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Peter knew he shouldn’t have temped fate by becoming too comfortable around the Avengers Tower. After all Parker Luck had taken almost everyone he loved, and when he found himself becoming too close to the Avengers he should have assumed it would have all been ripped away in one fell swoop.
They, Peter and Tony, had been working in one of the labs together on a new type of web fluid that could conduct electricity. He had been working in a daze, mind still caught up in his Aunt’s death, of her bleeding out in his arms, when Peter accidentally dropped the beaker he was holding, reflexes too slow to catch it in time.
The, admittedly unstable, mixture had spilt all over his Spider-Man suit, one Tony had gifted to him when they had begun to work together more despite the fact neither Tony nor any other Avenger truly knew who Spider-Man was under the mask. It splashed over him, fizzling and charring into a black mess that stained the floor.
Glass shot out as the beaker clattered down, a shard of it nicking Tony’s ankle and letting the corrosive liquid splatter across his bare skin.
Tony had cursed loudly, yelling for F.R.I.D.A.Y to get Dr Cho and Dr Banner before he turned to Peter and started yelling at him. “What the hell?! How could you drop that? We were so close to working that out, you’ve just destroyed weeks of work! Get out of my sight Spider-Man.”
Terrified Peter had scrambled out of the lab, careful not to break anything else on his way out. His hands trembled from pain and fear as he bolted down corridors to the nearest window and jumped out, barely calculating his swing properly before he was gone.
He hadn’t manged to get far, however. The failed web fluid, which had mostly spilled down his suit, was eating away at the material, digging into his skin painfully. In the end he had to crash onto a rooftop and curled up in pain there until it began raining and the water washed away some of the liquid.
Now, Peter sat alone in his tiny apartment in Queen’s washing his wounds in the slightly brown tap water. Daylight had begun to pour through his dingey apartment’s windows, reflecting off the droplets of water, blood and the sticky material that looked a lot like charred sugar.
The thought of sugar just made Peter feel worse, hunger gnawed at his chest like a writhing beast. Usually, by now, he would have been swinging over to the Avengers Tower before school and eating breakfast made by either Bucky or Steve. Of course he was always careful when eating at the Avengers Tower, either only lifting his mask up enough to eat or staying in a separate room to eat. No one had questioned why he wanted to keep his identity hidden, that was just a fact of life, something Spider-Man always did.
Peter would kill for their breakfast now, but Tony’s message had been painfully clear. He didn’t want to see Spider-Man again.
Resigning himself to his fate, Peter pulled himself up as best he could and limped from the bathroom into his sparce kitchen. Random textbooks covered all available counterspace that wasn’t taken up by beakers and other science equipment. May would have been horrified, but she wasn’t here anymore so there was no one to make Peter clean up.
After searching the cupboards, he came to the horrible realisation that there was hardly any food there. A few strands of dry spaghetti left over from when he had cooked a meal several weeks back, but hardly enough for him to keep up with his rapid metabolism.
Which meant that his wounds wouldn’t be healing any time soon unless he found a way to make money. But he was hardly fifteen and there wasn’t many places that would hire a child to make enough money to make rent and food. And Peter would never take money for helping people as Spider-Man.
The only reason he used to be able to afford his apartment was the credit card he had gotten when he had become an Avenger. A card he had left behind in his lab at the Tower.
Peter was utterly and royally fucked.
He didn’t end up going to school for several days, in too much pain to act normal and civil with other students. Most of his days were spent sat in his corner biting down on his lip, trying to fall asleep and ignore the starving feeling that continuously washed over him.
There hadn’t even been any time to go out Spider-Maning, even if his suit hadn’t been all but destroyed in the incident. Even Karen had gone down, the AI either damaged or Tony had shut her down when he had kicked Peter out.
The memory of his mentor’s rage still made him flinch like he was about to be struck.
Nearly two weeks after, Peter had decided he should go to school. His wounds had hardly healed, but they had slowed in their festering, and his fever was lighter than it had been before. There had been a few anti-biotics in the house, but he took all of them at once and it hadn’t even done a thing.
He just needed to make it through the day.
Just smile.
