Chapter Text
The next day, Peter found himself sitting on one of the chairs in the auditorium beside Ned. He had just finished his audition and decided to wait to watch the others who were going for his role until Happy came to pick him up. Ned came along to support him which Peter greatly appreciates as it was his first time acting, and that being said, he thinks he’s nailed it. Which is obvious because he is Spider-man.
He focused his attention back onto one of the candidates who finally finished stuttering through his lines.
“Alright, thanks Charles,” Mr. Harrington, one of the three judges, said with a tight smile. The student nodded stiffly and rushed off the stage. Peter sighed in sympathy for the boy as he knew how nerve-racking it could be.
Meanwhile, the judges, who consisted of Mr. Harrington, MJ and Betty, continued to converse between themselves when Peter’s phone started ringing all of a sudden. He gave the judges a sheepish smile when they turned to glare at him and quickly exited the auditorium. Once he was in the hallway, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw that it was May calling him. He clicked ‘accept’ and brought it to his ear.
“Hey May! How’s Brazil?”
“It’s great here, Pete,” May said, and he could imagine the warm smile on her face, “how are you, honey?”
“I’m good!”
He smiled and continued to chat with her on the phone. It’s been almost two weeks since May left for Brazil for an internship of sorts that could lead to a better job. He’s been staying with Mr. Stark ever since. He remembered how surprised he had been at how easily the man had agreed to care for him for the next couple of months. He has to admit that it has been fun so far, especially with avengers residing in the same building as him. It all feels so surreal. He does miss May though, and he makes sure to let her know.
“I know, baby,” she replies, “but it’s only a couple more months until I come back for a visit, and I’m sure Tony wouldn’t mind sending you over here during summer vacation a few times either.”
“I can’t wait, May,” Peter grinned.
May hummed a ‘me too’ before asking, “So what's this I hear about you joining a play?”
Peter groaned, “I can’t believe Mr. Stark told you.”
May laughed wholeheartedly, “well, of course, he told me! That’s the secret to Co-parenting. Good communication.”
Peter shook his head, still smiling, “but he still could’ve left out the play thing.”
“Aw come on, Peter. It can’t be that bad,” May snorted when Peter insisted that it really is, “Tony didn’t tell me what the play was about though. So, what is it?”
Peter sighed and mumbled, “Spider-Man.”
There was a pause of silence before May let out a huge snort to which Peter whined back, “May!”
“Alright, alright,” the woman managed to calm herself down a bit but was still giggling, “when’s your audition? And please tell me you’re auditioning for Spider-Man.”
Peter huffed out a ‘yes’ and said, “I just did my audition, actually.”
“Oh really? How was it?”
“I think it went really well, May,” and Peter meant it. He felt really good about this one.
“I’m so proud of you, Peter!” May exclaimed and the boy couldn’t help the large grin that split across his face.
“Thanks, May,” he replied, sheepishly.
“Oh, I’m sorry honey, but I have to go,” the woman said, apologetically, “but I’ll call you tomorrow and you better give me all the details!”
“I will,” Peter laughed, “I larb you!”
“Larb you too!”
The boy hung up and pocketed the phone, heading back into the auditorium. He quietly made his way back to his seat next to Ned, careful of not disrupting the ongoing audition. Peter smiled at his friend to let him know that everything is okay when the boy turned to him in question. Ned then pulled a bag of chips from his bag and opened it, angling it so Peter can grab a few.
As the rest of the day flew by slowly, both Ned and Peter watched lazily, sharing a bag of chips between them, as people auditioned. It was ridiculous how many people wanted this role. Even Custodian Stan Lee tried for the role, and he was so good that Peter himself was starting to question who Spider-man actually was. Unfortunately, Stan wouldn’t be able to get the part as he wasn’t a student, but Peter was absolutely positive that everyone in the room was reluctant to let him go.
From then on, contestants came and went, each one somehow getting progressively worse than the last. The three judges below seemed to be getting frustrated, Ned was snoring lightly next to him and Peter was just about ready to yeet himself out the building when Flash walked out onto the stage. Oh god, he almost forgot about him . He quickly shook his friend awake.
“Alright Flash, it seems like you’re our last audition for the night,” Betty announced and let him know he could begin whenever he was ready.
