II. heroes
All right, people, let’s tell this one last time. Peter Parker Stark gets bitten by a radioactive spider while on a field trip to Oscorp because science is his school’s speciality, and for the last few weeks he has been the one and only spiderman in his passible costume, helped by the webshooters he’s built using tech he’d snuck out of Stark Tower, thanks for the key dad. He helps keep the neighborhood safe, gets a few videos of him uploaded to youtube, fails to save ben. Fails to save Ben. Fails to save Ben.
And manages to keep it a secret from his dad, an avenger.
*
Peter’s been following the mess with the sokovia awards and the avengers closely. So he’s really surprised when his dad shows up at their apartment, with sunglasses and a grin, “I was in the neighborhood, thought I’d stop by,” he tells aunt May.
Aunt May rolls her eyes, letting him in, “Nice to see you too Tony.”
“How are you holding up,” he asks more seriously, having attended Ben’s funeral. Consoling Aunt May along with Peter, offering security detail and safe houses and a thousand other things May had turned down with tears in her eyes.
“I feel like shit most nights,” May utters, “but I think I’m getting there. It’s just-It’s hard but I’m okay, really. Keeping busy.”
“I know a good therapist,” Tony offers, “helped me with my PTSD.”
“I don’t think I’m that bad, really Tony, I just miss him. Thanks for the offer though.” Her arms crossed against her chest, smiling fragilely.
“Okay,” Tony states, turning the full force of his attention, “you, me, let’s talk.”
“Me,” Peter yelps, “What did I do!”
“Nothing, all good news,” Tony says staring him down, “your room now.”
Peter has no choice but to follow, shrugging at May’s questioning glances. He has no idea what this could be about. He’s been amazing at keeping spiderman a secret. If aunt May doesn’t know, there’s no was his dad could know.
He just has to play it cool.
“Oh cool set up,” Tony notes, glancing at the mass of computer mods he’s built over the years, a minecraft for his suit tech. “Thrift store? Salvation army? Don’t support them though, homophobes.”
“I like to build mods, mostly scavenged” he offers, which his dad knows, they’ve both built a few things together over the years, but he’s never seen these, “and Ned does to, for our video games. He’s been on a minecraft kick recently.”
Tony snorts, amusement clear in his wide smile, “my old man’s probably rolling over in his grave, his only grandson, a dumpster diver.”
“Well, yeah. Recycling’s good for the planet.” Still nervous, crossing his hands over his chest. He has no clue what his dad could be on about. He’s just gotta play it cool. “Uh, why are you-,”
“Um-Ah,” Tony says cutting him off, pulling up his phone, wrinkles deep set in his forehead and cheeks starting to sag, eyebags dark and heavy. For once, he looks serious and uncannily like those fathers from sitcoms, about to start a talk with their kids, worry etched into his brow. “Me first, quick question of the rhetorical variety,” projecting out a video of him-of spiderman doing heroics.
“That’s you right.”
Peter’s heart leaps into his throat and he knows he’s dead, the same panic he’s feeling written into the widening of his eyes and half formed protests and denials on his lips, “um no,” he replies shaking his head, “What do you-”
“Yeah,” Tony counters, “look at you go. I’d know you anywhere kid. aNd like any father I’ve got to say, nice catch. That’s got to be what, 3,000 pounds? 40 miles an hour? It’s not easy. Got mad skills.”
Peter reactively moves forward, no plan but more denials, “No, no that’s-that’s all um- that’s all on youtube though right. That’s where you found it,” he explains away, “because that’s all fake, all done on a computer.”
“Um hum, sure.”
“Dad,” Peter protests, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. Tony would tell aunt may and then he’d be grounded for life and he doesn’t doubt they’d both sent him to some remote place to make sure he stays out of trouble. “It’s just fake-”
“You mean like those UFOs over phoenix,” Tony says as his suit comes crashing down and out if the ceiling, landing with a dull thud on the floor.
Peter swallows. Moving quickly to shield it from eyesight like that’ll solve everything, leaning against the wall, at a loss for words. “Uhhh-”
“So you take after your old man,” Tony sighs. “And here I was thinking you were your mom’s son. Same hair, most of the face too,” he states softly, “smart but that could’ve been either one of us. You’re much nicer than me, gotta be your mom. You know she was one of the kindest people I ever meet. Still is. A much better woman than some of the people who make history.”
