Chapter Text
- Story background: Tony still has the arc reactor in his chest. Tony didn't meet Peter before this story and so didn’t take him to Germany. The compound is 30 minutes north of the city rather than hours north. Pepper and Tony are currently broken up at the start of the story. The Rogue Avengers are still on the run. Bruce never went to space after Sokovia, he fought on Tony’s side in Germany and then dropped off the grid. Also, SHIELD has not yet fallen to Hydra. Peter is 14.
- What to expect: This story is a good mix of angst, hurt/comfort, and later on humor and fluff. Some great ‘uncle’ Rhodey moments. Tony is pretty walled off in the first few chapters and has his reasons. It’s going to take a while for Peter to start getting the love and attention he deserves, but I assure you, Peter will get everything he deserves throughout the story. Tony is dealing with all the big emotions after the fallout during Civil War and almost dying after his last confrontation with Steve in the cave in Siberia. The Rogue Avengers come into the story in later chapters.
- Warning: Mentions of PTSD and anxiety attacks. There’s some cursing scattered throughout.
- A lot of stories, including a lot of mine have Peter recovering from abuse that happened while he was in foster care. This isn’t one of those stories. Nothing bad happened to him in foster care here, but he was moved around a lot which was a negative experience for him.
New chapters are posted every 1-3 weeks on Wednesdays (USA time). Check in on Wednesdays for new chapters.
Moving was nothing new for Peter Parker. He was used to being woken up at odd times of the night and shuffled out the door to a new foster placement with no explanation. He was used to coming home from school to find his social worker by the door with his bags, waiting to take him to yet another foster home because the one he’d been at hadn’t been ‘a good fit’. He was even used to having to pick up and move his sleeping bag from one alley to another every few nights. So it was no surprise when after only four days at the SHIELD facility in the bare little room he’d been put in, he was told to pack his bag and be certain he didn’t leave anything behind. The SHIELD agents that had brought him here a few days prior didn’t know that Peter had never unpacked his bag to begin with. That was rule number one: don't unpack because you're not going to stay. In Peter's opinion, it was always best to follow the rules.
Peter had spent the last six months in foster care bouncing around from home to home and eventually ending up on the street when he’d grown tired of constantly moving. He’d lost count somewhere around the 15th move to a new placement and had stopped asking his social worker why he had to pick up and move again. After a few more moves, he’d given up altogether and just run away. It had been the end of the school year, so he hadn’t needed to worry about missing school. Then he’d spent a month on the streets of New York city scrounging for food and just doing his own thing… doing his own thing as Spider Man.
Peter thought he’d done well keeping his activities as Spider Man low profile and flying under the radar, but the three SHIELD agents that had shown up one evening as he was settling down for bed in an alley behind Delmar’s proved otherwise. One of the agents had even gone as far as telling him that it had been easy to find him because he was such an amateur. Whatever. He hadn’t been given a choice but to go with the nice agents with guns, and had been taken to some sort of SHIELD facility in Washington DC and dropped in a bare room with a bed, a desk and nothing else.
At first Peter thought he might be a prisoner, but he’d found his door unlocked and no one had stopped him from walking around that floor and the one below where the cafeteria was. When he’d asked why he was there (he had been hopeful they wanted to recruit him so he could get off the streets and out of the foster system for good), an agent had told him it was because he was a nuisance and had caused too many scenes in New York. Really, how was he supposed to know that weird device was explosive? And that whole incident with the subway flooding was not actually his fault. Well, it kinda sorta was, but that was beside the point!
According to SHIELD, Peter was a pain in the ass. He really didn’t think that was fair because all he had ever tried to do was help the little guy. He spent most of his time helping old ladies cross the street, getting cats out of trees, and stopping an occasional car thief or mugger. He was helpful, not a pain in the ass. Unfortunately Nick Fury, the director of SHIELD didn’t agree with him, and told him as much when he came to collect him the morning of his fourth day at the SHIELD facility.
