InkyGoat

Peter didn't have the time to react.

Peter really should have double-checked with Tony what he meant when the man said that the Accords were settled and that the rogue Avengers were coming home. Or at least confirm which home he meant.

So of course, the one weekend he finally agrees to sleepover at the Tower, the ex-rogue Avengers were back in town. Maybe it was because the old team was coming back, or maybe it was just Tony catching up on his promised gifts, but the duo spent the entire night working on various designs for the team.

The Widow's many weapons.

Falcon's new and improved Redwing.

Different Hawkeye arrow designs.

Even a prototype for Cap's shield.

Peter got really excited about that one. Now he can say that he has held two versions of Captain's shield, albeit he did steal one of them during a fight, but that still counts. Of course, Tony being Tony, and Peter looking up to his idol, the pair ended up staying up late. So late in fact that the teen simply passed out on the couch in the workshop.

By the time he woke up, someone had put a blanket on him, and despite probably staying up many hours later than the teen, Tony was nowhere to be seen. Their work during the night was scattered about, all in a big mess, and all in different parts of the workshop.

Getting up Peter stretched, yawned and nearly fell over again while standing up. He was still pretty caught up about the mechanical issue that they had with the shield prototype and quickly made his way over to take a look at the problem once more. After a short, but deep sleep, and looking at the problem from a new angle, Peter suddenly realized their issue. It just clicked.

Double-checking it, no triple checking it, every time he ran the equation with and without F.R.I.D.A.Y., it all worked perfectly.

Shield in hand the teen sprinted out of the lab to show off to his mentor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. quickly opened the elevator doors, already setting the destination to the level Tony was on. Barely keeping his excitement down, Peter didn't pause to take a look around as the doors slid open.

“Mr Stark! Mr Stark! I fixed the issue we had yesterday! It was in –”

Peter stopped mid-sentence, the shield clattering loudly as he dropped it. Like a deer in headlights, he was frozen in place. Standing in the kitchen of the Tower's common lounge were none other than Falcon, the marksman assassin Hawkeye and Captain freaking America himself.

Shocking as that was by itself, the domestic scene of the room was making it all worse, strange and surreal even. The two bird-themed heroes were sitting at the dining table, while America's golden boy was in casual clothes and making pancakes. Does he have a beard?

Peter was slightly too caught up in the moment to even realize that he was gawking. Or that the trio was just as surprised at his sudden appearance, if not more.

“Hey, um, Clint, tell me you see the teen who just ran in with Cap's shield?”

Oh shit, the shield. Finally realizing he dropped it, Peter scooped it up and fully walked into the room. No point hiding it now. They saw him after all.

“Err…hi?”

“What are you doing on this level, kid?” Steve Rogers himself just spoke to him, in civilian form no less; Peter can live a full, happy life now. If he survives the next couple of minutes.

“S-sorry, I… I intern here.” That was the agreed-upon cover with Mr Stark, and at this point, it wasn't even that much of a lie either.

“Intern? Tony takes those?”

“Stark is just full of surprises isn't he,”

“Whatever, Tin-Can can tell us about it later,” Wilson turned to Peter again, “But how does an intern have access to this level? And Cap's shield?”

Ah, yes. The age-old question everyone working here keeps asking him.

“I'm his personal assistant,” Peter answered as if on queue. The trio was even more taken back. Apparently, a lot can change in a couple months. “Well,” Steve actual-Captain-America spoke up, “I'm sure you have no reason to lie,” There were many, but the team decided to roll with it for now, “So, what was the issue with my shield?”

“Oh. Right.” Peter was still holding that shield. “Come over, these are almost ready.” His heart may have sped up slightly, but it was far too rude to refuse pancakes from America's hero.

“So, Mr Stark and I were working on it yesterday and…” Walking over to the table, Peter began rambling about some mechanical and engineering complication. Putting it on the table, he tried his best to explain both the issue and solution without making a mistake and embarrassing himself. Peter was too focused on his presentation to notice the impressed looks on the three superheroes' faces. Or at least two of them.

