What Are You? 12?
After the whole situation with Mr. Tooms, Mr. Stark tried to get more involved in Peter's life, and Peter wasn't complaining. He got the suit back, got Mr. Stark's trust back, and he got to hang out with his mentor twice a week. The only thing that sort of sucked was that Mr. Stark sometimes got quiet. Ever since the battle with The Rogues, Mr. Stark would get this faraway look in his eyes, and Peter hated seeing the pain in cloud Mr. Stark's irises whenever Peter brought him out of the trance. He hated that he couldn't do anything or say anything to make Mr. Stark feel better. Peter would crack a joke, and Mr. Stark would huff out a laugh, but his shoulders would be tense for the remainder of the day. Peter doesn't know the entire story of what happened after Happy dropped him off at the hotel. All Peter knows is that he got hit by a giant man, sent to the hotel where he watched a movie (It was a PG-13 movie, Happy!), then Mr. Stark returned with more bruises, and Coronel Rhodes was in the hospital. Later, Peter learned the hard way not to talk about any of The Rogues. He was rambling on and on about his day at school, and he mentioned one of Captain America's PSA's, and Mr. Stark almost had a full-blown panic attack. Peter has them nearly all of the time, now more than ever since his time with Mr. Tooms, so he calmed Mr. Stark down, and the rest of the day, they watched movies and ate pizza. Peter never mentioned The Rogues again, and neither of them discussed that day.
Then for a month, Mr. Stark was visibly tenser, and Peter found out it was because he was working with the government to pardon The Rogues. The Rogues were coming back, and Mr. Stark was working to not only clear them of their crimes but offer up their old rooms in the tower.
Once everything settled, Mr. Stark made it clear to Peter that he was not to interact with any of them, and if they were to find Peter, he would have to say that he is Mr. Stark's intern. So, now Peter actively avoided the people he used to idolize.
Peter flinched back as sparks flew around his hands when he twisted two wires together. Now that he finished his homework, Peter was working on his web-shooters in Mr. Stark's labs. Mr. Stark had to step out because he had to attend a meeting he had forgotten was on one of their bi-weekly lab days.
Peter was alone in the lab, and he wasn't going to do anything stupid, but it was cool to look at Mr. Stark's projects and take notes. He had left Mr. Stark a few notes on the latest version of Nat's Widow Bites, and now, he was working on his suit. It wasn't anything important, just tweaking the capacity on his web-shooters. Ever since that talk with Ned, Peter feared that he would run out of web during his patrol, or worse, during a mission; not that Mr. Stark has allowed him on any more of those, but still. Peter wanted to be sure.
Peter rolled his chair to the other side of the lab to where his web mixture was forming. Mr. Stark had many ideas on sturdier and water-resistant webs after an incident when they dissolved.
Peter was humming along to a song on Mr. Stark's playlist that he didn't recognize when the hairs on his arm stood up. He let the control on his hearing slip and focused on the heartbeat that was in the elevator. Whoever it was, was nervous, and he could hear a clinking. Peter furrowed his eyebrows and scanned the worktable in front of him. He slowly grabbed an empty beaker and waited for the person to come in.
Once the person opened the door, Peter whirled around and threw the beaker at the person's head.
The person snatched it before it hit them. "What the fuck?"
Peter's eyes widened. "Oh, my gosh! Mr. Barnes, I am so sorry! I thought you were some bad guy trying to steal Stark tech or something!"
Mr. Barnes placed the beaker on a nearby table. "It's fine. I came down because-wait. Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Mr. Stark's intern," Peter answered, trying to quell his heartbeat. Sergeant Barnes was in front of him!
Mr. Barnes frowned. "You look awfully young. What are you? 12?"
Peter clenched his jaw. He was used to people saying that. "I'm 15. Was there something you needed, Mr. Barnes?"
"Please." Mr. Barnes grimaced. "It's Bucky. And, yeah. Tony told me to come down because he was going to fix my arm."
Peter's eyes flickered down to the metal arm, and he could hear the clicking sound again. "Mr. Stark is in a meeting, but I-" Peter bit his tongue to stop himself from speaking. He wasn't supposed to talk to them, and he doesn't think Mr. Stark would appreciate Peter working on Mr. Barnes' arm.
But it would be pretty freaking cool to see how the arm worked, and Mr. Stark would be busy with the meeting for a few more hours.
"I-I could help you," Peter spoke softly, trying to reign in his excitement. "I know I'm young, but I'm well versed with technology and engineering. Plus, I work closely with Mr. Stark on Avengers technology."
Mr. Barnes looked skeptical, which, understandable. He narrowed his eyes and looked Peter up and down before scanning the rest of the lab. "You're working on Spider-Man tech?"
Oh, well, he kind of asked for it.
Peter's eyes widened as he beamed and walked over his suit. "Yeah! I've been trying to adjust the web-shooters, taking external factors into account like sturdiness, durability, and dissolution length!"
A shadow of a smile flickered over Mr. Barnes' face. "All right, kid. Let's see what you got."
Peter was confused for a second as Mr. Barnes sat on a chair, but then he motioned to his metal arm, and Peter understood.
"Wait. Really?" Peter questioned, but before Mr. Barnes could respond, Peter rushed over and grabbed the metal arm gently. "Oh, my gosh," he whispered, gazing at the small crooks and visible turns in the metal. "I'm touching Sargeant Barnes's metal arm."
Peter looked back up to the man, who was staring at him, confusion in his expression. "Oh, sorry. It's just-You're like my favorite war hero."
Mr. Barnes' eyebrows shot up. "I am?"
Peter got to work, hands going on autopilot as he spoke. "Yeah, when we studied WWII, we had to write an essay on our favorite howling commando, and I wrote about you."
"And, and the whole Winter Soldier thing?"
Peter's hand stuttered as he placed the metal arm on another table. "I-I don't know much about your alter ego," he whispered honestly. "But I know that you weren't the person who did all of that." He hunched over the table, trying to hide his face from the veteran behind him. "And I know that it doesn't change how you think of yourself."
Somehow, talking to his favorite war hero, working on said hero's metal arm, Peter got the courage to talk about things he never allowed himself to say out loud.
His hands scanned the metal for the clicking he could still hear. "Those things, you couldn't control it, but they couldn't have happened if it weren't for you," Peter explained, his voice soft. He hadn't thought of the night Ben had died in a while. So much had happened since, and Peter hadn't been able to think of that night.
Peter's nimble fingers slipped through and pushed the two plates together, a little clink sound echoing in the silent room.
Peter turned back around, forcing a smile on his face, and got to work on connecting the arm to Mr. Barnes' cybernetic structure. "You dislocated a plate in the metal, which was causing the clicking sound."
Mr. Barnes stared at him, and Peter had to resist the urge to touch his face to make sure there was nothing on it. Finally, Mr. Barnes smiled. It was a small one, but Peter took it. "Thank you..."
"Oh! I'm Peter," he introduced himself and extended his hand. "Peter Parker."
Mr. Barnes grabbed Peter's hand and stared for a few seconds. "Thank you...Spider-Man."
Peter's eyes widened, and he yanked his hand out of Mr. Barnes' hold. "W-what! I'm-I'm not him. Why would you-No, I'm-"
Peter broke off his stuttering when Mr. Barnes leveled him with a look.
Crap.
Peter was definitely going to get into trouble.