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Peter smiled as he walked the busy streets of Manhattan. He strolled in a big crowd of people and chuckled as he saw a child being piggybacked by their sibling. He stopped at a sandwich store called ‘The One Thing’. The store had the name because it only served one thing. The perfect meatball sub was how Mr Boyle, the owner, described it. They weren’t as good as Delmars, but it was still delicious. He waved to Mr Boyle as he came in.
“Hey Mr Boyle!” he chirped.
“Hello, Peter!” Peter have Mr Boyle his money and left with his sandwich.
He was back on the streets, making his way to the tower, when he heard a soft meow that only his enhanced senses could pick up. Peter looked around for the source of the sound. He listened and followed the sound to a dingy alleyway. He turned his head, looking for what he could only assume was a cat based off of the sound, until he saw a tiny scrap of brown fur quivering under a dumpster. It looked at him as he slowly and quietly approached it.
“Hey, little guy,” the cat let out a little mew and blinked it’s green eyes up at him. Peter crouched down.
“Are you stuck?” They definitely were. Peter quickly looked around -no one was there- and lifted the dumpster so that the cat could get out. It mewed it’s thanks.
“You hungry?” Peter took a meatball out of his sub and placed it on the ground near the cat, so as not to scare it.
Tentacles burst out of its mouth. They grabbed the meatball. Peter was left with his mouth hanging open as the tentacles retreated back into the cat’s mouth. It looked up at him, asking for more. He grabbed another meatball. The same thing happened.
“Okay. Um.” tentacles erupted from the cat’s mouth again and stole Peter’s entire sandwich, wrapper and all.
“Oh, you poor thing. You must be starving!” Peter exclaimed, quickly getting over the initial shock of seeing his sandwich swallowed whole by tentacles. The cat purred and rubbed up against Peter’s legs as he stood up.
“As long as you don’t eat me with your-“ he waved his arm at the cat’s mouth “those, you can come to the tower with me. Just, don’t do that in front of Mr Stark. He has a heart condition. He definitely won’t let me keep you if you do,”
The cat purred louder and, without warning, leapt into Peter’s arms. Peter grinned.
“I think I’m gonna call you Meatballs,” Meatballs happily nuzzled his cheek in response. The two set off towards to the tower, ignoring the strange looks sent their way.
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Tony was bored. He had let the kid go out exploring the city while he was here for the weekend and now he didn’t know what to do. It didn’t help that Dum-E and U didn’t know what to do without Peter either. Panic flared in Tony’s chest as he saw the bots reaching for some dangerous chemicals.
“U! Put the beaker down! Dum-E! Don’t you dare!”
Dum-E turned to him and waved his claw in frustration.
“I get it! You want Peter, but he’s out right now so you’re gonna have to settle for me, okay?”
U trilled sadly and Dum-E’s claw slumped down. Tony sighed before asking his AI.
“FRI, where’s Underoos at?” He asked the AI.
“Peter is currently in the lobby, Boss. He is with another life form.”
“Thank God, he’s finally- wait. Another life form?” Tony was on his feet in an instant, ready to call a suit to protect his the kid.
“It appears to be a cat, Boss.” Tony felt relief set into his mind. It was just a cat. Thank Thor. He thought. Nothing could be wrong with a cat. Peter would probably take it to a shelter or something. The kid was too kind hearted sometimes.
“Tell the kid to come straight to the lab. Dum-E and U want him. They’re driving me crazy.” Tony rolled his eyes as his bots happily beeped at the mention of Peter’s name.
Moments later, the elevator doors whooshed open and in came Peter. Tony felt himself smile a little bit at the boy’s happy expression. In his arms there was a chocolate brown cat with small white dots on it’s temples. It purred quietly when Peter scratched behind it’s ears and brushed it’s tail against his chin, making the kid chuckle softly. He smiled at Tony and tried not to jostle the cat as he walked in.
“Hey, Mr Stark!” He bent down to put the small kitten on the floor. Dum-E and U chirped happily and raced over to their favourite person. Peter laughed and played with the bots for a moment.
“Hey, guys!” He grinned at the claws being thrusted in his face.
“Mr Stark, I found this cat stuck under a dumpster, the poor thing,” the boy gestured to the cat and it ran over to his legs, “and then I gave him some meatballs from my sandwich, which was delicious by the way, and I decide that he was to precious to take to a shelter, because Mr Stark look at him! Anyway, so I brought him over here because he needs some love and affection-“ Tony cut him off.