Sam was more tired than anything and was also worried that this was a new miniature Tony. Okay yes, as troubling as that fact could be, it was still quite impressing to hear a teenager rambles on and on about advanced mechanical complications.

“…so I woke up this morning and realized what we were skipping over this part and –”

That part, in particular, caught a certain assassin's attention, “Whoa, whoa, this is all cool and all but woke up this morning? Like here?”

“Oh yeah, I sort of slept over in the lab, we stayed up like, really, really late and all so…” The kid really was like Stark.

“Tony let you sleep over?” Clint teased, “Huh, you two must be quite close then. It’s just that Tony normally hates teaching people.” It was just a light jab, but Peter felt his heart pace quicken and hands tremble slightly. Secret identity.

Maybe sitting down and talking to the Avengers wasn't the best idea, especially for him. Suddenly realizing his short pause of silence, Peter scrambled for some answer. Something. C'mon big brain. C'mon.

“What the hell?”

That wasn't anyone in the group.

No, in fact, that voice came from the hallway. Tony Stark himself stood in the doorway, in one of his fancy suits, and visibly panicking. The genius quickly strode over, taking in the sight of his intern, or secret vigilante Spider-Man, talking to his old teammates. And was that the old man's prototype shield? This wasn't supposed to happen.

Tony thought the kid was out cold for the morning, enough time for the team to have breakfast, get down to the press conference and then maneuver their way over to the jet. No biggie. No first meetings. Easy.

“So Pete, what's going on here?” Tony inquired walking over.

“Hello Mr Stark, I walked in on them.” Straight to the point, “Oh, and I found out what that problem we had was!” The teen, as excited as he was, looked suddenly unsure of himself and quite a bit nervous at the fact that he was presenting a technical solution to his idol.

“Did you now? Knew you would eventually kiddo, show me what’s up,” Reaching over Tony gave the teenager a reassuring pat on the back and settled in around the table. After all, the pancakes were ready.

That was the only reason.

 
The two genius's nerves were soon gone. There was still some tension between the two parties, but that was slowly going down too. Peter forgot about his alter ego secret, or that he was talking to the Avengers while Tony decided that introducing the group to Peter might not be as hard. Introducing Spider-Man though, that's a whole new layer of stress.

“So kid, how old are you?” Steve was really making an effort to get to know Peter, “Clint is guessing around 20,” A quiet yell of betrayal was heard. “Just starting college, he says. I say a few years younger, you're smart but definitely still a teenager,”

“What? I'm, err, I'm actually only 15,”

Tony wasn't really listening at this point. He was pretty sure he heard Clint speak up in surprise though. But at the moment he was a little preoccupied with his two-people-are-actually-one and that one person has met his old teammates donning both masks; crime-fighting web-slinger and shy genius teenager.

Nothing terrible has happened so far.

Excluding the fact that Spider-Man fought Captain and the two birds, but it could have been under much worse circumstances. From then on, Tony only really heard some small sections of the ongoing conversation.

“Whaaat? Star Wars is the best space adventure. Full stop. The stories, the heroes, everything!”

“Don't know what you're on about squirt, Interstellar, The Martian and all those fantasy and yet somehow realistic ones are way better.”

Oh boy, Clint started that conversation with Peter.

Back to his thoughts however, Tony was pretty sure the team will find out soon who Spider-Man, and in turn Peter Parker, really is. So maybe telling them straight away would be better. After all, they're trying to rebuild their old relationships. No more lies, right? Once Tony makes it through the day he should talk to Peter about it. Right now, he should just focus on his pancakes and tune back into the conversation.

Listening carefully, he could hear that Peter's voice stopped shaking every so often by now and that the team truly believes that he is nothing more than an intern. For now, the cover was safe.

“I mean, this must be weird for you, Captain America himself making pancakes?”

“What's wrong with me making pancakes?”

“No, no, it's kind of nice knowing even world-saving superheroes live a domestic life,”

Tony huffed out a small chuckle at the kid's statements. It's not like you do that yourself, everyday kid. Only a few select people know about Peter's nightly antics. Happy, Pepper obviously, Rhodey but only on accident, and of course the teen's aunt, May Parker. Peter had reinforced his want for secrecy, so in the end, the choice should be his about whether or not telling the team, but these were the Avengers. They could be trusted.

