“I can’t do this I can’t do this.” Peter told Tony, who was seated next to him in the car.
The older man had picked him up from school (along with a very unwilling Happy) and they were currently on route towards the Avengers Compound. It was a place Peter had only been a handful of times, as he and Mr. Stark preferred to work at the tower since it was closer, but today would be like no other time he had visited.
Peter knew why Mr. Stark had been there to pick him up today. His class had been watching the news report in class when the blonde lady on the screen had told them that the Rogue Avengers had been pardoned and would be returning to the U.S. in the next few hours. Whispers had broken out all throughout the classroom and not five minutes later he had gotten the text from Tony saying he would pick him up to take him to the compound when he got out of school.
“Relax kid they’re going to love you.” Tony reassured him, rubbing circles on his back. “We don’t have to tell them about your alter-ego if you don’t want them to know. We can just tell them you’re my intern if that’s what you’d be comfortable with.”
All Peter could do was nod, because he was afraid that if he spoke words wouldn’t be the only thing to exit his mouth. He didn’t even know why he was freaking out so much, it wasn’t like he hadn’t met these people before. Sure, the last time they had come face to face he had gotten the shit beat out of him, but they were on the same side now. The accords had been fixed and everything was going to be fine. Mr. Stark would make sure of that.
He jumped almost a foot in the air when his phone suddenly went off, making Tony laugh quietly and Happy looked back at the pair in confusion. Peter could feel the slight redness that started to cover his cheeks was he looked down at his phone to see two new texts from May. They simply read ‘Good luck!!! Try not to puke on Tony’s shoes!’ and ‘When you meet Steve Rogers punch him in the face for me’ followed by three fist emoji’s. The lightheartedness of his aunts texts relieved his stress slightly, but he was still nervous beyond compare.
These were his childhood heroes they were talking about, the people he had posters of on his walls until he had taken them down before heading off to highschool. They were people he had loved and respected… until they had broken the law and hurt his mentor. Now he wasn’t sure what to think, and that thought alone might have been worse than actually having to meet them in person.
The Compound came into view, and Peter’s leg started involuntarily bouncing up and down. Tony must have noticed because he gently put in hand onto it and looked the terrified boy in the eyes. “I promise I won’t let them hurt you.” He told Peter, as his leg stopped moving. “You don’t even have to talk if you don’t want to, and if at anytime you need to leave just tell me and we’ll be out of there like a light. I promise, there’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Peter smiled at his mentors kind words. “I’m fine Mr. Stark… really.” He tried to reassure the man. “Sometimes I just get super nervous over trivial things. It’ll probably go away once we get in the building. Please don’t worry about me too much”
Still looking slightly unconvinced, the man unbuckled his seatbelt as the car pulled up to the entrance. “I always worry about you kiddo.” He told Peter as he also got out of the car. “When you’re here you’re my responsibility, and the last thing I need is an earful from May because you passed out after Natasha made eye contact with you. While I’m sure we would laugh about it later, I don’t think that's the impression you want to make.” He joked, trying to get a smile out of the boy.
Despite everything, Peter couldn't help but laugh. Tony always knew how to take the tension out of a bad situation, and god was he thankful. He was pretty sure walking into a room full of supersoldiers and spies while sweating and shaking like an idiot would not be a very good first impression. So, taking as many deep breaths as he could, Peter wordlessly followed his mentor into the two double doors of the Compounds entrance.
Ms. Potts (or was it Mrs. Stark now?) was waiting for the two of them as they entered the building, and Peter instantly ran over to her and pulled her into a tight hug. She had been in Tokyo on a business trip for the past few weeks and it felt like forever since he’d last seen her. The baby bump she had been trying so hard to conceal from the press for the past month was just barely visible under the loose blue dress she was wearing, and if you didn’t know about it you probably would even notice it. But Peter did, he had been told shortly before her trip and was one of only six people who had been informed of the baby’s existence.
“I missed you.” He mumbled into her shoulder, glad that at least one other familiar face would be there with him. Rhodey would have come but he was still stuck up in D.C. trying to finalize the accords, so he would be unable to attend. Vision would also be there, but aside from the fact that they had fought on the same team, Peter had never really gotten to know the android and then he had vanished before he could. So it would only be Tony and Pepper with him.
