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Peter was getting fed up with trying to simultaneously find a way to stuff his overfilled english folder back into his locker, and get it through Ned’s stubborn head that Tony had at no point secretly adopted him. Ned would have been the first person he told if he was adopted by a superhero. Peter struggled for something to say, before scrambling and trying to change the subject. “Listen dude, he did buy me that new lego set, we have to build it together next time we hang out?” Peter said while finally managing to find space in his locker for his tattered folder.
“Dude. Im not letting you avoid this,” Ned was sending him the biggest shit eating grin from behind his own books, “Iron Man bought you a lego set” Ned huffed a laugh, “dude, you’re life is so wild, and by extension; my life is wild” he sarcastically patted Peter on the head, “so thank you for that.” He added, a smile in his words.
“It’s not that wild, it was a congratulatory gift for winning decathlon last month” Peter shrugged, shutting his locker.
“He bought the whole team pizza afterwards too, He’s such a soccer dad” Ned laughed, “I can't believe my best friend’s dad is Tony Stark”
“Stop saying that!” Peter scoffed, “he’s my.. mentor?” Peter didn’t mean to put it there, but there was undoubtedly a question hiding somewhere in that sentence. “He’s just my mentor.” Peter tried again, hoping to sound more confident than he felt.
Ned coughed, and if it sounded suspiciously like ‘father figure’ Peter refused to notice.
“ ‘sides Clint says he buys stuff for all the Avengers” Peter added after a second.
“Yeah, to show his love for his family” Ned corrected, doing a wavy motion with his hand, “you know, The Avengers.”
“He’s not-“ Peter started, “he doesn’t care about me that much” Peter shook his head, “he has more important stuff to worry about, like… Iron Man stuff”
“You did call him dad” Ned adjusted the books in his arms, “literally yesterday” he added matter of factly.
“Dude-“ Peter scrambled to defend himself “it doesn't count”
“Sure, Jan” Ned quoted, leaning against the locker.
“I didn't even say Dad,” Peter scrambled for some semblance of an excuse, “i said… Clad, like ‘oh, it's Tony. The man Clad in Iron, my mentor’ You know?”
Ned made a wheezing sound in the back of his throat. “Clad?” He repeated, “And you didn't say dad two weeks ago either, you said ‘glad’ because he’s just a real happy guy, that Tony Stark, the iron clad man.
“Dude” Peter definitely didn’t whine as he shut his locker.
Ned sent a mocking frown at him, “Oh, Petey, are you sad?” he laughed at Peters glare before continuing. “Well don't get Mad. Im sure this joke will only be a Fad.”
“Ned, Stop” Peter laughed, running a hand through his hair “You're making me very Dad right now.”
“Egad!” Ned yelped, before it fell into laughter.
Peter shook his head before shutting his locker, “I’ve gotta go, have a lot planned today”
“Do you have a lot planned or do You have a lot planned?” Ned put far too much emphasis on the second you, clearly trying to ask if Spiderman had anything planned today.
Peter glared at his friend, “I’ve got a ton of homework”
“Is it homework or is it homework” Ned actually winked as he said it.
“Ned,” Peter made a sound that was half exasperated sigh and half laughter, “stop”
Peter cut off from his usual route home from school almost immediately, ducking into a fairly hidden alley to change into his suit and hide his backpack in the dumpster, where it hopefully wouldn't get stolen and or ruined. Speaking of that unfortunate ‘and or’, he really needed a new backpack. Last monday he hadn't been so lucky. It was stolen and ruined, that had been an eventful night.
Peter had just pulled his mask over his chin when someone came dashing into his alleyway full speed. “What do you mean, We’ve made sure none of those masks found our operation here” The guy was either berating himself or had some sort of comm in his ear. “We’ve taken precautions” the guy continued, completely oblivious to the masked teenager watching him.
“Woah ok there,” Peter huffed as he silently climbed up the building to his right and clung to a windowsill a few yards above the guy.