Don’t let the mask fall.
Luckily for him, Peter didn’t have many friends to worry about him. Ned knew he had some connections to the Avengers but nothing more, he likely would have assumed Peter was just getting therapy for his Aunt’s death at the hands of an incident during one of the larger scale battles. And MJ didn’t really seem to care all that much about him, she was rather aloof.
And it turned out that he didn’t even have to worry about Ned, the boy was off sick and had been for a few days. Peter made a mental note to message him later to make sure it wasn’t anything too serious.
English, Maths and Spanish had passed in a blur. He had only been called out once for falling asleep in Spanish but had gotten away with it by answering the questions he had been asked. Peter was fairly sure Flash had tried to say something, but he couldn’t care enough to pay attention.
Now he sat in AP-Physics at the back of the class as he sunk into the uncomfortable plastic chair, it gave a small groan as he shifted his weight. His hands trembled, hardly able to hold onto the pen in his hand as he stared down at the paper before him.
MJ who was sat next to him for some reason, odd given it was Ned’s usual seat and not hers, was just sketching on the corner of her paper. When she looked up and saw him she rolled her eyes before passing something to him under the table.
Fumbling to grab it before it fell on the floor, Peter glanced below the charred and chipped desk to have a look. A half-eaten chocolate bar was in his hand melted slightly by the sun.
Gratitude filled Peter’s chest as he wolfed it down when he was sure Mr Harrington wasn’t looking and smiled. Even the small bite of pure sugar eased off the hunger in his stomach and let him relax a bit.
After his hand stopped shaking like a leaf caught in a thunderstorm, Peter scribbled down answers to all the questions and moved his sheet a little closer to MJ so she could read it. The girl raised one brow with a bemused smile and copied down his answers before continuing her sketch of Flash looking horribly confused at a question.
The bell rang not long after, or maybe it was a long time after, Peter didn’t know. Time meant little to the Vigilante now he hadn’t slept in several days. He stood on instinct stuffing books into his bag and passing over his sheet of paper before making towards the door, only to be stopped by Mr Harrington.
“Can all members of the Academic Decathlon team hang back for a moment? I won’t keep you long.”
Taking a deep breath Peter turned from the door and wandered back towards the teacher’s desk where his teammates were gathered all looking equally confused as he did, bar MJ of course.
“As you all know last month we all did very well on the Nationals, as a result we were sighted by a very important company and invited to have a tour! And because of who has allowed us to go on this tour, it will be completely free. In other words, we are going to Stark Industries!” There was an excitement in the teachers voice that none of them had heard in quite a while. “But we got this very late so I’ll need your signed slips back tomorrow and we will be leaving in two days!”
Flash scoffed muttering something about it being ‘not as cool as where his father worked,’ but nobody paid him much attention. Most of the team had begun to cheer loudly and talk about whether they would get a chance to meet the Avengers of Tony Stark himself. And Peter? He was just spiralling.
What if they did see one of the Avengers and they recognised Peter? Sure, he always wore his suit when he had been around them but people like Nat were specially trained spies, they could probably work him out through how he walked and talked.
Stupid Parker Luck.
Resigning himself to the inevitable torture of the future Peter grabbed his paperwork from Mr Harrington and ran out of the classroom with everyone else.
Given they were let out late the halls were relatively empty as he limped down the corridor out onto the courtyard. His bus was gone and the next one wouldn’t be around until almost half an hour later so Peter was forced to walk.
Each limping step seemed to weigh heavier, as if dragged down by the weight of the paper in his bag. He rounded a corner and saw Delmar’s, hunger curling in his gut, a familiar feeling given how often he was starving these days.
A flash caught his eye; a crumpled bill caught in a drain. Peter glanced around before scrambling to grab it. five dollars, just enough for his usual order. It wouldn’t last long but it could help his healing factor fix his injuries.
Before he could reach the door, however, he saw a kid not much younger than him sleeping on the cobbled stone floor, hands wrapped around their stomach from the pain of hunger. The sight made his heart ache and he was torn.
Eventually his morality overtook his sense of self preservation, and he tucked the money into her pocket and started to lumber back towards his dingy apartment in the darker side of Queens.