“I-,” Peter says, staring down at his shoes, thinking back on all his memories of his mom. She’s long gone and he can’t remember her laugh anymore. Just the love they shared.
“So how exactly are you this spider-ling? Crime fighting spider? Spider boy?”
“Spiderman,” he corrects, meeting his dads eyes.
“Because that onesie isn’t doing the heavy lifting. I know that much,” Tony remarks, taking a seat on his bed. “How are you doing it? I need a suit of titanium alloy just to keep up with Natasha.”
“Uh,” Peter says, running a hand through his hair, “I kind of got bit by some radioactive spider from a lab we visited with my school, I got lost I didn’t mean to, and then I had superpowers. Like super strength and I could see better, like way better than a normal person and the hearing and yeah, it’s like my senses have been dialed to eleven” he breaks off, “and I figured why not.”
“Let me get this straight,” Tony says, “you got bitten by a radioactive spider and your first instinct wasn’t to tell me because hello radiation but to go be a hero! Woah you really are my son. Way too smart to do all the dumb things we do.”
“I also got a hundred on my algebra test,” Peter offers, hoping to change the subject.
“Who else knows? Anybody?”
“Nobody.”
“Not even May?”
“Nono. No! If she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out.”
“You know what I think is really cool,” Tony says throwing one at him, “this webbing. I know you sure as hell didn’t dumpster dive for this.”
“I could’ve,” Peter counters. He’d certainly thought about it, made a prototype from scraps before deciding to use his unlimited access to Stark tower. “You did give me a key to Stark Tower.”
“We’ll have to submit a patent. Have it framed. Climbing walls?”
“The spider bite.”
“Woah,” his dad says, bringing the spiderman goggles up to his face, “can you even see in these,” before Peter snatches them away.
“Yes, yes I can,” Peter argues, “Dialled up senses.There’s way too much input. They help me focus.”
“You’re in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic. Top to bottom, one hundred percent. That’s why I’m here. Can’t be letting my son go out in that onesie.”
“Dad, it’s not a onesie,” he complains, taking a seat in front of his dad.
“Why are you doing this?” Tony’s gaze heavy as he takes Peter in. Their the same height now, or close enough. They have the same nose courtesy of Maria Stark. The same eyes. Come to think of it, Peter does have a good resemblance to his grandmother, not just his mother. “I gotta know what’s your M.O.? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?”
Tony thinks of his mother’s endless patience and resolve that had gotten his into Nasa in an age when women weren’t considered for physics. Remembers her in a lab coat the same way her remembers his father in a suit.He wishes she could’ve met Peter. Wishes he’d been a better son.
He’s curious and calm and Peter no longer feels like he’s about to be shipped off to boarding school. So Peter tells him, “because I’ve been me my whole life. And I’ve had these powers for six months. I read books. I build computers. And yeah I would love to play football, but I couldn’t then, so I shouldn’t now.”
“Because you’re different”
“Exactly. But I can’t tell anybody that so I’m not.” He looks down at his hands, twiddling his thumbs, trying to put everything he feels into coherent thoughts. “When you can do the things that I can, but you don’t” he thinks of uncle Ben, of all the different way things could have gone, “and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.”
Tony puts a hand on his shoulder, “Peter,” he says heavily, “nothing-and I mean nothing- is you’re fault. It’s good to help. But it’s not your fault that there’s people who hurt others. You’re just a good kid.”
“I know dad, but-,”
“You can’t help feeling that way,” Tony finishes, thinking of all the people he’d helped kill with his weapons, all the money he’d made from wars, all the people he’d failed. Yensin. All the citizens of Sokovia. And now Steve.
“Yeah.”
“Gotta passport,” Tony asks, throwing a curveball.
“No, no. Expired a while ago.”
“Ever been to germany?”
“Oh you’ll love it,” Tony tells him, grinning.