“Come with me,” was all the tall foreboding man had said. He hadn’t looked happy and Peter had wondered if he was going to put him in a cell. All he’d done was take him outside and to a car though, and then they’d hit the road back towards New York.
“Are we going back to New York?”
“Yes.”
“You’re letting me go?”
Fury didn’t answer, and Peter closed his mouth, eyes cataloging the cities they passed through and the landscape as it changed the further they drove. He kept his backpack full of his clothes and spider suit clutched to his chest. These were the last of his possessions. He’d lost almost everything he owned after May had died, and it was hard to hold on to the few things he’d been able to keep when he had been forced to pick up and move so often. Now all he had left was a few pairs of clothes and his suit. Somewhere along the way he’d lost the few photos he had with him of May and Ben.
Peter really hoped Fury was driving him back into the city, but they passed New York City and he turned off the highway about 40 minutes north and down a long driveway. Peter narrowed his eyes, wondering if this was another SHIELD facility, but then his mouth fell open when he saw the huge Avengers ‘A’ on one of the buildings they were headed towards. This was the Avengers Compound!
"Try not to annoy the crap out of him like you did with the agents at the DC facility," Fury said, pulling up in front of the main building.
"Out of who?" Peter asked, staring up at the modern facility.
"Tony Stark."
Peter turned and stared at him, mouth still hanging open. "Did you just say Tony Stark?"
"Close your mouth. A fly will land in it. Unless you actually eat flies like a… you know what? Nevermind. I don't want to know."
"You mean, the Tony Stark is here? I'm going to get to meet him?!"
Fury snorted. "Meet him kid? He'll be in charge of you." Fury parked the car right in front of the main entrance and then turned to Peter and said, "And I'm going to be pissed if I have to come back here and get you because you've been such a handful that he decides he can't take it anymore."
Peter raised his brows. He was not a handful. He always did what he was told (mostly), he had always tried to do extra chores for May, he got straight As (or he had before becoming Spider Man), and he was polite and respectful, because May and Ben had always expected him to be. He was getting tired of SHIELD telling him he was a handful, a pain in the ass, and anything else they might have been saying about him recently.
“Bring your bag,” Fury said in a gruff tone, getting out of the car. Peter didn’t know if the man was just angry today or if he was always like this since he’d only met him once. He got out and followed the man nervously up to the front doors and then inside. There was a second set of doors inside that were locked, and Fury pulled out some kind of key card that got them in. “Just keep your mouth shut and do what I tell you,” Fury said.
Peter gave a nervous nod, gripping the strap of his backpack tightly, but then decided that he had far too many questions fighting to get out to hold them all in. “You said- you said Mr. Stark will be in charge of me?”
Fury shot him a look. “What did I just say about keeping quiet?”
“Sorry, sorry. I just, uh, I didn’t expect to be here. I figured you were taking me back to CPS or something.”
“With your powers and track record of getting in trouble, that’s not a good fit. I’m tired of sending agents out to clean up your messes.”
“The flood wasn’t my fault,” Peter mumbled quietly, but Fury ignored him as they walked down a hall, turned several corners, and then pressed his finger to a fingerprint scanner that gave them access to another part of the building.
Peter expected to be led to an office, because most of the rooms they’d passed so far looked to be offices and conference rooms, but this part of the building accessed by biometrics seemed to be some sort of living area. They passed a big open kitchen and living room and continued down a long hall to an elevator at the far end. They went down one level, and Peter’s eyes widened when he looked through a glass wall and spied a man working on some kind of equipment.
He started breathing quickly. Chill out, that’s just Tony Stark, THE Tony Stark in his lab. Don’t freak out Peter. Don’t be a dork, don’t be a dork!
Fury knocked on the glass door and Mr. Stark’s head came up, a frown crossing his face when he saw Fury. He said something they couldn’t hear, and then an intercom turned on and his voice came through it.