Pepper’s grip around him loosened slightly as she leaned over to kiss her husband. It was weirdly domestic and all Peter could do was wonder when his life had gotten weird enough that hugging the CEO of Stark Industries while she gave her husband, Iron Man, a kiss, had become normal for him. He tried not to think about it too hard because it was better to just let it happen.
“We should go.” Tony told them, as Pepper moved away from the hug and instead threw her arm over Peter’s shoulder and pulled him close. “The other are already here and everybody’s waiting upstairs in the commons area.”
Pepper kept her tight grip on Peter as the group entered the elevator and silently made their way upstairs. Friday knew where they needed to be taken so nobody had to speak as the shaft rose. From where he stood Peter watched as Peppers free had reached and gripped Tony’s, before the doors opened and they all shuffled out.
As soon as they made their way towards the commons area Peter could hear voices talking. They were all mostly unfamiliar which did nothing to help his ever growing anxiety, and all Peter could was lean closer into Pepper so that the urge to flee didn’t overtake him. He knew all he had to say was that he didn’t want to meet them and Tony would immediately let him go hide in the lab until it was time to leave, but he was Spider-Man, and Spider-Man wasn’t scared of a couple of fugitives.
“Ready?” Pepper whispered, her hand subconsciously laid above her stomach. Peter silently nodded, still not willing himself to speak, and without another word the trio entered the living area.
It was the place Peter usually hung out on his few trips upstate, it had a giant TV and three incredibly comfortable couches that surrounded it. It was also connected to the kitchen via a breakfast bar and if he aimed his web shooters just right he could usually get the fridge open from his place on the couch. Tony found it incredibly comical and insisted they record it to send to May and Pepper. He was pretty sure they both still had the eight second video saved on their phones.
When they finally entered the room, all eyes turned towards them almost instantly and any conversations ended abruptly. As it was habit, Peter started to identify everyone in the room as quickly as he could. The first person he noticed was Captain Rogers himself, who was seated on the middle couch with Natasha Romanoff and Wanda Maximoff. They were the first group to see them enter and looked the most confused at Peter’s unexplained appearance.
Than Sam Wilson and James Barnes were sitting adjacent to them, and standing up near the breakfast bar was Clint Barton and Vision. Peter quickly realize that the only people from the fight who were missing was the big dude and King T’Challa. Everyone else was present.
Steve was the first person to stand up and approach the group, and Peter could sense Tony tense up as the soldier got closer to them. “Tony.” He said, holding out his hand for the genius to shake.
Tony accepted the hand shake, but his gaze never really reached Steve’s eyes. “Rogers.” He responded, before dropping his hand and looking over at the others.
Peter wasn’t sure when it happened, but Pepper’s arm was no longer around his shoulders and his anxiety was back in full bloom. Not to mention everyone's confused gazes were focused on him and his shaking form.
“Who’s the kid?” Sam finally asked, breaking the awkward silence that filled the room. Instinctively Tony moved closer to both him and Pepper as everyone continued to stare at them.
“This is Peter.” Tony told them, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “He’s my personal intern. Wherever I go he comes, so get used to looking at him.”
Nobody seemed to know how to respond to that, so against his gut instinct Peter decided to step in. “Uhh, hi.” He said, trying to keep the shakiness from his voice. “I’m Peter.”
Natasha seemed to recover from the initial shock first, her strikingly green eyes locking onto Peter’s as she seemed to gather as much information about I’m as she could. “It’s nice to meet you Peter.” And everyone else followed suit, saying variation of that same thing. With the elephant in the room addressed, everyone seemed a bit more relaxed than they originally appeared and Steve deemed it necessary to move onto the next discussion.
“So what are the housing arrangements as of right now?” he asked, and Peter was finally able to somewhat hide behind Pepper’s tall form. He knew it probably came off as somewhat childish, but the whole conversation had left him too emotionally exhausted to care.
“Well, until the Accords are officially ratified by every country, you are required to stay here and are not to leave unless approved by someone on the Accords Committee or in the event of an emergency.” He explained to them. “Once everything is settled we can talk about finding you guys your own places.”
“So for the time being we’re basically prisoners.” Wanda spoke up, her voice dripping with what could only be described as venom. “We’re just expected to stay here until some big shots out in D.C. say we’re allowed to leave?”
