complimented.
"Really?" Peter asked uncertainly.
"Yes really, do you know any other kid who can make an ai, web shooters, and hack Tony Starks ai," Matt questioned.
"Well I didn't technically hack it, Tony coded emotions into his ai and I guess Friday was cool with me being Spider-man so she told me Tony coded her to alert him if I left through my window but Tony never coded her to not tell me how to change her coding, so Friday gave me instructions on how to change her coding so I had control. As a thank you I gave her more freedom, like she can lie to whoever she sees fit because I trust her judgment," Peter explained.
"And you survive fighting crime every night. Your book smart and street smart," Matt said, impressed.
"Not to Tony Stark," Peter said with a frown.
"Im sure he knows how smart you are," Matt tried to console the kid.
"If he does he chooses to ignore it because he announced Harley, my brother, will be taking over the company when he's gone," Peter said, trying not to cry.
"Don't listen to him, his own ai choose you over him, that means you can be better than him. Your more kind and better at inventing then he was at 16," Matt reassures Peter.
"I'v only known you for two days and your a better father figure then Tony is," Peter smiled as his hero.
"Then I shall protect you like your my son," Matt responded, silently swearing to kill anyone who causes harm to this adorable broken kid.
"Does this mean I have a curfew?" Peter asked sarcastically.
"No patrolling alone after 11pm, meet up with me and we can patrol together," Matt responded.
"Jokes on you I was gonna do that anyways. It's boring by myself," Peter laughed.
As Peter made his way back to the tower, he was smiling. Someone actually cared for him. Understood him. Ned and Mj were great but they didn't understand like Matt did.
Patrolling with Matt became consistent. Take down bad guys, try not to die. Peter realized whenever a criminal was able to stab/shoot him or knock him out, Matt didn't care what crime they did before. They all ended up with the same fate as the first guy. Dead.
Peter figured out a pattern for most of the people Matt killed, him. Anyone who hurt him. He knew it was wrong but it made him happy. Tony never even bothered to look in his direction, while Matt would kill for him.
Peter told Ned and Mj how Daredevil was his unofficial dad after the news spotted Spider-Man and Daredevil working together to stop a mugging.
They were concerned at first but eased up when Peter told them he trusts him more than Tony. Peter choose to not mention how Matt has killed anyone who hurt him.
That evening, Peter and Matt were on patrol as usual when they heard the avengers land besides them. Ironman, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye.
"Daredevil, we need you to come with us. S. H. E. I. L. D. has deemed you a threat," Captain America stated.
"Leave while you can spider," Hawkeye warned.
"Im not going anywhere," Peter responded calmly while he was internally panicking. How was he going to keep his dad safe from his biological family?
"Kid leave I don't want you getting hurt," Matt told him as Daredevil.
"You know why I have to stay," Peter explained.
"Kid? You're a kid? And your parents let you be Spider-Man?" Black Widow asked shocked.
"They don't exactly know," Peter responded.
"Wow your parents must be neglectful," Ironman muttered.
"Yes his parents are extremely neglectful, thank you Ironman for sharing that," Daredevil proclaimed.
"You've made your point, they don't understand it," Spider-Man told Daredevil.
"You're right they don't understand the irony. Get it? IRONy," Daredevil joked.
The avengers looked around in confusion, which just made it funnier to Peter and Matt.
"Okay I admit the irony of Ironman saying that is a little funny, but any of them could attack you while we were laughing," Spider-Man reasoned.
Peters worries were proven necessary as an arrow came flying at Daredevil. Thankfully he caught it in time, before the arrow pierced his leg.
"Don't hurt them, I'm serious," Spider-Man told Daredevil.
Now the avengers were confused. Why was Spider-Man protecting them?
"Fine," he grumbled. He won't hurt them but he can't forget and can't forgive what they did to Peter.
They were all more confused and shocked when Daredevil agreed. Daredevil kills whoever and now he agreed to not hurt people who were attacking him because Spider-Man asked? Something wasn't adding up.
Peter tried to web everyone he could, wanting to keep them out of the way but not hurt them. He webbed up Hawkeye, Captain America, and Black Widow. Caption America broke free with his shield but Matt helped by tossing the shield away so Peter could web him up again.
"Woah there," Peter said as he jumped away just in time to not get smashed by hulk.
"Spidy, can you lend a hand? It's hard to fight a guy in an Iron suit when I'm not allowed to hurt him," Daredevil asks.
"Yeah how can I help," Spider-Man said as he swung over, hulk hot on his trail.
"Remember the first night we met as Spider-Man and Daredevil?" Matt asked.
"I don't see how that's relevant but yes," Peter responded confused.
"Remember that thing you told me you put in your suit?" Daredevil continues.
"My web shooters?" Peter asks while trying not to be crushed by hulk.
"No the other thing," Matt clarified.
"Karen?" Peter questioned.
"Yes, didn't you connect Karen to something that could, I don't know, control the Ironman suit," Matt said quietly so only Peter could hear.
"Shoot sorry! Karen tell your friend to freeze the Ironman suit," Peter told his ai.
"Do you mean Friday when you say 'my friend'?" Karen questioned.
"Yes," Peter and Matt responded frantically at the same time.
Peter and Matt heard a faint "power off" come from Ironmans suit.
"You couldn't have done that sooner?" Matt questions.
"I didn't think of it, and it would have been sooner if you remembered Karens name," Peter responded, still dodging hulks attacks.
"How are you smart enough to do that but forget about it" Matt says with disbelief.
"The same way your blind but can see better then some people," Peter responded.
"Tony can probably hear us, wondering how a teenager hacked his suit," Daredevil laughed.
"Good. His ego is too big," Peter responded.
"On god. I'm surprised he doesn't know who you are," Daredevil laughed.
"After all my pain and all his excuses, I don't want him to know who I am. When I first become Spider-Man, I was a kid but I wasn't clueless" Peter responded.
After Peter webbed down hulk, he escaped the area with Matt. Once they were 10 minutes away, Peter gave Karen permission to give Tonys suit power so he could fly home.
"Hey you won't leave me right?" Peter asked Matt hesitantly. He was scared everyone he loved would leave.
"Never, your my kid," Matt responded.
"Sorry for asking just Tony gave me trust issues," Peter apologized.
"You have nothing to apologize for. Someone who loved you wouldn't do that," Matt told Peter.
"I should probably get some sleep. Goodnight," Peter said yawning.
"Night kid," Matt responded.
As Peter snuck back in through his window, he heard Tony yelling at the avengers.
All of his past, he tried to erase it. Being forgotten, the neglect.
But when he saw how it lead him to meet Matt, he wouldn't change it. Peter and Tony might share a face and share a last name, but they are not the same.
"What do you mean you don't know what happened!? Spider-Boy hacked my suit neither you guys or Friday can tell me how," Tony yelled.
"All we could gather is Spider-Man's friend, Karen, told someone to hack into your suit and they were able to. We need to find out who Karen is if we want to find out who Karen asked to hack your suit," Captain America told Tony.
Peter laughed at a the irony. 6 months ago he would offer to help then cry when his dad told him no. Now Tony is on a wild goose chase after Karen the person, who does not in fact exist. If only he asked for Peters help, he could know everything about Karen the ai. But Tony didn't want his help then so he doesn't get it now. It still hurt that Tony only though about him when he was an inconvenience. Through this whole mess, he learned a valuable lesson, family is about more than just blood. It's the bonds you share. He found a dad. Someone who cares and accepts him.