So, this guy clearly sucked at not acting suspicious. Worse than Peter, and he gets changed into his super suit in alleys where any suspicious acting man can just walk in on him. Peter doesn't know what he’s doing or what’s happening, or whatever he's not supposed to know, but his spidey sense is telling him he should probably be trying to figure that out.
Peter slowly crawled closer to the guy, listening intently to him; currently talking to himself and stomping around in an alley. “Don't you blame that on The Devil, this is Queens!” The guy paused, “No of course i haven't caught the attention of that spider guy. He's too busy helping old ladies find their dogs to actually fight crime”
Peter narrowed his eyes, someone had to find those dogs!
“-No. No the dudes totally oblivious.” The guy was tapping his index finger on the back of his ear, “Yeah of course id know if Spider-man was onto this” he sounded offended by the very notion that Spidey was onto him.
Now Peter knew comedic timing when he saw it, and jumped down about a foot in front of the guy, “onto what?” he asked, feigning innocence.
“Oh shit” shady guy jumped immediately, which was expected. Most people did that when he ‘appeared’ out of nowhere. Nowhere apparently was short for ‘above’ but Peter digresses.
Most of the time he can predict what a criminal is going to do. A scream when he jump scares him: expected. Yelling “you’ll never get information out of me, asshole!” and dodging behind him, that was uncalled for. Almost unexpected, even.
Peter was now fully in fight or flight mode and sprung after him. He had him webbed to the wall of the alleyway before he could escape out and into the street. With his arm tied to the wall he noticed the emblem that was patched onto the inside of his jacket. It was Red, looked kind of like an octopus? And it had a red skull right in the middle of it- oh thats funny, a red skull in the middle, that was kinda like hydra- oh that's hydra’s logo. Yeah, that makes sense. Peter is adept enough in villain PR campaigns to know the big logos, and this was the equivalent of the villainous Golden Arches. Or villainous Mickey Mouse. Nazi Pikachu. The others told him about Hydra, something along the lines of ‘run the other way if you ever see this symbol or you’ll be running from us’. And outside of threats of grounding, Tony specifically told him they had cyanide teeth, or something like that. Hydra had dentist that specializes in death. That was it.
The guy was looking up at him with determined eyes and Peter fell Into action, not really thinking as he webbed the guy’s mouth, he couldn’t eat (was that how it worked?) his own cyanide filled tooth if he couldn’t move his tongue. That made sense right? He wasn't doing this for no reason. Plus he had a nose to breath with, so he should be fine.
Peter heard a muffled “Hail Hydra” from the guy before Karen alerted him.
“I’m notifying Mr.Stark under the ‘Hydra’s not good for baby protocol, he is on his way’
Oh, this would be fun to explain. He can imagine that conversation in his head ‘I just- accidentally fought hydra- listen i know they’re your’ villains, but you fought my sentient swarm of bees that one time? So really were totally even, now.” Tony would kill him, or even take his suit away again. Or kill him and then take away the suit.
Peter could hear the repulsors from somewhere far off, this must be a good time to say his goodbyes. His last few moments with the suit. Peter pretended to kiss the knuckles of his glove, ‘goodbye’ he whispered into the red fabric as one of Tony’s suits landed next to him. He’ll miss being spiderman after this.
“kid, get that out of your mouth” Tony’s voice echoed from inside the Iron Man suit. .
Peter didn't bother to look up at the suit, Tony was probably controlling it remotely anyway. “Its- That was totally an accident” Peter shook his head, scrambling for an excuse “he wasn't being very good at not getting my attention” Peter stumbled over his words “if anything this is his fault because he’s a bad hydra agent”
The suit took a step towards him, the faceplate lifted up as he moved. Tony was on the inside, giving him an incredulous look. “He was a bad hydra agent?” Tony echoed, “Really?”
Peter was shocked for a second, Why did Mr.Stark come all the way over here? He’d already gotten the dude? Couldn't he have just had Friday fly over here to pick him up? Oh, he probably was thinking about the poison thing- “I don’t think he can get to his death tooth” Peter said, motioning towards the guy still webbed to the wall.
