Chapter 1
Peter had been working at his internship for around three months now.
And my god, he loved it.
Him and Mr. Stark were somewhat close now, and Peter always looked forward to his lab days. It seemed that Happy was starting to warm up to him too, considering that he stopped putting up the divider the second Peter got into the car.
But seriously, Mr. Stark was amazing. Mr. Stark had taught him so many things, and Peter was fascinated with all of them. Most of the time, Peter and Tony were working on new Stark products or inventions, and just drawing up ideas and plans. The feeling of walking into the lab and hearing the AC/DC playing was officially Peter's highlight of the year. Right now, Mr. Stark is currently teaching advanced quantum physics to Peter.
“Aaaand…there you go, advanced quantum physics in a nutshell”
“I can’t believe you managed to figure this out at 12”
“Yeah, well it pays to have a genius as your dad. You really should be proud of yourself kid– it takes most people years to figure this out”
Peter just gave an awkward laugh, before his stomach started to growl.
Peter went bright red, as Mr. Stark clearly heard it. He hadn’t been eating much, or as much as he should have. The food they had at home was barely enough for a normal teenager, let alone a superpowered one. Peter wasn’t oblivious, he knew he was getting skinnier, frailer. His healer factor had been slowed. He used to be able to heal cuts and bruises in under 30 minutes, and broken bones were gone within the hour if it was a clean break. But now, a dark bruise or somewhat deep cut took an entire day to heal, and other, more severe, injuries took around a week.
“Damn, have I tired you out that much?” Mr. Stark jokes.
“No, of course not”, Peter looked at the clock, “But it's getting to be around 7:00, so I should probably head home”.
“Jesus, already? I can’t convince you to stay around for a bit longer?”
“Sorry, Mr. Stark, but I have to get home for dinner”, Peter knew he’d be eating alone tonight (again), but May always left a frozen meal she’d cooked in the morning for him, so it wouldn’t be that bad.
“You know what kid? How about you stay for team dinner?”
“What?”
“You know, the Avengers. If that’s okay, of course”
“I thought I wasn’t gonna meet the Avengers?” Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit.
“Yeah, well some things changed…and they’ve been asking about you. So i’m kinda obligated to bring you if I don’t want my head chopped off by Natasha Romanoff”
He shouldn’t do it. He should say no and walk away. But his stomach was growling and he knew the little frozen meal at home would leave him going to bed hungry. Plus…Stark was a billionaire. Eat the rich, right? Or at least their food.
Jesus Christ. Am I really about to do the one thing I shouldn’t be doing?
“Um, of course! I mean i’d have to ask, but–”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll start cleaning this mess up”, he said, gesturing to the disassembled bits and pieces of machinery (they didn’t use it for the lesson, they both just needed something to do with their hands), “and you ask that aunt of yours”
Peter pretended to type. He knew Aunt May would see the text till hours later, and frankly, he didn’t really care if she said it was okay or not. Food was food, and Peter’s extra appetite was growing harder and harder to feed. Plus, it’s not like she would ever find out.
“She said yes”, Peter smiled.
“Great, I'll tell the team you're coming. We’re ordering Shawarma tonight, because none of us really want to cook”, Tony replied.
As he stood in the elevator of Avengers tower, he couldn’t help but feel insanely nervous. Yes, he was just doing this for food, but the realization of the risk he was taking hadn’t sunk in until now. He didn’t want to delve into his thoughts further, considering that any sign of abnormal nervousness would immediately set off a red light. Still, it wasn’t helping that his spidey sense was pricking at his skin. He just had to get his act together. That couldn’t be so hard? For the next hour and a half, he wasn’t Spider-Man. He was not running around in spandex, and he didn’t have superpowers. He wouldn’t have more than two medium sized portions of whatever was being served, and he would make sure he didn’t take off his sweater (which was covering a large bruise on his upper arm that he got from patrol). He also had to make sure he wasn’t avoiding his strange behavior consciously, considering that he didn’t want to take any risks with Wanda Maximoff. He just…needed to forget about his life as Spider-Man for an hour and a half. Literally.
Soon, the elevator doors opened to show the Avengers common room. Immediately, he noticed the place was massive. It was less like a common room and more like a common floor. It was an open floor plan, with couches and a living space to his right and a large kitchen area to his left. His description was under-doing it, because really, the place was huge. Nothing was cramped or closed-in. Not far in front of the kitchen area was a dining area, which contained the Avengers.
Immediately, he noticed that Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton, Sam Wilson and Bruce Banner were seated at the table.
“So is this the famous Peter we keep hearing about, or some random kid you took off the street?” Remarked Clint.