“I can’t go to Germany.” Peter asks, confused. The furthest he’s been with his dad is Seattle where they’d had great cheeseburgers and popped into record shops with his dad insisting on blasting black sabbath.
“Why not?”
“I-I’ve got homework.”
“Oh god,” Tony teases, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.”
“I’m being serious! I can’t just drop out of school!” Aunt may would kill him and then he could kiss his chances of getting into Columbia or even NYU out.
“Better go tell Aunt May I’m taking you on a little father son bonding trip.”
Peter shoots out web, sticking Tony to the door, “do not tell Aunt May!”
Tony looks up at Peter in disbelief.
“Don’t tell Aunt May.”
“Alright Spiderman,” Tony answers, “here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to take you to germany. You’re going to play back up to the avengers and then when we get back, I’m going to run a hundred tests to make sure you’re not dying and then you, me and May are going to have a nice long talk about keeping life changing secrets from us.”
“Okay.” Peter acquiesces, knowing when to cut his loses.
*
They met up with everyone at a hotel in Berlin. He knows Rhodey who immediately looks at Tony in confusion as Peter trails behind him.
Natasha Romanoff he only knows from the news, but she’s unmistakable in her red hair, and ramrod straight back, sitting at a table next to a black man who cares an aura of regality who can only be the Wakandan now King his dad briefed him on.
There’s a few women nearby who must be his guards. Peter looks away, feeling like they could cut him in half before he’d have time to react.
Then there’s Vision, who looks the most out of place in the hotel’s massive suit, all red and blue, and holding himself to stiffly, only mimicking humanity. The same inherent awkwardness of infants learning to walk.
“Tony,” Rhodey finally ventures to ask, “is this really a good idea,” eyes darting to Peter who honestly feels offended. Rhodey knows him, sends him a christmas present and they all had fun at his sister’s big fourth of july barbecue last year.
“Who’s the kid Stark,” Natasha says cutting straight to the point, weighing his world with her piercing eyes. It was an unnerving being studied by a world class spy and assassin.
“Didn’t you all get the memo,” Tony jokes, “it’s bring your kid to work day.”
“Hi,” Peter waves awkwardly.
“This is your son,” the Wakandan King says, fixing Tony with a guarded stare.
“He’s also a superhero. And he’ll just be playing defense.”
“I must admit that I fail to see the resemblance,” Vision utters, offering Peter a hand to shake, a parroted formality.
“I’m not sure about that,” Natasha states, tilting her head up in thought, “they have the same nose, and eyes.”
“Uh thanks,” Peter utters, unsure of what next, feeling much like a kid that’s transferred in half way through senior year of high school.
“How come you never told us you had a son Stark?”
“Privacy from nosey spies like you Nat. Now let’s make a game plan. I’m hoping Steve sees reason but he’s a stubborn ass, that’s half the reason I love him so much.”
*
Peter’s all puffed up from helping them all take down the man who’s just grown giant, which is why he doesn’t pay attention and gets smacked by a giant hand into a pile of boxes, hitting the ground with a sudden burst of searing pain.
He shoves the mask up, trying to take in big gulps of air even as the stinging pain flares up along his ribs with every breath he takes in.
Fuck.
Shit.
“Are you all right,” he hears as his dad lands, worry etched into his features as he looks him over, Iron Mask off, “Peter! Talk to me son!”
His body reacts first, hands raised, still wired for battle.
“Hey, hey, Peter, it’s okay. It’s me. It’s your dad,” his drawn lips melting into a smile when he sees Peter bruised but ultimately fine.
“Hey dad,” he responds, laying back down on the ground, “that was scary.”
“Yeah, for you and me both,” his dad sighs, “You’re done. Alright? You did a good job. Now stay down.”
“No,” Peter says, already trying to get up despite his dad’s hands pushing him back down, “It’s good. I’m good. I gotta get him back.” He’s gotta make his dad proud. Gotta make the grounding from hell he’s going to get back home worth it.
“You’re going home or I’ll call Aunt May right now,” Tony threatens, “forget the avengers. I’ll drag you home myself. You’re done.”
“Okay.”
*
“Oh my god,” May shouts, running to Peter’s side as soon as they touch down at the Avengers compound, tipping his head up, “what happened? Who did this!”