“Sorry, no soliciting,” Mr. Stark said. He sounded irritated.
“Open the door.”
“Whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying. Why don’t you try Rhodey.”
Fury sighed. “The door,” he said, voice irritated. Mr. Stark didn’t respond, but a moment later there was the click of a lock, and Fury pulled the glass door open. Peter moved to follow him, but Fury turned and said, “You stay here. Don’t go anywhere, don’t touch anything. Just stay put.”
The door closed behind him and there was the snick of a lock moving into place again. “I’m not a dog,” Peter said. “Sit, stay, roll over.” He blew out a huff of breath and then let his eyes come up to the two men in the lab on the other side of the glass wall. He tried to hear what they were saying, knowing they were talking about him, but it was no use. The room was sound proof. Instead, he let his eyes roam around what he could see inside the lab, looking at all the tool chests and equipment in awe.
Inside the lab and away from Peter’s enhanced hearing, Tony was giving Fury a wary look. “Who’s the kid?”
“He’s your kid.”
Tony gave his head a little shake, and then his brows pulled together. “Excuse me? What did you just say?”
“Peter Parker, also known as Spider Man. I’m leaving him here with you. He’s your responsibility now.”
Tony stared at him and looked shocked for a moment, before letting his eyes flit to the wall of glass and to the teenager on the other side. “Let me just stop you right there-”
“This is non-negotiable Stark,” Fury cut him off. “He doesn’t have a place to go, and he’s been getting into too much trouble on his own.”
“That is not my kid,” Tony said, still hung up on the implication of what Fury had said.
“Biologically? No. But you’re in charge of him from this point forward.”
Tony laughed, relieved but also nervous. “You say that like I’m one of your lap dogs. Take him to Coulson or Hill.” Wrench still in hand from where he’d been working on a piece of equipment before he’d been interrupted, Tony made a shooing motion and said, “Go on, take him and skedaddle. I’m busy.”
Fury set his intense gaze on Tony. “I pulled a lot of strings to get this kid out of the foster system and into your custody. He stays.”
“You did what now?” Tony looked like he was struggling to come up with something to say but couldn’t find the right words. While he was floundering, Fury pulled his phone out, pulled up some files, and then swiped across his screen, sending the files onto the flat holo table in front of Tony.
“Legally you’re now his guardian. He’s 14, he’s been in 21 foster homes in the last six months, and in the last month he’s been living on the street. He has no living relatives. Somewhere in the last year he got powers and decided to become New York’s newest vigilante. He’s been more active since going into foster care, and as such has been causing more and more trouble. That ends now. He’s yours to deal with, so if anything comes across my desk involving Spider Man, I’m sending it to you.”
Exasperated Tony said, "What exactly do you expect me to do with this kid? Be his father?"
"I don't care what you do with him Stark, just keep him out of my hair. Put him up in a room in the compound, take him home to the tower with you, it doesn't matter either way."
"And just like that," Tony threw his arms up into the air, holding them wide, "I have complete control? I get the final say? I can drop him off in Antarctica or send him away to boarding school?"
Fury turned and stalked towards the door, raising his hand into the air. "Whatever. He's your ward now. It's in the records." Then he was gone, leaving Tony staring through the wall of glass to the kid in the hall, who was staring after Fury as he strode out of sight and back into the elevator.
And just like that Tony had suddenly become Tony Stark's Home For Wayward Superhuman Teens. Great. Just fucking wonderful.
Breathing hard because this was some major fucking bullshit, Tony tried to push down the panic trying to rise inside him. Who the hell did Fury think he was? He couldn’t just drop some random kid off at the compound and say ‘here you go, he’s all yours’, like he was some kind of puppy!
“FRIDAY, pull up the files for the kid standing in the hall.”
“There are 47 files for Peter Parker, also known as Spider Man,” she said, showing the files on the holo table.
“Who’s his legal guardian?”