The boy took a deep breath and cleared his throat before doing a somersault. He landed on his knees and raised his hand, fingers poised as if he was going to shoot a web.
“I’m Spider-Man, evil-doer. And you just got bit!”
The room went silent before loud cheers erupted from the judges. Peter spluttered as all of them, except MJ, stood up, clapping.
“Wow Flash! You have great charisma!” Mr. Harrington (Peter's, now least favourite teacher) said, “I think we have our Spider-Man!”
Peter turned to the boy next to him to complain when he realized Ned was on his feet, clapping as well. A look of betrayal made its way on his face.
“Ned!”
His friend blushed, sitting down and Peter almost forgave him, until Ned opened his mouth to sheepishly say, “he was kinda good.”
Peter scoffed, “Good? It was mediocre at best.”
Ned gave him a knowing smirk, “really?”
“Yea!” Peter crossed his arms and pouted, “plus he didn’t even say any of the lines we all were supposed to practice. Also, Spider-man doesn’t say ‘get bit.’ It’s not even catchy! I bet you the judges would say the same.”
“I love the whole ‘get bit’ thing,” Betty praised and Peter gaped while Ned started laughing beside him.
“Alright. Congratulations, I guess,” MJ sighed, a clear lack of enthusiasm in her voice, “thanks for coming.”
Flash pumped his fist in the air and took his leave. While the judges started getting ready to leave as well, he caught MJ looking at him briefly with an unreadable expression on her face before she turned away. He sighed, deciding to not worry about it, and gathered his things to follow Ned out of the auditorium. Ned bumped his shoulder as they both exited the school to the parking lot.
“Cheer up, man,” Ned said, “it’s just a play.”
Peter shrugged, “yeah, well. I was kinda hoping I’d get the part.”
Their conversation was interrupted by a ‘ding’ coming from his phone and Peter looked down to see it was a message from MJ. He opened it and sighed when he read it.
“Dude, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Peter huffed, “just got a text saying that I’m the fifth choice to play the role of myself.”
“Peter-”
“How could they pick him that fast? And why am I the fifth choice to play Spider-Man? I mean he’s-”
Ned quickly covered his friend’s mouth before Peter just yelled out his secret identity. The boy waited a few seconds for the other to calm down before dropping his hand. “Look at this as a good thing, Peter. Now your identity is definitely safe. I mean, as long as I’m there to cut you off before you spill it.”
“But-”
“Look Peter, so what if Flash got the role of Spider-Man?” Ned lowered his voice, “It doesn’t change the fact that you’re the actual hero out there helping people every day. People appreciate you! I mean our school’s making a whole play for you, dude!”
Peter smiled, nodding at his friend before noticing Happy’s car pull up in the lot. They both greeted the man before getting in the car. The conversation quickly turned to the new Star Wars lego set Ned bought and Peter forgot all about the play as he chatted with his friend.
__________
Peter snapped awake to the sound of his name. He blinked a couple of times to get a grasp of his surroundings and realized that they’ve reached the tower. He looked to his right, expecting to see Ned before remembering that he’d already been dropped off at his house.
“Finally you’re awake,” Happy groaned, “I thought I’d be here all night trying to wake you up and I definitely-”
“- do not get paid enough for this , I know Happy,” Peter replied, rubbing the last remains of sleep out of his eyes before grabbing his bag and stepping out of the car, “But you love me too much to care.”
The boy shut the door, smiling to himself as he heard the man spluttering in protest. He stepped inside the building, giving a quick wave to the receptionist before heading inside the elevator.
“Hey, Friday!”
“Hello Peter,” the A.I. responded softly, “how was your day?”
“It was okay,” Peter shrugged, “how was yours?”
“It was pretty good. Thank you for asking,” she replied, “would you like me to take you to Mr. Stark? He is in the lab right now.”
The boy gave a little nod, “yes please!”
He bounced on his toes, excited to get out of the elevator and see his mentor. Plus, since he didn’t get a chance to work on the suit with Tony last night due to the impromptu movie night, he was looking forward to catching up. When the elevator finally opened, he was met with blaring music that quickly turned down to a lower volume that his ears could tolerate. From the sudden drop in volume, Tony looked up from the crazy number of holograms he was focused on and gave the boy a smile.