Pepper’s not far behind, eyes narrowed as she looks at them both, “Tony!”
“Who snitched?”
“Rhodey. Nat,” Pepper states.
Tony looks over at Peter, “well kid, time to break the news.” He’s wearing his normals clothes, but he wishes he was still in his spiderman suit as May fixes him with a look.
“What’s he talking about Peter?”
“Uh-”
“Peter?”
“I’m-I-I’m spiderman.”
“What the fuck,” Aunt May yells, fixing tony with a withering glare.
“He didn’t-I-I got super powers from a spider a couple months ago and-and I wanted to help people Aunt May. It was the right thing to do.”
“You’re just a kid,” May yells, hands in the air, looking around at all of them, “you should be worried about school not-not joining the avengers.”
“Yes. Exactly,” Pepper states, leveling a cold look at tony, “What were you thinking taking Peter with you to face Steve!”
“We needed back up,” Tony tries to start defending himself, looking like a chastized little boy getting scolded after taking the last cookie.
“He’s your son Tony,” Pepper says, voice loud and pissed, “you’re supposed to protect him, not take him to where the danger is.”
“I swear to god Tony,” May adds, “you’ll be lucky if I ever leave you alone with him again.”
“He was fine. He is fine.”
“I wanted to go,” Peter adds.
“I gave him a suit to make sure he’d be doubly safe. And i had every intention of bringing him back and having this little chat, Why do you think I called May here! It’s not like the other would actually hurt him.”
“And yet look at Rhodey,” Pepper counters, biting her lip. He was stable, but he’d never walk on his own again. He’d gotten luck he still had any movement at all.
“Don’t you dare bring Rhodey into this Pepper!”
“She’s right,” May spits, “Rhodey is a grown man. It was his choice and what happened was terrible but he accepted that when he-it could’ve easily happened to Peter.”
“I’m fine,” Peter shouts. “I’m fine. I have been fine these last few months haven’t I?”
“That doesn’t mean that it’s okay Peter! I can’t lose you,” May shouts, eyes shining with unspilled tears.
“May,” he sputters, biting his lip, chest growing heavy as he realizes just what he put her through. His aunt who’d taken him in, made him lunch despite her poor cooking skills and given up her job with the greenpeace for him. She was his family and he never should have done this to her. To any of them.
He thinks about the fear and regret clear in Tony’s eyes when he’d run to check on him back in Germany, half scared to death.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay Peter,” May responds, hugging him tightly. “But you’re still grounded and this spider man thing is over.”
“Y-you can’t do that,” Peter says pulling away. “I’m spiderman. I can’t just not be spiderman.”
“You’re still a kid,” Pepper notes sadly, “it’s not your call.”
“Don’t hate me,” Tony adds, “but I think we should support his heroics. I mean, he’s going to sneak out and do it. And this way I can monitor everything, give him missions suitable for his skill level and keep him safe.”
“Tony. . .”
“You all know it’s true. And he has powers. He needs training. Oversight.”
“Dad’s right,” Peter tells them, “you can’t stop me. Iv’e been sneaking out.”
“And he’ll follow my orders to a T,” Tony adds. “I know I made a bad call but he’s my son and I would never do anything that would hurt him. Hell that’s why no one even knows he’s my son. And even when I was a drunken mess I made time for him, because I love him. And I know I can do this for him, do this right.”
“Aunt May,” Peter says, risking a glance at her.
“If anything happens to him you’re a dead man Tony.”
*
Ned corners him the first day back at school, “where were you? You were gone all week and Aunt May said you were fine?”
Peter takes one look at his best friend’s face and falters, “ah-germany.”
“What! Why,” Ned asks, falling into step besides him.
Stark Internship is on the tip of his tongue but he doesn’t want to lie. Not to him. Not Ned who built computer mods with him, giving him a boost into the dumpsters and spent the summer building the millennium falcon with him after Peter had spent some of his birthday money to buy the giant thing.
“Uh, I went to Germany with my dad.” Which is true. They’d even had pretzels between the U.N. and the fight. Tony had let him order a beer which had Peter doing a spit take.