“You are boss.” A file pulled up on screen with a photo of Peter, his age, date of birth, and a list of all of his previous guardians. The most recent had been CPS, though there was a note that said he’d run away a month ago. Just below that were the words, ‘Current Legal Guardian: Anthony Edward Stark.’
“Break into the system and have his legal guardian changed to Nick Fury,” Tony said. Two could play at this game. There was no way in hell Fury was going to push this kid off on him.
“I’m sorry boss, I’m unable to break into the legal records of the State of New York.”
“Fury did it.”
“Negative boss. Records indicate that Nicholas J. Fury petitioned the Family Court of New York to change Mr. Parker’s guardianship three days ago. The private petition was granted by the honorable judge Christopher Pembroke this morning at 8:15 AM.”
“Where do I know that name from?” He wanted to ask how a court could grant Fury’s petition without Tony agreeing to it or being present, but knew that Fury could do just about anything he wanted to. He had his hands in pockets everywhere, and had strings attached to officials across the world. He also had a never ending list of favors people owed him.
“Judge Christopher A. Pembroke, father of Lillian Pembroke, rescued last year from a minor terrorist organization holding her hostage.”
“Let me guess, rescued by SHIELD,” Tony said with a huff.
“Yes boss.”
Tony stared at the holo table for long moments, once again trying to quash the nausea and panic trying to rise up in his chest. If Fury had called in favors to make this happen, there was nothing Tony could do about it. He wouldn’t be able to petition the court to get the teenager out of his custody and back into Fury’s. He could just give up custody of him, but he’d be willing to bet that within a day Fury would have it changed right back and drop the kid off with him again. What was he playing at? Why was it so important that Tony be the one to take him in?
His eyes came up and he found the kid watching him through the glass wall of the lab, though he quickly looked away when Tony spotted him. Since Germany… since Siberia, Tony had been living in the compound alone. Rhodey had a room there, but he was always out on missions for the military and rarely around. Everyone else was gone. After the team had split, the Rogues had taken off and gone into hiding, probably somewhere in Europe. Bruce had fought on Tony’s side in Germany, but a few days after the fight at the airport, he’d dropped off the grid, and Tony hadn’t heard from him since. Vision had also disappeared, and Tony wondered if he’d gone in search of Wanda.
Hell, even Pepper was gone. A few days before the fight at the airport, they’d split up. They’d agreed that she would stay in the penthouse in the tower, and he would move into the compound. The stress had just been too much for her. He couldn’t say he blamed her, because the stress of everything going on with the Avengers and the Accords had been too much for him too.
Now he was at the compound alone… its only occupant. That must have been why Fury decided to foist the kid on him. Like Tony had nothing better to do… like he didn’t still have work to do for R and D at Stark Industries, and a mountain of paperwork to do trying to get the Accords overturned.
The kid had moved to the opposite wall of the hall now and was leaning against it, backpack slung over one shoulder. From what Fury had said, it looked like the kid hadn’t gotten a say in this either. Great.
“FRIDAY, door,” he said, getting up and moving for the door. It clicked open and he went out into the hallway. “Follow me,” he told the teen, and the boy fell in line behind him as Tony got into the elevator.
On the floor above, Tony led the kid down the hallway and into the kitchen. Without a word to him, he pulled out a box of granola bars and slid it across the kitchen island towards the teen, and then pulled out a bottle of water for him. When the kid didn’t take them, Tony looked up at him and said, "All right, you wanna explain to me why the director of SHIELD just dropped off a 12 year old munchkin on my doorstep? What's your deal?"
"Uh… I'm 14 Mr. Stark sir."
"Ok slightly older munchkin, why are you here? What did you do to become such a pain in Fury's ass that he had to scoop you up and bring you here?"
Peter bit his lip.
"Come on, lay it on me," Tony motioned with his fingers.
"It might have been the thing with the subway sir, but to be fair that flood really wasn't my fault, not completely."
Tony stared at him for long moments. "You’re the one that flooded the subway last week?"