Mr.Stark didn’t even look at the hydra agent before humming, “cyanide, they must be hiding something in queens if he was prepared for that.”
Peter heard Tony talking to Friday from inside the suit, “scan the building in front of us for any passageways.”
Tony looked around the alley before looking back towards Peter, “stay where you are, I’m calling the others for backup, you tell them to join me when they get here.”
Peter nodded, leaning against the wall of the alleyway.
Tony pressed something into the bricks of the alley’s wall, not looking very impressed when a part of the wall fell away into a door, leading into a staircase.
Peter sat in silence for a minute before he heard a startled shout that sounded suspiciously like Tony echo from inside the building, followed by the sounds of fighting. Which meant Tony was in there fighting, with no backup. Possibly getting hurt. Getting hurt while peter is out here doing nothing.
Ok waiting outside is cancelled. Peter refuses to let Tony go into that alone. What if he really did get hurt? What would Peter do then? Peter refuses to think about the possibility of letting Tony get hurt. So logically, he just won’t let Tony get hurt.
Peter attached himself to the ceiling, no one ever looked up, and hopefully these guys were distracted by trying to beat up his mentor anyway. He’d use it to his advantage.
“Ah- shit!” Tony’s shout was barely picked up by his super senses.
Peter scrambled over the ceiling tiles faster, above the dingy steps that lead down into the hydra base. What if Tony was already hurt? What if he wasn’t fast enough. He heard the sound of repulsor blast growing closer as he sped down the hallway.
The stairwell leveled out and opened up to a larger room, with the hydra logo branded over the ceiling, it probably looked more impressive from the floor. Inside were a bunch of older looking machines that were piled along the walls. It felt like a slightly more evil high school computer lab from the early nineties. What looked like a large satellite dish hung from the corner of the room and was buzzing faintly. They’re was an honestly gross amount of spider webs, it’s disgusting how no one ever cleans their ceilings. It’s inconsiderate for anyone just trying to crawl on them.
Like he’d expected, no one noticed his arrival, even Tony was still focused on the grunts in front of him.
One of the guys got a fraction too close to getting a swipe at Tony, and Peter flipped down from the ceiling and webbed the guy to the ground, kicking out at him a bit too hard as he landed onto the ground, knocking him out.
“Peter!” Tony almost squawked, and Peter froze. Shit.
“Heeey” Peter said slowly, kicking a different hydra grunt in the gut as he said it.
“What happened to waiting up there, kid!” Tony barked, shooting repulsor blast at a few more grunts without even looking.
“I heard you!” Peter defended, and the ‘and I was worried’ was left unsaid.
“You heard me?” Tony scoffed, “Did you really, Peter!”
Peter rammed his elbow into the gut of another hydra grunt, knocking them over to the other corner of the room.
Peter’s Spidey sense sprang to life in the back of his skull, seconds before a flash of light sent him reeling to the floor.
His vision was red from the light burn, even when he rubbed the heel of his hand against his eye. He could vaguely hear crashing before the metal ‘twang’ of shield against skull rang through the room, accompanied with other sounds identifiable with the others arriving on the scene.
Peter felt relieved, but also in pain, his sight was clogged with the burns of the white light blanketing in his vision.
A ways farther off he felt nervousness and a buttload of concern, almost doubling his own- no that doesn't sound right. He felt scared and in pain… but also worried and concerned, but that wasn't-
Peter’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard a strong voice in his comms as his vision cleared, “we have this under control, Tony take the kid back to the compound.” The slightly staticky voice on the other end of his com ordered as Peter’s vision started to clear in spots.
Maybe he had it worse because of his enhanced vision, but he had no idea how Tony could see at all. His vision was still 80% blur, like someone had covered his mask’s goggles with hair spray. Large dark spots followed his eyes, and the back of his head hurt.
“Your vision should clear up pretty soon, mines- better.” Tony said from next to him, helping support him as they stood up from the ground.