The elevator was broken again, though it never seemed to ever truly be fixed to the point of usability, so Peter was forced to make the accent up via the stairs. It gave him time to think, to plan ahead.
If he played his cards right there was a chance he could manage to get a role as an intern at Stark Industries. After all he did have insider information about the hiring process. And if he did manage to get a place there he could get paid, sure it wasn’t a lot, but it would be enough for rent and some food.
For the first time in a while hope bubbled into his chest, helping him bolt up the stairs to his apartment. Midday sun gleamed through the half-closed blinds painting everything in shades of pale gold and warm coppers.
Maybe he would be able to get his life together.
Two days later Peter woke up earlier than normal to prepare. He had given in his permission slip the day before, forged with a fake guardians signature, he had told the school after May died he had been taken in by his neighbour in their old apartment. In reality that flat had been empty because of damp and he didn’t even live in the same block anymore.
There was a crook in his neck from how he had slept the night before, stuck to the ceiling hanging from a comforting nest of webs. The sling had surprisingly made him feel safer, the webs warm around him and a tight, comforting presence.
Dangling down from the ceiling, Peter slid his shirt off, grabbing a clean one he had washed the night before, it was baggy, long enough to hide his visible ribs. It was one of his science pun ones, often when looking at potential new interns SI preferred ones who had a little humour and weren’t afraid to have some rather mad ideas, the shirt, he hoped, would give off a good feel.
Peter matched it with a pair of black jeans before jumping off the roof and having to spend a moment leant against a wall as his head spun like he had a major concussion.
After a while he managed to stand up by himself and gather everything else he needed, which wasn’t a lot. Just his pen, notebook and phone. He checked for new messages, just one from Ned saying he was not going to be in.
He rushed out the door, barely reaching school in time for the bus. Mr Harrington had been stood outside the doors looking around for Peter, pen tapping against his clipboards. “There you are Peter! Quick get inside we are about to leave and I’m sure you don’t want to miss this!”
Peter just hurried on taking a seat in front of MJ and leaning his head against the window as they started to move. Mr Harrington droned on for a while, likely about rules and regulations. None of it mattered much to Peter, Pepper and Bruce had run him through all the rules several times when he had been visiting as Spider-Man, Tony had never been too big on teaching rules.
It didn’t take long for then to reach the glistening tower of glass, stretching high into the sky. The other members of the Academic Decathlon team were pressing their faces into the glass of the bus to get a better look at it.
Mr Harrington had little command over the group as they flooded out of the doors and out onto the street opposite the building, chattering loudly in high pitched voices at frequencies only bees should be able to hear. Peter’s super-hearing just enhanced the noise making his headache worse.
He followed near the back of the group, careful not to let his guard drop at the familiar space.
The lobby had obviously been designed by Tony, sleek white walls offset by shades of grey. There was a few plants around but one looked showed that all of them were fake, except one on the receptionists desk, Anne. Peter had given her that plant after a few times of coming to SI.
“Tour Group from Midtown?” Anne asked politely as she pushed her glasses further up her nose, smiling down at them.
Their teacher nodded in confirmation as he glanced back at the awe-stuck class who were looking through a wall towards a copy of a larger arc reactor. It was in fact the one that powered the whole tower, though floors seventy to a hundred also had back up reactors given they were the Avengers private floors. Peter used to have one of his own.
Anne slipped out from behind her desk passing out badges to both the students and the teacher. “These badges just mean that you are allowed to be in the tower, if you lose them, even by accident, you will be escorted off the premises and not be allowed back in. Just pop them on your shirt where they will be visible and your trip will go smoothly.”
Peter took his and slipped it onto his shirt without a second thought, it was white and in large black letter embossed with ‘VISITOR’. He remembered the one he had at home, kept in his shoes. It was red and gold marked with Spider-Man, Peter wished he was able to clip that one on and go upstairs to the penthouse. Given it was Friday, Bucky would be baking something, and Nat would be making dinner.
There was a desperate feeling of loss in his chest.