"Well, I mean, technically that giant lizard guy flooded it and Mr. Fury wasn't even mad at him!"
"Ok, so you flooded a subway and Fury just, what, tracks you down and brings you here?"
"Yeah, basically. I guess it could have been that bomb thing… or that other thing at the animal shelter, or-"
"Kid, tell me you didn't bomb an animal shelter."
"Peter."
"What?"
"Uh, I'm- I'm Peter." He held out his hand to shake. "Parker."
Tony kept his arms crossed as he stared at Peter's outstretched hand. "I don't do handshakes, kid." He didn’t like to touch anyone if he could avoid it unless it was Pepper. He tolerated hugs and brief pats on the back from Happy and Rhodey, and that one time from Bruce, but from no one else.
Peter let his hand fall slowly back to his side.
"Nothing against you," Tony said. Then he sighed and let his own hands fall to his sides. "Come on. Let's find you a room. Looks like you’re staying here now."
Peter followed him back into the hall and to the elevator. “Uh… Mr. Fury didn’t give you a choice did he,” Peter said, voice sounding pained.
“Did he give you one?” Tony countered.
“Not really. Some agents found me and said I was going with them. They had guns and I didn’t really wanna fight my way out.”
As they got back into the elevator and Tony pushed the button for the floor above, he gave Peter a sideways glance and said, “And you’re the spider kid from Queens?”
“Spider Man,” Peter mumbled.
“Not in that onesie you wear you’re not.”
“It’s a suit,” Peter said.
“Right.”
The elevator door dinged and they stepped out into another hallway.
“You pretty much have your pick of rooms, except this one,” Tony said, pointing at a closed door right next to the elevator. “Everyone else cleared out.”
“Because of the- because of Germany?”
Tony gave a stiff nod and Peter looked away.
“FRIDAY, show us which rooms are empty of personal belongings.”
Peter was surprised a moment later when a green light was projected down from the ceiling on a door at the far end of the hall near a stairwell.
“There are also four empty rooms upstairs,” came a female voice from the ceiling, causing Peter to look up.
“That’s my AI, she runs the compound.”
“Uh… anywhere’s fine,” Peter said. “I can just take the room down there. I’m sorry they’re forcing you to do this.”
Tony didn’t respond and just walked past Peter and to the available room, Peter following behind. There was a lab on the right just like Mr. Stark’s, but the lights were off. There was also a little reading nook open to the hallway overlooking a little courtyard below. The reading nook had a modern gray two seat couch and a couple of comfortable chairs as well as a bookcase with books and a coffee table. Peter wondered if he’d be allowed to sit there or if he was supposed to stay in his room.
When they got to the last door at the end of the hallway, Mr. Stark said, “FRIDAY, key this room to the kid.”
“Done boss.”
Mr. Stark pointed to the door and said, “Touch the door knob. It will only unlock for you. If you close your door it will lock automatically. FRIDAY can also let me in if there’s an emergency.”
“Oh, ok.” Peter reached for the door knob and turned it. The door opened to a large bedroom with a full size bed, a desk, and a wardrobe dresser combo. There were windows high up on the ceiling that flooded the room with light, but they were too high up for Peter to see out of unless he climbed up onto something. The walls were painted a light gray, and aside from the furniture the room was bare.
“Bathroom’s on the other side of that door,” he said, pointing to a door Peter hadn’t noticed. “Just- make yourself comfortable. I’ve got some things to do. I’ll give you a tour in a few hours after dinner.”
“Right, yeah, thanks Mr. Stark,” Peter said.
Looking uncomfortable, Mr. Stark turned and left Peter there, closing the door behind him. Peter set his backpack down beside the bed and sat down. Rule number two: don't get comfortable because you're not going to stay. It was almost the same as rule number one. This room was the best he’d ever had, and certainly the biggest, and who wouldn’t want to stay at the freaking Avenger’s compound? He knew this was just temporary though, like every other place he’d stayed. So he wouldn’t unpack, and he wouldn’t get comfortable. For now he’d just accept this for what it was, a chance to stay at the Avengers Compound for a few days, and hopefully not make a fool of himself in front of Mr. Stark while he was here. He really wanted to check out Mr. Stark’s lab, but wasn’t sure if that was in the cards for him or not.