“Haha, very funny. Yes, this is Peter, and I didn’t kidnap him”
“What an accomplishment”, replied Wanda, before inviting Peter to sit.
“I trust you already know who we are?”
“Yeah, it’s not really hard to tell,'' said Peter, sitting next to Mr. Stark.
“So, how’d you get a gig with Tony?” Asked Natasha.
“Oh, I saw his internship and applied. Never really expected to get it, if i’m being honest”
“Seriously? You’re one of the smartest kids I know, did you guys know he scored a 97% on our assessment test?” Mr. Stark responded.
“Damn, kid. You sound pretty smart”, said Natasha.
After Peter warmed up to the Avengers, conversation came easily. He actually really liked them, and he thinked they liked him too. Still, the gnawing nervousness of having to keep his secret was still there. He only hoped he didn’t give off anything that could indicate he was hiding something.
Soon the dinner came to an end, and Peter started to help clean up. Apparently dish duty was on Steve and Wanda tonight, though all of the Avengers were crowded around the sink laughing and talking. Peter got sucked into the conversation, which he didn't mind, but as he was handing his plate to Wanda, the worst of the worst happened. After he handed her the plate, the silver spoon that was sitting on top of it dropped to the ground, and like a gentleman, he went to pick it up. He really didn’t mean to, it wasn’t intentional at all. But as he went back up to give Wanda the spoon, his loose sweater and shirt snagged on the kitchen cabinet handle, ripping it.
The sweater and shirt he wore to cover up his massive bruise ripped.
And it ripped right over the bruise.
So now, the Avengers were looking at the massive bruise on his upper arm while he hastily explains that he fell and landed on his arm.
Jesus Christ, he really couldn’t get a break from Parker luck.
“Christ, kid. Must’ve been one hell of a fall. Let me bring you to the Medbay,” said Natasha.
“Medbay? No I really don’t need–”
“That wasn’t a suggestion, kid. At least let us give some ice for it”
“Alright”
And then was how Peter was now sitting in Avengers Medbay with Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff. What’s worse is that he had to take off his sweater AND his shirt, exposing his wiry thin frame. He didn’t miss the reaction that came with the revealing of his skinny-ness.
Natasha’s expression didn’t falter, but Tony’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Jesus kid, are you eating at all?”
“I am!”
“Then why are you skinnier than a five year old”
Peter just signed and snatched his shirt and sweater back from Natasha, who had quickly sewed the rips back together.
“Thank you for dinner, Mr. Stark, but it’s getting late and I really need to get home”
“Do you need Happy to give you a ride?”
“Nah, I can make it back myself”
Peter knew he could make it back and patrol before May came home, considering it was currently only 8:45 and May usually came home around 1:00 am.
Soon, enough, Peter was exiting the tower with only one thing on his mind:
Patrolling.
OoOoO
“Did you guys see that?” Tony asked, coming back up to the common room.
“No, we completely missed the surfboard sized bruise on his arm,” Sam responded.
“Well, I think it’s also important to note that when he took off his shirt, he was extremely skinny. I could almost see his ribs,” commented Natasha.
“Christ. Tony, do you know anything about his home situation?” asked Steve.
“I know he lives with his aunt, but I didn’t look into anything else”
“Should we?” replied Clint.
It wasn’t even a question, as not three seconds later was FRIDAY pulling up everything she could on Peter Parker.
“It says here that his parents were killed in an airplane crash when he was around five,” said Wanda, scrolling through what FRIDAY had pulled up, “he went into foster care for a couple of months until his fathers brother, Ben Parker, took him in”
“So why is he with his aunt?” said Bruce.
“Uncle died only 11 months ago–”
“A month after he applied here,” Tony said.
“And eight months before he started working here. He then went into foster care again for about four months,” Wanda continued, “and his aunt was granted full custody of him about seven months ago”
“Jesus. Must’ve been one hell of a ride for him,” Natasha commented.
“It says here that while he was in foster care, he often snuck out at night and came back with some minor cuts and bruises. He never said where he went”
Tony was silent through all of this. He felt horrible, the kid had gone through so much more than he ever let on. Still, as he thought back to Peters wiry frame and the large bruise on his arm…could someone be hurting him?
No, no, no. It was probably just as Tony said, Peter had fallen. He had no right to pry into Peter’s private business.
But that didn’t explain the skinniness, did it?
Something cemented in his mind, and it was that he was going to make sure that kid was safe. Who cares if it was prying? He was going to pay extra attention to everything Peter did, and he would find out where exactly these injuries were coming from.
“On another note,” said Clint, “SHIELD just sent a message. Remember our little Spider-Man obsession?”
The group nodded.
“Well, that’s about to become professional, since we were just tasked to figure out Spider-Man’s identity.”