“If you put all personal items in one of these lockers we will be all good. As per our normal workings all phones should be in there, as well as any other recording devices. You may bring a pen and notepad if you wish but that’s all you need. When you are done, step through the metal detectors and your tour guide will take you to where you need to go.” Anne gave a final wave as she slipped back behind her desk, clicking a tab open. From experience Peter knew it was solitaire.
He tossed his phone into the locker and hurried through the metal detector. At first he set it off but after taking off his necklace that held four rings, both his parents rings and Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s, Peter was allowed into the building.
Their tour guide was someone Peter had met before. Harley Keener. The pair of them had worked together in the labs sometimes though Harley wasn’t usually on tour duty, so it was likely a punishment.
It made his plan easier though; he knew how to make Harley laugh and asked good enough questions that he knew the boy was already starting to see potential in him. The group started out at the PR floors, talking to interns and learning about their work.
The whole thing was surprisingly interesting, Peter hadn’t often been down on the PR floor, not unless Tony asked him to get something from Pepper. So, he asked questions whenever he could about projects and how things were run.
After two hours they all moved back into the elevator Harley chatting fondly about where they were going to go next. “Right, according to the day plan we have the museum up next, then its lunch and then we get to tour the R&D labs, which for those who don’t know is my floor! You’ll have an hour in the museum so spend your time wisely!”
Betty and Cindy were sharing their notes on what they had learned about the Tower in one of the elevators corners, several times they glanced over at Harley blushing and giggling. Abe was just humming to himself as he watched the floor numbers tick up. Allison and Flash were having some debate about why they would be a better choice for hiring and MJ was sketching their red, angry faces.
Peter himself was trying to calm his head, the in closed, hot space, was making his headache twice as bad. From experience the Museum wasn’t too hot, for better preservation of everything in there the room was kept at a colder temperature than the outside air.
So, when the doors finally opened again Peter relaxed no longer feeling as trapped or overwhelmed. The museum spanned a whole floor, half of it designated to SI’s own history, the other to the Avengers’ histories.
He had memorized everything on each of the Avengers, so Peter decided for once to explore the section on SI’s history. Time moved fast as he wandered around exhibits, learning about how weapons productions had stopped after Tony had returned from Afghanistan to take it all over.
Peter could have sworn he felt eyes watching him, but his spider sense didn’t go off so he assumed he was just imagining the feeling. It was likely just his hunger and unease at being in such a painfully familiar location.
Just before the end of their time, he ran into Harley who was waiting at one of the exhibits. They talked for a bit and Peter learned he was the only one who hadn’t chosen to just read over the Avengers history, he didn’t mention that it was because he already knew everything about all of the Avengers.
“I like the Avengers, don’t get me wrong, it’s just science is way better than them.” Peter shrugged as they walked back to the elevator together. “I mean most of the Avengers are seen as just Iron Man or the Hulk, but they’re really cool scientists as well and people don’t seem to care enough about that!”
“Fair enough honestly. I expected a few more people like you in your tour group, I was told y’all were future scientists. But celebrity culture is quite big.” The man replied as he smiled down at Peter, Tennessee accent thick.
Peter gave a small smile back as he stepped into the elevator, after a few minutes everyone else trickled back in Flash loudly talking about how Spider-Man was the best Avenger of all of them. Much to Peter’s surprise, Harley agreed with Flash, despite the fact he was Tony’s own mentee.
At least someone still liked him, even if the Avengers didn’t.
The trip to the cafeteria was far faster than the trip to the museum from PR. Light flooded in from the large open space, highlighting the many stores and groups of people around.
It almost seemed like some big mall’s food court. Thirty different types of food stores were set up all around the room, flanked with a small army of table and chairs. Unlike the lobby though everything was wood plated and finished with thousands of real plants that climbed up the walls. Pepper had designed this area of the tower, and it showed.
“Feel free to get what you want class; everyone has ten pounds to spend courtesy of Mr Stark. Though I would say don’t disturb any of the interns sat down for lunch, its kind of a miracle they actually left their lab work or paperwork.” Harley explained before promptly turning around to find his own food.