Peter hummed in agreement, it probably wasn’t as bad for Tony though the suit anyway.
“Yeah, the suit probably helped,” Tony huffed before the humor fell from his voice, “if your senses start acting up, tell me.”
It’s not that bad, he can still hear Clint’s arrows cutting through the air, but he did have the louder noises under control. “It’s fine, I’m fine” Peter said out loud.
Tony gave him a strange look as he lead Peter towards the grimy staircase.
“I think I’m fine, I can see better n-“ Peter was cut off by tripping over an uneven step, grappling for Tony’s arm.
“Shit, fuck, shit” Tony’s voice rang clear through his thoughts, “shit, oh no, my kid, shit” the voice continued, “Christ is he ok? Fuck, gotta get him out of this dump”
Peter shook his head, furrowing his brows, “Im fine- just, that was bright” he spoke a bit too quietly, still leaning on Tony.
“God he better be,” Tony said, again his voice was weirdly clear through the sounds of the others fighting, “if he got hurt- Christ this is all my fault, i should have stayed with him till the others got here”
“It’s not your fault?” Peter scrunched up his nose, looking up at Tony’s face. His face plate was up, and he was looking at Peter.
Peter felt overwhelming concern and a bit of shock from the corner of his mind. “I know,” Tony said out loud, his voice echoing off the stone staircase, “this is totally my fault” the clearer voice added immediately, clear in his mind. Tony didn’t move his lips when he said it.
“It’s totally not your fault, stop that” Peter said out loud.
Tony gave him a weird look before shaking his head.
“Dad, seriously” Peter thought, holding the arm of the suit tighter as Tony opened the door out of the hydra base.
Tony stopped where he was standing, door halfway open.
Peter felt a wave of confusion, and then was hit by a surge of fondness and amusement, still far off from his own concern.
“Did you just?” Tony started, looking towards him, ‘did he just call me dad’ the second, clearer Tony added, ecstatic.
“No I-“ Peter’s voice was muffled by his mask, I mean I thought it, his subconscious added.
“You… thought it?” Tony cocked his head to the side, ‘kid, roll up your mask’ the second Tony said.
“Ok?” Peter thought as he looked up at his mentor, rolling up his mask past his nose.
“Shit.” Tony said, ‘fuck’ the clearer Tony- that was Tony’s thoughts, said.
“Huh.” Peter said out loud, ‘well that’s- that’s something.’ He thought a second later, still looking at Tony, eye lenses on his mask blown wide.
“Certainly something” Tony added out loud.
Tony hummed aloud and then thought, ‘ok well, let’s go to the compound lab, I’ll figure something out.’
‘Alright Dad’ peter’s subconscious thought, before saying out loud, “sounds good, Mr.Stark”
“Alright follow me, kid” Tony thought over the sound of his own repulsors turning on.
Peter held up his right hand and shot a web to attach to the heel of Tony’s suit, straining his muscles to hold on while Tony flew a few feet above him.
“Oh, woah, thats unbalanced” Tony thought from above him, “Oh shi-crap is that you Pete?” Tony thought. “Kid, i could have picked you up, this is the worst way for you to do this, you have those sticky powers and everything.”
“Uh yeah,” Peter thought, eyes falling to look down at the city below him, he was lower than he usually was while web slinging, but at the same time, something about the lack of control made it scarier. He couldn't keep the image of falling or hitting something out of his mind. It'd be much harder to catch himself from this position.
Tony didn't say anything in response, but Peter could feel the concentration as he maneuvered to fly slightly lower.
“Oh, you didn't have to-” Peter started.
“No it's fine if i was scaring you kid, it's easy to just fly lower” Tony thoughts cut through his own,
“Tony wouldn't drop me” Peter thought off handedly before he heard sirens.
“Tony!” Peter tried to yell over the wind before reaching out to the presence above him, “Tony! We have to help!” he thought towards Tony, immediately pointing towards the fighting. . A small amount of confusion came from tony before Peter realized he had to explain, “Down in the city, There's something happening.”