Despite her tone, Tony didn’t even flinch at her worlds and his face stay completely neutral as he continued talking. “I know it’s upsetting Wanda.” He told her, his voice getting gentler. “But this was the best compromise I could come up with for the time being. It shouldn’t take too long for everything to get fully approved, a couple months at most, and then you all can head off and go wherever you want to. I promise.”
Wanda looked like she was about to say something else, but Steve cut her off before she could. “He’s right.” He told them, making Tony raise his eyebrows in surprise. “This is way better than we could have hoped for. All we need to focus on right now is laying low until everything gets figured out.”
Clint looked slightly taken back by the whole conversation, refusing to make eye contact with anyone who even looked his way. “What about my kids?” He asked, his eyes aimed towards the ground. “Am I just not allowed to see them for a few months?”
An expression crossed Tony face that none of them could really identify, well except for Pepper and Peter. “Much like Scott’s deal, you can either stay here until everything is figured out with weekly visitation days, or you can go back to your farm with the same requirements as when you were under house arrest.” He explained, and Clint finally removed his gaze from the floor. “Either way the situation is still the same, as once everything is figured out you are free to go. You can have a few days to think about it if you’d like, but by the end of the week you either need to be here or there.”
At that everyone seemed satisfied with the information they had been given, and drifted off into separate conversations. Tony went over to talk to Natasha and Captain Rogers, and Peter followed Pepper as she walked into the adjoining kitchen. He probably looked like a lost puppy, but other than Tony she was the only familiar person in the room, and there was no way he was going over by Black Widow and Captain America. So he stuck with Pepper.
“How are you holding up?” She asked, offering him an apple from the fridge. He accepted it gratefully, as he hadn’t eaten much for lunch and his stomach felt like it was about to implode. He really needed to start getting better at remembering to pack his own lunches so he didn’t have to eat the schools gross lunch food.
“I’m fine.” Peter told, and shrunk back at her unconvinced gaze while devouring the apple. “I’m still really nervous but I think I’m over the worst of it.”
Her eyes softened, and upon realizing he had already eaten half of the apple she also grabbed him a protein bar from one of the cabinets. “Please just remember to tell me or Tony if you need to leave. I don’t want our guests to believe we’re holding you hostage or something.” She joked, earning a laugh out of Peter.
“So, since when does Stark Industries hire highschoolers?” A voice suddenly asked, and Peter and Pepper turn around to find themselves face to face with Natasha Ronmanoff, Tony and Steve on her heels.
“It’s nice to see you too Nat.” Pepper told the ex-assassin, and Peter briefly remembered that the two had known each other for many years. “Peter is one of our first highschool interns in the new program, but we’re hoping he’s not the last. Everything is still a little work in progress but we’re hoping to have everything fleshed out by the start of next school year.”
Tony walked past both Nat and Steve, and pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge while speaking. “Not to mention he’s brilliant.” He praised him, chuckling when he saw Peter look down in embarrassment. “He the only person I’ve ever met besides Bruce who is able to keep up with me in the lab which is amazing because even good ol’ Banner had issues from time to time. But not Pete, I can tell him anything and he’ll just roll with it.”
Everyone from the living room was starting to migrate towards the commotion in the kitchen and Peter was starting to feel weirdly claustrophobic. It was almost as if he was being surrounded by a pride of lions with no way to escape.
“Wait, so exactly how old are you.” The voice of Sam piped up from behind the breakfast bar. Both him and Bucky were leaning on the counter, with Wanda and Vision watching from behind them. They were all staring at his so intently Peter thought he might just crumble.
“Sixteen.” Peter answers, throwing away the core of his apple. “But I was fifteen when I started.”
Pepper couldn’t help but smile, remembering how after her and Tony’s unprompted engagement, she had walked down into his lab only to come face to face with a scared fifteen year old kid. That kid turned out to be the only and only Spider-Man, and after a few months of him coming over for weekly lab days they had decided to make his ‘internship’ official. They even had the picture to prove it, which was proudly displayed on Tony’s nightstand.
“So how’d they even find you?” Natasha asked, which made Tony roll his eyes. “It’s not every day some random teenager gets picked to work with one of the richest people in the world.”
“And smartest.” Tony interjected, a light smirk on his face. “I’m more than just my money.”