It wasn’t Peter’s first time in the food court, and he knew where his money was able to go the furthest. Wandering over to a small Italian joint in one of the corners he ordered a medium peperoni pizza. The cook didn’t even seem to question it, just snapped his fingers and started to prepare it.
The smell of food was heavenly, especially to his staved body. Over the past week he hadn’t eaten much, even his meal wouldn’t make much of a difference, but it was food so why would he care.
When he got his food, Peter hurried off to a corner where he wasn’t likely to be disturbed and tucked in. It was filling for a bit but soon after his healing factor stole most of the energy from the meal he felt hungry again and slightly lightheaded.
He pulled out his notebook after he was finished and started to draw up a new suit design. Given his old suit was destroyed he wanted to make a new one so he could go out on patrol again, the need to be Spider-Man was overwhelming.
Halfway through his second design he saw Mr Harrington looking for him, everyone else beginning to get back into the elevator. Peter quickly shut his book, threw away his pizza box and got into the lift with everyone else. Harley smiled at him, giving a small wink that made Peter blush and unreasonable and alarming shade of crimson.
If anyone asked he would blame it on his headache.
They headed upstairs and after a minute arrived at a rather chaotic section of lab. On the floor was a Roomba wearing a tiara and holding two knives as it chased down three panicked interns.
Peter had made the Roomba one night when he was exhausted and the coffee machine had broken.
One of the interns, Laura, ran over to Harley terrified. “Harls help, the creature got out again. Its already stabbed John!”
“Just throw some web fluid on it.” Came a deep, unmistakable voice from behind them.
Slowly the class turned, faces paling as they were met with Tony Stark himself, a loose ‘press’ smile on his face. Laura stopped, gave a nod and hurried off to find the vial. After a moment of screaming the Roomba beeped loudly and stopped in its place.
“Well kids that’s what you have to expect if you ever join R&D.” Harley cackled as he fist bumped several of the other interns.
Tony nodded in agreement. “Everyone runs on like three hours of sleep a week and far too much coffee. Now, I was going to ask Bruce to look over my new formula but let’s see if you are all smart enough to work it out.”
He led them into a side room that was quieter before writing a formula on a whiteboard. Peter took only a minute to work out it was their failed electric web formula. It was the one thing that had kept him busy during his time away from school and being Spider-Man, he had figured out the issue after three days.
Peter didn’t much care for the fact Tony was passing it off as his own. He had kicked Spider-Man out of the Avengers so everything Peter had been working on would just go straight to Tony.
Quickly writing down what he remembered from his journal he waited for someone else to go up first. Flash walked up smugly and slapped down his workings out before Tony and Harley. The pair read it over muttering together in loose Italian before shaking their heads. “You missed the fact Chlorine is a double negative, it’s all imbalanced.”
Flash looked for a moment like he was actually about to argue back before Mr Harrington dragged him back to his seat.
Schooling his terror at the sight of Tony, Peter shuffled to the front of class, head pounding. Harley gave him a small smile and took the workings out and looked over them with Tony.
Soon their eyes went wide, and they glanced at each other before looking at Peter. Harley whispered something that sounded a lot like ‘I told you he was good.’ Before nodding to the work. “We think you might just be on to something here kid.”
Everyone else turned in their results soon after but none of their work gained the same reaction as Peter’s. Soon though, from the way his spider sense was thumping in his head mixed with the headache he had from the past few days, Peter paled slightly.
People now were just fangirling over the fact they were in the same room as Tony Fucking Stark, even Mr Harrington looked excited beyond belief.
“Uh.” Tony started before clearing his throat and trying again. “Well kids that’s all we have time for today I’m afraid. Though if all goes well we will be seeing some of you in the future for an internship!”
Everyone started to get up and head towards the door, throwing glances back at Tony who was staring down at the paper in his hands in amazement. Harley gave Peter another small wink and a half smile that seemed to dazzle like sunlight on water.
But then the whole room seemed to sparkle and glow, the light blurring together until it was one big white flash. The last thing he saw was Harley’s smile fading to concern as he darted forwards to catch Peter who hit the floor hard.
Peter woke up with one hell of a migraine, there was a moving light above him, though it didn’t seem to be connected to the ceiling as it swept over his eyes. he tried to raise one hand to swat at it, but his hands were chained either side of him, the same with his legs.