“I thought your parents were dead,” Ned intones, confused.
Peter swallows the familiarly lump in his throat and goes on, “well my mom and step dad but my-my dad’s still around.”
“How come I’ve never met him?”
Peter thinks of his dad, of Tony in sunglasses and sneaking around New York with him. The times he’d gotten to see and touch and tinker with the Iron Man suit. Having pizza with Bruce Banner and watching Star Wars with Rhodey and Pepper.
“Well he’s,” he sighs, “Ned you’ve got to promise to keep this a secret. I mean it Ned. No one can know.”
“Wait, is he like some spy!”
“What! No. No,” he shakes his head, “it’s just complicated. But my dad’s Tony Stark.” Uttering those words, outside of family, outside of super secret avengers stuff, feels like a breath of fresh air. Like he’s not some dirty secret being hidden.
He knows that’s not what it’s like. He gets why they all decided to make him a secret. But that doesn’t change how he feels sometimes.
“Wait,” Ned says, looking pensive, “you mean you were telling the truth when you said back in first grade that your dad’s-,”
“Shhhhh.” He glances around but no one seems to be paying them any attention.
“Sorry.”
“How do you even remember that,” Peter asks, having half forgotten himself. He’d assumed everyone else had, having written him off as some poor kid wishing he knew his dad. For the longest time, Peter’s mom would show up all alone.
And he didn’t look anything like Richard.
“Uh you sort of remember things like that Peter. Plus you’re my best friend.”
“That’s why I’m trusting you to keep this a secret.”
“Why Germany though? Wasn’t there like an Avengers thing happen there. With the U.N.?”
Peter sighs. The truth was always so much harder to tell than it should be. “Ugh yeah so things got complicated and he wasn’t sure when he’d be free so he just flew me to Germany, cause he missed me.”
“Aww that’s so sweet. So if you’re loaded then why do you rent an apartment?” Which was the same thing Peter had wondered when he’d learned about the child support Tony sent his aunt.
Just looking at the amount made his head spin.
“I live with my aunt and she likes where we live. I mean she lived there for years with Uncle B-Ben.” It was still hard to think about. Still raw. “ Also I’m pretty sure they don’t want me to end up like Flash.”
“Oh yeah,” Ned commiserated, nodding, “he’s such a dick.”
*
Just because his dad’s got no missions for him doesn’t mean he can’t patrol after school when he’s not meeting up with his dad and Pepper, or catching up with Rhodey up in Stark Tower before they make the move upstate to ensure should another even like the battle of New York happen, there won’t be any collateral like there was in 2012.
*
He tries his dad before Happy, but the call goes dead midway through ringing which his dad told him means he’s at a black ops facility doing government stuff. So Happy it is.
*
Peter has to find a better solution than to spend his birthday money on new backpacks and school books. Maybe buy one of those tracker chip thinks. Maybe that could be a new suit upgrade.
*
He gets a call from Tony as soon as school’s out, “so I’ve finally finished having the best and brightest look over you’re tests and by best I mean me,” his dad rambles, “Like I would let anyone else look over your medical record because they were wild. No doctors Peter. I mean it. Lots of abnormalities, but nothing malignant. You should be fine using any over the counter meds but anything more serious, call me! Got it bud?”
“Nice to hear from you too,” Peter rambles back, “did Happy tell you about the alien tech?”
“Yup, passed the info on to the right people what with the Sokovia accords tying my hands right up,” Tony answers, “but I’ve got to tell you it’ done wonders for my relationship with Pepper. Thinking about popping the big question. What do you think?”
“Yeah, I think you should go for it. Are you sure you don’t want me to investigate?”
“Uh no. Leave that to the agents I have on it. You, focus on school, when something comes up I’ll tell you. But drop this one okay.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Peters answers dejectedly, “of course.”
“I’m going to be away on a business trip. Might have a big deal with in India over some arc reactor tech so we won’t be seeing each other till I get back. Stay safe.”
“Love you dad.”
“Love you too.”
*
It stays on his mind.
*
“How’d you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit?”
“Um, I put everything in your suit,” his dad responds after dragging him out of the river, saving him from drowning, “Including this heater.”