“Kid, do you want to keep him?!”
“Uh, yeah?” Tony shook his head gently. This kid. He was about to say no when he turned to see the boy’s puppy eyes at full power. Big, brown Bambi eyes stared up at him, making it impossible to say no. Damn his kid.
“.......fiiine.” Tony begrudgingly agreed.
“YES!” Peter cheered. “Thank you Mr Stark!” He turned to the cat. “Did you hear that, Meatballs? You can stay with me!” The kid was practically vibrating with excitement.
“Meatballs?”
“That’s his name.”
Tony sighed at Peter’s antics. Of course. Of course he named a God Damn cat Meatballs. ‘Meatballs’ walked up to Dum-E and sniffed at his claw. He moved back to Peter, who seemed to be his favourite, and mewed at his feet.
“Someone’s hungry.” Tony grinned. Normally, he hated cats, but seeing Meatballs with Peter made the kitten an exception. Who would’ve thought, Tony Stark, cat co-owner. He definitely wouldn’t have.
The father-son duo headed into the elevator, Meatballs cradled in Peter’s arms once more, and into the penthouse. Clint and Sam were playing Mario Cart, Nat was seated in one of the stools by the kitchen, coffee mug in hand, Bucky was trying and failing to teach Steve how to add contacts into his phone, while Bruce was asleep on the couch with a book. Thor and Loki were in space somewhere, doing who knows what and the Guardians were in Knowhere. Everyone, except Bruce, who was still asleep, turned towards them as they came in.
“If it isn’t the Spider-Brat!” Clint grinned. Natasha came over and gave Peter a side hug. “Hello Детский паук.” Peter smiled up at her. “Hey, Мама Паук!”
“Who’s this?” Bucky asked, pointing to Meatballs.
“I found him on the street! His name’s Meatballs.”
Several chuckles went around the room. Trust Peter to name a cat after food. Said teenager walked up to the fridge and rummaged through it, looking for a good meat. Meatballs let out an excited little mew and scurried up to the fridge, brushing against Peter’s legs as he searched for some food. Peter grinned and emerged victorious with some cold ham. He put the ham on the floor and shut the fridge doors. Meatballs opened his mouth and several surprised yells went around the room. The ham was gone in a second, leaving the Avengers shocked and Meatballs licking his lips happily.
“PETER WHAT IS THAT THING?!”
“IT JUST- WHAT?!”
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“Hey! Don’t use that language around his young, impressionable ears!” Peter scolded them, cooing and placing his hands over Meatballs’ ears in mock offends. Tony rubbed his forefinger and thumb over his temples and sighed.
“Peter, did you know he could do that?”
“If I didn’t, I would be up there.” Peter replied, pointing at the ceiling.
“Why would you want to keep him then?” Natasha asked.
“I couldn’t just leave him there!” Peter gasped. Who would leave his poor baby Meatballs under a dumpster?
“Why not take him to a shelter?” Sam hinted.
“I originally was going to, but then he did that and he was just too cute to send away!” Peter scratched at Meatballs’ ears while he made sounds that were unrecognisable to the English language.
“Kid-“ Tony started, but was met with the full force of puppy eyes.
“Mr Stark! We can’t just send him away!” Damn it. This kid was impossible to say no to.
“Fine. But he can’t do that near me.”
“THANK YOU MR STARK!” Peter grinned as he scooped up the demon cat. All of the Avengers smiled as they watched their Spider-Kid and the cat interact.
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Nat flopped onto the couch next to Peter while the rest of the Avengers gathered, armed with popcorn. It was movie night tonight and they were going to watch ‘The Impossible’. It was Wanda’s request and she had told them all to bring tissues because, oh boy, were they gonna cry. Nat looked around the room. Tony was on the other side of Peter, Meatballs was on the boy’s lap, Clint was on the floor at Peter’s feet, Thor was on the armchair, Wanda and Vision were on the love seat, Bruce was next to Thor, Steve was next to her, Bucky was sitting on Steve’s armrest, Rhodey was next to Tony and Sam sat on the floor with Clint. Put the birdbrains together. Thought Nat with an internal chuckle. She sighed and leaned back as Tony ordered FRIDAY to play the movie.
This was perfect. With her Детский паук by her side, she wouldn’t have it any other way.