“Hey, Pete.” Tony waved for the music to stop and opened his arms as an invitation for a hug. Peter gladly walked over to his mentor and wrapped his arms around the man, inhaling the scents of coffee and motor oil that he now associates with home. Mr. Stark is more open to physical contact now and Peter has been taking advantage of it. From pats on the back to down-right cuddling, the boy takes every chance he gets. Besides, it seems to be benefitting Mr. Stark as well since he seems happier now. Peter lets out a long sigh. He’s definitely happier too.
“So kid, how’d it go?”
“How’d what go?” The boy asked, still stuck in his dreamy state of wanting to stay in his mentor’s arms forever.
The man snorts and brings a hand to ruffle the kid’s hair. “The audition. For… Who was it again? Ant-man?”
..and mood ruined.
Tony continued listing off other superheroes, oblivious to the change in Peter’s demeanour. “...or was it Black Widow? War Machine?”
“Mr. Stark-”
The man gasped and pointed to himself. “Me?”
Peter chuckled and rolled his eyes but couldn’t keep the smile on his face for too long. Noticing that his kid wasn’t too happy, Tony immediately initiated the “Time to Comfort the Spider-Baby” protocol.
“Alright kiddie,” the man said, throwing an arm around Peter’s shoulders and heading back towards the elevator. “It seems that it’s ice cream time.” Tony reminded Friday to lock the lab and stepped inside the elevator.
“Mr. Stark, I’m fine. It’s not even that bad,” the boy half-heartedly protested but stepped inside with the man anyway.
“It’s definitely something if it’s bothering you, Pete,” Tony paused to let the A.I. know where they want to go before turning back to Peter, “besides, are you really turning down ice cream?”
The boy brought a hand to his chest in mock offence and gasped. “I would never!”
Tony rolled his eyes at the dramatic child before stepping out of the elevator. Peter followed suit and sat down on the couch as his mentor headed towards the kitchen, leaving Peter alone with his thoughts.
I can’t believe I’m pouting over a stupid play. Avengers don’t pout...right? Does Mr. Stark pout?
The boy’s thoughts were interrupted as Tony walked over to him, a bowl of ice-cream in each hand. His mentor sighed once he took in Peter’s slumped posture and handed him a bowl. Peter stared at Tony, waiting for the man to say something as he took a seat beside him. He only received a weird look from him before he pointed at Peter’s bowl with his spoon, mumbling out an “eat.” The boy shrugged and took a huge spoonful of the desert and shoved it in his mouth. Peter let out a pleased sound and continued to shove the rest of the ice-cream in his mouth as his mentor watched him amused and slightly concerned.
Once Peter finished, he set the empty bowl in the coffee table and turned to face Tony, who was still on his first spoonful of ice-cream (loser). The man quirked an eyebrow at him as the boy continued to stare at him. They both eyed each other for a few more seconds before Tony rolled his eyes and gave the kid his bowl, snorting at the grin on Peter’s face.
Peter happily munched on his new-found treat, having a great time. But of course, it had to end soon.
“So, Pete,” Tony said, turning on the television but keeping it at a low volume, “I’m guessing the audition didn’t go the way you planned?”
Peter sighed, setting down his bowl of ice-cream. “Actually, it did go well. I think I did pretty great, Mr. Stark.”
His mentor turned away from the screen to face the boy with a big grin. “Good on you, kiddo!” Peter leaned into the side hug Tony pulled him in and smiled. He was glad Tony was proud of him even for the achievements that weren’t related to science.
“Wait, if it went well, what’s wrong?” Peter pulled away to face his mentor. Here goes .
“Well, they announced who made the cast today-”
“Woah, already?” The man asked and Peter nodded in return. His forgotten anger slowly building up at the thought of how quickly Flash got picked for Spider-man.
“I didn’t get the role of Spider-Man,” Peter huffed, glaring at the empty bowl on his lap.
When Peter didn’t hear any response from the man for a while, he raised his head to see Tony staring at him with an incredulous expression. Peter frowned, waving his hand in front of his mentor’s face, hoping to get a reaction but failed to get one.
“Uh... Mr. Stark?” The boy raised a finger to poke at Tony’s nose when the man suddenly grabbed Peter’s wrist, making him flinch.
“You didn’t get the role of Spider-Man? Spider-Man didn’t get the role of Spider-Man?” Tony let out a huge snort that dwelled into laughter as the boy watched him with a deadpan expression. Peter huffed when the man continued to laugh.