Instantly his body warms up, suit starting to dry and Peter stops shivering. “Oooh that’s better. Thanks dad.”
“What were you thinking?”
“The guy with the wings is the source of the weapons. I couldn't just sit by. No one was going to stop them. I gotta take him down.”
“Take him down now, huh? Steady, Crockett. There are people who handle this sort of thing. I told you I had people on this Peter,” His dad says from the Iron Man suit still hovering above him, “We had a deal. And I specifically told you to let this go.”
“Wait, I thought you were on a business trip in India?”
“Oh I’m not here,” the Iron Man suit says, mask pulling up for dramatic effect, “Thank god this place has wifi Peter, or you’d be toast. Thank Ganesh while you’re at it” He sighs. “Do you realize how close you came to being seriously hurt? Look forget this vulture guy, please.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so!”
Peter flinches, unused to this Tony. the tony who put his foot down. He was used to being the good kid who got in trouble for forgetting to wash the dishes not the kid who got yelled at for sneaking off to fight criminals.
“This is supposed to be training Peter. Staying close to the ground. Building up your game. Helping the little people. Like that lady that bought you a churro.”
“Happy told you?”
“Of course he did, we go over this while Pepper rolls her eyes and complains that there’s two of us now for her to worry about.
Just be a friendly neighborhood spiderman.”
“But I’m ready for more dad,” Peter protests. He’d stopped them from robbing a bank. He’d nearly had them tonight. He could do this just like he had back in Germany.
“No.”
“That’s not what you thought when I took on Captain America!”
“Trust me kid,” Tony responds bluntly, “if cap wanted to lay you out he would’ve. We were all pulling our punches and Rhodey still got hurt. And that was the good guys Peter. These people will kill you without hesitation. Listen to me buddy, if you happen across these weapons again while I’m away call Happy.”
An engine revs. “Wait are you driving?”
“You know,” Tony notes, “it’s never too early to think about college. I’ve got some pull at MIT. Could donate a new building, any college you want. Think of a nice safe classroom where you won’t give me my first heart attack.
End call.”
Peter yells in frustration, alone, out of web shooters. He’s supposed to be in training, but this feels like his dad’s just giving him busy work. Something to keep him out of trouble and out of the way.
*
He finds more alien tech and doesn’t call Happy.
*
For once, it’s Happy who calls him first,, “why are you leaving new york?”
“Academic Decathlon, we’re going to nationals this year. It’s in D.C. Why? I thought P-I thought she had everything all synched up,” Peter says, remembering half way through just how famous Pepper is and name dropping would be a bad idea in a bus full of people. “Look, Happy, you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy.”
“You’re dad signed off on it and so did May.”
“What! Look, nevermind it’s no big deal, just a school trip. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Hey. I decide if it’s no big deal. . .sounds like it’s no big deal but remember I’m watching you while your dad’s away and I’m not letting him down.”
*
Peter gets back and pulled right into May’s arms, “oh my god when I saw the footage!”
“I’m sorry,” Peter’s already saying.
“No, no, you did the right thing. It scared me half to dead, but you did the right thing Peter, I just worry.”
“I know.”
*
He’s got them. It’s almost too perfect when his dad calls.
“Mr. Parker Stark. Got a second?” Image displaying on screen.
“Um I’m actually in school.”
“Nice work in D.C. May and Pepper agree. I know I’ve been hard on you-was hard on you last time we spoke but good job Peter.
Uh. My dad never really gave me a lot of support and I’m just trying to break the cycle of shame. End the emotionally crippled line of Stark men.”
“I’m kind of in the middle of something,” Peter says, trying to focus in on the deal going down. Buyers and sellers all in one place. He wasn’t letting anyone get away this time.
“Don’t cut me off when I’m complimenting you. Anyway, great things are about to-hey, what is that?”
“I’m at band practice,” Peter lies.
“Ummm, that’s odd. May told me you quit band six weeks ago. What’s up?”
“I gotta go! End Call.” He hangs up and tries not to think about the hell dad’ll give him later. First he needs to catch these guys and live to regret hanging up on on Tony.
*
“Hey Spiderman,” dad says, appearing via his Iron Man suit yet again, “band practice was it?”
