orders please?

by llovedove

Summary:

Peter deadpanned as he stared at his family standing in the one place he didn’t want them to see him in. Peter rarely talked about his job because he didn’t want to accidentally slip up about how much he hated it. His manager was a grubby older man who had taken a liking toward Peter and more times than once gotten a little touchy around the boy. 

-

Peter has a part-time job at a restaurant and his creepy manager can't keep his hands to himself, even in front of the avengers.

Notes:

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while, school has been stressing me out hella bad. But I'm back and I came with another Peter Parker whump with a side of protective Avengers!

By the way, I saw Cherry yesterday and it was amazing. I am so proud of Tom.

“What are you guys doing here?!” Peter squeaked as he watched the Avengers pile into the lobby of the rundown restaurant he worked in. It was empty, mind an older man drowning his sorrows in food at the back corner of the restaurant.

 

“Hey, underoos. I told the team about your little part-time job and they wanted to come and visit.” Tony greeted as he stepped up in front of the group. Natasha quirked a brow.

 

“Correction, it was him that suggested we come and harass you while you work.” she sent a sympathetic smile at Peter who kept his shoulders hunched and fiddled with the strings of his apron nervously. 

 

“Let’s just hope your cooking skills aren’t as… talented ... as aunt hotties.” Tony said with a poorly hidden shudder. Peter deadpanned as he stared at his family standing in the one place he didn’t want them to see him in. Peter rarely talked about his job because he didn’t want to accidentally slip up about how much he hated it. His manager was a grubby older man who had taken a liking toward Peter and more times than once gotten a little touchy around the boy. 

 

“You can’t be here,” Peter whispered with barely concealed panic. Thor stepped forward and boomed loudly.

 

“Nonsense! Serve us and we will be on our way, man of spiders.” Peter winced at the god's loud voice and could hear faintly as pans rattled around in the kitchen as well as his manager cursing before the door swung open to reveal the man. 

 

“Right this way!” Peter’s anxious features immediately replaced with a painfully obvious fake smile as he stiffly grabbed six menus and spun on his heel to lead the group to a table. Tony glanced at the others to see if they noticed Peter's sudden change in mood as soon as he saw who Tony assumed was a co-worker or manager, Tony met Steve’s eyes which held the same confusion Tony was feeling. 

 

Tony brushed it off with a shrug and moved to follow his mentee who had stopped at a table in a far corner and began placing the menus down, his eyes anxiously flitting over to the older man who was watching the avengers walk through his restaurant with wide eyes. Once the avengers were all seated Peter pulled a notepad and pen out of his apron pocket. 

 

“I assume you’re all ready to order your drinks?” Peter asked, pen poised over the notepad. Tony watched him with wary eyes, taking note of his stiff shoulders and how his eyes kept flicking over to the older man who was creepily watching the group from afar, his eyes staying on Peter longer than Tony liked. Peter was in the middle of writing down the drinks when Tony reached forward and placed a hand on the kid's elbow, grabbing his attention.

 

“Who’s that man standing over there?” Tony asked in a low voice, Peter shifted uncomfortably before clearing his throat.

 

“That’s my manager, would you like to speak to him?” please say no, please say no, please say no .

 

“Sure, why not.” Tony shrugged. Peter waved the man over. The man ran his greasy hands through his hair to compose himself before he waddled over to the group of heroes, taking place behind Peter, so close that he was nearly pressed against the kid's backside. Tony glanced at the boy who kept his head down and eyes glued to his notepad, face blank, before turning his attention to the manager. 

 

“Wow, isn't this a surprise! Not every restaurant gets to say they served the Avengers.” the man boomed with a childish grin. 

 

“Well we just finished a mission and are famished, I saw this was the closest restaurant and thought why not give shawarma a break and try something else for once.” Tony sent the man a tight-lipped smile. 

 

“Well it’s an honour to have you here, I hope we meet your expectations. Pete here is a great asset to have and will make sure you’re comfortable and well taken care of, won’t ya Pete?” Peter felt the man's hot breath on his neck and felt arms grip his shoulders, massaging them. Peter gulped and looked up at the team who were all watching him intensely. 

 

“Of course, sir,” Peter answered, his voice nearly breaking on the sir. He just wanted to get this over with. 

 

“Peter’s actually an intern of mine. Did you know he’s balancing school, an internship, and a part-time job? He’s the most hardworking person I know.” Tony sent Peter a smile that showed just how proud of the boy he was. He had offered to give Peter money whenever he was struggling or May needed help paying the bills but the boy insisted he didn’t need it and wanted to earn his own money. 