Peter wasn’t sure if he had to stay in his room or if he was allowed to wander a little like at the SHIELD facility. He checked the door and found that it opened for him. At least he wasn’t locked in.
He investigated the wardrobe and found it empty. The same was true of the desk. After a few minutes he climbed up onto the desk and looked out the windows high up in the wall. They showed the front lawns and in the distance he could see another building that might be an air hangar or some kind of super cool high tech training facility.
Peter tried not to be bored, but with nothing to keep him occupied, not even books, or music, he decided to press his luck and go investigate the reading nook and hope he didn’t make Mr. Stark or anyone else who might be around upset.
Back down the hall from his room a little ways he found the reading nook. It had floor to ceiling windows overlooking a cozy little courtyard on the ground floor below surrounded by a tall concrete wall. He wanted to go and investigate the courtyard too, but figured he’d better stick to the floor where his room was for now.
Peter browsed the books on the bookshelf between the two comfortable chairs. They were almost all science and engineering books. On the top two shelves were books about gamma radiation, DNA modification, and the work done on supersoldiers like Steve Rogers. Peter thought that if there were going to be books in the Avengers compound, these ones made sense. He had a suspicion that the spider that had bit him on the field trip to Oscorp a year ago was radioactive, but hadn’t had much time to research it. If he had time, these books would be helpful.
The books on the bottom three shelves were all about coding, robotics, artificial intelligence, computer science, and several engineering topics. There were even a few on nanotechnology and clean energy. Peter grabbed one of the green energy books and sat down on the couch to read in the cozy well-lit nook. He was interested in everything on the bookshelf and wondered if he’d be here long enough to get all the way through one of the books, or hopefully two or three. If he could get through this book, he was going to look at one on gamma radiation, and after that one of the books on nanotechnology.
Peter didn’t know how long he sat reading in the nook, but his stomach was grumbling loudly by the time a throat cleared a few feet away, startling him out of the trance he’d been in while reading. His eyes came up and he found Mr. Stark with his arms crossed looking uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry Mr. Stark sir,” Peter said nervously. “I thought, I hope it’s ok that I came out of the room. I was just bored. There was nothing in there and I-”
“It’s fine kid.”
“Peter,” he mumbled.
Mr. Stark ignored him and said, “I ordered food. It’s downstairs in the kitchen.”
Peter put the book back in the exact spot he’d found it on the bookshelf and followed Mr. Stark not to the elevator at the far end of the hall, but to the stairwell which was right next to Peter’s room. They went downstairs to a wide hallway, and then into the open living room and kitchen Peter had seen briefly earlier that day.
The kitchen was on the right side as soon as they walked in, and the living room was on the left. There were several boxes of Chinese takeout sitting on the kitchen island.
Mr. Stark didn’t bother to pull out plates. He pushed a box of food towards Peter along with a fork and a bottle of water, and then stood at the kitchen island to open up his own box of food.
“I didn’t know what you wanted. You got fried rice. Kids eat that don’t they?” He didn’t look up at Peter as he spoke.
“I’ll eat anything Mr. Stark,” Peter said. Fury’s warning earlier that day not to be a bother or a pain in the ass came back to mind. On the rare occasion that Peter was told by CPS why he’d been randomly moved to a new foster home, it was always because he’d done something his foster family hadn’t liked. Ben had died, and two months later May had died in a freak accident. Peter had gone into foster care the same day. He had still been distraught over Ben getting shot in front of him and then almost being kidnapped by the mugger, and then losing May on top of that had been too much. He’d spent that first week in foster care crying whenever there was a quiet moment. He’d been moved pretty much right away because that first set of foster parents thought he was ‘too depressive’ and ‘too much to handle’. Peter was still sad after that, but he learned to keep that to himself, saving his tears for bedtime. Another time he was moved because he was ‘too quiet’ which made his foster parents nervous. He’d also been moved once for being ‘too talkative’ though. Fury had warned him about that too, not to annoy Mr. Stark like he’d apparently annoyed the agents at the SHIELD facility. Now he was standing here eating in an uncomfortable silence with Mr. Stark, and he didn’t know what to do.