Peter rolled his eyes at his mentors comment and quickly recalled the cover story him and Tony had come up with on the car ride up. “W-Well I had been working on a way to purify water cheaper and more effectively for my schools science fair.” He started, the lie rolling off his tongue. “And Mr. Stark somehow heard about it and was impressed, so he offered me an internship. Pepper had been talking about starting some sort of highschool program from IS and they thought I would be a good first candidate. The rest is history I guess.”
It wasn’t a completely lie. Peter had been looking into new ways to purify water (with varying degrees of results), but that was a project he had started more recently. He was also the tester participant for Pepper and Tony’s new high school internship program. They thought it would be a good PR for Stark Industries to show that they wanted to teach the next generation and give kids of all backgrounds a chance to show off their scientific talents. It was a great idea, and Peter was honestly excited to see what came out of it.
Tony had even suggested calling it the Peter Program, since he had been the one to inspire the entire concept. However that idea was quickly shot down by the teenager, who was too humble for his own good, and they instead chose to call it the Young Learners Program. It was still deep in developed, being benched by the Accords, but the idea had been announced at a press conference and people were more than excited for it.
“Wow, it is already five-thirty.” Tony said while looking down at his watch. “I’m starving, how does everyone feel about pizza for dinner?” He asked.
Peter was quick to nod his head, more than happy to be changing the subject. And after everyone’s orders had been placed and told to Friday, him and Tony were finally able to make their way down to the labs while they waited for food to arrive. Pepper also had to go off to make some calls, promising to join them for pizza later.
“You did great kid.” Tony told him, on the many Iron Man helmets placed in his hands. “Any weaker person probably would have cracked under Natasha’s gaze, but you held up strong.”
Peter laughed, not entirely focusing on the web shooter in front of him. “I’ll admit, there were a few times I wanted to bolt.” He confessed. “Although now I can cross ‘lying to the Avengers’ off my bucket list.”
Tony squinted his eyes, giving the boy a pointed look. “Why was that on your bucket list?”
Peter didn’t have time to answer, because only a second later his phone started blaring out the Imperial March ringtone Ned had set as a joke. He looked over to where the device was sitting on the workbench, to find May’s contact photo staring back at him.
“It’s May.” Peter informed Tony, before answering the call. “Hey May!”
“Hey Pete!” She responded, her voice as chipper as always. “I’m happy to know that you survived meeting the Avengers.”
“Barely.” Tony cut in, eavesdropping on their little conversation. “He was shaking like a maraca.”
Peter couldn’t help but groan out loud as May laughed at the billionaires comment. “You both suck.” He concluded, making both of the adults laugh louder.
“Whatever you say.” May told him, trying to stifle her giggles. “I’m assuming since it’s Friday you’re going to stay overnight there?”
Peter raised an eyebrow and looked over at Tony. “Of course he is.” His mentor responded, leaning over the counter to get closer to the phone. “I even have a room set up for him and everything. He’s in good hands.”
“He better be.” May joked, fondness in her voice. “I need to get back to work, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow Peter. I love you.”
“Love you too May.” Peter told her, before ending the call.
After the phone conversation the pair talked about random things for a while. Spider-Man, decathlon, and, regrettably, Peter’s love life. But the whole time Tony’s words just kept repeating in the teenagers head. I even have a room set up for him and everything.
Finally, he decided to ask the man about it. “Did you mean what you said.” He managed to squeak out.
Tony looked slightly confused, and dropped what he was working on to focus his full attention on the boy standing only a few feet away from him. “What are you talking about kiddo?”
Peter hesitated for a moment, unsure if he had overstepped his boundaries or not. “About the room.” He told him. “Do you actually have one for me?”
“Peter I’ve had a room here for you since the day I offered to make you an Avenger.” Tony admitted, remember that fateful day clearly. “I wasn’t lying about it then and I’m not lying about it now. You always have a place here.”
Peter couldn’t help the small grin that spread across his face at the man’s words. It was the simple things that Tony did for him, like making sure he’s eating enough and having a place for him to stay, that made him feel truly wanted in his family.
“Thank you Mr. Stark.” He finally said, smiling over at the man. “That means a lot to me.”
Tony pulled the smaller boy into a side hug, ruffling his curls and making them more unruly than they already were. “It’s no problem kid, you know that.” He told him. “Now I think pizzas going to get here soon so we should probably head on up there before those vultures eat our share. God knows Steve can almost eat as much as you.”