“Sorry to disappoint but that's the only one of us you won't catch eating breakfast like a normal person, pretty sure that guy lives at night and night only.”

Wait, who?

“The guy could just be getting closer to us to break in or something,” Clint added on.

“Yeah, we don't even know who he is,” Sam sounded slightly annoyed, “Every time I hear about him it's always during the night, all around Queens too, kinda shady if you ask me.”

Hold up, Queens?

Tony's shoulders jerked slightly upon his realization. The billionaire looked up in time to see Peter lose some color in his face and start fiddling with his sleeve, the teen's telltale sign that he was uncomfortable. Peter even began nervously fiddling with his food, avoiding eye contact with everyone at the table and focusing on his pancakes.

Perhaps this wouldn't be as easy as he thought. Nothing is around here; Sam was salty about the guy beating him, and even Vision expressed his uncertainty about the masked vigilante.

“W-well, the guy protects people, surely he isn't like, bad?” Peter felt his throat close up, and was once again brutally reminded of the need for secrecy about his identity.

“Sam lay off the Spider, you're just being petty because he beat you,” Steve Rogers once again playing the responsible-adult card, “But Peter, he is kind of right about the identity thing.” Scratch that. “We don't know anything about him, what if he just goes rogue one day?”

“Uh, sure, but he wouldn't though right?”

“Yeah, but we can't be sure so –”

“Alright, that's enough for the morning!” Tony quickly spoke up before this could spiral into some argument. “You guys are here for the press and to pick up some stuff, so chop-chop.” Clint groaned in annoyance but complied. After the archer picked up everyone's plates, all empty by now, he headed off to one of the many old bedrooms. Steve followed, muttering something probably Spider-Man related under his breath, while Sam said he was going to go ahead to the conference room.

As the elevator doors closed and footsteps died down, Tony finally released the breath he didn't realize he was holding. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Peter relaxing as well. The Spider-Man talk must have got to him a bit.

“Don't mind them, I'm sure they'll like Spider-Man more once they really get to know you.”

“You sure about that? Seems like having a secret identity is a constant problem now,” Getting up the teen moved over to the couches and fell face forward onto them, “What if one of them follows me to see who I am? I know they're the Avengers but still!”

Well, there's the answer to that question. Peter didn't want more people knowing.

“C'mon now,” Tony walked over, crouching down near the sprawled out teenager in a hope to be more reassuring, “Since I was the only one who found out about you, I should be able to able to keep it that way.”

Peter mumbled something into the plush but didn't argue. His stomach now full, Peter's limbs felt heavier and mind tired. He may have met his heroes properly now, but thinking back on it now he should have just gone back to sleep when he had the chance.

“Mr Stark, didn't you say you had some conference? You can go ahead I'll hang around here or in the lab,”

“Right. That.”

Getting up Tony reluctantly turned towards the elevator, quickly running over the list of things that needed to be addressed or reinforced. Talking to himself, he promptly hopped into the elevator, letting F.R.I.D.A.Y. take him down. “Don't burn anything in my workshop!”

Right as the doors closed, there was a quiet I won't! And then silence consumed him.

It was one conference.

Get through this and things can start going back to normal. The billionaire could already feel a headache brewing, but he had to see this through. The team relied on it, and he promised Pepper he would actually be there this time.

“What are the future plans for the Avengers?”

Easy, protect the Earth and it’s people as we’ve always done.

“Mr Rogers, can we be sure that this won’t happen again? Possibly at a crucial moment?"

We’re on our way to recovery, and we can assure you that no matter the conflict we will always come together to fight against it.

“What can you tell us about the Queens vigilante Spider-Man? Will his identity be announced after the signing of the new accords?”

Tony swallowed down the bubble that formed in his throat. Steve was answering that question.

Well, seeing as even we don't know his true identity we would prefer it that way, though we would first need to locate him. So Spider-Man if you're watching, then know that we would like to discuss this with you in the near future.