 

Peter felt his lips pull up in a shy smile but it vanished as soon as the man leaned even closer, his front pressed flat against Peter's backside now and his hands moving down from the boy's shoulders to rub his arms up and down in what was supposed to be in a soothing manner.

 

“Wow, I had no idea I had a little genius working for me. How come you never told me this?” the man frowned at Peter. Peter couldn’t stand the feeling of the man pressing against him and only made a move to stop it when he felt something hard poking against his back. He swiftly stepped away from the man, sliding out from between him and the table but keeping his head down because he knew that if he looked up he would see that he just made a huge mistake. 

 

“U-uh, I just- I just never thought about it I g-guess.” Peter stuttered. The team was quiet as they observed Peter, having never seen the boy this anxious before. 

 

“Well then, how about we go get them their drinks?” the man’s voice now held a hard edge to it that made Peter stiffen before nodding his head and retreating to the kitchen, his manager hot on his heels. 

 

“I don’t like it.” Steve was the first one to speak. 

 

“What a creep!” Clint gawked, eyes never leaving the swinging door to the kitchen. 

 

“Peter was clearly uncomfortable, did you see how touchy he was with him? The man is a pervert.” Natasha grumbled, voice low and menacing. 

 

“I agree with the Widow,” Thor murmured, uncharacteristically quiet as well as Tony who hadn’t said a thing since he watched Peter go into that kitchen with the man. His hands were clenched into fists as his eyes lingered on the door. 

 

“Tony what should we do?” Bruce asked timidly. Tony turned his attention back to the others. 

 

“Nothing right now, we could just be misinterpreting the situation.” Tony knew he was in denial. Of course he was denying the fact that his kid could’ve been being sexually harassed by his manager for the past three months that he's had this job and Tony had no idea it was happening. 

 

Before anyone could say anything in response the sound of glass shattering could be heard from the kitchen. Tony flung up from his seat and didn’t hesitate before he was shoving open the swinging door of the kitchen, only to be met with an empty room. 

 

“Peter?” Tony called, heart pounding in his chest. A head popped up from behind a counter, brown curls bouncing from the speed.

 

“I’m all g-good! It just slipped out of my hand. I’ll have your drinks ready in a minute. N-Nothing to worry about.” The boy dismissed him quickly. Tony narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Where was the manager? 

 

“Alright, I trust you kiddo.” Tony said before hesitantly retreating back to the table. 

 

“What was it?” Steve questioned when he sat back down. Tony just shook his head, brows furrowed in thought. A few minutes of thoughtful silence passed before Peter was pushing through the door with a tray full of drinks balanced on one hand. 

 

Tony’s eyes met Peters when he approached the table and was met with a small sheepish smile from the boy. Tony’s eyes trailed down to Peter’s wrists as he placed the drinks down in front of each person. Tony saw red when he took notice of the bruises forming around the kid's wrists that sure as hell weren't there ten minutes ago. 

 

Tony lifted his eyes back up to the kids as he finished placing down the last drink, now noticing that the kid had caught his eyes observing his wrists. Something passed between the two, a silent communication with their eyes before Peter looked away and pulled out his notepad. 

 

“Are you ready to order your food?”

 

“So, you enjoy working here, Queens?” Steve asked nonchalantly. Peter's eye twitched in what they assumed was irritation. 

 

“Oh, yeah. Love it.” Peter hummed before placing a smile on his face and repeating. “Orders?” he clicked his pen. The team noticed the attempt to change the topic. 

 

“Your manager. Is he a good one? Pay you good?” Clint spoke up. Peter grit his teeth and gave a tight smile. 

 

“Very good. Now, are you ready to order?” please just leave!

 

“You know you can tell us if something is going on, right Pete?” Tony told him, eyes sincere. Peter didn’t back down. 

 

“I assure you, there is nothing going on.” he smiled again. “Orders please.” his voice was hard. 

 

There were collective sighs around the table as they picked up their menus and picked the first thing they saw, knowing they were not going to end up eating whatever they ordered. Most being unable to with the knowledge that Peter could be getting assaulted by his manager. 

 

“I’ll be back with your orders.” Peter said as he pocketed his notepad and left. The team all huddled back together.