Fear spooled hot and fast in his body; had he been kidnapped? It wouldn’t be the first time. In a blind panic he forced all of the strength he could muster into his arms and snapped the chains, stumbling up into a sitting position.
Whoever was holding the light leapt back, yelling for backup as Peter bent over and ripped the cold metal chains off of his ankles.
Who would kidnap him and chain him up? Hydra? Maybe.
“Get the fuck off me Hydra scum.” He mumbled weakly trying to pry his eyes open. Peter twisted to the side and suddenly felt himself falling, and for the second time in a while he crashed into a heaped pile on the floor.
Someone yelled ‘sedate him!’ But Peter just snarled like a wild beast as he stumbled to his feet. A cold hand grabbed his side, and he felt the half healed chemical burns scream out in pain and Peter’s eyes shot open.
The room around him was a mess. Metal shards covered the floor from the chains, alongside a fair amount of blood. The pillows and blanket of the bed were in a heap beside a snapped IV line.
People surrounded him and it took a while for Peter to recognise them as he was backed into a corner. Bucky and Steve were looking terrified as they held broken bits of chain, too dark to be iron so likely vibranium. Tony and Bruce were looking suspicious, but they were backed out of dangers way. Natasha and Wanda were advancing on him, trying to push him into a corner while Dr Strange filled a needle with clear fluid.
The fight left him and instead Peter was afraid, afraid of being hurt by those he was once loved by. “No wait! Please don’t hurt me.” His voice trembled, terrified and pained.
Nat’s eyes narrowed the Russian Ex-Spy likely trying to work out if he actually meant any harm, or if he was just fighting because he woke up in a medical lab, chained to a bed surrounded by people.
“Kid, we won’t harm you if you don’t harm us. We just got a few questions for you okay? Will you come sit down on the bed?” Wanda asked as she took a few steps back, using her powers to place the bedding back where it should be and to clean up the shattered vibranium.
“Kay…” Peter mumbled slipping past her and clambering up into the hospital bed, wincing at his wounds.
Everyone relaxed a bit after that but none of them left. Bucky, Steve, Wanda and Bruce stood in a corner near the door watching while Nat, Strange and Tony took a seat on the bed opposite.
“First off kid. You passed out in the R&D labs, we took you here just in case if was some toxin that you had picked up, though now we checked you just seem like you have a bad case of starvation. We tried to call your legal guardian to ask if they had been feeding you, but they never picked up, after checking records the person you claim to have as your guardian doesn’t exist. Care to explain?” Tony asked, his voice a little sharp but Peter could tell it was just concern.
Taking a deep breath, Peter just mumbled as he looked down at his hands in shame. “My Aunt died after an attack on Queens. I don’t have any remaining family, and I didn’t want to be put in the foster system, so I lied and faked the paperwork.”
Everyone paused, expressions softening. “Do you have anywhere to go? Access to food and water?” Nat seemed genuinely horrified for him.
“Yeah! I’m fine. I’m fine.” He rushed to speak, talking way too fast, jittery from the nerves.
“Well, that’s a lie. You look like you haven’t eaten in months.” Bucky scoffed before walking out of the room to do, or to find, something.
Peter just squeaked weakly, hands clenching at the bed, warping the metal railings slightly. There was too much going on, too many people, too many dangers. He could feel the hot blood rushing through his ears, hear each person’s heartbeat around him.
The lights seemed to dim automatically, somewhere a vent clicked over, and cold air started to blow into the room. It made Peter feel slightly drowsy, making him focus less of the pressure of the room.
No one spoke for a while. Giving him a few minutes to catch his breath enough for him to croak out. “I’m okay.”
Someone sighed and a hand rested on his shoulder, a kind face appeared. Nat. “Just two more, I promise. Tony make them good, then we are leaving the kid alone.”
Tony nodded mulling over what he wanted to ask. “How did you break through solid vibranium like it was plastic?” Everyone turned to attention as he asked the question, inquisitive to the answer.