“Mr. Stark, it’s not funny.” Peter waited for the man to compose himself with a pout on his face.
“Aw come on, kiddo,” Tony smiled, nudging Peter’s shoulder, “it’s a little funny.”
“I really don’t think so,” Peter said, crossing his arms, “and stop laughing at me. First Ned and now you.”
“Kid, we’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing at the situation.” His mentor wrapped an arm around his shoulders, making the boy lean into the man once again. “You’ve finally found your archnemesis, kid, and it’s a school play.”
Peter’s lips quirked at that. “Okay, it’s a little funny.”
“Atta boy.” Tony gave the boy’s shoulders a little shake before giving him a pat on the back. “Now, how about we watch a bit of Brooklyn Nine-Nine for the rest of the evening instead of...whatever this is.”
Peter turned to look at the screen to see an infomercial for a $300 apple slicer. A man was aggressively smashing the button of a machine that was absolutely destroying the apple inside. The large grin on the man’s face showed that he was enjoying this a little too much. Peter turned to Tony who also looked a bit disturbed from the scene. As if sensing the two males' discomfort, Friday started to play an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on the TV.
A few minutes into the episode, Tony turned to the boy next to him. “Wait, if you didn’t get the role of Spider-Man, who did?”
Peter sighed. Were the gods above just really keen on making today the worst day possible for the boy?
“Um well,” Peter scratched his head, “Flash did.”
The man raised an eyebrow, “Flash? That’s a name? Please tell me that’s not actually his name.”
“No, it’s actually a nickname. His real name’s Eugene. “
Tony scrunched up his face in disgust, “Yeah, no, let’s stick with Dash-”
“Flash.”
“-who’s he anyway?”
“He’s just another kid on the decathlon team,” Peter said, picking at a loose thread on his jeans.
Tony hummed, sensing more to the story but pushing it aside for now. “Then did you get a role then?”
“I’m the understudy,” Peter huffed.
“So you did get Spider-Man!” The man said, “just not the first choice, but second choice isn’t bad either, kid.”
Peter mumbled something under his breath that Tony couldn’t hear, prompting the man to ask Peter to repeat once again.
“Fifth choice, Mr. Stark. I’m the fifth choice to play the role of me.”
That resulted in another round of the man laughing at Peter- not laughing at you, laughing at the situation - honestly, Peter didn’t know what he was expecting. The boy opened his mouth to say something before getting interrupted by a blaring tune coming from his phone. He pulled it out to see it was Ned calling him. Peter sighed, getting up to go to his room, leaving the man still laughing on the couch by himself.
“Hey, what’s up?” Peter answered jumping onto his bed.
“Hey Peter, guess who MJ assigned to be in charge of the costumes?”
“Who?” Peter asked, heavy sarcasm leaking into his voice. Ned, unfortunately, didn’t pick up on it.
“...me, dumbass.” Peter let out a snort, pausing to put Ned on speaker and then reached over to grab his laptop from the desk beside him. Might as well get started on homework now as he’s in his study space.
“Oh sorry for not catching that right away. I mean, I’m no Sherlock.” The boy rolled his eyes when he heard Ned mumble ‘mhm Watson.’ “How’d you get stuck with that job anyway?”
“I don’t know dude! Here I was at home, enjoying time with my family-”
Peter coughed out a ‘liar.’
“-fine, I was in my room.”
The boy hummed, waiting for his friend to continue as he pulled up the PowerPoint for his group project in English.
“I was having a grand old time playing Minecraft,” Ned continued, “and then out of nowhere I get a text from MJ saying ‘you’re in charge of costumes now, Leeds,’ and that’s it! Not a ‘hey do you want to be the costume guy, pretty please?’ I don’t even get a choice.”
Peter let out a laugh at that. “Well, why don’t you just tell her that you don’t want to do costumes?”
“Oh, like how you went up to MJ all brave and told her you don’t want to audition for the role of Spider-Man?” Ned retorted.
“Touché.”
“Well, anyway I gave you all that backstory in hopes that I could get you to sympathize with me and my dire situation as a costume designer and maybe possibly -”
“Just spit out, Ned.”
“-bring your suit over at school tomorrow so I can get some inspiration to design fake Spidey’s suit?”