“Uh, I can explain,” Peter stutters out.
*
“Previously on Peter screws the pooch,” his dad’s suit voices, joining him on top of a building, “I tell you to stay away from this. Instead you hack into a multimillion dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back, doing the one thing I told you not to do.”
“Is everyone okay,” Peter utters, watching as the ferry’s hauled to shore.
“No thanks to you.”
“No thanks to me? Those weapons were out there and I tried to tell you about it, but you didn’t listen. None of this would’ve happened if you had just listened to me,” Peter says yelling at his dad’s suit. It doesn’t matter that he’s not really there, it feels good to get everything off his chest. “If you even cared you’d actually be here.”
The iron man suit opens up to reveal his dad, taking a step out and joining him up on the roof, radiating disappointment and anger, “I did listen. I told you I had people on it. Who do you think called the FBI, huh?”
“I spoke up for you. Believed in you. Promised your aunt and Pepper we could make this work. Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a fifteen year old kid, my son no less-”
“I’m not a kid-”
“No,” his dad shouts, face hard for once, “this is where you zip it, all right! The adult is talking. What if somebody died tonight? Different story, right? Cause that’s on you. And jesus christ Peter if you had died, that’s on me.” He sighs heavily, “I don’t need that on my conscience.”
“I’m sorry dad,” Peter utters, voice cracking, eyes burning with unshed tears, chest heavy. He really fucked up, he knows that. But he just couldn’t sit by and do nothing. Peter knows he was wrong, the truth weighing him down like lead, cold and hard in his throat. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. You told me that once.”
“I understand. I just wanted to be like you.” He admits quietly, like the very words might send him over the edge as he stands on the verge of breaking down, glancing up at Tony, haunching his shoulders in, wishing he was back home where he could curl up in his bed and stay there for the next fifty years.
“And I wanted you to be better. Want you to be a better man than I was. Than I am,” Tony says pulling Peter into a hug, tucking him into his chest. Peter, closes his eyes and lets out a sigh, finding comfort in his dad’s embrace. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years Peter. Mistakes I can’t take back, have to live with for the rest of my life and I don’t want you to go through as much shit as I did. I was really hoping this wasn’t one of those mistakes.”
“Dad. . .”
“No Peter,” he says, pulling back. “It’s not working out. I’m gonna need the suit back.”
Something in Peter breaks, and he’s almost too afraid to ask because-because he is spiderman as much as he is Peter, just like his dad and the suit are one, Peter can’t-he can’t just stop being spiderman. “For how long?”
“Forever,” his dad states, unmoved.
“No, no. Please, please, you don’t understand-”
“Let’s have it,” his dad insists, unmoved.
“I’m nothing without this suit.”
“If you’re nothing without this suit, then you shouldn’t have it, okay. Great, now you’ve made me sound like my dad. Happy?”
Peter sighs, relenting, before responding in a small voice, “I don’t have any other clothes.”
“Okay,” Tony shrugs, “we’ll sort that out. And yes this means you’re grounded.”
*
May answers the door eyes red rimmed, “Peter you can’t do that! I was worried sick. I’ve been calling you all day and then this ferry thing happens and I had to call Pepper but she didn’t know anything because she’s been at board meetings all day and then Tony called and Peter you can’t do this! I thought-,” she puts her head in her hands, “I was about to call a police station when Tony called and told me you were okay.”
“May I’m all right,” Peter reassures her.
“Don’t Peter,” she says, voice hard as she looks at him, “cut the bullshit. You think Tony didn’t tell me everything. You left detention and went to fight some crazy guys with alien technology even after your dad told you not to! You said you’d listen to him! That’s the only reason I agreed to this after you came home with a black eye after Germany!”
“I’m sorry May,” he finds himself saying. There’s nothing else he can say. “I’m sorry I had you worried.”
“And then don’t think I don’t know about you sneaking out of the hotel in D.C in the first place! They call me you know, you’re school. I know I said you did the right thing, saving those people in D.C. but you still shouldn’t have snuck out Peter! I just-what is going on? Just you and me, lay it all out.”