“How did you flood the subway tunnel?” Mr. Stark asked after four or five minutes.
“I didn’t.”
“That’s not what the SHIELD file says.”
“They didn’t listen to me when they picked me up.”
“Well I’m asking for your side of it.”
Peter took another bite of his fried rice. It was almost gone, and he wished he had more. He needed more food than an average human to survive, and had lost a lot of weight in the last month living on the streets because food was hard to come by.
“There was this giant lizard guy. I kind of just stumbled onto him. He was like, huge.” Peter lifted his hands up above his head to emphasize just how big the lizard man was. “He started chasing me through the subway tunnels. He rounded a corner too fast and slammed into a water main and it burst.”
“You wouldn’t think one burst water pipe would flood four subway stations in Queens.”
“He slashed open another one trying to get me further down the tunnel.”
“What were you doing down there in the subway tunnels in the first place?”
Peter’s cheeks heated up. It had been raining that night and he’d been looking for a dry place to sleep. He’d heard an urban legend several times over spread by the kids at school that there were hidden subway tunnels under the city, and he’d thought to find one and make it his new home. “Just looking for a dry place to sleep,” he mumbled, staring down at his rice and shoveling the last few bites into his mouth. So much for staying dry. He’d come out of the subway soaking wet and looking like a half drowned sewer rat. He’d been pretty intent on not going back into the subways ever again after that.
“You only came with one bag. Where’s the rest of your stuff?”
“That’s all of it,” Peter said. He wished he’d slowed down and not hurried through his meal now, because Mr. Stark wasn’t done with his dinner and now Peter just had to stand there awkwardly. He let his eyes roam around the kitchen, the dining table, and then to the living room behind him. There was a big screen TV and a modern shelving unit with board games. This was clearly the Avenger’s common area. He wondered if Mr. Stark had ever played any of those board games.
“Why’d you run away from your foster home?”
Peter’s eyes came back around to Mr. Stark. He shrugged, but the man didn’t seem too perturbed by his lack of an answer.
“Are you planning on taking off from here?”
Peter frowned. “Uh… I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Until I can get this whole guardianship thing figured out, I’m responsible for you. Fury made that pretty clear. He’ll be on me if you take off or flood another subway tunnel.”
“I won’t.”
“Uh huh.”
Mr. Stark finished his box of food and then leveled Peter with a curious gaze. “How’d you get your powers? The SHIELD files don’t say.”
“They asked, but I didn’t tell them.”
Mr. Stark didn’t ask again, he just stood there, apparently content to wait Peter out. “A spider bit me on a field trip to Oscorp. I think it was radioactive.” When Mr. Stark didn’t ask him any more questions, Peter felt like the man didn’t believe him, so he kept talking. “I got sick for a couple days… really sick. Then when I woke up I was stronger, and I could stick to stuff. All my senses were enhanced… like, dialed up high.” He made a motion with his fingers like he was turning a stereo knob.
“What about those webs you use? Where are those coming from?”
“I make them. It’s a bunch of chemicals I mix together.”
“They’re strong enough for you to swing from. That makes the tensile strength off the charts. You made those yourself?”
Peter shrugged. “I made them in science class.”
“And what device are you using to fling the webs?”
“My web shooters.”
“Who made those?”
“I did.”
“So you’re smart.”
Peter shrugged.
“You don’t think so?”
“I’m not any smarter than anyone else.”