I should add on that maybe. And as the one who initially brought the guy in, I can say first hand that he does not wish for his identity to be public knowledge. So back off.

“Ms Rushman, has Nick Fury commented on the situation in Germany?”

As you can see, Fury isn’t here so we can’t exactly tell you much about his opinion on things. All I can say is that he will continue to work closely with the Avengers to monitor potential threats.

“Mr Stark, what would you say caused the break up of the Avengers?”

Lies. Mistrust. The accords.

Tony’s heart leapt to his mouth, his breathing getting heavier. He should answer by now, the tension in the room was growing, but he couldn’t get his mouth to move. Since when was the room so big? It’s been quite a pause by now, he should just answer with something.

“It’s – It’s a complicated issue, and I’m not sure we should really get into all that so – We just don’t quite have the time for that today,” Small steps Stark, “This press conference today isn’t to dwell on the past but look forward to the future and to reassure everyone out there that the Avengers are just as strong as before. No squabble will tear us apart, not for long anyway. Thank you.”

Tony may be running, but he thinks he handled it with some grace. The press wouldn’t dig into it too much, they will realize that the question was slightly too personal. Striding out of the room, the genius thought back to his breathing exercises and concentrated on getting it under control. Hold for 10. In the distance, he heard the other members say their own ending phrase, something about justice and ‘everything being in the past’. Think ‘relax’. Tony couldn’t quite care what they said right now, he just needed to get out; doesn’t matter where he just needed to keep walking. Inhale for 3. What does the team think of him now that he ran out of there; he knows Pepper would be a bit upset. He knows she wanted to get some good photos of the team together. Exhale for 3. Repeat.

As his breathing slowed, Tony stopped mid-stride.

The hallway he ended up in was empty, some old unused storage area. Most of the items that were once there have now been shipped off to the compound upstate, this time by trucks rather than plane.

Plane. If Peter, or Spider-Man really, hadn’t stopped that plane Tony would have ended up in so much trouble. Hundreds of weapon prototypes and dozens of arc reactors and official Avenger gear all could have been lost to that metal winged old guy and his little corrupt organization.

The United Nation’s view on superheroes may have shifted completely against Tony if he lost so many weapons; he really owes that kid big time. Plus he took the suit when the kid needed it most. They should work together on some new Spider-Man stuff, Peter may have enjoyed inventing new Hawkeye arrows or holding another Cap shield, but he needs his own protection too.

That Iron-Spider suit could always be upgraded, little tweaks here and there. The kid probably has his own ideas and preference in things.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. could you tell me where Peter is right now?” The A.I. was hesitant. “Mr Parker is currently in the common room walking on the ceiling.” Oh come on. Tony picked up his pace as the elevator doors opened.

“Damn kid, he’s going to get caught by someone again. Take me up F.R.I.”

The ride was smooth and fast, and yet Tony was getting jittery at the thought of another Rhodey situation. He had to calm his friend down for hours when the guy walked in on Peter napping on the ceiling. Maybe the kid found it more relaxing up there ever since he got his abilities, but it freaked everyone out the first time they encountered it.

Tony still denies that he ‘screamed and collapsed on the floor in fear’, as Pepper put it.

The elevator made a calm ding noise, and doors slid open, and the common room was…

A mess. Oh no.

This was worse than anything he prepared himself for today.

Why is this, how did this even…?

How on Earth did Peter end up here? First of all, since when did Hawkeye even get into the room and secondly, why was the dude’s first instinct to shoot an arrow at him.

Peter was just sitting on the ceiling, in different clothes and wearing the Spidey mask. Nothing wrong. It felt nicer, calming even, to be upside down like a real spider, especially when he was stressed and overthinking things.

After Tony left, Peter stayed on the couch for a while, rethinking his life choices and coming to the conclusion that morning breakfast with the Avengers was indeed the worst thing he could have done. He should have just walked back into the elevator and ran.

The old team clearly disproves of Spider-Man, and Captain America himself thought he should be older than he really is to work with Tony. What will he say when he finds out the vigilante he dislikes and the way too young intern are one and the same? That’s just a double negative.