“I-I wanted to make my dad proud. I wanted-I wanted to prove I could do it.”
“Peter,” May sighs, wrapping her arms around him, “Peter we’re all so proud of you. And your mother would be to. You don’t-you don’t have to be spiderman to make Tony proud. You don’t have to save the world for me to love you so much Peter.”
“I know that, but I just. . .”
“It’s okay baby,” May. “I was a mess at your age too. Sneaking out to parties. A little different than you and I doubt there’s any parents who’ve had to deal with this-but I just want what’s best for you.”
“I know Aunt May.”
“You’re still grounded though,” she says smiling, wiping the tears from behind her glasses with the back of her hand.
“I figured.”
*
Tony hands him a very expensive looking corsage, “got the girl and Ace’d the spanish test,” nodding a hi at May, “at this rate you’ll be ungrounded by college graduation.”
“Thanks for picking this up dad.”
“Don’t suppose we get to take embarrassing pictures?”
“Oh yes Peter,” May says, “we need some of those for sure.”
“Can you help me with this tie this tie?”
“Knew I should’ve bought Pepper,” he remarks, “so tell me about this girl?”
“Liz,” Peter states, “she captain of the decathlon team. Head of the event committee. And really pretty.”
Tony and May exchange identical looks, bursting into laughter, “just don’t forget to have fun,” May tells him, before asking Tony, “are you coming with to drop him off?”
“I’ve got my favorite baseball cap,” Tony answers raising his captain america cap, a dull khaki green with a captain america shield embroidered on the front.
“I call shotgun,” Peter shouts.
“I gave him some dance lessons form back when I used to kill the dance floor to Pat Benatar and Queen.”
“My god I love blasting Queen,” Tony says in agreement. “Never much of a dancer though, much more of a pothead in college.”
“Oh my god daddd!”
“Don’t do drugs Peter.”
May snorts, “It’s game day so what’s the plan.”
“Open the door for her. Tell her she looks nice, but not too much because that’s creepy,” Peter parrots back, having thought this through a thousand times. Homecoming with his dream girl. He’s not about to screw this up.
“Don’t be creepy,” Both Tony and May voice.
“And when I dance with her I put my hands on her hips. Got this.” He says not feeling ready at all, wiping the sweat off his hands on the car seat before grabbing the corsage box.
“Love you!”
“Love you guys,” and he walks up, ringing the doorbell and finds that he hasn’t thought about spiderman at all.
*
“Surprised?”
“Oh hey Pete,” Liz’s dad answers and Peter can only hope Ned got through to Tony or Happy by now. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“It’s over,” he says, louder, bolder than he feels in stitched together sweatpants and sweater. “I’ve got you.” Hoping to avoid a big fight.
“You know, I’ve got to telI you, I really, really admire your grit. I can see why Liz likes you,” he says, alone and comfortable in a warehouse for a man caught red handed. “I do. When you first came to the house, I wasn’t sure. I thought, really? But I get it now.”
“How could you do this to her?”
“To her? I’m not doing anything to her Pete. I’m doing this for her.”
“Huh, yeah.” Peter knows what love is. And this isn’t it.
“Peter, you’re young. You don’t understand how the world works.”
“Yeah but I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong.”
“How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower? Or any of his little toys? Those people Pete. Those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don’t care about us. We build their roads, we fight all their wars and everything, but they don’t care about us.”
“Shut up about my dad,” Peter snarls, figuring what does it matter now. He knows his secret identity. What's one more secret?
“Really? Stark’s your father,” Mr Toomes wonders aloud, “guess that explains the internship. But that all just proves my point doesn’t it Pete. They don’t care about people like us, the little guys. Your old man abandoned you in Queens instead of taking you with him. That’s a poor excuse for a father. I know you know what I’m talking about Peter. You think I could walk out on Liz and call myself her father?”
“Why are you telling me all this,” Peter asks, trying to keep all those nagging doubts, all the deep dark thoughts his mind went to when he felt lonely and sad and forgotten, shoved away like a dirty secret, even when he knows it isn’t true. That’s not his dad.
“Because I want you to understand. . .and I needed a little time to get her airborne.”
And then Peter has no time to think.