“What's happening Fri?” Tony’s voice rang from inside the suit.
Peter could just barely hear the softly accented voice from inside the suit, “There's an attack currently going on, what seems to be Genetically altered giant Beetles are harassing the populous.”
“Can't we have normal crime again,” Tony thought with a shed of amusement, “Ok i'm flying down, wanna fight some bugs, kid?”
Peter laughed, “as an arthropod myself im having second thoughts.”
“Just dont eat what you catch in your web, spidey” Tony thought as he swooped lower to the street.
Peter broke the webbing that connected him to Tony to drop about eight feet onto the cement below, landing in front of the pincers of an absurdly large Insect. They looked like the result of mixing a Dynastid Beetle with your least favorite Teletubby. But also about the size of a standard minivan. All brightly colored shells and strangely shaped horns. The one in front of him was lime green in color, had a Triangle shaped horn, and was charging towards him at full speed.
Peter’s spidey sense rang through his head at the right moment, and Peter shot forward and grabbed hold of the things Horn, lifting up the surprisingly light bug and throwing it over his head. It made a squeaking noise as he tossed it behind him. Hopefully these things were like turtles, it was currently struggling to find a way back upright.
“Yeah, i dont think its going to get back up” Tony thought from beside him, engaging with a lavender bug about thirty feet away from Peter. “Also these things probably weigh like a ton, don't refer to it as ‘light’” Tony laughed out loud, the Bug swiped at him and he dodged to the side, repulsion it as he moved.
Peter’s Spidey sense alerted him and he smacked another beetle to the side, watching as it skidded across the street.
“Shit, there it is again” Tony thought, raising his hand to the back of his head, “What the fuck was that”
“What, What's happening?” Peter asked, running over to where Tony was in a matter of seconds.
“Its nothing, kid” Tony said before thinking, “These fucking little shots of pain in the back of my head.”
“Wait…” Peter furrowed his eyebrows, “Give me a second” Peter let a beetle get a little too close to him, setting off his spidey sense.
A flash of fear came from Tony followed by a rush of confusion “Again!” he said out loud.
Peter was quiet for a second before he turned back to Tony, “Thats my spidey sense” He thought towards him.
“Your What.” Tony thought, with a wave of amusement.
Peter sighed, “My Spidey Sense. It's like.. A precognitive danger sense.”
“What a name,” Tony held a fondness in his thoughts, “Does everything have to be spider themed with you?” Tony laughed out loud, “Why would i-”
“I mean i can feel your emotions right-” Peter shrugged as he thought it.
“You could if i felt emotions, kid’ Tony deadpanned.
Peter sent him a glare “It's basically one of those”
Peter had webbed up the rest of the Beetles in a matter of minutes, being particularly careful not to set off his spidey sense as to not freak out Tony.
Peter webbed the last beetle to the ground before turning to tony, “Race you to the compound”
“Oh, youre on kid.” Tony shot off into the sky with a blast of his repulsors.
Peter ended up swinging slower than Tony could fly, but for the most part it seemed tony was slowing down to keep pace with him, rude.
Peter did a small roll as he made it to the compound.
Tony landed next to him while turning off the repulsor blast. “Okey, I need to make sure Peter’s ok, and then I need to find a way to fix this whole- mind reading thing- and I need to check on the other avengers to see if they’re ok fighting hydra- god what if they aren’t ok? I should have stayed with them. What if Peter’s not ok I need to stay with him-“ the monologue of the second voice in his mind was running almost too fast for peter to follow, and honestly Peter didn’t like where it was going.
“I’m sure they’re alright” Peter tried to think towards Tony, the voice stopped and Tony looked up at him from where he was pacing right outside the compound.
“Yeah- I’m sure they are kid” Tony said out loud, and the voice seemed to slow down, “I do have to get both of us to the labs- god this is so weird- can you hear me right now, kid?”
Peter slowly raised his hand in a thumbs up.
