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Chapter 3: home
Peter stood, amazed by his surroundings. Beneath him was a dark, wooden floorboard with a circular, soft, deep blue rug in the middle. Against the left wall was the headboard to a luxurious bed, grey bedding with intricate, blue details on the blanket and feather pillows. On either side of the bed were bedside tables, each with lamps, a digital clock on one of them. The wall facing Peter was completely made of glass, overlooking an unbelievable view. Across it was a desk with an ebony, comfortable, fancy velvet swivel chair tucked under it. There was a closet with a sliding door to Peters right, a door beside it. Eagerly, Peter pushed open the door to do something he never thought be would do.
Be impressed by a bathroom.
The floors were white marble, the walls a light grey. The exact rug from the main bedroom was in here too, only it were smaller. In the corner was a framed, modern shower enclosure with a rack holding fluffy, cotton towels on the wall beside it. There was a toilet and sink, and to the right of Peter, a rectangular Jacuzzi. Tearing his eyes away, Peter stumbled into the main bedroom, awestruck. He slid off his shoes and planned on staring into the ceiling till he dozed off, but instead as soon as his head hit the pillow he was falling into a deep, bottomless darkness.
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"So you gave him a room here? To stay?" Asked Steve, incredulously. Tony nodded proudly.
"Indeed I did."
"And you didn't even think about the possibility that he could be a threat?" Added Bruce.
"Nope," replied Tony, popping the 'P'.
Steve sighed and shook his head. "Look, I think we should just bring Fury in, and-"
"Fury's going nowhere near the kid." Snapped Natasha. "And if you let him, or any of the shield agents within a 5 mile radius of him, I swear to god I will tear you all apart. I will tear each and every one of you apart limb by limb, 'till you're all screaming in a pool of your own blood, and then I'll-"
"Okay! No need to get so... visual. The kid's staying here, Fury can be left in the dark." Reassured Clint. "And Tony," he continued, turning towards Stark.
"Hm?"
"What information do you know that we don't? Obviously you can't be trusted to tell us yourself, since to you apparently the boy ran away? What's all of that about?"
"I didn't do much digging," shrugged Tony. "6 years old, Parents died in a plane crash. 11 years old, Aunt died of cancer. 13 years old, Uncle arrested for physically abusing him and then Spidey's put in the foster system. He went from... 8? 9? Foster homes. Left either 'cause they abused him in some way, or he got physical, or they complained about his behaviour. He's put into an orphanage. They say he's withdrawn with bad-manners, and is extremely rude. At school he's fine, straight A's. He ran away from the orphanage when he was told that he was going to be adopted. TheOn we found him and chased him down. He isn't officially a runaway yet. He'll be in like, two or three days."
The avengers were silent for a few seconds.
"You call that a little bit of digging?" Asked Rhodey at the same time as Clint who muttered: "Man, kid's had it hard."
"I don't care what you have to do. Get him out of the orphanage, get him living here and get the people who want to adopt him out of the picture." Demanded Natasha, anger evident in her voice as she strides out of the room, her footsteps echoing.
The remaining people in the room exchanged dumbfounded glances before exiting slowly.
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Aunt May and Uncle Ben smiles warmly at Skipp Westcott as they left. The second the door closed, Peter span around to face his babysitter. "We're going to have so much fun! Aunt May got me a new lego set, we can play with that! And Uncle Ben got me a dinosaur puzzle! After we do that, we can watch cars, and...and... yay!"
"Sure, Einstein. We can do whatever you want. But first lets play my game. I've got a good idea on a new one!"
"Oh, okay! Then my game! Right?"
"Right as always, Einstein," smirked Skipp.
One memory just failed into another...
Peter cracked the front door open, hoping Ben was asleep. Mr. Delmar needed help stocking the shelves after school and Peter was too nice to turn him down. They lost track of time and Peter was very, very late back home. Much to his horror, Uncle Ben was waiting for him. And not just any Uncle Ben - drunk Uncle Ben.
"Your late, boy. Remember what I told you would happen if you were late one more time?" Growled uncle Ben in a dangerously low voice. Peter nodded numbly and felt his hands begin to tremble as he watched Uncle Ben pick up the belt.
With a start, Peter shot out of bed, sitting upright. He wiped the sweat from his brow, breathing heavily, his hair sticking to his damp forehead. Her looked at the clock.
1:24 AM
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Natasha stared at her steaming cup of hot chocolate, unable to tear her mind away from the boy. When she was around him, she had this sort of... motherly instinct. And she absolutely hated it. She hated how this boy, who she had hardly met, had instantly become her weakness. She hated how much she cared for this child.
"Fri, whats Peter doing?"
"Peter is currently rinsing his face with cold water as he has woken up from a nightmare at 1:24"
Natasha sighed and looked at the time.
1:26 AM
"Tell him that, if he wants, he can join me downstairs." Friday went silent for a few seconds.
"Peter will be with you in a minute."