Double negatives make a positive, Peter thought, smiling at that dumb joke MJ made, it does in math anyway, she had added on.

After what felt like hours of lying face down on the couch and contemplating his life, Peter finally decided to move. A quick trip to his room later, and he plopped back down on the couches in fresh clothing. In spite of having a long night and exciting, yet troubling, morning, Peter couldn't just fall asleep.

Reaching over the teenager grabbed the TV remote, turning it on to the current press conference that the Avengers should be starting. Closing his eyes, Peter wasn’t even planning on actually sitting and watching the interviews, just some noise to fill the silence in the room. So he stretched out on the couch, half listening and half pondering the idea of miniature spider robots that he could control somehow.

That is until a particular phrase from the TV caught his attention.

The moment ‘Spider-Man’ was mentioned, he instantly tensed up.

“What does the team have to say about the Queens vigilante Spider-Man? Will his identity be announced after the signing of the new accords?”

Fantastic. Now he knows that the old Avengers hate him and the press is after him. Well, after Spider-Man but if they find out who he is then they will be after Peter Parker too; and Aunt May, and all his classmates and friends.

“Well, seeing as even we don't know his true identity we would prefer it that way, though we would first need to locate him. So Spider-Man if you're watching, then know that we would like to discuss this with you in the near future."

“Yeah good luck with that Cap,” Peter muttered quietly. Fortunately Tony stepped in to smooth things over about the whole secret identity thing. Seriously, no one seems to grasp the concept of the mask. It’s there for a reason.

His head was pounding by now, feeling as though it would burst at any second. The paranoia was getting impossible. Launching himself off the couch, Peter bounced over to the wall, quickly scaling it until he was pacing up above. It helped all right? Sometimes he ended up doing his homework hanging upside down.

Feeling around in his pockets, Peter pulled out his Spider-Man mask. Maybe Karen can help him out. Her calm manner always helped him out on patrol. Pulling it on, he heard her usual greeting along with a warning that his heart rate was elevated, and settled down (up?) on the ceiling.

So, of course, that’s when it all went to shit.

It all started with some barely noticeable shuffling noise below him; however, his spidey-sense didn’t alert him of anything, so Peter just assumed it was the air-conditioner moving papers around. Talking quietly to Karen about his morning, Peter looked out on the city landscape in front of him. Being upside-down made it all look like the buildings were reaching down from the sky above, it made it all look quite poetic actually.

He was relaxing, his senses calming down. That is until he felt a tingle in his neck.

Before he could even turn around to see what was the issue, the tingle turned into a full-blown scream. Acting on instinct rather than reaction, Peter leapt to the side, smashing into the wall and fumbling to keep himself from plummeting to the ground.

Where he was just a split-second before, an arrow was lodged into the roof.

What. What. Why?

Glancing around in a wild panic, Peter tried to look out for the telltale sign of Hawkeye being in the room. Behind the counter, he could just make out a mop of brown hair. He talked to the guy this morning, and now Peter is crawling on the ceiling and walls. Seriously, what could have possibly driven Clint to shoot an arrow at Peter? He was just wearing his Spider-Man mask and –

“The guy could just be getting closer to us to break in or something,”

Oh. Okay, Clint probably thought Spider-Man broke into the Tower to steal sensitive data or Stark inventions or something.

“Hey, umm, are you going to need that arrow back or can I keep it?” Deflecting his fear with that usual Spider-Man jabber, Peter slowly began to crawl down. But before he even got within a few feet of the floor, another couple of arrows whistled through the air.

Flipping off the wall, Peter elegantly landed on the couches, before tumbling off those too and hiding behind them instead. By then there was an arrow in the ceiling, three in the wall and one beeping in the couch.

Hold up, beeping?

Peter didn't have the time to react.

The arrowhead exploded, sending both the couch and Peter flying across the room.

He couldn’t hear, his ears were ringing and head spinning. His senses were in overdrive, every noise in the room and all the rooms nearby were as if they were right next to him.