“Well shit,” Tony thought, “sorry about that, kid. My mind's not the best place to be” worry was falling off Tony in waves, but the concern didn’t show on his face as he opened the door to the compound, ‘well come on then, kid.”
Peter followed tony into the compound. This was so cool! Does this count as another super power? Is this Tony’s first super power! Oh my god Tony has super powers now! Peter’s the first person to know about Iron Man getting Super Powers, this is so cool! Peter remembers when he first got his powers, that hurt a lot, hey it didn't hurt that much this time! So Tony gets pain free super powers!
The latent fondness that was camped in the corner of his mind, that he'd almost gotten used to morphed into concern and a stab of fear.
Tony paused in front of him, a few feet away from the front desk, “It hurt when you got your powers?” The concern he felt from tony barely bled into the conversational tone he picked up when talking aloud.
“Oh, you can hear me!” Peter thought excitedly, that's so cool! Superpowers are so cool!
The concern didn't falter but was melded with an undercurrent of fondness. “We’re talking about that later, kid.” Tony thought towards Peter before turning towards the woman at the front desk, who was looking at them like they were crazy. But like, that’s the expected when you work at the front desk of an avengers facility. Its a normal human reaction to Iron Man and Spider-Man entering the room talking in fragmented conversation.
“I need to take my son to the lab, hurry up and let me in, christ, why is this taking so long, this could be hurting him-” The concern in Tony’s thoughts peaked, “-I could be hurting him! Maybe i should stop thinking- how do I stop thinking” The rambling train of Mr.Stark’s thoughts returned, but it didn't show in his voice when he cooly turned to the receptionist and showed her his badge, “i need to get to the lab.”
The lady nodded and let them through, Peter smiled at the receptionist as he passed “Thank you!” he called to her as he followed tony to the elevator.
“Oh, he's so fucking cute” Tony’s thoughts said in the corner of his mind.
Peter didn't mention it, but he's sure Tony could feel the surge of happiness from him anyway, but he didn’t mention it out loud.
The rambly nonsense thoughts returned in the back of his mind as the elevator moved up, and Peter tried to stop them before they went anywhere destructive again, he didn't like the idea of his mentor thinking like that.
“Ill try not to” The clearer voice said in the corner of his mind.
Peter shook his head, Tony shouldn't be blaming himself, if he hadn't run in there like an idiot and distracted him, none of this would have happened.
A wave of concern, fear, and a little bit of anger, mainly towards himself, came from Tony “uh no, you aren't allowed. That's not allowed. You can't think like that, that's my job” Clear tony thought towards them before it fell into the rambly voice, “Oh my god, this is all my fault, he's getting this from me, oh my god. Oh my god. Shit, im such a bad father, why did i think i could do this”
Peter was speechless, (thoughtless?) “no.” He spoke out loud into what had been the entirely quiet elevator
“No?” Tony thought, echoed a moment later out loud, “No, what?“ his voice was smaller out loud, and more of the fear leaked into his voice than he had ever heard from him, his voice was almost quiet.
Pete choked on his thoughts, he didn't know what to say, and he knew he didn't have to say anything. How do you explain that? He could barely put it into words in is thoughts. “No” he ended up saying out loud, “you cant- dont think like that, you're the best.”
“Im the best?” Tony’s thoughts echoed in his mind
Peter ignored him as he continued, “You're the best Dad i could have asked for”
“Dad?” Tony’s clearer voice echoed, the undercurrent of the anxiety ridden rambling voice got stuck on the thought, “Oh my god. He thinks of you as a dad. You're a dad.” Tony blinked “Oh no, you're a dad. Oh my god you're going to ruin this more than you already have.”
Peter tried to conjure up as much love as he could and moved to towards the vague concept of tony in the corner of his mind, “you haven't messed up anything.” He thought.
Tony felt like he was going to cry, but it didn't show on the overly steely expression that had taken over his features. Tony let out a shaky breath before smiling, his thoughts going quiet, “Love you too, kid” He said out loud, a shakiness to his voice he wasn't accustomed to hearing.