 

“I don’t think we’re misinterpreting anything, Stark. Peter is showing clear signs of sexual abuse and his manager isn’t even attempting to hide his… affection toward the kid. We can’t just let this go or something really bad could happen to Peter if it hasn’t already happened.” Steve growled, surprising the others with sudden fierce protectiveness over the spiderling. Tony looked at him and eventually nodded. 

 

“He won’t talk to us though. How do we help him open up, why doesn’t he trust us?” Tony fretted, rubbing a hand down his face. 

 

“It’s not that he doesn’t trust us. He’s scared, Tony.” Natasha frowned. Tony opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut when he heard a cut-off cry erupt from the kitchen. In a split second the team was up out of their seats and storming into the kitchen. 

 

The sight the team was met with was gut-wrenching.

 

Peter was bent over one of the counters, a hand clasped over his mouth, tear tracks running down his cheeks, his pants pulled down to his knees, and his manager standing pressed up behind him, a hand on the kid's head to keep him pinned down. 

 

Terrified brown eyes shot up and met Tony’s and at that moment Tony’s heart broke. Peter’s eyes were foggy and Tony took notice of the cut across Peter’s temple, the reason the kid was so dazed. 

 

“Let go of him or I swear to god I’ll put a bullet through your skull.” Natasha growled as she cocked her gun and took aim at the man's face. The man’s face paled and he quickly let go of Peter, stepping away. 

 

Peter collapsed to the ground behind the counter and scrambled away. Natasha pulled the trigger, aiming for the pedophile's leg and smirked in satisfaction at the scumbag's scream. Tony rushed around the counter to scoop up his shaking kid while Steve dragged the wailing man out of the room. 

 

“Tony!” Peter sobbed, and immediately wrapped his arms around his mentor's torso when the man crouched down next to him, shushing him softly. 

 

“I’m here, bambino. You’re okay now. I’ve got you.” Tony whispered as he cradled the boy close to him. Rocking them back and forth on the gross kitchen floor. Tony looked up to see the others watching with sad eyes, Tony nodded toward them and they silently filed out of the kitchen, probably to go have fun with the pedophile. Tony turned his attention back to the kid in his arms, taking notice of how his pants were still pulled down. 

 

“C’mon kiddo. Let’s get these back on.” he said softly and reached down with gentle hands to pull up his pants. Peter tried helping but eventually gave up, letting Tony do it for him. 

 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Peter repeated brokenly, keeping his face buried in Tony’s shirt. 

 

“You have nothing to be sorry for. That scumbag will rot in jail for the rest of his life but right now I need you to tell me if he… if he ever…” Tony couldn’t get himself to say the words if he ever raped you . Because this was Peter. Sweet, innocent, happy, goofy, bundle of joy, Peter. No one was allowed to hurt Peter Parker. And Tony didn’t understand how anyone could look into Peter's sweet doe eyes and decide that they’d want to hurt something so precious. 

 

“He n-never went that f-far but he would th-threaten it some-sometimes but I never t-thought he’d actually d-do it.” Peter’s sentence broke off into a sob and Tony squeezed him tighter, grounding him. “He j-just touched me a lot and s-said gross things that he wanted to do to me b-but I just ignored it.” 

 

“God, Pete. Why didn’t you tell anyone? You know you can trust us.” Tony’s heart was breaking more and more. 

 

“I was s-scared.” Peter said, confirming exactly what Natasha had said. “And It’s just… May works her butt o-off and I wanted to help since w-we’re so tight on money right n-now and I didn’t want to be a b-burden.” Peter whispered the last part, his voice breaking. Tony pressed a kiss to Peter’s curls. 

 

“You’re never a burden, May would never think of you as a burden. And neither would I. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me kid. And if you ever find yourself in a situation even remotely close to this again you come to me, or May, or anyone on the team. We all care so much about you and would do anything to make sure you’re happy and safe.” 

 

“R-Really?” Peter asked in a small voice, looking up at Tony with wide eyes holding so much trust and love . God, Tony loves this kid . 

 

“Really. In fact, how about we do this... The internship will now pay minimum wage or more if... ya know you want more-”

 

“Mr. Stark.” Peter scolded, laughing wetly. “Plus I don’t even have a real internship with you.” 

 

“Then you’ll get paid minimum wage for our lab days together. It’ll be fun, well paid, and you won't have some old creep breathing down the back of your neck the whole time. What do you say?” Tony brushed back Peter’s curls from his face and smiled warmly at the kid who returned the smile. 

 

“Y-Yeah. That sounds great, Mr. Stark.” 

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 12 of Peter Parker: The human disaster