“You’ll hate me if I tell you.” Peter said firmly, curling up on his side on the bed, hands wrapped around his stomach. He knew then what the little girl outside of Delmar’s had felt like.
“I doubt that highly kid. We are the Avengers, unless you try to destroy the world we won’t hate you.” Tony said firmly, his words back up by the other Avengers’ nods.
Peter held back a scoff. “You already hate me Mr Stark.” He bolted out of bed before any of them could stop him, wrist ahead of him as he shot a stream of web, yanking open the metal door before promptly running into Bucky’s chest, who looked down at him confused.
Bucky glanced over to Steve before picking Peter up with his vibranium arm and placing the boy back on the bed and pressing a box of freshly baked cookies into his hands. “Eat.” He then wandered over to Steve again and rested his head on Steve’s shoulder.
“Маленький паук?” Nat whispered low before bolting over to him and pulling him into a tight hug to her chest. “Voids you’re so thin. Why did you leave us Маленький паук why?”
Everyone was seemingly coming to the same conclusion. Peter Parker, a small fifteen-year-old who was at the brink of starvation was the same Spider-Man they all thought was twenty-one.
Though Wanda, Steve and Bucky all had looks of horror on their faces as they worked out they had fought a child. Wanda had thrown cars at him in the ‘Civil War’, Steve had collapsed a bridge on top of him and Bucky had tried to punch him with a vibranium arm.
“Mr Stark yelled at me; he told me to leave.” Peter sobbed quietly into Nataha’s shoulder as he clung tight to her, his powers kicking in and let him hold her with a grip that was as strong as he could muster.
Everyone slowly turned to Tony who was pallid. “Underoos. I am so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to leave, like actually leave. I was hurt. But that’s no excuse. Voids, forgive me I’m so sorry Roo.”
Peter gave a weak sniffle. “It’s fine. That stuff did hurt.” He mumbled, still leaning into Nat’s chest.
“You got hurt by it?” Strange and Bruce said simultaneously, they had worked for a week to try and deal with the decay the liquid brought into Tony’s body.
“Most of it splashed down my suit.” Peter shrugged weakly as his tears started to slow. The lights were still somewhat dimmed from F.R.I.D.A.Y’s influence. He moved slightly away from Nat and lifted the front of his shirt.
All across his chest were jagged pale scars, so thick in some places you couldn’t even see skin. Burns, bullets, knives, rubble and energy blasts were all marked across his skin which itself was pulled tight to his visible ribs. The mixture was still staining his skin like ink, body half forming skin over the festering wounds that dripped down his chest and stomach. “I tried some painkillers and antibiotics, but I took the whole pack, and it didn’t help. Usually, my body can heal itself fast, but I was too hungry to do it properly. I’m sorry.”
Nat pulled him back into her chest. “Маленький паук it’s not your fault. Look Bucky made cookies, eat some of those while Steven and Bruce work out how to help you.”
It took a while, but Bruce made the formula to neutralise the acidic webs again and carefully applied it to each of his injuries while Strange got out the painkillers they usually used on super-soldiers, like Bucky and Steve, who’s metabolisms were too fast for regular drugs.
All while Peter nibbled at the cookies muttering quiet thanks to Bucky and constantly saying how good they were on a loop. His eyes were glazed over thanks to the painkillers, and he was far more relaxed.
Tony, who was not usually one for hugs, walked up to Peter after Strange and Bruce said that he would be okay and picked him up, holding him tight to his chest. “I’m so sorry Roo. I promise this will never happen again. You’re mine now, I’ll protect you.”
With a little whine Peter slumped back in his arms, head lolling on his shoulder as he winced in pain, seeming as if the painkillers had already started to wear off. His stomach gave a grunt of protest as he was shifted back to Nat’s arms who carried him out of the med bay and into the lift as they headed up into the penthouse kitchen.
“You got a faster metabolism that even Steve it seems Маленький паук. Let’s get you some real food before you start chewing on the walls. Can’t imagine how hungry you are, we all know how cranky even Steve and Bucky get if they don’t eat every few hours.”
“Mh kay мама-паук.” Peter mumbled as he slumped down in his seat with a yawn, eyes refusing to stay fully open.