Peter paused, his fingers going still on the keyboard. “Ned, you know I can’t do that.”
“Yes you can- look it’ll just be me working on it okay, no one else.”
The boy shook his head. “Well, even if you are the only one working on it, if you copy Spider-Man’s suit, someone’s going to recognize it, dude.”
“They won’t if I alter the designs so they don’t completely match?”
Peter let out a sigh. If the suits didn’t match and if no one else but Ned was going to work on it, then he really sees no problem with letting his friend borrow his suit. But, it’s just Peter’s still a little upset over not getting the role and he knows he’s being stubborn but-
“Please, Peter? Come on, have mercy for the poor soul who’s stuck arranging costumes for a play he just wanted to watch and not actually participate in but nooo -”
“Okay, Ned!” The boy laughed, “I’ll bring the suit by tomorrow.”
“Really? Yes!”
“Yeah yeah,” Peter said, continuing to work on his project, “just remember to be careful with it, okay?”
“You got it, Peter!”
The boys continued to chat after that, the majority of the conversation reciting memes to each other when Friday interrupted to let Peter know it was dinner time. “Gotta go, Ned. See you tomorrow!”
“Bye! Remember to bring the suit!”
The boy hung up and made his way into the living room, beginning to regret his choice of agreeing to bring the suit. His thoughts came to a halt when he entered the room and saw the avengers sitting on the couch, minus Clint who was standing in front of them, with absolutely no food in sight.
“Umm, where is dinner?”
They just turned to look at him. “Wait, can we not afford food anymore? Why? Oh my god, Mr. Stark did you get fired? Are we going to be homeless-”
“-uh, I can’t get fired, kid. I’m the boss.”
“Wait, I thought Pepper was the boss,” someone said, but Peter was too busy saying goodbye to every single inanimate object as well as Friday.
“Goodbye coffee table. Goodbye, Ms. Friday, I’ll miss you so m-”
“Enough!” Everyone froze and turned to Clint who stood there with his arms crossed in front of him. “No one’s fired and no one’s moving!”
The man smiled when everyone continued to stare at him silently. “Now I brought you all here so that I can show you this really cool thing I bought!”
Bucky raised his hand and Clint nodded for him to speak. “Wait, so there really is no dinner?”
“There will be if you guys let me show you what I have.”
Tony stood up. “Uh, no way. Every time you show us something, it always ends badly, so I’m just gonna-”
“Sit down, Tony,” Clint said, glaring at the man. The two eyed each other for several seconds before Tony sat back down. Why was he losing all the staring competitions today?
“Alright, now that I have finally gotten all of your attention, I can show you what I bought!” The man grinned, reaching behind him to pull out a small machine.
“Hold on, isn’t that the machine we saw on TV, Mr. Stark?” Peter asked, turning to his mentor.
The man nodded, “yea, it’s the one with the crazy man with all those apples-”
“It’s the Apple Slicer 3000!” Clint exclaimed proudly. “It even has a setting to make it into juice! Now, we can have fresh apple juice whenever we want.”
…
…
“I like orange juice.”
“Well too late! I already spent 300 dollars-” “'300 DOLLARS?” “-And besides, it can do a bunch of other stuff.”
“Like what?” Sam asked.
“It can slice an apple in three seconds.” When Clint was met with a bunch of unimpressed faces, he pulled out an apple from behind him.
“Where on earth are you storing those things?”
“Just watch.” Clint then pulled the lid off of the device and dropped the apple in there. He then went to press the button, excited to finally see it in action.
“Wait, Clint, you didn’t put the lid back-”
As soon as the button was clicked, apple chunks went flying everywhere at an incredibly fast velocity and everyone ducked for cover.
“Friday cut the power to that thing!”
The machine came to a stop and everyone came out of their hiding spots slowly, eyeing the machine as if it would come back to life. Practically the whole room was covered in bits of apple including themselves. Peter somehow ended up on the ceiling and he continued to cling to it, traumatized.
The avengers turned to Clint, murder in their eyes, and the man backed up in fear.
“Wait, guys, I didn’t mean-”
He was interrupted as Natasha walked into the room with a cup of tea in her hand. She took one look at everyone and turned back towards her bedroom, heading to her suitcase. She needs a long vacation like yesterday.