The sound of the elevator working. Little echoes of people talking. A fly crawling on the wall. The vibration in the floor of someone’s footsteps.

“Peter!”

Who’s that?

“Peter?”

Who’s calling him?

“That’s the kid…”

Too many voices.

“You shot him!?”

Shut up.

“…but he dodged!”

So loud.

“…any better!”

As Tony walked in the room, he was greeted with a blast in the face. No, literally. An explosion. Even though he was far enough away not to be hurt by flying debris, he still stumbled backwards, mostly from shock.

Barton’s shock wave arrow. Why would the idiot need to set that thing off?

Trying to collect his thoughts, Tony rushed out the elevator to see Clint running across the room to where the couch area was destroyed. The archer pulled out another arrow along the way, slid next to a small figure on the floor and aimed his bow at it.

A small figure with a red mask and half-closed white lenses.

Tony never felt so terrified for the teenager’s life than at that moment. Peter was still recovering from the blast, with Clint looming over him an arrow locked and ready to finish the fight.

“PETER!”

Clint glanced up to see Tony storming over. Then looked down again, realization dawning on his face. “Peter?” the archer couldn’t believe it, “That’s the kid? Tony what the hell I shot at him!”

“You SHOT HIM?” Tony’s blood ran cold.

“NO! No! I shot at him, but he dodged!”

“Well, that doesn’t make it any better!” This kid was walking on ceilings, and now he’s unconscious on the floor. Goddamn secrets and secret identities, and why did Peter change clothes and put on the mask.

Kneeling beside the boy, Tony barely managed to lift the kid’s head safely. His hands shook too much with fear, worst scenarios running through his head.

He’s strong, he’s fine. But Clint caught him off guard. It’s Peter, though. He didn’t have his wed-shooters. He thought he was safe.

However, tugging on the mask Tony’s hands were stopped by none other than the teen he was holding up. After a few seconds of dizziness and barely coherent thoughts, Peter had managed to regain full awareness of his surrounding. Well, he hardly felt his head being lifted, and his ears were still ringing, but he could make out the two shapes above him.

“Mr Stark?”

At hearing the kid’s voice, Tony instantly relaxed, the tension around his heart loosening. He was fine, just shocked probably.

“Kid, I-I’m so sorry! I thought you…that it was, and it is, but like I didn’t know and, shit, I could have seriously hurt you!” Clint was evidently feeling very guilty, knowing that Spider-Man was just a kid. A kid he met and talked to and quite liked, and he had just shot arrow after arrow at that same kid.

“H-hey Mr Barton, wow, that was scary, huh?” Realizing that his head was being cradled by Tony, I am Iron Man, Stark, Peter hastily sat up. The action caused him to hiss in pain slightly, but he shrugged off the hands that came to help him. “Maybe, let’s just play a game of Uno next time instead of 'bow and arrow dodge ball'?”

The two adults couldn’t help but chuckle at the kid’s suggestion, mostly because the Avenger’s board game nights often ended up nearly the same way. Also, because ‘bow and arrow dodge ball’ was a very light way to say ‘shooting arrows at a poor unsuspecting teenager’.

“No, seriously, dude,” Clint spoke up again, “I owe you one. I don’t know what I would have done if one of those arrows actually hit you,”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Wouldn’t be the first time if they did,” Peter laughed lightly, not noticing Tony’s concerned look, “That last one though, oh my god, it sent me flying!”

When looking back on it, the three of them would laugh about it. Tony asked Clint to stay quiet about Peter’s identity and made the latter promise to stop walking on the ceiling if he even wanted a secret identity at this point.

Although hesitant to lie to his friends, the archer eventually caved in. His opinion about Spider-Man also changed to the better; even after one meeting, he knew Peter wouldn’t suddenly go rogue and start robbing banks or whatever. The kid had too big of a heart to do so.

Unfortunately for Peter though, Clint began to occasionally throw stuff at him to see if he’d dodge. Pillows, stationary, even an apple once that Peter ended up catching and walking away with. It was better than arrows anyway.

 
Please let me know if there are any typos or what-not. 
Also, any feedback or critique is welcome!
This will likely be continued.