“The files Fury gave me said you were top of your class in seventh grade, but then just had average grades in 8th grade.”
Peter’s cheeks heated up again. He was embarrassed about that, but going out as Spider Man meant that he had a lot less time for school work. “I was just… busy.”
“Being the spiderling.”
“Spider Man.”
A silence fell between them again, but Mr. Stark clapped his hands together once and said, “All right. I’ll give you a quick tour so you know what’s off limits.”
He motioned around the kitchen and living room and said, “This is the main living area. You can take what you want from the kitchen whenever you want. The cupboards are always stocked. You can get FRIDAY to pull up just about anything you want to watch on the TV except things that are rated R or above.”
He motioned for Peter to follow him out into the hall again. He pointed to a door across the hall in the wall of windows and said, “That’s the courtyard. You can go out there if you want to. Don’t go outside anywhere else.” He pointed back towards the stairwell and said, “That’s the Avenger’s side entrance, and the stairwell.” Pointing at the other end of the hallway he said, “The elevator. My lab is downstairs on the lower ground floor. You already saw it. That’s off limits. Below that is Basement level 1 where the med bay is. Basement level 2 is off limits to you.”
They got into the elevator and went up to the 2nd floor. The elevator door opened but they didn’t get out. “Like I said, my rooms are to the right. Dr. Banner’s lab is down the hall on the right, then the reading nook. Your room’s down at the end of the hall. The rest of the rooms still need to be cleared out.” The ex-Avengers rooms, went unsaid.
The elevator door closed and they went up one more floor to the 3rd floor. It was at the top of the building. Tony led him down the hall and said, “More rooms that have to be cleaned out, and this is the upper sitting room.” At the end of the hall by the stairwell the hallway opened up to a living room that was a little smaller than the one down on the first floor. This one had two couches and several plush chairs. There was no TV, but there was expensive looking artwork up on the walls and numerous plants around the room. This space looked like it was meant for visiting while the living room downstairs looked like it was more for entertainment and to be a hub of activity. Peter was sad that the other Avengers weren’t around, because he would have liked to have experienced living amongst them.
They took the stairwell back down to the floor below, coming out right next to Peter’s bedroom.
“This is all the back half of the facility. Stay out of the front half. That’s all business related and used by SHIELD for the most part. I’ll be down in my lab. Ask FRIDAY if you need something.” Mr. Stark strode down to the far end of the hall and got into the elevator and disappeared. Peter felt like the whole encounter had been awkward… not at all what he had envisioned when Fury had first said he’d be meeting Tony Stark when they’d pulled into the compound earlier that afternoon. Then again, Mr. Stark was famous, not only because he was Iron Man, but because he ran the biggest and most cutting edge tech company on the planet. He probably wasn’t used to being around regular people like Peter and found him boring, or was worried that Peter would do something stupid like ask a million questions or ask for his autograph.
It made sense to Peter why the man hadn’t wanted to talk to him much other than asking him about the need to know stuff. Peter sighed and went back into his room before remembering that it was basically empty and there was nothing to do.
Normally right about now he’d be heading out into the city to patrol, but they were 30 minutes from the edge of the city, and there was nothing to patrol out here. The compound was surrounded by expansive green lawns and a small forest on two edges. Peter needed tall buildings and skyscrapers to swing around on. Besides that, Mr. Stark had told him to stay in the compound and not to go out anywhere other than the little courtyard that Peter still wanted to explore.
Peter went back to the reading nook and took a couple of books off the shelf and then took them back to his empty room. There were still two months of summer left until school started. It was going to be a long summer.
Author's Note:
- I'll be a little slower at posting this one up. For the first few weeks I'll post one chapter a week. After that the posting will be a little slower, so please bear with me.
- I've been working on this one since around February and have been excited to get it posted up.
- Drop a kudos if you like it, or come by to say hi in comments and let me know what you thought and what you hope to see in the fic :)
- Thanks for taking the time to read!